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This Day, June 16, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 16 

1221: Massacre of the Jews of Erfurt, Germany. At one time this was commemorated as a Fast Day on the 25th of Sivan.

1295: Mahmud Ghazan the seventh ruler of the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate division in modern-day Iran converted to Islam which marked a downturn in the fortunes of Jews in Tabriz because they were “relegated to the status of dhimmis” as required by the covenant of Omar.

 1385: Emperor Wenceslaus arrested Jews living in what was known as the Swabian League, (the league of free cities in South Germany) and confiscated their books. A hefty fine had to be paid for their return and the release of the prisoners.

1591: In Crete, “Elijah, a rabbi in Crete” and his wife gave birth to Joseph Solomon Delmedigo, who moved to Italy where he gained fame as a rabbi, physician and author. “A member of this family, Mordechai Gorodinsky (later Hebraized to Nachmani) was one of the founders of the Israeli city of Rehovot.”


1613: “Orientalist and astronomy student” Jakob Christrman, a German Jew who converted to Christianity and who was a Professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg University passed away today.
http://histmath-heidelberg.de/zitat/christmann-dsb.htm

1612: Birthdate of Murad IV.  During his reign as Sultan, Murad executed Rabbi Yehuda Kovo over a dispute revolving around the quality of cloth being supplied by the Jews of Salonika for army uniforms and the amount of taxes to be paid.

1660:The debate between Jacob Abendana, the “hakham of London from 1680 until his death in 1695” and Anton Hulsius, which was actually a series of letters written covering a ninth month period, over the meaning of a verse in the Book of Haggai, came to an end.

1775: Birthdate of Judah Touro, the native of Newport, Rhode Island who was the son of Isaac Touro who moved to New Orleans where he became a successful businessman.  Touro fought in the Battle of New Orleans under Andrew Jackson and became one of the nation’s leading philanthropists contributing to a wide variety of secular and Jewish causes.

1779: Beila bat Michael Benjamin zl was buried today at the Hoxton Old Jewish burial ground.

1782(6th of Tammuz, 5542): Based on the description of ceremony that had taken place in Bordeaux, France that had been given to Isaac Moses, today in Philadelphia, “Messrs. Jonas Phillips, Isaac Moses, Jacob Mordecai and Barnard Gratz” laid the four cornerstone for the new home of  Mikve Israel in a ceremony led by Gershom Mendes Seixas and attended by the entire congregation

1784:In New York City, Judith Myers and Jacob Mordecai, the parents of Moses Mordecai and the in-laws of Margaret Lane were today.

1786: Benvenida de Isaac Solis, the daughter of Isaac Henriques Valentine and Simha Mandil and her husband Solomon da Silva Solis gave birth to Simha Phillips.

1800: Birthdate of Jacobus (Jacques) Marx Lewy, the native of Trier who was the brother of Samuel Marx, the uncle of Karl Marx, and who gained fame as successful businessman Jacob Marx, the father of Rachel and Henriette Marx.

1802: Francis Mosely and Elizabeth Samuel were married today at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1812: In New York, Naphtali Phillips and Rachel Mendez Phillips gave birth to Isaac Phillips, a New York lawyer who served as an appraiser for the Port of New York and who was a member of Shearith Israel up until his death in 1889.

1823: In London, The Piano Concerto No. 4 (Op.64) written by Ignaz Moscheles was performed for the first time

1825(30th of Sivan, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1829: Birthdate of Baden, Germany native William Armholdm the graduate of “the Teachers Seminary in Karlsruhe who served as the rabbi at congregations Etz Chayim and Rodeph Shalom (both in Pittsburgh) and Philadelphia’s Keneseth Israel. (JTA)

1830: Samuel Nathan and Rebecca Cohen were married today at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1830: One day after he had passed away, Joseph Abrahams was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1832: Anna Netti von Goldschmidt married 29 year old Mortiz Moses von Goldschmidt.

1835: Birthdate of Samuel David Klauber, the husband of Charlotte Klauber.

1841:In Bechtheim, Germany, Benjamin Loeb and his wife gave birth to August B. Loeb, the President of the Tartar Chemical Company in Jersey City, NJ, “vice president of Tradesmen’s National Bank in Philadelphia” and “treasurer of the Jewish Hospital Association in Philadelphia who was the husband of Mathile Adler.

1846: The Papal conclave of 1846 concluded. Pope Pius IX was chosen to lead the Catholic Church, beginning the longest reign in the history of the post-apostolic papacy. The papal reign of Pius IX was marked by a variety of reactionary policies as he sought to deal with the loss of the papal temporal power to the emerging united nation of Italy. The Pope returned those Jews under his control to the Ghetto. “Pius IX was the Pope who decided in 1867 to raise to sainthood one of sixteenth-century Spain's notorious grand inquisitors, Don Pedro Arbues de Epilae. He was considered a martyr (witness to the Catholic faith) after some of the family of his Jewish victims managed to assassinate him -- and then suffered grievously themselves.-- It was the conviction of the great liberal theologian of that time, Father Dollinger, that canonizing the inquisitor "served the pope's campaign of riding roughshod over liberal Catholics as well as Jews. The pope was celebrating a man who had sanctioned compulsory baptism of Jews, then inflicted judicial torture to make sure these conversions were sincere.” The most stinging example of the Pope’s anti-Jewish views and behavior is abduction of a Jewish child named Edgardo Mortara. When Pious IX was beatified in 2000, the ADL issued the following statement which summarizes the event. “The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed concern at the Vatican’s beatification of Pope Pius IX, who was responsible for the 1858 abduction of a six-year old Jewish child. Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement: "The beatification of Pius IX is troubling for the Jewish community. Pius was responsible for the case of Edgardo Mortara, who at the age of six was abducted from his family in Bologna and taken to the Vatican by Papal police after it was reported that the Jewish child has been secretly baptized. Many European heads of state protested the 1858 kidnapping, as did Jewish leadership. As a result, Pius blamed Rome’s Jews for what he believed was a widespread Protestant conspiracy to defeat the papacy and levied medieval restrictions on the community. While ADL respects the beatification process as a matter for the Catholic Church alone, we find the selection of Pius IX as inappropriate based on policies he pursued as the head of the Church. It is in the context of the many years of positive progress in Catholic-Jewish relations, including the historic visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel and his asking for the forgiveness of the Jewish people, that the beatification of Pius IX, whose role in denying Edgardo Mortara his family and his right to be who he was, is most unfortunate."

1847: Ruben Samuel Heilbut and Matilda Symons were married today at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1849: Sixty nine year old German theologian and biblical scholar Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette whom Julius Wellhausen described as "the epoch-making opener of the historical criticism of the Pentateuch” passed away today.


1851: Adolf Jellinek, the spiritual leader of Vienna’s Jewish Community and his wife gave birth to legal theorist George Jellinek author of the 1895 essay “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.  He and his wife had six children, two of whom Walter and Dora were deported to Theresienstadt and a third, Otto who was murdered by the Gestapo in 1943.

1852: Jacob Aarons and Abigail Jacobs were married today at the New Synagogue in the United Kingdom

1853: Isaac Kohn the native of Bavaria who settled in Philadelphia and his wife Henrietta Yetta Kohn gave birth to Samuel Kohn today.

1854: "The Position and Power of Prussia" published today includes the information that 200,000 of its inhabitants are Jewish.

1854: Isabella (Salamon) Jonas, the wife of German native Benjamin Julius Jonas, was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”

1862: Frederick C. Salomon who had served with units from Missouri and Wisconsin was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Union Army.

1862(18th of Sivan, 5622): Nineteen year old Gustavus Poznanski, Jr. a private, Company D, 1st (Charleston) Battalion South Carolina Infantry who had enlisted in March of 1862 “was killed in action in Charleston County, SC.

1864: In the Netherlands, Jacques Löehman Sachs and Rebekka de Jonge gave birth to Louis Sachs, the husband of Emma Sachs who was murdered at the age of 78 in Auschwitz.

1865: Having completed its work – a survey of Jerusalem – the team led by Captain Charles W. Wilson left Jaffa for a return trip to England.

1865: In Pittsburg, PA, Samuel Floersheim and Pauline Wertheimer gave birth to Bertha Floersheim, who married Enoch Rauh and became Bertha Rauh, a member of the Board of the Humane Society and Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Allegheny General hospital as well as the author of several articles including “Justice to the Jew,” “Reform in Confirmation” and  “Woman’s Place in Judaism.”

1868: Austrian businessman Eugen Rappaport and his wife gave birth to Austrian diplomat and author Alfred Rapport who converted to Roman Catholicism in 1883 – a move designed to enhance his career and social status.

1870: Lithuanian native Abraham Moses Jacobson and his wife “Sarah Leah Jacobson” gave birth to Judah Jacobson, the husband of Sarah Rose Jacobson with whom he had six children.

1871: One day she had passed away today, Elizabeth Barnard, the wife of Mordecai Barnard and mother of Catherine, Rebecca and Sarah Barnard, was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1871: Former U.S. Secretary of State Seward ate dinner with the American Counsel General in Jerusalem.

1871: “An editorial in the Jewish Messenger criticized the New York Herald for lecturing Jews on the nedd for English-speaking rabbis and suggested that the problem be left to ‘rabbis and Jews.’ The editorial in the New York Herald was prompted by a resolution of Reform rabbis meeting at Cincinnati, to establish a rabbinical seminary.  The Herald applauded the resolution and blamed American Jewry for its failure to halt the decline of attendance at religious services.” (As reported by Abraham P. Bloch)

1875(13th of Sivan, 5635): Forty-five year old Kennington, London native Michael Henry, the founder of the General Benevolent Association and editor of the Jewish Chronicle “succumbed to the effect of an accident” and passed away today.


1877: Harry J. Hirsch became a Cadet today at the U.S. Military Academy (West Point)

1878: The New York Times published a review of “Philochristus: A Memoirs of a Disciple of the Lord” which is a work of historical fiction designed to reconstruct the life and times of Jesus.  Among the book’s many shortcomings is the author’s description of events immediately following the Crucifixion. On the one hand he explains the empty cave of the third day by insisting that the Jews stole the body of Jesus and then “disposed of it in some unknown manner” yet also insisting that the Resurrection was a reality. [Editor’s Note – The book serves a reminder that even in a world where authors were re-examining the stories of the New Testament, the Jew still is depicted as the villain.]

1878: "Three Golden Spheres" published today described the history and current status of pawn-broking in the United States.  "It has long been generally supposed that the money-lending, and especially the pawn-brokering, business is monopolized by the Jews. This is far from being the truth, for in this city the pawnbrokers who belong to the Jewish faith hardly represent one third of the total number."  All religious groups are represented in the business.  Among national groups, the Irish make up the greatest number.”

1879: According to reports published today, Sarah Bernhardt’s current performance at the Gaiety has been well received by audiences in London.  Unfortunately, Mme Bernhardt has not made good on her promise she was learning English and would be able to speak in that language when she appeared in the UK.  Nobody in the cast can speak English.  At the same time, her reputation for eccentric behavior continues to grow.  Photographs already exist proving that she dresses as a man when working on her sculpture and there is proof that she travels with her own coffin.  But now there are new rumors claiming that her next portrait will be in a Napoleonic Pose complete with a hat model after that worn by the Emperor.

1879: The Commencement Ceremony of the Emanu-El Preparatory School of the Hebrew College took place at Temple Emanu-El this evening.  Rabbi Gottheil officiated at the ceremony which included addresses in German, Hebrews and English.

1880: Louis Davis and Moritz Hartman of the Simon Benevolent Association went to the Coroner’s office in New York to tell him the story of how they were mistakenly given the body of a Christian boy over the weekend when they had come to claim the body of a young Jewess named Kate Ungerleider.  The mix-up was an example of official incompetence not anti-Semitism.

1882(29th of Sivan, 5642): Five year old Albert Aaron Scharff passed away today in St. Louis.

1882: It was reported today that “serious obstacles have risen” to thwart Laurence Oliphant’s plan to “re-establish the Jews in Palestine.”  The Turkish government said that Russian Jews are welcome to settle in any part of the empire except in the land of their fathers.  While the Sultan did not give a reason for the ruling it is assumed that the Porte does not consider prudent to give the Jews a national center which might attract others of their faith.

1882: It was reported today that Julius Porgas left two notes behind explaining that he had taken his own life because of financial difficulties that left him to embezzle funds left in his care.  In an example of being worth more dead than alive, he told his wife that he had life insurance policies with three entities including one for a thousand dollars with the Kesher Shel Barzel Society.

1883: In Norfolk, VA, Michael and Esther (Cohen) Umstadter gave birth to Miriam Umstadter who became Miriam U. Blaustein when she married Dr. David Blaustein and whose communal activities included serving as “a field organizer throughout Virginia for ZOA,” working with the American Red Cross during World War I and being a leader of the Ohab Sholom Temple Sisterhood in Norfolk, VA.

1883: As he was about to board the elevated at the Bowery and Canal Street Station, a conductor pushed Louis Batist back saying “You are a Jew!  We don’t permit Jews on this train.”

1884: “Germany’s Dead Railway King” published today


1885: In Indiana, David Jacob Wile and Harriet Wile, the daughter of Leopold and Rose Adler gave birth Helen C. Wile who became Helen C. Burkhardt when she married Charles Ernest Burkhardt with she had three children – Alice, Ralph and Billy Burkhardt.

1885: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Levy officiated at the wedding of Bertha V. Williams and Camden, SC resident Samuel Rosenberger

1887: Harry J. Hirsch began serving as a Cadet at the U.S. Military Academy.

1887: Four young girls and five young boys attending the public schools in New York’s 19th Ward competed tonight for the Hornthal Prizes for Elocution which were created by Louis M. Hornthal.

1887:Maurice Arnold de Forest and his younger brother Raymond were adopted today “by the millionaire Baroness Clara de Hirsch, née Bischoffsheim, wife of Jewish banker and philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth, and given the surname de Forest-Bischoffsheim

1888: Birthdate of Alexander Alexandrovich Friedman, Russian born physicist and mathematician. “He discovered the expanding-universe solution to general relativity field equations in 1922, which was proven by Edwin Hubble’s observations in 1929.” He died of typhoid fever at the age of 37.

1888: The staff of the Hebrew Journal is hosting a fundraiser tonight at the Lyric Hall proceeds of which will go to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society. The society was established in 1879 to care for destitute children, including, but not limited to, orphans.  At its founding the society had an all-female board and its first president was a woman. In 1940, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society merged with Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Fellowship House and the Jewish Children’s Clearing Bureau to form the New York Association for Jewish Children which became the Jewish Child Care Association.

1888: At Temple Beth El in New York Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler “paid an eloquent tribute” to the late Kaiser Wilhelm I who passed away earlier this year. He praised the emperor for having “all the noble ideal qualities of the German without the rather coarse ways of the Prussian soldier.”  The rabbi also praised him for conferring the highest honors upon several Jews and for denouncing anti-Semitism; something his wife continued to do after his death.  Kohler believed that he had “transmitted his liberal ideas to Bismarck and his son and that so long as they are a power there is little fear of anti-Semitism.”

1889: It was reported today that the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Asylum was among the organizations awarded a banner as part of the centennial celebration in New York.

1890: “Medals for Jewish Students” published today identified the outstanding scholars at New York’s Ahavath Chesed’s Sabbath School. Roderick Goetz was the Dr. Adolph Huebsch Medal for being the outstanding student. Louis Obermeyer actually was the best student, but since he had won the award last year it was decided to let another have the medal and Louis was given “a set of books to show that his scholarship was appreciated.  Margaret Kohut received the Rasker Medal and Lillie Ahrens received the Eisner Medal.

1890: “A short, stout, red-whiskered Polish Jew” later identified as Marcus Goldstein, entered the office of Gill Engraving Company and asked a junior member of the firm, George M. Gill, “to make him a plate for reproducing tickets of the Hamburg Lottery Company of Germany. After Goldstein explained to Gill what he wanted and made arrangements to pick up the finished product he left the store.  Gill contacted the police because he thought Goldstein was part of a plan to print and sell counterfeit lottery tickets.  (More to come, so keep reading during the next few days)

1891: It was reported that 600 to 700 tailors, most of whom are Jewish have gone on strike in Philadelphia in an attempt to get a more equitable distribution of work from the “ ‘sweaters’ who employ them.”

1891: “Told By An Eyewitness” published today of the persecution of the Jews in Russia provided by Miss Adele M. Fielde a Baptist missionary who had been in Moscow this spring as she traveled across the country on her way to Russia.  “The sights that met her eye on every side in Moscow and other places along her journey were so frightful that she could not help sending a description of the Russian outrages to New York in the hope that it might attract notice and sympathy for the suffers.

1892: The eighth annual exhibition and commencement exercises for the students of the Hebrew Technical Institute took place today.

1892: In London, Sarah Bernhardt performed her new drama “Pauline Blanchard” which “was first seen in Australia” for the first time in the imperial capital.

1892: In Baligrod, a small village in Galicia, Austria, Malka and Ashe Selig gave birth to Jennie Grossinger, the wife of Harry Grossinger who created Grossinger, the iconic Borscht Belt hostelry.


1893: The ninth annual exhibition and commencement exercises of the Hebrew Technical Institute took place this afternoon at Arlington Hall on St. Mark’s Place.

1894: In Łódź, in Russian-occupied Poland, Solomon Szyk and his wife Eugenia gave birth to illustrator and “political artist” Arthur Szyk.



1895: It was reported today that Rothschild’s in Paris and London “refuse to touch the Russo-Chinese loan.” This was a loan that the Russians were guaranteeing so that the Chinese could pay money owed to the Japanese under the Shimonoseki Treaty.  (The complexity of international finance began long before the 21st century)

1895: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Max and Sarah Hexter gave birth to Betty Hexter who became Betty Fabe when she married Isadore Fabe.

1895: Louis Down-Town Sabbath and Daily School” published today described it as “a magnificent example of what can be accomplished by noble-minded women among the young and old of their sex in the hearts of the slums. From that up-town section where the wealthiest of the community live a few of the philanthropic Jewish women have combined for the highly laudable purpose of elevating the children of the lowliest of the Jewish population in the thickly settled down-town districts.”

1896: In St. Louis, MO, the opening prayer at the Republican National Convention was offered by a local rabbi “who is a Democrat” and who has brother who “are very active as Democrats in local political affairs.”

1896: In today’s  diary entry, Herzl described his vision of the Jewish state as "a destination for the civilized world which will come to visit as it now visits...Sadigura"– a vision that was rejected by the Rebbe of the Sadigura Hasidic dynasty along with the rest of his ideas.

1896: Birthdate of Meta Neumann, nee Greenbaum, one of the last Jewish inhabitants of Kleinsteinach who was deported to Isbica or Theresienstadt.

1897: Two days after he had passed away, 61 year old Solomon Jacobs was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”

1897: Birthdate of Elaine Hammerstein, “an American silent film and stage actress” who was the daughter of opera producer Arthur Hammerstein

1897(16th of Sivan, 5657): Orange, NJ, banker, Jacob Seholle passed away today.

1898: Birthdate of Atlanta, GA native and Emory University trained psychiatrist, Dr. Samuel Kahn, the husband of Karen Khan with whom he raised two daughters, Janice and Susannah, while teaching, practicing and writing in the New York Metropolitan area.



1899: In Vlagtwedde, Netherlands, Louis and Emma Sachs gave birth to Sophie Josephine Sachs who became Sophie Josephine Frank when she married Siegfried Frank with whom she had two children – Julius and Emma Frank.

1899: Twelve year old Julia Lichtner arrived in New York aboard the White Star liner Cymric from Liverpool today.  Her father, Herman Lichtner, a Hungarian-Jewish tailor died during the crossing. 

1899: Oscar I.Lembergle, who has been working with Wilson Dunlap to convert Jews to Christianity wrote a letter to Mayor Van Wyck protesting the Mayor’s ruling that conversion attempts would not take place on public street corners and should be confined to private halls.

1899: It was reported today in Brest, France, “posters announcing the Court of Cassation…have been torn down and defaced with inscriptions hostile to the Jews and Dreyfus. (The Dreyfus Affair would continue to embroil France for years to come, in part because it was a stalking horse used by the Right to inflame passions against liberals, modernity and the Jews)

1900: Herzl meets Arminius Vámbéry a Hungarian Jewish Orientalist with connections to the Ottoman Empire who will write to the Sultan on Herzl's behalf.

1901: “The fourth annual convention of the Federation of American Zionists” opened in Philadelphia today with speeches explaining the Zionism was attempting “to esasblished a legal home of the oppressed and persecuted Jews of Russia, Romania and other European Countries in Palestine” and give them a place of “asylum where they could begin life anew.

1902: Vaudevillian Sam Bernard married Florence Deutschu today thirteen years before he “entered films with the Triangle Film Corporation.

1903: “President Hears the Case of the Jews” published today described the meeting between leaders of B’nai B’rith, President Teddy Roosevelt and Secretary of State Hay where they were able to lay out all of the facts surrounding the Massacre of Kishniiff and where the President had a chance a to express his sympathy for the plight of the Jews as well as his commitment to help ameliorate the situation within the limits of his office.

1904: Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle, and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses. This date is referred to as “Bloomsay”; a reference to Leopold Bloom. Bloomsday has been celebrated since 1994 in the Hungarian town of Szombathely, the birthplace of Leopold Bloom's father, Virág Rudolf an emigrant Hungarian Jew.

1905: It was reported today that “the New York Branch of the Bund ….had received a telegram from its headquarters state that the anti-Jewish riots at Brest-Litovsk, Minks and Warsaw” were “done with the aid of soldiers” and are part of “new tactics of the autocracy.”

1906: After three days of violence, the Bialystok Pogrom came to an end. The death count varies; from a low of 80 to a high of 100.  Hundreds of Jewish owned shops were destroyed. A major textile manufacturing center and a hot bed or revolutionary activity, approximately three-fourths of the city’s population was Jewish.  This did not protect the Jews from violence instigated by the Russian authorities.

“Russian authorities tried to blame the pogrom on the local Polish population in order to stir up the hatred between two ethnic groups (both of which generally opposed the Tsar). However Jewish survivors of the violence reported that the local Polish population had in fact sheltered many Jews during the pogrom and did not participate in it. Apolinary Hartglas, a Polish Jewish leader and later a member of the Polish Sejm, together with Ze'ev Jabotinsky, managed to obtain secret documents issued by Szeremietiev which showed that the pogrom had been organized well in advance by Russian authorities who had actually transported Russian railroad workers from deep within Russia to participate.”


1907: Today, Rabbi Kaufman Kohler, the chair of the Committee on Uniform Pronunciation of Hebrew, submitted a recommendation to the Central Conference of American Rabbis that “as soon as it seems feasible the same pronunciation of Hebrew that is now being used at HUC should be introduced “in the Religious Schools and Children’s Services” so as overcome the various forms of Hebrew pronunciation that do more to divide Jews than to unite them.


1907: Birthdate of actor Jack Albertson. Albertson appeared in numerous films but he may be best remembered for his starring role in the television sit-com “Chico and the Man.”

1908: The Republican Convention, which would select William Howard Taft, the first President to attend a Seder while in office, opened today in Chicago.

1908: Birthdate of Augusta, GA native and Cornell trained physician Jack Masur the creator of the National Institute of Health (NIH)




1909: It was reported today that delegates at the just concluded 12th annual convention of the Zionists” had “reaffirmed the Basle program, congratulated the Turks upon their victory for popular government” and congratulated the Turkish Jews for achieving their citizenship.

1910: “Eighty-nine Jews were expelled from Kiev today.”

1910: “Today, the Russian Senate granted the appeal of the Jewish pharmacists in Moscow who had been had been regarded as subject to expulsion” and “ordered the repeal of the ministerial circular under which provisional authority had recently begun to act.”

1911: Jews in Sfru (south of Fez) were attacked by rebellious Berbers.

1912: Seventy-two year old Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, author of Les Juifs et l'Antisémitisme; Israël chez les Nations in 1893 and L’Antisémitisme in 1897 passed away today.


1912: Birthdate of Olga Ivinskaya, the Russian poet and writer who was the friend and lover of Boris Pasternak “and the inspiration for the character Lara in Doctor Zhivago.” (He was Jewish; she wasn’t)
1912(1st of Tammuz, 5672): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1912(1st of Tammuz, 5672): Fifty-five year old Adolf Landesberger, the Director of the Anglo-Austrian Bank who was honored by being named Knight of the Order of the Iron Crown, passed away today in Vinna.
1912: Sir Charles Waldstein and his wife Florence (nee Einstein) gave birth to agricultural researcher and MP Henry David Leonard George Walston, the future Baron Walston.

1913(11th of Sivan, 5673): Henry S. Herman, “one of the Directors of the Hudson Realty Company” and a trustee of New York’s Temple Beth-El passed away today “at Dral NY.

1913: Birthdate of Phillip M. Kaiser who would serve as a diplomat or political appointee under every Democratic President from Harry Truman to Jimmy Carter. He was the ninth of 10 children of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from imperial Russia. He wrote in his 1992 memoir that "whatever political skills I may have, I attribute to the fact that I had to develop them early to cope with sibling rivalries." In his childhood home, his mother rarely spoke English, communicating with her children in Yiddish. But they spoke English to her. At a parochial school, the young Mr. Kaiser learned Hebrew, which, he later wrote, "established my credentials as a Jewish boy and enabled me to feel superior to Yiddish, which I considered a 'greenhorn's' jargon." He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, where he won a Rhodes scholarship. In September 1936 he arrived in England, which was his home base for three subsequent years of study and travel in the European continent as it was lurching toward World War II.

1914: Eight-fifth birthday of “Dr. William Armhold, Rabbi Emeritus of Philadelphia’s Congregation Keneseth Israel.


1915: At Albany, NY, the Bill of Rights Committee of the Constitutional Convention held a hearing on a proposal for “an amendment to the Constitution providing for the abolition of capital punishment” at which Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, the Jewish Chaplain of Sing Sing” testified in favor of the amendment telling “the committee that one of the gunmen sent to their death in connection with the murder of Herman Rosenthal was a victim of injustice.” Committee Chairman Marshal received a letter from Jacob H. Schiff “in which the case of Leo M. Frank was advanced as a convincing argument in support of the contention that the death penalty should be abolished.”

1915: “Ex-Congressman W. M. Howard closed his plea for a commutation of the sentence” of Leo Frank “shortly after 4 o’clock this afternoon” meaning that “the fate of Leo M. Frank has been finally committed to the hands of Governor John M. Slaton” who will decide if “Frank shall die on the gallows or spend the remainder of his life in the penitentiary.”

1916: Birthdate of Irma Silberbach, the native of Lippe Detmold, Germany who would marry Werner Julius Seligman and become Irma Seligman.

1916: Today, Maurice Simmons released a copy of a letter previously sent to the Adjutant General of the New York National Guard in which he said that the National Guard was not taking the investigation of alleged discrimination against Jews seriously.

1916: In St. Louis, MO, the National Democratic Convention which nominated Woodrow Wilson, the President who appointed the first Jewish justice to the Supreme Court, came to a close.

1917: In New York, Eugene Isaac Meyer, Jr. and Agnes Elizabeth Ernst gave birth to Katharine Myer who became Katherine Graham after marrying Phil Graham and was the publisher of the Washington Post. Although Katherine Graham came from a distinguished Jewish background she was baptized at the age of ten. The only people who thought she was Jewish were the myriad of anti-Semites who loved to write about the "Jewish Controlled Media in America." Mrs. Graham died in 2001.

1917: Birthdate of Irving Penn “an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.”


1917: It was reported today that there will be no funding raising by Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Relief Committee during Red Cross Week which is scheduled to begin on June 18.

1918: It was reported today that the Central Jewish Relief Committee has received $1,050 from Congregation Beth Israel in Milwaukee, $100 from Shearith Israel in Atlanta and $100 from Shaare Zedek in Clinton, MA.

1918: Three days after he has passed away, David Worrow, the son of Barnet and Sarah Worrow, was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”

1918: Dr. Eugen Kohn of Baltimore delivered the opening pray at today’s joint session of the United Synagogue and the Jewish Women’s League was held at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

1920: Birthdate of basketball player Henry “Hank” Rosenstein who played forward for the City College of New York.

1920: Following Henry Ford’s declaration that “It is impossible for the Jew to be a patriot” the editors of the American Hebrew wrote to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels his opinion on the subject to which Daniels responded in a letter today writing, in part, “I wish to express my sense of the fullest appreciation of the generous, wholehearted and effective service rendered by the Jewish race in positions of administration on battleships and in every military way to help win the war..

1922: Birthdate of William Korey the University of Chicago graduate who became Director of the Anti-Defamation League.

1923: Elizabeth Lloyd Holzman, known as singer an actress Libby Holman graduated from the University of Cincinnati today

1931(1st of Tammuz, 5691): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1931: Three days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held for seventy-five year old Richmond born dramatist Sydney Rosenfeld, the “first editor of Puck,” “one of the main movers in the effort to secure a National Theatre for the United States” and husband of “Genie Holzmeyer Johnson” who was the author of several plays including “A Possible Case” and “The Club Friend” as well as several “operettas and musicals” including “The Lady or the Tiger” and “The Passing Show” after which burial will take place at Kensico.

1931: Birthdate of American sociologist Donald Nathan Levine, one of the leading figures in the field of Ethiopian Studies.


1932: “The Doomed Battalion” a WWI movie directed by Cyril Gardner and produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr was released today in the United States.

1932: In Chicago, the Republican National Convention which Samuel S. Koenig attended as delegate from New York and which nominated Herbert Hoover for a second term came to an end.

1933: “The annual convention of the Council of Young Israel Organizations” which will be attended by “delegates from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Poland” is scheduled to open today at “the Hotel Clarendon-Brunswick” in Asbury, NJ.

1933: According to a census on this date, the Jewish population of Berlin, Germany's capital city was about 160,000. Berlin's Jewish community was the largest in Germany, comprising more than 32 percent of all Jews in the country.

 1933(22nd of Sivan, 5693): Unknown assailants murder Zionist Labor leader Chaim Arlosoroff



1933: President Roosevelt signed into law a series of bills that began the creation of what came to be called The New Deal. For Jews, like so many others, the legislation provided immediate economic assistance. More importantly, the New Deal opened up career opportunities for a whole generation of Jews especially those with degrees in law and accounting. The myriad of government agencies that resulted from the New Deal were a critical ingredient in the growth of the Jewish Middle Class especially for the children and grandchildren of those who had come to the United States from Eastern Europe starting in the 1880's.

1934(3rd of Tammuz, 5694): Parashat Korach

1934: Man Ray was photographed today at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse exhibition in Paris


1934: “Mussolini and Hitler Agree That Austria Must Remain an Independent Government” published today in the Springfield (Mass) Union described the first meeting of the two European dictators.


1936: “Jewish Congress Seen As Harmful” published today described the opposition to the World Jewish Congress scheduled to open in Geneva led by such notables as Roger Straus of New York and Harold and Eustace Riegelman who feel that the meeting only represents a minority of Jewish organizations and because it would actually be counter-productive in the fight against anti-Semitism in Europe.

1937: Today’s graduation ceremony at City College, “the Jewish Harvard” is scheduled to end with the benediction given by Rabbi Schulman followed by a recessional where students will march out to music from “The Queen of Sheba.”

1937: Marx Brothers'"A Day At The Races" opens in LA

1937: Birthdate of author Erich Segal.


1937: Eighteen year old Welwel Sczezerbowski, a Jewish boy was sentenced to death after having been found guilty of murdering a policeman during an anti-Jewish riot.

1938: Birthdate of Joyce Carol Oates. “Joyce Carol Oates’ paternal grandmother was Jewish, but fearing persecution, kept that fact hidden. Her grandmother died in 1970, and it wasn’t until afterwards, that Oates found out the truth about her family’s Jewish heritage. Her book, ‘The Gravedigger’s Daughter’ is dedicated to her paternal grandmother.”

1939: In Oxford, England future famed diplomat Philip Kaiser married Hannah Greeley

1939: The SS. St. Louis with a cargo of 907 passengers, all of whom had promised a refuge in one of four European countries after having been turned away from Cuba, the United States and Canada was one day away from reach the Antwerp, Belgium.
1940: Birthdate of Neil Goldschmidt former Mayor of Portland and Governor of Oregon as well as member of the Cabinet under President Carter

1940: French Premier Reynaud, whose government was in exile, resigned. Henri Petain replaced him. Petain earned a place of dishonor in Jewish and French history as head of the Nazi-collaborating government at Vichy.

1940: Fifty-five year old French journalist and political leader Georges Mandel, who would be murdered by French Fascists in 1944, was arrested in Bordeaux and then after a brief time released. (Mandel would refuse Churchill’s offer to flee to the safety of Great Britain saying "You fear for me because I am a Jew. Well, it is just because I am a Jew that I will not go tomorrow; it would look as though I was afraid, as if I was running away." (While many would collaborate and then invent stories of being secretly part of the Resistance, Mandel was the real deal.)

1940: Admiral François Darlan himself ordered “French naval authorities to facilitate if need be the embarkation of [former] Prime Minister Léon Blum aboard any naval ship or aircraft headed to North Africa

1941: “New German and Italian schemes for fanning Arab violence against British authority in the Middle East to counteract strategic reverses of the Axis in Iraq and Syria” which would “charge that Jewish banking interests in New York forced a guarantee from the British of a great Jewish homeland in return for supporting United States intervention in the war” were reported today

1941: “László Radványi” and his wife “poet Anna Seghers” and their children Pierre and Ruth who had escaped from Nazi occupied Europe, arrived in New York today.

1941: Today, in Atlantic City, “the Independent Order of Brith Abraham voted to contribute a total of $50,000 to the Jewish section of the British War Relief Society, the United Jewish Appeal and the United Service Organizations.”

1942(1st of Tammuz, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1942: Most of the Jews of Łazy, Poland, were deported to Auschwitz. Jews from other nearby villages were also deported with them.


1942: The American chargé d'affaires in the Vatican, Harold Tittmann, reports to the State Department that Pope Pius XII is adopting "an ostrich-like policy towards atrocities that were obvious to everyone."
1943: SS chief Heinrich Himmler allows a transfer of Jewish prisoners from the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp located in Germany for medical experiments involving jaundice.

1943(13th of Sivan, 5703): Dr. Niuta Jurezkaya, a physician who escaped from the Minsk (Belorussia) Ghetto to nearby forests, is recaptured, tortured, and shot.

1943: Two hundred patients from Berlin are sent to Theresienstadt along with the remaining Jews of the Berlin community. The German capital was declared "judenrein" - Free of Jews. Ten years earlier the Berlin Jewish population was estimated around 186,000.

1944 In Ness Ziona, Moshe and Sarah Kahalani, immigrants from Yemen, gave birth to Brigadier General (and future political leader) Avigdor Kahalani.

1944: Residents of the Jewish ghetto at Lódz, Poland, are notified of "voluntary registration for labor outside the ghetto." In truth, there is no work but only death at the Chelmno, Poland, extermination camp, where the Germans plan to murder 3000 Jews a week for three weeks.

1944(25th of Sivan, 5704): In France, Jewish historian Marc Bloch, a leader of the resistance group Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, is executed by German troops.


1945: Thirty-six year old Colonel Paul Alfred Cullen who had been serving with the Australian military since 1927 and would rise to the rank of Major General arrived in New Guinea today.

1946: In Shanghai, Gerda Kosiner, a refugee from Vienna and her husband gave birth to Canadian educated businesswoman Vivian Jeanette Kpalan, the author of the award winning Ten Green Bottles: The True Story of One Family's Journey from War-Torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai



1946: Tonight, Operation Markolet or Night of the Bridges, a Haganah operation designed “to destroy eleven bridges linking Palestine with the neighboring countries of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt began.

1947(28th of Sivan, 5707): Bronislaw Huberman, famed violinist and founder of the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, passed away.


1948: Lt. Col. Abdullah el-Tell commander of the Jordanian forces and Colonel David Shaltiel the commander of Israeli forces in West Jerusalem continued their discussions in the presence of UN observers which included the disposition of Abu Tor, “civilian access to retrieve personal belongings, "examination by Arabs of municipal records in the Jewish area", recovery of Torah scrolls from the Old City and the closing of the New Gate.

1949: U.S premiere of “Roughshod” a cowboy film directed by Mark Robson.

1949: Birthdate of Xu Xin, a professor at Nanjing University and China's leading Judaic scholar,as well as the founder and director of the Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish and Israel Studies at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China.”

1950: The FBI “interviewed” Julius Rosenberg for the first time on the same day that Joel Barr, another Soviet spy “disappeared from his Paris apartment…and fled to Czechoslovakia.”

1952: In Syosset, NY, “Gertrude "Trudy" (née Albert) and Morris Isikoff” gave birth to American investigative reporter and author Michael R. Isikoff, the husband of Mary Ann Akers and the father of their son Zachary and Willa Isikoff the daughter who was born during his marriage to Lisa Stein.


1952: Alexander Marx, librarian of the Jewish Theological Seminary arrived in New York after having spent ten weeks in Israel.

1952: Brigadier General Mordechai Makleff, vice chief of staff of the IAF arrived in New York aboard the Cunard Line’s Queen Elizabeth to begin an unofficial tour of U.S. military installations.

1952: "Anne Frank: Diary of Young Girl" is published in the United States

1952: The New York Times reviews “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” translated from the Dutch by B.M. Mooyaart-Doubleday with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt.

1953: CBS broadcast the first episode of “Steve Randall” a television series starring Melvyn Douglas.

1955: In Philadelphia, linguist Myrna Gopnik and Irwin Gropnik gave birth to Dr. Alison Gopnik who is a professor of both psychology and philosophy.

1955: Publication of the first issue of Roll Call the highly influential publication created by Sid Yudain, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants.

1955: In Hewlett, NY, Norma and Harry Ganz, “the owner of a private-label blouse company,” gave birth to Nancy Ganz who turned her back on a potential career in the field of biology to found “Bodyslimmers’ whose product line includes Belly Buster and Butt Booster.

1956: Dr. Henry Cohen was raised to the peerage as Baron Cohen of Birkenhead, of Birkenhead in the County Palatine of Chester. This meant that the famous physician was now Henry Cohen, 1st Baron Cohen of Birkenhead. The Lord Cohen Medal, the highest award for services to gerontology in the United Kingdom and is named, is named for him.

1957(17thof Sivan, 5717): Fifty-four year old David “Davie the Jew” Berman a mobster who began his criminal career in Sioux City, Iowa died today during surgery in Las Vegas where he had teamed up with Bugsy Siegel to turn the city into a gambler’s paradise.

1958: Filming of “The Geisha Boy” produced by Jerry Lewis who was also one of the co-stars began today.

1959: Release date for “John Paul Jones” a film about the American Revolutionary War naval hero produced by Samuel Bronston with a script co-authored by Jesse Lasky, Jr and music by Max Steiner.

1959: In New York City, #1 bestselling novelist Judith Krantz and film and television producer Stephen Falk Krantz” gave birth Tony, the mailroom trainee at Creative Artists Agency who rose to be an award winning producer, writer and director whose wife, Krisitn Krantz is “the co-founder and CEO of both Prana Animation Studios and Oscar and Emmy winning visual effects company, Rhythm & Hues.”

1961: Birthdate of Anne Elaine Heyman, the native of Pretoria who used her knowledge of Israel’s solution to its “orphan problem to create a system that helped to save the 1.2 million orphans created by the genocide in Rwanda.

1961: Birthdate of Adisu Massala, the native of Ethiopia who made Aliyah in 1980 following a clandestine route and eventually became a member of the Knesset.

1963: David Ben-Gurion resigned for the second and last time as Prime Minister and Defense Minister. Levi Eshkol will be chosen as a compromise candidate to fill both positions. Eshkol, the Israeli politician most Westerners had never heard of will thus be the leader of the Jewish state when it faces it's greatest test in 1967 and enjoys its greatest triumph with the reunification of Jerusalem.

1967: “The Reluctant Astronaut” a comedy with a script by Everett Greenbaum was released in the United States today.
1968:` Governor Nelson Rockefeller designated Jennie Grossinger Day in New York State, the first time this honor was bestowed on a living woman. Jennie Grossinger, who helped make the Catskills resort Grossinger's into the most famous retreat of its kind, was born in Austria on June 16, 1892. At age eight, she immigrated with her family to New York, where she struggled to learn English and succeed in school. At thirteen, she left school to work in a garment factory, providing her family with much-needed income. In 1914, her father bought a piece of land in the Catskills, intending to leave factory work and return to farming. It soon became clear that the rocky soil would never support a prosperous farm, and Jennie suggested that the family take in boarders. The first year, the family charged $9 a week and cleared a net profit of $81. From that modest beginning, Grossinger's was born. Although the initial farmhouse lacked heat, electricity, and indoor plumbing, its other amenities helped to make it a success. Jennie Grossinger's mother, Malka, was a good kosher cook, and Jennie's warm personality was credited with making guests feel at home. In addition, Jennie's husband Harry (a cousin with the same last name), who had stayed in New York, was able to send guests their way. By 1919, the family had made enough money to sell the original farmhouse and buy a nearby hotel. Grossinger's thrived in the 1920s, becoming an opulent resort with tennis courts, a children's camp, crystal chandeliers, and an auditorium that featured world-class entertainers. It was in this decade that Grossinger's became a destination of choice for upwardly mobile East Coast Jews. Although the decade of the Great Depression brought hard times, Grossinger's managed to stay open. One innovative development was the establishment of a training camp for boxers. The boxers provided much-needed income, while Grossinger's provided a Jewish atmosphere and facilities. In the years after the Second World War, Grossinger's fame spread from Jews to non-Jews. While maintaining its kosher kitchen, the resort began to attract a non-Jewish clientele. Part of this was due to the successful national distribution and marketing of "Grossinger's Rye," accompanied by Jennie Grossinger's image and signature. By 1970, non-Jews were estimated to make up one third of the 150,000 annual guests. In the post-war years, such prominent figures as Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy, and Nelson Rockefeller visited the resort.

1970(12th of Sivan, 5730):Elsa Yur'evna Triolet, a Russian born Jewish French author passed away.

1970: “Two Mules for Sister” a droll western film directed by Don Siegel with a screenplay by Albert Maltz was released today in the United States.

1974:Miss Nancy Ellen Gerstein, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Max Gersten who “is employed by The New Yorker in the fiction department” is scheduled to marry Lawrence Alan Kudlow, staff member of the securities department of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York today in what might seem like a merger since  the bride’s mother “is president of Petrie Stores Corporation, a retail chain of women's clothing stores and her father is a partner of Webco Textile Converters in Newburgh, NY while the groom’s
“father is a partner of Sondra Incorporated, manufacturer of textiles for men's clothing.”.

1974: In Rhode Island, Rabbis William Bradue and Herschel Shacter officiated at the wedding of Elizabeth Fain and Samuel Gerson, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Gerson of Natanya, Israel

1975(7th of Tammuz 5735): One of the Israelis wounded in yesterday’s rocket attack yesterday at Nahariya passed away today.

1975: “Thirty-eight Soviet Jewish activists, including Vitaly Rubin, Vladimir Slepak, Victor Brailovsky and Mark Azbel appealed to the International Pen Club and five prominent Western authors to act in defense of the samizdat magazine “Jews in the USSR”. 

1976: “Silent Move” a comedy directed by Mel Brooks, with a script by Mel Brooks and Barry Levinson and starring Mel Brooks, Marty Feldman, Marcel Marceau, Sid Caesar, James Caan, Harold Gould, Henny Youngman and Paul Newman was released today. (June 17 and June 30 are also given for release dates,)

1976: “I’ve Got a Secret” created by Allan Sherman and produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman began appearing in weekly syndication.

1977: Seventy-seven year old Maxwell M. Bilofsky, “the husband of the former Betty Edith Keller” was buried today at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont on Long Island after funeral services in Oakhurst, NJ.

1977: “Grand Theft Auto” featuring Ken Lerner as “Eagle I” was released today in the United States.

1977: Gerald Davis, “one of Ireland’s leading semi-abstract artists” and “a prominent member of the Jewish community in Ireland” launched an exhibition based on Ulyssescalled “Paintings for Bloomsday” in a gallery located on Howth Head, the setting of the soliloquy that ends the novel.



1978: U.S. Premiere of the musical spoof “Grease” featuring Didi Conn as “Frenchy”, Dinah Manoff as “Marty Maraschino” and Sid Caesar as “Coach Calhoun.”

1982: It was reported in today’s Washington Post that “former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger defended” Operation Peace for Galilee saying that "No sovereign state can tolerate indefinitely the buildup along its borders of a military force dedicated to its destruction and implementing its objectives by periodic shellings and raids"

1983: As the Soviet Government continues its crackdown on Jewish dissidents, “Yuri Adnropov, the former chief of the KGB was appointed head of state.

1984(16th of Sivan, 5744):Rabbi Bernard Bergman, the nursing home mogul, passed away.

1985:“An Off-Broadway revival” of “Merrily We Roll Along,” a Stephen Sondheim musical “based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart” opened today at San Diego's La Jolla Playhouse, where it ran for 24 performances

1991: Dr. and Mrs. Robert Sheon of Toledo, Ohio, announced the August wedding plans for their daughter, Amy Ruth Sheon, and Marvin Krislov, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Joseph Krislov of Lexington, Ky.

1995: U.S. premiere of the Italian film “Il Postino: The Postman” directed by Michael Radford.

1995: Having premiered at the Mann Village Theatre seven days ago, “Batman Forever,” directed by Joel Schumacher, with a screenplay co-authored by Akiva Goldsman and music by Elliot Goldentahl was released in the United States today.

1995: Outfielder Brian Mark Kowitz made his last major league appearance while playing for the Atlanta Braves.

1996(29th of Sivan, 5756): Forty year old First Sargent Meir Alush, an off-duty policeman, “was shot and killed in a toy store in the village of Bidiya.” (Jewish Virtual Library)

1996(29th of Sivan, 5756): Eighty-three year old sportscaster Mel Allen passed away. Yes, the man who was the Voice of the New York Yankees for so many years, the man with the smooth southern drawl, was Jewish. He grew up in rural Alabama as an observant Jew. He reluctantly changed his surname from Israel to further his career. His last name was considered "too Jewish." The Allen in Mel Allen was taken from his father's middle name i.e. Julius Allen Israel. In 1950, Allen served as chairman of Operations Sports for Israel which shipped over three tons of athletic and recreational gear to Israeli children.


1998: Robert D. Sack, the son of Rabbi Eugene Sack of Beth Elohim, began serving as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
2000: Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 and completely withdraws from Lebanon.
2001:
Moris Farhi, a “Turkish author” who was “vice president of International Pen” “was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in June 16, 2001, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, for services to literature.

2001: “Ghost World,” with a script by Daniel Clowes who had a Jewish mother and Terry Zwigoff, the son of dairy farmers who also served as directed premiered today at The Seattle International Film Festival

2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Fly Swatter by Nicholas Dawidoff and Six Days of War by Michael B. Oren.

2002: Today Dominique Strauss-Kahn was reelected Member of Parliament in the 8th circonscription of the Val-d'Oise.

2002: Olivier Dassault, the grandson of Marcel Dassalt, was elected today “as deputy for the first circonscription of Oise, running on the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) ticket.”

2002: A former Miss Israel is among those whom plastic surgeon Pamela Lipkin has invited to a Botox Party.
2003:”
The Jewish population of New York City has fallen by 5 percent since 1991, dipping below one million for the first time in a century, according to a roughly once-a-decade study that is being released today by the UJA-Federation of New York.” (As reported by Joseph Berger)
2004: Final day of a Birthright trip to Israel - Towards a Sustainable Future for Israel: An Environmental Leadership Seminar for Students and Young Professionals – focused on the environment sponsored as a joint project of COEJL, the Heschel Center for Environmental Leadership and Learning, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and Hillel.

2004: Bernard A. Friedman began serving as Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.

2004: “100th anniversary of the day in 1904 on which Dublin's best-known fictional Jew (and cuckold), 38-year-old Leopold Bloom, wandered the city as a modern-day Odysseus and, after numerous adventures located more in his mind than on the street, circumnavigated his way home” (As reported by Jonathan Wilson)
2005: What Sotheby's is calling the only known surviving autographed draft of the Balfour Declaration, the 1917 document that called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in what was then Palestine, along with other documents from the archive of the Zionist Leader Leon Simon is to be auctioned in New York today. Besides two original drafts of the Declaration, the auction includes a signed letter from Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist and chemist who relocated from Germany to Britain after the start of World War I, asking his colleagues to review the draft. Sotheby's expects the archive to sell for $500,000 to $800,000.
2006: The Presbyterian Church, USA (PCUSA) began debating the issue of divesting from companies doing business with Israel because of Israel's policy in the Palestinian territories.

2006(20th of Sivan, 5766): Seventy-seven year old editor and “queen of letters” Barbara Epstein passed away today. (As reported by Charles McGrath)



2006: Hebrew Book Week comes to an end

 2007(30th of Sivan, 5767: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2007(30th of Sivan, 5767: Eighty-eight year old “Shirlee Mages, whose father owned a thriving Roosevelt Road restaurant in the 1930s and '40s and whose husband put his name on a sporting goods chain” passed away today in Chicago. Mrs. Mages was the widow of Morrie Mages, a 1950s Chicago television staple who was often in the company of the late broadcaster Jack Brickhouse touting his sporting-goods stores through the sponsorship of a late-night movie called "Mages Playhouse."

 2008: Time magazine features a profile on Foreign Minister Tzipi Livini who is favored to succeed Ehud Olmert entitled “Mrs. Clean.”

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812071,00.html
2008: In “Grapes on the Golan,” published today Kevin Peraino profiles the growth Israel’s wine industry which is located on the Golan Heights and the effect peace talks between Damascus and Jerusalem might have on it.



2008: In New York, the Center for Jewish History co-sponsors “’Bloom’ Comes Home.” This is a preview of "Bloom,” which is a documentary film homage to James Joyce's masterpiece, “Ulysses,” with filmmakers Alan Adelson and Kate Taverna. On Bloomsday, 2003, the Center for Jewish History and Jewish Heritage staged an exciting dramatic reading of scenes from Joyce's “Ulysses” featuring Kathleen Chalfant and a host of talented actors playing the Odysseus-like protagonist Leopold Bloom. The acclaimed performance has now become the centerpiece of a film which plays with notions as light as reading Joyce in bed and as serious as what kind of Jew Leopold Bloom really was. The film travels to Ireland to reveal how an anti-Semitic outbreak in Limerick in 1904 inspired Joyce to create Dublin's best known fictional Jew. The preview of this work in progress takes place in the very auditorium where it was first performed. The evening will include conversation with the filmmakers and special additional readings.

2008: Despite intense lobbying by Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, the European Union - in a sign of vastly improved European-Israeli relations over the last few years - agreed to a significant upgrade of relations. The upgrade was announced in Luxembourg during the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting, headed by foreign ministers, which conducts the bilateral relations between Israel and the EU. The announcement was made at a meeting attended by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the ministers of the 27 EU states.

2008: After a report in The Sun which exposed Nazi war criminal Milivoj Asner mingling with Euro 2008 football fans in Austria, the British daily interviewed the 95-year-old man at his Austrian home.
The history books describe how Pozega's entire Jewish community was wiped out in World War II, sent to the Jasenovac concentration camp where 700,000 were exterminated.
Asner is suspected to have overseen the deportation from Croatia of hundreds of Jews, Serbs and gypsies to concentration camps. According to The Sun, Asner denied any Jews were deported to death camps from his home town. Laughing again, he said: "I don't know of anyone deported from Pozega. Nobody was murdered. I never heard of one single family murdered in Pozega." Despite Austrian officials ruling out extradition on health grounds, Asner said he was well enough to face trial. He said: "I have a clear conscience, I can appear in front of any court."
"I would welcome the chance to answer these accusations in a Croatian court. I don't have anything to do with it. I did not have enough responsibility to order deportation." According to The Sun, Austrian officials revealed they may order a new medical examination. On Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center said that Austrian authorities were "exposed as liars" after a "top Nazi war criminal" deemed unfit by the Austrians to stand trial due to his "failing health" was spotted sipping drinks in an Austrian cafe during one of the Euro 2008 soccer championship gatherings.
Asner is number four on the Wiesenthal Center's list of "most wanted Nazis." Three years ago, Austria refused a Croatian extradition request on the grounds that Asner was "unfit" to stand trial or even be questioned for health reasons. "Austria has long had a reputation as a paradise for war criminals and now they've been caught in the act," said Dr. Ephraim Zuroff, the director of the Israel office of the Wiesenthal Center, and the organization's chief Nazi hunter. Zuroff said that the article "exposed the lie" that the Austrian authorities have been peddling for years, noting that the suspected Nazi war criminal is clearly enjoying a life that many hundreds of victims were denied when they were sent off to be murdered. "If this man is well enough to walk around town unaided and drink wine in bars, he's well enough to answer for his past," Zuroff said. Following the publication of the expose, which included video and photos, The Wiesenthal Center demanded that the Austrian Government immediately extradite the top wanted Nazi without further delay. "The photos, and video clips also made available to this office, make it abundantly clear that Asner is in good health, lucid and able to get around on his own, in contradiction to the finding of an Austrian court which ruled that he cannot be extradited to stand trial in Croatia due to ill health," Zuroff wrote in a Monday letter to Austrian Justice Minister Dr. Maria Berger.
"Under these circumstances, there is absolutely no justification for the continued refusal to extradite this wanted Nazi war criminal to the country where he committed his nefarious crimes, so that he can finally be held accountable for the hundreds of Serbs, Jews and Gypsies whom he deported to concentration camps, where the majority were brutally murdered."
2008: In Milwaukee, The Third International Festival of New Jewish Liturgical Music came to a close.

2009: A reception is held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C. honoring Ann F. Lewis the recipient of the NJDC Belle Moskowitz Award.

2009: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Laurie Silber, Search Committee Chairperson, announces that Temple Judah has officially hired Rabbi Todd Thalblum. Rabbi Tahlblum will begin on August 1, 2009.

2009(24th of Sivan, 5769): Eighty-eighty year old Seymour “Sy” Broday author of Jewish Heroes of America  and its sequel, Jewish Heroes and Heroines of America  passed away today.



2010: In “Revolutionary Love” published today, Jonathan Sarna described the role of Jacob I. Cohen in the American Revolution and his marriage to Esther Mordecai.


2010: A screening of “Leon Blum: For All Mankind” and lecture by filmmaker, Jean Bodon, are scheduled to be held at noon today at the Library of Congress

2011: “The Addams Family” a musical with a book by Marshall Brickman and which Bebe Neuwirth played “Morticia” was performed for the 500th time tonight.

2011: “Fiddler on the Roof” is scheduled to be performed at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

2011: Congregation Agudas Achim in Iowa City is scheduled to hold its annual meeting.

2011: At the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC, Leah Koenig, author of “The Hadassah Everyday Cookbook: Daily Meals for the Contemporary Jewish Kitchen” and former editor-in-chief of the award winning food blog The Jew and the Carrot, is scheduled  to make eco-kosher Portobello mushroom burgers and basil two-bean salad as part of  “Jewish Cooking 101: Farmers' Market Meals”

2011:Today, thousands will retrace the steps of Leopold Bloom, the Jewish protagonist of James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses on “Bloomsday,” an annual event celebrating the Irish author’s novel and his Jewish hero. “In Dublin there are lots of events and a few elsewhere in Ireland,” said Terrence Killeen, a research scholar at the James Joyce Center last week. “There’s a breakfast which starts Bloomsday, as it does in the novel. People then follow the events of the book around town as it continues, and recite passages. One happening is at Davy Byre’s Pub and there are lots of musical events. It’s not an academic event but a public one.” Over the years, Ireland’s small but remarkably vibrant Jewish community, population 2,000, has produced many prominent members including the late president of Israel, Chaim Herzog, and two-time Dublin mayor Robert Briscoe, to name a few. Still, the fictitious Bloom might be the country’s most famous Jew – never mind that in the novel he is a convert to Catholicism. “By 1904 he is nominally a Catholic having converted to marry his wife, so he’s a rationalist,” said Killeen, who gave a lecture on the Jewish world of Joyce at the Irish Jewish Museum last Monday. “He seems very much a part of the Jewish race but not of the Jewish faith. At the same time he is very conscious of distinct Jewish thinkers like Baruch Spinoza, Mendelsohn – the composer and philosopher – and Karl Marx.” Throughout the novel, Bloom’s Jewish identity is discussed repeatedly, sometimes despite his best efforts to avoid the subject. “The most prominent passage is in a pub where Bloom encounters the Citizen, who is strongly nationalist and strongly racist, and that is where he takes on the anti- Semitism of this man,” Killeen said. “In the first chapter he takes on a headmaster who is rather anti-Semitic. He tries to avoid initially an argument about Judaism and he talks about a race that is very much at this time persecuted. He strongly identifies with Jews Christ was a Jew like me, he says. That’s the most emphatically Jewish statement and near the end of the novel he remembers some verses of Jewish songs.” Even Zionism, in its infancy when Joyce wrote the novel between 1914 and 1921, makes a brief appearance. “Zionism does get into the book and there’s an identification between Ireland and the Jews because Ireland was colonized at the time,” Killeen said. “There’s a parallel there.” The origin of Bloom is still a debated topic. Joyce is said to have known several members of Ireland’s small Jewish community growing up in Dublin. Most scholars agree, however, that Joyce’s decision to make Bloom Jewish was intended as a literary device inspired by his encounter with Jews when he lived in Trieste. “Bloom’s Jewishness makes him different than his fellow citizens,” Killeen said. “He’s seen as different and strange. A much more rational person than they are. He is a scientific type. That’s the symbolism, his otherness.” So how does the Jewish community in Ireland feel about having the protagonist of the best known work of one the country’s most famed authors as an honorary member? One rabbi born and bred in Ireland politely declined to comment because he said he only learned about Bloomsday two years ago. Debbie Briscoe of the Irish Jewish Museum said that no discontent with Bloom has been registered by local Jews. “Nobody has ever complained about the fictitious character Leopold Bloom,” she wrote in an e-mail. “In fact everyone enjoys it. Jews everywhere have accepted it as a story. The whole thing is fiction so what is there to complain about?” One Irish Jew, the late painter Gerald Davis, had a special affection for Bloom, Briscoe said. Each year he would don a black bowler hat, dark suit and a mustache and play the role of his co-religionist on Bloomsday. On one occasion he was even invited to Australia to repeat his role there. It may be worth noting that Bloomsday has had at least one unexpected affect on the Jewish community. Each year it brings an unknown number of Jewish celebrants, temporarily boosting the number of Jews in the country significantly. “Many Jews come to Dublin from other countries especially for James Joyce week of festivities,” Briscoe said.

2011:After two months of quiet in the South, a Kassam rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into the Eshkol Regional Council on tonight. The projectile exploded in an open field and no injuries or property damage was reported. Near to 9:30 p.m., a siren was heard in Eshkol-area communities, followed seconds later by an explosion

2011: Jewish Congressman Anthony Weiner announced his resignation today, following the revelation that he had sent a lewd photograph to young women online. Instead of sending a written letter of resignation, Weiner made a televised public statement, which was met by hecklers shouting out angry remarks

2011:The Korean Embassy in Israel today held a special ceremony to mark the 61st anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War. In honor of soldiers who fought to help South Korea stop the communist invasion, a seemingly unlikely group was also recognized: Jewish Korean War veterans living in Israel.

According to an official statement released by the Embassy, some 4,000 Jewish soldiers fought alongside South Koreans and Allied Forces in the Korean War between 1950 and 1953. The Embassy has been awarding medals to Jewish soldiers since 2009. This year's ceremony was hosted by Korean Ambassador to Israel Ma Young-Sam at his home in Rishpon.

2012: The Queen Has No Crown is scheduled to be shown at The London Israeli & Film Festival.

2012: Rabbi Jonah Layman and Cantor Wendi Fried are scheduled to lead “A Taste of Shabbat” at Shaare Tefila in Olney, MD.

2012: National Hebrew Book Week is scheduled to come to an end.

2012: Second and final day of the great Pastrami Sandwich giveaway at Langer’s Deli in Los Angeles which is celebrating its 65th anniversary.

2012:The IDF received a report this morning that a rocket shell had been found in southern Israel, following reports overnight that an explosion had been heard in the area. No injuries or damages were reported in the incident. Following an initial examination, the IDF determined that the projectile appeared to be a 122 millimeter Grad-type rocket. IDF officials said they were further investigating the incident.


2012(26thof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-two year old “Dan Dorfman, a highly visible financial journalist whose televised market reports could send a stock soaring — or plummeting — but whose career was tarnished by accusations of insider trading” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2013(8thof Tammuz, 5773): Ninety year old Bernard Sahlins, a founder and former owner of the Second City, the Chicago nightclub which launched the career of many funny people including John Beulushi and Stephen Colbert  passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2013: In San Diego, CA, the Used Book Sale to benefit the Samuel & Rebecca Astor Judaica Library is scheduled to come to an end.

2013: A show consisting of “more than 130 works by R.B. Kitaj which have been on display concurrently at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester and at London’s Jewish Museum is scheduled to come to an end.

2013: Seret 2013, the London Israeli Film & Television Festival is scheduled to come to an end.

2013: TheNew York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by Margalit Fox, whose linguistic talents turn the obituary columns into a unique art form.

2013: This evening  the Cabinet approved measures that will make it easier for authorities to prosecute against “price tag” attacks, while at the same time rejecting calls to have them labeled as acts of terror.


2013: Today President Shimon Peres welcomed the election of Hasan Rowhani as Iranian president, saying the relatively moderate cleric could bring about a change in Iran’s nuclear policy while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Sunday against being taken in by Iran’s election of the relatively moderate cleric Hasan Rowhani to the Iranian presidency.

2014: Today is  the 110th anniversary of the day in 1904 on which Dublin's best-known fictional Jew (and cuckold), 38-year-old Leopold Bloom, wandered the city as a modern-day Odysseus and, after numerous adventures located more in his mind than on the street, circumnavigated his way home. (As reported by Jonathan Wilson)

2014: The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is scheduled to host its annual gala at Beth Shalom in Potomac, MD.

2014: Following in the footsteps of fellow Jewish economist Janet Yellen, Stanley Fischer began serving as Vice Chairperson of the Federal Reserve System.

2014: The International Consortium for Research on Anti-Semitism and Racism hosted by the Jewish Studies Program at Central European University is scheduled to begin in Budapest, Hungary.

2014: Chet Orloff is scheduled to address the annual meeting of the Oregon Jewish Museum this evening.

2014: Israel voiced concern today at the prospect of its closest ally, Washington, cooperating with what it considers its deadliest foe, Iran, to stave off a sectarian break-up of Iraq.

2014: “IDF soldiers shot at three Palestinians suspected of attempting to infiltrate the West Bank settlement of Kochav Yaakov, near Ramallah, late tonight.



2014: “Vandals slashed the tires of an IDF vehicle at the Yitzhar settlement this evening as supplies were being brought to soldiers at the West Bank community.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)

2014: As the IDF continues to search for three kidnapped Jewish teenagers, the uncle of one of the victims pleaded with the captors to return them unharmed while Prime Minister Netanyahu warned the cabinet about a long and diffiuclt military mission and others called for a dismantling of Hamas on the West Bank.

2014: 33rdAnnual Bloomsday on Broadway, the creation of Isaiah Sheffer is scheduled to take place this evening.


2015(29th of Sivan, 5775): Bonna Devora Haberman, the founder of Women of the Wall, a group pressing for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall passed away today.




2015: In New Orleans, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, JWA, Hadassah, and the National Council of Jewish Women are scheduled to sponsor “A Celebration of Community and Jewish Women’s Leadership” during which Jewish Women’s Archive Executive Director Judith Rosenbaum oral historian Rosalind Hinton and a panel of local women will explore the impact of women’s leadership during the hurricane and beyond, and assess the state of Jewish women’s leadership in New Orleans today.

2015: Aaron Lansky, founder and president of the Yiddish Book Center, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the Kulturfest in New York City.

2015: In Essex, UK, Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain is scheduled to lecture on “Royal Jews – Jewish Life in Berkshire from the Readmission Till Today.”

2015: Puppet Theater Company Great Small Works and Eddy Portnoy are scheduled to return to YIVO for the world premiere of their reinterpretation of the work of Modicut, the first Yiddish puppet theater in America.

2015: Thirty-five year old Rav Shmuly Yanklowitz the “dean of Valley Beit Midrash and the cofounder of Orthodox social justice movement Uri L’Tzedek” donated a kidney today.

2015: Pears Institute for the study of Anti-Semitism in collaboration with the Jewish Council for Racial Equality is scheduled to present Dr. Omar Khan, Dr. Camilla Schofield and Dr. Anastasia Vakulenko speaking about “Race, Equality and the Law.”

2016: “Enough With the Gefilte Fish. I’ll Have Sushi” published today described the shift in Jewish fish eating habits.


2016: “In Search of Israeli Cuisines” a documentary in which “Michael Solomonov, the Israeli born chef who is the guiding force behind Philadelphia’s Zahav restaurant explores the 70 plus diverse cultures of Israel though food” is scheduled to be shown at the 24thPortland Jewish Film Festival.a

2016: The American Sephardi Federation’s “theatrical season” is scheduled to conclude with David Serero’s Othello, a Moroccan adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play about love and war, reason and race, fortuna and virtù.”

June 16, 2017(22nd of Sivan, 5777): Twenty-three year old Border Police officer Hadas Malka was died today of wounds inflicted by a terrorist who stabbed her on Sultan Suleiman Street as she ran to defend those being attacked by terrorists at Zedekiah’s Cave

2017: “The Women’s Balcony,” “the number film of the year in Israel” is scheduled to be shown at theatres San Francisco, San Jose, Chicago, Baltimore and Minneapolis.

2017: “London Mayor Sadiq Khan is scheduled to meet with the Met Police Commissioner today where he will express his “concerns about the forthcoming anti-Israel Al-Quds Day march.”

2017: “Letters from Baghdad,” a documentary that tells “the true story of Gertrude Bell and Iraq” is scheduled to open in numerous theatres in several theatres in Dallas, Seattle, San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles.

2017: At the Bremen Museum, “The Summer Institute on Teach the Holocaust” is scheduled to come to an in Atlanta.

2017: Or Olam – The East Fifth-Street Street Synagogue, one of the friendliest congregations I have ever visited, is scheduled to host a “Musical Kabbalat Shabbat” led by Cantor Shiree Kidron.

2017: The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is scheduled to host a “celebratory oneg, with Champagne-inspired beverages, strawberries, and hors d’oeuvres.”

2018: “Israeli poet Amir Or” is scheduled visit Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop for a celebration of “the publication of his latest collection, Wings, in an English translation by Seth Michelson.”

2018: The Ariel Quartet is scheduled to perform at the North Shore Chamber Music Festival today.

2018: The 57thNational Hebrew Book Week is scheduled to come to an today

2018(3rd of Tammuz, 5778): The 24th Yahrzeit of the man known simply as “the Rebbe” who made us all the better for sending the Lamplighters out into a world of “darkness” and challenged each Jew to do just one more mitzvah, to elevate the mundane and to take personal responsibility for the tikkun olam.

2018(3rd of Tammuz, 5778): Parashat Korach

2018: Seventy-eight year old producer Martin Leon Bregman, the Bronx born son of Leon and Ida Bregman, whose body of work included “Serpico” and “Scarface” passed away today. (As reported by Anita Gates)


2019: In a moment guaranteed to warm the heart of a Litvak, starting today, Russ and Daughters at the Jewish Museum is scheduled to “have Kosher New Catch Holland Herring for sale.”

2019: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to a “reconceived” version of “Romeo and Juliet” win which it is “the story of two Jewish lovers, one from a Sephardi family and one from an Ashkenazi family featuring Ladino and Yiddish Songs.”

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to present Columbia faculty members “Dr. Karla Fuller and Ron Falzone” as they discuss “Slavery on the Silver Screen: Popular Culture and the Shaping of American Memory.

2019: Today, the Tikvah Summer Seminars are scheduled to begin today with “Jews and Political Philosophy” presented by Leora Batnitzky, Yuval Levin and Ruth Wisse.

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great by Ben Shapiro, Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans by Michael A Cohen and Micha Zenko and the recently released paperback edition of Jake Tapper’s novel’s The Hellfire Club.

2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is scheduled a “Book and Author” session featuring a conversation Dr. Edith Eva Eger, the author of The Choice: Embrace the Possible.

2020: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a virtual poetry shot that looks “into the construction and techniques” used by Emma Lazarus in the write of “The New Colossus.”

2020: On Facebook, an expert librarian from the Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History.is scheduled to present a weekly short talk on a genealogy topic

2020: The LSJS is scheduled to host Debbie Meyer as she lectures on “Treachery and Rebellion,” part of the Trials of King David program.



This Day, June 17, In Jewish History by Mitchell A. and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 17          

397: Roman Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issue the following order "The governors must be informed that, upon receipt of this notice, all insults attacking the Jews shall be averted and that their synagogues shall remain unmolested." This protection for Synagogues was not a sign of Philo-Semitism.  Even with the rise of Christianity, the Emperors were concerned about maintain order in the Empire and allowing mobs to attack Jewish buildings would undermine their authority.

397: Roman Emperors Arcadius and Honorius issued a decree saying, "If Jews are harassed by a criminal charge or by debts then pretend that want to be subject to Christian law in order to avoid the criminal charges or debts by taking refuge in the church, they must be driven away. They cannot be received as Christians until they pay off all their debts or have been cleared of criminal charges.”  As Christianity took on the trappings of a state-religion, some Jews sought to avoid paying debts by pretending to be Christians.  Again, in the name of public order, the imperial system could not tolerate such behavior.

827: An invasion force of 10,000 Muslims invaded Sicily with the intention of taking control of the island; a goal when accomplished did not negatively impact the Jewish community which dates back to the first century of the Common Era when they probably arrived as slaves during the Rebellion against Rome.

845: At a synod at Meaux, King Charles the Bald rejected the anti-Jewish policies Theodboldus Amulo, the Archbishop of Lyons.

1025: Boleslaw I the Brave, first king of Poland, passed away. There were reports of Jews living in Poland during the time Mieszko I, Boleslaw’s father. Jews were reported to have been living in Gniezno, Poland’s first capital during the 10th and 11th century which included the reign of Boleslaw.

1239:  Birthdate of King Edward I.  Known as “Longshanks” Edward is famed for the “Model Parliament.”  He is known to American filmgoers as the King who tortured and killed William Wallace.  In Jewish history, he is the monarch who expelled the Jews from his realm in 1290, having extracted every economic advantage from them that was possible.  Jews would not return as a community until the final days of the Tudors.

1242: At the decree of Pope Gregory IX and King Louis, all copies of the Talmud were confiscated in Paris. Declaring that the reason for the stubbornness of the Jews was their study of the Talmud, the Pope called for an investigation of the Talmud that resulted in its condemnation and burning. Twenty-four cartloads of Hebrew manuscripts were publicly burned. Rabbi Meir was an eyewitness to the public burning of the twenty-four cartloads of Talmudic manuscripts (and he bewailed this tragedy in his celebrated "Kina"Shaali serufah (שאלי שרופה) which is still recited on Tisha B'Av.

1244: According to one source the above captioned happened Erev Shabbat Chukath, 5004

1291: Today, the Mamluks under the command of al-Ashrff Kahlil captured Acre which had been defended by the Knights Templar and after the inhabitants had fled, the victors looted the city after which they destroyed the fortifcations.

1462: Vlad III the Impaler attempted to assassinate Mehmed II forcing him to retreat from Wallachia. Fortunately for the Jewish people, the attempt on his life failed. When Mehmed conquered Constantinople he was warmly greeted by the city’s Jews.  Over the years, he welcomed Jews fleeing from Europe and urged them to settle in his domain.  The Jews were so grateful that they even formed a regiment called “The Sons of Moses” to fight under Mehmed’s banner.

1501:John I Albert (or Olbracht in Polsih) passed away. In 1495 King Jan I Olbracht transferred Krakow Jews to the nearby royal city of Kazimierz, which gave rise to its once bustling Jewish quarter and a major European center of the Diaspora for the next three centuries. With time it turned into virtually separate and self-governed 34-acre Jewish Town, a model of every East European shtetl, within the limits of the gentile city of Kazimierz. As refugees from all over Europe kept coming to find the safe haven here, its population reached 4,500 by 1630.

1590: In Lisbon, Estevainha Gomes of Faro was burned at the stake by the Inquistion. The first records of Jews living in Faro dates from the reign of Alfonso III in the 13th century. Descendants of the Faro Jewish community were among the first members of Bevis Marks Synagogue in London.

1696: John III Sobieski, King of Poland, passed away.  John III Sobieski is best remembered as commander who defeated the Turks at Vienna.  According to tradition, the first bagels were baked by Jewish bakers in Vienna to commemorate the victorious charge by the Polish cavalry.  The bagel was shaped to look like a stirrup (key equipment for cavalrymen) and one of the first one baked was given to John III.  Modern day scholarship has challenged the legend, but the legend lives on.

1731: At an auto-de-fe in Lisbon four men and eight women were condemned. A majority of the 12 were burnt at the stake. On this particular Sunday four men and eight women were present at the auto-de-fe of Lisbon. A majority of them were burned alive. A total of 71 other persons were sentenced at this event. Duarte Navarro, an 83 year old New Christian, was among those condemned for Judaizing.

1761: In Nancy, France, 22 year old Jacob Alexandre was sentenced to be hanged for receiving communion.  Alexandre was Jewish and had violated the canon law that “bars non-Christians from receiving communion.” On appeal, Alexandre’s sentence was commuted to a lifetime in the galleys.  Apparently Alexandre was a near-do well who thought that as an apostate Jew he would be will taken care of by the Catholics.  While he took on their manners and customs, he tried to have the best of both worlds by not actually converting, a fact that caught up with him and proved to be his undoing.

1764: In Amsterdam, Abraham Emden and Martha Van Minden gave birth to Eliaser Abraham Emden.

1768(2nd of Tammuz, 5528): During the Cossack Uprising, Jews and Poles fought alongside each other as the siege of Uman began; a siege that would end with the Jews being massacred following their betrayal by the Poles.

1775(19th of Sivan, 5535): Parashat Beha’alotcha

1775:  The Battle of Bunker Hill (which actually took place at Breed’s Hill) fought on this date shows that American troops can stand against British professionals.Aaron Solomon was among the volunteers braving the British assaults.  In 1823, prominent Bostonians established a committee to build a monument to honor the American “moral” victory.  It would take twenty years to raise the funds and actually build the Bunker Hill Monument.  Famed Jewish businessman, veteran of the Battle of New Orleans, and philanthropist, Judah Turo donated the amazing large sum (for the early 19th century) of ten thousand dollars to this effort.

1783: “A document requesting civil rights’ for the Jews was given to Josef II when he visited Czernowitz today – a request that was denied.

1786: In Savannah, GA, “David N. Cardozo, a member of the Sephardic Jewish mercantile community who had served in the South Carolina militia during the American Revolution” and an “unidentified woman” gave birth to “economist and journalist Jacob Newton Cardozo.”

1802: Birthdate of Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt, the German born French astronomer and painter who discovered “shadow bands in total solar eclipses” and received the “Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society” for having discovered a record number of asteroids.

1802: Jacob Marks and Hannah Alexander were married today at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1807: M.J. Bing writes to Nathan Rothschild asking that Nathan deal directly with him and not through his father.

1808: In Kristiansand, Norway, Nicolai Wergeland, who was opponent of letting Jews living in Norway and his wife gave birth to Henrik Wergeland who started out agreeing with his father but had a change of heart and led the fight for repealing the clause in the constitution that kept Jews from settling as citizens in Norway.

1811: Mordechai Manuel Noah (a Sephardi) accepted the appointment as American Consul General at Tunis, "supported as I should with the wealth and influence of forty-thousand residents." Noah was the first Jew to be appointed to a diplomatic post by an U.S. President.  The President was James Madison.

1811: Birthdate of Adolphe Philippe, the native of Paris who gained fame as dramatist and author Adolphe Philippe d’Ennery.

1813: Moses Levy and Elizabeth Jacobs were today at the Western Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1816: In Kovno, Rabbi Tzemach Sachs and his wife gave birth to Russo-French Hebrew scholar Senior Sachs.

1825(1st of Tammuz, 5585): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1829: Birthdate of German rabbi and historian. Meyer Kayserling. Born in Hanover, He was educated at Halberstadt, Nikolsburg (Moravia), Prague, Würzburg, and Berlin. He devoted himself to history and philosophy. Encouraged in historical researches by Leopold von Ranke, Kayserling turned his attention to the history and literature of the Jews of Iberia. n 1861 the Aargau government appointed him rabbi of the Swiss Jews, which office he held until 1870. During his residence in Switzerland he argued in favor of civil equality for his coreligionists, both then and later facing the charges brought against them. In 1870 he accepted a call as preacher and rabbi to the Jewish community of Budapest. Kayserling was a member of the Royal Academy in Madrid, of the Trinity Historical Society, and others. He died at Budapest in 1905.

1832: Birthdate of Abraham Cohn, the native of Prussia who was an American Civil War Union Army Sergeant Major and recipient of the Congressional  Medal of Honor “for having distinguished himself at the Battle of the Wilderness, Virginia …and the Battle of the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia…”



1834: After three days, a pogrom in Safed came to an end leaving much of the Jewish “homeless, distraught” and impoverished.

1836: A day after she passed away, Gila bat Yehud was buried today at “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.

1838: In Prague Elisabet Faunders becomes Elisabet Popper when she married Isaias Popper.

1840: Israel Mombach married Catherine Hyams at the Great Synagogue

1843:In Greater London, Moses Aaron Jessel, the London born son of Aaron and Maria Theresa Jessel and his was wife Elizabeth Jessel gave birth to Amelia Jessel who became Amelia Sawyer when she married Edmund Joseph Sawyer.

1844: In Paris, Joseph Derenbourg and his wife gave birth to Orientalist Hartwig Derenbourg.

1845: Twenty-six year old Hermann “Hirschell” Bodenheimer, the son of Emanuel and Johanna Bodenheimer married Elise “Elka” Hisrchfelder, with whom he had eight children – Jakob, Fanny, Pauline, Emanuel, Wilhelmine, Moritz, Bertha and Salomon

1846:  French native Lion Lion married Rosine Bing-Jacob at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1847:Grace Aguilar, her brother Emanuel and their mother Sara left to catch a steamer that would take them to Ostend where her brother had arranged for her to seek medical treatment for her depression and headaches.

1852(30th of Sivan, 5612): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz



1854: In Dayton founding of B’nai Yeshurun which holds services on Friday evening and Saturday morning; religious school on Saturday and Sunday; is supported by a Ladies’ Hebrew Relief Society and owns “a cemetery two miles southwest of the city.”

1856: An article entitled “Who are Jews?” explained that whenever the term Jew is used “in our police reports or elsewhere in the Times” it is not a reference to the religion of those described but “solely the designation of their nationality.”

1856:  The Republican Party opens its 1st national convention in Philadelphia.  The Republican Party included a strong abolitionist strain; the party adopted a stance of opposing the expansion of slavery into the Western territories.  The party nominee was John C. Fremont and the party slogan was free soil, free men, Fremont.  Many Jews were drawn to the party because of its anti-slavery stance including Moritz Prinner who edited a German-language abolitionist paper in strife torn Kansas.  Prinner was joined at the 1860 Republican convention by other Jews including Lewis Naphtali Dembitz, uncle of future Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandies who nominated Lincoln and Sigismund Kaufman of New York. Abraham Jonas of Illinois was another early member of the Republican Party and served as one of Lincoln’s campaign managers in 1860.

1858: Isaac and Julie Judith Josephine Mautner gave birth toEugenie Jenny Sarah Schur

1859: New York Rabbi Morris Jacob Rapall officiated at the consecration of the United Hebrew Congregation’s new building which was located on 6th Street between Locust and St. Charles streets.  Founded in 1837, historian Jonathan Sarna describes it as the oldest synagogue west of the Mississippi River.

1862: Isaac H. Philipps of Company F of the 36thRegiment completed his service in the Union Army

1863(30th of Sivan, 5623): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz observed as Confederate forces under General Lee continue their “second invasion of the Union” heading for Pennsylvania.

1865(23rd of Sivan, 5625): Parashat Sh’lach

1865(23rd of Sivan, 5625): Forty-five year old Jacob Washington Cromelien, the New York born son of David and Henriette Cromelien and the husband of Albiona Wartenby passed away today after which he was buried in the Mikveh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.

1866: In “Achim, Germany, Abraham and Emma Auerbach” gave birth to Kansas City, MO businessman Henry A. Auberbachm, the husband of Rosine Auerbach.




1868: In Kalwaria, Russian Poland, Mordecai L. Frank and Brocha R. Bernstein gave to Simcha Pawil Frank, who taught “classes in Jewish literature and religion at the Educational Alliance in New York and was the author of numerous articles published in both the Jewish and secular press” on “subjects dealing with the Bible and religion.

1869: Birthdate of Swiss born and educated William Dreyfus, the “chief chemist of the West Disinfecting Company and chairman of the National Association of Insecticide and Disinfectant Manufacturers. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/03/14/88347882.pdf





1871(28th of Sivan, 5631): Parashat Sh’lach

1871: William H. Seward, the Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln who had been contender for the Presidency spent part of Shabbat in Jerusalem at the Huvra Synagogue which he described as “a very lofty edifice, surmounted by a circular dome and where, as he sat “in the chief seat in the synagogue” he heard “a prayer for the President of the United States, and a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the Union from its rebellious assailants [the just-concluded Civil War]” followed by “a prayer of gratitude for Mr. Seward's visit to the Jews at Jerusalem, for his health, for his safe return to his native land, and a long, happy life.”

1873: In New York City, Lyman Bloomingdale and Hattie Collenberger gave birth to Samuel Joseph Bloomingdale, he husband of Rita Goodman and the Columbia educated businessman who “upon the death of his father in 1905, became with his two brothers, owner of Bloomingdale Brothers Department Store.”




1874: Barnet Henry Abrahams married Dinah Zox at the Borough Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1877:The Jews in Turkey” published today, traces the history of the Jewish population in the Ottoman Empire from the days when they first came to Macedonia during the reign of Alexander the great. Today the Jewish element in the population of Turkey is strongly represented in Macedonia….because” in part  “it is the richest quarter of the empire;”  More for  2014


1878(16th of Sivan, 5638): Seventy-eight year old “physician, poet and writer Aaron Ludwig Joseph Jeitteles passed away today at Graz.

1879: It was reported today that young Richard J.H. Gotthell read an essay at the commencement ceremony of the Temple Emanu-El Preparatory School of the Hebrew College that were being over-seen by his father, the rabbi, Dr. Gottheil.


1880: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa Charles and Ada Van Vechten (who were not Jewish) gave birth to their youngest son Carl Van Vechten “the literary executor of Gertrude Stein” and portrait photographer whose subject included Man Ray, Sidney Lumet, Norman Mailer and Beverly Sills



1880: Two days after he passed away, forty-eight year old Leopold Oppenheim, the native of Offenbach was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1881: “Fashionable” Parisians attended a concert to raise funds to aid Jews living in Russia.

1882(30th of Sivan, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1882: Lewis and Rose Barnet were seriously injured when the fell down the equivalent of 3 stories when the fire escape in their tenement gave way.  The two Austrian born Jews lived on the 5th floor of a building that housed Kenneseth Israel, a congregation of Polish and Russian Jews.  Supposedly the building had been fully inspected and passed without any problems.  [Unfortunately, accidents like this were all too typical on the lower East Side and were the result of a combination of shoddy construction and graft.]


1882: In “Oranienbaum, a suburb of Saint Petersburg, Fyodor Stravinsky a well-known bass at the Kiev opera house and the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and Anna (née Kholodovsky), a native of Kiev, one of four daughters of a high-ranking official in the Kiev Ministry of Estates gave birth Igor Stravinsky who to the world was one of the leading composers and conductors of the 20th century but to Jews was also “an admitted anti-Semite.”





1882: Josiah Cohen, a Jewish lawyer living in Pittsburgh, will probably be selected to be the Republican nominee for an at-large Congressional seat.




1883: It was reported today that that the Czars coronation is being celebrated with balls and galas in St. Petersburg and Moscow. In Kiev and Rostov on the Don the celebrations have taken another form – serious disturbances including attacks on the Jews of the area.


 1884: In Leadville, CO, the Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schloss, prominent Jewish leaders of the community hosted a soiree that including chess competition in which J.H. Zucketort played six opponents simultaneously. The visiting champion won three and lost three.

1884: In “Hraboce, Herman and Sarah (Hubschman) Berger gave birth to New York trained physician Benjamin Berger, the husband of Victoria Brand who served as an “instructor in dermatology and urology at University and Bellevue Hospital Medical College” and  “chief of clinic in dermatology at Beth Israel Hospital” while being “actively affiliated with numerous Jewish charitable and educational institutions.”

1885: “The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, arrives in New York harbor aboard the Isere.” “The Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus saw the statue as a beacon to the world. A poem she wrote to help raise money for the pedestal, and which is carved on that pedestal, captured what the statue came to mean to the millions who migrated to the United States seeking freedom, and who have continued to come unto this day.”

1886: It was reported today that Levi P. Morton has been chosen as Chairman of the Republican County Committee despite his previous statement refusing to accept the position even if he were chosen to fill it. Friends of the Jewish community leader hope to be able to convince him to change his name.

1887: It was reported today that Justice Rhinehart has reserved his decision in the suit brought by Samuel Colman against Charles Frank, a matrimonial agent who had promised to help him woo and win a young Jewess named Wolf and a counter-suit brought by Frank against Colman for money owed for providing him help in this matter. [Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match]

1888: It was reported today that Mrs. Katie Levy, the wife of Albert Levy, has filed an alienation of affection suit against her mother-in-law, Mrs. Pauline Levy in which she is seeking $50,000 in damages.  The younger Mrs. Levy is a Roman Catholic who claims that her mother-in-law has interfered with her marriage because she wanted her son to marry a rich Jewish girl.


1888: “A Hebrew Charity Ball” published today described the second annual fund raiser hosted by the staff of the Hebrew Journal for the benefit of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.

1888: A partial list published today of those who attended the charity reception and ball sponsored by the staff of the Hebrew Journal for the benefit of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society including Coroner Levy, Civil Justice Goldfogle, Judge Steckler, Judge Ehrlich, Judge Pitshke and “School Trustee Fleischauer” as well as members of the Henrietta Verein, the Deborah Verein and the Edward Lasker Literary, Dramatic and Social Circle.”


1888: it was reported today It was reported today that Rabbi Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El described the later Emperor Wilhelm of Germany as a “noble soul” who was “an ideal ruler…loved by all men.”  He saw him as a friend of the Jewish people since he said that “Germany has lost an Emperor…the oppressed a champion and Israel a true friend. [For those who grew equating Germany with Nazis and the Holocaust, this positive view of Germany and German leaders might come as a bit of a surprise.]


1889: Among the items found inside a chest with a false-bottom that was being inspected by government agents as it was being unloaded from Hamburg American steamship Gellert were “23 fine seamless woolen shirts” like those worn by Orthodox Jews.”  (Who would have guessed there was such a market?)

1889: In Albany, the Talmud Torah Benevolent Association of New York was incorporated today.

1889: In the East End of London, “Nathan Ostrer, a jeweler’s salesman and his wife Francesca Fanny gave birth to Isidore Ostrer founder of the Lothbury Investments Corporation and Ostrer Brothers Merchant Bank whose loans led them to become active in the motion picture industry.

1891:Le Roy Eltinge, the author of Psychology of War which contained such anti-Semitic passages as “He doesn’t know what patriotism means”, “the soldiers lot is hard physical work” which “the Jew despises and “he does not have any of the qualities of a good soldier” – remarks which forced the War Department to order him to go over the book and remove all such objectionable portions – began his military career today when he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

1891: In New York City, David and Sarah Aronson Jacobson, gave birth to Edward “Eddie” Jacobson,the resident of Kansas City, MO who became friends with Harry Truman when they served together in France during WW I and ran a haberdashery store during the early 1920’s who arranged a critical meeting between Chaim Weizmann and Truman that helped pave the way to the United States being the first country to recognize the new state of Israel.





1892: It was reported today that the highlight of annual exhibition of the Hebrew Technical Institute was  “the twenty-light Edison continuous dynamo that illuminates the laboratory” which was made by last year’s and this year’s graduates without any outside assistance.

1893: It was reported today that Jacob A. Schiff and Joseph Bloomingdale are sending the top five students from the senior class of the Hebrew Technical Students – Martin Loewing, Max Goldstein, Louis Wohlgemuth, Albert Finkelstein, and Henry L. Rubovitz – and the two top students in the Junior Class – Samuel Druskin and Solomon Lurie – to the 1893 World’s Fair.

1894: It was reported today the August Bebel gave a speech to the Social Democratic Party in which he called for Jewish members to play a less public role in public affairs.  This way the party would avoid suffering from the current wave of anti-Semitism. Jewish members including Emanuel Wurm and Paul Singer objected to his proposal saying that there must be a better way of dealing with “the Jew-baiters.”  The matter will be voted on at the next meeting of the next Social Democratic Congress.

1894: Ezra Hurwitz, the Lithuanian born son of Nachum and Freida Leah Hurwitz married Bertha Deutsch, the New York born daughter of Joseph and Theresa Deutsch.

1895: In south Sweden, August and Mathilda Andersson gave birth to Ruben Andersson who would gain fame as Ruben Ruasing the founder of Tetra Pak.

1895: Two days after he had passed away, 43 year old Johan Newmann, the son of Wilhelm Newmann and Priscilla Davis was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1895: Birthdate of Baltimore native and wholesale grocer Lee Lazar Dopkin, the President of the Hebrew Home for the Aged.

1896: The upcoming Commencement Exercises of the Hebrew Technical Institute and an outing for members of the Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum were two of the items listed in today’s Coming Events Column.

1896: “Incidents of the Day” included an explanation of why a Rabbi was chosen to give the opening prayer at the Republican National Convention.  The party is split between factions representing the American Protective Association, an anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic organization and delegates who are Catholics.  The managers for William McKinley who is the probable nominee chose a rabbi because the choide of Protestant minister or Catholic priest would have split the Convention.  To make matters worse the Rabbi is a Democrat and members of his family are active in the local Democratic Party. (Echoes of the APA can be heard in the 21st century as the United States debates the immigration issue.)

1896: In the court at Essex Market, an unidentified lawyer used the Hebrew word for “drop dead” when the magistrate said he would not hear any more cases until 9:30 next morning.  Fortunately for the lawyer, the job did not understand Hebrew.

1897: Herzl moves the Zionist Congress to Basel.

1897(17th of Sivan, 5657): Fifty four year old Henry Gersoni, Ph.D., the Russian born, German educated teacher and author who went to Atlanta GA in 1874 to serve as rabbi before accepted a similar position at B’nai Sholem in Chicago passed away today.  He left the rabbinate to found the Jewish Advance which he published successfully before returning to New York where he worked as a teacher and journalist.



1897: As of today, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is reported to have 1,000 members.

1897: Having already donated a brownstone at 861 Lexington Avenue valued at $20,000 to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, Jacob Schiff has authorized YMHA President Percival S. Menken to spend an additional $30,000 to purchase property and equipment so it will have a facility that will include a meeting hall, gymnasium and reference library.

1897: Birthdate of Montreal native Lt. Gen. Edeson Louis Millard “Tommy Burns” the Canadian military office who after his retirement was closely involved in the Middle East peace process during the 1950’s and wrote Between Arab and Israeli published in 1963.




1897: Tonight, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church completed its investigation of charges of immorality and untruthfulness leveled against Herman Warszawiak and found him guilty.  Warszawiak was a convert who had been conducting a mission on Grand Street to convert other Jews.

1898: Birthdate of German professor of crystallography Carl Hermann.  Hermann was a Quaker and a man of rare courage. “When the Nazi Party rose to power, he refused their political restrictions on academic positions, leaving to take a position as a physicist with industrial dye firm I.G. Farbenwerke at Ludwigshafen, where he continued his crystallographic research and studied symmetry in higher-dimensional spaces. During the war that followed, he and his wife Eva helped many Jews hide and escape persecution and death, for which he himself spent much time in prison and was sentenced to death. As he was an eminent scientist with influential friends, the sentence was never carried out, and he survived.

1898(27th of Sivan, 5658): Seventy-seven year old Italian author and bible scholar Moses Isaac Tedeschi passed away today.  His autobiography was appended to Simhat ha-Regel a collection of homilies and glosses on the Targum to Proverbs

1898: In New York City, “Maurice and Bertha (Cantor) Fishberg” gave birth to Columbia University trained physician Arthur Maurice Fishberg, the husband of Irene Levin who served as the clinical professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medical and clinical professor at NYU while conducting “extensive” research into “cardiovascular and renal diseases.”

1898: George M. Appel began serving as a Sergeant with the 1stU.S. Volunteer Engineers during the Spanish American War.

1898: Twenty-four year old Detroit businessman Hyman P. Weller, the Austrian born son Shendel and Solomon married Miss Minnie Weiselthier of Boston today with he raised a son and two daughers.

1898: In Cincinnati, Ohio at the Mound Street Temple, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise is scheduled to confer the degrees at the graduation exercises of the Hebrew Union College


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1898: In Austria, “gangs of peasants…attacked and plundered the Jewish shops at Frysztak near Rzeszow” wounding several Jews.

1899(9th of Tammuz, 5659): Sixty three year old Josef Goldstein who had been chief cantor at the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna, Austria since 1857 passed away today. Cantorial music runs in the family since his brother Moritz (Morris) Goldstein who was the cantor at K.K. Bene Israel Synagogue in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1899: The United Hebrew Charities has told immigration authorities that no expense is to be spared in caring for Julia Lichtner, the 12 year old youngster, who became an orphan when her father jumped overboard while they were returning to New York aboard a White Star liner out of LIverpool.  If it can be proven that she really was born in the United States, she will be classified as a U.S. citizens “and place in a home where she can be taken care of with money given by passengers” of the ship.

1900: Anti-Semitic riots broke out at Komarczyn.

1901(30th of Sivan, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1901: Birthdate of Miklós Nyiszli the Jewish doctor who survived Auschwitz.




1902: Birthdate of Samuel E. Feinberg, the native of New York who gained fame as songwriter Sammy Fain who collaborated with Irving Kahal until the latter’s death in 1942.

1903(22nd of Sivan, 5663: Sixty-five year old Salomon Mosse the son of Dr. Marcus Mosse and Ulrike Mosse passed away today.

1903: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild that there is a chance to get a good piece of land from the Sultan

1904: In Chicago, Lilla Louise Smith and Charles Rexford Bellamy gave birth to award winning actor in Ralph Bellamy who in 1943 starred in Ben Hecht’s pageant “We Will Never Die” which had been created by Billy Rose and Ernst Lubitsch as a response to the world's (and America's) silence in the face of the Holocaust, as well as their growing frustration with American policy and their contempt for Hollywood's “fear of offending its European markets,”

1905: Fire destroyed 130 houses in Constantinople inhabited by Jews. 400 families rendered homeless.

1908: In Frankfurt, Germany, Jacob and Celestine (Mullings) Weiss gave birth to Trude Weiss-Rosmarin who became a major commentator on the nature of American Jewish life.


1909: One day after he passed away, Leah Gorfunkle, the daughter of Polish native Samuel Gorfunkle, was buried today at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Island.

1910: In Dresden, “Siegfried Goldschmidt, a banker from Frankfurt, and Vally Goldschmidt Peiser, teacher from Breslau gave birth to Swiss musicologist Harry Goldschmidt.

1910: It was reported today that 30 Jewish pharmacists and assistants had been ordered to leave Rostoff-on-Don.

1912:: The survivors of the Titanic, including Edith Russell were nearing New York aboard the Carpathia which they had boarded on or about April 16.

1913: Dr. William Armhold, the Rabbi Emeritus of Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia celebrated his 84th birthday today with friends and family in Atlantic City, NJ.

1914: Birthdate of author John Hersey. Hersey was not Jewish. In fact he was born in China, the son of missionaries. Jews should remember as the author of The Wall, which was a gripping account of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the events that led up to it. What makes this book even more of a standout was that Hersey wrote it in 1950 long before the Holocaust genre became an acceptable literary topic and motif for Jewish authors, let alone non-Jewish authors. Hersey passed away in 1993 after a long and distinguished career.

1914: Jane Marian Joseph, the daughter of George Solomon Joseph, a Jewish solicitor and his wife Henriette Franklin Joseph “participated in a performance of Berlioz's La damnation de Faust that was praised in today’s edition of the Cambridge Review.

1915: Birthdate of Dr. Bernard Lander, the Orthodox rabbi who was one of the founders of, and first president of Touro College

1915: Governor Slaton is “giving deliberate study to every detail of the appeal of Leo M. Frank for commutation” of his death sentence “at his country home on Peachtree Road where he has the trial evidence and other data presented by the State and the defense.”

1915: During World War I, Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch, Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, Jacob Schiff, Isaac Seligman and Oscar Straus are among those who have been invited to attend a conference today at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall whih will “consider the adoption of proposals for a League of Peace and to decide upon steps to be taken for obtaining the support of public opinion and of Governments.”

1915: “Outsiders Corroborated by Georgians” published today


1915:


1915: The disclaimer by Thomas Hardwick, the United States from Georgia, that he had written a letter to Governor Slaton urging clemency for Leo Frank, was published today along with his explanation “that his reason for making this denial was that he wanted it known that he had not expressed himself” one way or the other “regarding the Frank case.”

1916: Rabbi Joseph Rosenblatt, the cantor at “Ohab Zedek Synagogue sang the funeral hymns’ at Carnegie Hall tonight where “more than 2,500 Jews paid honor to the memory of Sholem Aleichem during an “evening mourning” marking the passing of “the man who perhaps did more than any other to life the burdens and make light the hearts of Jews.”

1916: Funds were not collected today at mass meetings on what had been designated as “Zionist Fund Day” because it would conflict with the upcoming convention of the Federal of American Zionists in Philadelphia.

1917:  In Great Britain, as the conflict between Zionists and anti-Zionist heated-up the Board of Deputes condemned the letter that David Lindo Alexander had sent to The Times of London specifying “grave objections” to the Zionist agenda. The vote of censure forced Alexander resign his Presidency of the Board of Deputies.

1917: In Nevada, Jewish community leaders met and formed a committee to raise funds for the construction of Reno's first Synagogue.

1917: This afternoon in New York, Borough President Marcus M. Marks is scheduled to deliver the principal address “when the cornerstone of the new synagogue of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun” of which he has been a member since he was a “youth” will be formally dedicated.

1918: It was reported today that “ant-Semitic agitation has increased in Poland” as can be seen by the “placards that have been posted all over Lodz and Warsaw signed by the ‘Army of Liberation’ urging Polest to begin anti-Jewish massacres.”

1918: In White Plains, NY, publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Sr and Blanche Wolf gave birth to Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. “one of the founders of Atheneum Publishers.


1918: “Kosher Food At Upton” published today described the plan of the Jewish Welfare Board to erect “hostess house to provide Kosher food for the Orthodox Jews who are training at Camp Upton, the U.S. Army base that is home to the largest contingent of Jewish soldiers in the United States.

1920: Birthdate of Jacob H. Gilbert the graduate of St. John’s College whose career of public service was capped by serving the U.S. House of Representatives from 1960 to 1971.

1920: Birthdate of Dr. Dr. François Jacob the native of Nancy whose combat wounds sustained while fighting in WW II “forced him to change his career paths from surgeon to scientist, a pursuit that led to a  Nobel Prize in 1965 for his role in discovering how genes are regulated.” (As reported by William Yardley)


1921: It was reported today that “Winston Churchill, British Secretary of State for the Colonies” re-affirmed in a speech in the House of Commons “the determination of his Government to make an ‘honest, just, patient and decisive attempt’ to fulfill the responsibility assumed by the British government in connection with the establishment of the Jewish National Home in Palestine.”

1922:Anna Rachel (Berman) Asimov and Judah Asimov gave birth to Marcia Asimov, the younger sister of author Isaac Asimov.

1922: In Pittsburgh, PA, Esther and Hiram Harris Feldman gave birth to Joshua Itzhak Feldman who fame composer and musical director Jerry Fielding who was forced to change his in 1947 so he could get a job working for Jack Parr of which he later wrote, "They told me I was not going on with any name as Jewish as Feldman. I don't think there's any lessening of prejudice today. There's just more politeness about where and when it happens now. I think it's going to be the downfall of Homo sapiens."




1922(21st of Sivan, 5682): Sixty-three year old Flora Goldschmidt, the wife of Emil Schwarzschild who was  the son of Emanuel Schwarzschild and Rahel Fraenkel, passed away today in Frankfurt.

1923: Birthdate of Arnold Seymour “Bud” Relman the native of Queens, NY who pursued a medical career and served as the “longtime editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)


1923: Today, Rabbi David de Sola Pool conducted the funeral services for Albert Lucas, Secretary of the Union Orthodox Jewish Congregation of America, and Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee “in the chapel of the Shearith Israel Congregation at Cypress Hills Cemetery.

1924: In Manhattan, “Hyman and Sadie Nadjari, Sephardic Jews who had immigrated from Greece” gave birth to WW II veteran and NYU trained attorney Maurice Hyman Nadjari ,the husband of Joan Boskey, who was best known for his role in fighting police department corruption in the 1970’s.  (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)


1925:Alexander Theodore Shulgin, who was known as Sasha to friends, was born in Berkeley, California today.

1930: Police Captain F.M. Scott was stabbed in Jaffa during a clash with an Arab crowd following the execution of three Arabs at Acre.

1930: During a recording session” today, “just after completing Chopin's E major Scherzo, pianist” Leopold Godowsky “suffered a severe stroke which left him partially paralyzed. Godowsky's remaining years were overshadowed by the event, leaving him deeply depressed.”

1933(23rd of Sivan, 5693): Parashat Sh’lach

1933: German Jews were shocked by news of the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff in Tel Aviv. During a recent trip to Berlin, Arlosoroff had outlined a plan for settling German Jews in Palestine; a plan that they feared would die with the Zionist leader.

1933: “The annual convention of the Council of Young Israel Organizations” which will be attended by “delegates from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Poland” is scheduled to continue for a second day at “the Hotel Clarendon-Brunswick” in Asbury, NJ.

1934: Birthdate of Yitzchok Meyer Abramson, the native of Chicago who served as a rabbi in St. Louis, MO.

1934: A track and field under the auspicies of the Maccabi organization in New York City led by executive secretary Dave White is scheduled to take place today.

1935: Birthdate of Frederick Delano Newman who became an eccentric gadfly in the world of New York politics.

1936: Himmler was put in charge of the S.S. as Chief of the German Police. This vicious little man was the architect of evil, the person who actually ran the killing machine that was known as the Holocaust. Several of the SS officers on the Eastern Front held Himmler in contempt. It seems that on the one visit he made to watch the Killing Squads at work, he could not stand the sight and vomited. He was also stupid enough to believe at the end of the war that he could negotiate a separate peace with the Western Allies and get them to join the Nazis sans-Hitler in a war against the Soviets.

1936: As Arab violence intensified,The Palestine Post reported that Jacob Gerson, the lorry driver ambushed on the Kastel bends of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, became the 32nd Jew to be killed by Arabs since April 19. Scores of Arab leaders and agitators were interned at Sarafand. The Yishuv launched a Relief and Consolidation Fund to assist all those who suffered through the disturbances. The government announced a new scheme for the opening and improving the Old City of Jaffa.

1936(27th of Sivan, 5696): “Dr Julius Brodnitz, attorney and President of the Central Union of Jews in German passed away” today in Berlin at the age of 68.  Born in Posen, Dr. Brodnitz came to Berlin in 1894 where he pursued a successful legal career and become a leader in Jewish communal affairs.  Although he had not originally been a Zionist, his views changed after the Nazis came to power.  He visited Palestine in April and was no longer opposed to Jewish immigration to Eretz Israel.

1936: Senator Royal Copeland, who spoke out against the Nazi regime as early as June, 1933, passed away today.

1936: Birthdate of Lumberton, NC merchant and Democrat political leader who served in the North Carolina General Assembly and as head the Governor’s Highway Safety Program under Governor Perdue.

1936: “Fifteen prominent business men, bankers, clergymen and lawyers met at the Metropolitan Club” tonight “and accepted the invitation of George Gordon Battle to launch the American League for Religious Liberty, an organization of Catholics, Protestants and Jews” of which Governor Herbert H. Lehman is one of the three co-chairmen.

1937: Borough President Samuel Levy “denounced dictators and bigots of the present day” today at the “sixth commencement exercises of Yeshiva College.

1937: Marx Brothers'"A Day At The Races" opens in New York

1938: Royal S. Copeland who served as Republican Senator from Michigan and then as a Democratic Senator from New York passed away.  In the spring of 1933, Copeland spoke out against the abuse of the Jews by the Nazis on the floor of the U.S. Senate. In 1936, during the Arab Uprising, he was part of delegation of U.S. Senators who went to Palestine to get a first-hand view of what was going on and how the British were administering the mandate. Upon his return, he introduced a resolution on the floor of the Senate condemning the British attempts to unilaterally modify the mandate especially as it pertained to attempts to limit Jewish immigration and purchase of land.

1938(18th of Sivan, 5698): Eighty-three year old Friederike “Rika” Einstein, the youngest sibling of Hermann Einstein, the father of Albert Einstein passed away today.

1939: In Washington, D.C., “Stanley Irving Posner and Lillian (Kahn) Posner-Wallace” gave birth to Smith College graduate Elisabeth Posner Cohen, the President of the Posner-Wallace Foundation and mother of Suzanne and Rachel Cohen.

1939: A “capacity audience” filled Town Hall tonight to “celebrate the 80th anniversary of the birth of Sholem Aleichem when “the Jewish Cultural Society presented a memorial program” that included appearances by Michael Goldstein, David Opatoshu, playwright Peretz Hirshbein and “the Freiheit Choir directed by Max Helfman and Lillian Taiz.”

1939: After being denied access to Cuba and the United States, the German refugee ship St. Louis docks in Antwerp, Belgium. Belgium offers to take 214 passengers, the Netherlands 181, Britain 287, and France 224. Ultimately, the Nazis will murder most of the passengers except for those accepted by Great Britain.

1940: Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes decided to follow his conscience and disobeyed Dicator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar’s strict orders not to issue any visas to “Jews.” His actions gave meaning to his explanation "I would rather stand with God against man, than with man against God."

1940: As the Nazis sweep through the Low Countries and France, Edmond Michelet distributed leaflets calling for a continuation of the war.  This was considered to be the first act of French Resistance during WW II coming one day before De Gaulle’s appeal to the French nation.

1940: In New Haven, CT, Rosalie (née Hirschfelder) and Gösta Åkerlöf gave birth to George Arthur Akerlof who won the 2001 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and who is married to Janet Yellen, head of the Fed.

1940: Today “Marshal Philippe Pétain issued orders to the French Army to cease fighting, signaling the capitulation of his country to the forces of the Third Reich” which would lead in very short to the Jews of France being “rounded up in the notorious ­rafles, sent first to prison camps within France and ultimately to the east” where they were murdered in the concentration camps. (As reported by Sara Paretsky)

1941: Reinhard Heydrich briefs Einsatzgruppen commanders on the implementation of the "Final Solution."

1941: French priests in the Lyon diocese publicly protest the Vichy government's anti-Jewish policies.

1941:The Japanese ocean liner Hikawa Maru whose passenger list included Zerach Warhaftig, a future signatory of Israel’s Declaration of Independence and his parents – Yerucham Warhaftig and Rivka Fainstein – docked at Vancouver, Canada and safety from the Holocaust thanks to the courage of the Japanese Vice-Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara who defied his government by issuing visas to Jewish refugees.

1942: Following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the Gestapo broke into the home of František Moravec, head of the Czech intelligence services and tortured the family until one of the children who had been shown the severed head of his mother broke down and gave them the information they were looking for.

1943: Sixty four of the remaining Jews in the German city of Wuerzburg were deported. 7 were sent to Theresienstadt and 57 were deported to Auschwitz


1943: In Brooklyn, Edna Manilow and Harold Pincus gave birth to Barry Alan Pincus known as singer/songwriter Barry Manilow.

1943(14th of Sivan, 5703): Sixty year old David Druck, the native of Latvia who came to the United States “during the First World War as a war correspondent” and remained as a “writer for the Jewish Morning Journal” and the author of “a number books in Yiddish and English.”


1944: In Budapest, SS General Veesenmayer notified Berlin that from April 29, 1944 until this date 340,000 Hungarian Jews had now been deported to the death camps. Among them was the family of Nobel Prize Winner Elie Wiesel.

1944: For the next seven days, the Jews of Budapest, Hungary, are confined to specially marked "Jewish buildings."

1945: “In the first official and comprehensive report on the post-war situation of Jews in four countries of southern Europe --Italy, Austria, Yugoslavia and Albania – the American Joint Distribution Committee’s chief of operations n that area, Reuben B. Resnik, said today their future on the whole was encouraging with Italy the brightest spot and Austria the darkest.”

1946: Birthdate of Barry Manilow. Born Barry Alan Pincus, in Brooklyn, he was the son of Edna Manilow and Harold Pincus. Apparently somebody thought his mother’s less ethnic name would lead to greater fame. No less an arbiter of pop culture than Rolling Stones named him "Showman of the Generation."

1946: Operaton Markolet, or Night of the Bridges, a Haganah operation meant to immobilize the transportation system by blowing up the bridges linking Palestine to the surrounding Arab states came to a successful close.

1946: Lehi attack the railway operations at Haifa.

1946: In an unusual turn of events Haganah completed attacks on railways and bridges in Eretz Israel.“Haganah united launched the most daring attack of their underground campaign by blowing up ten of the eleven bridges connecting Palestine with surrounding nations.”



1947: Al Langer opened Langer’s Deli in Los Angeles.  The MacArthur Park eatery would stand the test of time.  Tragically, Mr. Langer passed away at the age of 94, a week after his signature deli celebrated its 60th anniversary. 

1948: Despite sporadic outbreaks, the UN truce between Israel and its Arab attackers that went into effect on June 11 continued to hold today.

1949: George P. Alpert announced today the election of Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt to the Board of Trustees of Brandeis University making her the first woman to serve on the board of the school “now completing its first academic year.”

1949: “Eleven Hungarian Jewish leaders, all identified with the Zionist movement” are scheduled to go on trial today “on charges of having promoted illegal mass emigration of Jews from Hungary.”

1950: According to reports published today, peace talks resumed this week between Israel and King Abdullah of Jordan.  The talks centered on creating a corridor that will give Jordan access to the Mediterranean possibly at Gaza which is held by Egypt.  The Egyptians might agree to the deal, according to these same reports, if the Jordanians and Israelis would take responsibility for the quarter of million refugees in Gaza whom the Egyptians are controlling with a military garrison.

1951: Central system of Israel's underground water supply was dedicated in Northern Negev. This was the start of a project dear to the heart of David Ben Gurion. He saw the Negev as vital to the growth of the new Jewish State. He was determined to bring water to this arid region and make the "Desert Bloom."

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that only 40 per cent of the electorate voted in the Zionist Congress elections. In Tel Aviv Mapai scored 45, Herut 20, and Mapam 16 percent of the vote; the rest was divided among small parties. In Jerusalem Mapai scored 54, Herut 17, Hapoel Hamizrahi 16, Mapam 8 and Progressives 4 percent of the vote, the rest being divided among small parties.

1951:Left-wing labor leaders called a one-hour strike in Tel Aviv harbor today to block loading of a cargo of citrus juice concentrates which was a gift from the Republic of Korea, also known as South Korea which was engaged in a bitter war with communist North Korea.


1952: “A home for 75 girls donated by the Goodwin Welfare League of Brooklyn was dedicated this afternoon as part of the Children’s City build around the Ponievez Talmudic College at B’nai Brak, a suburb of Tel Aviv.

1953” Francis Covers the Big Town,” one of a series about a talking mule directed by Arthur Lubin and produced by Leonard Goldstein was released today in the United States.

1953: Supreme Court Justice William O Douglas issued an order staying the executions for convicted spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg which are scheduled for the next day.  TheRosenbergs were part of a plethora of Jews who were involved in both sides of this famous spy case.  However, the anti-Semites who sought to use the Rosenberg case as proof of Jewish perfidy never talked about he Jews who prosecuted the case of the Jewish judge who imposed the death sentence.

1956: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion names Golda Meir to replace Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister.

1957: In Langley Park, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC, during Abraham Posin, the owner of kosher delicatessen on Georgia Avenue, “collapsed during the ribbon cutting” ceremony marking the opening of “a large modern supermarket” that the Washington Post called “the world’s largest retail kosher food enterprise.”

1958: Birthdate of Jonathan David Leibowitz who served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission during the Obama administration.

1960: Prime Minister Ben-Gurion is scheduled to leave France today for the Netherlands and Belgium.

1961(3rd of Tammuz, 5721): Actor Jeff Chandler passes away at the age of 40 due to complications from surgery.  Born Ira Grossel in Brooklyn, New York, handsome matinee idol gained his greatest fame and Oscar nomination playing the role of the Apache Chief Cochise in “Broken Arrow,” a western depicting attempts to establish a truce between the Indians and the white settlers on the Arizona Frontier. 



1962(15th of Sivan, 5722): Seventy-eight year old Brooklyn native Grace Baer Bachrach, the school teacher and wife of attorney Clarence G. Bachrach with whom she had two children who was so active in various civic and cultural organizations including the “Brooklyn division of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” that was honored as “Brooklyn’s First Lady of Philanthropy in 1956 passed away today.

1963: The United States Supreme Court rule 7 to 2 in Sherbert v Werner that a an employee who refused to work on Saturday because it was the Sabbath and was terminated for that did not lose the right to collect unemployment benefits.  As is often the case, the sabbatarian was not Jewish. In this case she was a Seven Day Adventist.

1963: The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schemppagainst allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.  As is so often the case in litigation involving separation of church and state,, the plaintiffs were not Jewish.  In this case they were Unitarians.  The opinions of the Justices clearly state the importance of religion in America, but they also are quite clear that it does not belong in public venues such as schools.

1966: “Cul-de-sac” a “crime-thriller” directed and written by Roman Polanski and co-starring Lionel Stander was released in London today.

1967: Moshe Dayan ordered the responsibility for the Haram, which had been under Israeli military control for a week, to be restored to the Muslims.  He also insisted that all Muslims, whether living in Israel or the West Bank be allowed to pray at the Haram.

1967: Barbra Streisand performed “A Happening in Central Park.”

1968(21st of Sivan, 5728):Sir Andrew Benjamin Cohen KCMG KCVO OBE, who served as Governor of Uganda from 1952 to 1957 passed away. Born in 1909, Sir Andrew was “a descendant of Levi Barent Cohen, the founder of the oldest Ashkenazi family in Britain.”

1969(1st of Tammuz, 5729): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1969(1st of Tammuz, 5729): One American was killed today during a shelling attack on Kalya, a settlement “on the northern shore of the Dead Sea.”

1969: “Arthur Rubinstein – The Love of Life” (FL'Amour de la vie – Artur Rubinstein)  a 1969 documentary about pianist, Arthur Rubinstein which won the 1969 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature was released to movie theatres today.

1970(13th of Sivan, 5730): Seventy-eight year old Herbert Brutus Ehrmann, the Louisville, KY born son of “Hilmar ‘Hillel’ Ehrmann and Erna Ehrmann” and Harvard trained attorney best known for his role in the defense of Sacco and Vanzettia who raised two sons Rabbi H. Bruce Ehrmann  and Dr. Robert L. Ehrmann with “his wife, the former Sara Rosenfeld” passed away today.



1970: Birthdate of actor Michael Showalter.

1970: “The Anderson Tapes,” a sophisticated crime film directed by Sidney Lumet co-starring Dyan Cannon (Samille Diane Friesen), Martin Balsam and Alan King was released today in the United States.

1971(24th of Sivan, 5731): Sixty-seven year old Viennese born American composer Walter Jurmann passed away today.


1972: In Washington, DC, five men were arrested at the Watergate complex marking the start of the Watergate Scandal which would end the Presidency of Richard M. Nixon.  None of the principles in the burglary or the cover-up were Jewish.  According to some Henry Kissinger played a role in the creation of the Plumbers when he complained about the leaks to the press that were hampering his diplomatic negotiations.  In 1973, during the Yom Kippur, there were those who wondered if the politically wounded Nixon would come to the aide of the Israelis.  He did and the decision had no impact on what was going on in Washington.

1973: On Sunday at the Hillel House in Iowa City Dr. Ron Reider married Sue Reider.

1973: A “car parked near the El Al office in Rome exploded” injuring 2 Arabs who were arrested and then freed without ever standing trial.

1973: U.S. premiere of “Blume in Love,” directed, produced and written by Paul Mazursky starring George Segal and Shelly Winters.

1974: “Songwriter Alexander Galich was granted an exit visa” that would only be valid until June 25th.

1974: Four days after she had passed away, ninety-two year old Gertrude Kaplan, the “daughter of Abraham and Anna (Hinde) Shemerinsky” and the wife of Jacob Kaplan with whom she had had five children was buried today in Forest Park, Illinois.

1975: Soviet authorities interrogated Ida Nudel about documents “relating to Prisoners of Zion.”

1975: Five days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to held this afternoon for “seventy four year old Arthur Kober, the husband of Lillian Hellman who gained his own measure of fame as a screenwriter and author whose works appeared in The New Yorker.


1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US Ambassador to Lebanon Francis Meloy, his Economic Counselor Robert Waving and their Lebanese driver were kidnapped and later found murdered in a Muslim area of Beirut.

1976:  “Silent Movie,” “a satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks” with a cast that included Marty Feldman, Sid Caesar, James Caan, Marcel Marceau and Paul Newman was released in the United States today.

1976: “Harry and Walter Go to New York,” a comedy directed by Mark Rydell, starring James Caan, Elliot Gould and Lesley Ann Warren with a script co-authored by Robert Kaufman and music by David Shire was released in the United States today.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that King Hussein of Jordan, on the eve of his visit to the Soviet Union, said that he was ready to purchase Russian missiles even if it angered the U.S.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the citizens of Tel Aviv were promised a complete restoration of their beach-front promenade to its former glory.

1977: U.S. premier of “The Deep” the film version of the book with same name produced by Peter Gruber, the son of a Somerville, MA “junkman.”

1980(3rd of Tammuz, 5740): Sixty-five year old George Pinkowitz, the Bayonne, NJ born son of Benjamin and Mollie Finkelstein 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 Beth Israel Memorial Park in Woodbridge, NJ.

1981(15th of Sivan, 5741): Sixty-five year old Yitzhak Zuckerman, the leader of the ZOB  who survived the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, founded two kibbutzim with his wife Ziva and other survivors and testified at the trial of Adolf Eichmann passed away. (Please read the items below.  There is no way for me to do justice to this man)




1982: “Nazeyh Mayer, a leading figure in the PLO's Rome office, was shot dead outside his home”

1982: “Kamal Husain, deputy director of the PLO office in Rome, was killed by a shrapnel bomb placed under the back seat of his car as he drove home, less than seven hours after he had visited the home of Nazeyh Mayer.”

1984: In “God the Implausible Kinsman,” Arthur A. Cohen reviewed Responses to Catastrophe in Modern Jewish Culture by David G. Roskies


1987: In Tel Aviv, a program created by Sara Levi-Tanay is scheduled to open at the Inbal Yemenite Dance Theatre where she is the choreographer.

1988: U.S. premiere of “The Great Outdoors” a comedy directed by Howard Deutch with music by Thomas Newman the son of composer Alfred Newman.

1994: U.S. premiere of “Getting even with Dad” a comedy directed by Howard Deutch

1996(30th of Sivan, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1996(30th of Sivan, 5756): Thomas Samuel Kuhn, who wrote and taught about the history and philosophy science, passed away.  A Guggenheim Fellow, Kuhn won the George Stanton Medal for his work in the history of science.

2000: “Secretary General Kofi Annan today certified Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon, opening the way to a more robust United Nations peacekeeping presence along Lebanon's often troubled border with Israel.” (As reported by Christopher Wren)

2001:”The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, today urged Israelis and Palestinians to take advantage of a crucial moment to move toward resuming peace talks in the violence-plagued region.” (As reported by Douglas Frantz)

2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Does American Need A Foreign Policy? by Henry Kissinger and Borrowed Tides by Paul Levinson.

2002: “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today rejected the idea of a provisional Palestinian state, which President Bush is said to be considering as part of a plan he is expected to announce this week in hopes of reviving peace talks.” (As reported by John Kifner)

2003(17th of Sivan, 5763): Noam Leibowitz, 7, of Yemin Orde was killed and three members of her family wounded in a shooting attack near the Kibbutz Eyal junction on the Trans-Israel Highway. The terrorist fired from the outskirts of the West Bank city of Kalkilya. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command claimed responsibility for the attack.

2004: “Dissent Greets Isaac Bashevis Singer Centennial” published today described the one-woman battle of Inna Grade, the widow of Yiddish Chaim Grade to set the record straight when it comes to Isaac Bashevis Singer, “the only Yiddish author to win a Nobel Prize in Literature.” (As reported by Alana Newhouse)




2005: Professor Esther “E.M.”Broner’s musical Higginson: An American Life,” was performed for the first time by the Michigan Opera Theatre

2005: “Wordplay,” an exhibition assembled by curator Tamar Cohen opened at the Julie Saul Gallery today.

2005:  Jean Perron, coach of the Israeli Men’s Hockey Team, and other Israeli hockey officials ran a one day tryout camp in Mississauga, Ontario for the senior and junior players.  Almost forty North American players, mostly from Canada, who had some kind of tie to Israel, took part in the tryouts.

2005: Ken Feinberg, the man who served asSpecial Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and …the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation,”  “was honored by his hometown of Brockton by having a road named after him: Attorney Ken Feinberg Way.”

2006:  The Israeli national soccer team may not have made it to the World Cup Finals, but the Israeli flag did. John Pantsil, a Ghana defender who plays professionally for Hapoel Tel Aviv, pulled a blue-and-white flag out from his sock following both of his team's goals against the Czech Republic as the "Black Stars" pulled off the tournament's most significant upset.

2006 Daniel Barenboim left his position of music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra today.

2007: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is scheduled to meet United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York today

2007(1st of Tammuz, 5767): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2007: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers The Gravedigger’s Daughter by Joyce Carol Oates whose main character is Rebecca Schwartz the daughter of Jacob and Anna Schwartz, German-Jewish refugees from Hitler’s Germany and Volume One of A Young People’s History of the United Sates: Columbus to the Spanish-American Warby Howard Zinn.

2007: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 15 Stars: Eisenhower, MacArthur, Marshall by Stanley Weintraub, a book that examines three of the generals who played key roles in the winning of World War II.

2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that “aid embargo on the Palestinian Authority is set to be lifted.”

2008: Ryan Braun drove in his 152nd career RBI, in his 182nd game

2008: Ifar “Eef” Barzelay”s “second solo album, Lose Big, was released today.”

2008: The Jerusalem Post reported that “more US Jews today are "uncoupled" in two senses of the term -unmarried and unconnected to organized Jewry - according to the latest study by researchers Steven Cohen and Ari Kelman, who call this data "disturbing," though not for the reasons one might expect. In 1990, 33 percent of non-Orthodox Jews aged 25-39 were single. By 2000-01, the number had grown to 50%. In fact "never in Jewish demographic history have we seen so many young adults unmarried, or 'uncoupled,'" the study says. That in itself is not surprising, because Americans as a whole are getting married much later. The good news is that single Jews are as interested as ever in connecting Jewishly. The bad news is that they shy away from available Jewish institutions in part because synagogues, Jewish community centers and federations "remain geared to the conventional family unit," the study claims. As many as 67 percent of non-Orthodox singles say they are "proud to be a Jew," slightly surpassing the 66% of in-married (Jews married to Jews) who agree. Given the high level of Jewish interest and low rate of communal and ritual involvement among young adult, single Jews, this uncoupled population represents the "greatest opportunity and the greatest risk" of Judaism in the United States, the study claims. "Single Jews are akin to 'swing voters'- they can go either way," the two sociologists suggest. "How they 'vote,' how they make Jewish (or non-Jewish) choices, will determine the future of Jews, Judaism and Jewishness in the United States." Important to note is that single Jews practice religion in lower numbers than in-married Jewish couples: Just 19% of singles belong to synagogues as opposed to 51% of the in-married, and only one-third of singles are "somewhat attached" to synagogues. A total of 20% of singles visit Jewish community centers, as opposed to 44% of in-married; 15% of singles contribute to UJA/Federation campaigns compared to 32% of in-married; and 8% of singles volunteer with a Jewish organization compared to 28% of in-married. On the surface, the unmarried appear "fairly distant" from Jewish life, the study suggests. But other markers point to single Jews still being connected. Of single Jews aged 25-39, 42% claim that half or more of their friends are Jewish, and of those making that claim, 51% said they talk to their friends about "Jewish matters." They read Jewish-oriented books in higher numbers than the in-married, are more eager to learn more Jewishly, and more regularly read Jewish blogs. When it comes to Israel, 79% agreed that "Caring about Israel is a very important part of my being a Jew," compared to 83% of the in-married. And 67% of singles said they feel "proud" of Israel, compared to 62% of in-married. The challenge facing Jewish leaders today was to find ways to foster and build opportunities for engagement that speak to this population of Jews in America, the study urges. Given the new demographic reality, Jewish organizations such as synagogues and JCCs that cater primarily to families would not be able to draw younger Jews, the study warns. Instead, Cohen and Kelman urge leaders to focus on creating and supporting organizations created by and for this younger demographic.



2008: The New York Times reported that Michael R. Bloomberg, NYC’s Jewish mayor, remains as popular as ever despite “an overall sense the city headed down the wrong path according to the newspaper’s latest polling data.



2009: At the DCJCC, Nextbook DC presents an evening with Lucette Lagnado author of “The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World.”Leon Lagnado was a successful Jewish Egyptian businessman, making deals and trades around Cairo dressed in his signature white sharkskin suit. After the rise of the Nasser dictatorship, the Lagnado family lost everything and was forced to trade their life of luxury in Cairo for one of hardship, entering any country that would have them. A vivid, heartbreaking and powerful inversion of the American dream, her unforgettable memoir is a sweeping story of family, faith, tradition, tragedy and triumph set against the stunning backdrops of Cairo, Paris and New York. Lucette Lagnado is an award-winning investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal and received the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

2009:The Montreal International Yiddish Theater Festival opens at the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.

2009: The Museum of History of Polish Jews launched a bilingual Polish-English website called the Museum of the History of Polish Jews "Virtual Shtetl", listing 1,240 towns with maps, statistics and picture galleries.[5] The new portal intends to collect and provide essential information about Jewish life in Poland prior to Second World War and the Holocaust in Poland.

2010:The Biennial Scholars' Conference on American Jewish History is scheduled to come to an end.

2010: In Cedar Rapids, IA, Temple Judah is scheduled to hold its Annual Congregational Meeting.

2010: The Museum of History of Polish Jews launched a bilingual Polish-English website called the Museum of the History of Polish Jews "Virtual Shtetl", listing 1,240 towns with maps, statistics and picture galleries.

2010:After a day which brought weeks of tensions between Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community and the state to a climax, 35 fathers of students at the Emmanuel Beit Ya’acov girls school began two-week jail terms for contempt of court over discriminatory practices at the school, and their hassidic community hailed them as heroes for “choosing Torah” over the secular court system. Over 100,000 haredim in Jerusalem and Bnei Brak had gathered under the glaring sun earlier today in a powerful show of support for the Emmanuel parents, and to voice their protest over what they perceived as the High Court’s intervention in their educational values and show of disrespect for their rabbis.

2011: In New York, Sotheby’s is scheduled to auction Marc Chagall’s sketchbook.


2011: An exhibition entitled “In the Footsteps of My Grandparents, A Photographic View of Israel” by Talya Arbisser is scheduled to come to a close at the Deutser Art Gallery

2011:Defense Minister Ehud Barak thinks there is a 50-50 chance that Israel and the Palestinians will return to the negotiating table before September but that Israel cannot stop settlement construction, he told France 24 in an interview today. "I hope that it's at least 50-50, probably more than 50-50," the defense minister answered when asked what chances are that peace talks will resume between Israel and the Palestinian Authority before Palestinians plan to ask the UN for recognition of statehood in September.

2011(15thof Sivan, 5771): Ninety-six year old Austrian born Holocaust escapee Katherine Bachrach who along with her husband, fellow Holocaust survivor Harry Bachrrach, founded a textile firm, Harry Bachrach, Inc. passed away today


2011:A Holocaust exhibit has disappeared from a subway station in Romania for the second time in a week, its creators said today. Austrian journalist Emil Rennert and Israeli photographer Shani Bar-On said 12 out of 24 panels depicting Romania’s Jewish heritage and the Holocaust were missing from the Piata Unirii Station in Bucharest. The incident came several days after all 24 panels of the original exhibit were taken down from the station on Sunday, less than 24 hours after they were put up. The Romanian embassy in Israel said in response to the first incident that cleaners had accidently removed the exhibit and that it was not an act of anti-Semitism. Meanwhile, Bar-On and Rennert hung a reprint of their exhibition at Priata Unirii on Wednesday. By today, half of the new panels were missing, Bar On and Rennert said. The spokeswoman of the Romanian embassy in Israel said she would investigate the incident. The Israeli embassy was closed today because of the Jewish Sabbath.

2012: “I Shot My Love” is scheduled to shown at the London Israeli Film & Television Festival.

2012: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Guy Delisle's Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City

2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including End This Depression Now! by Paul Krugman

2012(27thof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-two year old “Anthony Schulte, a publishing executive who was an early proponent of audiobooks” passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2012: “Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World” an exhibition that explores and celebrates the achievements of Jewish men and women who were part of the American war effort on and off of the battlefield is scheduled to have its final showing at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center


2012: The IDF is concerned that rocket fire will increase from the Sinai Peninsula and into Israel over the coming days as Egyptian presidential elections come to a close.A senior defense official said today that Israel had not yet confirmed the identity of the terror cell which launched two rockets into southern Israel on Friday night - one near Uvda and the other near Mitzpe Ramon


2012: The government approved the establishment of a ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this morning to deal with issues relating to settlement construction. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who gives the final say on all matters relating to settlement construction, voted against the decision, despite the fact that the wording of the decision clearly stated that his authority would not be affected. Vice Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz also voted against the decision, along with several other ministers.


2013: Dr. Nathan Shields is scheduled to begin teaching “Schoenberg: Music, God, and Catastrophe in Fin-de-siècle Vienna” which will examine the remarkable cultural ferment of fin-de-siècle Vienna through the lens of one of its principal protagonists, the composer Arnold Schoenberg. 

2013: Today, Jessica “Meir was named as a candidate for astronaut training by NASA, becoming one of the eight members of NASA Astronaut Group 21”

2013: The Ir Yamim Mall in Netanya is scheduled to host a large employment fair dedicated to summer jobs for teenagers looking to work during their upcoming 10 weeks long summer vacation from school.

2013: Former President Bill Clinton is being paid $500,000 to address a dinner at the Peres Academic Center in Rehovot which will be attended by the President of Israel and several top governmental officials.

2013: “The Quebec government's anti-corruption unit, known as the Unité permanente anticorruption or simply UPAC, announced that” Saulie Zajdel who served as the director of the Jewish Rehabilitation Hospital had been arrested along with the city's interim mayor, Michael Applebaum. Zajdel himself was charged with five counts of fraud, corruption, breach of trust and payment of secret commissions, related to construction permits issued between 2006 and 2011 when he was a city councilor



2013: Barbra Streisand is scheduled to receive an honorary doctorate from The Hebrew University in Jerusalem


2013: A 16-year-old girl, Coral Vedder, who is suffering from a rare form of cancer, sang Barbara Streisand’s song “People” to the Jewish legend when the award winning singer met with a group of children today at the official Jerusalem residence of President Shimon Peres. (As reported by Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu)


2013: U.S. entertainer Barbra Streisand today took a swipe at Orthodox Jews in Israel who compel women to sit in the back of buses and assault them for following religious rituals traditionally reserved for men while speaking at Hebrew University.


2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Dear Mendl, Dear Reyzl: Yiddish Letter Manuals from Russia and America”

2014: Today, three retired Jewish egg farmers shared their experiences at the Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County.




2014: “Wonders” and “The Lab” are scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan as part of the Israel Film Center Festival.

2014: The Pixies, a rock band that had canceled plans to play in Israel 4 years ago in protest over the country’s policies is scheduled to perform at the Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa.

2014: In Cedar Rapids, a memorial service is held for Kevin Skinner of blessed memory at Temple Judah

2014: Balad MK Hannin Zoabi said today that the Palestinian kidnappers of three Israelis were “not terrorists” but “they are people who do not see any way of changing their situation and they have to resort to these measures until Israel sobers up a bit, until the citizens of Israel and the public sober up and relate to the suffering of others.” (As reported by Spence Ho)

2014: “New York’s Metropolitan Opera canceled its live transmissions of a controversial opera featuring the murder of a Jewish character by a Palestinian hijacker today, amid fears the screening would stir up global anti-Semitic sentiment.”

2014(19thof Sivan, 5774): Ninety-three year old Israeli diplomat Asher Ben-Natan who played a key role in the capture of Adolf Eichmann passed away today.


2014(19thof Sivan, 5774): Ninety-year old sociologist, psychotherapist and author Lillian B. Rubin passed away today in San Francisco. (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2014(19thof Sivan, 5774): Eighty-six year old NFL defenseman Lazarus "Larry, Rock" Zeidel who played on the Stanley Cup winning Detroit Red Wings in 1952 and finished his career with the Philadelphia Flyers passed away today.


2014: Michael Rosenbaum “was cast as the lead in the TV Land original sitcom Impastor.”

2014: “Police arrested three men today for threatening their relative, an Arab Israeli teen who, in a strikingly pro-Israel video posted online, wraps himself in an Israeli flag and expresses solidarity with three kidnapped Israeli youths. (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/threats-against-israeli-arab-teen-who-slammed-kidnapping/

2015: The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to present a lecture by Dr. Andrew J. Falk entitled “Shadow Diplomats: American Jewish Foreign Policy in the Era of World Wars” in which he will talk about “the work of global Jewish organizations in the mid-20th acentury.”

2015: “Kulturfest” is scheduled to host a walking tour that will a view of the world of Russian Jews in New York over the past century.

2015: In Philadelphia, the National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a screening the 1996 documentary “Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light.”

2015: The Chelsea Music Festival is scheduled to return to Leo Baeck Institute with a program of chamber music focused on Finland (to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius) and Hungary

2016: After premiering at the El Capitan Theatre nine days ago, “Finding Dory” an animated film featuring the voices of Albert Brooks and Eugene Levy was released today in the United States.

2016: Today, “a terrorist was found with explosives in his bag at the light rail station on Yafo and King George Street in central Jerusalem.”

2016: Balkan Beat Box, which was “founded by Israeli-born ex-pats Ori Kaplan and Tamir Muskat” is scheduled appear a Irving Plaza in NYC.

2016: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a “Roast and Toast” for interim Rabbi Barry Diamond.

2016: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host the next its “Excellence of the Future Generation Series featuring Niya Guretskaya, Lior Lifshitz, Eden Agranat, Dani Dvorkin, Lihi Javits, Ido Zeev and Nabeel Haick

2016: “P.S. Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown at the IFC Center.


2017(23rd of Sivan, 5777): Parashat Shela Lecha;

2017(23rd of Sivan, 5777): Ninety-nine year old Elias Burstein, the pioneer in the field of semi-conductors who never earned a Ph.D. passed away today. (As reported by Dylan Loeb McClain)


2017(23rd of Sivan, 5777): The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to celebrate “the last Shabbat of the year.)

2017: “An army ambulance called to the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar was stoned by area residents tonight, in an incident the military said crossed a “red line.” (As reported by Jacob Magid)

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a day of “Interactive Survivor Stories.”

2017:The Female Brain” co-starring Beanie Feldstein premiered today at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Reporter: A Memoir by Seymour M. Hersh, You All Grow Up and Leave Me: A Memoir of Teenage Obsession by Piper Weiss and the recently released paperback edition of The Awkward Age by Francesca Segal.

2018(14th of Tammuz, 5778): Eighty-three year old Robert L. “Bob” Sill, a founding member of the Cleveland Chapter of American ORT who went on to serve as national president of American ORT and chairman of the board of World ORT, is remembered for his passion to educate young people around the world and as a mentor to many in the Cleveland community” passed away today.


2018: “Two Gaza-launched balloons carrying incendiary devices become entangled in branches in backyards of home in Beit HaGadi Moshav, while another three land in a tree in suburbs surrounding Sderot.” (As reported by Matan Tzuri, Yoav Zitun and Liad Osmo)

2018: Today “Shuva Malka, an 18-year-old high school student who was wounded in a terror stabbing attack in Afula last week, has expressed her gratitude to Israeli security forces and medical teams who helped save her life, and has called on the nation to pray for her.” (As reported by Ahiya Raved)

2018: In Atlanta, The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a free day for the exhibition “Chasing Dreams: Baseball and Becoming American” in honor of Father’s Day.

2018: The Center for Jewish History's Ackman and Ziff Family Genealogy Institute are scheduled to host a walking tour that will explore “East Village Lost Synagogues.”

2019: The American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience in partnership with Association Mimouna is scheduled to host the opening night event of “Uncommon Commonalties,” a “three-day scholarly and cultural conference dedicated to exploring the uncommon commonalities shared by Moroccan Jews and Muslims.”

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “93Queen” a film which tells“the story of Rachel "Ruchie" Freier, full-time lawyer running to be a Civil Court Judge and Hasidic mother of six, who is fighting for the creation of NYC's first ever all-female volunteer ambulance corps.”

2019: In Atlanta, GA, The Breman Museum is scheduled to host “Peek Behind the Curtain” with a theme of “Wild About Harry: Magic Inspired by Magical Harrys” as in Harry Houdini.

2019:It was reported today that Foreign Minister Israel Katz has said that “Israelis will attend a U.S.-led conference in Bahrain next week on proposals for the Palestinian economy as part of a coming peace plan.”

2020: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “The Music of North Africa and the Musical Life in Devotional Texts” by ASF Broom & Allen Fellow, ethnomusicologist and multi-instrumentalist Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas

2020: As part of the Songs of Our, Songs of Our Neighbors program, the National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a Livestream Conversation and Concert featuring Joe Weisenberg.

2020: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Identity in the Throes of Crisis” with Irna Nevzlin, the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot, Ethan Bronner, senior editor at Bloomberg News and Ambassador Dani Dayan, the Consul General of Israel.

2020: In place of its usual “formal event,” the Aleph Society is scheduled to “host and Ungala” were supporters of the society are urged to open a book and raise a glass in “L’chaim to Rabbi Steinsaltz.”










This Day, June 18, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 18

1155: In Rome, the coronation of Frederick Barbarossa makes him the Holy Roman Emperor. Compared to other medieval monarchs, Frederick’s treatment of his Jewish subjects was comparatively benign. Frederick viewed the Jews as “his subjects” which meant he offered them special protection but at that same time they were a financial resource for his imperial use.  The former did not sit well with Catholic leaders and the latter did not sit well with some nobles who wanted to tax the Jews for their own benefit.  As can be seen by edict he issued concerning the Jews of Ratushon Frederick was willing to provide protection for his Jews as long as they filled his treasury.

1291: King Alfonso III of Aragon passed away.  Alfonso was supposed to marry Princess Eleanor of England but he died before the marriage could take place. Eleanor was the daughter of Edward I, the King of England who had expelled the Jews from his realm.  One can only wonder if the marriage had been consummated, would the son-in-law have followed the example of the father-in-law and expelled the Jews from his domain which would have meant Jews would have been expelled two centuries earlier than it actually happened.

1321 21 Sivan): In response to threats of expulsion from Rome instigated by Sangisa a sister of Pope John XXII, the Jews instituted a day of fasting a prayer. At a more practical level the Jews of Rome sent a messenger to Avignon to the papal court of King Robert of Naples, “the patron of the Jews” who interceded on their behalf.  The twenty thousand ducats given to the King may have helped to sway his sympathy as well.

1389: Based on the “privlige” issued today by the Grand Duke Vitold of Lithuania at Lutsk, the Jews” Grodno occupied at that time a considerable area in the city of Grodno, that they owned land and houses and had a synagogue and a cemetery.

1492: A Sicilian version the Edict of Expulsion issued by the Spanish monarchs was published today in Palermo.

1541(13thof Sivan, 5301): Jacob Pollak, the Rabbi who popularized the use of “pilpul” in Polish Talmudic academies passed away today in Lublin.  Pollak had begun his career in Prague but was forced to leave there when over a dispute about the laws of marriage.  After a thirty year career in Cracow, he moved to Palestine where he lived for ten years before returning to Poland.

1584: “Orientalist and astronomy student” Jakob Christrman, a German Jew who converted to Christianity was named Professor of Hebrew at Heidelberg University today.

1643(1stof Tammuz, 5403?): Aaron Abba ben Johanan ha-Levi, the “president of the rabbinical college in Lemberg” who was a contemporary of  Abraham Rapoport, Joel Särkes, and Meir Lublin passed away today.

1750: Birthdate of Johann Jahn a German orientalist who was interested in Biblical archeology and who got into trouble with the Catholic Church “by asserting Job and Jonah” were really “didactic poems.”

1757: During the Seven Years’ War, the Austrians defeated the Prussians at Kolin, the Bohemian town where Abraham Samuel Bacharach the husband of Eva, the granddaughter of Judah Loew, had served as Rabbi in the 17thcentury.

1768: The Haidamak Massacres (Ukraine) reached Uman. The peasant serfs and Cossacks rioted much in the same vein as Chemielnicki one hundred and twenty years earlier. At Uman the Poles and Jews defended the city together under the Polish commander Ivan Gonta. The next day, convinced by Zheleznyak the Polish revolutionary, that only the Jews would be attacked, Gonta allowed the fortified city to be entered without a fight. (This would not be the last time that the Poles sold out the Jews in an attempt to save their own skins. And it was not the last time that those who murdered the Jews would in turn slaughter them.) Approximately 8000 Jews were killed, many of them trying to defend themselves near the synagogue. As soon as the Jews were all massacred the Haidamaks (the paramilitary bands) began to kill the Poles. Although the Haidamaks began in the 1730's the main rioting was during the years 1734, 1750 and 1768 .It is estimated that during these years 20,000 Jews were killed. The Haidamaks became part of the Ukrainian national movement and are celebrated in folklore and literature.

1772: During the conflict between various Moslem leaders over who would rule Palestine, one of whom was advised by Haim Farhi whose father as a Jewish banker in Damascus, the Russian fleet began and ended a one day bombardment of Beirut

1778: During the American Revolutionary War, today’s departure of British troops from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania must have been met with mixed emotions by the Jewish community.  A minority, as represented by David Franks and his daughter Rebecca were Tories would miss their British patrons. The majority of the city’s Jews, including Colonel David Salisbury Franks, the nephew of David Franks, supported the Revolutionary cause and took heart at the departure of their British occupiers.

1798: As of today, both Jacob Lyon and Mordecai Marks had arrived in the United States from Pozen.

1790: In London, Daniel Cohen D'Azevedo, the son of of Haham Moses Cohen d'Azevedo and Sara de Haham Moses Cohen D'Azevedo and his wife Ester Rodriques Cohen D'Azevedo gave birth to Abraham Daniel Cohen De Azevedo

1800: In Berlin, Amalie Beer and Jacob Herz Beer gave birth to Michael Beer.

1800: Isaac Moses married Esther Isaacks, the Wilton, Ct. born daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Moses Isaacks.

1805: Today, Hyman Hurwitz and Hesther Levy buried their child today.

1808: Abraham Quixano Henriques and Leah Rachel De Leon gave birth to Rebecca Henriques who did not live to celebrate her second birthday.

1809: John Salmon and Catherine Polack were married today at the Western Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1812: In Dusseldorf, textile merchant Samson Heine and Peira “Betty” nee van Geldern, the daughter of a physician gave birth to Gustav Heine von Geldern, the brother of Heinrich Heine and the father of “Maximillian Heine author of the libretto to the operetta ‘Mirolan.’”

1812: The War of 1812 between the United States and Great Britain formally began today when President James Madison signed the Declaration of War passed by Congress into law today. This conflict is referred the Second War For American Independence, since the victory in the War of 1812 meant that the United States would survive. If England had prevailed, the country that has provided so much opportunity for its Jewish population would have ceased to exist.  Despite their small number, Jews were active participants in the defense of the young Republic.  The most colorful was a privateer named John Ordronaux.  The French born Ordronaux captured several British prize ships during the war.  His most famous action came when his ship, the Prince de Neufchatel captured the British frigate Endymion.  In a scene that would do credit to a Russell Crowe naval epic, Ordronaux ordered his men to board the British fighting ship.  When his men appeared to be losing heart and prepared to retreat, Ordronaux grab a lighted match and threatened to blow up the magazine if his men did not return to the fight.  They took him at his word and turned the tide against the better armed and trained British seaman.  Uriah P. Levy, who as Commodore Levy would end the use of the lash for punishing sailors and would save Monticello for posterity, saw his first fighting as a member of the U.S. Navy during this war.  Last, but not least, Judah Turo fought in the Battle of New Orleans where he was wounded.  Turo would live for the next forty years with Rezon Davis Shephered.  He was the one who took the wounded Turo from the battlefield and saw to it that his wounds were treated.  Turo became a successful businessman whose philanthropy included everything from the Bunker Hill Monument to several New Orleans Jewish organizations and institutions.

1813: In Frankfurt am Main Malchen Schloos and David Philip (Feist) Schloss gave birth to Sigismund Schloss

1814: In Aarhus, Thamar (Terese) Ree and Hartvig Philip Ree gave birth to Frederikke Levinsen.

1815: Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo. According to one account, fifty-two French Jews lost their lives in the battle. “The duke of Wellington is reported to have said, in 1833, that not less than fifteen Jewish officers had served under him at Waterloo. Among these was Cornet Albert Goldsmid (1794-1861), who afterward rose to the rank of major-general in the British service.” This defeat marked a return of the reactionaries to power in Europe. The laws of emancipation that had benefited the Jews of Europe were rolled back. It would take many decades for the Jews of Europe to win them back. On the other hand, Nathan Rothschild, head of the London branch if the famous family bank was, like all Englishman, pleased with the victory of his country.  According to some sources, he had actually provided the funds for the army of the Iron Duke.  There is an anti-Semitic legend that Nathan manipulated the Stock Exchange and by deception, made a fortune as a result of the victory.  At the Vienna Congress which was the peace conference intended to create a new order in Europe in the wake of two decades of almost non-stop war, the Jews sent a Christian attorney, Carl Buchortz, to act on their behalf. An agreement was reached whereby "Jews were given rights in proportion to accepting the duties of citizenship." This was the first time that Jewish rights became a European political issue.

1815: Among those serving with the Prussian troops who played a critical role in the Battle of Waterloo was George Hartog Gerson who was the Assistant Surgeon for the 5th Line Battalion of the King’s German Legion and “Lehmann Cohn, a sergeant of the Second Cuirassiers, who had earned the Iron Cross at Leipsic.”


1823: In Berolzheim, Germany, gave Malka and Lob Moses Gutmann gave birth to Sussman Low Gutmann

1828: Israel Russell and Elizabeth Alexander were married today at the Western Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1831: Birthdate of Geheimer Baurat Edwin Oppler the German architect who designed the synagogues in Hannover and Mamel and whose legacy would be carried on by great-grandson Arnold Oppler, AIA.

1833: In Antwerp, s Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim and Henriette Goldschmidt a sister of Solomon H. Goldschmidt, gave birth to  Clara Bischoffscheim the wife Maurice Baron De Hirsch

1834: In Darmstadt, thirty-three year old Lob Oppenheimer Bina Kahn who became Bina Oppenheimer.

1836: Birthdate of Bavarian born French jurist and author Frederick Reitlinger, who studied Talmud with Abraham Geiger and was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor.

1843: With Isaac Lesser serving as the Rabbi, Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia accepts the weekly sermon in English as part of its practices.

1852(1stof Tammuz, 5612): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1854: Henry Meyers and Julia Davis were married today at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1854: In New York, Isaac Meyer and Mathilda Langenbach gave birth to Columbia University graduate Alfred Meyer, an “attending physician at Mt. Sinai Hospital, a “consulting physician at the Bedford Sanitarium for Consumptives of the Montefiore Home and a director of the United Hebrew Charities who was the husband of Annie Florence Nathan.

1860: Thanks to the efforts of the pro-Secessionist forces, the Democratic Convention which Henry Myer Phillips attended as a delegate, reconvened in Baltimore today.

1863: During the American Civil War, ten companies of the 11th regiment of the New York State Militia under the command of Colonel Joachim Maidhof left the state and began marching to Harrisburg, PA which was a possible target for the invading Rebel Army.

1864: Isaac Goodman, an enlisted man who had been serving with Company of the 91stRegiment since 1861 was wounded while fighting the Rebels at Petersburg, VA.

1866: Lina and Louis Levinsohn gave birth to Gertrude Levinsohn who married Max Berliner and became Gertrude Berliner the name under which she was murdered as a 76 year old in Treblinka.

1868: Morris Davidson and Sarah Russell were married today in the United Kingdom.

1873: Illinois native Simon Cook who was appointed to the Naval Academy from Missouri began serving as a Midshipman.

1875: In Allegheny, PA, Rabbi Lippman Mayer and Elise Hecht gave birth to Dr. Edward Everett Mayer, an “Associate Professor of Mental and Nervous Diseases at his alma mater Western University of Pennsylvania who was affiliated with the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver and was the husband of Rose Mae Lamm.

1875: Following the death of Michael Henry, Dr. A. Benish, the author of Travels of Rabbi Petachia of Ratison, resumed serving as editor The Jewish Chronicle and Hebrew Observer.

1876: Birthdate of Syracuse native and graduate of Columbia Medical School Maurice Packard, the author of Shylock Not A Jew.


1877: In Jerusalem, Benjamin Yehuda and Rebecca Yehuda, gave birth to orientalist and linguist Abraham Shalom Ezekiel Yahuda, a student of his brother Isaac Ezekial Yahuda who went from being a delegate to the First Zionist Congress to writing the anti-Zionist Dr. Weismann’s Errors on Trial.

1877: The friends of Joseph Seligman held an informal meeting to discuss recent events at Saratoga Springs, NY. The meeting was chaired by Edward Lauterbach, Mr. Seligman’s lawyer. Lauterbach provided a summary of the episode in which Mr. Seligman was informed that the Grand Union Hotel would no longer rent rooms to Jewish guest.  The decision had been made by the hotel owner, Judge Henry Hilton.  Lauterbach then read a letter that Seligman had written, but not sent, to Judge Hilton.  In the letter, Seligman described the insult that had been done to the Jewish people and wondered if Hilton would be sending a circular to Jews telling them not to shop at his Broadway stores. Those in attendance applauded when Lauterbach finished reading the letter.  Lauterbach said that the Jews of New York and the United States “could not afford to let the matter rest.”  At a time when laws prohibiting Jewish involvement in society were being removed in many other countries it would be wrong to let this happen here.  While there had been some anti-Jewish feeling expressed in the United States, it had been limited “to ignorant people –to the small vipers…but now the big snakes have attacked and it is time that” Jews “awaken and defend” themselves.  The attendees debated on how best to respond.  It was agreed that the letter should be released to the newspapers, if Seligman agreed.  It was also agreed that a “mass meeting of the Jewish citizens” of New York should be held to protest Hilton’s ban.  Furthermore, “leading citizens and clergyman should be invited to attend and express their support for the Jewish population.

1877: Judge Henry Hilton offered a reporter a series of seemingly contradictory explanations for the refusal of the management of the Grand Union to rent rooms to Joseph Seligman.  At various points in the interview Judge Hilton said that Seligman was using the episode because he and other Jews were upset with the widow of the late Alexander Stewart because she had failed to make contributions to Jewish charities.  At another point, he said that Seligman was not a Hebrew because he had joined the Reform Movement and was instead a Jew.  Therefore Seligman had no right to complain about discrimination based on religion.  Judge Hilton also said that it was staying at the Grand Union was very expensive and that only a limited number of people could afford to do so.  Therefore he had to cater to their desires and it was these wealthy patrons who had complained about Jews staying at the hotel.  Hilton predicted that other fancy hotels would follow his lead in banning Jews; a ban which he earlier denied existed. 

1881: It was reported today that 60,000 Jews are expected to immigrate to Spain following a decision by the Madrid government to allow entrance by Jews expelled from Russia.

1881: It was reported that in light of decision by authorities to take a census of the Jews of Kiev, a large number of them have left the area.   

1881: In Leadville, Colorado, Eva Schloss “recited at the closing exercise at the Spruce Street Schoolhouse.”

1881(21stof Sivan, 5641): “Bohemian Talmudist, Samuel Ben Issachar Bar Freund, the chief dayan of Prague passed away today.

1882(1st of Tammuz, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1882: In Tisza- Eszlar, Hungary, during a “blood-libel” frenzy, a gamekeeper recovers the body of a girl from the Nyiregyhaza River.  Although the body was probably not the body of the girl for whom the authorities were looking, they would decide that this corpse was really part of a Jewish conspiracy and would use it as an excuse to arrest three more Jews from whom confessions would be obtained by force. 

1886: The Times of London reported today that Flinders Petrie, the noted English Egyptologist, has discovered the ancient ruins the Biblical “Tahpanhes” described in Chapter 43 in the Book of Jeremiah as the site where Jews fleeing the Babylonians found refuge in 586 BCE.  The Pharaoh welcomed them and distributed tracts of land for them to settle and develop. [This is another example of archeology supporting the stories in the Bible.  The Pharaoh’s generosity stands in sharp contrast to the Egyptians to fight with the Judeans against the Babylonians as they had promised.]

1887: “The Hornthal Prize Contests” published today described the elocution competition funded by L.M. Hornthal.  Miss Una Westing won the girl’s prize for a recitation entitled “How the Station Clock Saw and Heard It. She is a student at Grammar School No. 77 where Julia Richman, who is a leading secular and Jewish educator, serves as principal.

1889(19th of Sivan, 5649): Seventy-two year old Charles University alum Abraham Hochmuth, the Hungarian rabbi who “was a prominent member of the Hungarian Jewish Congress” passed away today at Veszprim.

1889: A list of the trustees of the Talmud Torah Benevolent Association of New York published today included Chaim, Herschdorfer, Moses Moses, Jacob Saltpeler, Bernard Wienberger, Joseph Siegel, Leib Rubenstein and Chaim Fertig.

1891(12thof Sivan, 5651): Seventy-four year old Calmann Levy (Kalmus Calmann Levy) the husband of Pauline Levy passed away today in Paris

1891: The Hebrew Technical Institute held its seventh annual commencement exercises this afternoon at Arlington Hall in St. Mark’s Place. The 18 boys in the graduating classed presented the director Dr. Henry M. Leipziger with a framed portrait created by one of their classmate Rudolph Shack.

1891: Martin Engel, the Tammany leader in the Eighth Assembly District had his nose broken today when an assailant hit him with a beer keg. (Engel would later refuse to pay the surgeon who worked on his nose because “he was no longer recognized as a Jew” forcing the surgeon to sue to collect for services rendered.)

1891: On “New York’s Lower East Side, David and Sarah Rubin Jacobson, Jewish immigrants from Lithuania gave birth to Edward “Eddie” Jacobson, American businessman and friend of Harry Truman who interceded with him to help gain his support for the creation of the modern state of Israel.


1891: On “New York’s Lower East Side, Polish immigrants Malya Molly Goldfarb and Nesanel Dovid Bryer, a cantor and small merchant” gave birth to “Samuel E. Goldberg, ‘the father of Jewish music in America.’”




1893(4thof Tammuz, 5653): After being treated by Dr. M.S. Kakeles this evening for the effects of nervous prostration, Samuel Adler, the proprietor of the Nineteenth Marble and Granite Works slipped away from the watchful eye of his son and took his own life this evening.

1893: As competition heats up between different unions representing Jewish printers, today the Hebrew Typographical Union No.317 joined the Central Labor Union and the Hebrew-American Typographical Union joined the Central Labor Federation

1893: “Passover Ceremonies” published today described the home observance of Pesach including the use of the Hagadah, “of which the first edition printed in London is dated 1709; the first edition with an English translation” is dated 1770.

1894: Three days after she had passed away, 64 year old Middlesex native Sarah Bauman, the wife of David Bauman with she had had ten children, was buried today the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1894: Birthdate of Pittsburgh, PA native Hattie Weiler Lazarus, the wife of Robert Lazarus and the mother of Charlotte, Babette, Jean, Robert and Nancy Lazarus.

1895: In Portland, Oregon, found of Congregation Talmud Torah which holds services every Friday evening at seven and every Saturday at 9; provides Religious School sessions three times a week and used Mount Zion Cemetery which is “four miles from the city.

1896: Birthdate of Israel Goldstein, the native of Philadelphia who served as rabbi for Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York and one of the founders of Brandeis University.


1896: The Hebrew Technical Institute is scheduled to hold its commencement exercises at Cooper Union beginning at 8 pm.

1896: French newspapers announced the Marquise de Mores, a prominent anti-Semite, “had been murdered by some tribesman on the Tripolitan frontier” – a claim that would later be disputed by his widow.

1896(7th of Tammuz, 5656): Twenty-five year old Simon Mischel an unmarried Jew living on Delancey Street was strangled at Clyde, near Buffalo, by “road agents” who threw his body into the river after robbing him of “a large amount of money.”

1896: Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler delivered the opening prayer at the tenth annual commencement exercise of the Hebrew Technical Institute which took place this evening at Cooper Institute.

1897: In New York City, “Victor and Etta (Kleinert) Guinzburg” gave birth to sculptor Frederick Victor Guinzburg, the husband of Ruth Levy and a member of both Temple Emanu-El and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropic Societies.


1898: It was reported today the nine people have been killed in Austrian Galicia during an outbreak of anti-Semitic violence which has required the dispatch of troops to the area to quell the peasant mobs.

1898: In Cincinnati, Ohio, actors Joseph and Bessie Jacobson gave birth to Irving Jacobson star of Yiddish and American theatre who played Sancho Panza in the original Broadway run of “Man of La Mancha.”

1899: “Firecrackers, eggs, watermelon rinds and stones were thrown” at Wilson W. Dunlap and his aids when “they attempted to hold services” on the lower east side designed to convert Jews to Christianity.

1899: “Recent German Events” published today described the speeches given by Count Walter Puckler “a prominent Jew baiter” in a Silesian village “in which he incited his audience to violence against the Jews.”  Following attacks on the Jews, Puckler was prosecuted “for stirring up ‘hatred between the classes.’” The local tribunal dismissed the charges but the Public Prosecutor appealed the case to the Supreme Court which has yet to rule.

1899: It was reported today that fines have been levied on two Berlin anti-Semitic papers, the Stasstsburger Zeitung and the Deutsche General-Anzeiger for publishing the speeches of Count Puckler.

1899: In Saint-Petersburg, “Jewish-Russian lawyer, national politician and Jewish community leader Maxim Vinaver, who emigrated to France in 1919, and his wife birth to Eugène Vinaver “a literary scholar who is best known today for his edition of the works of Sir Thomas Malory” and who as a deputy in the pre-war Duma sought to gain full rights for Jews in Russia.

1899: During a six day meeting in Paris. Herzl, Max Nordau and Alexander Marmorek meet Narcisse Leven who assures them that the Jewish Colonization Association will cooperate when it comes to practical colonization.

1899: In Baltimore, MD, Dr. Richard Gottheil chaired the opening session of the second annual conference of the Federation of American Zionists.

1899: A summary of the United Hebrew Charities report for May described the 2,021 applications for assistance that covered the needs of 6,737 individuals. The monthly cash receipts of $10, 816.08 went to cover the expenses that totaled $10,808.21.  These included everything from $2,514.12 for local relief to $282.00 to cover the burials for the indigent


1901(1stof Tammuz, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1901: Birthdate of Major Wellesley Aron the English Jew who founded Habonim and risked his military career during WW II by rescuing Jews in Italy.



1901, Gertrude Weil became the first North Carolina resident to graduate from Smith College.


1903: It was announced today that, “in view of the strain of the approaching coronation, King Edward” whose numerous Jewish friends included the Sassoon gamily and Sir Ernest Cassel, had been advised by his physicians to “forgo all public engagements for the next few days. (For more see Edward VII and his Jewish Court https://www.amazon.com/Edward-VII-his-Jewish-Court/dp/1909609447)

1903: Twenty-six year old NYU trained attorney married “May (Adelson) Feiner” today in Manhattan.

1904: Birthdate of French composer Manuel Rosenthal

1905: Graduation exercises are scheduled to be held today at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

1906: “Foreign Secretary Grey was asked by Keir Hardie, in the House of Commons, yesterday, if he had seen the telegram signed by members of the Russian Parliament alleging that the massacre of Jews at Bialystok was officially countenanced and if this was not sufficient to justify action on the part of the Foreign Office with the view of "influencing the Russian Government to stop these outrages on civilization.”

1907: It was reported today that Jacob H. Schiff has said that the Orthodox congregations have “not give the proper support for the Jewish Theological Seminary on Morningside Heights” which was left with a deficit this year.

1908: It was reported today that a conference called by the leaders of the United Hebrews Charities had “had passed a resolution declaring that the distress among the poor of that section was more widespread and more acute than ever before in the history of New York City.

1909(29th of Sivan, 5669): Sixty-eight year old Deborah Cohn, the daughter of Dr. Marcus Mosse and Ulrike Mosse and the wife of Emil Cohn with whom she had five children passed away today.

1910(11th of Sivan, 5670): Parahshat Beha’alotcha

1910: Washington resident Simon Wolf, “a member of the Board of Delegates of Civil Rights of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” has a copy of the official State Department report on conditions in Kiev written by the Charge d’Affairs of the American Embassy at St. Petersburg.

1911:  Sarah Berhnhardt finished a thirty-five week theatrical tour of the U.S. and Canada

1912: In Chicago, “Lillian Marks, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Simon L. Marks” married “Herbert M. Berg, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Morris Berg.”

1913: In Philadelphia, S. L. Nusbaum, a bookbinder, and his wife Jenny (née Singer) gave birth to Nathan Richard Nusbaum better known as writer and dramatist N. Richard Nash whose most successful work was “The Rainmaker” which went from being a television production, to a full length motion picture to a musical known as “110 in the Shade.

1913: In New York, a day school for adult Oriental Jews opened on the East Side.

1913: In Cincinnati, Ohio, the Federation of American Zionist adopted resolutions endorsing “the work of the Ahuzot, establishing “a Nahum Sokolow fund to be used for building a workingmen’s settlement in Palestine,” recommending to the Zionist Congress the creation of a Jewish National University in Palestine” and reaffirming “the political character of the Zionist organization.”

1913: Birthdate of   Samuel Cohen, who gained fame as Sammy Cahn the violin and piano player best known a musical composer who provided the tunes for Broadway and Hollywood.

1914: In New York City, “Morton Edgar and Hazel Augusta (Kronthal) Lauterbach” gave birth to Dartmouth graduate and former Time Magazine Moscow Bureau Chief Richard Edward Lauterbach, the “husband of the former “Elizabeth S. Wardell” with whom he had three children – Jennifer, Ann and David”


1914: Day school for adult Oriental Jews opened on the New York’s East Side.

1914(24thof Sivan, 5674): In Chicago, seventy-four year old Babbette Mergentheim, the “widow of Bernhard Mergentheim” with whom she had had two sons – Aaron and Moses – and three daughters passed away today.

1915: “It is considered probable that Governor Slaton might reach decision today” regarding the fate of Leo Frank.

1915: “So strong is the feeling” that the governor will commute Frank’s sentence “that offer to wage 3 to1 in favor commutation found few takers this afternoon.”

1915(6thof Tammuz, 5675): Eighty-one year old Bernhard Bettmann passed away today.  A native of Bavaria, he came to the United States in 1850 and settled in Cincinnati.  He became a successful businessman, bank president and leading member of the local Republican Party as well as a pillar of the Jewish community.


1916: The American Jewish Relief Committee of which Felix M. Warburg is the Treasurer reported today have collect gifts that total more than $4,100,000.

1916: “The newly organized Woodrow Wilson Independent League gave out statements from eleven prominent men” including Jacob H. Schiff, President of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and Isidor Jacobs, President of the California Canneries Company and the Napa Canning Company, “setting forth their reasons for supporting the President for re-election” the most important of which was his success in keeping the country out of war.

1916: Paolo Baselli who expressed his support for Zionist aims he met with Nahum Sokolow began serving a term as Prime Minister of Italy

1916: As the British fought to dislodge the Ottomans from the Sinai, Palestine and points beyond “11 aircraft of the 5th Wing under Colonel W. G. H. Salmond” attacked El Arish destroying two Turkish planes on the ground and destroying ten hangars.”

1916: “The cornerstone for a new synagogue to be known as the Mount Neboh Congregation of Washington Heights was laid” this afternoon by Abram I. Elkus after which speeches were delivered by Rabbi A.S. Anspacher, Adolf Lewisohn, Dr. Nathan Stern and David E. Goldfarb.

1916: “Plans for the enlargement of the Beth David Hospital at Lexington Avenue and 113th Street were formulated” today “at the opening of the eighth annual convention of the Federation of Russian-Polish Jews of American” following which several members immediately responded by giving checks to toward the $50,000 President Jacob Garlinger said was need for the building fund.

1916: The Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War of which Harry Fischel is Treasurer reported today the receipt of an additional $8,440.61 in contributions.

1916: The Turkish military governor, Djemal Pasha, banned Jews from praying at the Kotel.  (In 1917, he reportedly offered to rescind the ban if he was paid 100,000 Francs)

1917: Following the February Revolution Julius Martov, a leader of the Mensheviks attended a conference where “he failed to gain the support of the delegates for a policy of immediate peace negotiations with the Central Powers.”

1917: Annie Carp was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”

1917: During World War I, reports from London state that Zionist activity in Turkey has been prohibited by the government.

1917: Five days after he was killed in a German air raid on London, 15 year old Nathan Cohen the son of Joseph and Sarah Cohen was buried in London at “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” today.

1917: According to Captain Isaac Frank of the Brownsville Police Station 1,500 tickets have been sold for tonight’s benefit performance at the Liberty Theatre which is a fundraiser of the Junior Police which is “composed almost exclusively of Jewish boys.”

1917: Starting today, there will be no collections by Jewish groups for war relief because today marks the start of the week when the Red Cross is scheduled to begin it fundraising week.

1918: In New York, Sadie Helen (Kun) and Louis Karfunkle gave birth to Jerome Karfunkle who gained fame as Jerome Karle the co-winner of the 1985 Nobel Prize for Chemistry and husband of  chemist Isabella Karle with whom he had three “scientist daughters” – Louise, Jean and Madeleine Karle.







1918: Birthdate of Jerome Karle, the Brooklyn native who shared the 1985 Nobel Prize in Chemistry (As reported by Kenneth Chang)

1918: The Ziegfeld Follies of 1918 featuring songs by Eddie Cantor opened today.

1918: Birthdate Franco Modigliani, Italian born American winner of the Nobel Prize for economics in 1985.

1919: The publication of Haaretz, a Hebrew daily newspaper, begins in Jerusalem. It will move to Tel Aviv in 1923. It is independent and liberal in orientation. Its literary supplement features the best Hebrew writers and scholars both from Palestine and the Diaspora.

1920(2ndof Tammuz, 5680): Fifty-one year old Mayer M. Swaab, the Philadelphia born son of Mark M. Swaab and Vice President of the chewing gum manufactures Frank H. Fleer who was a member of Mike Israel and the father of Frank Swaab and “Lt. Jacques M. Swaab, the third American of World War I who shot down thirteen enemy planes.

1920: Birthdate of Joseph Bau, the native of Krakow who survived the Shoah thanks to “Schindler’s List.”


1920: It was reported today that “Dr. David F. Markus, the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazic Jewish Community of Constantinople and the President of the Joint Distribution Committee for Turkey and Mr. Henry G. Reisner, President of the Jewish Immigration Aid Society of Constantinople and President of the Ashkenazi Community of Constantinople” have come to the United States “to confer with the executive heads of the Joint Distribution Committee” and to emphasize the need for more funds to be provided due to the overwhelming suffering of the Jews in Turkey.

1921:  Winston Churchill “informed his officials at the Colonial Office that he believed it was impossible for Britain to grant any form of representation to the Arabs that would give them the power to halt Jewish immigration.”



1923: In Baltimore, a report read at tonight's session of the Zionist convention by Emanuel Newmann, General Secretary of the Palestine Foundation states that six million dollars has been raised In the past two years by Jewish organizations in the United States devoted to the rebuilding of Palestine, and of this sum $4,250,000, amounting to 70 per cent, of the total, has been raised by the Palestine Foundation Fund (Keren Hayesod).

1923: Checker Cab puts its first taxi on the streets.  Originally a Checker Cab was a taxicab built by the Checker Cab Company.  The Checker Cab Company had been formed by Morris Markin a Russian Jewish immigrant.  Markin was so poor when he arrived in the United States that he had to borrow the $25 for the bond necessary for those entering the country from a porter working at Ellis Island.  Beginning as a tailor, Markin amassed enough of a fortune to own his own garment business and to bring the rest of his family from Russia to Chicago.  After starting the Checker Cab Company, he bought the Yellow Cab Company.  He passed away in 1970.

1923: In Newark, NJ, Meyer Ellenstein, the dentist who became that city’s Mayor, and his wife gave birth to “character actor” Robert “Bob” Ellenstein.




1925: In Camden, NJ, the “Camden Talmud Torah, Inc. purchase land at 621 Kaighn Avenue from David Jentis & Co., Inc. for $10,000,

1929: Jacob Goldman a former student at New York University living in Tel Aviv writes a letter on this date “telling of demonstrations by young Aras and the circulation of songs calling Moslems to ‘take up the sword’ against the foreign ruler and the Jews.’”

1929: In Paszto, a Hungarian shtetl with a reported 120 Jewish families, to Ferenc and Rosa Rubin gave birth to Tibor "Ted" Rubin “a Holocaust survivor who immigrated to the United States in 1948 and received the Medal of Honor for his actions in the Korean War by President George W. Bush in 2005.”


1929: Birthdate of Albert Morris Bendich, the native of New York “who successfully defended the right to free speech in two landmark midcentury obscenity cases — involving Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” and Lenny Bruce’s nightclub act.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)


1930: A discharged Arab policeman has been arrested in Jaffa as a suspect in the attempted murder of Police Captain F.M. Scott of Tel Aviv.  “It is believed that the former policeman swore vengeance against Scott because he had dismissed him from the force.

1933: “Sol M. Stroock, former President of the New York Federation and Judge Mitchell May, President of the Brooklyn Federation are scheduled to be the guest speakers at the Annual Joint Meeting of the Junior Federaions of the New York Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Society and the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities being held tonight at Temple Emanue-El in New York.

1933: Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, the 34 year old Zionist leader gunned down by two unknown assassins was buried this afternoon. About 70,000 persons marched in the funeral procession, with delegations attending from all parts of the country. Beryl Katzenellenson, editor of Davar, Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv and Menachem Ussishkin, head of the Jewish National Fund all delivered eulogies.

1933:  Birthdate of Jerzy Kosiński, Polish-born American author.  During the Holocaust, Kosinski was hidden by a Polish family using a false Baptismal certificate.  After the war, he was reunited with his parents.  He came to the United States in 1957.  The Painted Bird and Being There are two of his most famous efforts.  He passed away in 1991.

1933: “The annual convention of the Council of Young Israel Organizations” which will be attended by “delegates from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Poland” is scheduled to continue today at “the Hotel Clarendon-Brunswick” in Asbury, NJ.

1934: A resolution was passed today at today at the convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Sholom “calling for continued support of the boycott against Nazi manufactured goods as long as Hitler remains in power.”

1934: In Montreal, “the strike being carried on by the interns of the Notre Dame and other hospitals here in protest against the appointment of a Jewish physician neared an end today when Dr. Sam Rabinovitch, center of the controversy expressed his intention of resigning” so, as he said, “to save the institution from a serious predicament.” (JTA)  (Editor’s note -  does this help explain how Canada came to take in such a low number of Jews fleeing from the Nazis/)

1936: The Palestine Post reported that a commission had been appointed by the government to replace the Haifa's Municipal Council which since the beginning of the Arab boycott was no longer able to discharge its duties. The government began to demolish the condemned buildings in the Old City of Jaffa. The quarter looked like a nightmare with furniture, bedding and odds and ends being dragged out of condemned houses.

1936: Paul Baerwald, chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee presided over a meeting today in New York where “the necessity for rehabilitation activities in behalf of Jews in Germany and Eastern Europe” was discussed by “a group of Jewish leaders from various parts of the United States” including Joseph C. Hyman, Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, Felix M. Warburg and Carl J. Austrian.

1936: In New York City Sidney and Frances Wimmer gave birth to Richard Samuel Wimmer who would finally achieve his goal of being a published author with the appearance of Irish Wine in 1989. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1936 (28th of Sivan, 5696): “Two more Jews died today as a result of Arab terrorism…Abraham Benyehuda died from wounds received in a recent ambush of a bus belonging to the Jewish colony of Ataroth, north of Jerusalem…Joseph Shefter, proprietor of the Leviathan tannery located on the outskirts of Tel Aviv, died as a result of an attack this afternoon on a bus which he and nine of his employees were returning to Tel Aviv. 

1936: “A symposium on ‘Proposed Roads for American Jewry’ was conducted at the afternoon session of the third annual conference of the Institute on Contemporary Jewish Affairs held” today “under the auspices of the National Council of Jewish Women” during which more than 150 delegations “heard three speakers” – Marvin Lowenthal, Dr. Erick Gutkind and Dr. Morris R. Cohen – “express widely divergent views on the survival of the Jewish people.

1937: David Sarnoff is scheduled to be the guest of honor at today’s luncheon sponsored by the Circus Saints and Sinners.

1937: P.L. Goodman is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jews and Arabs in Palestine” at the Bronx House in New York.

1937(9th of Tammuz, 5697): Forty-four year old Al Boasberg, who helped to create the comedic persona of Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen, among others passed away today.


1938: Winston Churchill wrote to Sir Alexander Maxwell, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office asking him for assistance in making Vic Oliver’s wish to become a naturalized British subject a reality.  Vic Oliver was an Austrian born Jewish actor, radio comedian and pianist who had married Churchill’s daughter Sarah.  Churchill had opposed the marriage at first because Oliver was sixteen years old than his daughter and twice-divorced.  Later, he came to “like and esteem him greatly.”

1939: Seven hundred delegates attending “annual convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham” at Saratoga Springs, NY, heard Rabbi Stephen S. Wise make “a plea for a united Jewrty to solve the refugee and Palestine problems.”

1940:Members of the Etzel command who were imprisoned in the summer 1of 939 are released.

1940(12th of Sivan, 5700): Sixty-eight Russian-born American actor Maurice Moscovitch whose last appearance was “Mr. Jaecekl” the Jewish neighbor in Charlie Chaplin’s satire of Hitler, “The Great Dictator.”

1940: Charles De Gaulle issued L'Appel du 18 Juin (the Appeal of 18 June) over the BBC radio service in which he called upon the French to resist the Vichy regime and to fight on against the Nazis despite the signing of the armistice.  This is considered to the start of the French Resistance.  While many Frenchmen heeded his call, a large number actually supported Vichy and collaborated with the Nazis.  The Myth of the Resistance grew in proportion to Allied successes following Normandy.

1941: “Members of the Jewish Writers Union picketed the offices of the New York and national Guilds during the lunch hour” today “with placards denouncing the New York Newspaper Guild’s strike against The Jewish Day as an example of ‘dual unionism’ and ‘union wrecking.’”

1941: On his 28th birthday, Norwegian merchant Herze Caplan was arrested today in what would be his first step towards the final destination of Aushwitz.

1942: Today is the deadline given by the German government to the Czechs for the surrender of those who killed Reinhard Heydrich or suffer further reprisals.

1943: At their meeting today in Manhattan, the exeutive committee of the Christian Council on Palestine adopted several resolutions concerning the treatment of the Jews including a call for “Christian churches all over America protest ceaselessly against the brutality practiced upon the Jews by the Nazis.”

1944: Rabbi Philip Lipis, who was serving as a Chaplain in the United States Navy, spoke at the installation service at Congregation Beth El in Camden, NJ where Morris LIebman began his fourth term as President of the Congregation and Mrs. Max PIncus became Sisterhood President.  Lipis had taken leave from his position as the congregation’s rabbi to serve during World War II.

1945: U.S. premiere of “G.I. Joe” a gritty film about the infantry in WW II with a scored by Louis Applebaum and Ann Ronnell.

1946: “The Austrian Government made a major concession to Viennese Jews today when it was ordered that all persons occupying dwellings seized from Jews now back in the city should be evicted.”

1947: Ben-Gurion published a long memorandum addressed to the Haganah command.  He outlined a three-fold structure for the organization: an excellent attack force for special purposes; a driving force in the form of a regular army; and a territorial defense force.  The most urgent goal: training commanders up through the battalion level; establishing a high school for commanders to prepare battalion commanders and staff officers.  This was necessary because up until this time, the Haganah’s platoon commander’s course was the highest level of training.

1947: John Henry Patterson, who attained the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the Essex Yeomanry before retiring passed away today.  Many know Patterson as the British officer portrayed by Val Kilmer in “The Ghost and the Darkness,” a film based on Patterson’s building of a bridge in Kenya before WW I.  Jews remember him as the commander of the Zion Mule Corps and the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers which was popularly known as the Jewish Legion of the British Army.  Patterson sacrificed his own career to fight the anti-Semitism that was so rife among many British officers of that time.  He wrote two books about his experiences – With the Zionists at Gallipoli and With the Judeans in Palestine. Patterson’s close relationship with Zionist leaders can be seen in the fact that he was the Godfather of Benzion Netanyahu’s oldest son, Yonatan “Yoni” Netanyahu, the hero of Entebbe and the brother of the current Prime Minister of Israel.

1947:  Ben-Gurion appointed Yaakov Dori as the chief of staff and Yisrael Galili as the new national command head as part of his plan to revamp the Yishuv’s military forces.

1948: A truce which was to be overseen by the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization was supposed to go into effect in the Middle East today.

1948: In a move that the Soviets would use as one of their excuses for blockading Berlin, he United States, Britain and France announced that on 21 June the Deutsche Mark would be introduced. (These entries about the Berlin Blockade are intended to show that the Israel’s fight for independence was part of the mosaic that came to be known as the Cold War)

1949(21st of Sivan, 5709): Parashat Beha’alotcha

1949: “The American people should be "mature" enough to shun a "witch hunt mentality" whenever the question of Russia is raised, Rabbi David J. Seligson, assistant rabbi at Central Synagogue, Lexington Avenue and Fifty-fifth Street, said today in his sermon”

1950:Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett asked Israeli newspaper editors today to go slow in attacking Eastern bloc Governments and particularly their representatives. His plea followed protests by diplomatic representatives to the Government against press attacks.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Negev rejoiced when water spurted several meters high in the yellow wilderness when Avraham Hartzfeld, the gray-haired patron of the settlers, turned the tap of the new pipeline and pumping station.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's first steel-pipe factory was opened south of Acre by the Middle East Tube Co. Ltd.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the new freighter Eilat called at Haifa with a cargo of 9,000 tons of wheat and 2,000 tons of machinery.

1952: In Cleveland, Ohio, “jazz singer, teacher, dancer, and pianist” Joy Kane and architect Michael Kane gave birth to actress Carolyn Laurie “Carol” Kane best known for her Emmy Award winning Simka Dahblitz-Gravas, wife of Latka Gravas on the sitcom “Taxi.”

1952: Eight days after the Israeli government imposed a forced loan of 10 percent on currency holdings and bank accounts, the deflationary effect has been so sharp “that Government officials are uncertain whether to be jubilant or worried.  Newspapers have experience an unexpected decline in revenue due to a loss of circulation at time when they had just negotiated a new labor contract increasing wages of workers.  A round trip ticket from Tel Aviv to Paris has jumped in the past year from 175 Israeli pounds to 500 Israeli pounds. Shops of all kind are doing less business and nightclubs report that their earnings on Saturday night (their busiest time) are less now than they were for an average week night a year ago.

1954: Pierre Mendes-France became Premier of France. Born in 1907 in Paris, Mendes-France’s came from a family of Sephardic Jews. He was trained as a lawyer and fought with the Free French during World War II. After the war, Mendes-France served in numerous governments in the revolving door of the Fourth Republic. Mendes-France was an anti-colonialist. He served as Premier after the fall of Dien Bien Phu, and negotiated the end to the French Indo-China War. Several Catholic political leaders attacked him for this and the attack quickly became anti-Semitic. Mendes-France also began the negotiations that would lead to independence for the French colonies in North Africa. Mendes-France political signature was a glass of milk. After the war, some French leaders were concerned that French people were drinking too much wine and starting to drink at too early an age. When Mendes-France would appear in public, there invariably was a glass of milk on the lectern, which he made a point of sipping some time during the presentation. Mendes-France passed away in 1982.

1956: Golda Meir replaced Moshe Sharett as Foreign Minister.  Sharett had held the position since the creation of the state, even when he was serving as Prime Minister.  Meir’s colorful career had already included clandestine negotiations with the King of Jordan and a stint as the first Ambassador to the Soviet Union.  Eventually she would rise to the position of Prime Minister.

1957(19th of Sivan, 5717): Fifty-four year old David “Dave” Berman the Russian born WW II veteran and crime boss whose territory included Iowa and Minnesota and later Las Vegas suffered a fatal heart attack in the midst of a glandular operation at a Las Vegas hospital.

1959: A federal court overturned Arkansas state laws that allowed schools faced with integration to be closed.  Harry Ehrenberg, Sr., of blessed memory, was one of those unsung heroes who literally risked his as he carried a petition seeking support to keep the Little Rock schools open despite the race baiting efforts of Governor Faubus to defy school integration.

1959: “The Five Pennies” a biopic directed by Melville Shavelson, starring Danny Kaye and including an Oscar nominated song by Sylvia Fine was released in the United States today.

1961 Today: Washington, DC native and Smith College graduate Elisabeth Posner Cohen, the future President of the Posner-Wallace Foundation married Robert Stuart Cohen with whom she had two children before divorcing in 1986.

1961: In East Brunswick, NJ, Diane H.Lipman, “a programmer analyst” and Burton E. Lipman, “an author of business books and CEO of a cardiac pacemaker component manufacturing company” gave birth to Yale graduate and journalist Joanne Lipman, author of That's What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together

1961: ABC broadcast the last episode of “The Rebel” an off-beat western television series “developed and created by” Irvin Kershner which featured appearances by Ned Glass and Soupy Sales.

1964: Rabbi Barnett Robert Brickner “was arrested at the Monson Motor Lodge in St. Augustine, Florida today as part of the largest mass arrest of rabbis in American history, having gone there at the urging of Martin Luther King Jr.”

1966(30th of Sivan, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1968: “The Jewish Defense League's first meeting was held at the West Side Jewish Center” today.

1969: U.S. premiere of “The Wild Bunch” for which Jerry Fielding provided the music which was so good that it “was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Score.

1970: Greville Ewan Janner began serving as a Member of Parliament from Leicester North West.

1973(18th of Sivan, 5733): Seventy-one year old Viennese  born composer Fritz Mahler whose father was a cousin of Gustav Mahler and whose wife was dance Pauline Koner  passed away today in Winston-Salem, NC


https://www.nytimes.com/1973/06/19/archives/fritz-marler-72-conductor-dead-led-erie-philharmonic-and-the.html


1974: In the Soviet Union, the Goldstein brothers began a hunger strike to protest the government’s crackdown prior to the upcoming visiting of President Richard Nixon.

1975(9thof Tammuz, 5735): Ninety-one year old award winning philosopher Samuel Hugo Bermann, the native of Prague who made Aliyah in 1920 where he founded the Brit Shalom movement with Martin Buber passed away today.



1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Treasury and the Histadrut had jointly decided that Value Added Tax would be levied at 8 percent, as of July 1.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that two Israeli missile boats sailed for the US to take part in the July 4 Bicentennial salute on the Hudson River.

1984(18th of Sivan, 5744): Denver-based radio talk show host Alan Berg was gunned by Christian White Supremacists whose Christianity did not include the teachings of Jesus.


1989: “Legal Eagles” a comedy directed, co-produced and co-written by Ivan Reitman, with music by Elmer Bernstein and co-starring Debra Winger and Steven Hill was released today in the United States.

1987: Daniel Barenboim began 9 days of conducting the IPO in a series of partially staged operas - ''Don Giovanni,''''The Marriage of Figaro'' and ''Cosi Fan Tutte''– that included performers from the Paris Opera.

1992(17th of Sivan, 5752): Famed Israeli painter, Mordecai Ardon, passed away His works included an effort from 1944 entitled “Ein Karem.”  In English Ein Karem means “Spring of the Vineyard.”  It is located on the southwest edge of Jerusalem.


1993: In Colorado, the District Court award title to Leadville’s Hebrew Cemetery to The Temple Israel Foundation.

1996(1stof Tammuz, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1996(1stof Tammuz, 5756): Kesari Yisrael passed away.  Born in Yemen in 1933, he came to Palestine at the age of two.  After studying at Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University he became a leader of Histadrut before being elected to the Knesset and serving as a cabinet minister.

1996: Limor Livnat succeeds Shulamit Aloni as Minister of Communications

1996: Benny Begin begins serving as The Science and Technology Minister of Israel

1996: Eli Suissa succeeds Haim Ramon as Internal Affairs Minister

1996: Israel Kessar completes his term as Minister of Transport, National Infrastructure and Road Safety.

1996: David Levy succeeds Ehud Barak as foreign minister.

1996: Binyamin Ben-Eliezer completes his term as Minister of Housing and Construction

1996: Binyamin Netanyahu succeeds Shimon Sheetrit as Minister of Religious Services

1996: Gonen Segev completed his service as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.

1996: Avigdor Kahalani replaced Moshe Shahal as Minister of Public Security

1996: Ehud Barak competed his service as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

1997: In “Nazis and Their Allies in Art Theft” published today Richard Bernstein provided a detailed review of The Lost Museum: The Nazi Conspiracy to Steal the World’s Greatest Works of Art by Hector Feliciano.


1997(13th of Sivan, 5757):  Lev Kopelev the Russian born idealist and a committed Bolshevik who over time would become a dissident and ended up having to live out his days in Cologne, Germany passed away today.

1997(13thof Sivan, 5757): Ninety-five year Benjamin Zemach, who with his brother Nathan, was a “dance pioneer” passed away today. (As reported by Anna Kisselgoff)



1999: The Times of London reviewed “Israel and the Bomb” by Avner Cohen.

2000: “Spellbound” published today provides a review of Myla Goldberg’s Bee Season.


2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Groucho:The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx by Stefan Kanfer, Monkey Business:The Lives and Legends of the Marx Brothers: Groucho, Chico, Harpo, Zeppo With Added Gummo by Simon Louvish, The Essential Groucho:Writings by, for, and About Groucho Marx Edited by Stefan Kanfer, How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom, King David:A Biography by Steven L. McKenzie and The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soulby Yoram Hazony

2001(27th of Sivan, 5761): Palestinian terrorists murdered 35 year old Dan Yehuda in “a drive-by shooting.”

2001: Fatah gunman shot 38 year old Doron Zisserman.

2002: BBC One broadcast the last episode of “A History of Britain,” “a documentary series written and presented by” Jewish historian and author Simon Schama.

2002: In “Edelman Savors Nearly 50 Years of Independence,” Jim Kirk provides a snapshot of the career of Daniel Edelman the PR man who came to Chicago from New York and founded the agency that bears his name.


2002(8th of Tammuz, 5762): Nineteen people, including two children, were killed and 74 were injured – six seriously – in a suicide bombing at the Patt junction in Egged bus #32A traveling from Gilo to the center of Jerusalem. The bus, which was completely destroyed, was carrying a number of students on their way to school. The victims: Boaz Aluf, 54, of Jerusalem; Shani Avi-Zedek, 15, of Jerusalem; Leah Baruch, 59, of Jerusalem; Mendel Bereson, 72, of Jerusalem; Rafael Berger, 28, of Jerusalem; Michal Biazi, 24, of Jerusalem; Tatiana Braslavsky, 41, of Jerusalem; Galila Bugala, 11, of Jerusalem; Raisa Dikstein, 67, of Jerusalem; Dr. Moshe Gottlieb, 70, of Jerusalem; Baruch Gruani, 60, of Jerusalem; Orit Hayla, 21, of Jerusalem; Helena Ivan, 63, of Jerusalem; Iman Kabha, 26, of Barta; Shiri Negari, 21, of Jerusalem; Gila Nakav, 55, of Jerusalem; Yelena Plagov, 42, of Jerusalem; Liat Yagen, 24 of Jerusalem; Rahamim Zidkiyahu, 51, of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.

2003(18th of Sivan, 5763):  A Palestinian terrorist killed 19 passengers when he detonated a bomb on a bus in Jerusalem.

2004: U.S. premiere of The Terminal directed and produced by Steven Spielberg which provides a comedic twist to issues of immigration and survival in an airport.

2004: Bernard J. Wohl, Executive Director of the Goddard Riverside Community Center addresses the 20th annual conference of the “International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers” in Toronto. "You can’t just focus on your own agency. You need to work with other agencies to affect change because all the agencies are experiencing the same problems to different extents. When agencies get together, the city listens much more to them. Community is about doing things together."

2005(11th of Sivan, 5765): Sixty-six year old Gerald Davis a prominent artist and leader of the Irish Jewish community passed away.


2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Betraying Spinozaby Rebecca Goldstein and recently released paperback editions of 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos by Jennet Coant, American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimerby Kai Bird and Martin Sherman and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman

2006: Student groups at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee rallied today calling for the prosecution of a local man who claims to be a former Waffen-SS officer and announced last week that he planned to set up a public shrine in his backyard to commemorate the life of Adolf Hitler.

2006:Ronald S. Lauder purchased the painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt for $135 million from Maria Altman



2006(22ndof Sivan, 5766): Ninety-nine year old director Vincent Sherman, the small town Georgia boy who grew into a Hollywood giant who created classics like The Young Philadelphians and Mr. Skeffington.


2007: Efraim Sneh left the office of Deputy Defense Minister and wasreplaced by Matan Vilnai.

2007: Funeral services were held at Am Shalom, in Glencoe, Illinois for Shirlee Mages, of blessed memory.

2007: Ehud Barak began serving as Minister of Defense.

2007: Newsweek magazine features an article by Robert W. Morgenthau and Frank Tuerkheimer entitled “From Midway to the Mideast: How a victory in the Pacific 65 years ago helped defeat Hitler and found Israel.” The article includes the information that “just after the fall of Tobruk, an SS killing squad…was created to operate behind Rommel’s front line…for the express purpose of killing Jews in occupied territory.”  Had Rommel been successful that occupied territory would have included Palestine and the Jews of the Yishuv.

2007: In the “Verbatim” section Time magazinefeatured the following quote by Rutka Laskier, “'If only I could say, It's over, you only die once ... but I can't, because despite all these atrocities, I want to live, and wait for the following day.'” Rutka Laskier has been described as the Polish Anne Frank. Like Frank, she wrote a Holocaust-era diary, at the age of 14. Like Frank, Laskier perished during the Holocaust. Apparently, the Nazis killed her at Auschwitz.

2007: Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz squares off in a friendly dispute with Michael Steinhardt at the annual dinner of the Aleph Society in New York City.

2007: On the secular calendar, the fifteenth anniversary of the death of Mordecai Ardon.  It happens to fall on the 2ndof Tammuz which is appropriate since one of his works was called “Tammuz.”


2008: As the waters recede from the 500 Year Flood of 2008, The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported that Smulekoff's, one of the oldest businesses in downtown Cedar Rapids, said it will be opening in temporary quarters and plans to rebuild its landmark store at 97 Third Ave. SE. Ann Lipsky, president of Smulekoff's Home Store, told managers that the 119-year-old business will be reopening in the near term at its warehouse, 411 Sixth Ave. SE. The warehouse received a small amount of water in the basement where no merchandise was stored. Smulekoff's has been in downtown Cedar Rapids since 1889 when it was established by Henry Smulekoff on May's Island. The store moved to the current location of Wells Fargo Bank on Third Avenue SW during the flood of 1929 and was located at 97 Third Ave. SE during the flood of 1993."In all that time, the devastation has never been as bad as the current situation," Lipsky said. "We will come back and continue to provide the area with fine home furnishings, floor coverings and more."

2008: UNICEF met with officials of Adalah, a coalition of pro-Palestinian groups to inform them that the agency would no longer have any relationship with Lev Leviev, an Orthodox Jewish diamond mogul who has financed construction projects in the West Bank.

2008: The Jewish Film Festival of Croatia host a first time one day event in Belgrade.

2009: In Deal New Jersey, Avi Hoffman opens a three night run of "Too Jewish?", "Too Jewish, Too" and “Still Jewish After All These Years: A Life in the Theater” at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center.

2009: David Adjmi makes his professional New York theater debut when his play “Stunning” opens at the Duke on 42nd Street today.

2009:Espousing a dream of harmony that may stretch credibility among even the most fervent believers in dialogue among the great religions, clerics in Jerusalem launched a project today aimed at finding a way to share the city's holiest, and most fought over, site. Even the Jewish religious scholar promoting it acknowledges it might need divine intervention before a peaceful remapping of the area where Muslims built the 7th century Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque on the site of the biblical Jewish Temple. "We offer this vision for a long and deep discussion, and of course want to continue with a parallel research from other religions," said Yoav Frankel, director of the project promoting a vision of "God's Holy Mountain" (www.godsholymountain.org). Invitations to Thursday's launch conference depict a sunlit imagined future for the area Jews call Temple Mount. Happy Muslims and harp-playing Jews mingle between the Dome of the Rock and a new Temple, as Christians walk over from the nearby Sepulchre Church, traditional site of Jesus's resurrection. The project, headed by Jewish members of the Interfaith Encounter Association (www.interfaith-encounter.org) encourages all three faiths to re-examine the complex and perhaps foster a new theological outlook, making room for all to worship there. But Frankel conceded it may take more than debate of Jewish law, or halacha, to alter centuries of tradition in favor of a compromise by which Jews would agree to build a temple nearby, not in the spot traditionally regarded as the correct site -- right where the Dome has stood since the 7th century. "Regular halachic discussion will not be powerful enough," Frankel said, referring to the need for a "holy revelation" to make such a shift possible in Jewish tradition. Known to Arabs as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and also respected by Christians and Jews who believe that the Dome covers a rock where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son to God, the compound in Jerusalem's Old City has been the cause of bloodshed, from ancient times to today. It still lies at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and sovereignty over the holy sites remains a sticking point in international efforts to draft a final peace settlement. Not even all members of the interfaith group, which is dedicated to religious coexistence, favor the new project, which does not address political issues of whether Israel or Palestinians -- or both, or neither -- should control the city. Muslim cleric Abdullah Darweesh, who was to speak at the official project launch on Thursday, said all "holy Christian and Islamic sites should be under Arab sovereignty." Islam teaches that Mohammad rose to heaven from the rock under the Dome. Muslim clerics who run the compound have been wary of Jewish encroachment into the site since Israel captured the Old City and the rest of Arab East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. Since the Second Temple was destroyed under Roman rule in AD 70, Jews have prayed at the Western Wall, part of the ruins. Many Orthodox Jews believe they must not set foot on the Temple Mount itself for fear of treading on the now unknown site of the inner sanctum. Some groups, however, call for Israel to seize the site and rebuild the temple, a step some believe would then herald the return of the Messiah and a time of world peace.

2010: Simon Wolfson was created Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise, of Aspley Guise in the County of Bedfordshire,

2010: The Elvis and 50's Rock'n'Roll Concert is scheduled to take place at midrechov Ben Yehuda in Jerusalem.

2010: Abbie Silber the lovely and multi-talented daughter of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber provided a special musical interlude for Shabbat Services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA




2010(5th of Tammuz, 5770): Eighty-one year old Holocaust survivor George Brown passed away today. (As reported by Keith Thursby)




2011:Naama Shafir, an Israeli point guard and a player on the University of Toledo's women's basketball team who normally wears a T-shirt under her jersey for modesty reasons, will not be playing in a European basketball tournament scheduled to start today because FIBA Europe-- the Munich-based organization that governs basketball in Europe -- decided to stick with its usual policy: All players must wear the same uniform.

.

2011:Erika Brooks Adickman is scheduled to host “Troop Beverly Hills: The Experience” at the Historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.



2011: A wildfire raging in the Golan today was under control by late afternoon. The fire erupted this morning near Moshav Had Nes in the southern Golan Heights. Route 888, which had been closed while workers battled the blazed, was reopened to traffic and hikers were told they could return to the area.. Fifteen fire-fighting trucks and two fire-extinguishing planes arrived on scene Saturday morning to battle the blaze. Route 888 was closed to traffic, and hikers and visitors in the area were ordered to evacuate immediately. As an added precaution, several dozen visitors were also asked to evacuate from the nearby area of the Hexagon Pool.

 2011(16th of Sivan, 5771): Morris Pollard, the 95 year old father of Jonathan Pollard, passed away today. Pollard was an internationally recognized prostate cancer researcher who was professor emeritus of biological sciences at Notre Dame University

2011(16th of Sivan, 5771): Eighty-eight year old Elena Boner, the Soviet dissident and human-rights campaigner who endured banishment and exile along with her husband, the dissident nuclear physicist Andrei D. Sakharov, passed away today. Her father was an Armenia.  Her mother, Ruth Bonner was a Jewess born in Siberia who disappeared into the Gulag in 1938.(As reported by Alessandra Stanley and Michael Schwirtz)

 2012: The Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning is scheduled to have its annual meeting at Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD. 

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to appear with Judy Collins at the Metropolitan Museum of Art-PBS Show.

2012: On the Civil Calendar, 20thanniversary of the death of Michael Ardon.

http://www.encyclopedia.com/video/sJLrfzKehhs-art-of-mordechai-ardon-pachelbel.aspx2012: An Israeli citizen and two terrorists were killed this morning during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen who infiltrated the southern border with Egypt. An initial investigation reveals that three terrorists penetrated the fence along the Gaza-Sinai border on Monday morning, placed an explosive device on Philadelphia strip near Be'er Milka, and waited for Israeli vehicles to pass by. After several minutes, the device exploded on one of the vehicles, and the gunmen opened fire. They also fired an RPG rocket, which missed its target. As a result of the shooting, one of vehicles rolled down a hill and wounded an Israeli citizen who was working on the construction of the border fence. The man died of his wounds shortly afterward. The IDF's Golani Brigade arrived at the scene and began exchanging fire with the armed men. At least two terrorists were killed as a result of the firefight, and IDF soldiers began searching for the third terrorist. Other than the two bodies of the terrorists, IDF forces found Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades, helmets, bullet-proof vests, and camouflage clothing. A short while later, the IDF ruled out the possibility that the third gunman remains in Israeli territory, and believed the terror cell returned to Sinai. Egyptian forces began searching for the gunman. Israeli communities near the border have been put on high alert, and Route 10 and 12 were blocked for incoming traffic for several hours. The attack followed a few days of intelligence warnings. Last night, a Qassam rocket was fired toward the Eshkol Regional Council. No one was wounded in the overnight attack.

2012: “A group of 20 veterans, mostly-high ranking Jordanian and Israeli retired officers, met in Jerusalem today, and toured the sites of battles that pitted them against each other nearly half a century ago. (As reported by Elhanan Miller)

2012: In a letter published today by www.magyarnarncs.hu“Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel  renounced a Hungarian state award he received in 2004 in protest against what he said was a "whitewashing" of the role of former Hungarian governments in the deportation of Jews during World War Two.

2012: “Friday Night Lights” published today provides a snapshot of “Jewish boys in the NFL.”


2012: An Israeli citizen and two terrorists were killed this morning during clashes between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen who infiltrated the southern border with Egypt. An initial investigation reveals that three terrorists penetrated the fence along the Gaza-Sinai border this morning, placed an explosive device on Philadelphi strip near Be'er Milka, and waited for Israeli vehicles to pass by.

2012(28thof Sivan, 5772): Ninety-year old “Judith S. Wallerstein, a psychologist who touched off a national debate about the consequences of divorce by reporting that it hurt children more than previously thought, with the pain continuing well into adulthood” passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)


2013: Barbra Streisand is scheduled to perform in Israel today at the opening ceremony of Shimon Peres’s annual Presidential Conference, which will also honor his 90th birthday. (As reported by Gabe Fisher)http://www.timesofisrael.com/barbra-streisand-to-perform-at-peres-90th-birthday/

2013: Russ & Daughter’s is scheduled to host its Herring Celebration where “the wonders of herring” will be explored. (An event to make a true Litvak drool)

2013: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “a conversation with creators Peter Gethers and Dan Okrent and cast members from off-Broadway’s “Old Jews Telling Jokes” in which they will explore the hit revue that pays tribute to classic jokes of the past and present

2013: Today, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemned last night's "price tag" attack in Abu Ghosh, saying that it is contradictory to the values and people of Israel and Judaism.

2013: Hungarian prosecutors today charged Laszlo Csatary, 98, with war crimes committed during World War Two, saying he helped deport Jews to Auschwitz. "He is charged with the unlawful execution and torturing of people thus committing war crimes partly as a culprit, partly as an accomplice," Bettina Bagoly, a spokeswoman for the Budapest Chief Prosecutor's Office said. She said Csatary's case would go to trial within three months. (As reported by Reuters)

2013: After have been arrested yesterday on charges of fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust and corruption, Michael Applebaum resigned as Mayor of Montreal while maintaining that he was innocent of all charges.

2014: International Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and Racism, hosted by the Jewish Studies Program at Central European University is scheduled to come to an end in Budapest.

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “Ancestors from AllOver the World.”

2014: “A Place in Heaven” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan as part of the Israel Film Center Festival.

2014: “The parents of the three teens kidnapped last week “got their first listen to a tape of one of the students reporting the abduction in an emotional meeting with defense officials today.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)


2014: In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, the IAF launched several attacks on Hamas installations in Gaza.

2014: In Philadelphia, 89 year old retired toolmaker Johann “Hans” Beyer was ordered held without bail today “on a German arrest warrant charging him with aiding and abetting the killing of 216,000 Jewish men, women and children while he was a guard at the Auschwitz death camp.”




2014: In London, The Weiner Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is scheduled to host a special film festival and reception marking Refugee Week

2015: ISRAMERICA is scheduled to host the first night of “I Heart Music Festival.”

2015: Agudas Achim, in Coralville, Iowa is scheduled to hold its annual meeting where it will learn to cope with the reality that after over four decades, the congregation will have to move forward without the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman.

2015: “Bonjour Monsieur Chagall” “a colorful musical performance based on poetic works and painting by Marc Chagall” is scheduled to be performed at Kulturfest in NYC,

2015: The Center for Jewish History, YIVO Institute and Center for Traditional Music and Dance are scheduled to present “Night Songs from a Neighboring Village: Ballads of the Ukrainian & Yiddish Heartland” during which “musicians Michael Alpert and Julian Kytasty draw on Ukrainian folk and liturgical music, klezmer, Yiddish folk song, and Hasidic music to create a performance that illustrates the centuries-long mutual influence Ukrainian and East European Jewish musical traditions have had on one another.”

2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775): Centenarian producer and talent agent Jack Rollins passed away today.


2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775): Seventy-seven year old historian Allen Weinstein passed away today.



2015(1st of Tammuz, 5775: Ninety-nine year old Frances Kroll Ring, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s last personal assistant who played a key role in the posthumous publishing of his last novel The Last Tycoon and whose personal experiences were captured in the autobiography Against the Current: As I Remember F. Scott Fitzgerald which became the move “Last Call” passed away today.


2016: Violinist Vera Vaidman and pianist Emanuel Krasovsky are scheduled to perform in the Best of Chamber Music concert at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.

2016: Gon Halevi, “a singer, pianist, actor and composer and who has recently debuted "The Great Israeli American Songbook," is scheduled to perform at Joe’s Pub in New York City.

2016: “A Tale of Love and Darkness” based on the novel by Amos Oz and directed by Natalie Portman is scheduled to be shown at the Portland Oregon Jewish Film Festival.

2016: As part of its Father’s Day Weekend observance the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to let all Dads in for free.

2016((12th of Sivan, 5776):  Shabbat Naso

2017: The New York Times features book reviews by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently published paperback edition of Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer as well as the essay “How to Live With Critics (Whether You’re an Artist or the President)” by Adam Kirsch.


2017: “Operation Finale: The Capture & Trial of Adolf Eichmann” is scheduled to come to an end at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2017: Professor Peter Hayes, author of Why? – Explaining the Holocaust is scheduled to discuss such questions as “Why the Jews? Why murder? Why didn’t more Jews fight back more often” during his presentation at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2017: “Dough,” a film about a Jewish baker and a young assistant who also sells dope is scheduled to open at Reel Borehamwood in London.

2018: The Jerusalem Municipality sports department is scheduled to host a Zumba class at the First Station Compound.

2018(4th of Tammuz, 5778): Allen Weinstein, the son of New York Jewish delicatessen owners Samuel Weinstein and Sarah Popkov who became a leading academic, author and archivists passed away today.


2018: It was announced today that effective in October, Warner Music group would be relaunching the Elektra Music Group which had been started as Elektra Records in 1950 by Jac Holzman.

2018: In Atlanta, GA, the Bremen Museum is scheduled to host “MVP Monday.”

2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Studio 54,” which tells the story of the” NY Watering-hole”  founded by Ian Schrader and Steve Rubell, two Jews from Brooklyn.

2018: Following yesterday’s attempt by terrorists to burn homes in Beit HaGadi Moshav and the “suburbs surrounding Sderot,” Israel braces for another of round of incendiary balloons launched from Gaza today.

2019: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a performance David Sereo’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” in which it becomes “the story of two Jewish lovers, one from a Sephardi family and one from an Ashkenazi family.”

2019: In New York, at Guastavino’s the Aleph Society is scheduled to host its 25th annual dinner with a “program featuring New York Times columnist Bret Stephens in conversation with author Abigail Pogrebin.

2019: As part of his series on “The Ten Lost Tribes” Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum, the Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to lecture on the “Invasion of Sargon II and Sennacherib.”

2019: In Edmonton, Canada, the JNF is scheduled to host its “annual fundraiser.”

2019: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host The Knights as part of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts.

2019: After serious questions have been raised about the accuracy of Naomi Wolf’s research, her latest book Outrages will not go on sale today in the United States as originally planned.


2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a “conversation with Tony Kushner.

2020: Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to present “Backstage: The Making of Exhibits,” a live stream event in which attendees “discover what is involved in the development of an exhibit, from deciding on a concept to selecting objects, design and opening.”

2020: The JWA is scheduled to present Professor Karla Goldman as she lectures on “Jewish Women and the Suffrage Movement.”

2020: “Theater Dybbuk is scheduled to present a reading of a play about a decaying vaudeville troupe performing a subversive version of the anti-Semitic “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

2020: Congregation Or Atid is scheduled to present “Young Families Bedtime Stories With Rabbi Polisson”

2020: United With Israel is scheduled to host a webinar on “2 Jews, 3 Opinions: The Jewish Perspective on Disagreements, Fights and Rebellion!”






This Day, June 19, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 19

325: Promulgation of the Nicene Creed. The creed dealt with various splits among the various Christian groups and only dealt in a tangential manner with matters pertaining to Jews. The creed altered the method for selecting the date of Easter.  The change did not ban Easter from ever falling on the first day of Passover.  This change would be centuries away from being adopted. But by adopting even this change, the early Christian leaders showed the need to work very hard at separating their religion from Judaism.

1269: Louis IX (Saint Louis) of France, needing no urging from the Church, ordered all Jews found in public without a badge (yellow or red) to be fined ten livres of silver. The badge in France was usually a circle of red or yellow material and was known as a rouelle. The original badge was actually Moslem in origin (Caliph Omar II (717-20)) who decreed that both Jews and Christians wear a distinguishing mark. The "badge" took on different shapes colors and even dress (i.e. a hat or color of a dress) depending on the country.

1269: “King Louis IX of France …decrees that Jews found in public without a special badge will be fined ten livres of silver. Normally worn on the breast, the Jewish badge is either yellow or red and is designed to warn Christians when they are dealing with or simply near a Jew. Local officials around France repeat the requirement to better enforce the public segregation of Jews in this manner. The badges themselves are sold by the crown, so the government benefits financially two ways: first by selling them, and second by the fines when they aren't worn. (As reported by Austin Cline)

1286: Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg was imprisoned in a castle in Alsace, Lombardy.  At the time of his imprisonment, Reb Meir and his followers were trying to leave Germany following a new wave of persecution brought by Rudolph I.  “Tradition has it that a large ransom of 23,000 marks (approximately 15,144,900 U.S dollars today) was raised for him (by the ROSH), but Rabbi Meir refused it, for fear of encouraging the imprisonment of other rabbis. He died in prison after seven years. 14 years after his death a ransom was paid for his body by Alexander ben Shlomo (Susskind) Wimpen, who was subsequently laid to rest beside the Maharam.”  Reb Meir was also known by the term Maharam.  His erudition and piety earned him the appellation, ‘Light of the Exile.’ Meir was a leading commentator on Rashi’s explanations of the Talmud.  Such was his reputation that Ashkenazi communities in Italy, France and Germany looked to him for guidance when questions of law and/or custom arose.

1320: John XXII issued “Cum sit absurdum” a Papal Bull that stated that “Converted Jews need not be despoiled.”

1338: “In recognition of the good-will shown by the citizens of Vienna in time of distress, and in anticipation of its continuance, the Jews declared, in a document written in Hebrew and dated today in Vienna that they would lend to the citizens of Vienna, rich as well as poor, a pound of Vienna heller at a weekly interest of three heller.”

1565: Fifty year old Viennese cartographer Wolfgang Lazius who “suggested that after Babel the earliest Hebrews had migrated from Mesopotamia to German” and who found evidence of Hebrew in European languages passed away today.

1566: Mary, Queen of Scots, and her second husband, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley gave birth to James VI of Scotland, better known as King James I the first ruler of England, Scotland and Ireland, best known as the King James of King James Bible fame who insisted that experts in Hebrew be employed as part of the project.

1623: Birthdate of French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal.  Of the Jewish people Pascal wrote, “It is certain that in certain parts of the world we can see a peculiar people, separated from the other peoples of the world and this is called the Jewish people…. This people is not only of remarkable antiquity but has also lasted for a singularly long time… For where as the people of Greece and Italy, of Sparta, Athens and Rome and others who came so much later have perished so long ago, these still exist, despite the efforts of so many powerful kings who have tried a hundred times to wipe them out, as their historians testify, and as can easily be judged by the natural order of things over such a long spell of years. They have always been preserved, however, and their preservation was foretold… My encounter with this people amazes me…."

1630: After having “issued the first letter of safe passage to a Jew whose name was Albert Dionis in 1619, he granted general amnesty “to all Jews permanently in residence in Glückstadt” which was then part of Denmark as well as the “right to travel freely throughout the Kingdom of Denmark which at that time included what is now Norway.

1747: Nāder Shāh Afshār, the founder of the Afsharid dynasty, passed away. During his reign he reversed the anti-Jewish policies and practices that had been put in place by the Safawid’s dynasty which had ruled during the previous century.

1768: At Uman, the Haidamak Army under the command of Maksym Zalizniak slaughtered thousands of Jews in the Gonta Massacres.  The slaughter came at the end of the siege of Uman in which Ivan Gonta had betrayed the Polish garrison which led to its defeat.  The Polish commandment had tried to “buy the lives” of the Poles by giving up the Jews; a ploy that failed.  Led by Leib Shargorodoski and Moses Menaker, the Jews put up a valiant but futile defense.  The number of dead Jews which totaled more than 2,000 was inflated by the number of refugees who had sought refuge in the town.

1772: Birthdate of Salomon Oppehneim Jr. the German Jewish banker from Bonn who at the age of 17 founded a “commissions and exchange house” that became Sal. Oppenheim Company.

1778: R’ Asher Gunzburg and Gitlé Loëw gave birth to Fogel Loew

1790: The Gazette of the United States, a newspaper published in New York City provides an account of correspondence between the Hebrew Congregation of Savannah, Georgia and the newly elected President of the United States, George Washington.  Washington’s letter to the Georgia Jews ends with the following sentiments. “May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven and make the inhabitants of every denomination participated in the temporal and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is Jehovah.”

1790(7th of Tammuz, 5550): Saul Lowenstam “a renowned Dutch rabbi and Talmudist” passed away.  Born at Rzeszów in 1717 he was the son of Rabbi Areyh Leib ben Saul, the son-in-law of Rabbi Abraham Kahana and the father of Rabbi Jacob Moses Lowenstam. His writings included Binyan Ariel and a Torah Commentary, HeChatzer HaChadasha.

1792(29th of Sivan, 5552): Eighteen month old Heba bat Jacob Levi passed away today in the United Kingdom.

1800: Abraham Michel married Leah Isaacs at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1805: Joseph Hart married Lee Clara at the New Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1810: Birthdate of Hamburg native Ferdinand David, “the violin virtuoso and composer” who was born in the same house where Felix Mendelssohn had been born a year earlier.

1812: A day after Madison signed the congressional resolution declaring war on Great Britain, the public learned that the War of 1812 which resulted in Isaac Minis the son of Philip and Judith Minis serving as a private in a company of artillery that was part of the 1st Regiment of the Georgia Militia had begun.

1816: A year and a day after Wellington’s victory at Waterloo, Abraham Henry married Emma Lyon at the Hambro Synagogue.

1822: Aaron Hart married Rosa Harris at the Hambro Synagogue.

1826: Birthdate of Charles Loring Brace, author of The Unknown God; Or Inspiration Among Pre-Christian Races in which the author is impressed by the fact that there that are “so few evidences of Egyptian influence are found in the Hebrew faith.”  The thinkers and teachers of the Jews were visited by those higher and purer inspirations which have made them the greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history.

1832: Birthdate of Frédéric Emile Baron d’Erlanger, the French banker whose family converted to Christianity.  Despite the family’s conversion, the Baron is often erroneously identified as being Jewish. Erlanger created one of the earliest “junk bonds” based on the cotton trade during the Civil War.  This has led to other incorrect reports that Jews were responsible for financing the Confederacy’s war effort.

1843(21st of Sivan, 5603): Sixty-year old Austrian author and philosopher Ignaz Jeiteles who was working on a history of literature when he passed away today in Vienna.

1844: “The Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick “convoked by Levi Herzfeld and Ludwig Philippson” whose attendees included Solomon Formstecher, Samuel Hirsch, Mendel Hess, and Samuel Holdheim came to an end today.

1844: Moses Botibol married Jessie Myers at the Bevis Marks Synagogue.

1846: In London, Elias Benjamin and Mary Lazarus gave birth to Benjamin Raphael educated at Jews’ Free School in London who earned a doctorate of Jewish Law for Australia in 1874 and served as the rabbi at the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, Mound Street Temple in Cincinnati and the Fifteenth Street Temple in New York City before becoming the Associate Rabbi of Temple Beth Elohim at Brooklyn, NY in 1902.

1849: Bavarian bornLouis Loew Leopold Affelder and Regine Rosalia Affelder gave birth to Jette Affelder

1854: In Terre Haute, IN, Bernard Kuppeheimer and his wife gave birth to Jonas Kuppenheimer whose family, including brothers Louis and Albert moved to Chicago in 1870 where they established a clothing store that became one of the major men’s clothing brands in the United States. 

1857: The correspondent for the New York Times writes from London that the second reading of the Jew Bill has passed by an immense majority. Furthermore, the opposition seems to be waning and Rothschild is on his way to becoming “a Parliamentary saint” as opposed to an “unparliamentarily martyr.”

1865: Birthdate of Hanover native Alfred Hugenberg, the right-wing businessman and anti-Semite who thought he could use Hitler but instead turned out to be a steppingstone to the Nazi rise to legalized power.


1867: In Mobile, AL, “Samuel and Fanny (Wolf) Lyons” gave birth to University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College graduate Rabbi Alexander Lyons, the holder of advanced degrees from NYU and Columbia and husband of Ida Eisendrath who served congregations in Terre Haute and Albany before coming to the Eighth Avenue Temple in Brooklyn which he served for 37 years while founding “the Consumptives Jewish Aide Society of Brooklyn” and editing The Supplement, “a monthly magazine.’

1867: Ruthless beat out DeCourcey by a head over the old Jerome Park Racetrack to win the inaugural running of the Belmont Stakes and financed by August Belmont, Sr. for whom the race was named financed the building of the track.  The Belmont Stakes would move to its current home, Belmont Park, in 1905.

1871: In Nebraska, Edward Rosewater, a Jewish immigrant who supported abolition and served as a telegrapher in the Union Army published the first edition of the Omaha Bee

1877(8thof Tammuz, 5637): Rebbe Meir Horowitz of Dzhikov, the son of Rebbe Eliezer Horowitz of Dzhikov and the grandson of Rebbe Nattaliz Tzvi passed away today.

1877: As word of Judge Hilton’s decision to bar Joseph Seligman from the Grand Union Hotel because he was Jewish spread across the United States, hotel proprietors in Philadelphia said that banning patrons because they were Jewish was wrong.  Looking at it from strictly a financial point of view, they all agree that the money of “an Israelite” is as good as that “of a full-fledged American.”  Both Mr. Kingsley of the Continental and Mr. Ward of St. George, leading Philadelphia hotels, have had Seligman as a guest and would gladly do so again. While Judge Hilton’s action might have been permissible in New York, in Pennsylvania it would have been illegal.  Under that state’s law, hotel owners have to obtain a license that allows them “keep a hotel, inn or tavern and under the provisions of that license he cannot turn away any person from his hotel, unless he knows that such persons will cause great loss to his house and then he holds himself liable to a fine of $300 and three months imprisonment” as well as a suit for damages from the people who were denied rooms.

1877: At the popular resort of Long Branch, NJ, several hotel owners expressed their surprise that Joseph Seligman had been turned away from the Grand Union.  Even though he is Jewish, the hotel owners, some of whom had had him as a guest, said that he was a desirable guest.  However, many of them expressed the opinion that they did not want Jews staying at their hotels and were sympathetic with the stance taken by Judge Hilton.

1877: According to Edward Lauterbach, the attorney for Joseph Seligman, as of today hundreds of Jews have closed their accounts at the two stores owned by A.T. Stewart & Co which are controlled by Judge Hilton. This is but one example of Jewish support for Seligman whom Lauterbach declared is the leading Jew in the United States and is proudly acknowledged as such by his co-religionists.  Lauterbach said that Seligman might also pursue a case under the Civil Rights Law which would leave Hilton open to fines and imprisonment.

1877: The arrival of today’s New York Times at Saratoga Spring this afternoon has caused quite a stir with its report of the dispute between Judge Hilton and Joseph Seligman over the latter’s claim that he was not allowed to rent rooms at the Grand Union because he was Jewish.

1878: Birthdate of Yakov Mikhaylovich Yurovsky, the Bolshevik leader that some credit with overseeing the execution of the Czar after the Russian Revolution.

1879: The London News published an article describing the terms of the will of the late Baron Lionel de Rothschild.  The estate is valued to at 2,700,000 pounds. Sir Nathaniel de Rothschild and Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, the late Baron’s two sons, have been named as executors. 

1880: It was reported today that Sarah Bernhardt has signed a contract to give 60 performances at Booth’s Theatre in New York next winter. The contract calls for her to be paid 3,000 francs a night, one-third of the gross receipts, traveling expenses for herself and three companions and 3,000 francs a month for her hotel bill.  According to the great actress, she has had more lucrative offers but she accepted this because the 200,000 francs has been deposited at the Banque de France as a security bond.

1882: It was reported today that the United States manager for Sarah Bernhardt has signed a contract with Henry Irving the actor/owner of London’s Lyceum Company to perform their full repertoire during an American tour.  Among other things, American audiences will be treated to The Merchant of Venice featuring Ellen Terry in her famed portrayal of Portia and Irving’s unique portrayal of Shylock.  His dignified portrayal of Shakespeare’s most famous Jewish character is a departure from the norm of his time.

1882: “The Polish Jewish Colony” published today provided a detailed sketch of life among the Jews living on New York’s lower east side.

1883: In, “Smolian, Russia,” “Joseph and Anna (Leuchtiger) Slobin gave birth to Clark University educated mathematician Herman Lester Slobin, the husband of Alice Levy and the Professor serving as the “head of the Mathematics Department at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, NH.

1883: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society was among the private institutions devoted to the care of children that received a grant of funds from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment in New York City. The society received $1,810 out of a total of $30,255 in grants.

1884:Dr. Henry W. Schneeberger a Baltimore Rabbi was one of four people who signed a letter today addressed “to Sir Moses Montefiore, thanking him for his aid to the Russian Jews who had found a refuge in Baltimore. The letter continued to advise Montefiore that the Russian Jewish immigrants had established a school in honor of their benefactor. Dr. Schneeberger was one of the teachers in this school - teaching the immigrants in the daytime and also at night. Dr. Schneeberger also became their mentor in advising the Russian Jewish immigrants to become good American citizens and he cautioned against the radicalism of some in their midst.”

1884: After a rumor circulated through certain parts of the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod that a Jew had kidnapped a Christian child and taken it to a synagogue, a mob attacked the synagogue. During the riot 9 Jews were killed, six houses were wrecked and an untold number were plundered.

1886: Birthdate of Michael (Mihály) Fekete the Hungarian mathematician who made Aliyah in 1928 where he “was among the first instructors in the Institute of Mathematics at Hebrew University of Jersualem.

1886: The Manchester Guardian reported that the Visiting Committee of the Hebrew Congregations of Manchester and Liverpool has affected a "closer union between the Sephardic and Ashkenazic sections of the Jewish community."

1889: William E. Annin, the associate editor of the Omaha Bee wrote the following description today of Edward Rosewater, the Czech born Jew who was “the editor and publisher of the Omaha Bee.”

"Mr. Rosewater was par excellence the all-around man of the [Bee] establishment. He seemed to have obtained the secret of two of the attributes of Deity, he was omnipresent and apparently omniscient. He wrote heavy editorials and pungent editorial paragraphs; contributed local political news to the city page, clipped selections for the news columns, selected items for those startling chestnuts dubbed 'Connubial Bliss,''Peppermint Drops' and 'Honey for the Ladies,' regulated the business office a dozen times a day, and took subscriptions on the streets and advertising contracts from the merchants. I used to think his only sorrow was that he had not in addition been born a steam engine so that he could run the presses. . . "In addition to his ordinary duties above named, he constantly developed strong interest in local politics, and always had a dozen fights and twice that number of ward politicians on his hands. On city or county election days, The Bee office was usually depopulated and every man, from editor down, after rushing in copy, early took a whirl at the polls. After a hard day's work on election day, followed by an all-night session in collecting returns, the editor would bob up serenely at 9 o'clock the next morning with his arm full of exchanges and his mouth full of suggestions about the paper, . . ."His indomitable energy, his uncompromising persistency and his invincible pluck were at once the wonder and admiration of the office. . . . Overworked himself, he took his own high tension as the norm of work, and found it difficult to understand why all of his employees could not endure cheerfully the same racking. This made him often very unpleasant as an employer

1890: In Goniondz, Russia, “Isaac and Libby (Rahver) Roback” gave birth McGill University alum Abraham Aaron Roback, the Harvard PhD and psychologist, the contributor to Yiddish journals and faculty member at several schools including Clark University, MIT, Radcliffe and Harvard.

1890: Police officers Oram and English waited in vain for “a short, stout, red whiskered Polish Jew” named Marcus Goldstein to come to the Gill Engraving printing where he was supposed to retrieve plates for making lottery tickets that were thought to be part of counterfeiting scheme. (more tomorrow)

1891: It was reported today that applications for the summer session The Hebrew Technical Institute under the direction of Henry Leipziger may be made now at its building on Stuyvesant Street.

1891: The list of the graduates from Hebrew Technical Institute published today included Coleman Borwn, Jacob Brown, Joseph Elias, Morris Farkas, Joseph L. Gensler, Louis Gevertz, Arthur Gross, Philip Levenhal, Michale L. Levy, Marks Lisk, Joseph Mayer, Max Mayer, Mortimer L Newman, Hyman Rosensohn, Abraham Saruya, Rduolph Shack, August Schweitzer and Jacob Szabo.

1892: “Austrian Jew Baiters Thrashed” published today described an episode at Vienna’s Prater Restaurant, witnessed by a correspondent from the London Daily News during which three “Jew baiters” were thrashed by “a beardless youth” after enduring their taunts in silence. It turned out the young man was not Jewish but was in fact an English jockey who had several races at Vienna.

1892: It was reported today that Sarah “Bernhardt continues to play to big audiences in which is proving the most success of all her London seasons.

1892: “Rejected at the Theatre Francais” published today includes a negative review of Le Prince d'Aurec, a satire on the nobility by Henri Lavedan that features a Jewish banker named de Horn as the villain.

1893: Henry Gottgetreu, the attorney for the late Samuel Adler, spoke of behalf of himself and the family when he denied any knowledge of financial problems that Adler had been facing since they assumed that his “fortune” was “at least a quarter of a million dollars.” Mr. Adler had been active in a number of Jewish organizations including the Sons of Israel, the Sons of Benjamin and B’nai B’rith.

1893: “Hebrew Printers at Odds” published today described conflict between Jews workers including a declaration by the Central Labor Federation that “the Hebrew Typographical Union was the only true Hebrew printing union in New York” and a denunciation of the “Hebrew Typographical Union No. 317 as shoemakers, tailors and cloakmakers organized to fight Socialism.” (This small item gives a window into the internecine conflict of the Jewish working class; a conflict that was even more intense than the one with the businesses many of which were owned by Jews)

1893(5th of Tammuz, 5653): Fifty year old Adolph S. Jaeger, a prosperous cigar manufacturer who was, with his brother Morris S., co-owner of Jaeger Brothers, died today, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.


1893: It was reported today that the brass band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum played at the reception marking the opening of the Lebanon Hospital

1895: “Literary Notes” published today described the upcoming publication by G.P. Putnam of Israel Among the Nations, “as study of the Jews and anti-Semitism by Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu which has been translated into English by Frances Hellman

1895: In Vienna, Austria, Reuben Ben Mordechai Brainin and Marie (Masha, Mussa) Brainin gave birth to Joseph Brainin, a Corporal in the Jewish Legion who had enlisted while living in Montreal and after having served in Palestine was mustered out after which he married Salomea Newark and eventually served as executive Vice President of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute.


1896: “The Jews of Russia” published today describes the restrictive laws under which the Israelites have lived in the land of the Czars including the Ukase of 1727 that expelled the Jews from Russia, the Ukase of 1742 which did the same and the creation by Catherine II and Alexander I of special zone to which the Jews were to confine themselves.

1897: “The Talmud Again” published today provides an in-depth review of the two-volume New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud formulated and punctuated by Michael L Rodkinson which includes the original text and an English translation reviewed by Dr. Isaac W. Wise. Born in 1845, Rodkinson was the grandson of Aaron ha-Levi ben Moses, the son of Alexander Sender Frumkin and the half-brother of Israel Dov Bar Frumkin

1897: Among the gifts and contributions listed at the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Hebrew Technical Institute were $250 from Julius Goldschmidt for tools and physical instruments; a band saw from James Loeb; $500 from the late Bernard Cohen for lathes; $1,000 from the late Leopold Boscowitz for general supplies. (The nature of the contributions is consistent with vocational mission of the institute)

1897: “Articles of incorporation were filed” today “in the County Clerk’s office by the Sons of Abraham, a Hebrew benevolent society.”

1897: Mrs. Jennie Cohen who had been recently widowed and her four young children ranging in age from six years to four months arrived in New York from New Haven, CT and since they were destitute spent the night at the Hebrew Sheltering House Association at 210 Madison.

1897:  Birthdate of comedian Moe Howard who gained fame as one of the Three Stooges

1898: Two days after he had passed away, 37 year old Mordecai Park was buried today in London at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery.

1899: In Baltimore, MD, Dr. Richard Gottheil chaired the opening session of the second annual conference of the Federation of American Zionists.

1899: As of today the Federation of American Zionists has 10,000 members divided into “125 societies” with a total of $415.92 in its treasurer.

1899: This evening Rabbi Gustave Gottheil of New York’s Temple Emanu-El addressed a mass meeting in Baltimore in which “he delivered a bitter” indictment “against the injustice done Dreyfus.

1899: In his recent announcement of his resignation as pastor of the Calvary Presbyterian Church on West 116th Street in Manhattan, Reverend James Chambers predicted that the congregation would soon disband because of the changing nature of the neighborhood where “well-to-do residents of the Jewish faith…have crowded out their Christian neighbors.”

1900: “Russian Jewish immigrants Mikhail (Michael) Zametkin and Adella Kean Zametki” Cornell University graduate Laura Zametkin who gained fame novelist Laura Hobson, the author of Gentlemen’s Agreement and wife of Thayer Hobson with whom she had two children Michael and Christopher Hobson.

1900: Herzl and Wolffsohn settle their differences about the Trust's affairs. And Herzl asks his good dear "Daade" to address him by the familiar "Du" instead of the formal "Sie".

1901:1903: In Halle, Germany, Irmgard (née Wüst) and Friedrich Litten who had converted to Lutheranism gave birth to Hans Achim Litten, the attorney who defended anti-Nazis during trials held in the last years of the Weimar Republic and actually cross-examined Adolf Hitler – a cross-examination that led to his imprisonment, torture and death at Dachau

1902: Henry Freeman, the Russian born son of Rhoda and Abraham Simon Freeman was buried today at the Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Island.

1903: The British Foreign Office sends the first of two letters to Herzl rejecting his proposal to establish a Jewish colony in the Sinai.

1903: In Halle Irmgard (nee Wust) and Fritz Litten, “a Jews who converted to Lutheranism in order to further his career as a law professor” gave birth to Hans Litten, a lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis – a role that ended him in Dachau where he died.

1904: Birthdate of New Yorker Lester Cole, the son of a union organizer in the garment district who was a co-founder of the Writers Guild of America and whose membership in the Communist Party led to his being blacklisted as a member of the “Hollywood Ten.”

1905: “Stick to Palestine Plan” published described the opening session of the 8th annual convention of the Federation of American Zionists in Philadelphia during which the 230 delegates “adopted a resolution to the effect that that the International Zionist Congress, to be held at Basel this Summer be asked to reaffirm the Basel program of 1897.”

1906: In Berlin,Margarete (née Eisner) and Michael Chain gave birth to German born and educated British chemist, Sir Ernst Boris Chain.  Chain left Germany when the Nazis came to power.  As an English citizen this leading biochemist won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 for his work on the effects of penicillin.

1907: Captain Johann Kock, the former Finnish army officer turned revolutionary who has found refuge in the United States was quoted today as saying the Czar “is an ordinary man” who “cannot comprehend the situation and believes that at the bottom of all the troubles as the Jews and nobody else.”

1908: After selecting William Howard Taft, who would become the first sitting President to attend a Seder, the Republican National Convention adjourned today in Chicago, Illinois.

1909: Birthdate of Maurice Zimring, the native of Waterloo, Iowa who gained fame as “Maurice Zimm,an American radio, television and film writer, whose most famous creation was the Creature from the Black Lagoon.”


1910: Birthdate of Abe Fortas, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Fortas was a close friend and advisor to Lyndon Johnson. There are several stories about Fortas providing Johnson with what we would call a "reality check." Fortas was reluctant to give up his lucrative law practice and accept the position on the high court. He did tell Johnson that the Jewish community would not consider him as the "Jewish Justice" in the sense of a Brandies or Goldberg since he was not a part of that community. In the end Fortas gave into Lyndon’s famed arm-twisting and the rest is history. Fortas ended up resigning from the court in 1969 after questions were raised about some of his business dealings. Fortas passed away in 1982 at the age of 71.

1911: Today, the police have informed another one thousand Jews that they have eight days to leave by Kiev.

1912: In Philadelphia, PA, Jewish immigrants Ruth (née Herzog) and Israel Gabel, a jeweler, gave birth to actor, director and producer Martin Gabel


1913: In Chicago, The Temple Emanuel Woman’s Auxiliary is scheduled to hold its annual luncheon at the Bismarck Gardens this afternoon.

1913: When the Austrian Parliament met today Ignaz Kuranda, “a leader of the assimilations section of Austrian Jewry” spoke out against the riots at Vienna University which “embitter not only the Jews but every educated man” and through which “Austrian Nationalism will not gain in power” but which “the Jews will learn to appreciate the fact that anti-Semitism is growing in this country.”

1913: Abram I. Elkus addressed the graduates at the City College commencement ceremony.

1914: Louis D. Brandeis, special counsel to the Interstate Commerce Commission in the 5 per cent. advance rate case, to-day appeared before the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce in opposition to the Rayburn Stock and Bond bill, which proposes to confer authority upon the commission to control and approve issues of securities by common carriers.

1914: In Palo Alto, CA, Carol (née Dixon) and William MacGregor Cranston gave birth to Senator Alan Cranston who as “a correspondent for INS before WW II thought a recently released “abridged English-language translation of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, was sanitized to exclude some of Hitler's anti-Semitism and militancy” published a different translation (with annotations) which he believed more accurately reflected the contents of the book and for which Hitler successfully sued him for “copyright violation.”

 1915: In the Bronx, Romanian-Jewish immigrants “Joseph and Bertha Schwartz to cartoonist Julius Schwartz who as an editor at DC Comics worked on Superman and Batman.


1915: Friends and family of Leo Frank, including his wife, father and mother visited him “in his cell in the Tower today” as they awaited word as to whether or not Governor Slaton would commute is sentence to life in prison.

1915: The Jews of Morocco suffered indignities under the French regime that were unknown while under the rule of the old sultans.

1916: The Adjutant General of the New York National guard “ended the public hearings…in the investigation to determine whether discrimination had shown against Jews in the National Guard” despite objections by Maurice Simmons “who has been presenting the case for the Jews.”

1916: It was reported today that “a gift of $165,000 to Mount Sinai Hospital has just been announced by the Guggenheim brothers of the American Smelting and Refining Company” which “supplements previous gifts of more than $500,000 already given by the Guggenheim brothers.”

1916: The delegates to the eighth annual convention of the Federation of Russian-Polish Jews of America are scheduled to meet for a second session tonight at seven o’clock at the Harlem Hebrew Educational Institute.

1916: It was reported today that Louis D. Brandies, Louis Edward Levy of Philadelphia and Dr. Harry Friedenwald are scheduled to be among the speakers at next week’s annual convention of the Federation of American Zionists which will be held at the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia.

1917: In Alexandria, Egypt, Nelly Grün and Leopold Percy Hobsbaum gave birth to “Eric J. Hobsbawm, whose three-volume economic history of the rise of industrial capitalism established him as Britain’s pre-eminent Marxist historian.” (As reported by William Grimes)

1917: In Chicago, The Baron Hirsch Workers are scheduled “to hold a directors’ meeting this after at the Lincoln Park.

1917: Dr. Bernard Revel, President of the Faculty of the Rabbinical College of America opened “the first annual meeting of the Society of Jewish Academicians” in New York by delivering “an address on ‘The Place of Jewish Scholarship in America.’”

1917: Based on information from the American minister to Sweden, Abram I. Ilkus, the American Ambassador to Turkey has left Constantinople and is scheduled to arrive in Berne today.

1917: “The cornerstone of the new synagogue to be erected at 257-265 West Eighty-Eighth Street for the Congregation B’nai Jeshurun” one of the oldest congregations in New York “was set in place”

1917: Twenty-six year old Richmond, VA born dentist Harry Bear married Betty Gellman

1918: In Fitzgerald, GA, gave birth to “Sam Abram, a harness maker and storekeeper born in Romania, and the former Irene Cohen, the daughter of a doctor and a granddaughter of Rabbi Elias Eppstein, one of the first Reform rabbis in the United States gave birth to Morris Berthold Abram, the advocate for Civil Rights and President of Brandeis University. (As reported by William Honan)



1918: Today Leopold and Johanna Bluethenthal received the kind of wartime telegram confirming the news that their son, Arthur, had died fighting for the Allied cause in Europe making him the first resident of Wilmington, NC, to die in combat during the First World War.

1919:  Birthdate of movie critic Pauline Kael.  As movie critic for the New York Times, Kael was one of the most influential influences in the world of cinema criticism.  With her high quality of writing and edgy style, she was a trend setter in an era when women were too often consigned to the style section and gossip columns.

1920: The first anti-Semitic article appeared in the Dearborn Independent, owned by Henry Ford who was a Jew hater part excellence.

1921: “The Eighth Annual Flower Day of the Jewish National Fund” is scheduled to be observed today in Jewish communities throughout the United States.

1925: In Detroit, Michigan, Morris Burros, “an unsuccessful furrier and inventor” and the former Clara Krellman gave birth to Marion Ann Burrow who gained fame as Marian Javits, the wife of Jacob Javits, the U.S. Senator from New York and a leader of the Republican Party’s liberal wing.


1925: In a cave at Tabgha, near Jerusalem, archaeologists discover a primitive human skull that bears a close resemblance to the Neanderthal man previously discovered in Europe.

1926: Birthdate of New Jersey native Dr. Erna Schneider Hoover “an American mathematician notable for inventing a computerized telephone switching method which "revolutionized modern communication" according to several reports.”

1926: “Footloose Widows” a comedy filmed by cinematographer David Abel was released in the United States today.

1926: Birthdate of Luxembourg native Arno Joseph Mayer whose family fled to the United States after the Nazi invasion which led to his successful career that culminated in being named “Dayton-Stockton Professor of History, Emeritus, at Princeton University.”


1927(19thof Sivan, 5687): Sixty-eight year old Zippporah Alice DeCastro Lazaron, the New Orleans born daughter of Jacob Osoro DeCastro and Hannah Haim DeSola DeCastro , the husband of Atlanta, GA native Samuel Louis Lazaron and the mother of Savannah, GA native Rabbi Samuel Lazaron passed away today in Baltimore ,MD.


1928(1stof Tammuz, 5688): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1928(1stof Tammuz, 5688): Just weeks short of his 61st birthday labor leader Joseph Baroness known as “the King of the Cloakmakers” passed away today.


1929: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for sixty-nine year old Columbia Unversity trained attorney Edgar J. Nathan, the New York City born son of Gershom and Rosalie Gomez, the scion of several the city’s oldest Sephardic families, and partner of Justice Benjamin N. Cardoza who was the husband of Sara N. Solis and the father of Edgar J. Nathan, Jr the Manhattan Borough President.

1929: “At a joint meeting of the Prague Chevra Kadisha…and the Kehillah board” “went on record as opposing the burial of the ashes of cremated bodies in the Jewish cemeteries” because that was a violation of “Jewish religious traditions.”

1930: Mrs. Samuel Halprin wrote to “American attorney, social worker, and philanthropist” Joseph C. Hyman

1932(15thof Sivan, 5692): Ninety-one Myrtilla Eduora Mitchell, the Philadelphia born daughter Abraham Hart and Rebecca Cohen Hart and husband of  Lewis Allen Mitchell with whom she had four children – Estelle, Irving, Percival and Clarence Mitchell passed away today Philadelphia.

1933(25thof Sivan, 5693): Fifty-one year old Ukrainian born chazzan Jose “Yossele” Rosenblatt passed away today in Jerusalem.


1933: On a day when he received an honorary degree from Brown University Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo of the United States Supreme Court delivered an address to the alumni of that Rhode Island institution of higher education in which he declared, “The day is past when problems of public law can be solved by pulling down the law books and marking without other aids the "signposts on the road,"

1933: Cardinal Pacelli issued a concordant known as the Hitler Concordant. Hitler described it as "unrestricted acceptance of National Socialism by the Vatican." Cardinal Pacelli later became Pope Pious XII.

1933:  “The annual convention of the Council of Young Israel Organizations” which was attended by “delegates from the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Poland” and is being held at “the Hotel Clarendon-Brunswick” in Asbury, NJ.is scheduled to come to an end today.

1934: American author Nathaniel West, the son of Litvak immigrants to the United States, published A Cool Million, the second of the three novels he created during his career which was cut short by an untimely death in an automobile accident.

1934(6th of Tammuz, 5694): Seventy-six German businessman Max Pinkus passed away at Neustadt, Germany.

1934: It was reported today that the newly elected officers of the Central Conference of American Rabbis are Rabbi Samuel Goldenson of Temple Emanu-El in New York, President; Rabbi Felix A. Levy of Chicago, Vice President; Rabbi Samuel Gup of Columbus, OH and Rabbi Isaac E. Marcuson of Macon, GA, Secretaries; Rabbi Harry S. Margolis of St. Paul, MN, Treasurer.

1934: Hundreds of kosher butcher shops owners are scheduled to attend a meeting at Webster Hall sponsored by The Federation of Kosher Shop Owners in Greater New York, led by President Charles Cohen where they will decide whether or not to close their shops as a protest “against the high prices packers are forcing them to pay for their meats.”

1935: In Palestine, the German consulate advised Jews not to travel to Germany, not even if they are citizens and not even for short trips. According to the consul, Jews entering Germany are likely to be apprehended by the Gestapo and placed in a concentration camp.

1936: “Great Britain is determined to restore order in Palestine, ‘even if it means using inevitably harsh measures,’ Colonial Secretary William G.A. Ormsby-Gore told the House of Commons today at the end of a full-length debate on recent disturbances in the Holy Land.”

1936: Rabbi B.A. Tinner delivered the Friday night sermon at the Temple of the Covenant on West 180th Street in New York.

1936: “We Went to College” a comedy produced by Harry Rapf who co-authored the script along with Richard Maibaum was released in the United States today.

1936: Leopold S. Amery, the former Colonial Secretary told the House, “nothing could be more cruel than the position in which the German Jews are placed today.”

1936: This evening in New York Georg Bernhard, the German editor-in-chief of the Pariser Tageseitung who has been living in exile in Paris since Hitler came to power “gave a farewell address on “A World Jewish Question” in which he said that world was no longer interested in the persecution of the Jews by the Nazis” and that “consequently, the entire German Jewry is now exposed to torture and slavery.”

1936: Earl Winterton, former Under-Secretary for India told the House of Commons that he “thought the Jews had ‘behaved admirably on the whole’ and complimented them for what they had done in Palestine” adding that he loathed “the manner in which they have been treated in a certain country of Europe.”

1936: As Arab violence continues to sweep across Palestine, The Palestine Post reported that one Jew was killed and several deafened and injured by a primitive bomb which was thrown into a bus in Tel Aviv. Avraham Ben-Yehuda, one of the original founders of Atarot, died of injuries sustained when Arab snipers opened fire on a bus in Jerusalem. Trees were cut down and the aerodrome damaged at Lydda. The Jerusalem water pipe was damaged by a dynamite charge. Two Arabs injured themselves seriously while trying to blow up a road culvert near Nablus.

1937(10th of Tammuz, 5697): Parashat Chukat

1937: “Member of the National Democratic Party asked the Polish Government today to prevent Jews of Brzesc from receiving financial aid from American Jewry for reopening shops destroyed in anti-Semitic riots” because “Brzesc was an important military center should not be inhabited by Jews.”

1938: On the 22nd anniversary of the Battle of Verdun, “1,000 Jewish and non-Jewish veterans including General Andre Weller,” attending the “unveiling of a monument at Doumont”, honoring “6,500 French Jews and 2,000 Americans and British Jews of the Foreign Legion who fell in the war” heard “Deputy Caesar Campinchi, speaking on behalf of the French Government” condemning persecution and advising “Jews to remember history, to be patient and not to despair.

1939: The Mizrachi Women's Organization opened its first independent meeting in Atlantic City. Although it was the group's fourteenth annual meeting, it was the first conducted separately from a men's organization. Now the largest religious Zionist organization in the United States (under the name AMIT), the organization owes its creation to Freda Resnikoff.

1939: Governor Lehman addressed the delegates attending the convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham in Convention Hall at Saratoga Springs, NY.

1939:In Palestine, eighteen Arabs--nine men, six women and three children-- were killed and twenty-four wounded by the explosion of a time bomb. In replying to accusations by the British that Jews were responsible for the violence, “Jewish communal leaders condemned the ‘dastardly murder of innocent Arabs, women and children.’”

1940(13th of Sivan, 5700):Zalman David Levontin passed away. Born in 1856, he was one of the first of the Hovevei Zion group and one of the founders of Rishon LeZion and Yesod Hamaaleh. In 1903, Levontin founded the Anglo Palestine Bank in Jaffa and acted as its manager until 1924.

1941: Today, the residents of Metulla, “a Jewish agricultural community” were recovering from the destruction from the French artillery attacks launched from Merdjayoun.” (It is assumed that these French forces were under the control of Vichy which shows to what extent the Petain, et al would go to serve their fellow fascists.”

1941: Rabbi Leo Jung, a Professor of Ethics, presided over “special services” marking the “150th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill Rights” which were held today prior to the 10thannual Commencement Exercises at Yeshiva University.

1942: Today, after being held in three different prisons,Titus Brandsma, a Carmelite priest who been arrested by German occupiers in Holland for speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan” “arrived” at Dachau today where he was later murdered by lethal injection.

1942(4th of Tammuz, 5702): Jews revolt at Glebokie, Belorussia; 2500 are murdered in the Borek Forest.

1942: The family of famed historian Moses Schorr including his wife, his daughter Felicia and his grandchildren were “interned at Warsaw’s Pawiak Prison as citizens of a neutral state.”

1942: Birthdate of Jack Edward Oliver author of the “Swan Esther,” a 1982 musical based on the Megalith Esther.

1943: Today, while stationed at Camp Croft in Spartanburg, SC, twenty year old Private Henry Kissinger “became a naturalized citizens

1943: Joseph Goebbels announces that Berlin is free of Jews.

1944(28thof Sivan, 5704): Forty-four year old Lilli Jahn “a German-Jewish doctor and victim of the Nazism in Germany who gained international fame posthumously following the publication of her letters to her five children which she wrote during her imprisonment in the labor camp Breitenau after which she was deported to the concentration camp Auschwitz  where she was murdered today.


1944: Five hundred Jews were transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to the work camp at Dachau.

1945: Judge Irving Lehman, the brother of former Governor Herman Lehman, delivered the address of welcome at New York City's reception honoring General Dwight D. Eisenhower, who has returned from leading the Allies to victory over the Nazis.

1945: In Birmingham, Alabama, Rosemary (Loftus) and Arthur Samuels Wolff, an aeronautical engineer “from a Jewish background” gave birth to author Tobias Wolff who did not find out his “Jewish connection” until he was an adult.

1946: Today, in a memorandum to the State Department, the American Jewish Committee urged the “United States to recommend to the British government the immediate admission of 100,000 Jews to Palestine and indicated willing to assist in transferring these refugees.

1947: It was reported today that “The memory of 6,000,000 European Jews, including those who fell in the Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto and those who died by Nazi gas and guns in concentration camps, will be kept alive by a monument being designed by Jo Davidson, the sculptor, for Riverside Park at Eighty-fourth Street…”

1948: Panama and Costa Rica (recognized Israel.

1949: “Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, Acting United Nations Mediator on Palestine said tonight that he did not know of any recent sniping by Israeli soldiers of any Israeli preparations for an armed attack against the Laturun area.

1949: In Queens, NY, “Shirley and Arthur Canton, who worked in the film industry on marketing and publicity, e.g. for Lawrence of Arabia” gave birth to movie producer and Hollywood executive Mark Canton

1950: In Toronto, Ruth (née Burstyn), an interior designer, and comedian Frank Shuster gave birth to comedy writer, who during the 1970’s was the wife of Saturday Night Live’s creator Lorne MIchaels

1950: Israel apologized to the Swedish Government today for the assassination of Count Bernadotte, United Nations Mediator for Palestine, by terrorists on Sept. 17, 1948.

1951: For the first time, a Soviet citizen (Jewish) was issued an immigrant visa to Israel. The hoped-for easing of the Russian policy of not letting its citizens out would not materialize for decades to come.

1951(15thof Sivan, 5711): Fifty nine year old Polish born “painter and printmaker” Joseph Hecht passed a away today.


1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Knesset passed the first reading of a bill empowering the government to sign an agreement with Bank Leumi Le'Israel, nominating the bank as the currency issue bank of Israel.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the secretary of the Iraqi Jewish Community Council, Dr. Habasi, was detained by police in Baghdad together with seven other Jews, on charges of hiding "huge quantities of arms." All of the detained previously renounced their Iraqi citizenship and were waiting for emigration to Israel.

1952: CBS broadcast the first episode of the original version of “I've Got a Secret” created by Allan Sherman and produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman

1952:Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion expressed satisfaction today that the Zionist Organization of America at its convention in New York this week had cleared up the misunderstanding about the right of foreign Zionists to participate in the shaping of Israel's policies.

1952: Birthdate of actress Carol Kane who played Simka on the television show Taxi.

1953(6thof Tammuz, 5713): Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who had been convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, relating to passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union.

1954: In Flushing, NY, “Hy Pearlman, who ran a dry cleaning business, and Reenie Pearlman, a school lunchroom aide” gave birth to “music executive” Louis Jay "Lou" Pearlman, “the first cousin of Art Garfunkel. (As reported by Liam Stack)


1954: François Mitterrand, the future President of France, was named to serve as Minister of the Interior in the first government head by prime Minister Pierre Mendes France who served as his own Minister of Foreign Affairs.

1954: “Them!” a highly forgettable sci-fic flic whose only claim to fame was that it featured one of the first screen appearances by Leonard Nimoy was released in the United States today.

1957: Saul Rogovin pitched his last major league baseball game.

1959: The U.S. Senate rejects Ike's appointment of Lewis Strauss for Secretary of Commerce.  At a time when most Jews were Democrats, Strauss was a Republican. He was part of the liberal, internationalist wing of the party.  He had worked with Herbert Hoover on war relief during World War I.  Strauss made special efforts to see to that aid from the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee got to the Jews of Europe who were in dire straits.  He served in the Navy during World War II and became involved in atomic energy.  He was rejected because of his role in dealing with Robert J. Oppenheimer. 

1962:  In San Fernando, CA, Harry Abdul, a Syrian Jew raised in Brazil and the concert pianist Lorraine M. (née Rykiss), who grew up in one of the two Jewish families in Minnedosa, Manitoba in Canada gave birth to pop star Paula Abdul.

1962(17th of Sivan, 5722): Seventy-nine year old Arnold K. Israeeli the St. Petersburg born and educated lawyer who pursued a career in journalism and business that included serving as “advertising manager for General Motors in South American for five Years and the “director of information for the American Zionist Council” passed away today in Brooklyn.


1963: After 304 performances at the Sheridan Square Playhouse, the curtain came down “The Days and Nights of BeeBee Fenstermaker” directed by Ulu Grosbard.

1963: “PT 109” a war movie about JFK’s days in the South Pacific featuring Norman Fell was released in the United States today.

1964: The United States Senate passed The Civil Rights Bill that would eventually become the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This landmark legislation outlawed a variety of forms of discrimination including that based on religion. The bill, which was primarily aimed at ending racial segregation, had support from Jewish groups and Jewish legislators. In the House, the bill was managed by Congressman Cellar who helped bring it to victory in that body.

1965: A novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", the last published work of J.D. Salinger appeared today in The New Yorker magazine

1966(1st of Tammuz, 5726): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1966(1st of Tammuz, 5726): Comedian Ed Wynn passed away. Born Isaiah Edwin Leopold in 1886 in Philadelphia, Wynn’s father was a successful milliner. He did not want his son to go into show business. When the son would not yield, his father asked him to at least change his name so as not to disgrace the family. He decided to split his first name "Edwin" into Ed Wynn. Wynn was a successful comic in vaudeville and the early days of show business. He had his own show, which won an Emmy. He would appear in baggy pants suits pedaling a tricycle fitted with a piano. When his brand of clown-like comedy lost its popular appeal, Wynn followed the advice of his son and turned to acting. He appeared in a wide variety of hits including Marjorie Morningstar, The Diary of Anne Frank and Mary Poppins attesting to his real skill as an actor.


1967: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol announced that "as an interim stage, a military situation will remain in the West Bank."

1967: “In a secret decision, the government of Levi Eshkol offered Syria ‘full peace on the basis of the international border,’ with adjustments for Israeli security needs.”

1967: “The Thomas Crown Affair” an elegant crime movie featuring Jack Weston and Yaphet Kotto and filmed by cinematographer Haskell Wexler was released today in the United States.

1970: Two days after he had passed away funeral services were scheduled to held for seventy-eight year old Herbert Brutus Ehrmann, the Louisville, KY born son of “Hilmar ‘Hillel’ Ehrmann and Erna Ehrmann” and Harvard trained attorney best known for his role in the defense of Sacco and Vanzettia who raised two sons Rabbi H. Bruce Ehrmann and Dr. Robert L. Ehrmann with “his wife, the former Sara Rosenfeld”



1972(7thof Tammuz, 5732): Sixty-nine year old Long Island College Hospital trained pathologist Dr. William Antopol, the husband of “the former Bella Scholer” and father of Michael and Stephen Antopol who was serving as “director of laboratories and research at Beth Israel Medical Center” when he passed away today in San Francisco.

1972 New York City native Susan Stamberg co-hosted National Public Radio’s (NPR) All Things Considered for the first time.


1972: “One Is a Lonely Number” directed by Mel Stuart, produced by Stan Margulies, with a script by David Seltzer and co-starring Melvyn Douglas and Jonathan Lippe was released today in the United States.

1973: An attack on the El Al office in Athens was thwarted and the Palestinian terrorist was able to gain his freedom as part of a hostage negotiation conducted by local police.

1974: Seventy-three year old American molecular biologist Alfred Mirsky passed away.


1974: Vladimir Slepak, Anatoly Sharansky, Lev Kogan, Alexander Lunts, Yuli Kosharovsky and Zahar Tesker were among those arrested today in an attempt to silence an Jewish protest that might be planned for the upcoming visit to the Soviet Union by President Nixon.

1977: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today in New York for David Kulock, “the Past President of the Insurance Fund of the Free Sons of Israel.

1977: “A monument to the memory of the late Bella Hoffman” is scheduled to be unveiled today.

1979: Today, Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan District Attorney announced that fifteen Manhattan residents including Julius Berkowitz and Albert H. Berntstein, had been “indicted on charges that they had paid bribes…to avoid jury duty.”

1979: Birthdate of Daniel Jonathan Sieradski “a Jewish American writer and activist” who was “the founding publisher and editor-in-chief of Jewschool, a popular left-wing Jewish weblog, as well as the weblogs Radical Torah and Orthodox Anarchist. He is also the creator of the synagogue listings and reviews website ShulShopper.”

1980: In Charleston, SC, the Greek Revival building housing Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Synagogue was designated as a National Historic Landmark. For those who think of American Jewry as being a New York or eastern creation, it comes as a surprise that this is the second oldest synagogue building in continuous operation in the United States.  Also, when this congregation adopted the Reform minhag in 1824 it became one of the founding forces of the Reform Movement in the United States – something most people connect with Cincinnati, Ohio.

1980: “Rough Cut” directed by Don Siegel, produced by David Merrick and with a screenplay by Larry Gelbart was released in the United States today.

1981: The United States Security Council adopted a resolution condemning Israel’s attack on the Iraqi nuclear reactor being built near Baghdad.

1983(8th of Tammuz, 5743): Simcha Erlich, the native of Poland who made Aliyah in 1938 where he became a political ally of Menachem Begin under whom he served as Deputy Prime Minister passed away today.

1984(19th of Sivan, 5744): Seventy-five year old Lena Krasner, the Brooklyn born daughter of  “Russian Jewish immigrants “Chane (nee Weiss) and Joseph Krasner,who gained fame as abstract expression painter Lenore “Lee” Krasner, the wife and helpmate in the truest sense of that word, of Jackson Pollock passed away today.


1984(19thof Sivan, 5744) Sixty-three year old, Egyptian anesthesiologist Jack Chalon, the son of William and Helen (Hirsch) Chalon and the husband of Barbara Elizabeth Coombs with whom he had two children – Mary and Jonathan – passed away today.

1987: Ben & Jerry Ice Cream founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield announce a new ice cream flavor, “Cherry Garcia.”

1988(4th of Tammuz, 5748): Seventy-four year old Ralph Lazarus, the Columbus, OH born son of Meta and Fred Lazarus, husband of Gladys Lazarus and “Chairman of Federated Department Stores, whose many divisions included such prominent chains as Abraham & Straus, Bloomingdale's, Bullock's, Filene's and Foley' passed away today in Cincinnati after which he was buried in his hometown.


1989(16th of Sivan, 5749): Writer and social critic I(sidor) F(einstein) Stone passes away at the age of 81.


1992: In Palermo, the Fifth International Convention of Studies of "Italia Judaica" came to a close.

1993: Philosopher and movie star Bernard-Henri Levy married actress Arielle Bombasle.

1993(30th of Tammuz, 5753): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1993(30th of Tammuz, 5753): Seventy-five year old philosopher Abraham Kaplan passed away in Haifa where he had been living since 1972.


1994(10th of Tammuz, 5754): Sheina Chaya, the wife Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv and the daughter of Rabbi Aryeh Levin passed away.

1994: The BBC broadcast the final episode of “That’s Life!” a mixture of news and satire featuring Esther Rantzen as Presenter.

1994: The New York Timespublished a review of History of Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprisingby Israel Gutman. "They refused to surrender, preferring instead to fight to the death and thus preserve their honor," Israel Gutman writes in Resistance, his account of the band of starving Jews who fought the Nazis in Poland in April 1943. Mr. Gutman, a Holocaust survivor who teaches modern Jewish history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and is the director of the research center at Israel's national Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, intelligently outlines the elements that weakened the Jewish resistance movement in Warsaw. These included not only Nazi air attacks and arson, food and water shortages and the neglect of the Polish underground resistance movement, but also the abandonment of the ghetto by its most prominent political leaders and arguments among the many rival Jewish organizations over a course of action. One wishes that Mr. Gutman had recorded events chronologically rather than switching back and forth in time. One longs for more information about heroes like Mordecai Anielewicz, the brave underground leader who escaped Warsaw but returned to command the uprising, and Yitzhak Zuckerman, the uprising's deputy commander, who survived to write about it. Still, Resistance, which is published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, lucidly illustrates how a few hundred Jewish fighters with Molotov cocktails, homemade grenades and no military training twice forced the Germans to retreat from the ghetto and refused to go like lambs to the slaughter.

1995:The cartoon strip Rhymes With Orange appeared in syndication for the first time. With its debut, twenty-five-year-old cartoonist Hilary Price became the youngest woman ever to have a nationally-syndicated cartoon strip. (JWA)

1995:David Libai begins his term as Minister of Internal Affairs.

1995: Jean-François Copé began his first term as Mayor Meaux.

1996(2nd of Tammuz, 5756): G. David Shine passed away. Roy Cohn, the Chief Counsel, named Shine as investigator for the McCarthy Committee, which was supposedly exposing the Communist Conspiracy during the 1950’s. Shine was drafted and McCarthy claimed the drafting of his investigator was part of the Communist Conspiracy to thwart his efforts. He attacked the U.S. Army for being involved in the Communist Conspiracy. These charges led to the famous Army-McCarthy Hearings, which led to his downfall.

1996(2nd of Tammuz, 5756): Bessie Margolin the Russian born labor attorney who grew up at the Jewish Children’s Home in New Orleans before graduating from Sophie Newcomb College and Tulane Law School passed away today.



1996: The Eldridge Street Synagogue was designated as a National Historic Landmark. Located at 12 Eldridge Street on New York’s lower east side, it was built in 1887 to meet the needs of the growing population of eastern European Jews. As demographics changed, the synagogue fell on hard times in the 1950’s.  In the 1980’s restoration projects began which reinvigorate and physically restore the synagogue.

1998(25th of Sivan, 5758): Eighty-nine year old New York native Dora Goldwater, the daughter of Pauline Meltsner and Joseph Goldwater passed away today in Florida.

2000: Debut of “The Passenger,” a fictional offering by Marisa Silver.


2001(28th of Sivan, 5761): Fifteen year old Yevgeniya Dorfman from Bat Yam died today from the injuries she suffered during the Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing in Tel Aviv.

2001(28th of Sivan, 5761): Seventy-nine year old Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, president from 1966 to 1971 of the Jewish Theological Seminary, the academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism, passed away today (As reported by Ari L. Goldman)


2002(9th of Tammuz, 5762): Seven people were killed and 50 injured, three of them critically, when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded bus stop and hitchhiking post at the French Hill intersection in northern Jerusalem shortly after 7:00 P.M., as people were returning home from work. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Noa Alon, 60, of Ofra; Gal Eisenman, 5, of Ma’ale Adumim; Michal Franklin, 22, of Jerusalem; Tatiana Igelski, 43, of Moldova; Hadassah Jungreis, 20, of Migdal Haemek; Gila Sara Kessler, 19, of Eli; and Shmuel Yerushalmi, 17, of Shilo

2003: In New York, The Israel Fest Foundation proudly presented Academy Award winning director Milos Forman with the 19th Israel Film Festival 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award and Israeli director Dina Zvi Riklis with the 2003 IFF Cinematic Award. The Award Ceremony is followed by the premiere of the hit romantic comedy Wisdom of the Pretzel directed by Ilan Heitner, starring Guy Loel, Osnat Hakim & Yoram Sachs.

2003: Rudy Giuliani led the U.S. delegation to the first Organization for Security and Cooperation conference on anti-Semitism being held in Vienna.  The conference came about, in part, because of the strong support from the Bush Administration.

2003(19th of Sivan, 5763): Avner Mordechai, 58, of Moshav Sde Trumot, was killed when a suicide bomber blew up in his grocery on Sde Trumot, south of Beit Shean. The suicide bomber was killed. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

2004(30thof Sivan, 5764): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2004: Thousands of additional Jews, including Lubavitchers and non-Lubavitchers are observing Shabbat in Crown Heights today in anticipation of the 10 anniversary of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh grand rebbe of the Lubavitch Hasidic movement which will begin on Monday evening according to Jewish law.

2005: Seventy-five year old foreign correspondent James Feron, who covered the Six Days War for the New York Times passed away today.


2005: Eric Edelman completes his service as United States Ambassador to Trukey.

2005: The Washington Post reported that meetings had been held over the weekend at Yifat, Israel in which Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced that he would seek the top spot in Israel’s government.  Despite the fact that he is now 81 and that he has failed to accomplish the goal in four previous attempts. Peres thinks that now is the time for him to finally reach his goal.

2005: The Washington Post reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared from Jerusalem, “that her meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders convinced her that both sides share a commitment to ensuring Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza takes place smoothly and peacefully.” 

2005:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently release paperback editions of Letters to a Young Lawyer by Alan Dershowitz and Sweet Land Storiesby E.L. Doctorow.

2006: Haaretz reported on the Sderot's municipal council decision to seal off the city's entrance for a 24-hour period in protest of continuing Qassam rocket attacks by Palestinians against the western Negev city. “Sderot is going on strike and no one will enter or leave it," Sderot mayor Eli Moyal said. Kassam attacks have left five dead and dozens wounded over the past months.

2006: In Romania and France, premiere of “Them” a Franco-Romanian horror film starring Michaël Cohen as “Lucas.”

2006: Jerusalem Finding 'Oxygen' In Revival of Creative Arts, published today describes the renaissance of the arts taking place in Jerusalem.  The artistic renaissance covers a full spectrum of endeavors and is having a positive influence on the spiritual rejuvenation of the City of David.  [Editor’s Note - What is even more amazing, this is article is devoid of the usual “stuff” that permeates almost all reporting on Israel and Jewish culture in the Middle East.]

2006: Israel's ambassador to Germany presented medals of honor on to relatives of five members of the first "European Union" - an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews during World War Two. This European Union, which had the same name but nothing to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground, Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a protocol prepared by Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

2006: Carol Vogel described the history of Gustav Klimt’s Adele Bloch-Bauer I in “Lauder Pays $135 Million, a Record, for a Klimt Portrait.”


2007(3rdof Tammuz, 5767):Seventy four year old Zeev Schiff, the dean of Israeli military correspondents, defense editor of the newspaper Haaretz and author of numerous books, died today in Tel Aviv.


2007: The second annual Jerusalem Jazz Festival opens in Israel’s capital city.

2007(3rdof Tammuz, 5767): Yahrzeit for the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

2007: Rachel Elizabeth Levin, daughter of Michelle Levin and sister of Jacob Levin, arrives in Lubbock, Texas. 

2008: Hazak Week of Study comes to an end.

2008: At Temple Chai in Long Grove, Illinois, Israeli author Eva Etzioni-Halevy speaks about her latest biblical novel, “The Triumph of Deborah.”

2008:More than 100 Israeli political and cultural leaders from across the political spectrum have signed a petition to Yad Vashem that they present to Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev urging the Holocaust museum to add material about the Holocaust rescue activists known as the Bergson Group to its exhibits..”

2008: The agreement for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip is to go into effect at 6 A.M.

2008: The United Nations’ Children Fund (UNICEF) swore off any relationship with Israeli diamond mogul, Lev Leviev because of his construction of settlements on the West Bank.

2009: Police officers, Holocaust survivors and employees of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum gathered at the Ebenezer AME Church on Allentown Road in Fort Washington today for the funeral services for security officer Stephen T. Johns who was slain last week in an attack at the popular Washington museum. The funeral began about 11 a.m. but the first mourners got to the church around 7:30. Johns's bronze coffin arrived at the church in a white hearse and was carried in by an honor guard of officers from the Metropolitan Police Department and the Smithsonian Museum. At 9 a.m. mourners were allowed in to view the body, walking up to two security guards posted on both sides of the open casket. Leading the mourners were Johns's fellow security officers from Wackenhut security firm. Several officers saluted the casket as they walked by. Johns was dressed in a cream linen suit, a toy butterfly on the pillow next to him. A recording of local recording artist Jeff Majors's "Psalm 23" was played as mourners streamed in to view the body. Police officers from a variety of law enforcement agencies were present. Assistant D.C. Assistant Police Chief Alfred Durham and Joseph Persichini, head of the FBI's Washington field office, led a platoon of police officials into the church. Durham praised Johns's sacrifice saying he "laid down his life to protect something. it means a lot to all of us." Persichini, after walking past Johns's casket, talked about the special bond among all who wear law enforcement uniforms and said that extends to "the response to the shooting incident and now the investigation being done and conducted jointly." Evelyn Gambell, 67, did not know Johns but left her Bladensburg home at 5:30 to come to the church pay her respects. "This touched my heart. I had to come," Gambell said. "We live in a cruel world, but I believe he's resting in the arms of the Lord." Several sections within the 3,000 seat sanctuary were reserved. One section was for Holocaust survivors who came to the funeral. Nesse Godin, 81, a Holocaust survivor who volunteers at the museum, said Johns and the other officers would greet them with a kiss on the cheek and a hug each morning when she arrived."He was a wonderful man," she said. About 9:30 a.m. a caravan of buses rolled up to the church, carrying several hundred staff members from the Holocaust Museum. Johns was working as a security guard last week at the museum when white supremacist James W. von Brunn, 88, allegedly walked in with a rifle and fatally shot Johns after the officer opened the door for him, authorities say. Von Brunn was charged with killing while in possession of a firearm in a federal facility. He remains in a hospital with gunshot wounds from another officer. The Holocaust Museum will be closed until 3 p.m. to allow employees and volunteers to attend the services. Museum officials set up a memorial fund for the Johns family. To make an online contribution, go to the Johns Family Fund at http://www.ushmm.org. Checks payable to the Johns Family Fund may be mailed to the museum at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Pl. SW, Washington, D.C. 20024. Contributions can also be made by calling 877-918-7466.

2009: The funeral for Seymour “Sy” Brody author of Jewish Heroes of America and Jewish Heroes and Heroines in America is scheduled to take place today at Morris Plains, NJ.

2009: As her Bat Mitzvah weekend begins, Rachel Maikon helps to lead Friday evening services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2010: The Jewish National Fund is scheduled to host Shabbat in the Park at New York’s Central Park Zoo.

2010:In a unique way to say farewell to Shabbat, a pre-camp Havdallah and swim party for campers and their families is scheduled to be held at the 14th Street Y in New York City.

2011: “The People in the Picture” by Iris Rainer Dart has its final showing at the Round About Theatre.

2011: In San Diego, CA, The Used Book Sale to benefit the Samuel & Rebecca Astor Judaica Library is scheduled to come to a close.

2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture” by David Mamet and “House of Exile: The Lives and Times of Heinrich Mann and Nelly Kroeger-Mann” by Evelyn Juers

2011: Elbit, with headquarters in Haifa, announced that its subsidiary Elisra Electronic Systems Ltd. was awarded a contract valued at approximately €5 million to supply hundreds of units of its AN/PRC-684 Personal Locator Beacon to the French Ministry of Defense, equipping the French Air Force, Army, Navy and DGA (Direction Générale de l'Armement).

2011(17th of Sivan, 5771): Centenarian plus 2, Charlotte Bloomberg, the mother of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg passed away.

2011(17th of Sivan, 5771): Ninety year old Don Diamond passed away.  For those who watched television in the 1950’s and 1960’s, they saw him in many episodes of F-Troop and Zorro as well as later series as  “Newhart,” “L.A. Law,” “MacGyver,” “Dallas” and “Dynasty,” “Lou Grant,” “Chico and the Man” and “The Streets of San Francisco”

2011(17th of Sivan, 5771): Ninety-year old Holocaust survivor Samuil Manski passed away. Manski credited his survival to a transit visa issued to him by a Japanese diplomat name Chiune Sughira who risked his career by acting against the orders of his country.  At the time of his death, Manski was working to Sughira recognized as a Righteous Gentile.

2012: “When Israel Went Out,” a film that retraces the danger-filled route traveled by the Falasha during the 1980’s is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan.

2012: Dr. Anthony Grenville, author of ‘Jewish Refugees from Germany and Austria in Britain’ and film director Dr. Bea Lewkowicz are scheduled to take part in a Q&A following a screening of “Double Exposure” at the Wiener Library in London. 

2012: The National Endowment for the Arts announced that Andy Statman would be awarded a National Heritage Fellowship, the nation's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts

2012:Hamas has launched a barrage of rockets toward southern Israel this afternoon, after months of restraint on behalf of the Gaza rulers. Seven rockets exploded in open areas in Eshkol Regional Council this afternoon, after four rockets were fired at Hof Ashkelon and Sha'ar Hanegev regional councils overnight Monday. More rockets were subsequently fired, but caused no casualties or damage.

2012: “As part of his plans to expand on hardware, today, Steve Ballmer revealed Microsoft's first ever computer device, a tablet called Microsoft Surface at an event held in Hollywood.”

2012:Ta'al MK Ahmed Tibi condemned plans to name a new space center in his north-central Arab village Taybeh after Israel's first and only astronaut, the late Ilan Ramon. In a letter to the Science and Technology Ministy, Tibi said Ramon served in the IAF as a fighter pilot, which could offend the Arab community. Calling the decision "distasteful" and "unjustified," Tibi noted that during Ramon's military service, he attacked civilian targets in Lebanon and participated in the attack on Iraq's nuclear reactor.

2012(29th of Sivan, 5772): Eight-one year old futurist Anthony Weiner passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)


2013: In London, the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism scheduled to host the International Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and Racism.

2013: Leo Baeck Institute and Chelsea Music Festival are scheduled to present “From Pompeii to Fingal's Cave - A Mendelssohn Perspective”

2013: “The New Catch Herring Season” is scheduled to begin Russ & Daughters.

2013: Ian Paul Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead, “the fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago” “announced that he is leaving BT Group to become the Minister for Trade and Investment in the UK Government.

2013: Friends and family of Rachel Levin celebrate the birthday of the world’s greatest granddaughter.

2013: Four Jewish Israelis were arrested at the Temple Mount today after praying in the Jerusalem compound, considered Judaism’s holiest site.

2013: This morning Palestinians fired a rocket from the Gaza strip toward southern Israel, setting off alarms in the coastal city of Ashkelon and its environs.

2014: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host “a special creative writing workshop exploring the lives and contributions of refugees in their new country of residence led by facilitator Lynette Craig

2014: “Luis Moses Gomez: Pioneer Merchant in Colonial America” is scheduled to open at the Center for Jewish History

2014: “Magic Men” is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan on the last night of the Israel Film Center Festival.

2014: “Charlotte Salomon: Life? Or Theatre?” an exhibition of the works of the 23 year old Jewish from Berlin who ended up in Auschwitz is scheduled to open today at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2014: All eyes are on Columbus Ohio for the celebration of the birthday of the amazing Rachel Levin.

2014: “The IDF arrested 30 Hamas men across the West Bank early today, as part of its ongoing large-scale operation to find the three Israeli teenagers – Naftali Frankel, Gil-ad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach — who were kidnapped last week.

2014: U.S. Ambassador to Israel today visited the family of Naftali Frankel, one of three Yeshiva students kidnapped last week to offer the support of the U.S government as well as his own strong personal support.

2014: John Rubinstein, the original Pippin in 1972, replaced Terrence Mann in the role of Charles in Stephen Schwartz’s Tony Award-winning musical “Pippin.”

2014: “Former Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment today and fined half a million shekels ($145,000) for accepting bribes in the Holyland affair.”

2014(21st of Sivan, 5774): Seventy-five year old songwriter Gerry Goffin passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley and Peter Keepnews)



2014(21st of Sivan, 5774): Eighty-six year old Avraham Shalom, the former director of Shin Bet, passed away today


http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Former-Shin-Bet-chief-Avraham-Shalom-dies-at-86-359903

2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Leavers’ Friday Night Dinner.”

2015(2nd of Tammuz, 5775): “A Palestinian group claiming affiliation with Hamas took responsibility for a cold-blooded terrorist attack” today in which a 25 year old electrical engineering student from Lod Israeli man was killed and a second Israeli was  injured.

2015:” WJC President Ronald S. Lauder presented the Helen Mirren with the WJC Recognition Award for her work in the film “Woman in Gold” in which she portrayed Maria Altmann, who fought the Austrian government for years to secure the return of five Gustav Klimt paintings stolen from her Jewish family during World War II.”

2015(2nd of Tammuz, 5775): Ninety year old author James Salter passed away today. (As reported by Helen T. Verongos)


2015: In Columbia, MD, Beth Shalom Congregation is scheduled to host “From Dust to Dust? Shiva and Cremations” in which Rabbi Susan Grossman and Ira Levinson, of Sol Levinson and Brothers Funeral Home tackle such questions as “Why does Judaism prohibit cremation and what do we do when a loved one requests cremation? Can their ashes be buried in a Jewish cemetery? Can we sit shiva?”

2015: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual Father’s Day Shabbat “that will include participation of fathers and their sons/daughters in the service, readings about fathers, and an Oneg Shabbat that will have a slide show of fathers…”

2015: “The Jewish Theological Seminary plans to sell a 1455 edition of the Book of Esther from a rare Gutenberg Bible at auction today, the latest sign that the school is grappling with a long-running financial crisis.” (As reported by Josh Nathan-Kazis)

2016(13th of Sivan, 5776): Twenty-seven year old Anton Viktorovich Yelchin, the Russian born American actor best for his playing “Pavel Chekov” in “three Star Trek films” died today in a freak automobile accident.


2016: “The Kind Words” and “Time to Say Goodbye” are scheduled to be shown at the Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2016: Final performance of “Camp David” at the Old Globe in San Diego, CA.


2016: “Wounded Land” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th annual Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.

2016: “Inheritance is a 2006 documentary film about Monika Hertwig a.k.a. Monika Christiane Knauss, the daughter of Ruth Irene Kalder and Amon Goeth, Commandant of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp” is scheduled to be shown at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center today.

2016: “Ruth Gruber, Photojournalist” an exhibition at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to come to an end today.


2016: Final performance of “Suddenly, A Knock at the Door” based on stories by Israeli author and filmmaker Etgar Keret at the Theatre for the New City is scheduled to take place this evening.

2016: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity and the Unmaking of the American Dream by Chris Lehmann and an interview with A.B. Yehosua.


2017(25th of Sivan, 5777): Twenty-two year old Otto F. Warmbier, “the University of Virginia honors student” who was released in a coma after spending 17 months in a North Korean prison passed away today.


2017(25th of Sivan, 5777): Ninety-four year old Robert (Bob) Sonné Cohen, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Physics at Boston University and cofounder of the BU Center for Philosophy & History of Science passed away at his home in Watertown, MA today.


2017: Steve Eisenberg is scheduled to discuss the weekly Torah Portion followed by an informal “conversation” with Rabbi Mark Wildes in Manhattan.

2018: The Jerusalem Municipality sports department is scheduled to host a class in Kickboxing at the First Station complex

2018(6th of Tammuz, 5778): Ninety-one year old Harvard PhD Stanley Cavell, a descendant of a prominent Jewish and long-time professor at his alma mater passed away today. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)


2018: “Numerous incendiary kites and balloons were flown by Palestinians” in Gaza “into Israel throughout the day” today.

2018: Dr. Dovid Gottlieb, the rabbi who was a Professor of Philosophy at John Hopkins University is scheduled to lecture on “Reason to Believe” this evening at the OU Israel Center in Jerusalem.

2018: In Manchester, UK, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Zuzana: Music is Life” that tells the story of “90-year-old Zuzana Ruzickova survived three concentration camps, including Auschwitz, and decades-long oppression and harassment under the totalitarian regime in her native Czech Republic to become a world-famous harpsichordist and the only musician to ever record all the keyboard works of Bach.”

2018: Steve “Levitan, along with Seth MacFarlane and Judd Apatow, announced he was considering leaving 20th Century Fox as protest of Fox News's reporting of Donald Trump's family separation policy which is at odds with Modern Family's programming.”

2018: “Israeli poet Amir Or” is scheduled to visit Bryant Park Reading Room for a celebration of “the publication of his latest collection, Wings, in an English translation by Seth Michelson.”

2018: From Ohio, to Oklahoma, to Iowa friends and family prepare to celebrate Rachel Levin’s natal day.

2019: In London. JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “The Samuel Project” co-starring Hal Linden.

2019: Uncommon Commonalities: Jews and Muslims” “a three-day scholarly cultural conference dedicated to exploring the uncommon commonalities shared by Moroccan Jews and Muslims” co-sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation’s Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to come to an end this evening.

2019: Three presentations – “Tax Issues and Solution for All Olim”; “The Alef, Bet of Making Aliyah”; “Intelligent Investing for Olim” --  designed to for those making Aliyah in the next twenty-four months are scheduled to be held this evening in Hendon, London.

2020: In a pre-pandemic world, The Israel Culinary Trip sponsored by The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center was scheduled to begin today.

2020: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to live-stream Kabbalah Shabbat Service on Zoom while taking special note of the tragic passing of Andrew Nelson, the husband of Melissa Gasway Nelson

2020: Havurah on the Hill is scheduled to present “Kabbalat Shabbat With Author Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg.”

2020: The Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host on Facebook, the next in its Pianists, Pedagogues and Young Artists Concerts series.

2020: On line Kehilla Community Synagogue is scheduled to host a 30-minute Shabbat ritual and sharing time, followed by movement, music, exploring themes of embodiment, Juneteenth and liberation.”

2020: A double Simcha as Jew prepare to celebrate Shabbat this evenings friends and family celebrate the 13thbirthday of Rachel Levin, the Bexley, Ohio  daughter of Michelle Levin and brother of Jacob Levin who is a poised, talented young woman who would not be dissuaded by the pandemic from chanting her haftarah.








This Day, June 20, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 20

840: Louis the Pious, King of the Franks and the Holy Roman Emperor by virtue of being the son of Charlemagne. When it came to dealing with his Jewish subjects, Louis followed in the footsteps of his father. During his reign charters were issued giving “Jews permission ‘live according to their Law.’ They promised protection of body and property and permitted freedom of movement and trade including…the right to hire Christians to work in their homes.  Some Jews were also exempted from the laws of trial by ‘ordeal of fire and water.’”

1214:  University of Oxford received its charter. Jews were not always welcome at Oxford.  The Oxford University Reform Act passed in 1854 allowed Jews to take degrees at Oxford. Today, Oxford offers degrees in both Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

1239: Pope Gregory IX ordered all copies of the Talmud to Dominican and Franciscan friars who would review the text looking for disparaging references to Jesus and Mary.  Any copies that were found to contain such references were to be burned.  This is the same Pope who in 1234 had “invested the doctrine of perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews – with the force of canonical law. According to this, the followers of the Talmud would have to remain in a condition of political servitude until Judgment Day.”

1338: Duke Otto and Duke Albert issued their “Jews’ Decree.”

1391 (17thof Tammuz): “The Christian population of Toledo rose against the largest Jewish community in Spain.” Four thousand Jews were killed.

1510: Birthdate of Beatrice de Luna who gained fame as Gracia Mendes Nasi one of the richest and most powerful women of her times who was the mother-in-law of Don Joseph Nasi.



1567: Jews were expelled from Brazil by order of Regent Don Henrique

1616: Sir Henry Finch the author of The World's Great Restauration, or Calling of the Jews, and with them of all Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith of Christ which called for the “restoration of the Jews to the promised land as a step to the Second Coming was knighted at Whitehall Plalace

1647: In Dresden, John George II and Magdalene Sybille of Brandenburg-Bayreuth gave birth to their only son John George III, Elector of Saxony who in 1682 “issued a new decree, in which the onerous regulations relating to Jews passing through the country were somewhat modified, since those regulations were found to be detrimental to the yearly fairs at Leipsic.”

1652: During the reign of Mehemed IV, Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa was appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire.  During Pasa’s time of service, Mehmemed Jews fleeing the Chmielnitzki Uprising were encouraged to settle on the banks of the Danube in Morea, Kavala, Istanbul and Salonica.

1667: Clement IX began his papacy during which Giovanni Battista Jona, the rabbi who converted to Christianity at Warsaw in 1625, dedicated a translation into Hebrew of The New Testament.

1757: A debate began today at Kamienice in which the Sabbatians sought to prove that there doctrine, unlike Judaism, was compatible with Christianity.

1757: In Kameiek (Podolia), the Frankists, calling themselves Zoharists, decided to wage war against the Talmud. They contacted the local bishop, Dembovsky, and convinced him to arrange a disputation. Naturally, the Talmud was condemned and thousands of copies were burned. The Frankists then became practicing Christians. The Frankists were Jews who were followers of Jacob Frank who had proclaimed himself the Messiah.

1768: The third of the Haidamack uprisings called Koliyivschyna began. During the uprising an estimated 50,000 Ukrainian Jews were murdered by the Cossacks.  “The Haidmamaks were gangs of Cossacks, who along with their peasant allies robbed traveling merchants and plundered the towns and villages in the Ukraine. They saw themselves as heirs to Khmelnitski. The Khmelnitski were the Cossacks who slaughtered Jews and Poles in wholesale lots in the middle of the 17th century.  Both of these murderous slaughters were part of the drift into degradation that became the lot of increasing numbers of Eastern European Jews.  This drift into degradation brought about numerous responses on the part of the Jews ranging from mysticism and messianicism to the Haskalah and immigration to Western Europe and eventually to the New World. 

1769: Michael Gratz and Miriam Simon, the parents of Philadelphia native Rebecca Gratz were married today in Lancaster, PA.

1792(30thof Sivan 5552): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1792: Eighteen month old Heva bat Jacob Levi, who had passed away yesterday, was buried today at “Alderney Road (Globe Rd.) Jewish Cemetery.”

1792: Moses Magnus married Rachel Solomons today at the Great Synagogue.

1792: Birthdate of Samuel Israel Mulder, the Amsterdam native who was the first person to translate TaNaCh into Dutch.

1794: In Brno, Gottlieb Bezalel Jeiteles and Johanna Jeitteles gave birth to Alois Jeitteles the founder of the Jewish weekly Siona and the author of poetic works set to music by Ludwig van Beethoven.

1794: Birthdate of Austrian physician and author Alois Isidor Jeitteles, who founded the Jewish Weekly “Siona” and was the father of suffragette Ottilie Bondy.

1808:  Birthdate of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, leading founder of what some call Modern Orthodox Judaism.

1811: Lewis Henry Lazarus married Eliza Aaron today at the Great Synagogue.

1811: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Emanuel Nunes Carvalho who had been serving as the rabbi for the Jewish community in Bridgetown, Barbados, officiated at the wedding of Mrs. Catherine Jacobs and Solomon Hyams.

1812: In Philadelphia, Ezekiel Jacob Ezekiel and his wife Rebecca, both of whom had come from Amsterdam, gave birth to their second child and first son Jacob Ezekiel, the grandson of Hebrews scribe Eleazer Israel and nephew of Michael E. Cohen who adopted him when his mother died and began his career at the age of 13 as an apprentice book binder.




1815: Lord Rowerth, an agent of Nathan Rothschild who had stayed at Ostend awaiting to hear the outcome of the Battle of Waterloo brought word to the Jewish banker who “immediately transmitted the information to the government” – a fact that runs contrary to the myth that Rothschild made a fortune while keeping the news a secret.

1819: In Herxheim am Berg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Therese Aron and Simon Kuhn gave brith to Abraham Kuhn.

1819: In Cologne, Isaac Judah (Eberst) Offenbach and Marianne Offenbach to composer Jacques Jacob Offenbach, who created almost 100 operettas in a twenty year period.

1823: In Germany, the government issued a decree “ordaining that Jewish services should be conducted exclusively in the German language and that the reading in Hebrew of sections of the Bible should be followed by their translation into the vernacular.”

1828: Mordecai M. Noah accused Elijah J. Roberts, “a former business associate” of having “violently assaulted” him on the steps of the Park Theatre. (Noah was one of the pre-eminent American Jews in the years between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars)

1832: Ellis Moses married Miriam Judah at the Western Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1837: King William IV of Great Britain and Ireland who in 1797 while still the Prince of Wales visited Barbados where “he visited the synagogue and was presented with an address and a sword by the Congregation” passed away today.

1837:  With the death of her uncle, King William IV, Queen Victoria assumes the throne.  Since the British monarch reigns but does not rule, her influence on the progress of Jews of Britain and Europe were primarily tangential. Her treatment of Jews was a mixed bag.  During the Damascus Blood Libel, the Queen put a British ship at the disposal of her friend and neighbor Moses Montefiore.  But in 1869, the Queen blocked Lionel Rothschild elevation to the House of Lords.  However, later she would agree to the elevation of Lionel’s son and would socialize with the French branch of the Rothschild family when she made trips across the channel.  The change was brought about by Jewish financial support for the Suez project and her relationship with Benjamin Disraeli. 

1839: Birthdate of Jacob Freudenthal, the native of Hanover and graduate of the rabbinical seminary of Breslau whose visit to the Netherlands to research the life of Spinoza produced Die Lebensgeschichte Spinoza's

1841: Mr. G.M. Loewentritt married Miss Betty Goldberg to at Sheyareeth Israel in Charleston, SC.

1843: In Oberlauterbach, Alsace, Isaiah Rosenthal and Rosa Walter gave birth to Jonas Rosenthal the husband of Jeanette Weil who came to the United States in 1860 where he attended school in Alexandria, LA before serving the Confederate Army for three and a half years in the Civil War following which he held several public positions capped off by being appointed U.S. Postmaster of Alexandria by President Grover Cleveland.

1849: Solomon Salamo married Phoebe Levy at the Great Synagogue.

1850: Five days after its application was received, Simon Lodge No. 4 of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel was “installed” today.

1854: Lieutenant Colonel Albert Goldsmid, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and the son of Benjamin Goldsmid was promoted to the rank of Colonel.

1856: In Bombay, Hannah Moise and Sir Albert Sassoon gave birth to Sir Edward Albert Sassoon.

1858: Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal, the German born rabbi who had moved to Chicago “and accepted employment in the banking-house of Greenebaum Brothers” helped to found the Jüdische Reformverein today.

1859: In Luzerne County, PA, John and Helen McKeon Curran gave birth “the Very Rev. Mgr. John J. Curran’ the “militant Catholic priest nationally known as a friend of organized labor” who had a an ecumenical view of the world, long before that became fashionable as can be seen by the fact he “he was reputed to have as many friends among Protestants and Jews as among Catholic clergy and layman” and in the best sense of the Gospels “was the good neighbor to all.”

1861: Philadelphian Phillip Lang began a two year enlistment with Company I of the 37thregiment during the Civil War.

1867: In Memphis, TN, Adolph and Lucille (Hart) Loeb gave birth to Chicago insurance underwriter Leo A Loeb, the husband of Minnie Elson and a Director of the United Hebrew Charities.

1871: Birthdate of Helmstedt, Germany native Edmund Moser a passenger on the ill-fated SS. St. Louis who survived the war even though his “country of disembarkation” was France which meant he was luckier than fellow family member and shipmate Roaslie Moser who did not survive.

1871: In Warsaw, Indiana, “well-known and respected merchant” Leopold Becker and Caroline (Vogel) Becker gave birth to Illinois attorney Benjamin Vogel Becker who was a partner in Newman, Northrup, Levinson and Becker and the husband of Elizabeth Loeb with whom he has one child John Leonard Becker.

1871: One day after he passed away, mathematician Numa Edward Hartog, the son of Alphonse and Marion Hartog was buried today at West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1874: In Warsaw, “Israel Isaac and Chasha Peltz Zambrowsky” gave birth to S. Joshua Zambrowsky who served as rabbi “Congregation Tifereth Israel in Warsaw from 1901 to 1923” after which he served as the rabbi of “Congregation Poilez Tzedeck in Syracuse for ten years” and the “chief rabbi of the Buffalo Council of Jewish Congregations, Inc.”


1875: Congregation B'Nai Israel of Galveston voted to become one of the charter members of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

1875: Five days after he passed away, sixty-seven year old Isaac Benjamin was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1877: Meyer Freeman who owns a butcher shop at 38 Ludlow Street was awakened by two men –later identified as David Milstein and Isaac Goldstein – who had broken into his bedroom and were trying to steal the contents of a bureau that contained jewelry and box with $35 in cash.  Freeman, clad only in his bed clothes, chased the robbers through the streets and captured Milstein whom he turned over to the policy.  Milstein is a well-known criminal having spent 21 of the last 28 years in jail

1877:  It was reported today that several other Jews who have been guests for several seasons at the Grand Union Hotel besides Joseph Seligman have been refused service at the Saratoga Springs Hotel.  These include Mr. Marcus Goldman, the broker, Mrs. Louis Josephthal, the wholesale manufacturer and Mr. Max Landman, “the well-known tobacconist.”  Each of them lives in Manhattan.  Each of them wrote asking for rooms as they have done in the past.  And each was refused without any explanation.  The strangest case of rejection centered around Judge Joseph Koch, the distinguished jurist who had sat on the bench of the Fifth District Court.  Judge Koch met with Mr. Calire, one of the managers of the hotel, at A.T. Stewart’s store in Manhattan.  At that time Mr. Claire assured the Koch that he could have the same accommodations as he had in previous years.  When Koch asked if he could have “a more desirable suite of apartments” Claire said that he would see to it as soon as he arrived at the hotel.  However, Judge Koch has heard nothing more from Mr. Claire and assumes that he is as unwelcome as his coreligionists.

1877: It was reported today that the Jews of New York have had a mixed reaction to Mr. Seligman’s being banned from the Grand Union because he was Jewish.  Some view this as part of a conflict between Judge Hilton and Mr. Seligman which has more to do with business than with religion.  Others say that there is nothing new about such a ban.  Other hotel owners have tried it, suffered financially and rescinded the ban.  Yet others are bothered by the fact that Jews as a group were banned.  They could understand not renting to people who do not pay their bills or who present other problems, but singling out Jews as a group does not make any sense. There seems to be a general consensus that it is best to avoid making this a matter for public demonstrations.

1877: It was reported today that many hotel owners in Boston were surprised to hear about the Judge Hilton’s decision to ban Jews from the Grand Union.  Some of them know Mr. Seligman and hold him in the highest esteem.  From a business point of view, times are so hard that turning away any guests who can afford to stay at their hotels does not make any sense to these owners.  And if there is some grand plan afoot to ban Jews from hotels, they do not want to be a part of it.

1877: “The Position of New York Hotels” published today described the attitude of various hostelries in the Big Apple regarding Jewish guests.  The St. James and the Albemarle follow the same exclusionary policies as those practiced by the Grand Union in Saratoga. The Windsor does not have the slightest possible objection to having Jews as guest finding them “as a class the promptest paying customers.” The Grand Central management thought that the Grand Union had made a “great mistake.” The Grand Union in Manhattan, the Hotel Brunswick, the Rossmore Hotel, the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Sturtevant House all said they had no policy against Jewish guests and several of the hotels reported having some staying there at this very time.

1879: In New York City, The Jewish Messengerreports that "A new congregation has been started on East 57th Street, called Orach Chaim.” Some of the members of the new congregation were disaffected members of Adas Israel, another congregation located on the same street.

1880: Four days after he passed away “in the 76th year of his life” Moritz Moses Maurice was buried at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1880: “Puritan Christian Names” published today described how the printing of the Geneva Bible, an affordable English translation of the sacred text led to the adoption of many Old Testament (Jewish) names by English Puritans.  Apparently, having finally been able to read the text, the “Puritan spirit led those whom it animated to a strong and very marked preference for the Jewish part of the Bible over the Christian.”

1881: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society took two hundred children on an outing aboard the steam boat Bellevue. The boat stopped at Hart’s Island so the children could enjoy themselves. [These outings were part of a program to get slum children out of the city and into the fresh air of the country.]

1882: An assignment for the benefit of creditors by Abraham Samuels to Lester Cohn was filed in the county clerk’s office today.

1883: Anglican Bishop and Biblical scholar John William Colenso the author of The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined which he wrote in response to being questioned about the historical accuracy of these books and whether or not they should be taken literally passed away today. (Colenso was one of a series of Jewish and Christian theologians and authors who re-examined the traditional view of these texts as being literal truth or the modernist view that they were just a series of manufactured myths)

1884: It was reported today that a serious outbreak of anti-Semitic violence has broken out in Krivoroge, Russia.

1884: Birthdate of Norwegian businessman Moses Beeker who was arrested in Trondheim 1942 at murdered at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 58

1886: “Clubs Without Number” published today described the variety of New York social clubs that cater to various segments of the city’s population including the Jews some of whom frequent the Harmonie Club on 42nd Street while a greater number are found at the Hebrew Association at 317 Third Avenue.  Actually Jews can be found at most of the popular clubs except for the Union and Knickerbocker clubs.

1887: Twenty-year old Memphis native Leo A Loeb joined he insurance agency of A. Loeb and Son which his father Adolph had established in Chicago in 1873.

1887: Two Jewish peddlers, Simon Kleber and Judah Waser, were abused and driven out of a liquor store by the bartender when they tried to sell him their wares.  The two men sought protection from Policeman Frederick Timme who responded by clubbing them and driving them away.

1887: “Jews and Gentiles In London” published today provided a snapshot of Jewish economic conditions in the capital of the UK picturing them as being wealthier than the non-Jewish population. For example, the average annual Jewish income is 82 pounds as compared with 35 ponds for the non-Jews.  Jews with an income over 10,000 pounds are 20 times as numerous as the number found in the non-Jewish population. [Editor’s note – This report is totally misleading since it fails to capture the wealth of the gentry which would have reported in the counties and boroughs where there estates were located.]

1888: It was reported today that the executors of the Bernhard Stern’s will have paid out over $25,000 in bequests to variety of Jewish and secular institutions in New York City.  The largest bequest was $5,000 given to the United Hebrew Charities.

1889(21stof Sivan, 5649): Seventy-eight year old West Point graduate and Quartermaster for the CSA, Abraham Charles Myers, who is the name-sake for Ft. Myers, FL and who was a descendant of Rabbi Moses Cohen passed away today after which he was buried in St. Paul’s Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria, VA. (Editor’s note – How does one explain the people who celebrate Pesach serving in a cause that chose Slavery over the Union?)

1890: The Executive Committee of the United Hebrew Charities reported today that during the month it had found employment for 364 applicants during the month of May.  The committee had spent $8,756.08 during the month to aid needy Jews including the 1,987 immigrants who had arrived at Castle Garden.

1890: As of today, the managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children have received $4,091.50 which will be used to provide free summer excursions for Jewish children and their mothers.

1890: Police officers arrested Marcus Goldstein, a Polish Jew, when came to the Gill Engraving Company this morning to collect what he thought were the blank plates that would enable him to print (and sell) counterfeit tickets for the Hamburg Lottery.

1891: Birthdate of Zionist leader and native of Prague, Robert Weltsch, who died in Jerusalem a century later.

1892: In Kaunas Count (modern day Lithuania) Joseph and Gertrude Janner gave birth to Anglo-Jewish political and civic leader Barnett Janner who would serve as an MP first from the Liberal Party and then from the Labour Party

1893: Philadelphia lawyer Charles Isaiah Hoffman married Fanny Binswanger in the City of Brotherly love. Seven years later he would enter the JTS, graduated and was ordained in 1904 and spent most of the rest of his life as the spiritual leader of Oheb Shalom in Newark, NJ. [Sort of a modern day version of “Rachel, the wife of Akiva”]

1893: After having viewed the body of Jewish cigar manufacturer Adolph S. Jaeger, Deputy Coroner O’Hare said that the deceased had taken his own life and turned his remains over to the undertaker.

1894: Today’s meeting of the Constitutional Convention looking at charitable contributions made by the State of New York, first heard from Myer Sterne, the “former Commissioner of Charities and Correction who appeared in behalf of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of which the late Jesse Seligman was President.”

1895: “Governor William McKinley delivered an address at Ottawa, Kansas in which he referred to an American flag with a biblical inscription on it” which Chicago Republic Abraham Kohn had presented to Abraham Lincoln “one month prior to his assumption of the Presidency.” Kohn was President of Chicago’s KAM Congregation.  Actually two biblical verses had been painted on to the flag both of which were from from the first chapter of the book of Joshua verses 5 and 9.including the famous charge “Be strong and of great courage.  Be not afraid, neither be dismayed.”  After several attempts, McKinley would finally be elected President in 1896 and re-elected in 1900.  He would die at the hands of an assassin bringing Teddy Roosevelt to the White House.

1896: A character of sketch of the recently deceased Marquis de Mores published today described him as “eccentric” whose “hatred of England…was almost a mania” and who “was a rabid enemy of the Jews.” (Editor’s note – For those who do not recognize the name his anti-Semitism including fight a duel French Deputy Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus)

1897: Mrs. Jennie Cohen, formerly of New Haven, CN, and her four children ranging in ages from six years to four months were being cared for at Police Headquarters after having spent the night in rooms provided for by the Hebrew Sheltering House Association on Madison Street.

1897: The Baron Hirsch Free Hebrew School of Chicago was formally incorporated at Springfield, Illinois, the state capital.

1897: “Biblical Titles” published today described the refusal of the Lord Chamberlain’s office to grant a license to a biblical drama entitled “Joseph of Canaan” by George Walters, an Australian clergyman and Rubinstein’s opera “Judas Maccabaeus”  Apparently it is Biblical titles that upset the English official and not religion per se since a license, which is necessary for public performance, was granted to “The Sign of the Cross.”

1897: “The Reverend Herman Warszawiak” the Jewish convert to Christianity “whose application to the Presbytery was rejected last week after a trail for unministerial conduct gave vent to his feelings today” comparing himself to St. Paul” and declaring “that he had been hounded because he was of Jewish origin and the Presbyterians did not want any Jews.

1897: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that articles of incorporation have been filed by the Sons of Abraham “a Hebrew benevolent society” in Camden, NJ.

1898(30thof Sivan, 5658): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1898(30thof Sivan, 5658): Fifty year old Moses Stein “a well-known resident of Bath Beach” passed away at Mount Sinai Hospital.  A retired Manhattan wholesale butcher; he was one of the founders of the Hebrew Congregational Society in Bath Beach.

1898: During the Spanish American War, ships of the U.S Navy (in which 20 Jews served as officers) entered the harbor at Guam. (Whether any those officers were at Guam is not a matter of record.)

1899: Chicago Jews are among those contributing funds to the purchase of memorial items to be presented to Captain Dreyfus, Colonel Picquart and author Emile Zola.  The latter two played key roles in exonerating the former when he was falsely convicted of treason and subject to a barrage of anti-Semitism.

1899: In Chicago, 50 boys half of whom were Christians and half of whom were Jewish fought it on Stewart Avenue until the police arrived from the Maxwell Street Station and put an end to the violence.

1899: Jews living on the Lower East Side learned that “Winslow W. Dunlap, the self-appointed missionary” seeking to convert the Jews also makes loans to anybody with a salary between $20 to $200. “It is the custom of Dunlap to advance a man, say $80 and deduct $5 for the expenses of the loan. Besides this $5 he charges $40.80 interest making the borrower pay $70.80 for $25 in “easy” payments of from $2.50 to $5 per week.

1899: “Law and Order” published today decried the attack on a Christian missionary earlier this week who was preaching on the streets of the Lower East Side by a mob and the failure of the police to intervene because in civil society people have a right to express their opinions no matter how distasteful they may be to the public that is forced to hear them.

1899: “Conference of Zionists” published today included a description of a proposal submitted by the English Zionist Federation “proposing the re-establishment of Judea as an independent state, suggesting the purchase of the Maccabean sites in Palestine and the beginning of the work by the establishment of a Jewish colony and a Jewish Agricultural College there.”

1899: “The Jew-Hater in France” published today provided the views of Gustav Gottheil, a leading American Reform Rabbi on the condition of the Jews in France as that nation is convulsed by the Dreyfus affair.  As to Dreyfus, he said, “the fact that he was a Jew was the strongest accusation against him.” “Even though “no race has been more patriotic than the French Jews” “the real spirit of malice and persecution will never change and they will never be friendly to the Jewish people.” And in a view that may have been the result of his attendance at the Zionist Congress at Basel “The effect of the triumph in the Zionistic movement stands out in clear and unmistakable character.”

1899(12th of Tammuz, 5659): Fifty-six year old Jacob Baiz, the Venezuelan born son of Abraham and Sarah Naar who after being raised in Elizabethport, NJ, became a successful businessman in Latin America, serving as Consul-General of the Government of Honduras and a member of the Coffee Exchange as well as Vice President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Guardian Society passed away today in New York.

1900: In Jackson, Michigan, on his birthday, Chicago attorney Benjamin Vogel Becker married Elizabeth Loeb, the daughter of Jacob L. and Rachel Loeb, and the mother of their only son John Leonard Becker.

1900 University of Cincinnati and HUC graduate Joseph Saul Kornfeld, the Austro-Hungarian Empire born son Herman and Emilie (Gross) Kornfeld who went from teaching at McGill University to a long time rabbinic career that began with his service at Congregation in Pine Bluff, AR and that included service as minister plenipotentiary to Persia during the Presidency of Warren Harding married Josephine Blumenthal today in Pine Bluff, AR.

1901: Today Honus Wagner who teamed up with second baseman Jake Pitler to form the double-play combination in his last season, became the first major leaguer to “steal home” twice in the same game.

1902: Herzl learns that Turkey accepted the Rouvier Project. Maruice Rouvier was one of those permanent political animals created by the revolving door governments in the days of France’s Third Republic. He was not Jewish.  Depending upon who formed the government Rouvier held different cabinet posts including finance and foreign affairs.  He was Prime Minister twice himself.  At this time, Rouvier was serving as the Minister of Finance.  At the same time, like most French politicians, he was always looking for ways to counter German influence.  The Turks were in need of financial assistance and Rouvier was willing to do what he could if it would keep the Kaiser out of the Mediterranean. 

1903: Maurice Arnold de Forest, one of the two adopted sons of Baroness Clara de Hirsch and Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth resigned his commission in the Prince of Wales's Own Norfolk Artillery

1904: “Two thousand more cheap rate-immigrants” are scheduled to be landed today at Ellis Island “from several transatlantic steamships following the arrival of “721 cheap-rate immigrants” the majority of whom are English Jews at Ellis Island yesterday.

1905: In New Orleans, Max Bernard Hellman and Julia gave birth to playwright and social activist Lillian Hellman.



1906: Birthdate of director and screenwriter Edmond T. Greville who based “on 23andMe genetic testing of his daughter and grandson in 2017,  was in fact Ashkenazim Jewish from the likely area of Odessa, a fact never known to him during his life time.

1907: Frederick Henriques, the son Joseph Gutteres Henriques, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”

1908(21stof Sivan, 5668) Parashat Beha’alotcha

1908: Selig Brodestky the son of Russian peddler who arrived in England sixteen years ago, who “was sent to the Jew’s free school in the East End of London after which he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge has won the place “Senior Wrangle” in two years instead of the usual three, making him only the second Jew, after Tuma Hartog to earn this honor.

1909: It was reported today the at the Livingston Civic Club of the People’s Institute has hosted a production of “The Chickasaw Convention” a playing that “dealt with political career of Abraham Cohen

1910: Fanny Brice debuted at the Ziegfield Follies (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)

1911(24thof Sivan, 5671): Rosenberg, TX native and University of Texas alum Helene Gladys Daily, the Houston lawyer and a leader of the League of Women Voters passed away today.

1913(15th of Sivan, 5673): Eighty-three year old “cantor and journalist” Jacob Tattlebaum passed away today in Patterson, NJ.

1913: Rabbi Israel Klein is scheduled to deliver the Friday night sermon at Zion Temple in Chicago, Illinois.

1914(26thof Sivan, 5674): Sh’lach

1914: In Chicago,, Rabbi Julius Rappaport is scheduled to lead service this morning at Beth El Temple.

1914: Rabbi Aaron L. Weinstein of Davenport, IA is scheduled to occupy this pulpit” on Shabbat at Isaiah Temple in Chicago.

1914: In Chicago, the 1914 Confirmation Class of Isaiah Temple is scheduled to “be formally welcomed into the Isaiah Alumni Association this afternoon.

1915: In Canonsburg, PA, dedication of Tree of Life Synagogue.

1915: At the Astor Hotel, Louis Marshall presided over the meeting of the American Jewish Committee today where it was “decided to convoke a general congress of American Jews to consider methods of assisting their” co-religionists “in the war zones” following “the receipt of the first news of atrocities committed against Jews in the warring countries.”

1915: The Turkish government permitted “expelled Jews” to return to parts of Palestine including Tel Aviv and its “suburbs.”

1915: “Interest in the case of the condemned man” Leo Frank “reached fever heat in Atlanta today” where “it was the one subject of discussion everywhere” as Governor Slaton’s decision was expected by tomorrow.

1916(19th of Sivan, 5676): Eighty-one year old Leopold Adler, the German born husband of Rose Adler passed away today in Chicago.

1916: Birthdate of Zelda Berkowitz who as Zelda Kaplan became as an inimitable fixture on fashion’s front lines and an inveterate clubgoer in Manhattan. (As reported by Ruth La Ferla)

1916: “Max J. Klein, whose charge that he had been excluded from the Second Field Artillery because he was a Jews started the inquiry into discrimination in the National Guard, announced” tonight” that he was organizing a company to serve in the Guard.

1916: Today composer and Conductor Victor Harris, the New York born son of Jacob Harris married Catherine L. Richardson with whom he had four children – Cecilia, Victor, David and Marry Harris.

1917: This evening, at eight o’clock, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is scheduled to host “an entertainment and dance in the Assembly Hall of the Hebrew Institute to celebrate the installation of its new officers.”

1917: “Jacob H. Schiff, Felix M. Warburg, Louis Marshall and thirty other members of the Joint Distribution Committee” raising “funds for Jewish War sufferers voted” today “to the Morgenthau commission ‘unlimited funds’ for the relief of the Jews in Palestine.”

1917: The Turkish government permitted the Jews who had been expelled to return to Tel Aviv and Jaffa

1917: Birthdate of Franklin Littell, a pioneer in the field of Holocaust scholarship, who was also president of Iowa Wesleyan College and a founding board member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington. His best-known book, The Crucifixion of the Jews, pressed his view that Christianity is essentially Jewish and that Jesus, Paul and Peter would have been executed at Auschwitz. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

1918: Birthdate of Lillian Sylvia Lukashefsky, the Brooklyn native who gained famed as Yiddish actress, author and singer Lillian Lux who was the wife of Pesach Burnstein and the mother of actor Mike Burstyn.



1918: Two days after he passed away, Michael Abrahams, “the son of David and Eva Abrahams” was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1918: United States President Wilson sent Henry Morgenthau and Felix Frankfurter to Egypt to investigate how to best aid Jews in Palestine.

1919: One day after she passed away Martha Friedland, the daughter of Myer Friedland, was buried at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Ireland.

1919: After having been elected to the Weimar National Assembly, Bernhard Dernberg completed to months of service as Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor.

1920: Today, “the Men’s Community Club and friends of Providence, RI, traveled by the Steamer Mount Hope to visit the Touro Synagogue, the oldest synagogue in the United States where they met by members of the congregation including the president, Nathan David and “Reverend Brodsky,” the cantor who provided the music for the occasion.

1920: Today, Mathematics Professor Benjamin Abram Bernstein married Rose Davidson, the “brother of sculptor Jo Davidson.

1920: A reception is scheduled to be held today in honor Jacob Cohen of Passaic, NJ and Anna Levy whose parents, Mr. and Mr. Louis Levy, have just announced the betrothal of the couple.

1921: Shortstop Reuben Ewing made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals.

1922: Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Vice President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, is scheduled to sail for Europe today aboard the SS Beregaria.  He is head of a committee appointed by the American Jewish Relief Commission that is visiting Jewish population centers in Austria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Russia in an effort to determine how best to spend th $18,000,000 that has been collected by American Jews for their coreligionists living in Eastern Europe.

1923: At meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Farm School held today, a memorial was adopted praising the work of the late Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, the founder and President of the National Farm School.

1924(18th of Sivan, 5684): Eighty-eight year old Nicholas Scharff, the native of Bavaria who was married at Port Gibson, Mississippi in 1870 passed away today in St. Louis.

1925(28thof Sivan, 5685):Dr. Josef Bruer, the Austrian physician who worked with Freud to develop the modern field of psychoanalysis passed away in Vienna.

1926: In Cleveland, Ohio, “Maurice and Rachel (Shapiro) Gelfand gave birth to history professor Lawrence E. “Larry” Gelfand, the husband of Miram Ifland and WW II veteran who joined the Department of History at the University of Iowa in 1962 “after teaching at the Universities of Hawaii, Washington and Wyoming.

1926: Birthdate of Rehavam "Gandhi" Ze'evi the native of Jerusalem who rose to the rank of general and founded the Moledet Party.

1926: In the Czech Republic Pavel Bondy and Franziska Bondy, the daughter of Leopold and Valerie Pick, who was murdered during the Holocaust gave birth to Eduard Bondy who murdered during the Holocaust at the age of 15.

1927: Birthdate of Sherman Bernard Goldberg who gained fame as producer and screenwriter Judd Bernard.

1927: Birthdate of Newark native, Wharton graduate and WW II veteran Milton Perlumutter who became a successful supermarket executive passed away today.


1928: In Brooklyn, “Morris Landau, a machinist and the former Selma Buchman gave birth to Oscar winning actor Martin Landau who may be best remembered for his continuing role in the hit television series “Mission Impossible.”


1928: In the Bronx, Florence and Louis Slobodkin gave birth to “Lawrence B. Slobodkin, a central figure in the development of ecology as a modern science and a co-author of one of its most inspiring inquiries, a paper known informally as “The World Is Green” (As reported by Carol Kaesuk Yoon)

1928: A court in Tel Aviv “imposed short jail terms and sentences of deportation” on three Jews who resisted the police efforts to break up a demonstration protesting the flogging of prisoners in Palestine jails.”  The three were additionally accused of being “Communists.”  The demonstration was part of a larger protest by Jews against the propensity of the British immigration authorities for deporting Jews on the slightest pretext with little or no evidence of serious wrongdoing.

1929: “The Hollywood Revue of 1929,” a musical film produced by Irving Thalberg and Harry Rapt, with a script co-authored by Al Boasberg and co-starring Jack Benny and Norma Shearer was released today in the United States.

1929: In Montreal, Samuel and Saidye Rosner Bronfman gave birth to Edgar Miles Bronfman, CEO of Seagram’s and President of the World Jewish Congress.


1929: It was reported today that “the concordant signed recently between the Prussian government and the Vatican is not like to have any effect on the statues of the Jewish population in Prussia,” especially since “the question of religious training” which had been such a problem in 1924 during the “negotiations for the Bavarian concordant” had been omitted from this document.

1931: A newspaper in Salonica called the Macedonia ran an article about a resident named Isaac D. Cohen. Cohen was sent as a representative to the meeting of the Maccabiah which was held in Sophia, Bulgaria. However the newspaper stated while away, he also attended a conference held by a revolutionary organization, which had come up with the decision to sue for the independence of Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia. This lie led to attacks on Jews who were said not to be patriotic.

1933(26thof Sivan, 5693): Fifty-three year old Russian-born Jewess Rose Paster Stokes, the first wife a prominent, wealthy Episcopalian, and social activist who was a founder of the American Communist Party passed away today in Berlin where she was being treated for breast cancer.



1933: “The XXXIII Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” is scheduled to meet for a third day today in Chicago.

1934: “Abe Goldberg, vice-president of the ZOA and a member of the Jewish Agency for Palestine is scheduled to speak this evening in the 4th in a series of broadcasts sponsored by the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League.

1935(19th of Sivan, 5695): San Luis Obispo, CA, native Marcel Ernest Cert the graduate of Hastings Law School and California Superior Court Judge whose sister Rebecca died tragically in a hotel fire, passed away today.

1936: “Jewish children from the east side of Berlin found themselves unexpectedly barred today from Bad Klingenberg on Lake Rummelsburg” when they were confronted with recently erected signs reading “Jews not wanted.”

1936: “In the Bakaa quarter on the Jerusalem-Bethlehem Road” “a burning rag soaked in kerosene was thrown through a window in the storeroom of a Jewish baby home” which housed “ninety-seven infants and fifty adults including mothers and nurses” in what was “one of the cruelest acts of terrorism perpetrated in the cause of Arab nationalism.”

1936: “Supreme Court Justice William T. Collins criticized Germany’s racial policy in a decision” today permitting Marcel M. Holzer who had been “sent to a concentration camp in 1933 for six months because he was a Jew” and who was a former employee of the Reichsbahn (German State Railroads) “to bring sut here for upward of $50,000 damages because he was discharged as a ‘non-Aryan.’”

1936: “The Palestine Government today extended the death penalty to crimes of sabotage as it fought to end the violence and destruction that in the last nine weeks have resulted in more than eighty deaths of Jews, Arabs and Christians.”

1936:The Palestine Post reported that according to the new Palestine Emergency Regulations a life sentence could be imposed on any person carrying arms, bombs or incendiary material. Arab attacks on Jewish settlements continued unabated. Police patrols were stoned in Arab villages and three British soldiers were injured in various shooting incidents throughout the country.

1937: “The Latest Book Received” column published today included a listing for If I Forget Thee a novel by Josef Dunner that is described as “a story of the reorientation of two German Jews.”

1937: While preaching his “last sermon of the season” today at Congregation Ohab Zadek in New York, Rabbi William Margolis said today, “Current happenings in Europe are finally convincing the world that the enemies of democracy are the foes of all men”

1938: Twenty-eight year old Liselotte Herrman, the mother of a four year old son whose husband Fritz died in Gestapo custody was guillotined after having been convicted for opposing the Nazi regime. (She was not Jewish, but it is important to remember those who sacrificed to hold back the Night)

1939: In commenting on wave of violence gripping Palestine including yesterday’s bombing in Haifa, Davar wrote, “”Who throws bombs?  Is it the same hand that is sowing blood and ruin in the Arab market in the Jewish suburb?  These are not the ways of the Jewish population in Palestine in their struggle…Ruin and paralysis of economic life will only hurt the Jews in Palestine.  Sacrifices may be necessary for our political struggle but every act paralyzing our life unnecessarily weakens the Jews here more than its sabotages the Palestine Government’s new policy and it only causes failure of Palestine Jewry’s struggle against the policy.” In a separate column, David Ben Gurion condemned the violence saying “The Jews must sacrifice everything for immigration, colonization, self-defense and independence but we must not sully our struggle with despicable acts of madness such as have been recently committed at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa.   The murder of innocent Arabs and Jews and stupid sabotage are act that are only helping our most bitter enemies.  Such criminal acts soil our just struggle, undermine the efficiency of our work and play the game of our foes.”

1939: Final broadcast of Song School, a radio show featuring Jewish Jazzman Benny Goodman

1940: Jewish prisoners began arriving at Ferramonti, one of the 15 concentration camps established by Mussolini during the summer of 1940. In the next three years, 3,800 Jews would be imprisoned in all of the camps.

1940: “Blueberry Hill” a song with lyrics by Al Stock and Al Lewis, which Fats Dominon would make famous in the 1950 was recorded by Mary Small with the Nat Brandwynne’s orchestersa. (Editor’s note – Stock and Lewis were Jewish)

1940: On the day when France surrendered to Germany Propper de Callejón was First Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Paris. In order to prevent the German army from plundering the art collection that his wife's family kept at the Chateau de Royaumont, he declared this castle to be his main residence, so it would be treated in the same privileged way as the accommodation of any other diplomat. Among the art works thus saved are a triptych of Van Eyck (one of Adolf Hitler´s favorite painters). In July 1940, , in co-operation with the Portuguese Consul Arístedes de Sousa Menendes, he would issue from the Spanish Consulate in Bordeaux more than thirty thousand transit visas to Jews, so that they could cross Spain to reach Portugal. When Spain's Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer learned that Propper de Callejón was issuing visas without the previous authorization of his Ministry, he had him transferred to the Consulate of Larache in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. Afterwards, he would be posted to Rabat, Zurich Washington, Ottawa and Oslo. Propper de Callejón's father, Max Propper, was a Bohemian Jew, and his mother, Juana Callejón, was a Spanish Catholic; they raised Eduardo and his brothers in the Catholic faith His wife, Hélène Fould-Springer was a socialite and painter. She was from a notable Jewish Austrian-French banking family, though she converted to Catholicism upon their marriage and is a sister of prominent Paris art patron and philanthropist Liliane de Rothschild (Baroness Élie de Rothschild,) 1916—2003). He never gained public recognition for his heroic acts before his death in 1972 in London.

1940:  As they continued their dangerous trek to avoid capture by the Nazis, Hans and Margaret Reys arrived in Bayonne, France where they received visas that had been signed by Portuguese Vice-Consul Manuel Vierira Braga which enabled them to cross the border into Spain, the next step on an odyssey that took them to Lisbon, Rio and finally New York.  Hans Reys is the creator of Curious George.  Like so many others, he owes his life to the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes.

1941: In Leicester, UK, Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant, and Ruth M. (née Danziger) who did not tell her son that she Jewish “until he was in his late twenties” gave birth to Stephen Arthur Frears

1941(25thof Sivan, 5701): Seventy-five year old Harold Nathan, the son of : “Robert W. Nathan and Annie Florence Nathan whose ancestor were among the early settlers of New York City” and graduate of  Columbia University Law School who was a “partner in the law firm of Cook, Nathan, Lehman and Greenman,” a member of Temple Emanuel and the husband of Sallie Gruntal Nathan with whom he had two children – Marian and Robert, “the novelist and poet” passed away today.


1941: As of today, “more than 2,000,000 Jews live in New York City” but “about 35 percent of the employable 365,000 Jewish young men and women have been unable to find jobs”

1941: As of today, “among the three largest banks” in New York City “with a payroll of 20,000 only about 200 Jews are on the salary list.

1942: Sixteen month old Tomas Abraham was deported today from Prague to Terezin, the first step on his trip to Auschwitz where he would be murdered two years later. (Editor’s note -  The Nazis were such mighty warriors)

1942: Grace Goodside married cinematographer Jess Paley meaning that she would gain fame as Grace Paley.

1942: Mass killings of Jews by the Nazis began at Auschwitz.

1942: Thirty-three year old Hynek Abraham was transported from Prague to Terezin, the first stop on his trip to Auschwitz where he was murdered two years later.

1942: After breaking into a warehouse at Auschwitz, Ukrainian Eugeniusz Bendera and three Poles, Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster, and Józef Lempart dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (the SS units responsible for concentration camps), armed themselves, and stole an SS staff car, which they then drove unchallenged through the main gate

1942: From now until October 9th, 13,776 Jews would be deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt

1943: Rabbi Harold I. Saperstein responded to tributes paid at a gathering this evening celebrating ten ears of rabbinical service to Temple Emanu-El and provided a sendoff for the leave of absence he was taking to begin serving as a chaplain in the U.S. Army that ended with his hope that just as the first decade of his service was marked by the “accession of Hitler to power” so this next decade “shall be inaugurated with the triumph of democracy.”

1943: Five thousand Jews from Amsterdam are deported to Auschwitz.

1943: The Ternopol (Ukraine) Ghetto is liquidated.

1943: Himmler sent 100 Jews to a concentration camp in Alsace called Natzweiler. They were killed there and their skeletons were sent to the Anatomical Museum in Strasbourg.

1943: Five thousand, five hundred Jews were rounded up in Amsterdam and deported.

1944: Max and Frieda Löwy Sipser applied to be sent to the refugee shelter that had just been established at Fort Ontario, NY on the same day that the Displaced Persons Sub-Commission of the Allied Control Commission posted the notice for applicants.

1945(9th of Tammuz, 5705): Fifty-eight year old German born author and playwright Bruno Frank who left Germany with his wife Liesl after the Reichstag Fire and eventually made his way to the United States where he wrote scripts for such films as “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

1945: Aware that “British hostility to the Zionist enterprise was often a mask for anti-Semitism,” Churchill cautioned his colleague Lord Croft to “not be drawn into any campaign that might be represented as anti-Semitism.”

1946: In Moscow, Alexander Kazhdan and his wife gave birth to Dmitry Aleksandrovich Kazhdan who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1975 at which time he changed his name David Kazhdan, became an Orthodox Jew who made Aliyah in 2002 where he became a professor of Mathematics at Hebrew University.

1947: Following his announcement that he was leaving Beth El in Camden for a new position At Beth Abraham in Oakland, CA, Camden Mayor Brunner wrote a letter published in today’s “Voice” expression his admiration for Rabbi Philip Lipis saying “that Camden was privileged to enjoy his presence and leadership for twelve years.”

1947(2nd of Tammuz, 5707): Ben "Bugsy" Siegel was gunned down by fellow mobsters over financial irregularities surrounding the building of the Flamingo in Las Vegas.

1947: “Twenty minutes after Bugsy Siegel was murder, Meyer “Lansky's associates, including Gus Greenbaum and Moe Sedway, walked into the Flamingo Hotel and took control of the property.”

1948: During the Israeli War for Independence, the Etzel (Irgun) ship Altelena reached the coast of Tel Aviv carrying 800 new immigrants and weapons. The Etzel claimed they had an agreement that 20% of the arms on board would be used by its members in defending Jerusalem. David Ben Gurion, head of the new state of Israel, saw this as threat to the power of the new government. He believed that there could only be one army and that it had to be under the control of the national government. If the Irgun wanted to fight, then its members had to become part of the army just as the members of the Palmach and the Haganah had done. Ben Gurion refused to accept any compromise on this point. He ordered the ship to be fired upon. The incident almost caused a civil war and was only averted by an impassioned and at times incoherent speech made by Menachem Begin to his followers over the radio that night not to take up arms against fellow Jews. One only has to look at multiplicity of armed groups operating today on the West Bank and Gaza to see what would have happened if Ben Gurion had not reluctantly taken such bold action which was necessary if the new state of Israel was going to be a coherent nation.

Because of the controversy that still revolves around this event I have published a second version

1948: Just over a month after the State of Israel was established and shortly after the first cease fire in the War of Independence, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, gave one of the country's most controversial orders ever - to take the Altalena by force.Prior to the establishment of the state, several armed Jewish militias protected early Jewish settlers and fought against the British and hostile Arab forces. The largest of these groups were the Hagana and the Irgun Zva’I Leumi (Irgun or IZL). The Hagana, led by Ben-Gurion, became the Israeli Defense Forces once the state was declared in May 1948 and the Irgun was under the command of Menahem Begin.In mid-May 1948, during the War of Independence, Ben-Gurion ordered the various militias disbanded and integrated into the IDF in order to create one army under a unified command. While some of the militias willingly sent their fighters and weaponry to the IDF, others were unwilling to relinquish the established paramilitary organizations they had built. Notably, the Irgun, for both ideological and political reasons, was unwilling to put itself under Ben-Gurion’s command.Begin and other Irgun commanders were still attempting to ship significant amounts of weaponry and fresh immigrant fighters into Israel in the last days of the British Mandate. The Irgun organized a large ship carrying weaponry and fighters from France, scheduled to arrive on Israel’s shores in mid-May. Due to logistical and operational factors, however, the departure of the Altalena was delayed.By the time the ship was ready to sail, loaded with nearly 1,000 immigrant fighters and thousands of tons of materiel, the first ceasefire in the War of Independence had already been reached and importing weaponry would have constituted a violation of it. The Jewish state, however, was in need of weaponry and ammunition, so when Begin approached Ben-Gurion to inform him of the shipment, the two attempted to negotiate a deal that would see the ship’s cargo safely unloaded.In order to evade detection by United Nations observers overseeing the ceasefire, the Irgun and the newly anointed leaders of the state and its army decided that the Altalena should be offloaded at Kfar Vitkin, near Netanya.Negotiations between the Irgun and Ben-Gurion were complicated by Begin’s insistence on transferring most of the ship’s cargo to Irgun units operating within the newly established IDF, a condition to which Ben-Gurion could not agree. The new leader of Israel was already wary of having non-state controlled armed forces operating independently of the army and believed that directing the weaponry to IDF units from the Irgun would lead to an “army within an army.”As the ship began its final approach to Kfar Vitkin, IDF forces were ordered to surround the area in order to seize the payload. Following failed negotiations, the government decided to issue an ultimatum. The military commander on scene sent Begin a clear message: “I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order and to requisition the weapons which have reached shore and transfer them from private possession into the possession of the Israel government… You have ten minutes to give me your answer.” Small-scale fighting between the two sides broke out at Kfar Vitkin, but Begin and the Irgun, aware of their numerical and tactical disadvantage, decided to send the Altalena south to Tel Aviv where more fighters could be assembled and the army was not yet situated to intercept the ship. Irgun fighters who had already joined the IDF began defecting from their commands and headed to Tel Aviv to fight for their weaponry. As the two forces descended on Tel Aviv, fighting erupted along the shore and throughout the city, “mainly in the center and the south,” The Palestine Post reported in the aftermath of the clashes. The Israeli navy and artillery pieces on shore fired warning shots at the ship in a last-ditched attempt to force a surrender, but eventually hit the ship, setting it ablaze. Ultimately, over 20 Irgun fighters and more than a handful of IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting between the two Jewish forces. The Altalena was eventually brought out to sea and sunk.Ben-Gurion has been both praised and disdained for his decision to take the Altalena by force. Fearing a civil war and a lack of government legitimacy based on the concept of a monopoly of force, Ben-Gurion ultimately decided that he could not tolerate Begin’s brazen refusal to put himself, his fighters and weaponry under the state’s command. Following the Altalena incident, however, Irgun and other militia forces were integrated into the IDF and the non-democratic challenges to the state’s legitimacy came to an end. Nonetheless, the decision to order Jewish soldiers to act against fellow Jews – who too were fighting for the infant state’s survival – has never been forgiven by some who view it as a betrayal of the very purpose of a Jewish army. Until this day, the Altalena is invoked at times when state security forces are pitted against Jews, albeit not with the deadly consequences of June 1948.

1948(13th of Sivan, 5708): Twenty Jews were killed in a bombing in the Jewish Quarter of Cairo.

1948: Fifty-thousand Jewish school children are scheduled to participate in the ancient Jewish festival of the Bikkurim this morning on the Mall of Central Park, as an act designed “symbolize the role American Jewry has played in the redemption of the soil of Israel.”

1948: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Carl and Edith Henry gave birth to photojournalist Diana Mara Henry whose subjects have included Elizabeth Holtzman and Bella Abzug, “her most enduring friend and client who since 1985 “has been writing, translating from the French, publishing and speaking] about the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and its Nacht und Nebel political prisoners, including the Jewish spy Andre Scheinmann.”

1949: Several thousand Iraqi troop are camped today in Jordan where King Abdullah who is losing popularity due to his willingness to sign a peace treaty with Israel, may find them useful as reinforcements for the Arab Legion.

1949: “Moshe Sharett, Israeli Foreign Minister, told the Knesset [Assembly] tonight that he had advised the Lausanne delegates to advocate a plebiscite in Arab Palestine to determine whether the inhabitants desired a separate state or annexation to Jordan.”

1950(5th of Tammuz, 5710): Sixty-two year old Georgia businessman Sam Lazarus, the husband of Annie Stein Lazarus with whom he had five children, drowned t today in Neptune Beach, FL where he was entertaining friends at his summer house.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that legislation empowered the minister of finance to underwrite up to 50 percent of mortgage loans for the construction of low-cost housing.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Britain had promised to press Egypt to open the Suez Canal for oil tankers bound for the Haifa refineries. Contrary to earlier news, General William Riley, chief UN representative in the Middle East, reported to the UN Security Council on June 13 that Egyptian interference with Israel-bound shipping in the Suez Canal was an "aggressive, hostile action, undertaken in the spirit of blockade and having partial effects of a blockade."

1951: “Kind Lady” a re-make of the 1935 film produced by Armand Deutsch with music by David Raksin and filmed by Cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today.

1952: In address to the Commercial and Industrial Club, Schmuel Elyashiv, Israel’s Ambassador in Moscow “said there were prospects of expanding Israel’s trade relations with Russia.  This year Israel shipped oranges and bananas to Russia.”  The Soviets would have bought more if the Israelis had produced a larger crop.

1953(7th of Tammuz, 5713): Parashat Chukat

1953(7th of Tammuz, 5713): Sixty-one year old Oscar winning screenwriter Arthur Caesar, the Romanian born son of Morris Keiser and the brother of lyricist and composer Irving Caesar passed away today.

1954:  In Ramat Gan, Louis (Lutz) Eliezer Wolfermann and Tonya Krepel gave birth to Ilan Ramon, Israel’s first astronaut.

1956: Birthdate of Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Tom Weiner, the author of One Man Against the World” The Tragedy of Richard Nixon.

1960: Birthdate of Shachiv Shnaan the Druze Israeli who served in the Herev Battalion before starting a career in politics that included two stints as an MK.

1962: In Brooklyn, funeral services were held for Brooklyn native Grace Baer Bachrach, the school teacher and wife of attorney Clarence G. Bachrach with whom she had two children who was so active in various civic and cultural organizations including the “Brooklyn division of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” that was honored as “Brooklyn’s First Lady of Philanthropy in 1956.


1963: In London, world premiere of “The Great Escape” a must see movie with a memorable score by Elmer Bernstein.

1964: “Nobody Loves an Albatross” a comedy produced by Philip Rose and directed by Gene Saks with Marian Winters in the role of “Marge Weber” came to a close today.

1965(20th of Sivan, 5725): Ninety-four year old financier and presidential advisor Bernard Baruch passed away.




1965(29th of Sivan, 5725): Eighty year old Oscar A. Berman, the Cincinnati born son of Adolph Aria Berman and Mary Agnes Jacob” passed away today in New York City.

1965:The New York Times reports on the challenge facing Jack Benny as he faces the first summer in 33 years when he “does not find himself in the midst of hectic preparations for a new season on radio or television.”

1966: Birthdate of New York native and son of Israeli parents Boaz Yakin who directed the must-see movie “Remember the Titans.”

1967: Funeral services are schedule to be held today for Flora Sussman, the widow of Louis Sussman and the mother of Harold Sussman, the President of the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre.

1969(3rd of Tammuz, 5729): Terrorists set off three bombings near the Kotel killing one and injuring five.

1970: Birthdate of Jason Robert Brown who wrote the music and lyrics for “Parade” the Tony and Drama Desk award winning musical based on the life and lynching of Leo Frank.

1971(27th of Sivan, 5731): Seventy-four year old Paris native Camille Espire, “a French national who lived in Mayfair and served in the RAF during WW II as a Special Operations Executive” passed away today in Amsterdam.

1972: Birthdate of Yuval Semo, the Haifa native who a popular Israeli actor and comedian.

1973: “A Touch of Class” starring George Segal, directed and produced by Melvin Frank and with a script by Frank and Jack Rose was released in the United States today

1973: At Yale University in New Haven, CT, Bessie Margolin was awarded her Doctor of Science of Law degree today.

1973: Birthdate of Kansas City, MO native Joshua David Shapiro, the Georgetown University trained lawyer and Democratic Party leader who began serving as the 50th Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 2017.


1976: Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Davidooff announced the engagement of their daughter Norma, a producer reporter with Newsweek Broadcasting to Konrad J. Perlman the son of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander K. Perlman who used his master’s degree in city planning from Yale to become the chief of planning for the District of Columbia Department of Housing and Community Development.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US administration informed Israel that it would receive $200m. in transitional aid, much less than it was expected. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Labor Party symposium "Israeli Arab citizens are entitled to full and equal rights, but with the knowledge that not all the duties of equal citizens are demanded of them, nor can all rights be granted to them as long as the enmity of the surrounding Arab world to Israel persists."

1977: Time magazine “revealed” the marriage of 58 year old Alan Jay Lerner to 27 year old Nina Bushkin, the daughter of jazz pianist Joey Bushkin. It is her first marriage and his sixth.

1977:Yitzhak Moda'I began serving as Minster of Energy and Water.

1977: Ezer Weizman succeeds Shimon Peres as Defense Minister.

1977:Gideon Patt succeeds Shlomo Rosen as Minister of Housing and Construction

1977:Aharon Abuhatzira succeeds Haim Yosef Zadok as Minister of Religious Services

1977: Meir Amit succeeds Aharon Uzan as Communications Minister.

1977:Yosef Burg succeeds Shlomo Hillel as Interior Minister

1977: Moshe Dayan began serving as Israel’s 5thMinister of Foreign Affairs.

1977: Shlomo Hillel completed his service as Minister of Public Security after which the ministry was abolished Prime Minister Menachem Begin a situation that would change in 1984 when the position was resurrected.

1978(15th of Sivan, 5738): Sixty-four year old Canadian born award-winning director Mark Robson passed away today.


1979(25th of Sivan, 5739):Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi passed away.  Born in Yemen in 1908, he made Aliyah in 1929.  He served as an MK, cabinet minister and fifth Speaker of the Knesset

1980(6th of Tammuz, 5740): David Feuerwerker, French born Canadian Rabbi and Historian, passed away.

1980: “Can’t Stop the Music,” a musical comedy with a script co-authored by producer Allan Carr and co-starring Steve Guttenberg was released today in the United States.

1980: U.S. premiere of “The Blues Brothers” directed by John Landis featuring Steve Lawrence, Frank Oz, Paul Reubens and Steven Spielberg.

1982: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in Washington.

1985(1stof Tammuz, 5745): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1985: In Dublin, the Irish Jewish Museum is opened bythe Irish born former President of Israel Dr. Chaim Herzog during his State visit to Ireland.

1989: Birthdate of Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse “an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.”

1990(27th of Sivan, 5750): Actress Ina Balin died at the age of 52 from pulmonary hypertension.



1990(27thof Sivan, 5750: Ninety-five year old Clifton Fadiman, the Brooklyn born son of Isidore Michael and Grace Elizabeth Fadiman who gained fame as the super-intellectual during the golden age of radio passed away today.


1990: “Rabbi With Tefillin” by Jan Styka goes on sale at Christie’s Auction House. The painting completed in 1892 was the product of a Polish artist.  Can such a painting be described as Jewish Art?  Look at the canvas and you decide.


 1991(8th of Tammuz, 5751): Ninety-three year old British philanthropist and businessman Sir Isaac Wolfson passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)


1993: The first of four scheduled tours sponsored by the American Jewish Congress which include an opportunity to be a bar or bat Mitzvah at the Kotel or the in Masada begins today.

1995: “Little Women” starring Winona Ruder with music by Thomas Newman “had its initial North America video release on VHS” today.

1996: As he was laid to rest, “Mel Allen was recalled today as a devoted brother and uncle, a man who once left a hospital bed for Yom Kippur services, and a gentle voice who elevated "broadcasting to a prayer with three words: 'How about that?'" during services at Temple Beth-El led by Rabbi Joshua Hammerman.


1996(3rd of Tammuz, 5756): Ninety-one year old Louis J. Lefkowitz, the longest serving state attorney general passed away today. (As reported by Nick Ravo)


1997: “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” a romantic comedy produced by Jerry Zucker was released today in the United States.

1999(6th of Tammuz, 5759): Ninety-five year old “super-intellectual Clifton Fadiman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who gained fame during the gold age of radio.” (As reported by Richard Severo)



1999: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed Historyby William Ryan and Walter Pitman.

2000(17thof Sivan, 5760): Seventy-seven year old “Jay Grayson, the versatile WBAL radio and television personality who for nearly 40 years closed his show with the admonition, "If you liked my show, buy my jams and jellies” who was born Jerome Bernard Goldberg passed away today.


2001(29th of Sivan, 5761): Ilya Krivitz, 62, of Homesh in Samaria was shot and killed at close range in an ambush late Wednesday afternoon in the nearby Palestinian town of Silat a-Dahar.

2002: Jean-François Copé completed his first term as Mayor Meaux.

2002: Following its showing at the Skirball, “Myer Myers: Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York is scheduled to open today at  the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum in Delaware

2002(10th of Tammuz, 5762): Rachel Shabo, 40, and three of her sons - Neria, 16, Zvika, 12, and Avishai, 5 - as well as a neighbor, Yosef Twito, 31, who came to their aid, were murdered when a terrorist entered their home in Itamar, south of Nablus, and opened fire. Two other children were injured, as well as two soldiers. The terrorist was killed by IDF forces. The PFLP and the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

2003(20th of Sivan, 5763): Zvi Goldstein, 47, of Eli, was killed when his car was fired upon in an ambush by Palestinian terrorists near Ofra, north of Ramallah. His parents, Eugene and Lorraine Goldstein, from New York, were seriously wounded and his wife lightly injured. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. (Jewish Virtual Library)

2003: “Hulk” a film based on the comic superhero created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, produced by Avi Arad and James Schamus who provided the story and co-author the script and with music by Danny Elfman was released in the United States today.

2003: “Dr. Judith Rodin, Penn president since 1994, announced today that she intends to step down from the office when she completes her 10-year term in June 2004. The announcement came following a regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Trustees on Penn's campus.”

2003: Richard Nathan Haas completed his two year plus service as Director of Policy Planning under President Bush.

2003: Richard N. Hass completed his services as United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

2004(1st of Tammuz, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2004: In an article styled “Remembering Anne Frank, now 75,” The Cedar Rapids Gazette notes events around the world intended to celebrate the life and writings of one of the most famous victims of the Shoah.

2004:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including War, Evil, and the End of History by Bernard-Henri Lévy; translated by Charlotte Mandell.

2005: With the Israeli and Palestinian leaders scheduled to meet on June 21st in the first top-level talks since February, the almost daily violence that has been straining their truce, which included Palestinian gunmen ambushing and killing an Israeli motorist, continued today.

2005: Larry Collins, the co-author of O Jerusalem passed away today.



2006: Haaretz reported that Israel's ambassador to Germany presented medals of honor on Monday to relatives of five members of the first "European Union" - an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews during World War Two. This European Union, which had the same name but nothing to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground, Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a protocol prepared by Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

2007: In Jerusalem “legendary Israeli composer/singer Shlomo Gronich presents his newest compositions of biblical sources on a wide spectrum of themes: justice, righteousness, integrity, man and his identity, love songs & prayers. The performance includes Gronich on piano & shofar, the Jerusalem String Quartet and percussion.”

2007: “Salon.com posted an online three-page excerpt from” A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency by Glenn Greenwald.

2007(4th of Tammuz, 5767): Eighty-five year old Jerome “Jerry” Fleishman who played college basketball for NYU and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Warriors passed away today.

2007: The Jerusalem Post carried a page one report stating that Shin Bet had foiled a bombing of the synagogue in Modin known as the “pizza shul” or Zichron L’Avraham.

2008: Colonel Jack Weinstein was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the United States Air Force.

2008: Australian businessman Richard J. Pratt was charged with lying about his knowledge of a price-fixing scandal. 

2008: “For My Father,” an Israeli film directed by Droro Zahavi, premiered today at the Moscow International Film Festival.

2008: In Washington, D.C. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, the former president of George Washington University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education at Politics and Prose Bookstore.

2008: The Spertus Museum announced that it was shutting down an exhibition entitled “Imaginary Coordinates” in the wake of an outcry from Chicago –area Jews that it expressed an anti-Israel basis.

2008: In Sarajevo, at The Jewish Film Festival of Croatia, a member of the Jewish community speaks about filming the documentary “Sarayevo Mi Seudad de Oro,” (“Sarajevo My God City”) which tells the story of the Jewish community’s role in helping people escape the last war in Bosnia.

2009: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sarah Maikon, daughter of Renee Maikon and Marc Maikon, and granddaughter of Sandy and Sol Maikon, is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.

2009: G'day Shalom Salaam Israel, presented by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange opens in Israel. As part of the G'day Shalom Salaam Israel event Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will participate in the first Australian Israel Leadership Forum organized by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE).

2010:The Los Angeles Times features a “Sunday Conversation With Daniel Handler” who is perhaps better known for his pen name, Lemony Snicket, and his bestselling volumes of children's books, A Series of Unfortunate Eventsand The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story.

2010: Memorabilia and Memory: Hitler's Hat and other shorts by local filmmaker Jeff Krulik is scheduled to be shown as part of the Jewish Study Center Film Festival in Washington, D.C.

2010: Bowing to worldwide pressure and condemnation, Israel formally announced an eased blockade of Gaza that could significantly expand the flow of goods overland into the impoverished coastal Palestinian enclave, isolated by the Israelis for three years. The White House said it “welcomes the new policy towards Gaza announced by the government of Israel, which responds to the calls of many in the international community.”

2010: In “General Franco Gave List of Spanish Jews to Nazis” Giles Tremlett described this little known tale of how the Spanish dictator provided “fodder” for the German Murder Machine.


2011: Bob Dylan performed at Ramat Gan Stadium tonight.

2011: The Hillel Annual Milwaukee Meeting is scheduled to take place this evening in Wisconsin’s largest city.

2011: The funeral for Morris Pollard, 95, a prominent U.S. researcher on viral diseases who died June 18 of complications from a bladder infection was held today.

2011: Israel has returned nuclear waste from its Sorek nuclear reactor to the U.S., the head of Israel's Nuclear Energy Commission Dr Shaul Horev revealed today.



2012: Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) Employment and Career Services is scheduled to present “Smart is Not Enough! Hidden Key to Career Success” featuring JSSA Life and Career Coach Phyllis Levinson.

2012: Mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital is scheduled to perform Le Poisson Rouge in NYC

2012: In a novel attempt to bring Judaism to the people, Rabbi Dan Ain is scheduled to be available to answering about God or whatever at Tribeca Café in NYC. 

2012:A Gaza rocket has directly hit a home in the Sdot Negev Regional council on today, as more than 30 rockets were fired into southern Israel since the morning. (As reported by Yanir Yagna, Gili Cohen and Avi Issacharoff)

2012:The military wing of Hamas published a report today morning on its website, in which it states that “the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades continues to attack the enemy with rockets for the second straight day, and has launched 9 rockets at the Sofa military base.”

2012(30thof Sivan, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2012: Albert Sachs an opponent apartheid and Judge on the Constitution Court of South Africa received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Dundee

2012:Ultra-Orthodox residents of Beit Shemesh attacked a woman driving through the city on today. Police were investigating the incident. Police said the attackers threw stones at the car because they believed the driver was dressed in an inappropriate and immodest manner. (As reported by Aaron Kalman)

2012: The body of Aaron Joseph Zindani, who was stabbed to death outside the US Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, in May, was transported to Israel today.

2012: Israeli Air Force jets bombed terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip for a second time Wednesday evening, following an unremitting rocket and mortar barrage on southern Israeli towns throughout the day. (As reported by Gabe Fisher)

2012: Pierre Lellouche began serving as the Deputy for Paris’ 1st Constituency.



2013: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to co-host a Refugee Week writing workshop entitled “I’m Not Going Back.”

2013: Barbra Streisand is scheduled to sing at Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa.

2013: After having strained his back again, New York Yankees third baseman Kevin Youkilis “underwent season ending surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back” today.

2013: A rebel group that operates on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights stated today that it would not fight Israel if Israel sends forces into Syria. A spokesman for the rebel group, which is based in Quneitra, made the comments to Al-Jazeera. (As reported by Yoel Goldman)

2013:



Italian Praised for Saving Jews Is Now Seen as Nazi Collaborator (As reported by Patricia Cohen) tells the story of Giovanni Palatuccie, “the Italian Schindler” credited with saving 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust which may have been a giant fraud.

2014: Masses will be said in Luxemburg and Portugal today in remembrance of the June 17th“Day of Conscience” which honors the member of Aristides de Sousa, the Portuguese diplomat who defied Dictator Salazar and issued life-saving visas to thousands of refugees enough of whom were Jewish to earn him recognition by Yad Vashem. 

2014: At the 92nd Street Y, A.J. Baime is scheduled to sign copies of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War after his presentation on how the American automobile industry re-tooled itself in response to President Roosevelt’s call to make America “the Arsenal of Democracy."

2014: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met today with the families of kidnapped Israeli teens Naftali Frankel, Gil-ad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach, who were abducted June 12 in Gush Etzion.”

2014: Today “marked the last day of the 5774 school year for 673,000 Israeli high school students.”

2014: Curator Zachary Paul Levine was interviewed on WAMU's Metro Connection about the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington’s efforts to save D.C.'s only known synagogue mural. 

2014: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim hosts Musical Shabbat with Rebecca Kushner.

2015(3rd of Tammuz, 5775): Parashat Korach

2015(3rd of Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-four year old photographer Harold Feinstein passed away today.





2015: In a reminder that bigotry knows no boundaries “a website apparently created by Dylann Roof emerged today in which the accused Charleston church shooter rails against African Americans, “Jewish agitation of the black race,” and appears in photographs with guns and burning the US flag.”



2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a “Brahms Fest.”



2015: A tour that includes visits to Krakow and Auschwitz/Birkenau sponsored by CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) is scheduled to depart from Chicago today.(As reported by William Grimes.)

2015: An Unknown Country the new film by Ecuadorian-born Jewish filmmaker Eva Zelig that describes the history of this little known Jewish community is scheduled to be shown today as part of New York’s Ecuadorian Film Festival.

2016: Migdalei haYam haTichon is scheduled to host "Classical & Romantic Beads" a unique piano solo recital featuring concert pianist Eliah Zabaly,

2016: “Censored Voices” a film based on interviews conducted by Avraham Shapira and Amos Oz with Israeli soldiers following The Six Day War is scheduled to be shown at the Portland, Oregon Jewish Film Festival.

2016: The second annual “Towards a New Law of Conference” sponsored by Shurat HaDin is scheduled to open today in Jerusalem.

2017(26th of Sivan, 5777): Eighty-four year old “folklorist” Roger D. Abrahams passed away today.  (As reported by William Grimes)


2017: Voters in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District take part in a runoff election featuring Jewish Democrat Jon Ossoff’s long-shot attempt to turn a very Red House Seat to Blue.

2017: Roger Cohen of the NYT is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Liberty and Facts: Isaiah Berlin in the Age of Trump” sponsored by the Center for Jewish History.

2017: “Letters written by Albert Einstein about God, Israel and physics fetched nearly $210,000 at a Jerusalem auction today, with the highest bid going to a missive about God’s creation of the world.”

2018: In New York City, the Rizzoli Bookstore is scheduled to host Eliezer Armon as he talks about his new book If Architecture Is A Language Then A Building Is A Story which was inspired, in part “by images from Israel and its landscape.

2018: “Israel is on the verge of laying out a framework for a “state level defense shield” to raise the level of readiness against threats, Yigal Unna, the nation’s cybersecurity chief said today, warning that the world hasn’t yet seen the worst of the damage hackers can wreak and that “winter is still coming.” (As reported by Shoshannah Solomon)

2018:” Rocket sirens blared in the south throughout the early morning hours today, as barrages totaling some 45 rockets and mortar shells were fired toward Israeli towns, prompting rounds of Israeli airstrikes on Hamas military sites in the Gaza Strip.” (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host an event as part of World Refugees which will include an address by “refugee protection specialist Katie Tobin of UNHCR.

2019: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host David Serero’s adaption of Romeo and Juliet “featuring Ladino and Yiddish songs.”

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host two screenings of “93Queen”

2019: At a ceremony today in Israel, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft who is still facing charges in Florida of soliciting a prostitute, is scheduled to receive “the Genesis Prize, a prestigious award commonly known as the ‘Jewish Nobel Prize.’”

2019: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to hold its annual meeting this evening in the capital city of Iowa.

2019: It was reported today that Israel has completed “its largest military drill in years” which was a simulation of war with Hezbollah.

2020: Chapter Two Films is scheduled to host a screening of “Aviva” followed by a lived streamed Q and A with director Boaz Yakin.

2020(28thof Sivan, 5780): Parashat Shelach-Lecha; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2020: The Asiyah Jewish Community is scheduled to present “ShabAm! Shabbat Morning Conscious Dance.”


2020: Closing night activities of the Lighthouse International Film Festival are scheduled to include a “conversation of with Israeli American filmmaker, writer, visual artist and political activist Udi Aloni.”

2020: As Jews observe Shabbat in a world racked by racial conflict and the pandemic, they can find at least on bright light in David Abulafia having been named as the winner of the Wolfson History Prize for The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans.


This Day, June 21, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 21

356 B.C.E.: Birthdate of Alexander the Great. Alexander traveled back forth across Judea; first when he went down to conquer Egypt and then when he came back from his Egyptian conquest and moved east to conquer more of the Persian Empire. There is a tale about him coming to Jerusalem, but it is a myth that illustrates the positive attitude the Jews of that time had towards Alexander. He is treatment of the Jews was tolerant since he left them to practice their religion in peace and Jews found it easy to settle throughout his newly conquered domains.

120 (18 Sivan 3881): This date marked the passing of Rabbi Gamliel II. Rabbi Gamliel was the successor to Rabbi Johanan Ben-Zakkai who had set up the Talmudic Academy in Yavneh after the war against Rome. Gamliel helped establish a new spiritual leadership and designed the foundation for survival in the Diaspora. He played a key role in keeping the peace between the Jewish community and Rome.

1305: King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia died. During the Rindfleisch massacres in 1298, King Wenceslaus II had extorted large sums from Bohemian Jewry for protection.

1377: The reign of King Edward III who had borrowed 140,000 florins from a consortium led by Vivelin of Strasbourg, “an Alsatian Jewish financer” “on the eve of the Hundred Years’ War” came to an end today when he passed away.

1498: Citizens of Nuremberg, Bavaria received permission to expel its Jews from Emperor Maximillian

1527: NIccolo dei Machiavelli, the author of The Prince, passed away today.


1630: Birthdate of Samuel Oppenheimer “Jewish banker, imperial court diplomat, factor, and military supplier for the Holy Roman Emperor” who was the father of Simon Wolf Oppenheimer who established his own banking house in Hanover and Jakob Wolf Oppenheimer under who Mayer Amschel Rothschild served his apprenticeship.

1639: Birthdate of Increase Mather, a member of the famous family of New England ministers who wrote “Dissertation Concerning the Future Conversion of the Jewish Nation” and who “thought the future conversion of the Jews to be both possible and not far distant in time.  He opposed John Lightfoot’s argument that a general conversion of the Jews was impossible, and he also attacked Baxter’s thesis that the Jews were converted once and for all after Christ, and that those who did not convert at the time were condemned to remain in the Jewish faith for all time. According to Mather, the “national conversion” of the Jews was a “glorious truth.”

1689: The Maisel Synagogue burned today when fire swept through the ghetto in Prague.  Built in the early 1590’s it takes its name from Mordechai and Frumel  Maisel,  who financed its construction.  Today a rebuilt version of the synagogue services a Jewish Museum in Prague.

1727(2nd of Tammuz, 5487): Joseph Jacob van Geldern the banker who was the “Court Jew” for Elector Johann Whilhelm passed away today.

1749: Twenty-eight year old Simon von Geldern returned to Vienna from a journey which he claimed took him to North Africa, Jerusalem and other lands inhabited by Bedouins.  The son of Joseph von Geldern, a wealthy German physician with whom he had a falling out, Simon was the great-uncle of Heinrich Heine who kindly referred to him as “an adventurer and Utopian dreamer.”  

1749: Founding Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Within a year, Jews were living in Halifax and by 1752 there were approximately 30 Jews living in the newly founded city.  The Jewish population would grow slowly and sporadically.  A congregation would not be formed until the end of the 19th century.

1783:Alexander Hamilton, the native of Nevis who according to some was the son a Jewess Rachel Levine and who attended the island’s Jewish school before leaving for North America, completed his first term as a Delegate to the Congress of the Confederaton from New York.

1787;  New Hampshire becomes the 9th state to ratify the United States Constitution which means the Constitution has been ratified by enough states to make it the law of the land. New Hampshire was one of the last states to change its laws so that Jews could hold office.  The final change took place in 1877. As can be seen from the attached article about the Jewish community in Bethlehem, NH, life has changed for the better for Jews living in the Granite State.


1791(19th of Sivan, 5551): One month before his sixth birthday Aaron Isaac ben Gershon passed away in London.

1794: Simon von Geldern “a German traveler and author, the great-uncle of Heinrich Heine, who describes him in his "Memoirs" as an adventurer and Utopian dreamer, “arrived in Vienna” after completing his first voyage.

1795: Mungo Park the Scottish explorer who “noted the presence of Jews in the region of Timbuktu” having been told “by an Arab he met near Walata of there being many Arabic speaking Jews in Timbuktu whose prayers were similar to the Moors” reached the Gambia River on his first expedition to find the source of the Niger River.

1798: The proclamation issued by the French governor of Cologne which stated in part "Whatever smacks of slavery is abolished. Only before God will you have to give an accounting of your religious beliefs. Your civic rights will no longer depend upon your creeds. Whatever these are, they will be tolerated without distinctions and enjoy equal protection” was an example of the newly found rights of citizenship that the Jews were to enjoy in a city from which they had been barred until 1794.

1802: Birthdate of Michelangelo Asson, the native of Verona, who overcame the fact that his father died while he was an infant to become a “physician and medical author.”

1812:  Birthdate of Moses Hess, an early advocate of a league of nations and a Jewish state in Palestine.  His most famous work was entitled Rome and Jerusalem published in 1862.  He died in 1875

1819(28th of Sivan, 5579): Forty-six year old Hirschel Eliazer Kann, the founder of Lisa & Kann passed away at Den Haag, Zuid-Holland, Nederland

1821: Isaac da Costa earned his Doctor of Philosophy today.

1821: At Frankort-on-Main, Zerline and Meyer (Mayer) Levin Beyfus gave birth to Gustav Beyfus

1824: At St. Thomas, Jacob Baiz, the native of Bayonne, France and his wife Leah Baiz gave birth to Aron Baiz

1831: Mayer Lyons married Elizabeth Isaacs in Canterbury, UK.

1834: In Ireland William Somerville, 1st Baron Athlumney and Lady Maria Harriet Conyngham gave birth to Elizabeth Jane Somerville, the wife of James Molyneux Caulfeild, 3rd Earl of Charlemont, who, after being styled as the Countess of Claremont in 1863 began attending synagogue services in Belfast leading to her eventual conversion to Judaism.

1838: A day after he passed a way, sixty-seven year old “Woolf Levy” was buried at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1841: In Charleston, SC, Mr. Nathan married Ann Cohen, the “third daughter of Aaron N. Cohen.”

1841: In Philadelphia, Fannie and Abraham Dessau gave birth to future communal leader Minnie Dessau Louis. (As reported by Seth Korelitz)


1843: In Alsace, Isaiah Rosenthal and Rosa Walter gave birth to Jonas Rosenthal the husband of Jeanette Weill and Confederate Army veteran who was active in Rapides Parish (county) Louisiana politics and
was appointed as U.S. Postmaster of Alexandria, LA.

1843: The Gold-Bug, a, short story by Edgar Allen Poe, who “as a boy, hung out with several Jewish friends whose mothers inspired his later work” and whose“famed raven that kept repeating “Nevermore” was a direct quote from one of his Jewish friend’s grandfathers who had just found out that his son purchased a suit at a retail price” began appearing in serialization today in American newspaper. (As described by Mark Miller)

1845: Ralph Bernal Osborne, the eldest son of London Sephardic Spanish Jewish Parliamentarian Ralph Bernal, was the first person listed in the Railway Times as a member of “the provisional committee for the Leicester, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Burton-upon-Trent and Stafford Junction Railway” a railway that was never built.

1846: Michael Gashion married Leah Maria Abraham at the Great Synagogue.

1850(11th of Tammuz, 5610): Seventy-eight year old Jacob Hays, “known throughout his career as Old Hays,” the Westchester Country born son of David Hays and Esther Hetting, whom many consider “the first real detective in New York” because “in 1802 Mayor Edward Livingston appointed him chief of the day police force” and “gave him the title of High Constable of the City of New York, passed away today.

1854: "Gleanings from the Mail" published today cites a report appearing in the Boston Advertiser that "the Jews of the Holy Land are suffering great distress from destitution."



1857: In Charleston, SC, Julius Fiegel married Theresa Klauber.



1861: In Chicago, the Sinai Congregation dedicated its first temple on Monroe Street between Clark and La Salle in which the “Einhorn ritual” was used for the first time in “a Western congregation.”



1863(4th of Tammuz, 5623): Sixty-nine year old Benjamin Golding, the British doctor who founded Charing Cross Hospital passed away today.



1866: Rosa Kahn married Josua Hirschel to become Rosa Hirschel



1868: In Motueka, NZ, John Clervaux Chaytor and his wife Emma gave birth to Major General Sir Edward Walter Clervaux Chaytor who, as a member of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force took part in the campaign to liberate the Sinai and Palestine, distinguishing himself at the Battle of Romani, the assault on Rafa and the capture of Rafa.



1872(15th of Sivan, 5632): Marc Borchard, the native of Mecklenburg who earned his M.D. at Halle and became a forensic physician at Bordeaux before spending his final years writing in Paris where he passed away today.



1873: The committee in charge of the excursions to be taken by the children who are the responsibility of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Free Schools, most of whom are from poor homes, announced their plans for the first outing which is scheduled to take place in two days.



1877: Following publication of Judge Hilton’s explanation of his decision to ban Mr. Seligman from the Grand Union Hotel, the New York Times published a series of letters grouped under the headings of  “The Jewish Side of the Question” and the “The Other Side”.  The letters under “The Other Side” described the undesirability of Jews as a class and as hotel guests which made Hilton’s decision not only understandable but correct.  The letters under “The Jewish Side of the Question” included derisive comments on Hilton’s attempt to differentiate between a “Hebrew” and a “Jew” as well as refutation of his claim that he was willing to admit certain acceptable Hebrews since the daughter of one of those mentioned had, in fact, been turned away from the Grand Union.

1878: Ida M. Frances Erich, the daughter of Lazarus and Seline Babette Morgenthau and her husband William Joseph Ehrich gave birth to William Joseph Ehrich.

1878: Today six speakers took part in an oratorical contest at Yale University in which the contestants were competing for De Forest Medal. The third speaker was H.C. Coe, a Jew who spoke on “The Ancient and Modern Jew.”  The sixth and final speaker was Louis Hood of Newark who also spoke on “The Ancient and Modern Jew.” While all of the speakers were impressive, Hood walked off with the prize

1881: Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov,a Marxist Zionist and one of the founders of the Labor Zionist movement as well as a pioneer in the study of Yiddish as a language.  He passed away in 1917.



1879: In Lancaster, PA, Frank Woolworth opened his first successful “Woolworth’s Great Five Center Store” the forerunner of the popular F.W. Woolworth’s which the Nazis mistakenly thought was owned by Jews and which they would target as part of their economic boycott of Jewish businesses in the 1930’s



1880: “Politics of Europe and Asia” published today brought news about the conference being held in Madrid called to deal with the situation in Morocco. Senor Ludolf is schedule to introduce a resolution supported by the United State, Portugal and Germany that calls for religious liberty and better treatment of the Jews.



1880: It was reported today that of the five and half million people living in Belgium only 15,000 are Protestants and 3,000 are Jews while all the rest are Catholics.



1882: A summary of Dr. Goodman’s report on the feasibility of settling large number of Jewish refugees from Russia on agricultural communities which has been presented to the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society of the United States was published today. According to Goodman it would cost $500, not counting the cost of the land, to provide each colonist with the necessities for survival.  “To start 2,000 heads of families on farms would require a cash advance of $1,000,000 for materials, implements, stock, seed, food etc. before they could become self-maintaing.”  Add in the cost of the land, and, according to Dr. Goodman, “the Jewish people in the United States looking to colonization of their destitute co-religionists must collect and invest…from two to four million dollars” over an extended period of time with no hope of a return on investment. 



1884: In the case of Dumas v. Jacquet, the First Chamber of the Civil Tribunal of Paris delivered a judgment today that “enjoined the public exhibition of a picture in which the artist had represented Alexandre Duma, the novelist as “Marchand Juif.”



1887: The Jews of London celebrated the first day of the 51st year of the reign of Queen Victoria over Great Britain at the Synagogue on St. James Place in Aldgate.  The crowded sanctuary was decorated for the occasion and the attendees were treated to a choral service.

1888: “Barge Office Prizes” published today described the commercial activities that surrounded the sale and purchase of the “unclaimed, abandoned, and seized goods.” Before Ellis Island, the Barge Office was the point of entry for immigrants arriving in New York.  The majority of those involved in the examination and purchase of the goods were reportedly Jews.



1888: It was reported today that a rescript has been published ordering that a eulogy be read in all churches at upcoming Sunday services.  The offering of a eulogy by the Jews appears to have been optional. [Given the response of Rabbis in New York, it is safe to assume that many Jews mourned the passing of the first modern Kaiser.]



1890: Mr. Comstock of the Society for the Suppression of Vice recognized a man named Marcus Goldstein who had been arrested for trying to obtain plates with which to make counterfeit lottery tickets as Mordecai S. Blaustein “whom he had arrested just four years ago in Orchard Street for swindling poor people” by selling them “bogus lottery tickets.” After having been convicted in 1886, this Polish Jew had been sentenced to 6 months at Blackwell/s Island. According to Comstock, Blaustein or Goldstein was first found to be swindling people on the lower east side in 1881 but he jumped bail and hid out in Chicago. 



1891: “Jew Baiting” published today included a detailed review of Les Juifs De Russie Recueil D’Articles Et D’Etudes Sur Leur Situation Legale Sociale Et Economique (The Russian Jews: Collection of Articles and Studies on Their Legal, Social and Economic Situation) by Leopold Cerf.

1892: The Democratic National Convention which was attended by George Washington Ochs Oakes as a delegate from Tennessee opened today in Chicago.

1892: Birthdate of American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr His views on Jews evolved over time from his early days as a minister in Detroit.  He warned against the rise of anti-Semitism in Hitler’s Germany and came to the conclusion that it was wrong to try and convert Jews. He expressed his strong pro-Zionist sentiments in “Our Stake in the State of Israel”



1893: Five days after she passed aboard the SS Kaiboura, fifty-three year old “Dinah” Nathan, “the wife of Joseph E. Nathan of Wellington, New Zealand, was buried at the Willesden Jewish Cemetery

1894: Edward Lauterbach, the Republican Jewish political leader was among those participating in the hearings being held at the Constitutional Convention in Albany.

1894: Two days after he passed away, thirty-eight year old Alexander Solomon, the son of Rosetta and Ralph Solomon was buried at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1895: Birthdate of University of Cincinnati and HUC graduate Samuel Wohl, the long-time rabbi of the Reading Road Temple, founder of the League of Labor Zionism and husband of Belle F. Meyers Wohl.

1896: The St. Louis Republic described the decision to choose Rabbi Samuel Sale to deliver the opening prayer at the Republican Convention. According to the Republic, Sale had not been chosen as a compromise to avoid offending the APA and the Catholics but had been chosen because Baron Rothschild of London had sent a telegram requesting that this be done.  However, the reporter for the Republic had not seen the telegram and could not find anybody else who had.

1896: Members of the Young Folk’s League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum are scheduled to enjoy an outing today aboard the SS Bay Queen

1896(10th of Tammuz, 5656): Fifty year old Isaac B. Poznanski, the native of Charleston passed away in the UK where he was burred at the Hammersmith Old Cemetery in London.

1897: “Family Left Destitute” published today described the plight of the Cohen family of New Haven.  Mrs. Cohen’s husband disappeared without explanation and she thought he had deserted her.  Actually, he had been killed in railway accident in New York City.  Authorities shipped the widow and her four children to New York where they are now in the care of the Hebrew Sheltering House Association.

1897(21st of Sivan, 5657): Sixty-seven year old German born American businessman and philanthropist  Mayer Lehman who along with his brothers Henry and Emanuel  founded Lehman Brothers and who was the father of New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Irving Lehman and New York  and U.S. Senator Herbert H. Lehman passed away today.


1897: “Hebrew School In Chicago” published today described a soon to be opened educational institution in the Windy City where all instruction and conversation will be in Hebrew.  While classes will be offered in “the primary scholastic branches,” “the Hebrew Bible will be the principle subject of study.

1897: Herman Warszawiak, the converted Jewish missionary, who had been expelled by the Presbyterians after having been found guilty of performing immoral acts including gambling was not available for public comment even though he had earlier said the conviction had come because some did not want a converted Jew to be a minister in the Presbyterian Church.

1898: Two days after he passed away, fifty-five year old Chaim Kronman, a native of Bialystok, was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.

1898: At Orange, NJ, 58 year old Getta Scholle, the vice president of the Home For Aged and Infirm Hebrews who was the widow of Jacob Scholle, passed away today.

1899: “Boys in Religious War” published today described events leading up to a public brawl between over one Jewish and Christian boys in Chicago.  The Christians, who attend several local parochial schools, have been taunting and attacking the Jewish boys who finally fought back.  At first the Christians had the better of the battle, but the Jews found reinforcements and surrounded their attackers.  At this point, the police intervened and arrested some of the battlers.

1899: The Jews of Chicago are planning on presenting Captain Dreyfus “with a gold-mounted, diamond-set and richly engraved sword.” They are planning on presenting Emile Zola with an engraved gold pen as token of appreciation for his defense of Dreyfus.  They are planning on present Colonel Picquart, the War Minister who befriended Dreyfus and helped to prove his innocence with a gold loving cup..

1900(24th of Sivan, 5660): Sir Charles Oppenheimer, the native of Nastätten, Nassau the successful businessman and Jewish philanthropist who served as the British consul-general at Frankfort-on-the-Main passed away today.

1903: In St. Louis, “Isaac and Rebecca Hirschfeld gave birth to Al Hirschfeld, award winning cartoonist




1903: Today NYU Law School trained attorney and municipal court judge Samuel Strasbourger, the  son of Henri and Rachel (Mayer) Strasbourger,  married Blanche Gaynor with whom he had three children – Sara, J. Henri and Samuel Jr.

1903(26th of Sivan, 5663): New York Banker Isidor Wormser passed away tonight in his home on Fifth Avenue.  Born in Germany he came to the U.S. in at the age of 18 with his brother Simon with whom he sailed around Cape Horn to California where they prospered selling merchandize in the Gold Fields and later at their store in Sacramento. Isidor and Simon came to New York in 1870 where they established the banking firm of I & S Wormser which prospered for over 30 years thanks in part, to the conservative fiscal practices of brothers and to the probity of their business dealings. A member of the New York Stock Exchange and a Democratic Presidential elector in 1892, Wormser’s interest in civic affairs could be seen by his membership in the Metropolitan Museum and his service as a trustee of the Brooklyn Bridge.


1904: Today, Benjamin L Abraham married his nineteen year old wife, the daughter of William and Bessie (Fuchs) Gardner who served as President of the Philadelphia Chapter of Hadassah and was “chairman of the Women’s Division of the United Palestine Appeal…”

1904: Thirty-three year old Rabbi Isaac E. Marcuson, the Cincinnati born son of Marcus and Adele (Marx) Marcuson and graduate of the University of Cincinnati and HUC who was Secretary of the Central Conference of American Rabbis married Rose thornier today in Macon, GA.

1905: Judge Jacob William Mack and Bertha Mack gave birth Theresa Mack, the future wife of Joseph Geffen which would make her Therese Geffen, the mother of Alice Geffen.

1905: Birthdate of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.  Towards the end of his life Sartre suffered what a critic called a “loss of historical hope.” Ironically, he turned to Judaism and Jewish history to find a source of hope and final philosophic underpinning.  “Sartre dealt with his loss of historical hope by painfully acquiring another kind of hope. He replaced both existential dread and Marxist utopianism with a Jewish messianic patience. In the final interview with his friend and associate, the unlikely baal t'shuva, (returnee to Judaism), Benny Levy (formerly Pierre Victor), he reports his discovery that "the messianic idea is the base of the revolutionary idea." For many months before he died, Sartre studied Salo Baron's voluminous, magisterial work on Jewish history and, with Levy, came to a new-old view of the human prospect. As if he had invented Buber and the Bible, Sartre now proclaims, "We belong to a single family." Of course, "the unity of the human enterprise is yet to be created…what I have is yours and what you have is mine. If I need, you give to me. If you need, I give to you. That is the future of morality.” In the end, Sartre became a kind of "Jew." Already in the resistance of 1940-45, he had risked his life against Fascism. In Les Temps Modernes, at the very time of the Six Day War, he published what remains the most balanced and useful collection of essays on Arab Jewish peace and declared his solidarity with Israel. He did not accept the Nobel Prize of literature. But he did accept an honorary degree from the Hebrew University in 1976, reminding the Israelis how deeply he shared their dreams, and telling them that the more he cared about them, the more he cared also about the Palestinian people. "In order to understand the Jew from the interior, I would have to be a Jew," Sartre told Benny Levy and he tried hard enough to achieve that very goal. Studying Jewish history, like many thinkers before him, he caught a vision of the messianic hope: survival, obedience and loyalty to humanity itself. "The Jew lives. He has a destiny. The finality toward which every Jew moves is to reunite humanity....It is the end that only the Jewish people (knows)….It is the beginning of the existence of men for each other." In the last days and in the last words of Jean-Paul Sartre, we find a brother and a teacher in Israel.”

1906: In the United Kingdom, “Mr. Montefiore, President of the Zionist Federation and Israel Zangwill, President of the Jewish Territorial Organization, published a joint appeal through the newspapers this morning to the prominent Jews of Great Britain and the United States on behalf of the oppressed Russian Jews.”

1907(10th of Av, 5667): Tish’a B’Av observed because the 9th of Av fell on Shabbat

1907(10th of Av, 5667): Isidior Wormser, the successful New York Banker who is the father-in-law of Jefferson Seligman, passed away today.

1908: “There is nothing extraordinary in the senior wranglership at Cambridge of Selig Brodestsky, reported in cable dispatches from London to-day” because “to Jew and Gentile alike, irrespective of birth or pecuniary circumstances, the highest honors of the English universities have long been accessible.”

1909: Jerusalem native Salama Du Ghan who “began his career as a guide to tourists in Palestine” committed suicide this “morning by swallowing cyanide of potassium in the cellar of Fourteen Street drug store” in New York

1910: Orders were issued expelling 130 Jews from Solomenka and 173 Jews from Demieffka, after local factory workers complained of rent increases brought on by Jewish refugees from Kiev seeking refuge in these local suburbs.

1911: King George V, during whose reign the Balfour Declaration promulgated, prepared for his coronation which was scheduled to take place tomorrow.

1912: “Claiming that Jews skin living animals, anti-Jewish agitators introduced a bill in the Duma to prohibit” Shehitah.

1912: Birthdate of Newcastle, UK native “Judah Benzion ‘Ben’ Segal”, the “Professor of Semitic Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies,” the father of Professor Moshe Zvi Segal and the brother of Dr. Samuel Segal” passed away today.


1912: Russkoye Znamya, an anti-Semitic newspaper, warmed “Jews that criticism of the Government by Jewish deputies will be answered by pogroms”

1913: It was reported today that steamer August Kessler had arrived in San Francisco with three million gallons of gasoline from Sumatra” belonging to the Rothschilds.

1913: “Mr. Harvey Franklin, a student at the Hebrew Union College” is scheduled to lead services at K.A.M. in Chicago.

1913: Rabbi Joseph Stoltz led services and delivered the sermon this morning at Isaiah Temple in Chicago.

1913: It was reported today that “the Secretary of the Alliance Israelite Universelle has declared that henceforth the chief concern of his organization will be Jews and Jewish institutions in Palestine” an area that France has declared to be part of its protectorate despite the fact that it was part of the Ottoman Empire.

1914: This morning, at HUC in Cincinnati, President J. Walter Freiberg presided over the semi-annual meeting of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations where Secretary Lipman Levy presented a report that showed an additional seven congregations had joined the Reform organization
“since the annual board meeting last December.”

1915: Five day before his term in office was scheduled to end, John M. Slaton, Governor of Georgia commuted the sentence of Leo Frank from death to life in prison.  The commutation came a day before Frank was scheduled to be hung.  Slaton, who had been a popular governor, left Georgia with the mob and threat of violence baying at his heels.  Tom Watson wrote an article calling for the lynching of Frank.

1915: In an interview with Pope Benedict published in La Liberte today the Pontiff talked about the horrors of war including a report “hat the Russians on one occasion pushed before them 1,500 Jews so that they could advance behind this living barrier thus exposed to the bullets of the enemy.”

1915: At a little before 5 o’clock this morning Sheriff Mangum and his party of deputies arrived with their prisoner, Leo M. Frank, at the Georgia State Penitentiary in Milledgeville, GA “just a few minutes after Warden J.N. Smith had been notified by authorities in Atlanta that the prisoner was in the custody of the officers and on the way to the State Prison.”

1915: In editorializing about the commutation of Leo Frank’s sentence by Governor Slaton The Athens Daily Banner concluded with the statement that “Whatever may be the result to him he at least has the consolation of knowing that in the face of strenuous circumstances surround this case he did what his judgment told me was his duty to himself and to the State.”

1915: “There was great relief and much joy at the home of Leo M. Frank’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Frank at 152 Underhill Avenue, Brooklyn this morning when word came that the Governor Slaton had commuted the death sentence.” Since the parents were in Atlanta, the telephone call from County Judge Harry E. Lewis with the good news was taken by the daughter and son-in-law Mr. and Mrs. Otto Stern.

1915: “Local relatives of Leo M. Frank said today that there was absolutely no foundation for the report which had been circulated early in the case that Mrs. Frank was estranged from her husband.”

1915: “In discussing the commutation of Leo Frank’s sentence, The Rome Tribune-Herald says that in its opinion 80 per cent of the people of Georgia opposed commutation, but it believes that this sentiment arose from fear that Frank would be released in a few years.”

1915: Governor John M. Slaton “is guarded in his country home tonight by the a battalion of the Georgia National Guard because of the strenuous efforts of a crowd variously estimated at from 1,000 to 2,000 persons to get at the Governor to show their disapproval” of the commutation of Leo M. Frank’s death sentence to life imprisonment.

1915: The Atlanta Journaleditorial on the commutation of the sentence of Leo M. Frank concluded by saying that “The Governor has shown wisdom and courage in his performance of an act of simple justice, and time will vindicate his moderation.”

1915: In an interview given today following the announcement of the commutation of Leo Frank’s sentence “Louis Marshall, one of the counsel for Leo M. Frank” said “Governor Slaton has saved the honor of Georgia.  He the sentence of death pronounced against Frank been executed, it would have been a crime against justice for I am as firmly convinced of his absolute innocence as I am of my own.”

1916: At a meeting tonight at Carnegie Hall, Nathan Straus, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise and other prominent Jews from various cities in the United States spoke in favor of “the calling of a democratic congress of Jews in Philadelphia to demand equal rights for Jews in all lands” – a meeting which the American Jewish Committee led by President Louis Marshall has opposed saying it would be best to wait until after the war.

1916: A message was read to a meeting of Jews at Carnegie Hall “from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker…deploring the prejudice and ignorance that had has resulted in discrimination against Jews.”  (Editor’s Note: Baker’s boss, President Wilson is running for re-election and the Jewish vote certainly would help)

1916: The Joint Distribution Committee of Funds for Jew War Suffers “consisting of representatives of the American Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Relief Committee and the People’s Relief Committee met this afternoon “at the office of Felix M. Warburg and appropriated $250,000 for the immediate relief of Jews who through the present movement of troops on the borders of the eastern war zones may be compelled again to evacuate their homes.”

1917(1st of Tammuz, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1917(1st of Tammuz, 5677): Date given in the American Jewish year book for the death of London “restaurateur” Sir Joseph Lyons who according to all other sources passed away on June 22.  (Editor’s note – and now you know some of what makes this both confusing and interesting)

1917: Mrs. Henry Morgenthau, who has always been interested in the work of the Red Cross, “left the United States” today “with her husband who was head of the mission sent to Egypt to investigate the conditions of the Jews In Palestine.”

1918: “It was announced” tonight “that the case of Felix Sommerfield, a German subject who was at one time private secretary to the late President Francisco Madero of Mexico” and subsequently the arms supplier for Poncho Villa  is still being investigated by agents of the Justice Department who arrested him while he was staying at the Hotel Aster.  (Sommerfield was Jewish; Madero and Villa were not.

1919: Birthdate of Norwegian tailor Harry Braude who was arrested in Oslo and shipped aboard the Donau to Auschwitz where he was murdered.

1919: Today, in Basle, Switzerland, the 21st“general conference of delegates of Zionist societies” which was “attended by fifty-five delegates” adopted “resolutions protesting the persecution of Roumanian and Bessarabian Jews.”

1920: Ceremonies marking the consecration “of the Home for the Blind on the estate known as the Pines, in Yonkers under the auspices of the New York Guild for the Jewish Blind” took place today which means that “for the first time in the history of New York, Jewish blind children have a playground of their own” thanks in no small measure to the work of Mrs. E.I. Wilson and Mrs. Joshua Piza.

1920: Following Henry Ford’s statement that “it is impossible for the Jew to be a patriot,” the American Hebrew requested the views on the subject from Secretary of War Newton D. Baker who wrote today, “In all the branches of the War Department service and in the officer personnel and enlisted ranks of our great Army, I have found members of the Jews race doing their duty – loyal, sympathetic, devoted their tasks and intensely patriotic” showing “themselves to be true Americans” of “which no higher praise can be given.”

1920:  Dr. Henry Keller, who “has recently returned from Palestine where he served as chief of the Orthopedics Department of the Zionist Medical Unit” is scheduled to deliver a lecture this evening at the Aeolian Concert Hall where his talk will included “a collection of unusual photographs vividly describing conditions in…the Holy Land.”

1921: In New York City Abe and Helen (Gollomb) Tuvim gave birth to Judith Tuvim who gained fame as award winning actress Judy Holiday.

1921: Birthdate of Leon Silverman, the Manhattan born attorney. (As reported by Sam Roberts)


 1921: Twenty year old Sara Feder, the Polish born daughter of Benjamin and Shaine (Kumok) Feder, the friend of fellow Milwaukee school mate the future Golda Meir and hold of a Doctorate from the Univesity of Chicago became Sara Feder-Kaeyfit when she married Professor Isidore Keyfitz in Milwaukee today.

1922:  During a debate in Parliament, Lord Sydenham contends that the Arabs would not object to immigration if it were done by “well selected Jews” instead of by what  describes as Zionist settlers who are” Bolsheviks,” “sinister and “promiscuous people.”

1922: Following a debate in the House of Lords on the questions of continued British commitment to honor the Balfour Declaration, 60 Lords voted against the declaration and only 29 voted for it.

1922:  Major Herbert Young, “a senior official” in the Colonial Office writes Churchill that the vote against the Balfour Declaration in the House of Lords will lead to greater Arab obstinacy and imperil Britain’s previous promises to the Jews.

1922: Samuel Bronfman “married Saidye Rosner with whom he had four children -- Aileen Mindel "Minda" Bronfman de Gunzburg, Phyllis Lambert, Edgar Miles Bronfman and Charles Rosner Bronfman.

1922: While meeting in London, the Prime Ministers of Canada, Newfoundland, Australia and New Zealand stated that they shared “Arab suspicions” of plans to ultimately create a Jewish majority in Palestine.

1922:  In an address to the Dominion Prime Ministers Churchill described “The Zionist ideal as a very great idea” with which he had great personal sympathy.  He further reminded them that the Balfour Declaration was more than an ideal.  “It was an obligation made in wartime to enlist the aid of Jews all over the world and Britain must be very careful and punctilious to discharge its obligations.”

1922(25th of Sivan, 5682): Seventy-five year old Louis Stern, the President of Stern Brothers, the New York department store, passed away unexpectedly in Paris. A native of Germany, Stern “learned the rudiments of merchandizing” in a small store owned by his uncle in Petersburg, West Virginia. In 1867 he and his brother Isaac opened a small dry goods and novelty store which was so successful that they opened a larger emporium on West 23rd Street in 1878.  After his brother’s retirement, Stern opened an even larger store on 42nd Street. Stern was active in numerous civic and communal organizations including serving as Chairman of the New York Commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and President of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.


1923: A year after graduating from the Naval Academy, Ensign Hyman Rickover “was made engineer officer aboard “the destroyer La Vallette” as a reward for “his hard work and efficiency.”

1925: Birthdate of Woodhaven, NY native Stanley Moss the American poet who “makes his living as a private art dealer.”



1926: Abbot Lawrence Lowell, the President of Harvard University was featured on the cover of Time magazine. Although the cover story did not mention it, 1926 was a year of triumph for Lowell because he convinced the Harvard Board of Overseers to adopt new admission requirements that accomplished his goal of reducing the number of Jews at Harvard.  The year before these “non-academic” standards were added, 27% of the freshman class was Jewish.  By the time Lowell in 7 years after the standards had been put in place Jews made up 10% of the underclassmen

1927: Two days after she had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held today Zippporah Alice DeCastro Lazaron, the New Orleans born daughter of Jacob Osoro DeCastro and Hannah Haim DeSola DeCastro, the wife of Atlanta, GA native Samuel Louis Lazaron and the mother of Savannah, GA native Rabbi Samuel Lazaron.

1927: In New York, three Jewish interns at Kings County Hospital were attacked and tied up.

1928: Birthdate of Judith Raskin, one of America's greatest lyric sopranos of the twentieth century. She was not only famous for her voice but also for her acting. Judith Raskin died on December 21, 1984, after a long struggle with cancer. Services were held at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York City where she was eulogized as being one of the finest artists of our time who could be emulated by other future Jewish aspirants of the concert and opera stage.

1929: “Broadway Babies” directed by Mervyn LeRoy “premiered at the Central Theatre in New York City.”

1931: In Brooklyn, attorney “Nathaniel H. Kugelmass” and “the former Rose Goldstein, a high school administrator” gave birth to Lawrence Kugelmass Grossman the step-son of attorney Nathan Grossman who served as  President of NBC-TV News before becoming President of PBS. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)


1932: In Buenos Aires Luis Schifrin, who “led the second violin section of the orchestra at the Teatro Colón for three decades” and his wife gave birth to Boris Claudio Schifrin who gained as Argentine pianist, composer, arranger and conductor” Lalo Schifrin.

1932: In Paris, FranceDolores Porges (née Neubauer) and Pierre Louis-Dreyfus who headed the Louis Dreyfus Group and French Resistance leader gave birth to Gérard Louis-Dreyfus who as William Louis-Dreyfus became Chairman of the Louis Dreyfus Energy Service the multi-billionaire who is the great grandson of Léopold Louis-Dreyfus, founder of Louis Dreyfus Group and the father of award winning actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

1932: “Chicago-Kent College Law graduate and WW I U.S. Navy veteran William David Saltiel, the “Assistant Corporate Counsel for the City of Chicago, City Attorney and Special Assistant to the United States Attorney General married Cicely Friedman Haas today making her the daughter-in-law of “Leopold and Marie (Friedman) Saltiel”

1933: “The XXXIII Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” is scheduled to meet for a fourth day today in Chicago.

1933: Birthdate of actor Bernie Kopell who played Doc on the ABC hit television show, The Love Boat

1933: A memorial meeting was held this evening at Beethoven Hall in New York City honoring Dr.Chaim Arlosoroff who had been murdered last Friday. It was attended by approximately 1,000 Jews and the leaders of various branches of the Zionist movement.  In his speech, Morris Rothenberg, President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) made reference to reports that Revisionists had been connected with the murder and warned against any “rush to judgment” in determining who was responsible for the crime.

1934:Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, president of City College, and Dr. Bernard Revel, president of Yeshiva College, spoke at the third annual commencement exercises of Yeshiva College, to be held at 4 o'clock this afternoon in the college auditorium, 186th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.

1935: Eighty-nine year old Edmond Fitzmaurice, the 1st Baron Fitzmaurice who while serving as the Foreign Office’s spokesman in the House of Lords in 1906 expressed personal sympathy for the plight of the Russian Jews said that the government could not do anything to intervene to improve the situation because it would upset the Russian government and actually might do more harm than good, passed away today.

1935: “North Carolina trained lawyer Angus W. McClean who in 1926 while serving as Governor “issued a proclamation urging all the leaders of public thought, non-Jews as well as Jews, throughout the State to volunteer their services to help raise North Carolina’s quota of $200,000 which is the state’s part in the national United Jewish Campaign passed away today.

1936(1st of Tammuz, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1936: Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What We Should Forget” at the Jewish Science Society on West 85 Street in Manhattan.

1936: “Dr. James G. McDonald of the editorial staff of The New York Times and former league of Nations high commissioner for refugees from general spoke at a meeting of the General Council of Congregational and Christian Church where he that that in German, “not only are the Jews the scapegoat for political and partisan purposes, they are held responsible for all the adversity which the German people have had to undergo.”

1936: In Palestine, Arabs killed Sergeant Henry Sills today and then “dragged his body into a cave.”

1936: “The Jewish Agency Executive, recognized by the League of Nations mandate as the supreme Jewish authority in Palestine” “called upon the Jews of the world to mobilize their forces for ‘well-balanced political effort and strengthened constructive endeavor’ to protect the Jewish position in Palestine.”

1936: It was reported today that Rabbi Charles Raddock of Brooklyn “is planning a literary monthly magazine addressed to the intelligent and non-partisan American Jewish reader” which he plans on calling Consensus and which he expects to start publishing in September.

1936: The Palestine Post reported from London that the House of Commons held a full-dress debate on the Palestine crisis. There had been unanimity of views that stern measures should be taken to restore law and order in the country. Mr. Ormsby-Gore, the colonial secretary, expressed confidence in the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, but was conciliatory towards the Arabs.

1936: A review of Judaism in Transition by Mordecai M. Kaplan was published today.


1936: An armed band of approximately 60 Arabs attacked a convoy of Jewish owned buses on route to Tel Aviv from Haifa.A British sergeant, Henry Sills, of the Seaforth Highlanders, was killed and three privates of the Royal Scottish Fusiliers were wounded in subsequent fights between the Arab terrorists and the British troops assigned to provide protection.

1937: Dr. Louis L. Mann, the Rabbi of Sinai Congregation in Chicago is scheduled to take part in a “Roundtable Discussion on Minorities in a Democracy” broadcast this afternoon by radio station WJZ.

1938:In the first act of terrorism to take place in Tel Aviv, a bomb was thrown near a movie theatre seriously injuring a child.

1938: In London, “Russian Jewish immigrants Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone”gave birth to Donald Blackstone who gained fame as the lyricist Don Black.

1938: In London, “Russian Jewish immigrants Morris and Betsy (née Kersh) Blackstone” gave birth to their youngest child Donald Blackstone who gained fame as Oscar winning lyricist Don Black.

1939: At the World’s Fair in New York,  New Jersey Hadassah Day was celebrated with luncheons at the Café Tel Aviv and Toffenettti’s Restaurant while Dr. Albert Einstein and Rabbi Stephen Wise are the scheduled speakers at a luncheon for Rho Pi Phi Fraternity at the Café Tel Aviv.

1940: France surrendered to Germany, a move that would doom the Jews of France as well as Jews from across Europe who had sought refuge in France before the start of World War II.

1940: Prime Minister Winston Churchill “received a telegram from Lord Lothian, the British Ambassador in Washington, stating that the Jews in the United States ‘want Jews in Palestine to be organized under British command to defend Palestine from outside attack and to help the Allies.’  If Palestine were overrun (by the Nazis) and Jews had not been put in a position to defend their country, there would certainly be a most deplorable effect on American Jews’ opinion.’”

1940: Georges Mandel and Pierre Mendes France were among the handful of French deputies who boarded the Massilia for North Africa where they planned on continuing the resistance against Nazi Germany.

1941(26th of Sivan, 5701): Parashat Sh’lach

1941(26th of Sivan, 5701): Sixty-one year old “internationally known dermatologist” Elmore Tauber passed away today in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.


1941: Vichy adopted a statue excluding Jewish students.

1941: Today, “after having been arrested by the Vichy government “and sentenced to six years' imprisonment on a false charge of desertion” Pierre Mendès France”escaped and succeeded in reaching Britain, where he joined the Free French forces of Charles de Gaulle.”

1942: At Tirzt Zevi, Israel, the temperature reached 129 degrees F (54 degrees C)

1942: “The Affairs of Martha” directed by Jules Dassin with a script co-authored by Isobel Lennart was released in the United States today..

1942: The parents of Paul Celan “were taken from their home and sent by train to an internment camp in Transnistria Governorate, where two-thirds of the deportees eventually perished” and where his father probably died from typhus and his mother was murdered by gunfire.

1943: Himmler ordered the destruction of all ghettos in Russia. .

1943(18th of Sivan, 5703): In Lvov, The Germans murdered most of the remaining ghetto population.

1943(18th of Sivan, 5703): All Jewish workers at municipal factories in Drogobych, Ukraine, are killed.

1943: Raymond Aubrac was one of eight senior Resistance leaders secretly meeting in a doctor's surgery in the Lyon suburb of Caluire when Gestapo officers, under the orders of Klaus Barbie, stormed the place and arrested all the eight leaders after having been tipped off by a turncoat member of the Resistance whose identity remains a mystery to this date.

1943: German Professor August Hirt chooses 103 Jewish men and women at Auschwitz to be transported to the Natzweiler-Struthof camp near Strasbourg, France. There they are gassed. The soft tissues of their bodies are removed, and their skeletons are strung up as exhibits in the Reich Anatomical Institute of Strasbourg for the study of the Jewish race

1944: The British Foreign Office informed Prime Minister Churchill that ‘Marshall Tito (the Yugoslav Communist leading the partisans) has consented to facilitate the escape of Jewish refugees through his lines from Hungary with the idea that they should reach southern Italy, via Dalmatia.

1945: Guy Liddell, head of counter-espionage at MI5, dictated a diary entry to his secretary about a visit to his office by a British War Crimes Executive official, and representatives of MI6 and the Special Operations Executive, looking for evidence to support a war crimes prosecution in which he expressed his opinion that instead of formal war crime trials, any people found to have committed crimes should be arrested by the military and punished accordingly.

1946: Birthdate of Conservative Party MP Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind

1947: Birthdate of Dr. Rachel Adato, the native of Haifa who held several public health positions including vice president of Sha’arei Tzedek Medical Center before serving two terms as an MK.

1948: The Rhodes Conference on the Israeli-Arab war opened. Rhodes is an island in the Mediterranean off the coast of Greece where the meetings were held. The negotiations were master-minded by Ralph Bunche. Bunche was an African-American diplomat who was a leader of the newly formed United Nations. The negotiations led to armistice agreements between the different Arab states and the state of Israel. Bunche earned the Nobel Prize for Peace as a reward for his efforts.

1949: It was reported today that Israeli Foreign Minister Sharret “had advised the Lausanne delegates to advocate a plebiscite in Araba Palestine to determine whether the inhabitants desired a separate state or annexation to Jordan. (Arab Palestine is what is called today the West Bank and in 1949 it was occupied by the Jordanians who annex the territory without regard to the inhabitants wishes.)

1949: “Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, leader of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism in New York City, today called for a "common religion" that could, and should, be evolved out of America's "brief but magnificent history as a nation.”

1950: One day after he had drowned while vacationing in Florida, sixty-two year old Georgia businessman Sam Lazarus, the husband of Annie Stein Lazarus with whom he had had five children and a member of both B’nai B’rith the Valdosta Hebrew Congregation (Temple Israel) was buried in the “Valdosta Hebrew Cemetery” with services led by Rabbi Morris Sklar.

1950: “Rabbi Judah L. Maimon, Minister for Religious Affairs” stormed out of a cabinet meeting today, claiming that he was resigning from Ben Gurion’s government.  Maimon was protesting the cuts to his department’s budget, the purchase of surplus meat from the United States that “does not conform to religious dietary laws” and what he claims are the failure of the government to enforce the strict observance of the laws of Kashrut in Israeli army kitchens.

1951: Two days after their execution, funeral services were held for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg where Rabbi Abraham Cronbach, a sponsor of the Committee to Secure Justice in the Rosenberg Case delivered an address in which he asked people “not to lose heart at their defeat.”

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Iraq charged that Jews had stored arms and ammunition in Baghdad and put a stop to Jewish emigration, pending an investigation. But planes carrying enforce the strict observance of the laws of Kashrut in Israeli army kitchens.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Post Office planned to establish its own bank, under the new Postal Bank Law.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that at least 35 political parties put up candidates for the forthcoming Second Knesset elections. (This number was later reduced to 20.)

1954(20th of Sivan, 5714): Eighty-four year old Pittsburgh born Marcus Aaron, the son of Mina and Louis Israel Aaron and the husband of Stella Aaron with whom he had two children – Marcus and Fanny – who served as President of the Homer Laughlin China Company and as President of Rodef Shalom from 1930 to 1941 passed away today.

1955: Perry Como, the crooner who would don a kippa every fall on his television show before singing Kol Nidre, recorded “Teena Marie” written by Bob Merrill (Henry Robert Merrill Levan)

1956:  Playwright Arthur Miller appeared before H.U.A.C. and refused to implicate anybody as having taken part in Communists activities

1957(22nd of Sivan, 5717): Banker Ellick Nirenstein, the second husband of social activist Blanche Cohen Nirenstein, the daughter of David and Wilhemina Cohen passed away today.

1960: Birthdate of David Makovskey, the “director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy Project on the Middle East Peace Process.”

1962: “The James Bond Theme,” the “signature theme song for the Bond series” which was written by Monty Norman (Monty Noserovitch) “was recorded” today “using five saxophones, nine brass instruments, a solo guitar and a rhythm section.”

1964: Twenty-three year old to University of Pennsylvania trained geneticist and Noble laureate Michael Brown the Brooklyn born son homemaker Evelyn Brown and textile salesman Harvey Brown married Alice Lapin with whom he had two daughters – Elizabeth and Sara.


1964(11th of Tammuz, 5724): Three Civil Rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Cheney and Mickey Schwermer were brutally murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Goodman and Schwermer were both Jewish. Cheney was an Afro-American. Goodman and Schwermer had come South as part of group who were determined to help Blacks register to vote. An all-white jury acquitted their killers, who included local law enforcement officials, of murder charges. They were later prosecuted in federal court and found guilty of having deprived the young trio of their civil rights. Goodman and Schwermer were part of a whole cadre of Jews who participated in the fight for equality for Blacks. This reality makes a sad counter-point to the anti-Semitic speeches of people like Al Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan.

1967: “Two days after she had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today at the Park Avenue Synagogue for 55 year old Dorothy Geller, the wife of NY State Supreme Court Judy Abraham N. Geller with whom she had had three children – Bruce, Susan and Judith – and the daughter of Sadye and Oscar Friedlander who was a leader of the United Jewish Appeal of New York and the Park Avenue Synagogue Sisterhood.

1967: “Divorce American Style” directed by Bud Yorkin produced by Norman Lear who co-authored the script with Robert Kaufman and featuring Tom Bosley was released today in the United States.

1969:  In response to Egyptian artillery attacks and other hostile acts, Israeli naval commandos attack and destroy the Egyptian radar facility at Ras El-Adabiya. The destruction of the radar complex left the Egyptians “blind” when Israeli jets attacked the artillery bases that had been firing on the Israelis.

1969:In Monmouth County, Beth Miriam, “in conjunction with Rabbi Lefkowitz’s retirement after 25 years of devoted service and the Temple’s 80th Anniversary, held a gala dinner

1970(17thof Sivan, 5730): Seventy one year old historian Cecil Roth whose works included the classic A History of the Jews in England passed away today.





1970: “Catch-22” the movie version of Joseph Heller’s novel directed by Mike Nichols, with a screenplay by Buck Henry and featuring Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Martin Balsam, Buck Henry, Richard Benjamin, Norman Fell, Art Garfunkel, Jack Gilford and Charles Grodin  was released in the United States today.

1972: ABC broadcast the first episode of “The Super” a sitcom created by Rob Reiner, Phil Mishkin, and Gerry Isenberg.

1972: “Frenzy” Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate film with a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer was released in the United Kingdom today.  (Hitch was not Jewish – Shaffer was)

1974: “One hundred Moscow Jewish activists including Benjamin Levich, Alexander Lerner, Mikhail Agursky and Vitali Rubin wrote to President Nixon urging him not to permit his partners in Moscow negotiations to worsen situation of Soviet Jews.”

1975(12th of Tammuz, 5735): Seventy-four year old Ukrainian born American composer David Tamkin passed away today.


1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the American navy evacuated 300 foreigners from Beirut.

1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that a $15m. annual propaganda program, designed to swing the American public opinion away from Israel and toward the Arabs was reported in the US.

1977:  Menachem Begin became the sixth Prime Minister of Israel.  This marked a major shift in Israeli politics.  The Labor-Zionists who had dominated the government since the start of the state were out and the Revisionists had gained power.  This reversal in fortune had many causes including corruption in the Labor Party and shifting demographics in Israel.

1979: Three Palestinian terrorist were killed while “attempting build a bomb” near Jenin/

1980: On the 41st anniversary of the creation of Camp Gurs, a reunion of hundred former detainees, members of the French resistance and “survivors of the Nazi death camps came to an end.  This was the second of what has become annual event thanks, in part, to the efforts of L'Amicale de Gurs, which was formed at this second reunion.

1980: In Arnhem, Netherlands, opening of the Sixth Paralympic Games where Hagai Zamir and Igal Pazi would win a Gold Medal in Volleyball.

1981(19th of Sivan, 5741):Isadore Blumenfeld a Jewish-American organized crime figure based in Minneapolis, Minnesota known as Kid Cann, passed away.


1981: “A Hero, Soviet Style” provides a review of Borodin: Stalin's Man in China by Dan N. Jacobs, a biography of Michael Borodin (born Mikhail Markovich Gruzenberg) who fell victim to Stalin’s “anti-Semitic ‘cosmopolitan’ campaign.”


1982: In London, Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales gave birth to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, the second in line to the British throne who in 2017 met with Auschwitz survivor and resistance fighter Freddie Knoller with whom he discussed his visit to “Stutthof, a former Nazi-run camp built in what is now Poland, where 65,000 people, including 28,000 members of the Jewish community, died before it was liberated by the Allies in May 1945.”

1982: Today NBC broadcast the “Ain’t Misbehavin” the musical revue with a book co-authored by Murray Horwitz with the original Broadway cast.

1983: Fifty-eight Sala Burton, the widow of Congressman Philip Burton began serving as a “member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California’s 5th district.”

1984: “The Last Winter” “a joint American-Israeli venture” “directed by Riki Shelach Nissimoff and produced by Avi Lerner” that is set in the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War was released today.

1985: U.S. premiere of “Cocoon” a comedic look at aging and resurrection produced by Richard Zanuck co-starring Jack Gilford and Steven Guttenberg

1985:  Scientists reported that skeletal remains exhumed in Brazil were Dr. Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death at Auschwitz.  Mengele escaped punishment after the war, thanks in no small part to support from his family in Germany.

1985: “Return to Oz” with music by David Shire and co-staring Piper Laure (Rosetta Jacobs) was released today in the United States.

1987(24th of Sivan, 5747): Seventy-nine year old Chicago born Phillip “Phil” Weintraub who played for Lane Technical College Prep High School and Loyola University who played first base and the outfield for several major league teams from 1933 to 1945 passed away today.


1987(24th of Sivan, 5747):Abram Chasins “an American composer, pianist, piano teacher, lecturer, musicologist, music broadcaster, radio executive and author” passed away.

1988: “Backfire” a film featuring a “murderous love triangle” featuring Dinah Manoff and with music by David Shire was released in the United States today.

1990: NBC broadcast the final episode of season one for Seinfeld.

1995: Eighty year old actor Vladimir Zeldin, was awarded the Order of Friendship today - for services to the state, achievements in work and significant contribution to strengthening friendship and cooperation between peoples

1996: Good Morning America film critic Joel Siegel married artist Ena Swansea.

1996: “Eraser” co-starring James Caan and filmed by cinematographer Adam Greenberg was released today in the United States.

1996: U.S. premiere of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” an animated version of the classic novel with a score by Alan Meken who joined with Stephen Schwartz to create the songs for the film which included the voice of Jason Alexander.

1997: At Allessandria, Italy, opening of International Congress of the International Napoleonic Conference at which Dr. Ben Weider, is scheduled to deliver a paper –“Napoleon and the Jews.”


1997: In Sagaponack, NY, Rabbi Joel Zion officiated at the marriage of 29 year old orthopedic resident Dr. Stephen Gregg Silver and 28 year old Melissa Wendy Katz, the senior director of press and publicity at Big Beat/Atlantic Records whose father-in-law is also in the music business serving as the vice president of Abkco Music and Records, Incl.

1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Cardozo by Andrew L. Kaufman

2000: “After two years of symptoms and misdiagnoses by eight doctors, Fran Drescher was admitted to Los Angeles's Cedars Sinai Hospital” today where she he had to undergo an immediate radical hysterectomy” as treatment for uterine cancer that doctors just discovered she had.

2001(30th of Sivan, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2001(30th of Sivan, 5761): Ninety-two year “Yiddishist” and “son of Ruchla Laja and Chaim Haskell Libeskind” Nachman Libeskin, the “self-taught artist” who survived “the Holocaust and Russian Labor Camps” passed away today.


2001: The Dubnow Institute hosted an international conference on “Restitution and Memory” that began today in Vienna.

2002: It was reported today that Federal prosecutors led by James Comey, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said “that no criminal wrongdoing was committed when President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of four swindlers from a Hasidic enclave in New York State that voted overwhelmingly for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.” (Randal C. Archibold)

2003: The Martin Beck Theatre in New York was renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre.

2003(21st of Sivan, 5763):  Novelist Leon Uris passed away.  Uris first reached popular and critical acclaim with Battle Cry a novel about Marines fighting World War II.  Coincidentally, Uris had served with the Marines.  He hit the literary and financial jackpot with Exodus, a novel that depicted the birth of the state of Israel.  He followed with other books with Jewish themes including Mila 18, QB VII,  The Haj  and Mitla Pass.


2003(21st of Sivan, 5763):  Eighty-one year old screenwriter, playwright, producer and director George Axelrod, the  son of non-Jewish screen star and a Russian Jew, passed away today. (As reported by Rick Lyman)


2004: Wrestler Matt Bloom tore a rotator cuff.

2004: Human rights activist Felice Gaer addressed the United Nations Conference on Anti-Semitism

2004: - A foreign worker, Weerachai Wongput, 37, from the Nong Han District of the northeastern province of Udon Thani in Thailand, died after being hit by shrapnel from a mortar fired into greenhouses in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. The mortar was fired by Palestinians trying to divert attention from an attempt to infiltrate the settlement. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack

2007(5th of Tammuz, 5767): Twenty-five year old Private First Class Daniel J. Agami, was killed by an improvised explosive device in Adhamiya, Iraq today. A native of Cleveland who grew up in Coral Springs, Florida, Agami came from a proud military and Jewish tradition.  His grandfather served in the Korean War and his father had served with the Israeli Army.  He enlisted four years after 9/11. “Agami flew an Israeli flag over his bunk in Schweinfurt, Germany, his home base, and then in Iraq. His rifle had “Hebrew Hammer” written across it, and his friends called him the GI Jew.


2007:In Los Angeles, Mäni’s Bakery of Los Angeles teams up with Camp Max Straus on in a chocolate cake tasting, with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Camp Max Straus.

2007: Severn years after undergoing a radical hysterectomy as treatment for uterine cancer, Fran Drescher “announced the national of the Chancer Schmancer Movement a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring that all women's cancers be diagnosed while in Stage 1, the most curable stage.”

2008: In Washington, D.C. former New York Times reporter Jane Fletcher Geniesse discusses and signs her new book, American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem at Politics and Prose Bookstore.

2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Digital Barbarism: A Writer’s Manifesto by Mark Helprin

2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including In Her Own Sweet Time by Rachel Lehmann-Haupt

2009:The Sixth Australian Israel Film Festival, sponsored by AICE, the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange, opens at the Jerusalem Cinematheque with a screening of “Tackling Peace,” a documentary  about a joint Israeli/Palestinian team that was established to enter the 2008 AFL (Australian Rules) International Cup soccer competition, which was held in Victoria, Australia, last August..

2009:The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Consulate General of Israel in New York, the Israel Ministry of Tourism, the Israel Government Tourist Office in New York, and the Tel Aviv-Yafo Centennial Administration join together to sponsor The Tel Aviv Beach Party, part of the celebration of Tel Aviv’s 100th Anniversary.

2010:The Sixth Republic Bank Golf Challenge benefiting Jewish Family & Career Services and the Jewish Community of Louisville's Jewish Community Center of Louisville is scheduled to be held today at Chariot Run, a Harrah's Golf Course.

2010: Ten years to the day after having undergone a radical hysterectomy, Fran Drescher announced that she was still cancer free.

2010: The Jewish Agency’s new strategic plan will place the state and land of Israel squarely at the center of Diaspora consciousness, according to a statement Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky made to the Jerusalem Post today.

2011: Family in Captivity, a film that “is an intimate story that follows the day to day efforts of the Shalit family to cope and bring Gilad home” is scheduled to be shown at The JCC in Manhattan.

2011: The Kaye Innovation Awards are scheduled to be presented today during the Board Of Governors Meeting of the Hebrew University. The prizes were established in 1994 by Isaac Kaye – a prominent industrialist in the British pharmaceutical industry – to encourage HU faculty, staff and students to develop innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential that will benefit the university and society. The winners are Prof. Haim Rabinowitch, Prof. Dan Gazit, Dr. Raanan Fattal, Katy Margulis- Goshen and Yftah Tal-Gan, Prof. Haim Rabinowitch of the university’s Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment has been named winner of the first prize. Rabinowitch, a former rector, is being recognized for his long-term innovations in genetic and breeding technologies. Over the last 25 years, his team’s novel breeding results have created a lucrative local seed industry. Indeed, the export of tomato, onion and shallot seeds Rabinowitch developed brings in about $50 million annually, with additional royalties going to the university. Today, he is leading the development of a unique garlic-breeding project and plant improvement technology that allows seed producers to easily adapt any plant variety to changing situations. Both projects were recently licensed by Yissum, the HU’s technology transfer company, to start-up companies that were established on the basis of these technologies. The second-prize winner among the faculty is Prof. Dan Gazit, head of the Skeletal Biotechnology Laboratory in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem, for his team’s nearly 20-year research that has led to a breakthrough in the field of stem cell-based tissue engineering. TheraCell Inc., a California-based biotech start-up company, has licensed the bone tissue regeneration technology from Yissum. Dr. Raanan Fattal of the Benin School of Computer Science and Engineering, will be receiving the third prize for the development of second-generation wavelet-based image enhancement, which enhances sharpness of images. Fattal’s invention was licensed by Adobe and is already incorporated in the company’s leading software, Photoshop. Meanwhile, a method for increasing solubility developed by a graduate student at HU’s Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry has yielded promising commercial benefits for industry – particularly in pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and agriculture. The method, created by Katy Margulis- Goshen, a doctoral student of Prof. Shlomo Magdassi, produces a rapid conversion of oilin- water microemulsions containing an insoluble substance into a dry powder composed of nanoparticles, which can easily be dissolved in water or other biological fluids. For her work, Marguis-Goshen, who immigrated to Israel from the Ukraine 21 years ago, has been chosen as another Kaye Award winner. The process she developed is of unique industrial importance, the university said, as it leads to a significant increase in solubility and dissolution properties of almost any active ingredient, without a high energy investment. Enhancing solubility is especially important in pharmaceutics, where nearly half of the newly discovered drugs can’t be administered, or are very poorly absorbed, due to their low solubility. Increasing solubility is also important in agriculture, since most insecticides are highly hydrophobic (resistant to mixing with water), and their regular application therefore requires the use of organic solvents, which are harmful to the farmer and the environment. The new process can also be applied to many other fields, such as nutrition and paint and printing-ink manufacture. Finally, Yftah Tal-Gan, a student of Prof. Chaim Gilon and Prof. Alexander Levitzki at the Institute of Chemistry, will receive a Kaye Award for the inhibition of protein kinase B (PKB, also called Akt). Since the activation of PKB is associated with tumors, selective inhibition of this protein becomes a promising strategy for targeted cancer therapy.

2011:Israel runs the risk of losing the battle for public opinion in Latin America if it doesn’t devote more resources to its advocacy efforts there, Jewish officials from that part of the world warned at the World Jewish Congress, which drew to a close today.

2011:Richard Stone, chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and conference executive vice president Malcolm Hoenlein expressed dismay and regret today that Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard was not allowed to attend the funeral of his father Morris in Indiana the day before.

2011:Lithuania's parliament passed a long-awaited bill to compensate the Jewish community for communal property taken during the Nazi and Soviet occupations of the country. More than 90 percent of Lithuania's 220,000-strong Jewish community were wiped out during the Holocaust

2011(19thof Sivan, 5771): Eighty-three year old Jewish feminist author E.M. Broner passed away today in New York. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2012: JSSA (Jewish Social Service Agency) is scheduled to host an open house at the Ina Kay Building in Rockville, MD


2012: The Weiner Library is scheduled to host a special tour as part of Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month, which will include a viewing exhibitions, archives and special collections relating to the 1936 Berlin Olympics and the Gypsy Roma Traveller experience during the Holocaust.

2012: “Going Up: Jerusalem,” part of the Jerusalem Season of Culture is scheduled to open today.

2012: Marianne Lubar is scheduled to receive the Spirit Community Award at a community luncheon at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee.

2012: Sabra Alon Yavnai and his Big Band are scheduled to perform at Bryant Park.

2012:At least five rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at the southern city of Ashkelon this evening as cross-border violence restarted after a day-long lull.

2012: Professor Peter Beinart and Abe Foxman were among those who spoke at the “What does World Jewry Expect from Israel?” conference.

2012(1stof Tammuz, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2012: Police detained a female activist at the Western Wall for over three hours today because she was wearing a “male-style” tallit. The incident took place after 65 women from the Women of the Wall organization concluded their Rosh Chodesh prayer service.(As reported by Jeremy Sharon and Melanie Lidman)

2012(1stof Tammuz, 5772): Ninety year old, the composer and lyricist who created “The Pajama Game” and “Damn Yankees” two Broadway musicals that were cinema successes passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2012: Indian security forces arrested Sayed Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Hamza, alleged member of Lashker-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous) and the Hindi instructor of 10 terrorists who executed the murderous attack in Mumbai in 2008.

2012(1st of Tammuz, 5772): Ninety-Six year old Anna Schwartz, the research economists who collaborated with Milton Friedman, passed away today, (As reported by Robert D. Hershey)




2013: The International Consortium for Research on Antisemitism and Racism, hosted by the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism is scheduled to come to an end at the University of London



2013: Steve Schutzman’s “A Question of Water” under the direction of Tzipora Kaplan is scheduled to be performed as part of the Jewish Plays Project

2013(13th of Tammuz, 5773): A Jewish man was killed this morning at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem after being shot multiple times by a security guard.  The guard told police that 46-year-old Doron Ben Shlush was in a public bathroom onsite, and that he shouted “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “God is greater.” The phrase, though common in Muslim parlance, has historically been shouted by terrorists ahead of perpetrating attacks in Israel2013: The US will cut five percent, or $175 million, from its annual military aid package to Israel as part of across-the-board budgetary spending cuts, a Hebrew daily reported today.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed Israeli officials in Washington, DC, to not ask the US government for an exception from the fiscal measures, according to Maariv. US military aid to Israel is currently set at $3.1 billion per year.

2014: Israeli accordion virtuoso Uri Sharlin and his quartet are scheduled to “play original compositions that blend jazz and classical influences with Balkan rhythms, Arabic modes, and Brazilian harmonies” at Harold Square.

2014: National Hebrew Book Week is scheduled to come to an end.

2014: South African jurist Ablie Sachs who was an opponent of apartheid “was awarded Taiwan's inaugural Tang Prize in the Rule of Law for his contributions to human rights and justice globally.”

2014: “Dozens of Jewish demonstrators gathered for a minute of silence today before the Argentina-Iran World Cup game, demanding justice for a still unsolved bombing attack against a Buenos Aires Jewish center 20 years ago that left 85 dead and for which Iran has been blamed.”

2014: After “a rocket hit a road in the Hof Ashkelon Regional this morning” three more rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza this evening.” (As reported by Matan Tzuri, Ilana Curiel)

2015:  A Palestinian terrorist stabbed an Israeli border police officer today near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.

2015: “The Berlin Philharmonic members…finally reached a decision in a vote” today and chose Kirill Petrenko, 43, a Russian-born Jew, to be its new conductor.

2015: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Odd Woman and The City: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick

2015: The exhibition “Ordinary Matters" Animations and Paintings by Shelley Jordon is scheduled to come to a close at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.

2015: “Examining Lives with Jewish Eyes” featuring the work of “FotoMacher Frank Barnett” is scheduled to come to a close at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center Holocaust Education.

2015: Florida International University is scheduled to host the opening session of International Research Conference of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association at the Wolfe University Center.

2015: The YIVO Institute for Jew History “in collaboration with the Russian American Foundation and the Russian Museum of Ethnography is scheduled to host “the opening reception for the exhibit “Shtetl: Graphic Works and Sketches of Solomon Yudovin (1920-1940).”




2015: Myron (Mickey) Glazer and his wife, Penina Glazer, are scheduled to read from the newly published collection of twenty-four stories, essays, and vignettes written by Mickey and his late brother, Irving (Itzik) Glasser, Itzik  and Mickey, at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.

2016: “The Last Mentsch” is scheduled to be shown at the Portland, Oregon Jewish Film Festival.

2016: Fifty year old Esti Weinstein, a mother of eight and who had left the Gur Chasidic community in Israel eight years ago disappeared today, six days before her body would be found in her car.


2016: The second annual “Towards a New Law of Conference” sponsored by Shurat HaDin is scheduled to come to an end today in Jerusalem.

2017: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is scheduled to serve as the presiding judge at “A Mock Appeal for Shylock which is a commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Venice Ghetto. Sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.

2017: “Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner, Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, and United States Ambassador to Israel David Friedman met today in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his senior advisors.”

2017: “Katherine Dettwyler, an adjunct professor in the University of Delaware’s anthropology department” posted comments on Facebook, saying that Jewish university student “Otto Warmbier got exactly what he deserved.”

2017: At the Center for Jewish History, Thomas Hansen, Professor Emeritus of German at Wellesley College is scheduled to speaking at a reception marking the opening of an exhibition “George Salter: A Legacy of Book Design” highlighting the work of a man whose parents converted him to Christianity at the age of one.

2018(8th of Tammuz, 5778): Sixty-eight year old Pulitzer Prize winning author and political commentator Charles Krauthammer passed away today.


2018: In Lyndhust, “an eastern suburb of Cleveland,” shiva will be observed for Robert L. “Bob” Sill, “a founding member of the Cleveland Chapter of American ORT who went on to serve as national president of American ORT and chairman of the board of World ORT.”

2018: The Center For Jewish History and the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research ae scheduled to present a screening of “An Article of Hope,” journalist Dan Cohen’s documentary about Ilan Ramon’s flight aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia.

2018: In Pittsburgh, PA, the Society For American Baseball Research Convention is scheduled to host a session “Collusion and Collision: Hank Greenberg in Pittsburgh in 1947”

2018: Filmmaker Aviva Kempner is scheduled to show a 24-minute work in progress clip, entitled "Moe Berg: All-Star Espionage?" at the Society for American Baseball Research Convention in Pittsburgh, PA.

2019: This evening, in week eight the Oxford Jewish Society is scheduled to host Kabbalat Shabbat followed by a Friday night dinner.

2019: “The Spy Behind Home Plate” by Aviva Kempner is scheduled to open today at the Quad Cinema in NYC, the West End Cinema in Washington, D.C., the Siskel Film Center in Chicago and the Maple Theatre in Detroit.

2019: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held in Cedar Rapids at Temple Judah for 66 year old Daniel S. Rodgers, the Chicago born highly successful businessman and civic leader and the husband Marcia Rodgers with whom he raised two sons Benjamin and Michael followed by burial at Eben Israel Cemetery. (Editor’s Note – Dan is the son Fred Rodgers, whose parents sent him out of Frankfurt when Hitler came to power, without knowing if they would ever see him again.  At a time of increased rising Holocaust-denial, this tragic loss reminds us that had Hitler been successful the world would have been denied Dan Rodgers.)

2020: The Asiyah Jewish Community is scheduled to present online, the “New Moon Circle: Tammuz Edition welcoming the coming of the new lunar month and “the transition from spring to summer.”

2020: Stanford professor Ariel Evan Mayse is scheduled to speak vitually, about his book, Speaking Infinites, in which he argues that the Maggid of Mezritsh was the founder of Hasidism, not the Ba’al Shem Tov

2020: The URJ Eisner Camp is scheduled to present, online, “Nefesh Mountain in Concert.”

2020: As Israelis begin their work week they may be wondering about the implications of reports of rising COVID-19 case and the fact that “The Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, part of IDF’s intelligence unit, said in a report published yesterday that Israel has entered the beginning stages of the second wave of COVID-19. (YNET)












This Day, June 22, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 22

217 BCE: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III at the Battle of Raphia. The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was part of the ongoing power struggle between the Seleucids and the Ptolomies for the land mass that included Jerusalem and the land mass of Eretz Israel. Ptolemy's victory proved to be of short-term value.  Antiochus would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE.  This would ensure Seleucid rule over the Jewish population and set the stage for the Revolt of the Maccabees.

168 BCE: The Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured Macedonian King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna ending the Third Macedonian War and further diminishing the role of the Greeks. A year later, Judah Maccabee would start his revolt against the Selucids, another Greek Empire.  In the end, it would be the Romans who supplant these fractured remnants of Alexander’s Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people.  Yes, you can draw a line connecting Pydna, the Maccabees and the destruction of the Temple in 70.

816: Papacy of Stephen IV began today. Stephen is the author of the Letter Against Jews Owning Land” which read in part, For this reason We are touched by sorrow, anxious even unto death, since We have known through you that the Jewish people, ever rebellious against God and derogatory of our rites, within the frontiers and territories of the Franks, own hereditary estates in the villages and suburbs, as if they were Christian residents; for they are the Lord's enemies... Christian men cultivate their vines and fields, and Christian men and women, living with those same deceivers both in town and out of town, are day and night strained by expressions of blasphemy... What was sworn to and handed over to those unbelievers by the Lord himself... has been taken away deservedly, in vengeance for the crucified Savior.” (As reported by Alexis Rubin in Scattered Among the Nations)

1038: Ferdinand the Great was crowned king of León and Castile in León, Spain during a period when his predecessors had allowed Jews to be treated on comparatively equal footing with Catholics when it came to owning real estate and engaging in agriculture as could be seen by the Council of Leon held in 1020.

1101: Roger I of Sicily, after whose conquest of Sicily Jews were found to be living in Syracuse, Messina and Catania and whose wife was reportedly a member of the Pierleoni family which “was baptized in the first half of the 11th century, passed away today.

1425: Francesco di Simone Tornabuoni and Nanna di Niccolo di Luigi Guicciardini gave birth to Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the Italian Renaissance poet who chose the Biblical figure of Queen Esther as a topic for her writings.

1559: Jewish quarter of Prague was burned and looted.

1623: William Leake II or the younger became a full member of the Stationer’s Company today. In 1652 he issued the 4th Quarto of The Merchant of Venice, featuring the evil Jew Shylock.  There are those who contend that he printed this as part of an attempt to keep Jews from being readmitted to England as full citizens.

1689: The Jewish quarter of Prague was destroyed by French troops who shelled the area. In one synagogue, the roof caved in killing the 100 people who had sought refuge there. Their Christian neighbors took in most of the population until new shelters were built.

1689: Christiania, the former Queen of Sweden, during whose reign Jews could only live in her kingdom if they were baptized as Lutherans was buried today.

1691: Suleiman II’s brief reign, during which the Jews continued to live in comparative peace and tranquility in the Ottoman Empire came to an end with his death.

1770: Birthdate of German philosopher and writer Wilhelm Traugott Krug who was an advocated for the emancipation of the Jews of Saxony

1791:  A day after he passed away, Aaron Isaac ben Gerson – aged 5 years and 11 months – was buried today at the Aldnerney Road Jewish Cemetery in London.

1809: In Hamburg, Germany, Johanna and William Leo Wolf gave birth to Dr. George Wolf.

1822: An order of the Prussian cabinet (German: Kabinettsordre) united the Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg which Salomon Oppenheimer had been serving as a banker and tax collector with the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine province.

1834: Isaiah Simmons married Caroline Benjamin at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1835: Birthdate of Pennsylvania native John H. Mitchell, the Senator from Oregon who in 1901 fought to have the United States lodge a protest with the government of Turkey concerning its new regulations that would prevent “any foreigner of the Jewish faith” from “sojourning” in Palestine for “a period longer than three months

1836: Birthdate of Gaston Cremieux who along with fellow Jew Adolphe Carcassone headed the Revolutionary Commission of the Département Bouches-du-Rhône for which he was condemned to death and executed  because of his role in the revolt that had followed the Franco-Prussian War.

1836: Abraham Styer married Charlotte Levy at the Hambro Synagogue.

1838: In Hanover, Germany Dr. Herman Herz Cohen and Sophie Sara Cohen gave birth to artist Eduard Cohen, the husband of Ida Cohen.

1840: As Moses Montifiore prepared to go to Egypt to pleade for the release of eight Jews falsely imprisonsed  in  a blood libel connected to the disappeaerance of Father Tomaso, Lord Palmerston declared in Parliament, “I have already directed the English consul-general Hodges to represent to Mehmet Ali what effect news of such atrocities must produce in Europe…I have also sent instructions to her Majesty’s consul in Damascus to make a thorough investigation…and to send home a report as to the part which European consuls had taken in this matter.

1841: The Jewish community in Mobile, Alabama purchased land to be used as a cemetery.

1843: In Heidelsheim, Baden, “Abraham Sulzberger, a chazzan, shochet and teacher” and the former Sophie Einstein, “an ancestor of Albert Einstein gave birth to Mayer Sulzberger, an American judge and communal leader” who “went to Philadelphia with his parents in1848, and was educated at the Central High School of Philadelphia, and after graduating he studied law in the office of Moses A. Dropsie. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar, and attained eminence in the practice of his profession. He was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas on the Republican ticket in 1895, and was reelected as a nominee of both parties in 1904, becoming the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2.Sulzberger has throughout his career shown great interest in Jewish affairs. While studying for the bar he taught at the Hebrew Education Society's school.” For a time he served as the Secretary of Board of Maimonides College. “He was closely associated with Isaac Leeser, and assisted that scholar in editing "The Occident," contributing to it a partial translation of Maimonides'"Morch Nebukim." After Leeser's death Sulzberger edited vol. xxvi. of "The Occident." He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, which he served as president;” He was chosen to serve as vice president of  and the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia in 1880 and  has been…chairman of the publication committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America.” He was one of the original trustees of the Baron de Hirsch fund and has taken a great deal of interest in the establishment of agricultural colonies at Woodbine, N. J., and in Connecticut” Sulzberger had “one of the best private libraries in America; it contained a very large number of Hebraica and Judaica, together with many other early Hebrew printed books (including no less than forty-five Incunabula), and many manuscripts.”  He presented these to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, an institution which helped to reorganize. His younger brother, Jacob, is well known in Philadelphia literary circles both “for his verse and for is unusual knowledge of English literature.”

1850: Birthdate of Ignác (Yitzhaq Yehuda) Goldziher, the Hungarian born Jew who was the one of the first Europeans who developed an expertise in Islam and the culture of the Muslim world

1851: In San Francisco, following a fire at their “temporary home in Merchant’s Court on Washington Street between Montgomery and Sansome, Congregation Shearith Israel moved to building on Kearny Street between Washington and Jackson Streets.

1851(22nd of Sivan, 5611): “Jacob Bach, a native of Posen” died today in a fire in the building housing Sherith Israel after which he was “interred in a plot” the congregation had “set aside for noted men.”

1853: “Medical News” published today described a lecture delivered by Professor Owen to the Royal College of Surgeons in which he said, “For 1800 years the Jewish race has been dispersed into different latitudes and climates and they have preserved themselves most distinct from any intermixture with other races of mankind.”  He went on to say that they though they may have taken on the racial characteristics of those among whom they lived (dark skinned Jews living in Syrian and Lebanon; light skinned blue-eyed Jews in northern Europe) they have still been able to maintain themselves as unique people.

1859: Harris Michaels married Elizabeth Daniel at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.

1859: In Breslau, Silesia, Helene von Heimburg, a former opera singer, and conductor Leopold Damrosch” whose father was Jewish gave birth to conductor Frank Damrosch


1863: During the Polish uprising, in an attempt to gain the support Rabbis and Jewish religious leaders, The Insurgent National Government issued a proclamation, in which it promised to guarantee the equality of Jews, after gaining independence

1864: During the Civil War, large number of those serving with the 59th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment which had been formed by Philip J. Joachimsen  near Petersburg during the Wilderness Campaign.

1864: In Aleksota (Russian Empire), “Lewin Boruch Minkowski, a merchant who subsidized the building of The Choral synagogue in Kovno, and Rachel Taubmann gave birth to mathematician Hermann Minkowski who in 1907 “realized that the special theory of relativity, introduced by his former student Albert Einstein in 1905 and based on the previous work of Lorentz and Poincaré, could best be understood in a four-dimensional space, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime", in which time and space are not separated entities but intermingled in a four dimensional space–time, and in which the Lorentz geometry of special relativity can be effectively represented.”

1865:The Archbishop of York chaired today’s first meeting of The Palestine Exploration Fund, a society that “has been formed under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen.” The society chose Captain Charles Wilson to go out as the chief director of the explorations in Palestine that are to be made by the new society.  [Wilson gained fame as the author of Ordinance Survey of Jerusalem published in 1886.]

1869: Birthdate of Odessa native Jacob Magidoff who in 1886 came to the United States where he earned a law degree from NYU, co-founded the United Hebrew Trades of New York in 1899 and gave 42 years of service as the city editor of The Jewish Morning Journaland married Tinnie Magidoff with whom he had three daughters – “Bella, Dorothy and Helen”


http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2017/06/yankev-magidov-jacob-magidoff.html

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/08/27/88563894.pdf

1871(3rd of Tammuz, 5631): Bernard (Yissochar Dov) Illowy, the great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Illowy passed away.  Born at Kolin, Bohemia in 1814, he moved to the United States after the failed revolutions in the Habsburg Empire where he filled pulpits for several Orthodox synagogues in St. Louis, New Orleans and Cincinnati.




1873: In Chicago, a cyclone destroyed Congregation Beth-El

1873: Members of Beth-El Congregation met this evening and began raising funds to replace their building which had been locate on the corner of May and Huron Streets on Chicago’s northwest side.

1873: In St. Louis, Rabbis Wolfenstein and Sonnenschein officiated at the ceremony where the cornerstone was laid for a chapel at the Mount Sinai Cemetery which was under the control of the Mount Sinai Cemetery Association.

1875(19th of Sivan, 5635): Sixty-one year old Rabbi Bernard “Yissachar Dov” Illowy who came to the United States after the failed Revolutions of 1848 where he served several congregations including United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis, Shaare Zedek in New York, Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia and Congregation Kneset Shalom in Baltimore” passed away today after which he was buried in Adath Israel Cemetery in “Price Hill, OH.”

1877: According to many of New York’s prominent Jewish merchants A.T. Stewart, the company controlled by Judge Hilton, could lose the business of the Jewish clothing merchants throughout the United States as a result of the Seligman Affair.  These merchants are offended by Hilton’s attempt to defend his actions by differentiating between Hebrews and Jews.  They contend that in the United States there are many variations among Jews just as there are among Christians.  They feel that Hilton has used Seligman as a way of attacking all Jews and they find this unacceptable.  They feel that Hilton is trying to create a clash between Americans and Jews while the real clash is between Hilton’s view of the Jews and the Jewish people.

1877: According to reports published today, Mr. Seligman, nor any other Jewish leader, has plans to call for a public meeting protesting the recent action of Judge Hilton regarding the banning of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel.  Mr. Seligman said that if Christian leaders wish to hold such a meeting they may feel free to so.  Several of them have expressed their negative view of Hilton’s behavior but the consensus appears to have developed to let the matter die down.  Apparently only the Jews are still upset by this as can be seen from the decision by such firms as Fescheimer, Goodkind & Co., the largest clothing store in New York, Fescheimer, Frankel & Co. of Cincinnati and Bierman, Heidelberg & Co of Pittsburg to end all business dealing with Hilton’s A.T. Stewart and Co.

1878: It was reported today that a young Jew named Louis Hood from Newark, NJ had won the De Forest Medal at an oratorical contest conducted at Yale University.  His topic was “The Ancient and Modern Jew.”

1878: “Jewish journalist, Egyptian nationalist and playwright” Yaqub Sanu (James Sanua) went into exile today “sailing on the ship Freycinet from Alexandria to Marseilles” after having been banished for publishing the satirical magazine Aboud Naddara.

1879(1st of Tammuz, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1879: In a review of The Lost Ten Tribes and 1882 published today, the author, Brooklyn minister Reverend Joseph Wild claims that “Queen Victoria is of ‘David’s Seed’ and the United States fulfills the role of the tribe of Manasseh.” In lampooning these and other such claims the reviewer concludes, “No wonder the Jews are accused of arrogance; they such folly rampant in Christian pulpits that they must feel themselves wise men in comparison.”

1880: Detective Field arrested Ernest Fink, the former Treasurer of the Hebrew Benevolent Society Chebra B’nai Prasko on charges that he had embezzled $600 from the society.  He was arrested at his shoe shop on Catherine Street and confined to the Tombs.

1880: The Conference on Morocco resumed today in Madrid.  The conference is expected to adopt a proposal on religious freedom which will benefit both Christians and Jews living in the North African kingdom. [Editor’s note – the real issues revolved around colonial control and revenue.]

1881: Rabbi Reuben officiated at the marriage of Louis Lyons of Manning, SC and Rose Levy, the second daughter of Marx Levy at her home in Charleston, SC.

1882: During the Samuel Obright’s sanitary hearing, relatives told the Judge that “he had procured” ten dollars from his mother “by threatening to kill” her.  His attorney denied that charge as well as one that he had threatened to kill her if she did not give him $500 today.

1882: Birthdate of Jenny Shidorsky, the Norwegian homemaker arrested by the Nazis at Trondheim which was the first step on her road to Auschwitz.”

1882: Seventy Russian refugees arrived in New York from London by way of Boston and applied for assistance at the office of the Hebrew Emigrant Society. The group has been given permission to stay at Castle Garden until their permanent quarters are ready.

1882: The six orations given during today’s graduation ceremonies of the University of the City of New York included Charles Harris Gelston Jones speaking on the “Persecution of the Jews in Russia” as one of the anomalies of the 19th century and Alden A. Freeman on “Benjamin Disraeli.”

1883: It was reported today that several political leaders and office holders will attend the upcoming cornerstone laying ceremony for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn.

1883: A number of Jewish were pillaged during anti-Jewish riots at St. Gall, Switzerland.  After police the police were stoned when they tried to stop the violence, authorizes summoned soldiers to bring things under control

1884: “From Across the Water” published today described how the “barbarity of Hungarian Jew-baiting has been brought to the attention of Londoners” with the arrival of Joseph Scharf, the emaciated sexton of the synagogue at Tisza-Ezler who was forced to flee for his life following accusations that the Jews kidnapped a Christian peasant girl to use in their religious rites.  While the charges were eventually disproved, Scharf’s health was “shattered, his business ruined and his property looted.” “Literally in danger of starvation he fled to London where his co-religionists are raising funds on his behalf.

1886: The Hebrew Technical Institute, under the leadership of its President, James H. Hoffman hosted a reception and exhibition highlighting the accomplishment of its 68 pupils. The visitors, including noted journalist and political leader Carl Schurz, were told that the only limit on the size of the student body is the size of the facility since there are plenty of Jewish students who want to take vocational training courses.

1886: Ninety-five year old Elias Marks the Charleston born son of  “Humphrey and Frances Marks,” “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” passed away today after which he was buried in Washington’s Oak Hill Cemetery where his gave is marked by a tombstone topped by a cross.

1887(30th of Sivan, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1887: In St. Louis, MO, Pauline and George Washington Milius gave birth to Evelyn Milius who became Evelyn Mosenfelder when she married Simon Mosenfelder.

1888:Isaac and Dina Cohen, née Wolf gave birth Jeanette Wolff “one of the best-known German Jewish women in post-war Germany.” (As reported by Jael Geis)


1890: “First Introduction to A Russian Border Town” described a visitors first experience when he crossed into the Czars kingdom where “We were just in time to see the sentinel half playfully clubbing and kicking an old Polish Jew in his long gown and fur cap and to hear his piteous cries for mercy.”

1890: “New Publications” included a review of The Burnt Million, a novel by James Payn that revolves around. The “burnt million” refers to money burned by a Jewish money lender who then ships his brother off to America. From that point on the novel takes a rather convoluted turn where a Jewish millionaire has plans to marry off his three daughters but they can only inherit if they marry a Jew.  (And the plot thickens)

1890: Dr. Alexander Kohut is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Jewish Theological Seminary Association meeting this morning at Cooper Union entitled “Entertainment Books in the Time of the Talmud.”

1890(4th of Tammuz, 5650): Thirty-five year old Hyman Harrowitz, a Russian-Jewish immigrant died today a Gouverneur Hospital from ammonia poisoning.

1891: In Berlin, Dr. jur. Hugo Preuß and Else Preuß gave birth to Ernst Gustav Preuß

1891: Today, Isidor Straus wrote to Abraham Abraham “Two members of the firm of R H Macy & Co. contemplate finding their way to that suburb on the other side of the bridge Wednesday next Object of the expedition primarily to attend the unveiling of the Statue of Beecher - great men seem to be a country product. Secondarily to see what a small dry goods establishment looks like. Lastly but not leastly to themselves for the of the expedition by inflicting on Mr. Abraham a genuine city appetite for lunch - N BWater is a good thing for bathing purposes. (Translation, Isidor and Nathan Straus of Macy’s were coming to Brooklyn to visit their fellow Jewish merchant Abraham Abraham)

1891: In Philadelphia, Nathan and Sarah (Horowitz) Solomon gave birth to NYU law school honor graduate Louis H. Solomon, “a recognized authority on industrial litigation and disputes, an organizer of the Bronx Jewish Center and the husband of Sylvia Cohen.

1892: Birthdate of Morris Aaron Pawley, the native Cohoes, NY, the businessman and communal fundraising executive who helped organize Aleph Zadek Aleph and was active in the B’nai B’rith.

1892(27th of Sivan, 5652): Sixty-nine year old Baruch Rothschild, the native of “Bruck, Germany” who wives were Fanny Rothschild and Miriam Marianne Rothschild passed away today.

1892: The Democratic National Convention which was attended by George Washington Ochs Oakes as a delegate from Tennessee continued for a second day in Chicago.

1893(8th of Tammuz, 5653): Forty-two year old Benaimino Luzzatto, passed away a Padua.  Born in 1850 at Padua, this son of Samuel David Luzzatto received his medical degree in 1872 and served as an assistant professor at Padua University while pursuing his medical career.

1894: In Budapest, Prime Minister Sándor Wekerle announced that Government would introduce a bill next week “providing for equal religious rights for Jews and Christians.

1894: Harry Houdini married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner who became known as Bess Houdini who was his stage assistant as well as his wife.

1895: Georges Picquart who “became a Dreyfusard after having identified Estherhazy  as the author of the incriminating  bordeau, was appointed head of the French military’s Intelligence Office today.

1896(11th of Tammuz, 5656): Forty-four year old actor and dramatist Sir Augustus Harries passed away at Folkstone. He also found time pursue a political career which included serving as one of the Sheriffs of London starting in 1891.  “He was of a Hebrew family, and properly proud of his race.”


1897: The Board of Trustees of Williams College met today and announced faculty appointments including S.T. Livingston to serve as the instructor for Hebrew.

1897: Birthdate of Academy Award winning art director, Vincent Korda, a native of Túrkeve, Hungary who joined his brothers Alexander and Zoltan in England where they all pursued their film careers.


1897: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Lydia and Millard William Mack gave birth to William Jacob Mack.

1898: (19 Sivan 5658): Rabbi Samuel Mohilever passed away. Born in 1824 in Russia, Mohilever was a Talmudic scholar and one of the leading orthodox rabbis of Eastern Europe. A graduate from the famous Voloshin Yeshiva, he was conversant in math, engineering and a number of languages. Mohilever encouraged Baron Edmond de Rothschild to support the resettling of Russian families in Eretz-Israel and was a mediator between the settlers and Rothschild in various disagreements that arose. He was the founder of Mizrachi, a religious Zionist organization. In 1881, he was one of the founders of the Hovevei Zion, Lovers of Zion.

1898: Those attending today’s exhibition of work done by the students at the Hebrew Technical Institute saw electrical appliances made by the boys including a birchromate battery, a galvanometer and models of an Edison dynamo.

1898: Albert W. Lilienthal began serving as a Captain with the 7thUnited States Volunteer Infantry today.

1898: Birthdate of oil executive Rudolf Sonneborn, the fourth husband of New York Post owner Dorothy Schiff, President of the Israel Bond Drive and a key player in the secret shipments of arms to pre-State Jewish forces. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)


1898: The Board of Trustees of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held a special meeting day to adopt a memorial marking the passing Getta Scholle who was serving as Vice President at the time of her death.

1899: The Hebrew Technical Institute hosted its commencement exercises tonight at Cooper Union.

1899: Sixty year old Max Sandreczky, a German Christian pediatric surgeon who settled in Jerusalem in 1868, where in 1872 he established and ran the first pediatric hospital in Palestine where he treated all patients without regard to religious belief and refused to proselytize the children which meant he operated without funding from any church sources passed away today.

1899; “Pierre Marie René Waldeck-Rousseau, the initiator of Alfred Dreyfus's 1899 pardon, as well as the law that, in 1900, offered amnesty for "all crimes and misdemeanors related to the Dreyfus Affair, or that have been included in a proceeding relative to one of these deeds” began serving as Prime Minister of France today.

1899: The City College of New York held its 47th annual commencement exercises at Carnegie Hall. Among those honor students giving “senior orations” were Menahem Eichler, Henry Moskowitz and A.W. Levy.  This, along with a list of graduating seniors with names like Pinchas Israel, Henry Mendelsohn, Leon Schwartz, and Louis Jacob Cohen, attest to the extent to which Jewish youngsters availed themselves of this country’s educational opportunities which were their passport into mainstream America.

1899: After 14 months, Julius F. Lewis completed his service with the Hospital Corps of the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry in Santiago, Philippines.

1900: “Hebrew Technical Institute” published today described the 16th commencement exercises of the Hebrew Technical Institute where 35 students received their degrees and where “a practical demonstration of molding a hand wheel and making a casting of it in lead by Samuel Goldfarb was highlight of the evening.

1901: Birthdate of “Finnish track and field athlete” Elias Katz, a silver medal winner at the 1924 Summer Olympics in the “3000 meter steeple chase” who made Aliyah in 1933 after which he was coach of the Palestinian track team for the 1948 Maccabi Games” before being killed by “Arab terrorists.”

1902: It was reported today, that several chorus girls had met with President of Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor in Cincinnati, “vaudeville performers are to be formed in a union which will be affiliated with the Actors’ National Protective Association through it with Mr. Gompers AF of L while the chorus girls will become members of the newly formed Theatrical Stage Employees’ National Alliance with a minimum wage scale of ten dollars a week,”

1903: Justice Scott is scheduled to deliver an oral opinion in the case of Isidor Wormser, Jr. versus Metropolitan Street Railway Company and Interurban Street Railway Company

1904: It was reported today that “Sir Charles N.E. Eliot, British Commissioner and Commander in Chief for the East Africa Protectorate, has resigned the Commissionership because he is opposed to the proposed Jewish settlement in the protectorate.”

1905: Former Texas Govern Frank Richard Lubbock, whose brother was namesake for Lubbock, TX whose first Jewish citizens arrived in 1916 and who Jewish population peaked in 1980, passed away today.

1906: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Mrs. Herman Cramer, a native of Jersey whose maiden name was Rebecca Amelia Lawton, gave a concert at Steinway Hall.

1906: In Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary Max and Eugenia (née Dittler) Wilder gave birth to Samuel Wilder who became famous a movie director Billy Wilder whose hits included Some Like It Hot, Apartment, and Stalag 17.

1907: Birthdate of Saul Elkins, the motion picture writer and director who was the father of David Elkins.

1908: “Sentences were handed down to-day in the case of the participators in the Jewish massacre of 1905 at Bialystok, when 11 Christians and 73 Jews were killed and 23 Christians and 82 Jews were wounded” which meant that “the prisoners were sentenced to three years' penal servitude, 13 others were condemned to from six months to a year's imprisonment, and 15 were acquitted.”

1909:  In Minneapolis, Rabbi Chaim Golbogen and Sophia Hellerman gave birth to Avrom Hirsch Golbogen who gained fame as Oscar winner producer Michael “Mike” Todd who brought Around the World in 80 Days using his “Todd-AO film format.


1910: Birthdate of Montreal native and mezzo soprano Jennie Tourel, the wife of cardiologist and Columbia medical school professor, Dr. Henry Gross.



1911: Birthdate of Ludwig Teller who served who represented New York’s 20th Congressional District from 1957 until 1961.


1911: Birthdate of classical cellist Harvey Shapiro.


1911: Birthdate of Manhattan native Ludwig Teller, the WW II Navy veteran and law school professor who “was elected as a Democrat to the 85th and 86th United States Congresses.’



1911: Prague native Hugo PIesen and his wife Annie gave birth to Edmond Ludwig Piesen

1911: The Anglo-Jewish boxer Matt Wells defeated “the great Jewish New York Boxer Leach Cross” in a ten round bout today at the Madison Athletic Club in New York

1911: George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom, succeeding his father, Edward VII.Lord Balfour and his king, George V, are proudly commemorated all over Israel.

1912: The Republican National Convention adopted a plank in its platform that approved of the action taken by the President and Congress to protect the rights of American Jews visiting Russia on business.

1913: In Chicago, dedication of the Rachel Jackson Memorial Addition to Rest Haven.

1913: Thirty-seven students are scheduled to receive their diplomas today during the 23rd annual graduation exercises of the Jewish Training School in Chicago.

1914: Lucille Fannie Hirsch, “the daughter of Isaac Hirsch” married Julian K. Hilborn of Philadelphia this evening at the Hotel Blackstone in Chicago.

1914: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Myer “Mike” Feldman the U of Pennsylvania lawyer WW II Army Air Force Veteran and attorney with the SEC who went on to serve as White House Counsel under  Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

1915: Today is the date set for the execution of Leo Frank in Georgia. (The sentence was commuted and the execution did not take place)

1915: “Martial law is still in force at Governor Slaton’s country estate five miles from Atlanta where two battalions of infantry with machine guns” are protecting Slaton from a mob “that threw bricks at the troops” injuring several of the soldiers.

1915: After having spent his first night at the state prison in Milledgeville, Leo Frank is scheduled  to be examined by the prison physician to determine if he “is in the proper physical condition” to be put to “work as a farm hand – hoeing or plowing.”

1915: The remarks of Louis Marshall who had represented Leo Frank before the Supreme Court made when received news of the commutation were published today and concluded with “Whatever those who sought to consign Frank to the gallows may now think, the time will certainly come when they will show their gratitude to Governor Slaton for having saved the State from the perpetration of a stupendous crime, for it is as sure as truth itself that ere long Frank’s innocence will be triumphant established.”

1915: According to reports published today, The Rome Tribune Herald, in commenting on the commutation of Leo Frank’s sentence that “Governor Slaton must be credited with having done what he thought was right in the circumstances” and that Georgia will stand that much higher in the estimation of the country because of the Governor’s action.”

1915: In its editorial on the Frank commutation The Atlanta Journal concluded that “The Governor has shown wisdom and courage in his performance of an act of simple justice and time will vindicate his moderation.”

1915: In its editorial on the Frank commutation, The Enquirer-Sun concluded that the paper “has no inclination to criticize the Governor.  On the contrary it believes that he deserves the highest commendation for having performed his duty as he saw it.”

1915: In its editorial on the commuting of the sentence of Leo Frank, The Brunswik(GA) News wrote that the governor “has spared the life a man where the evidence upon which was convicted was clouded with doubt and the atmosphere at which the trial occurred was charged with prejudice and with passion.” “Time will vindicate the Governor, and in the meantime, we commend him for his conduct.”

1915: Pope Benedict was quoted in an interview published today as saying that he had “received from Austrian Bishops assurance…that the Russians on one occasion pushed before them 1,500 Jews so that they could advance behind this living barrier thus exposed to the bullets of the enemy.”

1915: The New York Times editorially expressed the view that “The commutation of the death sentence of Leo M. Frank was the act of a righteous and fearless man”

1916: The Foreign Office replied to criticism directed at the British Government by Judge Leon Sanders, President of the Hebrew Sheltering Aid and Immigrant Aid Society who said that the “British were holding up checks and drafts mailed from America for the relief of the suffering civil population of Russian Poland” by claiming that “an arrangement has been made with the American Express Company” to have that company convey remittances to Poland as long as American Express can guarantee that the funds “will reach the individual for whom they are intended and not fall into German hands.”

1917: Special Reception Committees are scheduled to meet all delegates arriving in Baltimore, MD for the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists “at all railroad stations and steamer landings.”

1917: In Chicago, the funeral for 76 year old Rosa Berman, the widow of the late Lewis Berman is scheduled to be held at 1 p.m. at Waldheim.

1917: The funeral of Rose Stein Wolbach, the wife of Samuel N. Wolbach and the mother of Dr. S. Burt, Edwin J. and Emil Wolbach, is scheduled to take place in Grand Island, Nebraska.

1917: It was reported today that due to pressure from the Russian government and the Romanian desire to take over Austrian provinces where Jews now enjoy complete rights of citizenship the government Romania is preparing to give the Jews of that country “complete citizenship.”

1917: “Socialists serving on a Reichstag Committee criticized the Chancellor for forcing Jewish laborers in Poland and Lithuania to work for lower than standard wages” and get the committee to adopt a resolution calling for treating “Jewish workmen from Poland and Lithuania on an equal footing with Germans.”

1917:In Wilmington, Delaware, Rabbi Samuel Rabinowitz delivered a sermon about thoughts that should be in people's minds during the coming summer months.

1918: Today, “in a cablegram to the Jewish Monthly Journal, Romanian Premier Bratiano stated: ‘Our determination to give Jews equal civil and political rights is unanimous and definitive” but “technicalities of the Romanian constitution oblige us to postpone the vote on this reform till after the new elections which will take place on after the liberation of our territory.” (Editor’s Note – Starting with the middle of the 19thcentury Romania would finds reasons not to fulfill its promises about full citizenship for the Jews, always stalling until the Holocaust made this a moot point.)

1918: The Cantors’ Association of America, “the official body of the cantors of Jewish synagogues” today organized “a war saving society” through which they pledged “to save and buy War Savings Stamps” and perform at no charge at any meeting held to increase the purchase of war savings stamps.

1918: The Federation of Oriental Jews, who, remembering their persecutions in Turkey, “are eager to help win the war” have formed a war savings society.

1920: General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud was published for the first time in the United States.

1920: Opening of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 featuring Eddie Cantor and songs written by the Banjo Eyed performer.

1920: At the Merrill Theatre in Chicago, Temple B’nai Jeshurun hosted a fundraising benefit to raise money for a new school and social center.

1920: Birthdate of Solomon Hersh Frees the Chicago native who gained fame as Paul Frees whose ability to provide the vocalization for a variety of cartoon figurers earned him the sobriquet “The Man of a Thousand Voices.


1920: In the Bronx, “fur manufacturer Harry Wunderman” and “Dorothy (Horowitz) Wunderman” gave birth to advertising executive Lester Wunderman, “the co-founder of the Wunderman Group” and the “father of direct marketing.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)


1921(16th of Sivan, 5681): “Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr.,” one of the world’s foremost authorities on Semitic languages and a “Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania since 1893 died suddenly today of heart disease at the home of his brother-in-law, F.H. Bachman, in Jenkintown, a suburb” of Philadelphia.  The sixty year old academic had not shown any signs of illness. A native of Warsaw, Jastow graduated from Penn in 1881 and earned a Ph.D. from Leipzig University in 1884.  Besides his work with Semitic languages, Jastrow had written extensively about “religion, education and Near Eastern politics.  He edited the Semitic department of the International Encyclopedia…and was a delegate to the last three European Congresses of Orientalists. Among “his more important works were ‘Religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians,’ ‘The Study of Religion,’ ‘Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions,’ and ‘Zionism and the Future of Palestine.’”


1921: In Brooklyn, “Yetta (née Miritch), a seamstress, and Samuel Papirofsky, a trunkmaker” gave birth to Joseph Papirofsky, who gained fame as Joseph Papp, the producer/director best known for his Shakespeare in the Park.“Aside from his incredible creative talents which forever revolutionized the Broadway theatre, he immersed himself in doing acts of good deeds especially when the care and welfare of children were concerned. During his trips to Russia he saw firsthand the desperate conditions facing the handicapped, orphaned and neglected children in the Ukraine, which numbers in the thousands. It was then that he dedicated himself to do whatever he could to enhance the lives of these children caught in the midst of economic and political turmoil. His untimely passing came before he was able to fulfill his dream. Tzivos Hashem, with Gail Papp's blessing, has vowed to continue Joe's dream. Thanks to the successful Tzivos Hashem sponsored "Joseph Papp Children's Humanitarian Fund" Dinners, thousands of Ukrainian homeless, deprived and starving children are being given a second chance at life.”

1922: In Paris, the body of Louis Stern, the President of Stern Brothers, was taken from Claridge’s Hotel to the mortuary where it will remain until a decision is made up where the burial will take place.  The seventy-five year old Stern had gone abroad with his daughter Beatrice and her husband to recuperate following surgery that had taken place in May. He was also planning on visiting his daughter Baroness Leo de Grafferies and his grandchildren during the trip.

1923(8thof Tammuz, 5683): Sixty year old “Moshe Jacob Alter” later known as Morris Rosenfeld, the Polish born sweat shop tailor and diamond cutter turned journalist who became editor of the Jewish World and a delegate to several Zionist Congresses while raising a family with his wife Bella Guttenberg passed away today.


1924: In, Makó, Hungary, Terezia (Riesz) and liberal journalist Emo Vermes, gave birth to Geza Vermes “a religious scholar who argued that Jesus as a historical figure could be understood only through the Jewish tradition from which he emerged, and who helped expand that understanding through his widely read English translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (As reported by William Yardley). All three converted to Catholicism when Geza was seven years old which did not save his parents from dying in the Holocaust.


1925(30thof Sivan, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1926: Birthdate of Arthur Rosenfeld, the Birmingham born “physicist who became widely known as the father of energy efficiency for championing energy-saving requirements for appliances and buildings.”


1926: In Washington, DC, Harold Ripley and actress Mabel Ida Albertson, the sister of Jack Albertson gave birth to George Englund whose film resume includes directing “The Ugly American” a provocative look at Viet Nam before it became a national crisis and producing “The Shoes of the Fisherman” which provided an unconventional look at the Papacy.

1927: “Men Before Marriage” a silent film directed by Constantin J. David and music by Artur Guttman was released today in Germany.

1928: Wall Street Bankers Louis and Sayra Fischer Lebenthal gave birth to Princeton trained businessman James “Jim” Avram Lebenthal , the husband Jacqueline Beymer and a nominee “for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his first and only film production T Is for Tumbleweed.”

1928: In the Bronx, Louis Slobodkin and Florence (Gersh) Slobodkin to Professor Lawrence B. (Larry) Slobodkin one of the leaders in the field of ecology to whom, if the world had listened, it might have avoided the damage done by extreme weather in the first part of the 21st century



1929: In Baltimore, MD Israel and Fannie Gravitz Rehert gave birth to Rose Rehert who gained fame as American journalist and breast cancer advocate Rose Kushner author of Why Me? What Every Woman Should Know About Breast Cancer to Save Her Life.


1931(7thof Tammuz, 5691): Seventy-nine year old to Max Eckmann, the Berlin born son of Ezekiel and Caroline (Lowenstein) Eckmann who in 1874 emigrated to the United States, where he  married Marie Slupecki in 1875, became a manufacturer of novelties, helped organized the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham and served as a Repubican in the New York State Assembly passed away today.

1933: In Chicago, “The XXXIII Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” is scheduled to come to an end today.

1933: The Jewish world continues to reel from the shock of the murder Hayim Arlosoff, a Zionist leader who was killed just outside of Tel Aviv. The Labor Zionist leaders contended that the killer was Abraham Stavsky, a member or the Revisionists. The victim’s widow who was walking with him on the beach at the time of his murder identified Stavsky. Stavsky was found guilty but his conviction was overturned on appeal because of a lack of corroborating testimony. The facts surrounding the case are murky to this day. But the episode help to further poison the relationship between the Labor Zionists and the Revisionists. Ironically, Stavsky was killed aboard the Altalena in 1948. The issue stills looms large in the memory of the early Zionists. Leah Rabin made reference to this episode when she talked about the causes of her husband’s death in 1995.

1933: The Social Democratic party was officially banned as Hitler consolidated his power.

1933: Birthdate of Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein was Mayor of San Francisco and is now a United States Senator from California.

1935(21st of Sivan, 5695): Sixty-nine year old the Polish historian who promoted the “idea of describing a nation's history through its social and economic development as well as its international and diplomatic backdrop” and whose works included Danzig and Poland passed away today

1936:The Palestine Postreported a seven-hour battle fought near Tulkarm between Arab terrorists who ambushed a convoy and British troops. British infantry and police rounded another Arab gang near Nablus where they lost a sergeant and a private. Arab losses were not known, but might have been considerable.

1936: The Paris Tageszeitung reported today that “Germany has placed a ban on the motion picture ‘The Country Doctor” staring the Dionne quintuplets” because of the participation of “non-Aryans” in the production of the picture. (The non-Aryan may have been a reference to script writer Sonya Levien.)

1936: This evening at a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria movie producer Carl Laemmle, Nathan Straus, Judge Julian W. Mack and Member of Parliament Major Henry Adams Proctor urged attendees to provide the maximum amount of support to the United Palestine Appeal which is working to raise $3,500,000 for the settlement of persecuted German and Polish Jews in Eretz Israel.

1937: Leon Blum resigned as Prime Minister of France after losing support due to remain neutral during the Spanish Civil War.

1937: Al Jolson is scheduled to serve as Master of Ceremonies on WABC’s variety show starting at 8:30 this evening.

1937: Three days after arriving in Spain, twenty-four year old David Robert Altman, the Milwaukee born son of Robert and Jeanette Altman entered the International Brigade where he “served with the XV BDE, Mackenzie-Papineau BN.”

1937: The final report of the Royal Commission on Palestine chaired by Earl Peel was signed tonight but its contents remain secret and will probably not “published until early July” when it is presented to the League of Nations in Geneva.

1938: Father John LaFarge, American Jesuit, met with Pope Pius XI about the drafting of an encyclical to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. LaFarge is told: "Simply say what you would say if you were Pope!" Impressed with Father LaFarge's antiracist writings and activism in America, Pope Pius XI goes outside the usual Vatican personnel to assign LaFarge the job of secretly writing Humani Generis Unitas ("The Unity of Humankind") to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. Father John LaFarge's draft of this encyclical is completed in September but it delayed by the Vatican bureaucracy. It won't reach the pope's desk until he suffers a heart attack in February 1939. His successor, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, takes the name Pope Pius XII and shelves the encyclical. No one hears about it again until well after the Holocaust. (As reported by Austin Cline)

1938: Joe Louis beat Max Schmeling in the re-match that had been arranged by the German boxer’s Jewish manager Joe Jacobs, whom Schmeling had refused to fire despite intense pressure from the Nazis.

1939: Birthdate of Ada E. Yonath “an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2009, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize out of nine Israeli Nobel laureates, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences,[citation needed] and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. However, she said herself that there was nothing special about a woman winning the Prize.”

1940(16thof Sivan, 5700): Parashat Sh’lach

1940: After 1,108 performances the curtain came down on the ILGWU production of “Pins and Needles” a revue with music and lyrics by Harold Rome who also wrote the book along with several others including Marc Blitzstein, directed by Charles Friedman and choreographed by Benjamin Zemach.

1940: In Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Katherine Flora (née Leverson) and Henry Barnato Rantzen gave birth to Dame Esther Louise Rantzen, the English journalist and television personality best known for the 21 years she spent with the television series “That’s Life!”

1940: The French Government led by 84 year-old Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany. This would mark the start of one of the most shameful periods in French history.  The fascists at Vichy would not only do the bidding of the Germans when it came to the Jews, they would actually move more quickly than expected in round up after round up of Jewish refugees and native born French Jews.

1940: When France surrendered today “one of the terms of the armistice gave the Germans the right to demand that France surrender all "Germans named by the German Government" to the German occupation authorities” including Herschel Feibel Grynszpan who had assassinated Ernst von Rath in 1938.

1940(16th of Sivan, 5700): Three days before his 75thbirthday, Rabbi Julius “Hesselson” Hess who served several congregations in the Middle West passed a way today after suffering perforated stomach ulcer.

1940: In Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Katherine Flora (née Leverson and Henry Barnato Rantzen gave birth to British journalist and television personality Esther Louise Rantzen

1940: General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed leader of the so-called “Free French” broadcast an appeal to the French people to continue the fight against the Nazis.  He assured them that the Americans and the British would support them in the effort.  Winston Churchill gave permission for the French brigadier to give the address over the BBC.  At a secular level, there is real irony in this since de Gaulle would become “the cross of Lorraine” that Churchill would have to carry throughout the war.  Several Jews would rally to de Gaulle, the Resistance and the Free French.  As to Frenchmen in general, to put it politely, Drancy and Vichy were exemplars of their true feelings for an extended period of time.

1941: Operation Barbarossa begins. Germany began its surprise attack on the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the two nations had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. Stalin had ignored a myriad of warnings that the attack was coming. For days after the attack, Stalin still refused to believe that Hitler had struck since the Russians had been supplying the Nazis with vital material. This day would see the start of systematic destruction of Jewish towns and communities. German killing squads, the Einsatgruppenwould begin to organize local collaborators in Lithuania, Latvia and the Ukrainian states. Thousands of Jews would be killed within the next few days. Within a few weeks millions more of the Jews of the Soviet Union would fall under Nazi rule.

1941: While many refer to Operation Barbarossa that began today as a “surprise attack” such was not really the case since the Soviets received warnings from several sources including Krystyna Skarbek better known as British intelligence agent Christine Granville.

1941: Special mobile killing squads--Einsatzgruppen--each assigned to a particular area of the Occupied Soviet Union began killing Jews on the spot wherever they are found; often with the help of local anti-Semites recruited to help.

1941: Birthdate of David P. Landau, the winner of the  Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics and Director of the Center for Simulational Physics at the University of Georgia

1941: Twenty-six year old American author and historian Milton Meltzer married Hilda "Hildy" Balinky

1941(27th of Sivan, 5701): In the Soviet village of Virbalis, Einsatzgruppen machine-gunned all adult Jews and cover the corpses with lime. Local children are seized by the ankles, and their heads are smashed against walls and roads. Many of these children are buried alive.

1941: In Brooklyn, George Lerner, “a fisherman and antiques dealer” and his wife Blanche gave birth to Academy Award nominated actor Michael Lerner.

1942(7thof Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-six year old Hugo Piesen, the native of Prague and husband of Annie Piesen passed away today in Amityville, NY.

1942: The Jewish Brigade was formed was formed as part of the British military. The Jewish Brigade fought in Italy and after the war helped many Jewish refugees escape to Palestine, despite the British Blockade. Veterans of the brigade would use their skills in the War For Independence.

1943: “So Proudly We Hail!” produced and directed by Mark Sandrich with music by Edward Heyman was released in today in the United States.

1943: In Poland, 5,000 Jews were deported from the Będzin Ghetto to a Nazi death camp.

1943: In Aberdeen, Scotland, German Jewish émigrés, pioneering biochemist Hans Walter Kosterlitz and Hannah Gresshöner, German Jewish émigrés, gave birth to John Michael Kosterlitz, the winner of the Lars Onsager Prize in 2000 and the Noble Prize in Physics in 2016.


1944: The SS closed the concentration camp at Riga-Kaiserwald, Latvia.

1944: Birthdate of Edna Arbel, the native of Jerusalem whose legal career included serving as State Attorney for 8 years before starting her service as a member of Israel’s Supreme Court.

1944:  FDR signed the GI Bill of Rights.  Viewed as part of the war effort, this modestly named law was one of the most far-reaching pieces social legislation ever enacted.  It gave a whole group of Americans a chance at homeownership and college education that would not have otherwise occurred.  Among Jews, it sent people as disparate in temperament as Art Buchwald and Henry Kissinger on to the college campus.  Along with the automobile, the G.I. Bill of Rights created suburbia which destroyed many old Jewish neighborhoods and provided new challenges for Jews seeking to maintain their ethnic identity and religious customs in what would become a culture of rootlessness.   

1944: One thousand Jews were transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to work in the factories of Dachau. They were "lucky" if you can call being at Dachau lucky. Ninety-eight percent of the Jews sent to Birkenau were gassed there. One thousand, five hundred pairs of twins were tortured by Dr. Joseph Mengele in during his "medical experiments".

1944: Sir Nicholas George Winton the Englishman “who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport” “was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on probation” today.

1944: In Lyon Janine Sochaczewska and Alter Mojze Goldman, who were not married, gave birth to Pierre Goldman, “a French left-wing intellectual who was convicted of several robberies.”

1944: “You Always Hurt the One You Love,” a “pop standard with music by Doris Fisher “first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart today and lasted 20 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1

1945: Birthdate of Alexander Pines, the native of Tel Aviv who became “Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and the Department of Bioengineering.”


1946(23rd of Sivan, 5706): Parashat Sh’lach

1946: “A cablegram to Ernest Evin British Foreign Secretary, assailing him for his stand on Palestine, was made public today by the Assembly of Hebrew Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada.”

1946: In address broadcast this afternoon over station WEAF, Dr. Judah L. Magnes, the president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said “the establishment of a self-governing bi-national Palestine, based on equality of Jews and Arabs would resolve the present complication situation there.”

1947: Birthdate of Maurice David Landau the native of the Golders Green neighborhood of London who was the diplomatic correspondent of The Jerusalem Post for 12 years, and its managing editor for four years following which he founded the English edition of Haaretz of which he was editor-in-chief and capped his career his career by serving as the paper’s editor-in –chief from 2004 to 2008.


1947: Albert Einstein withdrew his support for theAlbert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc.

1948(15th of Sivan, 5708): Sixty-four year old Joseph Nunes Nabarro, the native of Islington, who was a partner in the firm of Narbarro Nathanson (Solictors) who “was an Elder of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and a strong Zionist” passed away today.

1948: Samuel Hamilton Kaufman, “received a recess appointment” to the U.S. District Court” today from President Truman.

1948:Szapsel (Shabtai ) Rotholc, the boxer who had been expelled from the Jewish community for two years because he worked as a member of the Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto, “was reinstated as a member of the Jewish Sports Federation.

1949: In a move that showed where the British really stood in the Arab-Israel Conflict, Foreign Minister Bevin today told the House of Commons that Britain would no longer be making contribution to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, but said that instead it would one hundred thousand pounds “available to British voluntary societies for the maintenance of Arab refuges…”

1949: Two hundred Conservative rabbis met today at the Rabbinical Assembly of America’s 49th annual convention at Kiamesha Lake in New York.

1950:A Government spokesman disclosed today that Israel had asked the United Nations to take all necessary steps to insure implementation of the armistice agreement between her and Jordan.

1950(7th of Tammuz, 5710): Seventy-year old legal scholar Max Radin, the son of Rabbi Adolph Moses Radin, passed away today.


1950(7th of Tammuz, 5710): Forty-three year old “cantor, radio and concert singer” Yssak Gladstone the native of Krivozer, Russia, passed away today in New York City.

1951:The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel spent IL50m. during 1950 on housing and work for more than 100,000 immigrants. The UN allocated a yearly sum of $100m. for a plan to resettle the Arab refugees. Mr. Blanford, the newly appointed head of UNRWA, hoped that he would thus be able to resettle some 30,000 Arab refugee families.

 1951: In a statement made to the Sephardic Community of Salisbury in Rhodesia Haham Solomon Gaon said, "The lack of spiritual leadership is unfortunately evident today even in the highest places. A Sephardic institution for the provision of teachers, ministers and rabbinic authorities is one of the most pressing needs of the present age…We, Sephardim, if properly organized, could give a lead to the Jewish world generally."

1952: A small home-made bomb exploded at 1:30 A.M. today on the doorstep of the apartment of Minister of Communications David Z. Pinkas. The bombing was seen as part of protest against restrictions on driving which are to go into effect next week.  Israelis will not be allowed to drive their car for two days of each week.  One of the days that on which one cannot drive is Shabbat.  Opponents of the ban claim that the action has more to with attempts by Orthodox Jews to ban driving on the Sabbath than it does with gasoline conservation.  Pinkas is a leader of the Mizrachi Party and thought to be a leader of those supporting the Shabbat driving ban.

1952(29th of Sivan, 5712): Eighty seven year old actress Clara Lipman Mann, the Chicago born daughter of “Abram and Josephine (née Brumer) Lipman” and husband of fellow thespian Louis Mann, passed away today.


1952: Journalist Ames Keinan and Shaltiel Ben Yair a reserve army officer who has no civilian occupation were arrested today for their alleged role in the bombing of the apartment building housing David Z. Pinkas.

1952: In Israel, Scott George, the United States Vice Consul, said that because of upcoming changes in Israeli laws regarding citizenship, immigrants from the United States arriving in Israel after July 14 would lose their American citizenship unless they “opt out” of receiving Israeli citizenship.

1957: In Los Angeles, Art Ginsburg opened Art’s Deli – “where every sandwich is a work of Art.”

1957: After 717 performances the curtain came down “The Diary Anne Frank” which had opened at the Cort Theatre in October of 1955 before moving to the Ambassador Theatre.

1960: Birthdate of Representative Adam Schiff, Congressman for California’s 29thDistrict.

1960: The Mayor of New York announced at City Hall today that George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, will not receive a permit to speak in New York “on July 4th or any other time” due to concerns for public safety and Rockwell’s personal safety.

1962(20th of Sivan, 5722): Eighty-one year old Hugo Gutmann Hitler’s Jewish commanding officer who recommended him for the Iron Cross First Class and was known as Henry G. Grant in the United States passed away today in San Diego, CA.

1962: Final broadcast of PM East/PM West, “a late night television talk show co-hosted by Mike Wallace.”

1965(22nd of Sivan, 5725): Sixty-three year old movie producer David O Selznick, the son of silent film director Lewis J. Selznick, the son-in-law Louis B.Mayer  and the man most responsible for making the film classic “Gone With the Wind” passed away today


1965: Dr. Milton D. Glick who would eventually serve as the 15th president of the University of Nevada Reno, married Peggy Porter today.

1966: U.S. premiere of “Born Free” produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin with an Oscar-winning title song co-authored by lyricist Don Black.

1966: Release date for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” the cinematic version of Edward Albee’s play directed by Mike Nichols, produced by Ernest Lehman, with a script by Ernest Lehman costarring Elizabeth Taylor and George Segal.

1968:Jan Peerce made last appearance with the Metropolitan Opera Company today at a parks concert in ''Faust.''

1969: Author Jonathan Lewis Nasaw, the son of attorney Joshua J. Nasaw and the former Beatrice Kaplan married Soo Stone.

1970: Birthdate of rock star Steven Page the lead singer for “Barenaked Ladies.”


1970: Eighty-year old Harvard trained archaeologist Ashton Sanborn the husband of Agnes Goldman, “the granddaughter of Rabbi Samuel Adler” and the brother-in-law of Hetty Goldman of the Goldman-Sachs banking family who was “executive secretary of the American Red Cross Commission with headquarters in Jerusalem after WW I passed away today.

1972(10th of Tammuz, 5732): Eighty-two year old Austrian born British “writer, director and producer” Paul Czinner whose career began with “Inferno” in 1919 and was still going strong in 1966 with “Romeo and Juliet’ starring Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, passed away today.

1972: Three days after he had passed away, funeral services were scheduled to be held this morning for sixty-nine year old Long Island College Hospital trained pathologist Dr. William Antopol, the husband of “the former Bella Scholer” and father of Michael and Stephen Antopol who was serving as “director of laboratories and research at Beth Israel Medical Center” when he passed away in San Francisco.




1973: “A Touch of Class” starring George Segal was released today in the United States.

1973: Former U.S. New York Senator Kenneth B. Keating was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.

1974(2nd of Tammuz, 5734): Eighty-one year old “French composer and teacher” Darius Milhaud whose students included Jazz Great Dave Brubeck and Burt Bacharach passed away today.



1976(24th of Sivan, 5736): Fifty-nine year old “Dr. Maurice S. Sage, president of the Jewish National Fund” passed away this evening “an hour after collapsing on the dais of Grand Ballroom of New York’s Hilton Hotel.”


1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the prices of foodstuffs (bread, milk, cooking oil, sugar etc.) would increase by about 30 percent due to another IL150m. subsidy cut.

1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the US State Department had announced that a public expression of thanks by President Gerald Ford to the Palestine Liberation Organization for its assistance in evacuating Americans from Beirut did not represent any change of policy towards this terrorist organization.

1978: Neo-Nazis called off plans to march in the Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois.

1978: Today, “Rabbi Leib Pinter of Brooklyn was sentenced to two years in prison after having pleaded guilty last month to bribing” a Pennsylvania congressman “to obtain favorable treatment for the social program of the B’Nai Torah Institute.”

1979: “Escape from Alcatraz” a prison movie directed and produced by Don Siegel with music by Jerry Fielding was released in the United States today.

1979: “The Main Event,” a comedy directed by Howard Zieff, produced by Howard Rosenman and starring Barbra Streisand was released in the United States today.

1979: “Nightwing” the film version of the book by the same name directed by Arthur Hiller, produced by Martin Ranshoff and featuring David Warner and Stephen Macht was released in the United States today.

1979: Weeks after having been released in the United Kingdom “The Muppet Movie” co-produced by Lew Grade with Frank Oz as the voices of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle,and Marvin Suggs was released in the United States.

1980: The New York Times featured a review of Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler.

1982: In Tucson, AZ, Howard Kinsler, college basketball player and “warden at a state prison” and his Catholic wife gave birth to major league second baseman Ian Kinsler who was proud to be “featured in the 2008 Hank Greenberg 75th Anniversary edition of Jewish Major Leaguers Baseball Cards, licensed by Major League Baseball, commemorating the Jewish major leaguers from 1871 through 2008.”

1983: “The Survivors” an off-beat comedy co-starring Walter Matthau was released today in the United States.

1984:”The Pope of Greenwich Village” a crime film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and co-produced by Howard Koch was released today in the United States.

1986: Sir Moses I Finley, the American expatriate professor suffered a stroke today upon hearing that his wife had passed away.

1989(19th of Sivan, 5749): In Jerusalem Professor Menachem Stern, a Hebrew University Scholar and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities was stabbed to death by two teenage Arabs as he walked home.


1990: “Robocop 2” directed by Irvin Kershner was released in the United States today.

1992: Gil Stein was announced as the new president of the National Hockey League and formally took the position, succeeding John Ziegler

1996: Pitcher Al Levine made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.

1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Look, Listen, Read” by Claude Levi-Strauss, “Nazi Gold: The Full Story of the Fifty-Year Swiss-Nazi Conspiracy to Steal Billions From Europe's Jews and Holocaust Survivors” by Tom Bower

2000: Armed with a slingshot, a walkie-talkie and a pistol tucked into his pants, a Hezbollah guerrilla across the fence in Lebanon let another stone fly today toward a mesh-covered Israeli Army post on the outskirts of the northern border community” of Metula but Israeli soldiers at the border are under strict orders not to fire unless they are fired upon, and since it is only stones they must stoically not respond.

2001(21st of Tammuz, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2001: In Vienna, the International Conference sponsored by the Dubnow Institute on “Restitution Memory” On Historical Remembrance and Material Restitution in Europe in Europe” continued for a second day.

2001(21st of Tammuz, 5761):Sgt. Aviv Iszak, 19, of Kfar Saba, and Sgt. Ofir Kit, 19, of Jerusalem, were killed in a suicide bombing near Dugit in the Gaza Strip as a jeep with yellow Israeli license plates, supposedly stuck in the sand, blew up as they approached. Hamas took credit for the attack,

2001:Daniel Charles Kurtzer left his post as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt. [Yes, an American Jew represented the U.S. in Cairo.] Born in 1949, he earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and served as dean of his alma mater Yeshiva University.  President Clinton had appointed him to the position in Egypt.  President Bush would appoint him as Ambassador to Israel in 2001; a post he would hold until 2005.

2002(12th of Tammuz, 5762): Seventy-eight year old Fred Rochlin, architect, artist, photographer and collector of Western Jewish Americana passed away.


2002: Funeral services for 92 year old Nachman Libeskind the survivor of Russian labor camps and the Holocaust are scheduled to be held today at the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel in New York.


2002(12th of Tammuz, 5762): Ann Landers passed away. Esther Pauline Friedman was born in Iowa on July 4, 1918. She began writing an advice column in the 1950’s. Her sister wrote an equally famous column under the name of Dear Abbey. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2002: Actress Embeth Davidtz married entertainment attorney Jason Sloane in a Jewish wedding in Los Angeles.

2003(22nd of Sivan, 5763): Eighty-one year old tennis player and trail-blazer phi beta kappa Stanford graduate Gladys Medalie Heldman, “the daughter of New York Court of Appeals judge George Z. Medalie and the husband of Julius Heldman passed away


2003(22nd of Sivan, 5763): Sixty-seven year old Joseph Chaikin, the Brooklyn born “actor and director” who was raised in Des Moines, Iowa and attended Drake University passed away today.




2003:Jonathan Andrew Kaye won the Buick Classic, a major PGA tournament.

2004: “The United States wants Israel to follow through with a pledge to dismantle settlement outposts in the West Bank, Daniel C. Kurtzer, the American ambassador to Israel said today.

2005: Opening session of Security Israel - The 19thannual International Homeland Security Exhibition .

2006: The Red Cross humanitarian movement overcame Muslim objections and cleared away the last obstacle to full Israeli membership setting up formal admission after nearly six decades of exclusion, Israel's ambassador to international organizations in Geneva said. The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent approved a resolution that enables Israel's Magen David Adom society to join while retaining its Red Star of David instead of having to adopt the Red Cross or Crescent used by other societies, Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said.

2006: In “Brooklyn’s Oldest Synagogue Celebrates Its 150thAnniversary, Evan Barton traces the history of the Kane Street Synagogue.


2007: In Jerusalem, the Center Stage Theater presents a matinee performance of Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing," followed by special party after the show.

2008: A new government strategy to redefine ties with the Diaspora designed to be less patronizing and more humble which was developed jointly by Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel and Alan Hoffman, director-general of the Jewish Agency’s Education Department is unveiled.

2008: In New York City, The Yeshiva University Museum presents the 2nd annual Family Puppet Festival.

2008: In New York City, Logan Joseph Kleinwaksv presents “Searching Online Historical Directories - and - A New Tool for Shoah Research” at the Center for Jewish Studies.

2008: In an election to select France’s next Chief Rabbi three hundred rabbis and communal leaders choose  between the incumbent, Joseph Sitruk, a 63-year-old Sephardic rabbi known for his common touch, and the challenger, Gilles Bernheim, a 56-year-old Ashkenazic philosopher who is the rabbi of Paris’s largest synagogue.

2008: The general assembly of the Central Consistory elected Giles Bernheim Chief Rabbi of France.


2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics With an 18th-Century Brain” by Jewish linguist George Lakoff.

2008: The Washington Postfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Darin Smith’s “More Than It Hurts You” “a polarizing novel in which a black doctor accuses a Jewish mother of child abuse” and “My Five Years in Iraq” byRichard Engel, the Middle East correspondent who when he was interviewing the President was asked by Mr. Bush if he was Jewish; a question which he answered in the affirmative.

2008: The New York Timesreported on the downbeat emotional and political attitudes of Israelis as the “truce” with Hamas begins in an article entitled “Israel in the Season of Dread.”


2009: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5769 (first day of a two day Rosh Chodesh)

2009: “Demise of the Jewish Club” published today


2009: In “Dead Sea Peril” published today Joseph Marks described the growing impact and causes of sinkholes on this unique Middle Eastern body of water.


2009: In the United Kingdom, John Simon Bercow was elected Speaker of the House of Commons making him the first Jew to hold that position.

2010: The Jewish Community Research Council is scheduled to hold its final session of the season by hosting a luncheon meeting with Virginia House Speaker William Howell and Virginia State Senate Chairman of Education & Health Committee Ed Houck.

2010: Publication of Feeling “Phil Spector’s Pain.”


2010: Judge Martin “Feldman issued a preliminary injunction blocking a six-month moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling in Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar.”

2011: The Art Show that began on June 13 is scheduled to come a close at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.

2011: The Sixth Street Community Synagogue and John Zorn's Tzadik Records are scheduled to present “Masada Guitars Revisited + Edom,” one of six concerts by some of the best and brightest musicians on New York's Downtown Jewish Music scene.

2011: Today Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren defended the blockade of Gaza as a “matter of life and death” and said that it fully comports with international law, as a flotilla prepares to attempt to reach Gaza.

2011: The number of millionaires in Israel rose in 2010 by more than 20.6 percent to 10,153, according to the latest annual Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report released today.

2011: Israel Defense Forces made history when a woman was officially promoted to the rank of Major General for the first time. Major General Orna Barbivay, 49, replaced Major General Avi Zamir as commander of the IDF's Manpower Branch in an official ceremony today, which was attended by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF chief Benny Gantz, and other senior army officials..

2011: Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, an Israeli socialite, investor and talk show host twitted about a rumor regarding the departure of journalist Yair Lapid to the world of politics

2011(20thof Sivan, 5771): Eighty-seven year old screenwriter David Rayfiel whose work included “Three Days of the Condor,” “Out of Africa” and “The Way We Were” passed away.  (As reported by William Grimes)


2012: Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to celebrate “Shabbat Under the Stars” in Springfield, VA.

2012: As part of the attempts to undo some of the damage done through his relationship with Bernard Maddorff “J. Ezra Merkin agreed to pay back $405 million to investors in his hedge funds”

2012: Cantor Larry Paul and musician Robyn Helzner are scheduled to a lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Historic 6th& I Syngagogue.

2012: The Go North & Northern Communities of Nefesh B’Nefesh are scheduled to offer a guided tour at Tzippori Park so Olim can see “amazing mosaics, a crusader fortress, an ancient reconstructed synagogue and the first century underground water system.

2012: Two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel today. (As reported by Yoel Goodman)

2012: Israeli Air Force strikes carried out today against terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip killed two and injured at least four others.

2012: In “The Germans Are Prisoners of Their Past” published today Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim “explains why the Israeli antipathy toward Wagner is grotesque and argues that Israel shouldn't depend too.”


2012: The findings of the 2011 census, released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, revealed the Jewish population to be 97,335. This means that Australia’s official Jewish population has risen by about 10 percent in the last five years (As reported by JTA)

2012: Daphni Leef, one of the leaders of last summer’s mass social protest movement, was arrested, along with seven other activists, in Tel Aviv today after attempting to pitch tents on Rothschild Boulevard.


2013: The Edin-Tamar Music is scheduled to host “Romantic Violin” program II featuring violinist Saida Bar Lev and pianist Yonatan Zak.



2013(14th of Tammuz, 5773): Sixty-eight year old writer producer Gary David Goldberg, creator of “Family Ties” passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2013: Barbara Streisand is scheduled to perform at Bloomfield Stadium as part of the Israeli Presidential Conference.

2013: Traffic Police over the weekend caught about 140 drunk drivers, the majority of which were subject to suspended licenses, Israel Radio today. (As reported by Jerusalem Post staff)



2013: Today, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) called this week’s “price tag” incident in Abu Ghosh a terror attack, and vowed the police would continue to combat racially motivated violence




2014: Masses are scheduled to take place at churches in Newark, NJ, Mineola, NY and Yonkers, NY honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese diplomat who defied his government and issued thousands of life saving visas to Jews trying to escape Hitler’s Europe.

2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by genealogist Miriam Weinter and Avrum who will”reveal important—but relatively unknown—resources for family-history research.”

2014: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers inducing The Train to Warsaw by Gwen Edelman, Suddenly, Love by Aharon Appelfeld and Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill.

2014: The funeral for ‘the former director of the Shin Bet internal security organization Avraham Shalom” is scheduled to be held today.

2014(24th of Sivan, 5774): Fifteen year old Mohammed Karkara, from the town of Arraba in the lower Galilee, who had accompanied his father to work on what was the first day of the summer vacation was killed in the Golan Heights this morning when an anti-tank missle was fired from Syria at an a vehicle delivering water to Israeli contractors working on a fence

2014: “A Palestinian man armed with a hand grenade broke through the Gaza fence and tried to infiltrate an Israeli community before he was stopped early this morning, the military said.”

2014: “May the force be with Jew” published today described the decision to have Israeli Ram Bergman produce “the next two Star War films, Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX.” (Debra Kamin)

2014: Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the “disgraceful decision by the US Presbyterian Church to divest from three companies that provide supplies to Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank.”

2015: Professor Ellen Eisenberg, “the author of two forthcoming books on Jewish Oregonians,” is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Oregon Jewish Museum Center for Holocaust Education in Portland.

2015(5th of Tammuz, 5775): Sixty-one year old Oscar winning composer James Horner passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)


2015: After a vote taken yesterday, the Berlin Philharmonic Symphony announced the appointment of  Kirill Petrenko, 43, a Russian-born Jew, to replace Sir Simon Rattle

2015: French-Moroccan baritone David Serero is scheduled to appear as Shylock in his “Sephardi adaptation of” Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” which will feature Sephardi music.

2015: Ruth Behar is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Reflecting On Adio Kerida,” the awarding winning film that chronicles “the lives of Jews in Cuba and Jewish Cubans in Miami and New York.”

2016: In Oregon, “P.S. Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown today at the 24th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2017(28th of Sivan, 5777): Seventy-eight year old St. Louis born “feminist” Sheila Babs Michaels, the daughter of “Alma Weil Michaels (née Weil), a playwright and theatrical producer and Ephraim London, a civil rights attorney” passed away today.



2017: The Jewish Federation of Greater did not hold its annual meeting today where it planned to present the Tikkun Olam Award to Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole on behalf of her department for incorporating Holocaust education into police training and collaborating with Jewish groups on a real-time communications tool developed after a shooting at the Federation’s headquarters in 2006 in the wake of “the death of Charleena Lyles, a 30-year old black woman, at the hands of police.”

2017: “Some of Israel’s top chefs were on hand at today’s Tel Aviv launch of Joan Nathan’s latest cookbook, King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.” (As reported by Jessica Steinberg)

2017: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to hold its Congregational Meeting.

2017: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a “Twilight Tour” of downtown Washington that will included visits to “four historic synagogues.”

2017:  “Letters from Baghdad,” a documentary about the role of Gertrude Bell in the history of Iraq is scheduled to be shown for the last time in Montclair, NJ.

2017: In Brooklyn the Batsheva Learning Center is scheduled to host an evening of “Sushi and Study.”

2018: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of a clip from “Spiral” followed by director and veteran journalist Laura Fairrie talking about” the rise of anti-Semitism in France and the quandary facing French Jews: “Pack up for Israel or remain to battle the rising hostility.”

2018: “On the Edge,” an “exhibition on loan from the Universcience Museum in Paris Is scheduled to open at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem.

2018: After have premiered at Sundance in January, “The Catch Was a Spy” the movie version of the book by the same named directed by Ben Lewin and starring Paul Rudd as Moe Berg was released today in the United States.


2018: Sitting in his home at Jaffa, erev Shabbat, Moshe Sakal, a product of the writing program at the University of Iowa describes his journey of self-discovery and discusses his first novel, The Diamond Setter.

2019:  The Joyce Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of “Rushes pairs Pilobolus creativity with global dance mavericks Israeli choreographers Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak”

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a docent tour “of the inspirational Museum which seamlessly weaves history with local Survivor narratives.”

2019: Following President Trump’s explanation for cancelling the attack on Iranian missile batteries because it would cause a “disproportionate number of causalities” Prime Minister Netanyahu, who worked to elect the Republican might be wondering what kind of support he would receive if Israel is attacked by Iran or its proxies such as Hezbollah.

2019(19th of Sivan, 5779): Parashat Beha’alotcha;

2020: Temple Sinai of Marblehead is scheduled to host online “Weekly Torah Study with Rabbi David Cohen-Henriquez

2020: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Dr. Karen Brodkin, author of How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says About Race in America as she lectures on “Jewish Immigrants and America’s Racial Politics”

2020: In the wake of the Pandemic, the Jewish commitment to education continues as the JCC of Greater Boston is scheduled to present on-line Summer Enrichment for Children 0-5 which provides the opportunity to “Explore interactive virtual classes led by expert instructors for children and families, including baby sign language, music, STEM, dance, chess, art and more!”

2020: Following his warning yesterday that Israel “may have to renew lockdowns following a surge in coronavirus cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to “hold a meeting of ministers toay to decide what steps should be taken.”
2020(30th of Sivan, 5780): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz






This Day, June 23, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 23

79: Vespasian, the Roman general who was in the process of conquering Judea when he became Emperor, died.

79: Titus, the Roman general whom the Jews will always remember for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple succeeded his father Vespasian as tenth Roman Emperor.

1295: The newly chosen head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Boniface VIII, entered Rome and spurned the Torah scrolls offered to him by the Jewish community.

1298: Massacre of the Jews of Wiener-Neustadt, Austria.

1550: “Queen Bona” awarded “the lease of the customs and inns of Pinsk, Kletzk and Gorodetzk for a term of years” Goshka Moshkevich and Nahum and Israel Yesofovich, the sons of Pesakh Yesofovich.

1608: Samuel Pallache “a Jewish-Moroccan merchant, diplomat and pirate met stadholder Maurice of Nassau and the States-General in The Hague to negotiate an alliance of mutual assistance against Spain.

1696: Jews of Posen, Poland were saved from a mob set to avenge the murder of a soldier when a peasant woman who was seized carrying the victim's clothing, confessed to her son's murder.

1700: Solomon de Medina was dubbed a knight by William III.  He was the first Jew to receive this honor. Medina was military contractor who would provide invaluable aid to the Duke of Marlborough during the War of Spanish Succession.


1751: Dutch native Hyam Myers and Rachel Louzada, the parents of Belle Myers and the in-laws of Samuel Asher Levy were married today in New York.

1762: Today Mary Wilkinson married Joseph Priestly who in 1786, “published his Letter to the Jews urging them to convert” which brought a strong response from David Levi that “led to his three-volume Dissertation on the Prophecies of the Old Testament.

1779: Birthdate of Markus Bär Friedenthal who was a leading banker in Breslau where he was also active in Jewish communal affairs.

1785(15th of Tammuz, 5545): Ninety year old Arieh Loeb who had served as a rabbi in Frankfort before becoming the Grand Rabbi of Metz passed away today.

1786: Today, just ten years after its founding with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the United States enters into the world of Islam and the Middle East when it signed a treaty with the “Barbary Coast State of Morocco” that “formally ended all Moroccan piracy against American shipping interests.”  (Editor’s note – for the initiated, this would be the first of many agreements made in this part of the world by the United States that would not be honored and it shows that American interest in this part of the world existed long before the Zionist movement. For more see Power, Faith and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren)

1794: With the second partition of Poland additional territory was added to the Pale (the district in which the Jews were forced to live) that included parts of the Ukraine and the city of Kiev. Jews were granted permission by Empress Catherine II to settle in Kiev.

1807: Birthdate of Ferdinand Hitzig, one of a number of non-Jewish biblical critics who examined the Old Testament in light of the discoveries of archaeology and linguists who wrote commentaries on several books of the Bible starting with Isaiah in the 1830’s and ending with Proverbs in 1858.

1810 John Jacob Astor organized Pacific Fur Company at what is now Astoria, Oregon. There seems to be some dispute as to whether or not Astor was Jewish or "of Jewish origins."

1810: According to a report published today, “France had 250 Jewish manufacturers and 2, 360 Jews were in schools or were employed in ‘useful professions.’”

1815: Merlo ben Aaron Falk was buried today at the Alderney Road Jewish Road Cemetery.

1823: Mordecai Manuel Noah, an early American Jewish leader who dabbled in politics and journalism, wrote a twenty page letter to President James Monroe seeking his support for William Crawford’s candidacy for President of the United States.  Crawford lost his bid which marked a decline in Noah’s self-appointed role a political king-maker.

1839: Birthdate of Philadelphian Simon Sterne who gained fame as an attorney and economist.

1839: Sixty-three year old Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope whose “archaeological expedition to Ashkelon in 1815 is considered the first modern excavation in the history of Holy Land archeology” passed away today. For more about her and her work see Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope as related by herself in Conversations with her Physician by Dr. Charles Meryon.

1840: “A large Jewish public assembly met at the Great Synagogue of London to map out plans for the journey of Moses Montefiore to Egypt to intercede with Governor Mehmet Ali to release eight Damascene Jews who had been tortured and charged with a blood ritual, following the disappearance of Father Tomaso, head of the Capuchin cloister.” (As reported by Abraham Bloch)

1841: In Charleston, SC, Mr. M. Nathan married Ann Cohen the third daughter of Aaron N. Cohen.

1842: In Albany, NY, Sampson Rosendale and Fannie Sachs gave birth to Simon W. Rosendale, husband of Helen Cohen who became the first Jew elected to a statewide office in New York when he was elected State Attorney General. While he was active in many American Jewish organizations including the Jewish Publication Society, the American Jewish Historical Society and B’nai B’rith he was among those who signed an anti-Zionist memorandum given to President Wilson before the Versailles Peace Conference.

1846: Birthdate of French Egyptologist and student of the ancient middle east, Gaston Maspero.  His works included a report of what may have been the first “discovery of an Egyptian record in which the Hebrews are mentioned.”

1848: In Paris, tens of thousands of French workers took to the streets in what came to be known as “June Days of Uprisings” which would lead to the end of the Second Republic during which Jews had gained full rights including the declaration that the “Oath More Judaico” was unconstitutional in 1846>

1858: An incident, known as the Mortara Affair, began in Bologna: Edgardo Mortara, a seven year old Jewish boy, was kidnapped by the Roman Catholic Church on the pretext that a servant girl claimed that she had baptized him. The pope, Pious IX, refused to surrender him despite many protests. The combination of the Damascus affair and this affair led to unification among many Jews and later to the establishment of the Alliance Israelite.

1860: In Baltimore, the reconvened session of the Democratic National Convention which nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President and which Henry Myer Phillips attended as a delegation came to an end today.  (Editor’s note – the real significance of the convention was that it was part of the secessionists planned road to bring an end to the United States so that they could protect their slavocracy)

1861: In Dayton, OH, Jacob and Janette Ach gave birth to Ferdinand Ach, the husband of Carrie Kahn who was a director of both the Dayton Savings and Trust Company and the Liberty Insurance Company of Dayton, President of the National Coffee Roasters Association, a member of B’nai B’rith and President of “Congregation K.K. B’nai Yeshurun.”

1863: John Salmon a London born grocer and husband Catherine Polack with whom he had 8 children was burred today at the Brompton Jewish Cemetery.

1865: In Toledo, Ohio, Henry Calisch and Rebecca Van Norden gave birth to Edward N. Calisch the graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Hebrew Union College and University of Virginia (M.A.), the rabbi at Congregation Beth Ahaba in Richmond since 1891 and the author of “A Book of Prayer” and “A Child’s Bible.”

1865: As the Union Army was disbanded after the Civil War, Samuel B. Salsburg who had risen to the rank of Sergeant in Company C of the 138th Regiment and who had been wounded at the Battle of Monocacy in Maryland 11 months ago completed his military service today.

1866(10thof Tammuz, 5626): Parashat Chukat

1866(10thof Tammuz, 5626): Fifty-three year old physician and economist Sarphati Samuel, passed away in Amsterdam, the city of his birth.

1868(3rd of Tammuz, 5628): Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall passed away. Born at Stockholm, Sweden, in 1798, “at the age of nine he was taken by his father, who was banker to the King of Sweden, to Copenhagen, where he was educated at the Hebrew grammar-school. Later he went to England, where he devoted himself to the study of languages, for the better acquisition of which he subsequently traveled in France, Germany, and Belgium. After lecturing on Hebrew poetry he began to publish the "Hebrew Review, and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature," which he was forced to discontinue in 1836 owing to ill health. For some time he acted as honorary secretary to Solomon Herschell, chief rabbi of Great Britain. He made translations from Maimonides, Albo, and Herz Wessely; conjointly with the Rev. D. A. de Sola he published a translation of eighteen treatises of the Mishnah; and he also began a translation of the Pentateuch, of which only one volume appeared. In 1840, when the blood accusation was made at Damascus, he published a refutation of it in four languages (Hebrew, English, French, and German) and wrote a defense of Judaism against an anonymous writer in the London "Times." In 1841 he was appointed minister of the Birmingham Synagogue and master of the school. He continued in these capacities for eight years, and then sailed for New York (1849). In that city he was appointed rabbi and preacher of the B'nei Jeshurun congregation, where he continued as pastor till 1866, his duties then being relaxed owing to his infirm health. Raphall was the author of a text-book of the post-Biblical history of the Jews (to the year 70 C.E.). He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Erlangen (Germany).”

1869: In “Kirschseiffen, Germany, Sibilla Rothschild and her husband gave birth to Bernhard Rothschild , the husband of Henriette Rothschild who would die at Terezin during the Holocaust.

1872(17thof Sivan, 5632): Seventy-year old Aaron Ben Asher of Karlin “also known as Rabbi Aaron II of Karlin” the famous Chasidic Rebbe whose daughter “Miriam, married Rabbi Avrohom Yaakov Friedeman the first Rebbe of the Sadigura Chasidic Dynasty” and the author of the his seminal work Bet Aharon (Aaron’s House) passed away today.

1873: The children under the care of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Free School are scheduled to enjoy their first excursion of the summer today. Lewis S. Levy is the chairman of the committee that has organized the event.

1873: In Pawtucket, RI, “Alexander and Hannah (Falk) Strauss gave birth to Brown University undergraduate Israel Strauss, the Columbia University trained neurologist and Husband of “Hilda Newborg” who was the attending neurologist at Jewish Hospital, Mt. Sinai Hospital and Beth Moses Hospital while serving as “president of the Jewish Mental Health Association” and writing “numerous articles on the pathology and symptomatology of the nervous system.”

1876: It was reported today that an unnamed Moor stabbed eleven Jews with a dagger at Alcassar in the province of Fez, Morocco. Among the victims was Moses Abecasis. The Moor, who has been arrested, insists that “he was not aware of what he was doing when he committed the crimes.”  The British and Italian Vice Consuls have insisted that the provincial governor and the leading citizens of Alcasar  “have a signed a document guaranteeing the lives and property of foreign Jews” living there.

1877: At Ahaveth Chesed on the corner of Lexington and 55th in New York City, Rabbi Adolph Huesbech delivered a sermon based on Deuteronomy X:12, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”  In the course of the sermon he spoke about the recent events surrounding the banning of Jews by Judge Hilton which he referred to as the “grievous occurrences of the past few days.”  While he abhors boasting, he believes that “the Jewish name must always be held in honor.” He decried the fact that the Jews “had been placed in a false position”  by this member of the nouveau riche who had used his newly “attained social eminence” to arouse enmity aimed at the Jews.  In the end, the Rabbi said he would fail.  “The Hiltons will die away but the principle of liberty as embodied in the American Constitution will live forever.

1877: Rabbi Samuel Isaacs, the leader of New York’s Gates of Prayer, described the negative impact that Judge Hilton’s behavior would have on English Jewish leaders including the Rothschilds and Sir Moses Montefiore who is “personal and esteemed friend of Queen Victoria.”  They have always viewed the United States as a place where Jews were treated with the utmost “consideration and courtesy”; a situation similar to the treatment of Jews in the United Kingdom.  If the Queen can count Montifore among her friends, certainly Judge Hilton could treat a person like Mr. Seligman with “common civility.”  When asked Judge Hilton’s attempt to draw a distinction between “trade Jews and real “Hebrews, Rabbi Isaacs responded by recalling the “the words of the late Baron James Rothschild of Paris. ‘When we are poor and ignorant we Jews; when we are well to do we become Israelites; when we are rich and influential we are called Hebrews.’” Judge Hilton is trying to create a distinction that does not exist as a face-saving maneuver.

 1877: “The Jewish Question” published today reported that both sides in the dispute touched off by Judge Hilton’s banning of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel seemed to hold firm to their previously stated positions.  Various Jewish leaders, including Mr. Seligman’s attorney have advised against any further public discussions or meetings on the matter.  They are reassured by the public response and the decision by some not to do business with the firm controlled by Hilton.  Hilton will not change his policy and still claims that he does not dislike Jews.  After all, the messenger to whom he entrusts thousands of dollars each day is Jewish.

1878: “The Jews and Titus,” an article published today, that originally appeared in the English publication, Fraser’s Magazine reviews events surrounding the decision of Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. The article points out that the Jews had a favorable impact on the western world in the era between Antiochus and Nero. Among other things the Jews are industrious and hardworking just like the people living “in the American Union are at Salt Lake.”  Even their leaders worked at “mechanical labor or rustic art.”  Even the Roman historian Tacitus acknowledged the virtues of the Jews.  When Titus conferred with his officers about sparing the Temple, they urged him to destroy it and the rest of the city as well.  Jerusalem had been the source of “two detestable religions, the Jewish and the Christian, which best be destroyed by uprooting their original home…”  Despite Roman cruelty and oppression which followed by “Christian animosity”  “the Jews and their religion” have survived without any deterioration over the centuries.  Unfortunately, the article concludes, the Jews “still have to plead for toleration and from justice Slavonic Europe.”

1879: The Literary Notes Column reported that “Mr. Nutt, the Librarian of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University has edited” a manuscript in the library’s possession that is “a commentary on Isaiah” written “by Rabbi Eleazar of Beaugency.”  Nutt has included a preface that provides “a valuable account of Bibilical exegesis among the Spanish and French Jews of the Middle Ages. [Eleazar was a 12th century French Biblical commentary who lived at Beaugency. He was a “pupil of Samuel ben Meïr, the eminent grandson of Rashi.”]

1880: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem is sponsoring a strawberry festival this evening which is designed to raise funds for a gymnasium to be used by the members.

1880: Joseph Lipkie married Rachel Davies in the United Kingdom

1881: Seventy-seven year old German botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden, a co-founder of the “cell theory” whose writings on Judaism “contrast with the academic anti-Semitism of his time” but “also break with the anti-Judaism of Kant and Fries.” “Schleiden's apology for Judaism is shown to be deeply rooted in his ideas about scientific progress, especially his methodology of microscopic botany.” (As presented by Ulrich Charpa)

1882: Rabbi Levy arrived at the New York office of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society from South Carolina. He told those in charge that the European Jewish refugees “were unfit” for the work “on Southern Plantations.”  He brought 11 of the 30 refugees who had been placed in his care with him to New York.  He thinks that they could be successful working on small vegetable farms. [This was part of the move to create agrarian opportunities for the horde of Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.]

1882: “Is He Sane Or Insane” published today described the travails of Samuel Obright who has been committed to Middletown Lunatic Asylum.  His wife, whom he married only a few days ago, contends that his family and friends had him committed because Obright who is Jewish chose to marry a Christian. The judge has ordered him held in the custody of the Sheriff until the matter can be decided.

1882: It was reported today that Dr. Julius Goldman had delivered a report to the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society entitled “Colonizing the Russian Refugees” and not Dr. Julius Goodman as stated in an earlier article.

1883: In Chicago, Illinois, “Samuel and Lena (Alexander) Taussig gave birth to University of Chicago graduate Frances Taussig, the social worker who was the “executive director of the Jewish Family Service in New York City.”


1883:  As anti-Jewish riots resumed today in St. Gall, Switzerland, dismounted dragoons were called out to disperse the mob.

1883: It was reported today that those wishing to make contributions to support the upcoming summer excursions sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children can be sent to John Davis.

1883: “Blood in Passover” published today described a trial at Nyreghhaza, Hungary, where “a number of Jews are accused of having murdered a Christian girl at Tisza-Ezlar for the sake of using her blood to mix with their Passover bread.” The article conclude with “a Catholic priest admitted that he was the author of an anonymous attack on the Jews accusing them of the murder of the girl.”

1884(30thof Sivan, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1884: In Southern Russia, fighting broke out between Jews and Armenians at Titlis.

1884: Birthdate of the pro-Nazi German actor Werner Krauss who “simultaneously played the roles of several stereotypical Jewish characters – among them Rabbi Loew and Sekretar Levy – in Veit Harlan's anti-Semitic propaganda film Jud Süß (1940), implementing Harlan's concept of a common Jewish root and Shylock in Lothar Müthel's extreme production of The Merchant of Venice staged at the Burgtheater in 1943 which made him a person favorite of Hitler.

1885: Mr. Julius Bien of New York, President of the B’nai B’rith opened a meeting of the Jewish organization in Berlin. He was assisted in his efforts by Isaac Hamburger of New York and Henry Gruenbaum of Chicago.

1886: It was reported today that Harris Cohen had been awarded the Lewis May Award at a reception sponsored by the Hebrew Technical Institute. Samuel Sass won the Carl Schurz Prize for the best essay on technical education.

1887: Birthdate of Hugo Hermann the Moravian born author, publisher and Zionist leader who died in Jerusalem in 1940.

1887(1stof Tammuz, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1887(1stof Tammuz, 5647): Joseph Freedman, a Russian-Jew who was a tin peddler died this evening at P.J. Kelly’s furniture store in New Haven, Conn.

1888: The Eldridge Street Synagogue was filled with congregants for today’s memorial service held in honor of the late German Emperor. Rabbi Zinsler of the Henry Street Synagogue delivered a eulogy in German followed by Coroner Ferdinand Levy who delivered a eulogy in English.  [This was just one of many such services held by the Jews to honor the late Kaiser.]

1888: Emile Hirsch, who serves as the Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Chicago returned to the Windy City after a brief visit to New Orleans.

1888: This evening Rabbi Emile Hirsch addressed his congregation in Chicago outlined his view on inter-marriage, declaring that “Judaism was more than a religion or a creed…Judaism is a mission and a message of loved and righteousness.”

1889: “In the Catskill Mountains” published today described the opening of the various hostelries in this New York vacation venue including the fact that “the anti-Hebrew crusade is practically a matter of the past.”  Generally speaking this movement was confined to the cottages at Pine Hill where Gentiles and Jews are equally welcome provided they can afford to pay the fee for entertainment which can be as much as one hundred dollars a week. [For those who connect the Catskills with the Borscht Belt, the idea of Jews being banned must seem a little strange.]

1890: The reviewer of The Origin of the Aryans by Isaac Taylor longs “for the old days when it was comfortably agreed that Hebrew was the ‘oldest language’ and all the rest made their appearance on a certain occasion when the descendants of Noah were rebuked for their impiety and pride by the destruction of the Tower of Babel.”

1890:  In New York, the Coroner is investigating the death of 35 year old Hyman Harrowitz, a Russian Jew who died from ammonia poisoning.  At first, it was thought he died at his own hand, but based on statements by his brother and friends, he may have been given the wrong medicine by the local druggist which led to his death.

1890: Famed English archeologist Flinders Pitre has complained that the authors of Art in Sardinia, Syria, Judaea and Asia, Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez “have omitted several Jewish antiquities in their profusely-illustrated volumes. The omissions are important because of the great scarity of objects of art or architecture which can be assigned to the Jews.”

1892: In Manhattan, Zelda and Morris (or Milton or Moshe) Kiviat gave birth to middle distance runner and Olympic Medalist Abel Richard Kivat.

1892: During the Dreyfus Affair, the Marquis de Mores mortally wounded Captain Armand Mayer in a duel that the anti-Semitic noble had forced on the Jewish officer. Mayer would die a couple of days later from his wounds.

1892: In Chicago, the Democratic National Convention where George Washington Ochs Oakes, a delegate from Tennessee, second “on behalf of his state the nomination of Grover Cleveland who went on to win the election in November, came to an end today

1892: The military band of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum played the opening march at the annual reception and commencement exercises of Grammar School Number 43 on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC.

1893: “Swears Back What He Swore” published today provides a snapshot of the controversy surrounding the efforts of those aggressively trying to convert Jews living on the Lower East Side which are being resisted  by the United Hebrew Charities which feels these people are the victims of coercion and deception.

1894:  The Jesse Seligman Literary Circle, a new Hebrew social and literary society has been organized in Orange, NJ

1895: “An East Side Charity” published today traced the history of the Hebrew Sheltering House where “the homeless and hungry are cared for without inquiring in their religious faith…”  The charity located on New York’s lower east side is a creation of the Russian Jews who provide all of the funds for its operation with the exception of $7000 given by Jacob Schiff.

1896: Herzl is received as a journalist of the Neue Freie Presse. Herzl offers that the Jews would undertake the regulation of the Turkish finances if they were given Palestine. Herzl cannot obtain an audience with the Sultan.

1896: “Abram and Sarah (Davis) Skirball” gave birth to Hebrew Union College and Western Reserve graduate J. H. Skirball who began his career as the Assistant Rabbi at the Euclid Avenue Temple in Cleveland before assuming the pulpit at the Temple in Evansville, IN where he was active in a number of civic and charitable institutions including the Community Chest, Big Brothers Association and the Anti-Tuberculosis League.

1897: Isabella Levy, the native of Middlesex and fifth daughter of Henry Levy was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1897: The will of the late Moritz Cohn was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s office today.

1898: The funeral for Getta Schole, is scheduled to be held at the Crematory, Fresh Pond, Long Island.  Mrs. Scholle is the widow of Jacob Scholle and was the Vice President of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and a Directress of The Ladies’ Auxiliary Society for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.

1898: President James H. Hoffman delivered the opening address at the commencement exercises of the Hebrew Technical Institute which were held at Cooper Union.

1899: Joseph I. Leiner was the salutatorian and valedictorian of this year’s graduating class of the Hebrew Technical Institute for which he earned the Fred M. Stein Prize, the Carl Schurz Prize and a special prize for his accomplishments.

1899: New De Hirsch Fund” published today reported that “a part of the income…of the Baron de Hirsch Fund allotted to America” will be used to improve conditions in Brownsville, a section of Brooklyn with a large Jewish population.  The project is being spearheaded by Abraham Abraham, a Brooklyn merchant and A.S. Solomon, the general agent of the Baron de Hirsch Fund in New York.

1900(26thof Sivan, 5660): Parashat Sh’lach

1900: Louis Friedman, Joseph Goldstein and Morris Slepp, three Russian Jews “who were arrested yesterday and charged with maintaining an illicit distillery in the resident section of Mount Vernon” were arraigned today/

1901(6thof Tammuz, 5661): Eighty-seven year old British composer and pianist Charles Salaman passed away.  In addition to his purely secular successes, Salaman created a musical version of Psalm 93 which is “sung on most Friday nights in the Sabbath eve service of the London Spanish & Portuguese Jewish community”

1902: Lord Alfred Milner, a friend of Leonard Montefiore who wrote a foreward to “Montefiore’s posthumously published ‘Essays and Letters’,” bean serving as 1st Governor of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony

1903 Johns Hopkins and Columbia University alum and Joseph N. Ullman, the Baltimore born son of “Nathan and Dina (Oppenheim) Ulman  the lawyer, Baltimore Judge and member of the University of Maryland Law School faculty  who was President of the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Baltimore, director of the Associated Jewish Charities of Baltimore married the former Ella Guggenheimer today.

1904: The Republican Convention where Theodore Roosevelt who had very positive relations with the Jewish community was nominated for a second term, came to an end today in Chicago.

1905 Birthdate of Cape Town native and pioneering anthropologist Isaac Schapera.


1906: Birthdate of Sadie Marks, the native of Seattle, Washington, who gained fame as Mary Livingston “the wife and radio partner of Jack Benny.”  (Nobody would have thought that this All-American looking couple were really the children of Jewish immigrants.)

1907: In Chicago members of Emanuel Congregation a reform temple founded in 1880, dedicated the cornerstone for their new facility on Buckingham Street near Halsted.

1909: Helen Rosenfield of Portland, Oregon who passed away in 1950 married Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise at the time was the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel He passed away in 1959

1909: Birthdate of political philosopher Valentin Feldman, the native of St. Petersburg who took refuge in France after the Russian Civil War only to perish at the hands of the Nazis during the Occupation.

1909: It was reported today that the Alfred Seligman is one of the three members of the Louisville, KY, Sewer Commission which is finally moving forward on the construction of a sewer system that had first been talked about 18 years ago.

1909: Birthdate of Berlin native Liselotte Herman, the mother of a four year old son whose husband Fritz died in Gestapo custody and who was guillotined at the age of 28 after having been convicted for opposing the Nazi regime. (She was not Jewish, but it is important to remember those who sacrificed to hold back the Night)

1909: Birthdate of Leo Hurwitz, the native of the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, brother of dancer Sophia Delza and psychoanalyst Marie Briehl  and Emmy and Peabody award winning documentary filmmaker who was blacklisted during the McCarthy period.

1910: It was reported today that sixteen Jews have been expelled in Kiev, twelve from Solomenka and eight from Demieffka.

1911: Birthdate of New York native Hannah Weinstein the television producer and political activist who worked in the campaigns of Fiorello La Guardia, Franklin Roosevelt and Henry Wallace


1912(8thof Tammuz, 5672):Polish immigrant Samuel Lapowski, the husband of Bertha Stenbock and the father of financier Clarence Dillon (Clarence Lapowski), the financier who is the “Dillon” in Dillon, Read and Company passed away today in San Francisco.

1913: “Rumanian Jews” published today reported that “a strong organization” has been formed in the United States, including “men of all parties and various forms of religious beliefs,” with “the immediate objective of which will be to secure action by the governments which are parties to the treaty of Berlin” to make the Romanian government comply with the agreement that requires Jews in Romania be treated as full citizens.

1914: Today is the last day to sign up for the sixth annual Tennis Tournament sponsored by the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

1914: Rabbi Joseph of Chicago’s Isaiah Tempe is scheduled to leave for Detroit where he will attend the Central Conference of American Rabbis and then go on to spend his vacation in Syracuse and Wisconsin

1914(23rdof Sivan, 5674): Forty-six year old Isidor Wormser, the son of the late Simon Wormser and the Uncle of the late Isidor Wormser passed away at his home in France today. He had retired from the banking business several years ago and moved abroad because of his ill health.

1914(23rdof Sivan, 5674): Isaac L. Mintz who moved from Russia to Charleston, SC before settling in New York in 1899 where he “engaged in the manufacture of clothing” passed away today.

1915: “Jewish Communal Workers Unite” published today described the organization of an upcoming “training school for Jewish communal workers” which “will enable those engaged in Jewish charitable labors to exchange in views.”

1915: “Rumors of a possible attack on the Georgia Prison Farm” at Milledgeville, GA, “where Leo M. Frank is confined, caused the management of the farm to increase the number of guards on both day and night duty.”

1915: “A committee of Atlanta Jews today made an appeal to Solicitor General Hugh Dorsey, who prosecuted Leo M. Frank, in behalf of their co-religionists at Marietta, where it was asserted that a movement had been initiated to drive the Jews from the city as a result of the feeling aroused by the action of Governor Slaton in commuting Frank’s death sentence.”

1915: Thirty-four of those arrested by police during the protests against Governor Slaton had hearings in Police Court where eight cases were dismissed and nominal fines were imposed in eleven of the cases including a fine levied of $15.75 imposed on “J.A. Bozeman, a policeman who said he would lead a crowd to the Governor’s home.”

1916: “At the request of President Adolph Kraus of the order of B’nai B’rith, a committee of the American League of Romanian Jews met in conference with him” today “at the Hotel Astor, to arrange for a national and international co-operative effort toward securing for the Jews in Romania equal civil, economic and political rights with the citizens of that country.”

1916: “The Executive Committee of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith decided” today “that the order could not participate in the projected Jewish congress in this country because as an international organization it could not in the spirit of its constitution commit the European membership to the action of an assemblage composed exclusively of American Jews.”

1916: The Executive Committee of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith elected Henry Morgenthau as a member at large and appropriated an additional $5,000 for the relief of Romanian Jews.

1917: As part of the Allied drive to dislodge the Turks from Palestine, a move supported by the Zionists, British aircraft bombed the railway station at Tulkarm, the airfield at Ramleh and the German military headquarters in Jerusalem, located in the August Victoria church and sanatorium on the summit of the Mount of Olives

1917: In Brooklyn, the United Dramatic Circle performed “The Marriage Broker” in Yiddish as a benefit for the Mother’s Club.

1917: Special Shabbat Morning Services will held in Baltimore, MD prior to the opening of the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Federation of Americans Zionists.

1917: In Brooklyn, the United Dramatic Circle performed “The Marriage Broker,” a Yiddish play “for the benefit of the Mother’s Club.”

1918: The twenty-first annual convention of the Federation of American Zionists opened today in Pittsburgh, PA with a pledge of “loyal support and unlimited aid of a united Jewry in the battle for democracy” delived by Julian W. Mack of Chicago.

1918: “Jew Has High Rank In British Army” published today traces the career of Sir John Monash, the Australian Jew who has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and given command of a British Army Corps.


1919: “A pogrom took place today at Skvria in which 45 Jews were massacred, many were severely wounded, and 35 Jewish women were raped by army insurgents. As Whites, Reds and Cossacks battled for control of Russia during the Russian Civil War a series of pogroms took place in and around Kiev known as the Kiev Pogroms.


1919: Birthdate of Nathan Cohen, the Brooklyn born son of a New York publicist who would gain fame as Lee Solters, “a foxy, flamboyant press agent who cranked up his raspy Brooklyn-accented voice to hyperbolize about Broadway, Hollywood and a raft of clients including Frank Sintra, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney and Wings, Led Zeppelin, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, the Muppets, Mae West and Michael Jackson. When he passed away in 2009, the New York Times would describe him as, “One of the last surviving links to a Runyonesque era when publicists would slip items to columnists at 1am over drinks at the landmark Manhattan bar Toots Shor's, Solters was a prominent press agent – or "flack", as the Americans call them – during the years when it was routine to "plant" items about stars in showbusiness columns by such gossip writers as Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. Over more than 40 years the gravel-voiced Solters handled more than 300 shows, including the Broadway musicals Annie, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady andCamelot, “major motion pictures including The Graduate and the hit television series, “Dallas.”

1919: After serving in the position for all of World War I, Sidney Sonnion completed almost five years of service as Italy’s Minister of Foreign Affairs.

1919: As the negotiations to conclude the Treaty of Versailles, Gustav Bauer, the head of the new German government gave in to the Allied ultimatum and sent a telegram confirming that “a German delegation would arrive to sign the treaty.”

1920: In “Want’s More Jewish History” a letter today “L. Sternberg” of Gainesville, FL expressed his appreciation for The American Hebrew’s fight against anti-Semitism while asking that the paper “give us some” more about “the Jewish ancient history” so we would not forget “our younger day’s teaching about the Jewish religion.

1920: Dr. Louis Gross officiated at the wedding of Miss Mildred B. Behrend, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Behrend and Bertrand Weiss who served as a Lieutenant in the Ordinance Department in the Navy and who was the son of New Yorkers Mr. and Mrs. Albert Weiss.

1921(17thof Sivan, 5681): “Communal worker” David Stanfield passed away today in South Africa.

1922: Prominent New York attorney, Republican political leader and civic benefactor Edward Lauterbach paid tribute to the late Louis Stern, the longtime President of Stern Brothers who passed away while vacationing in Europe. He described his friend of 40 years as “Genial, kind hearted, good humored and never making an enemy in all his life…” While Stern was active in numerous civic and Jewish charities Lauterbach thinks “that the greatest achievement of Louis Stern was what he did for the benefit of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” which he served as President for twenty years.

1923: In Dallas, TX, grocery store owners Harry and Chaya Ruchel Andres gave birth to “Dr. Reubin Andres, a gerontologist who advanced the study of diabetes but gained his widest attention for arguing controversially that weight gain in older people increases longevity.” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)

1925(1stof Tammuz, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1925: In “Hampstead, London, England,” “Céline (née Aronowitz) and Harry Samuels, a barrister, who specialized in industrial and trade union law gave birth to Miriam Samuels who gained gamed as English actress Miriam Karlin, a member of the “Anti-Nazi League” many of whose extended family members had been murdered at Auschwitz.

1925: In Houston, TX, Adolph and Marian (née Davidson) Blieden gave birth to Ivan Lawrence Blieden who gained fame as actor Larry Blyden.


1925: In Brooklyn George L. and Kitty Maizman Modell gave birth to Arthur Bertam Modell whom the world will remember as Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens.


1926: In Indianapolis, IN, Charles Fisher Kahn and Jennie Mack Kahn gave birth to Rosanne Kahn who became Rosanne (Susie) Berman which she married Robert Nathan Berman.


1926: The College Board administers the first SAT exam. “In 1926, Harvard and other Ivy League schools began using the SAT test to replace the admissions test on which urban Jews had performed well.” This was part of an overall attempt to limit Jewish attendance at these elite schools. “The SAT was grounded in the earlier Ellis Island and U.S. Army World War I tests in which Jews, among others, had performed poorly. That the poor performance was largely based on the lower literacy of the foreigners and their unfamiliarity with English and American terminology was not perceived to be the principal cause for the poor test performance. Here was a test that had provided evidence Jews did not perform well; its use might help bring about the desired results. Moreover, the fact that some of the SAT questions were developed and tested on Princeton freshman and Cooper Union students (all scholarship recipients), demonstrated that smart Gentiles did well on the tests. Ironically, as time passed and Jews became literate, absorbed American terminology, and learned how to take such tests, the outcomes completely reversed. But that was in the future and not anticipated when SAT testing began in 1926”.

1929: Birthdate of Simcha Dinitz “an Israeli statesman and politician” who “served as Director General of the Prime Minister's office and political advisor to Prime Minister Golda Meir from 1969–1973, before becoming the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 1973 to 1979.



1929: In Ozone Park, Queens, Dr. Edward Edelman and his wife, the former Anna Freedman gave birth to Gerald Maurice Edelman who won the 1972 Nobel Prize “for a breakthrough in immunology.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)



1929: Birthdate of Polish born Australian businessman Abraham “Abe” Goldberg who, in 1948 arrived in Australia where found the Linter Group and then became embroiled in financial scandal.


1930: Birthdate of Harvey Slom Ginsberg, the Bangor, Maine native “a New York book editor who served long tenures at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Harper & Row and William Morrow & Company, and whose most loyal writers included John Irving and Saul Bellow… His relationship with Mr. Bellow began at Harper & Row with Mr. Bellow’s book “The Dean’s December,” published in 1981. Mr. Ginsberg subsequently left Harper for Morrow, and for his next novel, “More Die of Heartbreak,” Mr. Bellow followed him. Mr. Ginsberg began his long partnership with Mr. Irving on the novel “The Cider House Rules,” published by Morrow in 1985, and he edited five other novels by Mr. Irving as well; they continued to work together through 2005 on a freelance basis even after Mr. Irving moved to another publishing house. His taste was high-minded, but he enjoyed a well-executed popular novel as well. In 1975 he edited “Black Sunday,” a first novel about a terror attack at the Super Bowl whose author, Thomas Harris, went on to write novels featuring the man/monster Hannibal Lecter”

1930(27thof Sivan, 5690): Sixty-six year old Professor of English Language and Literature at King’s College Sir Israel Gollancz, a founding member of the British Academy who served as its first secretary passed away today.


1930: Bantamweight Herman “Kid” Silvers (Herman Silverberg) fought his final bout, a defeat that left him with a lifetime record of 16 win, 15 losses and 4 draws.

1930(27th of Sivan, 5690): Seventy year old Maurice Harris, who served as the Rabbi at Temple Israel for 48 years passed away today at Mt. Sinai Hospital (JTA)

1933: Historian Abram L. Sachar and his wife Thelma gave birth University of Pennsylvania trained psychiatrist. (As reported by Walter H. Waggoner)


1933: Twenty seven year old Harvard trained physician Henry Jacob Bakst, the Providence, RI born son of Adolph and Sophie Bask married Ruth Elene Miller, the mother of David Allan Bakst, the dean of the School of Medicine at Boston University.

1934: “Art Trouble” starring Shemp Howard (one of the original 3 Stooges) was released in the United States today

1935: Birthdate of gold medal winning Hungarian water polo player György Kárpáti

1936: Samuel Untermeyer was among the delegates who attended the opening of the National Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA.

1936: “As the Arab anti-Jewish campaign continued” “a passenger on a Jewish owned bus was killed and three others were wounded today by rifle fire near Rosh Pinah.”

1936: In Cape May, NJ, Dr. Felix A. Levy of Chicago attacked fascism and communism at the opening session of the 47th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis of America which was attended by “more than 200 rabbis from all parts of the country.”

1936: In Bucharest, as “rioting by reactionary students’ organizations” continued tonight the windows of Jewish lawyers and doctors were smashed after which many of the offices were plundered.

1937: George Gershwin was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital In Los Angeles for observation after a series of health problems including headaches and mood swings.

1937: Radio station WJZ in New York broadcast “Easy Aces” at 7 pm.

1937: “Bans Shakespeare Play” published today described the successful fight led by Maurice Tobin to ban the “reading of ‘Merchant of Venice’ in Boston Schools as result of complaints that the character of ‘Shylock’ was offensive to the Jewish race..”

1937: Birthdate of real estate developer John E. Zucotti, the husband Susan Sessions Zucotti  the American historians whose studies and books about the Holocaust won her a National Jewish Book Award for Holocuast Studies whose works included Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy and Pere Marie-Benoit and Jewish Rescue.

1938: Four persons were killed and at least a dozen seriously wounded in a series of shootings in Jaffa today. With heavy police reinforcements, scores were beaten by police clubs. Many bystanders were roughly handled by crowds. Residents of Jaffa’s Jewish quarter fled out of fear most of them heading for near-by Tel Aviv.

1938: In explaining her motivation to become a rabbi, Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained said today. ““If I confess what motivated me, a woman, to become a rabbi, two things come to mind. My belief in God’s calling and my love of humans. God planted in our heart skills and a vocation without asking about gender. Therefore, it is the duty of men and women alike to work and create according to the skills given by God.”  (She would perform her duties in Theresienstadt before being murdered at Auschwitz Jewish Women’s Archive)

1938: In New York City, David and Sylvia P. (Saffran) Shestrack gave birth to Wesleyan University and Harvard trained museum curator Alan Shestrack, the husband of Nancy Jane Davidson


1938: “Three Jewish farmers from the Zichron Jacob mysteriously disappeared this afternoon.  It is believed they were kidnapped by armed Arabs and carried off to the hills.

1939(6thof Tammuz, 5699): Ninety year old Lean Biela passed away today in Charleston, SC.

1939(6thof Tammuz, 5699): Forty-seven year old British painter Mark Gertler passed away today after which he was buried at the Willesden Jewish Cemetery.







1939: Dutch Jewish diarist Esther "Etty" Hillesum took the first of her master’s exams in Dutch Law.

1939: Herman Goering, Hitler’s number 2, led a meeting of Reich Defense Council in which he told them to prepare for total war. Hitler planned to conscript seven million soldiers. This means production work is to be given to prisoners and inmates of prisons and concentration camps.

1939: U.S. premiere of “Daughters Courageous” directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Hal B. Wallis, with music by Max Steiner, a script co-authored by Philip and Julius Epstein and co-starring John Garfield.

1940: Today, Sunday, at 1:30 pm Margret and Hans Rey arrived in Lisbon.

1940: “The day after France signed the armistice that marked the country's official capitulation and partial occupation, Adolf Hitler toured Paris” footage of which “opens the earnest and unconventional French docudrama La Rafle the docudrama that “chronicles the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup of July 1942, in which roughly 13,000 Jews living in Paris (4,501 of them children) were removed from their homes by French police and sent to detention camps in the countryside, before being deported to Auschwitz.”

1941: 28th of Sivan, 5701): Avreml Vertilinksi, who as a youngster “worked in his father’s shoemaking shop” while becoming a contributor to the Grodner Moment  which published his prose and poetry “was killed by a Nazi bomb during the occupation of his home town of Grodneo

1941:  In the evening, German forces enter the village of Jedwabne, Poland

1941: The great yeshivot of Slobodka and Telz closed their doors the day after Germany invaded Lithuania.

1941: One day after the German invasion of Latvia, the Holocaust began in the Baltic Republic when Sonderkommando members murdered six Jews in the church cemetery in the town of Grobina, near Liepāja

1942(8th of Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-six year old Hugo H. Piesen, the Prague born son of Rosalia and Moritz Piesen, the husband of Annie Piesen and the father of Maurice, Robert and Stella Piesen  who was known for his involvement in the “philanthropic and civic affairs of Brooklyn, founding of Camp Sussex and service as the treasurer of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities.


 1942: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a trainload of Jews from Paris.

1942:  A German convoy deported Jews from Morocco to the death camps of Europe.

1943: Ukrainian police surround a Jewish school at Czortków, Ukraine, where 534 Jewish slave laborers are housed. The camp commandant, Thomanek, shoots several prisoners and orders others carted off for execution. In The Holocaust, Martin Gilbert describes how a local gentile, Jan Nakonieczmy, risked his life to hide five Jews in his tiny henhouse. “The henhouse was only two feet high, four feet wide, and thirteen feet long.  The five Jews were Henryk Sperber, his mother, his sister, his fiancée and his cousin.  All five survived the war.  So did their savior.”

1943: In Czortkow; Ukrainian police began an "action" that would destroy the remaining Jewish population of about 600 people.

1943: By this date 50,000 Jews had been deported from France. The slow pace was not to the satisfaction of the Nazis.

1943: Eighteen year old Henri Krasucki “was deported from Drancy to Jawischowitz, a sub-camp of Auschwitz, and then to Buchenwald.

1943: Birthdate of James Levine, conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. Levine was born into a musical family; his maternal grandfather was a cantor and his father was a violinist.


1944: Chaim Barlas, an agent of the Jewish Agency working in Istanbul received a copy of a 30 page report known as the ‘Auschwitz Protocols’ complied by two Jews who escaped from the camp that April.  The report made it clear that the camp was a killing ground for the Jews of Europe.

1944: Operations resume at the Chelmno death camp.

1944: The Allies learn that more than 430,000 Hungarian Jews have been deported to Auschwitz and murdered since May. There are about 300,000 Jews left alive in Hungary.

1944: A Red Cross delegation visits the camp/ghetto at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, and is apparently fooled by the camp's superficially benign atmosphere. However, the Red Cross almost simultaneously sends an official protest to Hungary about deportations of Hungarian Jews.

1944: Under the direction of Raphael “Raifi” Schacter,Theresienstadt inmates performed Verdi’s Requiem Mass, its final performance today

1944: After intensive search through the Lodz Ghetto for Jews, deportation began and did not end until July 14. Jews were shipped out at the rate of 3,000 a week for three weeks. They were told that they on their way to work as laborers in Berlin or outside of Leipzig. Actually the Jews were shipped to Chelmo where they would all perish once inside the camp.

1944: The Red Cross visited the Theresienstadt ghetto during which a picture was taken of the children.


1945(12thof Tammuz, 5705): Parashat Chukat-Balak

1945: “An exhibit of Hebrew books printed in Palestine has been opened at the Jewish Institute of Religion Library” which “included numerous books of Jewish research and Hebrew translations of such classic writers as Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Shakespeare and Heine.”

1946: Twenty-seven year old University of Michigan grad and WW II Navy veteran Sidney Davidson the Chicago born son of Mendel and Eva Slosberg Davidson, married Freda Joy Sendler.

1947: Forty-four year old Hans Biebow, “the German Nazi chief of administration of the Lodz Ghetto was executed by hanging today.

1948: The Central Conference of American Rabbis continued to meet today in Kansas City, MO where delegates had heard Dr. Abraham J. Feldman’s plea for the end of the political controversy over Zionism among Jews.

1949: The convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to begin today in Brenton Woods, N.H.

1949: “Israel reacted coolly…to the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission’s report that criticized her attitude toward the Arab refugees” in part according to such newspaper as Hador because of the flawed tactics used by the commission

1950(8thof Tammuz, 5710): Ninety year old Samuel S. Fels, the Yanceyville, NC born son of Bavarian natives Lazarus and Susannah Fels, the Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist, the brother of Joseph Fels whose company produced Fels-Naptha passed away today.


1952(30th of Sivan, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1952: In New York Philip Alexander Kaplan and Phyllis Quasha gave birth to American journalist Robert David Kaplan.




1952: In a letter to the New York Times, Lessing J. Rosenwald, President of the American Council of Judaism, an anti-Zionist organization reiterated the group’s disagreement with the Israeli government’s new policy concerning citizenships, declaring that nationality and religion are two different issues.

1953: Birthdate of Betzalel "Tzali" Reshef a Sabra who served as Labor MK in the first decade of the 21st century.

1953: In Los Angeles, Holocaust survivors Jack and Bluma Samuels gave birth to Lilly Samuels the philanthropist and cancer fighter who is the widow of Brandon Tartikoff and became Lily Tartikoff Karatz when she married Bruce Karatz in 2009.

1954: Tax lawyer Martin D. Ginsburg married Ruth Bader, who gained fame as Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

1956: Gamal Abdel Nasser is elected President of the Republic of Egypt in a landslide in which 99.95 percent of the voters mark their ballots for him. A secular pan-Arabist who was the ringleader of the “Colonel’s Revolution” Nasser reportedly claimed that he did not hate the West because of Israel but hated Israel because it was of the West.

1959(17thof Sivan, 5719): Seventy-nine year old San Luis Obispo, CA, native Rebecca Cerf, the University of California Graduate, WW I veteran of the Army Medical Corps and the sister of “San Francisco Superior Judge Marcel E. Cerf, Stockton rancher Cedric E. Cerf and Reed College Professor Barry Cerf” who was “a member of the Women’s Overseas Service League” died today when fire burned down the Stalheim Hotel in Norway.

1959: Sixty-five year old Mrs. Sidney S. Kahn of San Francisco survived today’s fire at Norwegian resort hotel.

1960: Premiere of “Bells Are Ringing,” a musical comedy co-starring Judy Holiday, produced by Arthur Freed, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green with a score by Jule Styne.

1961: Birthdate of author David Leavitt, a professor at the University of Florida whose works include the short-story collection Family Dancing which was the finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.

1962(21stof Sivan, 5722): Parashat Beha’alotcha

1962(21stof Sivan 5722): Sixty-two year old New Jersey born, Princeton educated and WW I veteran Berry Pink, known as the “Marble King” because his company Barry Pink Industries manufactured billions of the little glass balls which had been his childhood passion, passed away today after suffering a heart attack.


1962(21stof Sivan, 5722): Fifty-eight year old movie producer and writer Harvey Bernhard, the son of Moe Bernhard and the former Rose Minnie Cohn passed away today.


1962: “Palisades Park” a pop song written by Chuck Barris reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 today.

1964(13thof Tammuz, 5724): Sixty-four year old Mrs. Bertha Heller Topefer, “a fond of the Jewish Memorial Hospital in New York” and “one of the first members of Hadassah” who was married to Solomon Toepfer with whom she had one daughter and two sons, passed away today.


1965: U.S. premiere of “Harlow” the cinematic treatment of Irving Shulman’s Harlow: An Intimate Biography produced by Joseph E. Levine, filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg and starring Carroll Baker and Red Buttons.

1967(15thof Nisan, 5727): Seventy-three year old “Romanian born American businessman, Benjamin Abrams, a “founder of Emerson Radio and Phonography Corporation” and the Jewish communal leader who “was a founder of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Greater New York Committee for State of Israel Bonds” passed away today.




1967: Five thousand Muslims prayed on the Haram, including a thousand Israeli Muslims who had been denied access during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule.

1969: “Stereo” a Canadian movie directed, produced written by, filmed by and edited by David Cronenberg was released in Canada today.

1972: In Southfield, Michigan, Judge Molly Ann (née Cooke) and Elliot I. Beitner gave birth to Selma Blair Beitner who gained fame as actress Selma Blair.

1973(23rdof Sivan, 5733): Parashat Sh’lach

1973(23rdof Sivan, 5733): Seventy-nine year old Alexander Sachs the Russian born Harvard and Columbia trained economist who is credited with being the first person to interest FDR in the “possibilities of the atomic bomb” passed away today.


1974: “The Groove Tube,” a comedy produced and directed by Ken Shapiro who also co-authored the screenplay and co-starred along with Richard Belzer was released in New York City today.

1974: “Thirty-four years Soviet Jews including Vitali Rubin and Mikhail Agursky appealed to US Senators Jackson, Javits and Ribicoff in connection with intensification of repressions and urged them to obtain firm Soviet guarantees on emigration before passing a trade bill.”

1975(14thof Tammuz, 5735): Seventy-six year old Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk, the University of Chicago professor and expert on French history passed away today.


1976: “Murder by Death,” Neil Simon’s parody of murder mysteries  was released today in the United States.

1976: “The Big Bus” featuring Harold Gould as “Professor Baxter” and Stuart Margolin as “Alex” with music by David Shire was released today in the United States.

1977: In “A New Israel” published today Bernard Avishai examined the outcome of last month’s election when Likud won a “stunning victory” over the Laborites who were awash in a series of seemingly criminal scandals starting with Prime Minister Rabin’s currency violations.


1978: It was reported today that after Rabbi Leib Pinter has been sentenced to two years in federal prison and fined seventeen thousand dollars for having bribed Congressman Dan Flood “to obtain favorable treat for the social service programs of the B’nai Torah Institute” the judge “imposed a special sentence of zero to six years on Victory Mayer, one of Rabbi Pinter’s former students.”

1979: Jacques Derrida “recounts his first meeting with Avital Ronell in a letter bearing today’s date “from The Post Card: From Socrates to Freud and Beyond.”

1981: Robert Badinter began serving as French Minister of Justice.

1981: The U.S. Maccabiah Basketball Teams is scheduled to play an exhibition game tonight at Queen College in Flushing, NY against the European Championship Maccabi Tel Aviv Quintet, a month before the opening of the 11thMaccabiad in Israel.

1982(2ndof Tammuz, 5742): Sixty-five year old labor activist Nathan Peskin, “the executive direct at the Workmen’s Circle” passed away today at Long Beach, NY


1986(16th of Sivan, 5746): Seventy-four year old classical scholar Sir Moses I. Finley, author of The Ancient Economy, passed away. Born Moses Israel Finkelstein in New York City he graduated from Syracuse and Columbia before taking the name of Finley in 1936.  After teaching at Columbia and City College he was fired by Rutgers when he “took the 5th” when called by Senator McCarthy’s red hunting committee.  He and his wife Mary moved to Great Britain where he pursued his career, another casualty of the Right Wing Red Witch Hunt. (As reported by Edwin McDowell)



1987: In Palm Springs, CA, funeral services were held today for 79 year old Phil Weintraub, the Chicago born baseball player and husband of Jeanne Weintraub, who compiled a .295 batting average while playing first base and the outfield for “the New York Giants, Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies.”

1989: “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” starring Rick Moranis, a product of the Canadian Jewish community, premiered today.

1989: In the UK, premiere of “The Tall Guy,” a comedy starring Jeff Goldblum.

1991: Tony Randall and Jack Klugman starred in a Broadway Performance of "The Odd Couple." Two Jewish actors took their television roles of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison back to the New York stage from which these roles had sprung. The author of this All- American hit was another Jew named Neil Simon.

1992:Maxine Frank Singer, a leading biochemistry researcher and advocate of science education, was awarded the National Medal of Science

1992: Yitzhak Rabin won the Israeli parliamentary elections and became Prime Minister for the second time. 

1992: Retired IDF General Avigdor Kahalani began serving as Labour Party MK.

1994(14th of Tammuz, 5754): Sixty year old Irish journalist Stanley Gebler Davis passed away today.


1994: In Los Angeles premiere of “Forest Fump” produced by Wendy Finerman and Steve Tisch, with a screenplay by Eric Roth.

1995: “Pocahontas” an animated film based on the life of native-American “princess” co-directed by Eric Goldberg, with music by Alan Menken was released today in the United States.

1995(27th of Sivan, 5755): Eighty-year old Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the first Polio Vaccine passed away.  Another Jew, Dr. Sabine, invented the second Polio Vaccine. This is but one of the many contributions that the American Jewish Community should be celebrating and sharing with our countrymen during the 350th Anniversary of the Jewish Community in the United States.(As reported by Harold M. Schmeck, Jr.)


1997: Anna Halprin received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in modern dance.


2000: “Israeli warplanes flew over Beirut, violating Lebanese airspace for the first time since Israel pledged to respect its neighbor's sovereignty and ended a 22-year occupation of the south.”

2000: “A prosecution official has backed defense assertions that none of the 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel will be sentenced to death.”

2000: “Former Chancellor Helmut Kohl was accused of trivializing the Nazi persecution of the Jews after he invoked it to describe his treatment by the ruling Social Democratic government.”

2001: British statistician Claus Adolf Moser “was made a Life peer with the title Baron Moser, of Regent's Park in the London Borough of Camden” today.

2001:  The Dubnow Institute hosted an international conference on “Restitution and Memory” came to an end today in Vienna.

2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz

2002(13rd Tammuz, 5762); Eighty-two year old South-African architect and opponent of apartheid Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein passed away.


2003: “The Supreme Court today struck down a California law designed to help Holocaust survivors receive payment on insurance policies that European companies have long denied, saying that the law improperly interfered with United States foreign policy. (As reported by Joseph B. Treaster)

2005(16th of Sivan, 5765): Eighty-two year old violinist Isadore Cohen passed away today.


2005(16th of Sivan, 5765): Seventy-nine year old ground-breaking print journalist Shana Alexander who was best known for part in the “Point-Counter Point” segment on “Sixty Minutes” passed away today.



2005(16th of Sivan, 5765): Prof. Nahum M. Sarna, z"l passed away.


2005: A roundabout in the 20th arrondissement of Paris was given the name “Place Henri Krasucki” in honor of Henri Krasucki, the trade unionist who was gassed at Auschwitz.


2006: Shlomo Mola became the first Ethiopian to be chosen as a top executive of World Zionist Organization. 

2006: According to a report published in a scientific journal, ancient beads that may represent the oldest attempt by people at self-decoration have been identified from sites in Israel and Algeria,
The beads, made from shells with holes bored into them, date to around 100,000 years ago, some 25,000 years older than similar beads discovered two years ago in South Africa, researchers report in the journal Science. The new find involves just three shells, two from Skhul in northern Israel, which the researchers said were about 100,000 years old and one from Oued Djebbana, Algeria, estimated to be 90,000 years old. The researchers said the shells were found many miles from the sea, indicating they were brought to those locations deliberately, most likely for bead-working.

2006: Avraham Hirchson was quoted by Haaretzin today’s edition saying, "There are people who are trying to harm me and my family, by means of pressure and threats ... Detectives are following me, with the aim of harming me. This will not work with me; even if the threats intensify, I will continue to promote the reforms that are so important for the people of Israel."

2006(27th of Sivan, 5766: Eighty-three year old Television producer Aaron Spelling passes away. (As reported by Bill Carter)


2006: Donald Lewis Kohn “began serving his four year term as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

2007: In Cedar Rapids, Miriam Maikon becomes a Bat Mitzvah, at Temple Judah.

2007: The Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow opens. The city's historic Jewish quarter (called Kazimierz) fills with music, art, dance, lectures and exhibits - all celebrating the 900-year history of Jews in Poland.

2007:Pangs of The Messiah” has its English Language World Premiere at Theatre J in Washington, D.C.

2008: In Washington, D.C., Alan Furst reads from and signs his new espionage thriller, The Spies of Warsaw, at Politics and Prose Bookstore

2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at Temple Judah, a memorial service for Penny Binger, a sweet soul who loved Chasidic stories and was a self-styled “Shlomo Charlebach Groupie.”

2008: Overnight, Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip fired a mortar shell into Israel – the first breach of the cease fire since it went into effect five days ago.

2008: Time magazine reviews “Apples and Oranges” by Marie Brenner

2009: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 1st day of Tammuz, 5769

2009:Israel released the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council from prison today, ending the three-year incarceration of Aziz al-Dweik, considered a moderate Hamas leader in the West Bank

2009:A bankruptcy trustee recommended today that SHF Industries be allowed to buy most of the assets of Agriprocessors for $8.5 million, in addition to funds already committed to buy up about $21 million in debt owed two of Agriprocessors’ largest creditors. SHF is led by Heshey Friedman, the president of Montreal-based Polystar Plastics, which manufactures packaging for poultry and other meats. Friedman has two other partners in the venture, Daniel Hirsch and Mitch Kirschner.

2010:The Yellow Submarine is scheduled to present Hatsai Tzvaim Hatsai Kolot: Israeli poet Rachel's poetry set to music, and The Naomi Ensemble: a tribute to Naomi Shemer - a tribute to two of Israel's finest poets.

2010: In France, premiere of “The Chameleon” starring Ellen Barkin as “Kimberly Miller.”

2010: Donald Kohn completed his four year term as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Syste,

2010:Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present "Tel Aviv-New York -- Authentic jazz with a touch of the Mediterranean"

2010: A conference organized by the Humphrey Institute for Social Research at Ben- Gurion University meeting today  dealt with “the political, social and cultural role of diasporas and their links with their countries of origin or, in the case of second and third generation diaspora children, the home countries of their parents and grandparents.”

2011:Sheriff David Clarke will speak on "Security and Spirituality: Reflections on My Mission to Israel" at meeting sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

2011: A lively presentation featuring Naama Shefi of the Consulate General of Israel entitled A Food Lover's Tour of Israel” scheduled to be held at the  92nd St Y will give attendees a chance to “discover what cutting-edge Israeli chefs are creating in Israel and learn the history of dozens of the country's most famous dishes.”

2011:There are widening gaps between poor and middle class citizens in Israel in the rate of incidences of chronic disease, a report published today revealed..

2011: The failure of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to retaliate in the Gaza Strip for rocket fire after disengagement – as he promised – was one of the major mistakes made after the 2005 pullout, Dan Kurtzer, who was the US envoy to Israel at the time, suggested today.

2011: The Israeli Presidential Conference came to an end.

2011(21stof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-eight year old composer and conductor Fred Steiner the creator of theme music for such shows as 'Gunsmoke,''The Twilight Zone,''Star Trek,''Have Gun, Will Travel,''Rawhide,''Hogan's Heroes,''The Bullwinkle Show' and other TV series passed away today. (As reported by Randy Lewis)


2011(21stof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-three year old Peter Falk, who became synonymous with Colombo, the rumpled raincoat wearing detective who always had one more question, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2011(21stof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-four year old Gene Colan one of the leading comic-book artists of the 20th century passed away. (As reported by Margalit Fox)


2012(3rdof Tammuz, 5772): 18th Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory simply known as The Rebbe.  This blog cannot do justice to his impact on Judaism or the lives of individual Jews. One does not have to be a Lubavitcher to have been impacted by the Rebbe or his corps of “Lamplighters” such as Rabbi PInchas Ciment, who brought the light of Chassidus and Judaism to some very dark places.

2012: “Hungry Kite,” the creation of Choreographer Deganit Shemy is scheduled to perform for the last time at the Chocolate Factory at Long Island City.

2012:Kulanu Toronto and Congregation Shir Libeynu are scheduled hold a pre-Pride Karaoke Night after Shabbat.

2012:Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is scheduled to discuss “Serving Man and God in the Twilight Zone: Reflections on Judaism and Western Thought,”www.torahinmotion.org

2012:Social activist Daphni Leef was treated today for injuries sustained during clashes with police that took place during a demonstration on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard yesterday. Her arm was placed in a cast. Leef and 11 others were arrested in what was widely described as a violent sweep of crowd control.(As reported by Yoel Goldman)


2012: Gaza-based terrorists fired 25 rockets into southern Israel today, causing damage to a school and factory.

2013: The Israeli Squad is schedule to compete in the Cosmos Copa for the first time ever when it plays a double header against Italy and the Netherlands at Randalls Island.


2013: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas by Eric Fischl and Michael Stone and Debtor’s Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility by Robert Kuttner

 2013: The Spertus Institute is scheduled to host a lecture by Daniel Belasco entitled “Jewish Graphic Design from the Talmud to Today.”

2013: The Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, currently under house arrest on suspicion of financial crimes, announced today that he was suspending himself from his official duties.


2013:A Jerusalem court today ordered the release of a Jewish youth who had been arrested on charges of praying on the Temple Mount. The youth was also cleared of charges that he attacked an Arab during his visit to the Mount. (As reported by David Lev)

2013: Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired three rockets into southern Israel tonight.The rockets landed in open areas in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council and near the city of Netivot. There were no physical injuries or damages. (As reported by Elad Benari)

2014: The UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host its Celebration of Film Dinner.

2014: “The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at Portland, Oregon, Jewish Film Festival.

2014: An Evening with Paul Robeson: A Recital in Homage to the Great Singer and Humanitarian” is scheduled to be presented this evening in the Rubenstein Pavilion of the Jewish Home and Care Center, in Milwaukee, WI.

2014: “The Israeli Air Force struck several targets belonging to Assad’s forces on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights overnight, Israeli media reported early this morning.”

2014: Ziad Awad “a Hamas operative released under the 2011 exchange for Gilad Shalit and his son Izz Eddin Hassan Ziad Awad were indicited today for gunning down Baruch Mizrahi near Hebron on Passover eve. The father was the shoot while the son facilitated th getaway. (As reported by Marissa Newman)

2014: Rabbi Haim Korsia was elected Chief Rabbi of France.

2014: “Ewan McGregor signed on to play the lead role of Seymour "Swede" Levov, a former high school star athlete and successful Jewish American businessman” in the movie version of Philip Roth’s novel American Pastoral

2014: “The tires of three cars were found punctured, and four others deflated, in a suspected racist tag attack in an Israeli-Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood today.”

2014: J Street released a statement today saying that the Presbyterian Church vote in favor of divestment “would not be helpful to the cause of peace.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2015(6th of Tammuz, 5775): Ninety-three year old Harvey Pollack who began compiling NBA statistics since 1946 passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein



2015: In Paris, the prosecution is expected to rest its case against 15 “members of the terrorist group Forsane Alizza “who planned attacks on French Jews” and targets that included “five Jewish supermarkets of the Hyper Cacher chain “

2015: “An anti-missile "color red" siren was sounded after 10 p.m. tonight in the Hof Ashkelon regional council area, a region that frequently has been a target of Hamas rockets from Gaza.”

2015: The 17th International Research Conference of the Latin American Jewish Studies Association is scheduled to come to an end.

2015: The Center for Jewish For Jewish History is scheduled to host a lecture by Joseph Berger, author of The Pious Ones: The World of Hasidim and Their Battles With America.

2015: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to host “Changing Lives, Making History: CBST - The First Forty Years – CBST’s 40th Anniversary Book.”

2016(17th of Tammuz, 5776): Parahat Balak

2016(17th of Tammuz, 5776): Eighty-five year old Jerome Fisher, whose company at one time supplied “one out of every five pairs of shoes” that American women buy passed away today. (As reported by David E. Slotnik)


2016(17th of Tammuz, 5776): Seventy-one year old Harold “Heshy” Jacob passed away today.


2016: Jewish Historical Society Program and Outreach Manager Samantha Abramson is scheduled to explore “Jewish life and key personalities during the Civil War and changes the war brought for the newly expanded Jewish community of Washington, D.C.” in a lecture this evening.

2016: “Rabin In His Own Words” is scheduled to be shown at the 13 annual Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.

2016: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host an opening night reception in honor of David Serero’s performance of “Othello.”

2016: In the ongoing drive to make Orthodox Judaism the state religion of Israel, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a “hearing the right immerse in state ritual baths according to one’s own custom, as was enshrined in a list of unenforced guidelines distributed by the Religious Affairs Ministry two years ago.” (As reported by Amanda Borshcel-Dan)

2016: “The Kindergarten Teacher” is scheduled to be shown at the 24th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2017: “Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai today warned that backtracking on the government-approved plan to establish a pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Western Wall would result in a rift with US Jewry.”

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Kabbalat Shabbat followed by a Sabbath Dinner for anybody still around in 9thweek.

2017: Premiere screenings in Berkley and Sebastopol, CA of “The Women’s Balcony,” the “number one film of the year in Israel.

2017: “Letters From Baghdad,” a documentary that tells the “true story of Gertrude Bell and Iraq” is scheduled to open today at theatres in Palo Alto, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Chicago and Philadelphia.  (Editor’s note – if you do not who Gertrude Bell is, then you should find out if you want to understand how the so-called modern Middle East came to be)

2018: The 48th Convention of the Society for American Baseball Research featuring a presentation by Lee Lowenfish, author of Branch Rickey: Baseball’s Ferocious Gentleman is scheduled to continue meeting in Pittsburgh, PA.

2018: Naomi Firestone-Teeter, the Jewish Book Council's executive director recommend spending Shabbat reading Memento Park by Mark Savaras and A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen

2018: In Des Moines, IA, The Varsity Theatre is scheduled to host a screening of “A Bag of Marbles” a screen version of “the 1973 autobiographical best-seller” that “tells the story of the Nazi occupation of Paris through the eyes of two young Jewish boys.”

2018: Yedidya Lau, “the rabbi of the town of Alon” is scheduled to teach at “the Weekly Parsha Club” hosted by the Menachim Begin Center.

2018: As Israeli’s seek to enjoy Shabbat filled with shalom despite the attacks from terrorists, they are protected by Iron Dome and the newly installed “Sky Spotter system, which is being used to track fire kites and balloons launched into Israel from Gaza”

2018(10th of Tammuz, 5778): Parashat Chukkat;

2019: “Uptown Jewish Film 2019,” “a one day film event held in Columbia University’s Campbell Center is scheduled to begin at noon today.

2019: The Jewish Genealogical Society of NY and Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute is scheduled to present genealogist and JewishGen.org Vice President for Education Phyllis Kramer who will cover in depth all types of records generated when a person dies, including death certificates; newspaper obituaries and death notices; gravestones; landsmanshaftn, undertakers, medical, Social Security, and probate records.

2019: In Georgia, the Marietta Museum is scheduled to host “a special lecture on the Leo Frank case by legal expert Van Pearlberg.

2019: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel by Julie Satow, War and Peace: FDR’s Final Odyssey, D-Day to Yalta, 1943-1945 by Nigel Hamilton, Strangers and Cousins by Leah Hager Cohen, Children of the Ghetto: My Name Is Adam by Elias Khoury and the recently paperback edition of The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett as well as “Herman Wouk Wrote Historical Novels, But His True Subject Was Moral Weakness,” Adelle Waldman’s evaluation of the later authors work.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/17/books/review/herman-wouk-winds-of-war-war-and-remembrance.html?ref=headline&nl_art=&te=1&nl=book-review&emc=edit_bk_201906212020(1stof Tammuz, 5780): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz;


2020: The Room Where It Happened, John Bolton’s memoir about his time working as a security advisor for President Trump that includes the revelation that “President Trump gave Prime Minister Netanyahu the green light to attack Iran” is scheduled to go on sale today.


2020: Lynn Melnick is the author of the poetry collections Refusenik, Landscape with Sex and Violence, and If I Should Say I Have Hope, and the co-editor of Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets for the Next Generation is scheduled to present a virtual poetry workshop that looks at the “construction and techniques used in writing “The New Colossus.”

2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host the award-winning podcast “Making Gay History” with Eric Marcus.

2020: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and the American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present: “Sephardic Art Song::A Musical Legacy of the Sephardic Diaspora” by mezzo-soprano and music scholar Lori Şen

2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “From Selma to Montgomery: The Black-Jewish Coalition.”

2020: Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host “History Is Now: Share Your Story.

2020: Jewish Currents is scheduled to host a livestreamed discussion of Joe Biden’s approach to foreign policy, and in particular how it will affect Israel/Palestine.

2020: On Facebook, an expert librarian from the Genealogy Institute at the Center for Jewish History.is scheduled to present a weekly short talk on a genealogy topic











This Day, June 24, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 24

586 BCE (9th of Tammuz, 3174): King Nebuchadnezzar’s army broke through the walls of Jerusalem and entered the City of David.

1182: Phillip II, the seventeen year old French monarch “decreed the total expulsion of Jews from all royal possessions within two months. This was due in part to debts owed to Jewish moneylenders. The debtors were exempted from all payment to the Jews but had to pay a tax of 20% of their debt to the Treasury. This only served to force those Jews who were considered an asset into other French provinces not directly under the King's control. The Synagogue in Paris was converted into the Church of St. Madeleine, while the one in Orleans was changed into the Chapel of St. Sauveur. This expulsion - with the confiscation of land and property - was a strong factor in Jews leaving agriculture as a profession in favor of moveable property and trade.” (As reported by Eli Birnbaum)

1190: Philip II Augustus of France and Richard the Lionheart of England break camp at Vezelay and head off for the Holy Land, officially launching the Third Crusade. Phillip was openly anti-Semitic.  Richard was protective of his Jewish subjects.  His absence during the Crusade left them to “the tender mercies” of Prince John and the local Anglo anti-Semites.  And of course, as always, the Jews suffered wherever the Crusading Christians marched.

1241: Ivan Asen II, the Czar of Bulgaria also known as John Asen II who in 1230 “defeated Theodore Ducas Angelus of Epirus and after which threw two Jews off of a cliff for refusing to put out his eyes passed away today.

1298: Massacre of the Jews of Ifhauben, Austria.

1322: Charles IV of France expelled all the Jews from France without the promised one year's warning. This marked the second expulsion of the Jews from France.

1339: A party commissioned by Pope Benedict XII to go to China that included Giovanni de' Marignolli left Constantinople and sailed across the Black Sea to Caffa. In 1342, following his arrival in China, Marginollia told of having engaged "in glorious disputations" in Beijing with both Muslims and Jews. This was one several reports of Jews living in China during the 14thcentury. These included Andrew of Perugia’s  complaint in 1326 that “the Jews of Quanzhou obdurately refused to accede to his pleas that they undergo baptism” and  the Muslim traveler ibn Battuta description of entering Hangzhou in 1346 “through a gate called the Jews’ Gate and statement that among the inhabitants of the city there were “Jews, Christians and sun-worshipping Turks.”

1386: Birthdate John of Capistrano, a Franciscan friar who played a key role in having forty Jews burned at the stake in Breslau and sought to have King of Poland abolish the special privileges accorded to his Jewish subjects.

1441: King Henry VI founded Eton College.  While there were no Jews in the Eton’s first class (there were no Jews living in England, King Henry would be surprised to find out that by 2009 Mr. Jonathan Paull was Head of Jewish studies at Eton and that Jewish students were putting on tefillin under the guidance of local Chabad representatives.

1509:  Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon crowned King and Queen of England. There were no Jews living in England at this time.  Henry’s father (Henry VII) had promised Catherine’s parents (the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella) that Jews would never be allowed the realm of the English monarchs.  Thanks to the turmoil that Henry would create when he went to shed Catherine as his Queen and royal mate, small numbers of Marranos and crypto-Jews would be living in England by the end of the century.

1519: In Burgundy, “Pierre de Beze, royal governor of Vézelay” and Marie Bourdelot gave birth to French Protestant theologian Theodore Beza, the successor to John Calvin at Geneva and who like Luther was a believer “that Christian churches were largely responsible for the current unbelief among the Jews and “that there would a large-scale conversion of the Jews” while still acknowledging “the Justice of divine anger the Jewish people”

1648: In Tulczyn, Poland, an agreement between the 2000 Jews and 600 Christians to defend the town at all costs succeeded in preventing the Cossacks from capturing the town. The Cossacks persuaded the Christians that they would let them go free if they would give them the Jews. The (furious) Jews were persuaded by the Rabbi that if they took revenge on the Poles other Jews would suffer. The gates were opened and most of the Jews killed. The Cossacks then turned on the Poles and killed most of them as well. For the most part, during the entire war the Poles and the Jews were uneasy allies against the Cossacks.

1692: Founding of Kingston, Jamaica. By now, Jamaica was an English colony and Jews can only practice their religion as opposed to their secret observance that had been the norm during the Spanish rule. There were enough Jews living in Kingston that synagogues were reportedly opened in 1744 and 1787.

1699: A committee that had been formed to find a larger place for the growing Congregation of Spanish and Portuguese Jews “leased from Lady Ann Pointz (alias Littleton) and Sir Thomas Pointz (alias Littleton) a tract of land at Plough Yard, in Bevis Marks, for 61 years, with the option of renewal for a further 38 years, at £120 a year.” This would be the location for the famed Bevis Marks Synagogue which was more than a house of worship.  It was the center the center of the Anglo Jewish world when that world encompassed the British Empire.

1702: In Great Britain an “Act to oblige Jews to maintain and provide for their Protestant children” took effect. This act of Parliament grew out of case involving Jacob de Mendez Berta and his daughter Mary who became a Protestant.  According to one source, the father refused to continue to support his daughter after she converted and her newly adopted Protestant community did not want to shoulder the burden of her support.  Hence, this legislation was adopted and would stay in effect until the middle of the 19thcentury.

1725: Over the next 12 months, starting from today, 26 of the entries for shipments from the port of New York involved Jewish merchants.  This was 6.7% of the total.  Of these entries, 6 were credited to Moses Levy, one of the colony’s leading merchants.

1763: Nathan Raphael and his wife gave birth to Raphael Raphael, the husband of Julia Asher with whom he had nine children.

1781(1st of Tammuz, 5541): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1781: George Washington wrote to Comte de Rochambeau as plans are made to move South and engage the British in Viriginia.

1785: In Savannah, GA, Jacob de Pass and his wife gave birth to Ralph de Pass.

1785: In Savannah, GA, Jacob de Pass and his first wife Leah gave birth to their daughter Sally.

1761(14th of Sivan): Moses Brandeis Charif the chief rabbi of Mayence and cabalist who was the son of Jacob Brandeis passed away

1793: As France continues to be embroiled in a Revolution that among other things removed the restrictions against the Jews of that country, the National Convention adopted that country’s first “republican constitution.

1794: Bowdoin College was founded in Brunswick, Maine. Today about ten percent of Bowdoin’s 1,650 students are Jewish. The school has ten Jewish Studies courses and a Hillel Chapter.

1803: In London, Judith (Barrow) Montefiore and Eliezer Montefiore, a prominent English merchant gave birth to their youngest son, Joseph Barrow Montefiore who made his fortune in Australia before returning to his native England.

1806: Solomon Moses married Rachel Gratz, the daughter of Philadelphians Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz.

1806: Áron Chorin “a Hungarian rabbi and pioneer of religious reform” who had been censured and punished by an Orthodox tribunal appealed to the Imperial Government for relief. The government “annulled the judgment and condemned the leader of his adversaries at Arad to pay the expenses of the lawsuit…Chorin declared that he forgave his adversary, and declined his claims for compensation of the expenses. To avoid further trouble, he determined to give up writing.

1807: Jacob Keyser married Harriet Jacobs at the Great Synagogue in the UK.

1807: Joseph Phillips married Sarah Elizabeth at the Western Synagogue in the UK.

1809: In Zülz, Prussian Silesia, Gittel and Marcus Jacob Loewe, Rabbi of Rosenburg gave birth to Louis Lowe who became a leading Orientalist and principal and director of Judith Lady Montefiore College at Ramsgate.

1812: Today the 685,000 men of the Grande Armée, the largest army assembled up to that point in European history, crossed the Neman River and headed towards Moscow” in what would be the first step in a campaign that ultimately led to the exile of Napoleon with all that that would mean for Europeans in general and Jews in particular

1826(19th of Sivan, 5586): Parashat Baeha’aloctcha

1826(19th of Sivan, 5586): Seventy-year old Israel ben Solomon Wahrmann, who had served as the rabbi at Bodrogh-Keresztur passed away today.

1826: Eliezer and Esther Symons, natives of Holland, gave birth to Henry Eliezer Symons, the husband of Emma Myers.

1832: Birthdate of Austrian native Jacob Fleishner, the husband of Fanny Fleischner and father of Isaac N. Fleischner who had settled in Portland, OR.

1834: Two days after she passed away, fifty-four year old Harriet Gompertz, the unmarried daughter of Abraham Wiesel Gompertz was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery today.

1838: In Goldingen in the Duchy of Courland in the Russian Empire, Martin Sass Eder and Dorina Kaiser gave birth to James Martin Eder who was known as Santiago Martin Eder Kaiser don Santiago Eder in Columbia where he was a pioneer in the sugar industry and a leading businessman.

1839: Birthdate of Solomon H. Sonnenschein, the Hungarian born American Rabbi who served Congregation Temple Israel in St. Louis and Temple B’nai Yeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa before his death in 1908.

1840: Birthdate of Émile Duclaux, the French chemist and microbiologist who “was a vocal support of Alfred Dreyfus.”1842: In Sidney, Australia, The Voice of Jacobreported that the Sultan of Turkey had called for an audience attended by all religious leaders which included the Hahambashi (Chief or Grand Rabbi) where he issued a firman protecting "all religious denominations" in Syria.

1843: “In in spite of the fact that the Jews of the city had contributed 12,900 scudi to do honor to the pope during his visit in 1841, an old decree was revived by Fra Vincenzo Soliva, Inquisitor of Ancona and other districts, forbidding Jews to reside or do business in any place where there was no ghetto, to employ Christian journeymen, to hire Christian servants, wet-nurses, or apprentices, to deal in books of any sort or in ecclesiastical robes, etc.”

1846: In Hungary, the residence tax was officially abolished. In order to have it cancelled the Jews had to pay a one-time fee of 1,200,000 florins.

1846(30th of Sivan, 5606): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1846: Isaac Harris married Rebekah Jacobs at the Western Synagogue in the UK.

1859: In County Kerry, Lt. Col. Henry Horatio Kitchener and Frances Anne Chevallier-Cole Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the great British military leader known simply as Lord Kitchener. His first step on the road to glory came in 1874 when the 24 year old Kitchener led a mapping and survey expedition to parts of “the Holy Land” under the direction of the Palestine Exploration Fund. The effects of the mapping expedition are still felt today since, among other thing, they provided the basis for delineating the border between the state of Israel and Lebanon.

1856: In Rome, a contingent of papal carabinieri “acting at the orders of the local Inquisitor, Father Pier Gaetan Feletti, took six year old Edgardo Mortara from his parent’s apartment because church officials discovered that Edgardo had been secretly baptized by a servant girls five years ago and that he could no longer “be raised in a Jewish household.”  Thus began the scandal known as the Mortara Affair.

1861: Herman Makower helped to prepare “The General German Commercial Code” introduced in Prussia today.

1863: Almost two years after becoming naturalized, Samuel (Isaac) Henry Gluckstein began working as a “cigar manufacturer.”

1864: On Gibraltar Sir Frederick Francis Maude, a general who had been awarded the Victoria Cross in 1855 during the Crimean War, and Catherine Mary Bisshopp, daughter of Very Reverend Sir George Bisshopp, 9th Baronet of Parham Sussex gave birth to Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Stanley Maude who commanded the 13thDivision during the Gallipoli Campaign where the Zion Mule Corps gained game and then took command of British forces in Mesopotamia where he turned defeat into victory as could be seen by his capture of Baghdad which was a compliment to Allenby’s campaigns that freed Palestine.

1864: A Report on the Petition of Haym M. Solomon was published today on page four of the Senate Reprots, No. 93, 39th Congress, 1st Session

1865: Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, was mustered out as a soldier in the Union Army. He had enlisted in the Union Army in 1862 and had participated “in the battles of Chancellorsville, Brandy Station (where he was wounded), Gettysburg, Mine Run (where he was again wounded), Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor, Five Forks, Petersburg, and Appomattox Court House. He was also present at the surrender of Lee

1865:“Inspired by the death of Lincoln, .Judah Roswald of Baltimore wrote a poem in Hebrew called "Lincoln's Amnesty," the same being published in the Jewish Messenger today.”

1865: Philadelphian Henry Fr. Birnbuam who had enlisted as a Private in Company H completed three years of service in the Union Army as a Sergeant in the 65thRegiment of the Fifth Cavalry.

1868: Saul Henriques Valetine married his second wife Sarah Ornstein, the daughter of Phineas Ornstein and Adelaide Samuel who was born in 1845 at Middlesex.

1870: In Chicago, “Joseph B. and Clara (Wolfner) Greenhut gave birth to Benedict Joseph Gottlieb, the husband of Minnie Gottlieb who worked for his father, “the head of the Whiskey Trust after which he served as Treasurer of Siegel-Cooper Company and President of Monmouth Securities.

1873: In a sermon, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher gave the first public warning of rising anti-Semitism in the U.S. Beecher was a fighter for social justice, an abolitionist and the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe.

1876: In New York, Isador and Rosalie Ida Straus gave birth to Percy Selden Straus, the wife of Edith S. Starus and the father of Ralph, Donald and Percy, Jr.

1877: According to reports published today, Judge Hilton is receiving more letters, calls and telegrams approving of his action (banning Jews from the Grand Union Hotel) than he has time to answer.  Jewish leaders appear willing to let the matter die since they feel they have been supported in the court of public opinion.

1878: It was reported today that it appears as if there are no Jews spending the summer at the resort hotels in and around Longbeach, NJ.  According to one source, the absence of Jewish guests can be explained by the downtown in the New York real estate market which has caused great economic hardship.  Other sources attribute the absence to a desire on the part of the Jews to avoid being humiliated in an incident similar to that which had occurred last year at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga Springs, NY.

1882: It was reported today that in Russia, Count Tolstoy, the Minister of the Interior published a circular stating that officers who do not “prevent outrages against Jews” will be dismissed immediately.

1882: M.A. Kursheedt, the Managing Secretary of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society sent a letter to Secretary Jackson of the Board of Emigration that “the society will not take charge of any Russian refugees or other Jewish immigrants who may hereafter arrive in this city.”

1882: “Aid Need For Hebrew Refugees” published today described the desperate conditions facing the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society which lacks the funds to meet the needs of the growing stream of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe.  Presently, the society can only provide shelter for only 500 of the 3,000 immigrants that include men, woman and children.  To help meet the shortfall in funds, Jacob Schiff has contributed $10,000, Kuhn, Loeb & Co has given an additional $5,000 and Jess Seligman has also contributed $5,000.  But Secretary Kursheedt said that others much follow the example of these donors if the society is going to be able to provide assistance to these immigrants let alone the thousands who are on their way.

1882: At the sanity hearing of his brother-in-law Samuel Obreight, Bernard Tausick described Obreight’s attempts at suicide “and his peculiar behavior at a party given in honor of his engagement to another young lady” whom he chose not to wed.

1883: Birthdate of Friedrich Löwy, the native of Bohemia, who gained famed as the librettist and lyricist Fritz Löhner-Beda. His fame was not enough to save him from being beaten to death at a camp near Auschwitz.   While at Buchenwald he wrote Das Buchenwaldlied ("The Buchenwald Song"): O Buchenwald, I can’t forget about you, because you are my fate. Who leaves you, only he can appreciate how wonderful freedom is! O Buchenwald, we don’t cry and complain and whatever may be our destiny, even so we shall say "yes" to life for once the day shall come when we shall be free!

1883: Three days after he passed way, David Marcus Davis, the husband of Sarah Marcus and the father of Alice and Ernest Davis was buried today at the Balls Pond Cemetery.

1883: Birthdate of Victor Francis Hess, Austrian-born American physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize.  Hess was not Jewish but his wife was.  When the Nazis came to Austria, Hess came to America to protect his wife from persecution. 

1884(1stof Tammuz, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1885: Joseph Cohen married Naomi Lipkie in the United Kingdom.

1885: It was reported today that the Pall Mall Gazette has printed “a hitherto unpublished proclamation of the Emir of Afghanistan” which he issued to his subjects in 1882. “It reviews the history of the Afghans, claiming that they are descended from the 10 lost tribes of Israel.  It traces their descent from Adam though Jacob, their subjection in Egypt, their deliverance therefrom by Moses, their wanderings in the desert and their settlement in Syria under…Saul and Solomon, to their Babylonian captivity, their release, their wanderings on the hills of Ghour and their final settlement in Afghanistan.”  The proclamation includes with an exhortation for his subjects “trust in God, who will preserve them from their terrible enemy, Russia” [Editor’s Note – Read in light of what has happened in Afghanistan since 1980, this is a fascinating little item.]

1886: As a sign of how accepted Jews were in New York, Rabbi Weiss and J.H. Hoffman, President of the Hebrew Technical Institute were among the dignitaries seated on the platform at the graduation ceremonies for the Normal College of the City of New York, an institution of higher education for women.

1887: “Probable Case of Suicide” published today described the last days of Joseph Freedman a Russian Jewish peddler who died in New Haven, Conn. After marrying Rittie Polrovideh a month ago, he left his child from an earlier marriage with her and went to Montreal.  She refused to join him there, even when he came back to New Haven to plead his case.  The failure of his personal and financial lives may have led him to poison himself. [Editor’s note – This is consistent with reports in the 21st century where there has been a major increase in suicides among the financially desperate in several southern European countries.]

1888: Youngsters under the charge of the Orphan Asylum of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society participated in a two hour long ceremony today that demonstrated their knowledge of Jewish history and Judaism.  The children go to public school starting at the age of 6 and receive their training in Judaica at the asylum.  PIncus Spiro received a box of tools for placing first in the exams and Samuel Levi received drawing instruments for placing second.  Both boys have already passed the entrance exams for CCNY and will enter there in the fall.  Jennie Berdinger was the leading female student.

1891: At their state convention, Iowa Democrats adopt a platform with a plank that reads “We abhor the persecutions of Russia toward the Jewish people and we believe that all civilized nations should protest against such barbarism and inhumanity.”

1891: Birthdate of Irving PIchel, the native of Pittsburgh and 1914 Harvard University graduate who began as stage actor before shifting to films with the advent of “talkies.”

1892: The Marquis de Mores, an anti-Semitic French officer, has been arrested for killing Captain Mayer, a Jewish officer whom he forced into facing him in a duel. 

1894: New York lawyer Edward Jacobs, the brother of the late Joseph A. Jacobs who was Deputy Clerk of the City Court for fourteen year, received a telegram from the Governor of New York “summoning him to Albany” so that he can be appoint a Quarantine Commissioner.

1894: It is reported that the Czarevitch is visiting England accompanied by the Czar’s Court Chaplain, Janicheff, “a very prominent and active Jew-baiter.”

1894: It is reported today that population of Hungary includes 9 million Catholics, 3 million Protestants and 5 million others that include Jews, Orthodox Serbs and Romanians

1894: It was reported today that there are 12 Jews serving the Hungarian Chamber of Deputies and one serving in the upper legislative chamber. The Hungarian Diet had first recognized Jewish equality before the law in 1848 but was forced to rescind it following anti-Semitic riots.  In 1867, the rights were restored which has resulted in the current electoral mix.

1894: The officers of the newly formed Jesse Seligman Literary Circle were listed today as George M. Hommell, President; Miss Nellie Gotthaimer, Vice President; Harry Hammell, Secretary and Miss Ella Stein, Treasurer.

1896(13thof Tammuz, 5656): Seventy-six year old Morris Langdsdorf, the Battenberg born son of Herz Seelig Langsdorf and Bina Biene Bienchen Langsdorf and husband of Hannah Hessel Langsdorf with whom he had had nine children passed away today in St. Louis after which he was buried in the New Mount Sinai Cemetery in Afton, MO.

1897: President James H. Hoffman delivered the opening address at the graduation exercises for the Hebrew Technical Institute which were held tonight at Cooper Union.

1897: At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Mayer Lehman, a native of Germany who moved from Alabama to New York where he was a member of Lehman Brothers who was the husband of Babetta Newgoff of New Orleans with whom he had four sons and three daughters.

1897: The will of Jacob Seholle, the banker who passed away at Orange, NJ was filed for probate today.

1897: The following bequests were reported today to be included in the will of the late Mortiz Cohn – $1,000 for Temple B’Nai Jeshurun; $750 for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Mt. Sinai Hospital; from $100 to $200 to eight other Jewish schools and charities; $30,000 to his granddaughter Ethel Klopfer.  The residue of the estates is to be divided between his son Julius M. Cohn and his daughter Klopfer.

1897(24th of Sivan, 5657): Seventy-eight year old Sir John Law, the native of Jamaica who wanted to be a rabbi but became a successful lawyer instead which led to a seat in the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party, passed away today.

1898: The funeral for Moses Stein, a resident of Bath Beach who had been a successful wholesale butcher in Manhattan will take place this afternoon followed by interment in Washington Cemetery.

1898: It was reported today that Abraham Richter was the valedictorian of the 1898 Hebrew Technical Institute graduating class. 

1898: In Boston, Julius B Rottenberg and Fannie Rottenberg gave birth to Viola Josephine Rottenberg, the graduate of Wellesley who became Viola Rottenberg Pinanski when she married Harvard Law School graduate and future judge, Abraham E. Pinanski

1898: During the Spanish American War, Adolph Rebenstisch of San Antonio, TX was wounded today while serving as a Private in Troop F.

1899: At Las Vegas, NM, Governor Theodore Roosevelt addressed a re-union of his “Rough Riders,” the regiment he created and led in the war against Spain.  In an appeal for national harmony, Roosevelt reminder the listeners that his was a typical American regiment that included Jews as well as Protestants, Catholics, Easterners, Westerners Northerners and Southerners.”  (This mention of Jews put the lie to claims being made at the time that Jews did not fight in American wars and were unpatriotic.  It also was a shrewd move on T.R’s part since Jews were an important of his constituency in New York)

1899 “Burns and Scott Heroines” published today featured a comparison of the works of Robert Burn and Sir Walter Scott whose “masterpiece Ivanhoe” includes “villains…who bleed a Jew” and a description of Rebecca watching the deeds of the Black Knights from the lattice window of Torquilstone.

1899: “Religious New and Views” published today described the plans of Temple Sinai Congregation to purchase the building belong to Calvary Presbyterian Church on 116th Street near Lenox Avenue.  After 18 years, the church is disbanding.  The congregation is Reformed, “as are the majority of the New York Jewish congregations.”

1899: Attorney Max Cohen, the Vice President of the Orthodox Hebrew Society said today that “the society did not object to mission churches…but did object to the methods that have been employed.”

1899: Max Cohen said today that the Orthodox Hebrew Society is working to encourage “a more general observation of the Sabbath” and to that end is trying “to secure a modification of the legislation in regard to opening stores on Sunday.”

1899: “Religious News and Views” published today described the differences between the practices of the Reform congregations in New York.  In some, like the one on Hester, the men sit downstairs and the women sit upstairs and them pray with their hats on.  In other congregations, men and women sit together and men do not wear hats. Finally, there are those where the men and women sit together, but the men pray with their hats on.

1900: According to a reporte issued by The Federation of Churches and Christian Workers on the “social conditions in a district in New York that runs from Seventh to Fourteenth Street east of Third Avenue,” “the Hebrews average 2.54 children per family,” “the proportion of Hebrew families with nine children is six times as great as in the Protestant families” and that Hebrews make up 17 per cent of the families in the area.

1900: In the village of Bezwodne, Joseph and Bella (Pomerantz) Lemkin gave birth to Raphael Lemkin a lawyer who fought against genocide, a word he coined in 1943 by coming the Greek “genos” (Family) and the Latin “cide” (Killing).

1901: Birthdate of New York City native and Barnard College graduate Edith Mendel who gained fame as Edith Mendel Stern the author of four novels the first of which was Purse Strings and the wife attorney William A. Stern II.




1901: Start of the Jewish National Fund. The JNF or Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael was established at the Fifth Zionist Congress, which declared that "the fund shall be the property of the Jewish people as a whole". The purpose of the Fund was to collect money from Jews throughout the world to buy land in Palestine. Because of the nature of the purchases, the land belonged collectively to all of the Jewish people. The JNF became famous for its "little blue boxes" and for its Tree Purchase Program. For more about this amazing organization see www.jnf.org/site

1902: Prime Minister George Leake who was a political opponent New Zealand born Matthew Moss, the Australian political leader whose grandfather had been “choirmaster at the Great Synagogue of London passed away today.

1902: King Edward VII, the philo-Semitic son of Queen Victor underwent an emergency appendectomy today which led to a delay in his cornoration.

1903: “Interior Minister Plehve ordered the police to suppress ‘the propaganda of the ideal of Zionism’” because the movement had abandoned “its aim of settling Jews in Palestine in favor of organizing Jews ‘in places of their present domicile.’”

1903: Birthdate of Moritz Meyer Bodd, the “retail clerk” who was arrested in 1942 which was the first step on his trip to Auschwitz where he was murdered.

1903: Russia prohibited Zionist meetings.

1904: Birthdate of Linton, Indiana native Wonga Phil Harris who gained fame as band leader Phil Harris who was “part of the famous Jack Benny radio ensemble from 1936 to 1952” and became so popular as Benny’s sidekick that he got a radio show of his own that followed Benny’s hour long broadcast.

1905(21stof Sivan, 5665): Parashat Bhea’alotcha

1905: Violence continues in Lodz today following outbursts that began earlier in the week during which authorities allowed the Christians to bury their dead, but refused the same right and that left one Jewish girl dead after having been fired on police while she was delivering a speech on “Black Friday.”

1906(1stof Tammuz, 5666): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1906(1stof Tammuz, 5666): Joseph “Joe” Strauss whose baseball record is so murky that he either began his major career at the age of 26 or 40, was Jewish or was not Jewish and played the outfield, the infield, catcher and pitcher, passed away today.

1908: Rabbi Martin Zielonka of El Paso, Texas, helps the Jews of Mexico organize their community.

1908: President Grover Cleveland died of heart failure.  As President, Cleveland appointed Oscar Solomon Strauss envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Turkey in 1887.  In 1897 Cleveland vetoed an immigration bill that included a literacy test.  The literacy test was a thinly veiled attempt to close the doors to immigrants including the wave of Jews coming from Eastern Europe.  In 1903, Cleveland, who was by now former President, was the featured speaker at the New York City rally protesting the Kishinev Pogroms.

1909:The German Reichstag voted 195–187 against an inheritance tax proposed by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow who in 1898 overturned the Kaiser’s decision to work with Herzl when he “pointed out that that the wealthy Jews were not behind the idea” of Zionism and that none of “big papers” supported the idea tiether.

1910(17thof Sivan, 5670): Johnathan M. Emanuel who entered the U.S. Navy in 1862, and began his service aboard the “iron-clad” Keokuk during the Civil War and retired in 1891 with the rank of Lt. Comdr. Passed away today in Philadelphia.

1910:  Birthdate of Judge Irving Kaufman, the presiding judge in the Rosenberg Spy Case.  He was the one who sentenced them to death after they were both found guilty.  Of course the anti-Semites who used the involvement of the Rosenbergs in a Soviet spy ring to further their claims of Communism being a Jewish conspiracy conveniently overlook the fact that Jews were involved in the prosecution and sentencing of the Rosenbergs.  Kaufman passed away in 1992 at the age of 81.


1911(28thof Sivan, 5671): Sh’lach

1911: “A Violation of the Treaty” published today begins by pointed out that in the treaty the United States entered into with Russia in 1832, there is no warrant whatever for Russia’s obstinate refusal to honor passports issued by the government to American citizens who happened to be of the Jewish race” and that “the treaty is violated every time a Russian diplomatic or consular representative refuses to honor such a passport.

1912(9th of Tammuz, 5672): Julia Richman the first Jewish woman to serve as principal in the New York Public School system and the first woman district superintendent of schools in the City of New York died in Paris as result of an infection that developed after an emergency operation.

1913: In Springfield, Illinois, the annual conference of the American Association of Officials of Charities and Correction which Henry Solomon of New York was a delegate opened today.

1913: In Chicago, “the monument in memory of Mrs. Mark T. Goldstine (nee Sadie Richter)” is scheduled to “be dedicated” this afternoon “at Graceland Cemetery.”

1913: A dispatch sent to The Standard in London from St. Petersburg “says that President Woodrow Wilson has declined Russia’s request for a renewal of the treat of commerce except on the absolute condition that American Jews are allowed to enter Russia freely.”

1914(30thof Sivan, 5674): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1914: Four days before the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in what would be an example of the Alliance System that helped to bring on WWI, Austria-Hungary prepared a letter calling for the creation of an alliance against Russia that would include the Austro-Hungarians, Ottomans, Germans and Bulgarians

1914: Birthdate of Jan Karski, “a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter who in 1942 and 1943 reported to the Polish government in exile and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and the secretive Nazi extermination camps.”


1915: Benjamin “Benny” Snyder was attacked by three fellow inmates at the Tombs this morning just before he was to appear in court plead guilty to manslaughter in the death of “Joe the Greaser” Rosenzweig. The plea meant he got off with a ten year sentence but it earned him the reputation for being a rat and a squealer. (Yes, there are Jewish gangsters; but they are not the pride and joy of the community)

1915: Birthdate of Sophie Falkenstein, the wife of German-Jewish immigrant Arthur Caan and the mother of famous actor James Edmund Caan whom many know as “Sonny” the oldest of the Godfather’s three sons.

1916: It was reported today that plans for “the great federation for the support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City which have been under consideration for a long time have been approved by the Special Committee on Preliminaries” and been printed pamphlet form so it may be submitted for consideration prior to a final vote next month.

1916: It was reported today that “while the Jewish population” of Romania which numbers about 250,000 “are not threatened with physical danger, they are persecuted…under civil laws” and “have never been admitted to general citizenship.”

1917: Delegates are scheduled to register today as part of the opening session of the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists.

1917: Mrs. Sam C. Klein presided over the June Social sponsored by the Ashe Emes Sisterhood.

1917: “A plaque was awarded to the Hebrew Educational Society as the winner of a series of debates with the South Brooklyn Y.M.H.A.”

1917: At Zion Temple on Ogden Avenue, Samuel Druck is scheduled to deliver a talk on Henri Bergson a today’s last regular meeting of the Jewish Literary Society.

1917: “Felix M. Warburg entertained one hundred of the most prominent and active workers in the news local federation of charities at a lawn party on the grounds of his summer home at White Plains, NY.

1918: In Pittsburgh, the 21st annual convention of the Federation of American Zionists continued for a second day.

1918: The fifth annual convention of Hadassah opened today in Pittsburgh, PA.

1918: Dr. Aaron Schaffer of Johns Hopkins University presided over “the fourth annual convention of the Intercollegiate Zionist Association.”

1918: Jacob Schiff of New York City protests against the Red Cross which has discriminated against Jews from Bulgaria and Turkey, as well as Germany and Austro-Hungary. Red Cross stated Jews from these lands, or children who have fathers who were born in these lands cannot serve in the Red Cross.

1919: In the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, Polish Prime Minister Ignacy Paderewski signed the Minorities Treaty that “awarded full civil, religious and political rights to all citizens of the new Poland, with the term ‘citizen’ applied broadly to all person either born or ‘habitually’ resident on Polish territory.”  This meant that the Jews of Poland were guaranteed full citizenship in the newly reconstituted Poland.  Louis Marshall, a prominent American Jew who had been part of Wilson’s delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, was responsible for this language; language would be incorporated in other treaties that grew out of the Versailles Conference which, on paper at least, opened the path to full citizenship for the Jews of Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Turkey.

1920(9thof Av, 5680): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av

1920: In London, Stephen Winsten and his wife gave birth to Ruth Winsten who gained fame as the “animal welfare campaigner” the Ruth Harrison.

1920: In Cologne, German “painter Max Ernst and Luise Straus, a well-known art historian, journalist and a victim of the Nazis at Auschwitz gave birth to Hans-Ulrich Ernst who gained fame as artist Jimmy Ernst.


1921: “The House in Dragon Street” a silent film directed and produced by Richard Oswald was released today in Germany.

1921: At Friday evening services, Rabbi I. Mortimer Bloom is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Scapegoats” at the Hebrew Tabernacle on Broadway and 158thStreet.’

1921: At Friday evening services, Rabbi B.A. Tintner is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Organized Labor” at Temple Mount Zion on West 119th Street.

1922(28th of Sivan, 5682:  An anti-Semitic nationalist assassinated Walter Rathenau, the Jewish German Foreign minister. Ironically, Rathenau was a German patriot who had been responsible for maintaining the German industrial might that enabled it to fight on for four years despite the Allied blockade.

1922: The Literary Digest published Harvard ‘Talk’ About Jews today which described Harvard President Abbott Lawrence Lowell’s views about Jewish attendance at his elite institution.


1922: In Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Harry Chakrin and the former Anna Borofsky gave birth to Jack Chakrin who gained fame as Jack Carter, a comedian whose career spanned almost forty years. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


1923: Premiere of Kurt Weill’s “String Quartet, Op 8” today by the Hindemith-Amar Quartet.

1924: In New York City, Fay (née Resenthal), a secretary and bookkeeper, and Oscar Perl, a stationery salesman who founded a printing and advertising company gave birth Martin Lewis Perl who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995.

1927: Birthdate of American Physicist, Martin Lewis Perl.  The son of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Perl won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1995.

1928:” Julius Louis Selzer, a general practitioner, and the former Gertrude Schneider, a singer who performed in local musicals and operas” gave birth to Albany Medical College graduate and U.S. Army veteran “Richard Selzer, a surgeon who turned his operating-room experiences into fictional stories that blended the gore, the beauty and the absurdity of modern medicine.” (As reported by Randi Hutter Epstein)


1928: Reports published today described mass meetings held in Tel Aviv protesting the unwarranted deportation of Jewish immigrants from Palestine.  A cable protesting the deportations sent by the citizens of Tel Aviv to the Colonial Office in London stated that “every Jew who enters Palestine is returning to his home.  He cannot, therefore, be expelled under any law…The expulsions are an insult to the entire Jewish population…and…cause despair in the minds of the masses in the Diaspora, undermining every hope for entering Palestine.”

1929(16th of Sivan, 5689): Seventy year old Joseph Prag, the graduate of Queen’s College who was a member of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Conjoint Committee for Foreign Affairs as well as a Warden of the North-West London Synagogue passed away today.


1930(28thof Sivan, 5690): Rabbi “Ben Zion Perl” passed away today in New York City

1930: Ceremonies began today marking the opening of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva.

1930: In Montreal, Isaac Rabinovitch and the former Fanny Shulman gave birth to Canadian real estate mogul Jack Rabinovitch who established Canada’s leading English language prize, the Giller Prize, which was named in honor of his second wife, premiere journalist Doris Giller. (As reported by Ian Austen)


1931(9thof Tammuz, 5691): Ninety-one year old Estonia native and Civil War veteran Otto Mears known as the “Pathfinder of the San Juans” because of all of his railroad building activity in Colorado passed away today.


1932: In Karlsruhe, Germany Leo Traub who was a banker before the rise of the Nazis and Mimi Nussbaum gave birth to their only son Joseph Frederick Traub “who founded the computer science department at Columbia University and who helped develop algorithms used in scientific computing in physics and mathematics as well as on Wall Street.” (As reported by Steve Lohr)


1933(30thof Sivan, 5693): Parshat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1933(30thof Sivan, 5693: Sixty-year old Russian born NYU trained attorney and national treasurer of the Jewish National Workers Alliance Nathan Zvirin, the legal adviser to the Kosher Butchers of Greater New York and husband of Ida Levine Zvirin with whom he had three children – Pauline, John and Fred – passed away today

1933: On the day of her return from a three-month trip through Palestine, Russia and other countries Jewish theatrical star Molly Picon, said that a new culture, made up of elements of the cultures of many peoples, is being built up in Palestine by Jews.

1933: Rabbi and Mrs. Morris Ginsberg gave birth to Sir Ian Derek Gainsford who served as Dean of King’s College of Medicine and Dentistry, Vice Principal of King’s College London and President of the Maccabaeans, a leading Anglo-Jewish charitable organization dating back to the 19th century.

1934: An advertisement for “Rosebrae Guest House, the only Jewish Boarding House on the Isle of Jersey which was Kosher” appeared in today’s Jewish Chronicle.

1935: Premiere of “Die schweigsame Frau” (The Silent Woman) for which Stefan Zweig provided the libretto

1936: As Arab violence continued to escalate unabated, The Palestine Post reported that Arab snipers killed one Jew and wounded four others on a bus close to Rosh Pina. The Arab Strike Committee threatened and punished Arabs who refused to join the general strike or refused to contribute to their strike funds. Five Arab villagers were killed by the railway military patrol after trains were ambushed twice. Jewish damages since April 19, the day on which the Arab disturbances began, were estimated at some quarter of a million pounds.

1937: Comedian Henny Youngman performed on the “Kate Smith Bandwagon” a variety show broadcast by WABC.

1937: Arthur Fiedler conducted a performance by the Boston Pops Orchestra broadcast by WJZ.

1937: After visiting with Benito Mussolini, Generoso Pope, a prominent New York City Italian American contractor, returned to the United States with a message from the Italian leader intended to reassure Jews in the United States that they had no reason to be concerned about the conditions of Italian Jews.

1937: New Yorker Paul Safro presided over the opening of the fourth annual convention of “Massada, the youth section of the Zionist Organization of America” being held at the Roosevelt Hotel where attendees heard Isaac Imber recommend “the launching of a movement to train pioneer groups for Palestine.”

1938: The outbreak of violence in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv area that began yesterday continued today with episodes of bomb-throwing and stabbing.  In one incident an as yet unidentified Jew from Tel Aviv who was out walking with his wife and brother-in-law was stabbed by a group of Arabs who fled before the authorities arrived.

1938: The mutilated body of Father Mario Rozzine, head of an Italian convent near Jerusalem was discovered by the side of the road.  While the Italian Consulate claimed the priest was killed by unidentified personal enemies, others believe that he had fallen victim to Arab terrorists.

1938: Today “movie-maker” Emeric Pressburg “married Ági Donáth, the daughter of Andor Donáth, a general merchant” in what would be a short, childless union.

1939: Brazil admits three thousand Jewish refugees from Germany.

1939: At the World’s Fair in New York City, The Café Tel Aviv at the Palestine Pavilion offers Kosher Cuisine including Palestinian specialties ranging in price from $.50 to $.85, lunch for $.65 and a complete dinner for $1.25.

1940: Margret and Hans Rey made telephone calls and wrote letters from Lisbon letting friends and family know that they were safe. 

1940: Portuguese Prime Minister and “strongman” sent a message recalling Portuguese Consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes because the diplomate would not half his efforts to help Jews and others escaping from the Nazis who were sweeping their way across France and headed for the Iberian Peninsula. 

1941: As it invaded Lithuania, the Wehrmacht occupied Kovno where 10,000 Jews will be murdered by the end of July and Vilna and killed the Jews of Gorzhdy. (Please note; with some of the military activity in WW II there is a variance of dates by one or two days according to different sources.  This can be accounted for in several ways including discrepancies between when an event may have begun and when it reached its height or the difference between the date an event happened and the date it appeared in the newspaper or other journals.)

1941(29thof Sivan, 5701): Seventy-three year old attorney and former acting Mayor of Rochester, NY, Isaac Adler, the son of Levi and Theresa Wile Adler “died this afternoon while at tending a city planning meeting at the Chamber of Commerce” in Rochester.




1941: Birthdate of Arthur Bruce “Art” Heyman, the 6’5” New Yorker who led Duke University to its first appearance in the Final Four before being drafted by the Knicks of the NBA. (As reported by William Yardely)

1942: Thousands Jews from of Lvov in the Ukraine, are killed at Janówska, Ukraine, and Piaski, Poland.

1942: In Los Angeles, CA, Sylvia Helen (née Silverstein) and Jack Dusick gave birth to Michele Lee Dusick who gained fame as the multi-talented Michele Lee whose career spanned television, Broadway and cinema.

1942: “Star and Garter” a musical revue produced by Mike Todd “opened at Broadway’s Music Box Theatre.”

1943: In the wake of the Detroit Race Riots that started on June 20 and ended on June 22, it was reported today that Central Conference of American of Rabbis had adopted “a resolution decrying recent riots,” stating that “the spirt of Hitlerism has achieved a triumph on American soil” and demanding that “the forces our government be called upon to ferret out those organized groups or individuals who have been responsible for inciting these race riots.

1944:  The United States Military Air Operations declares that bombing rail lines to Auschwitz is "impracticable" because it could be achieved only by diverting air support from "decisive operations" in progress; i.e., bombing German synthetic-oil plants. The fact is that many of these plants are located near Auschwitz.

1944:  Lovers Edward Galinski, a Polish gentile, and Mala Zimetbaum, a Jew, escape from Auschwitz-Birkenau in purloined SS uniforms and remain at liberty for two weeks.

1944: At Birkenau, a Pole and a Jewish girl escaped. The girl, Mala Zimetbaum, escaped through an airlock in the gas chamber waiting room. She became the camp interpreter and fell in love with a Polish man. They managed to escape only to be eventually caught and brought back to Auschwitz where they were tortured. They then were to be hung in public view by thousands of prisoners. Instead she produced a razor blade and slashed her wrists in front of the onlookers. Incensed, the SS shot her dead.

1944: Chaim Barlas sent a copy of the ‘Auschwitz Protocols’ to his friend Giuseppe Rocalli – the future Pope John XXIII- and Rocalli immediately sent a summary of the protocols by telegraph to the Vatican.  This undercuts the Vatican’s claim that it did not know about Auschwitz until October of 1944

1945: The U.S.S.R. captures the Free Republic of Schwarzenberg. The Free Republic of Schwarzenberg (German: Freie Republik Schwarzenberg) was a de facto independent entity that existed for several weeks after the German capitulation on May 8, 1945. The term Free Republic of Schwarzenbergactually derives from the 1984 novel Schwarzenbergby Stefan Heym. As the novel is based on actual events, the term has become used as a convenient short-hand for them. Stefan Heym was a German Jewish writer born in 1913 in Chemnitz. Heym’s works included TheKing David Report, The Wandering Jewsand Schwarzenberg.  Stefan Heym was actually the pen name for Hellmuth Fleig who won the Jerusalem Prize in 1933.  He died in Jerusalem during the Heinrich Heine Conference.

1946: As of today, “the British have at least three divisions” in Palestine, five thousand police and a number of naval units in Palestine whose primary mission is thwart attacks by various Jewish groups who are opposed to Britain’s decision to put further limits on Jewish immigration while allowing the return of the Grand Mufti who spent part of WW II in Berlin.

1947: Judge Simon Rifkind of New York, who had served on Ike’s staff, sent General Eisenhower a memo contending that establishing a Jewish state in Palestine would be in America’s best political and military interests.  Ike sent copies of the memo to Secretary of State George Marshall and General Tom Handy who would take it to the Secretary of War.

1948: As Israel fights for its very existence, the Soviet blockade of Berlin began today on the same day that the Selective Service Act (America’s first peace-time military draft) went into effect.  (Editor’s note – As always Jewish history takes place on the wider mosaic of world history and it necessary to understand the interaction of the two.  In this case, President Truman was confronted with the challenge of stopping Soviet imperialism which limited his range of action during the creation of the Jewish state.)

1949: Daniel Frisch, the President of the ZOA who arrived in Israel yesterday, said “The small businessman is the forgotten man in Israel” and that he plans on asking Prime Minister Ben Gurion “to approve moves by the ZOA to undertake the rehabilitation of disabled Israelis and to offer economic assistance of the Israeli middle class.”

1949: The Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to continue meeting for a second day today in Brenton Woods, N.H.

1950: In the UK, Annette Krarup and Walter Freud gave birth to David Anthony Freud, the great grandson of Sigmund Freud who went from a career as a journalist and businessman to as political leader.

1950: An Italian ship filled with 300 Torah scrolls, 2,000 prayer books and other religious items that had been left in Yemen by Jewish refugees docked at Elath after having sailed up the Gulf Aqaba, making it the first ship to use this route to reach the Jewish state. Up until now, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who controlled the east and west sides of the Gulf had not allowed passage of any ships bound for Israel.  Nobody knows why the two Arab states did not stop the vessel or if the waterway would remain open.

1950: In Kiryat Haim, David Smilansky and Batya Silber gave birth to Moshe Smilansky who as Moshe "Bogie" Ya'alon served as Chief of Staff of the IDF before joining Likud and serving in the Knesset “as well as the country's Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Strategic Affairs.”


1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that despite all the recent Iraqi threats, six aircraft arrived from Baghdad with 574 immigrants, and the seventh was expected shortly. It was estimated that some 4,000 Jews waited in Baghdad for transportation to Israel.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Council of Kibbutz Meuhad met at Givat Brenner with only Mapam members participating, following the Mapai members' decision to leave the movement.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Ffunerals took place of four Israeli soldiers killed in a clash with the Arab Legion near Kiryat Anavim.

1952(1st of Tammuz, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1952(1st of Tammuz, 5711): Sixty-four year old Wax Gordon died at Alcatraz where he was serving a twenty-five year sentence.

1952: Tel Aviv police were detaining two people suspected of stealing gold objects from the National Museum valued at $70,000 and then melting them down for sale as gold bullion.  The objects in question have been missing for over a month.

1953: “Robot Monster” a black and white sci-fi film with music by Elmer Bernstein was released in the United States today.

1955: With Brooklyn Dodgers trailing the Milwaukee Braves 7 – 1, Sandy Koufax made his major league debut in the fifth inning facing Shortstop Johnny Logan who “hit a bloop single” off the man who became one of the greatest pitchers of all-time.

1956: Twenty-four year old Syracuse University trained chemist, Charles Gelman, the son of Fay Gleman and the founder of Gelman Instrument Company married Rita Gelman with whom he had four children - Rebecca, Nina, Steve and Eric Gelman.

1957: In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment. Roth is Samuel Roth, the Polish born Jew who began a literary career after moving to the Lower East of New York.

1962: In Mexico City “chemist Carlos Sheinbaum Yoselevitz and biologist Annie Pardo Cemo gave birth to “Mexican politician, scientist and author” Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo who “has been the head of the government of Mexico City” since December, 2018

1962: In Pittsburgh, Rabbi A. Irving Schnipper presided over Congregation Beth El’s groundbreaking ceremonies which included speeches by Milton Sussman and Rabbi Kenneth Bromberg.

1962:  After 16 performances at the New York City Center, the curtain come down a revival of “Fiorello!” the Jerry Bock musical with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and a book co-authored by Jerome Weidman

1966: A week after first being shown in London “Cul-de-Sac” a “comic thriller” directed by Roman Polanski and co-starring Lionel Stander, was shown at the Berlin International Film Festival.

1968: Birthdate of Israeli chess grandmaster Boris Gelfand.

1969: Eighty year old WW I German Army veteran and Swiss lawyer Adolf Wach, a grandson of composer Felix Mendelssohn passed away today “at Wilderwsil, near Interalken.”


1969(8th of Tammuz, 5729): Sixty-eight year old “Immanuel Ben-Dor, an archeologist and professor of Biblical Archeology at Emory University” who had previously taught at Harvard passed away today while traveling “to an archeological excavation in Israel.”

1973: In Sioux City, Iowa, Laurie Goldblatt becomes Mrs. Bob Silber in a ceremony that joins together two future pillars of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Jewish Community.

1974: “Soviet police arrested Professor Alexander Voronel, principal organizer of refusenik scientists’ seminar following an unsuccessful attempt to induce him to cancel the seminar.”

1974: “Andrei Sakharov urged President Nixon and Brezhnev to give more emphasis to human rights during their Moscow talks, including the release of Soviet political prisoners and free emigration.”

1976: Today at the Fifth Avenue Synagogue Rabbi Emanuel Rackman presided at the funeral services for “Dr. Maurice Sage, the President of the Jewish National Fund of America, the Russian born, French trained rabbi who father was “a chief rabbi of Paris.”


1976:  Premiere of “Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson” co-starring Paul Newman and Harvey Keitel.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli pound was devalued by another 2 percent to IL7.97 to the dollar. This was the 10th creeping devaluation, begun as a policy in June 1975.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that Gush Emunim announced that it would resist moving out from Kaddum, unless the resettlement was part of an overall plan for establishing Jewish settlement throughout Judea and Samaria.

1976: At a dinner hosted by Brandeis University, Elliot Richardson received the second annual Louis Dembitz Brandeis medal for distinguished legal service.  Richardson was the Attorney General dismissed by President Nixon for his courageous refusal to participate in the Watergate Cover-up.  The first recipient of the medal named for the distinguished Jewish lawyer and jurist, was Leon Jaworski who was a key player in the Watergate Investigations

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had asked Israelis to consume less and work more, and to accustom themselves to the realization of the country's difficult economic situation.

1979(29th of Sivan, 5739): Eighty-eight year old Lessing J. Rosenwald, who succeeded his father as Julius as President and later Chairman of the Board of Sears, Roebuck and Company passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)


1979: “Two Palestinians were killed while driving a truck bomb near a bus station in Tel Aviv.

1980(10th of Tammuz, 5740): Seventy three year old Oscar and Golden Globe Award winning cinematographer Boris Abelevich Kaufman, the native of Bialystok and  the brother of filmmakers Dziga Vertov and Mikhail Kaufman passed away today in New York.

1981: Moshe Dayan announced that Israel has the capacity to make an atomic bomb.

1983: “Twilight Zone: The Movie” based on the Rod Serling television series produced by Steven Spielberg and co-starring Vic Morrow and Albert Brooks was released in the United States today.

1983: Yasser Arafat was banned from Damascus. Arafat had more enemies among the Arabs than he did among the Israelis. He was thrown out of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

1983: TheNew York Times reported on Mathilde Krim's newly established AIDS Medical Foundation.


1985: Birthdate of Michael Steven “Mike” Brown the native of Northbrook, Illinois who played hockey for the University of Michigan before going on to a career in the NHL.

1991(12thof Tammuz, 5751): Eighty-one year old Natie Brown, the native of Washington, DC, who fought Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis twice, reached the rank of Sergeant in WW II and lived in Charleston, West Virginia for 26 years where he worked for  Mackie Incorporated Wholesale Company and attended B’nai Jacob Synagogue passed away today.

1992: In “Lee v Weisman” the U.S. Supreme Court protected the concept of separation of church and state by holding that “Including a clergy-led prayer within the events of a public high school graduation violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.” In this case, a Jewish family objected to a prayer at a graduation even though, in this case, it was led by a Rabbi.


1993: Yale computer science professor Dr. David Hillel Gelernter lost the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mail-bomb from the Unabomber.  Gelernter is classified variously as a conservative in the true sense of the word and/or an iconoclast.  There was no apparent connection between his political beliefs and this evil deed.

1993: In Los Angeles, “Sharon Lyn (née Chalkin), a costume designer and fashion stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses” gave birth to actress Elizabeth Greer “Beanie” Feldstein the Wesleyan University graduate and sister of “music manager Jordan Feldstein” and “actor Jonah Hill.”

1994(15th of Tammuz, 5754): Eighty-six year old Sir Anthony Baruh Lousada, “a member of a prominent Anglo-Sepharid family who followed in the footsteps of his father Julian George Lousada, the solicitor and collector of impressionist paintings, passed away today.


1995(26th of Sivan, 5755): Esther Rome, creator of the “Women and Their Bodies” and author of Our Bodies, Ourselves passed away.

1995(26th of Sivan, 5755): Meir "Zarro" Zorea passed away. Born in Bessarabia in 1923, he made Aliyah in 1925.  During his service with the Jewish Brigade during World War II he received the Military Cross for bravery.  His service with the IDF included leading a battalion during the War of Independence, aiding in the capture of Eichmann and commanding a tank corps in the Sinai during the Six Day War. After retiring with the rank of Major General he served as a member of the Knesset.


1999: “The Department of the Navy Board for Correction of Naval Records the ultimate arbiter of whether or not Admiral Jermey Boorda was entitled to wear the Combat "V", determined that despite the additions to Boorda's personnel file, he was not” marking an end to this tragic moment in the career of an illustrious naval officer.

2000: “The governing Social Democrats urged former Chancellor Helmut Kohl to resign from Parliament a day after he made comments comparing their recent treatment of him over illegal campaign funds with Nazi persecution of the Jews.”

2000: The judge in the trial of 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel eight of whom have pleaded guilty said today he “will issued a verdict in the case on July 1.

2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Edward the Caresser: The Playboy Prince Who Became Edward VIIby Stanley Weintraub and Frontiers of Legal Theory by Richard Posner.

2002:”President Bush demands that the Palestinian Authority’s first step to peace begins with democratic accountability, economic reforms, and immediate cooperation in ending terrorist acts.”

2002: President Bush unveils his “vision of two states living side by side in peace and security as the key to peace, and to the roadmap as the route to get there.”

2003: “Five Israeli Arabs were charged today with funneling an estimated $10 million to the Islamic group Hamas, marking a rare instance in which leading Israeli Arabs have been accused of links to militant Palestinian movements.”

2003:As the United States pressed an ambitious effort to cement Middle East peace diplomacy with economic reform and free trade, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell urged the Palestinians and Israelis today not to ''blow up the road map,'' the newest set of peace proposals.”

2004(5thof Tammuz, 5764): Ninety-seven year old Olga Rubinow Lurie “a child psychologist and specialist in the emotional health of children,” the wife of Walter A. Lurie and the daughter of “Dr. I. M. Rubinow, noted authority on and advocate for Social Security” passed away today.

2004: Elie Wiesel was awarded the Grand Cross of Merit of the Republic of Hungary by the nation’s president today. (Eight years later the Jewish Holocaust survivor and author would repudiate the award after accusing Hungary of “whitewashing tragic, criminal episodes.”

2005: Closing session of Security Israel - The 19thannual International Homeland Security Exhibition.

2005(17th of Sivan, 5765): Paul Winchell passed away at the age of 82.  Born Paul Wilchin had a successful career as a ventriloquist and “voice actor.”  Television audiences from the 1950’s will remember him and his two wooden-headed sidekicks – Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smif.  Winchell never moved his lips.  One of his best comic bits was drinking a glass of water while Jerry Mahoney kept “talking.” (As reported by Adam Bernstein)


2005: Release date for “Bewitched” directed and co-produced by Nora Ephron with a script by Salk Saks, Nora Ephron and Delia Ephron.

2005(17thof Sivan, 5765): Ninety-six year old Yedida Shofet the former Chief Rabbi of Iran passed away in Los Angeles.

2006:  In an article entitled “Another Page from an Epic Chapter,”Danny Rubinstein reviewed   Mihutz laofek, mi'ever larehov (Beyond the Horizon, Across the Street) by Hanoch Bartov.


2007: The opening game of the Israel Baseball League’s season takes place with the Modi’in Miracle facing the Petach Tikva Pioneers at Yarkon Sports Complex in Petah Tikva.  This is not just the first game of the season, it is the first professional baseball game played in Israel.

2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of Travis Holland’s first novel, The Archivist’s Story which revolves around the fate of the Russian-Jewish short-story master Isaac Babel, author of the inimitable Red Cavalry tales. The New York Times also reviewed The Years of Extermination: Nazi Germany and the Jews, 1939-1945 by Saul Friedländer. This is the second volume of Friedlander’s two-volume history of “Nazi Germany and the Jews.” The first volume, published in 1997 was entitled The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939. In these volumes, Friedländer convincingly challenges the view that the Holocaust was simply the result of bureaucrats doing what they were told.

2007: The Los Angeles Times reviewed Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger.

2008: In Washington, D.C. at the National Press Club Attorney Ted Sorensen, a trusted adviser to President John F. Kennedy, discusses and signs his new memoir, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History. When asked about his religious, this native of Lincoln, Nebraska this son of a Unitarian lawyer of Danish lineage and a mother of Russian-Jewish descent responded that  “under Jewish law I am Jewish, but I consider myself Unitarian.”

2008(21st of Sivan, 5768): Ninety year old Leonid Hurwicz, the Nobel Prize winning economist passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)


2008:Sotheby's in Israel conducted an auction that was a fund-raiser for IsrALS, the local organization benefiting sufferers of the degenerative disease ALS.

2008: The Jewish Agency for Israel wrapped up a meeting of its boards of governors facing a shortfall of $20 million to $30 million in the current fiscal year and a gap of $45 million for next year’s budget caused by the steady decline of the value of the American dollar. 

2008: Three Kassam rockets hit the western Negev this afternoon, in a second violation of a cease-fire between Hamas and the Israeli government.  One of the rockets damaged a house in Sderot.

2009: Canadian born actress Neve Campbell returned to television in a starring role on NBC's The Philanthropist. The descendant of Sephardic Jews who converted to Catholicism, Campbell has said, "I am a practicing Catholic, but my lineage is Jewish, so if someone asks me if I'm Jewish, I say yes"

2009: David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, signs copies of his new book, Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East which was written with Ambassador Dennis Ross, special adviser to the secretary of state for the Gulf and Southwest Asia) at Politics and Prose in Washington, D.C.

2009: Bernard-Henri Lévy posted “a video on Dailymotion in support of the Iranian protesters who were being repressed after the contested elections.”

2010: The sixth season of “Futurama” starring Katey Sagal as “Leela” began airing today.

2010: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present a book signing and discussion feature Eric Metaxes author of the newly released Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy.” Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

2010: Seventy-three year old Ben Sonnenberg the founder of the literary quarterly Grand Street passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)


2011: Downtown Shabbat featuring Robyn Helzner and Cantor Larry Paul is scheduled to take place at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.

2011: Stephen M. Saland, “a Republican member of the New York State Senate, representing the 41st District voted for New York’s Marriage Equality Act today providing the decisive vote in the passage of the legislation – legislation he had opposed in December of 2009.

2011: “Ghost the Musical” for which Cassie “Levy originated the role of Molly Jensen” transferred “London’s West End at the Piccadilly Theatre.”

2011: The Hebrew Educational Alliance is scheduled to sponsor “Nashira! Let Us Sing”  followed by a community Shabbat Dinner.

2011: Congregation Shaarey Zedek and the Alliance for Jewish Education are scheduled to sponsor Shabbat in the Park in Birmingham, Michigan.

2011: The Obama administration is stepping up pressure on activists planning to challenge Israel's sea blockade of the Gaza Strip, warning that they will face action from Israeli authorities and that American participants may also be violating U.S. law.

2011: The first Citizenship Ceremony was held in Dublin Castle. The ceremon “where new citizens swear an oath to the state and obtain their certificate of citizenship” was the creation of Irish political leader Alan Joseph Shatter.

2011: According to today’s New Jersey Star Ledger, “Last week, the fledgling group,” Better Education For Kids co-founded by David Tepper, “launched a one million dollar campaign to advertise its mission and solicit donations.”

2012: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including HHhH, Laurent Binet’s novel about the Nazi monster Reinhard Heydrich and the two Czechoslovakian war heroes who set out to assassinate him – “Jozef Gab¿ík, a Slovak, and Jan Kubiš, a Czech, both soldiers who made their way to England after their nation was overrun by Hitler.”

2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Mission to Paris by Alan Furst, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery by Witold Pilecki, Hitler by A. N. Wilson and As Consciousness Is Harnessed To Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980 by Susan Sontag. 

2012: The American Conference of Cantors-Guild of Temple Musicians' Convention is scheduled to pen in Portland, OR.

2012: HAZAK is scheduled to sponsor a docent led tour of the Columbus Museum of Art which will include a visit to the Lod Mosaic Exhibit.

2012: The League for Yiddish and YIVO Institute are scheduled to sponsor a program in memory of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter Z"L. during which Dr. Kalman Weiser of York University, Toronto, will speak on "Max Weinreich's Attitude to American Jews and the Beginnings of Yiddish Studies at American Universities in the 1940s.".

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at solo recital in Teaneck, NJ as part of the Classical Sunday Concert series.

2012: Dr. Bob & Laurie Silber celebrate 39 years of wedded bliss

2012: Five mortar bombs landed in the Eshkol Regional Council, ending several hours of rare calm in the south. One of the bombs fell near a community dining room and another other two in an open area. No damage and injuries were reported. Earlier today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to hit back at Gaza for any infraction of the truce.

2012: French police said they were investigating death threats made against the country’s chief rabbi. Polices said that they are looking for people connected to a photomontage disseminated through Facebook which shows Rabbi Gilles Bernheim with a revolver pointing at his head. The picture shows Bernheim wearing a Star of David on his forehead. (As reported by Times of Israel staff)

2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said tonight that Israel would respect the democratic process and the results of the vote in Egypt. Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi was declared a winner of a run-off vote for president of the country today, the first civilian and democratically elected person to hold the title. Israel had expressed fears that an Egypt ruled by the hard-line Islamist Brotherhood would undo the peace treaty between the countries and lead to frostier relations with Cairo. Netanyahu’s statement seemed designed to iterate the importance of keeping to the three-decade old peace agreement.

2012: “The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess” which opened in January is scheduled to have its final performance today at the Richard Rodgers Theatre in Manhattan.


2013: The Center for Jewish History and the Jewish Women’s Archives are scheduled to present “Bread and Roses, Too” a panel discussion about the role of Jewish women in the early labor movement.

2013: In San Diego, CA, the Center for Jewish Culture is schedule to host “The Merchant of Venice: What is it About Shylock and the Jews?” featuring Barry Edelstein, Artistic Director of the Old Globe and Associate Producer of NYC’s Public Theatre’s recent Broadway production of The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino

 2013: The 29thAnnual Conference of the Association for Israel Studies is scheduled to open today in Los Angeles, CA

2013: Friends and family celebrate the 40th Wedding Anniversary of Dr. Bob and Laurie Silber.

2013: The hotly debated “Prawer bill,” regulating Beduin settlements in the Negev narrowly passed in its first Knesset reading Monday, with 43 in favor and 40 opposed. (As reported by Lahav Harkov and Ariel Ben Solomon)

2013: At least 6 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards southern Israel very early this morning.  Two of the rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system.  The other rockets landed without causing any injuries.  The areas that were hit include Rahat, in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council, Be’er Sheva and the Lachish Regional Council. Three more rockets were fired toward the Ashkelon area. (As reported by Lori Lowenthal Marcus)

2014: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to host Marina Cantacuzino who will talk about The Forgiveness Project and “forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution.”

2014: “Big Bad Wolves” which was nominated for 11 Israeli Academy Awards is scheduled to be shown at the Portland (OR) Jewish Film Festival.

2014: “A draft of one of the most popular songs of all time, Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” sold today for $2 million, which the auction house called a world record for a popular music manuscript.”


2014: “Four rockets were fired from Gaza Strip at Israel this evening, prompting the IAF to return fire and attack Gaza terror targets.” (As reported by Matan Tzuri)

2014: “Rachel Fraenkel, the mother of kidnapped teen Naftali Fraenkel, pleaded for international assistance to secure the release of her son and fellow captives Eyal Yifrach and Gil-ad Shaar, at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva” today. (As reported by Marissa Newman)


2014: Dr. Michael Steinlauf is scheduled to leave JFK today as he leads a tour of “Jewish Poland” sponsored by Gratz College.

2014: As he sought to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from New York’s 1st district, Lee Zeldin won the Republican Primary today.

2014: A French court drops its lawsuit against Dieudonné M’bala M’bala, ruling the French comedian’s video mocking the Holocaust doesn’t constitute hate speech. (Europe’s notoriously strict hate speech laws regulate Holocaust denial as well as “racially or religiously discriminatory expression”.) (As reported by Stephanie Butnick)

2014(26th of Sivan, 5774): Ninety-eight year old actor Eli Wallach whose sixty year acting career on both stage in screen encompassed a wide variety of roles including, oddly enough, the role of the villainous  Mexican bandito in the macho cult classic “The Magnificent Seven.”



2015: Today, President Obama signed an Executive Order, in the presence of the” family of Steve Sotloff of blessed memory “and other hostage families, for a broad overhaul regarding how it handles U.S. hostages held abroad by groups such as ISIS,”

2015: “Israel canceled permission for hundreds of residents of Gaza to enter Jerusalem to pray during Ramadan in Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam, after rocket fire from the coastal enclave, Israeli officials said” today.

2015: In Cedar Rapids, IA, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet at Temple Judah where attendees will discuss The Midwife of Veniceby Roberta Rich.

2015: Hadassah Associates of Hadassah Greater Washington is scheduled to host a charity Golf Outing in support of Hadassah’s Men's Health Initiative.

2015: Steve Gimble, author of Einstein: His Space and Times is scheduled to talk about the famous scientist at the National Museum of American Jewish History.

2016: This evening Shoshana Dembitz and Abigail Grafton “hosted a Shabbat dinner, during which their extended families met for the first time.”

2016: The “6th Annual International Cybersecurity Conference, also known as Cyber Week…organized by Tel Aviv University’s Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center, together with the Israeli National Cyber Bureau and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs” is scheduled to come to an end today.

2016: “Three Kinds Words,” a “dramedy about three Jewish Israeli siblings” is scheduled to be shown at the Lincoln Plaza Cineman.

2016: “Septembers of Shiraz,” “a film about a prosperous Jewish family in Iran caught up in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the Shah, based on Dalia Sofer’s well-received 2007 novel of the same name and which used her own family’s experiences as source material” is scheduled to “officially open a commercial run in New York and Los Angeles” today.


2017(30th of Sivan, 5777): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2017(30th of Sivan, 5777): Seventy-three year old Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz, the founder of ArtScroll Mesorah, the dominate force in Jewish texts and husband of Rachel Zlotowitz with whom he had eight children including Ira, “the founder and President of Eastern Union Funding,” passed away today. (As reported by Joseph Berger)


2017: “Several mortar shells exploded in an open area in the Golan Heights near the border with Syria” this afternoon “leading to retaliatory air strikes.”

2017: Today “three women were kicked out of the Chicago Dyke March for carrying rainbow flags emblazoned with Jewish stars.”

2017: In Marseille, “a group of half a dozen women read the Torah at the Fleg Jewish.

2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat lunch following service for those “still around in 9th week.”

2017: “The Sounds,” a four week long classical musical festival is scheduled to end today in Israel.

2018: “The American Sephardi Federation and Caminos De Sefarad: Red de Juderías de España are scheduled to present a pop-up photographic exhibition on Spain’s formerly Jewish Quarters” during an evening that will also feature a presentation by Doreen Alhadeff, a member of Seattle’s Sephardic community, who was one of the first to be recognized under Spain’s Sephardic citizenship law, as well as a Spanish kosher wine tasting.”

2018: In Manchester, UK, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Zuzana: Music is Life” a film based on the life of harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova, who survived “three concentration camps, including Auschwitz.”

2018: In a testament to the vitality of small-town Jewish life, in Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to hold its Sisterhood Mitzvah Brunch.

2018: The Yotam Ben-Or Quartet is scheduled “to celebrate the release of their debut album in NYC” at the Cornelia Street Café.

2018: “Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World,” an exhibit featuring black and white portraits of human rights defender from the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist” is scheduled to close today at the Illinois Museum and Education Center.

2018: The photographic exhibition “Bedouin and Arab Israeli Communities in the Negev” which is part of the “Home: Lens on Israel” series, at the Temple Emanuel Streicker Center is scheduled to come to an end today.

2018: The United States government continues to sort out the issue of re-uniting the children of illegal immigrants with their parents following a change in a policy reportedly championed by White House official and Trump supporter Stephen Miller, whose Yiddish speaking family had come to the United States in the early 20th century “to escape the anti-Semitic pogroms in the Russian Empire.”

2018: “The Maimonides Scholars Program is scheduled to open at Yale University.




2018: “The 2018 Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremonies are scheduled to take place this afternoon, at American Jewish University in West Los Angeles.”

http://scjewishsportshof.com/home.html

2019: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “In the ‘Freud Laboratory’: The Yiddish Translation and Reception of Psychoanalysis” a talk that “explores the intersection between the linguistic architecture of modern Jewish psyche, in which Yiddish and other Jewish languages lie "deeper" than European tongues, and Freud's stratified notion of the psyche.”

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of the documentary “Inside the Mossad.”

2019: Turkish Film Week is scheduled to come to an end at the Jerusalem Cinematheque

2020: The Columbus Jewish Film Festival in Celebration of Andrew Ethan Stern, is scheduled to present a virtual screening of the film “Standing Up, Falling Down,” starring Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz.

2020: Israelis are scheduled to begin paying a NIS 500 for failing a face mask in public, up from the previous amount of NIS 200.

2020: The Combined Jewish Philanthropies are scheduled to host, online, “Jewish Views of Perfecting the World.”

2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host online, Ian H. Solomon and Ilana Kaufman as they discuss “Building on Shared Dreams.”

2020: The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a livestream conversation and concert featuring Joey Weisenberg as part of the Songs of Our People, Songs of Our Neighbors series.

2020: ASF Broom & Allen Fellow, researcher, writer, and performer Dr. Vanessa Paloma Elbaz is scheduled to present Sephardi Judeo-Espagnole: Threads Across the Strait, part of the multi-part series The Music of North Africa.














This Day, June 25, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 25

615: The revolt began in Jerusalem again Khosrau II, the Persian Shah who was “was the last great king of the Sasanian Empire.”

1080: The Antipope Clement III who “protested strongly when Emperor Henry IV permitted Jews who had become converted to Christianity during the anti-Jewish riots of the First Crusade to revert to Judaism” began his papacy today.

1218: Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, who expelled the Jews from Leicester, died.

1221 Although the Archbishop of Canterbury forbade anti-Jewish riots in Erfurt, Germany, they continued unabated. A group of religious 'pilgrims' on their way to the Holy Land attacked the Jewish quarter burning two synagogues. Some 26 Jews were killed and others threw themselves into the fire rather than be forcibly converted.

1240: In Paris, a commission that was making an inquiry into the nature of the Talmud with a specific interest in alleged derogatory comments about Jesus began its deliberation.



1240: “A public disputation” opened at the Court of Louis IX in the presence of Queen-Mother Blanche between Parisian Talmudist Rabbi Yechiel and Nicholas Donin, an apostate who wanted all copies of the Talmud to be burned.  (He would get his way in 1244 when 24 cartloads of the sacred text were burned)



1477: At Ferrara, Italy, Abraham die Tintori completed printing Tur Yorch De’ah a work of halacha by Jacob ben Asher. Born in Cologne in 1269 he was known as the Ba’al ha-Turim, the Master of the Rows. His works were divided in four turim or rows.  The term probably comes from the tur or row of Jewels on the breastplate of the High Priest described in the Torah.  According to sketchy information he lived in Chios, Greece before arriving at Toledo where he reportedly passed away in 1343.



1539: Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg acceded to the request of Josel von Rosheim and allowed the Jews to “settle in Margraviate again.

1608: Today Mattias, who acceded to the wishes of the Dutch and “established religious peace” in their provinces which helped to turn the Netherlands into a place of refuge for the Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal, became Archduke of Austria and King of Hungary and Croatia.

1629:  Rabbi Yom Tov Lipman Heller set out for Vienna to face baseless accusations that he had abused his powers as Chief Rabbi of Prague when raising funds demanded by the government to help pay for fighting the Thirty Years War.

1644: Lope de Vera (Judah the Believer) was drawn to Judaism by the outrages of the Inquisition. He converted, and during his confinement in prison, he circumcised himself with a bone. He was then burned for refusing to yield to the Inquisition.

1656: Rabbi Menashe Ben Yisrael applied for official permission to practice Judaism in England. The Council of State granted permission. This took place during the period when Oliver Cromwell was in effect the ruler of England. Cromwell and his followers were devout Christians. The agreed to the readmission of the Jews to England because it was pointed out to them that the Second Coming could not take place until Jews populated all parts of the world.

1756: Provincial Governor Sir Charles Hardy confirms the last will and testament of Abraham Mendes Seixas. The will had been translated from Portuguese into English.

1784: The Jewish Benevolent Society of South Carolina, the oldest Jewish charitable organization in the United States, was founded today.

1788: Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution making it the tenth state to enter the Union.  Virginia was of the states that had purged itself of religious qualifications prior to joining the new republic.  In 1784 James Madison led the forces that defeated a move to make Christianity the official religion of Virginia.  In 1786, Jefferson and Madison joined forces “to secure passage of a law which removed religious discrimination in Virginia.

1791: In London, Michael and Judith Samson gave birth to Benjamin Samson who would not survive to celebrate his first birthday.

1800: Jacob Hyam Nathan married Polly Isaacs at the Great Synagogue in the UK.

1807: Mr. R.J. Ricardo and Miss Sarah Hyams, both of Charleston, SC, were married this evening.

1827: Protestant theologian Johann Gottfried Eichorn who “has been called ‘the founder of modern Old Testament criticism’” passed away today.

1828: Jones Spyer married Grace Josephs at the Great Synagogue in the UK.

1831(14thof Tammuz, 5591): Parashat Balak

1831(14thof Tammuz, 5591): Eighty-four year old Rebecca Mendes Phillips, the Reading, PA born daughter of David Mendez Machado and Zipporah Nunez and the wife Jonas Phillips who later became “one of the founding members of the Female Association for Relief of Women and Children in Reduced Circumstance” and a “director of the Female Benevolent Society, the first Jewish charity in America unrelated to a synagogue” passed away tod

1834: Frederick Hart married Rebecca Hart at the Great Synagogue in the UK.

1836: Birthdate of German-Jewish poet Friederike Kempner,


1839: Birthdate of William Myers, a resident of the United Kingdom.

1844: The Jews of Mobile, Alabama, who had been meeting in private homes for the last three years formed a congregation that adopted a constitution and by-laws and titled itself "Sha'arai Shomayim U-Maskil El Dol," which is Hebrew for "Congregation of the Gates of Heaven and Society of the Friends of the Needy." Within a year the congregation hired its first rabbi – Benjamin da Silva – and had its first home on St. Emanuel Street.

1846(1stof Tammuz, 5605): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1850: Following the British blockade of the port of Piraeus as part of the response to Greece’s abuse of David Pacifico, Foreign Minister Lord Palmerston who had defended this “man of Jewish persuasion” today “made a celebrated speech (June 25, 1850) which concluded that all British subjects ought to be able to say, as did citizens of ancient Rome, "Civis Romanus sum" ("I am a citizen of Rome"), and thereby receive protection from the British government.”

1851: Adolphus Simeon Solomons who “was a moving force in helping to establish the American Red Cross” “married Rachel Seixas Phillips, a descendant of colonial patriot families. They had eight daughters and a son.”

1852: Three days after he passed away, 26 year old Leo Meyer was buried today at the Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.

1856: “The Way they treat the Jew in England” published today reports that “The statesman who undertakes in England to bring forward a measure for the admission of the Jews to the same rights and privileges enjoyed by other citizens of that country, simply dooms himself to the Sisyphean labor of rolling up each year to the House of Lords a measure which is quietly rolled hack again.”

1857: At Berirth Shalom Congregation, Rabbi Jacobs officiated at the wedding of Mr. Iszair and Miss Ann Mintz.

1858: “The Jew Bill in Parliament – Prospect of a Concession” published today spoke approvingly of a compromise proposed by Lord Lucan.  His compromise would allow the Lords and the Commons to each adopt their own wording for the Oath of Office to be used by those members who, for religious or other reasons, could not use the current form of the oath. In effect, Lord Lucan’s compromise would permit either the two Houses of Parliament to admit Jews by resolution.  Since the Commons favors the admission of Jews and the Lords opposes their right to sit in Parliament, Lucan’s compromise would get the supporters of the “Jew Bill” half way to their destination.  The compromise was withdrawn because the members of the Commons objected to it.  If they had not, it appears that sufficient numbers of the Lords would have voted for it even though they object to Jews serving in either house of the English legislature.

1861(17thof Tammuz, 5621): Tzom Tammuz

1861: Thirty-eight year old Abdülmecid I, the 31st Sultan of the Ottoman Empire passed away. The Sultan carried out reforms begun by his fathers which among other things allowed Jews to assume positions of importance as can be seen by the appoint of Dr. Spitzer to serve as the representative at Naples.  This progress was marred by “accusations of the blood libel in Syria and Rhodes which were part of the Ottoman Empire.

1862: Joel Solomon married Matilda Hart today in the UK.

1864: Charles I began his reign as the king of Württemberg during which he bought on the wooden models of the Temple Mount created by Conrad Schick, the “German architect, archaeologist and Protestant missionary who settled in Jerusalem in October of 1846.  Schick “designed the Mea Shearim neighborhood” and his home, Tabor House “is today considered one of Jerusalem’s most beautiful buildings.” (Moshe Gilad)

1865: Birthdate of Julius Hess the native of Lithuania who served as a rabbi for several Midwestern congregations while living in St. Louis which was his family’s home.

1866: Charles and Johanna Wessolowsky gave birth to Julius M. Wessolowsky.

1870: Birthdate of Helena Rubinstein, one of the creators of the American cosmetics industry.

1871: The Jewish Messenger complained that while there were a number of wealthy Jews in America who were “good men and true” they seemed to be more interested in making money than they were in taking part in projects to promote the civic good.  The Messenger compared the behavior of the Americans with that of their European counter-parts who were “prominent in all public matter – whether to relieve the poor or honor the rich; to rect a statue to the living or a monument to the dead.”

1872: In New York Isidor Straus and the former Rosalie Ida Blun gave birth to Jesse I. Straus, the Macy’s executive and husband of Irma Nathan who “served as the American Ambassador to France from 1933 to 1936.”

1873: In St. Louis, MO, Charles Bienenstok and Sarah Davis gave birth to Montefiore Bienenstok, a reporter for the St. Louis Star and editor of The Owl and the author of “short accounts about the Jews of St. Louis” as well as a novel on a Jewish theme who also served as “Assistant Secretary of the Jewish Charitable and Educational Union, Manager of the Free Employment Bureau of the United Jewish Charities and Secretary of the Home for Aged and Infirm Israelites.”

1875: In Gutenberg, Germany, Isidor Straus and Rosalie Ida Blun gave birth to Jesse Isidor Straus, scion of the famous Straus department store family who served as FDR’s first Ambassador to France in 1933.



1875: According to a report published today there are more Jews living in London today than living in Palestine.



1875: The Jewish Messenger lamented the lack of involvement by “Israelite” men in the affairs of the community, especially when it came to better of civic activity and attempts to improve the lot of the less fortunate.  The paper feels that Jewish men are “good men and true” who are willing to contribute their money to worthy causes.  But they are apparently are too busy amassing wealth to give of themselves and their time.  This is the opposite of the case in Europe where wealthy Jews give both their time and money to causes that benefit both the Jewish community and the general society as well.



1876: The Home and Foreign Events column published today reported that "nine Jewish ministers of this City have united to call the attention of their people to the 'growing evil or extravagance and displays at funerals."  They suggest a return 'the simplicity by which Jewish funerals were formerly characterized,' and that costly caskets and expensive floral displays be dispensed with.



1876: George Geiger, a Jewish Sergeant from Cincinnati fought with distinction at the Battle of the Little Big Horn today.  According to the commendation he received for the Medal of Honor. "With 3 comrades during the entire engagement courageously held a position that secured water for the command"



1876: The Home and Foreign Events column published today reported that "The Jews of Khiva, it is said, observe very strictly the feasts and ceremonies of the Jewish religion." [Khiva is a city in Uzbekistan.]



1876: “Justice in Persia” published today contained examples of the lack of Justice available to the residents of this ancient country including a Jewish silversmith in Isfahan whose house “had been broken into and plundered by servants of the Governor” claiming that they were going to take him “before the Prince to answer a case in which a Persian” claimed he was really owed this money.”

1879: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the wedding of Frances E. Goldsmith and Rabbi E.S. Levy of Augusta, GA. (David Levy and E.S. Levy would serve as visiting rabbis for the congregation in Sumter, SC which could not afford a full time clergyman).

1881: “Paris and Politics” published today described a benefit in the French capital sponsored by Baroness Rothschild to raise funds for the suffering “Israelites of Kiev and Elizabethgrad.” Russia.

1882: During today’s session of the hearing investigating the sanity of Samuel Obrieght, his brother Dr. Max, L. Obreight described half dozen attempts by Samuel to commit suicide including taking strychnine, attempting to jump over Niagara Falls and trying to cut his throat.  Obreight’s family did not move to commit him until he jilted his Jewish fiancée and married a young Christian girl whom he had just met.

1882: In Elizabeth, NJ, founding of Congregation B’nai Israel which holds services at nine o’clock on Saturday morning, uses the Nak Lane Cemetery in Clinton Township and is home to both the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the a ladies auxiliary called the Daughters of Israel.

1883: Mayor Nathan Barnet got into a scuffle with a Republican Alderman at tonight’s meeting of the Aldermanic License Committee in Paterson, NJ. Barnet, a Jew born in Pozen is a Democrat won election in April of 1883.

1884: Birthdate of British novelist of Gilbert Cannan who was a friend and patron of Mark Gertler and the subject of his “Gilbert Cannan at his Mill.”

1884: “Jew-Baiting in Russia” published today described an attack by Christians on the Jews of Nizhnee-Novogrod after reports that a Jew had kidnapped a Christian child and taken it to the local synagogue. An untold number of Jews were injured in this latest version of the blood libel and nine were murdered.

1884: In Germany, “Herman and Rosa Frandenfelder Badman gave birth to Theodore Badman, the Eton educated “real estate and insurance agent’ who was active in the Democratic Party and “President of the Manhattan Washington Lodge of the B’nai B’rith and of the Free Sons of Israel Lodge.”

1886: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is collecting funds to provide poor children and their mothers with summer day trips out of New York City.  Contributions can be sent to John J. Davis at the office of the Hebrew Journal on East 14th Street.

1888: “Jew and Catholic United” published today described the marriage of Joseph J. Herrmann (Catholic) and Bertha Cahn (Jewish) in New Orleans.  Rabbi Emile Hirsch of Chicago performed the ceremony since the rabbis in the Crescent City refused to do so.

1888: It was reported today that Orphan Asylum of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society is caring for 575 youngsters, 400 of whom are boys and 175 are girls.  The boys are housed at building on 11th Avenue while the girls are housed at a building on 87thStreet near the East River.

1890: Birthdate of Odessa native and NYU Bellevue College of Medicine trained retenologist and diagnostician Dr. Isaac Glassman, the husband of “the former Celia Margolin” and “author of many papers on X-ray techniques and gastro-intestinal procedures.”

1891: “Too Many and Too Mighty” published today takes issue with the list of the reasons given by the Russian government for its treatment of the Jews contending that “cruel restrictive laws…have made the Hebrews in the Czar’s dominions what they are.”

1891: “Wants To Fight Tammany” published today described the decision of New York attorney William A. Gans who had served as the President of the B’nai B’rith to ally himself with Julius Harburger in the fight against the Democratic machine.

1891: Point 14 of the platform of the Iowa Democratic Party published today included an expression for the support of Russian Jews.  “We abhor the persecutions of Russia toward the Jewish people and we believe that all civilized nations should protest against such barbarism and inhumanity.

1892: The new sanitarium for Jewish children is scheduled to open today at Rockaway Park.

1892: The Jews of Paris send condolences to the family of Armand Meyer, the Jewish French military officer who was killed in a duel brought on by the Marquis de Mores, a noted anti-Semite. Authorities take extra precaution because they fear violence by the Jews.  The reality is that the Jews have been the victims of attacks, something which does not bother these same officials.

1892: “The French Duel” published today described the role of “an anti-Semitic journal in Paris” which deliberately goads Jews into fighting duels with the swashbuckling swordsman the Marquis de Mores who at least on one occasion has killed his Jewish opponent.

1892: The Berlin Board of Alderman passed a resolution “calling upon the police to suppress the sale of indecent pamphlets assailing the Jews.”

1893: All the students at the Jewish Theological Seminary including the members of the senior, junior and preparatory classes underwent final exams today.

1893: “French Views of Russia” published today provided a detailed review of The Empire of the Tsars and The Russians by Anatole Leroy-Beauliue which warns that “Western readers cannot apply to Russia rules and notions which prevail in the West” because Russia belongs “to the Europe of three or four centuries ago.

1894: Governor Flower appointed Edward Jacobs, a New York lawyer who was the brother of the Joseph Jacobs both of whom were active in the Jewish community, to serve as the new Quarantine Commissioner.

1894: Birthdate of Dimitar Peshev “the Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of Bulgaria and Minister of Justice before World War II” who “rebelled against the pro-Nazi cabinet and prevented the deportation of Bulgaria's 48,000 Jews and was bestowed the title of "Righteous Among the Nations".

1894(21st of Sivan, 5654): Sixty-eight year old Wilhelm Diamant, the husband of Johanna Theres Diament and the son of Johanna and Hermann Diamant passed away today in Budapest.

1894: The Hog and the Ass” published today described the ancient Roman belief on why Jews do not eat pigs. Even though Pompey and the soldiers of Titus saw that there was no representation of the Divinity when they entered the Temple, Romans still believed that “Jews worshipped clouds, celestial bodies and animals” among them the Hog or Pig.  They deduced that since the Jews were forbidden from eating Hogs or even, in the Talmud, from owning them, the Jews must worship this animal and the prohibition about consuming it had do with not consuming their “god.”

1894: “Last of Great Jewish Generals” published today provided a detailed review of Judas Maccabaeus and the Jewish War of Independence by Calude Reignier Conder. This edition is an improvement over the first one published by Major Condor fifteen years ago because the author has been to Moab and Gilead in his role as the head of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

1894: Annie Cohen Kopchovsky’s, known as Annie Londonderry,adventure began with a bet. In 1894, a gentleman in Boston bet another gentleman, $20,000 against $10,000, that no woman could travel around the world by bicycle, a feat that had been completed for the first time by a man in 1885. Although it is not clear why she was chosen, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky set out from Boston, to attempt the journey. Married and a mother of three children under age six; she was an unlikely choice but a good example of the ways that the bicycle was transforming women's lives. Besides providing women with a respectable form of independent transportation, the popularity of the bicycle led to changes in women's dress, for example, as bloomers replaced unwieldy and inconvenient full skirts.

1896: In New York, a body of a young man who would later be identified as 25 year old Simon Mischel an unmarried Jew residing on Delancey Street was found floating in the Clyde River.

1896: A summary of the United Hebrew Charities activity report the month of May published today showed that 3,355 had applied for aid and that over $12,000 had been spent in meeting their needs and the needs of previous applicants.  The organization found work for 538 people and provided transportation for an additional 157 people to travel to other parts of the United States.

1897: Rabbi Isaac Ruff wrote Declaration versus Declaration which appeared in today’s issue of Die Welt. This was defense of Herzl who had been attacked by the anti-Zionist “Protest Rabbis.”

1897: In an example of Jew supporting Jew it was reported today that the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band had provided the musical program at the recent graduating exercises for the students of the Hebrew Technical Institute.

1897: Two days after he passed away, David Jewell was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1897: “Jacob Scholle’s Bequests” published today contained a list of the charities that were to receive $2, 500 according to the late bankers will including the Montefiore Home, Mount Sinai Hospital, Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Home for  Aged and Infirm Hebrews and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of San Francisco.

1898(5th of Tammuz, 5658): Seventy year old Ferdinand Julius Cohn “one of the founders of modern bacteriology and microbiology” passed away today.


1899: It was reported today that officers of the newly formed Orthodox Hebrew Society are President - Dr. Bernard Drachman, the Rabbi of Congregation Zichron Ephraim and Vice President Max Cohen, a New York attorney.  The Society was formed to promote traditional Jewish observance in the face of the growing popularity of the Reform Movement.

1899: In London, Herzl takes part in the Conference of the English Zionist Federation. Herzl says that he wants to obtain a Charter from the Turkish government, in order to colonize Palestine under the sovereignty of the Sultan. The conference ends on July 1st.

1899: “The Jews of Germany” published today described the “continuing Jew-baiting crusade” being conducted by Count Puckler.  During his lectures in Berlin he “invited his audience to wage a merciless was on ‘godless, lying, thievish Jews.’”

1899:”Fears that Dreyfus May Be Assassinated” published today described precautions being taken at Rennes where the court-martial of the French officer is taking place including placing “Gendarmes…at every corner” and the testing of all food supplied to him by his jailers before it is eaten.

1899: “France’s New Cabinet and its Peculiar Composition” published today described the difficulty that Gallic politicians are having in forming a new government in the wake of the ongoing crisis surrounding the Dreyfus Affair.

1900: Birthdate of Philip Montagu D’Arcy Hart, the grandson of the 1stBaron Swayting, the husband of gynecologist Ruth Meyer and father of economist Oliver Hart who was a leading researcher in the field of tuberculosis treatment.


1900: In New York City, David Eichler and Anna Strauss gave birth to real estate developer Joseph Eichler.


1900: Birthdate of Moses Hadas, an American teacher, one of the leading classical scholars of the twentieth century, and a translator of numerous works. Raised in Atlanta in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Jewish household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1926) and took his doctorate in classics in 1930. He was fluent in Yiddish, German, ancient Hebrew, ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian, and well-versed in other languages. His most productive years were spent at Columbia University, where he was a colleague of Jacques Barzun and Lionel Trilling. There, he took his talent for languages, combined it with a popularizing impulse, to buck the prevailing classical methods of the day—textual criticism and grammar—presenting classics, even in translation, as worthy of study as literary works in their own right. This approach may be compared to the New Criticism school: even as the New Critics emphasized close reading, eschewing outside sources and cumbersome apparatus, Hadas, in presenting classical works in translation to an influx of post-war G.I. Bill students, brought forth an appreciation of his domain for those without the specialized training of classicists. His popularizing impulse led him to embrace television as a tool for education, becoming a telelecturer and a pundit on broadcast television. He also recorded classical works on phonograph and tape. His daughter Rachel Hadas is a poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. He passed away in 1966.

1901: Eighty-seven year old Charles Kensington Salaman who passed away two days ago, was described today as “the oldest living English composer” who, in the last years of his life was best “known as the man who alone of living men, knew many of the great masters of composition of the early part of the nineteenth century.” This meant that that the late Jewish composer knew Mendelssohn, Listz, Schumann, Mayerbeer and Wagner (and a whole lot more)

1902(20th of Sivan, 5662) Samuel Edward Shrimski the native of Prussia who moved to London in 1847, then to Melbourne in 1859 before settling in New Zealand in 1861 where he became a Member of Parliament died suddenly today. In addition to supporting many secular institutions he was “vice president of the Otago branch of the Anglo-Jewish Association.

1902: “Heir to the British Crown” published today described the qualifications of Prince George of Wales who in the event of King Edward’s death would take the throne and whose service in the Royal Navy took him to Jaffa and other parts of Palestine on journey that was memorable for the future monarch and the Jews he visited.

1903:  Birthdate of English author and social commentator George Orwell.  Orwell is best known for such works as “1984” and “Animal Farm.”  A lesser known work is his essay entitled “Anti-Semitism in Britain.”  First published in 1945, this short article examines the conditions of the Jewish population in Britain and calls for an examination of the causes of anti-Semitism now that World War II was coming to an end.

1903(30thof Sivan, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1904: In Denver, CO, the Jewish Consumptive Relief Society which had been founded in January was officially incorporated today.

1904(12thof Tammuz, 5664): Parashat Chukat-Balak

1904: “Hebrew Terms Defined” published provides a complete review of the latest publication of The Guide for the Perplexed translated by Dr. Friedlander and published by E.P. Dutton and Company.

1904(12thof Tammuz, 5664): In Greenville, MS, sixty year old Edward Storm passed away.  Born in Berlin he moved to Mississippi and served in two Confederate cavalry units during the Civil War.

1905(22ndof Sivan,5665): “At Baluty, a suburb of Lodz, this morning Cossacks attacked a Jewish family of five persons who were driving in a cab to the railway station and shot and killed all of them as well as the cabman.”

1906: “Rabbi Abraham Orenstein chanted a hymn for the repose of the souls those killed at Bialystok” during a mass meeting at Congregation Anshe Bialystok many of whose members have lost relatives during the Bialystok massacres.

1906: In Berlin, “thousands of persons of all classes attended a meeting at the Tonhalle this evening to protest against the massacre of the Jews of Russia.”

1908: “In the course of the meeting a Reveal between the King and the Czar, the Jewish Chronicle reported that “an intimation was conveyed that a measure for ameliorating the conditions of the Jews in the Russian Empire had been for some time in contemplation.”

1909: Birthdate of Daniel Fuchs, a writer who was a product of the Lower East Side and Williamsburg which provided the backdrop of “three early novels – Summer in Willamsbrg, Homage to Blenholt and Low Company.

1909: Hebert Louis Samuel, the 1st Viscount Samuel began his term as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the government of Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith.

1910: Congress passed the Mann Act which was intended to curb prostitution, or as its supporters called “white slavery” a term George Kibbe Turner used “in a 1907 article in McClure's Magazine that  claimed a "loosely organized association... largely composed of Russian Jews" was the primary source of supply for Chicago brothels.

1911:  Birthdate of biochemist William Stein.  Stein won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1972. Jews have won 18% of the Nobel Prizes for Chemistry.  Stein died at the age of 68 in 1980.

1912: Birthdate of “Arnold Forster, an American Jewish leader, lawyer and writer who was a longtime executive of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.”

1912: The 12th annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary whose president was Jacob Kohn opened today in Tannersville, NY.

1913: In Cincinnati, Ohio, officers are elected at the American Zionists’ convention including Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore who is chosen to serve as Honorary President and Louis Lipsky who is chosen to serve as Chairman of the Executive Committee.

1913: In Springfield, Illinois, the annual conference of the American Association of Officials of Charities and Correction which Mortimer L. Schiff and Henry Solomon both of New York were delegates continued for a second day.

1913: In New York City, Harry and Anna Grossman gave birth to photographer and social activist Sid Grossman, the graduate of City College who co-founded the Photo League in 1934.


1914(1stof Tammuz, 5674): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1914: It was reported today that the late Isidor Wormser, a retired banker and automobile racing enthusiast was a member of the New York Stock Exchange up to the day of his death having kept is seat on the NYSE even after he had liquidated his business holdings.

1914: Birthdate of Newburyport, MA native Theresa Hilda Feldman who gained fame as Hilda Terry, one of the first female cartoonist and creator if “Teena” which ran for over almost a quarter of a century starting in 1941.




1915(13th of Tammuz, 5675): Hungarian born American pianist and composer Rafael Joseffy passed away.

1915: “In a long statement seeking to justify the use of asphyxiating gases in war-fare, the semi-official Wolff Telegraph Bureau assert in German newspaper…that the Allies first used such gases against the German.”  According to Wolff, the French had authorized use gas in February of 1915. [Like so many other agencies of this type, its ownership had Jewish origins.]

1915: Authorities believe that yesterday’s attack on Benny Snyder at the Tombs just before he was to appear in court was brought on by those who thought that he was going to provide the D.A. with information about criminal activities he had acquired while in jail.

1915: Delegates to the National Convention of Zionists are scheduled to begin registering this morning at the Old City Club building on Beacon Street in Boston while “official activities of the convention will actually begin in the evening at Temple MIshkan Tefila.”

1915: As the state of Georgia reels from the outgoing Governor’s decision to commute the death sentence of Leo Frank to life in prison, two regiments of the state militia are making their way to Atlanta to make sure that the inauguration of Governor-elect Nat Harris goes smoothly.

1916: Supreme Court Just Louis D. Brandeis is among the speakers who will address the “seven hundred delegates scheduled to attend the annual convention of the Federal of American Zionists opening today in the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia, PA.

1916: “Henry Morgenthau delivered an address in the Dickinson High School at Jersey City today to the movement for a Hebrew Orphan Asylum in Hudson County.”

1916: “A military organization” known as the First New York Volunteers “having as its nucleus men who allege they have been excluded from the New York National Guard because they were Jews” was formed at a meeting attended by more than fifty men and held today in the rooms of the Merchants’ Association in the Woolworth Building. The meeting was chaired by Max J. Klein who was assisted by Captain Lewis Landes, the Executive Secretary of the Army and Navy Branch of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.

1916: Today which has been designated as “Flower Day” many florists throughout New York City today “donated their wares to the Joint Distribution Committee for the Relief of Jewish War Suffers: while “more than 1,500 Jewish young men and women sold he flowers on the streets under the committee’s auspices.”

1917: The Italian government publishes a decree assuring that all 10,000 Lire ($2,000) of a bequest from Emilio Treves will be awarded as a prize upon publication of an Italian language manuscript to combat anti-Semitism.  

1917: After having lost the Welterweight Championship in 1916, Ted Lewis won it back in a bout at Westwood Field in Dayton, Ohio.

1917: This evening a reception for delegates at the Convention of the Federation of American Zionists is scheduled to be held at the Hotel Belvedere between Charles and Chase streets.

1917: In Cleveland, Ohio, after five years of service, Jacob Klein was unanimously elected to continue serving as the Rabbi of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun.



1918: Tache Ionescu stated today “that ever since August, 1914, it had been decided to settle the Jewish question and place the Jews in Romania on a footing of complete equality with their fellow-subjects.”

1918: The 21st Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionist continued for a third day in Pittsburgh, PA. where delegated learned that “the Jewish Legion of 8,000 men now fighting with British in Palestine is only the nucleus of a Jewish legion ten times as great that is to become that national standing army of the coming Jewish Republic.”

1918: The Intercollegiate Zionist Association of America whose members included Norman Winestine, Aaron Schaffer and Jonas Friedenwald held it is fourth annual convention today.


1919: The first national conference of the Religious Zionist Organization, Mizrachi, opens.

1919: In Brockton, MA, Rose Rosen “a Communist activist from the East of London” and her husband gave birth to Harold Rosen, the graduate of University College in London, U.S. Army veteran and “academic” at London University’s Institute of Education who was the husband of Connie Isakofsky with whom he had three children – Brian, Alan and Michael.


1920:Tonight,“the residents of the Young Women’s Hebrew Associaton” on 110th Street “attended Synagogue where a special service was held for their bellowed and revered Mrs. A. N. Chen whose loving devotion they shall” remember forever.

1920: The Jewish Chronicle reported on a meeting of the Board of Deputies where they discussed the disposition of the Cemetery at St. Heliers.

1920: In St Anne's-on-Sea, Lancashire, England, Maurice Copisarow “who in 1915 co-authored a paper on Chemistry with Chaim Weizmann” and his wife gave birth to Alcon Charles Copisarow who “held serveral Civil Service and other governmental posts” before being knighted in 1988.

1920: Birthdate of William H. Prusoff, a pharmacologist at the Yale School of Medicine who, with a colleague, developed an effective component in the first generation of drug cocktails used to treat AIDS.

1920: The sixth annual Tennis Tournament sponsored by the Chicago Institute for young men under theage of 17 is scheduled to take place today with the winners receiving “handsome cups and medals.”

1921(19thof Sivan, 5681): Parashat Beha’alotcha

1921: A sermon on “A Thought for Vacation” is scheduled to be delivered this morning at Temple Emanu-El.

1921: Rabbi Harry Halpern is scheduled to deliver the sermon this morning at the Jewish Communal Center of Flatbush in Brooklyn.

1921: Rabbi Samuel J. Levinson is scheduled to deliver the sermon this morning at the Flatbush Temple in Brooklyn

1921: Authorities in Syria do not issue passes to Jews who wish to leave the country.

1921: In Newport News, VA, Mr. and Mrs. Elias Cohen gave birth to Sherman Cohen “a one-time auto dealer who, with his two brothers, built a real estate empire of more than 20 residential and commercial buildings across Manhattan…” (As reported by Charles V. Bagli)

1923: Opening of the Summer Edition of the Ziegfeld Follies featuring songs, sketches written and performed by Eddie Cantor.

1924: In Philadelphia, PA, Polish born actor Baruch Lumet and Mrs. Lumet gave birth to Director Sidney Lumet best known for the film Dog Day Afternoon

1927: Birthdate of Lorain, OH and Northwestern University alum Gerald Alan Freedman, the “Dean of the Drama School at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts” and “the first American ever invited to direct at the Globe Theatre in London.


1928: Birthdate of Alexei Alexeyevich Abrikosov, Russian born physicist who now also holds American citizenship.  He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2003.

1928: In New York, Isidore and Bess Junger Cohen gave birth to University of Chicago graduate and award winning novelist and theologian Arthur Allen Cohen


1928: After losing his only bout by a knockout in 1926, today Flyweight Pinky Silverberg lost his second bout in a row, this time by points in a ten round decision “at Laurel Garden in Newark, NJ.”

1929: “President Hoover signed the Boulder Canyon Project Act, authorizing the expenditure of $165 million for the construction of the Boulder Dam” which was designed by architect “Gordon Bernie Kaufmann, whose father was of Jewish origin and whose mother’s maiden name was Isaacs” but may not have been Jewish himself since he was “buried under the sign of a cross at Golden State National Cemetery.” (As reported by Donald H. Harrison)

1929: Birthdate of Thomas Eisner, “a groundbreaking authority on insects whose research revealed the complex chemistry that they use to repel predators, attract mates and protect their young, Thomas Eisner, a groundbreaking authority on insects whose research revealed the complex chemistry that they use to repel predators, attract mates and protect their young,”


1930: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of Rabbi Maurice H. Harris which is being held this morning at the Free Synagogue. (JTA)

1930: Birthdate of Hugo Gabriel Gryn, the Czech born survivor of Auschwitz who served as the Rabbi at West London Synagogue.


1930: The two-day celebration of opening of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva founded by Rabbi Meir Shapiro came to an end.

1931: “The Magnificent Lie” a WW I themed movie with a script by Leonard Merrick and Samson Raphaelson was released today in the United States.

1932(21st of Sivan, 5692): Herbert Bentwich passed away in Jerusalem. Born in 1856, at Whitechapel, he was a British Zionist leader and lawyer. “He was an authority on copyright law, and owner/editor of the Law Journal for many years. He was a leading member of the English Hovevei Zion and one of the first followers of Theodor Herzl in England. In 1897 Bentwich he led a group of 21, including the writer Israel Zangwill, on a tour of holy sites and new settlements in Palestine on behalf of the Maccabaeans, and in 1911 he acquired land for settlement at Gezer, near Ramleh on behalf of the Maccabean Land Company. He later succeeded his brother-in-law Solomon J. Solomon as president of the Maccabaeans. Bentwich was a founder of the British Zionist Federation in 1899 and for some time served as its vice-chairman. He was a legal adviser for the Jewish Colonial Trust. From 1916 to 1918 he served on the Zionist political advisory committee under Chaim Weizmann. Bentwich was a regular visitor to Palestine after 1921 and settled in Jerusalem in late 1929. Susannah Bentwich died in London in 1915. He was survived by ten of his eleven children, eight of whom eventually settled permanently in Palestine. His eldest son, Norman Bentwich, a leading barrister, also spent much of his professional life there, and another son, Joseph Bentwich, was awarded the Israel Prize, for education, in 1962.”

1933: Outfielder Milt Galatzer made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians in doubleheader with the Washington Senators during which he got on base four times in the first game (all by walks) and then got two hits in the second game.

1933: Funeral services were held today at the Farbund Culture Service today for sixty-year old Russian born NYU trained attorney and national treasurer of the Jewish National Workers Alliance Nathan Zvirin, the legal adviser to the Kosher Butchers of Greater New York and husband of Ida Levine Zvirin with whom he had three children – Pauline, John and Fred –  after which he was buried in the Montefiore Cemetery in Springfield.

1934: Today, American banker Robert Owen Lehman, Sr. married his second wife, Ruth "Kitty" (Leavitt) Meeker with whom he had one son, Robert Owen Lehman, Jr.

1935: In Bridgeport, CT, George and Rea (Wishengrad) Kramer gave birth to their second son and Yale University attorney Laurence David Kramer “the noted writer whose raucous, antagonistic campaign for an all-out response to the AIDS crisis helped shift national health policy in the 1980s and ’90s.” (As reported by Daniel Lewis)


1935: Joe Louis defeated Primo Carnera at Yankee Stadium.  Neither of the fighters was Jewish.  But Joe Louis’ manager Mike Jacobs was Jewish.  It was under his guidance that Louis broke the “color barrier” and got his shot at being Heavy Weight Champion of the World.

1935: In Bridgeport, CT, a Jewish “attorney and a social worker gave birth to playwright and author Larry Kramer who is also an LGBT rights activist.

1936: Sixty-nine year old American diplomate and N.Y. National Guard Brigadier General Charles Hitchcock Sherrill who spoke “glowingly” about Mussolini and Hitler and who failed to convince the German dictator to allow “one token Jew” to take part in the 1936 Olympics, passed away today.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that Haim Golowitzky, one of the founders of Atarot who was on his way to milk cows, was shot dead by Arab snipers, just outside his cowshed. Passengers in a Jewish bus in Haifa had a remarkable escape from death when they succeeded in extinguishing burning fuses in a suitcase left by an Arab passenger who jumped off their bus. British troops continued their searches and confiscated arms in Arab villages throughout the country. It was estimated that no fewer than 100,000 trees had been destroyed and another 12,000 damaged by Arabs since April 19, 1936.

1936: Last broadcast of Camel Caravan a radio show that showcased several talented musicians including Benny Goodman.

1936: “Exemption of Jews from military service ‘in accordance with the highest interpretation of Judaism’ was sought from the United States Government in a resolution adopted tonight by the Central Conference of American Rabbis at the social justice session of the organization’s forty-seventh annual convention” being held at Cape May, NJ.

1936: It was announced today that a testimonial luncheon will be given for Mrs. Herbert H. Lehman at the Hotel Commodore by the Women’s Division of the Greater New York Campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee for the benefit of the campaign whose goal is to raise $1,500,000.

1937: “North of the Rio Grande” a western film featuring Lee J. Cobb as “RR President Wooden” was released today in the United States.

1937: “The Great Gambini” a mystery directed by Charles Vidor, produced by B.P. Schulberg

1937: Birthdate of Baron Wolman Rolling Stone magazine’s first Chief Photographer.


1937:  It was reported today that Italian newspaper publisher Generoso Pope has said that “he had received the word of Mussolini that would be no persecution of Jews in Italy ‘as long as they obey the laws’ and that the Premiere had told him the Jews “will be treated just like all other Italians as long as the laws of the country are obeyed.”

1938: As Arab violence flared, “a gain of terrorist entered a hospital in Haifa seeking a wounded Arab ‘traitor’ who was a patient there.”  When they could not find him, “they killed another Arab patient. “A manifesto issued today by the Tel Aviv municipality called on Jews to remain calm and not resort to violence.

1938: Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the U.S. adopts a minimum wage which is set at $.40 an hour. Sidney Hillman, head of the “Amalgamated” and advisor to FDR played a key role in drafting and gaining support for this landmark legislation. 

1938: German-Jewish doctors are allowed to treat only Jewish patients.

1939: Over one thousand delegates attended the 42nd annual meeting of the ZOA began this afternoon at the Hotel Commodore where they heard a cable from former Prime Minister Lloyd George who “bid them to be of good cheer until the clouds pass.”

1940:  France formally surrenders to Nazi Germany.

1940: As Churchill worked to transfer the eleven battalions of Regular British troops from Palestine back to England so that they can help defend the British Isles against the pending Nazi invasion, he wrote to the Secretary of State for Colonies, Lord Lloyd, asking “what weapons and organization the Jews have for self-defense.”  Churchill wants to arm the Jews so they can protect themselves against Arab attackers.  Lloyd opposes the arming of the Jews and would rather have the British troops remain. 

1941 (30th of Sivan, 5701): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1941: Members of the Lithuanian militia marched Jews to the Seventh Fort in Kovno where they would be murdered after suffering abuse at the hands of the local sadists.


1941: “President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 8802 prohibiting government contractors from engaging in employment discrimination based on race, color or national origin. This order is the first presidential action ever taken to prevent employment discrimination by private employers holding government contracts. The Executive Order applies to all defense contractors, but contains no enforcement authority. President Roosevelt signs the Executive Order primarily to ensure that there are no strikes or demonstrations disrupting the manufacture of military supplies as the country prepares for War.”  By the standards of the 21stcentury, this action might seem “weak.”  But it gives us an idea of the level of bigotry which was sanctioned in the society.  At the time Roosevelt signed this order it was considered a major step in the fight against prejudice.

1941 (30th of Sivan, 5701): Many Jews were killed in a pogrom at Jassy, Romania.  The following appears in The Tragedy of Romanian Jewry by Randolph L. Braham."At the outbreak of the war, Jassy had a population of slightly over 100,000 inhabitants, approximately 50,000 of whom were Jews. The city was very close to the frontier with the Soviet Union, and even before launching the anti-Soviet war on June 22, 1941, a number of secret anti-Semitic measures had been initiated in Romania. Between June 20 and 26 the Jews of Jassy were forced to dig two large mass graves in the Pacurari Jewish cemetery. About the same time, the Soviet air force bombed Jassy twice, the second time inflicting serious damage. The rumor spread that Soviet paratroopers were active throughout the city and that these paratroopers were being given shelter by the Jews. On the morning of 29 June, 1941, Jews were formed into columns and marched from Tatarasi, Pacurari, Sararie, and Nicolina Streets to police headquarters. Most of the prisoners were men but among them were also some women with children. Some were dressed, others were in their night clothes many had been beaten and had bruises and open wounds.  Civilian onlookers as well as soldiers and gendarmes, Romanian and German spat at them and hit them with stones, broken bottles, clubs, crowbars and rifle butts. Civilians joined the police and the military in dragging Jews out of their homes. All told, thousands of Jews were herded into the courtyard of the Jassy police headquarters. In another report, addressed to the Minister of the Interior, Lieutenant-Colonel Chirlovici, reported 1,000 Jewish prisoners at 9:00 a.m. and 5,000 by nightfall. He stated that at noon there were 3,500 Jews in the courtyard. At about 1:30 PM German soldiers and Romanian gendarmes and soldiers surrounded police headquarters and an area close by. At about 2:00 p.m., the German and Romanian soldiers began to fire directly into the crowds; they were joined by some civilians. They used machine-guns, automatic weapons, or rifles. Crazed with terror some Jews tore down the fence of the courtyard and tried to take refuge near the Sidoli cinema ... They too were mowed down without mercy. The massacre continued intermittently until 6:00 p.m. It is difficult to establish the number of victims of the massacre at police headquarters. Four trucks and 24 carts transported the corpses; it took two whole days to move them. Approximately 2,500 Jews survived the massacre in the police headquarters courtyard. At about 8:00 p.m. the process of getting them to the railroad station began. Two thousand five hundred Jews were herded were herded into freight cars. The train left Jassy on June 30, 1941 between 3:30 and 4:15 a.m. At about 4:00 a.m. the same morning, a second group of approximately 1,900 Jews to be evacuated were rounded up at police headquarters. Two death trains left Jassy between 3:30 and 4:15 a.m. on Monday, June 30, 1941. The first one ... consisted of from 33 to 38 sealed freight cars and contained between 2,430 and 2,530 Jews. When the train was emptied there were 1,076 survivors.]The history of the second car is ... equally horrifying. On June 30, 1941 at about 6:00 A.M., 1,902 Jews were loaded onto a second train comprising 18 cars. Of the 1,902 Jews put on the train, 1,194 died and were buried in the Podul Iloaei cemetery. The total number of victims of the Jassy pogrom cannot be established with certainty. While the number of victims on the trains is known and relatively accurate, it is not known how many Jews in Jassy were buried in communal graves, how many such graves there were, and how many corpses were simply thrown onto garbage heaps or into the Bahlui River. German diplomats estimated at least 4,000 victims... The most reliable source seems to be documents from the archives of the Romanian Ministry of the Interior which ... place the number at over 8,000."

1941: Soviets renew the attacks on Finland that had been part of the earlier “Winter War” with a large air attack on the Fins.

1941 (30th of Sivan, 5701): In the town of Luck, Poland, Dr. Benjamin From aged forty-seven refused to stop operating on a Christian woman, so he was dragged out of operating room, taken to his home and killed with his entire family.

1941(30thof Sivan, 5701): Ninety year old “German mathematician and patron of the arts” Alfred Pringsheim passed away in Zurich where he had been forced to flee by the Nazis.


1941 (30th of Sivan, 5701): In Jedwabne, Poland, local Polish citizenry begin a pogrom aimed at the Jews living in the town.

1941: Two days after the retreating NKVD had machine gunned 4,000 political prisoners “including Poles, Jews and Ukrainians” the Wehrmacht captured the city of Lutsk following which the Nazis forced the Jews into a Ghetto before murdering approximately 25,000 of them on Gorka Polonka Hill.

1942: An article in the London Daily Telegraph reports, "More than 700,000 Polish Jews have been slaughtered by the Germans in the greatest massacres in the world's history."

1943: Crematorium III at Auschwitz begins operation. Also, Otto Ben, from the Foreign Ministry reports that the “100,000th Jews has been removed from Dutch Society.”

1943: “Jitterbugs” a comedy film produced by Sol M. Wurtzel with music by Lew Pollack was released in the United States today.

1943: The Germans began the final destruction of the people living in the Czestochowa Ghetto. The Jews put up armed resistance in a series of bunkers. Czestochowa is located in Poland and is famous as the home of the "Black Madonna."

1944: In Brooklyn Anne Goldberg, a bookkeeper and postal worker George Goldberg gave birth to Gary David Goldberg who would gain fame as television producer and writer.


1945: In the Bronx, “Richard L. Simon, the co-founder of Simon & Schuster and a classical pianist who often played Frédéric Chopin and Ludwig van Beethoven at home” and “Andrea Heinemann Simon (née Heinemann), a civil rights activist and singer” gave birth to singer and songwriter Carly Elisabeth Simon.


1945: Today “Baltimorean Rudolf Sonneborn” who would serve as national chairman of the UJA “brought together Jewish industrial leaders in a New York meeting with David Ben-Gurion, then chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive in Palestine.”

1946: “Books Published Today” included Jews in American History: 1654-1865 by Philip S. Foner and The Jewish People: Past and Present, Vol I, Jewish Encyclopedic Handbooks—A series of essays on various aspects of Jewish history and culture.

1947: The Diary of Anne Frankis published.

1947: In Los Angeles, Samuel Kurtzman, a Russian born dentist and the former Roselle Rosencranz gave birth to Joel Allen Kurtzman the “economic Cassandra” who seemed to do a 180 degree change when in 2014 he predicted a “Second American Century of unimaginable prosperity.”


1948: As Israel fought for its survival, as prelude to a full blockade “the Soviets stopped supplying food to the civilian population in the non-Soviet sectors of Berlin” in what was part of a plan to drive the Western Allies from Berlin and eventually from West Germany. (Editor’s note – this serves as a reminder that Jewish history does not take place in a vacuum and to understand it, it is necessary to understand the happenings of the world at large.)

1948:  In Brooklyn actor Harvey Lembeck and Caroline Dubs gave birth to actor and television director Michael Lembeck

1948: Warner Bros. released “Romance on the High Seas” a musical comedy written by Julius and Philip G. Epstein with additional dialogue proved by I.A.L. Diamond today.

1949: At their 60th annual convention, “three hundred rabbis, representing Reform congregation throughout the United States” today unanimously approved resolutions calling “for the including of Jerusalem with the boundaries of Israel” and urging “the full adoption of President Truman’s civil rights program.”

1950: Birthdate of Israeli actress Nitza Saul.

1950:  The beginning of the Korean War, with the invasion of the South by the North. Jews fought in the Korean War just as they had in every war since the call to arms went out in 1775.

 See http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/sugar10.htmlfor a partial list of those who served. In an article entitled “Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in North Korea, 1951, Remembered,” Warren Zundell, MD (Captain, 11th Evacuation Hospital SMBL, 10th Corp. 8th Army, Korea) provides us with a glimpse of what it was like during what some derisively called a “police action.”

These evenings occurred years ago, but every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, they return as vividly as if they happened last year.In May, 1951, my hospital unit was transported from Sasebo, Japan to Pusan, Korea. I was on the Orthopedic Surgery Team. Five months later, on the day before Rosh Hashanah, our hospital Chaplain (a Catholic priest), asked me if I was planning to attend services the next day, being conducted some 40 or 50 miles north of our location, just over the 36th parallel, in North Korea. We were in Wonju, South Korea. I knew the Rabbi who was to conduct the services, as he would visit our hospital from time to time. Knowing this would be a 40 or 50 mile trek through sniper-infested mountains, I answered negatively, even though I knew that the Rabbi might be disappointed. The following conversation then ensued:

Chaplain: You have to go.

Me: Why do I have to go?

Chaplain: There are about 30 Jewish boys around here who want to go.

Me: So let them go.

Chaplain: An Officer has to go to be in charge of the convoy.

Me: Why me? I am a Doctor.

Chaplain: You are the only Jewish Officer in this hospital, so you go. He was a Major, I was a Captain. I think he was giving me a direct order. He then informed me that he would lend me his jeep in which to head the convoy of trucks. It had a big white cross on the front hood, which he implied would protect us from sniper fire. He didn’t say anything about land mines. That afternoon we assembled the convoy and headed North. It may have been the first all-Jewish convoy in the history of Korea. As Jews, we were not fully convinced that the white cross would totally protect us from sniper fire. We were therefore well-armed. A few uneventful hours later we crossed the 38th parallel into North Korea. We were making Jewish history. Soon we checked into 10th Corp. HW. The Rabbi (Major Meir Engle) seemed happy to see us. The next day was Rosh Hashanah. We had a big tent in which to hold services. There were about 300 Jewish boys attending, including my 30. I was proud to be there. After services we reassembled our convoy and returned to our hospital, without incident. When Yom Kippur came, I was called upon by the Chaplain again. I didn’t want to push my luck, with a baby daughter back home whom I had never seen. Nevertheless, I soon found myself in the same Jewish convoy. But between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there had been heavy fighting on the 10th Corp. Front. Instead of 300 Jewish boys attending Yom Kippur services, there were less than 150. Korea is now referred to as the "Forgotten War". What it really means is that this country has literally forgotten the more than 34,000 Americans who died there, including those Jewish boys who died between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the year 1951."

 Korea also presented the newly independent state of Israel with one of its first great foreign policy challenges not directly related to the Middle East or its own immediate survival.  Israel’s shifting policy, as described below, demonstrated how quickly conflict in the Middle East and conflict in the Far East were joined together because of the Cold War.  The shift also resulted, in part, from the Soviet Union’s change of policy towards Israel.  Stalin’s smile quickly turned sour, while Harry Truman’s never did. “Israel's foreign policy underwent a change during the Korean War. In the first two years after its establishment, Israel maintained a stance of nonalignment. However, it became clear from the anti-Jewish attitude of the Communist bloc and especially Joseph Stalin that strengthening relations with the United States was the only way to safeguard Israel's continued existence and long-term interests. Both Israel's foreign and domestic policy during the Korean War reflected a growing U.S. influence, which has only deepened with time. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion went one step further during the Korean War when he suggested that an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit be sent to join the UN forces fighting North Korea and the Chinese volunteers. A debate broke out in Israel over whether it should provide support to U.S. and UN policies given that Washington had made no such request. The leading opponent of sending an IDF unit was the political party Mapam, which was part of the governing coalition and openly favored North Korea. With the Achdut Ha'Avoda party, another member of the coalition, also against the measure, the government decided to limit its assistance to medical aid and food shipments. In addition, Israel lent political support during the UN deliberations on whether its troops should cross the 38th parallel northward. In February 1951, the UN General Assembly condemned China as the aggressor and placed a boycott on certain strategic supplies to China. Here, too, Israel continued to side with the United States, the United Nations, and South Korea, though formal diplomatic ties with the latter were still more than a decade away. From the 1951 ideological debate between the Israeli parties until 1960, there were no initiatives on the question of relations with South Korea.”

1950: Israeli airline El Al began service. Anybody who has ever flown El Al to Israel knows there is flying and then there is flying El Al. As an early target of terrorist, El Al adopted policies that have made it the safest airline in the world. Its anti-terrorist practices have served as a model for other airlines as they have been confronted with similar challenges.

1950: The outbreak of the Korean War delayed the build of a new Jewish Community Center in Salt Lake City Utah delaying its completion until 1959.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that 20 lists of parties were registered for the Second Knesset elections. Israel and Switzerland decided to establish diplomatic relations. The quality of sweets had improved, but the quality of beverages had deteriorated, according to the Quality Control Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

1952: A government spokesman reported that an Israeli army patrol had shot three Arabs who were trying to enter Israel from Jordan.

1953:Robert and Gérald Finaly, two Jewish children, who were hidden during the Occupation by a Catholic network, were brought back to France from Spain where they had been by Catholics who did want to return to Jewish authorities.

1956(16th of Tammuz, 5716): One hundred four year old Cincinnati native and 1870 Ohio University graduate Dr. Philip Zenner who “received his license to practice medicine in 1896” and who “was a charter the Jewish Hospital medical staff” and a Professor Neurology at the University of Cincinnati passed away today.



1956: William Goldman started writing The Temple of Gold, his first novel, which was written in less than three weeks and then was almost immediately picked up for publication.

1956: The last Packard automobile was manufactured in the United States. Starting in 1903, Packard automobiles had been manufactured at a start of the plant in Detroit designed by Albert Kahn.

1960(30th of Sivan, 5720): Parashat Koraach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1960: In their sermons today, Dr. Julius Mark, the senior rabbi at Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Judah Nadich, the rabbi at the Park Avenue Synagogue and Dr. Zev Zahavy, the rabbi at Congregation Zichron Ephraim each “commend Mayor Wagner for refusing to grant a permit for an America Nazi party rally in Union Square on July 4.”

1960: During a Shabbat morning service at Detroit’s Temple Beth El which marked the end of “the 71st annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis,” “Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion” warned the attendees “against permitting the ‘getting and giving of money’ to become the major premise in community life” while taking “issue with every kind of vague humanitarianism and well-fed sentimentality when these tend to supplant the restless search for truth and the realistic implementation of the imperatives of” the Jewish faith.

1961: The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins was number 9 on the New York Times bestseller list on the same day that Murray Schumach began his review of the novel with "It was not quite proper to have printed The Carpetbaggers between covers of a book. It should have been inscribed on the walls of a public lavatory."

1962:  The U.S. Supreme Court decides that non-denominational prayer allowed in New York States is an unconstitutional violation of the separation of church and state.

1964: U.S. premiere of “Circus World” produced by Samuel Brontson, with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and music by Dimitri Tiomkin who won a Golden Globe for his effort.

1965: When followed home from a meeting of Canadian Nazis,Henryk Van der Windt tells the Toronto Star that he working under cover for the Canadian Jewish Congress who had hired him to spy on Nazi leader John Beattie.  For more on this see “Delayed Impact” by Frank Bialystok.

1966(7th of Tammuz, 5726): Sixty-five year old Columbus, Ohio native  Mose “Moe” Solomon whose major league career consisted of two games with the New York Giants passed away today.


1967: After 1,530 performances Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” finished its first Broadway run today.

1968: Herb Gray began serving as a Member of Parliament for Windsor West.

1968: “The Secret Life of an American Wife” directed, produced and written by George Axelrod and starring Walter Matthau was released today in the United States.

1969(9thof Tammuz, 5729): Seventy-five year old Alene Stern Erlanger, the wife of Erlanger Mills director Milton Erlanger and Barnard College graduate “who was responsible for the formation of the U.S.A.’s canine corps during WW II passed away today.


1969: “The Gladiators” known as “The Peace Game” in Sweden filmed by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky, the son of cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky was released today.

1970(21stof Sivan, 5730): Eighty-one year old Austrain born and University of Chicago educated journalist Hermann B. Duetsch, the columnist for the States-Item and “authority on Huey P Long” passed away today.


1971: “Klute,” a “crime thriller “directed and produced” by Alan J. Pakula was released today in the United States.

1972(13th of Tammuz, 5732): Eighty-four year old boxing expert and founder of Ring Magazine Nat Fleisher passed away today.

http://www.ibhof.com/pages/about/inductees/nonparticipant/fleischer.html

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/126210-why-did-the-boxing-world-ever-listen-to-nat-fleischer


1972: Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan began serving his second term as Chief Minister of Gibraltar.

1973(25thof Sivan, 5733): Eighty-four year old Jessie Danz, the New York born daughter of Annie and Maurice Mordechai Mohr and the wife of John Danz who “served as an “officer of the Jewish Welfare Society” and the National Council of Women in Seattle passed away today.

1974(5th of Tammuz, 5734): Eighty-one year old Hungarian physicist and mathematician Cornellius Lanczos who “served as assistant to Albert Einstein during the period of 1928–29” passed away today.

1974: In Novosibirsk, Yuri and Anna Berkovsky went on trial having been charge with “speculation and unauthorized possession of fire arms.”

1975: “Catholic Vazken, head of the Armenian Church and Metropolitan Philaret, head of the Russian Church in East Berlin and Central Europe” “held separate prayer services at Yad Vashem” in Jerusalem today “in memory of the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.”

1975: “Israel handed over 20 convicted terrorists from Sinai and the Gaza Strip to Egyptian authorities today and received in exchange coffins bearing the remains of Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Ben Tzuri who were hanged in Cairo” in 1945 after having been convicted of murdering Lord Moyne.

1976: “Notes on People” published today described the release of Morton Sobell “who served part of a 30-year sentence to commit espionage in the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg treason case” “from having to report periodically to a probation as condition of his parole.

1976: It was reported today Dr. Saul Lieberman and Dr. Herman F. Marks “are this year’s recipients of the Israel Institute of Technology’s annual $35,000 Harvey Prize. Seventy-eight year old Lieberman, the rector of JTS, was recognized for his “research on Palestine in the Greek and Roman eras and his two books on Jewish life in the Hellenistic period.  Eighty-one year old Marks, the dean emeritus of the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn “was honored for his pioneering research in synthetic fibers.”

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that Foreign Minister Yigal Allon and his West German counterpart, Hans Genscher, signed in Bonn an agreement which could secure and encourage large German investment in Israel.

1976: Three weeks after opening in the United Kingdom, “The Omen” a horror film directed by Richard Donner, produced by Henry Bernhard, written by David Seltzer and with music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the United Sates today.

1977(9thof Tammuz, 5737): Parashat Chukat

1977: Twenty-one year old Lizabeth Cohen, the daughter of accountant and businessman Paul Martin Cohen and attorney Dorothy (Rodbell) Cohen married Herrick Eaton Chapman today.

1977(9th of Tammuz, 5737): Fifty year old Sue Kaufman the novelist best known for The Diary of a Mad Housewife passed away today.

1979(30thof Sivan, 5739): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1979(30thof Sivan, 5739): Eighty-four year old David “Dave” Fleisher the creator of several iconic cartoon characters and co-owner of Fleischer Studios passed away



1979(30thof Sivan, 5739): Seventy-three year old portrait photographer Philippe Halsman passed away.




1980(11thof Tammuz, 5740): Chaya Ehrenerich, the President of the Pioneer Women and associate of Golda Meir passed away today in Brooklyn.


1981: In the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, the former Jean Hively, now known as Ariella Lehrer and civil rights lawyer David Lehrer gave birth to Jonah Lehrer, the Columbia University graduate and Rhodes Scholar who parlayed his knowledge of neuroscience into a successful career that included the publishing Proust Was a Neuroscientist, How We Decide and Imagine: How Creativity Works

1982: WJC President Edgar Bronfman became the first leader ever of a Jewish organization to address the United Nations General Assembly

1982: Two days after he passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Nathan Peskin, “the executive director at the Workmen’s Circle.”

1987:  Pope John Paul II received Austrian President Kurt Waldheim at the Vatican.  Apparently the Pope was able to overlook Waldheim's Nazi past.  But then he was not alone.  The United Nations also could overlook it when he was chosen Secretary-General.  "Never forget" - ah what short memories.

1988(10thof Tammuz, 5748):  Twenty-six year old Israeli-born, American musician Hillel Slovak, the original guitarist with Red Hot Chili Peppers, passed away.

1990: Geula Cohen began service as Deputy Science and Technology Minister.

1990: A disagreement appeared to break out today among the leaders of Israel's new Government over whether Soviet Jewish immigrants would be settled in the occupied territories. The dispute adds further confusion to Housing Minister Ariel Sharon's statement that the migrants would not be settled in occupied land.

1991(13thof Tammuz, 5751): Award winning pathologist Michael Heidelberger passed away today at the age of 103.


1993(6th of Tammuz, 5753): Eighty-nine year Wilma Shannon Warburg, the wife of Frederick Marcus Warburg, passed away today in Middleburg, VA after which she was buried at Salem Fields Cemetery in Brooklyn.

1993: “Sleepless in Seattle” directed by Nora Ephron who also co-authored the script, featuring Rob Reiner, with music by Marc Shaiman was released in the United States today.

1996: The Landmarks Preservation Commission adds the Aguilar Branch of the New York Library to its list.


1998: Pitcher Mike Saipe made his major league debut with the Colorado Rockies.

1999: NBC broadcast the last episode of “Another World” a daily soap opera in which Doris Belack played three different roles “during the shows 35-year run.”

1999(11th of Tammuz, 5759): Dr. Samuel Bloom, the Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at Mt. Sinai Hospital and winner of the Bronze Start for his service during WW II in the U.S. Medical Corps who was the husband of Zita Bloom and father of Betty and Lloyd Bloom passed away today.

2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Little Too Close to God:The Thrills and Panic of a Life in Israel by David Horovitz and Life So Far by Betty Friedan.

2001: Today, Alan David Schwartz became Co-President and Co-COO of Bear Stearns.

2002: It was reported today that “A federal judge in Brooklyn has dismissed a lawsuit against the government of Poland by a group of Holocaust survivors and their families, who said they were entitled to compensation for real estate seized by Polish Communists after World War II” because the plaintiffs had “failed to show that a United States court had jurisdiction over claims against a foreign government.”

2003: Former head the Shin Bet and Commander-in-Chief Ami “Ayalon launched, together with Palestinian professor Sari Nusseibeh, a peace initiative called "The People's Voice" the goal of which is to collect as many signatures of Israelis and Palestinians as possible for the peace plan guidelines supporting a two-state solution without the right of return for Palestine.

2004: “After weeks of prodding, the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, has agreed to appoint an interior minister to take charge of security for the Palestinian Authority, Israeli and American officials said today.”

2005(18th of Sivan, 5756): Parashat Sh’lach

2005: “Palestinian gunmen carried out a drive-by shooting on a group of Israelis at a hitchhiking post yesteriday, killing a 17-year-old male and wounding four near the West Bank town of Hebron, the Israeli military and media said” today.

2006: “Inheritance,”  “a documentary film about Monika Hertwig a.k.a. Monika Christiane Knauss, the daughter of Ruth Irene Kalder and Amon Goeth, Commandant of Kraków-Płaszów concentration camp” “produced for PBS by James Moll, film director, documentary producer and the Founding Executive Director of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute focusing on testimonies of the Holocaust survivors” was released in the United States today.

2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Bronfamns: The Rise and Fall of the House of Seagram by Nicholas Faith and Failed States by Noah Chomsky.

2006: In The Killing after the Killing” published today Elie Weisel reviewed of Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz by Jan T. Gross.

2006: Members of the Popular Resistance Committee, another Palestinian terrorist organization, kidnapped 18 year old high school Eliyahu Ashrei whom they would then murder.

2006: IDF Corporal Galid Shalit is kidnapped by Hamas terrorists. An armed squad of Palestinians terrorists from the Gaza Strip crossed the border into Israel via a 300-meter-long underground tunnel they dug near the Kerem Shalom border crossing. One group of militants blasted the rear door of a Merkava III tank open with a rocket-propelled grenade shell. The tank commander and the driver were killed when they evacuated the burning tank. The tank’s gunner, Gilad Shalit, was only lightly wounded and taken prisoner by the militants. A fourth member on the tank crew was injured in the incident and escaped.

2007: Inthe newly minted Israel Baseball League, four teams debut with Netanya Tigers vs. Bet Shemesh Blue Sox at Kibbutz Gezer Field and Ra'anana Express vs. Tel Aviv Lightning at Sportek in Tel Aviv.

2007: Kevin Youkilis played in his 120th consecutive game at first base without an error, breaking the prior Red Sox record set in 1921 by Stuffy McInnis

2007: The Israel Museum in Jerusalem presents the first of five lectures by painter Meir Appelfeld and painter and art critic Dror Burstein entitled “Five Comments on the Language of Painting.”

2008:  The Jerusalem Kabbala Museum opens in the city's Nahlaot neighborhood.

2008: In “Genes and Identities,” published today Jerome Groopman reviews Jacobs’s Legacy: A Genetic View of Jewish History by David Goldstein.

2008: In Kensington, Maryland, Poet Gretchen Primack, who “lives in the delightfully Jewish feminist-rich Hudson Valley” reads from her new work  The Slow Creaking of Planets as part of the poetry series at the Kensington Row Bookshop.

2008: In Jerusalem, at 8 p.m., the Bridge of Strings, popularly known as the Calatrava Bridge, will be inaugurated at a dazzling celebration complete with performances by David De'or, Dudu Fisher, the Jerusalem Dance Troupe and hundreds of dancers - at a cost of NIS 2 million.

2009: In Des Moines, Iowa, AIPAC hosts The 2009 Iowa Annual Event featuring Aharon Barnea

 Anchorman and Senior Correspondent in the USA, Channel 2 TV News, Israel with a Special Address by Krista Allen AIPAC Campus Liaison at Louisiana State University who will describe her recent maiden visit to Israel and how a Catholic student from Louisiana became engaged as a pro-Israel political activist

2009:The Montreal International Yiddish Theater Festival comes to a close.

2009:The opening day of G'day Shalom Salaam Israel, presented by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange, floods the Jewish state with the flavor of Australia.

2009:New York City police arrested two youth who vandalized two Lower East Side synagogues on Thursday with eggs, smoke bombs, and swastikas. The teenagers, a 15-year old Asian and a 16-year old black, drew a large swastika on the United Hebrew Center on East Broadway.  The two then set off a smoke bomb before heading to the Bialystoker synagogue on Willet Street, where they drew a second swastika and through eggs at the building. The attacks occurred only a few days after eight Jewish children were injured in Williamsburg, Brooklyn after a resident of a Latino block across the street threw a bottle with dangerous chemicals at them. That attack is not officially categorized as a bias crime, however. Police plan on charging the Lower East Side vandals with the hate crimes of aggravated harassment, criminal mischief and reckless endangerment. “This is a desecration of G-d, no matter what your religion,” said New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who attends the Bialystoker synagogue. “It is just a despicable act that really should tug at the heartstrings of all of us.” State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that the Civil Rights Bureau would open an investigation into the crime calling it “outrageous and deeply disturbing.”

 2009 (3rd Tammuz): Third of Tammuz marks the Rebbe’s Yahrzeit. “The day of passing of a holy tzadik is an auspicious day to reflect and bond with the tzadik’s soul by studying from his teachings as well as to ask the soul to intercede on High on our behalf, especially as it ascends even higher on his Yahrzeit.” click here to read more about the anniversary of the Rebbe's passing . Rabbi Pinchas Ciment will join tens of thousands of other people from around the world to pray at the Rebbe’s resting place, The Ohel .

2009: Some 2,000 Israelis gathered in front of the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv today to mark three years to the day in which Israel Defense Forces Gilad Shalit fell into captivity in a cross-border raid by Gaza-based Palestinian gunmen.



2010: Mark Ethan is scheduled to lead a discussion at the 92nd St Y following a screening of “A Man For All Seasons.”

2010: Ronit Elkabetz, an Israeli actress from Beersheba married architect Avner Yasharon

 2011: Fifth anniversary of the kidnapping of Galid Shalit.

2011: Jewish comedian and actress Sarah Silverman is scheduled to perform a night of stand-up comedy in Tel Aviv

2011: The National Yiddish Theatre is scheduled to present a performance of “The Adventures of Hershele Ostropoyler.”

2011: For the second time in two day, oil spills tainted the waters off of Eilat. 

2011: France's ambassador to Israel Christophe Bigot met this afternoon with the parents of captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit and presented them with a letter in which French President Nicolas Sarkozy directly addressed Shalit. "Since your kidnapping, I have taken it on myself to do everything to return you to your family," Sarkozy wrote. "I repeated this commitment when I met with your father at the Elysee Palace on June 10 and I repeat it now: France will not abandon you to your fate and will continue to act, along with other bodies, including those in the Arab world, so that this unjustified suffering comes to an end." Shalit holds dual Israel and French citizenship.

2011: Steve Sobroff resigned his management position with the Los Angeles Dodger after Major League Baseball seized control of the club.

2011: Acclaimed British writer Howard Jacobson who won the prestigious Man Booker Prize last year for his novel, “The Finkler Question,” which tackled themes relating to anti-Semitism, Jewish identity and Israel, criticized fellow novelist Alice Walker for her planned participation in the upcoming flotilla to Gaza. [Editor’s note: A year later Walker would announce that she would not let The Color Purple be translated into Hebrew.]

2011(23rd of Tammuz, 5771): Seventy year old college professor and anthologist Martin Harry Greenberg passed away today.


2011(23rd of Tammuz, 5771): Eighty-year old Eugene H. Kummel, who had led McCann Erikson Worlwide during a period of creativity that saw the appearance of signature commercials for Coke and Miller Lite, passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


2011(23rd of Tammuz, 5771): Ninety-four year old Gilbert Sedbon, a longtime correspondent for Reuters who scooped the world on the 1952 “Free Officers” Egyptian army coup against King Farouk with the help of Anwar Sadat passed away today. (As reported by the Eulogizer in JTA)


 2012: At the Wiener Library in London, Dr. Iris Groscheck is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “The Murder of the Children of the Bullenhuser Damm: How a challenging history of the Shoah can be told to young people” during which she will and discuss the challenges of engaging school-age audiences with violent and disturbing historical events. The Bullenhuser Damm Memorial is dedicated to the memory of 20 Jewish children and at least 28 adults who were hanged and who were subjected to medical experiments in the Neuengamme concentration camp before being murdered, to the 4 prisoners who cared for them, and to 24 unidentified Soviet prisoners.

2012:Center for Jewish History and Society for the History of the Czechoslovak Jews are scheduled to present “Bratislava/Pressburg Returns to the Map of Jewish Europe” alecture by Dr. Maroš Borský, Director of the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center in Bratislava

2012: The Boston Red Sox traded Kevin Youkilis to the Chicago White Sox.

2012:At a ceremony in Netanya alongside visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israel’s President Shimon Peres today honored Russian soldiers who were killed while fighting the Nazis, saying the “Red Army prevented the world from being brought to its knees.” (As reported by Aaron Kalman)

2012: Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews participated in a mass rally this morning in Jerusalem’s Shabbat Square. In a display of mourning, protesters donned burial sacks and smeared ash on their heads to show their disapproval of anticipated changes to IDF deferment and exemption practices. The Knesset’s Plesner committee, which has been charged with proposing an alternative to the now-defunct Tal Law — struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year — is nearing the end of its deliberations. (As reported by Yoel Goodman)

2013: The Israel Museum is scheduled to host a symposium beginning today entitled “In a Strange Land: The Photographic and Artistic Interpretation of Unfamiliar Environments.”

2013(17th of Tammuz, 5773): Shiva Asar Be-Tammuz (Seventeenth of Tammuz),  a minor fast day that commemorates the breaching of the walls of Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. by the Babylonians and again in 70 C.E. by the Romans. According to some sages, the Second Temple fell because of the lack of love and community spirit. In America, whether it is bullying or the coarsening of our public discourse, we are painfully aware of the harm that speech can do.  Since most American Jews do not refrain from food and drink on the 17th of Tammuz maybe it has been proposed that we refrain from Lashon Hara (i.e. Speaking Evil)  on this minor fast day.  To paraphrase the old Chasidic tale, we will show as much concern for what comes out of our mouths as we show for what we put in our mouths for one day, it might become a habit.

2013(17th of Tammuz, 5773): On the Jewish calendar, observance of American Independence Day. In 1776, the 4thof July fell on the 17th of Tammuz. So for those of you who want to get a head start on celebrating American Independence, here is your chance.

2013: Archaeological excavation prior to the installation of a drainage pipe has exposed for “the first time…such a finely preserved section of the road in Jerusalem,” the Israel Antiquities Authority announced today.

2013: “Charlies and the Chocolate Factory” a musical version of the children’s novel directed by Sam Mendes with lyrics by Marc Shaiman “had its world premiere at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London” today.

2014: In London The Wiener Library is scheduled to be hosting a special networking evening for the grandchildren of Holocaust survivors

2014: “Hanna’s Journey” is scheduled to be shown at the Portland Jewish Film Festival.2014: The Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2014: “The United States will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon, and will continue to remain steadfast on topics central to Israel’s security in the nuclear negotiations, US President Barack Obama assured Israeli President Shimon Peres during a meeting this afternoon at the White House.”

2014: Responding to a plea from the mothers of the three kidnap victims - Naftali Frenkel (16), Gilad Sha'ar (16), and Eyal Yifrah (19) – the Security Cabinet said tonight that “Operation Brother's Keeper will continue at full force.”

2015: In Coralville, Iowa, Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to host its annual congregational meeting.

2015: “A plan to link the cities of Amsterdam and Tel Aviv as twin towns was canceled today after pro-Palestinian groups pressured the Dutch capital’s mayor into backtracking on his proposal.”

2015: “The U.N.’s Gaza Report Is Flawed and Dangerous” published today provided Richard Kemp’s analysis of Judge Mary Davis’ report on the fighting in Gaza.


2015: An exhibition of creations by the Judaica design brand Mi Polin (the Hebrew words for “From Poland” which created the “Mezuzah from This Home” project is scheduled to come to an end at the PJCC Foster City, California.


2015: In London, Anthony Grafton is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “How Jesus celebrated Passover: Early Modern Views of the Last Supper” sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of England.

2016: In Nashville, TN, the Oz Art Festival featuring the work of “Israeli-American street artist Adam Yekutieli (aka KNOW HOPE)'s” is scheduled to come to an end today.

2016: In Oregon, “Fever at Dawn” a movie about Hungarian who survived the death camps is scheduled to be shown at the 24thannual Portland Jewish Festival.

2016: “During this morning’s aufruf, a synagogue event to honor her upcoming marriage” to Shoshana Dembitz, Abigail “Grafton spoke about the pain of the recent mass murder at a gay nightclub in Orlando.” (As reported by Alix Wall)

2016: Steen Metz, a concentration camp survivor who had been born at Odense, Denmark is 1935 is scheduled to be the featured speaker in the “In Our Voices” program at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

2016(19th of Sivan, 5776): Shabbat Beha’alotekha;

2017: The cabinet today suspended a government-approved plan to establish a pluralistic prayer pavilion at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, following calls by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox coalition allies to scrap the deal.”

2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including More Alive and Less Lonely: On Books and Writers by Jonathan Lethem, The Global Novel: Writing the World in the 21st Century by Adam Kirsch and The Heirs by Susan Rieger.

2017: Alon Day is scheduled to “become the first Israeli to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — the sport’s highest league of competition — when he races the No. 23 car for the BK Racing team at the Sonoma Raceway in Southern California” today.

2017: Am event “organized to mark 100 years since a historic 67-word letter was sent from the then-foreign secretary Lord Balfour to the second Lord Rothschild, signaling British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine” is scheduled to take place today in London.

2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a book launch of “The Children's Tree of Terezin, written by children's author Dede Harris and illustrated by Sara Akerlund that tells the true story about how children in the Terezin concentration camp overcame unimaginable obstacles to give life to a small tree sapling.”

2017: “The Ride For the Living” which starts at the gates of Auschwitz and ends at the JCC in Krakow is scheduled to take place today.




2017(1st of Tammuz, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz;

2018: “Kulna Jerusalem” and the Tower of David Museum are scheduled to host the of three events marking the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup games

2018(12th of Tammuz, 5778): Eight-seven year old South African photographer David Goldblatt, the son of Eli and Olga Goldblatt passed away today.

2018: Jason Kander announced he would run for mayor of Kansas City, MO today.

2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “The Boy Downstairs” starring Zosia Mamet and Matthew Shear.

2018: “The Center for Jewish History and Instituto Cervantes are scheduled to a host a Sephardic music concert (“Juderias”) by Lara Bellow” tonight.

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of the documentary “Inside the Mossad.”

2019: The Chevra Kadisha in Edmonton is scheduled to hold a “special meeting” this evening.

2019: As part of his series on “The Ten Lost Tribes” Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum, the Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to lecture on “The Failed Siege of Jerusalem.”

2020: As part of the “Leading through Crisis and Change: Jewish Women at the Turn of the 20th Century” series , Rebecca Kobrin ,the Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University and the Associate Director of Columbia's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies is scheduled to deliver a lecture via Zoom on Emma Lazarus.

2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host on-line an on-line screening of “Resistance,” a film about Marcel Marceau’s role in rescuing Jewish children in Nazi-occupied France followed by a discussion with the film’s star, Jesse Eisenberg.

2020: As a sign of the resilience of Judaism in the “Heartland” during the Pandemic, The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines virtual Annual Meeting is scheduled to be held this evening.

2020: The Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host the live stream event “Houdini Comes Alive.”

2020: In Ohio, the “Columbus Jewish Film Festival in Celebration of Andrew Ethan Stern, is scheduled to present a virtual screening of the film “Standing Up, Falling Down,” starring Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz.”

2020: As proof that Jewish study continues despite the Pandemic B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to present online, “Ethical & Ritual Issues Through the Lens of Conservative Jewish Law with Rabbi Stephen Weiss”

2020(3rd of Tammuz, 5780): Yahrtzeit of the man simply known as The Rebbe






This Day, June 26, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 26

363: Roman Emperor Julian was killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield. According to various sources, Julian was a true Roman pagan who sought to roll back the inroads that Christianity had made among the ruling classes.  He passed an edict of toleration. In the year of his death, he ordered the Temple to be rebuilt on its historic location in Jerusalem.  The plan died with him and the exile continued.

1187: Saladin crosses the Jordan River with an army of 20,000 in what will lead to the final battle for control of Jerusalem.  At this time, the Jews fare better under the Muslim leader than they do among the European Christians who have slaughtered them and driven them from their ancient homes in the “City of David.”

1409: The Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XIII in Avignon. While these various claimants to Papal power were fighting amongst themeslves, they had time to bedevil the Jews.  In 1409, Pope Alexander V ordered the Inquisitor of Avignon, Dauphiné, Provence and Comtat Venaissin to proceed against several categories of persons "including Jews who practiced magic, invokers of demons, and augurs" Benedict initiated the year-long Disputation of Tortosa in 1413, which became the most prominent Christian-Jewish disputation of the Middle Ages. Benedict was well known for his oppressive laws against the Jews

1523: The first printed edition of the Sefer ha-Chinuch (ספר החינוך) appeared. The printing of this comparatively obscure volume within seven decades of the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press demonstrates how quickly “the people of the book” took to the printing of books.  Sefer ha-Chinuch was not the first book to be printed in Hebrew.  That honor probably goes to Tractate Berakhot of the Babylonian Talmud which was printed by Joshua Solomon Soncino in 1483. .  According to the Hillel Website, "SeferHaChinuch is a unique work in many ways. It was published anonymously and scholars throughout the ages have not succeeded in unearthing the humble author. The book dates to 13th century Spain and is a comprehensive description of the 613 commandments, arranged according to their appearance in the Pentateuch. The description of each commandment includes (a) the concept of the Mitzvah and its Biblical source, (b) the philosophical underpinnings of the commandment, and (c) a brief summary of the laws governing its observance. An English translation of this important work is available."

1541 (23 Sivan 5301): Rabbi Jacob Pollack passed away. Born in Poland 1460, he was the first important Polish-Jewish Rabbinic scholar.  Prior to his time, the great Talmudic centers had been found in Germany.  He helped establish the Talmudic method of study called "Pilpul". This complicated and often hair-splitting method of explanation was originated in southern Germany. It is called mental acrobatics by some, yet is also responsible for the development of the sharp Talmudic mind. Pollack served as a Rabbi in Cracow, moved to Eretz-Israel for a period of time and returned to live in Lublin where he passed away.

1570(23 of Tammuz): Rabbi Moshe Codovero passed away.


1612: Coronation of Matthias, who acceded to the wishes of the Dutch and “established religious peace” in their provinces which helped to turn the Netherlands into a place of refuge for the Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal, as Holy Roman Emperor.

1629: Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was imprisoned. Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was born in 1579.  He was the author of Tossafoth Yom Tov,a major commentary on the Mishna.  While he was serving as a Rabbi in Prague, he was involved with the distribution of tax money.  He was wrongfully accused by some of showing favoritism in his work.  He ended up being taken to Vienna in chains.  The Christian officials respected his integrity and released him.  Considering that this took place during the Thirty Years War, it is surprising that Heller did not come to some barbarous end.  He passed away in 1654, the same year in which the American Jewish Community began.

1665: Rabbi Simon Brandeis, the husband of Libele Perls and the son Rabbi Samuel Brandeis passed away today.

1688: English Philosopher Ralph Cudworth passed away.  Born in 1617 he became professor of Hebrew at Cambridge in 1645. Among those with whom he carried on an extensive correspondence was Isaac Abendana, the Sephardic Jew who moved to England and taught Hebrew at Cambridge.  By the time he passed away in 1710, Abendana had become a teacher at Oxford’s Magdalen College and had provided Hebrew books for Bodleian Library.

1738: Fifty-nine year old Konrad Bethmann, “the master of the mint for the Princely House of Nassau-Schaumburg” who brought charges against two Jews “ Mencke and Abraham zum Hecht (father and son), for theft of Schaumburg hellers in Schwalbach near Königstein and resale of stolen property” –a charged that was dismissed with an out of court settlement passed away today.

1774(17thof Tammuz, 5534): Tzom Tammuz observed as the Colonist respond to the Intolerable Acts which among other things closed the port of Boston and led to the meeting of the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774.

1775(28th of Sivan, 5535): Aryeh Löb ben Mordecai Ha-Levi Epstein (Ba'al ha-Pardes) passed away. He was a Polish rabbi born in Grodno in 1708. At first he refused to become a rabbi, preferring to devote himself entirely to study, but in 1739 he was forced by poverty to accept the rabbinate of Brestovech, Lithuania, and in 1745 he became rabbi of Königsberg, where he remained until his death. He corresponded with Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, and with Jonathan Eybeschütz, with whom he sided in the quarrel about amulets (see Emden-Eybeschütz Controversy). He is the author of Or ha-Shanim, on the 613 commandments (Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1754), Halakah Aḥaronah and Ḳunṭres ha-Ra'yot (ib. 1754; Königsberg, 1759), Sefer ha-Pardes, in three parts: (1) on the Shema and the observance of Sabbath, (2) sermons, (3) funeral orations (ib. 1759). Several other cabalistic and halakic works from his pen are mentioned in his own works or by his biographer. A prayer which he composed on the occasion of the dedication of a new synagogue in Königsberg (ib. 1756) is found in the Bodleian Library. Annotations by him and by his son Abraham Meïr Epstein are published in some of the later editions of the Babylonian Talmud. He is called "Levin Marcus" in Solowicz's Gesch. der Juden in Königsberg, Posen, 1857.

1798: Birthdate of Charleston, SC, native Isaac Cohen.

1816: Meyer Davidson married Jesse Cohen at the Great Synagogue.

1819: “Emma di Resburgo,” an opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, was performed for the first time in Venice.

1813(28thof Sivan, 5573): Solomon Ben Joel Dubno, the Russian born Jewish poet, grammarian, teacher and author who lived in Amsterdam from 1767 to 1772 before settling in Berlin where he taught Moses Mendelssohn became his friend and patron, passed away today.  Among other his works was a commentary for Mendelssohn’s translation of the Bible.

1821: Birthdate of Adolf Jellinek an Austrian born scholar who served as the rabbi of The Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna.

1822: Moses Cantor married Caroline Solomons at the Great Synagogue.

1830: King George IV who as Prince of Wales was a patron of boxer Daniel Mendoza, died today and the Duke of Clarence who in 1797 while still the Prince of Wales visited Barbados where “he visited the synagogue and was presented with an address and a sword by the Congregation” succeeded him as William IV.

1831: Birthdate of Julius Levy, who gained fame as poet and author Julius Rodenberg.

1835: Birthdate of Ernest Abraham Hart, the son of a London dentist, who became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons before pursuing his career in medical journalism that began with the Lancetin 1857.

1843: The Treaty of Nanking which had the effect of opening up China to British traders included David Sasoon, went into effect.

1843(28thof Sivan, 5603: Eighty year old Oxford graduate and attorney Joshua Montefiore, the author the Commercial Dictionary, a captain in the York Light Infanry which made him ‘the first Jews to hold a commission in England and who gave it all up to move to the United States where he published a weekly political journal, passed away today in St. Albans, VT.

1845: In Baltimore, Simon Frank and Fanny Naumburg gave birth to Daniel Frank the President of the Elysium Club and Temple Adath Israel and the husband of Rose Liebman.

1848: In France the “June Days Uprising” came to end; violence which eventually doomed the Second Republic and brought Louis Napoleon to power with all that that would mean for France, the French Jewish community and Europe.

1848: Captain Boris Moses, a graduate of Saint-Cyr was appointed “chief of battalion” for distinguishing himself during the suppression of the Paris riots which ended today.

1849: Joseph and Nanny Rosenheim gave birth to Max Rosenheim who should not be confused with the 20th century British physician Max Leonard Rosenheim.

1855: Ninety-year old Anton Von Schmid a Christian publisher who published books by Jewish authors including the works of Maimonides and of Judah Löb Ben-Zeeb, the Hebrew Bible with a German translation as well as the Hebrew periodical "Bikkure ha-'Ittim,"

1857: The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London. The Victoria Cross is the highest military award for valor granted within the British military.  It is the English version of the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Jewish recipients includeFrank Alexander de Pass who received the award posthumously for requesting comrades trapped in No Man’s Land on the Western Front in 1914 during World War I;  Captain Robert Gee who earned it for heroism on the Western Front in 1917; Corporal John Patrick Kenneally who it for heroism in Tunisia in 1943; Corporal Issy Smith, an Austrialian soldier who earned it during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915; Private Jack White who earned it in 1917 while saving the lives on fellow soldiers during fighting in Mesopotamia.

1861: Levy Mandelson married Sarah Cohen at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.

1863: “Charles August Lauff, the German native and California businessman, and his wife, Maris J. Sebran gave birth to Oscar Lauff

1865:  Birthdate of Bernard Berenson, described by The New York Times as "an American art critic."  In fact, he had been born in Lithuania in a small village known as Butrimants in Yiddish. His father’s name was Alter Valvrojenski, his mother’s Eudice (Michliszanski). Berenson given name was Bernhard.  As he sought the safety of assimilation after coming to America, he had himself baptized as an Episcopalian.  Only after the Hitler period did he come to realize that the world would always regard him as "a Jew."  While he did not renounce his baptism, he did allow for Jewish cultural activity in his private life.  Some say that he was the prototype for one of the characters in Herman Wouk's Winds of War.  He died in 1959.

1866: Birthdate of Spanish American War veteran Milton Kraus, the native of Kokomo and graduate of the University of Michigan who served in the House of Representatives.

1866: Following the death of Rosanna Dyer Osterman, the Houston Weekly Telegraph wrote:

It is an unjust and ungenerous thing to assert that "with insults you cannot make a Jew fight." How little has the Jew had to fight for in most countries? In our late war, we have stood side by side with the Jew in battle, and we have never seen men more gallantly than they, bare their breast to blue lead and cold steel. In charity and kindness their women have often rivalled our own. Every one resident in Galveston during the war, whether soldier or civilian, knows that among the very foremost in deeds of kindness to our suffering, sick and dying soldiers, one to whom the poor Confederate soldier never applied in vain, one whose heart overflowed with all the kindliest active charities, was a Jewess, equally distinguished for her piety and careful observance of all the ceremonial duties of her religion. (Courtesy of Bill Lowen)

1867: Birthdate of Gustav Kahan, the husband of Julie Levy, both of whom would die at Treblinka in 1942

1870: The wedding ceremony joining Miss Elizabeth Abraham of Washington, DC and Mr. Solomon Caro of New York in the bonds of holy matrimony began this afternoon at a synagogue on 18th street in the Nation’s Capital but it did not end there.  The ceremony began with the entrance of the bridal party followed by a preliminary service and discourse by Rabbi Jacob S. Jacobson on the subject of marriage.  But a commotion broke out when the Rabbi began to perform the ceremony.  At that point, the groom’s father, Rabbi Caro of New York, began a heated discussion in Hebrew with his son.  At first people thought he was objecting to the marriage.  Actually, he was objecting to the lack of a chupah.  The synagogue had recently become a Reform Congregation and had dispensed with many of the traditional customs and ceremonies.  The President of the congregation had assured the bride that a wedding canopy would be provided, but had failed to follow through.  Once the ceremony was stopped, the bridal party left the synagogue and went to the house of the bride’s father on D Street where refreshments were served.  Once the Chupah had been put up the wedding went on with the groom’s father and Rabbi Bernard Illowy of Cincinnati performing the ceremony.  The service, which was conducted in Hebrew and German, was followed by expressions of congratulations for the newlyweds and an ample repast for the guests. [Bernard Illowy was a distinguished 19th century Orthodox Rabbi who played a prominent role in the fight to maintain traditional Judaism.  Ironically, his last pulpit was in Cincinnati, the home of Reform Judaism.]

1872: In New York, a Coroner’s Jury rendered a verdict of accidental death in the case of three year old Sarah Levy. She was with her father, Moses Levy, when she was “run over and killed by a Fourth Avenue care in the Bowery.”  A civil suit has been filed against the transit company in which the plaintiff is seeking $30,000 in damages.

1872: Nathaniel Isaacs, the English adventurer who co-founded Port Natal (modern day Durban) and who descried his life in Africa in Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa passed away today and was subsequently buried at Canterbury.

1873: Birthdate of Frankfurt native Mortiz Julius Bonn, the internationally known German economist who served as a government advisor during the Weimar Republic who found refuge in England and later the United States after Hitler came to power.

1873: Columbia trained attorney Erastus New, the son of Aaron and Ann New married Julia S. Porter today.

1874: Annie Grace Davis was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1875: Birthdate of Carl Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis who learned from and clashed with Freud.  Jung was one of the few non-Jews to be involved with this new field of science. His relationship with Sabina Spielrein was the subject of popular film that highlighted the clash between the giants and Jung’s apparent “fascination” with Jewish women.

1875: In Morgan City, LA, on the banks of the Atchafalaya River Congregation Shaarey Zedek on First Street was completed and dedicated. The Jewish community had been working on this since February 1875 and its fundraising efforts included hosting a “Grand Calico Ball.”

1878: Twenty-nine year old Adolph Lewisohn, a successful American businessman who had been born in Hamburg married Emma Cahn in Manhattan.

1881:Today “Tobias Tal, a graduate of the Amsterdam rabbinical seminary, was elected chief rabbi, a position he held until he was called to The Hague in 1895 which led to his brother-in-law, Louis Wagenaar, formerly chief rabbi in Leeuwarden and of the province of Friesland, being appointed his successor in Arnhem.

1881: Birthdate of Ya’akov Cohen, the native of Slutsk who made Aliyah in 1934 and became a prize winning “man of letters” who received the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation, for translations from the German of the first part of Goethe's Faust and other Goethe's works, Torquato Tasso and Iphigenia in Tauris, as well as a selection of poems by Heinrich Heine.”

1881: It was reported today The British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews condemned “the anti-Semitic agitation” that is currently taking place in Europe.

1881(29thof Sivan, 5641): Seventy-two year old German-Jewish philologist and expert on Sanskrit Theodor Benfey whose works also included one that proved that “the names of the Hebrew months…were derived from the Persians” passed away today.

1881(29thof Sivan, 5641): Eighty-two year old baron Philipp (Fülöp) Schey von Koromla who when he was granted “a patent of nobility by Emperor Franz Joseph” made him the first Hungarian Jew to be made a noble passed away today.

1882: The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society stated today the funds promised to care for the 8,000 refugees who have arrived since January have not been forthcoming.  A member of the society claimed that the London Committee that had collected seventeen thousand pounds which were to be used to assist in the settlement of the refugees, has not forwarded the money to New York.

1883: It was reported today that Rabbi George Brandenstein of Beth Elohim Synagogue was the first to speak at an event honoring Henry Ward Beecher.  After saying a few words in praise of his services “to men of all races,” he presented Beecher with a silver pitcher on behalf of the members of his synagogue.

1883: “The Alleged Passover Murder” published today recounted events surrounding accusations that Moritz Scharf had murdered Esther Salomossy, a Christian girl in Nyreghhaza, Hungary. Jewish witnesses claimed they had been threatened before giving testimony and Moritz had been threatened with life imprisonment if he did not confess that the murder had been committed in the synagogue.  As the blood libel charges unraveled it was discovered that the young girl had quarreled with her mistress before her disappearance and some of her friends thought she had committed suicide. [Looking at the date, you can see how strongly entrenched the Blood Libel was in gentile minds.]

1883: Cornerstone laying ceremonies for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn will begin at 2 pm today.

1887: Nineteen year old Johanna Goldschmidt, a native of Frankfurt married Adolph Stern, a native of Ziegenhain, who was the son of Salomon A. Stern and Sarah Goldschmidt.

1887: “Minister Straus Safe in Turkey” published today described the first month of Oscar Straus’ service as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.  Straus who arrived in May has already had his first audience with the Sultan. He has taken up temporary resident in a hotel at Therapia until he can find a house for more permanent quarters.  He has received a document of greeting written in Hebrew from the Grand Rabbi and the leaders of the various Jewish communities throughout the empire as well as letters of greetings from the America Baptist Society and the missionaries of western Turkey who are meeting in Constantinople.

1887: Chicago millionaire Levi Rosenfield signed a codicil will which disinherited his son Maurice by giving his share of the estate to his daughter-in-law Mattie Rosenfeld, and should she predecease him to his son-in-law David Stettauer. This decision would later disappoint Maurice’s creditors who refused to settle his debts for twenty five cents on the dollar because they thought he was going to inherit a large sum from his father.

1887: “Minister Straus Safe In Turkey” published today described the cordial reception enjoyed by Oscar Straus following his arrival at the Ottoman capital.  In an unusual move, the Sultan agreed to see the newly appointed ambassador even though it was Ramadan.

1887: In Vilnius, Vigdor Chait, a poor peddler, and Sara Levin gave birth to Baruch Zuckerman, a leading American-Israeli Zionist, one of the leading proponents of Yad Vashem, editor of Yiddishe Kempfer, and a leading figure in the Farband and Histadrut campaigns, and president of the Labor Zionist Organization of America.”

1887(4th of Tammuz, 5647):Lionel Louis Cohen who served as head of Louis Cohen & Sons, a financial firm followed by his father Louis Cohen and who served as an MP passed away today.

1887: In London Leopold de Rothschild and Marie Perugia gave birth to their third and youngest son British philanthropist Anthony G de Rothschild.

1887: “Judaic Romance” published today reviews The Yoke of the Torah by Sidney Luska whom Josh Lambert said did not exit but was the creation of a young non-Jewish author named Henry Harland.

1888(17th of Tammuz, 5648): Tzom Tammuz

1888: In New York City, “Sali and Augusta (Goldenberg) Simonson gave birth to Phi Beta Kappa Harvard graduate and WW I USA 2nd Lt.  Lee Simonson, the husband of Helen Strauss and scenic designer



1888: Five days after he passed away, David Frederick Schloss, the four month old son of David and Rachel Schloss was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1889: Birthdate of Bay Shore, LI, native Harold Fell, the University and Ohio Wesleyan trained physician Harold Fell, the WW I veteran and cardiovascular disease researcher.

1890: In Philadelphia, PA, Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, M.D. and Miriam Binswanger Solis-Cohen gave birth to Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, Jr., the President of Mastbaum Brothers and Fleisher and of Albert M. Greenfield and Company who was also the President of the Jewish Publication Society of America.

1891: Benjamin Cardozo was admitted to the New York State Bar.

1891: Birthdate of Minsk native Rabbi Judah Louis Hahn who came to the United States where he served as an “officer of the Zionist Organization of American” and during WW I, “the Jewish Welfare Board.”

1892(1st of Tammuz, 5652): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1892: The funeral of Captain Armand Mayer, the Jewish officer who was killed in a duel the anti-Semitic Marquis de Mores was held today in Paris.

1892” In Hillsboro, West Virginia Stulting and Absalom Sydenstricker gave birth to Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author Pearl Buck whose works included Peony, a novel set in the Jewish community of K’aifeng in the 1850’s.

1892: Thirty-one year old Edward Lewis Heinsheimer, the New York born “son of Lewis and Emma (Goodhart): Heinsheimer” was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College today.

1892: “Aid Asked for Hebrew Settlers” published today described the efforts of the 250 Russian Jewish immigrants to make a new life for themselves in Rosenhayn, NJ.  By day they work for New York clothiers or as farmers.  At night they attend a night school sponsored by the Educational Society of Rosenhayn they formed to enhance their ability to speak, read and write English.

1893: “Passed Creditable Examinations” published today described the outcome of the exams administered to the 24 pupils at the Jewish Theological Seminary.  All of the students performed in “an exceedingly satisfactory manner,” but David Wittenberg and Joseph Hertz were the most impressive as can be seen by the fact that they were “the senior prize winners.”

1894: Five year old Olive Frederica Harinkirsch was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1894: Four days after he passed away, 35 year old Nuremberg, Germany native Siegfried Scherer was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1894: “A New Quarantine Commissioner” published today described the decision of Governor Roswell P. Flower to appoint Edward Jacobs, a prominent Jewish lawyer to serve as one of the three Quarantine Commissioners.  Considering the role that this position plays at Ellis Island, the selection of a Jew to the position seems to be extremely appropriate.

1895: Joseph Nathan Joseph married Lillian Julia Cohen at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.

1897: It was reported today that as of 1895, of the 1,568,092 people living in Bosnia, 8,213 are Jews.

1897: Four days after she passed away “Miriam, the wife of Jacob bar Jacob” was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.

1897: Myer S. Isaacs, the President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, was among the dignitaries who attended tonight’s graduation exercises at the Baron de Hirsch Trade Schools.

1897: “An Interesting Study of Conditions in Southeastern Europe” published today included a brief history of the Jews of the Balkans, most of whom are descendants of the Spanish Jews who were given permission to settle in Serbia and Bosnia by Murad III.  Unlike recent Jews who have moved here from Hungary, most of them still speak Spanish.  The community numbers about seven thousand, three thousand of whom live in Sarajevo

1898: The Governor has telegraphed his superiors that the situation in Galicia, where renewed anti-Semitic violence has claimed the lives of 16 Jews, “is extremely serious.”

1898: Private Levy, a native of Paris, France, transferred from Company H of the 2nd Louisiana Infantry to the Hospital Corps of the United States Army.

1900: Today, “The Russification of Finland, where Jews would not be able to become full citizens until Finland became independent in 1917, took a new direction when an Imperial ukase issued from Tsar Nicholas II, replacing Finnish with Russian as the official language, to be phased in over five years

1900: “Bernard Levy has purchased for improvement the plot at the south corner of Riverside Drive and 94thStreet in NYC

1901: Bicentennial of the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest in England. Sephardic Jews founded Bevis Marks in 1701.  The congregation is known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation.

1902: Birthdate of Gracie Allen, the wife and comedic partner of George Burns.

1903(26thof Tammuz, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1903: Minnie Klein who had been “buried in the old Jewish cemetery at Chavez Ravine when she passed away in 1895 was “reburied” today “in the Home of Peach Memorial Park on Whittier Boulevard which was also the final resting place for Henry and Mamie Klein.

1904: Birthdate of actor Peter Lorre. A refugee from Hitler’s Europe, Lorre gained fame in American films as what was called "a character actor." Two of his more memorable appearances came in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, both of which starred Humphrey Bogart. One of Lorre’s few starring roles came when he played the lead in the Mr. Moto movies. Mr. Moto was a clever detective of undetermined European origins, sort of an urbane Columbo.

1905: The 20,000 Jewish residents of Lodz, a cultural center for Jews in Poland, flee in the face of Pogroms and what are in effect, the Czar’s attacks on his own citizens.

1906: Birthdate of Albert Silverman, the New York native who gained fame as lyricist Al Stillman whose works included the 1950’s Christmas standard recorded by Perry Como – “Home for the Holidays.”

1906: In Jerusalem, the Laemmel School a school established “for the secular education of Jewish children” by Fra Elise Herz of Vienna under the auspices of the poet Ludwig August Frankl “celebrated the semi-centenary of its foundation” today.

1907: “The Future American” published today previews an upcoming article on the question of the adaptiveness of immigrants by Professor Brander Matthews who pointed out those concerned about the future should note “that a list of the five most useful citizens of New York would have to included one Hebrew of German birth and that if the list should be extended to it would contain the name of another German Hebrew.”

1908: It was reported that Russian Prime Minister Stolypin is “engaged in the active consider of a measure” designed to ameliorate the conditions of the Jews of Russia “which probably take the form of a considerable remission of the present laws regarding the Jewish settlements.”

1909: “After forty-one grueling rounds Leach Cross (born Louis C. Wallach) lost a bout in California which was not as tragic as it may sound since boxing was a side-line to his major occupation – dentistry.

1910: Today, 27 Jews were expelled from Kiev, 24 from Solomoneka and 17 from Demieffka..

1911(30thof Sivan, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1911(30thof Sivan, 5671): Eighty-four year old Agnes Byk, the wife of Samuel Alexander Byk, passed away today.

1911: Joseph L. Seligman, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Seligman of New York, hosted his bachelor party tonight.  The fifty guests celebrated his upcoming marriage to Josephine Knowles.

1911: Birthdate of Edward Levi, professor of law, President of the University of Chicago and Attorney General during the Ford Administration.  The son and grandson of Rabbis, Levi's grandfather was one of the original faculty members of the University of Chicago.  Levi was a total product of the institution graduating from its lab school, undergraduate college and school of law.  When Levi was named President of the University of Chicago in 1968, he was the first Jew to hold such a post at a major American university.  In terms of measuring progress, today such appointments are almost not worth mentioning.  When he died in 2000, at the age of 88, Levi was eulogized for a long and distinguished career in the law and academia.

1912: The 12th annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary whose president was Jacob Kohn ended today in Tannersville, NY.

1912: The Board of Education paid tribute to the late District Superintendent Miss Julia Richman, the energetic reform minded educator who passed away while vacationing in France.

1912: In New York Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Koner gave birth to dancer and choreographer Pauline Koner.

1912: “Bruno Walter led the Vienna Philharmonic in the world premiere of Mahler's Symphony No. 9

1913: The American Zionists’ convention continues its meetings in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1913: In Pittsburgh, PA, Sam and Sophie Kress gave birth to Academy Award winning American film editor Harold F. Kress.


1913: In Springfield, Illinois, the annual conference of the American Association of Officials of Charities and Correction which Simon W. Rosndale, Mortimer L. Schiff and Henry Solomon all of New York were delegates came to a close today.

1913(21stof Sivan, 5673): Eighty-four year old Rabbi Arnold Levy passed away in New York.

1914: Birthdate of Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Shah’s last Prime Minister who, according to Yossi Alpher, “the Mossad’s chief intelligence analyst on Iran,” “had called in Eliezer Shafrir, the Mossad’s representative in Tehran, and asked Mossad to assassinate Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni while he was still in France, a request that Mossad rejected.

1915: In Norfolk, VA, suffragette and Hadassah member Ella Shapiro and attorney Louis Shapiro gave birth to Charlotte Gertrude Shapiro who gained fame as Charlotte Zolotow, “a distinguished author and editor of children’s books.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1915: Middleweight Augie Ratner fought and won his first bout today.

1915: Those who favored the imposition of the death penalty for Leo Frank are scheduled “to show their disapproval” to Governor Slaton’s commutation today “when the Governor retires from office and Judge Nat E. Harris is inaugurated.

1915: “The feelings aroused by Governor John M. Slaton’s in commuting the death sentence imposed on Leo M. Frank …culminated today at the Capitol in a demonstration against the Governor when he retired from the Executive office and Judge Nat E. Harris of Macon was inaugurated.  For the first time in the history of Georgia a Governor left office with a crowd hurling epithets at him  and crying ‘Lynch him!’ and escaped bodily harm only through the protection of a large force of police and State troops.”

1915: In New York, “the Woman’s Peace Society is scheduled to hold a reception in the Assembly room of the Cosmopolitan Garden this afternoon for those who signed the petition to Governor Slaton asking for the commutation of the death sentence of Leo Frank and to those who worked to obtain the signautres.”

1915: “Early this morning” Rabbi Eichler conducted services at Temple Ohaibe Shalom on Union Park Street for forty delegates who will be attending the convention of American Zionists in Boston

1915: “An informal dance and reception” was held in Boston this evening to mark the opening of “the great convention of American Zionist, the first such national gathering of Jews on American soil.”

1915: In Ohio, Beachwood was incorporated as Beachwood Village, the Cleveland suburb that is home to Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, Agnon School and Cleveland Hebrew School.

1916: It was reported today that “the de Hirsh society has tendered a check for $1,500” to be used for the construction of a Hebrew Orphan Asylum to be built in Hudson County which is a pet project of Henry Morgenthau. 

1916: It was reported today the Joint Distribution Committee “is made up of Felix Warburg of the American Relief Committee, Jacob Goldberg of the People’s Committee and Harry Fischel of the Central Relief Committee.

1917: In Baltimore, the delegates to the 20th Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists were scheduled to attend a presentation by the Young Judeans.

1918: Major Brooman White, the British recruiting agent told those attending the 21stannual convention of the Federation of American Zionists being held in Pittsburgh, PA that “at the end of the ninety-day period established by the agreement between the United States and England, American Jews” will not be allowed to “enlist in the Jewish Legion of Honor for service with the British forces in Palestine.”

1918: The Fifth Annual Convention of Hadassah met for its third session today.

1918: During World War I, Allied Forces including units of the AEF under General John J. Pershing defeated units of the German Army under the command of Crown Prince Wilhelm.  Among the Americans who fought in this critical battle was a Jewish Marine from Buffalo New York named Lester Bergman. Born in 1889, “Bergman was the first person from Buffalo, NY, to enlist in the Marine Corps during World War I. He was wounded during extremely heavy fighting at the battle of Belleau Wood in France, where he participated in the capture of a Maxim gun, 23 machine guns and 170 German soldiers.  Bergman was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.” He passed away in 1958.

1919: The first national conference of the Religious Zionist Organization, Mizrachi, closes.

1919: In the Weimar Republic, premiere of “The Oyster Princess” a silent film directed and written by Ernst Lubitsch.

1920(10thof Tammuz, 5680): Parshat Chukat

1920: Dr. Joseph Silverman is scheduled to officiate at Shabbat services at Temple Emanu-El

1920: Rabbi Ephraim Frisch is scheduled to lead services this morning at the New Synagogue on Broadway.

1920: Rabbi Max Reichler is scheduled to lead services this morning at “Sinai of the Bronx.”

1921: In Hampstead, Simon Beloff and Marie Katzin gave birth to Anne Beloff the sister of Renee Soskin, Nora Beloff, John Beloff and Max Beloff  and wife of Nobel Prize Winner Ernst Borst Chain who gained fame as British biochemist Lady Anne Ethel Beloff – Chain.


1921: “Dorothy Turk, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Turk of Rochester, NY, is scheduled to marry New York City resident John Goldhaar, the “graduate of Cornell and NYU” who “was decorated by the French Government with the Medaille d’Honneur for his war work” at Temple Beth El today.

1921: In Paris, Englishman Charles George Bushell and French dressmaker Reine Blance Leroy gave birth to Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell who as Violette Szabo served with the SOE during WW II and was executed by the Nazis at Ravensbruck.

1922: Gimbel Brothers, which “established their business in New York 12 years ago,” announced today “that they had acquired by leased the building on 33rdand 34th Street which is now occupied by Saks and Company” which will soon be occupying “a new building on 5th Avenue and 50thStreet which is under construction.”

1922: Frank Taffel, the native of Galicia, who would found Atlanta, Georgia’s Fulton Auto Exchange and co-found Congregation Beth Jacob became a United States citizen today.

1923: At Yankee Stadium Princeton lost to Yale despite the fact that Moe Berg went two for four (single and a double) and played shortstop with enough skill to interest major league scouts.

1925: The 148th Session of the New York State Legislature in which Philip M. Kleinfeld served as a State Senator came to a close today.

1925: “The Gold Rush,” starring Charlie Chaplin premiered in Los Angeles.

1925: Brenham, TX native Rosa Levin, who had attended Blinn College and Rice University, married Sam H. Toubin.  Rosa Levin Toubin would write two books about Jewish history in Texas included History of B’nai Abraham Synagogue.

1926: In Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Ber Rivkin and his wife gave birth to Shlomo Rivkin the last Chief Rabbi of St. Louis, MO.

1927: The New York Times reviewed Fairy Flowers by Isadora Newman.


1927: Birthdate of Jerry Schatzberg, the Bronx born photographer and movie director


1928: In Calgary, Alberta, Polish fishmonger turned Canadian furniture businessman and “the former Hinda Fishman” gave birth to “corporate raider and philanthropist” Samuel Belzberg, the husband of Frances Belzberg with whom he had four children – Marc, Lisa, Wend and Sherry (As reported by Brooks Barnes)


1928: When the Democratic National Committee convened, today Belle Moskowitz was the only woman at the table, but she was as influential as any man there. The networks she had created in New York helped to secure the Presidential nomination for Al Smith, the first major Catholic candidate for U.S. President. After his nomination, she directed national campaign publicity. When Smith lost to Herbert Hoover, Moskowitz stayed on as his press agent, and coordinated his campaign for the 1932 nomination, which Smith lost to Franklin Roosevelt.

1929: Birthdate of Bronx native and graphic designer Milton Glaser the creator of “I NY logo.”

1930: Three days after his death, Sir Israel Gollancz, the former Professor of English Language and Literature at King’s College was buried at the Jewish Cemetery at Willesden after which he was memorialized by awarding of the Sir Israel Gollancz price for Early English Studies by the British Academy.


1931: “The Man in Evening Clothes” a comedy featuring music composed by Casimir Oberfeld who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1945 was released in the United States today.

1931: In Brooklyn, theatrical haberdasher Harry Minoff and his wife gave birth to Marvin Minoff the movie and television producer who married Bonnie Franklin.


1933: “The Akademie für Deutsches Recht (Academy for German Law) is founded to rewrite the entire body of German law to NSDAP specifications” The NSDAP is the Nazi Party.

1933: The Federation of Jewish Communities of Switzerland the Berne Jewish Community files suit against the right-wing Swiss National Front for distributing anti-Semitic literature including the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” At the end of the litigation, the court will hold that that the “Protocols are a forgery, are plagiarized, and qualify as ‘obscene’ literature”

1934: Birthdate of Selwyn Raab, another product of the Lower East and City College of New York who went on to a career in journalism with the NY World Telegram and Sun and NY Times, broadcasting with NBC News and literature where he wrote several volumes on crime and “the mob.”


1934: In Littleton, CO, a female pianist and male violinist both from Riga, gave birth to Academy and Grammy award winning composer and arranger Robert David “Dave” Grusin whose “first film score” was for the 1967 comedy “Divorce American Style.”

1934: The New York Times reported that the Tel Aviv “has issued notices to holders of its external twenty-year sinking fund six and a half percent public improvement sterling bonds…have been drawn for redemption at par, on the current rate of exchange for sterling on the day of presentation” (As reported by Austin Cline)

1935(25th of Sivan, 5695): Fifty-five year Vinnytsia native and composer Oscar Potoker who after coming to the United States created several movie scores and became a close friend of fellow composer Josiah Zuro with whom he was riding when the latter died in a fatal automobile accident passed away today.

1936: Germany adopts an ordinance banning Jews from serving the Army.

1936: San Francisco” a film set at the time of the city’s famous earthquake with music by Walter Jurman and featuring Al Shean, the uncle of the famous Marx Brothers and Harold Huber was released in the United States today.

1936: In the aftermath of the The Przytyk Pogrom, the worst anti-Semitic violence that occurred in pre-war Poland, the trial of those charged with taking part in the violence came to an end.  There were 43 Polish defendants and 14 Jewish defendants.  The Jews claimed that they had acted in self-defense.  But the court sentenced eleven of the Jews to prison terms ranging from 6 months to 8 years for demonstrating “aggressive behavior toward Polish peasants.”  Thirty-nine of the Poles received sentences ranging from 6 to 12 months.

1936:The Palestine Post reported that circulars urging Arab villagers to put an end to disorders were dropped by British Army planes. The leaflets promised that the king would send a Royal Commission to inquire into the Arab grievances, but only when a complete order was restored. Some 50 well-armed Arabs attacked a convoy made up of 10 buses and accompanied by two armored cars close to Nablus. One British soldier and six Arabs were killed before the convoy was able to continue. The Post published the full text of the House of Commons debate on Palestine (11 pages) and continued a series of articles by Maurice Samuel which explored the possibilities of an Arab-Jewish reconciliation. A Jew was badly wounded by an Arab who had asked for a drink in an orange grove near Petah Tikva. A similar incident happened a week earlier.

1936: Birthdate of Edith Pearlman, the native of Providence, RI and Radcliffe graduate who won the 2012 Harold U. Ribalow Prize presented by Hadassah magazine for outstanding Jewish fiction.

1936: “Religious objection to the policy of any State which strikes at the very practice of religion, specifically the treatment of Catholics in our sister republic of Mexico” was expressed tonight by the Central Conference of American Rabbis at its annual convention, when it approved a recommendation submitted by the committee on resolutions.”

1936: “Police and military patrols on the streets of Bucharest were doubled today as the government decided to take firm measures to suppress attacks on Jews.”

1937: Laurence A. Steinhardt completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden

1937: This evening “thousands of Berlin Jews packed the city’s grand Brüdervereinshaus to bid farewell to Rabbi Joachim Prinz, who had been ordered by the Gestapo to leave Germany immediately or face an almost certain death sentence for political subversion.”

1937(17th of Tammuz, 5697): Parashat Balak

1937: Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Should Jews Avoid the Professions?’ at Temple Rodeph Sholom.

1937” Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Season of Romance—And After” at Temple Israel.

1937(17th of Tammuz. 5697): On Shabbat, Sam Frank, Nevada’s first Jewish mayor passed away.  A native of California, Frank moved to Reno, NV in 1903. Prior to Prohibition, Frank worked in the wholesale liquor business.  When America went dry, he and his brother opened a soft-drink bottling company. Frank became Mayor when Edwin E. Roberts passed away.  He was defeated for re-election in 1935.  Unlike his brother Ben, Sam Frank was not active in the Jewish community for many years; a situation some attributed to the fact that he had married a non-Jews. (For more see Jews in Nevada by John P. Marschall)

1937: George Gershwin was released from Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles with a diagnosis of “likely hysteria” since tests had shown no physical cause of “the headaches and olfactory hallucinations he had been experiencing..

1938:Five more bombs exploded today in the quarter between Jaffa and Tel Aviv wounding fifteen Arabs. Soon after the first bomb exploded in the morning a mob of Arabs raided a Jew's shop and stabbed the proprietor.

1938: Joseph C. Hyman, the executive director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced today that “efforts are being made to provide for Austrian Jews the experience and facilities of the Jewish organizations in Germany that have been engaged in vocation training, economic aid and the facilitation of emigration.”

1939: Final broadcast of the CBS version of Camel Caravan starring Eddie Cantor.

1939: Adolf Hitler wrote a letter today to Dr. Hans Posse, Director of the Dresden Gallery “to build up the new art museum for Linz Donau.”

1939: After opening at the Labor Stage Theatre the ILGWU production of “Pins and Needles” a revue with music and lyrics by Harold Rome who also wrote the book along with several others including Marc Blitzstein, directed by Charles Friedman and choreographed by Benjamin Zemach transferred to the Windsor Theatre.

1939: “Five hundred people attended a session of the convention of the National Council of Young Israel which was held today in the Temple of Religion at the World’s Fair.  ‘The event was chaired by Henry G. Fromberg.  Cantor Aaron Caplow and the Oscar Julius Choir provided the music for the event.

1940: Today, the British Ambassador in Madrid wrote to London "The arrival of the Germans to the Pyrenees is a tremendous event in the eyes of every Spaniard because it may mean the passage of Nazi troops through Spain to Portugal or Africa, a fear that lead the Spanish government to declare the visas issued by Sousa Mendes (the Portuguese Schindler) to be null and void.

1940: A split takes place among the leaders of Etzel, also known as the Irgun. They cannot decide whether or not to cease attacks against the British for the duration of the war. Abraham Stern, believing that the timing was ripe to pressure the British by any means to allow full immigration sets up the LEHI (Lohamei Herut Yisrael) Freedom Fighters of Israel. The group was also known as the Stern Gang. This splinter terrorist group will eventually kill a UN peace envoy during the War for Independence – an act that will be condemned by the Jewish leadership.

1940: United States Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long determines to obstruct the granting of visas to Jews seeking entry into the United States. He seeks indefinitely to "delay and effectively stop" such immigration by ordering American consuls "to put every obstacle in the way [to] postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of visas." His goal will be realized over the next four years.  Breckinridge Long represents what is called “genteel anti-Semitism,” a disease which lingered after the war among what Harry Truman called the striped pants boys at Sate.

1940: Today following France’s capitulation to the Nazis “the main HIAS-HICEM Paris Office was authorized by Portuguese ruler António de Oliveira Salazar to be transferred from Paris to Lisbon.”

1940: The Nazis confined Cardinal Emmanuel Celestin Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris “in his archiepiscopal residence” preparatory to a planned move to ship him off to a concentration camp.

1941(1st of Tammuz, 5701: Hundreds of Jews from Kovno, Lithuania, were executed at the fortified Ninth Fort on the city's outskirts.

1941: Lithuanian fascists massacred 2300 Jews in Kovno. The sad fact of the matter is that the Nazis had many willing helpers among the population of various European countries.

1941: The invading Nazis seized hundreds of Jews in Kovno, USSR and murdered them.

1941: German forces “rolled into Łuck” where the retreating NKVD had murdered “4,000 captives including Poles, Jews and Ukrainians” and the Nazis would establish a Ghetto as the first step toward wiping the Jewish population.

1941: The Germans reached Bialystok home of the bialy. Another large Jewish population center would now fall victim to the SS Killing Squads. 

1941: In Jedwabne, Poland, a local priest convinces the Poles who had begun attacking their fellow citizens who were Jewish, to halt their pogrom.  He assures them that the Germans would take care of the Jews.  However, the Poles refused to sell food to the Jews in the town amid rumors that the Germans “would be issuing orders that all Jews be destroyed.

1942: “There’s One Born Every Minute” a comedy that marked the film debut of Elizabeth Taylor the convert to Judaism who had two Jewish husbands was released today in the United States today.

1942: For the first time British radio carried reports about the fate of the Polish Jews. It said that 700,000 Jews had been killed in Poland to date. This would have meant that over two million of Poland’s reported three million Jews were still alive and could have been saved.



1943: Dr.Karl Landsteiner the Austrian born American physician who the 1930 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on differentiating the blood groups passed away in New York and who had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism when he was twenty one years old.

1943: On Shabbat, special prayers were offered for the nation's leadership asking them to lead us toward "a peace of righteousness and permanence" at a service in Temple Emanu-El. The service was held today in conjunction with the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who represent the Reform Rabbinate in the United States.

1944: The last Jews from Random were deported to Auschwitz today.

1945: The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco. At a time when there was multi-faceted opposition to the creation of a Jewish state, the United Nations would provide the legal framework for the creation of the modern state of Israel. 

1946: Today, “Tzadok”, the leader of the Beitar branch in Bruna, wrote on the back of a photograph of parade of Beitar members “As an eternal memory for our friends, from the opening of Kibbutz Beitar in Bruna, which took place on April 22-23 [...] in Linz.”


1947: In New York City, Joseph Siegel “a commercial education teacher” and the former Edith Joffe’ “a secretary at Stuyvesant High School” gave birth to Peabody Award Winning NPR journalist Robert Charles Siegel, the husband of Jane Claudia Schwartz and the father of “musician Leah Siegel” and Erica Anne Siegel.

1947(8th of Tammuz, 5707) Fifty-seven year old Columbia University trained gastroenterologist and WW I veteran Dr. John Leonard Kantor, the son of Dr. William L. Kantor and Katherine Gordon Kantor who during WW II “commanded the 49th General Hospital, saw active service in New Guinea and was the father of “Dr. Thomas Gordon Kantor and James Downes Kantor” passed away today.

1948: Today, while President Truman watched events in Israel with one eye, with another eye he watched “32 C-47s lift off for Berlin hauling 80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour, and medicine” in what was the start of Operation Vittles, the Western Allies attempt to overcome the Soviet blockade of Berlin which, if it failed, could lead to WW III or the triumph of Soviet Imperialism.

1949: Eighty-seven year old David Philipson, “the Dean of the American Reform Rabbinate” collapsed today at the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

1949: Jewish golfer Herman Barron, the 1948 Goodall and 1947 Tam O’Shanter champion teamed with William J. Cobb to win the annual pro-member tournaments at the Bonnie Briar Country Club in Larchmont, NY.

1950: “Admiral Sir John Edelsten, Commander in Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet arrived in Israel today” when HMS Surprise, his flagship, docked at Haifa.  It was the first such visit since the British left the country two years ago.

1950(11th of Tammuz, 5710): Sixty-six year old Montezuma, GA born, Harvard trained attorney Louis Maxwell Cohen, the father of Maxwell and Allen Brenner and a “member of the Lawyers’ Panel of the ACLU, passed away today.

1950: The Memorial Park which was a product of the work of Alfred Lippman and Bernard Rodetsky was dedicated to today Temple Beth Miriam in Long Branch, NJ.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that contracts had been signed for the widening of the Kishon River outlet near Haifa, building of a bridge over it and the construction of a port and dry dock there.

1952: An Israeli army spokesman said that fourteen Arabs had been killed during the last two weeks during operations designed to keep infiltrators from crossing into the Jewish state. Two more were arrested and two were wounded.

1952(3rd of Tammuz, 5712): Seventy-one year old Joseph Baskin, the Minsk born son “Nachim Mendel and Rose Baskin,” the husband of the “former Mary Plotkin,” the father of Geraldine and Gilbert Baskin and since 1916 the “general secretary of the Workmen’s Circle” and “editor of The Friend” passed away today.


1955(6th of Tammuz, 5715): Fifty-four year old Borrah Minevitch the Ukrainian born harmonica player who led The Harmonica Rascals, a ten piece ensemble that recorded for Brunswick and Decca records passed away today in Paris.

1956: Under President Nasser, Egypt seized control of the Suez Canal. 

1957: Eighty-seven year old German-American author Bruno Alfred Döblin who converted to Catholicism while spending World War II in Los Angeles passed away today.

1960(1st of Tammuz, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1960: It was reported today that American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell has sought the help of the ACLU in over-turning Mayor Wagner’s decision to deny him a permit to speak on July 4 at Union Square because they Mayor said that “the request of a permit was ‘an invitation to riot and disorder from a half-penny Hitler.’”

1960: “Eichmann and the U.N.” published today described Argentina’s complaint to the Security that Israel had violated its sovereignty by seizing the Nazi and taking him Jerusalem where he would stand trial for his crimes” while failing to offer any explanation for the henchman of the Final Solution being able to find refuge in their country for the last 15 minutes.

1961: Operation Morale, “a clandestine effort headed by Mossad to facilitate the emigration of Jewish Moroccan children to Israel” began today when the first of five convoys left the North African country “under the guise of taking a supposed holiday to Switzerland.

1963: “Levi Eshkol took over Mapai and formed the eleventh government.

1963: Levi Eshkol replaced David Ben Gurion as Minister of Defense.

1963: Birthdate of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs who lost his business empire and his freedom when President Putin felt threatened by him. “Because Khodorkovsky's father is Jewish, some concerns have been raised that his persecution is motivated by anti-Semitism, and that it is only one of many steps to clearing Russian economy from Jews.”

1965(26th of Sivan, 5725): Parashat Sh’lach

1965(26th of Sivan, 5725):Seventy-eight year old Mendel B. Silberberg who was “once called the most important lawyer in the U.S.” and “also referred to as the most powerful Jew in Los Angeles next to Rabbi Edgar Magnin” passed away today

1966: Birthdate of Daniel Hamidou, the Berber born Jew who gained fame as French comedian Dany Boon who played “Private Ponchel” in Joyeux Noël, a gem of a film.

1966: After twenty-three performances the curtain came down on a revival of “Guys and Dolls” starring Jan Murray as Nathan Detroit at the New York City Center.

1967: Spain granted Jews and Protestants the right of public worship for the first time since Ferdinand and Isabella proclaimed Catholicism as Spain's only religion.

1968(30th of Sivan, 5728): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1968 (30th of Sivan, 5728: Fifty-four year old jazz trumpeter Harry “Ziggy” Elman, the Philadelphia born son of Minnie and Alek Finkelman, the husband of Ruby Elman and father of Martin J. Elman who gained fame during the big band era with the Benny Goodman Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra passed away today.


1968: Birthdate of Rich Eisen anchor on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

1969: Birthdate of Sociology Professor Philip “Phil” Zuckerman whose works include Society Without God.


1970: Today’s Bulletin described the reading of the Book of Ruth after services on the second day of Shavuot by Louise Brott, Erica Shacter and John Diamond, the first time that this has occurred at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal.



1974: “Police arrest cyberneticist Mikhail Agursky in Moscow.”

1974(6th of Tammuz, 5734): Eighty-seven year old Ernest Gruening, the long-time liberal Democrat who served as Governor of Alaska before being elected Senator passed away.  Gruening had been trained as a doctor at Harvard and Harvard Medical School although he never practice medicine.  He is best remembered as only one of two Senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a move that cost him his Senate seat. (As reported by John T. McQuiston)


1974: “For Pete’s Sake” a comedy produced by Stanley Shapiro who co-authored the script and starring Barbra Streisand was released today in the United States.

1974; Today, at 8:01 a.m., “a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum slid down a conveyor belt and past an optical scanner. The scanner beeped, and the cash register understood, faithfully ringing up 67 cents. That purchase, at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, was the first anywhere to be rung up using a bar code.  A Jew did not invent the now ubiquitous bar code, but Alan Haberman, of blessed memory, “led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders — circles, bull’s-eyes and seemingly random agglomerations of dots — in 1973.  By all accounts, he spent years afterward cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. His efforts helped cement the marriage between the age-old practice of commerce and the new world of information technology led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders — circles, bull’s-eyes and seemingly random agglomerations of dots — in 1973. By all accounts, he spent years afterward cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. His efforts helped cement the marriage between the age-old practice of commerce and the new world of information technology.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1975: It was reported today that Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Joseph J. Sisco has “has told an assembly of Jewish community relations leaders that the ‘forces of moderation in the Middle East’” now have “the upper hand, thus strengthening possibilities for further agreements through the ‘diplomatic process.’”

1976: Maxwell Raab, a Wall Street lawyer who played a prominent role in the Eisenhower presidency was inducted as a fellow of Brandeis University.

1976: In case of Jew versus Jews, in “Omen Is Nobody’s Baby” published today Richard Eder panned “The Omen” which was directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer.

1977(10th of Tammuz, 5737): Eighty-eight year old Bertha Levy passed away today after which she was buried at Temple Beth-El Cemetery in Pensacola, FL

1978: Mariia Slepak was the latest person to go in the dock Moscow as part of the anti-Zionist trials.

1979(1st of Tammuz, 5739): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1980: Birthdate of actor Jason Schwartzman

1981: “Stripes” an Army comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman who produced along with Daniel Goldberg who in turn co-authored the script with Len Blum, Daniel and Harold Ramis who played the role of Pvt. Russel Ziskey and with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United States.

1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Parashat Korach

1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Seventy-seven year old Columbia trained attorney and WW II U.S. Marine veteran Myron Sulzberger, the Democratic Party leader and the husband of “Luba Malina” passed away today.


1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Forty-six year old André Tchaikowsky, a Polish born composer and pianist who as a small child survived the Warsaw Ghetto, passed away.

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

1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Seventy-two year old Chaim Grade, a Yiddish poet and novelist whose work gained wide attention because of its passion and intensity in dealing with Jewish life in Eastern Europe and with the trauma of the Holocaust, died of a heart attack today in Montefiore Hospital. (As reported by Richard F. Shepard)


1984: Barbra Streisand records "Here We Are at Last"

1984(26th of Sivan, 5744): Sixty-nine year old Carl Foreman who wrote the scripts of such classics as High Noon, The Guns of Navarone and The Bridge on the River Kwai passed away today.


1985: Two months after premiering at Cannes, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” directed by Héctor Babenco was released in Brazil and the United States today.

1985: “Pale Rider” a “dark cowboy” film with music by Lennie Niehaus was released today in the United States.

1987(29th of Sivan, 5747): Eighty-three year old Columbia trained economist Dr. Arthur Burns, the Galician born of “Polish-Jewish parents Sarah Juran and Nathan Burnseig, the husband of Helen Bernstein and father of David and Joseph Burns who helped to shape economic policy in the three decades staring with the Presidency of Eisenhower passed away today.


1989(23rd of Sivan, 5749):Trude Weiss-Rosmarin passed away. Born in 1908, she was a German Jewish writer, editor, scholar, and feminist activist. With her husband, she co-founded the School of the Jewish Woman in New York in 1933, and in 1939 founded the Jewish Spectator, a quarterly magazine, which she edited for 50 years. She was the author of 12 books, including Judaism and Christianity: The differences (1943), Toward Jewish-Muslim Dialogue(1967), and Freedom and Jewish Women (1977).

1991(14th of Tammuz, 5751): Ninety year old Wolfgang Zilzer, the Cincinnati born German character actor who often performed under the name of “Paul Andor” and who married his film fiancée in “Casablanca passed away today after which he was buried in Berlin.

1992: NBC broadcast the final episode of seasons 2 of Seinfeld.

1994(17th of Tammuz, 5754): Tzom Tammuz

1994: Alan Blinder completed his service as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

1994: After 73, the curtain came down on the original production of “Broken Glass” “a play by Arthur Miller, focusing on a couple in New York City in 1938, the same time of Kristallnacht.”

1996(9th of Tammuz, 5756): Staff Sgt. (Res.) Asher Berdugo, 22, of Kiryat Bialik; Sgt. Ashraf Shibli, 20, of Shibli; and Cpl. (Res.) Ya'acov Turgeman of Rishon Lezion were killed in an ambush along the Jordan River north of Jericho by terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan.

1997: Mervyn Taylor completed his term as Minister for Equality and Law Reform which the Irish government then abolished and merged with the Department of Justice.

1997: Barry Manilow was diagnosed with bronchitis before a scheduled performance in Austin, TX.

1997: The International Congress of the International Napoleonic Society came to an end at Akkesandria, Italy.http://www.napoleon-series.org/ins/weider/c_jews.html

1998: Launch of the INS Tkuma, a Dolphin class submarine.

2001: President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the White House.

2001: In St. Petersburg, after major reconstruction “the greater hall” of the Great Choral Synagogue was reopened today.

2002: Today “in a commentary in NRO titled "Taking Back the Market – By Force”, Larry Kudlow, a Jewish convert to Catholicism who would go from television personality to Trump economic advisor “called for the United States to attack Iraq, stating that Saddam Hussein had "weapons of mass destruction at his disposal" and that "a lack of decisive follow-through in the global war on terrorism is the single biggest problem facing the stock market and the nation today"

2002:Jean-François Copé began serving as a member of the National Assembly for Seine-et-Marne’s constituency.

2002(16th of Tammuz, 5762): Ninety-two year old Sadie Hurwitz Bregman “a homemaker and widow of Samuel “Bo” Bregman the Washington businessman and homebuilder who “promoted the Joe Louis vs Buddy Baer at Griffith Stadium in September, 1940 for the world heavyweight championship” passed away today at the George Washington University Hospital.

2003(26th of Sivan, 5763): Cape Town native and pioneering anthropologist Isaac Schapera passed away today.




2003(26th of Sivan, 5763): Amos (Amit) Mantin, 31, of Hadera, a Bezeq employee, was killed in a shooting attack in the Israeli Arab town of Baka al-Garbiyeh. The shots were fired by a Palestinian teenager, who was apprehended by police. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

2004(7th of Tammuz, 5764): Israel's renowned composer and songwriter Naomi Shemer passed away at the age of 74. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/nyregion/29shemer.html

Shemer is known to many as the composer of the famous song “Y'rushalayim Shel Zahav" or in English, "Jerusalem of Gold."  For those of you who saw "Shindler's List" this was the song played at the end of the movie when the film turned from black and white to color as the survivors were shown visiting the Shindler's grave.  The song was written at the request of Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolek in 1967 several weeks before the outbreak of the Six Day War.  The song expresses the longing of a person for Jerusalem who has to view the Old City from the opposite side of the Green Line.  In one of those ironic twists of history, "the song became the war's anthem. 

Jerusalem of Gold


Lu Yehi



2005: Igo Feldblum writes a letter to historian Martin Gilbert describing how young Jews in Palestine responded positively to the war time slogan ‘Win We Will.’  ‘Confident in this prophecy, many enlisted in the Jewish Brigade and fought alongside the Allies.’  “Thirty thousand Palestinian Jews fought in the British forces…and more than seven hundred were killed in action.”

2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including King of the Jews by Nick Tosches and The Woman From Hamburg by Hanna Krall.


2005 (19th of Sivan, 5765): Eighty-one year old Louis J. Sigel, a Teaneck, N.J., rabbi who was a prominent voice for integration of the township's public schools in the early 1960's, passed away today at his home in Hackensack, N.J. (As reported by George James)


2005: Wild Desert, a horse owned by several businesspeople including former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, gave Robert J. Frankel his first victory in the $1 million Queen's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Woodbine Racetrack.

2005: “Havoc,” a “crime drama” filmed by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau debut at the Munich International Film festival today.

2005: The Rubashkin Education Center in Postville is scheduled to hold its grand opening this afternoon

2006(30th of Sivan, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2006(30th of Sivan, 5766): Seventy-two year old Harvard psychiatrist Joseph J Schildkraut passed away today. (As reported by Jeremy Pearce)


2006: Twenty-four hours after attacking an IDF checkpoint Palestinians fire Kassam Rockets into Israel. 

2007: At the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, an exhibition inspired by the ancient flood story of Noah’

2007: The General Assembly of the European Jewish Congress elects a new president for the EJC for a two year term.

2007: The President of Poland and Jewish leaders break ground for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews on a site next to Warsaw’s monument to Jews who resisted the Nazis during the 1943 ghetto uprising. 

2007(10th of Tammuz, 5767): Belgian born American fashion designer, Liz Claiborne passed away at the age of 78. (As reported by Eric Wilson)


2007: A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency by author, attorney, blogger, and Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald was published today, by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House

2008: In New York City the Gallery at the Astor Center presents, “A Taste of Appetizing” featuring Mark Russ Federman, representing the third of the four generations of famed Russ & Daughters who guides participants on a tasting of his extraordinary wares. From humble Herring to luscious Lox, Mark will be explain all—accompanied by a generous side order of the stories behind this New York culinary landmark, judged by the Smithsonian Institute as “part of New York’s cultural heritage.” Joining Mark will be Russ & Daughters’ long-time manager, Herman “The Artistic Slicer” Vargas.

2008: A rocket fired from Gaza hit the Sderot industrial area this afternoon, exploding near a gas station and shattering the truce for a fourth time this week. While neither Prime Minister Ehud Olmert nor Defense Minister Ehud Barak released statements following the rocket attack on Sderot on Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni issued an uncharacteristically sharp demand for an immediate military response.

2009(4thof Tammuz, 5769): Seventy-nine year old Jo Amar, a Moroccan-born Jewish singer whose melding of Andalusian and Israeli musical influences made him a star in Israel and a popular performer in Jewish communities around the world, died today at the home of his son Ouri in Woodmere, N.Y. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2009: Jews in the Washington Metropolitan Area have a wide panoply of choices when it comes to welcoming the Sabbath Queen ranging from the Carlebach Minyan at Kesher Israel to Congregation Adat Reyim's unique folk service lead by their folk group that group uses musical instruments and a variety of melodies from Debbie Friedman, Craig Taubman, and others to add a wonderful musical aspect to their Shabbat services

2009: Russia told a U.S. court today that American judges have no authority to tell the country how to handle sacred Jewish documents held in its state library, which had been seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies.

2010(14th of Tammuz, 5770): Eighty-four year old Shoista Mullojonova “a renowned Tajik-born Bukharian Jewish Shashmakom singer” passed away today.


2010: Ginsberg Jewelers, which is owned by Herman Ginsberg, a pillar of the Jewish community and a mensch of the first order and is a mainstay of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, business community battled back from the Floods of 2008 and hosted an Open House in its new, location today.

2010: The Jewish community of Cedar Rapids is scheduled to gather this evening for “Havdalah Under The Stars.”

2010: Prize winning ice skater Loren Galler-Rabinowitz won the Miss Massachusetts title.

2011: Israel continued repositioning part of its contested barrier in the West Bank today, four years after a court ruled it should be re-routed to give Palestinians greater access to farmland. Israeli tractors tore down a section of the barrier, a metal fence, as a clutch of journalists watched. A new concrete barrier has been erected some 600 meters from the old route near the Jewish settlement of Modiin Illit. The Israeli military tore down a watchtower overlooking Bilin earlier in the week.

2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Druggist of Auschwitz: A Documentary Novela” by Dieter Schlesak. Translated by John Hargraves

2011: The Jewish Museum Milwaukee is scheduled to participate in a WWII Encampment Reenactment program being staged by the Milwaukee County Historical Society at Trimborn Farm. Local student and actor, Shane Skinner, is scheduled to present a dynamic portrayal of the lives of Jewish servicemen during the war, drawing on collections from the archives of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.

2011: “The Washington Haggadah: Medieval Jewish Art in Context” is scheduled to come to an end today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Washington Haggadah, an illuminated medieval manuscript and, since 1916, a principal treasure in the Library of Congress, is spending Passover in New York City on a snug reading stand in a display case at the Metropolitan Mu­seum of Art.


2011: Mordechay Lewy, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, “who caused a storm in the Jewish world by praising Pope Pius XII for saving Jews during World War Two backtracked today, saying his judgment was "historically premature." The comments made by, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, were some of the warmest ever made by a Jewish official about Pius but were very upsetting to Holocaust survivors and others who know the history of the man some call “Hitler’s Pope.”

2011(24th of Sivan, 5771): Ninety-one year old Sidney Radner, owner of one of the largest collections of material related to Harry Houdini passed away today. This was a case of one Jew carrying for the legacy of another Jew.  (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2011(24th of Sivan, 5771): Seventy-seven year old Joseph Hochstein passed away today in Tel Aviv. In 1965, Hochstein and his father Phillip started the Jewish Week, a Washington, DC publication that was the successor the National Jewish Ledger.  It was renamed The Washington Jewish Week after Hochstein sold the paper in 1980’s and made Aliyah.


2011: “After 28 previews and 73 performances” the curtain came down on the second Broadway revival of “Born Yesterday” written by Garson Kanin.

2012: Eating and drinking must be on the minds of those at the 92nd Street Y which is scheduled to offer programs on “Wines of the Southern Hemisphere” and “Picnics Through the Ages.”

2012(6th of Tammuz, 5772): Ninety-two year old “Harry Levinson, a psychologist who helped change corporate America’s thinking about the workplace by demonstrating a link between job conditions and emotional health — a progressive notion when he began developing his ideas in the 1950s” passed away today. (As reported by Claudia H. Deutsch)


2012: As part of the Food for Thought program, Rabbi Yosef Edelstein is scheduled to lead “Digesting Ethics, Mysticism and Philosophy.”

2012: David Kilimnick, Razorback by birth and Israeli by choice, is scheduled to host another “Open Mic” night at Jerusalem’s Off The Wall Comedy Club on Ben Yehuda

2012: Four suspects from Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Ashdod are under arrest on suspicion of spray-painting hate slogans on the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Ammunition Hill and other landmark monuments over the last couple months, police announced this morning.

2012: Fires raged in the forest around Jerusalem today, with the largest fire near the suburb of Motza. The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway was closed to traffic as fire and rescue services scrambled to control the blaze.

2012(6th of Tammuz, 5772): Seventy-one year old Nora Ephron whose work included “Sleepless in Seattle and “When Harry Sally” passed away today.  (As reported by Charles McGrath)


2012: New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a fierce critic of Israeli policy who was opposed by Jewish lawmakers and top party officials, was trounced his bid to secure the Democratic nomination in a Brooklyn congressional race.


2012: Today the Central Council of Jews in Germany slammed the “outrageous and insensitive” decision of a regional court to prohibit circumcisions, calling upon the German parliament to pass a law that safeguards freedom of religion. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)

2013: “In a Strange Land: The Photographic and Artistic Interpretation of Unfamiliar Environments,” a symposium sponsored by the Israel Museum is scheduled to come to an end today.

2013: Aharon Oren, a Professor of Microbial Ecology at the Hebrew University is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Shipping Lanes of the Dead Sea: 2500 years of navigation” at the University of Connecticut.

2013: The ICCJ International Abrahamic Forum International Conference is scheduled to open at La Baume, Aix en Provence France

2013: Cult leader Andrew “Cohen announced on his blog that he would be taking "a sabbatical for an extended period of time", after confrontational exchanges with some of his closest students, who helped Cohen to realize, as he put it, that "in spite of the depth of my awakening, my ego is still alive and well.”

2013: In San Diego, CA, the Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a screening of “The Trotsky” – a film about Montreal high school students who thinks he is the reincarnation of the famous Russian revolutionary.

2013(18th of Tammuz, 5773): Eighty-three year old commercial photographer Bert Stern passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2013(18th of Tammuz, 5773): Seventy-eight year old Jewish-American billionaire Marc Rich, who was pardoned by then US president Bill Clinton over what had once been the biggest tax evasion case in US history and busting sanctions with Iran, died today from a stroke in Switzerland



2013: Fishel Litzman, a New York police officer in training and an Orthodox Jew, took the NYPD to court today for requiring him to trim his beard for service. (As reported by Michael Wilner)

2014: The Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism is scheduled to present “Debating Anti-Semitism: Why do Jews Disagree so Much?”

2014: Historian Lisa Jardine delivered the Conway Memorial Lecture today entitled “Things I Never Knew About My Father” which focused on the life of her father Anglo-Jewish mathematician Jacob Bronowski.

2014: Professor Anthony McElligott is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled The Last Transport: Writing a history of the Holocaust in the Eastern Aegean at Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide

2014: “The Green Prince” is scheduled to be shown at the 22nd annual Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2014: Tel Aviv is scheduled to host its 11thWhite Night event

2014: “La Rafle” and “The Lady in Number 6” are scheduled to be shown at the Chicago Jewish Film Festival

2014: A court in Versailles ordered the extradition of 29 year old Mehid Nemmouche, “the man suspected of murdering four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels” to Belgium.

2014: As firefighter worked “to put out remaining hotspots from a major forest fire that broke out yesterday afternoon in southwest Jerusalem” Fire and Rescue Commissioner Shahar Ayalon said a thorough investigation had already begun amidst suspicions that the fire “was caused, possibly intentionally.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2014: Eighty-three year old songwriter and children’s author, Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Broadway’s Richard Rodgers passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2014(28th of Sivan, 5774): Ninety-three year old Viennese born American opera and orchestra conductor Julius Rudel passed away today.  *As reported by Robert D. McFadden)


2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host The Gertler Quarter as part of “The Future Generation Series.”

2015: “Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II made her first trip to a former Nazi concentration camp today, visiting Bergen-Belsen just over 70 years after it was liberated by British forces, on the final day of her state visit to Germany.”

2016: “The Wedding Doll” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th annual Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.

2016: “Israeli superstar David Broza is scheduled to perform “An All Request Show” at the City Winery in NYC.

2016: “The Art Dealer” and “Demon” are scheduled to be shown at the 24th Portland, Oregon Jewish Film Festival.

2016: The Jewish Genealogical Society and the Ackman & the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at Center for Jewish History are scheduled to host a presentation by Phyliss Kramer “who will review Eastern European historical geography and cover researching a town using JewishGen's town pages, maps and gazeteers, Routes to Roots, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Google and other key web sites.”

2016: In Cedar Rapids, IA, following a fun-filled BBQ dinner and silent auction President Nancy Margulis is scheduled to chair Temple Judah’s annual meeting

2016: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism by Yuval Levin, Jackson 1964 And Other Dispatches From Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America by Calvin Trillin and the recently released paperback edition of Rebecca Dinerstein’s first novel, The Sunlit Night.

2017: The Institute of Southern Jewish Life’s annual Education Conference is scheduled to continue for a second day in Jackson, Mississippi.

2017(2nd of Tammuz, 5777): Sixty year old “filmmaker and historian Suzanne Wasserman” passed away today. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)



2017(2nd of Tammuz, 5777): Ninety-one year old Birkenhead born “celebrity solicitor” Elkan Rex Makin, whose work with Brian Epstein led to his close association with the Beatles passed away today



2017: The Manhattan Jewish Experience is scheduled to host a discussion of the weekly Torah portion with Steve Eisenberg followed by a “conversation” with Rabbi Mark Wildes.

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to sponsor a screening of Beyond the Mountains and Hills.

2017: “A traveling version” of “Before They Were Heroes” Sus Ito’s World War II Images” which includes pictures of U.S. Army units composed of Japanese-Americans who helped to save Jewish refugees at the end of the war, is scheduled to come to an end at Harvard.

2018: “Britain’s Prince William whose great-grandmother Princess of Alice of Battenburg was recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations for helping to save a Jewish family in Greece during the Holocaust, today visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, where he took part in a wreath laying ceremony and met with Jews who were rescued by Britain as children.”

2018: “Shoshana Buchholz-Miller, Vice President of Education and Exhibitions at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to serve as the moderator of presentation on immigration policy – “What Do We Need to Know? What Can We Do.?”

2018: The Center For Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host “ a discussion of The Jewish Political Tradition: Volume III: Community, co-authored by Michael Walzer, Menachem Lorberbaum, Noam Zohar, and Madeline Kochen.

2019: In Edmonton, Alberta, The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye is scheduled to be the subject of the JDIC Book Discussion Group.

 2019: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening “Promise at Dawn,” the movie version of “Romain Gary’s memoir.

2019: The annual Jerusalem Light Festival is scheduled to begin tonight.

2020: As part of the events being held “to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Natons in San Francsioco, the local chapter of the American Jewish Committee” is scheduled to host “a webinar featuring two former U.S. ambassadors to the U.N., John Negroponte and David Pressman, will address how the U.N. has — and can — advance U.S. national interests and protect human rights. “The U.N. at 75: What Place in U.S. Foreign Policy.”

2020: San Francisco based JIMENA is scheduled to host the virtual “Persian Jewish Music and Pre-Shabbat during which singer and scholar Galeet Dardashti will explore Judeo-Persian music traditions through live and recorded music, some of which she will teach.

2020: Following Shabbat services, Temple Tefirth Israel is scheduled to host via livestream “a conversation about race and Justice in America at this time.”

2020: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host Shabbat Outdoor Services in the Silber Outdoor Sanctuary where social distancing will be observed and masks will be provided all attendees.

2020:The Breman Museum in partnership with the Savannah Jewish Federation, Savannah Jewish Educational Alliance, and the Southern Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host via Zoom “Reform Judaism in Charleston and Baltimore” during which “Mark Bauman, retired professor of history at Atlanta Metropolitan College, will discuss the origins of Reform Judaism in Charleston and especially Baltimore and how Jews from these cities took Reform idealogy across the country as they moved westward.”

2020: Nominations for the Cleveland Jewish News’ “18 Difference Makers” which recognizes those making a difference in the Jewish world of northeast Ohio,is scheduled to come to an end this evening.












 
JUNE 26

363: Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire. General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield. According to various sources, Julian was a true Roman pagan who sought to roll back the inroads that Christianity had made among the ruling classes.  He passed an edict of toleration. In the year of his death, he ordered the Temple to be rebuilt on its historic location in Jerusalem.  The plan died with him and the exile continued.

1187: Saladin crosses the Jordan River with an army of 20,000 in what will lead to the final battle for control of Jerusalem.  At this time, the Jews fare better under the Muslim leader than they do among the European Christians who have slaughtered them and driven them from their ancient homes in the “City of David.”

1409: The Roman Catholic church is led into a double schism as Petros Philargos is crowned Pope Alexander V after the Council of Pisa, joining Pope Gregory XII in Rome and Pope Benedict XIII in Avignon. While these various claimants to Papal power were fighting amongst themeslves, they had time to bedevil the Jews.  In 1409, Pope Alexander V ordered the Inquisitor of Avignon, Dauphiné, Provence and Comtat Venaissin to proceed against several categories of persons "including Jews who practiced magic, invokers of demons, and augurs" Benedict initiated the year-long Disputation of Tortosa in 1413, which became the most prominent Christian-Jewish disputation of the Middle Ages. Benedict was well known for his oppressive laws against the Jews

1523: The first printed edition of the Sefer ha-Chinuch (ספר החינוך) appeared. The printing of this comparatively obscure volume within seven decades of the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press demonstrates how quickly “the people of the book” took to the printing of books.  Sefer ha-Chinuch was not the first book to be printed in Hebrew.  That honor probably goes to Tractate Berakhot of the Babylonian Talmud which was printed by Joshua Solomon Soncino in 1483. .  According to the Hillel Website, "SeferHaChinuch is a unique work in many ways. It was published anonymously and scholars throughout the ages have not succeeded in unearthing the humble author. The book dates to 13th century Spain and is a comprehensive description of the 613 commandments, arranged according to their appearance in the Pentateuch. The description of each commandment includes (a) the concept of the Mitzvah and its Biblical source, (b) the philosophical underpinnings of the commandment, and (c) a brief summary of the laws governing its observance. An English translation of this important work is available."

1541 (23 Sivan 5301): Rabbi Jacob Pollack passed away. Born in Poland 1460, he was the first important Polish-Jewish Rabbinic scholar.  Prior to his time, the great Talmudic centers had been found in Germany.  He helped establish the Talmudic method of study called "Pilpul". This complicated and often hair-splitting method of explanation was originated in southern Germany. It is called mental acrobatics by some, yet is also responsible for the development of the sharp Talmudic mind. Pollack served as a Rabbi in Cracow, moved to Eretz-Israel for a period of time and returned to live in Lublin where he passed away.

1570(23 of Tammuz): Rabbi Moshe Codovero passed away.


1612: Coronation of Matthias, who acceded to the wishes of the Dutch and “established religious peace” in their provinces which helped to turn the Netherlands into a place of refuge for the Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal, as Holy Roman Emperor.

1629: Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was imprisoned. Rabbi Yom Tov Lipmann Heller was born in 1579.  He was the author of Tossafoth Yom Tov,a major commentary on the Mishna.  While he was serving as a Rabbi in Prague, he was involved with the distribution of tax money.  He was wrongfully accused by some of showing favoritism in his work.  He ended up being taken to Vienna in chains.  The Christian officials respected his integrity and released him.  Considering that this took place during the Thirty Years War, it is surprising that Heller did not come to some barbarous end.  He passed away in 1654, the same year in which the American Jewish Community began.

1665: Rabbi Simon Brandeis, the husband of Libele Perls and the son Rabbi Samuel Brandeis passed away today.

1688: English Philosopher Ralph Cudworth passed away.  Born in 1617 he became professor of Hebrew at Cambridge in 1645. Among those with whom he carried on an extensive correspondence was Isaac Abendana, the Sephardic Jew who moved to England and taught Hebrew at Cambridge.  By the time he passed away in 1710, Abendana had become a teacher at Oxford’s Magdalen College and had provided Hebrew books for Bodleian Library.

1738: Fifty-nine year old Konrad Bethmann, “the master of the mint for the Princely House of Nassau-Schaumburg” who brought charges against two Jews “ Mencke and Abraham zum Hecht (father and son), for theft of Schaumburg hellers in Schwalbach near Königstein and resale of stolen property” –a charged that was dismissed with an out of court settlement passed away today.

1774(17thof Tammuz, 5534): Tzom Tammuz observed as the Colonist respond to the Intolerable Acts which among other things closed the port of Boston and led to the meeting of the First Continental Congress in the fall of 1774.

1775(28th of Sivan, 5535): Aryeh Löb ben Mordecai Ha-Levi Epstein (Ba'al ha-Pardes) passed away. He was a Polish rabbi born in Grodno in 1708. At first he refused to become a rabbi, preferring to devote himself entirely to study, but in 1739 he was forced by poverty to accept the rabbinate of Brestovech, Lithuania, and in 1745 he became rabbi of Königsberg, where he remained until his death. He corresponded with Elijah, Gaon of Vilna, and with Jonathan Eybeschütz, with whom he sided in the quarrel about amulets (see Emden-Eybeschütz Controversy). He is the author of Or ha-Shanim, on the 613 commandments (Frankfort-on-the-Oder, 1754), Halakah Aḥaronah and Ḳunṭres ha-Ra'yot (ib. 1754; Königsberg, 1759), Sefer ha-Pardes, in three parts: (1) on the Shema and the observance of Sabbath, (2) sermons, (3) funeral orations (ib. 1759). Several other cabalistic and halakic works from his pen are mentioned in his own works or by his biographer. A prayer which he composed on the occasion of the dedication of a new synagogue in Königsberg (ib. 1756) is found in the Bodleian Library. Annotations by him and by his son Abraham Meïr Epstein are published in some of the later editions of the Babylonian Talmud. He is called "Levin Marcus" in Solowicz's Gesch. der Juden in Königsberg, Posen, 1857.

1798: Birthdate of Charleston, SC, native Isaac Cohen.

1816: Meyer Davidson married Jesse Cohen at the Great Synagogue.

1819: “Emma di Resburgo,” an opera composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer, was performed for the first time in Venice.

1813(28thof Sivan, 5573): Solomon Ben Joel Dubno, the Russian born Jewish poet, grammarian, teacher and author who lived in Amsterdam from 1767 to 1772 before settling in Berlin where he taught Moses Mendelssohn became his friend and patron, passed away today.  Among other his works was a commentary for Mendelssohn’s translation of the Bible.

1821: Birthdate of Adolf Jellinek an Austrian born scholar who served as the rabbi of The Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna.

1822: Moses Cantor married Caroline Solomons at the Great Synagogue.

1830: King George IV who as Prince of Wales was a patron of boxer Daniel Mendoza, died today and the Duke of Clarence who in 1797 while still the Prince of Wales visited Barbados where “he visited the synagogue and was presented with an address and a sword by the Congregation” succeeded him as William IV.

1831: Birthdate of Julius Levy, who gained fame as poet and author Julius Rodenberg.

1835: Birthdate of Ernest Abraham Hart, the son of a London dentist, who became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons before pursuing his career in medical journalism that began with the Lancetin 1857.

1843: The Treaty of Nanking which had the effect of opening up China to British traders included David Sasoon, went into effect.

1843(28thof Sivan, 5603: Eighty year old Oxford graduate and attorney Joshua Montefiore, the author the Commercial Dictionary, a captain in the York Light Infanry which made him ‘the first Jews to hold a commission in England and who gave it all up to move to the United States where he published a weekly political journal, passed away today in St. Albans, VT.

1845: In Baltimore, Simon Frank and Fanny Naumburg gave birth to Daniel Frank the President of the Elysium Club and Temple Adath Israel and the husband of Rose Liebman.

1848: In France the “June Days Uprising” came to end; violence which eventually doomed the Second Republic and brought Louis Napoleon to power with all that that would mean for France, the French Jewish community and Europe.

1848: Captain Boris Moses, a graduate of Saint-Cyr was appointed “chief of battalion” for distinguishing himself during the suppression of the Paris riots which ended today.

1849: Joseph and Nanny Rosenheim gave birth to Max Rosenheim who should not be confused with the 20th century British physician Max Leonard Rosenheim.

1855: Ninety-year old Anton Von Schmid a Christian publisher who published books by Jewish authors including the works of Maimonides and of Judah Löb Ben-Zeeb, the Hebrew Bible with a German translation as well as the Hebrew periodical "Bikkure ha-'Ittim,"

1857: The first investiture of the Victoria Cross in Hyde Park, London. The Victoria Cross is the highest military award for valor granted within the British military.  It is the English version of the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Jewish recipients includeFrank Alexander de Pass who received the award posthumously for requesting comrades trapped in No Man’s Land on the Western Front in 1914 during World War I;  Captain Robert Gee who earned it for heroism on the Western Front in 1917; Corporal John Patrick Kenneally who it for heroism in Tunisia in 1943; Corporal Issy Smith, an Austrialian soldier who earned it during the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915; Private Jack White who earned it in 1917 while saving the lives on fellow soldiers during fighting in Mesopotamia.

1861: Levy Mandelson married Sarah Cohen at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.

1863: “Charles August Lauff, the German native and California businessman, and his wife, Maris J. Sebran gave birth to Oscar Lauff

1865:  Birthdate of Bernard Berenson, described by The New York Times as "an American art critic."  In fact, he had been born in Lithuania in a small village known as Butrimants in Yiddish. His father’s name was Alter Valvrojenski, his mother’s Eudice (Michliszanski). Berenson given name was Bernhard.  As he sought the safety of assimilation after coming to America, he had himself baptized as an Episcopalian.  Only after the Hitler period did he come to realize that the world would always regard him as "a Jew."  While he did not renounce his baptism, he did allow for Jewish cultural activity in his private life.  Some say that he was the prototype for one of the characters in Herman Wouk's Winds of War.  He died in 1959.

1866: Birthdate of Spanish American War veteran Milton Kraus, the native of Kokomo and graduate of the University of Michigan who served in the House of Representatives.

1866: Following the death of Rosanna Dyer Osterman, the Houston Weekly Telegraph wrote:

It is an unjust and ungenerous thing to assert that "with insults you cannot make a Jew fight." How little has the Jew had to fight for in most countries? In our late war, we have stood side by side with the Jew in battle, and we have never seen men more gallantly than they, bare their breast to blue lead and cold steel. In charity and kindness their women have often rivalled our own. Every one resident in Galveston during the war, whether soldier or civilian, knows that among the very foremost in deeds of kindness to our suffering, sick and dying soldiers, one to whom the poor Confederate soldier never applied in vain, one whose heart overflowed with all the kindliest active charities, was a Jewess, equally distinguished for her piety and careful observance of all the ceremonial duties of her religion. (Courtesy of Bill Lowen)

1867: Birthdate of Gustav Kahan, the husband of Julie Levy, both of whom would die at Treblinka in 1942

1870: The wedding ceremony joining Miss Elizabeth Abraham of Washington, DC and Mr. Solomon Caro of New York in the bonds of holy matrimony began this afternoon at a synagogue on 18th street in the Nation’s Capital but it did not end there.  The ceremony began with the entrance of the bridal party followed by a preliminary service and discourse by Rabbi Jacob S. Jacobson on the subject of marriage.  But a commotion broke out when the Rabbi began to perform the ceremony.  At that point, the groom’s father, Rabbi Caro of New York, began a heated discussion in Hebrew with his son.  At first people thought he was objecting to the marriage.  Actually, he was objecting to the lack of a chupah.  The synagogue had recently become a Reform Congregation and had dispensed with many of the traditional customs and ceremonies.  The President of the congregation had assured the bride that a wedding canopy would be provided, but had failed to follow through.  Once the ceremony was stopped, the bridal party left the synagogue and went to the house of the bride’s father on D Street where refreshments were served.  Once the Chupah had been put up the wedding went on with the groom’s father and Rabbi Bernard Illowy of Cincinnati performing the ceremony.  The service, which was conducted in Hebrew and German, was followed by expressions of congratulations for the newlyweds and an ample repast for the guests. [Bernard Illowy was a distinguished 19th century Orthodox Rabbi who played a prominent role in the fight to maintain traditional Judaism.  Ironically, his last pulpit was in Cincinnati, the home of Reform Judaism.]

1872: In New York, a Coroner’s Jury rendered a verdict of accidental death in the case of three year old Sarah Levy. She was with her father, Moses Levy, when she was “run over and killed by a Fourth Avenue care in the Bowery.”  A civil suit has been filed against the transit company in which the plaintiff is seeking $30,000 in damages.

1872: Nathaniel Isaacs, the English adventurer who co-founded Port Natal (modern day Durban) and who descried his life in Africa in Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa passed away today and was subsequently buried at Canterbury.

1873: Birthdate of Frankfurt native Mortiz Julius Bonn, the internationally known German economist who served as a government advisor during the Weimar Republic who found refuge in England and later the United States after Hitler came to power.

1873: Columbia trained attorney Erastus New, the son of Aaron and Ann New married Julia S. Porter today.

1874: Annie Grace Davis was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1875: Birthdate of Carl Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis who learned from and clashed with Freud.  Jung was one of the few non-Jews to be involved with this new field of science. His relationship with Sabina Spielrein was the subject of popular film that highlighted the clash between the giants and Jung’s apparent “fascination” with Jewish women.

1875: In Morgan City, LA, on the banks of the Atchafalaya River Congregation Shaarey Zedek on First Street was completed and dedicated. The Jewish community had been working on this since February 1875 and its fundraising efforts included hosting a “Grand Calico Ball.”

1878: Twenty-nine year old Adolph Lewisohn, a successful American businessman who had been born in Hamburg married Emma Cahn in Manhattan.

1881:Today “Tobias Tal, a graduate of the Amsterdam rabbinical seminary, was elected chief rabbi, a position he held until he was called to The Hague in 1895 which led to his brother-in-law, Louis Wagenaar, formerly chief rabbi in Leeuwarden and of the province of Friesland, being appointed his successor in Arnhem.

1881: Birthdate of Ya’akov Cohen, the native of Slutsk who made Aliyah in 1934 and became a prize winning “man of letters” who received the Tchernichovsky Prize for exemplary translation, for translations from the German of the first part of Goethe's Faust and other Goethe's works, Torquato Tasso and Iphigenia in Tauris, as well as a selection of poems by Heinrich Heine.”

1881: It was reported today The British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Jews condemned “the anti-Semitic agitation” that is currently taking place in Europe.

1881(29thof Sivan, 5641): Seventy-two year old German-Jewish philologist and expert on Sanskrit Theodor Benfey whose works also included one that proved that “the names of the Hebrew months…were derived from the Persians” passed away today.

1881(29thof Sivan, 5641): Eighty-two year old baron Philipp (Fülöp) Schey von Koromla who when he was granted “a patent of nobility by Emperor Franz Joseph” made him the first Hungarian Jew to be made a noble passed away today.

1882: The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society stated today the funds promised to care for the 8,000 refugees who have arrived since January have not been forthcoming.  A member of the society claimed that the London Committee that had collected seventeen thousand pounds which were to be used to assist in the settlement of the refugees, has not forwarded the money to New York.

1883: It was reported today that Rabbi George Brandenstein of Beth Elohim Synagogue was the first to speak at an event honoring Henry Ward Beecher.  After saying a few words in praise of his services “to men of all races,” he presented Beecher with a silver pitcher on behalf of the members of his synagogue.

1883: “The Alleged Passover Murder” published today recounted events surrounding accusations that Moritz Scharf had murdered Esther Salomossy, a Christian girl in Nyreghhaza, Hungary. Jewish witnesses claimed they had been threatened before giving testimony and Moritz had been threatened with life imprisonment if he did not confess that the murder had been committed in the synagogue.  As the blood libel charges unraveled it was discovered that the young girl had quarreled with her mistress before her disappearance and some of her friends thought she had committed suicide. [Looking at the date, you can see how strongly entrenched the Blood Libel was in gentile minds.]

1883: Cornerstone laying ceremonies for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn will begin at 2 pm today.

1887: Nineteen year old Johanna Goldschmidt, a native of Frankfurt married Adolph Stern, a native of Ziegenhain, who was the son of Salomon A. Stern and Sarah Goldschmidt.

1887: “Minister Straus Safe in Turkey” published today described the first month of Oscar Straus’ service as U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.  Straus who arrived in May has already had his first audience with the Sultan. He has taken up temporary resident in a hotel at Therapia until he can find a house for more permanent quarters.  He has received a document of greeting written in Hebrew from the Grand Rabbi and the leaders of the various Jewish communities throughout the empire as well as letters of greetings from the America Baptist Society and the missionaries of western Turkey who are meeting in Constantinople.

1887: Chicago millionaire Levi Rosenfield signed a codicil will which disinherited his son Maurice by giving his share of the estate to his daughter-in-law Mattie Rosenfeld, and should she predecease him to his son-in-law David Stettauer. This decision would later disappoint Maurice’s creditors who refused to settle his debts for twenty five cents on the dollar because they thought he was going to inherit a large sum from his father.

1887: “Minister Straus Safe In Turkey” published today described the cordial reception enjoyed by Oscar Straus following his arrival at the Ottoman capital.  In an unusual move, the Sultan agreed to see the newly appointed ambassador even though it was Ramadan.

1887: In Vilnius, Vigdor Chait, a poor peddler, and Sara Levin gave birth to Baruch Zuckerman, a leading American-Israeli Zionist, one of the leading proponents of Yad Vashem, editor of Yiddishe Kempfer, and a leading figure in the Farband and Histadrut campaigns, and president of the Labor Zionist Organization of America.”

1887(4th of Tammuz, 5647):Lionel Louis Cohen who served as head of Louis Cohen & Sons, a financial firm followed by his father Louis Cohen and who served as an MP passed away today.

1887: In London Leopold de Rothschild and Marie Perugia gave birth to their third and youngest son British philanthropist Anthony G de Rothschild.

1887: “Judaic Romance” published today reviews The Yoke of the Torah by Sidney Luska whom Josh Lambert said did not exit but was the creation of a young non-Jewish author named Henry Harland.

1888(17th of Tammuz, 5648): Tzom Tammuz

1888: In New York City, “Sali and Augusta (Goldenberg) Simonson gave birth to Phi Beta Kappa Harvard graduate and WW I USA 2nd Lt.  Lee Simonson, the husband of Helen Strauss and scenic designer



1888: Five days after he passed away, David Frederick Schloss, the four month old son of David and Rachel Schloss was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1889: Birthdate of Bay Shore, LI, native Harold Fell, the University and Ohio Wesleyan trained physician Harold Fell, the WW I veteran and cardiovascular disease researcher.

1890: In Philadelphia, PA, Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, M.D. and Miriam Binswanger Solis-Cohen gave birth to Jacob da Silva Solis-Cohen, Jr., the President of Mastbaum Brothers and Fleisher and of Albert M. Greenfield and Company who was also the President of the Jewish Publication Society of America.

1891: Benjamin Cardozo was admitted to the New York State Bar.

1891: Birthdate of Minsk native Rabbi Judah Louis Hahn who came to the United States where he served as an “officer of the Zionist Organization of American” and during WW I, “the Jewish Welfare Board.”

1892(1st of Tammuz, 5652): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1892: The funeral of Captain Armand Mayer, the Jewish officer who was killed in a duel the anti-Semitic Marquis de Mores was held today in Paris.

1892” In Hillsboro, West Virginia Stulting and Absalom Sydenstricker gave birth to Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winning author Pearl Buck whose works included Peony, a novel set in the Jewish community of K’aifeng in the 1850’s.

1892: Thirty-one year old Edward Lewis Heinsheimer, the New York born “son of Lewis and Emma (Goodhart): Heinsheimer” was appointed a member of the Board of Governors of Hebrew Union College today.

1892: “Aid Asked for Hebrew Settlers” published today described the efforts of the 250 Russian Jewish immigrants to make a new life for themselves in Rosenhayn, NJ.  By day they work for New York clothiers or as farmers.  At night they attend a night school sponsored by the Educational Society of Rosenhayn they formed to enhance their ability to speak, read and write English.

1893: “Passed Creditable Examinations” published today described the outcome of the exams administered to the 24 pupils at the Jewish Theological Seminary.  All of the students performed in “an exceedingly satisfactory manner,” but David Wittenberg and Joseph Hertz were the most impressive as can be seen by the fact that they were “the senior prize winners.”

1894: Five year old Olive Frederica Harinkirsch was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1894: Four days after he passed away, 35 year old Nuremberg, Germany native Siegfried Scherer was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1894: “A New Quarantine Commissioner” published today described the decision of Governor Roswell P. Flower to appoint Edward Jacobs, a prominent Jewish lawyer to serve as one of the three Quarantine Commissioners.  Considering the role that this position plays at Ellis Island, the selection of a Jew to the position seems to be extremely appropriate.

1895: Joseph Nathan Joseph married Lillian Julia Cohen at the Great Synagogue in Sydney, Australia.

1897: It was reported today that as of 1895, of the 1,568,092 people living in Bosnia, 8,213 are Jews.

1897: Four days after she passed away “Miriam, the wife of Jacob bar Jacob” was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.

1897: Myer S. Isaacs, the President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, was among the dignitaries who attended tonight’s graduation exercises at the Baron de Hirsch Trade Schools.

1897: “An Interesting Study of Conditions in Southeastern Europe” published today included a brief history of the Jews of the Balkans, most of whom are descendants of the Spanish Jews who were given permission to settle in Serbia and Bosnia by Murad III.  Unlike recent Jews who have moved here from Hungary, most of them still speak Spanish.  The community numbers about seven thousand, three thousand of whom live in Sarajevo

1898: The Governor has telegraphed his superiors that the situation in Galicia, where renewed anti-Semitic violence has claimed the lives of 16 Jews, “is extremely serious.”

1898: Private Levy, a native of Paris, France, transferred from Company H of the 2nd Louisiana Infantry to the Hospital Corps of the United States Army.

1900: Today, “The Russification of Finland, where Jews would not be able to become full citizens until Finland became independent in 1917, took a new direction when an Imperial ukase issued from Tsar Nicholas II, replacing Finnish with Russian as the official language, to be phased in over five years

1900: “Bernard Levy has purchased for improvement the plot at the south corner of Riverside Drive and 94thStreet in NYC

1901: Bicentennial of the Bevis Marks Synagogue, the oldest in England. Sephardic Jews founded Bevis Marks in 1701.  The congregation is known as the Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation.

1902: Birthdate of Gracie Allen, the wife and comedic partner of George Burns.

1903(26thof Tammuz, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1903: Minnie Klein who had been “buried in the old Jewish cemetery at Chavez Ravine when she passed away in 1895 was “reburied” today “in the Home of Peach Memorial Park on Whittier Boulevard which was also the final resting place for Henry and Mamie Klein.

1904: Birthdate of actor Peter Lorre. A refugee from Hitler’s Europe, Lorre gained fame in American films as what was called "a character actor." Two of his more memorable appearances came in The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, both of which starred Humphrey Bogart. One of Lorre’s few starring roles came when he played the lead in the Mr. Moto movies. Mr. Moto was a clever detective of undetermined European origins, sort of an urbane Columbo.

1905: The 20,000 Jewish residents of Lodz, a cultural center for Jews in Poland, flee in the face of Pogroms and what are in effect, the Czar’s attacks on his own citizens.

1906: Birthdate of Albert Silverman, the New York native who gained fame as lyricist Al Stillman whose works included the 1950’s Christmas standard recorded by Perry Como – “Home for the Holidays.”

1906: In Jerusalem, the Laemmel School a school established “for the secular education of Jewish children” by Fra Elise Herz of Vienna under the auspices of the poet Ludwig August Frankl “celebrated the semi-centenary of its foundation” today.

1907: “The Future American” published today previews an upcoming article on the question of the adaptiveness of immigrants by Professor Brander Matthews who pointed out those concerned about the future should note “that a list of the five most useful citizens of New York would have to included one Hebrew of German birth and that if the list should be extended to it would contain the name of another German Hebrew.”

1908: It was reported that Russian Prime Minister Stolypin is “engaged in the active consider of a measure” designed to ameliorate the conditions of the Jews of Russia “which probably take the form of a considerable remission of the present laws regarding the Jewish settlements.”

1909: “After forty-one grueling rounds Leach Cross (born Louis C. Wallach) lost a bout in California which was not as tragic as it may sound since boxing was a side-line to his major occupation – dentistry.

1910: Today, 27 Jews were expelled from Kiev, 24 from Solomoneka and 17 from Demieffka..

1911(30thof Sivan, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1911(30thof Sivan, 5671): Eighty-four year old Agnes Byk, the wife of Samuel Alexander Byk, passed away today.

1911: Joseph L. Seligman, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Seligman of New York, hosted his bachelor party tonight.  The fifty guests celebrated his upcoming marriage to Josephine Knowles.

1911: Birthdate of Edward Levi, professor of law, President of the University of Chicago and Attorney General during the Ford Administration.  The son and grandson of Rabbis, Levi's grandfather was one of the original faculty members of the University of Chicago.  Levi was a total product of the institution graduating from its lab school, undergraduate college and school of law.  When Levi was named President of the University of Chicago in 1968, he was the first Jew to hold such a post at a major American university.  In terms of measuring progress, today such appointments are almost not worth mentioning.  When he died in 2000, at the age of 88, Levi was eulogized for a long and distinguished career in the law and academia.

1912: The 12th annual meeting of the Alumni Association of the Jewish Theological Seminary whose president was Jacob Kohn ended today in Tannersville, NY.

1912: The Board of Education paid tribute to the late District Superintendent Miss Julia Richman, the energetic reform minded educator who passed away while vacationing in France.

1912: In New York Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Koner gave birth to dancer and choreographer Pauline Koner.

1912: “Bruno Walter led the Vienna Philharmonic in the world premiere of Mahler's Symphony No. 9

1913: The American Zionists’ convention continues its meetings in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1913: In Pittsburgh, PA, Sam and Sophie Kress gave birth to Academy Award winning American film editor Harold F. Kress.


1913: In Springfield, Illinois, the annual conference of the American Association of Officials of Charities and Correction which Simon W. Rosndale, Mortimer L. Schiff and Henry Solomon all of New York were delegates came to a close today.

1913(21stof Sivan, 5673): Eighty-four year old Rabbi Arnold Levy passed away in New York.

1914: Birthdate of Shapour Bakhtiar, the last Shah’s last Prime Minister who, according to Yossi Alpher, “the Mossad’s chief intelligence analyst on Iran,” “had called in Eliezer Shafrir, the Mossad’s representative in Tehran, and asked Mossad to assassinate Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni while he was still in France, a request that Mossad rejected.

1915: In Norfolk, VA, suffragette and Hadassah member Ella Shapiro and attorney Louis Shapiro gave birth to Charlotte Gertrude Shapiro who gained fame as Charlotte Zolotow, “a distinguished author and editor of children’s books.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1915: Middleweight Augie Ratner fought and won his first bout today.

1915: Those who favored the imposition of the death penalty for Leo Frank are scheduled “to show their disapproval” to Governor Slaton’s commutation today “when the Governor retires from office and Judge Nat E. Harris is inaugurated.

1915: “The feelings aroused by Governor John M. Slaton’s in commuting the death sentence imposed on Leo M. Frank …culminated today at the Capitol in a demonstration against the Governor when he retired from the Executive office and Judge Nat E. Harris of Macon was inaugurated.  For the first time in the history of Georgia a Governor left office with a crowd hurling epithets at him  and crying ‘Lynch him!’ and escaped bodily harm only through the protection of a large force of police and State troops.”

1915: In New York, “the Woman’s Peace Society is scheduled to hold a reception in the Assembly room of the Cosmopolitan Garden this afternoon for those who signed the petition to Governor Slaton asking for the commutation of the death sentence of Leo Frank and to those who worked to obtain the signautres.”

1915: “Early this morning” Rabbi Eichler conducted services at Temple Ohaibe Shalom on Union Park Street for forty delegates who will be attending the convention of American Zionists in Boston

1915: “An informal dance and reception” was held in Boston this evening to mark the opening of “the great convention of American Zionist, the first such national gathering of Jews on American soil.”

1915: In Ohio, Beachwood was incorporated as Beachwood Village, the Cleveland suburb that is home to Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, Agnon School and Cleveland Hebrew School.

1916: It was reported today that “the de Hirsh society has tendered a check for $1,500” to be used for the construction of a Hebrew Orphan Asylum to be built in Hudson County which is a pet project of Henry Morgenthau. 

1916: It was reported today the Joint Distribution Committee “is made up of Felix Warburg of the American Relief Committee, Jacob Goldberg of the People’s Committee and Harry Fischel of the Central Relief Committee.

1917: In Baltimore, the delegates to the 20th Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists were scheduled to attend a presentation by the Young Judeans.

1918: Major Brooman White, the British recruiting agent told those attending the 21stannual convention of the Federation of American Zionists being held in Pittsburgh, PA that “at the end of the ninety-day period established by the agreement between the United States and England, American Jews” will not be allowed to “enlist in the Jewish Legion of Honor for service with the British forces in Palestine.”

1918: The Fifth Annual Convention of Hadassah met for its third session today.

1918: During World War I, Allied Forces including units of the AEF under General John J. Pershing defeated units of the German Army under the command of Crown Prince Wilhelm.  Among the Americans who fought in this critical battle was a Jewish Marine from Buffalo New York named Lester Bergman. Born in 1889, “Bergman was the first person from Buffalo, NY, to enlist in the Marine Corps during World War I. He was wounded during extremely heavy fighting at the battle of Belleau Wood in France, where he participated in the capture of a Maxim gun, 23 machine guns and 170 German soldiers.  Bergman was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.” He passed away in 1958.

1919: The first national conference of the Religious Zionist Organization, Mizrachi, closes.

1919: In the Weimar Republic, premiere of “The Oyster Princess” a silent film directed and written by Ernst Lubitsch.

1920(10thof Tammuz, 5680): Parshat Chukat

1920: Dr. Joseph Silverman is scheduled to officiate at Shabbat services at Temple Emanu-El

1920: Rabbi Ephraim Frisch is scheduled to lead services this morning at the New Synagogue on Broadway.

1920: Rabbi Max Reichler is scheduled to lead services this morning at “Sinai of the Bronx.”

1921: In Hampstead, Simon Beloff and Marie Katzin gave birth to Anne Beloff the sister of Renee Soskin, Nora Beloff, John Beloff and Max Beloff  and wife of Nobel Prize Winner Ernst Borst Chain who gained fame as British biochemist Lady Anne Ethel Beloff – Chain.


1921: “Dorothy Turk, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Turk of Rochester, NY, is scheduled to marry New York City resident John Goldhaar, the “graduate of Cornell and NYU” who “was decorated by the French Government with the Medaille d’Honneur for his war work” at Temple Beth El today.

1921: In Paris, Englishman Charles George Bushell and French dressmaker Reine Blance Leroy gave birth to Violette Reine Elizabeth Bushell who as Violette Szabo served with the SOE during WW II and was executed by the Nazis at Ravensbruck.

1922: Gimbel Brothers, which “established their business in New York 12 years ago,” announced today “that they had acquired by leased the building on 33rdand 34th Street which is now occupied by Saks and Company” which will soon be occupying “a new building on 5th Avenue and 50thStreet which is under construction.”

1922: Frank Taffel, the native of Galicia, who would found Atlanta, Georgia’s Fulton Auto Exchange and co-found Congregation Beth Jacob became a United States citizen today.

1923: At Yankee Stadium Princeton lost to Yale despite the fact that Moe Berg went two for four (single and a double) and played shortstop with enough skill to interest major league scouts.

1925: The 148th Session of the New York State Legislature in which Philip M. Kleinfeld served as a State Senator came to a close today.

1925: “The Gold Rush,” starring Charlie Chaplin premiered in Los Angeles.

1925: Brenham, TX native Rosa Levin, who had attended Blinn College and Rice University, married Sam H. Toubin.  Rosa Levin Toubin would write two books about Jewish history in Texas included History of B’nai Abraham Synagogue.

1926: In Jerusalem, Rabbi Moshe Ber Rivkin and his wife gave birth to Shlomo Rivkin the last Chief Rabbi of St. Louis, MO.

1927: The New York Times reviewed Fairy Flowers by Isadora Newman.


1927: Birthdate of Jerry Schatzberg, the Bronx born photographer and movie director


1928: In Calgary, Alberta, Polish fishmonger turned Canadian furniture businessman and “the former Hinda Fishman” gave birth to “corporate raider and philanthropist” Samuel Belzberg, the husband of Frances Belzberg with whom he had four children – Marc, Lisa, Wend and Sherry (As reported by Brooks Barnes)


1928: When the Democratic National Committee convened, today Belle Moskowitz was the only woman at the table, but she was as influential as any man there. The networks she had created in New York helped to secure the Presidential nomination for Al Smith, the first major Catholic candidate for U.S. President. After his nomination, she directed national campaign publicity. When Smith lost to Herbert Hoover, Moskowitz stayed on as his press agent, and coordinated his campaign for the 1932 nomination, which Smith lost to Franklin Roosevelt.

1929: Birthdate of Bronx native and graphic designer Milton Glaser the creator of “I NY logo.”

1930: Three days after his death, Sir Israel Gollancz, the former Professor of English Language and Literature at King’s College was buried at the Jewish Cemetery at Willesden after which he was memorialized by awarding of the Sir Israel Gollancz price for Early English Studies by the British Academy.


1931: “The Man in Evening Clothes” a comedy featuring music composed by Casimir Oberfeld who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1945 was released in the United States today.

1931: In Brooklyn, theatrical haberdasher Harry Minoff and his wife gave birth to Marvin Minoff the movie and television producer who married Bonnie Franklin.


1933: “The Akademie für Deutsches Recht (Academy for German Law) is founded to rewrite the entire body of German law to NSDAP specifications” The NSDAP is the Nazi Party.

1933: The Federation of Jewish Communities of Switzerland the Berne Jewish Community files suit against the right-wing Swiss National Front for distributing anti-Semitic literature including the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” At the end of the litigation, the court will hold that that the “Protocols are a forgery, are plagiarized, and qualify as ‘obscene’ literature”

1934: Birthdate of Selwyn Raab, another product of the Lower East and City College of New York who went on to a career in journalism with the NY World Telegram and Sun and NY Times, broadcasting with NBC News and literature where he wrote several volumes on crime and “the mob.”


1934: In Littleton, CO, a female pianist and male violinist both from Riga, gave birth to Academy and Grammy award winning composer and arranger Robert David “Dave” Grusin whose “first film score” was for the 1967 comedy “Divorce American Style.”

1934: The New York Times reported that the Tel Aviv “has issued notices to holders of its external twenty-year sinking fund six and a half percent public improvement sterling bonds…have been drawn for redemption at par, on the current rate of exchange for sterling on the day of presentation” (As reported by Austin Cline)

1935(25th of Sivan, 5695): Fifty-five year Vinnytsia native and composer Oscar Potoker who after coming to the United States created several movie scores and became a close friend of fellow composer Josiah Zuro with whom he was riding when the latter died in a fatal automobile accident passed away today.

1936: Germany adopts an ordinance banning Jews from serving the Army.

1936: San Francisco” a film set at the time of the city’s famous earthquake with music by Walter Jurman and featuring Al Shean, the uncle of the famous Marx Brothers and Harold Huber was released in the United States today.

1936: In the aftermath of the The Przytyk Pogrom, the worst anti-Semitic violence that occurred in pre-war Poland, the trial of those charged with taking part in the violence came to an end.  There were 43 Polish defendants and 14 Jewish defendants.  The Jews claimed that they had acted in self-defense.  But the court sentenced eleven of the Jews to prison terms ranging from 6 months to 8 years for demonstrating “aggressive behavior toward Polish peasants.”  Thirty-nine of the Poles received sentences ranging from 6 to 12 months.

1936:The Palestine Post reported that circulars urging Arab villagers to put an end to disorders were dropped by British Army planes. The leaflets promised that the king would send a Royal Commission to inquire into the Arab grievances, but only when a complete order was restored. Some 50 well-armed Arabs attacked a convoy made up of 10 buses and accompanied by two armored cars close to Nablus. One British soldier and six Arabs were killed before the convoy was able to continue. The Post published the full text of the House of Commons debate on Palestine (11 pages) and continued a series of articles by Maurice Samuel which explored the possibilities of an Arab-Jewish reconciliation. A Jew was badly wounded by an Arab who had asked for a drink in an orange grove near Petah Tikva. A similar incident happened a week earlier.

1936: Birthdate of Edith Pearlman, the native of Providence, RI and Radcliffe graduate who won the 2012 Harold U. Ribalow Prize presented by Hadassah magazine for outstanding Jewish fiction.

1936: “Religious objection to the policy of any State which strikes at the very practice of religion, specifically the treatment of Catholics in our sister republic of Mexico” was expressed tonight by the Central Conference of American Rabbis at its annual convention, when it approved a recommendation submitted by the committee on resolutions.”

1936: “Police and military patrols on the streets of Bucharest were doubled today as the government decided to take firm measures to suppress attacks on Jews.”

1937: Laurence A. Steinhardt completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Sweden

1937: This evening “thousands of Berlin Jews packed the city’s grand Brüdervereinshaus to bid farewell to Rabbi Joachim Prinz, who had been ordered by the Gestapo to leave Germany immediately or face an almost certain death sentence for political subversion.”

1937(17th of Tammuz, 5697): Parashat Balak

1937: Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Should Jews Avoid the Professions?’ at Temple Rodeph Sholom.

1937” Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Season of Romance—And After” at Temple Israel.

1937(17th of Tammuz. 5697): On Shabbat, Sam Frank, Nevada’s first Jewish mayor passed away.  A native of California, Frank moved to Reno, NV in 1903. Prior to Prohibition, Frank worked in the wholesale liquor business.  When America went dry, he and his brother opened a soft-drink bottling company. Frank became Mayor when Edwin E. Roberts passed away.  He was defeated for re-election in 1935.  Unlike his brother Ben, Sam Frank was not active in the Jewish community for many years; a situation some attributed to the fact that he had married a non-Jews. (For more see Jews in Nevada by John P. Marschall)

1937: George Gershwin was released from Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles with a diagnosis of “likely hysteria” since tests had shown no physical cause of “the headaches and olfactory hallucinations he had been experiencing..

1938:Five more bombs exploded today in the quarter between Jaffa and Tel Aviv wounding fifteen Arabs. Soon after the first bomb exploded in the morning a mob of Arabs raided a Jew's shop and stabbed the proprietor.

1938: Joseph C. Hyman, the executive director of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced today that “efforts are being made to provide for Austrian Jews the experience and facilities of the Jewish organizations in Germany that have been engaged in vocation training, economic aid and the facilitation of emigration.”

1939: Final broadcast of the CBS version of Camel Caravan starring Eddie Cantor.

1939: Adolf Hitler wrote a letter today to Dr. Hans Posse, Director of the Dresden Gallery “to build up the new art museum for Linz Donau.”

1939: After opening at the Labor Stage Theatre the ILGWU production of “Pins and Needles” a revue with music and lyrics by Harold Rome who also wrote the book along with several others including Marc Blitzstein, directed by Charles Friedman and choreographed by Benjamin Zemach transferred to the Windsor Theatre.

1939: “Five hundred people attended a session of the convention of the National Council of Young Israel which was held today in the Temple of Religion at the World’s Fair.  ‘The event was chaired by Henry G. Fromberg.  Cantor Aaron Caplow and the Oscar Julius Choir provided the music for the event.

1940: Today, the British Ambassador in Madrid wrote to London "The arrival of the Germans to the Pyrenees is a tremendous event in the eyes of every Spaniard because it may mean the passage of Nazi troops through Spain to Portugal or Africa, a fear that lead the Spanish government to declare the visas issued by Sousa Mendes (the Portuguese Schindler) to be null and void.

1940: A split takes place among the leaders of Etzel, also known as the Irgun. They cannot decide whether or not to cease attacks against the British for the duration of the war. Abraham Stern, believing that the timing was ripe to pressure the British by any means to allow full immigration sets up the LEHI (Lohamei Herut Yisrael) Freedom Fighters of Israel. The group was also known as the Stern Gang. This splinter terrorist group will eventually kill a UN peace envoy during the War for Independence – an act that will be condemned by the Jewish leadership.

1940: United States Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long determines to obstruct the granting of visas to Jews seeking entry into the United States. He seeks indefinitely to "delay and effectively stop" such immigration by ordering American consuls "to put every obstacle in the way [to] postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of visas." His goal will be realized over the next four years.  Breckinridge Long represents what is called “genteel anti-Semitism,” a disease which lingered after the war among what Harry Truman called the striped pants boys at Sate.

1940: Today following France’s capitulation to the Nazis “the main HIAS-HICEM Paris Office was authorized by Portuguese ruler António de Oliveira Salazar to be transferred from Paris to Lisbon.”

1940: The Nazis confined Cardinal Emmanuel Celestin Suhard, the Archbishop of Paris “in his archiepiscopal residence” preparatory to a planned move to ship him off to a concentration camp.

1941(1st of Tammuz, 5701: Hundreds of Jews from Kovno, Lithuania, were executed at the fortified Ninth Fort on the city's outskirts.

1941: Lithuanian fascists massacred 2300 Jews in Kovno. The sad fact of the matter is that the Nazis had many willing helpers among the population of various European countries.

1941: The invading Nazis seized hundreds of Jews in Kovno, USSR and murdered them.

1941: German forces “rolled into Łuck” where the retreating NKVD had murdered “4,000 captives including Poles, Jews and Ukrainians” and the Nazis would establish a Ghetto as the first step toward wiping the Jewish population.

1941: The Germans reached Bialystok home of the bialy. Another large Jewish population center would now fall victim to the SS Killing Squads. 

1941: In Jedwabne, Poland, a local priest convinces the Poles who had begun attacking their fellow citizens who were Jewish, to halt their pogrom.  He assures them that the Germans would take care of the Jews.  However, the Poles refused to sell food to the Jews in the town amid rumors that the Germans “would be issuing orders that all Jews be destroyed.

1942: “There’s One Born Every Minute” a comedy that marked the film debut of Elizabeth Taylor the convert to Judaism who had two Jewish husbands was released today in the United States today.

1942: For the first time British radio carried reports about the fate of the Polish Jews. It said that 700,000 Jews had been killed in Poland to date. This would have meant that over two million of Poland’s reported three million Jews were still alive and could have been saved.



1943: Dr.Karl Landsteiner the Austrian born American physician who the 1930 Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on differentiating the blood groups passed away in New York and who had converted from Judaism to Roman Catholicism when he was twenty one years old.

1943: On Shabbat, special prayers were offered for the nation's leadership asking them to lead us toward "a peace of righteousness and permanence" at a service in Temple Emanu-El. The service was held today in conjunction with the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, who represent the Reform Rabbinate in the United States.

1944: The last Jews from Random were deported to Auschwitz today.

1945: The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco. At a time when there was multi-faceted opposition to the creation of a Jewish state, the United Nations would provide the legal framework for the creation of the modern state of Israel. 

1946: Today, “Tzadok”, the leader of the Beitar branch in Bruna, wrote on the back of a photograph of parade of Beitar members “As an eternal memory for our friends, from the opening of Kibbutz Beitar in Bruna, which took place on April 22-23 [...] in Linz.”


1947: In New York City, Joseph Siegel “a commercial education teacher” and the former Edith Joffe’ “a secretary at Stuyvesant High School” gave birth to Peabody Award Winning NPR journalist Robert Charles Siegel, the husband of Jane Claudia Schwartz and the father of “musician Leah Siegel” and Erica Anne Siegel.

1947(8th of Tammuz, 5707) Fifty-seven year old Columbia University trained gastroenterologist and WW I veteran Dr. John Leonard Kantor, the son of Dr. William L. Kantor and Katherine Gordon Kantor who during WW II “commanded the 49th General Hospital, saw active service in New Guinea and was the father of “Dr. Thomas Gordon Kantor and James Downes Kantor” passed away today.

1948: Today, while President Truman watched events in Israel with one eye, with another eye he watched “32 C-47s lift off for Berlin hauling 80 tons of cargo, including milk, flour, and medicine” in what was the start of Operation Vittles, the Western Allies attempt to overcome the Soviet blockade of Berlin which, if it failed, could lead to WW III or the triumph of Soviet Imperialism.

1949: Eighty-seven year old David Philipson, “the Dean of the American Reform Rabbinate” collapsed today at the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

1949: Jewish golfer Herman Barron, the 1948 Goodall and 1947 Tam O’Shanter champion teamed with William J. Cobb to win the annual pro-member tournaments at the Bonnie Briar Country Club in Larchmont, NY.

1950: “Admiral Sir John Edelsten, Commander in Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet arrived in Israel today” when HMS Surprise, his flagship, docked at Haifa.  It was the first such visit since the British left the country two years ago.

1950(11th of Tammuz, 5710): Sixty-six year old Montezuma, GA born, Harvard trained attorney Louis Maxwell Cohen, the father of Maxwell and Allen Brenner and a “member of the Lawyers’ Panel of the ACLU, passed away today.

1950: The Memorial Park which was a product of the work of Alfred Lippman and Bernard Rodetsky was dedicated to today Temple Beth Miriam in Long Branch, NJ.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that contracts had been signed for the widening of the Kishon River outlet near Haifa, building of a bridge over it and the construction of a port and dry dock there.

1952: An Israeli army spokesman said that fourteen Arabs had been killed during the last two weeks during operations designed to keep infiltrators from crossing into the Jewish state. Two more were arrested and two were wounded.

1952(3rd of Tammuz, 5712): Seventy-one year old Joseph Baskin, the Minsk born son “Nachim Mendel and Rose Baskin,” the husband of the “former Mary Plotkin,” the father of Geraldine and Gilbert Baskin and since 1916 the “general secretary of the Workmen’s Circle” and “editor of The Friend” passed away today.


1955(6th of Tammuz, 5715): Fifty-four year old Borrah Minevitch the Ukrainian born harmonica player who led The Harmonica Rascals, a ten piece ensemble that recorded for Brunswick and Decca records passed away today in Paris.

1956: Under President Nasser, Egypt seized control of the Suez Canal. 

1957: Eighty-seven year old German-American author Bruno Alfred Döblin who converted to Catholicism while spending World War II in Los Angeles passed away today.

1960(1st of Tammuz, 5720): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1960: It was reported today that American Nazi leader George Lincoln Rockwell has sought the help of the ACLU in over-turning Mayor Wagner’s decision to deny him a permit to speak on July 4 at Union Square because they Mayor said that “the request of a permit was ‘an invitation to riot and disorder from a half-penny Hitler.’”

1960: “Eichmann and the U.N.” published today described Argentina’s complaint to the Security that Israel had violated its sovereignty by seizing the Nazi and taking him Jerusalem where he would stand trial for his crimes” while failing to offer any explanation for the henchman of the Final Solution being able to find refuge in their country for the last 15 minutes.

1961: Operation Morale, “a clandestine effort headed by Mossad to facilitate the emigration of Jewish Moroccan children to Israel” began today when the first of five convoys left the North African country “under the guise of taking a supposed holiday to Switzerland.

1963: “Levi Eshkol took over Mapai and formed the eleventh government.

1963: Levi Eshkol replaced David Ben Gurion as Minister of Defense.

1963: Birthdate of Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs who lost his business empire and his freedom when President Putin felt threatened by him. “Because Khodorkovsky's father is Jewish, some concerns have been raised that his persecution is motivated by anti-Semitism, and that it is only one of many steps to clearing Russian economy from Jews.”

1965(26th of Sivan, 5725): Parashat Sh’lach

1965(26th of Sivan, 5725):Seventy-eight year old Mendel B. Silberberg who was “once called the most important lawyer in the U.S.” and “also referred to as the most powerful Jew in Los Angeles next to Rabbi Edgar Magnin” passed away today

1966: Birthdate of Daniel Hamidou, the Berber born Jew who gained fame as French comedian Dany Boon who played “Private Ponchel” in Joyeux Noël, a gem of a film.

1966: After twenty-three performances the curtain came down on a revival of “Guys and Dolls” starring Jan Murray as Nathan Detroit at the New York City Center.

1967: Spain granted Jews and Protestants the right of public worship for the first time since Ferdinand and Isabella proclaimed Catholicism as Spain's only religion.

1968(30th of Sivan, 5728): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1968 (30th of Sivan, 5728: Fifty-four year old jazz trumpeter Harry “Ziggy” Elman, the Philadelphia born son of Minnie and Alek Finkelman, the husband of Ruby Elman and father of Martin J. Elman who gained fame during the big band era with the Benny Goodman Orchestra and the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra passed away today.


1968: Birthdate of Rich Eisen anchor on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.”

1969: Birthdate of Sociology Professor Philip “Phil” Zuckerman whose works include Society Without God.


1970: Today’s Bulletin described the reading of the Book of Ruth after services on the second day of Shavuot by Louise Brott, Erica Shacter and John Diamond, the first time that this has occurred at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim in Montreal.



1974: “Police arrest cyberneticist Mikhail Agursky in Moscow.”

1974(6th of Tammuz, 5734): Eighty-seven year old Ernest Gruening, the long-time liberal Democrat who served as Governor of Alaska before being elected Senator passed away.  Gruening had been trained as a doctor at Harvard and Harvard Medical School although he never practice medicine.  He is best remembered as only one of two Senators who voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, a move that cost him his Senate seat. (As reported by John T. McQuiston)


1974: “For Pete’s Sake” a comedy produced by Stanley Shapiro who co-authored the script and starring Barbra Streisand was released today in the United States.

1974; Today, at 8:01 a.m., “a 10-pack of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum slid down a conveyor belt and past an optical scanner. The scanner beeped, and the cash register understood, faithfully ringing up 67 cents. That purchase, at a Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, was the first anywhere to be rung up using a bar code.  A Jew did not invent the now ubiquitous bar code, but Alan Haberman, of blessed memory, “led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders — circles, bull’s-eyes and seemingly random agglomerations of dots — in 1973.  By all accounts, he spent years afterward cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. His efforts helped cement the marriage between the age-old practice of commerce and the new world of information technology led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders — circles, bull’s-eyes and seemingly random agglomerations of dots — in 1973. By all accounts, he spent years afterward cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. His efforts helped cement the marriage between the age-old practice of commerce and the new world of information technology.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1975: It was reported today that Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Joseph J. Sisco has “has told an assembly of Jewish community relations leaders that the ‘forces of moderation in the Middle East’” now have “the upper hand, thus strengthening possibilities for further agreements through the ‘diplomatic process.’”

1976: Maxwell Raab, a Wall Street lawyer who played a prominent role in the Eisenhower presidency was inducted as a fellow of Brandeis University.

1976: In case of Jew versus Jews, in “Omen Is Nobody’s Baby” published today Richard Eder panned “The Omen” which was directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer.

1977(10th of Tammuz, 5737): Eighty-eight year old Bertha Levy passed away today after which she was buried at Temple Beth-El Cemetery in Pensacola, FL

1978: Mariia Slepak was the latest person to go in the dock Moscow as part of the anti-Zionist trials.

1979(1st of Tammuz, 5739): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1980: Birthdate of actor Jason Schwartzman

1981: “Stripes” an Army comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman who produced along with Daniel Goldberg who in turn co-authored the script with Len Blum, Daniel and Harold Ramis who played the role of Pvt. Russel Ziskey and with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United States.

1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Parashat Korach

1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Seventy-seven year old Columbia trained attorney and WW II U.S. Marine veteran Myron Sulzberger, the Democratic Party leader and the husband of “Luba Malina” passed away today.


1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Forty-six year old André Tchaikowsky, a Polish born composer and pianist who as a small child survived the Warsaw Ghetto, passed away.

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

1982(5th of Tammuz, 5742): Seventy-two year old Chaim Grade, a Yiddish poet and novelist whose work gained wide attention because of its passion and intensity in dealing with Jewish life in Eastern Europe and with the trauma of the Holocaust, died of a heart attack today in Montefiore Hospital. (As reported by Richard F. Shepard)


1984: Barbra Streisand records "Here We Are at Last"

1984(26th of Sivan, 5744): Sixty-nine year old Carl Foreman who wrote the scripts of such classics as High Noon, The Guns of Navarone and The Bridge on the River Kwai passed away today.


1985: Two months after premiering at Cannes, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” directed by Héctor Babenco was released in Brazil and the United States today.

1985: “Pale Rider” a “dark cowboy” film with music by Lennie Niehaus was released today in the United States.

1987(29th of Sivan, 5747): Eighty-three year old Columbia trained economist Dr. Arthur Burns, the Galician born of “Polish-Jewish parents Sarah Juran and Nathan Burnseig, the husband of Helen Bernstein and father of David and Joseph Burns who helped to shape economic policy in the three decades staring with the Presidency of Eisenhower passed away today.


1989(23rd of Sivan, 5749):Trude Weiss-Rosmarin passed away. Born in 1908, she was a German Jewish writer, editor, scholar, and feminist activist. With her husband, she co-founded the School of the Jewish Woman in New York in 1933, and in 1939 founded the Jewish Spectator, a quarterly magazine, which she edited for 50 years. She was the author of 12 books, including Judaism and Christianity: The differences (1943), Toward Jewish-Muslim Dialogue(1967), and Freedom and Jewish Women (1977).

1991(14th of Tammuz, 5751): Ninety year old Wolfgang Zilzer, the Cincinnati born German character actor who often performed under the name of “Paul Andor” and who married his film fiancée in “Casablanca passed away today after which he was buried in Berlin.

1992: NBC broadcast the final episode of seasons 2 of Seinfeld.

1994(17th of Tammuz, 5754): Tzom Tammuz

1994: Alan Blinder completed his service as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers.

1994: After 73, the curtain came down on the original production of “Broken Glass” “a play by Arthur Miller, focusing on a couple in New York City in 1938, the same time of Kristallnacht.”

1996(9th of Tammuz, 5756): Staff Sgt. (Res.) Asher Berdugo, 22, of Kiryat Bialik; Sgt. Ashraf Shibli, 20, of Shibli; and Cpl. (Res.) Ya'acov Turgeman of Rishon Lezion were killed in an ambush along the Jordan River north of Jericho by terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan.

1997: Mervyn Taylor completed his term as Minister for Equality and Law Reform which the Irish government then abolished and merged with the Department of Justice.

1997: Barry Manilow was diagnosed with bronchitis before a scheduled performance in Austin, TX.

1997: The International Congress of the International Napoleonic Society came to an end at Akkesandria, Italy.http://www.napoleon-series.org/ins/weider/c_jews.html

1998: Launch of the INS Tkuma, a Dolphin class submarine.

2001: President Bush welcomed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to the White House.

2001: In St. Petersburg, after major reconstruction “the greater hall” of the Great Choral Synagogue was reopened today.

2002: Today “in a commentary in NRO titled "Taking Back the Market – By Force”, Larry Kudlow, a Jewish convert to Catholicism who would go from television personality to Trump economic advisor “called for the United States to attack Iraq, stating that Saddam Hussein had "weapons of mass destruction at his disposal" and that "a lack of decisive follow-through in the global war on terrorism is the single biggest problem facing the stock market and the nation today"

2002:Jean-François Copé began serving as a member of the National Assembly for Seine-et-Marne’s constituency.

2002(16th of Tammuz, 5762): Ninety-two year old Sadie Hurwitz Bregman “a homemaker and widow of Samuel “Bo” Bregman the Washington businessman and homebuilder who “promoted the Joe Louis vs Buddy Baer at Griffith Stadium in September, 1940 for the world heavyweight championship” passed away today at the George Washington University Hospital.

2003(26th of Sivan, 5763): Cape Town native and pioneering anthropologist Isaac Schapera passed away today.




2003(26th of Sivan, 5763): Amos (Amit) Mantin, 31, of Hadera, a Bezeq employee, was killed in a shooting attack in the Israeli Arab town of Baka al-Garbiyeh. The shots were fired by a Palestinian teenager, who was apprehended by police. The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

2004(7th of Tammuz, 5764): Israel's renowned composer and songwriter Naomi Shemer passed away at the age of 74. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/nyregion/29shemer.html

Shemer is known to many as the composer of the famous song “Y'rushalayim Shel Zahav" or in English, "Jerusalem of Gold."  For those of you who saw "Shindler's List" this was the song played at the end of the movie when the film turned from black and white to color as the survivors were shown visiting the Shindler's grave.  The song was written at the request of Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolek in 1967 several weeks before the outbreak of the Six Day War.  The song expresses the longing of a person for Jerusalem who has to view the Old City from the opposite side of the Green Line.  In one of those ironic twists of history, "the song became the war's anthem. 

Jerusalem of Gold


Lu Yehi



2005: Igo Feldblum writes a letter to historian Martin Gilbert describing how young Jews in Palestine responded positively to the war time slogan ‘Win We Will.’  ‘Confident in this prophecy, many enlisted in the Jewish Brigade and fought alongside the Allies.’  “Thirty thousand Palestinian Jews fought in the British forces…and more than seven hundred were killed in action.”

2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including King of the Jews by Nick Tosches and The Woman From Hamburg by Hanna Krall.


2005 (19th of Sivan, 5765): Eighty-one year old Louis J. Sigel, a Teaneck, N.J., rabbi who was a prominent voice for integration of the township's public schools in the early 1960's, passed away today at his home in Hackensack, N.J. (As reported by George James)


2005: Wild Desert, a horse owned by several businesspeople including former New York Yankees manager Joe Torre, gave Robert J. Frankel his first victory in the $1 million Queen's Plate, the first leg of the Canadian Triple Crown at Woodbine Racetrack.

2005: “Havoc,” a “crime drama” filmed by cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau debut at the Munich International Film festival today.

2005: The Rubashkin Education Center in Postville is scheduled to hold its grand opening this afternoon

2006(30th of Sivan, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2006(30th of Sivan, 5766): Seventy-two year old Harvard psychiatrist Joseph J Schildkraut passed away today. (As reported by Jeremy Pearce)


2006: Twenty-four hours after attacking an IDF checkpoint Palestinians fire Kassam Rockets into Israel. 

2007: At the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, an exhibition inspired by the ancient flood story of Noah’

2007: The General Assembly of the European Jewish Congress elects a new president for the EJC for a two year term.

2007: The President of Poland and Jewish leaders break ground for the Museum of the History of Polish Jews on a site next to Warsaw’s monument to Jews who resisted the Nazis during the 1943 ghetto uprising. 

2007(10th of Tammuz, 5767): Belgian born American fashion designer, Liz Claiborne passed away at the age of 78. (As reported by Eric Wilson)


2007: A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency by author, attorney, blogger, and Salon.com columnist Glenn Greenwald was published today, by Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House

2008: In New York City the Gallery at the Astor Center presents, “A Taste of Appetizing” featuring Mark Russ Federman, representing the third of the four generations of famed Russ & Daughters who guides participants on a tasting of his extraordinary wares. From humble Herring to luscious Lox, Mark will be explain all—accompanied by a generous side order of the stories behind this New York culinary landmark, judged by the Smithsonian Institute as “part of New York’s cultural heritage.” Joining Mark will be Russ & Daughters’ long-time manager, Herman “The Artistic Slicer” Vargas.

2008: A rocket fired from Gaza hit the Sderot industrial area this afternoon, exploding near a gas station and shattering the truce for a fourth time this week. While neither Prime Minister Ehud Olmert nor Defense Minister Ehud Barak released statements following the rocket attack on Sderot on Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni issued an uncharacteristically sharp demand for an immediate military response.

2009(4thof Tammuz, 5769): Seventy-nine year old Jo Amar, a Moroccan-born Jewish singer whose melding of Andalusian and Israeli musical influences made him a star in Israel and a popular performer in Jewish communities around the world, died today at the home of his son Ouri in Woodmere, N.Y. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2009: Jews in the Washington Metropolitan Area have a wide panoply of choices when it comes to welcoming the Sabbath Queen ranging from the Carlebach Minyan at Kesher Israel to Congregation Adat Reyim's unique folk service lead by their folk group that group uses musical instruments and a variety of melodies from Debbie Friedman, Craig Taubman, and others to add a wonderful musical aspect to their Shabbat services

2009: Russia told a U.S. court today that American judges have no authority to tell the country how to handle sacred Jewish documents held in its state library, which had been seized by the Nazi and Soviet armies.

2010(14th of Tammuz, 5770): Eighty-four year old Shoista Mullojonova “a renowned Tajik-born Bukharian Jewish Shashmakom singer” passed away today.


2010: Ginsberg Jewelers, which is owned by Herman Ginsberg, a pillar of the Jewish community and a mensch of the first order and is a mainstay of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, business community battled back from the Floods of 2008 and hosted an Open House in its new, location today.

2010: The Jewish community of Cedar Rapids is scheduled to gather this evening for “Havdalah Under The Stars.”

2010: Prize winning ice skater Loren Galler-Rabinowitz won the Miss Massachusetts title.

2011: Israel continued repositioning part of its contested barrier in the West Bank today, four years after a court ruled it should be re-routed to give Palestinians greater access to farmland. Israeli tractors tore down a section of the barrier, a metal fence, as a clutch of journalists watched. A new concrete barrier has been erected some 600 meters from the old route near the Jewish settlement of Modiin Illit. The Israeli military tore down a watchtower overlooking Bilin earlier in the week.

2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Druggist of Auschwitz: A Documentary Novela” by Dieter Schlesak. Translated by John Hargraves

2011: The Jewish Museum Milwaukee is scheduled to participate in a WWII Encampment Reenactment program being staged by the Milwaukee County Historical Society at Trimborn Farm. Local student and actor, Shane Skinner, is scheduled to present a dynamic portrayal of the lives of Jewish servicemen during the war, drawing on collections from the archives of the Jewish Museum Milwaukee.

2011: “The Washington Haggadah: Medieval Jewish Art in Context” is scheduled to come to an end today at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Washington Haggadah, an illuminated medieval manuscript and, since 1916, a principal treasure in the Library of Congress, is spending Passover in New York City on a snug reading stand in a display case at the Metropolitan Mu­seum of Art.


2011: Mordechay Lewy, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, “who caused a storm in the Jewish world by praising Pope Pius XII for saving Jews during World War Two backtracked today, saying his judgment was "historically premature." The comments made by, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, were some of the warmest ever made by a Jewish official about Pius but were very upsetting to Holocaust survivors and others who know the history of the man some call “Hitler’s Pope.”

2011(24th of Sivan, 5771): Ninety-one year old Sidney Radner, owner of one of the largest collections of material related to Harry Houdini passed away today. This was a case of one Jew carrying for the legacy of another Jew.  (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2011(24th of Sivan, 5771): Seventy-seven year old Joseph Hochstein passed away today in Tel Aviv. In 1965, Hochstein and his father Phillip started the Jewish Week, a Washington, DC publication that was the successor the National Jewish Ledger.  It was renamed The Washington Jewish Week after Hochstein sold the paper in 1980’s and made Aliyah.


2011: “After 28 previews and 73 performances” the curtain came down on the second Broadway revival of “Born Yesterday” written by Garson Kanin.

2012: Eating and drinking must be on the minds of those at the 92nd Street Y which is scheduled to offer programs on “Wines of the Southern Hemisphere” and “Picnics Through the Ages.”

2012(6th of Tammuz, 5772): Ninety-two year old “Harry Levinson, a psychologist who helped change corporate America’s thinking about the workplace by demonstrating a link between job conditions and emotional health — a progressive notion when he began developing his ideas in the 1950s” passed away today. (As reported by Claudia H. Deutsch)


2012: As part of the Food for Thought program, Rabbi Yosef Edelstein is scheduled to lead “Digesting Ethics, Mysticism and Philosophy.”

2012: David Kilimnick, Razorback by birth and Israeli by choice, is scheduled to host another “Open Mic” night at Jerusalem’s Off The Wall Comedy Club on Ben Yehuda

2012: Four suspects from Jerusalem, Bnei Brak and Ashdod are under arrest on suspicion of spray-painting hate slogans on the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Ammunition Hill and other landmark monuments over the last couple months, police announced this morning.

2012: Fires raged in the forest around Jerusalem today, with the largest fire near the suburb of Motza. The Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway was closed to traffic as fire and rescue services scrambled to control the blaze.

2012(6th of Tammuz, 5772): Seventy-one year old Nora Ephron whose work included “Sleepless in Seattle and “When Harry Sally” passed away today.  (As reported by Charles McGrath)


2012: New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a fierce critic of Israeli policy who was opposed by Jewish lawmakers and top party officials, was trounced his bid to secure the Democratic nomination in a Brooklyn congressional race.


2012: Today the Central Council of Jews in Germany slammed the “outrageous and insensitive” decision of a regional court to prohibit circumcisions, calling upon the German parliament to pass a law that safeguards freedom of religion. (As reported by Raphael Ahren)

2013: “In a Strange Land: The Photographic and Artistic Interpretation of Unfamiliar Environments,” a symposium sponsored by the Israel Museum is scheduled to come to an end today.

2013: Aharon Oren, a Professor of Microbial Ecology at the Hebrew University is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Shipping Lanes of the Dead Sea: 2500 years of navigation” at the University of Connecticut.

2013: The ICCJ International Abrahamic Forum International Conference is scheduled to open at La Baume, Aix en Provence France

2013: Cult leader Andrew “Cohen announced on his blog that he would be taking "a sabbatical for an extended period of time", after confrontational exchanges with some of his closest students, who helped Cohen to realize, as he put it, that "in spite of the depth of my awakening, my ego is still alive and well.”

2013: In San Diego, CA, the Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a screening of “The Trotsky” – a film about Montreal high school students who thinks he is the reincarnation of the famous Russian revolutionary.

2013(18th of Tammuz, 5773): Eighty-three year old commercial photographer Bert Stern passed away today. (As reported by Paul Vitello)


2013(18th of Tammuz, 5773): Seventy-eight year old Jewish-American billionaire Marc Rich, who was pardoned by then US president Bill Clinton over what had once been the biggest tax evasion case in US history and busting sanctions with Iran, died today from a stroke in Switzerland



2013: Fishel Litzman, a New York police officer in training and an Orthodox Jew, took the NYPD to court today for requiring him to trim his beard for service. (As reported by Michael Wilner)

2014: The Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism is scheduled to present “Debating Anti-Semitism: Why do Jews Disagree so Much?”

2014: Historian Lisa Jardine delivered the Conway Memorial Lecture today entitled “Things I Never Knew About My Father” which focused on the life of her father Anglo-Jewish mathematician Jacob Bronowski.

2014: Professor Anthony McElligott is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled The Last Transport: Writing a history of the Holocaust in the Eastern Aegean at Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide

2014: “The Green Prince” is scheduled to be shown at the 22nd annual Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2014: Tel Aviv is scheduled to host its 11thWhite Night event

2014: “La Rafle” and “The Lady in Number 6” are scheduled to be shown at the Chicago Jewish Film Festival

2014: A court in Versailles ordered the extradition of 29 year old Mehid Nemmouche, “the man suspected of murdering four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels” to Belgium.

2014: As firefighter worked “to put out remaining hotspots from a major forest fire that broke out yesterday afternoon in southwest Jerusalem” Fire and Rescue Commissioner Shahar Ayalon said a thorough investigation had already begun amidst suspicions that the fire “was caused, possibly intentionally.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)

2014: Eighty-three year old songwriter and children’s author, Mary Rodgers, the daughter of Broadway’s Richard Rodgers passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)


2014(28th of Sivan, 5774): Ninety-three year old Viennese born American opera and orchestra conductor Julius Rudel passed away today.  *As reported by Robert D. McFadden)


2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host The Gertler Quarter as part of “The Future Generation Series.”

2015: “Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II made her first trip to a former Nazi concentration camp today, visiting Bergen-Belsen just over 70 years after it was liberated by British forces, on the final day of her state visit to Germany.”

2016: “The Wedding Doll” is scheduled to be shown at the 13th annual Israeli Film Festival in Ottawa, Canada.

2016: “Israeli superstar David Broza is scheduled to perform “An All Request Show” at the City Winery in NYC.

2016: “The Art Dealer” and “Demon” are scheduled to be shown at the 24th Portland, Oregon Jewish Film Festival.

2016: The Jewish Genealogical Society and the Ackman & the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute at Center for Jewish History are scheduled to host a presentation by Phyliss Kramer “who will review Eastern European historical geography and cover researching a town using JewishGen's town pages, maps and gazeteers, Routes to Roots, Jewish Records Indexing-Poland, Google and other key web sites.”

2016: In Cedar Rapids, IA, following a fun-filled BBQ dinner and silent auction President Nancy Margulis is scheduled to chair Temple Judah’s annual meeting

2016: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Fractured Republic: Renewing America’s Social Contract in the Age of Individualism by Yuval Levin, Jackson 1964 And Other Dispatches From Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America by Calvin Trillin and the recently released paperback edition of Rebecca Dinerstein’s first novel, The Sunlit Night.

2017: The Institute of Southern Jewish Life’s annual Education Conference is scheduled to continue for a second day in Jackson, Mississippi.

2017(2nd of Tammuz, 5777): Sixty year old “filmmaker and historian Suzanne Wasserman” passed away today. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)



2017(2nd of Tammuz, 5777): Ninety-one year old Birkenhead born “celebrity solicitor” Elkan Rex Makin, whose work with Brian Epstein led to his close association with the Beatles passed away today



2017: The Manhattan Jewish Experience is scheduled to host a discussion of the weekly Torah portion with Steve Eisenberg followed by a “conversation” with Rabbi Mark Wildes.

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to sponsor a screening of Beyond the Mountains and Hills.

2017: “A traveling version” of “Before They Were Heroes” Sus Ito’s World War II Images” which includes pictures of U.S. Army units composed of Japanese-Americans who helped to save Jewish refugees at the end of the war, is scheduled to come to an end at Harvard.

2018: “Britain’s Prince William whose great-grandmother Princess of Alice of Battenburg was recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations for helping to save a Jewish family in Greece during the Holocaust, today visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, where he took part in a wreath laying ceremony and met with Jews who were rescued by Britain as children.”

2018: “Shoshana Buchholz-Miller, Vice President of Education and Exhibitions at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to serve as the moderator of presentation on immigration policy – “What Do We Need to Know? What Can We Do.?”

2018: The Center For Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host “ a discussion of The Jewish Political Tradition: Volume III: Community, co-authored by Michael Walzer, Menachem Lorberbaum, Noam Zohar, and Madeline Kochen.

2019: In Edmonton, Alberta, The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye is scheduled to be the subject of the JDIC Book Discussion Group.

 2019: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening “Promise at Dawn,” the movie version of “Romain Gary’s memoir.

2019: The annual Jerusalem Light Festival is scheduled to begin tonight.

2020: As part of the events being held “to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the United Natons in San Francsioco, the local chapter of the American Jewish Committee” is scheduled to host “a webinar featuring two former U.S. ambassadors to the U.N., John Negroponte and David Pressman, will address how the U.N. has — and can — advance U.S. national interests and protect human rights. “The U.N. at 75: What Place in U.S. Foreign Policy.”

2020: San Francisco based JIMENA is scheduled to host the virtual “Persian Jewish Music and Pre-Shabbat during which singer and scholar Galeet Dardashti will explore Judeo-Persian music traditions through live and recorded music, some of which she will teach.

2020: Following Shabbat services, Temple Tefirth Israel is scheduled to host via livestream “a conversation about race and Justice in America at this time.”

2020: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host Shabbat Outdoor Services in the Silber Outdoor Sanctuary where social distancing will be observed and masks will be provided all attendees.

2020:The Breman Museum in partnership with the Savannah Jewish Federation, Savannah Jewish Educational Alliance, and the Southern Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host via Zoom “Reform Judaism in Charleston and Baltimore” during which “Mark Bauman, retired professor of history at Atlanta Metropolitan College, will discuss the origins of Reform Judaism in Charleston and especially Baltimore and how Jews from these cities took Reform idealogy across the country as they moved westward.”

2020: Nominations for the Cleveland Jewish News’ “18 Difference Makers” which recognizes those making a difference in the Jewish world of northeast Ohio,is scheduled to come to an end this evening.














This Day, June 27, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 27

1096: Massacres of the Jews took place in Xanten and Eller (Germany). This was the second massacre at Xanten in a month. Fifty Jews died. At Eller, five Jewish community leaders were assigned the task (by the community) of killing all the members and then themselves rather than suffer at the hands of the Crusaders. Out of a community of three hundred, only four remained, badly wounded.

1240: In Paris, a commission that was making an inquiry into the nature of the Talmud with a specific interest into alleged derogatory comments about Jesus ended its deliberation after three days.  The commission condemned the Talmud to be burned.  The sentence of condemnation was not executed.  Apparently Archbishop Walter Cornutus of Sens, a prelate influential with the King, interceded on behalf of the Jews and succeeded in having many of the confiscated volumes of the Talmud returned to their rightful owners



1462: Birthdate of Louis XII who expelled the Jews from Provence in 1501.

1458: Ferdinand I began his reign as King of Naples during which he provided refuges for the Jews expelled from Spain.



1570(23rd of Tammuz): Cabbalist Moses ben Jacob Cordovero, known as Ramak, passed away in Safed.


1651: William Prynne, the Puritan leader who was an outspoken opponent of re-admitting Jews to England, and who “was sentenced to be imprisoned during life, to be fined £5,000, to be expelled from Lincoln's Inn, to be deprived of his degree by the university of Oxford, and to lose both his ears in the pillory” for his attacks on dramatic performances and King Charles I was moved to Taunton Castle today after spending a year in Dunster Castle.

1709: Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava. The Russian victory marked the beginning of the end for Sweden as a major European military and political power. Charles XI, the father of Charles XII had banned Jews from living in Sweden.  Charles XII did not adhere to his father’s wishes since he used Jewish merchants as court treasurers and royal paymaster for his armies when they were in the field.  The father’s religious concerns were overridden by the son’s financial needs.  Peter the Great did not want Jews living in his ever expanding kingdom.  During the war with Sweden, when the fighting reached Poland, Russian soldiers were given in a free hand in looting and pillaging the Jewish property and taking whatever liberties they wished with the Jewish populace.

1741: Joseph and Leah Tobias gave birth to Rinah Tobia who became Rinah de Lyon when she married Isaac de Lyone with whom she had four children – Esther, Judith, Hannah and Abraham.

1787: After 25 years of work, Edward Gibbon completes the manuscript of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  Gibbon had a very low opinion of the Jewish people describing them as the “disturbers of the religious harmony of the ancient world” who had emerged from the deserved obscurity resulting from the enslavement by the Assyrians and Babylonians to observe their “peculiar rites and unsocial manners” with “sullen obstinacy.” [Ed. Note: It only gets worse after this.]

1804: In Berlin, jeweler David Jacob Riess and his wife gave birth to Peter Gottlieb Riess, who as physicist and mathematician Peter Theophil Riess became the first Jewish member of the Berlin Academy

1805: Birthdate of Francis William Newman, the brother of Cardinal Newman whose works included A History of the Hebrew Monarchypublished in 1847.

1809: Phineas Davis married Jane Isaacs at the Great Synagogue.

1819: Joseph Johlson “presented second edition of his book of religion instruction in the Mosaic religion to the German National Assembly.

1821: Alexander Jones married Jane Jones at the Hambro Synagogue.

1827: Seventy-four year old Johann G. Eichhorn, the German Old Testament scholar who was a pioneer in "higher criticism," which evaluated Scripture through literary analysis and historical evidence, rather than by the unquestioned authority of systematized religious tradition as can be seen in his seminal work Introduction to the Old Testament passed away today.

1828(15th of Tammuz, 5588): Fifty-year old Abraham Montel, the husband of Naumy Vidal Naquet and one of the Rabbis who attended Napoleon’s Grand Sanhedrin, passed away today.

1829(26th of Sivan, 5589): Parashat Sh’lach

1829(26th of Sivan 5589): Eleven month old Harmon Hendricks Levy, the son of Hayman and Alemeria Levy passed away today in Columbia, SC.

1832: Morris Van Praagh married Sarah Boam at the Hambro Synagogue.

1839: In Great St. Helens, Deborah and Israel Lindenthal gave birth to Hannah Lindenthal.

1846(3rd of Tammuz, 5606): Parashat Korach

1846(3rd of Tammuz, 5606): Five week old Pauline Einhorn the daughter of Karoline and Sigmund Max Einhorn passed away today.

1846: In Magdeurg, Rabbi Ludwig Philippson and his wife gave birth to historian Martin Philippson

1854: “The British Ministry” published today reviewed the changing fortunes of various English political leaders. The author expressed the belief that Lord John Russell would not enjoy the continued support of London’s Jews if here running for election today. The authors stated that “it was solely due to his bad management” and lack of tact “that Jews were not declared eligible to sit in Parliament.” If Lord Russell had allowed Mr. Rothschild to follow the same oath pattern when he was elected in 1847 as the Quaker Mr. Pease had used in 1833, Jews would now be sitting in the House of Commons.  Lord Russell’s insistence on solving the problem with an Act of Parliament was counter-productive since such a solution was bound to fail.

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

1854(1st of Tammuz, 5614): Eighty-seven year old “German philanthropist and communal worker” Amalie Beer, “wife of the banker Jacob Herz Beer, daugher of Liebmann Meyer Wolf (known as "the Berlin Crœsus"), and great-granddaughter of Lipmann Wolf Taussig” passed away today. (Some sources show her death date as June 22 or June 24)

1854: Today, “plans for a synagogue” which would be the new home for Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco”  were approved and contract in the amount of $10,258 was let to move the project forward.

1855: Ninety year old Anton von Schmid, a Christian who published Hebrew books passed away today in Vienna. Toward the end of the 18th century extensive Hebrew printing in Vienna began with the court printer Joseph Edler von Kurzbeck, who used the font of Joseph *Proops in Amsterdam. He employed Anton (later: von) Schmid (1775-1855), who chose printing instead of the priesthood. Their first production was the Mishnah (1793). In 1800 the government placed an embargo on Hebrew books printed abroad and thus gave him a near monopoly. His correctors were Joseph della Torre and the poet Samuel Romanelli (to 1799), who with Schmid printed his Alot ha-Minah for Charlotte Arnstein's fashionable marriage (1793).  Among the works they printed were a Bible with Mendelssohn's Biur (1794-95) and David Franco-Mendes' Gemul Atalyah (1800). Schmid also issued the 24th Talmud edition (1806-11) and the Turim (1810-13) with J.L. Ben-Zeev's notes on Hoshen Mishpat.

1857:Asteroid 45 Eugenia was discovered by Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt.

1860: “The tenth subordinate lodge” of the Independent Order of Free Sons of Israel “known as Naphtali Lodge No. 10” was formed today.

1860: The New York Times published the following:

To the Editor of the New-York Times:

Several New-York Archaeologists have, within the past week, received various communications concerning the discovery of a very curious stone relic, covered with Hebrew inscriptions, said to have been found by Mr. WYRICK, of Newark, Ohio, in one of those artificial earthworks so numerous in that vicinity. Some of these letters, which we had the pleasure to see, are accompanied by full-sized drawings of the stone and inscriptions, together with many-columns of newspaper notices, showing the deep interest the discovery has created amongst Western antiquaries. One of these letters, we are informed, was read at the last meeting of the American Ethnological Society; but, with their usual caution, the members did not venture an opinion, preferring, we presume, to defer an expression of it until after a more critical and scientific examination of the relic itself, and all the circumstances connected with its discovery shall have been entered into. For the purpose of giving your readers some account of the discovery, we have condensed the various notices into a reasonable length. First, as to Mr. WYRICK, the finder of the stone. He seems to be an old and respected citizen of Licking County, by profession a surveyor, and of late years has become enamored of archaeological pursuits. He has recently been engaged in surveying, platting and constructing a topographical map of the ancient earthworks so extensive in Cherry Valley. During this process he has been prospecting in a quiet way by excavating the mounds and embankments for the purpose of finding some implement or relic which might repay him for the trouble. So on Friday morning, the 29th of June, he started out with his digging implements, accompanied only by his son, a lad eight or nine years of age. He concluded to try his luck in a new place, influenced, he states, by a suggestion from Mr. SQUIER, that it might be well to examine the "dug holes," conceiving they might be caches or hiding places -- cemeteries or bone-pits, as they are called in New-York. "Having found one in the woods more articulated than the others," he commenced a trench in the greatest depression of the circle, and did not proceed down more than two feet (through black loam) before he found a stone bale, then this wonderful emblematic stone embedded in a bale of composition clay, adobe, or sunburnt brick. On cleaning off the stone he discovered the inscriptions, but was totally ignorant of their nature. Almost frantic with delight, he hastened to his friends, who informed him that they were Hebrew characters.

DESCRIPTION OF THE STONE.

The material is novaculite, or hone-stone, not found in places within the limits of Ohio, yet may be seen in any carpenter's shop. Now, mark the description. It is very hard, with perfectly smooth surfaces, and has apparently been polished; 5 3/4 inches long, with two flat sides, each 2 1/2 inches wide at the top, tapering down to 1 1/4 inches at the end. The edges are square, and nearly the same width. On each of the four sides is an inscription in Hebrew, each complete in itself. The letters are about one inch in length, and cut as clear as a die -- a fair specimen of letter-carving in stone.

THE INSCRIPTION is as follows, which may easily be rendered by any Hebrew scholar:

1. Kedosh Kedoskim -- The Holy of Holies.

2. Torath, J[???]hovah -- The Law of God.

3. Melec Erets -- The King of the Earth.

4. Devar Jehovah -- The Word of the Lord.

So much for the history of this stone and the character of the inscription. Of course suck a discovery must give rise to numerous and various speculations. Some have suggested that it might be a Masonic emblem -- the keystone which Master Masons anciently deposited in the corner-stone of their temples. (But, unfortunately for this hypothesis, the shape is not the same.) Others have supposed it furnished evidence of the presence of the lost tribes of Israel. Copies of the inscription have been submitted to some of our learned Rabbis, who generally agree that the above is a fair rendering of the text. But a difference of opinion has been expressed with regard to the antiquity of the characters, some carrying them back to the rime of Ezra, whilst others think them more modern. But this discussion is neither here nor there. The first and most important question to be solved by the cautious archaeologist is, whether or not this is a genuine relic of antiquity? Taking a general view of the subject, we might say, at the recent discovery of America by the Europeans, they found millions of inhabitants, but no well authenticated instance of an alphabet, or a single page of written history, other than symbolic pictures. We hold that no people, whether savage or civilized, ever occupied the earth's surface without leaving in the soil some trace of their existence and arts. If the Lost Tribes came to this Continent, it was after they possessed a written language and knowledge of certain arts, evidences of which might naturally be recorded upon imperishable materials, as stone, pottery and coins. And these evidences should be of frequent occurence to prove anything -- as no single isolated case, no matter how well authenticated, should-establish a theory. But no one will admit that enough has as yet been discovered to justify this hypothesis. We will next allude to the internal evidence of its antiquity, as derived from the published accounts. The stone is said to be novoculite, or hone stone, with a high polish, with the characters as sharply cut as if recently done by a lapidary. Now, everyone who claims any knowledge on the subject must be aware that few varieties of stone can remain long in the soil without losing a polished surface, and showing evidence of decomposition. And, even those substances, as quartz and obsidian, not liable to such change, are invariably (in the oldest mounds) found incrusted with lime. Indeed, from all that we can gather, both from private and published sources, we must classify it thus: Genus-bug-species-hum -- recalling the celebrated Pickwickian stone -- belonging to the same category as the gold plates of the Mormon Bible -- the graphic mica -- the brass plates with Chinese characters, found in Illinois, perhaps akin to the Louisiana Hebrew inscription, the last so skillfully conceived as to deceive our most astute archeologist, (Mr. SQUIER,) who favored one of our Societies with a very learned paper on this 1st of April hoax! The West, especially Ohio, seems fertile in false as well as genuine antiquities, so that we would fain hope the Newark stone may not prove "Lapis offensionis, et petia scandali, to the local antiquaries. D.

1862(29th of Sivan, 5622): E.J. Sampson who served with the 4th Texas of the Confederate Army was killed today and subsequently buried in Richmond, VA.

1863: Samuel Gluckstein, the native of Rheinberg, Germany who came to London in 1841 and was employed as a tobacconist in 1861 “was employed as a cigar manufacturer” today.

1865: Philadelphian Samuel A. Apple, a First Sergeant in Company B of the Fifty-First Regiment completed his three year term of service in the Union Army.

1865: In West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Louis Monash and his wife Bertha, née Manasse, two German Jewish refugees gave birth to Sir John Monash, a civil engineer who would become his nation’s leading general during WW I, serving with distinction and intellectual brilliance on the Western Front.



1867: In New Orleans, Rabbi Max Del Banco and his wife gave birth Chicago school teacher Miriam Del Banco the graduate of State Normal School in Cape Giradeau, MO and “assistant principal at the Von Humboldt School who was a noted poet as can be seen by “Moses Mendelson” a poem she wrote that was published on “one hundredth anniversary of his death.”


1869: Birthdate of Emma Goldman. Goldman gained fame as an anarchist and feminist.  Goldman’s views on revolution and violence changed after she witnessed the aftermath of the Russian Revolution.  She became disillusioned with Bolshevism and became a pacifist as a result of the horrors she saw firsthand. 

1870: “La Périchole an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach” premiered in London today.

1871: In Baltimore, MD, M.B Greensfelder and Carrie Levi gave birth to Bernard Greensfelder the St. Louis, MO, attorney who served as secretary and director of the United Jewish Charities, director of the Hebrew Free School and director of Shaare Emeth Temple.

1875: “Secret Societies” published today offered a novel explanation for the conversation of the Roman Emperor Constantine to Christianity. According to the article an unnamed “Jewish Rabbi” and Pope Sylvester were contending with another in the presence of the Emperor.  “The Rabbi whispered “Shemhamphorasch or the Tetragrammaton “into the ear of an ox, which instantly fell dead.” Sylvester   responded by saying, “’Arise, ox, in the name of the trinity!’”  “This showed the Emperor the superiority of the Christian religion, and he accepted it at once.” [Editor’s note - “The Shemhamphorasch is a corruption of the Hebrew term Shem ha-Mephorash (שם המפורש), which was used in tannaitic times to refer to the Tetragrammaton. In early Kabbalah the term was used to designate sometimes a seventy-two Letter name for God, and sometimes a forty two Letter name. Rashi said Shem ha-Mephorash was used for a forty two letter name, but Maimonides thought Shem ha-Mephorash was used only for the four letter Tetragrammaton.” This is four Hebrew letters (Yod, He, Waw and He) called The "Tetragrammaton" is the unpronounceable name of God made up of four Hebrew letters – Yud, Hay, Vav, Hay. There was a Pope Sylvester but his relationship with Constantine was apparently more invention than fact; the invention having been used to promote the concept of Papal authority over temporal rulers.]

1876: Moses Tannenholz obtained an affidavit from Rachel Blumenthal stating that she was 18 years old.  This affidavit, which was of questionable validity, would figure prominently in a divorce case in which, among other things, it was contended that the bride below the age of consent at the time of the marriage rendering the nuptials null and void.

1876: In New York City “Isidor and Ida (Blun) Straus gave birth to the Harvard educated R.H. Macy and Co vice president Percy Selden, the husband of Edith Abraham who was active in several civic and philanthropic organizations as can be seen by his service as President of the Jewish Agricultural Society and Chairman of the Business Men’s Council of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City.




1876: In New York Michael M. and Miriam Peixotto Davis, gave birth to builder G. Richard Davis the descendant of a family that has lived in New York since the 18th century whose edifices included the Montana (site of John Lennon’s murder) and the General Motors Building and the husband of the former Irma L. Bernstein whom he married after “first wife, the former Benveneda Bricker” had passed away.


1877: Following the refusal of Judge Hilton to allow Jews to be guests at the Grand Union Hotel in Saratoga, NY, Harry Ward Beecher delivered “a long eulogy on the Hebrew race” today.

1878:  In Whitechapel, London, John and Rebecca Lipkind gave birth to Goodman Lipkind the London rabbi who came to the United States where led several congregations including Gates of Heaven in Schenectady, NY

1879: In London, Sir Julian Goldsmid, the 3rdand last Baronet, the London born son of Caroline and “Frederick David Goldsmid, MP” and his wife Virginia gave birth to Nora Octavia Goldsmid.

1880(18th of Tammuz, 5640): Tzom Tammuz observed

1880(18th of Tammuz, 5640): Sixty-three year old Berlin native Karl Wilhelm Borchardt, the Konigsberg educated mathematician who studied in Paris before becoming “privat-docent at the University of Berlin” passed away today.

1880: It was reported today that the throngs attending the fair in Hungary’s capital city included “Jews…by the hundreds, German Jews, Hungarian Jews” dressed as Magyars, “Polish Jews in black toga and long corkscrew curls, Transylvanian Jews in greasy brown cloth dressing gown and sandaled feet, looking like dissipated Capuchin friars.” [This serves as a reminder of the rich variety of Jewish cultures that flourished in pre-Holocaust Europe.]

1880: It was reported today that the parties attending the conference on Morocco in Madrid have reached an impasse.  The Moroccans are expected to tell the European powers that they cannot protect the Jews from “popular fanaticism” unless the Europeans agree to “strengthen the authority of the Sultan” – or in plain English give up some of their colonial power.  This is something that the French and Spanish will never agree to.  The issue of protecting the Jews is a smokescreen behind which the Europeans can hide their imperial designs and the Ottomans can hide their attempts to protect their crumbling empire.

1881: In Spain, Praxedes M Sagasta the President of the Council of Ministers wrote to a prominent European Jewish author H. Guedalla that “article 1 of the Constitution of Spain is the most decisive revocation of the edict of banishment against the Jews in the year 1492.  Thus all of your coreligionists who wish can come to Spain without any obstacle whatever…”

1881: Birthdate of St. Louis native and Harvard University graduate, Garfield Joseph Taussig, financier and businessman who served as “vice president of Sterling Aluminum Products” and President of the Lafayetter Federal Savings and Loan Association who died in 1968.

1882: “Bad for Russian Refugees” published today described the financial crisis facing the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society in trying to care for the tidal wave of Jewish immigrants fleeing eastern Europe. The American Jewish community, much of which had only been in the United States for only one or two generations, was small when compared to the millions in Russia, Romania, etc. and had only limited financial resources to deal with the crisis.




1882(10th of Tammuz, 5642): Sixty-eight year old “Dutch jurist and minister of justice Michael H. Godefroi who “delivered exhaustive speeches insisting that the commercial treaty with Rumania should not be ratified until guaranties should have been given that Netherland Jews in that country should enjoy perfect equality before the law” passed away today.

1882: Referee Jerome Buck is scheduled to hear more testimony in the hearing to determine the sanity of Samuel Obreight a young Jew who had been institutionalized by his family after his recent marriage to a young Christian woman.

1882: Mr. Cohn chaired tonight’s meeting of the Cap-finishers’ Union which was held on Eldridge Street. The major concern was the declining wages of the workers.  Wages have fallen percipitiously since last November when members were earning fifteen to twenty dollars a week.  Now they can are earning between seven and eight dollars a week because the manufacturers have found sources of cheap labor including Russian Jewish immigrants who will work for $2.50 to 3.00 per week.



1883: The first cruise of the season for poor Jewish children and their mothers today sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to leave at nine o’clock this morning.

1883: Today twenty-six year old year Jacob Brenner who had passed the bar exam in 1879 and eventually became a Brooklyn magistrate married Louise Blumenau, “the daughter of prominent Brooklyn real estate developer Levi Blumenau” with whom head six children -- Arthur and Mortimer both of whom became lawyers and “Republican party leaders,” Rose who was President of the National council of Jewish Women, Rica, Selma and Caroline.”

1883: “The Alleged Jewish Murder” published today reported that “all the Christian lawyers at Nyreghhaza, Hungary, where the trial of the Jews charged with a murdering a Christian girl” is taking place “have adopted a resolution attacking the conduct of the Public Prosecutor.  At the same time, the Hungarian government claims that it could not prevent the trial from taking place but that it does “not believe the accusation to be true.”  [The allegation is that the Jews murdered a Christian girl in their synagogue – a case based on the coerced confession of a Jew named Moritz Scharf.]



1884(4th of Tammuz, 5644): Ignatz Kunreuther passed away.  Born in Germany in 1811, he came to Chicago from New York in 1847 and became the first rabbi to serve KAM.  He also served as the Chazan and Shochet for six years before “retiring to private life.

1885: In Lithuania, Eva Gross Landy and Rabbi Jacob Landy gave birth to Rachel (Rae) Landy the Cleveland, Ohio trained nurse who “initiated the first public health and sanitation systems in Palestine and whose 37 career in the U.S. Army included serving as “chief of nurses of the Second Command at Governor’s Island, NY.  (“Landy's father established Hebrew Books, the first Jewish bookstore in Cleveland, and her mother was instrumental in the founding of Menorah Park Center for the Aging.”).




1885: As the conflict between Orthodox and Reform rabbis continued Rabbi Alexander Kohut took issue with remarks made by Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler of Temple Beth-El today by declaring that “We cannot all be authorities.  No one is privileged to say for himself ‘I am the authority, and I alone.’ Or ancient believers had some very great prominent men, and should we not in this nineteenth century follow the doctrines which are laid down for us in the Talmud?” [The answer to this question is still one that some Jews are asking in the 21stcentury.]



1888: “A Hebrew Fresh-Air Fund” published today provided a summary of the annual report for Sanitarium for Hebrew Children issued by its President, Nathan Strauss.  Last year the society provided 8 free excursions that served 4,732 infants, 3,631 children and 2,789 mothers. 

1888: In Birmingham, England, Reverend Wilson Trusted and his wife gave birth to Sir Harry Herbert Trust who served as Attorney General for the British Mandate for Palestine from 1932 to 1936 following which he replaced Michael McDonnell as Chief Justice.

1888: It was reported today that that Jacob H. Schiff has offered to contribute $10,000 to help the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children build a new facility to meet the needs of underprivileged Jewish children and their mothers.

1888: Birthdate of Ludwik Niemirowski, who gained fame as the English historian, Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier.

1891: “Jews Barred From Palestine” published today reported that “there is little hope that the Sultan will consent to the Jews settling in Palestine.”

1891: In Hungary, Bernard and Teresa (Schlesinger) Weiss gave birth to Cornell educated engineer Chrles Weiss, the Captain of Engineers in the AEF during WW I, “assistant supervisor on the Pennsylvania Railroad” and winner of the Carnegie Hero Fund Medal” who was he husband of Sari Kohn

1893: During the Panic of 1893, the crash of the New York Stock Exchange.  The Panic of 1893-94 was the worst economic depression to hit the United States until the Great Depression that began in 1929.  During the panic, Nathan Strauss a prominent New York Jewish merchant and philanthropist “started a chain of grocery stores that distributed groceries and coal to the needy.” In Greeley, Colorado, Adolph Z. Salomon, one of  Colorado’s three famous Salomon brothers, found himself forced into the “farm and ranch business” due to the fact that so many defaulted on their loans.  These defaults resulted in major financial setback for Salomon.

1893: A convention of New York Republicans adopted a resolution condemning the decision of the New York Union League Club to blackball Mr. Seligman because he was Jewish.

1893:  Rector Hermann Ahlwardt, the Jew baiting member of the Reichstag has been sentenced to three months imprisonment for libeling Prussian officials again.

1893: In Yonkers, NY, founding of the Yonkers Hebrew Benevolent Association whose members included David Klein, Joseph Berger, Jacob Fuchs and Louis Mittler

1893: Birthdate of Mendel Dyner, who was deported from to Ujazdow and then to Majdanek where he was murdered in September of 1947.

1894: Wilhelm Diamant, the son of Herman and Johanna Diamant, was buried today in Vienna.

1894 This morning wearing “a long skirt, corset and high collar and carried with her a change of clothes and a pearl-handled pistol”  Annie Londonerry (Annie Cohen Kopchovsky) set off from the Massachusetts State House on the first leg of her round her attempt to be the first woman to ride a bicycle around the world. 

1896: Twenty-year old George H. Webb persuaded Dora Henry, a 16 year old Jewess to leave her father’s house and then went the home of Reverend C.A. Daniel where the Lutheran minister married them. The two then separated and went back to their respective homes.

1896: “Lottery-Crazed Ghetto” published today described the congested district east of the Bowery as being the Ghetto because the preponderance of the population was Jewish.  “The Russian and Polish Jews who” live “in such large numbers in the district extending from Division to Houston Streets are the most eager purchasers of lottery tickets” which can make them the victims of the swarm of agents selling these pieces of pasteboard.

1897: The Hebrew Free School Association sponsored the entertainment for 1,000 needy New York children which was held at the auditorium of the Educational Alliance at East Broadway and Jefferson Street.

1897: “Dr. Benjamin F. De Costa preached on the ‘Diamond Julibee’ at the Church of St. John the Evangelist” tonight “taking as his text Exodus XII:26 ‘What mean ye by this service?’”

1897: In Chicago, Bernard Schwager, a successful cigar market, kissed his ten day old grandson for the first time today.  The child’s mother, who will convert tomorrow, was a Christian when she married Schwager’s son over a year ago.

1897(27thof Sivan, 5657): Seventy-eight year old Sir John Simon.  Born at Jamaica in 1818, his father Isaac Simon sent him study in England in 1833.  He wanted to become a rabbi but ended up becoming a lawyer.  He returned to Jamaica after his marriage but went back to London “for his wife’s health.” He began serving as Liberal MP in 1868.  His career lasted for twenty years and was marked by his efforts on behalf of the Jews of Russia.


1897: The Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum will leave for an excursion today from the pier at the foot of West 129th aboard the SS Bay Queen.

1888: Birthdate of Ludwik Niemirowski, the Polish born Jew who gained famed “British Zionist historian Sir Lewis Bernstein Namier.”

1899: Rabbi Drachman delivered the opening prayer at the commencement exercises of the Jewish Theological Seminary which were held in Tuxedo Hall tonight.  Joseph Blumenthal, President of the Board of Trustees, delivered the introductory address.

1899(19th of Tammuz, 5659): David Kraukauer, the benefactor of many Jewish charities including the Montefiore Home and Mount Sinai Hospital, passed away today.

1900(30thof Sivan, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1900: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Lesser officiated at the marriage of Harry Deitchman and Rosa Fechter.

1901: The funeral for the Honorable Samuel Edward Shrimski, the former Mayor of Omarau currently serving as member of the New Zealand Parliament who was survived by his wife Deborah, is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m.in the Waikumete Cemetery.

1902(22ndof Sivan, 5662): On the Jewish calendar yahrzeit of Rabbi Jehiel Michel of who was murdered by the Chmielnicki Cossacks.

1902: Seven years before Jewish immigrants began arriving as part of the Galveston Plan, the Texas coastal city endured a record rainfall “as a result of Hurricane Two.”

1903: In Brownsville, NY, at a meeting of the Daughters of Zion,“Mr. Jacob Massel of Glassgow” spoke “of the importance of ladies taking an active interest in Zionistic work” after which attendees heard a concert that included “the rendering of Jewish national songs.”

1903: In the wake of the exoneration of Colonel Dreyfus, the French government ordered the closure of 120 religious (Catholic) schools as a sign of a loss of clout of those on the political right.

1904(14thof Tammuz, 5664): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of the 250 Jews murdered in Rauthenburg, Germany.

1905: During the 1905 Revolution which presaged the final fall of the Czar in 1917, the crew of the Russian Battleship Potemkin mutinied which appeared to be the first act in a planned mutiny of the Black Sea Fleet.


1906: On the Lower East Side, 50,000 immigrant Jewish mothers stormed the local public schools in response to a rumor that doctors were slitting the throats of their children in public schools.


1907: Birthdate of British jurist Sir Alan Abraham Mocatta.

1907(15thof Tammuz, 5667): Forty year old Yiddish poet Abraham Michael Scharkansky passed away today in New York.


1908: Portrait of Louis Barnett Abrahams, “the head master of the Jews’ Free School in London painted by British artist Solomon J. Solomon


1908: In Cordisburgo, Brazil, Florduardo Pinto Rosa (nicknamed "seu Fulô") and Francisca Guimarães Rosa ("Chiquitinha") gave birth to João Guimarães Rosa who wrote a short story “La triosieme rive” which provided the title for the autobiography of Polish born French economist Ignacy Sachs and his wife Viola.

1909: The performance being given in memory of Jewish playwright Jacob Gordin at the Manhattan Opera House was cut short and did not continue past midnight because it would have violated New York’s Sunday-closing Laws.

1910: Today, as the drumbeat of anti-Semitism continued, 95 more Jews were expelled from Kiev, 52 were expelled from Solomenka and 51 were expelled from Demieffka.

1911(1stof Tammuz, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1911: Louis-Lucien Klotz began serving as French Minister of Finance in Briand’s third government

1912: The Jewish Territorial Organization holds its annual meeting over four days in Vienna. It passes a resolution thanking the Portuguese Chamber of Deputies for the offer of land in Angola for Jewish colonists, but regrets the impossibility of recommending individual colonists to undertake a task, which could be successfully carried out only by an organization.

1912: The funeral for Julia Richmond the New Yorker who was an educator and defender of the underdog including those suffering from consumption and Russian Jewish immigrants is schedule to be held today.

1913: Birthdate of “warehouse worker” Simon Levinson, who was arrested by the Nazis at Oslo in 1942

1913: Birthdate of Wilkes-Barre, PA native Isadore “Izzy” Wienstock the All-American fullback with the University of Pittsburgh Panthers who then went on to play to play for three years in the NFL from 1935 to 1938.


1914(3rdof Tammuz, 5674): Parashat Korach

1914: Dr Max Raisin of Brooklyn delivered the following address at Berith Dodesh Temple, a Reform Jewish Congregation in which he declared that while some Reform Jews do not proclaim their Zionism, at heart they hope for restoration as a people.

"Reform is what made Zionism what it is. Zionism has found amongst reformers some of its staunchest upholders. Reform is only a phase of religion, and religion makes for race consciousness. The integrity of the Jews as a race depends upon the existence and survival of Judaism as a religion. When a Gentile becomes a Jew by religion, he becomes ipso facto a Jew by race; but when a Jew joins a Gentile religion he remains a Jew by race. "When reform Jews in Washington some time ago told Congressmen some time ago that the Jews were only a religious body, and not a race, opposition to the statement arose from the very ranks of reform itself. Is the belief of the reformer dogmatically different to that of the orthodox? Does it deny the hope of the Jews for national restoration? There is a higher court than the rabbinical conference. Reform Judaism goes to the prophets, and there is nothing their opposed to national restoration. "You will say that all reference to Zion has been stricken from your Prayer Book. That is quite true, but that is a mere negative attitude for you to take. It is not true that reform as a whole is opposed to Zionism. The Prayer book is one thing, and Reform as a whole another thing. National restoration is a universal movement. Reform looks upon nationalism, even if potentially, as a means to realize all the hopes of Judaism. I content that Reform does stand upon national ground. Zionism has again and again made itself felt in the camp of reform. If nationalism is not included in your prayer book, it is not opposed or denied."

1914: In Rochester, NY, Dr Mordechai M. Kaplan of New York delivered a sermon at Beth Israel Synagogue in Leopold Street this morning.

1914: Fifty delegates to the convention of Zionists from Chicago and twenty-five more from Cleveland reached Rochester tonight. They were among delegates invited to attend an evening reception at the Jewish young Men's Association in Franklin Square.

1915: Birthdate of philanthropist, Bernard Roth, “an entrepreneur who built a major company from a single gas station in Los Angeles by promoting self-service gas pumps”

1915(15thof Tammuz, 5675): Eighty-three year old pioneer shoe manufacturer Isaac Blyn passed away in New York City.

1915: This afternoon,during his tour of the battlefields in France,  Joseph Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire led services for Jewish officers and men at general headquarters and delivered a sermon in which he compared this visit to his work fifteen years ago with British troops during the Boer War.

1915: While delivering his sermon tonight from a platform of the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church Dr. Christian F. Reisner “referred to form Governor Slaton of Georgia who commuted the sentence of Leo Frank to life imprisonment” saying “Governor Slaton has proved himself one of the bravest men in America.

1915: “The convention of the Federation of Rumanian Jews held in the Manhattan Lyceum today adopted resolutions condemning as undemocratic the plan of the American Jewish Committee for a conference of 150 delegates in Washington in November to consider Jewish affairs in connection with the war and its outcome” – favoring instead “a Congress of many members..”

1915: Congressman Isaac Siegel of the 20th District spoke this afternoon at the dedication by the “Jewish charity workers of the Upper East Side and west side and in Harlem” of “a home to be known as the Hebrew Sheltering Society of Harlem.

1915: “Reports continue today of an oath-bound organization which formed at a meeting at Mary Phagan’s grave in Marietta have spread throughout Georgia whose purpose is to ‘get’ Slaton (the governor who pardoned Leo Frank) and “Frank, no matter how long it takes.”

1915: In Boston, Jacob de Haas is scheduled to preside over the opening session of the convention of the Zionists attended by representatives of the Zionist Provisional Committee, the Federation of American Zionists, Hadassah, Order sons of Zion, the New England Zionists, the Intercollegiate Zionist Conference, Misrachi, Young Judaea and Hachoosa.

1916: Among those who have reportedly already signed an application blank to serve in the First New York Volunteers a unit of the New York National Guard being formed by Jews was Nathan Schwartz who had served with the Marines and was wounded while serving in Vera Cruz, Mexico.

1916: Today Pratt Institute and Julien Academy trained painter Max Pratt, the Bialystok born son of “Morris and Julia Weber married Frances Abrams.

1917(7thof Tammuz, 5677): Lt. Edmond Enos died today during WW I joining others who had period this month including Captain Fernand Halphen, Second Lt. Georges Levi, Second Lt. Paul Molina at Verdun, and Chief Adjutant Leonce Rosenbaum

1917: It was reported from The Hague that in an interview Djemal Pasha “in the post-bellum period” “he would do his utmost” to opposed Jewish colonization which he saw “as an indispensable step toward rooting out Entente influence.”

1917: In Baltimore, the delegates to the 20th Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists were scheduled to attend a general business session.

1918(17thof Tammuz, 5678): Tzom Tammuz

1918: In Pittsburgh, the 21st Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists came to an end.

1918: In Pittsburgh, the fifth annual convention of Hadassah came to an end.

1918: The volunteers of the Jewish Battalion in World War I were sent to the front. In August 1917, thanks in part to the efforts of Jabotinsky; the formation of a Jewish regiment was officially announced. Formation of such a unit had been opposed by members of the British military and other members of the British Establishment.  By 1917, the Empire was desperate for soldiers.  It was probably this sense of desperation more than anything else that led to the formation of the first Jewish combat unit since the Bar Kochba Revolt in 135. The unit was designated as the 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers. It included British volunteers, members of the former Zion Mule Corps and a large number of Russian Jews. In April 1918, it was joined by the 39th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers, more than 50 percent of whom were American volunteers. In June 1918, The 38th Battalion of the Royal Fusiliers was sent to Palestine, where the volunteers fought for the liberation of Eretz Yisrael from Turkish rule.

1919: In Switzerland, Walter Benjamin “passed his examination summa cum laude” today following which he and his wife Dora would return to Berlin.

1920 Louis Marshall is scheduled to be one of the speakers at this afternoon during the cornerstone laying ceremonies for the Bronx Jewish Center of the Talmud Torah Shaarey Zion 1920: Birthdate of Itek Dommnici, the native of Rumania who gained fame as I. A. L. Diamond, the Hollywood screenwriter and the longtime collaborator of the director Billy Wilder and won an Oscar for the “Apartment.”

1920: Mae Levy, the sister of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Levy married Henry M. Shapiro after which they took a trip through the Adarondacks.

1920(11thof Tammuz, 5680): Sixty-nine year old Julius Newman who had served as Rabbi of the Moses Montefiore Congregation and had lived in Chicago for forty years, passed away in California.

1920: In Los Angeles, Elias Victor Rosenkranz and Mildred Rosenkranz, the daughter of Emil and Benvenida Solis Firth, gave birth to Dorothy June Rubel

1921: Mrs. Edith R. Sulzberger, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald, went to Crown Point, Indiana today and obtained a marriage license.

1923: Birthdate of Evelyn “Eva” Ruth Gorelick (nee Brounstein) the Canadian born mother of “Kenny G.”

1923: After having “signed his first big league contract for $5,000 with the Brooklyn Robins (the Brooklyn Dodgers, he made his major league debut in the seventh inning of a game with the Philadelphia where he played shortstop without making any errors and “got a one hit in two at bats.”

1926: The twenty-ninth annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America opened here today with more than 1,000 delegates from all parts of the country, including 200 from New York. Louis Lipsky, Chairman of the ZOA, delivered a lengthy keynote address in which, among other things, he criticized England for failing to cooperate with the Zionists under the terms of the mandate.  “Emanuel Neuman, national director of the United Palestine Appeal reported that over five million dollars had been raised since last October” for projects in Palestine.

1927: Time magazine reported that “Pilot Clarence Duncan Chamberlin and passenger Charles A. Levine were last week enjoying the hospitality of Germans, resting in the watering place known as Baden-Baden, inspecting huge multi-motored airships at the Dornier and Zeppelin plants. Some of their doings: Frau Thea Rasche, Germany's only licensed woman pilot, was taken for a ride over Berlin by Pilot Chamberlin. Skillful, she also took passenger Levine for a ride. Correspondents heralded the trips as strengthening to U.S. - German relations. Flyers Chamberlin and Levine hustled to Bremen to meet their respective wives, who arrived from the U.S. Said Mrs. Chamberlin on seeing her husband: "Why, your knickers are awful. Didn't you even have them cleaned?" Then the two couples flew to Berlin in three hops. The two wives were reported to be feeling ill after the first hop. "The Columbia is not on the market," said Mr. Levine when Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, a rich American then living in Germany, offered to buy the monoplane. Mr. Bergdoll let it be known that he desires to fly to the U.S. to show that he is no coward, that conscientious objection was his only reason for refusing to fight in the World War.” [Levine was Jewish and laid claim to being the “first passenger” to cross the Atlantic.]

1928: The Democratic National Convention at which Herbert Lehman played a major role as finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee continued for a second day.

1929: Max Schmeling, the German heavyweight champion who defied the Nazis by having a Joe Jacobs as a manager and who saved two Jewish boys on Kristallnacht  “beat Paulino Uzcudun by 15-round decision in a boxing card before a crowd of 40,000 in Yankee Stadium.”

1931: Labor economist Theresa Wolfson was the principal speaker at the opening of the Barnard College Summer School for Women Workers in Industry

1931: Birthdate of Philadelphia photographer David Martin “Dave” Heath.



1931: In Montreal, Samuel and Saidye Rosner Bronfman gave birth to businessman and philanthropist Charles Bronfman, the co-founder of the Taglit Birhtright program.

1933 In Brooklyn, “Sidney and Helen Katz, née Holland, gave birth to Robert Katz, “an author and screenwriter who incurred the wrath of the Vatican by accusing Pope Pius XII of failing to act to stave off a Nazi massacre of Italians in 1944” and who was the husband of Beverly Gerstel with whom he had two sons – Lee and Jonathan

1933(3rd of Tammuz, 5693):  J. Harry Ulrich who had been Chief Surgeon of National Guard unit and who reached the rank of Colonel while serving with the U.S. Medical Corps during WW I passed away today in Baltimore.

1933: The Archbishop of Canterbury is scheduled to be the “principal speaker” at a meeting at Queen’s Hall where attendees including “thirty members of the British Parliament” “will protest against the persecution of the Jews in Germany.

1933:  At a rally in London, speakers protest anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany.

1934: Filming of “Imitation of Life” directed John Stahl (Jacob Morris Strelitsky) began today.

1936: At Cape May, NJ, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum of New York’s Temple Israel preached the annual sermon before the Central Conference of American Rabbis today in which he “called for a reorganization of reform Judaism as well as a restatement of its creed” saying that “The time has come to discard the policy of having each congregation autonomous and each rabbi his own authority” and proposing “the formation of a synod council made up of delegates from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” that will “reintegrate liberal Judaism in the United States and help to increase the numbers of adherents of reform.”

1936: As Arab violence continued in Palestine, “after a week of deliberation the Arab High Committee today completed a long reply to Colonial Secretary William Ormsey-Gore’s speech in the House of Commons” which included the insistence “that nothing could restore permanent peace in Palestine except the stoppage of Jewish immigration and the prohibition of the sale of lands to the Jews.”

1936: The Democratic National Convention comes to a close after re-nominating Franklin D. Roosevelt for a second term. FDR enjoys overwhelming support among Jewish voters. Among the delegates is Samuel Untermyer who is attending his last national convention.

1936:  In Asbury Park, NJ, Zelig Tygel the executive director of the Federation of Polish Jews in America and Gershin Bader, the organization’s honorary vice president eulogized the late Dr. Nahem Sokolow at memorial services marking the opening of the 28th annual convention of the federation.

1937(18th of Tammuz, 5697):Tzom Tammuz observed because the 17th fell on Shabbat

1937: Today “a 30-minute radio adaption of Babouk,” a novel by Guy Endore (born Samuel Goldstein), co-produced and co-directed by Irving Reis “with incidental music by Bernard Hermann” “was broadcast today as part of the Columbia Workshop series on WCBS (AM).

1937(18thof Tammuz, 5697): Rabbi Morris Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “How to Face a Crisis” at the Jewish Science Society today.

1938: “The Jews of Palestine observed a day of semi-mourning today in sympathy for the Revisionist youth, Ben Yosef, who is under a death sentence for having fired on an Arab-owned bus.  There were special prayers and sermons in synagogues throughout the country.  Shops were closed in the evening and places of amusement were shut all day.”

1938: Birthdate of Alan Coren, “the son of a plumber and a hairdresser from Southgate, North London, England’ and humorist who appeared on BBC and was editor for the famous “Punch” humor magazine.

1938: Twenty-one year old publisher Roger Williams Straus, Jr. married “Dorothea Leibmann, granddaughter of the founder of Rheingold Brewing,

1939(10thof Tammuz, 5669): Sixty-nine year old “Dr. Israel Davidson of 92 Morningside Avenue, New York, Professor of Medieval Hebrew Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, Broadway and 122d Street, New York, and a world recognized authority in his field, died today in his country home after a brief illness


1939(10thof Tammuz, 5699): Seventy three year old University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate and faculty member David Werner Amram, a Zionist who was joined on the faculty by his son Philip Werner Amram whose “most famous book was The Makers of Hebrew Books which “details the earliest history of Hebrew book printing, including the first complete edition of the Talmud published by Daniel Bomberg in the early sixteenth century” passed away today


1939: NBC Radio took over the Camel Caravan, a musical variety program that featured regular appearances by comedian Lew Lehr.

1939: The Irgun placed a letter bomb in the mailbox attached to the outside wall of the Schneller Orphanage which was now a British military facility known as the Schneller Barracks, which, when it exploded “collapsed part of the wall and injured five Arabs in the vicinity.”

1940: During a meeting of the Cabinet, Churchill again called for the arming of the Jews of Palestine so that British troops could come back to defend the home islands.  Lord Lloyd spoke against the move; anti-Semitism trumped strategic thinking as Lord Lloyd prevailed.

1940: NBC broadcast the final episode of “I Love a Mystery” sponsored by Fleischmann’s Yeast and featuring Tony Randall (Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg)

1941(2ndof Tammuz, 5701): Fifty-nine year old Walter Wile Hamburger, the Chicago born “son of Anette and Max Mayer Hamburger” and husband of Edna Hamburger who was the Rush Medical College trained physician and WW I veteran and member of the University of Chicago faculty passed away today.

1941(2ndof Tammuz, 5701): On a day known as Red Friday: German units in Bialystok began to randomly shoot Jews. Eight hundred were locked in the Great Synagogue, which the Nazis then it set on fire. More were forced in during the blaze. Resisters were shot. The Germans threw hand grenades into Jewish homes. By the end of the day, 2,000 Jews were murdered. Similar horrors took place in Minsk.


1941: German troops gathered in a synagogue courtyard in Niéswiez, Poland, beat and shoot exhausted Russian POWs.

1941(2ndof Tammuz, 5701): Eighty-two year old San Francisco native Louis S. Hass, a “retired member of the stockbrokerage firm of Sutro and Company,” an “honorary president of the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum and a member of the Jewish Children’s Welfare Bureau” passed away today in his home town with no relatives to mourn his passing.


1941: Romanian Iron Guard Legionnaires, encouraged by the anti-Semitic policies of dictator Ion Antonescu, undertook the extermination of the Jews in Falesti. Thousands are killed.

1941: “Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu telephoned Col. Constantin Lupu, commander of the Iaşi garrison, telling him formally to "cleanse Iaşi of its Jewish population"

1942: In Manhattan, Jerry Schechter, “a garment center pattern maker who became a sculptor” and the former Ruth Lisa Lubin gave birth to Daniel Isaac Schechter “whose media criticism became a staple of Boston radio and who went on to champion human rights as an author, filmmaker and television producer.”


1943: “An enlarged and intensified program for Jewish religious education "to meet the needs of Jewish children in America in wartime and during the post-war period" was adopted today at a meeting of the board of governors of the American Association for Jewish Education in the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria.”

1943: The three day long convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham began today with  speech by Grand Master Herman Hoffman in which he “outlined a broad program for rehabilitation of European Jews and other minorities as a post-war reconstruction project,”

1944(6th of Tammuz, 5704): Jewish Resistance leader David "Dodo" Donoff, 24, is executed near Lyons, France.

1944: Almost one half million Jews have been sent to Auschwitz since May 15, 1944.

1944: After 475,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported, the Pope and the King of Sweden intervened with Horthy as did President Roosevelt who issued the ultimatum-like appeal to stop the brutal anti-Jewish persecutions.

1944: Following his meeting with Joel Brand, Moshe Sharett wrote in his report, "I must have looked a little incredulous, for he said: 'Please believe me: they have killed six million Jews; there are only two million left alive'."

1944: A report was given to officials in London that Captain Isidor Newman who was serving with SOE had been taken to a private house at Rue des Etats Unis in Paris that had been turned into a Gestapo prison.

1945: Birthdate of Amihai "Ami" Ayalon the native of Tiberias who grew up at Ma’agan co-founded by his father Yitzhak who “emigrated illegally from Romania and who served as a commander in the Israeli Navy before moving to a career in politics.

1945: Seventy two year old Emil Hacha, who as the last President of an “independent” Czechoslovakia bowed to personal pressure from Hitler and became the “State President of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia” where, regardless of what else he did to help or combat the Nazis, signed “into law legislation modeled after the Nuremberg Laws that meant the Jews were no longer Czech citizens in any sense of that term” passed away today.

1945: Having heard no further reply from Churchill over his request to suspend the White Paper of 1939, a bitter Chaim Weizmann told his colleagues that the “leaders of the Western world” had done what they had done to the Jews but did not have “to swallow it.” He continued saying that Churchill and Roosevelt had let the Jewish people down, “maybe not intentionally, but inadvertently.  They made promises which did not carry out or mean to carry out.”  He had no faith in the upcoming meeting of the Big Three – Stalin, Churchill and Truman because “nobody cared about what happened to the Jews.  Nobody had raised a finger to stop them from being slaughtered.”  And now they did not care about “the remnant which had survived.”  Weizmann, feeling broken and betrayed expressed his willingness to resign his leadership position regardless of the consequences.

1946: U.S. premiere of “A Letter for Evie” directed by Jules Dassin and filmed by cinematographer Karl Fruend.

1946: The Josiah Wood which arrived at Haifa today with “1,257 passengers who were interned at Athlit was later made a part of the Israel Navy under the name of “Hasomer,” K-18.

1947: In Manhattan, Morris Helprin the President of London Films and Broadway actress Eleanor Lynn Helprin gave birth to American novelist, journalist, conservative commentator, Mark Helprin.

1948: As Count Bernadotte finishes preparing the Peace Plan for Palestine that he will present tomorrow, General Lucius Clay cabled William Draper, the undersecretary of the Army, with a summary of the situation surrounding the Soviet blockade of Berlin which ends with a call for additional aircraft since the planes available can only supply 600 of the 2,000 tons need for the city. (Editor’s Note – two major international crises when the Presidential election is heating up and the American people are looking for post-war peace and prosperity.)

1948: Today, “The general officers of the nascent Israel Defense Forces were sworn-in in a ceremony.” (Jewish Virtual Library.

1949(30thof Sivan, 5709): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1949(30thof Sivan, 5709): Sixty-five year old Milton S. Yondorf, the “retired president of the S. Yondorf and Company, real estate and mortgage bankers” passed away today in Chicago.

1949: “Dr. Philipson Collapses” published today described the physical condition of Dr. David Philipson, “the dean of the American Reform Rabbinate” who is resting at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston where he was taken after he lost consciousness at the sixtieth annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.  The 87 year old cleric is the “oldest living graduate of the Hebrew Union College” and boasts that he has never missed one of these conferences.


1949: “Laboring Voice” published today described the birth of WFDR, a new non-profit FM station “back by the 400,000 members of the ILGWU headed by David Dubinsky.


1949: “Solomon Bennett, 1761-1838” by the Rev. Arthur Barnett was read today “before the Jewish Historical Society of England.


1950: As proof that the Western democracies had learned the lessons from the 1930’s  -- totalitarian dictatorships should not be allowed to engage in aggression – President Harry Truman announced that he was ordering U.S. forces to assist South Korea in repelling the attack from North Korea.

1950: Admiral Sir John Edelsten, Commander in Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet completed a two-day courtesy visit to the Jewish state. The Admiral’s visit included stops at Haifa and Tel Aviv.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that 283,000 votes were cast for the Zionist Congress elections. According to the rough estimates Mapai was expected to send 103, Mapam 46, Hapoel Hamizrahi 26, Herut 21, Progressives 12 and Revisionists one delegate to the Congress. More than one million dollars worth of food parcels sent by relatives abroad arrived in Israel every month. About 70,000 such food packages were sent through commercial firms, and 40,000 were mailed directly by relatives.

1951: “Sirocco” a film based on Coup de Grace written by Joseph Kessel, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and co-starring Lee J. Cobb was released in the United Kingdom today.

1951: General Darius Paul Dassault, a hero of the French Resistance in WW II, was awarded the Médaille militaire.

1952(4th of Tammuz, 5712): Seventy-three year old German born American mathematician Max Dehn passed away in North Carolina.


1952: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 also known as the McCarran-Walter Act was enacted today.

1953: After 248 performances the curtain came down at the Lyceum Theatre on the original Broadway production of “Time Out For Ginger” starring Melvyn Doughals and Philip Loeb.

1954: Meir Har-Zion “in a seven man squad led by Major Aharon Davidi that launched a surprise attack on an Arab Legion camp at Azzun, 13 km east of Qalqilya” tonight.

1957: “Sweet Smell of Success” a film based on novelette by Ernest Lehman with a script co-authored by Clifford Odets and co-starring Tony Curtis was released in the United States today.

1957: In New York City, Episcopalian remedial reading teaching Marnie Fahr and Roy Henry Steyer, a Jewish partner in the staid law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell gave birth to hedge fund manager who along with his wife Kate Taylor have used his fortune to support Democratic Party candidates and a variety of social justice initiatives including, ironically, “the Fair Shake Commission on Income Inequality and Middle Class Opportunity, which was intended to advocate policies for promoting income equality.”

1959: It was reported today that “the state of Hesse has decreed that history lessons in the last grade of all state must in the future concentrate on the period after 1918” which came about because of the “recent disclosure that the great majority of school children were almost totally ignorant of the Nazi period.”

1960: In Bethesda, MD, a suburb of Washington, DC Jerry and Louise Mayer gave birth to Michael Mayer “who won his first Tony Award for his direction of the musical adaptation of Spring Awakening in 2006.

1960(2nd of Tammuz, 5720): Seventy-seven year old German and University of Leipzig Dr. George Urdang, the “Professor Emeritus of the History of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, founder of “the American Institute of the History of Pharmacy and husband of Gertrude Urdang with whom he had two daughters – Eva and Ursula – passed away today in Madison.



1961(13th of Tammuz, 5721): Seventy-one year old Rear Admiral Ellis Mark Zacharias, the Jacksonville, FL born son of Aaron and Theresa Budwig Zacharias and husband of “the former Clara Miller” with whom he raised two sons –Gerald and Ellis M Jr. – who graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1912, skippered the cruiser Salt Lake City at the start of WW II when “participated in the first United States counter-strikes against Wake and the Marshall Island and came to public attention “as a practitioner of psychological warfare” in the fight against Japan” passed away today. (Editor’s note – There is no way that this blog can do justice to his long, distinguished and exciting career.)



1963: After 257 performances the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, the curtain came down on the final performance of the original Broadway production of “Little Me” the Neil Simon musical that featured “Sid Caesar in multiple stage accents playing all of the heroine’s husbands and lovers.”

1964(17th of Tammuz, 5724): Parashat Balak

1964: NBC broadcast the final episode of “The Bullwinkle Show” a cartoon satire featuring a flying squirrel and talking moose featuring theme music by Frederick “Fred” Steiner

1965: In London “Stephen Eric Sebag Montefiore,” the descendant of Sephardi Jews and “Phyllis April Jaffé, the descendant of  Lithuanian Jewish family of scholars (talk about your mixed marriages) gave birth to author and historian Simon Sebag-Montefiore, a member of one of Britain’s oldest and most distinguished Anglo-Jewish families whose Jerusalem: The Biography is a must read for anybody with an interest in Jerusalem, the Middle East or the three so-called Abrahamic Faiths should read, while Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man and Enigma: The Battle for the Code by his brother Hugh are two World War II histories that show an amazing depth and breadth of scholarship. (Can you imagine eating dinner with this family?)

1966: In New York City television producer Gerald W. Abrams and executive producer Carol Ann Abrams (née Kelvin) gave birth to Jeffrey Jacob "J. J." Abrams

1967: An episode of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple,” a television program starring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman that had a baseball theme was filmed tonight at Shea Stadium, the day before the Mets played the Pirates.

1968(1st of Tammuz, 5728): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1969(11th of Tammuz, 5729): Fifty-five year old Blanche Loeb Sundheim, the Philadelphia born daughter of Louise Silberman Langsdorf and Jacob Loeb Langsdorf and the wife of Harry G. Sundheim, Jr. passed away today in Chicago.

1969: Two days after she had passed away funeral services were scheduled to be held at noon today at the Universal Chapel for seventy-five year old Alene Stern Erlanger, the wife of Erlanger Mills and Barnard College graduate “who was responsible for the formation of the U.S.A.’s canine corps during WW II passed away today.




1971: The New York Times featured a review of St. Urbain's Horseman by Mordecai Richler

1972: It was reported today that “two time world welterweight champion Jackie Fields,” “one of the few welterweight title holders ever to regain the title” after losing and a Gold Medal Winner at the 1924 Olympics “has been officially inducted into the United Saveings-Helms Hall of Boxing Fame in ceremonies at the Tropicana Hotel and Country Club.“

1973: “Scream Blacula Scream” filmed by cinematographer Isidore Mankofsky was released in the United States today.

1973: “Live and Let Die,” the eighth spy film in the James Bond series co-produced by Harry Saltzman, with a screenplay by Tom Mankiewicz and co-starring Yaphet Kotto was released today in the United States.

1974: Birthdate of Mariano Idelman the Argentine native who became a popular Israeli television personality.

1974: “Thirty seven Vilnius Jews protested to the Communist Party Central Committee against the arbitrary arrests of Jewish activists on the eve of President Nixon’s visit.”

1974: “Forty American and 6 British scientists were denied entry visas to participate in a refusenik scientists’ seminar.”

1974: “Professor Benjamin Levich’s sons Evgeny who had been released from the army on May 24th was informed that he would be allowed to leave for Israel within six weeks.”

1974: The KGB placed Vitali Rubin under house arrest.

1974: “Nine Minsk Jews including 4 former Red Army officers and 4 Jews in Odessa began a hunger strike in support of emigration.”

1974: “Fifteen Kishinev Jewish activists who demonstrated against delays in granting of exit visas were arrested and sentenced to 10-15 days in prison.”

1974: On the same day that the third Nixon-Brezhnev Summit opened in Moscow, Andrei Sakharov began a hunger strike to “draw world attention to the plight of political prisoners in the USSR” including the Jews who want to leave for Israel.

1976: “An archaeological dig uncovered the Golan site of the ancient Jewish fortress of Bamla, which was destroyed by Vespasian in the early stages of the rebellion against Rome in the year 67.” (As reported by Abraham Bloch)

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that US President Gerald Ford finally upped the transitional aid to Israel to $275,000,000 and presented this as his final offer to the Congress for approval. A new, $15,000,000 center for cancer and allied diseases was opened at the Sharett Institute of Oncology at the Ein Karem Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem.

1976:News broke that four hijackers from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the German Revolutionary Cells had captured an Air France flight from Tel Aviv to Paris. The plane was diverted to Entebbe in Uganda, where it was held pending terrorist demands for the release of 53 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli and various European jails. The separation of Jewish passengers from among the hostages particularly alarmed the authorities in Jerusalem.

1976: A revival of Rodgers and Hart’s “Pal Joey” opened at the Circle in the Square Theatre.

1976: After 193 performances the curtain came down on Stephen Sondheim’s “Pacific Overtures” a musical directed by Harold Prince with scenic designs by Boris Aronson.

1977(11th of Tammuz, 5737): Seventy-nine year old Budapest born and University of Chicago trained organic chemist Dr. Louis Sattler, “a retired Brooklyn College professor of Chemistry” and the husband of “the former Julia Kaufmann” with whom he had one son, James, passed away today.

1978: Refusnik Simon Shnirman went on trial at Zaporozhye

1978: Morton I. Abramowitz began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand.

1982: In Rio de Janeiro, “Bernard Rajzman, a former professional volleyball player and Michelle Wollens, a former professional figure skater” gave birth to surfer Philp Wollens Rajzman

1984: After more than 59 years of use, the closing of “the Greenville Hall synagogue at Dublin’s South Central Circular Road” which had been led by Jack Segal who had followed in his father’s footsteps as President, marked “the end of an epoch when the close-knit Jewish community was concentrated almost entirely in the one small area and Greenville Hall was the center of that compact universe.” (As reported by The Irish Times)


1986: “Ruthless People” a dark version of the concept from the short story “Ransom of Red Chief” directed by “David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker” and co-starring Bette Midler was released today in the United States.

1986: Jewish television Judge Joseph “Wapner appeared on the Tonight Show to hear a case of David Letterman vs. Johnny Carson over alleged damage to the headlight of Letterman's pickup truck when Carson had the truck towed to the studio. Wapner ruled in favor of Letterman, granting him $24.95”

1987: Daniel Barenhboim is scheduled to conduct his final in a series of concerts with the IPO that include performances by members of the Paris Opera all of which are part of the celebrations marking the 50thanniversary of the founding the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.

1989(24th of Sivan, 5749): Seventy-eight year old philosopher and author “Sir Alfred Jules ‘Freddie’ Ayer also known as A.J. Ayer” the London born son of Reine Citroën, a member of a Dutch-Jewish family who founded the Citroën car company in France” and “Jules Ayer, a Swiss Calvinist financier who worked for the Rothschild family passed away today.


1991(15th of Tammuz, 5751): Sixty-nine year old New York born WW II veteran Milton Subotsky best known for co-founding with Max J. Rosenberg, Amicus Productions which churned out “low budget science fiction and horror films” passed away in his adopted homeland of Great Britain which was the home of his wife “Dr. Fiona Subotsky, is a prominent London psychiatrist, and an historian of psychiatry.”



1993: “After 487 performances and 23 previews” the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Falsettos,” a musical with a book co-authored by William Finn who also wrote the music and lyrics

1994: Alan Blinder began serving as Vice Chairperson of the Federal Reserve System.

1997: “Face/Off” a dark, bizarre crime film co-starring Gina Gershon was released in the United States today.

1997: Two weeks after premiering at the New Amsterdam Theatre, “Hercules” an animated musical with a score by Alan Menken was released in the United States.

1999(13th of Tammuz, 5759): Ninety-three year old dermatologist Abraham “Dutch” Koransky, the Purdue University fullback, graduate of the University of Chicago’s Rush Medical School and decorated WW II Army Veteran who practiced medicine until 1985, passed away today.


1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Holocaust in American Life by Peter Novick.

2000: U. S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrives in Israel. She met with Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

2000: NBC airs the final episode of Veronica’s Closet, a sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kaufman.

2001:One feature “of a broad set of guidelines on conversion to Judaism that will embrace traditional practices once rejected by Reform leaders, urge that converts make certain commitments to Jewish life and also formally extend a strong welcome to men and women considering converting” which are expected to be adopted today “by the Central Conference of American Rabbis at its annual meeting here, would overturn an 1893 resolution holding that traditional practices like immersing a prospective convert in a ritual bath, or mikveh, are no longer necessary.”

2002: Rabbi Baruch Lanner “was convicted of sexually abusing two teenage girls.” An appeals court later dismissed one of the child endangerment changes in 2005.  The case against Rabbi Lanner had begun with investigative reporting done by Gary Rosenblatt of The Jewish Week.

2002:  In recognition of his successful efforts to save thousands of Jews from the Nazis in France, Secretary of State Colin Powell presented a posthumous "Constructive Dissent" award to the children of Hiram Bingham IV at an American Foreign Service Officers Association awards ceremony in Washington, DC.

2003(27th of Sivan, 5763): “Sgt. Maj. Erez Ashkenazi, 21, of Kibbutz Reshafim, an Israeli navy commando, was killed in an operation in Gaza to capture a Hamas cell, believed responsible for several bombings and the firing of anti-tank missiles in the Netzarim area.” (Jewish Virtual Library)

2003(27th of Sivan, 5763): Eighty-nine year old Dr. Arthur “Archie” Kameros, the “four year starting center for LIU-Brooklyn in the mid-1930’s and graduate of the Columbia University School of Dentistry and Bronze Star winning U.S. Army WW II veteran passed away today in Lake Worth, FL.

2004(8th of Tammuz, 5764): St.-Sgt. Roi Nissim, 20, of Rishon Lezion, was killed and five other soldiers were wounded when their outpost in the Gaza Strip was blown up by Hamas terrorists who tunneled under the position and detonated a massive explosive charge

2004: Three days after she passed away, funeral services were held for Olga Rubinow, “the child psychologist and specialist in the emotional health of children who was the wife Walter A. Lurie and the daughter of Sophie Himwich Rubinow and “Dr. I.M. Rubinow, a noted authority on and advocate for Social Security.”

2004:  Israel's renowned composer and songwriter Naomi Shemer was laid to rest today at 6 p.m. in Kvutzat Kinneret cemetery in the Galilee, where many of Israel's pioneers are buried. Shemer is known to many as the composer of the famous song ”Y'rushalayim Shel Zahav" or in English, "Jerusalem of Gold."  For those of you who saw "Shindler's List" this was the song played at the end of the movie when the film turned from black and white to color as the survivors were shown visiting the Shindler's grave.  The song was written at the request of Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kolek in 1967 several weeks before the outbreak of the Six Day War.  The song expresses the longing of a person for Jerusalem who has to view the Old City from the opposite side of the Green Line.  In one of those ironic twists of history, "the song became the war's anthem.  She was 74 when she passed away on Saturday, June 26, in Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital.  The famous chorus of the song is follows:




"Y'rushalayim shel zahav, v'shel n'choshet v'shel or; Halo l'chold shi-rayich ani kinor

Jerusalem of gold, of copper and of light, Behold I am harp for all your songs."



JERUSALEM OF GOLD

The mountain air is clear as water

The scent of pines around

Is carried on the breeze of twilight,

And tinkling bells resound.

The trees and stones there softly slumber,

A dream enfolds them all.

So solitary lies the city,

And at its heart -- a wall.

Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of

bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.

The wells ran dry of all their water,

Forlorn the market square,

The Temple Mount dark and deserted,

In the Old City there.

And in the caverns in the mountain,

The winds howl to and fro,

And no-one takes the Dead Sea highway,

That leads through Jericho.

Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of

bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.

But as I sing to you, my city,

And you with crowns adorn,

I am the least of all your children,

Of all the poets born.

Your name will scorch my lips for ever,

Like a seraph's kiss, I'm told,

If I forget thee, golden city,

Jerusalem of gold.

Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of

bronze,
I am the lute for all your songs.

The wells are filled again with water,

The square with joyous crowd,

On the Temple Mount within the City,

The shofar rings out loud.

Within the caverns in the mountains

A thousand suns will glow,

We'll take the Dead Sea road together,

That runs through Jericho.

Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of

bronze,

I am the lute for all your songs.

2004(8th of Tammuz, 5764): Mordechai Yosefov, 49, and three-year-old, Afik Zahavi, were killed outside a kindergarten when Palestinian terrorists in Gaza launched Kassam rockets into the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Zahavi's mother, Miriam, was seriously injured in the attack, and is struggling to recover in a local hospital.

2004:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 'Letters, 1928-1946': The Book of Isaiah (Berlin) by Sir Isaiah Berlin and 'Sweet Land Stories': The Call of the Wild Ones by E.L. Doctorow

2005:  Author and Civil War Historian Shelby Foote passes away at the age of 88.  A native of Greenville, Mississippi, Foote’s father was not Jewish.  However, his mother’s family was.  As a youngster, Foote regularly attended services.  He “stopped being Jewish” because he found himself having to play the role of an outsider twice over.  He was a Southerner and he was Jewish.  He could only devote himself to one of these and he chose his Southern heritage.  It is ironic that the man who came to personify Civil War for a whole a generation of television viewers and whose drawl was the best that the Southern tongue could offer was a Jew. 

2005: The United States Air Force appointed Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, who had served as a chaplain for 25 years in the United States Navy, to the newly-created position of Special Assistant (for Values and Vision) to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force.

2005: Today, McLaughlin and Associates concluded a poll commissioned by the Zionist Organization of America.

2006(1stof Tammuz, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 2006: Rabbi, Arnold E. Resnicoff completed his one year assignment as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff of the Air Force. He was awarded the Air Force Decoration of Exceptional Civilian Service for his years’ worth of work.

 2006: Chaim Saban’s “Saban Capital Group led a group of investors bidding for Univision Communications, the largest Spanish-language media company in the United States.”

2006: Yitro Asheri submitted a report to police say that his son Eliyahu was missing (Unbeknownst to the father, the son had been kidnapped by terrorists two days earlier and was dead by now.)

2007: David Milliband’s last day as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

2007:In Jerusalem,legendary Israeli composer/singer Shlomo Gronich presents his newest compositions of biblical sources on a wide spectrum of themes: justice, righteousness, integrity, man and his identity, love songs & prayers. Performance includes Gronich on piano & shofar, the Jerusalem String Quartet and percussion.

2007:Dr. Ashraf Marwan, an Egyptian businessman identified as the Mossad agent who tipped Israel off on the eve of the Yom Kippur War about the coming surprise attack was found dead outside his home in London's Mayfair neighborhood. Dr. Ashraf Marwan was the son-in-law of the Egyptian President, Gamal Abdel Nasser.  There is a dispute as to whether Marwan was really a spy for Israel or whether he was in a double agent who was feeding disinformation to his Israeli handlers.

2007: Social justice was the theme of the first Jurisprudence Awards dinner sponsored by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs at the Hilton Chicago.  The event raised $50,000 for the work of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs which began during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and how promotes social justice through working with community organizations in Chicago.

2007(11thof Tammuz, 5767): Ninety-year old Albert Wattenberg “one of the scientists who worked with Enrico Fermi on the first controlled release of nuclear energy” passed away today.


2009: The final performance of “Dov and Ali” by Anna Ziegler, at the Cherry Lane Studio Theater, in the West Village. The drama revolves around the relationship between Dov, a high school teacher and Orthodox Jew, and Ali, a 17-year-old student and strict Muslim.

2009: David Anthony Freud “was created a life peer as Baron Freud, of Eastry in the county of Kent,and became a shadow minister for welfare in the House of Lords.”

2009: At the Durham Performing Arts Center, the Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet presents the final performance Israeli modern choreographer Ohad Naharin's “Decadance” which was acclaimed by The New York Times as "dancing that pulls viewers right out of their seats.”

2009: Today, the London-based A-sharq Al-awast reported that a deal trading Shalit for over 1,000 Hamas prisoners was imminent. Hamas leader Haniyeh, however, said that reports of a breakthrough on Shalit negotiations were exaggerated. Israeli sources also continued to deny any impending deal.



2010: The Jewish Feast-ival is scheduled to take place at The Jewish Center in Rock Island, Illinois.



2010:"The Adventures of Hershele Ostropolyer," a new musical adaptation of the classic Yiddish play by Moyshe Gershenson, is scheduled to have its final performance at The Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Avenue.



2010: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Faith and Power: Religion and Politics in the Middle East by Bernard Lewis and Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance by Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm.



2010:Jews from more than 15 countries are scheduled to compete in a “Jewish World Cup" in New York today.

2010(15thof Tammuz, 5770): Martin David Ginsburg “an internationally renowned taxation law expert” who “was Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. and of counsel to the law firm Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson” passed away today.  He was the husband of Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (As reported by Gardiner Harris)




2011:Israeli violinist Misha Vitenson and the Jupiter musicians are scheduled to perform Beethoven’s brilliant Sextet for 2 virtuoso horns and string quartet, the Flute Quartet in E Minor by his pupil Ferdinand Ries, Webern’s Romantic Langsamer Satz, and the Brahms String Quartet No. 3 in B-flat Major at the Church for All Nations in New York City.



2011:Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the senior figures of religious Zionism, was arrested today after he refused to appear for questioning for his endorsement of the controversial book, “Torat Hamelech,” which justifies killing non-Jews.

2011: Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner cabinet instructed the Israel Defense Forces to be firm in preventing the flotilla from reaching the Gaza Strip while operating with maximal restraint to avoid causing injuries.

2011:Israeli director Guilhad Emilio Schenker won an award at the Detroit Windsor International Film Festival 2011 today for his short film Lavan.  He picked up the award for Best Short Film, a week after he received the Best Director Prize at a Washington film festival.

2011:Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior, one of the senior figures of religious Zionism, was arrested today after he refused to appear for questioning for his endorsement of the controversial book, “Torat Hamelech,” which justifies killing non-Jews.

2011(25th of Sivan, 5771): Ninety-seven year old Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefokowitz passed away today.

2012:The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, The American Jewish Committee, and The American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists are scheduled to present the next session in its brown bag lunch speakers’ series: “Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama” with Marvin and Deborah Kalb.

2012: Six months after its first screening at the Sundance film festival, the rest of the United States has its first opportunity to view “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” an “American fantasy drama film directed by Benh Zeitlin.”

2012: "Going Up: Jerusalem" - a pilgrimage by artists, social activists and intellectuals that is inspired by social protests in Israel and abroad is scheduled to come to an end.

2012: Funeral services are scheduled to be held at B'nai Israel Synagogue, 2601 Chestnut St. in Wilmington, NC for of Wendy Block, z”l, of Wrightsville Beach, NC. She was the former chair of the Network of Independent Communities of The Jewish Federations of North America, former board member of National Women’s Philanthropy and campaign vice chair for National Women’s Philanthropy. Mrs. Block passed away on June 25 at the age of 72.

2012: The Library of Congress obtained the papers of astronomer Carl Sagan, the son of Ukrainaian-Jewish immigrants.

2012(7th of Tammuz, 5772):Two Israel Navy officers were killed in a car crash on Highway 4 near Rishon Lezion early this morning.  An initial investigation into the accident revealed that the officers, Captain Omri Shahar, 25, of Kfar Saba and First Lieutenant Rafael Bublil, 22, of Ramat Gan, were killed when their car collided with a truck and overturned at Holot Junction. Two other officers were injured in the crash. One is in moderate condition, while the other suffered serious injuries


2012: Deep divides were exposed between coalition factions today over the terms of legislation being formulated to raise the number of ultra-Orthodox men in national-service programs.


2012: In “How Iran Killed Its Future” published today Shahrzad Elghanayan described how the execution of Habib Elghanian, Iran’s most prominent Jewish industrialist and philanthropist, was a turning point for the country.


2012: “A small group of men gathered at the small cemetery of Rehovot to pay respects to 53 year old Aharon Zandani of blessed memory a pillar of Yemen’s Jewish community who was murdered in Sanaa. (As reported by Elhanan Miller)

2012: Barry Landau, a “collector of presidential memorabilia” who was convicted of stealing thousands of historic documents “was sentenced to seven years in prison” and ordered to pay $45,525 to dealers to whom he had sold stolen items.

2013: In the UK, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host a book launch of Ruta’s Closet, “the harrowing and astonishing true story of how a Lithuanian Jewish family fought to escape the deadly clutches of Hitler’s Final Solution.”

2013: Joan Silber, the novelist and short story writer who won PEN/Hemingway Award for Household Words took part in a book signing at Barnes and Noble.


2013: Today, Nicholas “Winton received the Wallenberg Medal in London.”

2013:  JCCNV and the Jewish Community Relations Council are scheduled to present an evening with Elliot Abrams who will discussion the Israeli-Palestinian relationship under President George W. Bush.

2013:Adas Israel Congregation, EntryPoint DC, and The Foundation for Jewish Studies are scheduled to present a talk by Dr. Allan Lichtman author of FDR and the Jews at the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum

2013: Israel is the center of the world “in so many ways,” the archbishop of Canterbury said today in Jerusalem. He stressed Israel’s legitimacy and right to security, and also spoke, in the context of persecution of Christians by Islamists in the Middle East, about the Christian imperative to “love our enemies.”


2013: Tel Avis White Night begins




2014: “G-D’s Honest Truth” featuring Marcia Jean Kurtz and David Deblinger is scheduled to be performed at the 14th Street Y.



2014: Eighty-two year old poet Allen Grossman passed away today.






2014: “Friday LIVE” is scheduled to start this morning at Tel Aviv.



2014: The first round the Temple Menorah annual rummage sale in Milwaukee, WI is scheduled to come to an end.



2014: The IAF scored a direct hit on a car carrying two Palestinian terrorists who “were involved in a cell responsible for the repeated rocket fire on Israel’s southern cities over the past several weeks and were planning several terror attacks on Israeli civilians. (As reported by Lazar Berman)



2014: Six rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel today, two of which were intercepted by Iron Dome and four of which landed in “open territory.” (Times of Israel Staff)

2014: “New York Mayor Bill De Blasio delivered the keynote address tonight at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, the world’s largest LGBT synagogue and a pioneering Jewish presence in the New York Pride Parade.” (As reported by Brian Schaefer)

2014: “Stations of the Elevated” a “1981 documentary film by Manfred Kirchheimer about graffiti in New York City’ was re-released today.

2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “The Best Miniatures for Two and Three Clarinets Solo.”

2015: In Coralville, Iowa Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to a special luncheon following “Rabbi Jeff’s Last Shabbat.”

2015(10th of Tammuz, 5775): Sixty-seven year old animator Jane Aaron who specialized in works for children passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts).


2015: An earthquake measuring 5.5 on the Richter Scale “was felt in several Israeli cities” this morning.

2015: In Herzliya Pituach, Trioche is scheduled to host an auction of Israeli and International Art.


2016(21st of Sivan, 5776): One hundred three year old Simon Ramo, the son of Jewish immigrants, the technology guru who co-founded TRW passed away today.


2016(21st of Sivan, 5776): Eighty-seven year old Alvin Toffler, the author of Future Shock, passed away today.


2016(21st of Sivan, 5776: Photographer Dave Heath passed away today in Toronto on his 85th birthday.”


2016: While attending a meeting of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors in Paris, Natan Sharansky, “the head of the Jewish Agency for Israel said” today that “French Jewish have no future” in that country because of “Arab immigration to France and deep-seated anti-Semitism.”

2016: “The Legacy of Absence Gallery” which features ”the work of influential international artists expressing the impact of genocide and other atrocities” is scheduled to close today at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center and will not reopen until the Fall of 2017.

2016: “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You” is scheduled to be shown at the 24th Portland Oregon Jewish Film Festival.

2016: Liverpool MP Luciana Berger who became Luciana Clare Goldsmith when she “married Liverpool music manager Alistair Goldsmith at the city's Princes Road Synagogue in June 2015” resigned her position as Shadow Minister for Mental Health today.

2017: The Sacramento Historical Society is scheduled to host a lecture by Lynn Downey, the author of Levi Straus: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World.

2017: In Jackson, Mississippi, The Institute of Southern Jewish Life’s annual Education Conference is scheduled to come to an end today.

2017: The British National Theater Live Productions are scheduled to  be shown at the Jerusalem Cinematheque

2017(3rdof Tammuz, 5777): Third of Tammuz marks the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of Righteous Memory, known simple as “the Rebbe.”


2018: After having visited Yad Vasham yesterday where is great-grandmother, Princess Alice is honored for rescue of Jews, today, Prince William who is making the first official by a member of the Royal Family to Israel, is scheduled to visit Tel Aviv this morning to take part in what is being described as a “cultural event.”

2018: As “Firefighters battled to fight five blazes sparked by incendiary devices flown toward Israeli communities from Gaza” today, Economy and Industry Minister Eli Cohen said that those who launch the kites from Gaza should be targeted, as the safety of Israelis living in the vicinity of the coastal enclave must be the first priority.”

2018: The Si-Yo Music Society Foundation and the International Institute of China are scheduled to “present “Symphonic Reflections”, a rich cross-cultural concert performed by China-based Israeli pianist Shai Rosenboimz” at the Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium.

2018: At part of the “Home: Lens on Israel” series, the Temple Emanuel Streicker Center is scheduled to open the photographic exhibition “Children in the Southern Development Town of Kiryat Gat.”

2018: Paul Shapiro is scheduled to perform at Russ and Daughters Kosher Herring Pairing Party this evening at The Jewish Museum.

2019: “Working Woman” is scheduled to be shown at the “16thAnnual Israeli Film Festival” in Ottawa, Canada.

2019: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture in Yiddish by Eugene Orenstein on “A Birdseye View of the Development of Yiddish Literature and Culture.”

2019: JW3 is scheduled to host two screenings of “Inside The Mossad.”

2019: This evening in London, Israeli Asher Tlalim, “the Head of FilmLab” is scheduled to deliver the lecture in the series “A Brief History of Cinema.”


2019: It was reported today that yesterday Palestinians had “poured scorn on the Trump administration’s $50 billion investment plan to help achieve Middle East peace, but that U.S. Gulf Arab allies had said the economic initiative had promise if a political settlement is reached.” (As reported by YNET and Reuters)

2020(5th of Tammuz, 5780): Parashat Korach; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/

2020(5th of Tammuz, 5780): On Hebrew calendar, day “set aside as a memorial fast day for the estimated 50,000 Ukrainian Jews who had last their lives in Uman and other cities during the Haidmamack uprising under Gonta and Zhelenyak

2020: After dropping off the ingredients and instructions for Hummus, the Fairmont Young Professions are scheduled to host via Facebook a “short Havdalah service led by Rabbi Joshua Caruso.

2020: Via Zoom jHub is scheduled to host “a family friendly event” where attendees learn how to make no-rise bagels.

2020: The Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to “The Best of Chamber Music” featuring Dima Pocitari– violin; Kiril Michanovsky – cello; and Julia Gurvich – piano

2020: As Shabbat is observed, residents of Bat Yam, which was designated a restricted zone after 40 new coronavirus cases were found in the central coastal city in just three days are learning to live with “a new normal” because educational institutions have been closed, gatherings of more than 10 people have been banned and authorities have increased enforcement at weddings and other venue

This Day, June 28, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 28

1320: “Pope John XXII issues Bullarium Romanum, ordering that Jews who convert to Christianity must be allowed to keep their property. The implication is that Jews who don't convert won't necessarily have their property rights protected.” (As reported by Austin Cline)

1389:  Ottoman forces crush the armies of Christian Europe in Kosovo, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe. This event is known as the Battle of Kosovo.  The memory of this battle lingers to this day and has provided fuel for hostility between the different religious and ethnic groups in the Balkans.  This victory of the forces of Islam over the Christians made their position in Europe just that much more precarious.  And Christian insecurity was never a good thing for the Jewish population.

1443: “The marquis of Mantua, Italy issued favorable regulations, granting Jews freedom of religion, the right to settle internal disputes in rabbinic courts and permission to engage in all occupations.” (As described Abraham Bloch)

1476: In the Cariglia, the Kingdom of Naples, Giovanni Antonio Carafa and “Vittoria Camponeschi, the daughter of Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, 5th Conte di Montorio, a Neapolitan nobleman” gave birth to Gian Pietro Carafa who as Pope Paul VI issued Dudum postquam, the papal bull that expanded a 10-ducat tax on Jewish synagogues to help finance catechumen houses in Rome and Cum Nimis Absurdum, the papal bull that “ordered the creation of a Jewish ghetto in Rome.”

1491: Birthdate of King Henry VIII of England.  Isabella of Aragon, the daughter of the Spanish King and Queen was Henry’s first wife.  Before allowing the marriage to go forward, Henry had to promise that he would never allow Jews to settle in England.  For the most part, Henry was true to his word although a small community of crypto-Jews may have settled in London.  Henry’s other contact with Jews also surrounded his marriage to Isabella, only this time it revolved around his attempts to shed his wife.  Henry sought to use the texts of what he called the Old Testament to prove that the marriage was invalid and that it was cursed by God.  He attempted to get Rabbis in Italy to support his claims made to the Pope in Rome.  The Rabbis decided that discretion was the better part of valor.  Regardless of what the Bible said, they felt no need to risk their safety in Italy for the sake of capricious monarch living so far away.

1519: Charles V was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles was the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella.  Charles had already been on the Spanish throne for three years when he became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  As king of Spain, Charles was a worthy heir to his grandparents.  He continued the Inquisition and enforced their philosophy regarding Jews and Marranos.  But in the Germanic and central European lands that came under his role, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor showed a more benign, tolerant (for his time) attitude towards his Jewish subjects.  “He made no attempt to institute the inquisition or even tamper with privileges extended by past emperors.  At the Diet of 1544 held at Speyer, “Charles reaffirmed Jewish privileges” to such an extent that “the Speyer document was considered the most liberal and generous letter of protection ever granted to the Jews.”  Charles defended the Jews against the anti-Semitic attacks of Martin Luther.  “When Spanish troops entered Germany in 1546 during the Emperor’s campaign against rebellious Protestant princes…Charles issued an order to his army not to molest the Jews.”  [Editor’s note:  If you can find an explanation for this seemingly schizophrenic behavior, please let me know.]

1550: Birthdate of John Drusius, “the Dutch linguist who taught Hebrew at Oxford who taught Hebrew to Edward Lively, “the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambrige”

1635: On behalf of the Company of the American Islands, a French owned enterprise Charles Lienard and Jean Duplessis, Lord of Ossonville began the colonization of the Island of Guadeloupe.  This did not make the island part of the French Empire which made it possible for the Jews to settle there. Starting with their arrival in 1654, the Jews prospered in the fishing processing business and owned several sugar cane plantations.  This would all come to an end when the colony was annexed by the French Empire and the Jews were expelled under the “Black Code.

1626: Vincent II, whom Salamone Rossi served as Concert Master, began his reign as Duke of Mantua.

1712: Birthdate of Swiss philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  Unlike some other Enlightenment philosophers, Rousseau did not dabble in anti-Semitism.  He may not have been Philo-Semitic but in his limited references to the Jewish people he wrote with unusual understanding and compassion.  “We shall never know the inner motives of the Jews until the day they have their own free state, schools and universities where they can speak and argue without fear.  Then, and only then, shall we know what they really have to say.”

1725: King Charles III of Hungary announced that he “intended to decrease the number of Jews in his domains” so “the government directed the counties to furnish statistics on the number of” Jewish subjects. 

1757: The debate at Kamienice came to an end with the Sabbatians victorious.

1762: Catherine II (whom the Boyars called “the Great”) ascends the throne of Russia.  The German born Czarina followed her husband Peter III who died under mysterious circumstances in which she might have had a hand. The Jewish historian Salo Baron described her as possessing a rational attitude.  Under the partition of Poland, Catherine became the ruler of Lithuanian with its large Jewish population. At first, Catherine tried to “thread the needle” of not offending the Russian Orthodox by granting her Jewish subjects too much freedom while taking advantage of their professional and business skills.  In the end, she succumbed to pressure from Russian merchants who hid behind religion and limited the activities of her Jewish subjects to an area that would become known as “The Pale of Settlement.”

1779: In Philadelphia, PA, Jonas Phillips and Rebecca Machada gave birth to Zalegman Phillips the successful lawyer and husband of Arabella Solomon whom he married when she was nineteen years old.

1805: In Jamaica, Abraham Quixano Henriques and Leah Rachel De Leon gave birth to Abigail Henriques who became Abigail Belinfante when she married Francis Belinfante.

1809: A.M. Rothschild writes from Frankfurt to his son Nathan in London telling him that writing in Hebrew was fine for discussing family matters but not for conveying business information.

1809: Joseph Friederberg married Frances Phillips at the Great Synagogue.

1811: John Pesman and Esther Capua gave birth to Lewis Pesman Capua, the husband of Jane Jacobs with whom he had four children.

1812: In Philadelphia, PA, Ezekiel Jacob Ezekiel and Rebecca Israel gave birth to Jacob Ezekiel the bookbinder turned Jewish leader and political figure who in 1847 introduced “an amendment to the code of the state of Virginia by which the observers of the Jewish Sabbath were placed on the same plane with those who rest on the ‘first day.’”

1815: Lazarus Samuel married Saratse Nathan at the Great Synagogue.

1815: Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues “a French banker, mathematician and social reformer” who had been born at Bordeaux in 1795 “was awarded a doctorate in mathematics today by the University of Paris” which was earned by his dissertation which contained what came to be called the “Rodrigues’ Formula”


1820: As of today it is claimed that “32 unauthorized Jews are living in Pilsen.”

1820: Michael Mordecai married Isabel Benjamin at the Great Synagogue.

1821: Birthdate of Max Maretzek, the native of Austria who became an opera impresario in London and New York.


1825: Twenty-seven year old German poet Heinrich Heine became a Protestant today.

1828: Hyam Harris was the first person interred by "Shaare Chessed," a burial society in New Orleans.

1831: Birthdate of Hungarian/German violinist and composer, Joseph Joachim.

1831: Birthdate of German historian Otto Stobbe who “was appointed to the Historical Committee of the German-Israelite Community Association” and who was a “colleague of Heinrich Graetz.  In writing about his work in the field of Jewish history Stobbe said “Works on the history of the Jews are so little known in non-Jewish circles that even scholars, as I have often had occasion to see, are only imperfectly informed about the history of this people in Germany.” (As described by Michael Brenner)

1835: Henry Joel married Amelia Alvers at the Great Synagogue.

1836: Former President James Madison passed away.  Madison worked with his mentor Thomas Jefferson to ensure freedom of religion in the state of Virginia in the years between the Revolution and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.  Madison played in a key role in the ratification of the first ten amendments of the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.  The first of those amendments guaranteed the separation of church and state.  Madison was the first President to appoint a Jew to a U.S. diplomatic post.

1838: The coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom took place today. Victoria was on the throne until 1901.  Her long tenure gave an era its name.  But under the British system of government she reigned but did not rule which means she had only a limited impact on growing role of Jews in her realm.  Early in reign, she sided with Moses Montefiore as he sought to protect the Jews of Syria during the Damascus Blood Libel lending him her royal yacht for his trip to France.  On the other hand, in 1869 she exercised her royal prerogative when it came to creating new peerages by blocking the appointment of Lionel Rothschild to the House of Lords.  According to Frederick Morton, one of her biographers, “it was not until Suez became British though Jewish money” and she came under the spell of Benjamin Disraeli that she relented and allowed Lionel’s son to enter the Lords.  As she aged, Victoria would visit “the French estate of Baron Rothschild.”  Despite her lack of political clout, she did attempt to intervene on behalf of the Russian Jews as Tsar Alexander III worked to make their lives increasingly unbearable.  On the other hand, she was not pleased with the growing number of Jews who made up the social circle of her son, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.

1846: Birthdate of Golčův Jeníkov (Bohemia) native Dr. Ignatz Kornfeld.

1848: Joseph Abrahams married Elizabeth Samuel at the Great Synagogue.

1848: Two days after the “June Days Uprising” had come to an in France, French banker Michel Goudchaux began serving as Minister of Finance in the newly formed government

1849: Levy Jacobs and Caroline Davis gave birth to Alfred Jacobs, the husband of Emily Flatau.

1851: David Salomons stood as a Liberal candidate at a by-election in the Greenwich constituency, and was elected today as one of the constituency's two Members of Parliament (MPs). He was not permitted to serve in the House of Commons, because he had not taken the oath of abjuration in the form established by Parliament. However, he did not withdraw quietly: instead he took the oath, but omitted the Christian phrases, and took his seat on the government benches. He was asked to withdraw, and did so on the second request, but he returned three days later, on 21 July 1851. In the debate that followed, Salomons defended his presence on grounds of having been elected by a large majority, but was eventually removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and fined £500 for having voted illegally in three divisions of the House

1852: Ferdinand Hiller’s Im Freien in G major was performed in London.

1853: In New Orleans, Emil Pollak and Caroline Pollak gave back to their second child and first daughter Carrie.

1855: Baron Maurice von Hirsch, the German-Jewish philanthropist who founded the Jewish Colonization Association, married Clara Bischoffsheim (born 1833), daughter of Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim of Brussels

1858: In Hampstead, London, Joseph and Adel Schloss gave birth to their “eldest son, James Joseph Schloss.”

1863: On the day after Shabbat Chukat, where Jews delve into the world of the unexplainable, President Lincoln, for reasons of his own, appointed General George Meade to command the Army of the Potomac which was the first step in a date with destiny that would be kept days later in a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg.

1865: Henry Marks married Rosetta Jones at the Hambro Synagogue.

1866:Benjamin Disraeli began serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader in the House of Commons in the cabinet of the Earl of Derby, the Prime Minister.

1868: In Vienna, Carl Karoly Birnbaum and Sofie Zsofia Birnbaum gave birth to Salomon Birnbaum, the husband of Valerie Birnbaum, both of whom would die at Theresienstadt in 1943.

1870: In Middlesex, Henriette and Henry Lewis Raphael gave birth to Helen M. Raphael who died at the age of 16.

1874: In Dixon, Illinois, German immigrants Emanuel Petersberger and Berta Ochs gave birth to U of Iowa trained attorney Isaac Petersberger, who made his career in Davenport, IA where he raised his children Richard and Louise with his wife the former Hattie Goldstein

1874: It was reported today that in the second-hand clothing trade silk and velvet waistcoats that appear to be worn out can be re-worked and made into skull-caps for German and Polish Jews.


1877(17th of Tammuz, 5637):Tzom Tammuz

1877: In New York City, Samuel Anspacher and his wife gave birth to University of Cincinnati and HUC graduate Abraham Samuel Anspacher, the Rabbi of Congregation Ansche Chesed in Scranton, PA.

1878: B.L. Solomon & Sons one of the largest and oldest of importers and dealers in upholstery and furniture in the country failed today.  The business was established was established 45 years ago by B.L Solomon under the name of Solomon and Hart. 

1879: Birthdate of Little Rock, AR native Leon Volmer who “served as rabbi of a Reform congregation  in Charleston, W. VA before becoming Superintendent of Jewish Orphans’ Home in New Orleans where “he advocated for progressive methods of institutional child care” because he believed that “if the Orphanage had any good reason for existing it must be to take the unfortunate child and provide a home for him, the atmosphere, the activities and the moral and spiritual life of which will the child a Social Force in the Social Construction of Society.”

1880: While “making its regular trip up the East River from Manhattan, the SS Seawanhaka caught fire forcing those on board, many of whom who could not swim, to choose between burning to death and jumping into the swamp water where the ship had come to rest. Among the many Jews on board who perished were Mordecai Manuel Noah Smith and for Assemblyman Joseph I. Stein.

1881(1stof Tammuz, 5641): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1881(1stof Tammuz, 5641): Eighty-two year old Philipp Schey Freiherr von Koromla, “the Hungarian merchant and philanthropist” who was made an Austrian noble by Emperor Francis Joseph I, making him the first Jew to be so elevated and who was the grandfather of Austrian biologist Hans Leo Przibram, passed away today.

1882: It was reported today that Henry Holt & Co is issuing a book about the effects of the American Revolution – America and France: The Influence of the United States on France in the Eighteenth Century by Lewis Rosenthal.

1882: The dedicatory services for the new Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews took place at the new building located a one half mile south of Yonkers on Riverdale Avenue in New York.


1882: In Yonkers, NY, the Home For Aged and Infirm operated by the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith began accepting residents on its opening day.

1882: During his address at the University of Mississippi commencement ceremony in Oxford, famous author George W. Cable called for the graduates to embrace the future, “Let us search provincialism out of the land as the Hebrew housewife purged her house of leaven on the eve of the Passover.”  (Editor’s note – It may seem strange to find out that a rural southern audience would understand a reference to the arcane customs of the Jewish people.)

1882: About 7:30 this evening a group of striking freight handlers attacked Russian Jews who had replaced them in Battery Park just outside of Castle Garden.  A half hour later the strikers turned their attention to a group of returning Italian workers who proved to be more of a problem since they were armed with armed bars, sticks and dirks.  After police intervened the Jews said they would not go back to work on the piers as replacement workers for the strikers.

1882: It was reported that Dr. Samuel Davidson is preparing a new book on Christian eschatology in which he will compare the doctrines of Christianity and Judaism. [This is evidence of the difference between the European and American view of Judaism.  In the latter case it was something to be studied not condemned.]

1883:  Birthdate of right wing French political leader Pierre Laval who eventually became Prime Minister of the Vichy Government where he aggressively followed pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic policies that would lead to his execution in 1945.

1883: A Russian Jew named Julius Simon, his wife and six children arrived in New York today aboard the steam-ship Egyptian Monarch.  Simon who said he was sent to the United States by the Jewish Ladies Board of London claims to be entirely destitute.

1884(5thof Tammuz, 5644): Parashat Tammuz

1884(5thof Tammuz, 5644): Thirty-two year old Isaac Jacob Gans, the Amsterdam born “son of Jacob and Rebecca Mozes Gans” and the husband of Vogeltje Dooseman passed away today.

1885: Birthdate of Norwegian attorney Fritz Cohn who was arrested at Asker in 1942 and died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 57.

1885: “Orthodoxy and Reform” published today described the clash between these two wings of Judaism as personified by Rabbit Kohut on one sides and Rabbis Kohler and Gottheil on the other. Kohler contends that although he disagrees with Kohut on matters related to religion, he considers him a personal friend.

1885: It was reported today that the elevation of Lord Rothschild to a peerage is unique because of his ethnicity it follows the same pattern of other “plutocrats” who have been so honored.

1885: The Jewish neighborhood along Harrison Street suffered some of the worst damage when a rain storm struck Baltimore this morning followed by flooding which was the worst to hit the city since 1868.

1886: It was reported today that the new monthly magazine which will be the official publication of the B’nai B’rith, is to be named The Menorah.  The Jewish fraternal organization is thought to represent over 10 per cent of the country’s Jewish population.

1886(25thof Sivan, 5646): Sixty-four year old Chaim Sofer who had been serving as rabbi “of the Orthodox congregation in the newly merged city of Budapest since 1879, passed away today.

1887: Israel Lipski was arrested today after he was found hiding under the bed of Miriam Angel who “had been murdered after being forced to consume nitric acid.”

1890: In Galveston, TX, Samson Heidenheirmer, President of the Standard Oil Mill and Joseph Marx, a local lawyer were arrested today and charged with arson in connection with a fire that destroyed the company last April.

1891: Twenty-two year old Annie Lippkin, the fiancée of a young tailor named Harry Cohen, went missing from her home on Suffolk Street today.

1891: “Twenty-six brigands” are demanding a ransom of £5,000 for the return of wealth Jew whom they kidnapped near Salonica.

1892: The Marquis de Mores who is scheduled to stand trial for killing Captain Armand Mayer has been provisionally released from custody.

1892: Birthdate of New York native Mechel Salpeter who gained fame as Max Gordon, the successful movie and theatrical producer.


1893: In Kiev, Jehiel and Elka Rubin Feldman gave birth to Abraham Jehiel Feldman who in 1906 came to the United States where he graduated from the University of Cincinnati and was ordained at HUC before going on to lead congregations in Athens, GA, Philadelphia, PA and West Hartford, CT while raising three children – Daniel, Joan and Ella – with his wife the former Helen Bloch.

1893: “Tenements Unfit To Live In” published today described the efforts of the Board of Health to closed down building deemed “unfit for human habitation by reason of their unsanitary condition” including the building at 141 Madison. The ground floor is home to a laundry owned by Max Rosenson and the upper floors are home to five Jewish families who have no place else to go.

1893: It was reported that Herman Ahlwardt the anti-Semitic member of the Reichstag is serving out the sentence imposed on him for libeling Herr von Loewe, the Jewish arms maker and several Prussian officials.  (Editor’s note – Libeling Jews was one thing; libeling Prussian military officials was another matter.)

1894: “A.P.A. Man Finally Talks” published today provides the plans the American Protective Society has after it has disposed of the Catholics.  According to Charles D.P. Gibson, “Then we’ll look after some other classes that are dangerous to the Republic…the Jews for instance who are constantly dodging their public financial obligations and who are in consequence, laying up great private treasures.  By means of their money they are eating into the very heart of the people.  They are gradually getting control of everything and if left alone they will in twenty-five years, own all our institutions.  We’ll stop them where they are.”

1894(24th of Sivan, 5654): Sixty-eight year old German chemist Moritz Traube passed away in Berlin.



1895: Mrs. Simon Goldberg, Jacob Rothschild and Simon Ottenberg were named as trustees in the will of Simon Goldberg which was signed today

1896(17thof Tammuz, 5656): Fast of Tammuz

1896(17thof Tammuz, 5656): Eighty-year old Adam Gimbel, the founder of Gimbel’s Department Stores passed away today in Philadelphia.


1897: Oren B. Meyer, a native of Texas and a West Point graduate who would cited for gallantry during the Spanish American War was promoted to the rank of 1stLieutenant while serving with the 3rd Cavalry of the United States Army.

1897: The day after he passed away, Harry Hyman Magnus, the son of Joseph and ‘Sarah Magnus was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery on Buckingham Road.

1897: It was reported today that the free entertainment enjoyed by over a thousand public school children at Educational Alliance’s auditorium grew out of an proposal originally championed by Julia Richman, a key figure in promoting quality public and Jewish education.

1897: Mrs. Elsie Schwager (nee Barstheit) and her new-born son converted to Judaism today.  Following the conversion ceremony, Elsie and her 24 year old husband Phillip were married in a Jewish ceremony.  The couple had been married in a civil ceremony more than a year ago.

1898: Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac began serving as Minister of War who lied about the authenticity of evidence that would have cleared Alfred Dreyfus.

1899: It was reported today that Menahem M. Eichler, Michael Fried and Leon H. Elmaleh have graduated from JTS.  The first two have been ordained as Rabbis and the third has earned a teaching degree.

1899: Birthdate of Samuel Ginsberg, the native of “Podwołoczyska, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Pidvolochysk, Ukraine)” who took the name Walter Krivitsky when he joined the Bolsheviks whom he would serve as a member of the Cheka and the NKVD while working as a clandestine agent.


1900(1stof Tammuz, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1900: Birthdate of Arthur Levitt, New York lawyer and politician who served as New York State Comptroller and was the father of  Arthur Levitt, Jr., the SEC Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.


1902: In Vesae, Lithuania, “American citizens Max and Dora (Flaxman) Davis” gave birth to University of Chicago Law School trained attorney Benjamin Bernard Davis and husband of Janice Muller with whom he had one son – Muller Davis – who was a partner in several law firms including Davis, Jones and Baer.

1902: “In Arverne, Queens, NYC, Mamie (Levy) and Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Abrahams” gave birth to Richard Charles Rodgers who would team with Lorenz Hart and then Oscar Hammerstein in writing numerous Broadway musicals including Oklahoma and Carousel. In reading Mr. Rodgers' obituary in the New York Times one would have no idea that he was Jewish.  In fact the only hint comes in a comment that during the early 1920's when he could not get anything on Broadway he "put on amateur productions for schools and synagogues."



1902: It was reported today that under the leadership of Dr. Solomon Schechter, “new president of the Jewish Seminary” plans for the construction of a building situated “in the educational center of which Columbia is the nucleus” are going forward thanks to a two thousand dollar endowment fund and contributions from Jacob H. Schiff, Leonard Lewisohn Z”L and the Guggenheim brothers.

1903: “The Petition To the Czar” published today reviews “the wisdom of President Theodore Roosevelt’s decision to transmit to the Czar of Russia the petition for the better protection of the live and property of the Jews in that empire.”

1904: “Tried to Burn Synagogue” published today described an investigation by the Camden police into a recent attempt to burn the Jewish house of worship at Eighth and Sycamore Streets which Rabbi Shane began when “someone deliberately threw a lighted roll of paper through the window among a pile shavings while he was conducting services.”

1905: As the violent uprising continued in Russia, it spread to Odessa and Warsaw where Cossacks allegedly used the excuse of “a young Jew throwing a stone at a passing patrol” to attack the crowd firing volleys  that killed or wounded twenty people including five women and a child.

1906: Birthdate of Israeli archaeologistBinyamin Mazar. Besides having a distinguished career that included the excavation at Beth Shearim, Mazar produced a family of archaeologists including son Ory, grandchildren Eilat and Dan and nephew Amihai Mazar.

1906: Birthdate of Maria Goeppert Mayer, German born US atomic physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1963.  Mayer was not Jewish.  She did come to the United States during the 1930’s where she remained for the rest of her life. Aside from her scientific work, she supported Jewish female colleagues who had immigrated to the USA.  This latter selfless act certainly should rate her at least honorable mention as a righteous gentile.

1907(17thof Av, 5667): Sixty-two year old Rotterdam native William Van Praagh, whose successful work at “the Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home led to the establishment by the late Baroness Mayer de Rothschild of an unsectarian institution on that system” known as "The Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb” which Lord Granville served as the first present passed away today.

1907: The “owner of six dwelling-houses in the parliamentary and metropolitan borough of Islington” was ordered to appear today before Joseph H. Polka, Esquire, on the justices of the peace for the county of London


1907: Birthdate of Syracuse native “Jehudah M. Cohen” who was ordained at the Jewish History of Religion and served as a regional director for Hillel


1908: It was reported today that Ernest Waddoch is planning on hosting a “fete” for Jewish orphans at his estate on July 11.


1909: The cornerstone of the first Hebrew gymnasium Herzliah, was laid in Tel Aviv today.


1909: In Whitechapel, London, Judah Bergman and his mother Mildred gave birth to boxer Judah Bergman known as Jack “Kid” Berg or Jackie “Kid” Berg “who became the World Light Welterweight Champion in 1930

1910(6thof Tammuz): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Israel Jacob Algazi of Jerusalem.

1911(2ndof Tammuz, 5671): Sixty-eight year old Abraham Abraham the founder of the Abraham & Straus department stores who learned the retail trade while working alongside other future department store developers Simon Bloomingdale and Benjamin Alton at Hart & Detttlebach passed away this afternoon when “he was stricken with acute indigestion” while fishing “in the vicinity of Kingston” near his summer home on Cherry Island.



1912: After four months of conflict, the entire Council of Jewish Community at Constantinople resigns.

1912: “Jewish booksellers from the Pale” of Settlement were “refused permission to attend the Booksellers’ Conference at St. Petersburg.”

1913(23rdof Sivan, 5673): Parashat Korach

1913: Belle Ringer and Rose Skaller have made arrangements for the luncheon meeting of The Young Women’s Auxiliary of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society of Chicago scheduled to be held at the Lincoln Park Refrectory.

1913: In Chicago, at Beth El Temple, Rabbi Julius Rappaport officiated at Saturday morning services.

1913: It was reported today “90 percent of the 85 graduates at CCNY were Jews” and that those receiving “the highest honors at the graduation exercises” were also Jews.

1914: Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo by Serbian nationalists.  According to at least one source, he was going to view the Sarajevo Haggadah when he was killed. This assassination set in motion the events that started World War One. A reading of Guns of August by Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman World War makes it obvious that war was not inevitable.  It actually took more than a month for the war to actually break out.

(Editor’s note – a few random comments about the impact of the war on the Jewish people, not meant in any way to be all inclusive)

Three Austro-Hungarian Field Marshals and eight generals were Jewish. “One of them, Field Marshal Johann Georg Franz Hugo Friedlander, was deported by the Germans in 1943 from Vienna to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and from there in 1944, to Auschwitz, where he died.” While there are no exact figures the best estimates indicate that a million and half Jews served as soldiers in the armies on both sides of the conflict.  The horrors of war fell hardest on the Jews of Eastern Europe. American Jews made Herculean efforts to provide aid for their suffering brethren. American Jews also sought to aid their co-religionists trapped in Palestine under the rule of the Ottomans as can be seen by their having the USS North Carolina, an American Battleship, go to Jaffa in 1914 with money and supplies collected by the American Jewish Committee and the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs.  When America entered the war, the Jewish response was so strong that the 77th Division was referred to by some as “the Jewish division.” While Jews saw plenty of combat with the AEF with at least six of them winning the Medal of Honor, the most famous soldier may have been Irving Berlin whose musical contribution was patriotic and a real boost to moral. Bernard Baruch may be considered the most powerful Jew during the war.  Not only was one of Wilson’s closest advisors on matters of war and he peace, as chairman of the War Industries Board he successfully managed the country economic mobilization which was critical to defeating the Central Powers.  Strangely enough, his role, on the economic front mirrored that of Walter Rathenau, the German Jewish industrialist who understood the importance of industrial production to winning a modern war as could be seen by his role with the Raw Materials Department. The disproportionate service of German Jewish soldiers at “The Front” did nothing to quell the anti-Semitism that was apparently endemic to their Fatherland.  The Zion Mule Corps, an all Jewish supply unit in the British Army performed in a most distinguished manner at Gallipoli and provided the impetus for the creation of the Jewish Legion an all Jewish combat regiment in the British Army that fought with General Allenby as he liberated Palestine from the Turks thus making it possible for the Balfour Declaration to have a reality on the ground.  And this is only the tip of the iceberg.  Keep reading over the next four years for more specific daily items.


1914: Following the death of his first wife Amelia, today Saul Dushman, the Rostov born son of Samuel and Olga Dushman, holder of Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and one of the “most valuable researchers” at the General Electric Labs in Schenectady, NY., married his second wife Anna Leff.

1914: Birthdate of Aribert Heima former Austrian doctor, also known as "Dr. Death". As an SS doctor in a Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen, he is accused of killing and torturing many inmates through various methods, such as direct injections of toxic compounds into the hearts of his victims. Along with Alois Brunner, Heim — who would now be (as of 2008) in his early nineties — is one of the last major Nazi fugitives still at large. However, according to a 2007 publication by former Israeli Air Force Colonel Danny Baz Heim was kidnapped from Canada and taken to Santa Catalina off the Californian coast, where he was killed by a Nazi hunting team code named “The Owl” in 1982. Baz himself claims to have been part of this group. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, as well as the French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld say this is not true.

1914:  Miss Henrietta Szold, Nathan Straus, Dr. J. L. Magnes, and Dr. Stephen Wise of New York arrived in Rochester, New York early this morning to attend a meeting of Zionists. The convention of Zionists will be formally opened by Louis Lipsky of New York, Chairman, who will introduce Dr. Schmarya Levin of Berlin. Levin will address the delegates in behalf of the International Executive Committee, whose headquarters are in Berlin. Dr Levin will speak in Hebrew and German. Max Lowenthal will welcome the delegates in behalf of the Jews of Rochester.

1914: Birthdate of Valerian Trifa, the Romanian Orthodox cleric who helped to foment the pogrom against the Jews of Bucharest who was finally brought to justice thanks to the efforts of Zev Golan. “Zev Golan is the English translator of the wartime memoirs of Stern Group commander Israel Eldad, The First Tithe; the author of the history Free Jerusalem; and the author of the Hebrew history Shofrot Shel Mered (The Shofars of the Revolt). Golan’s God, Man and Nietzsche: A Surprising Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers examines why Nietzsche both lauded and condemned Jews, and how Jewish and modern thinkers can, together, provide answers to the great problems of philosophy. Golan has also written extensively on economics and has edited several dozen studies of the Israeli economy, as well as the book Meshek BeMashber (An Economy in Crisis). His commentary has appeared in the Israeli dailies Haaretz and Globes. Golan lives in Jerusalem where he directs the Center for Public Policy at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies.

1915: During WW I, Joseph Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire began visiting “advanced stations at the Western Front.”

1915: During a meeting of the Zionist Federation in Boston, a dinner was held in Mechanics’ Hall where 1,400 attendees listened to speeches by Louis D. Brandeis, Nathan Straus and Rabbi Stephen Wise, among others.  Brandeis was hailed as the leader of the movement to create a Jewish home in Palestine.  Rabbi Wise’s call for additional funds brought the following response. During the evening it was announced that Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago would donate $1,000 per month to the Zionist cause for the duration of the World War and would continue making their donations for a full year after a peace treaty was signed an anonymous donor from New York gave $6,000 while Samuel Untermyer and Eugene Meyer each gave $3,000.

1915: “In the midst of demonstrations and strike demands on the question of "hiring and firing," Benjamin Schlesinger, the president of ILGWU asked the Protective Association to submit the dispute to a committee of unbiased persons. As a result a Council of Conciliation was appointed by Mayor John P. Mitchel and the strike was avoided

1915: The newly dedicated Hebrew Sheltering Society of Harlem home is scheduled to receive its first applicant at eight o’clock this morning.

1915: As of today, the officers of the Hebrew Sheltering Society of Harlem are President Socolow, Vice Presidents Lubelsky and Softin, Treasurer Drosin and Secretary Segel.

1915: As of today, Governor Slaton of Georgia has received about “5,000 telegrams and letters” only which “100 have condemned” his grant of clemency to Leo Frank.

1915: Ex-Governor John M. Slaton who has been under the protection of the Georgia National Guard since commuting Leo Frank’s death sentence and his wife left by train for New York this afternoon without any further incidents.

1915: The Federation of Rumanian Jews “announced the founding of a Home for Convalescents at Grand View on the Hudson and a plan for the establishment on the east side of a bureau to assist Rumanian Jews in obtaining citizenship.

1915: Courses which are part of a training program for Jewish communal workers that include lectures by Felix M. Warburg and Lillian D. Wald are scheduled to begin today at the Heinsheimer Memorial Building of the Y.M.H.A. at 92ndand Lexington

1915: Frank H. Hardison, the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner addressed the Seventh Annual Convention of the Order of Sons of Zion

1915: The Boston Hadassah held a lunch this afternoon after which they conducted a business meeting.

1915: In Boston, at the Mechanics Hall Louis D. Brandies, Nathan Straus and Dr. Stephen Wise were among the speakers at the dinner attended by 1,400 people who were part of the meeting of the Zionists Federation.

1916(27th of Sivan, 5676: During WW I, Lt. Neville Newman of the Highland Light Infantry was killed today.

1917: In Manhattan, Aaron and Anna Schiff gave birth to Solomon “Sol” Joseph Schiff “whose rocketing, flat forehand propelled him to national and world table tennis championships in the 1930s when he was still in his teens, and who later earned the unofficial title “Mr. Table Tennis” as an ardent advocate for his sport…” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1917: Rabbi William Rosenau delivered the Message of the President to the Twenty-Eighth Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis at Buffalo, NY.


1917: The funeral of two and half year old Myron Paul Herskovitz, the son of Abraham and Dora Herskovitz is scheduled to take place today in Chicago.

1917: In Baltimore, MD, the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists which began on June 24 is scheduled to come to an today following a general business session.

1917: In a change intended to break the stalemate in the Middle East, Lord Allenby “assumed command of the Egyptian Expeditionary force” in the first step of a journey that would lead to Jerusalem and the beginning of British rule of parts of the Ottoman Empire.

1917: Fareynikt Moishe Zilberfarb began serving as Deputy-Secretary of Jewish Affairs in the General Secretariat of Ukraine, the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

1918: The Twenty-ninth Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened in Chicago, Illinois today.

1918: Birthdate of New York native Martin Greenberg the publisher and “editor of science fiction anthologies.”


1919(30thof Sivan, 5679): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1919: The Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, officially ending World War I. The United States Senate would fail to ratify the treaty, which meant the U.S. would not join the League of Nations.  Many Germans resented the terms of the treaty.  This resentment helped to undermine the Weimar Republic and helped the Nazis in their rise to power.  In other words, from the Jewish point of view, the treaty contained the seeds of destruction.

1919: In Chicago, Dr. Gerson B. Levi is scheduled to lead services at Temple B’nai Sholom

1919: In Chicago, at Temple Judea, Seymour Magidson is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah and Dr. Rudolph I. Coffee is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Jewish Types.”

1920: In a move that was aimed at limiting Jewish participation the General Purposes Committee of the London Council Country (LCC) voted by eleven to ten “to recommend to the full Council that, except in the case of teachers of foreign languages or where the Council resolved otherwise, no person other than natural-born British subjects be taken into the employ of the LCC.”

1920: The convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis all of whose attendees have received “a manuscript copy of the new Union Prayer Book” is scheduled to open today in Rochester.

1921; Birthdate of Dorothea Herz who as Dorothea Rabkin  joined forces with her husband Leon to build a collection of American folk art noted for the whirligigs and other sculptures made by anonymous carvers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Starting not long after their marriage in 1958, the Rabkins spent decades scouring flea markets and secondhand shops. They acquired some traditional pieces like quilts and baskets, but they also bought objects few people wanted then — the works by unschooled artisans that are known today as outsider art. Their collection grew to more than 1,200 items, including paintings by self-taught black artists like Sam Doyle and Mose Tolliver. But the Rabkins were best known for figural folk sculpture, amassing one of the finest collections in private hands. Most often carved in wood, sometimes made of metal, the sculptures are typically human in form, depicting men and women at work and at play. Besides whirligigs, articulated pieces designed to move or spin in a breeze, they include tradesmen’s mannequins, ventriloquists’ dummies and dolls. Artwork from the Rabkins’ collection has been reproduced widely in books and exhibited around the country. More than 200 of the couple’s pieces are now in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. One of the most instantly recognizable is the whirligig “Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle,” among the most emblematic works of American folk art of any kind. Nearly five feet long and carved of wood, it was made between 1880 and 1920. When a propeller at the front is turned, Uncle Sam, in top hat and tails, pedals his little bike. Behind him, a richly carved American flag (the reverse side is Canadian) seems to ripple in the breeze. Among other notable objects the Rabkins gave the museum is an elaborate sheet-metal farm scene from the early 20th century that, set in motion, is almost Rube Goldbergian in its symphony of contingencies: a man pumps water, and a horse drinks it; a fisherman pulls on his rod as a chicken steals a worm from his bait can. As associates said in interviews this week, Ms. Rabkin had a keen eye for unheralded talent. (She was an early advocate, for instance, of the Pennsylvania folk painter Justin McCarthy.) From the mid-1980s till her retirement in 2007, she served on the collections committee of the folk art museum, advising it on acquisitions. Rabkin was born in Berlin.  Her father was Jewish.  Her mother was not. After Hitler came to power in 1933, the mother left the family and repudiated her children. In the years that followed, Dorothea and her twin sister, Rose, were shuttled among sympathetic Christian neighbors, sometimes together, sometimes apart, often hidden in closets. They dared not go to school, and their formal education ended. After the war began, the twins, now young adults, found themselves adrift in Berlin. Living separately and furtively, they and an older sister, Elizabeth, passed as Gentiles. (Dorothea dyed her hair platinum blond, her husband said.) During this period, their father, pursued by the Gestapo, killed himself. Their mother survived the war. Rose made her way to New York in 1948. Dorothea arrived the next year, carrying, as she later said, “an empty suitcase.” She found work as a cook in a Schrafft’s restaurant and was later an assistant to a rare-book dealer. In January 1958, Dorothea met Leo Rabkin on a blind date; they married that May. A native of Cincinnati, Mr. Rabkin is an abstract artist whose work is in the collections of major museums; for many years he was also a teacher of troubled adolescents at the Livingston School for Girls on King Street in Manhattan. She passed away at the age of 87, a victim of Parkinson disease cared for by her husband Leo, her sole immediate survivor.

1922: Beginning of the Irish Civil War during which Robert Briscoe, the future Lord Mayor of Dublin, sided with the anti-treaty members of the IRA.

1923: Today Father Joachim Alexopoulos, who in 1943, when Greece was under Nazi occupation, devised a plan for hiding 700 Jewish residents of Volos which saved them from deportation and almost certain death,”  “was appointed the first Greek Orthodox Bishop of Boston with the new Annunciation church, which was designated a cathedral, as his seat.”

1924: As the United States experienced an upswing in bigotry including anti-Semitism, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on Peavine Mountain in Nevada, following a similar event that had taken place at Reno in April of this year.

1924: In New York City, May (née Cohen) and Samuel Rudin gave birth to Jacob “Jack” Rudin the Bronze Star winning WW II veteran and real estate developer.


1924: “Doctor Stephen S. Wise, the Rabbi of the Free Synagogue delivered the invocation at the opening of the sixth session of the 1924 Democratic National Convention

1925: In Whitechapel, London Moshe Cailingold and his wife the former Anne Fenechel gave birth to Esther Cailingold the school teacher turned fighter who died in the battle for Jerusalem in 1948.


1926: In Brooklyn, James and Kate (née Brookman) Kaminsky gave birth to Melvin James Kaminsky who gained fame as of comedian/actor/director Mel Brooks.


1928: In Manhattan, a year after Benjamin Bass “had opened the Pelican Book Shop,” he and his wife Shirley (née Vogel) gave birth to Fred Bass, the businessman who made the Strand Bookstore a New York institution.

1929: Release date of the first film adaptation of “Showboat” based on the novel by Edna Ferber with music by Jerome Kern.

1929: Just four years before he would flee from Germany, Albert Einstein was one of the first of the two recipient of Max Planck Medals awarded today by the “German Physical Society.”

1929: In a move that would help perpetuate the myth of Germany as an innocent victim and help pave the way for the rise of the Nazis, today “on the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany observed a day of mourning” which including the publishing of “a proclamation signed by President Paul von Hindenburg and the entire cabinet” disclaiming Germany’s responsibility for starting World War I

1930: In London, Charles and Minnie (née Elbery) Gold gave birth to British director Jack Gold.






1932:Sibylle Aimée Marie-Antoinette Gabrielle de Riquetti de Mirabeau a French writer who used the pseudonym GYP passed away. She was “a fanatical anti-Semite & anti-Dreyfusard; in fact, while testifying at a court case in 1899 she gave her profession as "anti-Semite" rather than "writer".



1933: “In a speech to German newspaper publishers, Hitler describes the government’s new journalistic regulations.”  (Jewish Virtual Library)



1934: “Of Human Bondage” produced by Pandro S. Berman, starring Leslie Howard with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.

1934: Today, Washington University trained lawyer Sam Elson, the holder of JSD from Yale who taught at his alma mater, was a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews married Gertrude Clemens Palmer today.

1934: Birthdate of Carl Milton Levin a Democratic United States Senator from Michigan and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He has been in the Senate since 1979 and Michigan's senior senator since 1995. He is the longest-serving US Senator ever to represent Michigan.

1935: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Arnold Asher, the graduate of Yeshiva College who received his MHL from Jewish Theological Seminary where he received his ordination and went to serve two congregations in St. Louis.


1935: U.S. premiere of “Love Me Forever” with a script by Jo Swerling and Sidney Buchman.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that after a train was derailed near Lydda, and one British soldier and an Arab railway man were killed, the town was ordered by the authorities to pay a 5,000 pound collective fine. The mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini again alleged in his statement, mailed to the high commissioner, that Jews planned to restore their ancient holy places on the site of al-Aksa mosque. He had also complained that British Army soldiers disregarded the sanctity of Muslim holy places and searched for arms hidden inside mosques. Two British soldiers were wounded while protecting linesmen repairing sabotaged telephone lines.

1936: At Saratoga Springs, NY, “more than 1,000 delegates at the opening of the annual convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham voted this afternoon to conduct the golden jubilee of the order in connection with the fiftieth convention in New York City next year.”

1936: Sixty-five year old anarchist Alexander Berkman who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during a strike against U.S. Steel passed away today.


1936: Today, Longmans, Green & Co. is scheduled to published The Jews of Germany by Marvin Lowenthal which “is not merely an account of the events of the past years but the full story of the Jews in Germany from 321 A.D. down to the present time” by the author of A World Passed by that described “the surviving monuments and life of the Jews in Europe and Northern Africa.”

1936: “The Gollantz Saga” published today provided a review of Naomi Jacob’s latest work, The Founder of the House.

1936: It was reported today that “Polish Jews are depressed” over the action of the court at Radom in sentencing ten Jews to anywhere from eight month to eight years in prison in connection” with their role in defending themselves during the “anti-Jewish riots at Przytyk last March” and have closed theatres while they engage in fasting and prayer.

1936: At Asbury Park, NJ, the delegates to the 28thannual convention of the Federation of Polish Jews in America adopted “a group of resolutions deploring the wave of anti-Semitism in Europe” and charging the Polish Government “with having ignominiously surrendered to the forces of anarchy and mob violence.”

1937: During the Spanish Civil War, the Palafox Battalion, which included a company of Jewish volunteers named for Naftali Botwin, was formed today.

1937: Mordecai M. Danzis is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Present Condition of Jews in Germany and Palestine” at a meeting of the New Zionist Organization of America followed by a Johan J. Smertenko speaking on “Divide Palestine.”

1938: The British authorities refused to commute the sentence Solomon ben Yosef, a Jewish youth, who is to be hanged tomorrow for having fired at an Arab-owned bus although he caused no casualties.

1938: CBS broadcast the last episode of “the Ford Motor sponsored series ‘Watch the Fun Go By’ featuring Al Pearce.

1938: In New York City, “composer Arthur Schwartz and 1930s’ Broadway ingénue Kay Carrington” gave birth to New York radio personality Jonathan Schwartz who also has recorded parts of the Great American Songbook.

1938: It was reported today that “a renewed wave of suicides among Jews is sweeping Vienna as the result of Nazi orders that Jewish employees must be released by both ‘Aryan’ and Jewish firms” and that employers are forbidden to give” them “severance pay.”

1939: “Delegates to the forty second annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America heald an outdoor meeting at the Jewish Pavilion at the World’s Fair” after having concluded its regular business sessions.  This occasion coincided with the 30thanniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv, the all-Jewish city that has grown from a sand dune to a modern metropolis with 150,000 inhabitants.

1939(11th of Tammuz, 5699): Seventy-year old Samuel Friend, the last Rabbi in Hanover whose wife Minna died at Theresienstadt in 1942, passed away today.

1940: As a result of its non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that made WW II possible, the Soviet Union began the occupation and annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertza region of Romania

1940: In a letter to Lord Lloyd lamenting the Colonial Sectary’s opposition to arming the Jews of Palestine, Churchill that because of this policy “twenty thousand sorely needed British and Australian troops were tied up in Palestine.  This is the price we have to pay for the anti-Jewish policy which has been persisted in for some years…I is little less than a scandal at a time when we are fighting for our lives that these very large forces should be immobilized in support of a policy which only commends itself to a section of the Conservative Party.”

1940: “Dominican Republic Bars All but Sponsored Immigration” published today described changes in the Central American republic’s treatment of those seeking asylum including Jews from Europe.


1941: U.S. premiere of “Underground” a film about anti-Nazi resistance directed by Vincent Sherman,

1941: German forces entered the Polish city of Drohobych which had been in the Soviet Zone.  This marked the start of the destruction of the Jewish community of Drohobych.

1941: Chief of Gestapo, Henirich Muller, sent Adolph Eichmann to review the destruction in Bialystok and Minsk.

1941: The Germans reoccupied Przemysl today which would prove to be a death sentence for all but 300 of its 17,000 Jewish inhabitants.

1941: For two days, in the German-occupied town of Kovno, Lithuania, Lithuanian police and released convicts use iron bars to beat hundreds of Jews to death in the city's streets. Thousands more Jews are murdered at Kovno, Lithuania, and another 5000 are killed at Brest-Litovsk, Belorussia.

1942: Following the end of fighting at Minsk 40,000 Jews are now trapped in the Nazi killing machine.

1942:  All Jews living in France over the age of 6 are required to wear an armband with a yellow Star of David

1943: In Tunis Lola Bembaron and Siegried Wolinski gave birth to Georges David Wolinski “a French cartoonist and comics writer” who was killed during on a terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.


1943: Samuel Levy, former Borough President of Manhattan and chairman of the Board of Directors of Yeshiva and Yeshiva College announced today that Dr. Samuel Belkin, Talmudic scholar and dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva) since 1941, has been elected president of Yeshiva and Yeshiva College

1944: As the Red Army approaches the concentration camp at Maly Trostinets, Belorussia, near Minsk, regular SS troops replace the non-German SS-auxiliary guards. All surviving prisoners--Jews and non-Jewish Russian civilians--are herded into a barracks that is set ablaze. Any prisoners who manage to exit the burning building are shot. About 20 Jews who had come to Maly Trostinets from the camp/ghetto at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, escape to the woods;

1945(17thof Tammuz, 5705): As the ashes of the Holocaust settle over Europe, Tzom Tammuz took on an additional level of sorrow.

1945: In New York, Lucille (née Geier) and Adolf N. Lakes, who escaped from Nazi Germany in 1935 gave birth to Jane Margaret Lakes, who as Jane Harman gave representing California’s 36th district in 1993.

1946: Birthdate of Gilda Radner, the Detroit born, comedienne who gained famed for weekly appearances on the television show, Saturday Night Live.

1946: In the United States, premiere of “Dead of Night” a horror film produced by Michael Balcon.

1947: In New York, Morris Helprin, the president of London Films and actress Eleanor Lynn Helprin gave birth to Mark Helprin “an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator” who in “2006 Helprin received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award” and in 2010 “was awarded the Salvatori Prize in the American Founding by the Claremont Institute.”

1948(21st of Sivan, 5708): Eighty-three year old Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy, the husband of Helen Calmann Levy and the father of Nicole Germaine Oulman and Robert Paul Michel Calmann-Levy, passed away today.

1948: “Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat appointed as a mediator by the UN” submitted his first plan to end hostilities which if adopted would have “abolished the Jewish state” and created a Kingdom of Transjordan with “a Jewish enclave” which meant the he was voiding Resolution 181 that had created the Jewish state in 1947.

1949: “High Schools for Israel” published today described the plans of Alliance Israelite Universelle to open “new high schools in Israel” and plans “to open additional elementary schools in other countries.

1949: “Irving Tick, the counsel to the Brooklyn Kosher Butchers Association” is scheduled to “be the guest of honor at a dinner tonight at the Belmont Plaza Hotel, given by the meat and provisions division of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.”

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that a modified scheme for national insurance was finally approved by the government and was to be brought before the Knesset. Registration continued for the Four-Year People's Housing Scheme. Twelve thousand housing units were expected to be allocated to needy citizens yearly.

1952: On Shabbat, in Tel Aviv, taxicab drivers pull their vehicles off the road in protest over the government’s new restriction on use of gasoline and restrictions on driving of personal vehicles.

1952: Albert Einstein granted permission for his named to be used for the medical center created by the merger of Northern Liberties Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital now known as the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA which can trace its roots back to eh Jewish Hospital for the Aged, Infirmed and Destitute founded in 1864.

1954: A raid on Arab Legion camp at Azzun, 13 km east of Qalqilya by a seven man squad that included Meir Har-Zion led by Major Aharon Davidi came to a less than satisfactory end when it was discovered that Sergeant Yitzhak Jibli who had been wouned was taken prisoner by the Jordanians.

1955: U.S. premiere of the film version the novel “Not As A Stranger” directed and produced by Stanley Karmer.

1956: A bill designed to abolish the death penalty that had been introduced by Sydney Silverman received overwhelming approval in the House of Commons which was later voted down in the House of Lords.

1958: The curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Auntie Mame” featuring Marian Winters as “Sally Cato MacDougal.”

1958: “Kings Go Forth,”  a WW II movie co-starring Tony Curtis with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United States.

1959: “Man of Vision” published today provided a review of Isaac Mayer Wise: Pioneer of American Judaism by Joseph Gumbiner, a biography for those 14 to 17 years old.


1959(22nd of Sivan, 5719): Seventy-one year old Herman Leopoldi, the Austrian composer and entertainer who survived Buchenwald passed away today in Vienna after suffering a heart attack.

1960: “Murder, Inc.” starring Peter Falk and directed by Stuart Rosenberg and Burt Balaban, the film’s producer was released today in the United States.

1964(18th of Tammuz, 5724):  The Fast of Tammuz was observed for the first time during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson.

1964: Funeral services are scheduled to be held to be held for seventy-one year old Louis Ackerman, the furrier who was the husband of Bella Ackerman and the father of Morton L. Ackerman.

1965: In Princeton, NJ, physicist Richard Hecht and his wife “Lenore, a psychotherapist” gave birth to Tony nominated actress and singer Jessica Hecht, the younger sister of Elizabeth Hecht and the step-daughter of psychiatrist Howard Iger.

1966: Port Arthur native Irving Loeb Goldberg, a graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Law School “was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit created by 80 Stat. 75.”

1967: Several thousand Jews returned to the Hebrew University amphitheater on Mount Scopus, the scene of the inauguration of the university in 1925, cut off from the rest of Jerusalem since 1948.

1967: “Gunn” a movie based on the television detective Peter Gunn featuring Alan Oppenheimer as “Whiteside” was released in the United States today.

1967: Israel removed the barriers that separated occupied east Jerusalem from the rest of the city. This marked the first time that Jerusalem was one city since the illegal occupation by the Jordanians in 1948.

1969: Seymour Pine led the raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Inspector Pine, who was commander of the New York Police Department’s vice squad for Lower Manhattan when led eight officers into the Stonewall Inn, an illegal club frequented by cross-dressers.  Pine later apologized for his role in the raid.  The raid touched off the Stonewall Uprising, a major turning point for the GLBT to gain full civil rights.

1969: Birthdate of award winning Israeli actress of Ayelet Zurer

1970(24thof Sivan, 5730): Eighty-four year old Prague born and refugee from Nazi Europe Eric Kahler the “cultural historian and author whose works included, the acclaimed The Tower and the Abyss: An Inquiry into the Transformation of the Individual and The Jews Among the Nations passed away today.

1973: “Mohammad Boudia, the Algerian-born director of operations for Black September in France, was killed in Paris by a pressure-activated bomb packed with heavy nuts and bolts placed under his car seat.”

1973 Among those whose names appeared in the Lists of White House 'Enemies' and Memorandums Relating to Those Named published today were Alfred P. Slaner, Daniel Schoor, Marvin Kalb and Barbara Streisand.

1975: Rod Serling passed away.  He gained fame as the creator and opening line presenter of Twilight Zone television series. Serling was born and raised as a Reform Jew.  He became a Unitarian while in college in an attempt to mollify his wife's family who were upset at the prospect of having a Jewish son-in-law.


1976: The Jerusalem Postreported that an Air France jumbo jet was hijacked over Greece with some 216 passengers, including about 70 Israelis, aboard. This was the first instance of the hijacking of an Air France plane. Distraught relatives of Israeli passengers waited all night at Ben-Gurion Airport and the Air France offices in Tel Aviv. (This would prove to be the first act in an adventure that became known as The Raid on Entebbe.)

1976: Air France Flight 139, which had been hijacked by terrorists, arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The four hijackers were joined by several comrades who were supported by Idi Amin, the pro-Palestinian Uganda dictator.

1977: “One On One” co-starring Robby Benson (Robin David Segal) who also co-authored the screenplay was released today in the United States.

1979(2ndof Tammuz, 5739): Eighty-four composer and conductor Paul Dessau passed away today.


 1979: “The Holocaust Survivors Film Project (HFSP)” which created the Holocaust Survivors Film Project (HFSP), “a collection of recorded interviews with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust located a Yale University” was formally launched today.


1979(2nd of Tammuz, 5739): Stuart Schulberg the son of producer and studio executive B.P. Schulberg and younger brother of novelist/screenwriter passed away today.


1980:  Molly Picon received a Creative Achievement Award from the Performing Arts Unit of B'nai B'rith.


1984: “Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, a financier wanted in France, today lost a 12-year struggle to stay out of prison.”

1984(28th of Sivan, 5744): Yigael Yadin an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, passed away. There is no way to do justice to the life of this fascinating man who did it all from leading Israel in the fight for independence to taking part in some of the most important archaeological digs in history. If you did not know he had lived this life you would have thought it was a product of some famous fiction writer.



1985(9thof Tammuz, 5745): Eighty-six year old Bialysok-born British composer Mischa Spoliansky whose first work in England was creating the music for Sanders of the River, the 1935 cinematic production by the Korda brothers.


1985: “St. Elmo’s Fire,” a dark look at youthful transformation directed by Joel Schumacher who also co-authored the script and co-starring Martin Balsam was released today in the United States.

1986: After 524 performances and 23 previews Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” directed by Gene Saks closed out its Broadway run at the Neil Simon Theatre.

1986: In Los Angeles, “ormer Geffen Records A&R exec/record producer Tony Berg” and his wife gave birth indie rock vocalist “Elizabeth Anne ‘Z’ Berg.”

1987: A children’s memorial designed by Moshe Safdie and financed by an American Jew named Abraham Spiegel who had lost his two year old son at Auschwitz, opened at Yad Vashem

1988: Dame Shirley Porter (born Shirley Cohen) began serving as Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London.

1988: Iris Margaret Origo, an Anglo-Irish writer who helped to save Jewish children through the kindertransport including the painter Frank Helmut Auerbach passed away today.

1991: “The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear” directed by David Zucker who also co-authored the script for the films on which Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker served as executive producers was released in the United States today.

1993: In Los Angeles, “Sharon Lyn (née Chalkin), a costume designer and fashion stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses” gave birth to actress Elizabeth Greer "Beanie" Feldstein who played “Minnie Fay” in a Broadway revival of “Hello, Dolly” and “Julie Steffans” in the Academy Award nominated comedy “Lady Bird._

1995: Joseph Stiglitz was appointed Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers which made a member of the Clinton Cabinet.

1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth by Norman G. Finkelstein and Ruth Bettina Birn.

2000: As Jews express their dissatisfaction with the decision to beatify Pius IX, “at a symposium on Pius IX held today in Rome, Amos Luzzatto, president of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, said, ''The Mortara case is a wound in the body and spirit of Italian Jews that has yet to be healed.'”

2001: Ekaterina (Katya) Weintraub, 27, of Ganim in northern Samaria was killed and another woman injured late Thursday afternoon by shots fired at the two-car convoy on the Jenin bypass road.

2001 in New York City, New York, Matt Bloom defeated Kane to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.

2001: American philosopher Mortimer Adler passed away.  Adler was born into a non-observant Jewish home.  He began his philosophic quest in his teens.  Before his death, Adler converted to Roman Catholicism. 

2002: “Mr. Deed” a remake of the 1936 comedy hit starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder was released in the United States today.

2003: At the Library of Congress opening of an exhibition entitled Herblock’s Gift: Selections from the Herb Block Foundation Collection

2004: “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” a comedy produced by Judd Apatow and co-starring Paull Rudd premiered in Los Angeles.

2004: Raleb Majadele entered the Knesset on today as a replacement for Avraham Burg, who had resigned.

2004: Mordechai Yosepov, 49, and Afik Zahavi, four, were killed when a Kassam rocket fired by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip struck near a nursery school in the northern Negev town of Sderot.

2005(24th of Sivan, 5654): On the day before his 73rd birthday, Philip Hobson, the British critic and poet who was the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants passed away today in London.


2006: The Popular Resistance Committees, which earlier in the day  threatened to “butcher” Eliyahu Asheri “in front of TV cameras” “stated that the 18 year old had been killed.”

2007: Screening of “FromPhiladelphia to the Front” at the Vilna Shul / Boston Center for Jewish Heritage in Boston, MA.  For more about this film see www.fromphiladelphiatothefront.com

2007: Israel’s President Moshe Katsav signed a plea agreement under which the rape charges against him will be dropped and he will serve no active jail time.

2007: Bravo began broadcasting “Hey Paula,” the reality television show “which followed Paula Abdul through her day-to-day life.

2007: David Miliband begins serving as Secretary of State of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

2007: Tel Aviv held its three White Night festival.  Following the tradition of the French, the cultural institutions of Israel’s largest metropolis keep their doors open until “the wee hours of the night.”

2007(12th of Tammuz, 5767): Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner, a Jewish chaplain in the United States Army who arrived at the Dachau concentration camp a few days after its liberation in 1945 and a strong voice for thousands of Holocaust survivors who remained in displaced persons camps for years after the war, passed away at his home in New Mexico at the age of 92. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


2008: Birkat Hachodesh - On Shabbat, Jews around the world prepare for the saddest month of the year, by announcing that month of Av will arrive on the seventh day of the upcoming week.

2009(6th of Tammuz, 5769): Seventy-nine year old Rabbi Simcha Binem Lieberman, the Gerrer Hasid turned Warsaw Ghetto freedom fighter, turned Talmudic scholar passed away today.


2009: "The Java Jews, an energetic and talented group from Des Moines, IA, with guest artist John Manning, University of Iowa Professor of Tuba perform at the Hillel House at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone” by D.D. Guttenplan

2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish reader including “Arthur Miller: 1915-1962” by Christopher Bigsby and the recently released paperback edition of “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago” by Simon Baatz

2009: Today, Gideon Shalit’s family said that they would no longer respond to ongoing rumors about their son's release. They claimed the rumors were released by Hamas in order to put pressure on the Israeli government to free terrorists. Defense Minister Barak, too, claimed the rumors are harmful to the efforts to achieve the soldier's release.

2009: The Civil Aviation Authority suspended flights to three southern Russian cities today following a dispute with Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency. All flights from Israel to Sochi, Rostov and Krasnodar have been discontinued until further notice. The underlying cause of the dispute was an attempt by the Russian aviation authority to create a situation in which Russian airlines would dominate the routes at the expense of Israeli carriers.

2009: Tony Kushner’s latest play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures,” is scheduled to have its final performance.2010: Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings began today.

2010:The committee appointed to investigate the flotilla crisis of a month ago held its first meeting today

2010: Chelsea “Handler was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful People today, which noted “Her bawdy obsessions—drinking, midgets, bodily functions, minorities, relatives, overinvolved mothers—brought in $19 million-plus for the 12 months ended June 1 … A handful of years ago no one in entertainment had heard of her.” (JWA)

2011:Philip Roth, the much-lauded author of "Portnoy's Complaint", is scheduled to be officially awarded the biennial Man Booker International Prize in London today. The prize, announced during the Sydney Writers' Festival, is worth 60,000 pounds for the winner, and living authors whose works of fiction are either originally in English or generally available in English translation are eligible.  It honors a writer's body of work as opposed to the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is awarded for a single book.

2011: An opening reception is scheduled to be held this evening marking the opening of an exhibition that will include “Under Destruction” a work created by Ariel Schlesinger, a sabara who studied at Bezalel, Academy for Art and Design, Jerusalem

2011:Justice Ministry officials came out today in defense of Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, who been under public attack in the wake of Rabbi Dov Lior's arrest a day earlier for allegedly encouraging incitement. Lior was arrested, questioned, and released yesterday after refusing to appear for an inquiry for his endorsement of the controversial book, “Torat Hamelech,” which justifies killing non-Jews. His arrest prompted several protests, as right-wing activists attempted to block the entrance to Jerusalem and around 200 protesters gathered outside the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem. 20 MKs have signed an appeal to disband Nitzan's team. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said today that Nitzan, with help from Attorney General Yehuda , "holds the entire settler community as guilty until proven innocent." Ariel added that "the recommendation to question Rabbi Lior underscores a strategy of intimidation and silencing, that reflects an atmosphere of incitement coming from the state prosecution." But some of the attacks on Nitzan were more violent in nature. A poster has been circulating featuring a photograph of Nitzan and the words: "enemy of the Torah." Far-right activist Itamar Ben Gvir said Nitzan is "brewing up a storm." Due to past protests by the right-winger against Nitzan there is already a security detail guarding his home in Jerusalem. Justice department officials wrote in a letter that "in a law-abiding state, where a president, prime ministers, ministers and MKs, religious leaders and senior public figure have been questioned, no one is above the law. The officials emphasized that for a long time there have been negotiations with the rabbi's aides in an attempt to bring him to questioning in a dignified and quiet way. "These attempts were rejected, so there was no choice but to issue the arrest warrant," they wrote. Earlier on today, opposition leader Tzipi Livni attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not supporting law enforcement and justice officials. "How do you not defend the officials in the Justice Ministry who are working to uphold the law, while there is severe incitement against them from the outside?" Livni asked. "No one likes to see a rabbi arrested, including me," Livni said. "And I also don't like to see a prime minister under investigation or a president going to prison, but Israel must maintain itself as a law-abiding country where everyone is equal before the law." 

2011: The lower house of the Dutch parliament voted to ban the ritual slaughter of animals, Reuters reported. Under the bill passed today, animals are required to be stunned before slaughter. Both Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter must be performed while the animal is fully conscious.  The upper house still must approve the measure, which is being protested by Holland’s Jewish and Muslim communities as an attack on their religious freedom. Some 40,000 Jews and about 1 million Muslims live in the country. The bill was put forward by the Animal Rights Party, which claims that stunning before slaughter causes less pain to the animal. The Jewish and Muslim communities have a year to prove otherwise or the law goes into effect. "This is absolutely impossible to prove," Netherlands Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs told Reuters. "You can't ask the animal how it feels afterwards." The European Union requires animals to be stunned before slaughter, but makes exceptions for religiously mandated ritual slaughter. Nevertheless, ritual slaughter is banned in Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

2011: Dr. Oliver Wolf Sacks discussed his work and his personal health issues during the BBC documentary “Imagine.”

2011: According to Haaretz, today in his “remarks to the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, Ronald Lauder scolded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a number of missteps, including lacking a diplomatic plan heading into the September UN vote on Palestinian statehood and setting preconditions for negotiations as part of the peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,

2011:An estimated hundred thousand people took part in the funeral procession of Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz in Bnei Brack today. Lefkowitz, an admired educational figure in the Lithuanian and general haredi world, passed away at the age of 97 yesterdy. Born in  Valozhyn, he arrived in Israel in 1936. For over the past 50 years he headed the prestigious Yeshivat Ponovezh L’Tzeirim for young yeshiva students in Bnei Brak, alongside Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman.  Over the years Lefkowitz became one of the sector's leading educators, who rarely was involved in political issues, considered an authority on matters of spiritual guidance.

2011: Shia LaBeouf “reprised his role in the third live-action Transformers film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which was released today.

2012: The remaining 18 families living at Givat Ulpana are scheduled to leave their homes today and move to temporary housing at a nearby military base. (As reported by Josh Davidovich)

2012: In Portland, Oregon, The American Conference of Cantors-Guild of Temple Musicians' Convention is scheduled to come to a close.

2012: Chris Murphy, Chief of Staff to D.C. Mayor Gray, is scheduled to speak at noontime meeting sponsored by The D.C. Commission of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Peace & Love Festival in Borlange, Sweden. 

2012:The IDF is bolstering defenses along the Syrian border and beefing up its forces due to concern that terrorist groups are planning a cross-border attack in the Golan Heights, commander of Division 36 Brig.-Gen. Tamir Hyman said today.

2012:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned members of the Keshev Committee today that unless mandatory national service for the Arab sector is instituted, he may decide not to bring the committee's recommendations to the Knesset for a vote. The Keshev Committee, tasked with drafting proposals to replace the Tal Law, announced earlier today that the panel had decided instead to institute a recruitment target for national service in the Arab community of at least 6,000 recruits from the sector by 2016.

2012:Dozens of artists, musicians and performers have joined a Facebook campaign calling for a boycott of the Tel Aviv municipality's annual White Night event today, to protest police violence against social justice demonstrators last week.

2013: “Fill the Void,” a film that “tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic Family from Tel Aviv is scheduled to open in several theatres including the Chez Artiste 3 in Denver, the Camelot in Palm Springs, the Criterion in New Haven and the River Oaks Theatre 3 in Houston.

2013: Marlene Trestman is scheduled to deliver the Donald S. Shire lecture at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. “The speech is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Department of Labor in addition to recognizing the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the Fair Labor and Equal Pay Acts, respectively, for which Bessie Margolin worked tirelessly. (As reported by Alan Samson, CCJN)

2013: “The Attack,” a film about an Israeli-Arab doctor whose wife is killed in a terrorist attacks is scheduled to be released at theatres throughout the United States.

2013: Marlene Trestman will deliver the Donald S. Shire lecture at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. The speech is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Department of Labor in addition to recognizing the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the Fair Labor and Equal Pay Acts, respectively, for which Bessie Margolin worked tirelessly. (As reported by Alan Smason)

2013: “The Sexuality Spectrum sponsored by HUC-JIR is scheduled to come to an end.

2013: In the United Kingdom, premiere of “The Act of Killing” a documentary directed by Joshua Oppenheimer.

2013:  At the Weiner Library, Filmmaker Alan Reich is scheduled to discuss his latest project, “The Last Boat,” which tells the story of the incredible rescue of seventy Jewish children and their two chaperones out of Poland on a British boat arriving in England three days before the start of World War Two.

2013: The IDF deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in the Haifa area early this morning, amid heightened tensions in the North stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war.

2013: The German Federal Administrative Court vetoed a bid to release classified foreign intelligence documents that would reveal western spies knew where Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann escaped to after World War II, British media reported today.

2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior adviser Ron Dermer will be appointed Israeli ambassador to the United States, Army Radio reported today

2014: Jonathan Lethem is scheduled to read from his latest book, Dissident Gardens, this evening at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City.

2014: “The Wonders,” a film about “a bartender who doubles as a graffiti artist in Jerusalem is scheduled to be shown at the Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2014(30th of Sivan, 5774): Ninety-three year old composer Seymour Barab passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)




2014(30th of Sivan, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Sivan

2014: Trio of Anniversaries of events that still resonate with us today: 625thanniversary of Battle of Kosovo,

100thanniversary of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife and the 95th anniversary of the signing of the Versailles Treaty

2014: “Israelis broke all records of electricity consumption in June as tempertures climbed over 40 degrees Celsisu” means that from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat, the country was in the grip of near record heat wave. (As reported by Ilana Curiel)

2014: “The IAF attacked 3 hidden rocket launchers in the central Gaza stipr tonight in response to the barrage of rockets fired into southern Israel, one of which hit a factory that was burned to the ground.(As reported by Yoav Zitun)

2014: As rocket attacks from Gaza continue to intensify a missle fired from Beit Hanoun hit the "Denber" plastic factory in Sderot's industrial area, causing a large fire to break out which resulted in the destruction of the factory. While some workers were injured there was no loss of life.

2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why Grow Up? by Susan Neiman and The Odd Woman and the City  by Vivian Gornick

2015(11th of Tammuz, 5775): Ninety-three year old comedian Jack Carter passed away today.


2015(11th of Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-one year old conservative commentator Ben Wattenberg passed away today.


2015: “Parents in some 70 towns” including Herzliya and Holon keep their children at home today as part of the protest “against overcrowding in classrooms.”

2015: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to present “In the Unlikeliest of Places:

How Nachman Libeskind Survived the Nazis, Gulags, and Soviet Communism.”

2015: The Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program is scheduled to begin at Tel Aviv University.

2015: “Rabbi Shlomo Riskin's term as Chief Rabbi of Efrat was extended by five years today after a month-long controversy in which the Chief Rabbinate was allegedly planning to retire him at age 75 because of his religious views on the advancement of women in Orthodoxy and an inclusive approach towards conversion.”

2016: “War Paint,” a musical based the lives of “Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden defined beauty standards for the first half of the 20th Century” premiered today.

2016: Professor Hillel Kieval of Washington University in St. Louis is scheduled to deliver at lecture on “Blood Inscriptions: Science, Modernity, and Ritual Murder in Fin de Siècle Europe” at the Birkbeck University of London.

2016: “Following numerous incidents of rock throwing by Palestinians, police today announced that the Mount, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, would be closed to Jewish visitors and tourists for three days and that extra forces would be deployed to prevent rioting. 2016: “Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt” is scheduled to be shown at the 24thPortland Jewish Film Festival today.

2017: In Tennessee, the Memphis Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a performance by the members of the Israeli Scout Friendship Caravan.

2017: Today, “Thirty years after his release from Soviet camps, where he was subjected to forced labor as punishment for clandestine Zionist activity, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein became the first Israeli politician to address Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, in a triumphant turnaround for the one-time “Prisoner of Zion.”

2017: Today, during a reunion of “10 American pilots who agreed to deliver jets to the IDF” during the Yom Kippur War “retired US fighter pilot Roy “Bubba” Segars and retired Israeli fighter pilot Jacob “Booby” Daube held a photo they took together during the 1973 Yom Kippur War at the same Tel Nof airbase in Israel”(IDF Spokesperson, courtesy)

2017: In Iowa, the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host “Thank You for Being Late,” an evening with columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman.

2017: Tom Jones is scheduled to perform at Tel Aviv’s Menorah Arena this evening.

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Keep the Change” directed by Rachel Israel at London’s Phoenix Cinema

2018: Today, Prince William, the future king of England “private visits to various holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City, including the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre” as well as the “Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which are located on the Temple Mount.”

2018: Today, “an ultra-Orthodox Knesset member threatened El Al with a consumer boycott should the airline remove ultra-Orthodox passengers unwilling to sit next to women.”

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “Profiles of Courage” an “interactive event” featuring veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host the final London screenings of “The Boy Downstairs” starring Zosia Mamet and Mathew Shear Shear.

2018: A screening of “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel” a documentary about the Israeli national baseball’s team trip to the World Baseball Classic Sponsored by the Ed Berkowitz Film Education Fund is scheduled to take place at the Avalon Theatre in Washington, D.C.

2019: “The feature-length documentary ‘The Spy Behind Home Plate’” is scheduled to open today in Boston, San Diego, Denver, St. Louis, Santa Cruz, CA, Grand Rapids, MI, Sarasota, FL, Marion, NC and Los Angeles.

2019(25th of Sivan, 5779): Centenarian Ruth Lillian Feder, the Cedar Rapids born daughter of Rose and David Padzensky and the wife of Iz Feder passed away today.


2019: In San Francisco, Magain David Sephardim Congregation is scheduled to begin hosting a young adult Shabbaton which is part of a “two-day Sephardic Shabbat experience.

2019: The Limud Bay Area Festival is scheduled to open today at Sonoma State University.

2019: The seminar “Jews and Political Philosoph” lead by Ruth Wisse, Leora Batnitzky and Yual Levin is scheduled to come to an end today.

2020: The KlezCalifornia workshop is scheduled to host “Bread & Roses: Yiddish Songs of the Jewish Labor Movement, with Cindy Paley ONLINE.”

2020: 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 The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz and The Story of the Jews, Volume Two, Belonging 1491-1900 by Simon Schama

2020: Jewish LearningWorks is scheduled to present, virtually, “Ladino Culture and Literature” with U. of Washington professor Devin E. Naar talking about the Ladino language’s role in Jewish culture from 1492 until World War

2020: The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is scheduled to hold a virtual gala at 2 p.m. today, in partnership with Medici.TV, to benefit the Orchestra three months after COVID-19 forced indefinite concert cancellations.

2020: The Jewish Genealogical Society of George is scheduled to present a Zoom Webinar featuring author and journalist Libby Copeland as she “discusses her new book, The Lost Family.”

2020: ELEM / Youth in Distress in Israel, in collaboration with BMAD music, is scheduled to host a FREE benefit show on YouTube live, in celebration and support of ELEM's work in Israel.

2020: The Friends of the Arava Institute is are scheduled to host online “Water as an Instrument for Peace: Middle Eastern Cooperation in the Face of COVID-19.”

2020: Yad Vashem is scheduled to host a special online lecture “Pius XII and the Holocaust: What Can We Learn from the Vatican Archives?”

2020: Were it not for the Pandemic, today would mark the end of o The Streicker Center’s “Israel Culinary Trip 2020.

2020: The coronavirus cabinet is scheduled to meet today at the request of Defense Minister Benny Gantz, amid the rise in cases of COVID-19. (As reported by YNET)







 
JUNE 28

1320: “Pope John XXII issues Bullarium Romanum, ordering that Jews who convert to Christianity must be allowed to keep their property. The implication is that Jews who don't convert won't necessarily have their property rights protected.” (As reported by Austin Cline)

1389:  Ottoman forces crush the armies of Christian Europe in Kosovo, opening the way for the Ottoman conquest of Southeastern Europe. This event is known as the Battle of Kosovo.  The memory of this battle lingers to this day and has provided fuel for hostility between the different religious and ethnic groups in the Balkans.  This victory of the forces of Islam over the Christians made their position in Europe just that much more precarious.  And Christian insecurity was never a good thing for the Jewish population.

1443: “The marquis of Mantua, Italy issued favorable regulations, granting Jews freedom of religion, the right to settle internal disputes in rabbinic courts and permission to engage in all occupations.” (As described Abraham Bloch)

1476: In the Cariglia, the Kingdom of Naples, Giovanni Antonio Carafa and “Vittoria Camponeschi, the daughter of Pietro Lalle Camponeschi, 5th Conte di Montorio, a Neapolitan nobleman” gave birth to Gian Pietro Carafa who as Pope Paul VI issued Dudum postquam, the papal bull that expanded a 10-ducat tax on Jewish synagogues to help finance catechumen houses in Rome and Cum Nimis Absurdum, the papal bull that “ordered the creation of a Jewish ghetto in Rome.”

1491: Birthdate of King Henry VIII of England.  Isabella of Aragon, the daughter of the Spanish King and Queen was Henry’s first wife.  Before allowing the marriage to go forward, Henry had to promise that he would never allow Jews to settle in England.  For the most part, Henry was true to his word although a small community of crypto-Jews may have settled in London.  Henry’s other contact with Jews also surrounded his marriage to Isabella, only this time it revolved around his attempts to shed his wife.  Henry sought to use the texts of what he called the Old Testament to prove that the marriage was invalid and that it was cursed by God.  He attempted to get Rabbis in Italy to support his claims made to the Pope in Rome.  The Rabbis decided that discretion was the better part of valor.  Regardless of what the Bible said, they felt no need to risk their safety in Italy for the sake of capricious monarch living so far away.

1519: Charles V was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles was the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella.  Charles had already been on the Spanish throne for three years when he became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.  As king of Spain, Charles was a worthy heir to his grandparents.  He continued the Inquisition and enforced their philosophy regarding Jews and Marranos.  But in the Germanic and central European lands that came under his role, the Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor showed a more benign, tolerant (for his time) attitude towards his Jewish subjects.  “He made no attempt to institute the inquisition or even tamper with privileges extended by past emperors.  At the Diet of 1544 held at Speyer, “Charles reaffirmed Jewish privileges” to such an extent that “the Speyer document was considered the most liberal and generous letter of protection ever granted to the Jews.”  Charles defended the Jews against the anti-Semitic attacks of Martin Luther.  “When Spanish troops entered Germany in 1546 during the Emperor’s campaign against rebellious Protestant princes…Charles issued an order to his army not to molest the Jews.”  [Editor’s note:  If you can find an explanation for this seemingly schizophrenic behavior, please let me know.]

1550: Birthdate of John Drusius, “the Dutch linguist who taught Hebrew at Oxford who taught Hebrew to Edward Lively, “the Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambrige”

1635: On behalf of the Company of the American Islands, a French owned enterprise Charles Lienard and Jean Duplessis, Lord of Ossonville began the colonization of the Island of Guadeloupe.  This did not make the island part of the French Empire which made it possible for the Jews to settle there. Starting with their arrival in 1654, the Jews prospered in the fishing processing business and owned several sugar cane plantations.  This would all come to an end when the colony was annexed by the French Empire and the Jews were expelled under the “Black Code.

1626: Vincent II, whom Salamone Rossi served as Concert Master, began his reign as Duke of Mantua.

1712: Birthdate of Swiss philosopher, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.  Unlike some other Enlightenment philosophers, Rousseau did not dabble in anti-Semitism.  He may not have been Philo-Semitic but in his limited references to the Jewish people he wrote with unusual understanding and compassion.  “We shall never know the inner motives of the Jews until the day they have their own free state, schools and universities where they can speak and argue without fear.  Then, and only then, shall we know what they really have to say.”

1725: King Charles III of Hungary announced that he “intended to decrease the number of Jews in his domains” so “the government directed the counties to furnish statistics on the number of” Jewish subjects. 

1757: The debate at Kamienice came to an end with the Sabbatians victorious.

1762: Catherine II (whom the Boyars called “the Great”) ascends the throne of Russia.  The German born Czarina followed her husband Peter III who died under mysterious circumstances in which she might have had a hand. The Jewish historian Salo Baron described her as possessing a rational attitude.  Under the partition of Poland, Catherine became the ruler of Lithuanian with its large Jewish population. At first, Catherine tried to “thread the needle” of not offending the Russian Orthodox by granting her Jewish subjects too much freedom while taking advantage of their professional and business skills.  In the end, she succumbed to pressure from Russian merchants who hid behind religion and limited the activities of her Jewish subjects to an area that would become known as “The Pale of Settlement.”

1779: In Philadelphia, PA, Jonas Phillips and Rebecca Machada gave birth to Zalegman Phillips the successful lawyer and husband of Arabella Solomon whom he married when she was nineteen years old.

1805: In Jamaica, Abraham Quixano Henriques and Leah Rachel De Leon gave birth to Abigail Henriques who became Abigail Belinfante when she married Francis Belinfante.

1809: A.M. Rothschild writes from Frankfurt to his son Nathan in London telling him that writing in Hebrew was fine for discussing family matters but not for conveying business information.

1809: Joseph Friederberg married Frances Phillips at the Great Synagogue.

1811: John Pesman and Esther Capua gave birth to Lewis Pesman Capua, the husband of Jane Jacobs with whom he had four children.

1812: In Philadelphia, PA, Ezekiel Jacob Ezekiel and Rebecca Israel gave birth to Jacob Ezekiel the bookbinder turned Jewish leader and political figure who in 1847 introduced “an amendment to the code of the state of Virginia by which the observers of the Jewish Sabbath were placed on the same plane with those who rest on the ‘first day.’”

1815: Lazarus Samuel married Saratse Nathan at the Great Synagogue.

1815: Benjamin Olinde Rodrigues “a French banker, mathematician and social reformer” who had been born at Bordeaux in 1795 “was awarded a doctorate in mathematics today by the University of Paris” which was earned by his dissertation which contained what came to be called the “Rodrigues’ Formula”


1820: As of today it is claimed that “32 unauthorized Jews are living in Pilsen.”

1820: Michael Mordecai married Isabel Benjamin at the Great Synagogue.

1821: Birthdate of Max Maretzek, the native of Austria who became an opera impresario in London and New York.


1825: Twenty-seven year old German poet Heinrich Heine became a Protestant today.

1828: Hyam Harris was the first person interred by "Shaare Chessed," a burial society in New Orleans.

1831: Birthdate of Hungarian/German violinist and composer, Joseph Joachim.

1831: Birthdate of German historian Otto Stobbe who “was appointed to the Historical Committee of the German-Israelite Community Association” and who was a “colleague of Heinrich Graetz.  In writing about his work in the field of Jewish history Stobbe said “Works on the history of the Jews are so little known in non-Jewish circles that even scholars, as I have often had occasion to see, are only imperfectly informed about the history of this people in Germany.” (As described by Michael Brenner)

1835: Henry Joel married Amelia Alvers at the Great Synagogue.

1836: Former President James Madison passed away.  Madison worked with his mentor Thomas Jefferson to ensure freedom of religion in the state of Virginia in the years between the Revolution and the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.  Madison played in a key role in the ratification of the first ten amendments of the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.  The first of those amendments guaranteed the separation of church and state.  Madison was the first President to appoint a Jew to a U.S. diplomatic post.

1838: The coronation of Victoria of the United Kingdom took place today. Victoria was on the throne until 1901.  Her long tenure gave an era its name.  But under the British system of government she reigned but did not rule which means she had only a limited impact on growing role of Jews in her realm.  Early in reign, she sided with Moses Montefiore as he sought to protect the Jews of Syria during the Damascus Blood Libel lending him her royal yacht for his trip to France.  On the other hand, in 1869 she exercised her royal prerogative when it came to creating new peerages by blocking the appointment of Lionel Rothschild to the House of Lords.  According to Frederick Morton, one of her biographers, “it was not until Suez became British though Jewish money” and she came under the spell of Benjamin Disraeli that she relented and allowed Lionel’s son to enter the Lords.  As she aged, Victoria would visit “the French estate of Baron Rothschild.”  Despite her lack of political clout, she did attempt to intervene on behalf of the Russian Jews as Tsar Alexander III worked to make their lives increasingly unbearable.  On the other hand, she was not pleased with the growing number of Jews who made up the social circle of her son, the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII.

1846: Birthdate of Golčův Jeníkov (Bohemia) native Dr. Ignatz Kornfeld.

1848: Joseph Abrahams married Elizabeth Samuel at the Great Synagogue.

1848: Two days after the “June Days Uprising” had come to an in France, French banker Michel Goudchaux began serving as Minister of Finance in the newly formed government

1849: Levy Jacobs and Caroline Davis gave birth to Alfred Jacobs, the husband of Emily Flatau.

1851: David Salomons stood as a Liberal candidate at a by-election in the Greenwich constituency, and was elected today as one of the constituency's two Members of Parliament (MPs). He was not permitted to serve in the House of Commons, because he had not taken the oath of abjuration in the form established by Parliament. However, he did not withdraw quietly: instead he took the oath, but omitted the Christian phrases, and took his seat on the government benches. He was asked to withdraw, and did so on the second request, but he returned three days later, on 21 July 1851. In the debate that followed, Salomons defended his presence on grounds of having been elected by a large majority, but was eventually removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and fined £500 for having voted illegally in three divisions of the House

1852: Ferdinand Hiller’s Im Freien in G major was performed in London.

1853: In New Orleans, Emil Pollak and Caroline Pollak gave back to their second child and first daughter Carrie.

1855: Baron Maurice von Hirsch, the German-Jewish philanthropist who founded the Jewish Colonization Association, married Clara Bischoffsheim (born 1833), daughter of Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim of Brussels

1858: In Hampstead, London, Joseph and Adel Schloss gave birth to their “eldest son, James Joseph Schloss.”

1863: On the day after Shabbat Chukat, where Jews delve into the world of the unexplainable, President Lincoln, for reasons of his own, appointed General George Meade to command the Army of the Potomac which was the first step in a date with destiny that would be kept days later in a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg.

1865: Henry Marks married Rosetta Jones at the Hambro Synagogue.

1866:Benjamin Disraeli began serving as the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Leader in the House of Commons in the cabinet of the Earl of Derby, the Prime Minister.

1868: In Vienna, Carl Karoly Birnbaum and Sofie Zsofia Birnbaum gave birth to Salomon Birnbaum, the husband of Valerie Birnbaum, both of whom would die at Theresienstadt in 1943.

1870: In Middlesex, Henriette and Henry Lewis Raphael gave birth to Helen M. Raphael who died at the age of 16.

1874: In Dixon, Illinois, German immigrants Emanuel Petersberger and Berta Ochs gave birth to U of Iowa trained attorney Isaac Petersberger, who made his career in Davenport, IA where he raised his children Richard and Louise with his wife the former Hattie Goldstein

1874: It was reported today that in the second-hand clothing trade silk and velvet waistcoats that appear to be worn out can be re-worked and made into skull-caps for German and Polish Jews.


1877(17th of Tammuz, 5637):Tzom Tammuz

1877: In New York City, Samuel Anspacher and his wife gave birth to University of Cincinnati and HUC graduate Abraham Samuel Anspacher, the Rabbi of Congregation Ansche Chesed in Scranton, PA.

1878: B.L. Solomon & Sons one of the largest and oldest of importers and dealers in upholstery and furniture in the country failed today.  The business was established was established 45 years ago by B.L Solomon under the name of Solomon and Hart. 

1879: Birthdate of Little Rock, AR native Leon Volmer who “served as rabbi of a Reform congregation  in Charleston, W. VA before becoming Superintendent of Jewish Orphans’ Home in New Orleans where “he advocated for progressive methods of institutional child care” because he believed that “if the Orphanage had any good reason for existing it must be to take the unfortunate child and provide a home for him, the atmosphere, the activities and the moral and spiritual life of which will the child a Social Force in the Social Construction of Society.”

1880: While “making its regular trip up the East River from Manhattan, the SS Seawanhaka caught fire forcing those on board, many of whom who could not swim, to choose between burning to death and jumping into the swamp water where the ship had come to rest. Among the many Jews on board who perished were Mordecai Manuel Noah Smith and for Assemblyman Joseph I. Stein.

1881(1stof Tammuz, 5641): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1881(1stof Tammuz, 5641): Eighty-two year old Philipp Schey Freiherr von Koromla, “the Hungarian merchant and philanthropist” who was made an Austrian noble by Emperor Francis Joseph I, making him the first Jew to be so elevated and who was the grandfather of Austrian biologist Hans Leo Przibram, passed away today.

1882: It was reported today that Henry Holt & Co is issuing a book about the effects of the American Revolution – America and France: The Influence of the United States on France in the Eighteenth Century by Lewis Rosenthal.

1882: The dedicatory services for the new Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews took place at the new building located a one half mile south of Yonkers on Riverdale Avenue in New York.


1882: In Yonkers, NY, the Home For Aged and Infirm operated by the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith began accepting residents on its opening day.

1882: During his address at the University of Mississippi commencement ceremony in Oxford, famous author George W. Cable called for the graduates to embrace the future, “Let us search provincialism out of the land as the Hebrew housewife purged her house of leaven on the eve of the Passover.”  (Editor’s note – It may seem strange to find out that a rural southern audience would understand a reference to the arcane customs of the Jewish people.)

1882: About 7:30 this evening a group of striking freight handlers attacked Russian Jews who had replaced them in Battery Park just outside of Castle Garden.  A half hour later the strikers turned their attention to a group of returning Italian workers who proved to be more of a problem since they were armed with armed bars, sticks and dirks.  After police intervened the Jews said they would not go back to work on the piers as replacement workers for the strikers.

1882: It was reported that Dr. Samuel Davidson is preparing a new book on Christian eschatology in which he will compare the doctrines of Christianity and Judaism. [This is evidence of the difference between the European and American view of Judaism.  In the latter case it was something to be studied not condemned.]

1883:  Birthdate of right wing French political leader Pierre Laval who eventually became Prime Minister of the Vichy Government where he aggressively followed pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic policies that would lead to his execution in 1945.

1883: A Russian Jew named Julius Simon, his wife and six children arrived in New York today aboard the steam-ship Egyptian Monarch.  Simon who said he was sent to the United States by the Jewish Ladies Board of London claims to be entirely destitute.

1884(5thof Tammuz, 5644): Parashat Tammuz

1884(5thof Tammuz, 5644): Thirty-two year old Isaac Jacob Gans, the Amsterdam born “son of Jacob and Rebecca Mozes Gans” and the husband of Vogeltje Dooseman passed away today.

1885: Birthdate of Norwegian attorney Fritz Cohn who was arrested at Asker in 1942 and died at Auschwitz in 1943 at the age of 57.

1885: “Orthodoxy and Reform” published today described the clash between these two wings of Judaism as personified by Rabbit Kohut on one sides and Rabbis Kohler and Gottheil on the other. Kohler contends that although he disagrees with Kohut on matters related to religion, he considers him a personal friend.

1885: It was reported today that the elevation of Lord Rothschild to a peerage is unique because of his ethnicity it follows the same pattern of other “plutocrats” who have been so honored.

1885: The Jewish neighborhood along Harrison Street suffered some of the worst damage when a rain storm struck Baltimore this morning followed by flooding which was the worst to hit the city since 1868.

1886: It was reported today that the new monthly magazine which will be the official publication of the B’nai B’rith, is to be named The Menorah.  The Jewish fraternal organization is thought to represent over 10 per cent of the country’s Jewish population.

1886(25thof Sivan, 5646): Sixty-four year old Chaim Sofer who had been serving as rabbi “of the Orthodox congregation in the newly merged city of Budapest since 1879, passed away today.

1887: Israel Lipski was arrested today after he was found hiding under the bed of Miriam Angel who “had been murdered after being forced to consume nitric acid.”

1890: In Galveston, TX, Samson Heidenheirmer, President of the Standard Oil Mill and Joseph Marx, a local lawyer were arrested today and charged with arson in connection with a fire that destroyed the company last April.

1891: Twenty-two year old Annie Lippkin, the fiancée of a young tailor named Harry Cohen, went missing from her home on Suffolk Street today.

1891: “Twenty-six brigands” are demanding a ransom of £5,000 for the return of wealth Jew whom they kidnapped near Salonica.

1892: The Marquis de Mores who is scheduled to stand trial for killing Captain Armand Mayer has been provisionally released from custody.

1892: Birthdate of New York native Mechel Salpeter who gained fame as Max Gordon, the successful movie and theatrical producer.


1893: In Kiev, Jehiel and Elka Rubin Feldman gave birth to Abraham Jehiel Feldman who in 1906 came to the United States where he graduated from the University of Cincinnati and was ordained at HUC before going on to lead congregations in Athens, GA, Philadelphia, PA and West Hartford, CT while raising three children – Daniel, Joan and Ella – with his wife the former Helen Bloch.

1893: “Tenements Unfit To Live In” published today described the efforts of the Board of Health to closed down building deemed “unfit for human habitation by reason of their unsanitary condition” including the building at 141 Madison. The ground floor is home to a laundry owned by Max Rosenson and the upper floors are home to five Jewish families who have no place else to go.

1893: It was reported that Herman Ahlwardt the anti-Semitic member of the Reichstag is serving out the sentence imposed on him for libeling Herr von Loewe, the Jewish arms maker and several Prussian officials.  (Editor’s note – Libeling Jews was one thing; libeling Prussian military officials was another matter.)

1894: “A.P.A. Man Finally Talks” published today provides the plans the American Protective Society has after it has disposed of the Catholics.  According to Charles D.P. Gibson, “Then we’ll look after some other classes that are dangerous to the Republic…the Jews for instance who are constantly dodging their public financial obligations and who are in consequence, laying up great private treasures.  By means of their money they are eating into the very heart of the people.  They are gradually getting control of everything and if left alone they will in twenty-five years, own all our institutions.  We’ll stop them where they are.”

1894(24th of Sivan, 5654): Sixty-eight year old German chemist Moritz Traube passed away in Berlin.



1895: Mrs. Simon Goldberg, Jacob Rothschild and Simon Ottenberg were named as trustees in the will of Simon Goldberg which was signed today

1896(17thof Tammuz, 5656): Fast of Tammuz

1896(17thof Tammuz, 5656): Eighty-year old Adam Gimbel, the founder of Gimbel’s Department Stores passed away today in Philadelphia.


1897: Oren B. Meyer, a native of Texas and a West Point graduate who would cited for gallantry during the Spanish American War was promoted to the rank of 1stLieutenant while serving with the 3rd Cavalry of the United States Army.

1897: The day after he passed away, Harry Hyman Magnus, the son of Joseph and ‘Sarah Magnus was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery on Buckingham Road.

1897: It was reported today that the free entertainment enjoyed by over a thousand public school children at Educational Alliance’s auditorium grew out of an proposal originally championed by Julia Richman, a key figure in promoting quality public and Jewish education.

1897: Mrs. Elsie Schwager (nee Barstheit) and her new-born son converted to Judaism today.  Following the conversion ceremony, Elsie and her 24 year old husband Phillip were married in a Jewish ceremony.  The couple had been married in a civil ceremony more than a year ago.

1898: Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac began serving as Minister of War who lied about the authenticity of evidence that would have cleared Alfred Dreyfus.

1899: It was reported today that Menahem M. Eichler, Michael Fried and Leon H. Elmaleh have graduated from JTS.  The first two have been ordained as Rabbis and the third has earned a teaching degree.

1899: Birthdate of Samuel Ginsberg, the native of “Podwołoczyska, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Pidvolochysk, Ukraine)” who took the name Walter Krivitsky when he joined the Bolsheviks whom he would serve as a member of the Cheka and the NKVD while working as a clandestine agent.


1900(1stof Tammuz, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1900: Birthdate of Arthur Levitt, New York lawyer and politician who served as New York State Comptroller and was the father of  Arthur Levitt, Jr., the SEC Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.


1902: In Vesae, Lithuania, “American citizens Max and Dora (Flaxman) Davis” gave birth to University of Chicago Law School trained attorney Benjamin Bernard Davis and husband of Janice Muller with whom he had one son – Muller Davis – who was a partner in several law firms including Davis, Jones and Baer.

1902: “In Arverne, Queens, NYC, Mamie (Levy) and Dr. William Abrahams Rodgers, a prominent physician who had changed the family name from Abrahams” gave birth to Richard Charles Rodgers who would team with Lorenz Hart and then Oscar Hammerstein in writing numerous Broadway musicals including Oklahoma and Carousel. In reading Mr. Rodgers' obituary in the New York Times one would have no idea that he was Jewish.  In fact the only hint comes in a comment that during the early 1920's when he could not get anything on Broadway he "put on amateur productions for schools and synagogues."



1902: It was reported today that under the leadership of Dr. Solomon Schechter, “new president of the Jewish Seminary” plans for the construction of a building situated “in the educational center of which Columbia is the nucleus” are going forward thanks to a two thousand dollar endowment fund and contributions from Jacob H. Schiff, Leonard Lewisohn Z”L and the Guggenheim brothers.

1903: “The Petition To the Czar” published today reviews “the wisdom of President Theodore Roosevelt’s decision to transmit to the Czar of Russia the petition for the better protection of the live and property of the Jews in that empire.”

1904: “Tried to Burn Synagogue” published today described an investigation by the Camden police into a recent attempt to burn the Jewish house of worship at Eighth and Sycamore Streets which Rabbi Shane began when “someone deliberately threw a lighted roll of paper through the window among a pile shavings while he was conducting services.”

1905: As the violent uprising continued in Russia, it spread to Odessa and Warsaw where Cossacks allegedly used the excuse of “a young Jew throwing a stone at a passing patrol” to attack the crowd firing volleys  that killed or wounded twenty people including five women and a child.

1906: Birthdate of Israeli archaeologistBinyamin Mazar. Besides having a distinguished career that included the excavation at Beth Shearim, Mazar produced a family of archaeologists including son Ory, grandchildren Eilat and Dan and nephew Amihai Mazar.

1906: Birthdate of Maria Goeppert Mayer, German born US atomic physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1963.  Mayer was not Jewish.  She did come to the United States during the 1930’s where she remained for the rest of her life. Aside from her scientific work, she supported Jewish female colleagues who had immigrated to the USA.  This latter selfless act certainly should rate her at least honorable mention as a righteous gentile.

1907(17thof Av, 5667): Sixty-two year old Rotterdam native William Van Praagh, whose successful work at “the Jews' Deaf and Dumb Home led to the establishment by the late Baroness Mayer de Rothschild of an unsectarian institution on that system” known as "The Association for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb” which Lord Granville served as the first present passed away today.

1907: The “owner of six dwelling-houses in the parliamentary and metropolitan borough of Islington” was ordered to appear today before Joseph H. Polka, Esquire, on the justices of the peace for the county of London


1907: Birthdate of Syracuse native “Jehudah M. Cohen” who was ordained at the Jewish History of Religion and served as a regional director for Hillel


1908: It was reported today that Ernest Waddoch is planning on hosting a “fete” for Jewish orphans at his estate on July 11.


1909: The cornerstone of the first Hebrew gymnasium Herzliah, was laid in Tel Aviv today.


1909: In Whitechapel, London, Judah Bergman and his mother Mildred gave birth to boxer Judah Bergman known as Jack “Kid” Berg or Jackie “Kid” Berg “who became the World Light Welterweight Champion in 1930

1910(6thof Tammuz): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Israel Jacob Algazi of Jerusalem.

1911(2ndof Tammuz, 5671): Sixty-eight year old Abraham Abraham the founder of the Abraham & Straus department stores who learned the retail trade while working alongside other future department store developers Simon Bloomingdale and Benjamin Alton at Hart & Detttlebach passed away this afternoon when “he was stricken with acute indigestion” while fishing “in the vicinity of Kingston” near his summer home on Cherry Island.



1912: After four months of conflict, the entire Council of Jewish Community at Constantinople resigns.

1912: “Jewish booksellers from the Pale” of Settlement were “refused permission to attend the Booksellers’ Conference at St. Petersburg.”

1913(23rdof Sivan, 5673): Parashat Korach

1913: Belle Ringer and Rose Skaller have made arrangements for the luncheon meeting of The Young Women’s Auxiliary of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society of Chicago scheduled to be held at the Lincoln Park Refrectory.

1913: In Chicago, at Beth El Temple, Rabbi Julius Rappaport officiated at Saturday morning services.

1913: It was reported today “90 percent of the 85 graduates at CCNY were Jews” and that those receiving “the highest honors at the graduation exercises” were also Jews.

1914: Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife were assassinated at Sarajevo by Serbian nationalists.  According to at least one source, he was going to view the Sarajevo Haggadah when he was killed. This assassination set in motion the events that started World War One. A reading of Guns of August by Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman World War makes it obvious that war was not inevitable.  It actually took more than a month for the war to actually break out.

(Editor’s note – a few random comments about the impact of the war on the Jewish people, not meant in any way to be all inclusive)

Three Austro-Hungarian Field Marshals and eight generals were Jewish. “One of them, Field Marshal Johann Georg Franz Hugo Friedlander, was deported by the Germans in 1943 from Vienna to the Theresienstadt Ghetto and from there in 1944, to Auschwitz, where he died.” While there are no exact figures the best estimates indicate that a million and half Jews served as soldiers in the armies on both sides of the conflict.  The horrors of war fell hardest on the Jews of Eastern Europe. American Jews made Herculean efforts to provide aid for their suffering brethren. American Jews also sought to aid their co-religionists trapped in Palestine under the rule of the Ottomans as can be seen by their having the USS North Carolina, an American Battleship, go to Jaffa in 1914 with money and supplies collected by the American Jewish Committee and the Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs.  When America entered the war, the Jewish response was so strong that the 77th Division was referred to by some as “the Jewish division.” While Jews saw plenty of combat with the AEF with at least six of them winning the Medal of Honor, the most famous soldier may have been Irving Berlin whose musical contribution was patriotic and a real boost to moral. Bernard Baruch may be considered the most powerful Jew during the war.  Not only was one of Wilson’s closest advisors on matters of war and he peace, as chairman of the War Industries Board he successfully managed the country economic mobilization which was critical to defeating the Central Powers.  Strangely enough, his role, on the economic front mirrored that of Walter Rathenau, the German Jewish industrialist who understood the importance of industrial production to winning a modern war as could be seen by his role with the Raw Materials Department. The disproportionate service of German Jewish soldiers at “The Front” did nothing to quell the anti-Semitism that was apparently endemic to their Fatherland.  The Zion Mule Corps, an all Jewish supply unit in the British Army performed in a most distinguished manner at Gallipoli and provided the impetus for the creation of the Jewish Legion an all Jewish combat regiment in the British Army that fought with General Allenby as he liberated Palestine from the Turks thus making it possible for the Balfour Declaration to have a reality on the ground.  And this is only the tip of the iceberg.  Keep reading over the next four years for more specific daily items.


1914: Following the death of his first wife Amelia, today Saul Dushman, the Rostov born son of Samuel and Olga Dushman, holder of Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and one of the “most valuable researchers” at the General Electric Labs in Schenectady, NY., married his second wife Anna Leff.

1914: Birthdate of Aribert Heima former Austrian doctor, also known as "Dr. Death". As an SS doctor in a Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen, he is accused of killing and torturing many inmates through various methods, such as direct injections of toxic compounds into the hearts of his victims. Along with Alois Brunner, Heim — who would now be (as of 2008) in his early nineties — is one of the last major Nazi fugitives still at large. However, according to a 2007 publication by former Israeli Air Force Colonel Danny Baz Heim was kidnapped from Canada and taken to Santa Catalina off the Californian coast, where he was killed by a Nazi hunting team code named “The Owl” in 1982. Baz himself claims to have been part of this group. The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, as well as the French Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld say this is not true.

1914:  Miss Henrietta Szold, Nathan Straus, Dr. J. L. Magnes, and Dr. Stephen Wise of New York arrived in Rochester, New York early this morning to attend a meeting of Zionists. The convention of Zionists will be formally opened by Louis Lipsky of New York, Chairman, who will introduce Dr. Schmarya Levin of Berlin. Levin will address the delegates in behalf of the International Executive Committee, whose headquarters are in Berlin. Dr Levin will speak in Hebrew and German. Max Lowenthal will welcome the delegates in behalf of the Jews of Rochester.

1914: Birthdate of Valerian Trifa, the Romanian Orthodox cleric who helped to foment the pogrom against the Jews of Bucharest who was finally brought to justice thanks to the efforts of Zev Golan. “Zev Golan is the English translator of the wartime memoirs of Stern Group commander Israel Eldad, The First Tithe; the author of the history Free Jerusalem; and the author of the Hebrew history Shofrot Shel Mered (The Shofars of the Revolt). Golan’s God, Man and Nietzsche: A Surprising Dialogue between Judaism and Modern Philosophers examines why Nietzsche both lauded and condemned Jews, and how Jewish and modern thinkers can, together, provide answers to the great problems of philosophy. Golan has also written extensively on economics and has edited several dozen studies of the Israeli economy, as well as the book Meshek BeMashber (An Economy in Crisis). His commentary has appeared in the Israeli dailies Haaretz and Globes. Golan lives in Jerusalem where he directs the Center for Public Policy at the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies.

1915: During WW I, Joseph Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire began visiting “advanced stations at the Western Front.”

1915: During a meeting of the Zionist Federation in Boston, a dinner was held in Mechanics’ Hall where 1,400 attendees listened to speeches by Louis D. Brandeis, Nathan Straus and Rabbi Stephen Wise, among others.  Brandeis was hailed as the leader of the movement to create a Jewish home in Palestine.  Rabbi Wise’s call for additional funds brought the following response. During the evening it was announced that Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald of Chicago would donate $1,000 per month to the Zionist cause for the duration of the World War and would continue making their donations for a full year after a peace treaty was signed an anonymous donor from New York gave $6,000 while Samuel Untermyer and Eugene Meyer each gave $3,000.

1915: “In the midst of demonstrations and strike demands on the question of "hiring and firing," Benjamin Schlesinger, the president of ILGWU asked the Protective Association to submit the dispute to a committee of unbiased persons. As a result a Council of Conciliation was appointed by Mayor John P. Mitchel and the strike was avoided

1915: The newly dedicated Hebrew Sheltering Society of Harlem home is scheduled to receive its first applicant at eight o’clock this morning.

1915: As of today, the officers of the Hebrew Sheltering Society of Harlem are President Socolow, Vice Presidents Lubelsky and Softin, Treasurer Drosin and Secretary Segel.

1915: As of today, Governor Slaton of Georgia has received about “5,000 telegrams and letters” only which “100 have condemned” his grant of clemency to Leo Frank.

1915: Ex-Governor John M. Slaton who has been under the protection of the Georgia National Guard since commuting Leo Frank’s death sentence and his wife left by train for New York this afternoon without any further incidents.

1915: The Federation of Rumanian Jews “announced the founding of a Home for Convalescents at Grand View on the Hudson and a plan for the establishment on the east side of a bureau to assist Rumanian Jews in obtaining citizenship.

1915: Courses which are part of a training program for Jewish communal workers that include lectures by Felix M. Warburg and Lillian D. Wald are scheduled to begin today at the Heinsheimer Memorial Building of the Y.M.H.A. at 92ndand Lexington

1915: Frank H. Hardison, the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner addressed the Seventh Annual Convention of the Order of Sons of Zion

1915: The Boston Hadassah held a lunch this afternoon after which they conducted a business meeting.

1915: In Boston, at the Mechanics Hall Louis D. Brandies, Nathan Straus and Dr. Stephen Wise were among the speakers at the dinner attended by 1,400 people who were part of the meeting of the Zionists Federation.

1916(27th of Sivan, 5676: During WW I, Lt. Neville Newman of the Highland Light Infantry was killed today.

1917: In Manhattan, Aaron and Anna Schiff gave birth to Solomon “Sol” Joseph Schiff “whose rocketing, flat forehand propelled him to national and world table tennis championships in the 1930s when he was still in his teens, and who later earned the unofficial title “Mr. Table Tennis” as an ardent advocate for his sport…” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1917: Rabbi William Rosenau delivered the Message of the President to the Twenty-Eighth Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis at Buffalo, NY.


1917: The funeral of two and half year old Myron Paul Herskovitz, the son of Abraham and Dora Herskovitz is scheduled to take place today in Chicago.

1917: In Baltimore, MD, the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists which began on June 24 is scheduled to come to an today following a general business session.

1917: In a change intended to break the stalemate in the Middle East, Lord Allenby “assumed command of the Egyptian Expeditionary force” in the first step of a journey that would lead to Jerusalem and the beginning of British rule of parts of the Ottoman Empire.

1917: Fareynikt Moishe Zilberfarb began serving as Deputy-Secretary of Jewish Affairs in the General Secretariat of Ukraine, the main executive institution of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

1918: The Twenty-ninth Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened in Chicago, Illinois today.

1918: Birthdate of New York native Martin Greenberg the publisher and “editor of science fiction anthologies.”


1919(30thof Sivan, 5679): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1919: The Treaty of Versailles was signed in France, officially ending World War I. The United States Senate would fail to ratify the treaty, which meant the U.S. would not join the League of Nations.  Many Germans resented the terms of the treaty.  This resentment helped to undermine the Weimar Republic and helped the Nazis in their rise to power.  In other words, from the Jewish point of view, the treaty contained the seeds of destruction.

1919: In Chicago, Dr. Gerson B. Levi is scheduled to lead services at Temple B’nai Sholom

1919: In Chicago, at Temple Judea, Seymour Magidson is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah and Dr. Rudolph I. Coffee is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Jewish Types.”

1920: In a move that was aimed at limiting Jewish participation the General Purposes Committee of the London Council Country (LCC) voted by eleven to ten “to recommend to the full Council that, except in the case of teachers of foreign languages or where the Council resolved otherwise, no person other than natural-born British subjects be taken into the employ of the LCC.”

1920: The convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis all of whose attendees have received “a manuscript copy of the new Union Prayer Book” is scheduled to open today in Rochester.

1921; Birthdate of Dorothea Herz who as Dorothea Rabkin  joined forces with her husband Leon to build a collection of American folk art noted for the whirligigs and other sculptures made by anonymous carvers in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Starting not long after their marriage in 1958, the Rabkins spent decades scouring flea markets and secondhand shops. They acquired some traditional pieces like quilts and baskets, but they also bought objects few people wanted then — the works by unschooled artisans that are known today as outsider art. Their collection grew to more than 1,200 items, including paintings by self-taught black artists like Sam Doyle and Mose Tolliver. But the Rabkins were best known for figural folk sculpture, amassing one of the finest collections in private hands. Most often carved in wood, sometimes made of metal, the sculptures are typically human in form, depicting men and women at work and at play. Besides whirligigs, articulated pieces designed to move or spin in a breeze, they include tradesmen’s mannequins, ventriloquists’ dummies and dolls. Artwork from the Rabkins’ collection has been reproduced widely in books and exhibited around the country. More than 200 of the couple’s pieces are now in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum in New York. One of the most instantly recognizable is the whirligig “Uncle Sam Riding a Bicycle,” among the most emblematic works of American folk art of any kind. Nearly five feet long and carved of wood, it was made between 1880 and 1920. When a propeller at the front is turned, Uncle Sam, in top hat and tails, pedals his little bike. Behind him, a richly carved American flag (the reverse side is Canadian) seems to ripple in the breeze. Among other notable objects the Rabkins gave the museum is an elaborate sheet-metal farm scene from the early 20th century that, set in motion, is almost Rube Goldbergian in its symphony of contingencies: a man pumps water, and a horse drinks it; a fisherman pulls on his rod as a chicken steals a worm from his bait can. As associates said in interviews this week, Ms. Rabkin had a keen eye for unheralded talent. (She was an early advocate, for instance, of the Pennsylvania folk painter Justin McCarthy.) From the mid-1980s till her retirement in 2007, she served on the collections committee of the folk art museum, advising it on acquisitions. Rabkin was born in Berlin.  Her father was Jewish.  Her mother was not. After Hitler came to power in 1933, the mother left the family and repudiated her children. In the years that followed, Dorothea and her twin sister, Rose, were shuttled among sympathetic Christian neighbors, sometimes together, sometimes apart, often hidden in closets. They dared not go to school, and their formal education ended. After the war began, the twins, now young adults, found themselves adrift in Berlin. Living separately and furtively, they and an older sister, Elizabeth, passed as Gentiles. (Dorothea dyed her hair platinum blond, her husband said.) During this period, their father, pursued by the Gestapo, killed himself. Their mother survived the war. Rose made her way to New York in 1948. Dorothea arrived the next year, carrying, as she later said, “an empty suitcase.” She found work as a cook in a Schrafft’s restaurant and was later an assistant to a rare-book dealer. In January 1958, Dorothea met Leo Rabkin on a blind date; they married that May. A native of Cincinnati, Mr. Rabkin is an abstract artist whose work is in the collections of major museums; for many years he was also a teacher of troubled adolescents at the Livingston School for Girls on King Street in Manhattan. She passed away at the age of 87, a victim of Parkinson disease cared for by her husband Leo, her sole immediate survivor.

1922: Beginning of the Irish Civil War during which Robert Briscoe, the future Lord Mayor of Dublin, sided with the anti-treaty members of the IRA.

1923: Today Father Joachim Alexopoulos, who in 1943, when Greece was under Nazi occupation, devised a plan for hiding 700 Jewish residents of Volos which saved them from deportation and almost certain death,”  “was appointed the first Greek Orthodox Bishop of Boston with the new Annunciation church, which was designated a cathedral, as his seat.”

1924: As the United States experienced an upswing in bigotry including anti-Semitism, the Ku Klux Klan burned a cross on Peavine Mountain in Nevada, following a similar event that had taken place at Reno in April of this year.

1924: In New York City, May (née Cohen) and Samuel Rudin gave birth to Jacob “Jack” Rudin the Bronze Star winning WW II veteran and real estate developer.


1924: “Doctor Stephen S. Wise, the Rabbi of the Free Synagogue delivered the invocation at the opening of the sixth session of the 1924 Democratic National Convention

1925: In Whitechapel, London Moshe Cailingold and his wife the former Anne Fenechel gave birth to Esther Cailingold the school teacher turned fighter who died in the battle for Jerusalem in 1948.


1926: In Brooklyn, James and Kate (née Brookman) Kaminsky gave birth to Melvin James Kaminsky who gained fame as of comedian/actor/director Mel Brooks.


1928: In Manhattan, a year after Benjamin Bass “had opened the Pelican Book Shop,” he and his wife Shirley (née Vogel) gave birth to Fred Bass, the businessman who made the Strand Bookstore a New York institution.

1929: Release date of the first film adaptation of “Showboat” based on the novel by Edna Ferber with music by Jerome Kern.

1929: Just four years before he would flee from Germany, Albert Einstein was one of the first of the two recipient of Max Planck Medals awarded today by the “German Physical Society.”

1929: In a move that would help perpetuate the myth of Germany as an innocent victim and help pave the way for the rise of the Nazis, today “on the tenth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany observed a day of mourning” which including the publishing of “a proclamation signed by President Paul von Hindenburg and the entire cabinet” disclaiming Germany’s responsibility for starting World War I

1930: In London, Charles and Minnie (née Elbery) Gold gave birth to British director Jack Gold.






1932:Sibylle Aimée Marie-Antoinette Gabrielle de Riquetti de Mirabeau a French writer who used the pseudonym GYP passed away. She was “a fanatical anti-Semite & anti-Dreyfusard; in fact, while testifying at a court case in 1899 she gave her profession as "anti-Semite" rather than "writer".



1933: “In a speech to German newspaper publishers, Hitler describes the government’s new journalistic regulations.”  (Jewish Virtual Library)



1934: “Of Human Bondage” produced by Pandro S. Berman, starring Leslie Howard with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.

1934: Today, Washington University trained lawyer Sam Elson, the holder of JSD from Yale who taught at his alma mater, was a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews married Gertrude Clemens Palmer today.

1934: Birthdate of Carl Milton Levin a Democratic United States Senator from Michigan and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services. He has been in the Senate since 1979 and Michigan's senior senator since 1995. He is the longest-serving US Senator ever to represent Michigan.

1935: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Arnold Asher, the graduate of Yeshiva College who received his MHL from Jewish Theological Seminary where he received his ordination and went to serve two congregations in St. Louis.


1935: U.S. premiere of “Love Me Forever” with a script by Jo Swerling and Sidney Buchman.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that after a train was derailed near Lydda, and one British soldier and an Arab railway man were killed, the town was ordered by the authorities to pay a 5,000 pound collective fine. The mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini again alleged in his statement, mailed to the high commissioner, that Jews planned to restore their ancient holy places on the site of al-Aksa mosque. He had also complained that British Army soldiers disregarded the sanctity of Muslim holy places and searched for arms hidden inside mosques. Two British soldiers were wounded while protecting linesmen repairing sabotaged telephone lines.

1936: At Saratoga Springs, NY, “more than 1,000 delegates at the opening of the annual convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham voted this afternoon to conduct the golden jubilee of the order in connection with the fiftieth convention in New York City next year.”

1936: Sixty-five year old anarchist Alexander Berkman who unsuccessfully tried to assassinate Henry Clay Frick during a strike against U.S. Steel passed away today.


1936: Today, Longmans, Green & Co. is scheduled to published The Jews of Germany by Marvin Lowenthal which “is not merely an account of the events of the past years but the full story of the Jews in Germany from 321 A.D. down to the present time” by the author of A World Passed by that described “the surviving monuments and life of the Jews in Europe and Northern Africa.”

1936: “The Gollantz Saga” published today provided a review of Naomi Jacob’s latest work, The Founder of the House.

1936: It was reported today that “Polish Jews are depressed” over the action of the court at Radom in sentencing ten Jews to anywhere from eight month to eight years in prison in connection” with their role in defending themselves during the “anti-Jewish riots at Przytyk last March” and have closed theatres while they engage in fasting and prayer.

1936: At Asbury Park, NJ, the delegates to the 28thannual convention of the Federation of Polish Jews in America adopted “a group of resolutions deploring the wave of anti-Semitism in Europe” and charging the Polish Government “with having ignominiously surrendered to the forces of anarchy and mob violence.”

1937: During the Spanish Civil War, the Palafox Battalion, which included a company of Jewish volunteers named for Naftali Botwin, was formed today.

1937: Mordecai M. Danzis is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Present Condition of Jews in Germany and Palestine” at a meeting of the New Zionist Organization of America followed by a Johan J. Smertenko speaking on “Divide Palestine.”

1938: The British authorities refused to commute the sentence Solomon ben Yosef, a Jewish youth, who is to be hanged tomorrow for having fired at an Arab-owned bus although he caused no casualties.

1938: CBS broadcast the last episode of “the Ford Motor sponsored series ‘Watch the Fun Go By’ featuring Al Pearce.

1938: In New York City, “composer Arthur Schwartz and 1930s’ Broadway ingénue Kay Carrington” gave birth to New York radio personality Jonathan Schwartz who also has recorded parts of the Great American Songbook.

1938: It was reported today that “a renewed wave of suicides among Jews is sweeping Vienna as the result of Nazi orders that Jewish employees must be released by both ‘Aryan’ and Jewish firms” and that employers are forbidden to give” them “severance pay.”

1939: “Delegates to the forty second annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America heald an outdoor meeting at the Jewish Pavilion at the World’s Fair” after having concluded its regular business sessions.  This occasion coincided with the 30thanniversary of the founding of Tel Aviv, the all-Jewish city that has grown from a sand dune to a modern metropolis with 150,000 inhabitants.

1939(11th of Tammuz, 5699): Seventy-year old Samuel Friend, the last Rabbi in Hanover whose wife Minna died at Theresienstadt in 1942, passed away today.

1940: As a result of its non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany that made WW II possible, the Soviet Union began the occupation and annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertza region of Romania

1940: In a letter to Lord Lloyd lamenting the Colonial Sectary’s opposition to arming the Jews of Palestine, Churchill that because of this policy “twenty thousand sorely needed British and Australian troops were tied up in Palestine.  This is the price we have to pay for the anti-Jewish policy which has been persisted in for some years…I is little less than a scandal at a time when we are fighting for our lives that these very large forces should be immobilized in support of a policy which only commends itself to a section of the Conservative Party.”

1940: “Dominican Republic Bars All but Sponsored Immigration” published today described changes in the Central American republic’s treatment of those seeking asylum including Jews from Europe.


1941: U.S. premiere of “Underground” a film about anti-Nazi resistance directed by Vincent Sherman,

1941: German forces entered the Polish city of Drohobych which had been in the Soviet Zone.  This marked the start of the destruction of the Jewish community of Drohobych.

1941: Chief of Gestapo, Henirich Muller, sent Adolph Eichmann to review the destruction in Bialystok and Minsk.

1941: The Germans reoccupied Przemysl today which would prove to be a death sentence for all but 300 of its 17,000 Jewish inhabitants.

1941: For two days, in the German-occupied town of Kovno, Lithuania, Lithuanian police and released convicts use iron bars to beat hundreds of Jews to death in the city's streets. Thousands more Jews are murdered at Kovno, Lithuania, and another 5000 are killed at Brest-Litovsk, Belorussia.

1942: Following the end of fighting at Minsk 40,000 Jews are now trapped in the Nazi killing machine.

1942:  All Jews living in France over the age of 6 are required to wear an armband with a yellow Star of David

1943: In Tunis Lola Bembaron and Siegried Wolinski gave birth to Georges David Wolinski “a French cartoonist and comics writer” who was killed during on a terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris.


1943: Samuel Levy, former Borough President of Manhattan and chairman of the Board of Directors of Yeshiva and Yeshiva College announced today that Dr. Samuel Belkin, Talmudic scholar and dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Yeshiva) since 1941, has been elected president of Yeshiva and Yeshiva College

1944: As the Red Army approaches the concentration camp at Maly Trostinets, Belorussia, near Minsk, regular SS troops replace the non-German SS-auxiliary guards. All surviving prisoners--Jews and non-Jewish Russian civilians--are herded into a barracks that is set ablaze. Any prisoners who manage to exit the burning building are shot. About 20 Jews who had come to Maly Trostinets from the camp/ghetto at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, escape to the woods;

1945(17thof Tammuz, 5705): As the ashes of the Holocaust settle over Europe, Tzom Tammuz took on an additional level of sorrow.

1945: In New York, Lucille (née Geier) and Adolf N. Lakes, who escaped from Nazi Germany in 1935 gave birth to Jane Margaret Lakes, who as Jane Harman gave representing California’s 36th district in 1993.

1946: Birthdate of Gilda Radner, the Detroit born, comedienne who gained famed for weekly appearances on the television show, Saturday Night Live.

1946: In the United States, premiere of “Dead of Night” a horror film produced by Michael Balcon.

1947: In New York, Morris Helprin, the president of London Films and actress Eleanor Lynn Helprin gave birth to Mark Helprin “an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator” who in “2006 Helprin received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award” and in 2010 “was awarded the Salvatori Prize in the American Founding by the Claremont Institute.”

1948(21st of Sivan, 5708): Eighty-three year old Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy, the husband of Helen Calmann Levy and the father of Nicole Germaine Oulman and Robert Paul Michel Calmann-Levy, passed away today.

1948: “Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat appointed as a mediator by the UN” submitted his first plan to end hostilities which if adopted would have “abolished the Jewish state” and created a Kingdom of Transjordan with “a Jewish enclave” which meant the he was voiding Resolution 181 that had created the Jewish state in 1947.

1949: “High Schools for Israel” published today described the plans of Alliance Israelite Universelle to open “new high schools in Israel” and plans “to open additional elementary schools in other countries.

1949: “Irving Tick, the counsel to the Brooklyn Kosher Butchers Association” is scheduled to “be the guest of honor at a dinner tonight at the Belmont Plaza Hotel, given by the meat and provisions division of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.”

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that a modified scheme for national insurance was finally approved by the government and was to be brought before the Knesset. Registration continued for the Four-Year People's Housing Scheme. Twelve thousand housing units were expected to be allocated to needy citizens yearly.

1952: On Shabbat, in Tel Aviv, taxicab drivers pull their vehicles off the road in protest over the government’s new restriction on use of gasoline and restrictions on driving of personal vehicles.

1952: Albert Einstein granted permission for his named to be used for the medical center created by the merger of Northern Liberties Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital now known as the Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia, PA which can trace its roots back to eh Jewish Hospital for the Aged, Infirmed and Destitute founded in 1864.

1954: A raid on Arab Legion camp at Azzun, 13 km east of Qalqilya by a seven man squad that included Meir Har-Zion led by Major Aharon Davidi came to a less than satisfactory end when it was discovered that Sergeant Yitzhak Jibli who had been wouned was taken prisoner by the Jordanians.

1955: U.S. premiere of the film version the novel “Not As A Stranger” directed and produced by Stanley Karmer.

1956: A bill designed to abolish the death penalty that had been introduced by Sydney Silverman received overwhelming approval in the House of Commons which was later voted down in the House of Lords.

1958: The curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Auntie Mame” featuring Marian Winters as “Sally Cato MacDougal.”

1958: “Kings Go Forth,”  a WW II movie co-starring Tony Curtis with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United States.

1959: “Man of Vision” published today provided a review of Isaac Mayer Wise: Pioneer of American Judaism by Joseph Gumbiner, a biography for those 14 to 17 years old.


1959(22nd of Sivan, 5719): Seventy-one year old Herman Leopoldi, the Austrian composer and entertainer who survived Buchenwald passed away today in Vienna after suffering a heart attack.

1960: “Murder, Inc.” starring Peter Falk and directed by Stuart Rosenberg and Burt Balaban, the film’s producer was released today in the United States.

1964(18th of Tammuz, 5724):  The Fast of Tammuz was observed for the first time during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson.

1964: Funeral services are scheduled to be held to be held for seventy-one year old Louis Ackerman, the furrier who was the husband of Bella Ackerman and the father of Morton L. Ackerman.

1965: In Princeton, NJ, physicist Richard Hecht and his wife “Lenore, a psychotherapist” gave birth to Tony nominated actress and singer Jessica Hecht, the younger sister of Elizabeth Hecht and the step-daughter of psychiatrist Howard Iger.

1966: Port Arthur native Irving Loeb Goldberg, a graduate of the University of Texas and Harvard Law School “was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a new seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit created by 80 Stat. 75.”

1967: Several thousand Jews returned to the Hebrew University amphitheater on Mount Scopus, the scene of the inauguration of the university in 1925, cut off from the rest of Jerusalem since 1948.

1967: “Gunn” a movie based on the television detective Peter Gunn featuring Alan Oppenheimer as “Whiteside” was released in the United States today.

1967: Israel removed the barriers that separated occupied east Jerusalem from the rest of the city. This marked the first time that Jerusalem was one city since the illegal occupation by the Jordanians in 1948.

1969: Seymour Pine led the raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. Inspector Pine, who was commander of the New York Police Department’s vice squad for Lower Manhattan when led eight officers into the Stonewall Inn, an illegal club frequented by cross-dressers.  Pine later apologized for his role in the raid.  The raid touched off the Stonewall Uprising, a major turning point for the GLBT to gain full civil rights.

1969: Birthdate of award winning Israeli actress of Ayelet Zurer

1970(24thof Sivan, 5730): Eighty-four year old Prague born and refugee from Nazi Europe Eric Kahler the “cultural historian and author whose works included, the acclaimed The Tower and the Abyss: An Inquiry into the Transformation of the Individual and The Jews Among the Nations passed away today.

1973: “Mohammad Boudia, the Algerian-born director of operations for Black September in France, was killed in Paris by a pressure-activated bomb packed with heavy nuts and bolts placed under his car seat.”

1973 Among those whose names appeared in the Lists of White House 'Enemies' and Memorandums Relating to Those Named published today were Alfred P. Slaner, Daniel Schoor, Marvin Kalb and Barbara Streisand.

1975: Rod Serling passed away.  He gained fame as the creator and opening line presenter of Twilight Zone television series. Serling was born and raised as a Reform Jew.  He became a Unitarian while in college in an attempt to mollify his wife's family who were upset at the prospect of having a Jewish son-in-law.


1976: The Jerusalem Postreported that an Air France jumbo jet was hijacked over Greece with some 216 passengers, including about 70 Israelis, aboard. This was the first instance of the hijacking of an Air France plane. Distraught relatives of Israeli passengers waited all night at Ben-Gurion Airport and the Air France offices in Tel Aviv. (This would prove to be the first act in an adventure that became known as The Raid on Entebbe.)

1976: Air France Flight 139, which had been hijacked by terrorists, arrived at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. The four hijackers were joined by several comrades who were supported by Idi Amin, the pro-Palestinian Uganda dictator.

1977: “One On One” co-starring Robby Benson (Robin David Segal) who also co-authored the screenplay was released today in the United States.

1979(2ndof Tammuz, 5739): Eighty-four composer and conductor Paul Dessau passed away today.


 1979: “The Holocaust Survivors Film Project (HFSP)” which created the Holocaust Survivors Film Project (HFSP), “a collection of recorded interviews with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust located a Yale University” was formally launched today.


1979(2nd of Tammuz, 5739): Stuart Schulberg the son of producer and studio executive B.P. Schulberg and younger brother of novelist/screenwriter passed away today.


1980:  Molly Picon received a Creative Achievement Award from the Performing Arts Unit of B'nai B'rith.


1984: “Shmuel Flatto-Sharon, a financier wanted in France, today lost a 12-year struggle to stay out of prison.”

1984(28th of Sivan, 5744): Yigael Yadin an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, passed away. There is no way to do justice to the life of this fascinating man who did it all from leading Israel in the fight for independence to taking part in some of the most important archaeological digs in history. If you did not know he had lived this life you would have thought it was a product of some famous fiction writer.



1985(9thof Tammuz, 5745): Eighty-six year old Bialysok-born British composer Mischa Spoliansky whose first work in England was creating the music for Sanders of the River, the 1935 cinematic production by the Korda brothers.


1985: “St. Elmo’s Fire,” a dark look at youthful transformation directed by Joel Schumacher who also co-authored the script and co-starring Martin Balsam was released today in the United States.

1986: After 524 performances and 23 previews Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues” directed by Gene Saks closed out its Broadway run at the Neil Simon Theatre.

1986: In Los Angeles, “ormer Geffen Records A&R exec/record producer Tony Berg” and his wife gave birth indie rock vocalist “Elizabeth Anne ‘Z’ Berg.”

1987: A children’s memorial designed by Moshe Safdie and financed by an American Jew named Abraham Spiegel who had lost his two year old son at Auschwitz, opened at Yad Vashem

1988: Dame Shirley Porter (born Shirley Cohen) began serving as Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London.

1988: Iris Margaret Origo, an Anglo-Irish writer who helped to save Jewish children through the kindertransport including the painter Frank Helmut Auerbach passed away today.

1991: “The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear” directed by David Zucker who also co-authored the script for the films on which Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker served as executive producers was released in the United States today.

1993: In Los Angeles, “Sharon Lyn (née Chalkin), a costume designer and fashion stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses” gave birth to actress Elizabeth Greer "Beanie" Feldstein who played “Minnie Fay” in a Broadway revival of “Hello, Dolly” and “Julie Steffans” in the Academy Award nominated comedy “Lady Bird._

1995: Joseph Stiglitz was appointed Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers which made a member of the Clinton Cabinet.

1998: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Nation on Trial: The Goldhagen Thesis and Historical Truth by Norman G. Finkelstein and Ruth Bettina Birn.

2000: As Jews express their dissatisfaction with the decision to beatify Pius IX, “at a symposium on Pius IX held today in Rome, Amos Luzzatto, president of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, said, ''The Mortara case is a wound in the body and spirit of Italian Jews that has yet to be healed.'”

2001: Ekaterina (Katya) Weintraub, 27, of Ganim in northern Samaria was killed and another woman injured late Thursday afternoon by shots fired at the two-car convoy on the Jenin bypass road.

2001 in New York City, New York, Matt Bloom defeated Kane to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship.

2001: American philosopher Mortimer Adler passed away.  Adler was born into a non-observant Jewish home.  He began his philosophic quest in his teens.  Before his death, Adler converted to Roman Catholicism. 

2002: “Mr. Deed” a remake of the 1936 comedy hit starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder was released in the United States today.

2003: At the Library of Congress opening of an exhibition entitled Herblock’s Gift: Selections from the Herb Block Foundation Collection

2004: “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” a comedy produced by Judd Apatow and co-starring Paull Rudd premiered in Los Angeles.

2004: Raleb Majadele entered the Knesset on today as a replacement for Avraham Burg, who had resigned.

2004: Mordechai Yosepov, 49, and Afik Zahavi, four, were killed when a Kassam rocket fired by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip struck near a nursery school in the northern Negev town of Sderot.

2005(24th of Sivan, 5654): On the day before his 73rd birthday, Philip Hobson, the British critic and poet who was the son of Polish-Jewish immigrants passed away today in London.


2006: The Popular Resistance Committees, which earlier in the day  threatened to “butcher” Eliyahu Asheri “in front of TV cameras” “stated that the 18 year old had been killed.”

2007: Screening of “FromPhiladelphia to the Front” at the Vilna Shul / Boston Center for Jewish Heritage in Boston, MA.  For more about this film see www.fromphiladelphiatothefront.com

2007: Israel’s President Moshe Katsav signed a plea agreement under which the rape charges against him will be dropped and he will serve no active jail time.

2007: Bravo began broadcasting “Hey Paula,” the reality television show “which followed Paula Abdul through her day-to-day life.

2007: David Miliband begins serving as Secretary of State of Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

2007: Tel Aviv held its three White Night festival.  Following the tradition of the French, the cultural institutions of Israel’s largest metropolis keep their doors open until “the wee hours of the night.”

2007(12th of Tammuz, 5767): Rabbi Abraham J. Klausner, a Jewish chaplain in the United States Army who arrived at the Dachau concentration camp a few days after its liberation in 1945 and a strong voice for thousands of Holocaust survivors who remained in displaced persons camps for years after the war, passed away at his home in New Mexico at the age of 92. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)


2008: Birkat Hachodesh - On Shabbat, Jews around the world prepare for the saddest month of the year, by announcing that month of Av will arrive on the seventh day of the upcoming week.

2009(6th of Tammuz, 5769): Seventy-nine year old Rabbi Simcha Binem Lieberman, the Gerrer Hasid turned Warsaw Ghetto freedom fighter, turned Talmudic scholar passed away today.


2009: "The Java Jews, an energetic and talented group from Des Moines, IA, with guest artist John Manning, University of Iowa Professor of Tuba perform at the Hillel House at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone” by D.D. Guttenplan

2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish reader including “Arthur Miller: 1915-1962” by Christopher Bigsby and the recently released paperback edition of “For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz Age Chicago” by Simon Baatz

2009: Today, Gideon Shalit’s family said that they would no longer respond to ongoing rumors about their son's release. They claimed the rumors were released by Hamas in order to put pressure on the Israeli government to free terrorists. Defense Minister Barak, too, claimed the rumors are harmful to the efforts to achieve the soldier's release.

2009: The Civil Aviation Authority suspended flights to three southern Russian cities today following a dispute with Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency. All flights from Israel to Sochi, Rostov and Krasnodar have been discontinued until further notice. The underlying cause of the dispute was an attempt by the Russian aviation authority to create a situation in which Russian airlines would dominate the routes at the expense of Israeli carriers.

2009: Tony Kushner’s latest play, “The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures,” is scheduled to have its final performance.2010: Elena Kagan's confirmation hearings began today.

2010:The committee appointed to investigate the flotilla crisis of a month ago held its first meeting today

2010: Chelsea “Handler was named to Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful People today, which noted “Her bawdy obsessions—drinking, midgets, bodily functions, minorities, relatives, overinvolved mothers—brought in $19 million-plus for the 12 months ended June 1 … A handful of years ago no one in entertainment had heard of her.” (JWA)

2011:Philip Roth, the much-lauded author of "Portnoy's Complaint", is scheduled to be officially awarded the biennial Man Booker International Prize in London today. The prize, announced during the Sydney Writers' Festival, is worth 60,000 pounds for the winner, and living authors whose works of fiction are either originally in English or generally available in English translation are eligible.  It honors a writer's body of work as opposed to the annual Man Booker Prize for Fiction, which is awarded for a single book.

2011: An opening reception is scheduled to be held this evening marking the opening of an exhibition that will include “Under Destruction” a work created by Ariel Schlesinger, a sabara who studied at Bezalel, Academy for Art and Design, Jerusalem

2011:Justice Ministry officials came out today in defense of Deputy State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan, who been under public attack in the wake of Rabbi Dov Lior's arrest a day earlier for allegedly encouraging incitement. Lior was arrested, questioned, and released yesterday after refusing to appear for an inquiry for his endorsement of the controversial book, “Torat Hamelech,” which justifies killing non-Jews. His arrest prompted several protests, as right-wing activists attempted to block the entrance to Jerusalem and around 200 protesters gathered outside the High Court of Justice in Jerusalem. 20 MKs have signed an appeal to disband Nitzan's team. MK Uri Ariel (National Union) said today that Nitzan, with help from Attorney General Yehuda , "holds the entire settler community as guilty until proven innocent." Ariel added that "the recommendation to question Rabbi Lior underscores a strategy of intimidation and silencing, that reflects an atmosphere of incitement coming from the state prosecution." But some of the attacks on Nitzan were more violent in nature. A poster has been circulating featuring a photograph of Nitzan and the words: "enemy of the Torah." Far-right activist Itamar Ben Gvir said Nitzan is "brewing up a storm." Due to past protests by the right-winger against Nitzan there is already a security detail guarding his home in Jerusalem. Justice department officials wrote in a letter that "in a law-abiding state, where a president, prime ministers, ministers and MKs, religious leaders and senior public figure have been questioned, no one is above the law. The officials emphasized that for a long time there have been negotiations with the rabbi's aides in an attempt to bring him to questioning in a dignified and quiet way. "These attempts were rejected, so there was no choice but to issue the arrest warrant," they wrote. Earlier on today, opposition leader Tzipi Livni attacked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for not supporting law enforcement and justice officials. "How do you not defend the officials in the Justice Ministry who are working to uphold the law, while there is severe incitement against them from the outside?" Livni asked. "No one likes to see a rabbi arrested, including me," Livni said. "And I also don't like to see a prime minister under investigation or a president going to prison, but Israel must maintain itself as a law-abiding country where everyone is equal before the law." 

2011: The lower house of the Dutch parliament voted to ban the ritual slaughter of animals, Reuters reported. Under the bill passed today, animals are required to be stunned before slaughter. Both Jewish and Muslim ritual slaughter must be performed while the animal is fully conscious.  The upper house still must approve the measure, which is being protested by Holland’s Jewish and Muslim communities as an attack on their religious freedom. Some 40,000 Jews and about 1 million Muslims live in the country. The bill was put forward by the Animal Rights Party, which claims that stunning before slaughter causes less pain to the animal. The Jewish and Muslim communities have a year to prove otherwise or the law goes into effect. "This is absolutely impossible to prove," Netherlands Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs told Reuters. "You can't ask the animal how it feels afterwards." The European Union requires animals to be stunned before slaughter, but makes exceptions for religiously mandated ritual slaughter. Nevertheless, ritual slaughter is banned in Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

2011: Dr. Oliver Wolf Sacks discussed his work and his personal health issues during the BBC documentary “Imagine.”

2011: According to Haaretz, today in his “remarks to the International Council of Jewish Parliamentarians, Ronald Lauder scolded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for a number of missteps, including lacking a diplomatic plan heading into the September UN vote on Palestinian statehood and setting preconditions for negotiations as part of the peace process in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict,

2011:An estimated hundred thousand people took part in the funeral procession of Rabbi Michel Yehuda Lefkowitz in Bnei Brack today. Lefkowitz, an admired educational figure in the Lithuanian and general haredi world, passed away at the age of 97 yesterdy. Born in  Valozhyn, he arrived in Israel in 1936. For over the past 50 years he headed the prestigious Yeshivat Ponovezh L’Tzeirim for young yeshiva students in Bnei Brak, alongside Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman.  Over the years Lefkowitz became one of the sector's leading educators, who rarely was involved in political issues, considered an authority on matters of spiritual guidance.

2011: Shia LaBeouf “reprised his role in the third live-action Transformers film, Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” which was released today.

2012: The remaining 18 families living at Givat Ulpana are scheduled to leave their homes today and move to temporary housing at a nearby military base. (As reported by Josh Davidovich)

2012: In Portland, Oregon, The American Conference of Cantors-Guild of Temple Musicians' Convention is scheduled to come to a close.

2012: Chris Murphy, Chief of Staff to D.C. Mayor Gray, is scheduled to speak at noontime meeting sponsored by The D.C. Commission of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC)

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Peace & Love Festival in Borlange, Sweden. 

2012:The IDF is bolstering defenses along the Syrian border and beefing up its forces due to concern that terrorist groups are planning a cross-border attack in the Golan Heights, commander of Division 36 Brig.-Gen. Tamir Hyman said today.

2012:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned members of the Keshev Committee today that unless mandatory national service for the Arab sector is instituted, he may decide not to bring the committee's recommendations to the Knesset for a vote. The Keshev Committee, tasked with drafting proposals to replace the Tal Law, announced earlier today that the panel had decided instead to institute a recruitment target for national service in the Arab community of at least 6,000 recruits from the sector by 2016.

2012:Dozens of artists, musicians and performers have joined a Facebook campaign calling for a boycott of the Tel Aviv municipality's annual White Night event today, to protest police violence against social justice demonstrators last week.

2013: “Fill the Void,” a film that “tells the story of an Orthodox Hassidic Family from Tel Aviv is scheduled to open in several theatres including the Chez Artiste 3 in Denver, the Camelot in Palm Springs, the Criterion in New Haven and the River Oaks Theatre 3 in Houston.

2013: Marlene Trestman is scheduled to deliver the Donald S. Shire lecture at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. “The speech is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Department of Labor in addition to recognizing the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the Fair Labor and Equal Pay Acts, respectively, for which Bessie Margolin worked tirelessly. (As reported by Alan Samson, CCJN)

2013: “The Attack,” a film about an Israeli-Arab doctor whose wife is killed in a terrorist attacks is scheduled to be released at theatres throughout the United States.

2013: Marlene Trestman will deliver the Donald S. Shire lecture at the U.S. Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. The speech is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Department of Labor in addition to recognizing the 75th and 50th anniversaries of the Fair Labor and Equal Pay Acts, respectively, for which Bessie Margolin worked tirelessly. (As reported by Alan Smason)

2013: “The Sexuality Spectrum sponsored by HUC-JIR is scheduled to come to an end.

2013: In the United Kingdom, premiere of “The Act of Killing” a documentary directed by Joshua Oppenheimer.

2013:  At the Weiner Library, Filmmaker Alan Reich is scheduled to discuss his latest project, “The Last Boat,” which tells the story of the incredible rescue of seventy Jewish children and their two chaperones out of Poland on a British boat arriving in England three days before the start of World War Two.

2013: The IDF deployed an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery in the Haifa area early this morning, amid heightened tensions in the North stemming from the ongoing Syrian civil war.

2013: The German Federal Administrative Court vetoed a bid to release classified foreign intelligence documents that would reveal western spies knew where Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann escaped to after World War II, British media reported today.

2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s senior adviser Ron Dermer will be appointed Israeli ambassador to the United States, Army Radio reported today

2014: Jonathan Lethem is scheduled to read from his latest book, Dissident Gardens, this evening at Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City.

2014: “The Wonders,” a film about “a bartender who doubles as a graffiti artist in Jerusalem is scheduled to be shown at the Portland Jewish Film Festival.

2014(30th of Sivan, 5774): Ninety-three year old composer Seymour Barab passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)




2014(30th of Sivan, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Sivan

2014: Trio of Anniversaries of events that still resonate with us today: 625thanniversary of Battle of Kosovo,

100thanniversary of the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife and the 95th anniversary of the signing of the Versailles Treaty

2014: “Israelis broke all records of electricity consumption in June as tempertures climbed over 40 degrees Celsisu” means that from Kiryat Shmona to Eilat, the country was in the grip of near record heat wave. (As reported by Ilana Curiel)

2014: “The IAF attacked 3 hidden rocket launchers in the central Gaza stipr tonight in response to the barrage of rockets fired into southern Israel, one of which hit a factory that was burned to the ground.(As reported by Yoav Zitun)

2014: As rocket attacks from Gaza continue to intensify a missle fired from Beit Hanoun hit the "Denber" plastic factory in Sderot's industrial area, causing a large fire to break out which resulted in the destruction of the factory. While some workers were injured there was no loss of life.

2015: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Why Grow Up? by Susan Neiman and The Odd Woman and the City  by Vivian Gornick

2015(11th of Tammuz, 5775): Ninety-three year old comedian Jack Carter passed away today.


2015(11th of Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-one year old conservative commentator Ben Wattenberg passed away today.


2015: “Parents in some 70 towns” including Herzliya and Holon keep their children at home today as part of the protest “against overcrowding in classrooms.”

2015: In Amherst, MA, the Yiddish Book Center is scheduled to present “In the Unlikeliest of Places:

How Nachman Libeskind Survived the Nazis, Gulags, and Soviet Communism.”

2015: The Naomi Prawer Kadar International Yiddish Summer Program is scheduled to begin at Tel Aviv University.

2015: “Rabbi Shlomo Riskin's term as Chief Rabbi of Efrat was extended by five years today after a month-long controversy in which the Chief Rabbinate was allegedly planning to retire him at age 75 because of his religious views on the advancement of women in Orthodoxy and an inclusive approach towards conversion.”

2016: “War Paint,” a musical based the lives of “Helena Rubinstein and Elizabeth Arden defined beauty standards for the first half of the 20th Century” premiered today.

2016: Professor Hillel Kieval of Washington University in St. Louis is scheduled to deliver at lecture on “Blood Inscriptions: Science, Modernity, and Ritual Murder in Fin de Siècle Europe” at the Birkbeck University of London.

2016: “Following numerous incidents of rock throwing by Palestinians, police today announced that the Mount, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims, would be closed to Jewish visitors and tourists for three days and that extra forces would be deployed to prevent rioting. 2016: “Vita Activa: The Spirit of Hannah Arendt” is scheduled to be shown at the 24thPortland Jewish Film Festival today.

2017: In Tennessee, the Memphis Jewish Community Center is scheduled to host a performance by the members of the Israeli Scout Friendship Caravan.

2017: Today, “Thirty years after his release from Soviet camps, where he was subjected to forced labor as punishment for clandestine Zionist activity, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein became the first Israeli politician to address Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, in a triumphant turnaround for the one-time “Prisoner of Zion.”

2017: Today, during a reunion of “10 American pilots who agreed to deliver jets to the IDF” during the Yom Kippur War “retired US fighter pilot Roy “Bubba” Segars and retired Israeli fighter pilot Jacob “Booby” Daube held a photo they took together during the 1973 Yom Kippur War at the same Tel Nof airbase in Israel”(IDF Spokesperson, courtesy)

2017: In Iowa, the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host “Thank You for Being Late,” an evening with columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman.

2017: Tom Jones is scheduled to perform at Tel Aviv’s Menorah Arena this evening.

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Keep the Change” directed by Rachel Israel at London’s Phoenix Cinema

2018: Today, Prince William, the future king of England “private visits to various holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City, including the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre” as well as the “Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which are located on the Temple Mount.”

2018: Today, “an ultra-Orthodox Knesset member threatened El Al with a consumer boycott should the airline remove ultra-Orthodox passengers unwilling to sit next to women.”

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “Profiles of Courage” an “interactive event” featuring veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host the final London screenings of “The Boy Downstairs” starring Zosia Mamet and Mathew Shear Shear.

2018: A screening of “Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel” a documentary about the Israeli national baseball’s team trip to the World Baseball Classic Sponsored by the Ed Berkowitz Film Education Fund is scheduled to take place at the Avalon Theatre in Washington, D.C.

2019: “The feature-length documentary ‘The Spy Behind Home Plate’” is scheduled to open today in Boston, San Diego, Denver, St. Louis, Santa Cruz, CA, Grand Rapids, MI, Sarasota, FL, Marion, NC and Los Angeles.

2019(25th of Sivan, 5779): Centenarian Ruth Lillian Feder, the Cedar Rapids born daughter of Rose and David Padzensky and the wife of Iz Feder passed away today.


2019: In San Francisco, Magain David Sephardim Congregation is scheduled to begin hosting a young adult Shabbaton which is part of a “two-day Sephardic Shabbat experience.

2019: The Limud Bay Area Festival is scheduled to open today at Sonoma State University.

2019: The seminar “Jews and Political Philosoph” lead by Ruth Wisse, Leora Batnitzky and Yual Levin is scheduled to come to an end today.

2020: The KlezCalifornia workshop is scheduled to host “Bread & Roses: Yiddish Songs of the Jewish Labor Movement, with Cindy Paley ONLINE.”

2020: 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 The Red Daughter by John Burnham Schwartz and The Story of the Jews, Volume Two, Belonging 1491-1900 by Simon Schama

2020: Jewish LearningWorks is scheduled to present, virtually, “Ladino Culture and Literature” with U. of Washington professor Devin E. Naar talking about the Ladino language’s role in Jewish culture from 1492 until World War

2020: The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is scheduled to hold a virtual gala at 2 p.m. today, in partnership with Medici.TV, to benefit the Orchestra three months after COVID-19 forced indefinite concert cancellations.

2020: The Jewish Genealogical Society of George is scheduled to present a Zoom Webinar featuring author and journalist Libby Copeland as she “discusses her new book, The Lost Family.”

2020: ELEM / Youth in Distress in Israel, in collaboration with BMAD music, is scheduled to host a FREE benefit show on YouTube live, in celebration and support of ELEM's work in Israel.

2020: The Friends of the Arava Institute is are scheduled to host online “Water as an Instrument for Peace: Middle Eastern Cooperation in the Face of COVID-19.”

2020: Yad Vashem is scheduled to host a special online lecture “Pius XII and the Holocaust: What Can We Learn from the Vatican Archives?”

2020: Were it not for the Pandemic, today would mark the end of o The Streicker Center’s “Israel Culinary Trip 2020.

2020: The coronavirus cabinet is scheduled to meet today at the request of Defense Minister Benny Gantz, amid the rise in cases of COVID-19. (As reported by YNET)









This Day, June 29, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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JUNE 29

1096: Crusaders massacred the Jews of Mehr.

1106: Moses Sephardi was baptized at Huseca, Spain and took the name of Petrus Alphonsi, the noted “physician, writer, astronomer and polemicist.”  Among those who took issue with Alphonsi’s multiple attacks on Judaism was Jacob be Reuben, a Spanish rabbi who wrote Sefer Milhamot Adonai ("Book of the Wars of the Lord"

1312: Today, upon the return of Emperor Henry VII “from his coronation in the Lateran Basilica, he was presented with a scroll of the Law by a delegation of Jews which had gone to meet him.”

1397: Birthdate of John II of Aragon who reigned from 1456 until his death in 1479. During John’s reign Conversos and Jews held positions of power and influence. John even employed a Jew as his personal physician.  Within 13 years of his death, the Jews would be expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.

1494: A fire broke out destroying part of Warsaw. The Jews were accused of setting the fire and attacked. King John I ordered them to leave the city and move to the "suburb" of Kazimierz, which became the first Polish ghetto. Jews were confined to the ghetto until 1868.

1509: Lady Margaret Beaufort whose son King Henry VII agreed to Spanish demands that Jews not be allowed to live in England as part of the terms of the marriage of his son to Catherine and whose grandson Henry VIII purchased a Talmud in his attempt justify divorcing Catherine and marrying Anne Boleyn, passed away today. (As reported by David Sedley)

1598: Birthdate of English preacher and political leader Hugh Peters who supported the ideas of Roger Williams which included “writing on behalf of the toleration of Jews.”

1613: Fifteen years after the copyright was obtained for the “Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre burned.

1652(23rd of Tammuz): Bible scholar Moses de Meccado passed away today.

1654: In Cuenca, Spain, 57 Marranos were taken to the auto-da-fe. Ten were burnt to death. One of them, Balthasar Lopez, announced as he was taken to the stake "I don't believe in Christ even if you bind me." He had returned recently from Bayonne in order to persuade his nephew to return to Judaism when he was captured by the Inquisition.

1654: A large auto-de-fe took place in Cuenca where many were burned to death. One man about to be burned threw the crucifix away from him. A priest scrambled to retrieve it and managed to talk the man into holding it again. As the executioner began to do his job, the priest asked if the man was truly repent, the dying man looked at him and said, "Father…do you think that this is a time to joke?"

1665: During the Inquisition, a “great auto-de-fe” took place in Cordova.

1720: Judah Monis, the son of Portguese conversos who had been educated at Jewish schools in Italy and Holland submitted a handwritten copy of A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue to the Harvard Corporation which led to his being awarded a Masters of Degree making him the first Jew to graduate from Harvard.  He would later convert so that he could join the school’s faculty.

1756(1st of Tammuz, 5516): Schoeneche Moses, A.M. Rothschild’s mother, dies from smallpox.

1776(12thof Tammuz, 5536): Parshat Chukat

1776: Jews in the 13 colonies observed Shabbat for the last time as British subjects since the Continental Congress would be publishing the Declaration of Independence in the upcoming week.

1776: As members of New York’s Congregation Sheartih Israel observe Shabbat, the massive British fleet carrying the army that was ordered to crush the rebellion in North America dropped anchor in the water’s just outside of the city.

1779: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Isaac Haim Bitton, who, at the age of ten, moved to London with his father where he became noted bare-knuckle (pre-Marquis of Queensbury) boxer.

1790(17th of Tammuz, 5550): Tzom Tammuz observed as “diplomats from England, Austria, Prussia and the United Provinces were meeting at Reichenbach “to discuss possible military intervention against the French Reovltuion.

1806: Two days after he passed away, Samson Gompertz, the son of Barent Gompertz and Rachel Benjamin Isaac was buried today in the United Kingdom

1807: Birthdate of mathematician Mortiz Abraham Stern, the native of Frankfurt who “was the first Jewish full professor at a German university” in this case Göttingen University.

1813: In New York, Eleazar Samuel Lazarus and Zipporah Lazarus gave birth to Moses Lazarus the husband of Esther Lazarus who were the parents of the famous poet Emma Lazarus.

 1814: Aaron Nathan married Mary Mosely at the Great Synagogue.

1818: Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his wife gave birth to their fourth son, Baron Mayer Nathan de Rothschild who married his first cousin Juliana, the eldest daughter of Isaac Cohen in 1850.  He was the father-in-law of Lord Rosebery.

1819: In Cologne, Germany, the former Marianne Rindskopf and Isaac Juda Offenbach Eberst gave birth to their second son Jakob Offenbach who gained game as cellist and prolific composer Jacques Offenbach, the creator of almost 100 operettas.

1820: In Krakow, “Jekuthiel Solomon, a scholarly merchant who claimed he was a descendant of R. Moses Isserles” and his wife gave birth “to Polish Galician rabbi and historian Haim Nathan Dembitzer.”

1827(4th of Tammuz, 5587): Sixty-five year old Moses Belinfante who founded Sulamith, the first Dutch newspaper devoted to reporting the news of the Jewish community passed away today at The Hague.

1828(17th of Tammuz, 5588): Tzom Tammuz

1828: Birthdate of Solomon Loeb, the German-American merchant and banker who founded Kuhn, Loeb & Co.

1832(1st of Tammuz, 5592): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1832(1st of Tammuz, 5592): Eleven year old George Levy, the son of Hayman and Almeria Levy passed away today.

1836: Today twice married Joshua Lopez, the son of Sarah Rodriguez Rivera and Aaron Edward Lopez married Mary Ann Gomez, the mother of his son Aaron Edwin Lopez.

1847: Barnet Samuel Phillips married Philippa Samuel at the Great Synagogue.

1849: Birthdate of Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte, the 1st Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire whose career had suffered because his second wife, Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich, was a converted Jew.

1852: “Hospital for the Jews” published today reported that "a number of Jewish citizens have united together for the purpose" of providing medical and surgical care to their poor co-religionists.  The article provides a long list of names to which contributions can be sent including Samson Simson, John I. Hart and Benjamin Nathan.



1852: In Cincinnati, Oho, Fannie and Solomon Loeb were married today.



1852: Henry Clay, U.S. Senator from Kentucky and Secretary of State, passed away. In 1832, Senator Clay had used the term “Jew” in a manner that Samuel Etting of Baltimore considered a slur on his people.  He wrote to Clay complaining of his language.  Clay wrote back and apologized assuring Ettinger that he had not intended the use of the word Jew to be taken in that manner and that he had the utmost respect for the Jewish people.  In 1850, Senator Clay led the fight in the Senate to reject a treat with the Swiss Confederation which would have subjected American Jews traveling in Switzerland to the laws of that country that discriminated against any Jews living there regardless of their nationality.  [When you consider how few Jews there were living in the United States at this time, let alone in Kentucky, one cannot assume that Clay’s positive interaction on Jewish matters was one that he thought would bring him great political gain.]



1852(12th of Tammuz, 5612): Rabbi Aaron Moses Taubes passed away today.






1853: An article entitled "France," subtitled "Theatrical and Operatic Intelligence" published today reports from Paris that Halevy's opera, "The Nabob" will be produced in less than a month.  It is his first production since the close of "The Wandering Jew."



1855: Joseph Moses Levy agreed to print the Daily Telegraph & Courier which was founded today and which Levy acquired when the original owner failed to pay his printing bill.

1857: The New York Times reported that “both Houses of Parliament were engaged in consider the Jews’ Oath and Disabilities bill.”  A motion to insert the words “on the true faith of a Christain” as is found in the current oath was rejected by a vote of 341 to 201.  During the debate, Lord Palmerston said “that with the passage of the bill there was nothing to prevent Jews from hold the office of Lord Chancellor or Prime Minister.

1857: The New York Times reported that "In the House of Commons, Lord Palmerston gave notice that he would bring a bill to remodel the Parliamentary oaths - to omit the words 'on the true faith of a Christian’ and thereby to admit Jews into Parliament.  Leave was given to bring in the bill."

1862(1st of Tammuz, 5622): A month to the day after General Beauregard’s Confederate Army abandoned Corinth to the Union Army, Jews observed Rosh Chodesh Tammuz.

1863: During the Civil War, the 11thregiment of the New York State Militia under the command of Colonel Joachim Maidhof which had been folded into the Union Army, “took part in a skirmish near Oyster Point, PA.”

1864: Elias Leon Hyneman a trooper in the 5thPennsylvania Cavalry was taken prisoner during a raid near Petersburg, VA.  Hyneman was captured after he had given his horse to a wounded trooper whose horse had been shot out from under him and gave his boots to another wounded comrade who was barefoot.  Hyneman ended up the hell of Andersonville where he died in January of 1865. It was a miserable end for man who had volunteered at the start of the war and had fought with the Army of the Potomac from 1862 through the Wilderness Campaign of 1864.

1864(25th of Sivan, 5624): During the Civil War, Henry Cohen of South Carolina was killed while serving with the Confederacy.

1865: Philadelphian Ellis C. Strouss who had enlisted as a Private in Company K of the 57th Regiment in 1861 completed his service having reached the rank of Captain.

1865: Jacob Herrman, who had risen to the rank of Sergeant in Company C of the 98th Regiment and who had been “wounded at Cedar Creek, VA in 1864 completed his service that had begun in 1861)

1869: Elie-Aristide Astruc, who had been serving as the Chief Rabbi of Belgium of 1866 attended the Synod at Leipzig which began today.

1869: In Indianapolis, IN, John and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington gave birth to novelist Newton Booth Tarkington who gained fame as Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Booth Tarkington author of The Magnificent Ambersons  whom, according to Greg Wright may, or may not have been an anti-Semite of sorts. (Editor’s note – I will leave this up to the readers to make their own decision)


1870(30th of Sivan, 5630): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1872: Jacob Levi, a Jew from Germany, living in New York, was arrested by Captain Leary on charges of having swindled Alois Grieshaber out of $545 and Joseph Ruath out of $1,000. He was “committed to the Tombs” where he will stay until his trial takes place.

1875:  Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria passed away. During Ferdinand’s reign the Jews became full-fledged citizens of the Empire under the terms of the “Ausgleich”.

1877: Today, Frederick W. Seward, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State wrote a letter today to Meyer S. Isaacs, the President of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites.  The letter was written in response to one that the Board of Delegates had sent asking that the U.S. government intervene on behalf of the Jews, many of them who are from Russia, living in and around Jerusalem. The secretary said that normally protection of the U.S. government is given only to U.S. citizens living abroad.  However, the U.S. has shown its “sympathy for all the oppressed peoples in foreign countries” so long as it actions can be taken in accordance with “international courtesy and diplomatic usage.” 

1878: “A Large Furniture House Fails” published today described the surprising demise of B.L. Solomon and Sons, a 45 year old concern whose partners included four Solomons – Barnet, Solomon, Judah and Simon.  The company reported that it had $300,000 in liabilities.  The failure was attributed to the inability to liquidate real estate own by B.L. Solomon which, if it had been sold, would have been able to provide more than adequate working capital for the company.[Drop in the real estate market causes business failure – sound familiar?)

1881: The Board of Estimate and Apportionment awarded $51,556.42 to a variety of charitable insituions including $2,020.00 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.

1881: Birthdate of Berlin native and noted musicologist Curt Sachs, a refugee from the Nazis who settled in the United where he taught at NYU and Columbia and whose contributions to his field of endeavor are remember in the Curt Sachs Award created by the American Music Instrument Society.




1882: As the Freight Handlers’ Strike continues to slow down commercial activity in New York and New Jersey, foreign born strike-breakers including150 Russian Jews were kept busy at the piers of the Empire and Star Union Lines. Other foreign born workers including those from Germany and Italy were work elsewhere on the docks. 

1882: The Board of Estimate and Apportionment met in the Mayor’s office today and awarded $27,427.98 to a variety of charitable institutions including $1,433.81 to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.

1882: “A Noble Hebrew Charity” published today reported that the newly opened Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in Yonkers is the first of its kind to be built and furnished by the B’nai B’rith. The plan is to build an orphanage on the same grounds once funds are available.  Both facilities are for the use members and their families.  The home has a capacity for approximately 250 men and women.

1882: According to reports from Odessa (Russia), the District Court of Tiraspol (Moldavia) has sentenced the “anti-Semites” who killed one Jew and injured several others during riots at Dubosari (Moldavia) in April.  The guilty parties have been deprived of their civil rights and transportation (to Siberia) for three years.


1882: It was reported today that the Sultan is about to issue a “firman” granting Jewish refugees the right to settle in parts of North Syria and Mesopotamia

1883: “Pauper Immigrants” published today described the quandary faced by the Emigration Commissioners in dealing with those arriving on ships from Great Britain who appeared to be indigent. According to the Attorney General of New York, those without funds would be admitted only if they could prove that they had friends who were willing and able to care for them. The deliberations never mentioned Russian or Romanian Jews, but they would obviously be affected by the ruling. [Editor’s Note – Immigration policy disputes are not a 21st century invention.]

1884: The Jewish quarter was pillaged today during anti-Semitic riots in Algiers.

1884: The Mound Street Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio was the scene of today’s graduation exercises for those who have successfully completed the course of study at the Hebrew Union College, which describes itself as the only Rabbinical College in the United States.  The class of five was the second to graduate.  All of last year’s graduates are employed.  So far, one member of this year’s class has been hired by a congregation in Leavenworth, Kansas and the others expect job offers within the near future.


1887: It was reported today that the Hebrew Technical Institute on Stuyvesant Street is beginning new classes that will include instruction in mechanical drawing, word working, clay modeling and metal working as well as math, physics and English.  The full course of instruction takes three years to complete. [The emphasis on vocational education reflects the need to provide skills for eastern European Jews who did not know how to compete in the industrial world of their new home country.]

1888: In Paris, Jules Halphen and Marie Rodrigues-Péreire gave birth to Noémie Halphen, the granddaughter of financier Eugène Péreire of the Sephardic-Jewish Péreire family of Portugal who were banking rivals of the Rothschilds who gained fame as philanthropist Noemie de Rothschild, the wife of Maurice de Rothschild and mother Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild

1889(30th of Sivan, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz and on the Jewish calendar, the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Moses Najara of Damascus.

1890: “Arrested For Arons published today described claims by authorities that they have affidavits from witnesses claiming they saw Samson Hiedenheimer, a prominent Galveston, TX Jewish businessman set fired to the Standard Oil Mill and then drive off in a buggy with his brother Isaac Heidenheimer.  The Heidenheimers own the company and it is alleged they burned it to collect insurance money.

1891: In Xanten, Prussia, the libelous charges of ritual murder were uttered publicly. The rise of anti-Semitism culminating in this libel resulted in an exodus of Jews from Germany to the United States and other countries.

1891: Serious “anti—Semitic riots are reported” to have broken out in Kherson in southern Russia.

1892: “Will Challenge De Mores” published today described the plans of Captain Andre Crémieu-Foa, a Jew serving in the French army to fight a duel with Marquis de Mores after he has stood trial for killing Captain Armand Mayer.  De Mores has already fought a duel with Eduard Drumont following his articles in Libre Parole claiming that Jews have too much control over the French Army

1892: “In a letter to his mentor Josef Breuer, Sigmund Freud makes his first references to the ‘unconscious’ and to unconscious motivation.”

1893(15th of Tammuz, 5653): Thirty-three year old historian Julius Aronius who was working on a history of the Jews of Germany during the Middle Ages which gave “in chronological order, under each date, an abstract of every entry in the medieval chronicles and documents relating to the Jews of Germany” at the time of his death today in Rastenburg.

1895: Annie Silverman, the wife of Wolf Silverman passed away today in New York.

1895: “Homeless and Destitute Jews” published today relies on information that first appeared in The London Daily News to described the plight of the “nearly two hundred Jews” who have been left “homeless and destitute” by the terrible fire at Brest-Litovsk.  The refugees are being take care of by the Hebrew Benevolent Association at Odessa.

1896: Birthdate of Boris Podollsky, the Russian born American physicist who worked with Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, the father of Dr. Joe Rosen.

1896: Two days after he passed away, seventy-seven Hannah Nathan (nee Hart) who had been married to Morris Horowitz before she married Moses Nathan was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1896: Herzl leaves Turkey in possession of the "Commander's Cross of the Order of the Medjidje" as visible evidence of the seriousness of the negotiations. On the way back to Vienna, Herzl spends a few hours in Sofia. He his conducted to the Zionist Society and the synagogue. Hundreds of people cheer him.

1896: “Julius S. Abecasis, the well-known rubber broker” and prominent member of the Sephardic community in New York, was injured today “in a collision between his bicycle and an express wagon driven by Charles Reilly.

1897: “The Hebrew Technical School for Girls held its commencement exercises today at the school building on Henry Street.”

1897(29th of Sivan, 5657): Sixty-five year old Solomon Bloomfield, a member of the Free Sons of Israel, died this morning at Mt. Sinai Hospital.  A native of Germany, he came to this country 40 years settling first in New York before moving to California where he operated a successful tobacco business. Upon returning to New York “he opened a shoe store on Sixth Avenue” which he continued to operate “until two years ago when he retired.”

1897: “Jews Persecuted in Persia” published today described reports by the United States Minister of Persia of a recent Muslim invasion of the Jewish quarter in Teheran. His appeal to the Shah failed to improve matters since “the officers sent to protect” them “extorted all their money.”

1900: The  Prinzessin Victoria Luise a German passenger ship of the Hamburg-America Line of some 4,409 gross register tons credited with having been the first purpose-built cruise ship which was built after Albert Ballin, the director of the Hamburg-American Line envisioned the project and order it built, was launched today.

1901(12th of Tammuz, 5661): Parashat Chukat-Balak

1901: “Our London Cable” published today took note of the recent death of composer Charles Kensington Salaman author of The Jews as They Published which contained an “ingenious chapter entitled ‘Shylock from a Jewish Point of View’.” (Editor’s note – the item did not mention that this distinguished musician was Jewish.)

1902:”A Museum of Peace and War” published today described the opening of the museum in Lucerned found by the late Russian financier, economist and author of The Future of War, Jan Gotlib Bloch who was born Jewish but converted to Calvinism.

1903: In New York City, real estate developer Abraham Felt and his wife gave birth to Wharton graduate James Felt who followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather when he went into to the real estate business instead of becoming a Rabbi and went on to become the Chairman of the City Planning Commission


1903: Birthdate of Alan Blumlein, English engineer, who played a key role in developing electronic equipment for the RAF that was critical in holding the Germans at bay in the years following the fall of France in 1940.

1904: In Louisville, KY, The Committee on Synod delivered its report to conference of Reform Rabbis that favored the establishment of “a synod to for the central government of the church” which would be the most important step taken since the start of the Reform movement because up until now, each congregation has acted in a virtually autonomous manner.

1904: NYU trained attorney Henry B. Singer, the Carbondale, PA son of Samuel and Dorothea Singer married Francis Moses today.

1905: It was reported today that fervor of revolution “has spread to the cities in the Jewish Pale in all the old Polish provinces along the border of Russian Poland proper” and in Kiev about 200 Jews “were ridden down by gendarmes and Cossacks” after they had been found carrying a red flag and shouted “Down with the war!”

1906: Birthdate of Port Arthur, TX, native and Harvard Law School graduate Irving Loeb Goldberg, the WW II naval veteran who capped his legal career by serving as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

1906: Birthdate of San Francisco native Benjamin A. “Benny” Lom, the three-season all-star halfback at the University of California, Berkley “best known for his attempt to stop a team mate from running the “wrong way” in the 1929 Rose Bowl

1907(17th of Tammuz, 5667): Parashat Balak

1907: The 120 delegates attending the Zionist Conventions in Tannersville, NY, did not transact any business today because it was Shabbat.

1908: Birthdate of Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon, American Jewish archaeological scholar. Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon was a scholar of Near East culture and a leading expert on ancient languages. Dr. Gordon was professor of Near Eastern studies at Brandeis University from 1956 to 1973 and chairman of its department of Mediterranean studies from 1958 to 1973. He was a professor of Hebrew studies at New York University from 1973 to 1989, when he retired. In part, his claim to fame came from his writings on Ugaritic, an ancient language spoken in part of what is today is modern Syria.  Based on his linguistic and other studies, Dr. Gordon believed that the Greeks and the Israelites had a common cultural origin.  Dr. Gordon passed away in 2001.

1909: “Money Spent to Guard Jews” published today described plans by the reactionaries governing Odessa to “bring an action against” those governing the city in 1909 for the misuse funds because among other things, they spent a large amount of money “for the maintenance of a special militia against the anti-Jewish outbreaks.”

1910: Birthdate of composer Frank Loesser. Loesser wrote such Broadway hits as “Guys and Dolls” and “How To Succeed in Business Without Trying.”  He won an Oscar for "Baby It's Cold Outside."  He passed away in 1969.

1911: In Los Angeles, The American Medical Association elected 85 year old Dr. Abraham Jacob, “a specialist in children’s diseases” who “took part in the German revolution of 1848 and came to the United States as refugee, to serve as President making him the first person to be so chosen who was not a convention attendee.

1911: Joseph Seligman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Seligman is scheduled to marry Josephine Knowles of Pensacola, FL, in Massawittie Lodge in North Hatley, Canada.

1911: Birthdate of composer Bernard Herrmann, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia who created the theme music of a whole host of films, including Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Amberson.  He was a favorite of Alfred Hitchcock for whom provided the theme muic for Trouble with Harry, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho.  He passed away in 1975.  Herrmann is another example of the Jewish role in creating modern American culture.

1912: According to today’s issue of Scientific American, the U.S. Secretary of War selected a special board of officers to investigate the accident that killed test pilot Arthur L. Welsh and his passenger, Lieut. Leighton Hazelhurst, officer-aviator of the U.S. Signal Corps. The investigation would place the blame on Welsh.  Investigators reported that Welsh and Hazelhurst were testing out a new weight-carrying military biplane just delivered for trial by the Wright Company. They began a climbing test of 200 feet a minute for 10 minutes with a weight of 450 pounds, and fuel for four hours. The investigation stated that Welsh rose to about 150 feet in order to dive at an angle of about 45 degrees to gain momentum for a sharp rise. The report concluded that the reversal occurred too suddenly. The Welsh family did not agree with the outcome of the investigation.  Welsh’s “widow always believed that the War Department pushed too hard for tests that were sure to fail. On the day of the crash, not only was Welsh carrying too much of a load, but he also carried his passenger and was expected to climb too quickly and too high when you consider the weight. Too much was expected." Regardless of which view one believes, the final word on Welsh’s career may be been written by General “Hap” Arnold, the five star general who served in both the U.S. Army Air Forces and the newly created U.S. Air Force. In a 1930 letter to Welsh's sister, Arnold wrote, "The pioneers in the aviation game were the ones who took all the risks and received little in exchange for their daring. Al was one of those pioneers." In his book Global Mission, Arnold wrote: "He had taught me all he knew, or rather, he had taught me all he could teach. He knew much more."

1912: Birthdate of Lucie Bernard who married Raymond Samuel, the French Jewish engineer who gained fame as Raymond Aubrac and she gained fame as Lucie Aubrac his fellow fighter against the Nazi occupation.

1913: The convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of the United States and Canada which was founded 15 years ago is scheduled to open this morning at the Uptown Talmud Torah.

1913: In New York, Tifereth Israel dedicated its new synagogue.

1913: In Manhattan, formation of Temple of Moses Anshe Trob.

1913: Birthdate of Sir Gerald David Nunes Nabarro, the scion of “a prominent Sephardi family” who converted to Christianity and served as an MK for the Conservative Party.

1913: In New York dedication of Temple Moses Anshe Trob

1913: Start of the Second Balkan War.

1914: In McKeesport, PA, Sam and Lena Spiegel gave birth to Herbert Spiegel, the famous physician who “treated pain, anxiety and addictions by putting people into a trance.” (As reported by Benedict Carey)

1914: In Rochester, NY, the convention of the Federation of the American Zionists which Max Schulmam of the Knights of Zion and Miss Bessie Schulman of the “Hoachuzah Order are attending as delegates is scheduled to continue for a second day.

1914: A day after the Austro-Hungarians declared war on the Serbians, Czar Nicholas sent a telegram to Kaiser Wilhelm II suggesting “submitting the Austrian-Serbian problem to the Hague Convention” for resolution.

1915: Rabbi Moses G. Gries, the president of the of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, delivered an address today the its 26th convention in which he said that “the fate of half the Jews of the world is trembling in the balance as a result of the great war in Europe” in part because, “millions of Jews in want and wretchedness now experience intensified cruelty.”

1916: Isidore Hershfield, Director of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society who has just returned from the European War Zone “declared in a meeting at Carnegie Hall that in occupied Russia alone, 750,000 Jews were on the verge of starvation” and he urged immediate relief measures” to alleviate their suffering including “the prompt shipment of foodstuffs to the staring districts of Poland, Courland, Lithuania and Galicia.”

1917: “British, French, Russian and Italian Ministers at the Hauge made joint representations to the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs asking that the Netherlands Minster at Constantinople be instructed to approach the Turkish Government and to request that in the name of humanity, a stop be put to Jewish persecutions.”

1918: “Yiddish conversation was prohibited in the streets” of Romania.

1918: Consecration of the Dalston Talmud Torah in London.

1919: “Sahara” a silent film with music Hugo Riesenfeld was released today in the United States.

1919: Soldiers, sailors and marines who are in uniform were admitted free of charge at this evening’ dance hosted by the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

1919: This afternoon, The Maccabee School is scheduled to host “entertainment” in the Social Hall of the Administration Building of the C.H.I.

1919: The 21st Annual Convention of the Progressive Order of the West ended today in Chicago.

1919: In New York City, “Edgar J. and Mabel (Untergerg) Nathan gave birth to Yale University trained attorney and U.S.A.A WW II veteran Edgar J. Nathan, the husband of Ruth Gottesman with whom he had three children while serving as Judge for the United States District Court and as President of Congregation Shearith Israel in NYC.



1920: Colonel Gustav Porgas was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal today.

1920: This evening in Rochester, NY, “Miss Sadie Huyla Rose, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Rose” married Rabbi Baruch Weilerstein, the spiritual leader of “Temple Emanu-El of Borough Park in Brooklyn.

1921: Dr. Emil G. Hirsh, the Rabbi of Chicago’s Temple Sinai, officiated at the marriage of Mrs. Edith R. Sulzberger the daughter Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald and Edgar B. Stern of New Orleans.  This Stern should not be confused with Alfred K. Stern who is the fiancée of Edith’s sister Marion.


1922: Birthdate of Trondheim native Lilly Dvoretsky, the seamstress who was deported from Norway February of 1943 aboard the Gotenland and murdered at Auschwitz in March of 1943.

1922: Birthdate of Ottawa born Royal Canadian Air Force Flying Officer Lawrence Balfour who enlisted in 1940 and was killed almost three years to the day later after which he was buried in Cheshire, UK.

1923: Meyer Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv, addresses a letter to the New York Times thanking everybody from the Mayor on down for the hospitality shown to him during his recent trip to New York.  He expressed his hope that the “first Jewish city” would benefit from the things shown him including the city’s public utility system.

1924: Birthdate of composer Ezra Laderman, a leading 20th century classical composer.  He has won the Rome Prize and several Guggenheim Fellowships.  He has taught at several leading institutions including Sarah Laurence and has been the visiting composer at Yale.


1925: In Brooklyn, baker Sam Storch and his wife Bessie gave birth to actor and producer Arthur Storch. (As reported by Paul Vitello)




1927: In Vienna, the former Anna Kahane and Kalman Rubinger gave birth to Israeli photojournalist David Ruginger.



1925: In Brooklyn, Sam and Bessie Storch gave birth to actor and director Arthur Storch.


1926(17th of Tammuz, 5686): Tzom Tammuz

1926: “We Belong to the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment” a silent film directed, produced and written by Richard Oswald and starring Frit Spiral was released in Germany today.

1926: Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada.  In 1925, while serving as leader of the “loyal opposition” he spoke during ceremonies dedicating the new Hebrew University. Echoing traditional English-Canadian views on the Holy Land and Jewish restoration, Meighen said, “Of all the results” of World War “none is more important and more fertile in human history than the re-conquest of Palestine and the rededication of that country to the Jewish people.” Meighen went on to express the hope that “Jews in Canada [would] take a proper pride in this great event and that the sons of generations to come may go back to the land of their destiny.”

1928(11th of Tammuz, 5688): Morris Rich, founder of Atlanta’s famed Rich’s Department Store, passed away.

1929: “Two of the biggest and most successful department stores in the United States became one today when R.H. Macy Co. announced the purchase of L. Bamberger Co. of Newark following negotiations begun ten days ago.”

1929: Birthdate of Lalla Fatima Zohra the wife of Moulay Ali Alaoui, the Moroccan prince who was one of the two principal negotiators with the Israelis in Operation Yakhin that made it possible for almost 100,000 Jews to leave the country and go to Israel.

1929: After his first wife passed in 1927, today in the New Kahal Chassidim Synagogue, Titanic survivor Abraham Joseph Hyman married the “widow Esther Libbert, née Rosengrass” whose husband, the jeweler Abraham Libbert” with whom she had had two children – Jack and Fanny

1929: Birthdate of Edgar Bronfman, Sr. CEO of Seagram’s until 1994

1930: Birthdate of producer Robert Evans

1931: The Seventeenth World Zionist Congress is scheduled to open in Basle.

1932: Birthdate of British poet and critic Philip Dennis Hobsbaum.


1932: The Dow Jones industrial average dipped to 42 and Roy R. Neuberger married Marie Salant, a graduate in economics from Bryn Mawr who had gone to work in the research department of Halle & Stieglitz two years earlier.

1933(5th of Tammuz, 5693): Seventy year old Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart, née Bischoffsheim who has been called '"the most important Jewish woman in Irish history" passed away today.


1934: Birthdate of Alan Cohen who gained fame as Corey Allen “an American film and television director, writer, producer, and actor… be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's 1955 film classic, “Rebel Without a Cause.”

1936: Rumania was wracked with widespread “anti-Semitic and Fascist agitation today” during which several Jews “were wounded.”

1936: In Tirguocna, Rumania, anti-Semitic students forced a boycott of Jewish shops while “a number of Jews were beaten” and the windows of their stores and homes were smashed.

1936:The Palestine Post reported that a government school was set on fire in Jaffa. Sniping continued on convoys of buses traveling on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv and Jerusalem-Hebron roads. The long-awaited reply of the Arab Higher Committee addressed to the High Commissioner and the Colonial Office stated that the British government continued to ignore all its undertakings given to the Arab people.

1936: In Saratoga Springs, NY, Governor Lehman addressed the convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham today during which “he advocated the founding of more Jewish community centers declaring ‘the future depends upon the integrity, intelligence and character of our youth.’”

1936: The newly formed American League for Religious Liberty “composed of Catholics, Protestant and Jews” of which Governor Lehman is one of the honorary chairmen, “began a national campaign today to unite Americans religious persecution”

1937: Leon Blum began serving as Vice-Premier of France.

1937: At a public meeting marking the closing of the 40th anniversary convention of the Zionist Organization of America, United States Senator Robert F. Wagner told the delegates that “Great Britain must honor her objection to the Jews in Palestine and America has the right to expect her to do so.”

1937: In Bulgaria, the latest anti-Semitic attacks took place tonight when a ‘bombing attempt was made against a synagogue” at the same time that “the explosion of an infernal machine at Varna…wrecked a Jewish merchant’s house.”

1937: In San Antonio, policeman conducted a “violent” raid on the headquarters of the Worker’s Alliance which was condemned by Ephraim Firish the rabbi at Temple Beth-El a reform congregation in this southwest Texas city.

1938: “The Voelkischer Beobachter, the official Nazi organ, today published the names of 7,126 Vienna Jews ‘temporarily removed’ from the list of practicing lawyers.

1938: “In the Augruarten, the park in the Second District or center of the Jewish population in Vienna, Jewish women were forced to cut grass and afterward groups of Hitler Youths accompanied by Storm Troopers raided many houses and forced Jewish men and women to come out and paint on the walls of the Augarten ‘Entry to this park is prohibited to Jews.’”

1938 (30th of Sivan, 5698): Chanting the song of the Revisionist party and dressed in its uniform, 19-year-old Solomon ben Yosef steadily walked to the gallows in the troop-surrounded prison at Acre at 8 A. M. He was sentenced to be hanged by the British for alleged terrorist activities, which in fact consisted of being part of a group that scared away Arabs by firing a shot in the air. His last words were "Yechi Jabotinsky (Long live Jabotinsky); Lamut o Lichbosh et Hahar (To die or take the mountain)" after which he sang “Hatikvah.” No Rabbi was present since today was Rosh ChodeshTammuz. In fact, some Jews had hoped that the British might use this as an excuse for commuting his death sentence. British airplanes, policemen and troops tonight patrolled a Palestine which had been made tense by the hanging of the Jewish youth.

1939: Thirteen Arabs were killed and four wounded in shooting outrages in the early hours of this morning in Southern Palestine. Two of the victims were shot dead on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. In general, Jewish opinion condemns the attacks on innocent Arab civilians.  “This evening’s edition of the daily Davar headlines all its news with this bold type query: ‘Who will put an end to the outrages that sully our struggle and ruin our population.’” The attacks are seen as a reaction to the new British land law that “is regarded even by moderates as flagrant breach of faith on the part of Great Britain to the Jews.”

1939: “Early this morning a boat carrying 742 Jewish immigrants trying to land clandestinely without visas was apprehended by the Coast Guard near Gaza”.  The passengers were taken by train to Haifa.  If they are released, their number will be deducted from small quota of “legal Jews” who will be allowed to enter Palestine.

1940(23rd of Sivan, 5700): Parashat Korach

1940: As the effects of the humiliating defeat of the French become more evident it was announced toay that The Franco-German commission for carrying out the terms of the armistice will begin to function tomorrow and Spanish Army officers led by General Lopez Pinto promised “material and moral support to Germany.”

1941 (4th of Tammuz, 5701): In Jassy, Rumania; soldiers and police, under the watch of the SS, kill over 260 Jews. 5,000 other Jews are stripped of all belongings and then placed into cattle cars, (over 100 in each), and sent to Mirteshet. On the way over 600 Jews would die. Once there another 327 would die. Within an eight-day period, over 2,500 people would die during the train ride.

1941: Nazis murdered the male Jews of Drobian, Lithuania.

1941: Nazi forces led by the 291stInfantry Division captured Liepāja, Latvia which lead to a series of massacres of the Jewish population.


1942: One-year anniversary of the founding of the Judenrat in Bialystok. A quote from Ephraim Barash's diary captured the feelings of the time, "It is lucky that we cannot foresee the future, for if we could, we would not have lived and reached the present stage. There is no place for optimism in the ghetto."

1942(14th of Tammuz, 5702): Armed Jewish resistance takes place at Slonim, Belorussia. The Germans burn Jews to death, killing nearly 15,000.

1942: A 13-year-old girl in Amsterdam who would gain fame as Anne Frank wrote in the diary which she had received as a birthday present only eight days before: "I want to write, but, more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart."

1942: A second gas chamber begins functioning at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1942: The Blue Network broadcast the last episode of “I Love a Mystery” sponsored by Fleischmann’s Yeast and featuring Tony Randall (Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg).

1943 (26th of Sivan, 5703): South of Warsaw, five Poles are shot for hiding four Jews. The latter also are shot.

1943 (26th of Sivan, 5703): At the Biala-Waka labor camp near Vilna, Lithuania, 67 inmates are shot as reprisal for the escape of six Jews to a nearby forest.

1943(26thof Sivan, 5703): Fifty-three year old Polish born cantor and composer Elias Zaludkowsiki who had served as chazzan for synagogues in New York and Detroit before assuming that position at Beth Sholam in Pittsburgh passed away today.




1944:” Some nervousness has been occasioned in Arab circles by the nomination of Governor Dewey as the Republican candidate for President, and a report printed in the press” in Cairo “that his party intended to include in its platform a plank or declaration urging the British to implement the Balfour Declaration on Palestine”

1944: It was reported today that Under-Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius had announced “at a Jewish Unity Dinner honoring Representative Sol Bloom that the British Government had just agreed to the establishment of a new war refugee haven in one of the former Italian colonies in Libya.”

1945: Churchill writes to Weizmann justifying his decision to continue the White Paper of 1939 by reminding the Jewish leaders that many Conservative MP’s were opposed to the Zionist cause and that many members of the Labor Party were adopting the view as well.  He urged Weizmann to stop looking to the British and seek support from the United States to gain the opening of Palestine to Jewish immigration.

1945: Sir Louis Halle Gluckstein “was appointed as a King’s Counsel” today.

1946: Birthdate of Zvi (Mickey) Har-Even (Harivan), the son of Sylvia and Aurel who emigrated from Romania in 1950.  He died at the age of 22 while serving on board the Submarine Dakar.

1946: This day was the Black Sabbath in Pre-state Israel. In the largest operation to date, thousands of British soldiers and policemen raid kibbutzim looking for hidden weapons. The British arrested 2,700 Jews living legally in Palestine in an attempt to destroy the Yishuv. The British dubbed this action “Operation Agatha” and Kibbutz Yagur, an important center for the Haganah, was a major focal point for their raids.  The British claimed their actions were part of a plan to stamp out terrorism. Apparently, there were no Arab terrorists since no Arabs we arrested.



1946:  A scheduled luncheon meeting between Abba Eban and Moshe Sharett is cancelled amid reports that the British are arresting large numbers of Zionist leaders.

1947: Birthdate of Brooklyn native and Ohio State University alum Richard Philip Lewis who began a career as a standup comic in the 1970’s


1947(11th of Tammuz, 5707): Judge Isaac Siegel, a Republican politician who had represented New York’s 20th District in the House of Representatives, passed away.


1948: Mike Flanagan Irishman who fought in the British army during World War II and participated in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 and his friend and tank commander Harry McDonald, broke into a military base near the Haifa airport, stole the two tanks and drove them to Tel Aviv where Hagana operatives were waiting.

1948: Meir Tobianski, native of Kovna who joined the Haganah and was working as an engineer for the Jerusalem electricity company swore allegiance to the newly created IDF.

1948: Al Freeman arrived in Israel to serve as pilot with 101 Squadron of the Israeli Air Force.

1948: Birthdate of William “Billy” Keyserling” the native of Beaufort, SC and grandson of immigrant Jews who after earning degrees from Brandeis University and Boston University pursued a career in politics that was capped by becoming Mayor of his home town.


1949(2nd of Tammuz, 5709): Eighty-seven year old Dr. David Philipson, a native of Wabash, IN, who became a leader of the Reform movement whose literary works included The Reform Movement in Judaism and Old European Jewries passed away today


1949: “The Great Sinner” directed by Robert Siodmak, produced by Gottfried Reinhardt and co-starring Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg) was released in the United States today.

1949: Birthdate of Micky Arison an Israeli-American businessman and the Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise operator, and owner of the NBA's Miami Heat. At one time, Forbes magazine places Arison's wealth at $6.1 billion, making him the 94th wealthiest person in the world as of 2006. He is the son of the late Ted Arison, Carnival Corporation's founder and the brother of Shari Arison reputed to be the wealthiest woman in Israel.  While Arison is a resident of Miami, he maintains a home in Israel.

1949: Tonight, “at a dinner given by the UJA at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in memory of Dr. Stephen S. Wise,’ former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, who had just returned from a trip to Israel “said that the faith of Israelis in their future was based in no small measure on the encouragement and support that has been given them by the American Jewish community” while providing “a serious appraisal of the enormous problems” still confronting the newly formed state.

1950: “The Next Voice You Hear” produced by Dore Schaty and with music by David Raskin released in the United States today.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the zone limits scheme, imposed on the public by the Ministry of Transportation in order to save foreign currency, will continue. M.S. Tamar, Zim's newest fruit-carrier vessel, was launched in Holland.

1952: Travel writer Diana Rice describes the progress being made on constructing the Nordeau Plaza Hotel in Tel Aviv.  The hotel is scheduled to open in September. The four million dollar seaside structure boasts luxury suites, a variety of shops intended to attract tourists and a banquet hall that will seat 1,000.

1952(5th of Tammuz, 5712): Parshat Korach

1952(5th of Tammuz, 5712): Sixty-four year old Nathan David Perlman whose career included serving in the House of Representative, “justice of the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York” and as “a senior official of the American Jewish Congress” passed away today at Beth Israel Hospital.


1952(5th of Tammuz, 5712): Seventy-nine year old attorney Isaac Calhoun Straus, the Florence, SC born son of Alfred A. Straus, a native of German and the former Amelia Weinberg, a native of South Carolina who was president of the Palmetto Insurance Company, president of the Sumter Trust company and president of Congregation Sinai in Sumter, SC passed away today.

1954: After is premiere in New York City “About Mrs. Leslie” directed by Daniel Mann, produced by Hal Wallis and with a script co-authored by Hal Kanter opened in Los Angeles today.

1954: The Atomic Energy Commission refused to reinstate the security clearance of Robert J. Oppenheimer, the “father of the Atomic Bomb.”  This might be seen as a case of Jew v Jew since Edward Teller testified against Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss, chairman of the commission, had pushed for the revocation in the first place. 

1955: Haim-Moshe Shapira succeeds Israel Rokach as Minister of Internal Affairs.

1959: It was reported today that “Premier David Ben-Gurion has informed leaders of his Mapai Party that he resign if the Left-wing labor parties in his coalition Government continue their attacks on the sale of Israeli-manufactured arms to West Germany” a move which was quite controversial coming just fifteen years after the end of the Holocaust

1959(23rd of Sivan, 5719): Seventy-year old French art dealer Paul Rosenberg passed away today.



1960: “Strangers When We Met” a story of infidelity starring Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau was released in the United States today.

1960: In London, “Soviet historian Alexander Nove” and his wife gave birth to BBC newsreader and announcer Charles Alexis Nove.

1961: NBC broadcast the final episode of “The Ford Show” written by Norman Lear and directed by Bud Yorkin.

1964: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Sam Chaikin, the husband of Beckie Chaikin and father of Sol Chaikin who was “a retired member of the Cloak Joint Board, I.L.G.W.U.

1966: “Walk, Don’t Run” a comedy produced by Sol Siegel with a script co-authored by Sol Saks was released today in the United States.

1966: “A Fine Madness” a film version of the novel by the same name directed by Irvin Kershner, produced by Jerome Hellman and featuring Zohra Lampert was released in the United States today.

1967: The official reunification of Jerusalem begins as 8,570 acres of west Jerusalem are united with 18,750 acres of east Jerusalem.  It was not only Jews who hailed this event.  Nabil Khoury wrote in the Beirut weekly al-Hawadith, ‘On June 29, in Jaffa Road, the main street of Jerusalem, the Hebrew tongue disappeared.  On that day, along the entire length of the street, Palestinian Arabic, in all its different dialects, was heard.’

1967: In Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion told his supporters that “the re-building of Jerusalem must be at the center of the national effort.”  These words followed naturally for the man who had fought to keep the road to Jerusalem open during the dark days of 1947-1948 when so many told him that it could not be done.

1971(6thof Tammuz, 5731): Sixty-one year old Amelia Held Ullman, the wife of Gilbert Victory passed away today in her hometown of Richmond, VA.

1972(17th of Tammuz, 5732): Tzom Tammuz

1972: “The Candidate” a movie about senatorial politics featuring Melvyn Douglas, Allen Garfield and Michael Lerner with music by John Rubinstein, the son of pianist Arthur Rubinstein, was released in the United States today.

1974: David Chernoglaz, who was sentenced in Kishinev trial in June 1971 to five years labor camp, was scheduled to be transferred from Perm camp to Vladimir prison for participating in hunger strike before President Nixon’s visit.

1975: “Two groups of refusniks met separately with ten senators visiting Moscow in the room of New York Senator Jacob Javits.

1975(20thof Tammuz, 5735): Seventy five year old New York native Jess Ward the “founder and president of Jess Ward & Co., Inc., woolen merchants” and husband of Lenore Ward with whom he had had two sons – Sanford and Berry—passed away today in Jerusalem while on trip where he and his wife were “to dedicated an amphitheater they had donated to the Kfar Batya Children’s Village.”

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported from Entebbe, Uganda, that hijackers held there more than 250 Air France Airbus passengers and threatened to blow them all up if Uganda's security forces intervened. Uganda's President Idi Amin paid a visit to the hijackers. The Israeli Embassy in Paris was assured that France would do everything it could to secure the release of all hijacked passengers.

1976: From Entebbe, the terrorists released their demands : The release of fifty three of what they called freedom fighters and civilized people called murdering terrorists and/or their supporters, imprisoned in five countries had to be flown to Uganda by noon GMT along with $5 million “or the terrorists would blow up the plane with the hostages on board.”

1976: In the evening, the terrorists at Entebbe began the process of separating the Israelis and Jews from the other hostages.

1978: United Artist released “Fedora,” directed by Billy Wilder with a screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.

1978(24th of Sivan, 5738): Two people were killed and 47 were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in Jerusalem market.

1979: In Canada, premiere of “Meatballs” the first of series of off-beat comedies directed by Ivan Reitman, written by Len Blum, Dan Goldberg and Harold Ramis with music by Elmer Bernstein.

1980: After 557 performances and 19 previews, ”Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” a Stephen Sondheim musical completed its first Broadway run.

1983: Helen Reddy who had converted to Judaism before marrying Jeff Wald, married Milton Ruth today.

1984(29thof Sivan, 5744): On his seventy-eighth birthday San Francisco native Benjamin A. “Benny” Lom, the three-season all-star halfback at the University of California, Berkley “best known for his attempt to stop a team mate from running the “wrong way” in the 1929 Rose Bowl passed away today.

1987: ''Yiddish Theater in London, 1880-1987,'' an exhibition that is part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration at Lyttleton Circle Foyer, National Theater

1987: Birthdate of Gal Nevo, the Olympic Israeli swimmer who is a native Kibbutz Hamadia in the Beit She’an Valley.

1990(6th of Tammuz, 5750): Seventy-four year old author Irving Wallace passed away.


1995(1st of Tammuz, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz         

1995(1st of Tammuz, 5755): Eighty-one year old Lewis Jacob Affelder, the Cleveland born son of Harry Fleishman Affelder and Rhoda E. Affelder  and the husband of Ruth Steinbach Affelder passed away today in his home town.

1995: Betzalel Tabib who had been Head of the Local Council in Arad since 1986 completed his service today.

1996:“As Marie and Roy Neuberger celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary today, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed to 5,704.  Mr. Neuberger later described their time together as “64 wonderful years together.”

1997: After 89 performances and 27 previews “An American Daughter,” a play written by Wendy Wasserstein completed its first Broadway run.

1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Handsome Is Adventures With Saul Bellow: A Memoir” by Harriet Wasserman, “The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich” by Michael H. Kater and “A Tale of Two Continents: A Physicist's Life in a Turbulent World, the autobiography of Dutch born Jewishphysicist Abraham Pais

1999(15th of Tammuz, 5759): Sixty-two year old Northwestern University alum Allan Carr who went from running the talent agency Allan Carr Enterprises to a successful career as a screenwriter and a producer who “was named Producer of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners.”


2000: “The Israelis and Palestinians appeared today to remain far from meeting the conditions set down by the Clinton administration for an early summit meeting in Washington, but Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, who came here to assess the two sides' readiness, said that President Clinton would make a decision in the next few days.”

2001: “A,I.” a science fiction film about artificial intelligence directed and produced by Steven Spielberg who also co-authored the script was released in the United States today.

2002: At Temple Israel in Lawrence, NY, Rabbi Balfour Brickner officiated at the wedding Catherine Michelle Levine, “publicist for ABC’s ‘World News Tonight with Peter Jennings’” and political consultant Joshua Daniel Isay “the manager of Andrew M. Cuomo's campaign for governor of New York

2003: “During the Second Intifada a temporary armistice was unilaterally declared by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which declared a ceasefire and halt to all attacks against Israel for a period of three months which really meant that violence decreased somewhat in the following month but suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.”

2003: President Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met at the White House.

2003: Today, in the Denver Botanic Garden, basketball coach and teacher Todd Schayes married Diane Lipner.




2003: The pre-Broadway run of the Stephen Schwartz musical “Wicked” came to a close in San Francisco where it was favorably received by critics and the public.

2003(29th of Sivan, 5763):Aluf (Maj. Gen.) Mordechai "Mottie" Hod who “was the Commander of the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six-Day War” passed away today. A sabra born at the famous Kibbutz Degania, Hod was one of the real heroes who helped to create and defend the state of Israel.


 


2004(10th of Tammuz, 5764): Thirty-six year old Sgt. Alan D. Sherman was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. “Alan Sherman is most remembered for being a loving and devoted father. A Marine reservist who worked as a licensed practical nurse when he was not on duty, Sherman spent most of his time with his two sons, Joshua and Logan. Sherman lived with his parents in the Wanamassa section of Ocean Township, N.J. His ex-wife, Dolores Sherman, told The Associated Press that the two had maintained a close friendship and kept in regular contact even while he was away. Sherman adored his children, spending as much time with them as he could. Michael Sherman said his brother had “left [his children] his honorable name, as a hero and as a loving father.” “He wanted to come home to his boys. But he knew he was doing the right thing. He wanted to fight for his boys so they wouldn’t have to do it,” Dolores Sherman said. “He totally believed in what he was doing.” (As reported by The Forward)

2004(10th of Tammuz, 5764): Seventy-seven year old singer and actor Arik Lavie passed away today.


2004(10th of Tammuz, 5764): Moshe Yohai, 63, of Ashdod, was found shot to death in Beit Rima, a Palestinian Authority-controlled village near Ramallah, where he had apparently gone on business. The Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility. (Jewish Virtual Library)

2004: “Three Way,” a crime film co-starring Al Israel and Gina Gershon was released in the United States today.

2005: “Right-wing Israeli clashed with the Israeli security forces and Palestinians today in a tense corner of the Gaza Strip, causing several injuries.”

2005(22nd of Sivan, 5765): Lebanese Hezbollah terrorists killed an Israeli soldier today which led to IAF bombing the “outskirts of two south Lebanese border villages.”

2006(3rd of Tammuz, 5766): Early this morning, “the IDF recovered the body of 18 year old Eliyahu Asheri who had been kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists, from an open field near Ramallah.

2006: This afternoon at the Mount of Olives Shlomo Amar, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi eulogized Eliyahu Asheri during his funeral.

2006: In “Holocaust collides in 2 Lives, As the Camera Rolls” published today, Mary McNamara reviewed “Inheritance,” which “documents the story of Monika Hertwig, a German woman who in her early 60s finally comes to terms with her parents' participation in the Holocaust.”


2006: “Mary McNamara reviewed ‘Inheritance,’ a film that shows an interview between the daughter of the commandant of Plaszow and a Holocaust survivor.”


2007:”Baroness Neuberger” better known as Julia Babette Sarah Neuberger – Britain’s second female rabbi “was appointed by the incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the government's champion of volunteering.”

2007: At the Israel Museum in Jerusalem an exhibit entitled “Yemima Ergas: Hidden Cities” opens.

2007: In Jerusalem, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs Berg`s Concerto for Violin and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony at the Sherover Theater at The Jerusalem Theater

2007: As part of his plea bargain President Moshe Katsav resigned as President of Israel

2007: Anthony Paul Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill “was appointed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a special adviser on constitutional reform to the Secretary of State for Justice” today

2007: Acting President Dalia Itzik replaces Moshe Katsav and will serve as President of Israel until July 15 when President-elect Shimon Peres takes office. Ms. Itzik is a 54 year old native of Jerusalem who has enjoyed a long political career.

2007(13th of Tammuz, 5767): Joel Siegel, Emmy Award-winning film critic for ABC’s “Good Morning American” passed away at the age of 63.


2008: In Chicago, the Spertus features Private Lives of Public Figures: How Moral Do Our Leaders Need To Be?”

2008: Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois holds it annual meeting and presents “Ask the Experts at Temple Beth Israel in Skokie, Il. www.jewishgen.org/jgsi

2008: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of The Spies of Warsaw, a novel by Jewish mystery writer Alan Furst, The Hebrew Republic:How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Lastby Bernard Avishai and Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands, Michael Chabon’s first collection of nonfiction as well as an essay entitled “Cultural Crossroads of the Levant” which describes Ibis Editions “a boutique Jerusalem Press owned by the husband and wife team of Peter Cole, a MacArthur award-winning poet and translator, and Adina Hoffman, a biographer and critic  that has published English translations of works in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, French, German and Judeo-Spanish — all relating to the Levant. 

2008: The Washington Post book section features reviews of The Dream by Harry Bernstein and America Americaby Ethan Canin

2008: At Congregation Ansche Chesed on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, One World Symphony presents a performance of the opera “Adriadne Auf Naxos” by composer Richard Strauss who was appointed President of the German State Music Bureau by Joseph Gobbels.  In fairness to Strauss he later resigned the position and is credit with saving “several Jewish lives later in the war, specifically those of his daughter-in-law and her son.”  On the other hand, the true measure of the man may be found in his 1945 declaration “that the Allied bombing of the Hoftheater, his favorite opera house in Munich, was ‘the greatest catastrophe that has ever disturbed my life.

2008: Israel’s government voted to trade one of the most notorious convicts in its prisons, a Lebanese murderer, for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose cross-border capture led to and partly motivated its month long war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in summer 2006..

2008: Veteran Civil Rights leader John Lewis was honored at a luncheon on Sunday by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind and the black-Jewish Alliance, which was inaugurated in January to address the 25 percent surge in anti-Semitic and racist incidents in the black and Jewish communities.

2008: United Nations negotiator Gerhard Konrad informed the Israeli government that according to Hesbollah, Ron Arad is dead. This claim has yet to be confirmed by the government

2008: As part of his first concert tour in fifteen years, Leonard Cohen appeared on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England

2009: Starting today, Cantor Jack Chomsky of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Columbus, helps to lead “Poland to Israel: A Journey Through Time,” in which 100 cantors connect 1,000 years of Jewish History in Poland with 4,000 years of history in the homeland of the Jewish people.

2009: Bernard Madoff is sentenced to 150 years.  This record sentence is fitting for the man who engineered the largest Ponzi swindle in history.

2009: JuliusGenachowski, a yeshiva student who had studied in Israel, assumed the position of Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Asked by Lord Steinberg

2009: During Question Period Lord Steinberg asked “Her Majesty's Government what were (a) the total value of trade between Israel and the United Kingdom, and (b) the total value of exports from the United Kingdom to Israel, over the past three years.

The Minister for Trade and Investment (Lord Davies of Abersoch): The data requested are shown in the following table:

£ million
UK exports of goods to Israel
UK exports of services to Israel
UK imports of goods from Israel
UK imports of services from Israel
2006
1308
447
965
297
2007
1257
475
1045
305
2008
1337
1153



2010: Gilad Barkan Trio is scheduled to perform at 55 Bar in New York City

2010(17th of Tammuz, 5770): Tzom Tammuz

2010: Today forest fires raged across Israel, destroying over 300,000 trees and burning over 750 acres of forested and open areas. Arson is suspected in many cases, and conditions worsened due to Israel's severe heat wave.

2011: The Peltz Center for Jewish Life and Lubavitch of Wisconsin are scheduled to sponsor “Gimmel Tamuz,” “a community wide event to mark the anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe of righteous memory.”

2011: Tnuva caved in to a nationwide cottage cheese boycott today and announced that they would be lowering the product’s price to the recommended retail price of NIS 5.9.

2011: Today the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) sent a letter to Delta Air Lines CEO Richard H. Anderson voicing concerns that the airliner's new alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines would lead to discriminatory practices against Jewish travelers. 

2011(27th of Sivan, 5771): Rabbi Chaim Stein one of the Roshei Yeshiva the Rabbinical College of Telshe passed away.

2011(27th of Sivan, 5771): Sixty-four year old Larry Bogdanow, the founder of Bogdanow Partners Architects and restaurant designer whose work included the Union Square Café, passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)


2012: Without any frosting, lace, or chuppahs in our midst, Rabbi Shira Stutman is scheduled to lead a salon-style Shabbat evening with prayers and conversation about the “rites” and wrongs of women in Judaism, as well as God’s feminine side at the historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Garden Party Festival in Helsinki, Finland.

2012: Austrian authorities are investigating the desecration of 43 graves in two Jewish sections of Vienna’s main cemetery.A police statement said toay that tomb stones and slabs were found toppled or damaged at the Austrian capital’s Central Cemetery. It said the vandals did not deface the graves with graffiti. Vienna Jewish community head Oskar Deutsch says he is confident that police will find the culprits.

2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supersize coalition was showing its first serious signs of stress today in its quest for a more universal draft system in Israel.


2012: The United States and Israel are expected to hold a joint military exercise sometime around October, after postponing it earlier this year, the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today, confirming previous reports that it was back on track. 


2013: “A seven-week immersion experience in Hebrew” offered by Brandeis University-Middlebury School of Hebrew is scheduled to begin today.

2013: Communications Minister Gilad Erdan and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz attacked each other fiercely today ahead of tomorrow’s elections for the heads of the Likud's institutions. (As reported by Gil Hoffman)

http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=318156



2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including On The Run: Fugitive Life in an American City by Alice Goffman and Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee by Michael Korda,



2014: “Shabbat – Inside and Out” an exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to come to an end.



2014: “Tel Aviv's secular residents suffered a double blow in their fight for freedom from religion today when Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni thwarted two pieces of legislation that would allow the opening of businesses during Shabbat and the operations of public transport during Judaism's weekly day of rest.” (As reported by Gilad Morag and Moran Azulay)

2014: Firefighters responding to a call to put out a small brush on the Golan Heights “were fired on by forces on the other side of the Syrain border” but completed their mission successfully without any casualties.  This is the latest in a series of incidents on the border one of which claimed the life of an innocent 15 year old boy.

2014: In two different responses today to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens, a mammoth rally featuring artists and celebrities was held at Rabin Square while “the Rosh Yeshiva of the Beit El Yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, urged the public to set up a protest in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv to call for a tougher crackdown against Hamas.”

2014: As rocket attacks from Gaza continue for another night one terrorist was killed and several more were wounded when the IAF “launched a targeted attack against a rocket launching cell in the Gaza Strip apparently belonging to Hamas' military branch.”

2014: “The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host “Life? Or Theatre?” a documentary by Franz Weis that explores the life and work of German Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon.

2014: “The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the Skirball Culture Center in Los Angeles and the Circle Cinema in Tulsa, OK.

2014: Nate “Freiman was called up to the A's today, after leading the Pacific Coast League to that point in RBIs, and tying for seventh in home runs.”

2014: “The Last of the Unjust” is scheduled to be shown on the final day of the Portland Jewish Film Festival

2015: “Tiger, Mog and Pink Rabbit: A Judith Kerr Retrospective” is scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum in London.

2015: “Vandals attacked the Max Rayne Hand-to-Hand dual Hebrew and Arabic language school in southern Jerusalem tonight” making this the second such incident in eight months.” (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)

2015: “After a grueling legislative battle, US President Barack Obama signed into law a trade measure that also contains landmark legislation combating the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in Europe.” (As reported by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil)

2016: The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to host a presentation by Monika Hanková who “will present the unique biography of Magdalena Robitscher-Hahn, a German-Jewish doctor from the Sudetenland, whose life story allows for analysis of specific theoretical issues connected with biographies of German-Jewish women from former Czechoslovakia.”

2016(23rd of Sivan, 5776): Eighty-five year old “Irving Gottesman, a pioneer in the field of behavioral genetics whose work on the role of heredity in schizophrenia helped transform the way people thought about the origins of serious mental illness” passed away today.


2016: “The captain of Israel’s soccer national team Eran Zahavi signed a deal with the Chinese club Guangzhou R&F today, ending a period of doubt that the beloved star would remain with Maccabi Tel Aviv.”

2016: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Bonnie Slotnick, “owner of Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks who “will share some of her experiences with Jewish cookbooks over many years of selling out-of-print cookbooks, and bring a fresh perspective to the real significance of historical and contemporary culinary texts.”

2016: Israeli Bassist and arranger Noam Wiesenberg is scheduled to debut “his new and original compositions” at the Cornelia Street Café alongside the Haggai Cohen-Milo Trio.

2016: In a testament to the vitality of small Jewish communities, in Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet this evening where it will discuss The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman.

2016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host its Annual Membership this evening flowed by the opening of “Every Minute Counts”“a remarkable vision of Roosevelt-Era social and political culture through the lens of photojournalist Katherine Joseph.”

2017: The last screening of Elan Kolirin’s  “Beyond The Hills” sponsored by JW3 is scheduled to take place today in London.

2017: The “jstyle Summer Premiere Party” is scheduled to take place this evening in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

2017: Today, “the American pilots” who had ferried aircraft to Israel during the Yom Kippur War “attended a flight course completion ceremony at the Hatzerim Air Force base, where they saw Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin speak.”

2017: The final screening of “Letters from Baghdad” is scheduled to take in several California cities including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Claremont and San Francisco.

2018: After six months, the exhibition styled The Invisible Museum: History and Memory of Morocco is scheduled to be shown for the last time at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkley

2018: “High Holy Days at the Luna Park: Show-card Posters from the Firschein Press (Brooklyn, NY, 1920-1974)” an “exhibition that presents a selection from the over one hundred “show-card” posters printed by the Firschein Press, a small business operated by East European Jewish immigrants, that served local Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Brooklyn for the better half of the 20th century” is scheduled to come a close today at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkley.

2018: Today, “a week after an El Al flight was delayed by ultra-Orthodox men’s refusal sit beside women,” an “Austrian Airlines plane left Ben Gurion Airport 40 minutes late due to the refusal of 26 ultra-Orthodox men to be seated by women passengers” which led to a late arrival in Vienna which meant other passengers missed their connecting flights.

2018(16th of Tammuz, 5778): One-hundred-four year old pioneering attorney Patricia Schiller, the Brooklyn born daughter “pharmacist Louis Silverman” and “homemaker Gussie (Zuckerblatt) Silverman” and wife of fellow attorney Irving Schiller passed away today,. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

2019(26th of Sivan, 5779): Parashat Shelach-Leach


2019: Limmud Bay Area is scheduled today with both Orthodox and Egalitarian Shacharit services and a variety of presentations including “Indian Jews and their synagogues – A New Guide to 30+Syangoues in India” by Janice Farber and Marian Scheuer Sofaer and “It Isn’t Neild Diamond Singing Kol Nidre: the influence of Traditional Jewish Melodies on Classical Music” with Brian Wilson.

2019: As part of the “Survivor Speaker” program the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a presentation by Steen Metz.



2019: Today, in one of those quirks of the calendar Shabbat falls on June 29, just as it did in 1776 when Jews in the thirteen colonies observed the day of rest for last time as British colonials which should provide subject matter for a sermon as Americans begin a week-long celebration of their independence.

2020: The YIVO institute is scheduled to host live on Zoom “Eating Right and Left: Food and Political Alignment in the Yiddish Press.”

2020: The Ackman and Ziff Family Genealogy Institute is scheduled to host live on Zoom, “Family History Today: Jewish Refugees and the U.S.-Mexico Border.”

2020: The Jewish Arts Collaborative is scheduled to present JLife Art with Cecilia Kremer, the Argentine born epidemiologist who makes “Judaic mosaic art and works with schools and temples to create customized gifts (i.e. tzedakah boxes and mezuzahs) for special occasions and milestones.”

2020: ASF IJE Travels in Jewish History... from home and E’eleh BeTamar are scheduled to present “Journey to Yemen,’ a trip in time and space powered by Diarna Geo-Museum Tours.

2020: As California agencies struggle with the challenge of dealing with the Pandemic the Addison-Penzak JCC in Los Gatoswill is scheduled to launch its summer camp for grades 1-8 today.

2020: The Contra Costa JCC and Congregation B’nai Shalom are scheduled to host, via Zoom an online presentation by Rafael Danziger, Senior Research Advisor and Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, of the Near East Report at AIPAC on “How the Six Day War Forms Today’s Middle East.”




This Day, June 30, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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 JUNE 30

713 CE: In Spain, Visigoth nobility which had held out against the invading Moslem forces, throughout the winter of 712 finally surrendered to the Arabs. A majority of the remaining Goths and Hispano-Roman people who lived in the newly acquired areas eventually converted to Islam. The Jews, who had been persecuted by the ruling Goths, proved to be the exception.  They kept their religious identity and flourished under the new rulers.

1270: In Germany, Rabbenu Asher and his wife gave birth to Talmudist Judah ben Asher, the rabbi at Toledo who was the brother of Jacob be Asher.

1294: The Jewish community of Berne, Switzerland forfeited all financial claims against non-Jews, and then was expelled from the country.

1298: The Jewish community of Morgentheim, Austria was massacred.

1470: Birthdate of Charles VIII, King of France. In 1494, Charles invaded Italy leading to the occupation of the Kingdom of Naples in 1495.  Charles conquest led to increased persecutions of the Jewish population which lead to their expulsion in 1510, two years after his death.

1487: At Faro, Portugal, the printing of a Pentateuch was completed on the printing pressed located in the house of Don Samuel Giacon.  According to Konrad Haebler's Typographie Ibèrique, “this was the first Hebrew book printed with vowel-points.”

1503: Birthdate of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony who in August of 1536 “issued a mandate that prohibited Jews from inhabiting, engaging in business in, or passing through his realm.

1522: Johann Reuchlin “a German humanist and a scholar of Greek and Hebrew” who “for much of his life… was the real centre of all Greek and Hebrew teaching in Germany, passed away. “In 1510, Reuchlin was drawn into a bitter controversy with the Jewish-Dominican convert Johannes Pfefferkorn, who had convinced the emperor to confiscate and burn copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books. Asked for his opinion on the issue, Reuchlin urged the preservation of this literature and recommended the establishment of a chair of Hebrew in each of the major universities. As a result of his efforts, the order to destroy the Jewish books was rescinded. However, his enemies persisted, and Reuchlin had to face charges from the Inquisition. He was able to deflect the accusations for a time and returned to teaching …. Reuchlin is considered a hero in the history of European Judaism.”

1650: William Prynne, the Puritan leader who was an outspoken opponent of re-admitting Jews to England, and who “was sentenced to be imprisoned during life, to be fined £5,000, to be expelled from Lincoln's Inn, to be deprived of his degree by the university of Oxford, and to lose both his ears in the pillory” for his attacks on dramatic performances and King Charles I was arrested today and imprisoned in Dunster Castle.

1651: During the Khmelnytsky Uprising, Polish forces prevailed at the Battle of Beresteczko.  The victory only provided a brief respite.  The Cossack Revolt would continue with thousands of more Jews dying in what would be the worst loss of life until the Holocaust.

1680: In Madrid, an Auto de Fe was held in honor of the marriage of Carlos II to Louis Marie d’Orleans. It took place in the Plaza Mayor and lasted 14 hours. Over 50,000 spectators came to see 118 accused sentenced to prison or burned.  It marked the last time that a "royal" auto was held since Carlos’ successor, Philip V, refused the "honor."

1713: Nehemiah Chiya Chayun arrived at Amsterdam and requested permission of the Portuguese congregation to circulate his writings, which had been published at Berlin.

1739: Birthdate of Moses Ben Abraham Frankel the Berlin born rabbi who was the father of David Frankel.

1760: In Philadelphia, Lyon Nathan and Caroline Webb gave birth to Leah Nathan, the wife of Jacob Naphtali Hart with whom she had twelve children.

1762: In New York, 31 year old Uriah Henricks, a native of the Netherlands married Eva Henricks.

1781: In Danbury, CT, Solomon Simson and his wife gave birth to Sampson Simosn the first Jewish graduate of Columbia who went on to become a lawyer in New York. (As reported by Dr. Yitzchok Levin)


1782(18thof Tammuz, 5542): Because the 17 fell on Shabbat, observance of Tzom Tammuz

1784: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Abraham Alexander officiated at the wedding of 16 year old Rachel de la Motta, a native of St. Croix to Abraham de Pass of Jamaica.

1785: James Oglethorpe, the founder of the colony (and later the state) of Georgia passed away.  Georgia had been created by Oglethorpe as an alternative to Debtor’s Prison.  However, when a boatload of Sephardic Jews arrived in the colony a month after its founding, Oglethorpe welcomed them as he did a subsequent arrival of German Jews who came a year later.  Oglethorpe did this despite the opposition of the trustees which surely endeared him to this remnant of the House of Israel.

1811: Birthdate of Henry Myer Phillips, the native Philadelphia ranked “as one of the best constitutional lawyers” in the United States and a member of the Democratic Party who represented the 4th Pennsylvania Congressional District in the 35th Congress.


1819: Ellen and Henry Naftali Isaacs were married to at the Great Synagogue.

1821(30th of Sivan, 5581): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1821: Birthdate of Sigmund von Henle, a descendant of Löb Berlin, the district rabbi of Bamberg a lawyer who was held in high esteem by King Ludwig II.

1824: Fishes Moses married Rachel Depass in Charleston, SC.

1830: Birthdate of Richard Liebreich, the native of Königsberg and brother of pharmacologist Oskar Liebreich who became a leading ophthalmologist and physiologist.


1838: The Swedish government abolished discrimination against Jews. Unfortunately due to public objections it was repealed. Another 30 years were to pass before Jews were given the right to vote.

1840: Major Alfred Mordecai and Sara Ann “Hays” Mordecai gave birth to Alfred Mordecai, Jr. the West Point Graduate who served with distinction during the Civil War and Rose to the rank of Brigadier General.

1841: One day after she had passed away, 87 year old Frances Nathan was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Street Cemetery.”

1850: Four days after he had passed away, Andrew Barnett, the father of Sophia, Louisa, Jane and Harriet Barnett, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”

1852: Today, twenty-six year old Abraham de Sola, the London born “sixth child of Rebecca Meldola and David Aaron de Sola” the rabbi at Shearith Israel married “Esther Joseph, the youngest daughter of Henry Joseph and Rachel Solomons, with whom he would raise a family in Montreal whose Jewish community benefited greatly from his efforts as did the secular community as can be seen by his appointment to the faculty at McGill.

1861: Amalie Grinberg, the daughter of Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer and Henrietta (Gütel) Kalischer and her husband Moritz Grünberg gave birth to Henryka Grunberg.

1862: At Glendale, VA, seventeen year old Private Benjamin Bennett Levy, a drummer-boy in the Union Army, picked up the “colors” when the color bearers and carried them during the battle.  He saved them from capture by the Rebels and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery under fire.   [Nothing was of greater value to a regiment than its colors.  Defeat in battle was one thing; losing the colors to the enemy was a point of great disgrace.  Color bearers were an easy target for enemy soldiers so it was a high risk job.]

1862; Ellis C. Strouss who had enlisted in the 57th Regiment on November 1, 1861 was wounded today at Charles City Cross Roads, as known as the Battle of Glendale, which was part of the Peninsula Campaign where Union General McClellan fritted away his opportunity to capture Richmond and suffered an ignominious defeat at the hands of General Lee.

1863(13thof Tammuz, 5623): Mordecai Ze'eb Ettinger passed away today at Lemberg.  Born in 1804, he was the father of Rabbi Isaac Aaron Ettinger, the nephew of Rabbi Moses Joshua Heschel and the brother-in-law of Joseph Saul Nathanson with whom he co-authored "Mefareshe ha-Yam"

1864: During the Civil War at the Battle of Petersburg, Abraham Cohn, a Sergeant Major with the 6th New Hampshire Infantry “bravely and coolly carried orders to the advanced Union line while under severe fire from Confederate troops” behavior for which he earned the Medal of Honor.

1865: Philadelphian Michael Baer completed his service 204th Regiment as Major.

1866: Today, in Romania, Jews were attacked maimed and robbed.  The Bucharest Synagogue was desecrated and demolished.  As a result of the violence Article 6 of the 1866 Constitution was replaced by Article 7.  Article 6 declared that "religion is no obstacle to citizenship"; but, "with regard to the Jews, a special law will have to be framed in order to regulate their admission to naturalization and also to civil rights". Article 7 read that "only such aliens as are of the Christian faith may obtain citizenship". All this came to pass when Charles von Hohenzollern took the throne as Carol I and was forced to deal with a riot against the Jews in his capital city.

1870(1st of Tammuz, 5630):  Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1873: Two days after he had passed away, Hart Robinson, the teenage son of George and Sarah Robinson was buried today at “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”

1874: “Partial Destruction of a Town by Fire” published today described the two days of fires in Berditchev, a Ukrainian city in the Russian  “inhabited most by Jews” have destroyed over 600 houses and left thousands homeless. [Berditichev was a major center of Jewish life in the Ukraine, home to Mittnagdim and Chasidim, the famous of which were the Berditchiver Hasidim and their Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok of Berditchev

1875: Alfred Jacobs married Emily Flatau at the Freemason Tavern in London.

1876: Esther Hellman Wallenstein, the founding president of the Hebrew Infant Asylum and Solomon Wallenstein gave birth to the youngest child Milton H. Wallenstein.

1878: According to today’s Foreign Notes column, before departing for the meeting of heads of state in Berlin, the Earl of Beaconsfield received a letter from Lionel de Rothschild in which he asked Disraeli to do everything he could to get them to endorse measures that would put all religions on an equal footing in each of their countries.  Rothschild made a special point of asking Disraeli to intervene on behalf of the suffering Jews of Romania and Serbia.  Disraeli replied that he would do all that he could in this matter.

1879: In Zbąszyń, Poland, Jacobi Bornstein and Thekla Bornstein gave birth to Paul Bornstein the husband of Hanna Bornstein and the father of Toni Bornstein.

1882: Between now and April, 1881, “no less than 225,000 Jewish families – comprising over a million souls – have fled from Russia.”

1885(17thof Tammuz, 5645): Tzom Tammuz observed as funds are being raised to assemble the parts of the Statute of Liberty which had arrived on June 17 in several crates on board a French steamer.

1888(21stof Tammuz, 5648): Parshat Pinchas

1888(21stof Tammuz, 5648): Eighty-eight year old Sing Sing, NY native Anna Marks, “a founder of a Hebrew Sunday School” and a “Jewish Foster Home and Orphan Asylum” passed away today in NYC.

1889(1st of Tammuz, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1889: In Philadelphia, PA, David Julius, a bookbinder who had fled Odessa, and his wife gave birth to Emanuel Julius, who adopted the last name of his first wife Marcet Haldeman to become Emanuel Haldeman-Julius “the nationally known publisher of the ‘Little Blue Books’.”


1890: Birthdate of Nathaniel Peffer, the native New Yorker was a “Far Eastern correspondent for the New York Tribune” who parlayed his 25 years of living in China into an academic career at Columbia University.


1890: It was reported today that the Romsey Abbey “founded more than nine centuries ago” by Benedictine monks included a library “that was celebrated for its collection of Hebrew books.”

1891: In Kovno, Lithuania, “Jonah and Tillie (Hurvitz) Arosn gave birth to European trained Rabbi Joseph Harry Aronson, the husband of Ida Jacobson and since 1922, “the Director of the Rabbinical Seminary of New Haven, CT” while also serving as the Charmain of the Board of the Board of the New Britain (CT) Hebrew Institute.”

1891: “The first of the weekly excursions” sponsored by the “Sanitarium for Hebrew Children took place” today.

1891: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Max and Sarah Hexter gave birth to Maurice Beck Hexter the husband of Marguerite Hexter.



1891: Robert Watchorn, the Immigration Commissioner who in 1907attended a Seder at Ellis Island in 1907 where he gave “a speech dealing with the right of every man in this country to worship God according to his own conviction and pointing out that a man who served God was sure to make a good citizen married Almas Jessica today in Columbus, Ohio.

1891: During the fiscal year ending today, Russia sent 33,504 immigrants to the United States, “the majority of whom were Jews.”

 1891: “The Nautch Girl,” a two-act comic opera with music by Edward Solomon opened at the Savoy Theatre.

1891: “To The Land Of Midian” published today described the plan of Dr. Paul Friedman, a native of Berlin who lived in London before settling in New York, to settle Russian Jews in “the land of Midian which extends from 26 degrees to 30 degrees north latitude and is situated on the Gulf of Akaba near the head of the Red Sea. Friedman had originally sought to use Somalia for this purpose but after visiting there “he concluded that it was not suitable.

1891: Over four hundred people sailed up the Hudson as far as Yonkers today during the first of the weekly excursions sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.

1892: In an example of the problems with transliteration “The Holy Land Colonies” published today described the activities of “Showey Zion meaning Returners to Zion.” The author probably meant “Shavei Tzion” - שבי ציון (Zion Returneees)

1892: It was reported today that New York lawyer Adam Rosenberg is the President of “Returners to Zion” a recently incorporated society “whose main object” is to send Russian Jews to the Palestine “as colonists.”

1892: Marriage broker or ‘Shatchen” Martin Klein brought suit in a Brooklyn court today in an attempt to collect a $25 commission he claimed cigar maker Mauritz Grauer owed him for having secured a husband for Miss Paulie Grauer.  Klein also claimed that Grauer had promised the groom, liquor dealer Joseph Ritter an additional $500.

1892: An explosion at 26 Willet Street, a tenement that was home to Polish and Russian Jews “wrecked the lower part of the hous and injured half a dozen tenants.”

1892: Rabbi Levy officiated at the marriage of Jacob Rosenstein of St. Louis and Florence A. Belitzer which took place at the home of the bride’s mother in Charleston, SC.

1893: Birthdate of Harold Joseph Laski “an English political theorist, economist, author, and lecturer, who served as the chairman of the Labour Party during 1945-1946.”

1894: It was announced today that the Hebrew Institute will be hosting a series of lectures by prominent doctors on the “Care and Feeding of Infants during the Warm Weather.”

1894: Representatives of the United Hebrew Trades Association spoke at tonight’s meeting held in Union Square to support the proposed “under-ground rapid transit system.

1894: “Isaac Jacobs, a middle-aged Jew…was arrested” today “on a larceny warrant.” (More to come)

1895: “A troupe of German-speaking peasants are performing a passion play similar to the one presented at Ober-Ammergau” at the “village of Selzach in the Swiss canton of Solothurun.”  A large number of Berliners are expected to attend the performance.

1895: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Isaac and Lilly Pichel gave birth to the co-author of A Doctor Discusses Breast Feeding, Marie Pichel Warner the wife of Dr. Lewis J. Levinson and Dr. Benjamin Warner and the mother of Dr. Richard R.P. Warner


1895: It was reported today that “a recent examination” of the books of the B’nai B’rith Society in San Francisco showed that the shortage was actually $17,000 and not $13,000 as originally alleged.  The discovery of the original shortage led to the suicide of Louis Blanc, the Society’s former treasurer.  He had not been prosecuted for taking the money, but the community obviously failed he was responsible when they failed to re-elect him as treasurer.

1895: Annie Silverman, the wife of Wolf Silverman was buried today at Washington Cemetery in New York.

1897: A list of the graduates of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls published today included the names of Mary Wiener, Esther Freed, Celia Levin and Sadie Pearlman.

1899: After having traveled in locked cabin for three weeks, Alfred Dreyfus completed his voyage from Devil’s Island when he “disembarked today at Port Haliguen on the Quiberon Peninsula” shrouded in a nocturnal cloak of secrecy.

1900(3rdof Tammuz, 5660): Chaya Chana Ettinger (nee Kluger), the wife of Yonah Ettinger, passed away today.

1902: Herzl began a journey to London seeking support for his plans for a Jewish homeland. The journey lasted until July 17.

1903: Sir Marcus Samuel, the Lord Mayor of London, “received the Freedom of the City of Sheffield” today.

1903: As of today, “the Education for the Higher of Education of Orphans with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio” which “was organized in 1896, “counted 1,218 members living in 58 towns in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. “

1904(17thof Tammuz, 5564): Tzom Tammuz

1904: On a day connected with the loss of the second Jewish commonwealth, Herzl, the man trying to connect a modern Jewish commonwealth, suffers a severe bronchial catarrh, which turns into pneumonia. Oskar Marmorek proceeds to Edlac with two doctors.

1905: In the year ending today, the Legal Bureau of the Educational Alliance reported that it had “transacted business for 9,804 applicants” which marked a large increase in providing serving for “Americanizing immigrants.”

1905: Albert Einstein published the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" where he introduces special relativity.

1906: In Brooklyn, Russian Jewish immigrants Eliahu and Rose Pinta gave birth to Hebrew teacher Judith Pinta who gained fame as Mizrachi leader Judith Mandelbaum, the wife of Mordechai Mandelbaum with whom she had one child, a daughter named Rhea.


1907: Dr. Harry Friedenwald, the President of the of the Zionist Federation is scheduled to preside over today’s session of the “Zionist Convention” at Tannersville, NY where delegates are going to discuss “the formation of a syndicate for the development of industrial opportunities in Palestine.”


 1909: The Hebrew Benevolent Loan Society of Buffalo, NY contributed $5.00 to the National Conference of Jewish Charities today.

1910: “Still Expelling Jews” published today reported today that in the last two day 158 Jews have been forced to leave Kiev, 61 from Solomenka and 57 from Demieffka.

1911: In Paramaribo, Suriname, Daniel Joseph Hartogh and Estelle Celine Abrahams gave birth to the first child and first son Salomon Maurits Hartogh

1911: Today, Rabbi Nathan Krass of Temple Israel officiated at the funeral of businessman and philanthropist Abraham Abraham who was so respected and popular that a large crowd gathered along both sides of Bedford Avenue as the body was being brought to the Temple and “and the inside of the Temple was thronged with those who came to pay their last respects.”

1911: “The department store on Fulton Street in Brooklyn and Macy’s department store in Manhattan” were closed today out of respect for the late Abraham Abraham.

1911: A Jew, Abraham Benrubi, former President of the Tribunal of Commerce at Cavalla (Turkey) was appointed Judge of the Court of Appeal in Jerusalem.

1912: A few weeks after serving as valedictorian for her high school graduation, Bertha Alexander who would change her name to Beatrice and gain fame as “Madame Alexander”, married Philip Behrman (Jewish Women’s Archives)


1912: Lieutenant Albert M. Cohen, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles J. Cohen of Philadelphia was listed as one of the nine officers who had contributed “most to the efficiency of the U.S. Navy battleship Delaware in the last year.”

1913: The resignation of William Williams, the reform minded Commissioner at Ellis Island whose exclusionary practices were challenged by the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society, became effective today.

1913(25th of Sivan, 5673): Nathan Waxman, “a communal worker in Brookline, Massachusetts” passed away today.

1913: Eighty-three year old Victor Henri Rochefort, the editor of La Patrie who joined with people like Edoouard Drumont and Hubert Joseph Henry to promote the campaign against Dreyfus passed away today.

1914: In Rochester, NY, the convention of the Federation of the American Zionists which Max Schulmam of the Knights of Zion and Miss Bessie Schulman of the “Hoachuzah Order are attending as delegates is scheduled to come to an end day

1914: Rabbi Henry Cohen of Galveston is scheduled to give the “Opening Prayer” at tonight’s session of the 25th anniversary conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis being held at Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan.

1915: Birthdate of Henritette Klatscherova, who 20 days before her 27thbirthday was transported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdred.

1915: The convention of the Federation of American Zionists came to a close this evening with the election of national officers. Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore was elected President. Other officers chosen were Chairman of Executive Committee, Louis Lipsky of New York; Honorary Secretary, Bernard A. Rosenblatt of New York, and Treasurer, Louis Robison of New York. The delegates to the convention received a pleasant surprise at this closing session when it was announced that Nathan Starus, the famed philanthropist had turned over his private yacht, valued at between $35,000 and $50,000, to the Zionists to help them deal with the looming financial shortfall.

1915: “Rabbi Hertz At Front” published today described the chief rabbi’s visit to the Western Front where when holding services he discussed the peril facing the British Empire and said that the “Jews of the empire had fully realized the duty of the hour and nobly responded to the country’s call.

1916: Seventy year old French Egyptologist Gaston Camille Charles Maspero passed away. He was the author of The Struggles of the Nations which provided an account of “the first Egyptian mention of the Hebrews ever found on an Egyptian monument.”

1916: It was reported today that an article appeared “in the current issue of the American Jewish Chronicle supported by photographs which claims to prove that the Russian Government was instrumental in the instigation of pogroms” in that country.

1916(29thof Sivan, 5676): Ninety-two year old Louis Hershfield, father of Isidore Hershfield, the Director of HIAS who came to the United States from Russia more than 70 years ago ago passed away today at the home of his daughter, Lillian Hershfield today.

1917:  Birthdate of Bernard “Buddy” Rich.  Born in Brooklyn, Rich is best remembered as one of the greatest drummers of all times.  Later in his career he was the leader of his own group – The Buddy Rich Band.  According to one legend, when on his deathbed a nurse asked him if anything was bothering him, Rich replied, “Yes, country music.

1917: “The Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea” is scheduled to open this evening at Asbury Park, N.J.

1917: Thirty-one year old Israel S. Wechsler, the Romanian born son of Moses and Leah Wechsler and Bellevue Medical College trained neurologist and psychiatrist married Minnie Wechsler with whom had two children -  Miriam and Robet.

1917: Nathaniel E. Harris, who was the governor when Leo Frank was lynched, completed his terms as Georgia’s chief executive.

1917: It was reported today that the 1,000 immigrants who arrived in New York last week from Rotterdam were the first Jews to “come here from occupied Russia-Germany since the break in relations between the United States and Germany.

1917: It was reported today that “the Jewish Ladies’ Aid Society of the B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Lincoln, Nebraska” which has 62 members including its Secretary, Mrs. Henry Kohn, “has contributed $10 to the Hebrew Union Scholarship Fund.” (Editor’s note – this entry serves as reminder that Jewish communities existed in a wide-variety of locations beyond a few major metropolitan areas.)

1917: “A Russian officer’s opinion of the effect of the revolution on the Russian Army was cabled to Abraham Cahan editor of The Jewish Daily Forward” which revealed “that thousands of high officer of the army were slaughtered by their men at the outbreak of the revolution.”

1918: During a twelve month period starting today, 3,055 Jews were admitted to the United States and 373 Jews departed from the United States.

1919: “Different from Others” a silent film directed and produced by Richard Oswald who co-authored the script with Magnus Hirschfeld who co-starred with Reinhold Schunzel was released today in the German Weimar Republic.

1919: Today, The Committee on Public Information for which Walter Wanger made short propaganda films designed “to combat anti-war or pro-German sentiment in Allied Italy” “was formally disestablished by an act of Congress”

1920: The 31st annual convention of The Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to continue to for a second day in Rochester, NY.


1920: Sir Herbert Samuel the first high commissioner for Palestine arrives in Jaffa and is received with a military ceremony.  Samuel served in the position for five years. He was the son of Edwin Louis Samuel, a successful Anglo-Jewish banker.  Samuel had been raised as an Orthodox Jew and although according to at least one source, he ceased to be a practicing Jew but remained active in Jewish affairs.

1920: Birthdate of science fiction author Sam Moskowitz.


1920: This afternoon at the St. Regis Hotel, Rabbi Nathan Stern officiated at the wedding of “Juliette V. Roth, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. and Charles R. Roth” and “Louis Martin Levy, the son of Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Levy.”

1920: “Carolyn Markowitz,” the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Markowitz married “Jerome C Levy” the son of Mr. and Mrs. Herman L. Levy.

1921:Jonas and Pauline Bernanke arrived at Ellis Island today. The 30 year old Bernanke listed his occupation as “clerk.”  The Bernankes eventually moved to Dillon, South Carolina, where they ran a drug store and raised a son named Ben.

1922: In Philadelphia, a year after they had arrived in the United States, “two Jewish immigrants gave birth to Max David Ticktin, the JTS trained rabbi who served as the Hillel Director at the Universities of Chicago and Wisconsin before become “a professor of Yiddish and Hebrew Literature at George Washington University.


1922: The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the Reform movement's professional organization, meeting in Cape May, N.J., voted 56 to 11 to affirm in principle the right of women to become rabbis.

1922: President Harding agreed to put the Merchant Marine Bill, which had been championed by Albert Lasker, “on hold during a six week congressional recess” that started today so that the Lasker, the advertising genius turned government official, could rally support for the legislation.

1922: A joint resolution of both Houses of Congress of the United States unanimously endorsed the "Mandate for Palestine," confirming the irrevocable right of Jews to settle in the area of Palestine - anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea:

    " Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected."  (As described by Dr. Yitzchok Levine)

1923(16thof Tammuz, 5683): Parashat Balak

1923(16thof Tammuz, 5683): Sixty-eight year old Albany born businessman and Republican politician Louis I. Waldman passed away today.

1924(28th of Sivan, 5684): Rabbi Yaakov Yisrael De Haan, a Dutch born Jew who was a leader of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community opposed to Zionism was shot outside of the synagogue moments after finishing his evening prayers.  De Haan was scheduled to lead a delegation of ultra-Orthodox anti-Zionist Jews to London where he planned to make their case to the British government.  His killer was rumored to be a fellow Jew.  The Jewish community of Jerusalem, regardless of political affiliation was shocked by the killing and 20,000 people turned out for his funeral.  Forty years after the crime took place a 1970 broadcast on Israeli radio revealed that the killer had been a member of Haganah who had killed De Haan because he was viewed as a traitor. 


1924: AvrahamTehomi allegedly shot and killed the Dutch Jewish poet, novelist and diplomat Jacob Israel de Haan, who was living in Jerusalem as a journalist.

1925: Viscount Herbert Samuel completed his service as High Commissioner of Palestine.  He was the first person to hold the position.

1925: Birthdate of Samuel M. Ehrenhalt, “a poet of percentages who for 15 years as a regional commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics transformed colorless wage and employment figures into small, brightly lighted windows onto New Yorkers’ daily lives.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)

1926: Birthdate of Paul Berg, co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980.

1926: Governor Moore of New Jersey is scheduled to deliver the welcoming remark at the opening session the annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Professor Louis Ginzberg and Rabbi Max Drob are scheduled to address the meeting of North American rabbis being held at the Scarboro Hotel in Long Branch, NJ.

1927: Henry Ford retracted and apologized for the publication of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

1927: In Chicago, Marion (née Weil) and Maurice Clarence Goldman, gave birth today to playwright and screenwriter James Adolf Goldman the old brother of novelist William Goldman.

1928: Birthdate of Oscar Muller, the student arrested at Bergen in 1942 and killed at Auschwitz in 1943.

1929: “Behind That Curtain’ a mystery produced by William Fox with a script co-authored by Sony Levien was released today in the United States.

1929: Two days after the release of the silent version, the sound version of “Broadway Babies” a musical directed by Mervyn LeRoy was released today in the United States.

1932:  Chaim Arolsoroff “wrote a long letter to Chaim Weizmann” in which he estimated that the Zionist movement had only a short period of time at its disposal” because within five to ten ears Europe would be engulfed in war and the Yishuv would likely find itself facing wither an Arab-British alliance or an Arab revolt and because cut off from the Jewish world, its people and resources.”

1934: Night of the Long Knives: Hitler ordered the execution of some of the SA (Sturm Abteilungen) leaders of whose absolute loyalty he questioned including Ernst Roehm. Until then the SS under Himmler was subordinate to the SA. The SS now became independent and was given charge of the concentration camps.

1934: “Rabbi Benjamin Friedman of Temple Society of Concord, Dr. Aaron Burman, president of the Jewish National Fund Council, Benjamin G. Rudolph, T. Aaron Levy, Alexander Holstein and Samuel D. Solomon are the delegates from the Syracuse, NY district of the ZOA attending the “37th annual national convention of the Zionist Organization of America” scheduled to take place today in Atlantic City, NJ.

1936(10thof Tammuz, 5695): Phineas H. Toldeano, the President of Toledano Exporting Company, whose wife Rachel, the daughter of Mordecai and Ernestine Epstein was “President of the Jewish Girls’ Welfare Society and a member of the Shearith Israel Sisterhood’s board of managers passed away today in New York City.

1936: Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record today. Two weeks later the young Jewess would be kicked off the German Olympic Team.

1936(10th of Tammuz, 5695): Mrs. Eva M/ Aronson, “a communal work” passed away today in Seattle, WA.
1936: Polish Jews strike to protest anti-Semitism.

1936: “Disturbances…of an anti-Semitic character were reported today from Oran, Alger and Constantine.”

1936: Max Silverman is scheduled to be re-elected today as the Grand Master of B’rith Abraham today.

1936: In Paris, the Minister of the Interior “said the blue-shirted nationalist ‘Francistes’ had plotted to kill” Premiere Leon Blum.

1937: Birthdate of Gideon Ezra, the native of Jerusalem who served as an MK and led several government ministries.

1937: “A tower and stockade kibbutz was established at Tirat Zevi (Zevi’s Castle) 6 miles south-east of Beisan and less than a mile from the Jordan border.” [As the debate rages about the borders of the state of Israel and settlements on the “West Bank,” please note the location of this kibbutz.  Obviously the Zionist pioneers assumed that all territory west of the Jordan River was open to them.]

1937: Under the auspices of the Bialiki Association, Chiam Nachman Bialik’s house was opened to the public. The public display included:  the archives of Bialik’s manuscripts and that of other writers, Bialik’s private library and a museum with the poet’s personal possessions.

1938: In Austria, “at almost 10,000 Jewish owned commercial and industrial enterprises…the employers announced to some 30,000 Jewish employees their immediate dismissal on orders from various Nazi organizations.”

1938: In Vienna when asked about the fate of the Jews, Joseph Buerckel, the Reich Commissioner for Austria said that “This is a revolution” and “the Jews may be glad that it is not on the French or Russian pattern.”

1939: Tel Aviv attorney M. Seligman was released on bail, pending his appeal of a conviction on charges of conspiring to assist in the illegal immigration of Jews into Palestine which carried a six month term of imprisonment.  “He was acquitted of 18 other charges including brigery and corruption of Palestine Government officials.”

1939: Premiere of “Bachelor Mother” directed by Garson Kanin.

1940: “Nazi System Rules in Poland” published today reported that the Germans have divided “the inhabitants of Poland into three categories” one of which are the Jews who “have no civil rights” and who must “wear white armbands marked with a blue Star of David” which is designed “to distinguish them from others.”

1940: “An appeal to the British Government to defend the Jewish Homeland and to help preserve democracy was made here today at the opening session of the Zionist Organization of America by Ludwig Lewisohn, honorary secretary.”

1941(5th of Tammuz, 5701): Ninety Jews are murdered at Dobromil, Ukraine.

1941(5thof Tammuz, 5701): Ten year old Masha Blumenau was among those murdered by German soldiers when they went to the City Hospital in Liepāja to arrest the Jewish members of the medical staff whom they then killed.

1941: German troops enter Lvov, Ukraine, and beat hundreds of Jews to death after running them ragged at gunpoint.

1941: Two death trains left Iasi, Romania after a pogrom. One of them stopped in Podu Iloaiei and the 1,194 Jews who died along the way from thirst and heat exhaustion were buried there in a mass grave.

1941 Three hundred young Jews are deported from Amsterdam, Holland, to stone quarries at the Mauthausen, Austria, concentration camp. All will eventually perish.

1941: American radio commentator Father Charles Coughlin celebrates Hitler's invasion of Russia as "the first strike in the holy war on communism" and attacks "the British-Jewish-Roosevelt war on Germany and Italy."

1941: The Germans entered Lvov, Soviet Union, cite of the third largest Jewish Community after Warsaw and Lodz. Thousands of Jews would be tortured and slaughtered at the hands of rampaging mobs.

1941: In Amsterdam, 300 Jews were deported to work camps.

1941: In Denmark, a collaborationist SS organization, Freikorps Danmark (Danish Free Corps), is established.

1941:  In Belorussia, a guerrilla collaborationist organization, Belaruskaya Narodnaya Partizanka(Belorussian National Guerrillas), is established.

1941: In Latvia, Viktor Arajs establishes the Perkonkrusts(Thunder Cross), a collaborationist paramilitary unit.

1941: Professor László “Radványi and his family arrived in Mexico” today.

1941: Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, tells Rudolf Höss, the commandant of Auschwitz, that Hitler has ordered that the "Jewish question" be solved once and for all and that the SS is to implement that order. Auschwitz is the death camp that is to carry out the greater part of the Jewish extermination. Mass gassings, not shootings, are determined to be the most effective means to exterminate the large numbers of Jews.

1942: A headline in the London Daily Telegraph reads: "MORE THAN 1,000,000 JEWS KILLED IN EUROPE." [Sort of puts the “lie” the statement that people did not know what was happening to the Jews in the clutches of Hitler.]

1942: Today, in London, “a delegation of Jewish leaders from Poland and Czechoslovakia presented Ambassador Anthony Drexel, Jr., “a comprehensive reported on the Jewish situation in their respective countries” which are now “under Nazi occupation.” (JTA)

1942: Three-year-old Jewish twins in Sosnowiec, Poland, Ida and Adam Paluch, are spirited away from Gestapo agents by their aunt and sent to live with separate Catholic families

1942(15thof Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-one year old Russian born “landscape painter” Abraham Manievich who fled his homeland after the Revolution and arrived in the United States in 1921 passed away today.



1943: Thirty-three days after The Green Hornet crashed in the Pacific killing most of the crew including Sergeant Frank Glassman, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Sergeant Francis McNamara, one of the three survivors died on a raft in the Pacific.

1943: In Maryland, Albert Weiner, the son of Soloman Weiner and Gertrude Talesknic and his wife Sylvia Cooper gave birth to Randy Weiner

1943: After almost 8 years, the New Deal agency known as The Federal Art Project (FAP) whose artists included Leon Bibel, Adolph Gottlieb, Harry Gottlieb, Isaac Soyer, Moses Soyer. Raphael Soyer and Lee Krasner came to an end

1944: After having been “placed in charge of the JDC activities in North Africa in 1943, Max S. Perlman today moved “to the organization's new office in Bari, Italy to assist in the repatriation and relief of Jewish refugees following the Allied victory in Europe.

1944: By now, more than 500 Jews are being secretly protected by industrialist Oskar Schindler.

1944: Joel Brand and Rudolf Kasztner working together with the Jewish Agency and the War Refugee board concluded a deal with and Adolph Eichmann. It became known as “Blut fuer Ware” ("Blood for Goods"). This date marked the first of three transports from Hungary to Switzerland. A total of 3344 Jews were sent on a special transport at a price of $1,000 per head. The deal was the subject of a great amount of controversy and later even resulted in a defamation trial, which reached the Israeli Supreme Court in June of 1955.

1944: “Max Perlman, originally the Joint Distribution Committee representative in North Africa was transferred Italy where he became the head of the JDC office in Bari, Italy which was opened today “to assist in the repatriation and relief of Jewish refugees following the Allied victories in Europe.”

1944: One thousand, seven hundred, ninety-five Jews arrived from Corfu arrived at Birkenau.

1944: The crematoria at Auschwitz are working at full capacity when 2044 Jews from Corfu and Athens, Greece, arrive. At day's end, lightning rods on crematoria chimneys are warped from the heat generated by the furnaces.

1944: The 461st Bombardment Group under the command of Frederick E. Glantzberg bombed Blechhammer an area home to a synthetic oil plant whose workers included inmates from Theresienstadt concentration camp who probably lived in fear of the Taschenofen (mobile pocket furnace) located there.

1945:"Lest We Forget," an exhibition of death-camp photography organized by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Washington Evening Star began a tour in Boston, Massachusetts, and then on into Midwest.  By tours end nearly 90,000 Americans will have viewed this testament of the Holocaust.

1946: “Irgun Zvai Leumi…issued an ultimatum tonight saying it would kill three British hostages if the British executed two Irgun members condemned to death.”

1946: Fifty-one year old Israel Brodie, the second son of Aaron Brode, drapery traveller, and his wife Jane, née Magid, immigrants from Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania who served as a chaplain in the RAF in WW II and who was “appointed principal of Jews’ College” today married “Warsaw-born school teacher Fanny Levine” today at the Great Synagogue in London. (As reported by Hilary L. Rubinstein)

1946: British soldiers and police officers rushed into the Tel Aviv business district when pamphlet bombs exploded in this predominately Jewish city. They snatched the pamphlets from “the hands of the jeering populace. “The pamphlets, signed by Irgun, said, ‘All this, and what will follow, will not change our determination to take the lives of these three if our two die.’ The pamphlets referred to the three of the five British soldiers kidnapped by Irgun two weeks ago.  Two of the British soldiers have already been released in response to pressure from the Haganah.

1946: “Despite the detention of 2,000 “ Jews “in the largest mass arrest ever made in Palestine, the secreted radio of the Jewish resistance movement announced tonight that its leadership and general staff had not been ‘silenced’ by the campaign that British forces opened against’ Jewish forces “yesterday morning.

1946: As the British continued to wage war against the Jews of Palestine, the city of Haifa was placed under a curfew tonight following a spontaneous demonstration that had taken place earlier in the day.  According to unofficial reports, four people were wounded when the British fired on the demonstrators.

1946: As the British crack down on the Yishuv, there are reports that the Mandatory Government will cease to recognize the Jewish Agency and replace it a variety of local councils.  Moshe Shertok had already expressed the view that withdrawal would not mean the end of the Jewish Agency since it was supported the community in Palestine.

1947: Birthdate of Major General Yedidya Ya’ari, the native of kibbutz Merhavia “who was the commander of the Israeli Navy from 2000-2004.”   Ya’ari is one of at least prominent Israelis from Merhavia the others being Golda Meir and Yaakov Shabtal, the novelist, playwright and translator who is the brother of Aharon Shabtai who is also a poet.

1947: U.S. premiere of “Brute Force” a “film noir” directed by Jules Dassin, produced by Mark Hellinger with a screenplay by Richard Brooks,

1948: “Max Elitcher and Morton Sobell drove to Catherine Slip where Sobell met with” Soviet spy “Julius Rosenberg to exchange microfilm” today.

1948: U.S. premiere of “A Foreign Affair” a comedy directed by Billy Wilder who also co-authored the screenplay.

1948: The last British armed forces left Israel.

1948: American pilot Coleman Goldstein transferred from Squadron 101 to Air HQ today.

1948: Irving Berlin’s “Easter Parade” a musical produced by Arthur Freed, with a script co-authored by Sidney Sheldon and featuring a score by Berlin, the Jewish songwriter who seemed to have penchant for writing popular melodies for Christian holidays (White Christmas) was released today in the United States.

1948: An Israeli convoy led by commandos arrives at the isolated settlement of Kfar Darom, south of Gaza.  The convoy brought food for the Jews and was supposed to evacuate the wounded and the women.  The Egyptians were able to prevent the convoy from departing which meant that the commandos and the defenders would now be forced to share the meager supplies as they wait for relief from the outside.

1948: Shai was disbanded as part of a reorganization of the Israeli secret service. Shai, “an acronym for Sherut Yediot” was established in 1940 as “the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah.”

1948, Meir “Tobianski was taken into custody and interrogated by Isser Be'eri, David Kron, Binyamin Gibli and Avraham Kidron during a drumhead court-martial. Be'eri had already prepared a firing squad consisting of six soldiers from the Palmach Yiftach Brigade, which was in control of the Jerusalem corridor zone. Tobianski was found guilty and executed in Bayt Jiz, where his body was buried. Tobianski had received neither a lawyer nor a right to appeal, and his case was not reviewed by a higher court. Be'eri knew of his innocence, but still ordered his execution. In 1949, Be'eri was tried and found guilty of manslaughter. At the trial the court found that as there was a ceasefire in effect at the time, any information supposedly passed by Tobianski could not have served the Jordanian artillery. Be'eri received one day of prison time due to his extensive service to Israel. He was pardoned on the same day by the president, Chaim Weizmann.”


1949: Birthdate of Alain Finkielkraut the French author and intellectual the son of manufacture of fine leather goods who survived Auschwitz, whose works include “In the Name of the Other: Reflections on the Coming Anti-Semitism.”


1949: After opening in London three months ago “The Queen of Spades” filmed by cinematographer Otto Heller was released in the United States today.

1949(3rdof Tammuz, 5709): Seventy-two year old Arthur Adler Fleisher, the Philadelphia born son of Ida Marie Fleisher and Benjamin W. Fleisher, Jr., “an industrialist who was active in Jewish communal affairs passed away today in his hometown.

1949: “House of Strangers” based on the novel by Jerome Weidman directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Sol C. Siegal, with a script by Philip Yordan and starring Edward G. Robinson opened today in Los Angeles.

1949: It was announced today, that “William B. Herlands, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America will leave New York on July 5 for a six week mission to Israel to study methods of strengthening religious ties between American and Israeli Jews.”

1949: “Stand Against Zionism” published today summarized the anti-Zionist views of the late Dr. David Philipson, a leading Reform Rabbi who supported the American Council of Judaism.

1950: “Just three days after the United Nations Security Council voted to provide military assistance to South Korea, President Harry S. Truman orders U.S. armed forces that would eventually include Major Joseph I. Gurfein, the West Point graduate and Silver Star winner and Colonel Melvin Garnter who was award the Distinguished Service Cross, to assist in defending that nation from invading North Korean armies.

1951: “Strangers on a Train” a movie adaption of the novel by the same name starring Ruth Roman and a score by Dimitri Tiomkin was released today in the United States.

1952: Guiding Light, a soap opera created by Irna Phillips, debuted on television on. It is one of the longest-running daily television programs.

1953(17th of Tammuz, 5713): Tzom Tammuz

1953: Between May 15, 1948 and June 30, 1953, the Jewish population of Israel doubled from 640,000 to 1.3 million.

1955: Final broadcast of “Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator” an NCB radio detective drama directed by Himan “Hi” Brown who began his broadcasting career at the age of 18 reading newspapers with a Yiddish dialect on WEAF.

1956: Between May 15, 1948 and June 30, 1956, the Jewish population of Israel tripled from 640,000 to 2.1 million.

1957: Allied Artists released “Love in the Afternoon” a romantic comedy that owed its existence to two Jews since it was directed and produced by Billy Wilder with a screenplay co-written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.

1959(24th of Sivan, 5719): American composerLazare Saminsky passed away at Port Chester, NY. Born in Russian in 1882he was a pupil of Lyadov and Rimsky-Korsakov at the St Petersburg and Moscow conservatories from 1906 until 1910. He moved in 1920 to New York, where in 1923 he was a founder of the League of Composers. He was musical director of Temple Emanu-El from 1924 until 1956 and author of several books. Saminsky wrote Jewish liturgical music and drew on Jewish sources for his five symphonies, choral music and songs.

1959(24thof Sivan, 5719): Eighty year old Bernard Semel, the “president of Bernard Semel, Incorporated, wholesalers and exporters of textiles, the husband of Sadie Semel with whom her raised three children – Herbert, Henrietta and Goldie and active member of the Jewish community as can been by his founding of the Jewish Day, serving as “president of the Federation of Galician and Bucovinian Jews, and acting as a trustee of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” passed away today.


1960: In Toronto, “Barbara Frum (née Rosberg), a well-known, Niagara Falls, New York-born journalist and broadcaster in Canada, and Murray Frum, a dentist, who later became a real estate developer, philanthropist, and art collector” gave birth today Yale alum and Harvard educated lawyer David Jeffrey Fum, the Republican political writer who has used his skills in the George W. Bush and such journalistic outlets as The Atlantic and the National Review.

1961: “Side Show,” “the most famous episode of the 1961 television anthology horror series Way Out” with a script by Elliot Baker was released today.

1962: LA Dodger Sandy Koufax pitched another no-hitter as the Dodger beat the Mets 5-0.

1962: “Palisades Park” a hit song written by Chuck Barris finished a two week stint at No. 3 on “the Billboard Hot 100.”

1963: In the Bronx, “Leonard Schwartz, an electrical engineer, and Heda (Teitcher) Schwartz, a vocational rehabilitation counselor” gave birth to Lisa Miriam Schwartz, the NYU trained physician “who with her husband devoted her life to warning patients about the dangers of unnecessary medical tests and treatment and excessive diagnoses.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)


1965: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 proposed by New York Congressman Emanuel Celler which abolished the National Origins Formula became effective today.

1965: “Ski Party” a comedy film featuring Robert Q. Lewis and Lesley Gore was released today in the United States.

1966: The National Organization for Women (NOW) was founded at a meeting in Betty Friedan's hotel room.

1968: Four days after he had passed away funeral services are scheduled to be held for jazz trumpeter Harry “Ziggy” Elman, a featured trumpeters with the Benny Goodman Orchestra.


1970: “Steambath,” the second play by American author Bruce Jay Friedman was first performed Off-Broadway at the Truck and Warehouse Theater today.


1970: During the War of Attrition Yitzhak Peer was taken prisoner when his F-4E II Phantom was shot down by an Egyptian SAM.

1970: During the War of Attrition, Rami Harpaz and Eyal “Los” Ahikar were taken prisoner when their F-4E II Phantom was shot down by an Egyptian SAM.  (Israel’s existence comes at a very high price.)

1971(7th of Tammuz, 5731): Herbert Biberman, screenwriter, director and part of the Hollywood Ten, passed away today.


1971: “Carnal Knowledge,”  “a comedy-drama directed by Mike Nicols, produced by Nichols and Joseph Levine, written by Jules Feiffer and co-starring Arthur Garfunkel was released in the United States today.

1971: “The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the New York Times voting 6 to 3 allow resumption of the publication of the Pentagon Papers, a project overseen for the Timesby Gerald Gold.

1971: “They Might Be Giants” the cinematic version of the play by James Goldman who wrote the script for the movie which co-starred Jack Gilford was released in the United States tdaoy.

1971: “Drive, He Said” the movie version of Brandeis University grad Jeremy Larner’s novel by the same name with music by David Shire was released in Sweden today.

1972: After three years Charles Eustace McGaughey completed his service as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.

1976(2ndof Tammuz, 5736): Seventy year old South Carolina born civil rights lawyer, Shad Polier who was one of the  courageous lawyers defending the Scottsboro Boys, the husband of Justine Wise Polier and the son-in-law of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise passed away today.





1976: As the crisis at Entebbe entered its fourth day, the Israeli government was under intense pressure from families of the hostages to negotiate with the terrorists even it meant releasing those with “blood on their hands.”

1976: Unbeknownst to the public the Israeli government had ascertained through direct conversations with Idi Amin that his government was cooperating with the terrorists which meant that there was no hope that Uganda might help in any way to free the prisoners.

1976: Just before midnight an Air France jet landed at Orly Airport carrying 47 of the released hostages some of whom provided what would become invaluable information for those who would conduct Operation Thunderbolt.

1976: Catcher Jeff Newman made his major league debut with the Oakland Athletics.

1978(29thof Sivan, 5638): While shooting his last film, “Avalanche” 64 year old director Mark Robson died of a heart attack.

1979: Seventy year old David L. Bazelon, the Wisconsin born son of “Russian Jewish immigrants Lena and Israel Bazelon” began served as the “Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columiba.

1980: At Arnhem, Netherlands the 1980 Summer Paralympics where Igal Pazi and Hagai Shamir played for the Israel Volleyball Team took home the Gold came to an end today.

1981: Former Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Germany today.

1982: “Forced Vengeance” an action drama featuring David Opatoshu as “Sam Paschal” was released in the United States today.

1982: Birthdate of actress Elizabeth Anne “Lizzy” Caplan the native of Los Angeles and niece of publicist Howard Bragman who has nominated for Emmy, Satellite and Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her portrayal of “Virginia Johnson on the Showtime series ‘Masters of Sex.’”

1983(19thof Tammuz, 5743): Seventy-seven year old Mary Livingston, born Sadye Marks, the wife and comedic foil of Jack Benny passed away today.


1984(30thof Sivan, 5744): Seventy-seven year old playwright Lillian Hellman a New Orleans born Jewess passed away.



1984(30thof Sivan, 5744): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1985: In “Yuppies with Fetlocks” published today Jean Franco reviews “The Centaur in the Garden by Moacyr Scliar.; translated by Margaret A. Neves. “This novel…is reminiscent of the Chagall paintings in which the scenes of everyday Jewish life are tenderly and oddly transmuted into fantasy. ''The Centaur in the Garden'' is set..on a farm in southern Brazil, in one of the colonies of Jewish immigrants established there at the beginning of this century by the German-Jewish philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch…One Jewish family's struggle to make a living in these unfamiliar and lonely surroundings is thwarted by the birth of the youngest child, Guedali, who is a centaur.

1985: In two separate bomb attacks on buses in Jerusalem, 6 people were injured.

1991(17thof Tammuz, 5751): Tzom Tammuz

1991: Proving once again that violence in the Middle East is not tied to Israel, “Christian and Muslim towns in southern Lebanon came under attack today for the second straight day as rival militias traded artillery fire.”

1992: Prosecution of East European Nazi collaborators who had gained entry to the country posing as innocent refugees from Communism by Australia's "Special Investigations Unit" met with failure and the prosecution effort for all practical purposes was shut down on this date.

1994: Catcher Mike Lieberthal made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1995: “Apollo 13” the space movie based on Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 co-authored by Jeffrey Kluger who began working at TIME magazine in 1996 “specializing in science coverage” which meant he covered the death of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon in the Challenger explosion of 2003.

1996: “A Fair Country” by Jon Robin Baitz which had premiered Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Mitzi Newhouse Theatre in February of 1996 was performed for the last time today.

1996: IN “New Museum Traces 2 Paths Into Jewish History in Atlanta” published today, Ronald Smothers provides a snapshot of a Jewish culture captured south of the Mason-Dixon Line.


1996: In “A Question of Conscience” published today Eugen Weber reviewed The Statement in which Brian Moore uses the German occupation of France and its factious fallout as the raw material to produce a powerful new novel.


1999: U.S. premiere of “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” co-starring Mary Kay Bergman with a score by Marc Shaiman.

2000: “The Perfect Storm” a product of executive producer Barry Levinson was released in the United States today.

2000: “The Patriot” a Revolutionary War movie co-starring Jason Isaacs as the “evil British commander” was released today in the United States.

2001: “As Secretary of State Colin L. Powell flew away this morning, he left Israelis and Palestinians in inauspicious disagreement about what they had agreed to in a time line for cementing their wobbly cease-fire.” (As reported by Deborah Sontag)

2001: “Four years after Israel's High Court overturned an army ban on women as fighter pilots, Second Lt. Roni Zuckerman, 20, became the first woman to graduate from a rigorous pilot training course. Graduating sixth in a class of 70, she will enter an elite unit whose pilots fly F-16 fighter jets.” (As reported by Deborah Sontag)

2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 'Masters of Death': Himmler's Willing Executioners” by Richard Rhodes and ''Trains of Thought,'' by Victor Brombert

2002: Jennifer Jason Leigh completed ten months of playing the lead role in “Proof” during its original Broadway run.

2003(30th of Sivan, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2003: “Shortly after Peter Stone's death, in a memorial ceremony held” today “at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, it was observed that the two most famous ships of all time were Noah's Ark and the Titanic, and that Stone had written Broadway musicals about both of them (Noah's Ark being the topic of Two by Two).”

2003: Krastyu Radkov, 46, a construction worker from Bulgaria, was killed in a shooting attack on the Yabed bypass road in northern Samaria, west of Jenin, while driving a truck. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack, in opposition to the declared ceasefire.

 2003(30th of Sivan, 5763): Comedian Buddy Hackett passes away at the age of 78 (As reported by Richard Severo)


2004: Judith Rodin completed her tenure as the President of the University of Pennsylvania.

2004: Israeli singer and actor Arik Lavi, a longtime member of Tel Aviv's prestigious Cameri theater troupe, the husband “actress and singer Shoshik Shani” with whom he had two daughters – Noah and Yael – was buried today in Tel Aviv.

2005: Sir James David Wolfensohn completed his service as the 9thPresident of the World Bank.

2006: In the evening, Jonathan Michael Kerbis participates in Friday Night services as part of becoming a Bar Mitzvah. 

2006: After premiering at Sundance, “Forty Shades of Blue” directed by Ira Sachs, who co-authored the screenplay was released today in the United Kingdom.

2006: “The Devil Wore Prada” a cinema treatment of the novel by Lauren Weisberger directed by David Frankel and produced by Wendy Finerman was released in the United States today.

2006: Ismar Schorsch, the sixth Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, retired. For more information about the life of this famed Jewish scholar and author see the following JTS sponsored website. http://www.jtsa.edu/progs/his/isschorsch/index.shtml

2007: Paul Wolfowitz, President of the World Bank, officially resigned his position today.

2008: In New York, the 92nd Street Y presents “Debra Winger in Conversation with Arliss Howard” during which Arliss Howard interviews his actress wife who was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Cleveland Heights, spent time on a Kibbutz in Israel and was called to the Torah during her son’s Bar Mitzvah in 2000.

2008: James B. Cunningham was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.

2009: In New York, Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman of Presidents Major American Jewish Organizations delivers the Fourth Annual Gershon Jacobson Memorial Lecture, with an address entitled “The Media and Silencing the Support for Israel.”

2009: In the Czech Republic the Holocaust Era Assets Conference comes to an end.

2009: Phoebus Energy is scheduled to unveil its first hybrid water heating system at the Gilo community center in Jerusalem today.

2009: Israel’s defense minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to meet with George Mitchell, the special envoy to the Middle East, in Washington, D.C. today.

2009: A concert featuring 100 cantors from the world is scheduled to take place in Warsaw at The Grand Opera which is less than a kilometer from Tlomackie Synagogue which the Nazi blew up during World War II.

2009: Al Frankin was declared winner of the U.S. Senate election in Minnesota.  The number of Jewish senators does not change since he defeated Norm Coleman who was also Jewish.

2009: Six weeks after authorities foiled an alleged bomb plot against two Bronx synagogues, the Department of Homeland Security has allocated $1.83 million to boost safety at Jewish institutions in another part of the city.

2009: Haim Ramon announced that he was resigning from the Knesset.

2010(18thof Tammuz, 5770): Eighty-eight year old producer Elliot Kastner whose works included “Where Eagles Dare” a slick WW II spy movie passed away today.


2010: An English production Neil Simon’s “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” starring Jeff Goldblum opened in the West End at the Vaudeville Theatre.

2010: Humanity in Action: Resistance and Rescue in Denmark, a powerful photography exhibition that explores the history of the rescue of Danish Jewry in 1943 and provides a striking narrative of individual and collective resistance, has its final showing in Washington, D.C.

2010: Gaza terrorists attacked the Western Negev this morning with a Kassam rocket before workers arrived, but it heavily damaged a packing house that was knocked out of operation

2010: American Eagle Outfitters Inc. has signed a multiyear franchise agreement to open a series of stores in Israel by the spring of 2012. The teen retailer signed a franchise agreement on today with Fox-Wizel Ltd., which operates more than 170 FOX stores in Israel as well as 250 outlets outside of Israel

2010: “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” directed by Vikram Jayanti, opened at Film Forum on West Houston Street.


2011: The Galilee Music Festival is scheduled to open.

2011, The Judy Gold Show: My Life as a Sitcom, a “one-woman show that is an homage to the classic sitcoms of Judy Gold’s youth” began previews at Off-Broadway's DR2 Theatre in New York City.

2011: It was reported that the case against Dominque Strauss Kahn was on the verge of collapse because of problems with the credibility of the alleged victim, who had, according to sources within the NYPD, repeatedly lied since making her first statement.”

2011: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Rebecca Margolis entitled “ Yiddish Culture in Montreal:  Yesterday and Today” that “ will examine the origins and development of Yiddish culture in Montreal and discuss the changing place of Yiddish from the era of mass Jewish immigration in the early 1900s through today. The lecture is scheduled to be followed by a book-signing of Margolis' new book, “Jewish Roots, Canadian Soil: Yiddish Culture in Montreal, 1905-1945.”

2011: Tel Aviv “the city that never sleeps,” is scheduled to host its annual White Night (Layla Lavan).



2011: Justice Minister Yaakov Ne'eman was attacked while praying at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron today, apparently by right-wing religious extremists protesting the arrest of Hebron-Kiryat Arba Chief Rabbi Dov Lior.



2011: Israel's U.S. ambassador, Michael Oren, outlined for Jewish leaders his country's list of priorities in framing peace talks with the Palestinians.



2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the United States as a champion of freedom and a great ally of Israel in his address to the annual Fourth of July celebration at the U.S. ambassador's residence in Tel Aviv tonight.



2011: Mark Halperin was suspended from his duties at MSNBC for "slurring" President Barack Obama on the program Morning Joe, saying the President came off as "kind of a dick" during the previous day's press conference

2011(28thof Sivan, 5771): Eighty-four year old songwriter Ruth Roberts, the creator of “Meet The Mets” passed away today. (As reported by Peter Keepnews)


2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Rock Werchter Festival in Rock Werchter, Belgium.

2012(10thof Tammuz, 5772): Ninety-six year old Yitchak Shamir passed away today.



2012: Close associates of the prime minister prompted the cancelation today of a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz, government sources said.

2012: A week after protests resulted in violent clashes with the police, demonstrators were set to return to the streets of Tel Aviv on tonight. Protesters in Tel Aviv were scheduled to gather at the Habima Theater around 8 pm and march to the plaza facing the Tel Aviv Art Museum, where a rally was to be held.

2012: Egypt’s newly elected president sent an implicit message of reassurance to Israel in his first major address after taking office, but he also pledged support for the “legitimate rights” of the Palestinians.

2013: As part of the Jewish Plays Project, “Estelle Singerman” is scheduled to be performed at the 14th Street Y.

2013: The mandate creating the UN peacekeeping force on the border between Israel and Syria which has been renewed every six months for the past thirty-nine years is scheduled to expire to end today. (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

2013: “It's a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond” is scheduled to come to a close today at the Yeshiva University Museum

2013: Bank of Israel Gov. Stanley Fischer is scheduled to step down as Israel’s central banker today two years before the end of his second five-year term. (As reported by Niv Elis)

2013: “Shabbat – Inside and Out” is scheduled to come to a close today at the Yeshiva University Museum

2013: “The Mexican Suitcase: Rediscovered Spanish Civil War Negatives by Capa, Taro and Chim” is scheduled to close at Musée d'art et d'histoire du Judaïsme


2013: The Ministerial Committee for Legislation is schedule to vote today on a bill that would enable the burial of non-Jewish soldiers alongside their Jewish comrades (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)

2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers Life including Robert Oppenheimer: A Life  Inside the Center by Ray Monk

2013: The Ministerial Committee on Legislation passed an electoral reform bill proposed by MK Ronen Hoffman today, clearing the way for legislation that will change the electoral system to pass into law by the time the Knesset begins its extended summer recess at the end of the month (As reported by Gil Hoffman)

2013: US Secretary of State John Kerry wound up his whirlwind 72-hours of shuttle diplomacy by announcing at Ben-Gurion airport this afternoon that "real progress" was achieved, and that with a little more work Israeli-Palestinian talks could be re-started. (As reported by Herb Keinon)

2014: “By Dawn’s Early Light: Jewish Contributions to American Culture from the Nation’s Founding to the Civil War” an exhibition presented by the Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to come to an end.

2014: A special 2 DVD edition of Gaylen Ross’s  “critically acclaimed documentary “Killing Kasztner” is scheduled to be released today in “commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the departure of Kasztner’s dramatic rescue train from wartime Budapest.” For more see the website www.killingkasztner.com

2014(2ndof Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-four year old director and screenwriter Paul Mazursky passed away today.


2014: “Hamas operatives were behind a large volley of rockets which slammed into Israel this morning, the first time in years the Islamist group has directly challenged the Jewish state, according to Israeli defense officials. (As reported by Avi Issacharoff)

2014: “Israeli searchers discovered the bodies of Naftali Fraenkel, 16, Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19, the three teenagers kidnapped on June 12 bound an partially buried in an open field at Wadi Tellem.”




2015(13th of Tammuz, 5775): Twenty-five year old Malachi Moshe Rosenfeld a resident of Kochav Hashachar  who was one of four civilians wounded by terrorist gunmen yesterday “succumbed to his wounds” today.



2015: In Atlanta, the Mid-Year Fund Drive of the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum with a goal of raising $15,000 is scheduled to come to an end.  For more see


2015: Through today, all gifts to the 92ndStreet Y will be matched 100%

2015: As part of “Light! Camera! Great German and Austrian Jewish Filmmakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age” program the 92ndSt Y is scheduled to host a screening of “Imitation of Life”

2015: After four and half years, Onno Hoes completed his service as Mayor of Maastricht in the Netherlands.

2015: It was reported today that “extremist groups” that ally themselves with ISIS have perpetrated several attacks on Hamas in Gaza because they consider “Hamas as insufficiently pious.” (As reported by Diaa Hadid and Majd Al Waheidi)


2015: PBS is scheduled to show “1913: The Seeds of Conflict” a documentary that “traces the relationship between” Arabs and Jews “at a time when the ruled over what was later designated as Palestine, and then, Israel.”


2016(24th of Sivan, 5776):  Eighty-one year old Jazz Man Don Friedman passed away.


2016: Israeli pianist/composer Anat Fort is scheduled to perform this evening at the Ottawa Jazz Festival.

2016(24th of Sivan, 5776): Thirteen year old Hallel Yaffa Ariel was stabbed to death by a Palestinian as she slept in her bed after having stayed up late the night before for a dance performance. (As reported by Diaa Hadid and Myra Noveck)

2016: David Serero’s “Othello,” a Moroccan adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic play sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation in partnership with the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to be performed for the last time this evening.

2016: After three months, “Beyond The Balcony” an exhibition of the works of Michael Nachmany “that begin with Herzl as a starting point and then explores the process of imagination, memory, and the building of communities during the years leading to the founding of Israel, and beyond” is scheduled to come to a close today.


2016: In Olney, MD, at final showing of “Wondrous Watercolors” by Judy Wengrovitz at Shaare Tefila.

2017:  Jewish-American philanthropist and activist Jay Ruderman of the Ruderman Family Foundation; Israeli-American entertainment mogul Haim Saban, a major backer of the Israeli-American Council and a donor to the Democratic party; Lynn Schusterman of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation and the Schusterman-Israel Foundation; Michael Steinhardt, one of the founders of Taglit-Birthright and a hedge fund manager, and Seth Klarman, a hedge fund manager and philanthropist who co-owns the Times of Israel were among the sixty-five signatories” to “an ad in Hebrew and English” that ran “in several newspapers” that “expressed their disappointment with the Israeli government’s decisions earlier this week to renege on a plan for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall and to advance a controversial bill that would the Israeli Chief Rabbinate the only body authorized to convert people to Judaism in Israel.

2017: “Letters from Baghdad” is scheduled to open in St. Louis and Plano, TX.

2017: “Alone in Berlin” a film adaptation of the novel by Hans Fallada is scheduled to open in London

2017: “13 Minutes,” a film based on an attempt to assassinate Hitler by Georg Elsner “a 35-year old carpenter and tinker in a small Swabian village” was released today in theatres at New York and Los Angeles.

2017: Marvin Krislov’s resignation as President of Oberlin College is effective today.

2018: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a “Survivor Talk” in which Ben Goldwater, a resident of Mons, Belgium and the son of a member of the Belgian underground, recounts how his family survived the Holocaust.

2018: “In the spirit of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who prayed with his feet, and in coordination with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism,” Rabbi Joshua Davidson is scheduled to lead those who are joining “with other New Yorkers in a national day of action at the End Family Separation March in Foley Square” from Temple Emanu-El.”

2018: Today, Dr. Lizabeth Cohen, the Princeton alum who earned her Ph.D. at U.C., Berkley, is scheduled to step down as Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, a post she has held since 2011 and “return to teaching and research in Harvard’s Department of History following a year’s sabbatical.”

2018(17th of Tammuz, 5778): The fast of the 17th of Tammuz is postponed until tomorrow because of Shabbat.

2018(17th of Tammuz, 5778): Parashat Balak;

2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide by Tony Horwitz, Never A Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren by Colin Algren and People, Power and Profits: Progressive Capitalism for an Age of Discontent by Joseph Stiglitz.

2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a performance of Jeff Cohen’s play “The Soap Myth,” followed by a discussion led by “Dr. Alvin Goldfarb, child of Holocaust survivors and nationally known theater educator and administrator.”

2019: In Ottawa, Congregation Machzikei Hadas and JET (Jewish Education Through Torah) are scheduled to host Rabbi Mordechai Becher speaking on “Finding Pleasure Through Oneness.”

2019: After enduring waves of a firebombs being sent from Gaza, Israelis begin the work wondering if the governments offer to increase “the coastal enclave’s fishing perimeter to 15 nautical miles” will be enough to stop the arson attacks.

2019: JCC Manhattan is scheduled to host a screening of “Avi Nesher’s latest film ‘The Other Story.’”

2019: Bay Area Limmud is scheduled to come to an end today.


2020: The 2020 Annual Appeal of the Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County one of the many institutions fighting to provide quality programs and service in the midst of the Pandemic,  is scheduled to come to an end today

2020: LSJS is scheduled to host Debbie Meyer as she lectures on “The Ideal King?”, the final course in The Trials of King David.”

2020: In partnership with JW3, Film Night is scheduled to host an online screening of “The Booksellers.”

In brings you new films plus access to the cast and crew. This week we have a Q&A with director D.W. Young, available for pre-order now

2020: After 32 years of service, 65 year old Jyl Jurman, the CEO of the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley is scheduled to retire today.

2020: YJP Boston is schooled to present online, “The Joy Factory: Virtual Girls’ Night Out.”

2020: The Jewish Museum of Maryland is scheduled to host the first in the three-part series, “Connecting Generations: Difficult Conversations About Race.”

2020: “Live on Zoom, Facebook and You Tube,” the Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to host “Jews and the Right: Heimat and Hatred.”

2020: Live on Zoom, the YIVO Institute is scheduled to host: Continuing Evolution: Yiddish Folksong in Classical Music.



This Day, July 1, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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July 1



69: Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as emperor. This consolidation of Vespasian’s imperial power helped to seal the fate of Jerusalem since the destruction of the Jewish capital was his way of proving that law and order would prevail in the empire.



70 C.E.: Titus set up battering rams to assault the walls of Jerusalem.



397: Emperors Arcadius and Honorius decree that Jewish clergy are allowed to keep their own laws and rituals and are exempt from service in municipal senates. This creates the superficial impression that Jewish clergy are on an equal footing with their Christian counter-parts. (As reported by Austin Cline)



985: In Barcelona, several Jewish residents were killed by the Moslem leader Al-Mansur. Many of them were land owners who left no heirs. According to the law, all their lands were given over to the Count of Barcelona. In Spain at this time it was not uncommon for Jews to own vineyards and other lands.



1187: As the showdown between Crusaders and Saracens gets closer, the forces of Saladin bypass Belvoir, whose defenders fail to come to do battle, and heads for Tiberias.  The Jews are bystanders as these two interlopers fight to protect their “claim” to the Promised Land.



1244: Duke Frederick II granted a charter to all Jews under his control which “became the model by which the status of the Jews of Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Silesia, and Poland was regulated.”

1388: Jews of Lithuania received a Charter of Privilege.

1392: Pope Boniface IX “appointed the physician Solomone de Sabalduchio his "familiaris."

1462: In a document signed today, King Georg reconfirmed the requirement that Jews of Pilsen will pay “the Reeve (local ruler) for each household on St. Martin's Day one corn-fed goose, at Christmas a pound of pepper, and at Easter one guilder plus one pound of pepper” and “confirmed that the Jews are obliged to register their pledges” with the added proviso that failure to register will “loose the pledge or the income from the pledge.”



1490: Twenty year old Yucef Franco, a Jewish cobbler from Tembleque and his 80 year old father Ça Franco was arrested by the Inquisition.

1517: “Giles Antonini, referred to as Giles of Viterbo” was “elevated to the rank of Cardinal by Pope Leo X” which provided him with the position and power to offer sanctuary to the Jewish grammarian Elias Levita whose family lived with the Catholic prelate for ten years.

1534: King Christian III of Denmark and Norway and Dorothea of Saxe-Lauenburg gave birth to Frederick II of Denmark who moved to keep Jews out his realm by ordering ‘that all foreigners in Denmark had to affirm their commitment to 25 articles of faith central to Lutheranism on pain of deportation,

1569: The Union of Lublin joins The Kingdom of Poland and the Great Duchy of Lithuania into a united country called the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or the Republic of Both Nations. This had to be an improvement in the situation for the Jews of Lithuania who were governed by statutes that read in part, "The Jews shall not wear costly clothing, nor gold chains, nor shall their wives wear gold or silver ornaments. The Jews shall not have silver mountings on their sabers and daggers; they shall be distinguished by characteristic clothes; they shall wear yellow caps, and their wives kerchiefs of yellow linen, in order that all may be enabled to distinguish Jews from Christians."  During the 15th and 16th centuries the Jews of Poland enjoyed an increasing amount of political autonomy and economic wellbeing which would come to a crashing end with the Ukrainian uprisings in the 17th centuries.

1581: Gregory XIII issued “Antiqua judaeorum improbitas,” a Papal Bull that “authorized the Inquisition directly to handle cases involving Jews, especially those concerning blasphemies against Jesus or Mary, incitement to heresy or assistance to heretics, possession of forbidden books, or the employment of Christian wet nurses.” (Jewish Virtual Library shows the date as June 1, 1581)

1589: In Antwerp, Christophe Plantin, a Dutch publisher who printed “a good many Hebrew texts” passed away today.  Plantin printed the “Biblia Poygotta” a Bible containing five languages one of which was Hebrew. “The first four volumes contain the Old Testament. The left page has two columns with the Hebrew original and the Latin translation, the right page has same text in Greek with its own Latin translation. Underneath these columns there is an Aramaic version on the left-hand page and a Latin translation of this on the right-hand side. For printing the Hebrew text Plantin used among others Daniel Bomberg's Hebrew type, which he had received from Bomberg's nephews.Volume 5 contains the New Testament in Greek and Syriac, each with a Latin translation, and a translation of the Syriac into Hebrew. Volume 6 has the complete Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek, as well as an interlinear version that has the Latin translation printed between the lines.”

The last two volumes contain dictionaries (Hebrew-Latin, Greek-Latin, Syriac-Aramaic, grammar rules, list of names, etc.) that were of value to scholars 






1651: Poland was victorious over the Cossacks. The Jews were allowed to return to their lands but the society that they had built was gone forever. 

1736: Ahmed III, the Sultan who appointed Judah ben Samuel Rosanes to serve a “hakam bashi” (Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire passed away.  Rabbi Judah was a noted scholar who was an ardent opponent of the Shabbethaians (the followers of the “False Messiah”)

1742: In Darmstadt, Pastor Johan Conrad Lichtenberg and his was wife gave birth to physicist and satirist Georg Chrsitoph Lichtenberg whose “invention of a ‘Compass of Motives;’”Sigmund Freud (in his “Why War?” letter to Albert Einstein) mentioned  in a discussion on the combination of human compounded motives and quoted him as saying, “The motives that lead us to do anything might be arranged like the thirty-two winds and might be given names on the same pattern: for instance, ‘food-food-fame’ or ‘fame-fame-food’.”

1774: In Montreal, Marie Elizabeth Louise Dubois and Ezekiel Solomon gave birth to Joseph Solomon.

1776: “Cherokees attacked settlement along the” South Carolina frontier resulting in a “Paul Revere-like Ride” by Francis Salvador to sound the alarm for those living within a 30 mile radius.

1776: First Jew lost his life in the American Revolution.

1792: Baruch Hays, and his second wife Rachel (de Costa) Hays gave birth to Joseph Lopez Hays

1798: In Switzerland, special taxes on the Jews were finally abolished.

1798: After eluding the British fleet, the French Army under Napoleon landed at Alexandria in a military action where the Eliyahu Hanavi Syngouge which had been built in 1354 was bombed to such an extent that it would not be re-built until 1850.

1805(4th of Tammuz, 5565): Pinchas Horowitz, a rabbi and Talmudist who was born at Chortkiv in 1731 died today at Frankfort-on-the-Main

1810: The reign of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, as King of Holland, came to an end. Bonaparte sought to improve the condition of the Jews.  Among other things he abolished the “Oath More Judaico” and opened military service to Jews by creating two battalions made up exclusively of Jewish soldiers and officers.

1815: Charlotte Drace, the daughter of Sara and John King, “moneylender and radical writer” who wrote “under the pseudonym ‘Rosa Mtailda’” married widower Nicholas Byrne today.

1818: Joseph Leigh married Sarah Abrahams at the New Synagogue.

1829: Jamaica native Joseph Gutteres Henriques, the son Saran and Jacob Beuno Henriques and Eliza Henriques gave birth to Alfred Gutteres Henriques

1835: The day after he had passed away, 70 year old Simon Medex was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetry.”

1845: David Levy Yulee began serving as the United States from Florida. This was in the days before the direct election of Senators.  After Florida joined the Union, the state legislature chose Yulee to fill the position.  This made him the first Jew to be elected to the United States.  Yulee would desert the Union and join the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War.  Yulee would ‘desert’ the faith of his fathers’ when he married a Christian and raised his children in her faith.

1845: In London, Moses Botibol and the former Jessie Myers gave birth to Isaac Botibol.

1850: In Philadelphia, George H. Earle, Sr. and Mrs. Frances ("Fanny") Van Leer Earle gave birth to American Poet Florence Earle Coates.

http://florenceearlecoates.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-dreyfus-affair.html

1851: Morris Lee married Laura Levy at the Great Synagogue.

1853: Coleman Defries married Cordelia Magnus today.

1853: George Washington Mordecai, the Warrenton, NC born son of Rebecca and Jacob Mordecais marrie Margaret Cameron today

1855: In Georgetown, SC, Joseph Sampson and Esther Cohen gave birth to Arthur Fischel Sampon, the graduate of U. Va. Medical School who practiced medicine in Galveston, TX before settling in San Francisco in 1901 where he invented the Sampson Urethal Speculum.

1857: According to the New York Times, there are 1,500,000 Jews living in Russia out of a population estimated at 63,000,000.

1858: The House of Lords took up the question of admitting Jews into Parliament.  Lord Derby expressed a willingness to end his opposition to the measure as a way of avoiding a major collision with the House of Commons. [Editor’s note – The issue of Jewish emancipation was not strictly a “Jewish issue.”  It may also be seen as part of a larger power struggle between the Establishment as represented by the Lords and the changing economic and social milieu as represented by the Commons.  The issue of Jewish Emancipation was but one of many issues over which this battle was fought with the Commons ultimately emerging victorious.]

1859: “In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Mannes and Tillie, the first Jews to settle in Kalamazoo” gave birth to University of Michigan astronomer Edward Israel who perished on a Polar Expedition “under the leadership of Adolphus Greely.”

1860: In Memphis, Simon Tuska was unanimously elected to serve as the rabbi at Temple Israel and signed to a three-year contract at $800 per year”

1861(23rd of Tammuz, 5621): Bernhard Beer, a member of the prominent Bondi family, who as a journalist worked for the emancipation of his co-religionists in Saxony and who, although a layman, “was the first to introduce German language sermons at the congregation in Dresden, passed away today.

1862: Russian Jews were granted permission to print Jewish books

1862: In Philadelphia, Elias Wolf and Amelia Mayer gave birth to Benjamin Wolf, the husband of Fredora Kahn the Treasurer of the National Metal Edge Box Company and Vice President of Standard Machine Company who was also the Director of the Hebrew Education Society and Vice President of the Jewish Hospital.

1862: While serving with Company H of the 61st Regiment, Jacob Miller was wounded at the Battle of Malvern Hill.

1863: First day of the Battle of Gettysburg. Just as the war pitted brother against brother, so it pitted Jew against Jew. At Gettysburg, Prussian born Major Adolph Proskauer of Mobile led the 12th Alabama against the Army of the Potomac which included Lieutenant Abraham Cohn, a native of East Prussia, who fought with the 6th New Hampshire Volunteers.  Cohn fought in 11 battles and won the Congressional Medal of Honor.  Proskauer did not survive his service with the Rebel Army.

For more information about Jews in the Civil War see http://www.jewish-history.com/civilwar/default.htm

1863: Lieutenant Colonel Israel Moses was among those who arrived with Sickle’s brigade as it tried to stem the Confederate tide on the first day of fighting at Gettysburg.

1863: Raphael Moses, “the chief commissary officer for General Longstreet” and a confidant of General Lee was among those who found themselves facing the Union Army at the sleepy Pennsylvania village of Gettysburg.

1863: Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman had sufficiently recovered from the wounds sustained at the Battle of Brandy Station to serve with United States Army Signal Corps at the Battle of Gettysburg.

1863: “The First National Bank of Chicago” which would be described in glowing terms on its 50th anniversary by The Reform Advocate “opened its doors for business today.

1865: Lieutenant Tobias Rosensteel who had been serving with the 64th Regiment, also designated as the Fourth Cavalry since 1861 completed his military service today.

1865: American surgeon and U.S. Naval officer Phineas Jonathan Horwitz was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery with a rank equivalent to that of Commodore.

1866(18th of Tammuz, 5626): Tzom Tammuz observed because the 17th fell on Shabbat.

1867: William Flegenheimer of Baden became a U.S. citizen today.

1867: With the passage of the British North America Act, Great Britain officially recognizes the Dominion of Canada as an independent country.  Jews had been living in Canada since the British took it from France in the 17th century. There were enough Jews living in Montreal to allow for the creation of a synagogue called Shearith Israel. While most members of the small Jewish community lived in various towns in the eastern part of the country enough Jews arrived in British Columbia during the Gold Rush that a synagogue was constructed in Victoria in 1862.  At the time that Britain recognized the independence of Canada there were about 1,000 Jews living in “our neighbor to the North.”  This number would explode shortly thereafter with the beginning of the immigration of Russian Jews.

1868: In Pittsfield, MA, “Moses and Rosa Rosenthal England gave birth to Daniel England Sr. “vice president and treasurer of England Brothers Department store” founded by his father in 1857 and the husband of “the former Myra Bendell; with whom he raised two sons and one daughter.

1869: Today, Phineas Jonathan Horwitz completed his service as Chief of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and moved on to take charge of the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia.



1872: In what was “first case of its kind in Prussia,” it was reported today that the “Grandlodge Royal York” has decided to admit Jews as members making 1872 a year for “firsts” since Ludwig Traube became the first Jew to be appointed “to a regular professorship in Prussia” and Harry Bresslau became the first Jew to be appointed as teacher in the Berlin public schools.

1873: Prince Edward Island joins the Canadian Confederation. Apparently, Jews did not start settling in Prince Edward Island until the first decade of the 20th century with the arrival of Louis, Israel and Abie Block. The three brothers were from Riga and may have been the Jews who were described in 1908 newspaper article as having celebrated Passover in this part of Canada.

1873: The government closed the “rabbinical school of Jitomir” where Chaim Lerner, a native of Dubno had been service as the Hebrew teacher since 1851.

1873: In Detroit, Michigan, founding of Congregation B’nai Israel whose members included Louis Goldsmidt, Meyer Jacobson and Louis Thorner and which owned a cemetery on Williams Avenue.

1873: In Berlin, Emil Cohn and his wife Deborah Lenore Cohn, the daughter of Ulrike and Marcus Mosse gave birth to Antonie Hirsch

1874: “Ivanhoe or, Rebecca, the Jewess,” a “dramatization” of Sir Walter Scott’s famous novel opened tonight at Niblo’s Theatre in New York City.  The play, which presents a sympathetic depiction of Isaac of York and his daughter was well received by the audience.  [Editor’s Note – The positive response of the audience to Jewish characters stands at odds at with the outbreak of genteel anti-Semitism that is soon about to infect polite society in New York and elsewhere.]

1876: Sixty-two year old Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin one of the founders of Anarchism whose anti-Semitism would seem to show that hating Jews was part of the Russian mentality regardless of political philosophy passed away today.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_01912.html



1877: It was reported today that people in Bucharest were quite surprised to learn that Jewish citizens in the United States had presented a petition to Secretary of State William Evarts asking him to intervene on behalf of their co-religionists in Romania and Turkey.  According to the reports, the Jews of the region were even more surprised than the gentiles to hear of this request for intervention by the government of President Rutherford B. Hays.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F0DE0DF133FE63BBC4953DFB166838C669FDE

1871: Philadelphia merchant Edward J. Ettings’ son, Theodore Minis Etting, a student at the U.S. Naval Academy who at the age of sixteen volunteered to serve on active duty during the Civil War and who had risen to the rank of Lieutenant in 1874 resigned his commission today and began studying law which would lead to a career in maritime law that combined both of his interests.

1871: Philadelphia merchant Edward J. Ettings’ son, Theodore Minis Etting, a student at the U.S. Naval Academy who at the age of sixteen volunteered to serve on active duty during the Civil War and who had risen to the rank of Lieutenant in 1874



1877: Wilhelm Bacher “was appointed by the Hungarian government to the professorship of the newly created Landesrabbinerschule of Budapest.”

1878: Karl Nobling “shot and wounded Kaiser Wilhelm I in a failed assassination attempt.” It was the second such attempt in less than a month and provided Chancellor Otto von Bismarck with the leverage of implement the Anti-Socialist Law in October which was meant to curb the growth the Marxist Social Democratic Party,

1878: At the insistence of Prussian Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck the Congress of Berlin incorporated into the Treaty of Berlin an article intended to provide the Jews of Romania with the opportunity for full citizenship.  Unfortunately, the Romanians evaded the article and only a hand full of Jews would gain citizenship.

1879: In New York City, ” Berlin-born Moses Arndstein who fought in the Franco-Prussian War” and “his wife Thekla Van Shaw” gave birth to Julius W. “Nicky” Arnstein a small time gambler and swindler whose greatest claim to fame was his marriage to Fanny Brice.

1880: “A Survey of Assyrian Art” published today provided a detailed review of Manual of Oriental Antiques, Ernest Babelon’s tome about the architecture, sculpture and industrial arts of ancient civilizations which includes one chapter devoted to the Jews. The representations of “Jewish art and architecture…supplied from the work of de Vogue and from ‘The Recovery of Jerusalem’ by Wilson and Warren.”

1880: “In Chernowitz, Austria-Hungary (now Chennivst, Ukraine) Abba and Chaya Fassler (Aaron and Gussie Fassler) gave birth to Samuel Fassler, the owner of a trucking company owner before founding Fassler Iron Works before WW I who was the City Commissioner of Buildings in New York, “a trustee of Yeshiva University and “founder and president of the Ninth Street Day Nursery and Orphans Home.

1880: (12th of Tammuz): Birthdate of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok who would become the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe.  The Rebbe would overcome a terrifying imprisonment at the hands of Stalin’s henchmen in the 1920’s.  Later, he would escape the clutches of the Nazis and settle in Brooklyn where he revived the cause of Chabad-Lubavitch.  The Rebbe would launch, what would become under his son-in-law who was the Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, one of history’s most successful Jewish outreach programs.

1881: “Scenes in Parisian Life” published today reported that “Fashionable Paris kept its word loyally” by keeping its promise not to leave the city until after the concert which was to raise funds for the Jews of Russian had been held. The Gaulois sponsored a concert that included performances by Faure and Mme. Alder-Devries the proceeds of which were to go to the “evicted and demolished Israelite of Southern Russia.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F05EEDD103CEE3ABC4953DFB166838A699FDE

1881: “In Częstochowa, Poland, “Sigmund and Dora Pasternak” gave birth their eldest son director and producer Joseph Alexander Pasternack , the brother of Samuel and David Pasternack and the husband of Helen Feirman with whom  he “had two daughters, Florence and Cecile.”

1882:  The Memphis (TN) Avalanche reported that during the commencement address delivered by George Cable at the University of Mississippi, the distinguished author call for embracing the future included the challenge -   “Let us search provincialism out the land as the Hebrew housewife purged her house of leaven on the eve of the Passover.” (Apparently this custom of the Jews was so well known that the New Orleans author felt that it would be easily understood by those attending an event in rural Oxford, MS.



1883: It was reported today that ten new rabbis will be ordained later this month at the first graduation ceremony of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1883: “A Middle Age Trial” published today described the Christian community of Hungary as being dense an dark in light of the trial being conducted Nyreghhaza where Jews are charged with having killed a Christian girl “in order to use her blood in ceremonies of the Passover;” a charge that “reads like a chapter from the history of the Middle Ages…What is taking place in Hungary is what was a common occurrence a few hundred years along.  It only within the present century that the cruel and causeless prejudice against Jews has disappeared in civilized communities…Hungary is only about four hundred years behind the age.”  [Note – The same article contained the oddly prophetic statement “In Germany the cry is raised that a few Jew have, by their talents and industry, made themselves the ruling class.”

1883: Joseph Blumenthal completed his term as President of the Board of Trustees of Shearith Israel in New York City.

1883: Albert Moritz, who would eventually be assigned to the USS Newark, was made an Assistant Engineer today.

1883: Since the Board of Directors were in a deadlock when they voted for a new president for Shearith Israel, Joseph Blumenthal “was made Chairman Pro Tem and authored to act as President until” the board elects a president.

1884: Isaac Jacobs, a middle aged Jew, is being held in Boston, MA on charges that he murdered Mrs. Etta Carlton of Watertown in 1883.  Jacobs had been extradited from New York where he had been arrested on an outstanding larceny warrant.

1884: It was reported today that anti-Semitic riots have broken out in Algiers. Order was restored by troops who put an end to the pillaging of the Jewish the city’s Jewish quarter.

1884: It was reported today that in St. Petersburg, Russia The New Times has declared its opposition to granting Jews equal rights with Christians saying that this “would be a greater misfortune for Russia” than when it had been ruled by the Mongols.  [Statements like this should help readers understand the depth of anti-Semitism in Russia which propelled the massive migration to the West, primarily to the United States.]

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C05EEDF143FE533A25752C0A9619C94659FD7CF

1885: In Brooklyn, Rabbi Leopold Wintner officiated at the wedding of New Yorker Arthur Hirsch and Helen Ottolengui, the “only daughter of Daniel Ottolengui” of Charleston, SC.

1886: The first edition of the Menorah, a monthly magazine published by the B’nai Brith is scheduled to appear for the first time today.

1886: Birthdate of Ithak Katzenelson, a native of Karleichy who became a teacher, poet and dramatist. Like so many of his generation, he was caught in the web of the Holocaust.  He took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising before being murdered in May of 1944.  He wrote Dos lid funem oysgehargetn yidishn folk( "Song of the Murdered Jewish People") which was retrieved from its hiding place after the war and taken to Israel.

1888: Rabbi Jacob Sharp who arrived this morning at Hoboken aboard the North German Lloyd steamer met with the welcoming committee but refused to leave the ship until sundown since it was Shabbat.

1888: A summer term instituted by the trustees of the Jewish Theological Seminary will begin today. Among the instructors will be Dr. Cyrus Adler who will lecture on “Assyriology.”

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9B02E3D8143AE033A25752C0A9619C94699FD7CF\

1889: Manuel of Oriental Antiquities by Enest Babelon which was reviewed today devotes one chapter to the Jews. Information on Jewish art and architecture is based on The Recovery of Jerusalem by Wilson and Warren and the works of Eugène-Melchior, vicomte de Vogüé

1889: The Will of Alexander Bach which left bequests of $1,000 each to Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Home for Incurables, Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, United Hebrew Charities, Temple Gates of Hope Hebrew Free School Association, Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and Temple Israel of Harlem was executed today.

1889: Birthdate of Russian born artists and printmaker who settled in Chicago where he became a leader in the art community and an activist among Yiddish speaking artists.



1890: In San Francisco, Samuel and Lillian Magnin gave birth to Edgar Fogel, the husband of Evelyn B. Rosenthal with whom he had two children – Henry and Mae—and grandson of Mary Ann and Isaac, the founder I. Magnin department stores who was the rabbi at Congregation B’nai B’rith and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, referred to by some as the “Hollywood House of God” because so many of its members were associated with the film and television industries.

1891: The Hansa Line Steamship Pichuben left Antwerp today carrying a large number of Jews who have been expelled from Russia.

1891(25th of Sivan, 5651): Forty-four year old Alexander Weisse, a native of Budapest who had been in the United States for six years and was the advertising agent for a German language evening paper, took his own life after attempting to murder the young girl who had been in his companion for several months.

1891: According to today’s “Theatrical Gossip” the comedy company of Jewish producer Charles Frohman “has made a great hit in Chicago” with its performance of ‘Mr. Wilkinson’s Widows.’”

1892: “Jewish Pawnshops Must Go” published today described the government’s order that all Moscow pawnshops owned by Jews will be closed.  The Jews will be given six months to close down their businesses.

1892: In Sheboygan, Wisconsin, “Max and Natalie (Fradkin) Eisenberg” gave birth to U.S. Army WW I veteran David Berton Eisenberg, the husband of Natalie Marcus and “President of Graphic Arts Publishing Company” who was also a member of the B’nai B’rith in Chicago.

1892: In San Francisco, 14 year old Evelyn Kate Aronson, the daughter of Liverpool, UK, native Philip N. and Carrie Aronson and future wife of Max Margolis entered Girls High School from which she would graduate in June of 1895 and then attend the University of California, Berkley, from which she would graduate in 1900.

1892: Today’s investigation of an explosion at a New York Tenement that was home to Russian and Polish Jews including butcher shop owner Myer Kohn and the family Moses Lefkowitz revealed the fact that the tenants have been complaining about the smell of gas ever since the Consolidated Gas Company began putting a new pipe into the building. Their complaints were ignored.

1893: Birthdate of Paul Swartz, the native of Roumania who arrived in Canada in 1913 and served at El Arish, Rafa, Ludd, Haifa, Kandara and Ismaliah as a member of the Jewish Legion from which he was demobilized in 1919 allowing him to return to Canada in 1919 where he married and had four children.

1894: It was reported today that the Hebrew Institute will be hosting free talks by leading physicians on the “Care and Feeding of Infants and Children During the Warm Weather.”

1894: It was reported today that the 265 students who have stayed at Cypress Hill, a facility for truants, in the past year, 18 of them have been Jewish.

1894: In a comment that would have a rabbi proud, Dr. Jesse W. Brooks told his Christian audience that “of all the ancient nations…the Hebrew was the only survivor because it obeyed God’s injunction to keep holy the Sabbath Day.”

1895: It was reported today that “the notorious Jew-baiter Hermann Ahlwardt” is among those who are about to be prosecuted by the Imperial Treasury “for their flagrant misuse of free passes to canal fetes.”

1895: A group of underprivileged children left today for a two day excursion at the Rockaway Beach Hebrew Sanitarium.

1895: Colonel Nicolas Jean Robert Conrad Auguste Sandherr left his job at the Statistical Section (the counter-espionage service of the French Army) to take command of the 20th Infantry Regiment at Montauban.  In 1894, when the Statistical Section had intercepted a handwritten note that established that French military secrets had been handed over to the Germans, Sandherr convened the secret commission that “hastily” decided Alfred Dreyfus was the spy. Sandherr was replaced by Colonel Georges Picquart who was a key figure in proving Dreyfus’ innocence.

1896: Newark, NJ native Louis Schlesinger, the founder of the Union Building Company and his wife, the former Sophie Levy gave birth to Joel L. Schlesinger, the younger brother of Princeton graduate and U.S. Army Lieutenant Alexander L. Schlesinger.

1897: Birthdate of Cleveland native Albert “Bert” Schneider, the Montreal raised boxer who “won the gold med in the welterweight division” at the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp as a member of the Canadian team.

1898: In the Spanish-American War Teddy Roosevelt & his Rough Riders charged up San Juan Hill in Cuba.  The Rough Riders was a cavalry unit recruited by Roosevelt that drew on every strata of American life from Western cowboys to Yankee Bluebloods.  Several Jews served with the unit including Jacob Wilbusky, the first Roughrider killed in action, Hyman Rafalowitz of Santa Fe, NM, who was a Private with Troop of the first 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, Adolph S. Wertheim of San Antonio, TX, who was a Private with Troop G of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry, Frederick W. Wolff of San Antonio, Tx, who was a Private with Troop D  and Hyman Litowski of Santa Fe, NM who was a private in Troop E of the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry.  The Roughriders were forced to leave their horses back the United States so the famous charge was made on foot.

1898: Three days after she had passed away, Priscilla Boam, the daughter of Henry Lyons and Rachel Hart and the wife of Joseph Boam with whom she had had six children was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”

1898(11th of Tammuz, 5658): Sixteen year old Jacob Wilbusky of New York who had “enlisted in the Rough Riders under the name ‘Jacob Berlin’” was killed today “in the first skirmish.”

1898: Private Samuel Goldberg of Santa Fe, NM of Troop F, Rough Riders, 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry was wounded today in action today.

1898: Four days after she had passed away, 49 year old Johana Plunket was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemtery.”

1898: Adolph Marix who had served on the USS Maine before it was sunk took part in the Second Battle of Manzanillo today as the commander of the USS Scorpion.

1899: The Conference of the English Zionist Federation comes to an end.

1899: After five years of imprisonment, Alfred Dreyfus who had returned to France yesterday was locked up today in the military prison in Rennes.

1900: Herzl turns to Prime Minister Koerber and asks him to use his influence with the Sultan to permit the Rumanian Jews to immigrate into Turkey and to receive him, in order to discuss the question of colonization and settlement.

1901: In New York City, “Moses and Runia Halpern gave birth to NYU trained attorney “Yitzhak Isidore Halpern.”


1901: The month in Morgan City, LA the building housing Shaarey Zedek burned down.

1901: In Chicago, two Jewish immigrants, William S. and Betty (Buxbaum) Phillips gave birth to their tenth child, Irna Phillips, who began creating soap operas in the 1930’s.







1902: In Alsace, Leopold Weiller and Melanie Auerbach gave birth to Wilhelm Weiller who gained fame as Oscar winning director Billy Wyler whose many classics including the World War II tear-jerker Mrs. Miniver.  Ironically, his greatest hit was The Best Years of Our Lives, a film that described the return of four veterans to civilian life after World War II.  Once again, the Jews played a major role in crafting the cultural myths of Middle American Culture.

1902: In Grodno, Barnett and Rebecca Feinstein Cohen gave birth to American comedian Myron Aaron Cohen.


1903: Jacob A. Voice, the Jassy, Rumania born son of Nathan and Sofia Voice who was a senior manager with the Consolidated Lithographing Company and the Pasbach-Voice Lithographing Company while serving as a trustee of the Temple Israel of Far Rockaway married Edith I. Littenberg today.

1903: It was reported in this month’s issue of the Maccabean that “Miss Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago” told the members of the Council of Jewish Women, that she “thinks Jewish women are peculiarly well prepared to fill a place in the larger life” and “that among all the women in the foreign quarters of Chicago none showed the same aptitude as Jewish women for absorbing the civic and social spirit characteristic of modern life.”

1904: As of today, only one person has been reported to have been injured in fire that broke out at the old Mount Sinai Hospital, which is being torn down and was started by the explosion of leaking gas.

1905: Sixty-six year old former Secretary of State John Hay whom The Board of Delegates on Civil and Religious Rights of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations hailed for his support of the Jews in Romania and Kishinev, passed away today.

1906: As of today, the Central Conference of American Rabbis has a total membership of 191.

1906: On New York’s Lower East side, “Russian immigrants Harry and Clara Pressman gave birth to Lee Pressman Harvard Law School graduate turned Communist spy.




1906: The Jewish Herald reported today that “in Sydney, Australia, rabbis are not permitted to receive proselytes until the board of the congregation passes on them.”

1906: In Queens, NY, Rose Schotz Rosenthal, and Max Mentzer gave birth to Josephine Esther Mentzer who became famous as Estée Laude, a woman who took her place in the world of business in a manner that marked her as a trailblazer. She was the co-founder, along with her husband, Joseph Lauder, of Estée Lauder Companies and the mother of Jewish leader Ronald Lauder.

1906: Birthdate of Estee Lauder. Lauder was born Josephine Esther Mentzer, the daughter of Hungarian Jewish immigrants. She married Joseph Lauter who changed the family named to Lauder in the late 1930’s. Mrs. Lauder was CEO of Estee Lauder’s Cosmetics. . She was one of several Jewish women who found fame and fortune in the cosmetics business. She was the only woman on Time magazine's 1998 list of the 20 most influential business geniuses of the 20th century. She passed away in 2004 at the age of 97.

1906: “At 3 Kew-villas, Jersey, Alfred Krichefski and his wife, the former Sarah Blank, gave birth to a daughter.

1907: Birthdate of famed sportscaster Bill Stern.




1907: As of today, the Central Conference of American Rabbis has a total membership of 201

1907: Corresponding Secretary Tobias Schanfarber reported that during the fiscal year that ended today the Central Conference of American Rabbis have issued 89 vouchers amounting to $6,959.73.

1907: The SS Cassel entered the port of Galveston, Texas with 87 Russian Jews aboard, heralding the start of the Galveston Movement - an organized attempt to bring Jews to less populated parts of the US.

1908: The Hebrew Board of Relief contributed $50 to the National Conference of Jewish Charities.

1909: Birthdate of Antonina Pirozhkova, the common-law widow of Russian literary giant Isaac Babel who wrote a well-received memoir that provided a rare glimpse of the persecuted writer's final years in the 1930s.

1909: It was reported today that a helicopter built by Jewish inventor Emile Berliner and J. Newton Williams had lifted Williams “from the ground on three occasions at Berliner’s laboratory in the Brightwood neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

1910: Birthdate of Viennese native Harry Bachrach, who came to the United States after Anschluss where he became a manufacture of neckties, a student at Iona College and “elected Man of the Year by Men’s Neckware Foundation.




1910: “Samuel Steiner began serving as a member of “the Board of Visitors of the Virginia State School for Colored Deaf and Blind Children at Newport News.”

1911(5thof Tammuz, 5671): Parashat Korach

1911: “The Federation of American Zionists” did not meet today during their annual convention due to it being the Sabbath but many of the delegates from “a message from Dr. Max Nordeau declaring that American restriction of immigration would tend to close to the Jews their most important harbor of refuge” and “he urged the Zionists to oppose” any restrictive measures

1912: “Owing to the lack of space, the Trade School” of the Chicago Hebrew Institute was discontinued today.

1913(26thof Sivan, 5673): Forty-seven year old Emanuel Abrahams passed away today after which he was buried at the Jewish Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

1913(26th of Sivan, 5673): Seventy-eight year old Nanette Flesch, the aunt of Walter, Eugene, W.P., Edwin and Rose K. Flesch passed away today at the Home for Aged Jews in Chicago.

1913(26th of Sivan, 5673): Emanuel (Manny) Abrahams, the 20th ward alderman who was born in Chicago in 1866 and went from begin a saloon owner to a career in politics that included serving as “bailiff in the Maxwell Street Court” passed away “after having spoken before the City Council Judiciary Committee” today.

1914: Worton Hall Studios, one of the two studios that will later become Isleworth Studios were officially opened today under the leadership of producer George Berthold Samuelson.

1914: “Journalist, satirist and writer Kurt Tucholsky, who would be baptized in 1918, “left the Jewish community today.”

1914: This morning at 9:30, Rabbi William of Friedman is scheduled to offer the opening prayer at today’s session of the “25th anniversary conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis” being held “at Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan.”

1915: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Joseph Louis Ransohoff II, a surgeon who himself was the son of a surgeon and his wife gave birth to pioneer neurosurgeon Dr. Joseph Louis Ransohoff II,  who married psychotherapist Rita Meyer in 1940 and after divorcing her married Lori Cohen, DDS.







1915: John M. Slaton, the former Governor of Georgia “who commuted the sentence of Leo M. Frank to life imprisonment” talked with reporters today that he would return to Atlanta “after a trip to San Francisco and would continue his law practice there” which some might consider a rather bold statement considering the anger felt at the time of the commutation.

1915: The list of newly elected officers of Hadassah published today included Henrietta Szold, Chairman; Sophia Berger, Treasurer; Lotta Levensohn, Recording Secretary and Rose A. Herzog, Corresponding Secretary who enjoy the support of such prominent Jews as Mrs. Richard Gottheil, Mrs. B.A. Rosenblatt and Miss Alice L. Seligsberg.

1916: In New York City Rose and Samuel W. Halprin gave birth to landscape architect Lawrence Halprin




1916: “The advisability of resurrecting a petition addressed to President Harrison in 1891 asking that the United States help the Jews re-establish themselves in Palestine will be discussed at the convention of the Zionist Organization of America which opened” in Philadelphia today.



1916: In Wildwood, NJ, “the 27th convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis formally opened its business sessions tonight with the reading of the annual message of the President, Rabbi William Rosenau of Baltimore.”



1916: As the Battle of the Somme began, English composer Jane Marian Joseph who had left Gitron College, Cambridge, took up part-time welfare work in Islington as part of her attempt to assist in the war effort.

1917: Per the request of Colonel Milton J. Foreman, the conversion of the First Cavalry unit of the Illinois National Guard in the Second Field Artillery began today – a change that Foreman wanted because he felt that would lead to his unit going to fight in France sooner than later.



1917: This evening a banquet is scheduled to be held as part of the Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea being held in Asbury Park, NJ.

1917: Birthdate of Manhattan native and cartoon artist Jack Adler the winner of the Shazam Award for Best Colorist in 1971.




1918: “According to word received” today in New York by cable “842 American citizen are now in the hands of the Turks in Damascus and other cities of Galilee have been” forcibly “removed from Jerusalem when the Turk evacuated” that city as the British approached the city prior to its capture.

1919: In act of gemilut chasadim, Elias A. Cohen hosted the first of the many summer “camps” for “deserving boys and girls at “Tranquility Farm and Camp.

1920: Sir Herbert Samuel, a British statesman was appointed High Commissioner of Eretz-Israel. His first official act was to grant amnesty to political prisoners including Jabotinsky. He governed the British Mandate for five years. Sir Herbert governed as a British official, not as a Jew and there were clashes between him and some Zionist leaders.

1920: In an attempt to strengthen the American labor movement, Benjamin “Schlesinger addressed a letter to the Neckwear Workers' Union of New York, the International Journeymen Tailors' Union of America, the International Fur Workers' Union, the United Garment Workers of America, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, and the United Cloth Hat, Cap Makers and Millinery Workers' Union of America, proposing an alliance of all garment workers unions.”

1920: Nashville, TN born Reform Rabbi Abram Simon, the longtime leader of Washington Hebrew Congregation was elected president of the Board of Education today.




1921: Dr. Thomas G. Allen, Secretary of the Oriental Institute announced today that the thanks to a $60,000 grant by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. the University of Chicago will excavate the site of Armageddon or Megiddo.

1922: After 96 performances at the Winter Garden Theatre the curtain came down on “Make It Snappy” a musical revue starring Eddie Cantor, who introduced the hit songs Yes! We Have No Bananas and The Sheik of Araby.

1922: In Syracuse, NY, prominent lawyer Warren Winkelstein and his wife gave birth to Warren Winkelstein, Jr. “a physician and researcher whose groundbreaking studies connected unprotected sex between men to AIDS, smoking to cervical cancer and air pollution to chronic lung disease” (As reported by Denise Grady)

1923: Fast of the 17th of Tammuz

1923: In Mannheim, Germany, Otto Michel, the owner of a cigar factory and the former Frieda Wolff gave birth to Ernst Wolfgang Michel the Holocaust survivor who lived to the ripe old age of 92.


1923:”The Heights Jewish Center,” which “initially met in the home of Jacob Makorr, was established “as the Heights Orthodox Congregation,” “the first Jewish Congregation in Cleveland’s eastern suburbs.



1924: Birthdate of economist Harvey Joshua Levin




1924: In London Kathleen Garman and Jacob Epstein gave birth Theodore Garman, the English painter known simply as “Theo.”








1926: The New York Joint Board called a general strike by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGUWU)

1926: Birthdate of Robert William Fogel, “Nobel-winning economist whose number-crunching empiricism upended established thinking, most provocatively about the economics of slavery” (As reported by Robert D. Hershey)

1927: (12th of Tammuz): Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok is liberated from his death sentence and imprisonment in the Soviet Union.  With the outbreak of World War II, the Sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe would make his way to New York where he would establish the headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch in Crown Heights.  From there, he would launch what would become a highly successful world-wide outreach program designed to educate Jews and heighten their awareness of their heritage.

1929: Opening of Earl Carroll’s Sketch book with the “book” by Eddie Cantor.

1929: Julian Mack “was reassigned as an additional judge to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.:

1929: In Queens, NY, Dr. Edward Edelman and Anna (née Freedman) Edelman gave birth to Gerald Maurice Edelman, “an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.”






1930:  At the morning session of the International Wailing Wall Commission, Rabbi Ben Zion Meyer Uziel, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, described Jewish prayer rituals conducted at the Wall declaring that the High Commissioner’s recent ban on the use of the Torah Scroll, Lulav, tefillin and tallit was unacceptable. While questioning Rabbi Uziel, Arab leader Abdul Auni implied that the Zionists were using bogus claims of the right to worship at the Wall as a form of propaganda to recruit Jews to settle in Palestine. At this afternoon's meeting of the International Wailing Wall Commission, the three commissioners watched a movie filmed in 1911 showing Jewish men and women praying at the wall, Jewish worshippers sitting on benches and Jewish women kissing the stones of the Wall.  The commissioners pronounced the film as authentic and thus it became further evidence of the long standing connection of the Jewish people to the Wall.  The International Wailing Wall Commission was established by the League of Nations after Arab rioters violently denied Jews access to the Western Wall

1930: Birthdate of Carol Doris Schatz, the Philadelphia native who would marry Noam Chomsky in 1949 and gain fame in her own right as a linguist and educator.  Mrs. Chomsky passed away at the age of 78 in December of 2008.




1930: Three hundred delegates are expected to attend the “eighth annual convention of Junior Hadassah” opening today in Cleveland, Ohio.

1930: Julian Mack “was reassigned to serve solely on the Second Circuit.

1930: In this month’s issue of The Atlantic Harvard Professor William Ernest Hocking describes his view of conflict between “Zionists” and Arabs in “Palestine: An Impasse?” in which claim that the “two enemies of peace…are fanaticism and fear.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1930/07/palestine-an-impasse/306750/



1932: Over the next 11 months (June 1, 1933), the ZOA will clear the cases of 1,622 people wishing to settle in Palestine.

1932: Release date for the German film Mensch ohne Namen (Man Without a Name) featuring performances by Julius Falekenstein a Jewish actor who died the same year the Nazis came to power and Fritz Grünbaum who would die at Dachau where he performed for the last time for his fellow prisoners on New Year’s Eve, two weeks before his death in January, 1941.

1932: Birthdate of Ze’ev Schiff, the French born Jew who gained fame as an Israeli journalist and military correspondent for Haaretz.

1933: With a message of "cordial greetings and best wishes" from President Roosevelt and a declaration that "the calamity that has overtaken the 600.000 Jews in Germany has cast a shadow over everything else in Jewish life," the Zionist Organization of America opened its convention today in Chicago.  Five thousand delegates and observers attended this meeting which was described as being the largest in the history of the ZOA. At this evening’s opening session at the Palmer House, Moriss Rothenberg, President of the ZOA reported that 20,000 Jews had entered the National Home in the last 18 months and that during 1932 12 million dollars in new investments had been made in Palestine.  While Rothenberg had words of praise for the British High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Grenfeel Wauchope, he was highly critical of the Mandatory Government (the British) for not increasing the allotment of immigration certificates in light of the events in Germany. 

1933 The German government states that "Reich Chancellor Hitler still belongs to the Catholic Church and has no intention of leaving it."

1934: Birthdate of director Sydney Pollack whose hits have included Tootsie and Presumed Innocent.

1934: Erich Gans was murdered in Dachau. It was the last such murder for ten months. The Jewish population at Dachau was almost non-existent at the time since most had been killed or released by end of 1933.

1934: The New York Times reviews From Nebuchadnezzar to Hitler by Danish author Peter Hemmer Gudme. In this sympathetic study of the Zionist movement which the reviewer is sure will be translated in English, the non-Jewish Gudme traces the ancient connection of the Jewish people with their homeland before describing modern efforts beginning with Pinsker, Hess and Herzl to create a modern Jewish home in Palestine. Gudme will die at the hands of the Nazis in Copenhagen in 1945.

1934(18th of Tammuz, 5694): Tzom Tammuz observed

1934: Birthdate of Jewish author Leonard Fein.




1935(30th of Sivan, 5695): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1935(30th of Sivan, 5695): In London, Sir Francis Abraham Montefiore the head of the London Portuguese community and a great philanthropist passed away today after which he was buried in the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Cemetery on Mile End Road, London

1935: In the Nahalat Ahim quarter of Jerusalem, Rosa and Musa Kraus gave birth to Israeli entertainer Shmuel “Shmulik” Kraus.

1936: Alexander Berkman, the anarchist who attempted to assassinate Carnegie Steel Chairman Henry Clay Frick in 1892 was buried today in the Cochez Cemetery on the outskirts of Nice, France under the direction of his long time comrade Emma Goldman

1936: The Palestine Post reported from London that the House of Commons discussed the question of the composition of the proposed Royal Commission for Palestine. The Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby-Gore, explained that the appointment of women members to the commission was undesirable, due to the sensitivities of the Moslems and Orthodox Jews.

1936: As Arab violence continued to intensify, The Palestine Post reported that the Christian communities of Beit Jala and Kafr Kana were warned by Arab terrorists that they must deliver 60 young men as volunteers for their ranks, or face the consequences. There were sporadic shootings, bombs thrown and trees uprooted throughout the country. Two British soldiers were hurt by flying debris during the demolition of houses in the old quarter of Jaffa.

1936: In New York City, Lewis and Augusta Feuchtwanger gave birth to Rebecca Feuchtwanger.

1937: The Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of "unacceptable" artwork by Jews and others opens in Munich. A concurrent event of "approved" art held nearby attracts far fewer people than the Entartete Kunst

1937: Pastor Martin Niemöller's anti-Semitism does not prevent the Nazis from arresting him because of his opposition to Hitler.

1937: William George Arthur Ormsby Gore, the Secretary of State for Colonies announced today in the House of Common the British Government will attempt “to end the Jewish-Arab unrest in Palestine by a partition scheme as drastic as the separation of the North and South of Ireland fifteen years ago.”

1938: “Having Wonderful Time,” a film version of Arthur Kober’s 1937 play with a script by Morrie Ryskind was released in the United States today.

1938: Birthdate of Diane Silvers Ravitch, a historian of education, an educational policy analyst, and former United States Assistant Secretary of Education who became a research professor at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

1938: As of today, “the Italian Government has taken measures against the Jewish intelligentsia by issuing decrees designed to prevent or limit circulation of books by Jewish authors among the Italian public” which puts the lie to the statement of February 16 by the Foreign Ministry that “it was completely erroneous to think the Italian Government was about to inaugurate an anti-Semitic policy since no specifically Italian Jewish problem existed.”

1938: Under a proposal called the Sosua Project, the Dominican Republic offers to accept 100,000 European Jewish refugees, to be settled in an area near Santo Domingo, in return for payment of millions of dollars from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). (Under the plan the Dominican Republic actually admitted on only about 500 Jews by 1940 when immigration was halted)

1939: Fourteen year old Rudolf Wessely arrives in London from Prague.  Wessely was the son of Charles Wessely, a successful Czech businessman and civil servant.  The British could find room for the son but not his 43 year old father or 38 year old mother

1939: In Park Ridge, Norman Ziegler and the former Elsie Reif gave birth to Karen Blanche Ziegler who gained fame as actress Karen Black who starred in two 1970’s cult films – “Easy Rider” and “Five Easy Pieces.”

1940: A war emergency program to aid in the defense of the 500,000 Jews in Palestine was adopted unanimously by the convention of the Zionist Organization of America meeting today in Pittsburgh, PA.

1940: The America First Committee is formed. It is the most significant American isolationist group, and it is also infiltrated by Nazis, who are working to prevent American intervention in Europe. Several prominent Americans speak in support of the committee. Many in Congress attack the Jews of Hollywood as attempting to involve America in opposition to Hitler.

1940: Bloody anti-Jewish riots erupt in cities throughout Romania

1940: In a letter to German Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Bishop Theophil Wurm, head of the provincial Lutheran Church at Württemberg, Germany, objects to "euthanasia" killings at the nearby Grafaneck crippled-children's institution; See September 5, 1940.

1940: In Holland, a collaborationist propaganda group, Nederlandse Unie (Netherlands Union), is established.

1940: A Jewish ghetto is established at Bedzin, Poland.

1940: U.S. premiere of “The Sea Hawk” a 16th century swashbuckler directed by Michael Crtiz, produced by Hal B. Wallis  with music by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): The first day of a three day killing spree in Drohobych, during which Ukrainians, assisted by Whermacht soldiers killed three hundred Jews.

1941: A Pogrom in Jassy, the cradle of Rumanian anti-Semitism claimed 5000 Jewish lives.

1941: In New Haven, CT, Alfred Gilman who co-authored Goodman & Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics and his wife gave birth to Dr. Alfred G. Gilman recipient of the 1994 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine






1941: British code breakers monitoring radio traffic coming from German troops in the Soviet Union become aware of Nazi massacres of Soviet Jews.

1941: Two thousand members of Minsk, Belorussia's intelligentsia are executed by German troops in a nearby forest.

1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): More than 2500 Jews are slaughtered at Zhitomir, Ukraine.

1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): During an Einsatzkommando Aktion (murder operation) at Mielnica, Ukraine, a Jew named Abraham Weintraub hurls himself on a German officer and shatters the officer's teeth. Weintraub is immediately shot.

1941: In the Bialystok region of Poland, Nazis murder 300 members of the Jewish intelligentsia.

1941: German killing squads begin to murder Jews remaining in Kishinev, Romania.

1941: The Hungarian government undertakes a mass roundup of almost 18,000 Jewish refugees for deportation to Kamenets-Podolski, Ukraine.

1941: Twenty-two-year-old Jew Haya Dzienciolski finds a pistol, leaves Novogrudok, Ukraine, and helps to organize a group of young partisans in nearby forests.

1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): One hundred Jews are murdered at Lyakhovichi, Belorussia.

1941 (6th of Tammuz, 5701): Hundreds of Jews are killed at Plunge, Lithuania.

1941 In the Ukrainian town of Koritz, Nazi troops begin what would become a three day murder spree.  The Jews are forced to prepare three burial pits, one each for men, women, and children. For sport, a man's corpse is propped atop one of the pits, in which some Jews have been buried alive.

1941: Members of the Einsatzgruppen, the Wehrmacht, and Esalon Special, a Romanian unit, begin murdering the Jews of Bessarabia in eastern Romania.  By August 31st, they will have killed more than 150,000 Jews.

1942: Hundreds of German Jews are deported to the ghetto/camp at Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia. In Paderborn, Germany, all Jewish orphans are deported to Theresienstadt.

1942: In the Netherlands, the Westerbork “deportation” Camp became operational. The camp had originally been established by the Dutch government as a place to house German Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.  The term deportation camp is a bit mis-leading since it was the last stop before arriving Auschwitz,, Bergen-Belsen or the other death camps.

1942: Seven trains of Jewish deportees leave Westerbork, Holland, for the Auschwitz death camp.

1942: Today, Abraham Icek Tuschinski a Dutch businessman of Jewish Polish descent who ordered the construction of the Tuschinski Theater, a famed cinema in Amsterdam, “was transported to the Westerbork concentration camp in the northeast of the Netherlands, and from there to Auschwitz, where he was murdered.:

1942: At Kleck, Belorussia, a few dozen Jews break out and join partisans.

1942 (16th of Tammuz, 5702): The Jewish community at Gorodenka, Ukraine, is wiped out.

1942: Extermination activities at the Sobibór death camp are temporarily halted for railway construction and enlargement of the camp's gas chambers.

1943: In an American radio broadcast, U.S. Congressman Emanuel Celler excoriates the U.S. government for its continuing silence on Nazi treatment of European Jews. This is the same Congressman Celler whom Senator Bilbo of Mississippi will refer to as a “kike” while giving a speech in the Upper Chamber; a reference that brings no response from those who hear it and who will guide the 1964 Civil Rights Act to a successful in the House of Representatives.

1943: The American Women's International League for Peace and Freedom estimates that millions of Jews have already been murdered by the Germans in Poland, and that the American government and people share in the guilt for these atrocities because they are complacent cowards covered "with a thick layer of prejudice."

1943: Forty-eight year old Willem Arondeus., a member the Resistance Council which worked to provide Jews with false documents that would keep them out of the clutches of the Nazis and declared after his capture that “"Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards." was executed by a firing squad today.

1944(10th of Tammuz, 5704): Parshat Chukat

1944(10th of Tammuz, 5704): Forty-nine year Austrian born screenwriter Carl Mayer who had fled to London to escape the Nazis lost his two year battle with cancer died today almost penniless and forgotten.

1944: During the month of July, Jewish-Soviet partisans from Poland and Lithuania are active behind the lines at Lublin, Poland, and Kovno, Vilna, and Siauliai, Lithuania, as Soviet troops approach from the east.

1944(10thof Tammuz, 5704): Fifty-eight year old Coshocton, OH native and Ohio State University trained attorney Edwin J Schanfarber, the vice president and director of the National Hospital for Consumptives at Denver and the president of the United Jewish Fund and the Jewish Welfare Federation.






1944: The Red Army liberates Lvov, Ukraine.

1944: The SS completes the evacuation of the death camp at Majdanek

1944: The SS evacuates the concentration camp at Kovno, Lithuania

1944: Neutral Switzerland ends long-standing, restrictive Jewish-immigration standards and admits all Jewish refugees who wish and are able to enter.

1944: Jewish-American Lieutenant Colonel Murray C. Bernays is assigned by the U.S. Army Civil Affairs Division to collect evidence of war crimes committed against American servicemen. Bernays begins to formulate his concept of Nazism as a criminal conspiracy, which will be central to the Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-46.



1944: Eighteen year old Eva Fahidi arrived at Auschwitz.

1944: As the war put additional strains on the German labor force, 1,000 Jews were taken from Birkenau and put to work within Germany.

1944: “There were still 185 Jews living in Magdeburg, mainly partners of mixed marriages, who managed to survive the war.”  The Magdeburg Jewish community was one of the oldest in Germany dating back to 965.

1944: In New York, Joseph Geffen and Therese Aub Geffen, the daughter of Jacob ad Bertha Mack, gave birth to Alice Geffen

1944: “I’ll Be Seeing You” “a popular song, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal” reached number on the pop charts today.

1945: Establishment of “The Central Committee of the Liberated Jews”, whose primary offices were located in Munich, close to Leipheim. “The Central Committee represented 175,000 Jews living in the DP camps in the American and British zones in Germany and Austria.” The committee was dissolved in December of 1950. (As reported by Yad Vashem Archives)

1945: In New York, Yiddish-language actors, Pesach Burstein and Lillian Lux gave birth to Michael Burstein, who gained fame as actor Mike Burstyn.

1945: “The first regular passenger service at the Nahariya Railway Station began today during the British Mandate.

1945: Nathan D. Perlman was re-appointed as Justice of the Court of Special Sessions of the City New York today.

1946: The Haganah officially withdrew from its alliance with Irgun and Lehi.  The Haganah did not renounce its role in defending the Yishuv against the British and Arab attacks. 

1946: It was reported today that "Palestine Jews were considering a campaign of passive resistance" aimed at the British while the Irgun was threatening to kill three British hostages.






1946: As American businessmen, labor leaders, and consumers adjusted to the first day without the existence of the OPA, "Israel Sachs, president of Sachs Quality Stores, announced that" his stores "would raise prices."  "At the same time he "appealed to Congress to enact immediately 'intelligent, workable price legislation.'"  At the same time, "Victor A. Fishcell, vice president and general sales manager of Seagram-Distillers Corporaton announced that Seagram was continuing its shipments at regular OPA ceiling prices."

1946: During an interview given today at the New York office of the United Jewish Appeal, Rabbi Leopold Neuhaus that "Jews returning from concentration camps owned nothing but cast-off army clothing and were living under 'infinitely worse considitons' than the Germans.  Rabbi Neuhuas, the "former Chief Rabbi of Hessen and liaison officer with the American Military Government in Germany" said that "the situation of the Jews in Europe  is growing more critical, with displaced persons embittered by their 'no-man's land' status and the renewal of anti-Semitic outbursts in many countries."

1946: "Dr. Nahum Goldman, a member of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, said at a press conference today that Great Britain's latest program was a provocation to war, not only to the Palestinian Jews but to those all over the world.  Dr. Goldman described as a 'breach of faith'...the arrest of 2,000 Jews in Palestine. 'If Britain persists in her present aggressive policy against the Jewish population in Palestine and its officially recognized leaders and bodies, she will create a state of permanent hostility against Britain on the part of Jews everywhere.'  Dr. Goldman denied statements that the" British "government had informed" the United States government of its plans to crack down on the Jews of Palestine, including a massive round-up of Jewish leaders. 

1946: "Three hundred persons attended a funeral service today at the Free Synagogue, 40 West Sixty-Eighth Street, for Dr. Emanuel Libman, noted diagnostician, who died on Friday at the age of 73."   During the service, Dr. Stephen S. Wise praised his friend of sixty years, Dr. Libman, for his efforts to train medical professionals and for his work on behalf of Mt. Sinai Hospital and the medical facilities at "the Jewish University of Jerusalem."

1946:



1946: In what would prove to be the first act in series of event that would lead to a pogrom in Kielce, Poland , eight-year-old Henryk Blaszcyk of Kielce, Poland, hitched a ride to his old hometown, visiting friends and picking cherries.  Since his parents did not know about this they filed a missing person report with the local police.

1946: The Fair Employment Practices Commission issued a final report as it was forced to close down due to Congress' failure to enact legislation that it would have extended its existence.  The report warned that "Wartime gains of Negro, Mexican-American and Jewish workers are being los through an 'unchecked revival' of discriminatory practices."  The report also said that "a survey of job seeking by Jews since V-J Day conducted in fifteen cities, showed a marked rise of discrimination against all Jewish applicants and that 'Jews who had fought for their country fared no better than those who had not.'"

1946: In a displaced persons camp at Stuttgart, German Jacob and Fanny Silberman gave birth to Rosie Silberman who as Rosalie Abella became Canada’s first Jewish woman justice.

1946: The Mayor’s Committee on Unity headed by Charles Evans Hughes, Jr. recommended to that the Board of Regents conduct an investigation “into racial and religious discrimination in the admission of students to intuitions of higher learning…”  The committee contended that “there could not long be any reasonable doubt that racial and religious discrimination was practiced by” colleges and universities “in New York and elsewhere” usually through the employment of some kind of quota system.  According to the committee’s findings, this discrimination is directed at “Jewish, Negro, Catholic and Italian students.”  While Medical Schools seem to be the prime practitioners of this discriminatory behavior, “it exists in other graduate and undergraduate schools as well.”

1947: Arthur S. Davis, the treasurer of the E. Greenbaum Meat Packing Company was honored with a testimonial dinner tonight “for his work on behalf of the HIAS” during which the featured speaker, former Senator James M. Mead “declared that in post-war Wurope the solution for the problems of the Jews as well as other displaced persons lies in ‘immigration now.’”

1947: “In a statement to the Associated Press, Haganah announced an early end to its temporary interruption of immigration which was halted for a time because of difficulties in ports of embarkation.”

1948: In Jerusalem Yehudith and Yaacov gave birth to Michael (Mickey) Gal (Hepner) who would be among the crewman lost when the Dakar sank in 1968

1948: On the night of July 1 - 2, the first shipment of arms to be used by the Jewish forces arrived from Czechoslovakia by air.  The arms were landed in a single DC-4 trans-port.  The twin engine plane delivered 200 rifles, 40 machine guns and 150,000 rounds of ammunition. In an act of daring, the plane landed at an abandoned British air field which was illuminated by intermittent flashes of light so that the British forces would find out what was happening. The Jewish state was still six weeks way from reality and at this point in time, the British were doing all they could to disarm the Jews even as the Arab attacks grew bolder and more deadly.  The weapons would be used in Operation Nachshon, the desperate attempt on the part of the Yishuv to open the road from the coast to Jerusalem, thus ending the Arab siege of Jerusalem.



1948: Birthdate of Michael (Mickey) Gal (Hepner), son of Yehudith and Yaacovm the native of Jerusalem who perished aboard the INS Dotan at the age of 20.

1949(4thof Tammuz, 5709): Sixty-one year old attorney and Democratic Party member Benjamin Charles Ribman, “a leader in the civic and Jewish communities” passed away today in Brooklyn.

1949: At the Rockdale Avenue Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio, Dr. Nelson Glueck, the President of Hebrew Union College and Rabbi Victor Reichert officiated at the funeral services for Dr. David Philipson who served as Rabbi of Rockdale Temple for 61 years and who was the last surviving member of the first graduating class of Hebrew Union College.











1950: Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, the 75 year old conduct emeritus conductor of the Boston Symphony is scheduled to conduct at the Tanglewood Music Festival in the Berkshire Hills.

1951: Six Arab terrorists were killed in two engagements with security forces in Emek Hefer, Israel. A number of other infiltrators fled into the Jordanian-occupied territory across the border.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that six Arab terrorists were killed in two engagements with security forces in Emek Hefer. A number of other infiltrators fled into the Jordanian-occupied territory across the border.

1951: In “A Fertile Error” published today H.R. Trevor-Roper reviewed The Jews and Modern Capitalism by Werner Sombart who had written in Deutscher Sozialismus  his contention that “the antithesis of the German spirit is the Jewish spirit, which is not a matter of being born Jewish or believing in Judaism but is a capitalistic spirit” and the "chief task" of the German people and National Socialism is to destroy the Jewish spirit.”




1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel presented to the US State Department a detailed aide-memoire urging the settlement of Israel's $1.5 billion restitution claim against Germany. The police had so far examined 150 war-crimes cases since the Knesset passed the War Crimes Law, directed at persons who cooperated with the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. The experience of the first few cases had raised some doubts as to the possibility of obtaining convincing evidence against the accused.

1952(8th of Tammuz, 5712): Seventy-five year old Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach the Philadelphian who, along with his brother found the Rosenbach Museum and Library passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/23/travel/a-library-where-rare-is-common.html?pagewanted=all




1953: Harry A. Shulman, the Belarus native who came to the United States as a child in 1912 and after graduating from Harvard Law School eventually became a Professor at Yale Univeristy “received an honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Brown University,” his alma mater today.

1953: Paramount Pictures releases “Stalag 17” directed and produced by Billy Wilder, with a screenplay by Billy Wilder and Edwin Blum, with a score by Franz Waxman and featuring Otto Preminger as the Nazi prison camp commandant. (Editor’s note – this is a great, must-see film)

1954: Harry A. Schulman became the Dean of the Yale Law School today, less than a year before he would die from cancer.

1953: “The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T”  “a musical fantasy film” produced by Stanley Kramer was released in the United States today.

1955: “Ain’t Misbehavin” a musical comedy starring Piper Laurie (Rosetta Jacobs) and produced by Samuel Marx.

1956:Funeral Services are scheduled to be held in Forest Hills for Albert Farkas, the husband Sari Farkas, and the father of “Robert and the late George” Farkas who was “President of the American Cloak and Suit Manufacturers Association” which he also served as an executive board member.

1958: Birthdate of Brooklynite Nancy Lieberman.

1958: Yosef Burg completed his term as Minister of Communications

1959: “Master of Persuasion” published today provided a sketch of the life and accomplishments of David Ben-Gurion.


1961: Coronet Magazine published “Rudolf Kasztner” Eichman’s Last Victim”


1964(21stof Tammuz, 5724): Eighty-two year old Russian born American architect Boris W. Dorfman, the husband of “the former Elizabeth Glassman” and father of Mrs. Rose Cohan passed away today.





1965: “The Great Race” a comedy starring Tony Curtis and featuring Peter Falk, Larry Storch and Marvin Kaplan was released today in the United States.

1967: An Israeli armored infantry company attacked an Egyptian force entrenched at Ras el 'Ish, located 10 miles south of Port Said. The Israeli company drove off the Egyptians but loses 1 dead and 13 wounded.

1967: An Egyptian commando force from Port Fuad moves south and takes up a position at Ras el 'Ish, located 10 miles south of Port Said on the eastern bank of the Suez Canal, an area controlled by the Israelis since the ceasefire on June 9, 1967.

1969(15thof Tammuz, 5729): Just three days before his 85th birthday Grodno born American “calligrapher, designer and artist Joseph B. Abrahams, the husband of “the former Mrs. Lillian Manning” whose creations included “the bronze doors of Temple Emanu-El” in New York  and “the interior décor for the Ziegfeld Follies” passed away today.




1970: The Mordecai House was placed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.




1970: “The Boatniks” a comedy starring Phil Silvers and Norman Fell was released in the United States.

1971(8thof Tammuz, 5731): Bialystok born author Shmuel Zabludovski, who moved to Mexico City where he continued his career until he passed away today.

1971: In one of those ironies of “progress,” while bagel production and consumption soared to new heights, Local 338, the fabled bagel bakers local, ceased to exist and Local 3 acquired a Bagel Division.

1971: In the UK, premiere of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” a film whose primary protagonist is a Jewish doctor “Daniel Hirsch” directed by Joseph Schlesinger and produced by Joseph Janni.

1972: After 12 previews and 522 performances “Follies,” a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman completed its original run on Broadway.

1972: Screenwriter and novelist Don Mankiewicz, the German born so of “the screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz and brother of journalist Frank Mankiewicz” took his second trip down the aisle today when he married Carol Bell Gidi today with whom he had two children, John, “a screenwriter and producer” and Jane, “a fiction writer” whose work has appeared in the New Yorker.

1973(1st of Tammuz, 5733): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1973(1st of Tammuz, 5733): A few minutes before 1 A.M. Colonel Yosef (Joe ) Alon and his wife Dvora returned to their home in a quiet Washington, D.C., suburb. Alon, the air attaché at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, had been at a farewell party for an Israeli diplomat. They parked the car. Dvora went into the house and then heard five gunshots. She rushed outside, saw her husband lying in a pool of blood, and glimpsed a white car driving away. She and her daughter Dalia, then 17, tried to help him. The other two girls, 14-year-old Yael and 6-year-old Rachel woke up. Joe tried to mumble something. An ambulance rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. (The murder remains unsolved. As reported by Yossi Melman)

1972: The “economic agreement between Israel and the Common Market” is scheduled to take effect today. (JTA)

1974: An International scientific symposium at Professor Alexander Voronel’s apartment in Moscow was thwarted by KGB while 3 scientists were removed by police and Western correspondents were asked to leave

1975: Rabbi Bertram Wallace Korn who began his chaplaincy career as a U.S. Navy Lieutenant during WW II serving with U.S. Marines First and Sixth Divisions, “was promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral in the Chaplain Corps, USNR” making him “the first Jewish chaplain to obtain flag rank in any of the United States armed forces.”

1976(3rd of Tammuz, 5736): Seventy-three year old Philip Hickman, the Anglo-Jewish boxer who fought under the name of “Johnny Brown” passed away today in London.

1976: As the hostage crisis at Entebe enters Day 5, in the morning, having been told that there is no viable military option to rescue the hostages, and with the deadline fast approaching, the Israeli government reluctantly agrees to begin negotiations knowing the terrorists will indeed keep their word about murdering those they hold.

1976: As the day wears on, Faiz Jaber, one of the hijackers takes special delight in torturing and beating Nahum Dahan whom at one point had a gun held to his head with the promise that he would be shot if he did not cooperate.

1976: In the evening Brigadier General Dan Shomron presented the plan for rescuing the hostages to the Chief of Staff Motta Gura and Defense Minister Shimon Peres who accepted it following which the operational officers began gathering the men and equipment who would carry out the mission.

1977: In Caribou, Maine, an “immigrant mother from Sweden and an Iraqi- Israeli physician gave birth to astronaut Jessica Meir, the holder of a Ph.D. from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography who “is Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.”


1979(6thof Tammuz, 5739): Eighty-seven year old Columbia trained physician Ephraim Michael Bluestone, the New York City born son of “Joseph Isaac Bluestone and Sarah Bluestone” a Lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps during WW I, a director of the Hadassah Hospital in Palestine and director of Montefiore Hospital as well as the husband of “the former Bertha Rodetsky” passed away today.




1980(17th of Tammuz, 5740): Tzom Tammuz is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Jimmy Carter.

1981: U.S. premiere of “S.O.B.” a comedy featuring Stuart Margolin, Marissa Berenson, Shelly Winters and Larry Storch.

1983: “How Am I Supposed to Live Without” a song co-written by Michael Boton was released today.

1984(1st of Tammuz, 5744): Moshe Feldenkrais passed away.  Born in the Ukraine in 1901, Feldenkrais moved to Palestine in 1918 where he continued his education.  After living in France before World War II and serving with the British Navy in World War II he returned to Israel.  He was a renowned physicist and judo expert, who developed a method of education and self-awareness training called The Feldenkrais method.

1985: Today Paul R. Verkuil, the husband of Judith Rodin the Jewish academic and philanthropist who was “the first permanent female president of an Ivy League University, began serving as the 24th President of the College of William and Mary” today.

1987: ''Portraits of an Era: Photographs by Irv Kline'' opens Bishopsgate Institute Foyer as part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration.

1990: Final Broadway performance of “The Cemetery Club” produced by Philip Rose.

1991(19th of Tammuz, 5751): Michael Landon, born Eugene Horowitz, passed away at the age of 54. Landon gained fame for his portrayal of Little Joe on the television western, Bonanza. He gained additional fame for his work in front and behind the camera in another television hit, Little House on the Prairie. (As reported by Peter Flint)




1992: U.S. premiere of “A League of Their Own” a film based on women’s baseball teams in WW II with a screenplay by Lowell Ganz and music by Hans Zimmer.

1993: Today, Leonard B. Sands completed fifteen years of service as Judge of the United States District court for the Southern District of New York and began serving as “Senior Judge of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York?

1993: Anne Lapidus Lerner became Vice Chancellor of the Seminary, the first woman to hold that post. As Vice Chancellor, Lerner was one of the highest-ranking women in all of American Jewish institutional life. In that role, she devoted her energy to adult education, working to bring Jewish education to the lay community. After earning bachelor’s, master's, and doctoral degrees from Harvard, Anne Lapidus Lerner joined the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (JTS) in 1969, becoming the first American-born woman to hold a full-time position there. JTS trains rabbis and cantors for the Conservative movement and offers a range of masters and doctoral degree programs. Today, Lerner is an assistant professor in the Department of Jewish Literature at JTS, where she teaches courses in Hebrew and American Jewish poetry, modern Jewish literature, and the portrayal of women in Jewish literature. In addition, she is the director of the JTS Jewish Women's Studies Program, which she also founded, and Director of the Jewish Feminist Research Group. In 2001-02, she was a visiting lecturer at the Harvard Divinity School. Lerner has published two books and is at work on a third. In Passing the Love of Women: A Study of Gide's "Saül" and Its Biblical Roots Lerner examines how the Biblical book of Samuel inspired a novel by French author André Gide. In Who Has Not Made Me a Man: The Movement for Equal Rights for Women in American Judaism  Lerner discusses the interaction between Judaism and the modern American feminist movement. A new book on the image of Eve in Jewish literature is due to be completed soon. In addition, Lerner has published a range of articles, and sits on the editorial boards of the journals Women's League Outlook, Hadassah, Judaism, Nashim, and Lilith.

1993 (12th of Tammuz, 5753): Olga Khaikov a Jewish immigrant from Russia and the mother of an 11 year old daughter was killed when terrorists tried to seize a bus near French Hill in Jerusalem.

1993: Gil Stein’s term as President of the NHL came to an end. The duties of the president were given to the commissioner. Stein then served as advisor to the commissioner for over three months, retiring from the league in October.

1993: “Rudolph Giuliani, who would become the next mayor of New York, called the Crown Heights riot a "pogrom" today in a speech at Bay Ridge, Brooklyn: "You can use whatever word you want, but in fact for three days people were beaten up, people were sent to the hospital because they were Jewish.”

1994: PLO chairman Yasser Arafat drove from Egypt into Gaza, returning to Palestinian land after 27 years in exile.

1994: Judith Rodin began serving as President of the University of Pennsylvania.

1995: Sir James David Wolfensohn began serving as the 9th President of the World Bank.

1996: Robert Wilentz resigned as Chief Justice of the New Jersey State Supreme Court because of his cancer.

1997(26th of Sivan, 5757): Sir Joshua Abraham Hassan, GBE, KCMG, LVO, QC passed away. Born in 1915, he “was a Gibraltarian politician, and first Mayor and Chief Minister of Gibraltar, serving two terms as Chief Minister for a total of 17 years. He is seen as the key figure in the civil rights movement in Gibraltar, and played a key role in the creation of the territory's institutions of self-government.”

1998:   First Lady Hillary Clinton, her daughter Chelsea and Secretary of State Madeline Albright visited the Ohel Rachel Synagogue in Shanghai, China, accompanied by Rabbi Schneier. In a speech on this date the First Lady commented, "So, for [the Ohel Rachel Synagogue] to be restored, I think, is a very good example of respect for religious differences and an appreciation for the importance of faith in one's life."

1998: U.S. premiere of science fiction disaster flic “Armageddon” directed by Michael Bay, Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, with a script co-authored by J.J. Abrams with music by Trevor Rabin.

1999(17th of Tammuz, 5759): Tzom Tammuz is observed for the last time in the 20th Century.

1999(17th of Tammuz, 5759: Shmuel Yaakov Weinberg, known as Yaakov Weinberg an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, Talmudist, and rosh yeshiva (dean) of Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland passed away today.

1999(17th of Tammuz, 5759): Eight-eight year old film star Sylvia Sidney (Sophia Kosow) passed away today.






1999: “After Janet Rosenberg Jagan returned from the European-Latin American summit in Rio de Janeiro, she was admitted to St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in the capital, Georgetown, due to chest pains and exhaustion.”

2000(28th of Sivan, 5760): Actor Walter Mattheau passed away. Born Walter Matthow in 1920, Mattheau began work at the age of 11 selling candy and playing bit parts in a Yiddish theatre on the Lower East Side. Years later he claimed that his birth name was Matasschanskayasky. According to his son, his father did this as a prank. However, the myth has become accepted as fact by many sources. Mattheau had a long, successful career playing in films some of the best of which paired him with Jack Lemmon. These included, "The Fortune Cookie," a re-make of "Front Page," and that greatest of hits, "The Odd Couple."






2000: Publication of Haviva Ner-David's book, Life on the Fringes: A Feminist Journey Toward Traditional Rabbinic Ordination,. (JWA)

2000: The judge in the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz announced the verdicts on the 13 Jews on trial for spying for Israel. The harsh verdicts against 10 of the defendants range from 4 to 13 years. The three defendants, who had been out on bail since February, were acquitted. The international community, Jewish groups around the world and human rights groups vocally condemned this verdict and expressed outrage at the lack of due process throughout the trial.

2001: Bruce Fleischer won the U.S. Senior Open.

2001: Caesarea-Pardes Hanna Railway Station was opened today “as a suburban station on the newly inaugurated Tel Aviv – Binyamina Suburban Service. The station was constructed to provide a railway link for the area's growing population as well as encourage rail commuting to the industrial zone in the vicinity.”



2001: Eric Garcetti began representing the 13th district on the Los Angeles City Council.



2002: An International Criminal Court for which American attorney and WW II war crimes investigator Benjamin B. Ferencz had expressed strong support in Defining International Aggression-The Search for World Peace was established today.



2002: U.S.A.F. Lt. Col Jack Weinstein was promoted to Colonel today.



2002: Michael Slive who had been the Commissioner of Conference USA since 1995 today became the seventh commissioner of the powerful South Eastern Conference of SEC.

2003(1st of Tammuz, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2003(1st of Tammuz, 5763): Seventy three year old Jazz legend Herbie Mann, born Herbert Jay Solomon passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/03/arts/herbie-mann-73-musician-who-gave-flute-a-jazz-sound.html

2003: “Fifty-nine years to the day after she arrived” at Auschwitz-Birkenau Eva Fahidi returned to death camp.






2003: Elena Kagan begins serving as the 11th Dean of the Harvard Law School.

2004: Actor Marlon Brando passed away.  No, Brando was not Jewish.  But he did have this to say about Jews. “Marlon Brando…once told an interviewer that, per capita ‘Jews have contributed more to American…culture than any other single group.’ Without them, the actor claimed, ‘we wouldn’t have music,’ ‘we wouldn’t have much theater,’ and we wouldn’t have “all the songs that you love to sing.’”

2005: The New York Times reported that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had moved decisively to deal with killing of a African-American man by two white males in Howard Beach.  The Times favorably compared Bloomberg’s swift action with the city’s reaction to a racially inspired killing in the same neighborhood in 1986.

2005: The New York Times reported that Time’s editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine made the decision to follow a court order and turn over a reporter’s documents to a grand jury investigating a leak of a CIA operative’s identity.  Pearlstine wrestled with the compelling issues – freedom of the press versus the need to submit to the rule of law – and he came down on the side of the latter.  The decision was not an easy one for a man who was a lawyer as well as the head of one of America’s flagship communication corporations.

2005: The New York Times reported that Bank of America had agreed to buy MBNA.  MBNA was founded by Alfred Lerner who passed away in 2002. Learner supported numerous philanthropies including the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous.  The JFR seeks out to fulfill the age old injunction to seek out and recognize righteousness.  In particular, the JFR works to help aged and indigent righteous gentiles who helped save Jews during the Shoah.

2005: Future United States Senator Michael Bennet began serving as the Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools oday.

2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Din In the Head: Essays by Cynthia Ozick

2006(5th of Tammuz, 5766): Eighty-three year old Philip Rieff the author of a number of books about Sigmund Freud passed away today.(As reported by Robert D. McFadden)






2006(5th of Tammuz, 5766): Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs, who founded the British branch of the Conservative Movement and was voted the greatest Jew in the history of Britain's Jewish community last year, passed away today. (As reported by Ari L. Goldman)







2006: David J. Skorton begins serving as President of Cornell University.

2007: Arnie Eisen assumed the office of Chancellor-elect of the Jewish Theological Seminary

2007: The Opening Day game of the Israel Baseball League is broadcast on a delayed basis on PBS in major US markets.

2007: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville by Bernard-Henri Lévy and The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope by Jonathan Alter.

2007: The Sunday Washington Post book section featured a review of a collection of here-to-for unpublished stories by Primo Levi entitled A Tranquil Star.  According to the review, those who think of Levi only in terms of being a “Holocaust writer” will be pleasantly surprised by the wide ranging topics and unique style displayed in this posthumously published tome.

2007: Avraham Hirschson resigned as Israel’s Minister of Finance following an investigation of an alleged embezzlement in which he was allegedly involved.

2007: Moseh Katzav resigned as President of Israel.

2007: Dalia Itzik, who had been serving as Speaker of the Knesset became action President of the state of Israel.

2007: Marvin Krislov became the 14th President of Oberlin College, in Oberlin, Ohio

2008:  Lauren Weisberger, author of the bestselling novel The Devil Wears Prada, reads from and signs her new book, Chasing Harry Winston, at a Borders Books in suburban Virginia.

2008: Arnie Eisen, who took office as Chancellor-elect of the Jewish Theological Seminary on July 1, 2007 assumed the position full time

2009: In Cedar Rapids, IA, meeting of the Hadassah book club discusses Courtesan, a novel by Dora Levy Mossanen.  

2009: After 29 years of serving as  supporting character alongside Marvel greats like the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men, Sabra, the alias of Ruth-Bat Seprah, mutant superhero and former agent, makes her first headlining print appearance in the Marvel anthology Astonishing Tales #6.

2009: Today President Shimon Peres invited Saudi King Abdullah to come to Jerusalem, or meet him in Riyadh, to initiate discussions that would enable the implementation of a comprehensive peace between Israel and all the Arab states.

2009: A Chabad-sponsored Women's Empowerment Rally is held at Tel Aviv's Nokia Stadium.

2009: Leonard “Cohen started his marathon European tour, his third in two years.

2009: Romanian Jewish leaders met in Bucharest today to address allegations that medical students have been using the remains of Holocaust victims for research.

2009: In “Ruth Madoff and the Husband She Never Knew” published today, Richard Cohen described the life of the wife of the financial predator who was his classmate.




2009: In a case of Jewish Woman follows Jewish Woman Professor Martha Louis Minow, the legal scholar who is the daughter former FCC Chairman Newton Minow became the 12th Dean of the Harvard Law School replacing Elena Kagan.

2010: Yeshiva University Museum and Metropolitan Museum of Art are scheduled to present “As it is Written: Lectures on the Art of Hebrew Manuscripts and Books” in New York City.

2010: The Wall Street Journal reported today that Tehran has equipped Damascus with a sophisticated radar system to help thwart a surprise Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.

2011: Cantor Joel Caplan, son of Richard and Ellen Caplan, and father Ilan Caplan is scheduled to lead a Shabbat evening program called “Shabbat Spirit” that includes guitar, keyboard and PowerPoint projections of all the songs that will be sung.

2011: Today, Susan Herbst took office as the 15th President of the University of Connecticut making her the first of her gender to hold the postion.

2011: As the case sexual assault case fell apart due to questions of credibility regard of the alleged victim, Dominque Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest today.

2011: At Shabbat Eve Services at Temple Judah a baby naming is to take place for Natanel, the son of Chavah and Stephen Rosenbaum of Jerusalem and the grandson of Kathe and Gary Goldstein of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2011: With the departure of Rabbi Joseph R. Black, today Harry L. Rosenfeld becomes the rabbi of Congregation Albert in Albuquerque, NM which was established in 1897 making it “the oldest Jewish organization of continued existence in the state of New Mexico.”

2011: Abbie Silber, daughter of Laurie and Dr. Bob Silver (pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community) and Rabbi Feivel Strauss are scheduled to receive a blessing at Shabbat Eve services as they prepare for their upcoming nuptials.

2011: This Day In…In Jewish History makes its first appearance on http://shtetl.ca/

a must read website for anybody interested in the comings and goings of the Canadian Jewish community.

2011: Dominique Strauss-Kahn was released from house arrest today as the sexual assault case against him moved one step closer to dismissal after prosecutors told a Manhattan judge that they had serious problems with the case.

2011: The Canadian Jewish Congress for which Bernie M Farber served as the chief executive officer was absorbed by the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs.

2011: The Greek Ministry of Citizen Protection issued a statement today saying that  the Minister, C. Papoutsis, decided to prohibit the departure of ships flying either Greek or foreign flags "to the maritime area" of Gaza.

2012: A revival of “On Second Avenue,” “a musical journey through Yiddish Theatre” is scheduled to have its final performance at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. (As reported by Mike Cohen)

2012: The Labor Party is scheduled to hold its convention today in Tel Aviv.

2012(11th of Tammuz, 5772): Eighty-six year old “Evelyn Lear, an American soprano who became a star in Europe in the 1950s and later won acclaim in the United States for singing some of the most difficult roles in contemporary opera” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)




2012(11th of Tammuz, 5772): Ninety-two year old “Estelle Ellis Rubinstein, who as promotion director of the brand-new Seventeen magazine helped American businesses discover what she called “a whole new country” — the untapped market of millions of teenage girls —” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)




2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish authors including the recently released paperback edition of Bloom of Darkness, Aharon Applefeld’s novel about “a Jewish child is hidden in a brothel in a Ukrainian village during the Holocaust.

2012: Mario Balotelli, a black Italian soccer start who was raised by a Jewish Italian foster mother from the age of three is scheduled to lead his team into the final of the Euro 2012 soccer championships. (As reported by the Times of Israel)




2012: Today the cabinet approved doubling the 2013 budget deficit target to 3 percent of gross domestic product, despite strong opposition from central bank and Treasury officials. It also agreed to set a new long-term target of gradually reducing the deficit back to 1.5% by 2019.






2013: The Aleph Kallah –Connecting the Divine Within and Around Us – is scheduled to begin today.

https://www.aleph.org/



2013: The North American Jewish Date is scheduled to move from the University of Connecticut to the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) in New York.






2013: Christopher Ludwig Eisgruber who was raised Catholic but now describes himself as nontheist Jew became the 20th President of Princeton University today. “While helping his son, then in the fourth grade, with a school project, he discovered that his Berlin-born mother, who had arrived in New York as an eight-year-old refugee, was Jewish. In 2009, a Holocaust claims tribunal awarded Eisgruber and his three sisters 162,500 Swiss francs, representing the value of the bank account of their maternal great-grandfather, Salomon Kalisch”

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.532963

2013: Peter Salovey, a descendant of the Soloveichik rabbinic family, became the 23 President of Yale University.

2013: Mark Dreyfus began serving as Minister for the Public Service and Integrity in Australiza.

2013: With Stanley Fischer's eight-year term as Bank of Israel Governor completed as of last night, his deputy Karnit Flug stepped into the role of acting governor today. (As reported by Niv Elis)

2013: Eric Garcetti began serving as the 42nd Mayor of Los Angeles.

2013: As part of the fallout from a reported cover-up of sexual abuse by Yishiva University rabbis, Rabbi Norman Lamm stepped down as the chancellor and Rosh yeshiva. (As reported by Uriel Heilman)






2014: Decent people everywhere continue to react with shock and horror to the news concerning the murder of the three kidnapped Israeli teenagers - Naftali Frankel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16; and Eyal Yifrach, 19 -  who were abducted on their way home from school on June 12 and whose bodies were found near Hebron.

2014: A community wide memorial service is held for Three Israeli Teens, z”l today at the Jewish Center on West 86th Street

2014: Scott S. Cowen is scheduled to step down as President of Tulane University.

2014: In Israel “1.5 million elementary students and over 71,000 teachers are scheduled to begin their summer break.”

2014(3rd of Tammuz, 5774): Ninety-two year old spy David Greenglass who betrayed his country and helped send his sister to the electric chair passed away today.



2014(3rd of Tammuz): 20th Yarhrzeit Menachem M. Schneerson of blessed memory simply known as “the Rebbe.”




2014: Opening of the Chabad-Lubavitch Library.


2014: “Terrorists from Gaza launched a salvo of mortar shells towards the Eshkol Regional Council today, during the very hours that hundreds of thousands attended a funeral in Modi'in for the three teens who were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists on June 12.”




2014: Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas spokesperson released a statement just after the funeral of the three kidnapped Jewish boys in which he labeled the abduction as “an activity that failed.”


2014: Hugh Segal began serving as “5th Principal of Massey College” today.

2014: Following individual funerals. Gil-Ad Shaer, Naftali Frenkel and Eyal Yifrach were laid to rest side by side in Modi'in cemetery this evening, a day after the bodies of the three teens were found in the West Bank and 19 days after they vanished while hitchihiking near Hebron. (As reported by Shahar Chai, Itay Blumental and Ahiya Raved




2015: Today, Frederick Lawrence is scheduled to step down as President of Brandeis University.

2015: Dr. David J. Skorton assumed the position of the 13th Secretary of the Smithsonian which means he “oversees 19 museums and galleries, 20 libraries, the National Zoo and numerous research centers, including the Smithsonian Astrophysics Observatory, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.”

2015: “The first anniversary of the deaths of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaer and Eyal Yifrach, the Israeli teenagers kidnapped and killed by Palestinian terrorists last summer, is being marked today with a Unity Day.”

2015: “Several hundred Israelis demonstrated in Jerusalem this evening, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act against a recent surge in deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians.”

2015: “Auto | Biography,” an exhibition that explores the social phenomenon of Jews and their cars is scheduled to open at Oregon Jewish Museum and Center For Holocaust Education.

2015(14th of Tammuz, 5775):  Terrorist murder Rabbi Miki Mark and wounded three of his family members in a drive-by shooting south of Hebron.



2015(14th of Tammuz, 5775): Ninety year old Israeli born multimillionaire jeweler Shlomo Moussaieff who spent the last 52 years of his life in the United Kingdom and was the found of Moussaieff Jewellers Ltd passed away today in Jerusalem.














2015: “Milk” is scheduled to shown during the “70’s Summer Cinema” program at the National Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.



2015: Sir Nicholas George Winton, the man who arranged the “Kindertransport” from Czechoslovakia which saved 669 Jewish children from the Holocaust at a time when most people did nothing passed away today.











2015: In Coralville, Iowa, the mantle of Rabbi officially transfer from Rabbi Jeff Portman to Rabbi Barry Diamond.

2016: Two days after his confirmation on June 18,, David L. Goldfein began serving as the 21st Chef of Staff of the United States Air Force today.






2016: Ronald D. Liebowitz is scheduled to assume the presidency of Brandeis University.

2016: Mahin Khan, who would plead “guilty to plotting an attack on government buildings and the Tuscon Jewish Community Center” was arrested today at his parents’ home.



2016(25th of Sivan, 5776): As Jews prepare for Shabbat, all decent people pray for the recovery of the men stabbed by a terrorist in Netanya on June 30 and mourn the loss of 13 year old Hallel Yafa Ariel who was stabbed to death as she slept in her bed on June 30.

2017(7th of Tammuz, 5777): Yahrzeit of Saul Lowenstam who followed his father Aryeh Leib ben Saul as Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam and  who died on the 7th of Tammuz, 5550 (1790)

2017(7th of Tammuz, 5777): Yahrzeit of Moshe Sharett, Israel’s first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister who passed away on the 7th of Tammuz, 5725 (1965).

2017(7th of Tammuz, 5777): Parashat Chukat;

2018: JW3 is scheduled to host the first screening of “Entebbe” today in London

2018: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari and Wrestling With His Angel by Sidney Blumenthal.

2018: 155th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gettysburg where Union Lt. Abraham Cohn faces against Confederate Major Adolph Proskauer  showing the House of Israel to be divided.

2018: 120th anniversary of the Teddy Roosevelt and his Roughriders, including Jacob Wilbusky, the first Roughrider killed in action charged up San Juan Hill and into the White House and the history books.

2019: “Sde Dov Airport, which is located in northern Tel Aviv, is set to close” today, leaving “Ben-Gurion Airport, located 20 kilometers southeast of the metropolis, as the only domestic origin for Eilat-bound flights, a change that many experts say will have a devastating impact on tourism to the southern city.”

2029: Susan Herbst’s stepped down today as President of the University of Connecticut after which she planned to remain on the faculty, teaching political science at the Stamford campus.

2019: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “Radical Traditions of Yiddish Poetry” a talk that “will survey the radical traditions of Yiddish poetry focusing on anarchist poetics and the press.”

2019: “After more than a century of service in Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa and Solano counties, the Jewish Federation of the East Bay” is scheduled to dissolve today, “with core programs and operations to be absorbed into the San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund.”

2019: As Americans prepare to rush off for their Independence Day celebrations, hopefully they will take a moment to remember the thin Blue Line of Union troops who held off the Rebel waves on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.

2020: Live via Zoom, the American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host “The Must of North Africa: Modern and Contemporary Judeo-Arabic Song and Performance.”

2020:  The government is “due to start disusing as of today,” a plan which will make “some 30% of the West Bank” including areas home to several Jewish settlements a part of the state Israel but which will not include certain archaeological sites that “Safeguarding Eternity” see as critical to maintaining “the connection of Jewish people to its land and heritage.” (As reported by Rinat Harash)

2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host Dov Boros as part of the “Coffee with a Survivor” program.

2020: The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to host online, “The Joys, Oys and Challenges of Being a Jewish Transracial Family.

2020: The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a livestream conversation and concert featuring Joey Weisenberg as part of the Songs of Our People, Songs of Our Neighbors series.

2020: Congregation Rodef Sholom’s Rabbi Stacy Friedman is scheduled to host Dr. Marc Dollinger as he lectures on “1619, 1654, 2020: Jews, Race, and American Jewish History.”

2020 Live on Zoom the Jewish Genealogical Social of New York and the Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to host “Rescue and Resettlement: Researching Refugees from Nazi Europe.”




This Day, July 2, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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July 2                      

311: Miltiades began serving as Bishop of Rome (Pope) during the reign of Constantine the Great, the Roman Emperor who moved against the Jews in his effort to make the Roman Empire Christian.

419: Birthdate of Valentinian III, the Roman Emperor who issued a decree prohibiting Jews from practicing law and holding public office.

437: Valentinian III began his reign as Emperor of the Western portion of the Roman Empire

936: Otto I began his reign as King of Germany.  During his reign  Rhenish Rabbis received  ”a responsum from the rabbis of Palestine in answer to a question addressed to them…concerning the appearance of the Messiah” (As reported by Rabbi Isaac ben Dorbolo circa 1150)

1029: Birthdate of Caliph Al-Mustansir of Cairo. He was the grandson of the third Fatimid caliph, al-Hakim founder of the *Druze sect who promulgated a variety of ant-Jewish and anti-Christian decrees which he later he rescinded. His grandson ruled in this more liberal environment in which the Jews were able to propser. A Jewish merchant named Abu Sa’ad or in Hebrew Abraham ben Yashar and his brother Abu Nasr Hesed were two leaders of the Jewish community during Mustansir’s reign.

1298:  Albert I of Habsburg defeated Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg at the Battle of Göllheim serving to cement the dominant position of the Habsburgs in the Germanic states of central Europe.  As is the case with so many Christian monarchs, Albert’s treatment of his Jewish subjects was a mixed bag. In 1298 he 1 endeavored to suppress riots based on the blood libel that were sweeping the Rhineland and imposed a fine on the town of St. Poelten.  But in1306, “he punished the Jews in *Korneuburg on a charge of desecration of the Host.”

1389: The Pope issued a bull condemning the attacks on the Jews of Bohemia that had begun on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1389.  The mobs ignored the Pope and Emperor Wensceslaus refused to protect his Jewish subjects claiming that they deserved to suffer since they should not have been out of their houses on Easter Sunday.

1453: Spanish statesman Alvaro de Luna whose friendship with the Jews including a thirty year friendship with Abraham Benveniste and Joseph ha-Nassi was beheaded today in the presence of Friar Alfonso de Espina “the fiercest enemy of the Jewish race” after being falsely implicated in the death of Queen Maria.

1490: A Chumash with commentary by the Ramban was published for the first time. This happened 35 years after Gutenberg printed his famous Bible. This Chumash was not the first book to be printed in Hebrew.  That honor probably goes to Tractate Berakhot of the Babylonian Talmud which was printed by Joshua Solomon Soncino in 1483. The Ramban is Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman also known as Nachmanides.  He was a Spanish physician and noted Torah scholar who lived during the 13th century.  He is not to be confused with the Rambam, Moses Maimonides who was also born in Spain and who was an even greater Torah scholar.  The Ramban was born after the Rambam had already passed away.

1494: Spain ratified The Treaty of Tordesillas which divided all new found lands outside of Europe between Portugal and Spain.  This was bad news for the Jews since it meant they would be banned from a wide swath of land including the Americas and the Spice Islands off the coast of Asia.  Fortunately, Protestant countries like England and Holland would not feel bound by this absurd piece of paper and Jews would be able to settle and prosper in the lands that would be “discovered” and colonized over the next two centuries.

1566: Nostradamus passed away.  His grandfather was Jewish but his father converted to Catholicism.  According to one source Nostradamus was thought to have been a descendent of the lost Jewish tribe of Issacher, a tribe that was noted to be knowledgeable in astrology and the mystical arts. 

1567(15th of Tammuz  5327): According to testimony given by Elias ben Nehemiah to the board of rabbis at Safed, the earliest possible date for the death of Meir Ashkenazi, “the envoy of the Tatar Khan in the 16th century killed by pirates.

1688: “The perceived linkage between Sabbatians and Protestant subservices possibly spurred Solomon Franco” reportedly the firs Jew to live in the North American colonies, “to publish today a royalist panegyric, “Truth Spring Out of the Earth” which he dedicated to Charles II.

1776: The Continental Congress resolved "these United Colonies are & of right ought to be Free & Independent States." This marked the actual declaration of independence by the thirteen colonies. While there were some Jews who were Loyalist, most favored the cause of Independence and supported it with the lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. (Editor’s Note – July 2 is the date that founding father John Adams said would be “celebrated by succeeding Generations as the great anniversary Festival…from one end of the continent to the other.)

1778: Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau passed away.  Unlike many of his contemporaries, Rousseau took a comparatively view of the Jewish people.  Among other things he wrote, “We shall never know the inner motives of the Jews until the day they have their own free state, schools and universities where they can speak and argue without fear.  Then, and only then, shall we know what they really have to say.”

1800:  Rabbi Seixas officiated at the wedding of Charleston merchant Isaac Moses and Esther Isaacks, the daughter of the late Moses Isaacks.

1807: Jacob Samuel Cantor married Hannah Lazarus at the Great Synagogue.

1809: After passing away in Spitafields, London, “the widow of Samuel Zachariah was buried today.

1811: In Wolfenbüttel, Germany, Samuel Meyer Ehrenberg and Henriette Ehrenberg (Maas) gave birth to Philipp Ehrenberg

1816(6th of Tammuz, 5576):Gershom Mendez Seixas passed away.Born at New York City in 1745, he was the son of Isaac Mendez Seixas (1708-80) and Rachel Levy, daughter of Moses Levy, an early New York merchant. Seixas became the minister of Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese congregation of his native city, in 1766, and occupied the rabbinate for about, half a century. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he at once espoused the Patriot cause, though many of the Christian ministers of the city sympathized with the Tories. It was largely due to his influence that the Jewish congregation closed the doors of its synagogue on the approach of the British, and decided to leave the town rather than continue under British rule. On the appearance of the British fleet in New York Bay (Aug., 1776) Seixas preached a sermon in English in which he feelingly stated that the synagogue services on that occasion might be the last to be held in the historic edifice. On the dispersion of the congregation Seixas left New York for Stratford, Conn., taking with him the scrolls of the Law and other ceremonial paraphernalia belonging to his charge. At Stratford he was joined by several members of his flock. When, in 1780, the Patriots who had fled to Philadelphia were about to establish a permanent congregation, Seixas was requested to officiate, and he at once proceeded thither from Connecticut, taking with him the synagogue property of his former charge. In this way was established the Congregation Mickvé Israel of Philadelphia. On the completion of its newly erected house of worship, Seixas was one of the committee that waited on the governor of Pennsylvania, inviting him to attend the dedication; and in the course of his patriotic address at the ceremony he invoked the blessing of Almighty God on "the Members of these States in Congress assembled and on his Excellency George Washington, Commander-General of these Colonies." During his entire stay at Philadelphia, Seixas showed himself a public-spirited citizen, figuring also as a zealous defender of religious liberty. Thus when Pennsylvania adopted the religious test as an indispensable qualification for office, he and several members of his congregation addressed the Council of Censors on the subject (Dec., 1783), characterizing the test as "unjust to the members of a persuasion that had always been attached to the American cause and given a support to the country, some in the Continental army, some in the militia, and some by cheerfully paying taxes and sustaining the popular cause." Westcott, the historian, expressly calls attention to this protest, stating "that it doubtless had its influence in procuring the subsequent modification of the test clause in the Constitution." After the war Seixas returned to New York and resumed his former position as rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel. He was one of the first ministers to preach a regular Thanks-giving Day sermon (see "Daily Gazette," Dec. 23, 1789), and was also one of the fourteen clergymen participating in the ceremony of the inauguration of George Washington as first president of the United States. In 1787 he became a trustee of Columbia College in the city of New York, and held that office continuously to 1815, being the only Jew ever so honored. When the college was incorporated, Seixas' name appeared in the charter as one of the incorporators. Seixas was on terms of intimate friendship with the ministers of other denominations, particularly with the Episcopal clergy of New York. The latter, tradition relates, frequently visited the Portuguese synagogue, while the Jewish minister in turn was invited to address Christian congregations. The manuscript of one such discourse delivered by Seixas (Aug., 1800) in historic St. Paul's, New York, is still preserved by his congregation. Public-spirited at all times, he earnestly exhorted his congregation to support the administration during the War of 1812; and an address containing his appeal for the sufferers during that struggle is still extant. He also took the lead in philanthropic work, founding in 1802 the charitable organization known as "Hebra Hased Ve Amet," which is still (1905) in existence. Seixas was twice married, his first wife being Elkalah Cohen (1749-85), to whom he was wedded in 1775, and his second, Hannah Manuel, whom he married in 1789. His descendants are among the prominent Jewish families of New York. His remains lie in the old cemetery on New Bowery, in the city of New York.

1819: Michelle Brisack and Samuel Marx gave to their daughter Sara the future wife of Israel Lazarus.

1820: In London, Rosetta and Edward Emanuel Micholls gave birth to Octavia Micholls who became Octavia Dresend when she married Ephraim Dresden.

1824: Fred Collins, he son of Hyman Collins and Mary Davis was circumcised today in London.

1826: Official date on which the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society, the oldest such organization in New York, was formed today (There are some reports that the society was actually formed six years before this date. The eighteen founding members chose Israel B. Kursheedt as President; Elias Phillips as Treasurer; John Jackson as Secretary.

1828: Birthdate of Joseph Unger, the native of Vienna who became a prominent Austrian jurist who was appointed to the House of Lords by Emperor Franz Joseph.

1834: Birthdate of Jules Quesnay de Beaurepaire the antidreyfusard who resigned as President of the Civil Chamber of the Court Cassation “before the first quashing of the verdict that had convicted Dreyfus.”

1838: A day after he passed away, “Moses Hart of Middlesex Street” was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1839: Abdülmecid I,succeeded his father Mahmud II as Sultan. During his reign, he promised Albert Cohn that “no improvements should be introduced in the legal conditions of the Christian subjects of Turkey which would not also apply to the Jews”

1843(4thof Tammuz, 5603): Westphalia native and Baltimore “merchant and shopkeeper” Zalma Rehine, the son of Isaac Rheine, uncle of Isaac Lesser and husband of Rachel Judah passed away today.

1850(22ndof Tammuz, 5610): Seventy-four year old Moses Ezekiel, the husband of Katherine E. Ezekiel with whom he had ten children passed away today in Edinburgh, after which he was buried in the Scottish city.

1852: In Miskolcz, Hungary, author and bible scholar Michael Heilprin, the son of Phineas Mendel Heilprin and his wife gave birth to his son Louis who came to United States in 1856 and eventually worked on several projects in The Historical Reference Book.

1852: In Germany, Joseph Davis and Rosalie gave birth Sarah Bienenstock, the St. Louis educated wife of Charles Bienenstock,  a member of Temple Israel’s  Sabbath School Board and “director of the United Charities” who served as “a delegate to the National Council of Jewish Women at Chicago in 1893.”

1853: The Russian Army invades Turkey, beginning the Crimean War. The British and the French both sided with the Turks, assisting them in the defeat of the Russians. The Paris Treaty of 1858, concluding the war, granted Jews and Christians the right to settle in Palestine, forced upon the Ottoman Turks by the British for their assistance in the war effort. This decision opened the doors for Jewish immigration to Palestine.

1854(2ndof Tammuz, 5614): Anglo-Jewish writer Charlotte Montefiore passed away.  Born in London in 1818, “she took an active part in the Jewish Ladies' Benevolent Loan and Visiting Society as well as in the Jewish Emigration Society, of which she was one of the founders. She was the active friend of the Jews' Free School, the Jews' Infant School, the West Metropolitan School, and of many other educational establishments.” Among her works were “A Few Words to the Jews of London” which was published in 1851. (Jewish Encylcopedia)

1854:Jews living in Los Angeles, having recognized the necessity of organizing in order to provide for religious services, a Jewish cemetery and Jewish welfare needs, met today and formed the Hebrew Benevolent Society of Los Angeles, the first charitable group to be founded in the city. Samuel K. Labatt was elected president, not only because he had the language facility of a native-born American, but also because he had similar experience in New Orleans. The following year, the Hebrew Benevolent society established a Jewish cemetery in Chavez Ravine. This society still exists, now over 145 years old under the name of Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles having been active longer than any other such group in Southern California. As the first president, Samuel K. Labatt was responsible for local efforts in defending the fair name of Jewry against the 1855 anti-Semitic attack by William Stow in the California State Assembly.

1855: In a letter written today, Thomas Hugo, Senior Curate of St. Botolph, described “The Thieves Exchange” in London which is populated by 15,000 individuals including “Jews of the lowest grade.”  “But the great majority are nominally Christians.”

1858: Regina and Dr. Moses Marx, the son of Samuel Marx were wed today in Gliwice.

1861: Birthdate of Alber Ulmmann, a graduate of CCNY, member of the New York Stock Exchange, author whose works included Tales of Old New York and a founder the Judeans.

1861:Alfred Mordecai, Jr., was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the United States Army.  He was the son of Major Alfred Mordecai, one of the most prominent Jewish soldiers in the U.S. Army at the outbreak of the Civil War.  Major Mordecai, who was a southerner by birth, could not bring himself to fight against those among whom he had grown up.  Yet, unlike others, he was honorable enough not to be able to fight against the Union, so he resigned.  His son had no such qualms and served throughout the war with distinction, eventually rising to the rank of Brigadier General.

1862: Abraham Lincoln signed a re-configured Morrill Act into law creating land-grant colleges or universities.  Iowa was the first state to accept the provisions of the act, subsequently creating Iowa State University. Dr. Alan Singer is one of the distinguished Jewish graduates of Iowa State. The creation of tax-payer supported schools of higher education not tied to any religious denomination would be a boon to the bourgeoning Jewish population.

1862: In New York City, Solomon and Jael Belais gave birth to David Belais.

1862: In the United Kingdom, the Secretary of State “transmitted” Louis Loewe's Certificate of Naturalization to the applicant.

1863: Philadelphian Joseph Meyer was wounded today at Gettysburg while serving with  Company I, of the 26thof Regiment

1863: At Gettysburg, Joshua Chamberlain, the Bowdoin College professor who was proficient in Hebrew as well as seven other languages, combined wisdom and courage to keep the Confederates from taking Little Round Top and thus thwarting the attempt to roll up the Union line.

1863: Captain Joseph B. Greenhut of the 82nd Regiment, Illinois Infantry was selected by its commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Edward S. Salomon to lead fifty volunteers on a mission to dislodge Confederate sharpshooters who were “picking off” gunners and officers serving on the Union Army’s front line.  Greenhut led a bayonet charge and successfully dislodged the Rebel marksmen from the houses in which they were hiding. Henry L. Stimson would eventually send Greenhut an official letter of commendation for the brave manner in which he behaved.  Greenhut and Salomon were two of the many Jews who fought at Gettysburg.

1863: At Gettysburg, the 59th New York Volunteer Regiment which had been formed by Philip J. Joachimsen, held off an attack by the 48thGeorgia during an assault on Cemetery Ridge.

1863(15th of Tammuz, 5623: Sixty-two year old Isaac ben Jacob Bejacob a Lithuanian born bibliographer, author, published and leader of the Jewish community passed away in Vilnius today.

1868: Birthdate of Shmuel Yitchak Hillman the native of Kovno who served as a Dayan of the London Beth Din and was the grandfather of Israeli President Chaim Herzog and the great-grandfather of Isaac Herzog.

1870: It was reported today that the Jewish Messenger has strongly ridiculed the efforts of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Among the Jews.” The Messengerproudly noted that the Society had spent $200,000 last year and had only been able convert 4 adults and “nine infants.”  With such meager results, the Messenger suggests that the millions that have been over the past 63 years in an attempt to convert Jews would have been spent to improve the lot of the many indigent and needy Christians.  Furthermore, if the Jews have held fast to their faith over the centuries when faced with the threat of fire and sword, why would anybody think that they would convert now that they were living in a society where they enjoyed comparative peace and the rights of citizenship.

1870: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Joseph W. Salus, the “President of the Broad Street Trust Company and head of A. Salus and Son who had previously “represented Atlantic City in the New Jersey Assembly.”

1871: It was reported today that the Jewish Times has “severely” denounced pronouncements made at the recent conference of American Rabbis held at Cincinnati, Ohio, as not being “representative of Judaism. The Timestook issue with the presenter who “repudiated” the concept of a personal God, “denied that the belief in a personal God was taught in biblical Judaism and said that the God of the Bible was “implacable,” capable only of meting out punishment and that “the idea of personal and pardoning God had its origin in Christianity.” The Times also took issue with another speaker who agreed that there was no personal God which made an “absurdity” out of the concept of offering a prayer to God.  The Times was alarmed by the fact that nobody took issues with these and other similar speakers and that one of these speakers had been selected to develop a new prayer book.  The Times wondered if the leaders would ultimate wish to remain “within the pale of Judaism.”

1871: Victor Emmanuel II of Italy entered Rome after its conquest from the Papal States making it the capital of the newly unified nation of Italy.  Jews had played an active role in the various acts that led to the creation of modern Italy.  For once, the Jews were not disappointed at the outcome as Italy became one of the most hospitable places for Jews to live until the 1930’s.

1871: The Anglo-Jewish Association was established in London based on the principles of the French Alliance Israelite. It was soon imitated in Germany in the form of the Lifaverein der Dutchen Juden.

1872:  ON the Lower East Side, Francis and Mary Mundelein gave birth to Cardinal George Mundelein, the Archbishop of Chicago who, in the 1930’s, was an outspoken critic of Hitler and the Nazis.

1872: The cornerstone was laid this afternoon at the corner of Lexington & 63rdfor a new synagogue to house Ansche Chesed which has outgrown its current facility on Norfolk Street near Houston.  When finished, the building, which will cost a quarter of a million dollars will have space for 1,400 congregants as well as classrooms and offices for the staff.  Rabbi Mielziner officiated at the ceremony which included a speech about the history of the congregation by its leader, President Herman who placed an artifact filled box into the cornerstone.  Rabbi Vidaver, of Congregation B’nai Jeshrun gave a sermon in English and ceremonies were closed with the singing of the 150th Psalm.

1873: Jonathan Manly Emanuel, the London born son of Dr. Manly Emanuel who during the Civil War began serving in the Engineer Corps of the United States in 1862, began a month long service at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia today.

1873: In what has become an annual summer event, 432 children from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Hebrew Free Schools of New York enjoyed a day-long outing that included a barge trip from Manhattan to Long Island, plenty of fun and fresh air as well as a goodly supply of food and drink including fresh milk. The group left at 8:30 in the morning and arrived home at 7 in the evening.  The committee responsible for the event included Lewis S. Levy, Chairman, Asher T. Meyer, Treasurer and Julius Rosenbaum, Secretary.  More such trips are planned for later in the summer.

1875: Birthday of Staten Island native Frederick Paul Keppel the Third Assistant Secretary of War during World War I who played a key role in having “a double triangle placed above the graves of the Jewish soldiers” who died in France “instead of the cross”

1877: “The French Parliament” published today explained the failure of the stock exchange  to fall in response to last month’s political upheaval was a result of Germans and Jews controlling the Bourse. As many as three-fourths the speculators on the exchange are said to Jews or German speaking individuals regardless of their country of origin. [This is an example of the International Zionist Jewish Banker myth that grew right along with the growth of finance capitalism.]

1878: Birthdate of University of Georgia trained attorney and Congressman Charles Gordon Edwards who 1911 introduced a resolution that “would direct the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy to ‘institute an immediate investigation to ascertain how far and what discriminations are operating against Jews’ in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Naval Academy, Military Academy and all branches of the services.”



1879: The New York Times published the terms of the will of the late Baron Lionel de Rothschild.  The estate is valued at 2,700,000 pounds.  His sons, Sir Nathaniel and Mr. Alfred were named as executors.

1881: After President James Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau today, Jews in Schenectady, NY held a special prayer service at Gates of Heaven 

1881: Among the speeches to be delivered as during the Commencement Ceremonies at Williams College is “The Ancient and the Modern Jews” by Austin B. Bassett of Albany, NY. [Note – I cannot find a reason for Bassett’s choice of topics.  He must have been a good student since his essay had won a prize when he graduated from public school in Albany.]

1882: As the deadlock between the railroads and the freight handlers continued undelivered materials and goods of all sorts continued to accumulate on the piers of New York and New Jersey as the number of striker breakers, including Russian Jewish immigrants, continued to decrease in number. 

1883: At Benevidas, “a prominent Jewish merchant” by the name of Mias was gunned down by a Mexican named Vela whom Mias had been ejected from a store by Mias because he was drunk.

1883: Sir Marcus Samuel and his wife gave birth to the second child and oldest daughter Neillie, the wife of Walter Henry Levy and then “Basil Ionides, the son of Luke Ionides.”

1883: The trail of the Jews charged with murdering a Christian girl, Esther Solymosi, as part of their Passover observance, continued today at Nyireghyasza, Hungary, with testimony by a raft proprietor testifying that he had seen the Police Magistrate coerce witness to provide the testimony he desired.

1883: In the Land of the Lion and The Sun: Modern Persia by C.J. Willis, M.D. which was reviewed today, the author reported that on his visited to the Shah during “the ceremony of Aid-i No –Ruz or New Year’s Day” “twenty wretched Jews in rags and tatters” stood in the courtyard next toe large tank waiting “to be thrust head over heels in the water.” [Iran is modern day Persia]

1883: Barrow Eskin, a Jewish immigrant from Russia applied for assistance today at Castle Garden. He had returned from Chicago along with his wife and six children because he could not find work. 

1884: Isaac Jacobs, a Polish Jew who is suspected of murdering Mrs. Etta Carleton of Watertown, NY, was arraigned in Cambridge District Court on charges that he had stolen a watch and chain from Robert Douglass of Cambridge, MA. Jacobs claimed that he was in Boston the night of the murder.

1885: Josef Ahondorowsky, a Russian Jew, his wife and six children arrived at Castle Garden aboard the Steamship State of Indiana.  He claims that their passage was paid for by the Hebrew Aid Society of Paris and he is completely destitute.

1887: “The Parnellites Protest” published today described the quest for Irish Home Rule including the statement that “The English are not amenable to reason at present in matters of Irish politics than was Pharaoh in matters of Hebrew politics.” A century earlier, Americans seeking “home rule” had depicted King George III as Pharaoh and cast themselves in the role of the Children of Israel.  Now it was the turn of the Irish to do the same.  The Jewish story of the Exodus has become a common motif for slavery and liberation. This is yet another example of Jews and Judaism have provided cultural motifs for the general society, even when that society is busy rejecting individual, real-live Jews.

1889: In Galicia, Chaya and “Shaya Hassenfeld” gave birth to Henry J. Hasseneld, “a founder and board chairman of Hasenfeld Brothers, a pencil and toy manufacturer” and “a founder of the Rhode Island Bureau of Jewish Education who was the husband of “Marion Hassenfeld.”

1891: Birthdate of Chicago native Alfred "Jake" Lingle, Jr, the Chicago Tribune journalist who was shot and killed because, it was later revealed because of his involvement with the underworld and who at the age of have been converted from Judaism to Catholicism.

1891: Dr. Richard J. H. Gottheil, who lectures on Syriac languages and literature at Columbia, is scheduled to sail for Europe today aboard the Normannia for Europe.  While in London, he will be meeting with Dr. Paul Friedman, the Berlin native who has been trying to find a place of refuge for Russia’s suffering Jews.

1892: L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, runs a front-page story about Jews trying to suppress natural Christian reactions to their evil behavior."Don't play with fire. The people's ire, although at the moment somewhat dampened by sentiments of Christian charity and by the tender influence of the Catholic clergy, may at any moment erupt like a volcano and strike like a thunderbolt." (As reported by Austin Cline)

1892: Birthdate of Vienna native and journalist Jacob Landau, the longtime writer and executive with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency who was the husband of Ida Bienstock Landau and who was such a close friend of Albert Einstein that the famed physicist served as the godfather for his son Albert Einstein Landau.

1893: “A Russian Lutheran, Chased Out of His Native Place Is Supported by Benevolent Jews” published today described the plight of Gottfried Kasier an ethnic German living in Russia who fled after an imperial ukase commanded that he and his comrades convert to Greek Orthodoxy. They hid themselves among Jews leaving the country and currently are living in a Jewish shelter in London.

1893: It was reported today that in the United States there are 1,364 newspapers printed in 27 foreign languages, 14 of which are published by Jews. The Germans lead with 857 such publications.

1894: In Chomutov, Czech Republic, Josef and Ida Kann gave birth to Irma Kann who became Irma Seligman when she married Emil Seligman (Both of them were murdered at Auschwitz in 1944)

1894: “Scarabs and their History” published today provided a detailed review of Scarab: The History, Manufacture and Religious Symbolism of the Sacrabaeus by Isaac Myer.

1894: In Budapest, Lipót Kertész, a bookseller, and his wife, Ernesztin Hoffmann gave birth to Kertész Andor who gained fame as photographer André Kertész.

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/the-poet-of-modernism-andre-kertesz-retrospective-the-hungarian-national-museum-budapest/

1894: It was reported today that Harris Schneider, a Jewish cloakmaker “living at 119 Forsyth Street died while undergoing an operation in Mount Sinai Hospital eight weeks ago. He is survived by his wife and five children the eldest of which is 12 or 13 years old.

1894: Doctors Landinski, Solotaroff and Brothers spoke to a large group of Jewish mothers today on “the care and feeding of children during the warm weather” and “on the uses of sterilized milk and barley water as introduced by Nathan Straus.”

1895: A group of underprivileged Jewish children returned to New York City from the two day excursion to Rockaway Beach Hebrew Sanitarium.

1895: Birthdate of Albert Pick, Jr. whose family had “started a hotel and equipment supply business in 1857 and who added to the family wealth by starting Pick Hotels Corp “which controlled 15 hotels in 1976 when it was sold to Bass Brothers enterprises of Texas.”

1896: Theodor Herzl began a trip to England that would last until July 20.

1896: Russian soldiers reportedly wrecked the houses of Jews living at Mizabisch during which they killed and wounded several of them.

1896(2st of Tammuz, 5656): Jules S. Abecasis, the well-known rubber broker and leader of the Sephardic community passed away today as a result of injuries suffered when an express wagon collided with his bicycle.

1897: The will of Mayer Lehman was filed in the Surrogate’s office today.

1898: Private Joseph Weinstein of New London and Corporal Charles Lowenthal were among those who were mustered into U.S. service as the mustering process began for the 3rdRegiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry.

1899: In Brooklyn William and Jennie Peiser gave birth to Walter Gilbert Peiser, the husband of Frances Henrietta Peiser, the graduate of the University of Cincinnati and the Hebrew Union College who served as a rabbi in Cleveland, OH, Austin, TX and Baton Rouge, LA where he also served on the faculty of LSU.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0805/ms0805.html

1899: “The Riots in Belgium” published today attributed the “disorder” in Belgium to “clericalism” which “in France has been allied with Jew-baiting to prolong” the abuse of Dreyfus.

1900: Nine year old Russian Jewish immigrant David Sarnoff arrived in the United where he went from selling newspapers to being head of R.C.A.

1901: Jacob Saphirstein begins printing The Jewish Morning Journal the first Yiddish daily morning newspaper established in New York. “Its staff of writers includes Jacob Magidoff (city editor), Ḥayyim Malitz, A. M. Sharkansky, M. Seifert, I. Friedman, and Peter Wiernik. While professedly Orthodox and Zionistic, it is the most secular of the Yiddish papers in America, and is an ardent advocate of the Americanization of the Russian immigrants who form the bulk of its readers.”

1902: Leo N. Levi, the national president of B’nai B’rith, Simon Roeder and “Isadore Singer of the Jewish Encyclopedia are scheduled to address the first meeting of Jewish group which has as its goal “a Jewish renaissance,” especially among young Jews.

1903: Birthdate of Thurgood Marshall, the grandson of slaves who fought the long legal battles for civil rights, served as a Supreme Court Justice and was a hero to future Justice Elena Kagan and Senator Al Frankin.

1904(19thof Tammuz, 5664): Parashat Pinchas

1904: “Religion of Biblical Nations” published today described The Dictionary of the Bible which Charles Scribiner’s plans on offering to the public this fall which contain contains a 121 page chapter on “The Religion of Israel by Professor Kautzsch and a 51 page chapter on the “Religion of Babylon” by Professor Jastrow

1906: Delegates at today’s session of the Federation of American Zionist meeting responded enthusiastically to a letter from Max Nordau that contained “a strong appeal for support of the Jewish institutions in Palestine.”

1906: It was reported today that the Oberrat of the Israelites of Baden, the national association of the Jewish inhabitants of Baden sued Der Israelit for libel

1906: In Strasbourg, “Anna (née Kuhn) Bethe, who like her father was Jewish and Albrecht Bethe, a privatdozent of physiology at the University of Strasbourg gave birth Nobel Prize winning physicist Hans Bethe who was raised as a Protestant following in the religious footsteps of his father.

https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1967/bethe-bio.html

1907: The 18thannual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened at Frankfort, Michigan.

1908(3rdof Tammuz, 5668): Sixty-nine year old German pharmacologist Matthias Eugen Oscar Liebreich passed away today in Berlin.

1908: Playwright and actor Charles Klein and his wife Lillian Gottlieb gave birth to their second son, John V. Klein eight days before their 20th wedding anniversary.

1909: At the end of a successful seven week strike, “triumphant bakers marched through the Lower East of Manhattan carrying a loaf of bread five wide and fifteen feet long” which was emblematic of their hard won victory. Most of the bakers involved in the strike were Jewish.

1910: In Prague, Emil and Alice Adler gave birth to Holocaust survivor “Hans Günther Adler, who wrote under pseudonym H. G. Adler.”

1911: “Russia Hoodwinking US About Passports For Jews” published today described how if, when questioned by a Russian consular official if he is Jewish, “the Russian Consul, in accordance with instructions from the Russian Government, refuses to honor the American passport which is signed by the Secretary of State.”

1911: Birthdate of Victor Rabinowitz, “a leftist lawyer whose causes and clients over nearly three-quarters of a century ranged from labor unions to Black Panthers to Cuba to Dashiell Hammett to Dr. Benjamin Spock to his own daughter…” (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/20/nyregion/20rabinowitz.html

1912(17thof Tammuz, 5672): Tzom Tammuz

1912: In Baltimore, MD, the Democratic National Convention which Samuel Untermyer II attended as a delegate from New York, came to a close having nominated Woodrow Wilson for President.  Among his supporters is Louis Brandeis, the noted lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice.

1913: The 24thannual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened in Atlantic City, NJ.

1913: Miss Elsie R. Mahler, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob H. Mahler married Edward E. Sebartt of St. Louis at the Congress Hotel in Chicago.

1913: In Didsbury, Mancester, Israel Sieff and Rebecca Marks gave birth to their youngest son Marcus Joseph Sieff who became Lord Siefff of Brmption and “was chairman of Marks and Spencer from 1972 to 1984 during a highly successful period.”

1913: At 21 York House, Fieldway Crescent, Islington Simon and Marie Beloff gave birth to Sir Max Beloff the British historian who would elevated to the Peerage

1914: Today as the European leaders took the measures that would lead to WW I with all that that meant for the world in general and Jews in particular “Kaiser Wilhelm II received recommendation from the German military for Austria-Hungary to attack Serbia as quickly as possible, since Germany was more prepared to mobilize than either Russia or France.” (Editor’s note – this would seem to put the lie to the German complaint that they did not bear at a disproportionate amount of blame for the war, since they were, in effect, egging their ally to attack the Serbs)

1914: Seventy-seven year old British political leader Joseph Chamberlain, who while serving as Colonial Secretary played a key role in the Uganda Plan, offering to provide a 5,000 square mile space in “an isolated part of what is now Kenya” to Herzl as a place where Jewish settlers could fulfill the Zionist dream.

1914: Today has been designated “Education Day” at the “25th anniversary conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis” being held “at Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan.”

1915: Today, ex-Senator Flint who represented a committee that had petitioned for the commutation of Leo M. Frank’s death sentence invited ex-Governor Slaton of Georgia who granted the pardon to visit southern California.

1915: In response to “an appeal from a committee of prominent Jews” in New York City, “headed by Jacob H. Schiff “ “an imminent strike of 50,000 garment workers was averted today when the Cloak, Suit and Skirt Manufacturers’ Protective Association voted to submit to arbitration the differences between it and the Cloakmakers’ and  Skirtmakers’ Union.

1915(20thof Tammuz, 5675): Sixty-seven year old Julius Kalezky, the Russian born Rabbi who has led Adas Israel, a 5,000 member congregation in New York City whose written works included The History of the Jews in the Ancient East passed away today.

1916(1stof Tammuz, 5676): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1916: Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis is scheduled to “address a meeting of the Zionist Organization of America at the Metropolitan Opera House” in Philadelphia,

1916: The funeral for Louis Hershfield, the father of Isidore and Lillian Hershfeld, who had come to New York more than seventy years ago and was “one of the founders of the Ladies’ Fuel and Society is scheduled to take place the Uptown Talmud Torah on East 111th Street.

1916: It was reported today that Felix M. Warburg Chairman of the Joint Distribution committee which represents the American Jewish Relief Committee, the Central Relief Committee for Jews Suffering Through the War and the People’s Relief Committee has addressed an open letter to all the Jews of the United States urging them to continue to give generously to the fund for the relief of the suffering co-religionists in Europe.”

1917: In Asbury Park. NJ, a special “Hebrew Evening” is scheduled to be held during the 9th Annual Convention of Young Judaea.

1917: Dr. Cyrus Adler, the President of the United Synagogues of America, resigned from that post during the organizations convention at the Jewish Theological Society “after a resolution had been adopted according approval to the Zionist movement and the election of a delegate” “to represent the organization at” the upcoming meeting of the American Jewish Congress.

1918: At Winnipeg, the “Fifteenth Annual Convention of Canadian Zionists adopted a resolution affirming their ardent wish than at an eventual peace conference the Entente Powers grant the demand of the Jewish people for a publicly recognized and legally assured home in Palestine and expressing the hope that the British Government will assume a protectorate over Palestine to assure its inhabitants a strong and just liberal government.”

1918: Pitcher Ed Corey made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.

1918: It was reported today that “widespread anti-Semitic propaganda and the danger of anti-Jewish outbreaks have prompted the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for the Suppression of a Counter-Revolution to issue a warning against the agitation” and to declare “that any attempt to provoke anti-Jewish outbreaks…will be rigorously suppressed and the participants in it executed.”

1919: As the great powers and local nationalist work to sort out the fate of the dismembered Ottoman Empire, in Damascus, the Syrian National Congress declared independence today for “Greater Syria” which included “present day Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.”

1919: The text of the treaty signed by Poland and the allied and associated powers published today included Chapter 1, Article 11 that states that “Jews shall not be compelled to perform any action which constitutes a violation of their Sabbath nor shall they be placed under any disability by reason of their refusal to attend courts of law or to perform any legal business on their Sabbath” and that “Poland declares her intention to refrain from ordering or permitting lections, whether general or local to be held on a Saturday, nor will registration for electoral or other purposed to be compelled to be performed on a Saturday.”  (Editor’s note – this would not keep the Poles from trying to expel their Jewish population in the 1930’s before the start of WW II.)

1920: “Form Family League” published today described the incorporation of “the Isaac and Razel Salzberg Family Association” in Patterson, NJ which is made up of more than fifty relatives of “this prominent silk merchant.”

1920: “Return of Jewish Dead” published described the work of the Jewish Welfare Board led by Colonel Harry Cutler “in connection with the photographing of graves soldiers dead in France and the return of their bodies to the United States.”

1920: It was reported today that Professor Harold Laski, the Manchester (UK) communal leader Nathaniel Laski, is leaving Harvard “to take a chair at the London School of Economics.

1920: It was reported today that “Miss Jean Barondess, daughter of Joseph Barondess, was one of the principals of the Arongo Opera Company” that performed in Cuba last month along with the famous tenor Enrico Caruso.

1920: It was reported today that Muriel Elise Landau, the sister of Annie Landau, the head of the Evelina de Rothschild School in Jerusalem, “is the first Jewess in England” to have won “the great honor of the degree of Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons.

1921(26th of Sivan, 5681): Jacob A. Cantor, a leader of the New York Democratic Party for forty years, passed away.  The son of immigrants from London, Cantor served in numerous positions including President of the Borough of Manhattan, President of the New York State, and member of the United States House of Representatives.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=990CE1D71739E133A25750C0A9619C946095D6CF

1923: “The first coupons to fall due on the bonds” issued by the municipality of Tel Aviv “are paid at the offices of the Guaranty Trust Company.”  Although the bonds were issued in pounds, they will be redeemed in dollars for the convenience of the American bondholders.  Meyer Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, is present for the redemption ceremony.

1926: The annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary in America which is being held at Long Branch, NJ is scheduled to have its final session today.

1927: The Rothschild Hospital in Jerusalem is partially destroyed as an earthquake hits Palestine.

1929: Birthdate of Abraham Avigdorov the native of Moshav Mitzpa whose father Gad was killed in the 1936 Arab Revolt who received the Hero of Israel Award for destroying two machine gun nests in March of 1948.

1930: In Cleveland, OH, the eight annual convention of Junior Hadassah is scheduled to continue for a second day.

1930: Birthdate of Jack Garfein the native of Mukacevo who survived Auschwitz and come to the U.S. at the end of WW II where he became a successful film and theatre director.

1931(17thof Tammuz, 5691): Tzom Tammuz

1931: Tempers flared at today’s meeting of the World Zionist Congress as New Yorker Berl Locker, leader of the Paole Tzion likened the Revisionists led by Valdmir Jabotinsky to the “Hitlerites.”  Locker relented and apologized for his remarks.  Jabotinsky responded with an impassioned speech demanding a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan and assailing the leadership of Chaim Weizmann.  Ben Gurion responded in defense of Weizmann and his efforts to negotiate with the British. He ridiculed the Revisionists as “easy Zionist” who ignored the reality of the situation in Palestine. American Zionist leaders expressed their support for Weizmann.  The conflict between the two wings of the Zionist movement is driven by the restrictions of the Passfield White Paper and the obvious fact that the British government is reneging on the Balfour Declaration.

1932: “Monsieur Albert” a comedy with a script co-authored by Benjamin Glazer and with music by Marcel Lattès who would die at Auschwitz was released today in France.

1933: In Chicago, Mayor Kelly addresses the ZOA at the formal opening of its convention.

1933: Chaim Weismann is the guest of honor at Jewish Day at A Century of Progress Exposition aka, The Chicago World’s Fair.

1933: “The Knight of the Long Knives,” a purge of the Nazi Party that began on June came to an end living Hitler in complete control of the party.

1935: Birthdate of pianist and educator Gilbert Kalish. Kalish has been the pianist for the Boston Symphony Chamber Players since 1969. He is the Leading Professor and Head of Performance Activities at SUNY, Stony Brook. He was also on the faculty at Tangelwood Music Center for 30 years.

1935(30thof Sivan, 5695): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1935(30thof Sivan, 5695): Seventy-five year old Sir Francis Montefiore, the grandnephew of Sir Moses Montefiore, passed away today in London.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FB081EF6355C167B93C1A9178CD85F418385F9

1935: Birthdate of Budapest native and Bergen-Belsen survivor Vilmos György Stern who gained fame as William George Stern, “the owner of the British Stern Group” who “in 1973 became Britain's biggest bankrupt with debts of £118 million,:

1936: The Palestine Post reported that Yitzhak Glazer, a local watchman, was shot dead by Arab terrorists in Hadera. Another guard, Jacob Bahar, was severely injured by Arab fire at Motza. Arab terrorists, interned at the detention camp at Sarafand, went on a hunger strike, as a protest against the camp's conditions. Arab "tree-killers" cut down about 40 old, fruit-bearing olive trees in Zichron Ya'acov.

1936: The Palestine Post reported that Dr. Paul Zubek from Vienna was to be deported after police found a large quantity of Nazi literature in his flat in Tel Aviv.

1937: CBS radio broadcast the last episode of “The Gumps” a radio sitcom based on the comic strip with scripts written by Irwin Shaw and directed by Himan Brown.

1937: “New Faces of 1937,” a musical comedy with a script by Nat Perrin, Philip G. Epstein and Irv S. Becher and co-starring Milton Berle and Parkyakarkus (Harry Einstein) was released in the United States today
1938: “Led by Dr. Stephen Wise of New York, more than 1,000 leaders of American Jewry opened the forty-second annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America” tonight in Detroit.

1938: “Italy Puts Curbs on Books Written by Jews; Bars Translations and Obstructs Sales” published today described what are allegedly “the first steps taken against Jews by Italy.”


1938: In Genoa, Rabbi Riccardo Reuven Pacifici who was murdered at Auschwitz and his wife Gioia Pacifici Tagliacozzo gave birth to their youngest child Raffaele Efraim who eventually settled at Kfar Saba.

1939(15th of Tammuz, 5699): In Haifa, an unidentified killer murdered Abraham Joseph Cohen, “one of the few surviving members of the tiny Samaritan Jewish community in Nablus.”

1940: Today, a US patent was granted for a process of using slow neutrons developed by Italians physicists including Bruno Pontecorvo that “led to the discovery of nuclear fission”

1941: First broadcast of “The Adventures of the Thin Man” a radio series produced by Himan Brown.

1941: Nazi-instigated pogrom claimed many Jewish lives in Lvov.

1941: Following the Nazi occupation, the telephones of all the Jews in Riga, Latvia, were disconnected today.

1941: With the approval of the Nazis, “Latvian armed youths wearing red and white armbands dragged Jews out of their home after which they variously arrested them, beat them, shot them or killed them in some other manner.

1941 (7th of Tammuz, 5701): A German cavalry unit on patrol in Lubieszow, Volhynia, Ukraine, murders Jewish resisters.

1941(7thof Tammuz, 5701): “A mobile killing squad, Einsatzgruppe C's Einsatzkommando 4a, assisted by an infantry platoon, massacred 1,160 Jews” at Łuck.

1941: U.S. premiere of “Sergeant York” produced by Jesse Lasky and Hal B. Wallis, with a script co-authored by Howard Koch, music by Max Steiner and featuring “George Tobias as Private Michael T. "Pusher" Ross, a soldier from New York City.”

1942(17thof Tammuz, 5702): Tzom Tammuz

1942 (17th of Tammuz, 5702): The Jewish community from Ropczyce, Poland, is murdered at the Belzec death camp.

1942: The Bulgarian government demanded that all Jewish households in Monastir hand over 20 percent of the value of all assets, including property, furniture, cash, and household items.

1942: The New York Times reported on the "slaughter of 700,000 Jews" in German-occupied Poland.

1943(29thof Sivan, 5703): Seventy year old Alfred Blumenthal, the German born son of “Selig and Julian Blumenthal” died today at the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

1943(29th of Sivan, 5703):Helena Nordheim, later Helena Kloot- Nordheim, one of five Jewish members of the 1928 Dutch Ladies’ Gymnastic Team that placed first ahead of teams from Italy and Great Britain was gassed today



1943: In Chicago, insurance executive Herman Rubin and the former Lorraine Helman gave birth to Ruthelyn “Rachel” Adler.

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/adler-rachel

1944: Salomao Nauslausky was among the first five thousand members of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (BEF) that left Brazil for Europe aboard the USNS General Mann. While serving with the BEF in Italy, Nauslausky served with such distinction that “he was mentioned in dispatches.

1944: Allied bombers executed the heaviest bombings inflicted on Hungary during the war which led Hungarian radio to accuse Jews of guiding the bombers to their targets with radio transmissions and light signals

1944: As the Red Army closed in on the Lithuanian city of Vilna, the Germans seized 1800 Jews from their work in the factories and took them to Ponar where they were shot.

1944: Responding to Allied threats that he would be held personally responsible for war crimes, Regent Miklos Horthy order “a halt to all further deportations of Jews and Eichmann was advised to return to Germany.”

1945: Following yesterday’s comments by Monroe Goldwater, chairman of the 1945 campaign of the Jewish Appeal of Greater New York “that V-E day had brought with it the revelation of …new opportunities to aid new opportunities to aid the victims of war and persecution, Jews now have additional time to raise funds since the deadline has been extended to September 1, 1945.

1945: “A two-day seminar conducted under the auspices of the National American Christian Palestine Committee opened at the Princeton Inn today as two score educators and clergymen prepared an educational program on problems in the Near East.”

1946: In Manhattan, May (née Zimelman), a substitute teacher, and Irving Roy Silver, a clothing sales executive gave birth to Ronald Arthur “Ron” Silver Tony-award winning actor and political activist.

1946: President signed the Luce-Celler Act of 1946, a law that had been originally proposed by Representative Emmanuel Celler to deal with immigration matters related to Native Americans and Filipinos

1946: At eight o'clock this evening, radio station WEVD will broadcast the news in Yiddish.



1946:At 8:15 pm radio station WEVD will broadcast a program called "The Jewish Philosopher"



1946: Dr. Nahum Goldman, Rabbi Stephen Wise, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver and Louis Lipsky are scheduled to meet with President Truman today "to describe the situation in Palestine and to talk over the implementation of the Presidential recommendation for entrance of 100,000 Jews into the territory."

1947: Birthdate of Larry David, the actor, writer and producer best known for his work on Seinfeld" and his own HBO show.

1947: Today a statement by a group of Senators led by Ohio Republican Robert A. Taft and Florida Democrat Claude Pepper calling for the United Nations to take “prompt action on the Palestine issue” was released by the ZOA.

1948: “In Föhrenwald, Wolfratshausen, Germany, Polish Jews, Frania and Israel Rubinek, who was a factory worker, theatre company manager, Yiddish Theatre actor, and Talmudic scholar and who were hidden by Polish farmers for over two years during World War II” gave birth to Saul Rubinek  the Canadian character actor, director, playwright, and producer of television, theatre, and film” who has had roles in notable films including Against All Odds (1984), Wall Street (1987), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), True Romance (1993), and Unforgiven (1992).”

1948: Seventy-two year old Milton Wallenstein, the youngest child of Esther Hellman Wallenstein, the founding president of the Hebrew Infant Asylum passed away today.

1948: In Tel Aviv,  A group of “dissident artists” including Joseph Zaritsky, Moshe Castel Yehezkel Streichman and Yohanan Simon “published a manifesto in Haaretz” stating that new association that they were forming “must emphasize achievements in Jewish painting and not sink into mediocrity.”  (Editor’s Note – Jewish artists were “duking it out” in the midst of the War for Independence in which the infant Jewish state was literally fighting for its life.

1949: Five hundred delegates attended the opening session of the “26th national convention of the Hapoel Hamirachi” where they heard a messaged from Vice President Alben W. Barkley who “saluted the state of Israel” and “expressed the hope that it may become a powerful influence for democratic values…”

1949: After 727 performances the curtain came down at the Broadway Theatre of the original Broadway production of “High Button Shoes” with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by Jule Styne.

1950:The Government of Israel came out tonight in full support of the United Nations measures seeking to end the war in Korea. This is stark contrast with stand of several Arab states including Egypt, which have come out in favor of “neutrality” in responding to what the Israeli government recognized as acts of aggression on the Korean Peninsula.

1951:At the Congress of the dissident Romanian Orthodox Church in America held in Chicago today, Valerian Trifa who had belong to the anti-Semitic Iron Guard during World War II  was chosen to seve as the bishop. Thanks to the efforts of Israeli historian Zev Golan, his past was exposed costing him his home in the United States.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that China accepted the US bid for peace in Korea.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the first issue of Omer, the vowelized daily newspaper for new immigrants in simple Hebrew, had appeared on newsstands. It included a glossary in Spanish, French, Arabic and Yiddish.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that a young man was killed by an Arab Legion sniper in the Musrara quarter of Jerusalem.

1952(9thof Tammuz, 5712): Seventy-one year old NYC native and CCNY alum, Elias Cohen the realtor who provided a summer retreat for deserving boys and girls at his “Tanquility Farm and Camp starting in the summer of 1919 passed away today in Jerusalem.

1952: Today, “Assisted by the staff at the D.T. Watson Home for Crippled Children, Jonas Salk injected 43 children with his killed-virus polio vaccine.”

1953: “Houdini,” the film about the Jewish magician starring Tony Curtis born Bernard Schwartz with a script by Philip Yordan was released today in the United States today.

1958: U.S. premiere of “King Creole” a movie based on novel by Harold Robbins, directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Hal B. Wallis, co-starring Walter Matthau and featuring Vic Morrow.

1959: Ogden R. Reid officially presented his credentials as the United States Ambassador to Israel.

1961(18thof Tammuz, 5721): Tzom Tammuz observed because the 17th fell on Shabbat.

1961(18thof Tammuz, 5721): Eighty-nine year old Paul Baerwald the husband of Edith Jacobi Baerwald and “a partner in the New York firm of Lazard Frères from 1907 to 1930, who retired in order to devote himself full-time to philanthropy” passed away today.

1961: American author Ernest Hemingway took his own life.  Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, featured a Jewish character, Robert Cohn. Cohn was a friend of the novel’s protagonist, Jake Barnes.  Cohn is not only insecure, he is an insecure Jew. While attending Princeton, his sense of insecurity is heightened by his brushes with anti-Semitism.  In the best of tradition of Hemingway, Cohn compensates for his Jewishness and insecurity by becoming a boxer.  The Jewish jock, especially the Jew as a boxer may have resonated well with readers of the time, since Jews held a number of boxing titles during the 1920’s and 1930’s.  Although Hemingway was not Jewish, his books were featured at Nazi book burnings where the works of Einstein, Freud, et al were consumed by the flames. 

1962: The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas. Over the year’s Wal-Mart would prove to be a useful place to shop for Jews living outside of major metropolitan areas who were observing the dietary laws.  Not only did Wal-Mart carry numerous Kosher items, but many of its affordable house-brands carried the Hechser as well.

1964: President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Jewish political leaders played a major role in passing this piece of landmark legislation.  Congressman Cellar, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was the driving force in getting the bill through the House of Representative.  Today we take the provisions of this anti-discrimination law for granted.  It is difficult to believe how controversial it was forty years ago and what an act of political courage it took to support this law.  Although thought of as a law to end racial discrimination, the law banned discrimination based on several criteria including religion.

1965: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission which had been created to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and which put teeth in the concept of ending discrimination based on race, sex, religion and national origin began its work today.

1966(14thof Tammuz, 5726): Parashat Balak

1966(14thof Tammuz, 5726): Forty-nine year old Harvard trained economist and former Brandies professor William A. Salant, the husband of “the former Dorothy Griesbach and father of Peter, Nicholas and Tony Salant died in an automobile accident today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/07/05/82469226.pdf

1967: “The Israeli Air Force bombs Egyptian artillery positions that had supported the commandos at Ras Al-'Ish”

1969:  As hostilities heated up along the Suez, Israeli paratroops conducted their second deep penetration of Egyptian territory in less than a week, killing thirteen, taking 3 prisoners and gathering additional intelligence for the IDF.

1969: “Daddy’s Gone A-Hunting,” a horror film directed and produced by Mark Robson and a screenplay co-authored by Larry Cohen was released in the United States today.

1972(20thof Tammuz, 5732): Eighty-three year old architect Harry M. Prince “who was First Deputy Commissioner of Tenement Housing from 1934 to 1938 and then deputy commissioner of Housing and Buildings until 1941” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/06/archives/harry-m-prince-83-city-housing-aide.html?searchResultPosition=1

1975: An attempt was made today at the Odessa airport to prevent Lev Roitburd, who would be sentenced to two years in prison, from leaving for Moscow.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel began proceedings, through the French government, for the release of 98 Israelis held by hijackers in Entebbe, Uganda. The hijackers extended their deadline for three days and released 101 hostages. The remaining hostages included 98 Israelis and other Jews of dual nationality, as well as a crew of 12.

1976: As the hostage crisis at Entebbe enters Day 6 and the IDF works to refine its rescue mission, Ehud Barak is reassigned and sent to Kenya and Yoni Netanyahu is moved up to take charge of the assault phase of the operation.

1976: Today, Shimon Peres wrote to Prime Minister Rabin that “the final twist” in the plan” to rescue the hostages at Entebbe “ was that the most forward squad would leave the plane in a flag-bedecked Mercedes, masquerading as the Ugandan strongman Idi Amin, who was due back from Mauritius” which led Rabin to respond with ““1. When is Idi Amin due back from Mauritius? 2. Why a Mercedes?”

1976: Joshua Shani flies the second most important mission of his career this evening as proves to the Defense Minister and the Chief of Staff that Operation Thunderbolt is feasible by landing his Hercules C-130 in the dark at Ofira Airbase.  Now that Shimon Peres, who was on the plane, sees that the nighttime landing which is critical to the operation’s success is possible he can return and sell the plan to Prime Minister Rabin and the Cabinet.

1977: Russian born writer Vladimir Nabokov passed away.  Nabokov was not Jewish but his wife’s family was.  More importantly, his father had a champion of Jewish rights in the days of Czarist Russia.  Nabokov was living in France in 1940.  Because of these aforementioned “Jewish connections” a Jewish welfare organization helped get him out of the country when the Nazis marched into Paris.

1980: The first London production Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeny Todd” opened at the West End’s Theatre Royal

1980: Birthdate of Jerusalem native Tamar Eisenman “the singer, songwriter and producer” who began playing the guitar at the age of six when living in San Francisco with her parents.

https://www.eisenwoman.com/

1984: Small arms fire directed at an Israeli car in Jerusalem wounded several children.

1986: “About Last Night” a comedy based on a play by David Mamet and directed by Edward Zwick was released today in the United States.

1988(17thof Tammuz, 5748): Parashat Balak

1988(17th of Tammuz, 5748) Eighty-five year old Joel Sylvan Geffen the Kovno born son of Tobias and Sara Geffen, the Conservative Rabbi and Zionist and the husband of “the former Sylvia Mintz” with whom he had two children, passed away today.



1990: Efraim Gur was appointed Deputy Minister of Communications.

1990: Calvin Trillin wrote the first of his weekly "Deadline Poet" column – humorous poems about current events- for The Nation magazine toay.

1995(4thof Tammuz, 5755): One hundred four year old author and journalist George Seldes passed away today. (As reported by William Dicke)

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/03/obituaries/george-seldes-is-dead-at-104-an-early-fervent-press-critic.html

1995(4thof Tammuz, 5755): Rabbi Menachem Mendel Futerfas, known informally as Reb Mendel,  who was a famous Chabad Mashpia.and who had been imprisoned in the Soviet Union because of his religious work passed away today after which he was buried in London.

https://prabook.com/web/menachem.rabbi/1966145

1997: “Men in Black,” an off-beat sci-fi comedy directed by Barry Sonnenfield was released today in the United States.

1999: Larry Summers replaced Robert Rubin as U.S. Secretary of Treasury

2000: The New York Times features reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including MacArthur’s War: Korea and the Undoing of an American Hero by Stanley Weintraub and The Unwanted Gaze: The Destruction of Privacy in America by Jeffrey Rosen.

2001:Doctors at Jewish Hospital in Louisville implanted the first AbioCor heart replacement in a seven hour long operation. Unlike earlier artificial hearts such as the Jarvik-7 the AbioCor has no wires or tubes that stick out of the chest and connect to a big compressor. The battery-powered, plastic-and-titanium device is the size of a softball.

2001(11thof Tammuz, 5761): Sixty-eight year old Holocaust survivor, organic chemistry professor and chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights Israel Shahak passed away today.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jul/06/guardianobituaries.physicalsciences

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/The%20Zionist%20Plan%20for%20the%20Middle%20East.pdf

2001(11thof Tammuz, 5761):Aharon Obadyan, 41, of Zichron Ya'akov was shot and killed near Baka a-Sharkia, north of the West Bank city of Tulkarem and close to the 1967 Green Line border, after shopping at the local market.

2001: Fifty-one year old Yair Har Sinai of Susiya disappeared today.

2001: The PFLP set off two separate bombs which injured six people in Tel Aviv today.

2001: Forty-one year old Aharon Obadyan was shot by a terrorist at Baka a-Sharika.

2001: Yehud suburb bombing: 2 bombs which were planted in cars of 2 Yehud residents explode. The explosion caused no serious injuries. PFLP claimed responsibility

2002: Because of her past ties to Ernst and Young, Cynthia Glassman had recused herself from the SEC’s “audit-independence case” brought against that firm which decided by an administrative law judge today.

2003: “Palestinian police officers, in pressed new uniforms and dented old cars, reasserted their authority in Bethlehem after Israeli forces withdrew to the town's edges.” (As reported by James Bennett)

2003: “Appearing side by side before meeting here this evening, the Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers declared mutual respect and expressed hopes for peace, while Israeli forces prepared to withdraw from the West Bank town of Bethlehem.”

2004: In “Arguing That Israel Should Return Land and Apologize,” published today Jonathan Rosen reviewed How Israel Lost The Four Questions by Richard Ben Cramer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/02/books/books-of-the-times-arguing-that-israel-should-return-land-and-apologize.html?searchResultPosition=1



2004: “In an execution-style killing carried out in front of a cheering crowd on today, a Palestinian man accused of collaborating with Israel and of sexually molesting his young daughters was placed on his knees in a public square and shot by Palestinian gunmen.”

2005(25th of Sivan, 5765): Eighty-nine year old Oscar winning cinema screenwriter Ernest Lehman    who was responsible for the scripts for such hits as “The Sweet Smell of Success,” “The Sound of Music,” and “North by Northwest” and  gained additional fame as the director of “Portnoy’s Complaint” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/06/movies/06LEHMAN.html

2006: Final performance of a revival production Jerry Herman’s “Maime” at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

2006. Rabbis Stephanie Alexander and Aaron Sherman celebrate their wedding anniversary

2006: Rabbi Stephanie Alexander celebrates her birthday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2006: West Magazine published “How Hollywood Really Operates” by Leonard Mlodinow.

2006: Israel continued its military efforts to gain the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit. An Israel Air Force attack helicopter launched a missile before dawn striking the office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City. Also before dawn, the IAF struck the headquarters of a Palestinian Authority security organization founded by Hamas in Gaza, killing one of the group's operatives and injuring another, Israel Radio reported.

2007: Matan Vilnai began serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.

2007:  The Verbatim section of Time Magazine quotes the words of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as he withdraws from the Republican Party. “Real results are more important than partisan battles, [and] good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology.”  According to some, Bloomberg’s switch to Independent presages a run for the Presidency in 2008 which would make him the first viable Jewish candidate to ever seek the top job in America.

2007: In Jerusalem,"Life in Film," a series focusing on the Jewish communities around the world as captured in film, features "Judaism in Iran - Past and Present." The event includes a meeting with Orly Rachmian from Ben Gurion University and Machon Ben-Zvi and selections from a documentary about the lives of Jews in Iran.

2007: President George Bush commuted the sentence of convicted government official “Scooter” Libby.  Mr. Libby was an aide to Vice President Cheney and one of the Jews serving in the Bush administration. 

2007(16th of Tammuz, 5767): Famed soprano Beverly Sills passed away at the age of 78.

2007(16th of Tammuz, 5767): Hy Zaret, one of the last of the Tin Pan Alley lyricists, whose most indelible work was the oft-recorded 1955 hit “Unchained Melody” but whose oeuvre ranged from jingles to songs about science to ballads of love and war passed away at the age of 99.

2008: Samuel Israel III the convicted hedge fund manager surrendered to federal authorities.

2008: In a news conference held today by Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the terrorist group called Hezbollah, held a news conference during which he stated that his group conducted a detailed investigation into the fate of Ron Arad, the missing Israeli navigator. He declined to reveal the information unearthed during the investigation, claiming that he had turned over the results to the United Station

2008: Majdi Halabi’s family received a telephone call from an inmate in Damon Prison who claimed that Halabi had been abducted and was being held in the vicinity of Nablus in the West Bank

2008: General Robert Magnus completes his tour as the 30th Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.

2008: In Paris, premiere of “The Fly” “an opera in two acts by composer Howard Shore.”

2008: “Leisure Time in Israel” featuring the works of Israeli photographer Orit Siman-Tov opens at the JCC in Manhattan. 

2008: Penny “Pritzker and her husband hosted a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Mr. Obama's campaign in Chicago with Warren Buffett and his wife, and Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett.”

2008(29th of Sivan, 5768):  Three Israelis were killed and dozens more wounded when a Palestinian construction worker driving a bulldozer plowed deliberately into a crowded bus and a string of cars in downtown Jerusalem. Jerusalem residents Bat Sheva Unterman, 33, Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, 54, and Jean Raloy, were named as the fatalities in the attack. Unterman was a resident of Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, and worked as a nanny in a religious kindergarten in the city's Har Homa quarter. She was killed when the car she was driving was crushed by the oncoming bulldozer. Unterman's 6-month-old daughter, Efrat, was evacuated from the car just before the vehicle was hit.Her husband, Ido, was notified only hours after the attack that his wife had been killed.Unterman was the daughter of Rifka and James Lubenstein, immigrants from Holland. Her husband, Ido, is the grandson of Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman, who served as chief rabbi of Liverpool and of Tel Aviv, and also as chief rabbi of Israel from 1964-1973.The Unterman couple had tried for years to have children, but managed only with the birth of Efrat last year. Bat-Sheva had extended her maternity leave by a few months, returning to work last week with her daughter to celebrate the end of the year party. Unterman's friend, Meira Schwartz, described her as a person filled with faith, who never gave up her dream of having children, even after having to go through countless procedures. "Until Efrat was born, the children in the kindergarten were like her own, and she was a nanny of the highest excellence, with exemplary patience for each and ever child," said Schwartz. Unterman will be laid to rest at 11:30 P.M. in the Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem. Elizabeth Goren-Friedman, originally from Austria, was a resident of Katamon who worked as a teacher in a school for the blind. She was laid to rest at 10:30 P.M. in Givat Shaul. Goren-Friedman was divorced and the mother of three children: Yael, 16, Issachar, 19, and Zvi, 23. Both of her sons were students at the Horev hesder yeshiva in Jerusalem.  Her friends described her as a "wonderful person," who volunteered regularly at the Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Rachel Sakrovish, who worked with Goren-Friedman, said her colleague was an excellent teachers. "It's hard to speak about her in the last tense. Lili was a wonderful person. There was not a student that she did not help progress on a personal, educational, and rehabilitative level. We knew that if a student was retreated or having difficulties, Luly was the teacher who would do the fundamental work to help him advance.""When I think of her, I remember the phrase, 'a woman of valor, who can find,'" she said. Jean Raloy, an air-conditioner technician who lived in the Gilo neighborhood, was the third person killed in the terrorist's murder spree. His nephew said "the first thing with Jean was his family." Raloy, who was born in Iran, was married to Hanna and the father of two daughters and a son, and was to become a grandfather in about a month.

2008: The Jerusalem Post reported that a London university made history this week when it appointed the country's first professor of Israeli studies. The University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) named Dr. Colin Shindler, reader in Israeli and Modern Jewish Studies and chair of the Center for Jewish Studies, as the first professor of Israeli studies in the UK

2009: Today the fourth annual week devoted to the cooperation of the IDF and the Israel Antiquities Authority in preserving the country's environment and antiquities comes to an end with this last day focusing primarily on current archeological issues.

2009:The Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival features a screening of “Goyband,”  a campy comedy that’s a cross between “Dirty Dancing” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” in which a fading teen idol is booked to perform at a kosher Catskills hotel-casino and a romance ensues between the hotel owner’s already engaged daughter and the boy band icon.

2009: The Washington Post featured a review of The Sweet Science and Other Writings:The Sweet Science, The Earl of Louisiana, The Jollity Building, Between Meals, The Press by A.J. Liebling.

2009: The London Gazette published the official announcement from the Crown Office that the Queen has named David Anthony Freud  Baron Freud, a life peerage.

2010:An exhibit of the paintings of Israeli, award-winning, artist Liron Sissman is scheduled to openat the prestigious National Arts Club in Manhattan.

2010:A southbound lane of traffic on Highway 4 south of Beit Leed was closed to traffic this morning because of the march on behalf of of abducted soldier Gilad Shalit. It's the sixth day of the march to Jerusalem from the Shalit family's home in the westen Galilee.

2010:The Health Ministry removed its warning about bathing at beaches in Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, today following checks of water quality. The public was warned at the beginning of the week not to go into the water at a number of the beaches because of the flow of sewage into the sea.

2011(30thof Sivan, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2011: In a rare musical treat, Cantor Joel Caplan, son of Richard and Ellen Caplan, and father of Ilan Caplan is scheduled to lead services at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Iowa.

2011: Rabbi Raphael Bensimon and Rabbi Feivel Staruss are scheduled to lead services in Cedar Rapids, Iowa during which the congregation will participate in Feivel’s Aufruf.  Rabbi Strauss is the fiancée of Abbie Silber, daughter of Laurie and Dr. Bob Silber, a mensch in the truest sense of the term.

2011: Hani Skutch is scheduled to appear at the Off the Wall Comedy Club in Jerusalem this evening.

2011:Eldad Hadad, one of the Nehariya policemen released from prison earlier this year after serving time for avenging a known criminal was shot tonight near the synagogue he normally prays at. He was taken to the hospital where he was operated on in moderate to serious condition

2011: Today, the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators said it is concerned about "unsustainable conditions" facing people in Gaza but said additional flotillas should be discouraged.

2011: Former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, whose house arrest was lifted following concerns about the credibility of a hotel maid who accused him of sexual assault, left his rented townhouse for a few hours today before returning and darting back inside. Strauss-Kahn has been accused by the maid of trying to rape

2012: Yitzhak Shamir laid to rest at Mount Herzl

http://www.timesofisrael.com/yitzhak-shamir-laid-to-rest-at-mount-herzl/

2012:Officials in Kenya say that two Iranian agents arrested with explosives planned to attack Israeli, American, British or Saudi Arabian targets inside Kenya. The officials said today that the plot appears to fit into a global pattern of attacks or attempted attacks by Iranian agents, mostly against Israeli interests.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-agents-in-mombasa-targeted-israeli-us-sites/

2012: Rabbi Rick Jacobs, newly chosen President of the Union for Reform Judaism is scheduled to meet with President Shimon Peres.

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed NIr is scheduled to perform at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

2012: Today the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that an archeological dig found a mosaic floor describing the story of biblical Samson and a Hebrew inscription from an approximately 1,600-year-old synagogue in the lower Galilee.

2013: At Tel Aviv University, Dr. Lev Kapitaikan is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled "History and Religious Architecture of the Early Islamic Period, ca.650-750: The First Mosques and the Enigma of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem”

2013(24thof Tammuz, 5773): Eighty-eight year old Auschwitz survivor  Simon Kohn who opened Simon Kohn’s Kosher Deli in 1963 at University City, a suburb of St. Louis, which later moved to Creve Cour, passed away today. (As reported by Joe Bonwich)

http://www.stltoday.com/lifestyles/food-and-cooking/simon-kohn-dies-started-kohn-s-kosher-deli/article_1aa33db3-c46a-5580-a31f-e731975aaf25.html

2013: A 17th-century German medal that portrays the Jews as responsible for a contemporary famine is one of some 400 Judaica items, ancient coins, medals, Israel memorabilia and documents scheduled to be sold today at a Jerusalem auction sponsored by the Kedem Auction House and antiquities collector L. Alexander Wolfe. (As reported by Ofer Aderet)

2013: A painting by Italian Jewish artist Amedeo Modigliani, projected to be sold for NIS 30 million (some $8.25 million), fetched a disappointing NIS 25.4 million ($7 million) at an auction in Jerusalem today. (As reported by Lazar Berman)

http://www.timesofisrael.com/only-7-million-for-modigliani-in-jerusalem/

2013: A Turkish deputy prime minister linked the "Jewish diaspora" to recent anti-government unrest and the country's Jewish community expressed fears today the comments could make them targets of popular anger

2014: As a part of the Alte Actors (Old Actors) program at Chai Point, are scheduled to be performing at Summerfest

2014: The annual rummage sale at Temple Menorah in Milwaukee is scheduled to come to an end.

2014: As the ‘Whole House of Israel” mourns, the families of for Naftali Frankel, 16, Gilad Shaar, 16; and Eyal Yifrach, 19 sit shiva

2014: “A day after slain Israeli teens Gil-ad Shaar, Naftali Fraenkel and Eyal Yifrach were laid to rest, Jewish-Arab tensions flared today with the discovery of the body of Muhammed Abu Khdeir, 16, in the Jerusalem Forest.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov and Marissa Newman)

2014: “The full recording of the desperate call made by one of the slain Israeli youths to the emergency police hotline on June 12 was released today, and in it the perpetrators can be heard singing in Arabic and whooping after loud noises — presumably gunshots — ring out in the car. The kidnappers are also heard excitedly crying out, “Three!”  (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)

2015: In Philadelphia, The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel of leading legal activists and scholars who will explore the past, present, and future of LGBT rights as part of the “National LGBT 50th Anniversary Celebration”

2015: “The Israeli army archive released the hand-written operations log of the dramatic 1976 hostage rescue in Entebbe today, including the 1:55 a.m. note that the commander of the mission, Yoni Netanyahu, had been wounded.”

2015: “A to Israeli officer said” today that “the IDF has acquired intelligence that Hamas is providing weaponry and other support to the Islamic State’s Sinai affiliate, Wilayat Sinai, the group thought to be behind yesterday’s deadly attack on Egyptian security services”

2015(15thof Tammuz, 5775): Ninety-one year old “David Aronson, an Expressionist artist whose vivid paintings, charcoal drawings and sculptures captured the tension between his Orthodox Jewish upbringing and the biblical injunction against making graven images” passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/15/arts/david-aronson-expressionist-artist-dies-at-91.html?_r=1

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Aronson#/media/File:Christ_Before_Pilate_by_David_Aronson,_1949.jpg

2016(26thof Sivan, 5776): Parsha Shelach-Lecha (Send forth) – Read about the Spies and a whole lot more.

2016(26thof Sivan, 5776): Eighty-seven year old Nobel Prize winning author Elie Wiesel passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/world/europe/elie-wiesel-auschwitz-survivor-and-nobel-peace-prize-winner-dies-at-87.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=image&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/elie-wiesel-nobel-laureate-and-memory-keeper-of-the-holocaust-dies-at-87/2016/07/02/4a2d2472-50b5-11e5-8c19-0b6825aa4a3a_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_eliewiesel-425pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.a961cfa36a18

2016: “Israeli soccer star Eran Zahavi gave fans of Guangzhou R&F a glimpse of possible brilliance to come during his debut match in the Chinese Super League” today.

2016: “The Israeli Air Force attacked targets belonging to terror groups in the Gaza Strip early this morning, the IDF said, hours after a rocket fired from the coastal enclave landed outside a preschool in the border town of Sderot, causing damage but no injuries.”

2017:The Jazz-Klezmer-Band "Apropos.art" is scheduled to perform at the Gula Bar-Restaurant in Jerusalem.

2017: Dan Shapiro, the former Ambassador of the United States is scheduled to speak this evening at the Jerusalem Cinematheque in an event sponsored by the Times of Israel and Nefesh b’ Nefesh.

2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or books of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of The Bridge Ladies: A Memoir by Betsy Lerner and Leaving Lucy Pear by Anna Solomon.

2017: 141st Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

2018: Two days before the anniversary of the great rescue, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Entebbe” this evening in London.

2018: Today, in an interview with ABC News, “made a declaration of independence from Donald Trump” for whom he once said, he would take a bullet.

2018: As IDF medical personnel provide aid to Syrian refugees from Assad’s attacks, Israelis wait to see if Assad will heed Israeli warnings not to enter the demilitarized zone along the Golan while bracing themselves for more incendiary attacks from Gaza.

2019: As part of his series on “The Ten Lost Tribes” Rabbi Dr. Raphael Zarum, the Dean of the London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to lecture on the “Jewish versus Assyrian Culture” today.

2019: The Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “Mindfulness Meditation in the Gallery” led by Steven Tierney.

2019: Today’s “screening of the Pride shorts program,” is scheduled to “be accompanied by a panel discussion featuring Joëlle Bentolila (Director of Starboy), Rabbi Rene Pfertzel (Kingston Liberal Synagogue), Rabbi Mark Solomon (Interfaith Consultant for Liberal Judaism) and chaired by Asher Tlalim (Head of the Pears Short Film Fund at UK Jewish Film).”

2019: Four days after she had passed, funeral services are scheduled to be held at Eben Israel Cemetery for centenarian Ruth Lillian Feder, the widow of Iz Feder and mother of Ron, Neil and Steven Feder followed by a shiva minyan this evening.

https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2019/Jun/Ruth-L-Feder/

2020: Urban Adamah is scheduled to host a virtual “Singing Circle for the Soul” led by Anna Cone.

2020: Live on Zoom, the YIVO Institute is scheduled to present “Yiddish Children’s Literature and Jewish Modernity.”

2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host another session of Children’s Storytime.

2020: Michael Glassner, Donald Trump’s chief operating officer, is reportedly settling into his new role dealing with legal affairs after having been demoted following the “disappointing Tulsa campaign rally.”

2020: Today, a 90 day extension order is scheduled to end which Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of those who murder Daniel Peal will go free














This Day, July 3, in Jewish History by MItchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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July 3



324:  Constantine the Great defeated Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople. Constantine ruled the western half of the Roman Empire.  Licinius ruled the eastern half.  In 313 the two rulers had issued the Edict of Milan which opened the Roman Empire to Christianity.  In 320, Licinius reject the edict.  These led to a clash of political and religious power that was settled at the Battle of Adrianople.  When the war ended, Constantine and Christianity were secure in their respective positions of power and the history of the Jews of Europe would take a turn for the worse.

353: Emperor Constantius II issues a decree to confiscate all of the property anyone who converts from Christianity to Judaism. Christians worked hard to convert Jews, and they absolutely rejected conversion back to Judaism. Being Jewish is apparently something that one should be ashamed of. (As reported by Austin Cline)

987:  Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty. “The Capetian dynasty lasted for more than 300 years. Capetian rule was weak, especially during the first hundred years. Thus each duchy decided for itself how to treat its Jews. The Church gained enormous influence over local affairs and promoted the idea that the Jews were in league with the Devil - declaring them the antichrist".

1187: As the conflict between the Crusaders and Saladin comes closer to a climax, the King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan leads his army on a forced march under the broiling sun of the Galilee

1247:Pope Innocent IV issues the encyclical Lacrimabilem Judaeorum condemning blood libels against Jews.(As reported by Austin Cline)

1431:Queen Violante, the second wife of Juan I of Aragon passed away.Unlike other Catholic monarchs of her time, Violante showed herself to be a friend of the Jews.  When she found out that Christian mobs had attacked the Jewish community of Majorca, killing at least three hundred of them, she order that “inhabitants of the islands to pay a fine of 150,000 florins (or, according to some authorities, 104,000 florins).”1475: Meshullam Cusi Rafa ben Moses Jacob established the first Hebrew press in Italy at Piove di Sacco near Padua and printed Jacob ben Asher's Arbah Turim. The same year he also printed a Slichot

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=344&letter=P

1608: Quebec City was founded by French explorer Samuel Champlain.  Prior to 1760, when the British took Canada from France, officially there were no Jews living in Quebec or any other part of the French colony.  The King of France had decreed that only Roman Catholics could settle in the colony.  This declaration was aimed at potential Protestant colonists, but it hit Jews as well.  The first known Jew settled in Quebec in 1767.

1642: Sixty-seven year old Marie de’Medici,  the daughter of Francesco I de’Medici, the 2nd grand duke of Tuscany who “invited Jewish merchants to settle in Livorno, granting them free residence, unlimited access to trade and extensive self-government in this new Medicean free-port on the Mediterranean” and the  queen consort of  Henry IV of France and the mother of King Louis XIII who “signed letters patent renewing the expulsion order "against not only Jews but also those who profess and practice Judaism” passed away today.

1749: Seventy-year old Menahem Man ben Aryeh Löb of Visun, who had tortured was executed in Vilna

1785(25thof Tammuz, 5645): Ninety-year old Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudist Aryeh Leib Gunzberg (As reported by Abraham Bloch)

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gintsburg_Aryeh_Leib_ben_Asher1799: Dutch jurist Carel Asser, the son of Moses Salomon Asser “obtained a doctor’s degree” degree following which “he devoted himself to the practice of law in Amsterdam” making him one of the first Jewis lawyers in the Batavian republic.1800: Following Napoleon’s return to France following his failed Egyptian campaign which took him to Palestine where he met many un-kept promises to the local Jewish population, General Menou took command of the French army in Egypt which would eventually surrender to the British and lead to a cessation of hostilities between France and the Turks.

1803: Today Bavarian born Leser Lazarus Oschsenhorn married Nanette Wexler with whom he had eight children.

1806(17thof Tammuz, 5566): Tzom Tammuz as Lewis and Clark “split their force in orderto scout more of the mountainous country and look for an easier pass over the Rockies.”

1814: Birthdate of Helen Moos, the wife of Abraham Einstein and the mother of Herman Einstein.

1816(7thof Tammuz, 5576): Forty one year old Samuel Elias, the London born boxer known as Dutch Sam who carried the sobriquet “The Terrible Jew” and was the father of Welterweight Champion Young Dutch Sam passed away today.

1819: At the age of 5 years and 7 months Charles-Valentin Alkan has his solfège audition during which the examiners noted that he had “a pretty little voice.”

1822: Joseph ben Moses married Esther bat Mordecai at the Western Synagogue.

1825(17thof Tammuz, 5585): Tzom Tammuz observed on the same day that former President James Monroe wrote to future President Andrew Jackson

1830: Birthdate of Levi Spiegelberg, the native of Natzungen, Prussia, the husband of Bertha Spiegelberg who moved to New York where he passed away in 1905 at the age of 74.

1832: Mortimer Salmon the son of John Salmon and Catherine Polack was circumcised today in London.

1833: A day after he had passed away, 67 year old Godfrey Harris was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1835: Birthdate of Daniel Spitzer, the native of Vienna who gained fame as a lawyer, author and journalist.

1837: In Ermreuth, German, Loeb and Bunte Babett Munker gave birth to Miriam Marianne Rothschild, the wife of Baruch Rothschild

1844: Birthdate of Joseph Chayyim Mendes Chumaceiro who studied “under his father at Curaçao” before serving as the rabbi in a series of congregations including “from 1867 to 1874 Beth-El congregation, Charleston, South Carolina; from 1874 to 1880, of Nefashot Yebudah, New Orleans, Louisiana; from 1884 to 1887, of Beth-El Emeth, Philadelphia; from 1889 to 1891, of Mikwe, Yisrael, Curaçao; and from 1892 to 1898, of Children of Israel, Augusta, Georgia;

1844: In Stadtlengsfeld, Germany, Rabbi Liebman Adler and his wife gave to Dankmar Adler, American architect and engineer. Adler’sname is first name is a combination of the German word for thanks –‘dank’- and the Hebrew word for bitter – ‘mar’. Adler’s father created the name since Adler’s mother died in childbirth. The Adler family moved to Chicago where young Adler learned his trade as a draftsman. He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War fighting his way across Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. After the war, Adler designed or helped build a variety of buildings including The Stock Exchange in Chicago and Carnegie Hall in New York. He also built Temples and Synagogues in Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America’s most famous architects trained in Adler’s offices. Adler passed away in 1900 after having just completed Temple Isaiah in Chicago

1849: The French entered Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. After his return to power Pius re-instituted the Ghetto for the Jews of Rome 1850.  In 1858, he would gain greater fame (or infamy) during the Mortara Affair during which Pius refused to return young Edgardo to his Jewish family.

1851: Birthdate of Isaac de Camondo, the French banker who had been born in Constantinople and whose “noteworthy” art collection was bequeathed to the Louve

1852: Birthdate of Hungarian pianist and composer Rafael Joseffy

1855(17thof Tammuz, 5615): Tzom Tammuz

1855:“Jewing the Jews” published today reported that “Lord John Russell who is notorious for great promises and abundant non-performance” has backed out on his promise to remove the legal obstructions preventing Jews from serving in Parliament.  The article goes on to trace Lord Russell’s history of involvement in the issued beginning in 1847 when he needed the financial support of the Rothschilds to win the election.  While the Rothschilds provided the funds need by Lord Russell, Lord Russell, for some mysterious reason, avoided the easy route that would have it possible for Rothschild to take his seat in the Commons and opted instead for a broader reform that was sure to fail because it needed the support of the House of Lords.  It would seem that Lord Russell really never wanted a Jew to sit in Parliament.

1857: It was reported today that a Jewish boy named Isaac Jackson was robbed and murdered in Russell, MA by a man named Charles Jones from Blanford.  Jones had recently been released from prison and had been arrested for this latest criminal act.

1860: Birthdate of Théodore Reinach “a French archaeologist, mathematician, lawyer, papyrologist, philologist, epigrapher, historian, numismatist, musicologist, professor, and politician.”

1863: In New York City Sophie and Abram J. Dittenhoefer gave birth to Irving Meade Dittenhoefer.  Dittenhoefer was the grandson of Isaac Dittenhoefer a native of Germany who came to the United States in 1834 settling first in Baltimore and then Charleston, SC where he became a successful merchant.  Irving followed his father into the legal arena graduating from Columbia Law School in 1885.  He and his wife Fannie have one son, Newman Erb Dittenhoefer.

1863: In New York City, Solomon and Emma Blogg Unger gave birth to Municipal Court Judge Henry W. Unger, “one of the thirteen sachems of Tammany Hall and the husband of Isabella Peyser Unger with whom he had two sons Albert and Herbert.

1863: Union forces decisively defeated the Rebels on the third and climactic day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  The war would last for almost two years, but the tide had been turned.  The “last best hope of man” would survive. The United States, with all of its freedom, would become home to one of the largest and most dynamic Jewish communities in the four thousand year history of the Chosen People.  Edward S. Salomon, a German-Jewish immigrant who had settled in Chicago, “became a hero during the Battle of Gettysburg.”  Lt. Colonel Salmon had two horses shot out from under him and assumed command of his regiment when the commanding officer was wounded.  The regiment was the 82nd Illinois which had over a hundred Jewish members in its ranks. Major General Carl Schurz, his corps commander, described him during the battle: "He was the only soldier at Gettysburg who did not dodge when Lee's guns thundered; he stood up, smoked his cigar and faced the cannon balls with the sang froid of a Saladin ...” Apparently the irony of comparing this brave Jewish officer to a Moslem military hero was lost on Schurz.  Such was Salomon’s skill and bravery that he would be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General before the end of the war when the Confederate and Union armies collided and battled at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1–3, 1863. His ability to lead men was quickly recognized and he rapidly rose through the ranks. Salomon received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in March 1865. After the Battle of Atlanta, Colonel John Cleveland Robinson recognized the feats of Colonel Salomon when he wrote: "I consider Colonel Salomon one of the most deserving officers. His regiment is deserving of high praise. In a point of discipline it is second to none in the corps.  Among other Jewish soldiers who fought at this climactic battle were Elias Leon Hyneman who had volunteered to serve in Company C, Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry at the start of the conflict; Captain Joseph B. Greenhut who had enlisted in the 12rh Illinois Infantry at the start of the war and served with the 82ndIllinois Infantry at Gettysburg;

1863: The 59th New York which had been organized by Philip J. Joachimsen was one of the regiments that held the line on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett’s charge.

1863: As the Battle of Gettysburg came to a close, Major Rafael Jacob Moses of Columbus, GA, shared the battlefield with his friend, Robert E. Lee

1863: The Tullahoma or Middle Tennessee Campaign a military action in which Confederate forces were defeated by Union Forces that included 79th Indiana under the command of Frederick Knefler came to an end.

1863: In “Plymouth, Devon,” Nathaniel Hart and Dinah Nathan gave birth to Benjamin Hart.

1863(16thof Tammuz, 5623): Among the dead at Gettysburg was Philadelphian Simon Arnold who had been serving since 1862 with Company G of the 140thRegiment, reminding us that preservation of the United States of America from those who wanted to destroy her was paid for in human blood.

1866: Prussia defeats Austria at the Battle of Königgratz. The victory seals the victory of the Prussians over the Austrians during Austro-Prussian War which lasted as scant six weeks.  This little known battle is one of the most decisive in modern history because of all the major events that flowed from it.  The victory removed Austria as a power among Germanic states.  This opened the way for German unification under Prussian dominance which lead to the Franco-Prussian War, which led to World War I which led to the Shoah.  The defeat of Austria led the Austrians to turn to the rest of the empire  and create the Austro-Hungarian Empire which gave empowered the Hungarian nationalist which led to granting of full rights to the Jews of the empire who gave the world everybody from Freud to Herzl and a whole lot more.  And this only scratches the surface of the impact of this one brief battle.   

1867: In Bar, near Kamenetz Podolsk (modern Ukraine). Rabbi Judah Samuel Baronedess and his wife gave birth to New York political and labor leader Joseph Barondess.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/11/yoysef-barondes-joseph-barondess.html

http://archives.nypl.org/mss/216

http://americanjewisharchives.org/collections/ms0507/

1867: Fifty-four year old Lazarus Powell who the Senator from Kentucky who was anti-Lincoln, pro-slavery and who feigned indignation over General Order No. 11 as a way of attacking the President and General Grant passed away today.

1869: In Germany (Prussia), all restrictions against Jews were lifted. After the war of 1866 Prussia increased its territory to include Hanover, Hesse-Kassel Saxony, and other territory that became part of the North German Confederation. Under the initiative of the Liberal party, full rights were extended to Jews including serving in public positions. By April 16, 1871 it became Imperial Law and was extended to the entire empire. Although later reaction revoked most of this freedom, the discrimination never returned to the level existing in the "Middle Ages" - until the rise of Hitler.

1869: Founding of the Union of Judæo-German Congregations" during a synod that was held at Leipzig.

1870: Members of Beth Jacob consecrated their house of worship in Brooklyn this afternoon.  After a procession from the local Masonic Hall to the new edifice, Rabbi Samuel M. Issacs addressed the congregation, speaking proudly of the advances that had been made recently in religious thought and strongly endorsing reforms that were being adopted by many congregations. He also addressed the wonderful climate of freedom that Jews enjoyed in the United States.  Rabbi Adolph Huebsch of Brooklyn also addressed the crowd after which a total of $1,000 was contributed by the attendees.  The new building had cost $8,000 and was fully paid for without this additional sum.

1872: An English version of La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein a Jacques Offenbach operetta, opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.

1874: In Chicago, “Henry and Rose (Swart) Sincere gave birth to banker and broker Charles Sincere, the husband of “Mayme W Wershinksi” and member of the Illinois National Guard who was a member of the International Order of B’nai B’rith and the North Shore Congregation.

1874: Starting with this issue The Israelite, an English language weekly founded by Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise was renamed The American Israelite

1874: Among those who were arriving at Saratoga Springs at the beginning of the Summer Social Season were “Mrs. Joseph Seligman wife of the wealthy banker” and her two daughters, Miss Bella Seligamn and “Mrs. Hellman whose husband is a Director of the Bank of New Orleans.”

1875: The Foreign Notes column reported that “a new invention by Sir David Salomons for preventing railway accidents by an improved system of signaling” has been exhibited to “a large number of engineers and inventors” in London.  The invention “consists of an insulated rail laid beneath the four way, by means of which station-masts can telegraph to a train while in motion.”  Also this makes it possible for people on one train to communicate with people on another train. Salomons is best known for his several attempts to assume political office to which he had been elected with taking the oath that called for an affirmation of Christian beliefs.

1875: The Foreign Notes column reported that the Russian government is going back to its past practice of persecuting Jews.  Many Jews have moved their homes and businesses to take advantage of new opportunities created by the developing railroad system.  Authorities are now enforcing an old law and forcing the Jews to return to their former homes, leaving behind their new businesses and homes.

1877: Two Jews named David Milstein and Isaac Goldstein were tried today in New York and found guilty of first degree burglary.  They had broken into the home of a butcher named Meyer Freeman, robbing him of money and jewelry.  They were sentenced to 12 years in the state prison.  Milstein has spent 21 of his 28 years in prison while Goldstein has served one term in the state penitentiary.

1877: In Earlville, Illinois, Morris Levy and Isabelle Baker gave birth to Martha Levy the future wife Maurice Steinfeld the son of Jacob Steinfeld and Caroline Stern.

1878: Erik Weisz, who would gain fame as Houdini, arrived today in the United States “on the SS Fresia with his mother (who was pregnant) and his four brothers” after which the family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss, and settled in Appleton, Wisconsin “where his father served as Rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation.”

1879: In London, a formal announcement was made that the three sons of the recently deceased Baron Lionel de Rothschild will carry on their father’s business activities.

1881: Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov, the son of Russian school teachers who in his brief life left his imprint on “the study of Yiddish” and the Labor Zionist movement.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ber-borochov

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Borokhov_Ber

1882: As boatloads of Italian and Russian Jewish workers who had replaced the striking freight handlers returned from New Jersey, they were set upon and beaten by gangs of local thugs.  The strikers claimed that they were not involved and that this was merely the work of young toughs. 

1882: A Russian Jew employed on the Pennsylvania pier, No.1 North River tore a piece of his scalp that was two inches in diameter from his forehead when a heavy bale that he was putting on a truck broke free and hit an obstruction. The Russian Jews was one of the strikebreakers who were plentiful in number but inept at doing the work.

1883: In Prague, “Hermann Kafka the fourth child of Jakob Kafka, a shochet or ritual slaughterer in Osek, a Czech village with a large Jewish population located near Strakonice in southern Bohemia” NS and his wife “Julie, the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a prosperous retail merchant in Poděbrady” gave birth to author Franz Kafka. The famous Czech born author gained his real fame after his death. After many false starts Kafka earned a Doctorate of Laws and then took a mind-numbing job with an insurance company. Ill health finally enabled him to work shorter hours, which gave him time to pursue his writings. Three of his best known works are the Trial, The Castle and America. Kafka became famous in spite of himself. He had left word that at the time of his death all of his manuscripts were to be destroyed. Fortunately his friend Max Brod disobeyed him and had the works published. Kafka had planned to immigrate to Palestine before his untimely death in 1924 hastened by the effects of tuberculosis. On being Jewish Kafka wrote, "Not one calm second is granted to the Western Jew. Everything has to be earned, not only the present and the future but also the past…",

1884:The attorney for Gustave Jean Jacquet defended the painter from charges by Alexandre Dumas fils that he had defamed him by caricaturing the French author and dramatist as Baghdad Jew by arguing that the author’s features were public property.  In making his argument he cited the precedent of Horace Vernet “who depicted a well-known Jew running away with the cashbox.” Dumas was the illegitimate son of the more famous author of the same name.  He was also the maternal grandfather of Alexander Lippman the French Olympic fencer whose father was Jewish.

1885: “Sending Back French Paupers” published today described the situation of indigent Jewish immigrants who had been sent to the United States  by the Hebrew Aid Society of Paris last season and been returned to their place of origin because of their lack of funds and financial sponsors.

1886: Birthdate of Jerusalem native Israel Porath, the husband of Miriam Titktin with whom he “had 7 children - Shoshana, Samuel, Tzve, Benjamin, Ben Zion, Joseph, and David – and “for almost five decades,” “the ‘dean’ of Cleveland, Ohio’s Orthodox rabbis.”

https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/porath-israel

1887: “The Goethe-Zelter Letters” published today provides a detailed review of Goethe’s Letters to Zelter With Extracts From Those Of Zelter To Goethe, selected, translated and annotated by A.D. Coleridge. The book includes a description of the strange relationship between Carl Zeller, who did not like Jews, and his favorite pupil Felix Mendeslohn, whose family was Jewish.

1887: In St. Louis, MO, Nicholas Scharff and Carrie Bernheimer gave birth to their sixth child, Aurelia S. Scharff.

1888: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children conducted the first of its ten summer excursions for poor Jewish children and their mothers.

1888: Four days after she had passed away, Sarah Salomons, (nee Hurwitz), the native of Highgate, London and daughter of Hyman Hurwitz and Hester Levy was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1889: “Dramatic poet and writer” Josef von Weilen passed away today.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Weil_von_Weilen,_Josef&prev=search



1889: In Brooklyn, Dr. Henry M. Leipzieger of the Hebrew Technical School presented a paper entitled “Manual Training in Relation to Public School Work” at a meeting of the New York State Teacher’s Association.

1890: The striking cloakmakers and tailors, most of whom are Polish and Russian Jews, resorted to violence after have peacefully endured the lockout for several weeks. Groups of strikers attacked scabs working at the Mercantile Cloak Company and Meyer Jonason & Co.

1890: Idaho joins the Union becoming the 43rd star on the Star Spangled Banner.  Despite a comparatively small Jewish population, Idaho was the first state to elect a Jew as Governor. On his second try for the top spot Moses Alexander was elected in 1914.  He served from 1915 until 1919.  A  German immigrant, Alexander had previously been elected Mayor of Boise. Alexander was not casual about his Jewish identity.  His wife was a Jew by choice, having converted when she married Alexander.

1891:Reports published today describing the recent death of  Prince Vladimir Andreyevich Dolgorukov, governor-general (mayor) of Moscow include a description of the positive relationship he enjoyed with the Jews of that city which ran contrary to the policy of the Czar. The Czar finally became so upset with him over this that he replaced him with the Grand Duke Sergius and forced him into virtual exile.

1893: In New York, “the Baron Hirsch Fund Schools held their ‘English Day’ exercise today during which the students’ songs and recitation showed their “undying allegiance to the flag of their adopted country.”

1893: “Growth of the Feeling Against the Jews in Germany” published today that by having elected sixteen members to the Reichstag, the anti-Semites have exceeded by one the number need to claim the privileges of a Party including the right to introduce legislation.  Herman Ahlwardt, who has just been released from prison and is the group’s leader, plans on introducing “special taxes on Jew bankers and traders. “Anti-Semitism in Germany has ceased to be a sporadic local phenomenon.” In 1887 one anti-Semite was elected to Reichstag; in 1890, it was five; and now it is 16 who “have almost 500,000 voters behind them. Nor do these figures tell all” since “the Conservative Party…pledged by its platform…to any decent and practicable measures against the Jews.”  (Editor’s Note – I realize this is a long entry but it challenges the notion that anti-Semitism in Germany was the product of the Versailles Treaty, the Great Depression or intimidation by a handful of brown-shirted thugs.)

1893: Today’s London Times is scheduled to publish a “startling photographic glimpse of what Russia is really like” which has been prepared by Sir Julian Goldsmid.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0F17FA3F5A1A738DDDAB0894DF405B8385F0D3

1894: Dr. Adolph Radin, Isidor D. Morrison and Julius Harburger addressed those attending tonight’s exercise hosted tonight by the Russian American Hebrew Association in honor of the Fourth of July. The program also included music and a benediction by Rabbi Moses of Port Gibson.

1894: Rabbi Levy of New Haven, CT officiated at the wedding of Sadie Bentschner to Isadore Israel at the home of the bride’s parents in Charleston, SC.

1895: Maria Moses, the daughter of Emanuel and Ann Moses, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1895: The will of the late Lewis S. Levy was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s office today.

1896:”Gathered About Town” published today provided further indication of the large number of foreign born Jews living in New York.  Notices posted in the main corridor of the General Post Office are printed in Hebrew letters providing “instruction for the many Russian Polish Jews who have business with the postal authorities.” Similar notices have been printed in German and Italian for years.

1896: The body of the man found floating in New York’s Clyde River on June 25 has been identified as 25 year old Simon Mischel, a member of well-to-do family living on Delancey Street.  Apparently he was shoved into the water after having been robbed an strangled by a gang of robbers who have been operating in the area.

1896: In Vienna, the Diet took up the question of extending the franchise.  An amendment, which seems to have great support, was proposed that would exclude Jews and Converts from exercising the franchise. 

1896: According to a report to be published in today’s Daily News, the attacks on the Jews at Mizalbisch were orchestrated by a Russian officer who was seeking “revenge against a Jewish” tavern keeper who had rescued a peasant whom the officer “was thrashing.”

1896: In Russia, Local administrators arbitrarily reclassified certain “townlets” as “villages” which caused havoc for Jewish merchants due to the restrictive nature of the May Laws.

1896: “Death of Jules S. Abecasis” published today described the fatal collision between the “well known rubber broker” and active member of the Jewish community who was riding his bicycle when it was struck by an express wagon.

1896: Twenty-two year old Mary Colar was fined five dollars on a charge of disorderly conduct based on the claim of 2 police officers “that she had made improper proposals to them” -  a claim that she denied and which appeared questionable since the officers “can speak no Hebrew and she can speak no English.”

1897: A summary of the acquisitions made by the New York Public Library during May published today show that of the institution had acquired, by various means, 1,600 books and pamphlets written in Hebrew and 360 works in Yiddish. In additions to the Bible and Commentaries, Talmud, Midrash, Cabala and Jewish History books, the library now owns “165 photographs of prominent Jews.”

1897: According to figures released yesterday when his will was filed for probated Mayer Lehman “left an estate valued at $450,000 in real and $500,000 in personal property.  In addition to bequeathing thousands of dollars to a variety of Jewish and Gentile charities, Lehman left $20,000 for the executors to use as they see fit to assist family members and “for such employees of Lehman brothers as may be in need of aid.

1897: “Jewish Pupils Celebrate” published today described the exercises at the Baron de Hirsch English Day School in which children of Jewish immigrants demonstrated their patriotism and fluency in English as they prepare to observe Independence Day.

1897: “Americans in Babylonia” published today provided a review of Nippur or Explorations and Adventures by Dr. John Punnett Peters in which the author describes the Jewish community that originated during the period of “Captivity” which created to great centers – Sura near Babylonia and Nehardea or Nearda which is not far from Anabar.  The latter was a prominent Jewish center, he says for 800 years until it was replaced by Baghdad.

1898: “Jewish Chautauqua Society” published today described plans for the Second Assembly of the society which will be held at Atlantic City later this month with headquarters at Congregation Beth Israel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

1899: Birthdate of German native and “British neurologist, Ludwig Guttman, the founder of the Paralymics.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-Guttmann

1901: Today’s sessions of the Central Conference of American Rabbis meeting in Philadelphia “were devoted principally to routine business” which included the treasurer report by Charles S. Levi and a report “on Summer schools non-affiliated with congregations.”

1902: Birthdate anthropologist Melville Jacobs a long-time member of the faculty of the University of Washington and the husband of fellow anthropologist Elizabeth Jacobs.

https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jacobs_melville_1902_1971_/#.Wzrrn_ZFx9A

1903: In Dusseldorf, Gustav Cohn, the German born son of “Levi and Eva Regina Cohn” and his wife Paul Cohen gave birth to Leo Ernst Cohen

1903: Pogrom began in Bialystok.

1904(20th of Tammuz, 5664): Theodor Herzl passed away at the age of 44. One person can make a difference.  “If you will it, it is no dream!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CdfCZa2XOI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO88cy4YgHU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWi3pV8_XQY

1904: In Manhattan Mollie (Isaacs) Lefkowitz and Samuel Lefkowitz gave birth to Louis J. Lefkowitz the Republican lawyer who served the state’s Attorney General for 22 years.

1904(20thof Tammuz, 5664): Sixty-four year old Charles Wessolowsky, the husband of Johanna Wessolowsky passed away today.

http://www.jewishsouth.org/resources/reflections-southern-jewry-letters-charles-wessolowsky

http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Southern-Jewry-Wessolowsky-1878-1879/dp/0865540209

1905: Today, “while the general situation in Odessa has improved “those best knowing the conditions in the city are of the opinion that the graves danger now lies in a possible anti-Jewish rising” because the Jews who number about 175,000 are “deeply hated for a variety of reasons.

1906: As the seventh annual convention of the Federation of Zionists in Canada continues to meet in Toronto could take satisfaction in yesterday’s announcement by President De Sola of Montreal “that the Sultan of Turkey had revoked the laws forbidding Jews to settle in Palestine” which meant
that it was no possible for Jews to inhabit the country and enjoy the protection of its laws.


1907: Rabbi Joseph Stotlz delivered the “President’s Message” at the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

1907: This evening, at the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbi Max Heller led the Round Table on the “Compatibility of Zionism and Reform Judaism” and Rabbi William S. Friedman led the Round Table on “The Rabbi and Public Activities.”

1907: Birthdate of Felix Solomon Cohen, the New Deal lawyer who re-shaped the legal status of Native Americans.

1908: On the Western calendar, seventy-six year old Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev, the prime mover behind the anti-Semitic May Laws passed away today.

1909(14thof Tammuz, 5669): Parashat Balak was chanted on the same day that “Federal charges were filed against the manufacturers of Koca Nola, the third most popular cola after Coke and Pepsi, after a one-gallon jug of the syrup was found to include cocaine.”

1910: Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore, the out-going President was among those who address the three hundred delegation of the American Federation of Zionists who were attending the organizations 13th annual convention in Pittsburgh.

1911: “Zionist Discuss Plans” published today described “a plan to buy one hundred thousand acres of land annually in Palestine in order to established colonies of Jews” which presented at the fourteenth annual convention of the Federation of American Zionist” meeting at Tannersville, NY>

1912(18thof Tammuz, 5672): Seventy year old Abraham Boehm, the German born son of Sara and Hirsch Bohm passed away today in Mt. Vernon, NY.

1913: The factional trouble that had been predicted broke out today on the second day of the 24th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis which split over several matters including “publication of a special prayer book for Sunday services” for “those congregations that must have a Sunday service” and which found a tearful Rabbi Isaac S. Moses of New York, one of the oldest members of the conference asking “that either new methods be adopted by the Conference or that his name be stricken from the membership roll” since he objected to the “defaming of rabbis anywhere.

1913: Two after she  passed away at the Home for Aged Jews in Chicago, 78 year old Nanette Flesch, the aunt of “Walter J, Eugene, Edwin and Rose Flesch  was scheduled to be buried at Rosehill today.

1913: In Manhattan, Rene and Samuel Hoffman gave birth to art collection Janice H. Levin, the widow of attorney and real estate developer Philip J. Levin (As reported by Enid Nemy)

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/27/nyregion/janice-levin-87-philanthropist-of-the-arts.html

1914: As the “winds of world war” begin to blow across Europe, today” a state funeral was held for Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Vienna, with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and other members of the imperial family in attendance.”

1914(5thof Tevet, 5674): Parashat Vayigash

1914: Rabbi David Lefkowitz of Dayton, OH, led Sabbath morning services at the “25thanniversary conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis” being held “at Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan.”

1915: Frank Flint, the former U.S. Senator from California who supported efforts have Georgia Governor Slaton commute of Leo Frank’s sentence was quoted as saying “We want to honor Slaton for the manly thing he did in giving Frank the benefit of the doubt and saving his life.”

1916: In Philadelphia, Zionists continued their convention for a third day.

1916(2ndof Tammuz, 5676): Twenty-two year old Lance Corporal Hyman Baum the son of Leah and Nathan Baum died today while serving with the “1st Battalion, Border Regiment” after which he was buried at Louvencourt Military Cemetery.

1917(13th of Tammuz, 5677):  Twenty-six year old Lieutenant Benjamin Cohen of South Africa became a casualty of war today.

1917: In Asbury Park, NJ, delegates at the Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea were scheduled to attend a business session this morning.

1917: “Because of various conflicting reports, Ira Nelson Morris, the American Minister has requested the Swedish Foreign Office to use its best efforts to ascertain the truth about the condition of the Jews in Palestine.”

1917: It was reported to that “the Jewish Teachers’ Congress, which is now meeting in Petrograd, has appointed a committee to see the Minister of Education in order to obtain the abolition of certain restrictions which still attach to the education of Jewish children.”

1917: Ex-Ambassador Abram I. Elkus who is traveling aboard a French steamer, did not arrive in New York City as originally planned.

1918: According to reports received today by the Jewish Corresponded Bureau in Amsterdam, “anti-Semitic outbreaks have occurred in Jaroslau and other Galician towns” where it is said “Jewish residents have been made the victims of excesses and their shops have been plundered” while the authorities refused “to interfere” with the attacks.

1918: In the South Bronx, clothing store owner Henry Adelson and seamstress Rose (Zagor) Adelson, gave birth Yale trained attorney Shirley Adelson, the wife of filmmaker Elwood Seigel  who gained fame as leading civil rights attorney Shirley Siegel who had personal experience with discrimination when no law firm would hire because she was Jewish and a female

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/nyregion/shirley-siegel-leading-new-york-civil-rights-lawyer-dies-at-101.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

https://www.nycbar.org/shirley-adelson-siegel

1918: Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire passed away at the age of 73.  He had been the titular head of the empire that sided with the Central Powers during World War I.  Among the Jews who died fighting under the Sultan’s banner were Major Isaac Adjubel, Captain Albert Cohen, Captin Izidor Shalom, Captain Zavarro, Captain Albert Menashe, Captain Pepo Akshiote, Captain Siyaves, Captain Albagli, Captain Asa, Captain David Feder and Captain Pharmacist Behor Alfandar.

1919: Birthdate of Orange Free State native Colin Legume, the journalist and ant-Apartheid activist.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JOUlegum.htm

1920(17thof Tammuz, 5680)

1920: In Manhattan, attorney Selig Seligman and his wife, concert pianist Selma Edelman, gave birth to Daniel Edelman, the founder of Edelman, “one of the largest public relations firms in the world” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1921:Solomon Lozovsky ended his service as Chairman of the International Trade Union Council and began serving as General Secretary of the Red International of Labor Unions.

1921: Birthdate of Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Rebbe of the Boston Hasidic dynasty founded by his father, Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz.

http://www.haaretz.com/the-bostoner-rebbe-the-first-american-born-hasidic-leader-1.2308

1923: In Paris, Béatrice de Camondo and Léon Reinach the son of Théodore Reinach gave birth to their second child, Bertrand.  He would die a t Auschwitz in 1944.

1923: Mayer Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, sails from New York City aboard the Aquitania.

1924: In Syracuse, NY, Bessie and Harry Israel gave birth to Marvin Israel “a painter and editorial art director and a teacher of graphics and photography.”

1924: Birthdate of Jiri Drillich who, in 1942, was transported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdered.

1924: In the Bronx, “Hyman Bassen, a writer and labor activist, and Ida (Orland) Bassen” gave birth to Nancy Bassen who gained fame as Nancy B. Reich, the author of Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman.  (As reported by Corinna de Fonseca-Wollheim)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/obituaries/nancy-b-reich-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1924: Ted "Kid" Lewis (born Gershon Mendeloff) “won his last two titles, the British and European Welterweight crowns, today — again at London's Royal Albert Hall — by defeating Johnny Brown.

1925: Birthdate of Tony Curtis. Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, Curtis was sometimes referred to as "a poor man's Cary Grant."  One of his biggest hits came when he played opposite Grant in the film "The Pink Submarine."  Other famous roles were in "Some Like It Hot" with costars Jack Lemmon and that famous Jewess, Marilyn Monroe and as the wisecracking New York born orderly in "Dr. Newman, M.D."

1926: Birthdate of Meyer Kupferman, the New York born clarinet player and composer.

http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/594/Kupferman,+Meyer

http://www.meyerkupferman.com/

1926: In Providence, RI, Samuel Goldberg and the former Elsie Hamburger gave birth to Elsie Marie Goldberg who gained fame as Elena Doria, “the longtime director of the Metropolitan Opera’s children’s chorus. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/arts/music/elena-doria-beloved-and-strict-as-hell-director-of-met-childrens-chorus-dies-at-90.html?_r=0


1929: At the opening meeting of the Assembly of the Elected, “the national body which elects the National Council of Palestine Jews, a dispute broke out between Dr. Ton, the presiding officer and revisionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky.  The dispute revolved around revisionist claims that several of their delegates were attacked by Labor delegates and was so intense the meeting was adjourned.

1929: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held for sixty year old Boris D. Bogen, a “teacher at the Baron de Hirsch Trade School in New York and “the principal of the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School in Woodbine, NJ” and author of Psychology of Teaching Foreign Languages and Born a Jew who was the husband of Elisabeth Scholtz.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0003/ms0003.html

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Alfred-Segal-Boris-Bogen/dp/B00COBYN3S

1930: “Holiday,” a “romantic comedy with music by Josiah Zuro was released today in the United States.

1933: The 8thannual convention of Junior Hadassah is scheduled to come to an end today in Cleveland, OH.

1933: In Chicago, the convention of the ZOA comes to a close/

1933: Birthdate of Harvard trained attorney Herbert Elish, a New York City Sanitation Commissioner, the husband of the former Leslies Jane Rubin and the father of Harry and Daniel Ellish.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/27/archives/zealous-sanitation-commissioner-herbert-elish.html

1934: Rebbetzin Renee Schick who founded the Schick's Bakery in Boro Park in 1941, and her husband gave birth to Professor Marvin Schick “an expert on Jewish Day Schools who served “as liaison to the Jewish Community” for John Lindsay during his second term as Mayor of NYC and his twin brother Allen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/nyregion/marvin-schick-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1935(2ndof Tammuz, 5695):  Fifty-seven year old André-Gustave Citroën, the son of  “diamond merchant Levie Citroen from the Netherlands and Masza Amelia Kleinman from Warsaw, Poland” the automobile manfacture best known for the car that bears his name passed away today in his native Paris.

http://www.citroenet.org.uk/miscellaneous/history/history01.html

1935: Sir Francis Montefiore, grandnephew of the noted philanthropist, who had served for several years President of the Board of Elders of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in London; a position to which he was first elected in 1904 was buried today at the Spanish & Portuguese Jews Cemetery at Mile End Road in London.

1936(13th of Tammuz, 5696): German Jew Stefan Lux kills himself in the assembly room of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The suicide is in protest of Germany's persecution of Jews. He was an early supporter of Theodore Herzl and Zionism but curtailed his efforts following the Great War.

1936 The Palestine Postreported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, told the House of Commons that "there were no provisions in the Covenant or Peace Treaties or the Mandate regarding the withdrawal of the Mandate from the Power entrusted with it."

1936: Sir Sidney Abrahams became the 26th Chief Justice of Ceylon, a post he would hold until 1939.

1936 The Palestine Postreported that Hebron was fined a collective fine of £2,000 for ambushing an army patrol. Two British soldiers were hurt in this encounter.

1936: The Palestine Postreported that ten suspected Jewish communists were rounded up by police in Tel Aviv and interned at the army's Sarafand detention camp.

1936 The Palestine Postreported that when questioned about a news item which appeared in an Arab newspaper, the management of the Jerusalem YMCA declared that it offered a platform on which young men, irrespective of their race, creed and religion could cooperate and meet in an atmosphere of congeniality and goodwill.

1936: Jewish stores were sacked and several Jews were wounded by Moslems in Gafsa and Sousse Tunisia which led the Jewish merchants in Sousse to barricade “themselves in their shops” and fight “off attacking Moslems with rifle and pistol fire” while they awaited the arrival troops who were supposed to restore order.

1937: In Buffalo, NY Esther Miriam (née Sheinberg) and Buffalo society band leader and piano teacher Irving Daniel Shire gave birth to  David Lee Shire the songwriter and composer whose work included the soundtracks for “The Taking of Phelham One Two Three” and “The Conversation.”

1937:Twenty-nine year old Brooklynite Moe Schultz returned today on the President Roosevelt from Palestine, where he said he had driven a truck for three years between the towns of Haifa and Tel-Aviv, a distance of ninety miles, and had many thrilling escapes from Arab snipers.

1938: The unveiling of a memorial in memory of Sarah Leah Broadwin is scheduled to take place this morning at the Mt. Zion Cemetery on Long Island.

1938: Today “hundreds of house owners in the fashionable suburbs” of Vienna “have been ordered by National Socialist organizations to give notice immediately to Jewish tenants to vacate their apartments within a fortnight” with the purpose of keeping “the fashionable districts ‘clear.’”

1939: A sailboat of unknown nationality arrived in Haifa flying the blue and white colors of the Zionist cause.  British police boarded the boat “where they found 697 Jewish immigrants including 192 women and 37 children.”  The immigrants are classified as “illegal” and their total will be deducted from the pitifully small allotment of Jews allowed to enter Palestine under the White Paper.

1939(16th of Tammuz, 5699): Tonight Arabs attacked Tel Hayim, a settlement near Tel Aviv, killing one Jewish supernumerary.

1940: Following yesterday’s request by the OKW, the German military were working on the plans for the invasion of England code named Operation Sea Lion.

1941: Associate Justice Harlan Fisk Stone began serving as Chief Just of the U.S Supreme Court. From 1932 until 1937, Stone, the New England Protestant joined the two Jewish Justices – Cardozo and Brandeis – as the 3 Musketeers, the liberal faction of the Supreme.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): At Nowogrodek, the Nazis sought fifty "volunteers" to be members of the Jewish council there. They are taken away and never seen again. Fifty more were shot in the town square.

1941: In Vilna, all the Jews were required to wear identity badges.

1941: In Liepāja, SS-Obersturmbannführer Reichert’s EK 1a men began their roundup of and began marching to trenches in Rainis Park where they will begin massacring them.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): One hundred Jews are murdered at Bialystok, Poland.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): In the Ukraine, 3500 Jews are killed at Zloczow and hundreds die at Drohobycz.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): Fifty Jews in Novogroduk, Belorussia, who volunteer for a German-organized Jewish council, "disappear." Another 50, selected at random, are shot in the town square to the accompaniment of music played by a German band.

1941: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin orders the establishment of partisan units to harass German troops in occupied Soviet territory. Jews would play an active role in these units. There were also units made up exclusively of Jewish partisans.

1941: Birthdate of American contractor Warren Weinstein who was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in 2011.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/warren-weinstein-abduction-pakistan-police-release-kidnapping-suspect/story?id=14332931#.TtD8_mN4MjU

1941: Birthdate of Gloria Rachel Bloom, who gained fame as Gloria Allred, the publicity seeking lawyer.

1942: In Manhattan, the United Palestine Appeal reported today that “The Palestine Government granted 1,500 immigration certificates in Palestine in the three months ending on June 30.”

1943: Birthdate of self-promoting television news personality Geraldo Rivera.  Rivera’s father was from Puerto Rico.  After moving to New York he married a Jewish woman named Lily Friedman.  Contrary to popular urban legend, Rivera’s original name was not Gerry Rivers.  And he did not change his name to appeal to Hispanic audiences.

1944: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration

1944: The British War Cabinet agrees to examine Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann's request for the formation of a Jewish Brigade to fight in the British Army, with the white and blue Star of David as its standard.

1945: In Jerusalem, Israeli poet and political activist Yonatan Ratosh and his wife gave birth to award winning mathematician Saharon who splits his time between Hebrew University and Rutgers in New Jersey.

1946: Theodore Levin was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan vacated by Edward Julien Moinet.

1946:  Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis met for the first time in Atlantic City.  They would become one of the leading comedy teams of their time.  The Italian Crooner played straight man to the Jewish clown.

1946: After having been “missing” for two days, 8 year old Henryk Blaszcyk returned to his family at Kielce having gone to his home town to visit friends which led his father to file a second report with the local police “claiming his son had been kidnapped by the Jews” but had managed to escape.”  This false report would result in a police investigation that would provide the excuse for another round of Poles murdering Jews.

1947: Birthdate of brilliant attorney, Renaissance man and all-around great guy, David Robert Levin- a real Mensh. He is also one heck of a great brother!

1948: Rumors abound in besieged Jerusalem that a new road was being built that would bring supplies to the embattled city.

1949: Birthdate of world traveling computer whiz and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, Bill Hurwitz

1949 David Ben-Gurion issued a public exoneration of Meir Tubiansky and restitution of his rank and rights. Four days later his body was re-buried on Mount Herzl. In November 1949, after a trial at which Binyamin Gibli appeared as a witness for the prosecution, Isser Be'eri was found guilty of manslaughter.

1951: The Jerusalem Postreported that the first reading of the Women's Equal Rights Bill was passed by the Knesset. The Knesset had also passed a bill empowering the government to float loans up to IL5m. from financial institutions to be applied to the defense budget. 128,223 new immigrants entered the country during the first six months of 1951. Since the state was established in 1948, 638,597 immigrants arrived.

1952: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Mr. Peepers” in which Walter Matthau using the name “Leonard Elliot” portrayed “the gym teacher Mr. Wall.

1953(20thof Tammuz, 5713): Forty-seven year old New York native Irving Reis, the creator of the radio anthology Columbia Worship who turned his skill to screenwriting and movie director and the husband of Meta Arenson with whom he had three children passed away today after which he was “buried in the Jewish Cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.

1953: Today, in Portland, Oregon, at the “94th annual convention of the National Education Association” “the delegation of New York State teachers…opened fire on the NEA’s sponsorship of travel tours to Arab countries in the Middle East from which American Jewish teachers are barred. (JTA)

1956: Seventy-nine year old Lithuanian native Kalman Marmor who in 1906 came to the United States where he pursued a career in journalism with such publications as “the Jewish daily Morning Freiheit” and the Daily Forward.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/marmor-kalman

http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32584

1956: Release date for “Somebody Up There Likes Me” starring Paul Newman, with a script by Ernest Lehman and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.

1957(4thof Tammuz, 5717): Sixty-five year old Benjamin Daniels, the husband of Gertrude Daniels and father of Doris Kaufman who risen from being a clerk to the Presidency of the A.S. Beck Shoe Corporation passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/07/04/96954602.pdf

 1958(15th of Tammuz, 5718): Fifty-four year old Dr. Samuel T. Yuster, a “Professor of Engineering at U.C.L.A.” and “an authority on petroleum engineering” who was the husband of Rose Yuster and the father of Frances and Louis Yuster passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/07/05/82210353.pdf

http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb7q2nb431;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00021&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere

1958: Slightly after 4:00am a fire destroyed all the sets and costumes putting an end to the planned dress-rehearsal the movie version of Gershwin’s “Porgy Bess” directed by Otto Preminger, produced by Samuel Goldwyn and co-starring Sammy Davis, Jr.

1959: Birthdate of Julie Burchill, “a defender of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle described … in 2008 as "Israel's staunchest supporter in the UK media"; who has two Israeli flags in her home”

http://www.thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/julie-burchill-brash-outspoken-and-wishing-she-was-jewish

http://www.timesofisrael.com/playing-hatikvah-on-a-desert-island/

1959: Birthdate of David Shore the Canadian lawyer turned writer, who is “best known for his work writing and producing television shows including Family Law, NYPD Blue, Due South and House.

1962: The Algerian War for Independence ends with Algeria gaining its independence from France.  The end of the war with the Algerians marked a shift in French attitudes and policies in the Middle East.  Under De Gaulle’s leadership, the French government sought to develop a power base among the Moslem nations of North Africa and the Near East.  This meant a growing policy of hostility towards Israel that would ultimately lead the French government to attempt to block the delivery of patrol boats to Israel later in the decade.  The naval craft had already been paid for when the French refused to deliver them so Israeli agents seized them and brought them to Haifa.

1963(11thof Tammuz, 5725): Fifty-nine year old “Mrs. Rosa Brown Eisendrath” the Bonham, TX born wife “Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations who gave up her career as a concert pianist to help her husband fulfill his calling passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/07/04/86712588.pdf

1963(11thof Tammuz, 5725): Eghty-two year old Isaac Feinstein, the husband of Jennie Avent Feinstein passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.

1964: In Scarsdale, NY, this afternoon, Rabbi Joachim Prinz officiated at the marriage of Herbert Horn to Mrs. Carol Coan Petergorsky, the associate director of the National Federation of Temple Young and the “widow of David W. Petegorsky, national execu­tive director of the American Jewish Congress:

1967(25thof Sivan, 5727): Seventy-one year old Hymen Alpern, the long-time New York City high school principle and “author of books on Spanish literature” whose education included a BA from CCNY, an MA from Columbia and PH.D from NYU and as the husband “of the former Belle Kopperman” with whom he had three children – Stanley, Dorothy and Rosylyn – passed away today.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/785994?c=people

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/07/07/90367291.pdf

1967: After two days of fighting in and around Ras el 'Ish, neither Egyptians nor Israeli forces move against the other.

1968: Birthdate of Alan Schwartz, the White Plains, NY native “Pulitzer Prize-nominated National Correspondent at The New York Times best known for writing more than 100 articles[1] that exposed the seriousness of concussions among football players of all ages.

1969(17thof Tammuz, 5729): Tzom Tammuz

1969(17thof Tammuz, 5729): Fifty-six year old Elizabeth H. Friedman passed away today.

1969: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for eighty-four year old Grodno born American “calligrapher, designer and artist Joseph B. Abrahams, the husband of “the former Mrs. Lillian Manning” whose creations included “the bronze doors of Temple Emanu-El” in New York  and “the interior décor for the Ziegfeld Follies.”

1970: ITV broadcast the final episode of “Doctor in the House” in which Jonathan Lynn played the Irish medical student Danny Hooley.

1971(10thof Tammuz, 5731): Parashat Chukat

1971 (10thof Tammuz, 5731): Charles B. Edison, the Clayton, MO born son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Edison who survived being shot down while serving as a navigator with the 15th Air Force and an executive in the family Edison Brothers Stores passed away today.

1971(10thof Tammuz, 5731): Sixty-four year old David “Cy” Kaselman the native of Philadelphia who played basketball for the “Sphas from 1928 to 1940” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/04/archives/cy-kaselman.html

http://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/01/cy-kaselman.html

1974: Authorities began releasing Jewish activists held in prisons at Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev during the visit of President Nixon.during Nixon’s visit begin to be released. Estimates of number of Jews detained in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev and other cities vary from 50 to 100.

1975(24thof Tammuz, 5735): Eighty-year old  South Carolina born, suffragette and aunt by marriage of folk singer Pete Seeger Anta Pollitzer passed away today in New York City.

http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/anita-pollitzer-family-papers

http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/Anita_Pollistzer.html

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pollitzer-anita

 1976: “At 2:30” this “afternoon, Prime Minister Rabin told the security for the first time since hostage situation developed on June 27 that he was in favor of the military option” saying that “Not out of an idealization, far from that, but with knowledge toward what we are heading, toward wounded, toward dead… nonetheless, I recommend that the government to authorize this,” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

1976:By the end of Day 7 the rescue mission portion of Operation Thunderbolt had been completed as Hercules Four flown Amnon Halivni took off from Entebbe and headed for Kenya carrying all of the hostages with the exception of Dora Bloch who was in a Ugandan hospital.

1976: At 8 pm EDT in Washington, DC, an aide to President Gerald Ford responded to a telephone call from Amos Erian telling of the rescue by saying “Tell Mr. Rabin I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Bicentennial” – a reference to the celebrations marking the two hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1978(28th of Sivan, 5738): Seventy-seven year old Hungarian born economist and philosopher László Radványi whose academic odyssey including from Nazi Germany to stops in Paris and Mexico before a return to West Germany passed away today.

1979: Edward Graham Lee completed his service as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.

1979: Thirty-four years after the end of World War II, the West German government voted to continue prosecution of Nazi war criminals by removing the statute of limitations on murder.

1980: One person was injured in Gaza from a terrorist bombing.

1980(19th of Tammuz, 5740):Anatoli (Tankhum) Lvovich Kaplan “a Russian painter, sculptor and printmaker, whose works often reflect his Jewish origins” passed away. One of his most noted works was “The Musicians” painted in 1968.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaplanmusicians.jpg

1982:Uri Avnery, the Israeli writer and Knesset member who has traveled from the Irgun to the leftist peace movement   met Yasser Arafat on during the "Battle of Beirut"— said to have been the first time an Israeli met personally with Arafat.

1983: In Los Angeles, Catherine (Noriega) and Michael D. Silber who is Jewish gave birth to multi-talented actress and author Alexandra Silber who appeared as “Tzeitel” and “Hodel” in different productions of “Fiddler on the Roof” while also writing the debut novel After Anatevka (chronicling what happens to the characters of Hodel and Perchik made famous by the Sholem Aleichem stories and in the musical Fiddler on the Roof.”

1985:Back to the Future: directed by Robert Zemeckis was released today, “and became the most successful film of the year, grossing more than $383 million worldwide and receiving critical acclaim.”

1987:''Furniture Making in East London: 1830 to 1980,'' an exhibition that is part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration opened at Geffrye Museum,

1989: Opening of the Thirteenth Maccabiah.

1991: “Problem Child 2” a sequel comedy co-starring Laraine Newman and featuring Gilbert Gottfried was released in the United States today.

1991(21st of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-nine Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, the native of Bialystok who made Aliyah in 1937  and was  a Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/03/obituaries/ephraim-e-urbach-hebrew-scholar-79.html

1992: The curtain came down on a revival performance of It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman is a musical composed by Charles Strouse” at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

1993(14thof Tammuz, 5753): Parashat Balak

1993(14thof Tammuz, 5753): Ninety-one year old Holocaust survivor Joseph Gruss who used the fortune he amassed from the oil and gas industry to support various philanthropies including the Be’er Hagolah Institute passed away this evening in Manhattan. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/05/obituaries/joseph-gruss-91-philanthropist-who-supported-jewish-schools.html



1997: Poet Adrienne Rich made headlines today by refusing to accept the National Medal for the Arts. “Ms Rich informed Jane Alexander, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, that she would not accept the National Medal for the Arts. To accept the award, she felt, would be hypocritical in view of the country's widening socio-economic gap. In her typical hard-hitting style, Rich wrote that, "art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage." Both the national recognition and Rich's principled refusal were emblematic of the place this poet has come to occupy in American culture.”

1998(9thof Tammuz, 5758: Eighty-six year old architect Albert Carl Koch whose firm help design the building for Temple Israel in Sawmpsoctt, MA and WW II Navy veteran who was one of the Monuments Men, passed away today.

https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/koch-lt.-albert-c.-usnr

1999:Janet Rosenberg Jagan was released from the hospital in Georgetown after being treated for a heart condition.

2000: C.K. Williams wrote today in the New Republic that “If there really is such a thing as wisdom, it might well reside in the character a master such as Yehuda Amichai can fashion for himself and so for us.”

2001(12th of Tammuz, 5761): Mordecai Richler passed away. Born in 1931, Richler was a prolific prize winning author. One of his most famous books was the “Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” which was later made into a movie starring Richard Dreyfus.

2001: The body of Yair Har Sinai, 51, of Susiya in the Hebron hills, missing since yesterday was found early Tuesday morning shot in the head and chest

2002: Vandals attacked a synagogue and a memorial to Holocaust victims in the western spa town of Karlovy Vary, daubing red paint on the synagogue and the memorial, and leaving  posters and leaflets calling for a pogrom against Jews and labeling them the founders of capitalism. (As reported by Peter S. Green)

2003: In a brief hearing today Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan refused a request that she immediately order the city prison to provide vegan diets to the three Jewish inmates at Rikers Island who have filed a federal lawsuit saying their constitutional rights were violated by prison officials' refusal to provide them a vegan diet, which the inmates say is required by their religious beliefs.”

2004: In “Meanwhile: Theodor Herzl’s Dream 100 Years After His Death,” Geoffrey Wheatcroft, concluded that  “anyone can see by visiting Israel, Montefiore and others who disparaged Zionism were wrong in saying that the Jews could not become a nation. That part of Herzl's dream has come true.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/03/opinion/03iht-edwheat_ed3_.html

2004: Ninety-six year old “actress and acting teacher” Phoebe Brand Carnovsky who worked with the legendary Clifford Odets Passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/theater/phoebe-brand-96-actress-and-group-theater-co-founder.html



2005: 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 The Missing Peace: The Inside Store of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross and Codex by Lev Grossman

2006: In “Entebbe’s Unsung Hero,” Eyal Ben described the fate of 19 year old Jean Jacques Maimoni, one of the hostages who did not survive.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3270314,00.html

2006: In the following review of “Up, Up and Oy Vey!” by Simcha Weinstein, Louis Parks describes “the obvious parallels” between the origins of Superman and Biblical depiction of Moses.

A loving parent tries to save the life of a child by placing him in a basket—or space capsule—and sending him floating/blasting to safety. Found and adopted into a new family in his new world, Moses/Superman is still guided by the wisdom and counsel of his parent. He lives a double life with a secret identity. Moses eventually leads people from abuse to freedom. Superman rescues people from disasters and crime. Superman's creators, Jewish immigrant sons Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, invented the superhero in 1938 Cleveland, Ohio. They never declared Superman was Jewish and their ambiguity was probably intentional. Though they didn't give their hero a specific ethnicity or religion, there are hints at his Jewishness. In some of his earliest stories, Superman sometimes foiled the plans of thinly disguised German Nazis, whose persecution of Jews already was infamous. Americans may not have noticed, but apparently the Nazis snapped to the implications, quickly blasting the new comic. Weinstein writes that in 1940, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels denounced Superman as Jewish. Weinstein also "recounts the Jewish influence on superheroes such as Batman, Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and X-Men, most of whom were created by Jewish artists."

2007: Friendship: An Expose by Joseph Epstein goes on sale to the general public today.

2007:  Much to the delight of all who know him, David Levin, a mensch in the truest sense of that word, celebrates his sixtieth birthday.

2007: In Jerusalem, The Israeli Ballet, featuring Yevegenia Oberzatsuba and Vladimir Shaklerov, will perform the famous, romantic ballet, "Giselle," in the Sherover Theater at the Jerusalem Theater.

2007: As of today, Ryan Kalish led with New-York Penn League with 12 stolen bases.

2008: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz (First Day)

2008: Birthday celebration of David Levin, a grand gabbai and, like his Biblical namesake, a sweet singer of song.

2008: Yehudit Ravitz performed her first Caesarea Amphitheatre show in a decade to a sold-out crowd

2008: A foundation created by Steven Spielberg is giving $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History.

2008:Today, Saudi Arabia invited an Israeli rabbi to attend an interfaith conference to be held in Madrid. Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, is the only rabbi who lives in Israel who was invited by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the World Muslim League to the conference that is slated for July 16 to 18.

2008: During the ceasefire with Hamas a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza struck near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. No casualties or damage was reported.

2009: Bill Hurwitz, world traveling computer whiz pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, and a Zeda twice over celebrates the BIG Six-O.

2009: Israeli celebrity Dudu Topaz attempted to commit suicide at the Abu Kabir Detention Center in Tel Aviv.

2009: The family and friends celebrate the anniversary of the natal day of David Levin whose accomplishments are so numerous that we would have to start a separate blog just to cover them.יום הולדת שמח   

2010: The United States Holocaust Museum is scheduled to present a special program entitled France Pruitt "Faith, Courage, and Survival in a Time of Trouble"

2010: The joy of Shabbat is doubled as it coincides with the celebration of the birthday of David Levin, a hamesha mensch par excellence and a great brother.

2010: In Cedar Rapids, the traditional Shabbat minyan at Temple Judah celebrated the holiday weekend with a “Red, White and Blue.” 

2010:Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat categorically denied today a report that the PA told George Mitchell it would allow or accept Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall in a new Arab state. The London-based Al-Hayat Arabic language daily had reported today that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell a signed letter that the PA would surrender its demand that the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem be part of his proposed PA state.

2011: The family and friends of David Levin are glad to be able to share in celebrating the natal day of this hamesha mensch.

2011: The wedding ceremony joining Abbie Silber and Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to take place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  A sweet singer of song joins a budding sage!

2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “To End All Wars” by Adam Hochschild.

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Manstein:Hitler’s Greatest General” by Mungo Melvin and the recently released paperback editions of  “Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law” by Gabriel Schoenfeld and “Spies of the Balkans Alan Furst’s that centers around “Costa Zannis, a police official and fixer who has taken to helping Jewish refugees from Berlin complete the difficult route to safety.”



2011(1stof Tammuz, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz



2011:Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza resumed rocket fire on the western Negev this morning.



2011: Hundreds of people demonstrated in Jerusalem today in support of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, who was arrested that morning for questioning over incitement to racism and violence, and released in less than one hour.



2011(1stof Tammuz, 5771: Seventy-six year old Fred Newman whose “influential role in New York life and politics defied easy description” passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/nyregion/fred-newman-76-anti-party-advocate-in-new-york-city-politics-dies.html?pagewanted=all   



 2012: The European Union of Jewish Students is scheduled to sponsor “Sharing Our Common Past: Christian and Jewish students” where young Jews and Catholics come together in Krakow to look for answers to the following questions: What divides us? What do we have in common? How can we work together? What are our roles and niches in contemporary Europe?

2012: After having premiered four days ago in Tokyo, “The Amazing Spider-Man” based on the Stan Lee created character and co-produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin was released today in the United States.



 2012:  American hard rockers Guns 'N Roses who are heading back to Israel for the first time since 1993 are scheduled to perform at Hayarkon Park along with support acts Ugly Joe Kid and local favorites Hayehudim



2012: In the midst of a record-breaking heat wave, friends and family of David Levin prepare to celebrate the birthday of one “cool dude.”



2012: Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz, angered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dissolution of a Kadima-led panel tasked with drafting new universal draft legislation yesterday, refused to meet with Netanyahu on today to try to solve a crisis that threatens the stability of the national unity government.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mofaz-reportedly-refusing-to-meet-with-netanyahu-as-coalition-crisis-deepens/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=17ea094646-2012_07_03_edition&utm_medium=email



2012: Today the state prosecutor filed an indictment against an ultra-Orthodox man for defacing the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and two IDF war memorials. At Yad Vashem, the graffiti he allegedly sprayed included: “If Hitler hadn’t existed, the Zionists would have invented him.”

Elhanan Ostrowitz, a 31-year-old Jerusalem resident, was charged at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for spraying anti-Zionist hate slogans at the sites and, apparently, has shown no remorse for his actions.

2013: “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” which “was co-curated with Winehouse's brother Alex and sister-in-law Riva” is scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum London.

2013: Friends and family are thrilled to be able to celebrate another birthday of David Levin whose many stellar qualities have outstripped my list of superaltives

2013: In Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy is scheduled to host the July 4thCelebration which will include remarks by the U.S. Ambassador, the Israeli President and the Israeli Prime Minister.

2013(25thof Tammuz, 5773): At Camp Tawonga, a Jewish summer camp in Northern California Annais Rosenberg, a counselor, was killed today when a tree fell through the dining hall. Twenty campers were also injured (As reported by JTA and the Jewish Press)

2013: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, a candidate for Sephardi chief rabbi, was due to be summoned today by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein for a hearing, following a request by MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) earlier this week that the rabbi be disqualified from running due to “racist” comments he’d made about Arab citizens of Israel. (As reported by The Times of Israel)

2013: The Administrator General announced today that a group led by businessman Ori Allon has purchased a 60 percent stake of Hapoel Jerusalem previously owned by Guma Aguiar. Following Aguiar's disappearance at sea off the coast of Florida a year ago, his ownership stake was put up for sale. The Allon group was confirmed today as the winner of the auction held by the Administrator General after promising to invest NIS 15 million in the club over the next three seasons.(As reported by Allon Sinai)

2014: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism in partnership with the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology is scheduled to host  Dr Becky Taylor, Dr Matt Cook and Dr Jessica Reinisch speaking on “Histories of Prejudice: Persecuting Others.”

2014: As “Arthur” threatens to “rain on the holiday weekend,” nothing can dampen the enthusiasm of those celebrating the birthday of David Levin whose wit and wisdom would lighten even the darkest storm.

2014: “While some in the right are calling for revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, hundreds of protesters gathered at HaBima Square in Tel Aviv this evening urging "No to Escalation, No to Revenge." (As reported by Itay Blumenthal)

2014: “Around 100 residents of the rocket-battered Sderot located just west of Gaza protested on today at the entrance to the city, in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation and after two direct hits on buildings were recorded since last night.” (As reported by Yoni Kempinski and Ari Yashar)

2014: “Over 15 rockets, part of the roughly 40 that have been fired from Gaza in the last two days, were fired at southern Israel in a salvo this afternoon that, causing two fires to break out.” (As reported by Ari Yashar)

2014: “In one of the first responses from Israel’s Jewish religious leadership to the violent aftermath of the deaths of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, former Sephardi chief rabbi Shlomo Amar on Thursday issued a fervent plea to Jewish youths to trust in God and the country’s political leadership and avoid taking the law into their own hands.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)

2014(5thof Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-nine year old Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi passed away today.

http://www.jta.org/2014/07/03/news-opinion/united-states/rabbi-zalman-schachter-shalomi-father-of-jewish-renewal-dies

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_26084358/zalman-schachter-shalomi-dies-jewish-renewal

2014: “Palestinian terrorists fired eight rockets and mortar shells into Israel tonight, bringing to over 20 the number of projectiles launched from the Gaza Strip throughout the day. The rockets fell in open areas and did not cause damage or injuries. :

2014: In response to attacks from Gaza, the IAF hit three Hamas targets which have yet to be further identified by the government.

2014: “A tense calm descended upon the capital this evening after a day of heavy rioting and emotionally charged demonstrations, as an Arab teenager allegedly murdered by Jews was laid to rest in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.” (As reported by Advi Sterman)

2015: In Washington, DC, the historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to host the “6th Street Minyan, laid-back Friday night service led by David Goldstein and Jenn Queen.”

2015: “A group of Islamic State supporters in Gaza claimed responsibility” for launching the “two rockets that exploded in Israeli near the Gaza Strip this afternoon.” (As reported by Itamar Sharon)

2015: The first ever Tel Aviv Blues Festival is scheduled to open today.

2015(16thof Tammuz, 5775): Seventy-year old Kathe Goldstein, an award winning Spanish Teacher and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community passed away today.

http://www.thegazette.com/obituaries/kathe-goldstein-20150707-0001072351-01

2015: Friends and family of David Levin begin the Holiday Weekend by celebrating the most important holiday of all – David’s natal day.

2016(27thof Sivan, 577 6):  Ninety-four year old Rabbi Max Ticktin, the former associate director of Hillel and Professor at George Washington University passed away today.

http://forward.com/opinion/national/344212/the-torah-of-max-ticktin-will-not-be-forgotten/?utm_source=In+Memoriam&utm_campaign=Wiesel%2FTicktin&utm_medium=email

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/rabbi-max-ticktin-yiddish-and-hebrew-literature-professor-at-gwu-dies-at-94/2016/07/06/198fe5ce-42f0-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html?utm_term=.27b9983cfbbc

2016: In Washington, DC, “District Merchants” playwright/director Aaron Posner’s version of The Merchant of the Venice is scheduled to be performed for the last time.

2016: As threatening weather closes in on Washington, DC, there is one ray of sunshine – the celebration of the birthday of David Levin

2016: “Soldiers in the IDF Home Front Command’s search and rescue units clear debris during a large-scale exercise in Zikim near the Gaza border” today

2016: The New York Times reviews books written by Jews and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Extra by A. B. Yehoshua, The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro and Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow

2017: Friends and family of David Levin celebrate his reaching the Biblically mentioned tally of three score plus ten and wish many, many more years of life, happiness and health for this hamisheh mensch, tzadek and chacham who is always the world’s best brother.

2017: In Brooklyn, Congregation Shevas Achim is scheduled to host “Celebratin Jewish Women!” with Marcy Katz, CEO and Business Coach.

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Alone in Berlin.”

2018(20thof Tammuz, 5778): Ninety six year old D-Day veteran Max Fuchs, who in 1944 led “fifty fellow Jewish Soldiers in reciting the Jewish Sabbath service which was “the first Jewish service to be broadcast from German soil since the rise of Hitler” passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/obituaries/max-fuchs-gi-cantor-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2018: Having reached that moment when there are no superlatives to describe him, all we can say is Best Birthday Wishes to David Levin – who truly is the world’s best brother.

2018: 155th anniversary of the day at Gettysburg, when, against all reason, a determined group of Union soldiers including Sergeant Elias Leon Hyman of Company C of the Fifth Calvary who volunteered to serve as one of the skirmishers and who would eventually die in the hell-hold of Andersonville Prison, threw back an army whose leaders were committed to ending what Lincoln called “the last best hope of man” which has provided a welcoming home to an untold number of Jews.

2018: In Durham, NC, the American Dance Festival is scheduled to present “L-E-V” which “is the culmination of years of momentum, choreographed by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, accompanied by the original music of Ori Lichtik”

2018: With the passage of the “new IDF draft legislation” by a vote of 63 to 39, supporters begin preparing to clear the next hurdle, approval of the second reading during this session of the Knesset.

2018(20stof Tammuz, 5778): Seventy-nine year old “convicted drugdealer Herbert Sperling passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/obituaries/herbert-sperling-drug-boss-tied-to-french-connection-case-dies-at-79.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2019: In San Francisco, the JCCSF is scheduled to host a concert by “Bay Area musician and guitar teacher” Kurt Huget this afternoon.

2019: Friends and family prepare to celebrate the birthday of Washingtonian David Robert Levin, who is proof that you do not need the fanfare of tanks and planes to celebrate the natal day of real mensch.

2019: In Alberta, Canada, the first session of Camp BB Riback which for almost 60 years has given Canadian a chance to connect with their Jewish roots and nature at the same time is scheduled to begin today.

2019: “The Great Jewish Bake Day,” an event that helps to “to fund the Jewish Care buses” is scheduled to take place today in the UK.

https://www.jewishcare.org/about-us/campaigns/the-great-jewish-bake-day

2020: Andrew Polk is scheduled to narrate “the Cape Cod Theatre Project’s live-streamed debut of “Moses” by veteran playwright Michele Lowe.”

2020: Shabbat Stream is scheduled to co-sponsor online “SoulVey! Shabbat Experinee, a “celebration of the relationship between Black and Jewish communities featuring music, comedy and civil rights, with rapper Kosha Dillz,”

2020: Friends and family of David Levin, the embodiment of the terms mensch and Renaissance man’ are awaiting to see how he his birthday celebration will overcome the current pandemic

2020: The Eden Tamar Music Center is scheduled to host “Excellence” – Pianists, Pedagouges and Young Artists in Concert” with the winners of the 2019 Kan Voice of Music Young Artists Competition, Tom Zalmanov and Nabil Haik.







July 3



324:  Constantine the Great defeated Licinius at the Battle of Adrianople. Constantine ruled the western half of the Roman Empire.  Licinius ruled the eastern half.  In 313 the two rulers had issued the Edict of Milan which opened the Roman Empire to Christianity.  In 320, Licinius reject the edict.  These led to a clash of political and religious power that was settled at the Battle of Adrianople.  When the war ended, Constantine and Christianity were secure in their respective positions of power and the history of the Jews of Europe would take a turn for the worse.

353: Emperor Constantius II issues a decree to confiscate all of the property anyone who converts from Christianity to Judaism. Christians worked hard to convert Jews, and they absolutely rejected conversion back to Judaism. Being Jewish is apparently something that one should be ashamed of. (As reported by Austin Cline)

987:  Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty. “The Capetian dynasty lasted for more than 300 years. Capetian rule was weak, especially during the first hundred years. Thus each duchy decided for itself how to treat its Jews. The Church gained enormous influence over local affairs and promoted the idea that the Jews were in league with the Devil - declaring them the antichrist".

1187: As the conflict between the Crusaders and Saladin comes closer to a climax, the King of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan leads his army on a forced march under the broiling sun of the Galilee

1247:Pope Innocent IV issues the encyclical Lacrimabilem Judaeorum condemning blood libels against Jews.(As reported by Austin Cline)

1431:Queen Violante, the second wife of Juan I of Aragon passed away.Unlike other Catholic monarchs of her time, Violante showed herself to be a friend of the Jews.  When she found out that Christian mobs had attacked the Jewish community of Majorca, killing at least three hundred of them, she order that “inhabitants of the islands to pay a fine of 150,000 florins (or, according to some authorities, 104,000 florins).”1475: Meshullam Cusi Rafa ben Moses Jacob established the first Hebrew press in Italy at Piove di Sacco near Padua and printed Jacob ben Asher's Arbah Turim. The same year he also printed a Slichot

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=344&letter=P

1608: Quebec City was founded by French explorer Samuel Champlain.  Prior to 1760, when the British took Canada from France, officially there were no Jews living in Quebec or any other part of the French colony.  The King of France had decreed that only Roman Catholics could settle in the colony.  This declaration was aimed at potential Protestant colonists, but it hit Jews as well.  The first known Jew settled in Quebec in 1767.

1642: Sixty-seven year old Marie de’Medici,  the daughter of Francesco I de’Medici, the 2nd grand duke of Tuscany who “invited Jewish merchants to settle in Livorno, granting them free residence, unlimited access to trade and extensive self-government in this new Medicean free-port on the Mediterranean” and the  queen consort of  Henry IV of France and the mother of King Louis XIII who “signed letters patent renewing the expulsion order "against not only Jews but also those who profess and practice Judaism” passed away today.

1749: Seventy-year old Menahem Man ben Aryeh Löb of Visun, who had tortured was executed in Vilna

1785(25thof Tammuz, 5645): Ninety-year old Lithuanian rabbi and Talmudist Aryeh Leib Gunzberg (As reported by Abraham Bloch)

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Gintsburg_Aryeh_Leib_ben_Asher1799: Dutch jurist Carel Asser, the son of Moses Salomon Asser “obtained a doctor’s degree” degree following which “he devoted himself to the practice of law in Amsterdam” making him one of the first Jewis lawyers in the Batavian republic.1800: Following Napoleon’s return to France following his failed Egyptian campaign which took him to Palestine where he met many un-kept promises to the local Jewish population, General Menou took command of the French army in Egypt which would eventually surrender to the British and lead to a cessation of hostilities between France and the Turks.

1803: Today Bavarian born Leser Lazarus Oschsenhorn married Nanette Wexler with whom he had eight children.

1806(17thof Tammuz, 5566): Tzom Tammuz as Lewis and Clark “split their force in orderto scout more of the mountainous country and look for an easier pass over the Rockies.”

1814: Birthdate of Helen Moos, the wife of Abraham Einstein and the mother of Herman Einstein.

1816(7thof Tammuz, 5576): Forty one year old Samuel Elias, the London born boxer known as Dutch Sam who carried the sobriquet “The Terrible Jew” and was the father of Welterweight Champion Young Dutch Sam passed away today.

1819: At the age of 5 years and 7 months Charles-Valentin Alkan has his solfège audition during which the examiners noted that he had “a pretty little voice.”

1822: Joseph ben Moses married Esther bat Mordecai at the Western Synagogue.

1825(17thof Tammuz, 5585): Tzom Tammuz observed on the same day that former President James Monroe wrote to future President Andrew Jackson

1830: Birthdate of Levi Spiegelberg, the native of Natzungen, Prussia, the husband of Bertha Spiegelberg who moved to New York where he passed away in 1905 at the age of 74.

1832: Mortimer Salmon the son of John Salmon and Catherine Polack was circumcised today in London.

1833: A day after he had passed away, 67 year old Godfrey Harris was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1835: Birthdate of Daniel Spitzer, the native of Vienna who gained fame as a lawyer, author and journalist.

1837: In Ermreuth, German, Loeb and Bunte Babett Munker gave birth to Miriam Marianne Rothschild, the wife of Baruch Rothschild

1844: Birthdate of Joseph Chayyim Mendes Chumaceiro who studied “under his father at Curaçao” before serving as the rabbi in a series of congregations including “from 1867 to 1874 Beth-El congregation, Charleston, South Carolina; from 1874 to 1880, of Nefashot Yebudah, New Orleans, Louisiana; from 1884 to 1887, of Beth-El Emeth, Philadelphia; from 1889 to 1891, of Mikwe, Yisrael, Curaçao; and from 1892 to 1898, of Children of Israel, Augusta, Georgia;

1844: In Stadtlengsfeld, Germany, Rabbi Liebman Adler and his wife gave to Dankmar Adler, American architect and engineer. Adler’sname is first name is a combination of the German word for thanks –‘dank’- and the Hebrew word for bitter – ‘mar’. Adler’s father created the name since Adler’s mother died in childbirth. The Adler family moved to Chicago where young Adler learned his trade as a draftsman. He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War fighting his way across Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia. After the war, Adler designed or helped build a variety of buildings including The Stock Exchange in Chicago and Carnegie Hall in New York. He also built Temples and Synagogues in Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America’s most famous architects trained in Adler’s offices. Adler passed away in 1900 after having just completed Temple Isaiah in Chicago

1849: The French entered Rome in order to restore Pope Pius IX to power. After his return to power Pius re-instituted the Ghetto for the Jews of Rome 1850.  In 1858, he would gain greater fame (or infamy) during the Mortara Affair during which Pius refused to return young Edgardo to his Jewish family.

1851: Birthdate of Isaac de Camondo, the French banker who had been born in Constantinople and whose “noteworthy” art collection was bequeathed to the Louve

1852: Birthdate of Hungarian pianist and composer Rafael Joseffy

1855(17thof Tammuz, 5615): Tzom Tammuz

1855:“Jewing the Jews” published today reported that “Lord John Russell who is notorious for great promises and abundant non-performance” has backed out on his promise to remove the legal obstructions preventing Jews from serving in Parliament.  The article goes on to trace Lord Russell’s history of involvement in the issued beginning in 1847 when he needed the financial support of the Rothschilds to win the election.  While the Rothschilds provided the funds need by Lord Russell, Lord Russell, for some mysterious reason, avoided the easy route that would have it possible for Rothschild to take his seat in the Commons and opted instead for a broader reform that was sure to fail because it needed the support of the House of Lords.  It would seem that Lord Russell really never wanted a Jew to sit in Parliament.

1857: It was reported today that a Jewish boy named Isaac Jackson was robbed and murdered in Russell, MA by a man named Charles Jones from Blanford.  Jones had recently been released from prison and had been arrested for this latest criminal act.

1860: Birthdate of Théodore Reinach “a French archaeologist, mathematician, lawyer, papyrologist, philologist, epigrapher, historian, numismatist, musicologist, professor, and politician.”

1863: In New York City Sophie and Abram J. Dittenhoefer gave birth to Irving Meade Dittenhoefer.  Dittenhoefer was the grandson of Isaac Dittenhoefer a native of Germany who came to the United States in 1834 settling first in Baltimore and then Charleston, SC where he became a successful merchant.  Irving followed his father into the legal arena graduating from Columbia Law School in 1885.  He and his wife Fannie have one son, Newman Erb Dittenhoefer.

1863: In New York City, Solomon and Emma Blogg Unger gave birth to Municipal Court Judge Henry W. Unger, “one of the thirteen sachems of Tammany Hall and the husband of Isabella Peyser Unger with whom he had two sons Albert and Herbert.

1863: Union forces decisively defeated the Rebels on the third and climactic day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  The war would last for almost two years, but the tide had been turned.  The “last best hope of man” would survive. The United States, with all of its freedom, would become home to one of the largest and most dynamic Jewish communities in the four thousand year history of the Chosen People.  Edward S. Salomon, a German-Jewish immigrant who had settled in Chicago, “became a hero during the Battle of Gettysburg.”  Lt. Colonel Salmon had two horses shot out from under him and assumed command of his regiment when the commanding officer was wounded.  The regiment was the 82nd Illinois which had over a hundred Jewish members in its ranks. Major General Carl Schurz, his corps commander, described him during the battle: "He was the only soldier at Gettysburg who did not dodge when Lee's guns thundered; he stood up, smoked his cigar and faced the cannon balls with the sang froid of a Saladin ...” Apparently the irony of comparing this brave Jewish officer to a Moslem military hero was lost on Schurz.  Such was Salomon’s skill and bravery that he would be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General before the end of the war when the Confederate and Union armies collided and battled at the Battle of Gettysburg July 1–3, 1863. His ability to lead men was quickly recognized and he rapidly rose through the ranks. Salomon received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in March 1865. After the Battle of Atlanta, Colonel John Cleveland Robinson recognized the feats of Colonel Salomon when he wrote: "I consider Colonel Salomon one of the most deserving officers. His regiment is deserving of high praise. In a point of discipline it is second to none in the corps.  Among other Jewish soldiers who fought at this climactic battle were Elias Leon Hyneman who had volunteered to serve in Company C, Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry at the start of the conflict; Captain Joseph B. Greenhut who had enlisted in the 12rh Illinois Infantry at the start of the war and served with the 82ndIllinois Infantry at Gettysburg;

1863: The 59th New York which had been organized by Philip J. Joachimsen was one of the regiments that held the line on Cemetery Ridge against Pickett’s charge.

1863: As the Battle of Gettysburg came to a close, Major Rafael Jacob Moses of Columbus, GA, shared the battlefield with his friend, Robert E. Lee

1863: The Tullahoma or Middle Tennessee Campaign a military action in which Confederate forces were defeated by Union Forces that included 79th Indiana under the command of Frederick Knefler came to an end.

1863: In “Plymouth, Devon,” Nathaniel Hart and Dinah Nathan gave birth to Benjamin Hart.

1863(16thof Tammuz, 5623): Among the dead at Gettysburg was Philadelphian Simon Arnold who had been serving since 1862 with Company G of the 140thRegiment, reminding us that preservation of the United States of America from those who wanted to destroy her was paid for in human blood.

1866: Prussia defeats Austria at the Battle of Königgratz. The victory seals the victory of the Prussians over the Austrians during Austro-Prussian War which lasted as scant six weeks.  This little known battle is one of the most decisive in modern history because of all the major events that flowed from it.  The victory removed Austria as a power among Germanic states.  This opened the way for German unification under Prussian dominance which lead to the Franco-Prussian War, which led to World War I which led to the Shoah.  The defeat of Austria led the Austrians to turn to the rest of the empire  and create the Austro-Hungarian Empire which gave empowered the Hungarian nationalist which led to granting of full rights to the Jews of the empire who gave the world everybody from Freud to Herzl and a whole lot more.  And this only scratches the surface of the impact of this one brief battle.   

1867: In Bar, near Kamenetz Podolsk (modern Ukraine). Rabbi Judah Samuel Baronedess and his wife gave birth to New York political and labor leader Joseph Barondess.

http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2014/11/yoysef-barondes-joseph-barondess.html

http://archives.nypl.org/mss/216

http://americanjewisharchives.org/collections/ms0507/

1867: Fifty-four year old Lazarus Powell who the Senator from Kentucky who was anti-Lincoln, pro-slavery and who feigned indignation over General Order No. 11 as a way of attacking the President and General Grant passed away today.

1869: In Germany (Prussia), all restrictions against Jews were lifted. After the war of 1866 Prussia increased its territory to include Hanover, Hesse-Kassel Saxony, and other territory that became part of the North German Confederation. Under the initiative of the Liberal party, full rights were extended to Jews including serving in public positions. By April 16, 1871 it became Imperial Law and was extended to the entire empire. Although later reaction revoked most of this freedom, the discrimination never returned to the level existing in the "Middle Ages" - until the rise of Hitler.

1869: Founding of the Union of Judæo-German Congregations" during a synod that was held at Leipzig.

1870: Members of Beth Jacob consecrated their house of worship in Brooklyn this afternoon.  After a procession from the local Masonic Hall to the new edifice, Rabbi Samuel M. Issacs addressed the congregation, speaking proudly of the advances that had been made recently in religious thought and strongly endorsing reforms that were being adopted by many congregations. He also addressed the wonderful climate of freedom that Jews enjoyed in the United States.  Rabbi Adolph Huebsch of Brooklyn also addressed the crowd after which a total of $1,000 was contributed by the attendees.  The new building had cost $8,000 and was fully paid for without this additional sum.

1872: An English version of La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein a Jacques Offenbach operetta, opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City.

1874: In Chicago, “Henry and Rose (Swart) Sincere gave birth to banker and broker Charles Sincere, the husband of “Mayme W Wershinksi” and member of the Illinois National Guard who was a member of the International Order of B’nai B’rith and the North Shore Congregation.

1874: Starting with this issue The Israelite, an English language weekly founded by Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise was renamed The American Israelite

1874: Among those who were arriving at Saratoga Springs at the beginning of the Summer Social Season were “Mrs. Joseph Seligman wife of the wealthy banker” and her two daughters, Miss Bella Seligamn and “Mrs. Hellman whose husband is a Director of the Bank of New Orleans.”

1875: The Foreign Notes column reported that “a new invention by Sir David Salomons for preventing railway accidents by an improved system of signaling” has been exhibited to “a large number of engineers and inventors” in London.  The invention “consists of an insulated rail laid beneath the four way, by means of which station-masts can telegraph to a train while in motion.”  Also this makes it possible for people on one train to communicate with people on another train. Salomons is best known for his several attempts to assume political office to which he had been elected with taking the oath that called for an affirmation of Christian beliefs.

1875: The Foreign Notes column reported that the Russian government is going back to its past practice of persecuting Jews.  Many Jews have moved their homes and businesses to take advantage of new opportunities created by the developing railroad system.  Authorities are now enforcing an old law and forcing the Jews to return to their former homes, leaving behind their new businesses and homes.

1877: Two Jews named David Milstein and Isaac Goldstein were tried today in New York and found guilty of first degree burglary.  They had broken into the home of a butcher named Meyer Freeman, robbing him of money and jewelry.  They were sentenced to 12 years in the state prison.  Milstein has spent 21 of his 28 years in prison while Goldstein has served one term in the state penitentiary.

1877: In Earlville, Illinois, Morris Levy and Isabelle Baker gave birth to Martha Levy the future wife Maurice Steinfeld the son of Jacob Steinfeld and Caroline Stern.

1878: Erik Weisz, who would gain fame as Houdini, arrived today in the United States “on the SS Fresia with his mother (who was pregnant) and his four brothers” after which the family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss, and settled in Appleton, Wisconsin “where his father served as Rabbi of the Zion Reform Jewish Congregation.”

1879: In London, a formal announcement was made that the three sons of the recently deceased Baron Lionel de Rothschild will carry on their father’s business activities.

1881: Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov, the son of Russian school teachers who in his brief life left his imprint on “the study of Yiddish” and the Labor Zionist movement.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ber-borochov

http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Borokhov_Ber

1882: As boatloads of Italian and Russian Jewish workers who had replaced the striking freight handlers returned from New Jersey, they were set upon and beaten by gangs of local thugs.  The strikers claimed that they were not involved and that this was merely the work of young toughs. 

1882: A Russian Jew employed on the Pennsylvania pier, No.1 North River tore a piece of his scalp that was two inches in diameter from his forehead when a heavy bale that he was putting on a truck broke free and hit an obstruction. The Russian Jews was one of the strikebreakers who were plentiful in number but inept at doing the work.

1883: In Prague, “Hermann Kafka the fourth child of Jakob Kafka, a shochet or ritual slaughterer in Osek, a Czech village with a large Jewish population located near Strakonice in southern Bohemia” NS and his wife “Julie, the daughter of Jakob Löwy, a prosperous retail merchant in Poděbrady” gave birth to author Franz Kafka. The famous Czech born author gained his real fame after his death. After many false starts Kafka earned a Doctorate of Laws and then took a mind-numbing job with an insurance company. Ill health finally enabled him to work shorter hours, which gave him time to pursue his writings. Three of his best known works are the Trial, The Castle and America. Kafka became famous in spite of himself. He had left word that at the time of his death all of his manuscripts were to be destroyed. Fortunately his friend Max Brod disobeyed him and had the works published. Kafka had planned to immigrate to Palestine before his untimely death in 1924 hastened by the effects of tuberculosis. On being Jewish Kafka wrote, "Not one calm second is granted to the Western Jew. Everything has to be earned, not only the present and the future but also the past…",

1884:The attorney for Gustave Jean Jacquet defended the painter from charges by Alexandre Dumas fils that he had defamed him by caricaturing the French author and dramatist as Baghdad Jew by arguing that the author’s features were public property.  In making his argument he cited the precedent of Horace Vernet “who depicted a well-known Jew running away with the cashbox.” Dumas was the illegitimate son of the more famous author of the same name.  He was also the maternal grandfather of Alexander Lippman the French Olympic fencer whose father was Jewish.

1885: “Sending Back French Paupers” published today described the situation of indigent Jewish immigrants who had been sent to the United States  by the Hebrew Aid Society of Paris last season and been returned to their place of origin because of their lack of funds and financial sponsors.

1886: Birthdate of Jerusalem native Israel Porath, the husband of Miriam Titktin with whom he “had 7 children - Shoshana, Samuel, Tzve, Benjamin, Ben Zion, Joseph, and David – and “for almost five decades,” “the ‘dean’ of Cleveland, Ohio’s Orthodox rabbis.”

https://case.edu/ech/articles/p/porath-israel

1887: “The Goethe-Zelter Letters” published today provides a detailed review of Goethe’s Letters to Zelter With Extracts From Those Of Zelter To Goethe, selected, translated and annotated by A.D. Coleridge. The book includes a description of the strange relationship between Carl Zeller, who did not like Jews, and his favorite pupil Felix Mendeslohn, whose family was Jewish.

1887: In St. Louis, MO, Nicholas Scharff and Carrie Bernheimer gave birth to their sixth child, Aurelia S. Scharff.

1888: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children conducted the first of its ten summer excursions for poor Jewish children and their mothers.

1888: Four days after she had passed away, Sarah Salomons, (nee Hurwitz), the native of Highgate, London and daughter of Hyman Hurwitz and Hester Levy was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1889: “Dramatic poet and writer” Josef von Weilen passed away today.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Weil_von_Weilen,_Josef&prev=search



1889: In Brooklyn, Dr. Henry M. Leipzieger of the Hebrew Technical School presented a paper entitled “Manual Training in Relation to Public School Work” at a meeting of the New York State Teacher’s Association.

1890: The striking cloakmakers and tailors, most of whom are Polish and Russian Jews, resorted to violence after have peacefully endured the lockout for several weeks. Groups of strikers attacked scabs working at the Mercantile Cloak Company and Meyer Jonason & Co.

1890: Idaho joins the Union becoming the 43rd star on the Star Spangled Banner.  Despite a comparatively small Jewish population, Idaho was the first state to elect a Jew as Governor. On his second try for the top spot Moses Alexander was elected in 1914.  He served from 1915 until 1919.  A  German immigrant, Alexander had previously been elected Mayor of Boise. Alexander was not casual about his Jewish identity.  His wife was a Jew by choice, having converted when she married Alexander.

1891:Reports published today describing the recent death of  Prince Vladimir Andreyevich Dolgorukov, governor-general (mayor) of Moscow include a description of the positive relationship he enjoyed with the Jews of that city which ran contrary to the policy of the Czar. The Czar finally became so upset with him over this that he replaced him with the Grand Duke Sergius and forced him into virtual exile.

1893: In New York, “the Baron Hirsch Fund Schools held their ‘English Day’ exercise today during which the students’ songs and recitation showed their “undying allegiance to the flag of their adopted country.”

1893: “Growth of the Feeling Against the Jews in Germany” published today that by having elected sixteen members to the Reichstag, the anti-Semites have exceeded by one the number need to claim the privileges of a Party including the right to introduce legislation.  Herman Ahlwardt, who has just been released from prison and is the group’s leader, plans on introducing “special taxes on Jew bankers and traders. “Anti-Semitism in Germany has ceased to be a sporadic local phenomenon.” In 1887 one anti-Semite was elected to Reichstag; in 1890, it was five; and now it is 16 who “have almost 500,000 voters behind them. Nor do these figures tell all” since “the Conservative Party…pledged by its platform…to any decent and practicable measures against the Jews.”  (Editor’s Note – I realize this is a long entry but it challenges the notion that anti-Semitism in Germany was the product of the Versailles Treaty, the Great Depression or intimidation by a handful of brown-shirted thugs.)

1893: Today’s London Times is scheduled to publish a “startling photographic glimpse of what Russia is really like” which has been prepared by Sir Julian Goldsmid.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0F17FA3F5A1A738DDDAB0894DF405B8385F0D3

1894: Dr. Adolph Radin, Isidor D. Morrison and Julius Harburger addressed those attending tonight’s exercise hosted tonight by the Russian American Hebrew Association in honor of the Fourth of July. The program also included music and a benediction by Rabbi Moses of Port Gibson.

1894: Rabbi Levy of New Haven, CT officiated at the wedding of Sadie Bentschner to Isadore Israel at the home of the bride’s parents in Charleston, SC.

1895: Maria Moses, the daughter of Emanuel and Ann Moses, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1895: The will of the late Lewis S. Levy was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s office today.

1896:”Gathered About Town” published today provided further indication of the large number of foreign born Jews living in New York.  Notices posted in the main corridor of the General Post Office are printed in Hebrew letters providing “instruction for the many Russian Polish Jews who have business with the postal authorities.” Similar notices have been printed in German and Italian for years.

1896: The body of the man found floating in New York’s Clyde River on June 25 has been identified as 25 year old Simon Mischel, a member of well-to-do family living on Delancey Street.  Apparently he was shoved into the water after having been robbed an strangled by a gang of robbers who have been operating in the area.

1896: In Vienna, the Diet took up the question of extending the franchise.  An amendment, which seems to have great support, was proposed that would exclude Jews and Converts from exercising the franchise. 

1896: According to a report to be published in today’s Daily News, the attacks on the Jews at Mizalbisch were orchestrated by a Russian officer who was seeking “revenge against a Jewish” tavern keeper who had rescued a peasant whom the officer “was thrashing.”

1896: In Russia, Local administrators arbitrarily reclassified certain “townlets” as “villages” which caused havoc for Jewish merchants due to the restrictive nature of the May Laws.

1896: “Death of Jules S. Abecasis” published today described the fatal collision between the “well known rubber broker” and active member of the Jewish community who was riding his bicycle when it was struck by an express wagon.

1896: Twenty-two year old Mary Colar was fined five dollars on a charge of disorderly conduct based on the claim of 2 police officers “that she had made improper proposals to them” -  a claim that she denied and which appeared questionable since the officers “can speak no Hebrew and she can speak no English.”

1897: A summary of the acquisitions made by the New York Public Library during May published today show that of the institution had acquired, by various means, 1,600 books and pamphlets written in Hebrew and 360 works in Yiddish. In additions to the Bible and Commentaries, Talmud, Midrash, Cabala and Jewish History books, the library now owns “165 photographs of prominent Jews.”

1897: According to figures released yesterday when his will was filed for probated Mayer Lehman “left an estate valued at $450,000 in real and $500,000 in personal property.  In addition to bequeathing thousands of dollars to a variety of Jewish and Gentile charities, Lehman left $20,000 for the executors to use as they see fit to assist family members and “for such employees of Lehman brothers as may be in need of aid.

1897: “Jewish Pupils Celebrate” published today described the exercises at the Baron de Hirsch English Day School in which children of Jewish immigrants demonstrated their patriotism and fluency in English as they prepare to observe Independence Day.

1897: “Americans in Babylonia” published today provided a review of Nippur or Explorations and Adventures by Dr. John Punnett Peters in which the author describes the Jewish community that originated during the period of “Captivity” which created to great centers – Sura near Babylonia and Nehardea or Nearda which is not far from Anabar.  The latter was a prominent Jewish center, he says for 800 years until it was replaced by Baghdad.

1898: “Jewish Chautauqua Society” published today described plans for the Second Assembly of the society which will be held at Atlantic City later this month with headquarters at Congregation Beth Israel on Pennsylvania Avenue.

1899: Birthdate of German native and “British neurologist, Ludwig Guttman, the founder of the Paralymics.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-Guttmann

1901: Today’s sessions of the Central Conference of American Rabbis meeting in Philadelphia “were devoted principally to routine business” which included the treasurer report by Charles S. Levi and a report “on Summer schools non-affiliated with congregations.”

1902: Birthdate anthropologist Melville Jacobs a long-time member of the faculty of the University of Washington and the husband of fellow anthropologist Elizabeth Jacobs.

https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jacobs_melville_1902_1971_/#.Wzrrn_ZFx9A

1903: In Dusseldorf, Gustav Cohn, the German born son of “Levi and Eva Regina Cohn” and his wife Paul Cohen gave birth to Leo Ernst Cohen

1903: Pogrom began in Bialystok.

1904(20th of Tammuz, 5664): Theodor Herzl passed away at the age of 44. One person can make a difference.  “If you will it, it is no dream!”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CdfCZa2XOI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO88cy4YgHU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWi3pV8_XQY

1904: In Manhattan Mollie (Isaacs) Lefkowitz and Samuel Lefkowitz gave birth to Louis J. Lefkowitz the Republican lawyer who served the state’s Attorney General for 22 years.

1904(20thof Tammuz, 5664): Sixty-four year old Charles Wessolowsky, the husband of Johanna Wessolowsky passed away today.

http://www.jewishsouth.org/resources/reflections-southern-jewry-letters-charles-wessolowsky

http://www.amazon.com/Reflections-Southern-Jewry-Wessolowsky-1878-1879/dp/0865540209

1905: Today, “while the general situation in Odessa has improved “those best knowing the conditions in the city are of the opinion that the graves danger now lies in a possible anti-Jewish rising” because the Jews who number about 175,000 are “deeply hated for a variety of reasons.

1906: As the seventh annual convention of the Federation of Zionists in Canada continues to meet in Toronto could take satisfaction in yesterday’s announcement by President De Sola of Montreal “that the Sultan of Turkey had revoked the laws forbidding Jews to settle in Palestine” which meant
that it was no possible for Jews to inhabit the country and enjoy the protection of its laws.


1907: Rabbi Joseph Stotlz delivered the “President’s Message” at the annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.

1907: This evening, at the convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbi Max Heller led the Round Table on the “Compatibility of Zionism and Reform Judaism” and Rabbi William S. Friedman led the Round Table on “The Rabbi and Public Activities.”

1907: Birthdate of Felix Solomon Cohen, the New Deal lawyer who re-shaped the legal status of Native Americans.

1908: On the Western calendar, seventy-six year old Count Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev, the prime mover behind the anti-Semitic May Laws passed away today.

1909(14thof Tammuz, 5669): Parashat Balak was chanted on the same day that “Federal charges were filed against the manufacturers of Koca Nola, the third most popular cola after Coke and Pepsi, after a one-gallon jug of the syrup was found to include cocaine.”

1910: Dr. Harry Friedenwald of Baltimore, the out-going President was among those who address the three hundred delegation of the American Federation of Zionists who were attending the organizations 13th annual convention in Pittsburgh.

1911: “Zionist Discuss Plans” published today described “a plan to buy one hundred thousand acres of land annually in Palestine in order to established colonies of Jews” which presented at the fourteenth annual convention of the Federation of American Zionist” meeting at Tannersville, NY>

1912(18thof Tammuz, 5672): Seventy year old Abraham Boehm, the German born son of Sara and Hirsch Bohm passed away today in Mt. Vernon, NY.

1913: The factional trouble that had been predicted broke out today on the second day of the 24th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis which split over several matters including “publication of a special prayer book for Sunday services” for “those congregations that must have a Sunday service” and which found a tearful Rabbi Isaac S. Moses of New York, one of the oldest members of the conference asking “that either new methods be adopted by the Conference or that his name be stricken from the membership roll” since he objected to the “defaming of rabbis anywhere.

1913: Two after she  passed away at the Home for Aged Jews in Chicago, 78 year old Nanette Flesch, the aunt of “Walter J, Eugene, Edwin and Rose Flesch  was scheduled to be buried at Rosehill today.

1913: In Manhattan, Rene and Samuel Hoffman gave birth to art collection Janice H. Levin, the widow of attorney and real estate developer Philip J. Levin (As reported by Enid Nemy)

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/27/nyregion/janice-levin-87-philanthropist-of-the-arts.html

1914: As the “winds of world war” begin to blow across Europe, today” a state funeral was held for Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in Vienna, with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria and other members of the imperial family in attendance.”

1914(5thof Tevet, 5674): Parashat Vayigash

1914: Rabbi David Lefkowitz of Dayton, OH, led Sabbath morning services at the “25thanniversary conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis” being held “at Temple Beth El in Detroit, Michigan.”

1915: Frank Flint, the former U.S. Senator from California who supported efforts have Georgia Governor Slaton commute of Leo Frank’s sentence was quoted as saying “We want to honor Slaton for the manly thing he did in giving Frank the benefit of the doubt and saving his life.”

1916: In Philadelphia, Zionists continued their convention for a third day.

1916(2ndof Tammuz, 5676): Twenty-two year old Lance Corporal Hyman Baum the son of Leah and Nathan Baum died today while serving with the “1st Battalion, Border Regiment” after which he was buried at Louvencourt Military Cemetery.

1917(13th of Tammuz, 5677):  Twenty-six year old Lieutenant Benjamin Cohen of South Africa became a casualty of war today.

1917: In Asbury Park, NJ, delegates at the Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea were scheduled to attend a business session this morning.

1917: “Because of various conflicting reports, Ira Nelson Morris, the American Minister has requested the Swedish Foreign Office to use its best efforts to ascertain the truth about the condition of the Jews in Palestine.”

1917: It was reported to that “the Jewish Teachers’ Congress, which is now meeting in Petrograd, has appointed a committee to see the Minister of Education in order to obtain the abolition of certain restrictions which still attach to the education of Jewish children.”

1917: Ex-Ambassador Abram I. Elkus who is traveling aboard a French steamer, did not arrive in New York City as originally planned.

1918: According to reports received today by the Jewish Corresponded Bureau in Amsterdam, “anti-Semitic outbreaks have occurred in Jaroslau and other Galician towns” where it is said “Jewish residents have been made the victims of excesses and their shops have been plundered” while the authorities refused “to interfere” with the attacks.

1918: In the South Bronx, clothing store owner Henry Adelson and seamstress Rose (Zagor) Adelson, gave birth Yale trained attorney Shirley Adelson, the wife of filmmaker Elwood Seigel  who gained fame as leading civil rights attorney Shirley Siegel who had personal experience with discrimination when no law firm would hire because she was Jewish and a female

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/nyregion/shirley-siegel-leading-new-york-civil-rights-lawyer-dies-at-101.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

https://www.nycbar.org/shirley-adelson-siegel

1918: Sultan Mehmed V of the Ottoman Empire passed away at the age of 73.  He had been the titular head of the empire that sided with the Central Powers during World War I.  Among the Jews who died fighting under the Sultan’s banner were Major Isaac Adjubel, Captain Albert Cohen, Captin Izidor Shalom, Captain Zavarro, Captain Albert Menashe, Captain Pepo Akshiote, Captain Siyaves, Captain Albagli, Captain Asa, Captain David Feder and Captain Pharmacist Behor Alfandar.

1919: Birthdate of Orange Free State native Colin Legume, the journalist and ant-Apartheid activist.

http://spartacus-educational.com/JOUlegum.htm

1920(17thof Tammuz, 5680)

1920: In Manhattan, attorney Selig Seligman and his wife, concert pianist Selma Edelman, gave birth to Daniel Edelman, the founder of Edelman, “one of the largest public relations firms in the world” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)

1921:Solomon Lozovsky ended his service as Chairman of the International Trade Union Council and began serving as General Secretary of the Red International of Labor Unions.

1921: Birthdate of Levi Yitzchak Horowitz, the second Rebbe of the Boston Hasidic dynasty founded by his father, Rabbi Pinchas Horowitz.

http://www.haaretz.com/the-bostoner-rebbe-the-first-american-born-hasidic-leader-1.2308

1923: In Paris, Béatrice de Camondo and Léon Reinach the son of Théodore Reinach gave birth to their second child, Bertrand.  He would die a t Auschwitz in 1944.

1923: Mayer Dizengoff, the Mayor of Tel Aviv, sails from New York City aboard the Aquitania.

1924: In Syracuse, NY, Bessie and Harry Israel gave birth to Marvin Israel “a painter and editorial art director and a teacher of graphics and photography.”

1924: Birthdate of Jiri Drillich who, in 1942, was transported from Prague to Ujazdow where she was murdered.

1924: In the Bronx, “Hyman Bassen, a writer and labor activist, and Ida (Orland) Bassen” gave birth to Nancy Bassen who gained fame as Nancy B. Reich, the author of Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman.  (As reported by Corinna de Fonseca-Wollheim)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/11/obituaries/nancy-b-reich-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1924: Ted "Kid" Lewis (born Gershon Mendeloff) “won his last two titles, the British and European Welterweight crowns, today — again at London's Royal Albert Hall — by defeating Johnny Brown.

1925: Birthdate of Tony Curtis. Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, Curtis was sometimes referred to as "a poor man's Cary Grant."  One of his biggest hits came when he played opposite Grant in the film "The Pink Submarine."  Other famous roles were in "Some Like It Hot" with costars Jack Lemmon and that famous Jewess, Marilyn Monroe and as the wisecracking New York born orderly in "Dr. Newman, M.D."

1926: Birthdate of Meyer Kupferman, the New York born clarinet player and composer.

http://www.milkenarchive.org/people/view/all/594/Kupferman,+Meyer

http://www.meyerkupferman.com/

1926: In Providence, RI, Samuel Goldberg and the former Elsie Hamburger gave birth to Elsie Marie Goldberg who gained fame as Elena Doria, “the longtime director of the Metropolitan Opera’s children’s chorus. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/arts/music/elena-doria-beloved-and-strict-as-hell-director-of-met-childrens-chorus-dies-at-90.html?_r=0


1929: At the opening meeting of the Assembly of the Elected, “the national body which elects the National Council of Palestine Jews, a dispute broke out between Dr. Ton, the presiding officer and revisionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky.  The dispute revolved around revisionist claims that several of their delegates were attacked by Labor delegates and was so intense the meeting was adjourned.

1929: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held for sixty year old Boris D. Bogen, a “teacher at the Baron de Hirsch Trade School in New York and “the principal of the Baron de Hirsch Agricultural School in Woodbine, NJ” and author of Psychology of Teaching Foreign Languages and Born a Jew who was the husband of Elisabeth Scholtz.

http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0003/ms0003.html

https://www.amazon.com/Born-Alfred-Segal-Boris-Bogen/dp/B00COBYN3S

1930: “Holiday,” a “romantic comedy with music by Josiah Zuro was released today in the United States.

1933: The 8thannual convention of Junior Hadassah is scheduled to come to an end today in Cleveland, OH.

1933: In Chicago, the convention of the ZOA comes to a close/

1933: Birthdate of Harvard trained attorney Herbert Elish, a New York City Sanitation Commissioner, the husband of the former Leslies Jane Rubin and the father of Harry and Daniel Ellish.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/04/27/archives/zealous-sanitation-commissioner-herbert-elish.html

1934: Rebbetzin Renee Schick who founded the Schick's Bakery in Boro Park in 1941, and her husband gave birth to Professor Marvin Schick “an expert on Jewish Day Schools who served “as liaison to the Jewish Community” for John Lindsay during his second term as Mayor of NYC and his twin brother Allen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/nyregion/marvin-schick-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1935(2ndof Tammuz, 5695):  Fifty-seven year old André-Gustave Citroën, the son of  “diamond merchant Levie Citroen from the Netherlands and Masza Amelia Kleinman from Warsaw, Poland” the automobile manfacture best known for the car that bears his name passed away today in his native Paris.

http://www.citroenet.org.uk/miscellaneous/history/history01.html

1935: Sir Francis Montefiore, grandnephew of the noted philanthropist, who had served for several years President of the Board of Elders of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in London; a position to which he was first elected in 1904 was buried today at the Spanish & Portuguese Jews Cemetery at Mile End Road in London.

1936(13th of Tammuz, 5696): German Jew Stefan Lux kills himself in the assembly room of the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. The suicide is in protest of Germany's persecution of Jews. He was an early supporter of Theodore Herzl and Zionism but curtailed his efforts following the Great War.

1936 The Palestine Postreported from London that the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Ormsby Gore, told the House of Commons that "there were no provisions in the Covenant or Peace Treaties or the Mandate regarding the withdrawal of the Mandate from the Power entrusted with it."

1936: Sir Sidney Abrahams became the 26th Chief Justice of Ceylon, a post he would hold until 1939.

1936 The Palestine Postreported that Hebron was fined a collective fine of £2,000 for ambushing an army patrol. Two British soldiers were hurt in this encounter.

1936: The Palestine Postreported that ten suspected Jewish communists were rounded up by police in Tel Aviv and interned at the army's Sarafand detention camp.

1936 The Palestine Postreported that when questioned about a news item which appeared in an Arab newspaper, the management of the Jerusalem YMCA declared that it offered a platform on which young men, irrespective of their race, creed and religion could cooperate and meet in an atmosphere of congeniality and goodwill.

1936: Jewish stores were sacked and several Jews were wounded by Moslems in Gafsa and Sousse Tunisia which led the Jewish merchants in Sousse to barricade “themselves in their shops” and fight “off attacking Moslems with rifle and pistol fire” while they awaited the arrival troops who were supposed to restore order.

1937: In Buffalo, NY Esther Miriam (née Sheinberg) and Buffalo society band leader and piano teacher Irving Daniel Shire gave birth to  David Lee Shire the songwriter and composer whose work included the soundtracks for “The Taking of Phelham One Two Three” and “The Conversation.”

1937:Twenty-nine year old Brooklynite Moe Schultz returned today on the President Roosevelt from Palestine, where he said he had driven a truck for three years between the towns of Haifa and Tel-Aviv, a distance of ninety miles, and had many thrilling escapes from Arab snipers.

1938: The unveiling of a memorial in memory of Sarah Leah Broadwin is scheduled to take place this morning at the Mt. Zion Cemetery on Long Island.

1938: Today “hundreds of house owners in the fashionable suburbs” of Vienna “have been ordered by National Socialist organizations to give notice immediately to Jewish tenants to vacate their apartments within a fortnight” with the purpose of keeping “the fashionable districts ‘clear.’”

1939: A sailboat of unknown nationality arrived in Haifa flying the blue and white colors of the Zionist cause.  British police boarded the boat “where they found 697 Jewish immigrants including 192 women and 37 children.”  The immigrants are classified as “illegal” and their total will be deducted from the pitifully small allotment of Jews allowed to enter Palestine under the White Paper.

1939(16th of Tammuz, 5699): Tonight Arabs attacked Tel Hayim, a settlement near Tel Aviv, killing one Jewish supernumerary.

1940: Following yesterday’s request by the OKW, the German military were working on the plans for the invasion of England code named Operation Sea Lion.

1941: Associate Justice Harlan Fisk Stone began serving as Chief Just of the U.S Supreme Court. From 1932 until 1937, Stone, the New England Protestant joined the two Jewish Justices – Cardozo and Brandeis – as the 3 Musketeers, the liberal faction of the Supreme.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): At Nowogrodek, the Nazis sought fifty "volunteers" to be members of the Jewish council there. They are taken away and never seen again. Fifty more were shot in the town square.

1941: In Vilna, all the Jews were required to wear identity badges.

1941: In Liepāja, SS-Obersturmbannführer Reichert’s EK 1a men began their roundup of and began marching to trenches in Rainis Park where they will begin massacring them.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): One hundred Jews are murdered at Bialystok, Poland.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): In the Ukraine, 3500 Jews are killed at Zloczow and hundreds die at Drohobycz.

1941(8th of Tammuz, 5701): Fifty Jews in Novogroduk, Belorussia, who volunteer for a German-organized Jewish council, "disappear." Another 50, selected at random, are shot in the town square to the accompaniment of music played by a German band.

1941: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin orders the establishment of partisan units to harass German troops in occupied Soviet territory. Jews would play an active role in these units. There were also units made up exclusively of Jewish partisans.

1941: Birthdate of American contractor Warren Weinstein who was kidnapped by al-Qaeda in 2011.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/warren-weinstein-abduction-pakistan-police-release-kidnapping-suspect/story?id=14332931#.TtD8_mN4MjU

1941: Birthdate of Gloria Rachel Bloom, who gained fame as Gloria Allred, the publicity seeking lawyer.

1942: In Manhattan, the United Palestine Appeal reported today that “The Palestine Government granted 1,500 immigration certificates in Palestine in the three months ending on June 30.”

1943: Birthdate of self-promoting television news personality Geraldo Rivera.  Rivera’s father was from Puerto Rico.  After moving to New York he married a Jewish woman named Lily Friedman.  Contrary to popular urban legend, Rivera’s original name was not Gerry Rivers.  And he did not change his name to appeal to Hispanic audiences.

1944: Minsk was liberated from Nazi control by Soviet troops during Operation Bagration

1944: The British War Cabinet agrees to examine Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann's request for the formation of a Jewish Brigade to fight in the British Army, with the white and blue Star of David as its standard.

1945: In Jerusalem, Israeli poet and political activist Yonatan Ratosh and his wife gave birth to award winning mathematician Saharon who splits his time between Hebrew University and Rutgers in New Jersey.

1946: Theodore Levin was nominated by President Harry S. Truman to a seat on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan vacated by Edward Julien Moinet.

1946:  Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis met for the first time in Atlantic City.  They would become one of the leading comedy teams of their time.  The Italian Crooner played straight man to the Jewish clown.

1946: After having been “missing” for two days, 8 year old Henryk Blaszcyk returned to his family at Kielce having gone to his home town to visit friends which led his father to file a second report with the local police “claiming his son had been kidnapped by the Jews” but had managed to escape.”  This false report would result in a police investigation that would provide the excuse for another round of Poles murdering Jews.

1947: Birthdate of brilliant attorney, Renaissance man and all-around great guy, David Robert Levin- a real Mensh. He is also one heck of a great brother!

1948: Rumors abound in besieged Jerusalem that a new road was being built that would bring supplies to the embattled city.

1949: Birthdate of world traveling computer whiz and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, Bill Hurwitz

1949 David Ben-Gurion issued a public exoneration of Meir Tubiansky and restitution of his rank and rights. Four days later his body was re-buried on Mount Herzl. In November 1949, after a trial at which Binyamin Gibli appeared as a witness for the prosecution, Isser Be'eri was found guilty of manslaughter.

1951: The Jerusalem Postreported that the first reading of the Women's Equal Rights Bill was passed by the Knesset. The Knesset had also passed a bill empowering the government to float loans up to IL5m. from financial institutions to be applied to the defense budget. 128,223 new immigrants entered the country during the first six months of 1951. Since the state was established in 1948, 638,597 immigrants arrived.

1952: NBC broadcast the first episode of “Mr. Peepers” in which Walter Matthau using the name “Leonard Elliot” portrayed “the gym teacher Mr. Wall.

1953(20thof Tammuz, 5713): Forty-seven year old New York native Irving Reis, the creator of the radio anthology Columbia Worship who turned his skill to screenwriting and movie director and the husband of Meta Arenson with whom he had three children passed away today after which he was “buried in the Jewish Cemetery Hillside Memorial Park.

1953: Today, in Portland, Oregon, at the “94th annual convention of the National Education Association” “the delegation of New York State teachers…opened fire on the NEA’s sponsorship of travel tours to Arab countries in the Middle East from which American Jewish teachers are barred. (JTA)

1956: Seventy-nine year old Lithuanian native Kalman Marmor who in 1906 came to the United States where he pursued a career in journalism with such publications as “the Jewish daily Morning Freiheit” and the Daily Forward.

https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/marmor-kalman

http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=32584

1956: Release date for “Somebody Up There Likes Me” starring Paul Newman, with a script by Ernest Lehman and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.

1957(4thof Tammuz, 5717): Sixty-five year old Benjamin Daniels, the husband of Gertrude Daniels and father of Doris Kaufman who risen from being a clerk to the Presidency of the A.S. Beck Shoe Corporation passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/07/04/96954602.pdf

 1958(15th of Tammuz, 5718): Fifty-four year old Dr. Samuel T. Yuster, a “Professor of Engineering at U.C.L.A.” and “an authority on petroleum engineering” who was the husband of Rose Yuster and the father of Frances and Louis Yuster passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1958/07/05/82210353.pdf

http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb7q2nb431;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00021&toc.depth=1&toc.id=&brand=calisphere

1958: Slightly after 4:00am a fire destroyed all the sets and costumes putting an end to the planned dress-rehearsal the movie version of Gershwin’s “Porgy Bess” directed by Otto Preminger, produced by Samuel Goldwyn and co-starring Sammy Davis, Jr.

1959: Birthdate of Julie Burchill, “a defender of Israel, The Jewish Chronicle described … in 2008 as "Israel's staunchest supporter in the UK media"; who has two Israeli flags in her home”

http://www.thejc.com/arts/arts-interviews/julie-burchill-brash-outspoken-and-wishing-she-was-jewish

http://www.timesofisrael.com/playing-hatikvah-on-a-desert-island/

1959: Birthdate of David Shore the Canadian lawyer turned writer, who is “best known for his work writing and producing television shows including Family Law, NYPD Blue, Due South and House.

1962: The Algerian War for Independence ends with Algeria gaining its independence from France.  The end of the war with the Algerians marked a shift in French attitudes and policies in the Middle East.  Under De Gaulle’s leadership, the French government sought to develop a power base among the Moslem nations of North Africa and the Near East.  This meant a growing policy of hostility towards Israel that would ultimately lead the French government to attempt to block the delivery of patrol boats to Israel later in the decade.  The naval craft had already been paid for when the French refused to deliver them so Israeli agents seized them and brought them to Haifa.

1963(11thof Tammuz, 5725): Fifty-nine year old “Mrs. Rosa Brown Eisendrath” the Bonham, TX born wife “Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations who gave up her career as a concert pianist to help her husband fulfill his calling passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/07/04/86712588.pdf

1963(11thof Tammuz, 5725): Eghty-two year old Isaac Feinstein, the husband of Jennie Avent Feinstein passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.

1964: In Scarsdale, NY, this afternoon, Rabbi Joachim Prinz officiated at the marriage of Herbert Horn to Mrs. Carol Coan Petergorsky, the associate director of the National Federation of Temple Young and the “widow of David W. Petegorsky, national execu­tive director of the American Jewish Congress:

1967(25thof Sivan, 5727): Seventy-one year old Hymen Alpern, the long-time New York City high school principle and “author of books on Spanish literature” whose education included a BA from CCNY, an MA from Columbia and PH.D from NYU and as the husband “of the former Belle Kopperman” with whom he had three children – Stanley, Dorothy and Rosylyn – passed away today.

https://trove.nla.gov.au/people/785994?c=people

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/07/07/90367291.pdf

1967: After two days of fighting in and around Ras el 'Ish, neither Egyptians nor Israeli forces move against the other.

1968: Birthdate of Alan Schwartz, the White Plains, NY native “Pulitzer Prize-nominated National Correspondent at The New York Times best known for writing more than 100 articles[1] that exposed the seriousness of concussions among football players of all ages.

1969(17thof Tammuz, 5729): Tzom Tammuz

1969(17thof Tammuz, 5729): Fifty-six year old Elizabeth H. Friedman passed away today.

1969: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for eighty-four year old Grodno born American “calligrapher, designer and artist Joseph B. Abrahams, the husband of “the former Mrs. Lillian Manning” whose creations included “the bronze doors of Temple Emanu-El” in New York  and “the interior décor for the Ziegfeld Follies.”

1970: ITV broadcast the final episode of “Doctor in the House” in which Jonathan Lynn played the Irish medical student Danny Hooley.

1971(10thof Tammuz, 5731): Parashat Chukat

1971 (10thof Tammuz, 5731): Charles B. Edison, the Clayton, MO born son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Edison who survived being shot down while serving as a navigator with the 15th Air Force and an executive in the family Edison Brothers Stores passed away today.

1971(10thof Tammuz, 5731): Sixty-four year old David “Cy” Kaselman the native of Philadelphia who played basketball for the “Sphas from 1928 to 1940” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/04/archives/cy-kaselman.html

http://peachbasketsociety.blogspot.com/2018/01/cy-kaselman.html

1974: Authorities began releasing Jewish activists held in prisons at Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev during the visit of President Nixon.during Nixon’s visit begin to be released. Estimates of number of Jews detained in Moscow, Leningrad, Odessa and Kiev and other cities vary from 50 to 100.

1975(24thof Tammuz, 5735): Eighty-year old  South Carolina born, suffragette and aunt by marriage of folk singer Pete Seeger Anta Pollitzer passed away today in New York City.

http://lcdl.library.cofc.edu/content/anita-pollitzer-family-papers

http://americancivilwar.com/women/Womens_Suffrage/Anita_Pollistzer.html

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pollitzer-anita

 1976: “At 2:30” this “afternoon, Prime Minister Rabin told the security for the first time since hostage situation developed on June 27 that he was in favor of the military option” saying that “Not out of an idealization, far from that, but with knowledge toward what we are heading, toward wounded, toward dead… nonetheless, I recommend that the government to authorize this,” (As reported by Mitch Ginsburg)

1976:By the end of Day 7 the rescue mission portion of Operation Thunderbolt had been completed as Hercules Four flown Amnon Halivni took off from Entebbe and headed for Kenya carrying all of the hostages with the exception of Dora Bloch who was in a Ugandan hospital.

1976: At 8 pm EDT in Washington, DC, an aide to President Gerald Ford responded to a telephone call from Amos Erian telling of the rescue by saying “Tell Mr. Rabin I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Bicentennial” – a reference to the celebrations marking the two hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

1978(28th of Sivan, 5738): Seventy-seven year old Hungarian born economist and philosopher László Radványi whose academic odyssey including from Nazi Germany to stops in Paris and Mexico before a return to West Germany passed away today.

1979: Edward Graham Lee completed his service as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.

1979: Thirty-four years after the end of World War II, the West German government voted to continue prosecution of Nazi war criminals by removing the statute of limitations on murder.

1980: One person was injured in Gaza from a terrorist bombing.

1980(19th of Tammuz, 5740):Anatoli (Tankhum) Lvovich Kaplan “a Russian painter, sculptor and printmaker, whose works often reflect his Jewish origins” passed away. One of his most noted works was “The Musicians” painted in 1968.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Kaplanmusicians.jpg

1982:Uri Avnery, the Israeli writer and Knesset member who has traveled from the Irgun to the leftist peace movement   met Yasser Arafat on during the "Battle of Beirut"— said to have been the first time an Israeli met personally with Arafat.

1983: In Los Angeles, Catherine (Noriega) and Michael D. Silber who is Jewish gave birth to multi-talented actress and author Alexandra Silber who appeared as “Tzeitel” and “Hodel” in different productions of “Fiddler on the Roof” while also writing the debut novel After Anatevka (chronicling what happens to the characters of Hodel and Perchik made famous by the Sholem Aleichem stories and in the musical Fiddler on the Roof.”

1985:Back to the Future: directed by Robert Zemeckis was released today, “and became the most successful film of the year, grossing more than $383 million worldwide and receiving critical acclaim.”

1987:''Furniture Making in East London: 1830 to 1980,'' an exhibition that is part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration opened at Geffrye Museum,

1989: Opening of the Thirteenth Maccabiah.

1991: “Problem Child 2” a sequel comedy co-starring Laraine Newman and featuring Gilbert Gottfried was released in the United States today.

1991(21st of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-nine Ephraim Elimelech Urbach, the native of Bialystok who made Aliyah in 1937  and was  a Professor of Talmud at Hebrew University passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/03/obituaries/ephraim-e-urbach-hebrew-scholar-79.html

1992: The curtain came down on a revival performance of It's a Bird... It's a Plane... It's Superman is a musical composed by Charles Strouse” at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

1993(14thof Tammuz, 5753): Parashat Balak

1993(14thof Tammuz, 5753): Ninety-one year old Holocaust survivor Joseph Gruss who used the fortune he amassed from the oil and gas industry to support various philanthropies including the Be’er Hagolah Institute passed away this evening in Manhattan. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/05/obituaries/joseph-gruss-91-philanthropist-who-supported-jewish-schools.html



1997: Poet Adrienne Rich made headlines today by refusing to accept the National Medal for the Arts. “Ms Rich informed Jane Alexander, chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, that she would not accept the National Medal for the Arts. To accept the award, she felt, would be hypocritical in view of the country's widening socio-economic gap. In her typical hard-hitting style, Rich wrote that, "art—in my own case the art of poetry—means nothing if it simply decorates the dinner table of power which holds it hostage." Both the national recognition and Rich's principled refusal were emblematic of the place this poet has come to occupy in American culture.”

1998(9thof Tammuz, 5758: Eighty-six year old architect Albert Carl Koch whose firm help design the building for Temple Israel in Sawmpsoctt, MA and WW II Navy veteran who was one of the Monuments Men, passed away today.

https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/koch-lt.-albert-c.-usnr

1999:Janet Rosenberg Jagan was released from the hospital in Georgetown after being treated for a heart condition.

2000: C.K. Williams wrote today in the New Republic that “If there really is such a thing as wisdom, it might well reside in the character a master such as Yehuda Amichai can fashion for himself and so for us.”

2001(12th of Tammuz, 5761): Mordecai Richler passed away. Born in 1931, Richler was a prolific prize winning author. One of his most famous books was the “Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz,” which was later made into a movie starring Richard Dreyfus.

2001: The body of Yair Har Sinai, 51, of Susiya in the Hebron hills, missing since yesterday was found early Tuesday morning shot in the head and chest

2002: Vandals attacked a synagogue and a memorial to Holocaust victims in the western spa town of Karlovy Vary, daubing red paint on the synagogue and the memorial, and leaving  posters and leaflets calling for a pogrom against Jews and labeling them the founders of capitalism. (As reported by Peter S. Green)

2003: In a brief hearing today Judge Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court in Manhattan refused a request that she immediately order the city prison to provide vegan diets to the three Jewish inmates at Rikers Island who have filed a federal lawsuit saying their constitutional rights were violated by prison officials' refusal to provide them a vegan diet, which the inmates say is required by their religious beliefs.”

2004: In “Meanwhile: Theodor Herzl’s Dream 100 Years After His Death,” Geoffrey Wheatcroft, concluded that  “anyone can see by visiting Israel, Montefiore and others who disparaged Zionism were wrong in saying that the Jews could not become a nation. That part of Herzl's dream has come true.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/03/opinion/03iht-edwheat_ed3_.html

2004: Ninety-six year old “actress and acting teacher” Phoebe Brand Carnovsky who worked with the legendary Clifford Odets Passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/theater/phoebe-brand-96-actress-and-group-theater-co-founder.html



2005: 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 The Missing Peace: The Inside Store of the Fight for Middle East Peace by Dennis Ross and Codex by Lev Grossman

2006: In “Entebbe’s Unsung Hero,” Eyal Ben described the fate of 19 year old Jean Jacques Maimoni, one of the hostages who did not survive.”

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3270314,00.html

2006: In the following review of “Up, Up and Oy Vey!” by Simcha Weinstein, Louis Parks describes “the obvious parallels” between the origins of Superman and Biblical depiction of Moses.

A loving parent tries to save the life of a child by placing him in a basket—or space capsule—and sending him floating/blasting to safety. Found and adopted into a new family in his new world, Moses/Superman is still guided by the wisdom and counsel of his parent. He lives a double life with a secret identity. Moses eventually leads people from abuse to freedom. Superman rescues people from disasters and crime. Superman's creators, Jewish immigrant sons Jerry Siegel and Joel Shuster, invented the superhero in 1938 Cleveland, Ohio. They never declared Superman was Jewish and their ambiguity was probably intentional. Though they didn't give their hero a specific ethnicity or religion, there are hints at his Jewishness. In some of his earliest stories, Superman sometimes foiled the plans of thinly disguised German Nazis, whose persecution of Jews already was infamous. Americans may not have noticed, but apparently the Nazis snapped to the implications, quickly blasting the new comic. Weinstein writes that in 1940, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels denounced Superman as Jewish. Weinstein also "recounts the Jewish influence on superheroes such as Batman, Captain America, the Hulk, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and X-Men, most of whom were created by Jewish artists."

2007: Friendship: An Expose by Joseph Epstein goes on sale to the general public today.

2007:  Much to the delight of all who know him, David Levin, a mensch in the truest sense of that word, celebrates his sixtieth birthday.

2007: In Jerusalem, The Israeli Ballet, featuring Yevegenia Oberzatsuba and Vladimir Shaklerov, will perform the famous, romantic ballet, "Giselle," in the Sherover Theater at the Jerusalem Theater.

2007: As of today, Ryan Kalish led with New-York Penn League with 12 stolen bases.

2008: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz (First Day)

2008: Birthday celebration of David Levin, a grand gabbai and, like his Biblical namesake, a sweet singer of song.

2008: Yehudit Ravitz performed her first Caesarea Amphitheatre show in a decade to a sold-out crowd

2008: A foundation created by Steven Spielberg is giving $1 million to the National Museum of American Jewish History.

2008:Today, Saudi Arabia invited an Israeli rabbi to attend an interfaith conference to be held in Madrid. Rabbi David Rosen, president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations, is the only rabbi who lives in Israel who was invited by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and the World Muslim League to the conference that is slated for July 16 to 18.

2008: During the ceasefire with Hamas a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza struck near a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. No casualties or damage was reported.

2009: Bill Hurwitz, world traveling computer whiz pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community, and a Zeda twice over celebrates the BIG Six-O.

2009: Israeli celebrity Dudu Topaz attempted to commit suicide at the Abu Kabir Detention Center in Tel Aviv.

2009: The family and friends celebrate the anniversary of the natal day of David Levin whose accomplishments are so numerous that we would have to start a separate blog just to cover them.יום הולדת שמח   

2010: The United States Holocaust Museum is scheduled to present a special program entitled France Pruitt "Faith, Courage, and Survival in a Time of Trouble"

2010: The joy of Shabbat is doubled as it coincides with the celebration of the birthday of David Levin, a hamesha mensch par excellence and a great brother.

2010: In Cedar Rapids, the traditional Shabbat minyan at Temple Judah celebrated the holiday weekend with a “Red, White and Blue.” 

2010:Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat categorically denied today a report that the PA told George Mitchell it would allow or accept Israeli sovereignty over the Western Wall in a new Arab state. The London-based Al-Hayat Arabic language daily had reported today that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas gave U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell a signed letter that the PA would surrender its demand that the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem be part of his proposed PA state.

2011: The family and friends of David Levin are glad to be able to share in celebrating the natal day of this hamesha mensch.

2011: The wedding ceremony joining Abbie Silber and Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to take place in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  A sweet singer of song joins a budding sage!

2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “To End All Wars” by Adam Hochschild.

2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Manstein:Hitler’s Greatest General” by Mungo Melvin and the recently released paperback editions of  “Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law” by Gabriel Schoenfeld and “Spies of the Balkans Alan Furst’s that centers around “Costa Zannis, a police official and fixer who has taken to helping Jewish refugees from Berlin complete the difficult route to safety.”



2011(1stof Tammuz, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz



2011:Terrorists in Hamas-controlled Gaza resumed rocket fire on the western Negev this morning.



2011: Hundreds of people demonstrated in Jerusalem today in support of Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, who was arrested that morning for questioning over incitement to racism and violence, and released in less than one hour.



2011(1stof Tammuz, 5771: Seventy-six year old Fred Newman whose “influential role in New York life and politics defied easy description” passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/nyregion/fred-newman-76-anti-party-advocate-in-new-york-city-politics-dies.html?pagewanted=all   



 2012: The European Union of Jewish Students is scheduled to sponsor “Sharing Our Common Past: Christian and Jewish students” where young Jews and Catholics come together in Krakow to look for answers to the following questions: What divides us? What do we have in common? How can we work together? What are our roles and niches in contemporary Europe?

2012: After having premiered four days ago in Tokyo, “The Amazing Spider-Man” based on the Stan Lee created character and co-produced by Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin was released today in the United States.



 2012:  American hard rockers Guns 'N Roses who are heading back to Israel for the first time since 1993 are scheduled to perform at Hayarkon Park along with support acts Ugly Joe Kid and local favorites Hayehudim



2012: In the midst of a record-breaking heat wave, friends and family of David Levin prepare to celebrate the birthday of one “cool dude.”



2012: Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz, angered by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s dissolution of a Kadima-led panel tasked with drafting new universal draft legislation yesterday, refused to meet with Netanyahu on today to try to solve a crisis that threatens the stability of the national unity government.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/mofaz-reportedly-refusing-to-meet-with-netanyahu-as-coalition-crisis-deepens/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=17ea094646-2012_07_03_edition&utm_medium=email



2012: Today the state prosecutor filed an indictment against an ultra-Orthodox man for defacing the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and two IDF war memorials. At Yad Vashem, the graffiti he allegedly sprayed included: “If Hitler hadn’t existed, the Zionists would have invented him.”

Elhanan Ostrowitz, a 31-year-old Jerusalem resident, was charged at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for spraying anti-Zionist hate slogans at the sites and, apparently, has shown no remorse for his actions.

2013: “Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait” which “was co-curated with Winehouse's brother Alex and sister-in-law Riva” is scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum London.

2013: Friends and family are thrilled to be able to celebrate another birthday of David Levin whose many stellar qualities have outstripped my list of superaltives

2013: In Tel Aviv, the U.S. Embassy is scheduled to host the July 4thCelebration which will include remarks by the U.S. Ambassador, the Israeli President and the Israeli Prime Minister.

2013(25thof Tammuz, 5773): At Camp Tawonga, a Jewish summer camp in Northern California Annais Rosenberg, a counselor, was killed today when a tree fell through the dining hall. Twenty campers were also injured (As reported by JTA and the Jewish Press)

2013: Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, a candidate for Sephardi chief rabbi, was due to be summoned today by Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein for a hearing, following a request by MK Eitan Cabel (Labor) earlier this week that the rabbi be disqualified from running due to “racist” comments he’d made about Arab citizens of Israel. (As reported by The Times of Israel)

2013: The Administrator General announced today that a group led by businessman Ori Allon has purchased a 60 percent stake of Hapoel Jerusalem previously owned by Guma Aguiar. Following Aguiar's disappearance at sea off the coast of Florida a year ago, his ownership stake was put up for sale. The Allon group was confirmed today as the winner of the auction held by the Administrator General after promising to invest NIS 15 million in the club over the next three seasons.(As reported by Allon Sinai)

2014: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism in partnership with the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology is scheduled to host  Dr Becky Taylor, Dr Matt Cook and Dr Jessica Reinisch speaking on “Histories of Prejudice: Persecuting Others.”

2014: As “Arthur” threatens to “rain on the holiday weekend,” nothing can dampen the enthusiasm of those celebrating the birthday of David Levin whose wit and wisdom would lighten even the darkest storm.

2014: “While some in the right are calling for revenge for the kidnapping and murder of Eyal Yifrach, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Frenkel, hundreds of protesters gathered at HaBima Square in Tel Aviv this evening urging "No to Escalation, No to Revenge." (As reported by Itay Blumenthal)

2014: “Around 100 residents of the rocket-battered Sderot located just west of Gaza protested on today at the entrance to the city, in response to the rapidly deteriorating security situation and after two direct hits on buildings were recorded since last night.” (As reported by Yoni Kempinski and Ari Yashar)

2014: “Over 15 rockets, part of the roughly 40 that have been fired from Gaza in the last two days, were fired at southern Israel in a salvo this afternoon that, causing two fires to break out.” (As reported by Ari Yashar)

2014: “In one of the first responses from Israel’s Jewish religious leadership to the violent aftermath of the deaths of Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, former Sephardi chief rabbi Shlomo Amar on Thursday issued a fervent plea to Jewish youths to trust in God and the country’s political leadership and avoid taking the law into their own hands.” (As reported by Yifa Yaakov)

2014(5thof Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-nine year old Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi passed away today.

http://www.jta.org/2014/07/03/news-opinion/united-states/rabbi-zalman-schachter-shalomi-father-of-jewish-renewal-dies

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boulder/ci_26084358/zalman-schachter-shalomi-dies-jewish-renewal

2014: “Palestinian terrorists fired eight rockets and mortar shells into Israel tonight, bringing to over 20 the number of projectiles launched from the Gaza Strip throughout the day. The rockets fell in open areas and did not cause damage or injuries. :

2014: In response to attacks from Gaza, the IAF hit three Hamas targets which have yet to be further identified by the government.

2014: “A tense calm descended upon the capital this evening after a day of heavy rioting and emotionally charged demonstrations, as an Arab teenager allegedly murdered by Jews was laid to rest in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.” (As reported by Advi Sterman)

2015: In Washington, DC, the historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to host the “6th Street Minyan, laid-back Friday night service led by David Goldstein and Jenn Queen.”

2015: “A group of Islamic State supporters in Gaza claimed responsibility” for launching the “two rockets that exploded in Israeli near the Gaza Strip this afternoon.” (As reported by Itamar Sharon)

2015: The first ever Tel Aviv Blues Festival is scheduled to open today.

2015(16thof Tammuz, 5775): Seventy-year old Kathe Goldstein, an award winning Spanish Teacher and pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community passed away today.

http://www.thegazette.com/obituaries/kathe-goldstein-20150707-0001072351-01

2015: Friends and family of David Levin begin the Holiday Weekend by celebrating the most important holiday of all – David’s natal day.

2016(27thof Sivan, 577 6):  Ninety-four year old Rabbi Max Ticktin, the former associate director of Hillel and Professor at George Washington University passed away today.

http://forward.com/opinion/national/344212/the-torah-of-max-ticktin-will-not-be-forgotten/?utm_source=In+Memoriam&utm_campaign=Wiesel%2FTicktin&utm_medium=email

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/rabbi-max-ticktin-yiddish-and-hebrew-literature-professor-at-gwu-dies-at-94/2016/07/06/198fe5ce-42f0-11e6-8856-f26de2537a9d_story.html?utm_term=.27b9983cfbbc

2016: In Washington, DC, “District Merchants” playwright/director Aaron Posner’s version of The Merchant of the Venice is scheduled to be performed for the last time.

2016: As threatening weather closes in on Washington, DC, there is one ray of sunshine – the celebration of the birthday of David Levin

2016: “Soldiers in the IDF Home Front Command’s search and rescue units clear debris during a large-scale exercise in Zikim near the Gaza border” today

2016: The New York Times reviews books written by Jews and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Extra by A. B. Yehoshua, The Sun in Your Eyes by Deborah Shapiro and Diane Arbus: Portrait of a Photographer by Arthur Lubow

2017: Friends and family of David Levin celebrate his reaching the Biblically mentioned tally of three score plus ten and wish many, many more years of life, happiness and health for this hamisheh mensch, tzadek and chacham who is always the world’s best brother.

2017: In Brooklyn, Congregation Shevas Achim is scheduled to host “Celebratin Jewish Women!” with Marcy Katz, CEO and Business Coach.

2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Alone in Berlin.”

2018(20thof Tammuz, 5778): Ninety six year old D-Day veteran Max Fuchs, who in 1944 led “fifty fellow Jewish Soldiers in reciting the Jewish Sabbath service which was “the first Jewish service to be broadcast from German soil since the rise of Hitler” passed away today. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/04/obituaries/max-fuchs-gi-cantor-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2018: Having reached that moment when there are no superlatives to describe him, all we can say is Best Birthday Wishes to David Levin – who truly is the world’s best brother.

2018: 155th anniversary of the day at Gettysburg, when, against all reason, a determined group of Union soldiers including Sergeant Elias Leon Hyman of Company C of the Fifth Calvary who volunteered to serve as one of the skirmishers and who would eventually die in the hell-hold of Andersonville Prison, threw back an army whose leaders were committed to ending what Lincoln called “the last best hope of man” which has provided a welcoming home to an untold number of Jews.

2018: In Durham, NC, the American Dance Festival is scheduled to present “L-E-V” which “is the culmination of years of momentum, choreographed by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, accompanied by the original music of Ori Lichtik”

2018: With the passage of the “new IDF draft legislation” by a vote of 63 to 39, supporters begin preparing to clear the next hurdle, approval of the second reading during this session of the Knesset.

2018(20stof Tammuz, 5778): Seventy-nine year old “convicted drugdealer Herbert Sperling passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/obituaries/herbert-sperling-drug-boss-tied-to-french-connection-case-dies-at-79.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

2019: In San Francisco, the JCCSF is scheduled to host a concert by “Bay Area musician and guitar teacher” Kurt Huget this afternoon.

2019: Friends and family prepare to celebrate the birthday of Washingtonian David Robert Levin, who is proof that you do not need the fanfare of tanks and planes to celebrate the natal day of real mensch.

2019: In Alberta, Canada, the first session of Camp BB Riback which for almost 60 years has given Canadian a chance to connect with their Jewish roots and nature at the same time is scheduled to begin today.

2019: “The Great Jewish Bake Day,” an event that helps to “to fund the Jewish Care buses” is scheduled to take place today in the UK.

https://www.jewishcare.org/about-us/campaigns/the-great-jewish-bake-day

2020: Andrew Polk is scheduled to narrate “the Cape Cod Theatre Project’s live-streamed debut of “Moses” by veteran playwright Michele Lowe.”

2020: Shabbat Stream is scheduled to co-sponsor online “SoulVey! Shabbat Experinee, a “celebration of the relationship between Black and Jewish communities featuring music, comedy and civil rights, with rapper Kosha Dillz,”

2020: Friends and family of David Levin, the embodiment of the terms mensch and Renaissance man’ are awaiting to see how his birthday celebration will overcome the current pandemic

2020: The Eden Tamar Music Center is scheduled to host “Excellence” – Pianists, Pedagouges and Young Artists in Concert” with the winners of the 2019 Kan Voice of Music Young Artists Competition, Tom Zalmanov and Nabil Haik.






This Day, July 4, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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July 4

925: Moslems raided Oria as part of their attacks on Italy. Ten rabbinical leaders were killed and many others were taken into captivity, including 12 year old Shabbetai Donnolo, who later achieved fame as a physician

1187: Guy de Lusignan (King of Jerusalem) force-marched his troops through the dry, hot Galilee against the advice of Raymond III of Tripoli and others. At a site known as the Horns of Hittim near Lake Tiberius, the Moslems defeated him and his Crusader army. The Moslems were led by the legendary Saladin. This defeat lead to a string of Crusader defeats that culminated in the loss of Jerusalem in October. These losses would result in the Third Crusade, led by Richard the Lionhearted, which would fail to restore the gains of the Christians. There would be several more Crusades, none of which would prove any more successful. In the end, the Christians would be forced into retreat as Moslem rulers would extend their rule into the across a large swath of Europe. Those who contend that the today’s clashes between the West and certain groups of Moslems and Arabs are rooted in the creation of the state of Israel would do well to read some history. Obviously, today’s conflicts pre-date modern Zionism. Lest we lose track of the events of the eleventh and twelfth century, the Crusades were not a good period for the Jews

1348: Pope Clement VI confirms the papal bull Sicut Judaeis("and thus to the Jews," better known as the "Constitution for the Jews"), issued in 1120 by Pope Calixtus II. (As reported by Austin Cline)

1349(9thof Tammuz, 5109): Based on “evidence furnished by Judah’s testament and epitaphs” 79 year old German Talmudist Judah Ben Asher, the son of Rabbenu Asher and the brother of Joseph Ben Asher, who served as the rabbi at Toledo, Spain passed away.

1453: Forty-one Jews were burned at the stake in Breslau, Germany. The remainder of the Jewish population was expelled

1546: Birthdate of Murad III, future Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. During his reign “the Jewish community was shaken by a decree ordering the killing of Jews, which resulted from the appearance of men and women in the streets in rich clothing and jewels. As a result of the intervention of the physician Solomon Ashkenazi at court, the decree was mitigated, but Jews were forbidden to wear such apparel. Subsequently, the rabbis of Istanbul and the community leaders reached an agreement that ‘the women and the girls shall not go out in grandiose apparel, golden jewelry, and precious stones.’” (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)

During his reign Esther Chiera “was executed along with one of her sons by the Sultan Murad III's cavalry. Esther, the wife of a Jewish merchant, was known as a Chiera or Kiera, the title given to the women in charge of all relations (including commercial) between the wives in the sultan's royal harem and the outside world. Esther was extremely influential with Safiyeh, the favorite wife of the Sultan. Jealousy on the part of other ministers and the desire of the Sultan for her assets led to their arrest (officially for interfering in a military appointment) and execution, with all their possessions and property going to the Sultan.”

1569: The King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Sigismund II Augustus finally sign the document of union between Poland and Lithuania, creating new country known as Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was a haven for Jews and the center of Ashkenazi Jewry.  The Jews enjoyed a significant degree of autonomy under the authority of Chief Rabbi of their own selection.  All of this would come to an end with the Cossack uprising in the 17thcentury.

1584: An expedition dispatched by Sir Walter Raleigh to explore the area of the Atlanta Coast around Roanoke Island that probably included Joachim Gans, which made “Gans the first recorded Jew in Colonial America” arrived at Roanoke Island today

1632: Several secret Jews in Spain were sentenced at an auto-de-fe for holding Jewish services.  They practiced in a house on a street known as Calle de las Infantas.  The house was later destroyed on orders of the Inquisition and a Capuchin monastery was built on the site.

1632: In Madrid, “the first auto was held for Judaizers in celebration of the delivery of Elizabeth of Bourbon.”

1632(15thof Tammuz, 5392): Isabel Nuñez Alvarez, of Viseu in Portugal, wife of Miguel Rodriguez of Madrid, the owner of a synagogue, situated on the street "de las Infantes" in Madrid died a martyr's death in the flames today. The Inquisition ordered the synagogue to be torn down, and upon its site a Capuchin monastery was subsequently erected

1636: City of Providence, Rhode Island was created under the leadership of Roger Williams. The first Jew did not settle permanently in the city until 1838 when a Dutch merchant named Solomon Pareira settled there. In 1849, he founded a cemetery which was the city’s first Jewish institution

1642: Marie de Médicis, the Italian born Queen consort of France passed away. Marie ignored the fact that Jews had been banned from France since she employed Elijah Montalto, a Portuguese Marrano who returned to the faith of his fathers, as her personal physician.  His medical care cannot be blamed for her demise since had passed away in 1616. 

1753: Abraham de Fonseca de Mattos graduated from Leyden University with a degree in medicine.

1776(17thof Tammuz): Celebration of Independence Day. A copy was sent to Amsterdam via the small Dutch Caribbean Island of St. Eustatius. The Declaration was intercepted by the British at sea. An accompanying letter with the Declaration of Independence was also intercepted and sent to London as being a secret code about the document that needed to be deciphered - the letter was written in Yiddish.  In one of those strange twist of fate, when British Admiral Sir George Rodney conquered the island which was a major source of supply for the Americans in 1871, he singled out the Jews for the kind of harsh treatment associated with anti-Semites.  The treatment was so out of bounds, that when Edmund Burke, no friend of the Jews hear about it he said, "If Britons were so injured, Britons have armies and laws to fly to for the protection and justice. But the Jews have no such power and no such friend to depend upon. Humanity then must become their protector." (As described by Louis Arthur Norton)

The Declaration of Independence in the United States of America provided the basis for religious tolerance in most other countries. During the Revolutionary war there were fewer than 2,500 Jews in total within the colonies. More than six hundred fought in the war including the great grandfather of Supreme Court Justice Cardozo. One company in South Carolina had so many Jews that it was called the Jews’ company. In 1776, July 4 corresponded to the 17thof Tammuz, which is a fast day on the Jewish calendar tied to the events leading up to the destruction of the Temple.

1776: Among the Jews serving with Continental Army today is Francis Salvador who had just rejoined his comrades on the South Carolina frontier after having ridden thirty miles on July 1 to sound the alarm that the Cherokees have been attacking the local settlements “massacring and scalping the colonial inhabitants.

1788: The Jews of Philadelphia celebrate in a Federal Parade after hearing that the Constitution was adopted by a majority of the states. The newspaper read, "The rabbi of the Jews, locked in arms of two ministers of the gospel, was a most delightful sight."

1788: Benjamin Franklin was too sick and weak to get out of bed, but the Independence Day parade in Philadelphia marched right under his window. And, as Franklin himself had directed, ‘the clergy of different Christian denominations, with the rabbi of the Jews, walked arm in arm.’

1794: Catherine II of Russia restricted the area where Jews were permitted to trade.

1802:  The U.S. Military Academy opens its doors at West Point, N.Y.  According to Daniel Isaac Helmer, Cadet Sergeant, United States Military Academy--West Point and the Hillel president at the United States Military Academy the Jewish people have been associated with the Academy since its opening.  The first graduating class consisted of two cadets one of whom was a Jew named Simon Levy.   In the 1980s, the West Point Jewish Chapel, a beautiful $10 million facility, was opened. In 2002, in honor of 200 years of Jewish history at the Military Academy, the Jewish Chapel began building a commemorative wall to record and recognize all of the Jewish graduates of West Point. At that time there were about 70 Jews at the Military Academy out of a student population of approximately 4,000. An increasingly active Jewish population has begun to sponsor numerous Jewish activities. Jewish students from other schools have visited West Point for events including "Weekend of the Jewish Warrior" and a Hanukkah party. The Military Academy also has a West Point Jewish Chapel Choir, which has performed all over the East Coast.

1807:  Birthdate of Giuseppe Garibaldi one of a triumvirate of Italian patriots who freed the peninsula from foreign rule and created the modern nation of Italy.  Garibaldi was a revolutionary and a guerilla fighter in the true sense of the terms.  His belief in equality extended to religion where he made no distinction between the rights of Christians and the rights of Jews.  Numerous Jews served in his military unit known as “the Thousands” which liberated southern Italy and Sicily. 

1809: Today in accordance with newly adopted law, Samuel Marx Levi, the son of Rabbi Samuel Marx Levi became Samuel Marx when he adopted “the family name Marx for himself and his siblings.

1819: In Charleston, SC, David and Sarah Carvalho gave birth to Julia Carvalho.

1821: Aaron Cohen married Sophia Minden at the Great Synagogue.

1826: Meno Berg who was one of the few career Jewish officers in the Prussian Army was promoted to the rank of first lieutenant while teaching at the United Artillery and Engineering School.

1833: In Philadelphia, PA, “Joseph M. and Clara Ulman Asch” gave birth to their second son and Jefferson Medical College trained physician Joseph Morris Asch who served with the Union Army during the Civil War after which he pursued a career as a laryngologist in New York City.

1835: Birthdate of Moritz Benedikt, the native of Eisenstadt who served with the Austrian Army and became a leading Austro-Hungarian neurologist.

1840: Thirty-four year old Moritz Moses Jacob von Goldschmidt and Anna Netti von Goldschmidt gave birth to Hermann (Ritter) von Goldschmidt

1841: London native Benjamin Jacobs was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1842(26thof Tammuz, 5602): Sixty-two year old Rabbi Nahum Trebitsch, the son of Selig Trebitsch while on a trip to Carslbad.

1842: In New York City, Rachel Hearst and merchant Herman Londoner who in 1856 moved his business to Dubuque, IA gave birth to wholesale grocer Wolf Londoner the Republican Mayor of Denver who was forced to leave office because of election irregularities.

1842: Birthdate of Hermann Cohen, a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century"

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/HermannCohen.html

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cohen/

1845: The Egyptian Revival Hobart Synagogue was consecrated in Hobart a city on the Australian island state of Tasmania.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/186472/the-convict-synagogue-at-the-end-of-the-world

1849: Sigismund Schloss married Rebecca Mocatta at the West London Synagogue.

1849: Birthdate of József Bánóczi, the native of Szt. Gál, Veszprém, Hungary, a “privat-docent of philosophy at the University of Hungary” and a “professor at the Budapest Jewish Theological Seminary” who “at the insistence of Dr. Beck, the Bucharest rabbi, Bánóczi and Prof. Wilhelm Bacher took the necessary steps to save from certain ruin the congregation and schools of the sect of Szekler Sabbatarians in Transylvania.”

1857: Birthdate of Joseph Pennell the American artist and photographer who was arrested and deported from Russia because he sketched and photographed the wretched conditions under which the Jews of Kiev were living when he visited there in 1891 which he described in The Jew At Home: Impressions of a Summer and Autumn Spent With Him.

1858: Solomon and “Rachel Lubin Weinstock” gave birth to Fanny Weinstock who became Fanny Bonheim when she married Albert Bonnheim with whom she had one son, Joseph.

1861: Philadelphian Joseph Davidson, who would be killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863, began his service as a Private in Company I of the 28thRegiment



1863(17thof Tammuz, 5623): Because it is Shabbat the Tzom Tammuz is not observed today since  it is a day of national celebration due to the victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg which for some makes it seem to be a foretaste of the Messianic Era when fast days will become feast days.

1863: Birthdate of Solomon Lipschütz who “was chess champion of the United States from 1889 to 1890 and 1891 to 1894.

1863: "Sarah, the Hebrew; or, the Dream of Destiny," will be one of the attractions at Barnum's Museum during its Independence Day Celebration.

1863: In one of the climactic moments of the Civil War, Confederate forces surrender Vicksburg to Union forces under the command of General U.S. Grant. The victory is both a major tactical and strategic success since it split the Confederacy in half and gave control of the Mississippi River back to the Union. While there were Jewish soldiers fighting on both sides, the real significance is that the victory helped ensure that the United States of America would continue to exist offering Jews a place of refuge from European anti-Semitism.  The victory would also be a major stepping stone in the career of General Grant which would eventually lead him to victory over Lee and the Presidency.  Despite the unfortunate issuing of Order #11, Grant was not an anti-Semite as can be seen from the fact that Jews voted for him for President, his friendship with Joseph Seligman who refused Grant’s request to serve in his cabinet, his meeting with Rabbi Hayim Tzvi Sneersohn, a great-grandson of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, the "Alter Rebbe" of Chabad Hasidim and his attendance at the dedication of Adas Israel’s newly built house of worship.

1863: Among the Jews serving at Vicksburg were Private David Orbansky of the 58thOhio Infantry and Colonel Marcus M. Spiegel of the 120th Ohio Infantry.  A native of Lautenburg, Prussia, Orbansky would receive a Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Spiegel would die before he could be promoted to the rank of Brigadier of General “for his bravery at Vicksburg and Snaggy Point.”

1863: General Frederick Charles Salomon, a native of Prussia who had settled in Wisconsin, led the 1st Brigade of the Army of the Tennessee against the Rebels at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.

1863: In Philadelphia, as the possibility of a Rebel victory seemed possible Rabbi Sabato Morais, “an avid abolitionist,” supporter of Abraham Lincoln and loyal Unionist delivered a sermon today at Mikveh Israel in which he said, “the more intently I gaze upon the bright past, the darker does the present appear to my vision”

1869: In Leipzig, the Synod attended by Elie-Aristide Astruc, the Chief Rabbi of Belgium came to an end today.

1873: Birthdate of dietician Frances Stern. The Frances Stern Nutrition Center a part of Tufts-New England Medical Center was named in her honor.

1873: In the UK, Rabbi A.E. Gordon and his wife gave birth to H.H. Gordon, the graduate of London University and Cambridge, president of the Cambridge Hebrew Congregation and honorary secretary of the Jews’ Temporary Shelter who served “four years on the staff of the East Indian Railway and served as a member of the Stepeny Borough Council.

1876: In Rovno, Russia, Samuel and Mary Simon gave birth to Sophie Irene Simon who moved to McKeesport, PA, at the age of six.  She gained fame as Sophie Simon Loeb journalist and advocate for social welfare reform.

1880: Rabbi Adolph Huebsch of Temple Ahavath Chesed officiated at the funeral of Joseph I. Stein who had served as Assemblyman of the 12th District.  A crowd of 2,000 spilled out from the home on East 52nd Street and one hundred coaches were needed to carry all of those who went to the cemetery.  Stein was a victim of last month’s Seawanhaka ship disaster.

1880: In “Berischoff, Russia,” “Charles and Dorothy (Vigdrochik) Benenson gave birth to Benjamin Benenson the husband of Frances Shapiro who in 1899 arrived in New York City where he went from being a carpenter, to being a general contractor to being a bank vice president while joining serving as board member for the Shield of Abraham, the Beth Abraham Home for Incurables and the Montefiore Hospital

1880: Birthdate of New York native Jacob Paul “Twister” Steinberg one of Teddy’s Roosevelt’s Rough Riders who became one of the first, if not the first Jewish professional football player.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=steinb002pau

http://probasketballencyclopedia.com/player/paul-steinberg/

1880: “The Soldiers of Morocco” published today described the great strides made in turning the Moroccan Army into an effective military unit.  Credit for this accomplishment goes to an English soldier known as Kaid Maclean (Sir Harry Aubrey de MacLean).  Kaid could not have accomplished his mission if it had not been for a unnamed Jew.  Kaid did not speak Arabic and the troops did not understand English so Kaid “had to give his instructions through a Jewish interpreter” who spoke both language but who nothing about military drill.

1881: Birthdate of Dov Ber Borochov the Ukrainian born proponent of the labor Zionist movement who was one of the founders of the Poale Zion.

1881: In Lithuania, Harris Abelow and his wife gave birth to Samuel Abelow, the husband of Jeanette Abelow who settled in New York.

1881: “Jewish Ladies Whipped” published today described the whippings of Jewish men, women and children, including “ladies of good position” who received 300 strokes, at Smjela, a small town near Kiev.  The attacks, which had been ordered by an unnamed Colonel, ended when the governor of Kiev arrived.

1881: It was reported today that “in some Russian districts, the peasants have offered to pay for the damage done to the property of the Jews” including one district where 800 rubles have been deposited for that purpose.

1882: Patrolman Edgar S. Slauson defended himself against accusations that he had overreacted when dealing with a mob that had attacked workers who working in place of the striking freight handlers. The replacement workers included large numbers of recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia who did not know about the strike. He admitted having to use his club on more than one of the attackers but he had little choice since he was facing a throng of more than 2,000.

1882: It was reported today that a mass meeting held to support the strike by the freight handlers in New York cheers greeted the announcement that 150 Russian Jews who had recently arrived in the United States and gone to work at the Erie Railway pier refused to do any more work once they had heard about the strike.

1883: In San Francisco, CA, Max and Hannah (Cohen) gave birth to Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Rube Goldberg.  Goldberg entertained several generations with his drawings of simple activities that were turned into multi-step complex functions.  His name became synonymouswith improvised temporary solutions to problems of major and minor magnitude.  

1883: It was reported today that “The Art Magazine for July” published by Cassell and Co features an article about the Russian sculptor, Mark Antokolsky.  Born in Wilno, this poor Jewish boy somehow managed to become a student at the Imperial Academy in St. Petersburg.  His first work “Jew Tailor” was created in wood because Antokolsky could not afford marble.  His career took off in 1870 when the Czar saw his statute “Ivan the Terrible.”

1884: In Grodno “Abram and Anna (Muniches) Abrahams gave birth to “calligrapher, designer and artist Joseph B. Abrahams, the husband of “the former Mrs. Lillian Manning” whose creations included “the bronze doors of Temple Emanu-El” in New York and “the interior décor for the Ziegfeld Follies” and whose communal efforts included serving as the “head of the Overseas Depart of the Jewish Welfare Board” and “Secretary of the Jewish Theological Seminary” starting in 1902.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/07/02/78354344.pdf













1884: Two days after he drowned, Isidore Joseph, the son of Lewis and Bluma Joseph was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1884: It was reported from Odessa that there has been “rapid increase” in the emigration of Jews from southern Russia, to the United States.

1885: At Temple Beth-El, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler’s Shabbat sermon included “his last discourse in the series in reference to sustaining the principles of Reform” and the relationship of “Independence Day to the Jews” of the United States.

1885: The congregants of Ahavath Chesed filled the sanctuary to hear the Shabbat sermon Rabbi Alexander Kohut in which he defended the principles of Orthodoxy while calling for unity among the Jewish people.

1885: Birthdate of Louis B. Mayer. Born in Minsk, Russia, Mayer was one of a generation of early movie moguls. In his case, he was the motion-picture executive MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

1886: “Jews To Be Dismissed” published today relied on information from the St. Petersburg Dispatch and the London Daily News to described the orders given by the Minister of Justice to dismiss all Jewish secretaries and clerks  employed by the examining magistrates.

1886: David J. Dean delivered an address entitled “The Golden Rule In Political Government” during which he said that “race prejudice” had presented the greatest hurdle for people to overcome in their quest for effective government.  The folly of this attitude could be seen in that “for centuries the Hebrew” had been “an object of infamy and denunciation” but now Beaconsfield governed ‘the empire on which the sun never sets’ i.e. Great Britain. [Despite his conversion, Disraeli/Beaconsfield was regarded as a Jew; although the reference was usually a derogatory one used by his political opponents.]

1887: In his 69th year, Jonas Heller, a long serving member of the Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews passed away today.

1888: Jacob Lissauer is reported to be contesting the will of his late wife, Yetta.  Her estate was worth $5,000. The will makes bequests for the benefit of the Hebrew Home for the Aged and Infirm and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, but lives nothing to the husband.  He contends that the Yetta’s cousin, who drew up the will never let her read the instrument so she signed it without knowing this.

1889: “A Home For Hebrew Societies” published today described plans for the construction of a building that will be home to the Hebrew Free School Association, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Aquila Free Library located in the Tenth Ward.  The facility will contain classrooms, manual training facilities and “a hall capable of holding 800” people.

1889 Birthdate of Joseph Ruttenberg, the Russian born American photojournalist who became an award winning cinematographer who began in the silent film era and made the successful transition to talkies.

1890: It was reported today that Dr. Clifton Levy will deliver the sermon at Temple Gates of Hope on Shabbat.

1890: Barney Rosenberg, who is among the group of striking tailors and cloakmakers most of whom are Russian and Polish Jews, was being treated at Gouverneur Hospital for injuries he received from a policeman who broke up an attack that took place on scabs yesterday.

1890: Henry Simon, Welf Heiman, Harris Dienerstadt, Hyman Schmlovitz, Aaron Michael Knovic, Isidor Kaufman, Jospeh Hyman are in police custody for the role in attacking strike breakers at two clothing manufacturers who have locked the immigrant Jewish tailors and cloakmakers.

1891: The SS PIckhuban which had left Antwerp with a large party of Jews who had been expelled from Russia came upon the burning wreck of the Octavia whose crew must have left in lifeboats since they were nowhere to be seen.

1891: Twenty-six year old Max Wilhelm Zach, the Ukrainian born son of Heinrich and Julia Zach and conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra married “Blache Going” today in Boston after which “they had three children – Leon, Phillip and Elanor.”

1891: A deed was recorded today in Marlborough, Hartford County, CT “transferring a sizable tract of land in that town near Marlborough mills on which buildings are to be erected” for use by “poor Jews who are now being driven out of countries in Europe.”

1892: At their meeting today, the Board of Managers of the Baltimore Congregation “reported that they thought it was inexpedient at present to abolish the old custom of the men wearing their hats during services.”

1892: As part of Independence Day celebrations in New York, American flags flew in all sections of the city including those “streets where all of the signs are written in Hebrew characters.” (The letters my have been “Hebrew” but the language may have been Yiddish”

1892: Hostilities begin between France the African Kingdom of Dahomey in what was called the Second Franco-Dahomean War in which Andre Cremeiu-Foa who had been a victim of attacks by French anti-Semites including Edouard Drumont, served with such distinction that he was cited in the orders for the day.

1893: “Pupils of the Hirsch Schools” published today described the method by which these institutions prepare the children of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Romania for success in public school.  In the past, these children had stayed away from school because they did not speak English and did understand American customs.  In a three-month course that begins almost as soon as the youngsters get off of the boat, the Hirsch Schools teach them English and cultivate their understanding of “freedom of thought and action, together with respect for law” which are the hallmark of the American experience.

1894: As part of their Independence Day Celebration the young men at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum were formed into two companies each with a brass band of 30 pieces so that parade at the facility on Amsterdam Avenue.  Following the parade, all of the youngsters were treated to cake and ice cream followed by a fireworks show.

1894: As part of the Independence Day celebration, “the cadets of the Hebrew Institute went into camp near St. George, S.I.  They then conducted a drill in the presence of dignitaries including Isidor Straus and Alfred Hochstader

1894: Because of the Independence Day holiday, the regularly scheduled lecture on the “Care of Feeding of Infants and Children During the Warm Weather” will not take place at the Hebrew Institute.

1895: “In the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Romanian Jewish immigrant Morris Keiser, “the owner of a second hand bookstore: and his wife Sofie gave birth to Isidor Keiser, the brother of screenwriter Arthur Caesar, who gained famed as award winning songwriter Irving Caeser who was responsible for such all-time hits as “Sewanee” and “Tea for Two.”

https://www.songhall.org/profile/Irving_Caesar

1895: Governor Levi P. Morton is considering the tenth application for a pardon submitted on behalf of Phillip Kiven who is serving a six year term in Sing Sing Prison after having been convicted, along with is wife of stealing $250 from two Polish Jews who were staying at their resort. In a strange twist of events, Kiven claims that he is the victim of a police persecution.

1895: It was reported that the late Lewis Levy has left his estate in a trust for the benefit of his wife Mary and his sister Julia.  Upon their death the residue will be used for bequests to several charities including the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews , the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and the Hebrew Technical Institute.

1896: “Doom of the Tombs” published today provided a recap of those hung at the old New York City jail including three men hung for the murder of Abraham Weisberg, a Jewish peddler.

1896: Birthdate of New York native John Alexander, the WW I veteran who was guided during his career at Rutgers by theatrical legend Paul Robeson and who made football history in 1922 when as a member of the Milwaukee Badgers played the position of  “outside linebacker” much to the surprise of the Chicago Cardinals

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/A/AlexJo20.htm

1897:  Jews came from all over the state to witness the laying of the cornerstone in Elizabeth, NJ, of their new Educational Institute and Library at the corner of Fourth and Streets.

1898: During the Spanish American War, Captain Albert W. Lilienthal began serving as an adjustant with the 7th U.S. Volunteer Infantry.

1898: The first convention of the Federation of American Zionists opened at the B'nai Zion Club on Henry Street in New York's lower East Side.  One hundred delegates, 20 from outside of New York, attended the convention which elected Rabbi Guvstav Gottheil to serve as President.

1900: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Jacob Jacques Landesberg, the Columbia trained Ophthalmologist and husband of Isabelle Goldberg Landesberg both of whom are buried together at the Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, NY.

1901(17thof Tammuz, 5661): New Yorker Jacob F. Cullman passed away in Wuerzburg and left $15,000 to Mt. Sinai Hospital and $10,000 to both the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum and the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.

1901: In Brooklyn Isidor and Malka Halpern Goldstein gave birth to Samuel Goldstein who gained fame as novelist and screenwriter Samuel Guy Endore who also used the named “Harry Relis.”

1902: Herzl had his first meeting with Nathaniel Mayer Rothschild in London.

1902: The Sultan asks Herzl top come to Constantinople immediately.

1902: Birthdate of Meier Suchowlański the native of Grodno who gained fame or infamy as gangster Myer Lansky.

1902: In Mulhouse, Constance Kenendel Lang and Baruch Kahn gave birth to Felix Kahn

1902: Dr. Joseph Heller who had served as surgeon “to a battalion of the 24thU.S. Infantry” and had earned a Silver Star for his service during the Battle of Naguilan was in the Philippines “when the civil government was established” today.

1903: The Sisters of Zion which had been organized at Detroit in December of 1902 hosted “their first annual ice cream festival” this evening at Winter’s Teutonic Hall.

1903: Birthdate of New Yorker Isabelle Goldberg Landesberg, who was born two days to the day after the birth of her husband, Dr. Jacques Landesberg.


1903(9th of Tammuz, 5663) Albert F. Hochstadyer who had been a member of the firm of Newburger and Hochstadter Brothers of Philadelphia until 1879 passed today at his summer home in Elberon at the age of fifty-six. He was active in numerous New York Jewish organizations including Temple Emanu-El where he was serving as a Trustee and Honorary Secretary at the time of his death.

1903: Following the Pogrom at Kishinev, Leo Napoleon Levi, a lawyer from Texas who was President of the B'nai B'rith, wrote a letter to Czar Nicholas II calling for an end to the mistreatment of the Jews living in Russia.

1903: Maurice Arnold de Forest, one of the adopted sons of Baron Maurice de Hirsch and Baroness Clara de Hirsch, “became a Second Lieutenant in the Staffordshire Imperial Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment)” today

1903: Dorothy Levitt (born Dorothy Levi) won her class at the Southport Speed Trials driving a S.F.Edge's 12 hp Gladiator, shocking British society as she was the first woman, a working secretary, to compete in a motor race. She became noted for racing in a dust coat (a loose coverall coat reaching down to the ankles), matching hat and veil.

1904: In New York “the convention of orthodox rabbis of the United States and Canada reassembled this morning where they continued to discuss a letter from Rabbi H. Pereira Mendes which included a request “by Judge Newburger to bring to the notice of the rabbis that certain marriages that are legal in Jewish law” such as that between an uncle and his niece “are illegal according to the state of New York” and a reminder that it was not too late for them to support the” Jewish Theological “seminary which was established to be a bulwark against reform Judaism as taught by the Cincinnati College.”  (Editor’s note – he was referring to Hebrew Union College, not the University of Cincinnati.)

1905(1stof Tammuz, 5665): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1905: “in Queens, New York, Fannie (née Cohen), who was from London, and David Trilling, a tailor from Bialystok in Poland gave birth to literary critic and intellectual Lionel Mordecai Trilling.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2000/07/the-last-great-critic/378281/

1905: Independence Day was commemorated in Jerusalem with a display of American and Swedish flags.

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/2012/06/celebrating-july-4th-in-holy-land-100.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+IsraelsHistory-APictureADaybeta+%28Israel%27s+History+-+a+Picture+a+Day+%28Beta%29%29

1906: “The Jewish Territorial Organizathion of which Israel Zangwill of London is the President was officially condemned today at the convention of the Federation of American Zionists when “a resolution was introduced prohibiting any person known to be a member of the Territorial Organization from being an officer or member of the Executive Committee of the American Federation.”

1906: In St. Petersburg the Ministry of the Interior, the War Office and the Duma’s investigating committee issued their reports today which included “the Government’s version that attributes the responsibility entirely to the Jews” and the Duma’s version that “expressly declared that no race hatred existed in Bialystok and that the ‘pogrom’ was the result of a deliberate plot.”

1907: At today’s session of the 18th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis a message from Judge Louis Sloss of San Francisco to Judge Julian W. Mack regarding the rehabilitation of the synagogues destroyed by the earthquake was received and referred to the appropriate committee and Rabbi Isaac Landman read his paper on “Moses Hayyim Luzzato in Honor of His Bicentenary.”

1907: After noting that “the Detroit News of July 2, 1907 records another attack of Bitlis and Van,” today, the Rabbis of the Central Conference in convention assembled adopted a resolution recording their “utter abhorrence of persecution in any form of any people” and stating that it was their “patriotic duty to extend” their “warmest sympathy with the Armenian victims of this most recent epidemic of cruelty and fanaticism.”

1908(5thof Tammuz, 5668): Parashat Korach

1908: In Brooklyn Joseph Zeitland, the Polish born “general collector for a large firm that led him to travel through Poland and Russia” who came to the United States at the age of 85 celebrated his one hundredth birthday today along with the 103rdanniversary of the “birth of Uncle Sam.” 

1909:  Rabbi Morris Goldberg of Camden, NJ “was elected head of the Brothers of Israel Congregation” today.

1910: Melville Weston Fuller, the eighth Chief Justice of the United States passed away. While some may remember him for reactionary rulings including Plessy v Ferguson, he was the one of the signatories of the Blackstone Memorial, a petition expressing support for the Jews settling in Palestine that was presented to President Benjamin Harrison in 1891. The memorial was the first expression of support to come from leading non-Jewish Americans.

1910: The Educational League for the Higher Education of Orphans which was organized in 1896 held its 15th annual meeting today in Cleveland, Ohio.

1910: In Santa Monica, Frank Stewart and his wife gave birth Gloria Stewart who as Gloria Stuart married Arthur Sheekman he script writer for Eddie Cantor and Groucho Marx with whom she took a trip around the world in 1939 and then joined him in an attempt to work on Broadway.

1911: In Rochester, NY, “Hinda Rosenblum Miller, a former seamstress, and Abram Calmen Miller, a Russian-Jewish immigrant wrought-iron worker gave birth to Mitchell William Miller who gained fame a Mitch Miller who was connected with hit recordings of “Tzena, Tzena,Tzena “ and "The Yellow Rose of Texas" and for his television show, "Sing Along With Mitch."

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html

1911(8thof Tammuz, 5671): Eighty-eight year old Esther Herrmann, the widow of cloth importer Henry Herrmann whom she married in 1843 and philanthropist whose support went to such organizations as Barnard College of which she was one of the founders, the Hebrew Technical Institute for Boys, the American Museum of Natural History and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association passed away today.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1911/07/06/104870632.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

1911: “A farce by Abraham Reuf” who has served less than half of his fourteen sentence for bribery” and who has donated a concert grand piano to the prison is scheduled to be “the main feature of the program” celebrating the Fourth of July at San Quentin Prison.

1912(19thof Tammuz, 5672): Eighty year old Greenville, Mississippi  native and Confederate War veteran Jacob Moses passed away today in New Orleans, LA.

1912: At Marburg University, “celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the birth of Hermann Cohen, a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, who he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century"

1913: Abe Attell the boxer known as “the Little Hebrew” accidentally hit the referee on the face during a win against Willie Beecher.

1913: In Atlantic City, at the Conference of American Rabbis Sabbath eve services were held at Temple Beth Israel under the leadership of Rabbi William Lowenburg of Union Town, PA who served as the Cantor while the sermon was delivered by Rabbi Charles S. Levin of Milwaukee, WI.

1913: Independence Day is scheduled to be celebrated this afternoon with “a large children’s festival to be held on the grounds of the Chicago Hebrew Institute.”

1914(10thof Tammuz, 4674): Chukat

1914: Today, after almost three years, “the Paris Yiddish-language labor movement journal The Jewish Worker published its last issue, after its pacifist stance led to a break away from the rest of the French labor movement.

1914: “New York fruit merchant” Joseph Kozinsky and his wife gave birth to Herman Kozinksky who would change his name to Herman King and along with his brothers Maury and Frank formed King Productions, the film company that had the courage to hire blacklisted writers during the McCarthy Era.

1914: Sydney Grundy, the English dramatist whose works included “An Old Jew” a play produced in London in 1894, five years before Israel Zangwill's watershed play, Children of the Ghetto was done. Zangwill. (As reported by Edna Nahsohn)  Contemporary accounts said the play was panned by critics in London and New York because it was “a very bad play with a wildly improbable plot.”

1915: It was reported today that the recently deceased Rabbi Julius Kaletzky, the author of The History of the Jews in the Ancient East is survived by “his widow, a son and two daughters on of whom is Mrs. Louis Isaacs whose husband is prominent in the real east business.”

1915: “Forty Years’ Work On One Book” published today described how Dr. Elieser Ben Jehuda “is giving his life to complete a Hebrew Dictionary.”

1915: In the area east of the Bowery where Grand Street, Gouverneur Street and Sheriff Street cross and criss-cross, where the signs are in Hebrew characters and the conversations are nearly always in Yiddish” and where “little children who have been hurried across the ocean y parents in fear of pogroms” the people are “all celebrating the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”

1916: Birthdate of Martin E. Segal, the native of Vitebsk, Russia, who would become “one of New York’s leading cultural figures” “known as the elder statesman of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.”  (As reported by Robin Pogrebin)

1916: “A resolution urging the President and lawmaking bodies of” the United States “to exert every possible effort to avoid war with Mexico” was presented to today’s session of the Central Conference of American Rabbis by Rabbis David Phillipson, Joseph Krauskopf and Julian Morgenstern and then “was adopted by a rising vote.”

1916: In Philadelphia, the Federation of American Zionists adopted “resolutions approving the plan of self-taxation of Zionists throughout the United States to create an emergency fund to further the work of the Zionists and Palestine and thanking the State Department for its co-operation in relieving suffering Jews abroad.”

1916: In Troy, NY, George and Margaret Toon gave birth to Malcom Toon who was “named ambassador to Israel in the spring of 1975 by President Ford.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/world/europe/malcolm-toon-dead-us-ambassador-to-soviet-union.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

1917: Former Ambassador Abram I. Elkus arrived in New York City aboard a French steamer, a day after he had been originally scheduled to land.

1917: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Trenton, NJ, has elected new officers including President Harry Greenburg, Vice President Meyer Wessel and Financial Secretary Phillip Wenkes

1917: In Asbury Park, NJ, the final day of the Ninth Annual Convention of Young Judaea is scheduled to include “a patriotic gathering and sightseeing

1917: In New York City, the Mayor is scheduled to speak at “a patriotic rally” sponsored by “the local Young Men’s Hebrew Association.”

1917: “Here and There in Camden” published today described listed the newly elected officers of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in that New Jersey city including Harry Greenburg, President; Meyer Wessel, Vice President; Dr. Philip Wenkos, Financial Secretary and Trustees Abe Fuhurman, Samuel Mackler, Isaac Frisch, Jack Weinberg, Jacob L. Furer and Arnold Weiss.

1918:  At the Battle of Hamel John Monash applied his doctrine of "peaceful penetration", and led Australian Divisions, along with a small detachment of US troops, to win a decisive victory for the Allies. A native of Australia, Monash was the son of Prussian born Jews and had risen to the rank of Major General in 1917.

1918: In Sioux City, Iowa Russian Jewish emigrants Rebecca Friedman (née Rushall) and Abraham B. Friedman gave birth to twin sisters born within 17 minutes of each other -- Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer and Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips. Esther, known as Eppie Lederer became advice columnist Ann Landers.  Pauline, nicknamed Popo became Abigail Van Burn or “Dear Abby.” The fact that the two leading advice columnists of the second half of the 20thcentury were Jewish was one of the best kept media secrets.

http://jwa.org/thisweek/jul/04/1918/ann-landers-and-abigail-van-buren

1918: In Chicago, Illinois, the 29th Annual Convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis came to an end today after having chosen new officers including Louis Grossman of Cincinnati as President.

1918: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI ascends to the throne. Mehmed had the unenviable challenge of salvaging what he could of Ottoman glory as World War I came to the end and the Allies were poised to turn most of the Ottoman Empire into European Colonies.  Jews continued to play an active part in the governing of the Empire and the emerging Republic.  These included the minister of telegraph Yusuf Franko Pasa and Professor Avram Galante who served as “translator of the foreign press news for the Ankara government.”

1918: In Jerusalem, General Edmund Allenby, the British general who had liberated the ancient Jewish capital from the Ottomans was the guest of honor at the American Colony’s Independence Day Celebration

1919: Today, Goldsboro, NC native Gertrude Weil “an active leader at Temple Oheb Shalom” and “the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League wrote a letter to attorney J.O. Carr explaining why women should be granted the vote – something he opposed.

https://jwa.org/media/letter-from-weil-president-of-equal-suffrage-association-of-north-carolina-to-jo-carr

1920(18thof Tammuz, 5680): Tzom Tammuz observed since the 17th of Tammuz fell on Shabbat

1920: In Connecticut, “Jewish Farmers’ Field Day” which “was sponsored by the I.O.B.B. Jewish Agricultural and Industrial Society, Federation of Jews Farmers, the council of Jewish Women and the Fairfield County Farm Bureau” was held today at the “farm of Paul Swersky.”

1920: Today’s final session of the Central Conference of American Rabbis “was devoted to receiving the reports of the committees” and hearing a paper by Professor Gotthard Duetsch on “The Jew in Economic Life.”

1920: Birthdate of Nany Mars, the native of Evanston who gained fame as novelist Nancy Freedman, the wife of Benedict Freedman

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/22/local/la-me-nancy-freedman-20100822

1920: More than fifty delegates Mizrachi delegates are expected to attend the London Zionist Conference opening today where they would “take up the immediate problems necessary to re-establish the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine.

1920: The American delegation to the London Zionist Conference starting today whose members included “Hebrew scholar Reuben Rainin,” “A.H. Fromenson, publicity direction of the ZOA,” Professor Aaron Ember of Johns Hopkins and Mrs. Caroline Greenfield of Atlanta” “will attempt to have the conference approve their Pittsburgh Program for the governing principles of the Holy Land including equal rights for all irrespective of sex, race or religion…”

1920: The 35thannual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to come to an end today in Rochester, NY.

1921: Birthdate of Philip Rosenberg, who gained fame as Philip Rose, “the producer of Broadway shows like “A Raisin in the Sun” and “Purlie Victorious”  who advanced the cause of black playwrights and actors and helped widen the scope of American theater to include stories of blacks and other minorities…’ (As reported by Bruce Weber)

1921: The funeral of Jacob A. Cantor was held at his home in New York City today. Rabbi M. H. Harris of Temple Israel delivered the eulogy. Cantor, an attorney by training, had been active in the New York Democratic Party for several decades holding a variety of positions including U.S. Congressman.  The service was attended by numerous prominent government officials.

1922: Twenty three year old NYU alum and JTS trained rabbi Herman Hailperin who led Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburg for over forty years, married his first wife Harriet Silverman.

1923: A movie made by Delaware native William Topkis at the urging of the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund “to encourage American tourism and Aliya” which had been filmed in Palestine was shown for the first time at the Zion Cinema in Jerusalem. (As reported by David Geffen)

1926: Birthdate of Viennese native Amos Elon, who in 1933 made Aliyah to Palestine where he studied law and history, became “a journalist and author and married “New York-born literary agent Beth Elon,” with whom he had one child – “filmmaker Danae Elon.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/amos-elon-writer-who-became-disillusioned-with-zionism-and-advocated-palestinian-self-determination-1691760.html

1926: The Nazis inaugurate their youth movement which is known as the Hitler Yout1927: In the Bronx, “Irving Simon, a garment salesman” and “Mamie (Levy) Simon gave birth to playwright Neil Simon some of whose hits included The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite and Biloxi Blues.

https://www.biography.com/people/neil-simon-9484352

1927(4thof Tammuz, 5687): Forty-six year old Julius Daniels, the son of Bernhard and Julia Kaatz Daniels and the brother of Max, Minnie, Samuel and Hattie Daniels passed away today in Chicago.

1928: Thirty-six year old Max M. Levand, the Cincinnati, OH born son of Lena Bardenstein Levand, and his brothers “Louis, Max and John purchased the Beacon newspaper today.

1929: Eighty-six year old Sarah Bancroft Foster Leavitt, who gave President Theodore Roosevelt two seven-branch menorahs that he kept at “Sagamore Hill, his 95 acre estate on the North Shore of Long Island, New York.”

1929: In Brocton, Massachusetts, Rose and Louis Davis gave birth to Allen “Al” Davis a driving force behind the creation of the American Football League who was the ‘legendary owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/09/sports/football/al-davis-owner-of-raiders-dies-at-82.html

1929: When the “Ah-Say-Fah Ha’Nivcharim” (Assembly of the Chosen) resumes its meeting Jaobtinsky loses the vote to ignore the organization’s’ agenda and leads the eleven revisionist delegates out of the meeting after reading a speech attacking the Jewish Agency.

1931: According to a report by the Labor Department of the Jewish Agency made public today by the American Palestine Campaign, “few countries in the world afford women such equality of opportunity as is enjoyed by Jewish women in Palestine.”  Out of work force of 23,830 most of which is located in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Petach Tikvah 18,067 are men and 5,754 are women.  While the largest number of women works in agricultural endeavors, they are also represented in manufacturing, the professions and government work.

1932: Birthdate of Martin Cohan, the TV writer and producer who co-created 'Who's the Boss?'

1933: Birthdate of David Gerald Littman, the London born human rights activist whose efforts including rescuing Moroccan and Russian Jews  who is the brother of Lewis Littman, the founder of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization and the husband of Gisèle Orebi, the author known as Bat Ye’or.

http://www.dhimmitude.org/littman-biography.html

1933:Elyakum Heinrich Loewe and his family immigrated to Palestine where he became a librarian.

1934: An Inspectorate of Concentration Camps is established, headed by Theodor Eicke.

1934: Rebbetzin Renee Schick, who founded the Schick's Bakery in Boro Park in 1941 and her husband gave birth to political science Professor Allen Shick fifteen minutes after having given birth to Marvin Schick.

1934(21st of Tammuz, 5694): Zionist poet Chaim Nachman Bialik passed away.  Born in Russia in 1873, Bialik had a traditional Talmudic education. However, at an early age he was attracted to Zionism and became a member of the Lovers of Zion. He fell under the influence of the author Achad Ha’am. His Hebrew poetry reflected the idea that Zionism was as much a cultural as it was a political movement. One of his famous early poems was "City of Slaughter" written in response to the pogrom at Kishnev. Bialik made Aliyah in 1924. Such was his influence that during his lifetime, he was called the "national poet," a title that has remained to this day. For those interested in reading his works in translation, consider looking at a copy of “Songs from Bialik: Selected Poems of Hayim Nachman Bialik.”

1934: Leo Szilard, the Hungarian born Jew who would take refuge in the United States and become part of the Manhattan Project, patents the chain-reaction design for the atomic bomb.

1936: In Napoli, Italy Margit and Pasquale Frustaci gave birth to Cesare Frustaci, the Holocaust survivor who now lives at Port Charlotte who has dedicated himself to overcoming the lies told by the Holocaust Deniers.

1936: The 39thannual meeting of the Zionist Organization of America opened tonight in Providence, RI.

1936: “American Jews in Palestine celebrated Independence Day without Fires” and the traditional baseball game sponsored by the United States Consul General did not take place “because of the gravity of the situation” i.e. Arab violence

1937: Today, in Palestine “both Arabs and Jews” are “impatiently awaiting the royal inquiry commission’s report and recommendation for a solution of the nationalities problem” with the Jews fearful of an outbreak of Arab violence.

1938: The Manshieh quarter on the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border was again the scene of violence early this morning as Jews reportedly attacked Arabs apparently in retaliation for the Arab campaign of violence that began in 1937.  Major Hebrew language dailies condemned the attacks, regardless of the reasons for which they launched.

1938: Birthdate of Robert Abrams the New York State Attorney General and Bronx Borough President.

1939: Esther "Etty" Hillesum took the second and final part of master’s exams in Dutch Law.

1939: Fifty-nine year old NYU Law School Graduate and former Republican Congressman Isaac Siegel “was appointed as a magistrate of New York City,” today.

1939: Today, “The Nazi regime passed the tenth supplementary decree to the Reich Citizenship Law and established a new central Jewish organization, the Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland directly subordinated to the Reich minister of the interior” which had as it is purpose “the promotion of Jewish emigration” and which reinforced the decision that converts, called “Christian non-Aryans” were to be treated as Jews.

1940: “All This And Heaven Too” a movie version of the novel by the same name directed and produced by Anatole Litvak and with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.

1940: Leon Blum went to Vichy to voice his opposition to the proposed constitutional reform granting all power to Marshall Pétain.”

1940: “All This, and Heaven Too” a film adaptation of the novel of the same name produced by David Lewis and Anatole Litvak who also served as director and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.

1940: As part of its deal with Hitler which made it possible for him to start WW II, the Soviet Union completed its occupation and annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Hertza Region of Romania.

1941: Birthdate of Cannes native Pierre Brochand who served as French Ambassador to Israel from 1993 to 1995.

1941: In Liepāja, the roundup of Jews by SS-Obersturmbannführer Reichert’s EK 1a men begun last night came to an end this morning hundreds being slaughtered in Rainis Park.

1941: The Nazis murdered scientists and writers in the captured city of Lvov.

1941(9th of Tammuz, 5701): Lithuanian militiamen murdered 416 Jewish men, 47 Jewish women in Kovno at the Seventh Fort.

1941: Two thousand Jews from Lutsk, Ukraine, are transported to the Lubard Fortress and killed.

1941(9th of Tammuz, 5701): Fifty-four Jews are killed at Vilna, Lithuania.

1941: Between July 4 and July 11 five thousand Jews are killed in Ternopol, Ukraine.

1942: “The first Army Air Forces bomber mission over Western Europe was flown by US crews of the 15th Bomb Squadron operating British Bostons IIIs (the Royal Air Force's name for most of their Havocs) against airfields in the Netherlands.”  (Editor note – for all of those who are critical of the U.S. failure to bomb the concentration camps, please note that the first U.S. attack took place seven months after Pearl Harbor and the planes used were twin-engine bombers of limited range and no significant armament.  In other words, the planes did not exist for the attack that modern revisionists like to call for.)

1943: In Manhattan, Lillian (née Friedman) and Cruz "Allen" Rivera gave birth to Gerald Michael Rivera who gained fame as Geraldo Rivera.

1944(13th of Tammuz, 5704): Corporal David H. Rubenstein was killed in action in France. He was the 19th Milford, Massachusetts man to lose his life in World War II. “Milford’s Fallen Family” of that war would come to total 55.

1944:Sarah Levendal, the mother of Isaac Levendal, “arrived at Auschwitz today, where she became victim number 23925.”

http://www.historynet.com/book-review-not-the-germans-alone-a-sons-search-for-the-truth-of-vichy-by-isaac-levendel-ww2.htm

1944: One thousand Jewish women are sent from Auschwitz to Hamburg, Germany, to pull down the remains of structures damaged during Allied bombing raids.

1944: In one of the tragedies of WW II, 250 inmates, most of them French Jews, from the Alderney camp on the Occupied Channel Islands are killed by fire from British warships while being transported to the mainland.

1944: The Milice, the anti-Semitic French militia working for the Vichy Government and the Nazis captured Jewish journalist and Resistance leader Georges Mandel.

1944: Between July 4 and July 5 2565 Jews from Pápa, Hungary, are sent to Auschwitz just as the Hungarian government is poised to defy Germany and halt the deportation. Only 30 of Pápa's 2800 Jews will survive the war

1945: In Tripoli, Libya and in other Libyan towns, Muslims began anti- Jewish riots.

1946: A Pogrom took place in Kielce, Poland. The date is correct –1946. One year after the end of the World War II and the Holocaust and a Polish mob attacked a house in Kielce in Poland where almost all of the town's surviving Jews were living (200 of the original 25,000). Forty-two Jews were brutally murdered, another 50 injured. This was followed by a chaotic mass exodus of around 150,000 Jews from across Poland to DP camps in Germany

1946: Following todays pogrom in Kielce, Poland “more than 100,000 Jews” fled to the American Zone of Occupation in Germany putting an unbelievable strain on the DP resources that had been allocated by the U.S. Government.

1946: “The Unknown,” a mystery directed by Henry Levin, was released in the United States today.

1946: Birthdate of financier Michael Milken, a wizard of Wall Street, whose name became synonymous with greed and the Junk Bond Scandal and who eventually ended up going to prison for his part in the financial fraud that was rampant in the 1980’s but later became known as a “philanthropist” when he co-founded the Milken Family Foundation.

1947: David Ben-Gurion appeared before the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP).  During his testimony which covered the history of the Jewish people and the reasons for creating a Jewish state in Palestine Ben Gurion tells the UN officials that “What happened to our people in this war is merely a climax to the uninterrupted persecution to which we have been subjected for centuries by almost all the Christian and Moslem peoples in the world.’

1948: Pitcher Marv Rotblatt made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.

1949: In describing the progress of the nation's so-called austerity program today Dr. Bernard Joseph, Minister of Supply and Rationing, disclosed that Israeli importers functioning in collateral fields have been requested by the Government to pool their efforts with a view to obtaining the lowest possible prices in world markets.

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that an accidental blast in a quarry of Even V’Sid Company on Castel Hill killed eight workers and injured six others. The holiday-with-pay principle was legally established in Israel following the final reading of the Annual Leave Bill in the Knesset. Employees were entitled to a minimum of 14 days' paid vacation as of October 1, 1951. The employee must have worked 200 days out of year's contract, or must have worked 240 single days for the same employer in any one 12-month period to be entitled to such paid leave.

1951: What would be known in the West as the “Doctor’s Plot” escalated when the Politburo set up an investigatory commission headed by Lavrentiy Beria head of the dreaded secret police which at that time was called the NKVD.

1954: In Hutchinson, Kansas, Julius E. and Ruth (Gottfried) Kaplan gave birth to Fred M. Kaplan the Oberlin graduate and Slate contributor who “was a member of a team that won a 1983 Pulitzer Prize for a special Sunday Boston Globe Magazinearticle, "War and Peace in the Nuclear Age", on the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms race.

1956: Today, Foreign Minister Golda Myers told the Knesset that “there has been no decision by the government of Israel to enter into negotiations for a diplomatic exchange with the West German Government” led by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

1959(28thof Sivan, 5719): Parashat Sh’lach

1959: Alaska becomes the 49th state to join the Union. Jewish involvement with Alaska dates back to January, 1868 when the Alaska Commercial Company was formed in by a group of Jewish businessman in San Francisco including Louis Sloss (President), Lewis Gerstle (Vice President), Simon Greenwald, William Kohl and A. Wasserman. Jews were included in those went “North to Alaska” during the Gold Rush of the 1890’s.  There was actually an attempt made before World War II to turn the Alaska Territory into a refuge for Jews fleeing Hitler.  The plan failed.  Ernest Gruening, a Jew from New York, was one of Alaska’s most prominent early political leaders.  A supporter of statehood, he served as territorial governor and then was elected as one of the state’s first two United States Senators.  Gruening joined Wayne Morris as one of only two Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.  The vote cost him his seat.  But it made him one of the first to see the folly of the Viet Nam War. 

1960: Thanks to the intervention of Mayor Wagner American Nazi did hold a rally in New York’s Union Square because the city’s chief executive said that his appearance was an “invitation to riot and disorder.”

1960: George Lincoln Rockwell and eight of his American Nazi Party members were arrested at the Washington National Mall when a riot broke out during one his political demonstrations.

1963: U.S. premiere of “The Great Escape” with music by Elmer Bernstein.

1967: In the General Assembly of the UN Chile gave its full support to the resolution of the Latin American Bloc in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.

1967: Just a month after the “Six Day War” a MiG-17 was shot down when Egyptian warplanes attacked Israelis in the Sinai Peninsula.

1968: Birthdate of Ronni Ancona “a Scottish actress, impressionist and author” who “won the Best TV Comedy Actress award at the 2003 British Comedy Awards for her work in Big Impression.”

1970(30th of Sivan, 5730): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1970(30th of Sivan, 5730): American painter Barnett Newman passed away.

http://www.artnet.com/artists/barnett-newman/

1971(11thof Tammuz, 5731): Eighty-one year old Albert Matarasso, a retired insurance broker and a leader in the Sephardic Jewish community, who translated books from Ladino while two children – Daniel and Alice – with his wife Dora passed a way today.

1972: Eight-eight year old Communist party leader Max Bedacht who was raised as a Catholic and is sometimes misidentified as being Jewish because when he was a member of the Central Committee he was one of only two members the other eight being “foreign born Jews” passed away today.

1974: Avital Sharansky (Natasha Stiglitz) emigrated from Moscow to Israel 

1975(25th of Tammuz, 5735): In Jerusalem’s Zion Square, members of the PLO detonate a bomb hidden in a refrigerator which killed fourteen and wounded seventy.  Victims included Arabs as well as Jews.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that there was extensive violence in the West Bank towns in protest against the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old Arab youth during clashes with security forces during the weekend.

1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the giant American Bicentennial National Park in the Jerusalem hills was officially opened to the public.

1976: Operation Thunderbolt came to a successful conclusion as aircraft carrying 102 rescued hostages and the IDF units that had rescued them land in Israel.

1976(6thof Tammuz, 5736):  Antoni Słonimski, Polish poet and author, passed away.  Slonimski spent the war years in exile in Britain.  He returned to Poland in 1951 where he was a staunch anti-Stalinist.

1976(6thof Tammuz, 5736): The Entebbe Rescue – Over 100 Jewish and Israeli hostages from an Air France plane being held prisoner by Palestinian terrorists and Ugandan soldiers who were threatening to murder them if their demands were not met were rescued by Israeli commandos in a brilliant ruse under the command of Yonatan Netanyahu who was shot in the back during the rescue. Netanyahu was the one of four Israeli soldier killed in the rescue mission.  Tragically, 19 year old Jean-Jacues Maimoni, 52 year old Pasco Cohen and 56 year old Ida Borochovitch were killed in the cross fire . Seventy-five year old Dora Bloch, who was undergoing treatment at Mulago Hospital, was murdered by the Ugandans as revenge for the raid.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/books/review/operation-thunderbolt-by-saul-david.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Entebbe#/media/File:Flickr_-_Government_Press_Office_(GPO)_-_Rescued_Air_France_Passengers.jpg

1977(18thof Tammuz, 5737): Sixty-eight year old Odessa native and City College and Columbia alum Maurice Chernowitz, the professor of fine arts at Yeshiva University and the husband of the “former Rose Fineman” with whom he raised two daughters –  Tamara and Rena – passed away today

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1977/07/06/75090029.html?pageNumber=22

1979: Simon Veil completed her term as French Minister of Health.

1979(9thof Tammuz, 5739): Fifty-three year old legendary basketball referee Marvin “Mendy” Rudolph” passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/1979/07/06/archives/mendy-rudolph-53-dies-nba-referee-officiated-a-record-2112-games-in.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20070714142048/http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-marvin-rudolph.html

http://web.archive.org/web/20070930181653/http://www.hoophall.com/ot/rudolph-induction-article.html

1979: “The Wanderers” directed by Philip Kaufman who co-authored the script with his wife Rose Kaufman and featuring Alan Rosenberg as “Turkey” was released in the United States today.

1980: Birthdate of Michael “Maxy” Klinger, the Australian born cricketer.

1981: The American premiere of “Halil” took place at Tanglewood today “with Doriot Anthony Dwyer as the soloist and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.” ‘Halil’ is a work for flute and chamber orchestra composed by Leonard Bernstein composed in 1981. The work is sixteen minutes in length. Bernstein composed Halil in honor of a young Israeli flutist Yadin Tanenbaum who was killed at the Suez Canal in during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.”

1986(27th of Sivan, 5746): Eighty-seven year old Russian born, American mathematician Oscar Zariski passed away. 

https://www.usna.edu/Users/math/meh/zariski.html

1987: Nazi Klaus Barbie, "Butcher of Lyon" is convicted by a French court.

1988: The bulk of the Furth family summer estate at Yarrow Point on the east shore of Lake Washington, which traces its origins back to Jacob Furth “was deeded to the towns of Yarrow Point and Hunts Point as the Wetherill Nature Preserve” today.

1988: Fifty-five year old Ben Briscoe followed in the footsteps of his father Robert Briscoe when he became Lord Mayor of Dublin after defeating the incumbent by 6 votes in an election held by members of the city council.

1992(3rd of Tammuz, 5752): Ninety-eight year old painter and printmaker Harry Gottlieb passed away.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/08/arts/harry-gottlieb-is-dead-wpa-artist-was-98.html

http://keithsheridan.com/gottlieb.html

1993: The first round of family tours of Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Congress come to an end.

1996(17thof Tammuz, 5756): Tzom Tammuz

1998: Sandra Bernhard gave birth to daughter Cicely Yasin Bernhard

1999: The New York Times reviews books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Story Begins: Essays on Literature by Amos Oz and The Elusive Embrace: Desire and the Riddle of Identity by Daniel Mendelsohn.

2000(1stof Tammuz, 5760): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2000: “A court called an indefinite halt to the country's first Nazi-era war crimes trial, citing the poor health of 93-year-old defendant, Aleksandras Lileikis, a former American citizen stripped of his passport who has denied charges that he turned over Jews to Nazi executioners during the German occupation of Lithuania”

2000: “Leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization decided late tonight in Gaza City that a Palestinian state should be declared by mid-September, whether or not a permanent peace deal has been reached with the Israelis.”

2001(13thof Tammuz, 5761): Thirty-two year old Eliahu Na’aman was shot today at Sueika.

2001(13thof Tammuz, 5761): Ninety-year old Leonard Pines, the man who Hebrew National the “gold standard in cold cuts” for generations of Jews and expanded the product to the non-Jewish world, passed away today. (As reported by David Cay Johnson)

https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/06/business/leonard-pines-90-businessman-who-owned-hebrew-national.html

https://www.hebrewnational.com/

2002: Jewish National Fund officials announced that retired Tel Aviv District Court Judge Arye Segelson will head the organization's investigation into allegations of misconduct in JNF's 'Plant a Tree With Your Own Hands' program for tourists.

2002 (24th of Tammuz, 5762): A gunman opened fire at Israel's El Al airline ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport; three people were killed, including the gunman

2002(24thof Tammuz, 5762): Eighty-seven year old French mathematician Laurent Schwartz who won the Fields Medal in 1950 passed away today.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/aug/07/guardianobituaries.obituaries

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1404336/Laurent-Schwartz.html

2003:Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy apologized to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany for likening a German member of the European Parliament to a bullying guard in a Nazi concentration camp.”

2003: In “Europe’s Jewish Space at Center Stage” published today Ruth Ellen Gruber how “Jewish stage and screen professionals” see the manner in which “Jewish themes are addressed in contemporary European theatre.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/04/style/IHT-europes-jewish-space-at-center-stage.html?searchResultPosition=5

2004: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Conspirators by Michael André Bernstein and Politics: Observations & Arguments by Hendrik Hertzberg

2004: At the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, Rabbi Sholom Tendler is scheduled to officiate at the wedding of 23 year old Gabriella Sarah Rosen, “a founder of the Women’s Resource Center at Boston Medical Center and 25 year old Jesse Oren Kellerman, the writer and playwright who is the son of two mystery writers – Faye Kellerman and Jonathan Kellerman.

2004: Tzipi Livni began serving as Minister of Construction and Housing

2004(15th of Tammuz, 5764): Victor Kreiderman, 49, was killed by terrorists in Israel.

2005: Today marks the 160th anniversary since Judah Solomon and the entire Jewish community of Hobart Town turned out for” for the opening of what is now Hobart Hebrew Congregation in Tasmania.

http://web.archive.org/web/20080801021416/http:/ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=143

2006: “During a joint operation conducted by the IDF and the Israel Security Authorities, the three Tanzim militants whom murdered Eliyahu Asheri and whom were hiding in the a Palestinian Police headquarters building in Ramallah, were apprehended after a three-hour standoff”

2007: Meir Sheerit succeeded Roni Bar-On as Minister of the Interior.

2007: Ze’ev Boim  succeded Meir Sheerit as Minister of Construction and Housing

2007: Yaakov Edri began serving as Minister for the Development of the Negev and Galilee.

2007: In an interview broadcast on Channel 10 Abu Mutfana - a leader in the Army of Islam – said that the kidnappers of Cpl. Gilad Schalit have transferred him to the custody of Hamas,

2008(1stof Tammuz, 5768): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

2008: The Washington Post features a review of Undiscovered by Jewish actress, Debra Winger

2008: American legal scholar Cass Sunstein married Ambassador Samantha Power.

2008: As part of its 4th of July cookout themed advertising, Wal Mart touts the availability of “100% all kosher Hebrew National Hot Dogs.”  The Red, White and Blue meets OU!

2008: “Kabluey” a comedy starring Lisa Kudrow that had premiered in Los Angeles was released in the United States today.

2008: Following two days each punctuated by a rocket attack on Israel,Hamas today announced that it was suspending all negotiations with Israel over the release of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.

2008: Despite the seemingly endless rounds of adversity that would break the spirits of lesser people, the Jews of Tel Aviv showed their true mettle by hosting the fourth annual mass water fight in Rabin Square which drew hundreds of children, teens and adults.

2008(1stof Tammuz, 5768): 1st Lt. Daniel Farkas was killed today, at Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was 42 years old. “Daniel Farkas, a 20-year-veteran of the New York City Police Department and a dedicated athlete, had been a member of the National Guard since 1992. He lived in Brooklyn with his mother, two sisters and two nieces, the New York Daily News reported. Farkas was honored with the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, the Armed Forces Reserve Medal and the National Defense Service Medal, among others. (As reported by The Forwards)

2009: In Alexandria, VA, Jews of the Old Dominion celebrate Independence Day with a "Red, White & Blue Tot Shabbat" in the chapel at Beth El Hebrew Congregation.

2009: There is no Independence Day Celebration at the U.S. Embassy in Israel on July 4 because the official celebration took place on July 1. The celebration included remarks by the Ambassador on the 233rd anniversary of U.S. Independence, Shiri Maimon singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “Hatikva” and fireworks lighting up the night sky above the cliffs of the Mediterranean.

2009(12thof Tammuz, 5769): Pfc. Aaron E. Fairbairn was killed today, when insurgents attacked his base in eastern Afghanistan. He was 20 years old. “Aaron Fairbairn was born nearly two months premature and had to be fed from a Barbie bottle until he was big enough to move into the regular natal facility. A happy and friendly child, Fairbairn overcame the health problems he faced as a baby and became fiercely devoted to his family. He showed a dedication to hard work at an early age, quitting sports in the seventh grade to work four different newspaper routes to buy his first car by the time he was 14 years old. His family told the Forward there was nothing Fairbairn enjoyed more than working on his cars. He owned seven trucks by the time he was 20. Born Aaron Eli Ben-Neth, Fairbairn took his mother’s surname when he was 18 years old. Grandson and son of Vietnam War veterans, Fairbairn decided early on he wanted to enlist and establish a career for himself in the army. Always a slight man, Fairbairn was only 115 pounds when he went into the army and worked incredibly hard to reach 145 pounds. Fairbairn was so proud that he was serving that he wore his uniform around town in Aberdeen, Wash., when he was home on leave. When news of a kidnapped soldier in Afghanistan coincided with no communication from her son for a week, Shelly Fairbairn told the Forward she envisioned the worst case scenario. “But then he called [and] we breathed a sigh of relief…the next morning when the soldiers showed up at my door I thought maybe they were here because it’s Fourth of July… [I thought,] it can’t be, we just spoke to him yesterday.” (As reported in The Forwards)

2009(12thof Tammuz, 5769): Sixty-three year old French businessman Robert Louis-Dreyfus passed away today in Zurich.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/robert-louis-dreyfus-businessman-who-helped-resurrect-olympique-marseille-football-club-1749706.html

2009(12thof Tammuz, 5769): Sixty-two year old Drake Levin, the lead guitarist for Paul Revere and the Raiders passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/10/arts/music/10levin.html?_r=0

2009: Julius Shulman's last exhibit at Craig Krull Gallery (his Los Angeles gallery since 1991) opened today.

2009(12thof Tammuz, 5769): Seventy-seven year old Allen Klein, the business manager for Sam Cooke, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/arts/music/05klein.html

2009: On the Billboard Hot 100 chart, both “Best I Ever Had” and “Every Girl” featuring Canadian Rapper Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham) {entered the top ten at positions 3 and 10 respectively” making him “only the second artist to have his first two top ten hits in the same week.”

2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer  by Peter Elkind,  Journal of the Plague Year: An Insider’s Chronicle of Eliot Spitzer’s Short and Tragic Reign by Lloyd Constantine and The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern.

2011: Thirty-fifth anniversary of the Raid on Entebbe.  Joy is still tempered by the sadness at the loss of Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu, the thirty year old officer who was the only IDF casualty during this act of derring-do.  Herman Wouk, the famous author, offered these words about Netanyahu. "He was a taciturn philosopher-soldier of terrific endurance, a hard-fibered, charismatic young leader, a magnificent fighting man. On the Golan Heights, in the Yom Kippur War, the unit he led was part of the force that held back a sea of Soviet tanks manned by Syrians, in a celebrated stand; and after Entebbe, "Yoni" became in Israel almost a symbol of the nation itself. Today his name is spoken there with somber reverence."

2011: The Association of Americans of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) are scheduled to celebrate 4th of July and Canada Day at Kraft Stadium in Jerusalem

2011: As Americans celebrate Independence, Jews can take pride in their active support of the patriot cause. Besides the famous Hyam Solomon, “there were hundreds of Jewish soldiers and sailors who fought in the Revolution and patriots who supported it. There was Phillip Russell, a surgeon at Valley Forge; Col. David Franks an aide to George Washington; a “Jew Company, " which fought in South Carolina; Moses Myers, who fought in Virginia; the Sheftall family, which fought and were captured in Savannah. In Manhattan's Chatham Square cemetery, 22 Revolutionary Jewish soldiers lie. Many had sacrificed their lives for their new country. Just like the approximately 500 Americans who were killed or wounded during the three British assaults at Bunker Hill in 1775. (New evidence has surfaced that a Jewish soldier, Abraham Solomon, participated in the Battle of Bunker Hill as a member of Colonel John Glover's 21st Regiment from Gloucester.)”

2011: The Canadian ship "Tahrir", participating in the flotilla to Gaza, attempted to depart from the Greek port of Agios Nikolaos today, but was intercepted by the Greek coast guard shortly after departure.

2011: Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered a stop to the transfer of the bodies of 84 Palestinian terrorists to the Palestinian Authority at the last minute today, despite earlier confirmation from the IDF Spokesperson's Office that the transfer would go through. Barak made his decision to hold off on the transfer after a Haaretz report revealed that two of the bodies to be returned to the PA were the Awadallah brothers, former leaders of the Hamas military wing, who were killed by Israeli soldiers near Hebron in September 1998.

2012: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host an Independence Day Celebration featuring including live Americana music and free flags for the youngsters

2012: In honor of Independence Day, the Jewish Community Alliance of Jacksonville, FL, is scheduled to sponsor a Family Fun Day completed with hot dog, games, prizes and a DJ

2012: In honor Independence Day, the National Museum of American Jewish History, will be open free to the public today.

2012: The Jewish Women’s Archives celebrates Independence Day by sponsoring an contest where readers can honor the FIJW (Fiercely Independent Jewish Woman) in their lives with a brief tribute.

2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at The Apollo Theatre in Manchester, UK

2012: 36thAnniversary of the Raid on Entebbe, a moment of great pride for Jews and all who value the best in Western Civilization.  Of course, we will never forget that this gift was paid for with Jewish blood – in this case the life of Yonatan Netanyahu.  If a person’s name defines them, then this is just such a case since the brave Israeli bears the name of the noblest of all biblical characters – the son of Saul and comrade of David.

2012: Today Kadima party chairman Shaul Mofaz asserted that the implementation of the Plesner Report is a condition for his party staying in the government. "The ball is in Prime Minister [Binyamin Netanyahu's] hands and he has a matter of days," Mofaz added, declaring that "the Plesner plan is the only plan."

2012: Yigal Amir, assassin of late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, is set to leave solitary confinement in the coming days, the Prisons Service confirmed today. Amir has spent 17 years in solitary detention, in line with repeated court extensions of his prison terms.

2013: American superstar Alicia Keys, one of the leading musical artists of the last 10 years, is scheduled to arrive in Israel for the first time today.” (As reported by David Brinn)

2013: Independence Day – Even before the “shot heard around the world” was fired Jews were active in the military units that would eventually fight the British.  In 1769, Captain Richard Lushington formed a volunteer company at Charleston, SC “composed chiefly of Hebrews.  They would later be referred to as “the Jews company” and include Marks Lazarus, Emanuel Abrahams, Jacob Moses Joseph Solomon and Abraham Spidel among its members. Among others who served on the battlefield were Mordecai Sheftall of Georgia who was twice captured by the British; Francis Salvador of South Carolina who was the first Jewish soldier to die during the war; Colonel Isaac Franks, aide de camp to General Washington, Major Benjamin Moses who served on the staffs of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette; Colonel David S. Franks the loyal patriot who served as aid de camp to Benedict Arnold; Philip Moses Russell “whom Washington commended for his assiduous attentions to the sick and wounded: and Colonel Jacob De La Motta. While we all know about the contribution of Haym Solomon who bankrupted himself to provide funds for the Revolution we should also take note of Benjamin Levy and Benjamin Jacobs of Philadelphia and Samuel Lyon of New York who signed Bills of Credit for the Continental Congress for which they were never reimbursed. This list is not complete, but it should give a sense of the small Jewish community’s support for the Revolutionary cause.  The most important contribution made by the Jews was intellectual and spiritual. From portraying King George as modern day Pharaoh and themselves as Israelites escaping bondage, to the inscription on the Liberty Bell to the concept that All Men Are Created Equal, the Patriots drew from the well of Jewish tradition and Jewish books.

2014: The U.S. Embassy in Israel is scheduled to host a July 4th Celebration starting at 5:45.

2014: Some celebrate Independence Day, while others remember the Battle of the Horns of Hittin.  If you do not understand their impact on today’s world then to paraphrase Burke and Santayana, those who do not know and learn from history are up the creek without a paddle. "

2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “Bach and Mozart with a touch of the Present”

2015(17thof Tammuz, 5775): Parsha Balak; Fast of Tammuz not observed because it is Shabbat.

2015(17thof Tammuz, 5775): Ninety-two year old Charles Winick, a controversial professor of anthropology and sociology passed away today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/13/us/charles-winick-professor-and-author-who-challenged-social-norms-dies-at-92.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=1

2015(17thof Tammuz): A “Calendar Coincidence” makes this a special Independence Day. In 1776, Independence Day was observed on July 4 which was the 17th of Tammuz on the Jewish calendar.  In a rare calendar convergence, in 2015 we will be celebrate Independence Day on July 4 which is also the 17th of Tammuz.  In another Jewish connection to the Revolution, the Haftarah for July 4th comes from Micah who wrote “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; And none shall make them afraid.” later, in 1790, President George Washington wrote to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, in part to reassure the Jews of their acceptance in the new republic.  Echoing the words of the Jewish prophet he wrote:  “May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants - while everyone shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.” Whether he meant to or not, Washington was telling the Jewish population that the messianic vision of peace and justice could be realized in the United States of America under its newly adopted constitutional form of government.

2016(28thof Sivan, 5776): Former Congressman and federal judge Abner Mikva passed away today at the age of 90.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/06/us/abner-mikva-lawmaker-judge-and-mentor-to-obama-dies-at-90.html?mcubz=1

http://www.mikvachallenge.org/about/about-abner-and-zoe-mikva/

2016: Prime Minister Netanyahu is schedule to participate in a ceremony at Entebbe marking the 40th anniversary of Operation Thunderbolt, the famous recuse mission which claimed the life of his brother Yoni.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/40-years-after-entebbe-netanyahu-to-visit-site-of-daring-hostage-rescue-mission/2016/07/01/cebb651a-2f2f-11e6-b9d5-3c3063f8332c_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories-2_wv-entebbe-520am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

2016: In a fitting tribute to the memory of Elie Weisel who passed away two days ago, Independence Day provides a chance to discover “more about the role of American soldiers in the liberation of the concentrations and the mission of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in keeping “this history alive.

https://engage.ushmm.org/2016-power-of-one-artifact.html?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnprM1lUZGtPR0UzWVdNeCIsInQiOiJmYUxKa3ZCS3hsM01DbGFWTEMvWXhnR3JBMlduNjBGSXRmVTVkWWdaYXhjaGVjSDMvUEY0NlltZW1XMU41YUFSUlRXbDJuYmo0QVBvcWljZHBGMGFyWWg1eXRMcGF5N0lXOVdBRXZ6dElEZERtVDBjOFc2NWpQS0FsSkt1V2d2eiJ9

2017: 830th Anniversary of the Battle of the Horns of Hittin

2017: Scheduled observance of Independence Day could include a visit to one or more these landmarks

http://www.jta.org/2016/07/01/life-religion/9-iconic-sites-that-celebrate-american-jewish-history

2017: Today, Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive in Jerusalem for the “first-ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister” which is a sign of the deepening relationship between two countries who gained their independence from British rule after WW II.

2017: In Israel, the Labor Party is scheduled to hold the first round of elections that would lead to choosing a new leader.

2017: “A committee of the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) convened in Krakow today where it approved the wording of a proposed resolution denying that Israel is the sovereign power over Jerusalem and condemning it for conducting archeological excavations in the Old City."

2017: In Philadelphia, the National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a special Independence Day program including talking “with a costumed impersonator portraying a young Jewish woman who came to Philadelphia in 1913.”

2017: The Maccabiah Games opened in Israel today.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/teen-cricket-girl-banned-from-maccabiah-goes-to-court/

2018: “Batsheva – The Young Ensemble is scheduled to perform Ohad Naharin's Bessie Award-winning dance, Naharin's Virus, inspired by the great Austrian writer Peter Handke's play” at Jacobs Pillow today for the first time.

2018: 155th anniversary of the Confederate surrender to Union forces under the command of U.S. Grant who authored the brilliant campaign that brought about the victory and who was the first President to attend synagogue services and make a contribution to Adas Israel. (For more about Grant and the Jewish people see the writing s of Jonathan Sarna.

2018: Based on a list previously published by JTA, Independence Day would be a good day to “celebrate the history of the Jewish people” in the United States by visiting the Lower East Side Tenement; Touro Synagogue in Newport, RI; Temple Beth Sholom in Elkins Park, PA; Gomez Mill House, Newburgh, NY; Beth Jacob Cemetery, Galveston, TX; Canter’s Deli in Los Angeles; Congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia; Bob Dylan’s childhood home, Hibbing, MN; and Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco

2019: Aviva Kempner’s “The Spy Behind Home Plate” which tells the tale of Moe Berg is scheduled to open in Hudson, NY.

2019: Gregory Michenaud’s “photo of Orthodox Jewish pilgrims praying at the tomb of a Chassic rabbi in Poland” is among the finalist for “the 2019 British Journal of Photography’s Open Walls Competition” the winner of which is scheduled “to be announced” today “at a ceremony in a 17thcentury mansion and gallery in the French town of Arles.”

https://static.timesofisrael.com/jewishndev/uploads/2019/05/gregory_michenaud_yibbum-39.jpg

2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a special preview screening of “Never Look Away,” “an intergenerational tale of love, sorrow, art and politics spanning three decades of 20th century German history, from Nazism through much of the Cold War.”

2019(1st of Tammuz, 5779): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz;

2020: The Eden Tamar Music Center is scheduled to host “Flute Sounds in Ein Kerem” with “Noam Buchman and Friend.”

2020: In New Orleans, Touro Synagogue is scheduled to host via Zoom a community wide lay-led Torah Study session

2020:As the Anglo-Jewish community observes Shabbat it will be  looking to see if today is Independence Day in the UK when “key sectors of the economy including tourism and hospitality are scheduled to reopen for the first time since March."

2020: In New Orleans, via live stream Temple Sinai is scheduled to host Summer Union Shabbat keeping alive a long time tradition of the Reform community where all of the congregations combine for one Shabbat service despite the reality of the Pandemic.

2020(12th of Tammuz): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit for the massacred Jews of Wiener Neustadt, Austria in 5058/1298 (As reported by Abraham P Bloch)

2020: For Jews celebration of a double simcha – Shabbat and Independence Day

http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1975_27_02_00.pdf

https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-revolutionary-war-and-the-jews/

2020(12th of Tammuz, 5780): Parashat Chukat and Balak; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/










This Day, July 5, In Jewish History by Mitchell A and Deb Levin Z"L

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July 5

1247: Pope Innocent IV, semi-retired by Emperor Frederick II, issued a Bull refuting blood libels and sent it throughout Germany and France.

1247: Today, Innocent IV dispatched a bull from Lyons to the Church dignitaries of France and Germany in which for the first time, the repeated baseless and fiendish imputations against the Jews were officially contradicted.  "Certain of the clergy and princes and nobles and great lords of your dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property and appropriating it themselves; they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy.  Christians believe that the Law of the Jews prescribes this to them, whilst in their Law the very reverse is ordained.  In the face of their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to Jews.  And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions, without any formal accusation without confession and without legal trial and conviction.  Contrary  to the privileges  graciously granted to them from the Apostolic chair, and opposed to god and his justice, they oppress the Jews by starvation, imprisonment and by other tortures and sufferings; they afflict them with all kinds of punishments, and sometimes even condemn them to  death, so that the Jews, although living under Christian prices are in a worse plight than were their ancestors in Egypt under the Pharaohs...Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be distressed, we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner.  Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations."  Anti-Semitism and belief and in the blood libel were so much a part of European culture that the Pope's bull was ignored.

1345: Pope Clement VI banned forced baptism of Jews. Subsequent Popes overturned this decree in 1597 and 1747.

1532:  In a letter dated today, Erasmu derided the Theatre of Memory, the seminal work of Guilio Camillo who had “labored at building a seven level ‘memory theatre’ representing the seven sefiort (in Kabbalah, divine emanations) seven planets and plethora of Kabbalistic language imagery.”

1629: Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg “a Bohemian Court Jews and financier” “was a warm friend of Rabbi Lipmann Heller, and befriended him during the latter's arrest today.

1687: Sir Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Newton was also a millenarian and a theologian who thought the world would end in 2060. A treatise he wrote contains a diagram is of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish National and University Library at Hebrew University has an exhibit of these more unusual aspects of Newton's career, and Ha'aretz has a story on the exhibit (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/871575.html). For more about Newton and the Jewish religion seeJudaismin the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt Goldish.

1687:Isaac Newton published “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” the ground breaking three volume work that included Newton’s Laws of motions and revolutionized the field of physics.  Based on documents from the Jewish National and University Library first shown to the general public in 2007, we know that we that Newton “found time to write on Jewish law”  and used the Book of Daniel “for clues about the” date for the end of the world. “In one manuscript from the early 1700s, Newton used the cryptic Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse, reaching the conclusion that the world would end no earlier than 2060. ‘It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner,’ Newton wrote. However, he added, ‘This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.’ In another document, Newton interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ends. The end of days will see ‘the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom,’ he posited.” Newton also wrote “treatises on daily practice in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In one document, Newton discussed the exact dimensions of the temple — its plans mirrored the arrangement of the cosmos, he believed — and sketched it. Another paper contains words in Hebrew, including a sentence taken from the Jewish prayerbook.  For more about Newton and the Jewish religion seeJudaismin the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt GoldishFor more on the exhibit of his papers see:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-06-19-newton-religious-papers_N.htm#

http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss/newton/

1712(1stof Tammuz, 5472): Esther de Castro, the wife of Issac Orbio de Castro, the Portuguese marrano physician and philosopher who reclaimed in his Jewish heritage when he moved to Amsterdam, passed away today.

1719(18thTammuz, 5479): Rabbi Shmuel Schotten known as the Mharsheishoch, who was born  at Schotten in 1644 and was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva in Frankfurt am Main and Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1685 passed away today.

1742: During “The War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain, Spanish troops landed on St. Simons Island as part of their Invasion of Georgia. Most of the Sephardi Jews abandoned Savannah, fearing that if captured they would be treated as apostates and burnt at the stake. The Minis and Sheftall families of Ashkenazi Jews were the only ones to remain”  This quaintly named conflict between the Spain and Great Britain would become part of a larger conflict that engulfed most of Europe – The War of the Austrian Succession – which would come to a close with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This would lead in turn to the French-Indian War which would lead to the American Revolution.

1764: Birthdate of Daniel Mendoza ((often known as Dan Mendoza) an English prizefighter, who was boxing champion of England 1792-95. He is sometimes called the father of scientific boxing. Mendoza's style consisted of more than simply battering opponents into submission; his "scientific style" included much movement. His ability to overcome much heavier adversaries was a consequence of this. In 1789 he published The Art of Boxing. Mendoza was so popular that the London press reported news of one of his bouts ahead of the storming of the Bastille which marked the start of the French Revolution. He transformed the English stereotype of a Jew from a weak, indefensible person into someone deserving of respect. He is said to have been the first Jew to talk to the King, George III. His early boxing career was defined by three bouts with his former mentor Richard Humphries between 1788 and 1790. The first of these was lost due to Humphries’s second (the former Champion, Tom Johnson) blocking a blow. The second two bouts were won by Mendoza. The third bout was the first time spectators were charged an entry payment to a sporting event. The fights were hyped by a series of combative letters in the press between Humphries and Mendoza. Mendoza's "Memoirs" report that he got involved in three fights whilst on his way to watch a boxing match. The reasons were: (a) someone's cart cut in; (b) he felt a shopkeeper was trying to cheat him; (c) he didn't like how a man was looking at him. In 1795 Mendoza fought "Gentleman" John Jackson for the Championship at Hornchurch in Essex. Jackson was five years younger, 4 inches taller, and 42 lbs. heavier. The bigger man won in nine rounds, paving the way to victory by seizing Mendoza by his long hair and holding him with one hand while he pounded his head with the other. Mendoza was pummeled into submission in around ten minutes. Since this date boxers have worn their hair short. After 1795 Mendoza began to seek other sources of income, becoming the landlord of the "Admiral Nelson" pub in Whitechapel. He turned down a number of offers for re-matches and in 1807 wrote a letter to The Times in which he said he was devoting himself chiefly to teaching the art. In 1809 he and some associates were hired by the theatre manager Kemble in an attempt to suppress the OP Riots; the resulting poor publicity probably cost Mendoza much of his popular support, as he was seen to be fighting on the side of the privileged. Mendoza made and spent a fortune. His Memoirs (written in 1808 but not published until 1816) report that he tried a number of ventures, including touring the British Isles giving boxing demonstrations; appeared in a pantomime entitled Robinson Crusoe or Friday Turned Boxer; opening a boxing academy at the Lyceum in the Strand; working as a recruiting sergeant for the army; printing his own paper money; and being a pub landlord. Mendoza made his last public appearance as a boxer in 1820 at Banstead Downs in a grudge match against Tom Owen; he was defeated after 12 rounds. Intelligent, charismatic but chaotic, he died leaving his family in poverty. In 1954 Mendoza was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1990 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Mendoza, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. The actor Peter Sellers was a descendant of Dan Mendoza. Prints of the boxer can be seen on Inspector Clouseau’s wall in the Pink Panther films.

1777: During the American Revolution, the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania appoint Solomon Bush, the son of Matthias Bush, Deputy Adjutant-General of the State Militia

1778: Abraham Furtado, the President of the Assemblee des Notables and his wife Sara Rodrigues Alvares gave birth to their first child Joseph Elie.

1784: Birthdate of Abraham Sutro, the native of Brück who served as a "Landesrabbiner" and wrote protests “against religious reforms, especially the use of the organ in the synagogue.”

1792: Francis II who relied on Bernhard von Eskeles the founder of the Austrian National Bank for financial advice began his reign as Holy Roman Emperor and King in Germany.

1796: In Philadelphia, PA, Samuel and Richea (Gratz) Hays gave birth to their second child and eldest son Isaac Hays, “a nephew of Rebecca Gratz, the alleged model for Sir Walter Scott’s “Rebecca” in Ivanhoe,” who chose to pursue a career as an ophthalmologist instead of entering the family business.

1797: “Naphtali Moses Taylor Phillips, generally known as N. Taylor Phillips” “married Rachel Hannah, daughter of Moses Mendez Seixas, a prominent Newport, RI, merchant and banker and a brother of Gershom Mendez Seixas…

1811: Venezuela declares its independence from Spain. According to the “Virtual Jewish History Tour,” Simon Bolivar, considered Venezuela's liberator, found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as Mordejai Ricardo, Ricardo Meza and his brother 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.”

1814: Lyon De Symons, the husband of Mary Goldsmid with whom he had seven children was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1824(9thof Tammuz, 5584): Forty-three year old Amelia Leven, the wife of Jacob Leven passed away today after which she was buried at the Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.

1826: Michael Emanuel married Hannah Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1832(7thof Tammuz, 5592): Fifty three year old Ernst Friedrich Ludwig Robert author of “Die Macht der Verhältnisse” the 1819 play that ‘deals with the position of Jews in society.”  Born Liepmann Levin, he was the brother Rahel Varnhagen, one of the most unusual women of her time who was the subject of Hannah Arend’ts biography, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess.

1834: In “Lobau” which was at time in West Prussia, Phillip and Esther Newmark gave birth to Harris Newmark who worked in boot-black manufacturing enterprise until he came to Los Angeles in 1853 where worked for his brother J.P. Newmark before founding “the wholesale grocery house of H. Newmark and Company” before moving on to San Francisco where he organized a successful business dealing in “hides, pelts and furs” before returning to Los Angeles where he married his niece Sarah Newmark, raised five children and served as “Chairman of the Charity Committee of the Hebrew Benevolent Society” from which position he raised thousands of dollars for those who had been trapped in the Johnstown Flood.

1838: The Jews of the city of Safed came under attack from the Druze, who also had sacked an Ottoman caravan capturing 300 fully loaded camels of the Sultan. "While it was still night, the entire city was suddenly and terrified because unknown men were seen walking around the streets, and there were signs of malice on their faces." The attack on the Jews was by a group men armed with rifles, knives, axes and clubs.

1843: Simon Bennett married Leah Solis today.

1848: Birthdate of Leone Bolaffia, the native of Padua, who became a lawyer in Venice and who became the editor of the judicial paper "Temi Veneta," in 1876.

1848: Philip Hanau married Maria Van Goor at the Great Synagogue.

1853: Birthdate of Cecil Rhodes one of the two dates that his Jewish rival Barney Barnato gave as his birthdate – the other being July 5, 1852. His birth certificate showed the date as February 21, 1851. (And you wonder why this is not always easy to do)

1853: At the Wentworth Street Synagogue, Rabbi Solomon Jacobs officiated at the wedding of Levy Drucker and Rebecca Cohen, the youngest daughter of Aaron N. Cohen of Charlotte, NC

1853(29thof Sivan, 5613): Sixty-two year old Isaac Levin Auerbach the German-Jewish education and reformer who was the son of Rabbi Levin Isaac Auerbach and the brother of Baruch Auerbach, the founder of the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Berlin, passed away at Dessau.

1857: In the Russian Empire, Baron Horace Günzburg, the son of Baron Joseph Günzburg, and his wife gave birth to Baron David Günzburg, a Jewish intellectual who had one of the best private libraries in Europe and who was a major leader of the Jewish community.

1858: The Hebrew Benevolent Society which “attend to the sick, assists members and buries the dead in the cemetery owned by the Society, was founded today in Alexandria, VA.

1860(15thof Tammuz, 5620): Seventy five year old Amsterdam native Leonardus Levy Abraham Verveer, the husband of Caroline Elkan passed away today in The Hague.

1861: Armed only with hunting-whip Sir Lawrence Oliphant fought off a Japanese attacker who was trying to kill them. If the attack had succeeded, Oliphant would not have lived to promote his project for colonizing the northern section of Palestine with Jewish settlers; a plan that he did not begin to pursue until the 1870’s

1862(7thof Tammuz, 5622): Parashat Balak

1862: According to reports in Hanover, Germany, an un-named Jewish banker in banker plans to present a proposal to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to raise the necessary revenue to fight the Civil War by adopting the same lottery system that the Austrians and Russians use.

1863(18thof Tammuz, 5623) Tzom Tammuz observed as Union cavalry fought with Lee’s Rebels who retreating back towards Virginia after their staggering defeat at Gettysburg

1864(1stof Tammuz, 5624): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz observed on the same day that General Jubal Early crossed the Potomac River in what would prove to be the Rebels final attempt to capture Washington, D.C. in their war to preserve slavery even though it meant destroying the United States of America.

1866(22ndof Tammuz, 5626): Forty-four year old Edmund Myer Tobias, the son of Myer Tobias and Hannah Woolf passed away today in the UK.

1867: Two days after he passed away, 23 year old Emanuel Israel Brandon, “the young son of Abraham Israel Brandon” was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1870(6thof Tammuz, 5630): Moses Sachs, the German rabbi who settled in Jerusalem in 1830 and “married Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Zadok HaLevi Cruiz” in 1832 passed away today after spending almost four decades trying to settle “Jews as farmers in the Land of Israel under Austrian protection.”

1870: The New York Times published a summary of reviews from English publication of Disraeli’s “Loathair.”

1871: Two days after she passed away, fifty-six year old Julia (nee Hyman) Phillips, the wife of Isaac Phillips with whom she had ten children was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1872: Today’s Foreign News Notes column cited a report by the Jewish Chronicle that the Jews of Smyrna are being persecuted by the Greeks as a way to gain the release of a group of “Greek ruffians now in prison.”  The Greek mob has threatened to burn the city and massacre the Jews if their demands are not met.

1873:  “Cosas D’Austria” published today provides a potpourris of information about various aspects of life in the Hapsburg Empire including a disparaging portrait of the Jews.  According to the author, “the Jews have not invented anything” but they exploit in the inventions of others to their own advantage.  For example, the Jews did not invent the telegraph, but Reuters profits from it by supplying all the news to British newspapers and the Wolff Agency, founded by Berhnard Wolff does the same by supplying news to the newspapers of Central Europe. The Agence Havas which is not owned by Jews but is indebted to them because they control the money, does the same in France.  The article contend that there are more Jews of Vienna are more numerous in number than the band that crossed the Jordan with Joshua and that there as many Jews in the Austrian Empire today as there Jews in Judea at the time of Titus’ victory.  The Jews own the best of everything.  But their wealth comes not from leading in combat but from being “gleaners who gather the fruits of victory.  [This article demonstrates how anti-Semitism rose at the same time as Jewish Emancipation became more of a reality. ]

1874: Birthdate of Dr. Eugene Fischer, the professor of eugenics who was a member of the Nazi Party and “was appointed rector of the Frederick William University of Berlin by Adolf Hitler.”

1874(20th of Tammuz, 5634): Rabbi Julius Eckman passed away.  Born in Rawicz, which was then part of Prussia, in 1805, he studied at Berlin before moving to the United States where held pulpits in a variety of cities including in New Orleans, Charleston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon and then back to San Francisco.  During his first stay in San Francisco Eckman was the first rabbi employed by Temple Emanu-El and the published of a new Jewish weekly, The Gleaner, which merged into the Hebrew Messenger.  When he returned to San Francisco from Portland, Eckman served as the Superintendent of the Sabbath School at Congregation Shearith.

http://www.jmaw.org/eckman-rabbi-jewish-san-francisco/

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A02E7D91139EF34BC4C52DFB166838F669FDE

1875: Marcus Jastrow, the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom and Lewis Abrahams addressed the members of B’nai Brith who had gathered in Philadelphia for ground breaking ceremonies that marked the start of the building of a statute to religious liberty.  The statue should be ready for next year’s centennial observance.  Rabbi George Jacobs presided over the ceremonies and Moses Elbrigh of New York assisted him.

1877: Birthdate of Rabbi Judah Leib Magnes. Born in San Francisco and educated at Hebrew Union College, Magnes was a life-long maverick. He was an early and ardent Zionist, which was unusual among the Reform movement since it was largely anti-Zionist at the time. He was named Rabbi at New York’s prestigious Temple Emanu-el in 1906 but left four years later because he found it "too assimilationist", another unusual stance for a Reform Rabbi. He was an outspoken pacifist during World War I. (He would change his views during World War II.) In 1925, he became the first Chancellor of the brand new Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He held the post for ten years. He was ousted as Chancellor as a result of an academic squabble and "kicked upstairs to the Presidency. . Although he was a Zionist, Magnes believed in a binational Arab-Jewish state. While there were other Jews including the famous philosopher Martin Buber who supported Magnes, none of the "Moderate" Arabs would join his efforts. This did not stop Magnes from pursuing what became his Quixotic Quest. He passed away in 1948.

1877: It was reported today that the war between the Turks and the Russian has caused an “appalling” amount of misery as can be seen by the way Jews in Romania have been beaten, stabbed and “outraged in various ways.”

1878: It was reported today that the leaders of the Romanian government are holding secret meetings to determine how they will respond to the Congress of Berlin’s demands that the Romanians improve the treatment of their Jewish countryman.  The Congress wants the Jews to be grant full emancipation making them citizens in the true sense of the word.

1879: Birthdate of Wanda Landowska whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century.

1880: It was reported today that “Alfred Simpson, alias ‘Jew Al,’ a German, and a notorious …bank thief…was arrested” in Boston.  [Was Simpson really Jewish or was this a case of a tendency of some journalists and others to deal in catchy stereotypes]

1880: “A Rush to Long Branch” published today described the great popularity enjoyed by the New Jersey resort.  All of the hotels and cottages are filled with a cross section of the nation’s “high society” including W.W.(William Waldorf) Astor and family, the Hartman Kuhn family of Philadelphia and former New Jersey Governor J.D. Bedle and family. The fact that Joseph Seligman occupied one of the private cottages attested to the fact that the innkeepers in Long Branch had not succumbed to the anti-Semitic policies being followed in Saratoga and this fact had not harmed business.

1882: At the Pennsylvania Railroad’s piers No. 35 and 38, Hungarian and Austrian Jewish freight handlers were fired because the company could hire German workers. This took place during the Freight Handler’s Strike which was an example of how companies pitted native-born workers against immigrants and then immigrants against immigrants to keep wages low and working conditions miserable.

1882: “A Spanish Novel” published today provided a review of Gloria, a novel by Perez Galdos that incorporates themes of modern day anti-Jewish attitudes with the harsh reality of the persecution of the Jews completed with auto-de-fes and the Expulsion of 1492. [This was an unusual topic for its time and even more unusual one for a Spanish author to tackle.]

1883(30thof Sivan, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1883: Cartoonist Rube Goldberg was one day old today.

1884: It was reported today that in the matter of the Parisian court found in favor of the author and ordered the painter not display a picture that depicted Dumas as a “Baghdad Jew.” The ruling was based on the fact that the painter had not gotten the consent of the author to use his visage and that portraying him in this manner (as a Jew) was “very uncomplimentary.”

1884: It was reported today that last month in southern Russia, the Cossacks had to intervene in a conflict between the Armenians and Jews in Titlis. [Attacks against Russian Jews were not unusual.  But all too often the Cossacks (part of the government’s “police authority” sat by and let the Jews be brutalized.]

1887: The Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held a special meeting where they adopted a resolution praising and expressing their condolences at the passing of their colleague Jonas Heller.

1887: Grace (Colbert) Weinschenk, the wife of Albert Weischenk gave birth to a baby boy today in New York.  The father is a young German Jew whose Christian in-laws had originally opposed the marriage.  But they became reconciled to the fact and the couple was living with their in-laws at the time of the birth. [ Why does this matter  You will have to come back and the next installment]

1888: Birthdate of Herbert Spencer Gasser, the Wisconsin born doctor who won the 1944 Noble Prize In Medicine and became the director of the Rockefeller Institute.

1888: In Suwalki which at that time was part of the Russian Empire, Alexander and Sonia Daneilewicz Banov gave birth to Leon Banov who came to Charleston, SC at the age, earned a Ph.G. and an M.D. from the Medical College of South Carolina after which he “served as the public health officer for both the county and the city of Charleston which time he married Minnie Monash with whom he had three children. (As reported by Patricia Evridge Hill)

http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/banov-leon/

1891: The New York Times published a review of Dr. Mendlesonn’s Hebrew Jurisprudence: The Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews.

1891: A meeting was held in St. Louis, MO to address the needs of the increasing number of Russian Jews arriving in the city.  The attendees decided to establish a school with daytime and night sessions that would make the new immigrants “thorough American citizens.”  They would first be taught the English langue which the key to learning about government, politics and the “social economy” of their new home.  Over one hundred of the attendees signed up to support such an endeavor and each paid three dollars in dues to support the project. 

1893: The 1,800 people who attended the Kra Kauer Charity and Aid Society Summer-night’s festival at Sulzer’s Harlem River Park were entertained by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Military Band and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Drum and Fife Corps.

1894(1stof Tammuz, 5654): Seventy-nine year old Barbara Elisabeth Gluck whose father’s death when she was very young which forced her to turn to writing poetry to earn a living, where she used the name Betty Paoli passed away today.

1894: Two days after he passed away “in his 71st year, Joseph Schloss was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1894: Seventy-seven year old British political leader and archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard, whose family had been close friends with Benjamin Disraeli in his youth and whose discoveries at Niniveh helped to provide proof for the portions of the TaNaCh that dealt with the Assyrians passed away today.

1896: Herzl met with Claude Montefiore and Frederic Mocotta of the Anglo-Jewish Association who are anti-Zionist.

1897: Birthdate of Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim. Born Paul Frankenburgerin Munich, “he trained at the Munich Academy of Arts from 1915 to 1920. He was assistant conductor in Walter and Knappersbusch, 1920 to 1924, and then conductor at Augsburg from 1924 until 1931. He then abandoned conducting and devoted himself to teaching and composition. In 1933, he emigrated to Tel Aviv and changed his name to Paul Ben-Haim. Some of his works include the Concerto Grosso (1931), Symphony No. 1 (1940) and Symphony No. 2(1945). In 1953, he won the Israeli State Prize for the composition Sweet Psalmist of Israel, scored for harp, harpsichord and orchestra. According to the critics, Ben-Haim’s music can best be described as late romantic with an Oriental/Mediterranean overtone. He embodies the general tendencies of this group of composers who were trained in the classic late romanticism of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ben-Haim died in 1984.”

1898: The first convention of the FAZ came to a close.

1898: Birthdate of New York native and author Zelda F. Popkin, (née Feinberg) the wife of Louis Popkin and “the first woman general-assignment reporter on The Wilkes Barre Times Leader whose novels on Jewish subjects included Quiet Street“based on the siege of Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/27/obituaries/zelda-f-popkin-84-author-of-14-books-had-been-reporter.html

1898: Two days after he passed away, 54 year old Phillip Uri Felsenthal was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.

1898: Wisconsin native Louis C. Wolf began serving was promoted to the rank of 2ndLieutenant today.

1899: Birthdate of Israel Goldblatt, the native of Manchester who gained famed as cinema and television actor Harold Goldblatt.

1899: Major B. Albert Lieberman was appointed as the Surgeon for the 33rd U.S. Volunteer Infantry.

1899: Philip S. Golderman named a 1st Lt. in 26th U.S. Infantry.

1899: Louis C. Wolf of Wisconsin who had begun his military service as a Cadet at West Point in 1893, was made a 2nd Lieutenant.”

1900: Birthdate of Detroit native Bernard Zieger, the U of Michigan and Hebrew Union College graduate who while serving as the Hillel Rabbi at the University of North Carolina recited Kaddish at Duke Chapel after learning of the death of “Louis Stern, the director of the Psychological Institute of Hamburg who had coined the term ‘intelligence quotient’” who was the rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, Michigan.

1901: The Conference of American Rabbis opened its annual meeting today in Philadelphia.  The major business of the day was resolving the question “Whether or not the religion of Jesus should be taught in the Jewish theological Schools.”  The conference unanimously adopted the conclusions of a report prepared by Rabbis Philipson, Deutsch,  Krauskopf that stated that while some of Jesus’ message contained “beautiful more teachings”  they “cannot form part of, nor be incorporated in any official statement of declaration of Jewish belief.”  This was defining moment for setting boundaries of the Reform Movement.

1902(30thof Sivan, 5662): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1902: “The Story of the Moors” published today provided a review of The Moors: A Comprehensive Description by English journalist James Meakin that included “a chapter on the literal and primitive customs of the Jews as practiced by the Jews of Morocco” which “offers material for a comparative study of the social and religious customs of Israel in Morocco with the observance of Jewish ceremonial in other countries.”

1903: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of George Osterman and Rosa Pearlman.

1904: The body of Benjamin Cohen, who had passed away on July 2 remained in the morgue waiting to be claimed by his stepson Philip Simon after it was discovered that Roman Catholic Thomas Carroll who had also died on July 2 had been mistakenly buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery.

1905: This morning’s session of the 18th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis began with a prayer by Rabbi Jacob Mielziner followed by Rabbi Julian Morgenstern’s reading of “History and Functions of Ceremonies in Judaism” by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler

1906: The Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis held its first post Conference meeting today in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1907: Today’s session of the meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened with a prayer by Rabbi Jacob Mielziner of Cincinnati, Ohio and in the afternoon sessions heard the Report on the Geiger Centenary prepared by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and the Report of the Committee on Uniform Pronunciation of Hebrew

1908: It was reported today that a benefit will be held on August 4 to raise funds “for the erection of a Hebrew temple and religious school in Far Rockaway.

1909: The Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society of Richmond donated five dollars to the National Conference of Jewish Charities.

1910(28thof Sivan, 5670): Eighty-five year old Henry Levy, the son of Joseph Levy and Blumah Jacobs passed away today in the UK.

1911:”East Side Patriots March” published today described the participation of 75 Jewish organizations, including a unit of girls from the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian School in an Independence Day parade for which Joseph Barondess served as Grand Marshall.

1912: It was reported today that “the United Hebrew Charities is trying to induce” New York City “authorities to adopt ordinances for the control and protection of pushcart peddlers, from whom hundreds of thousands of people buy “many necessary articles at a much lower rate than they could be obtained even in the cheapest stores”, and having adopted them, to see to it that they are enforced” by the city.

1913: It was reported today that Rabbi David Frankel, formerly of Scranton, PA has begun serving as the Rabbi for “the Austrian congregation on Attorney Street, in New York

1913: The National Conference of Charities and Correction which Miss Francis Taussig, Superintendent of the Relief Department of the Jewish Aid Society  is attending as a delegate from Illinois because of a Gubernatorial appointment, was scheduled to open today in Seattle, WA.

1913: The National Conference of Charities and Correction which Simon I. Blum is attending as a delegate from Illinois was scheduled to open today in Seattle, WA.

1913: Staring today, “and until further notice Congregation B’nai Sholom Temple Israel will hold services on Saturday morning at the new Sinai Temple” in Chicago.

1913: Since today was Shabbat, the Conference of American Rabbis which had begun meeting in Atlantic City since July 2, did not have any business sessions today.

1914: Birthdate of Yitzhak Rafael, a native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935 and eventually became an Israeli political leader who served in the Knesset and as Minister of Religion.

1914: In Detroit, at Temple Beth El, Rabbi Samuel Sale of St Louis is scheduled to deliver the opening prayer at today’s session of the “25thanniversary Conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis which will include a report by Rabbi Solomon Foster of Newark, NJ on “Synagogue and Industrial Relations” and report by Rabbi Louis Bernstein of St. Louis on “Defectives, Dependents and Delinquents.

1915: In the “Jewish neighborhood” on the Lower East Side, a part of Henry Street has been roped off for an “impromptu jollification” that included a “great neighborhood dance” as part of the two day celebration of Independence Day.

1916: It was reported today that the Central Conference of American Rabbis has authorized “its committee on national cooperation to ascertain the character and purposed of the National Federation of Religious Liberals with a view of joining this body” next year “if deemed advisable.”

1916: In Philadelphia, PA, at its closing session The Federation of American Zionists “endorsed the plan of the Palestine Committee of the Federation to undertake the organization of a corporation with capital stock of one million dollars for the purpose of aiding Jewish settlements in Palestine and developing its resources,” voted to spend $25,000 annually for the maintenance of a hospital unit in Palestine” and heard Hadassah President Henrietta Szold describe the need the war in Europe had created for doctors and nurses.

1916: In Wildwood, NJ, “A special commission on ‘Jews of Other Lands’” chaired by Rabbi Louis Grossman of Cincinnati, “reported to the central Conference of American Rabbis today that conditions arising due to the war in Europe had prevent the commission from proceeding with its work” because “it had been impossible to maintain correspondence” so “there had been no access to sources of information which ordinarily would available.”

1917: Political philosopher, Leo Strauss who would be forced to flee his country when the Nazis came to power, began serving in the German Army during WW I today.

1917: Former Ambassador Abram I. Elkus was honored with a formal reception at City Hall in New York City.

1918: It was reported today that the members of the Executive Committee of the Central Conference led by Rabbi Louis Grossman of Cincinnati includes, G.G. Fox, Fort Worth, TX; E.N. Callisch, Richmond, VA; Ephraim Frisch, New York; Max J. Singer, Evansville, Indiana; Jacob Singer, Lincoln, Nebraska; W. H. Fineshriber, Memphis, TN; Joseph Stolz, Chicago, Illinois and David Lefkovits, Dayton, Ohio.

1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): Parasaht Chukat

1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): “Mr. Samuel Kaplan of the Hebrew Union College” is scheduled to leader Shabbat morning services at Isaiah Temple in the absences of Rabbi Joseph Stotltz who is visiting in Syracuse, NY.

1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): Thirty-six year old Eugen Leviné was executed in Munich after it was retaken by the German Army and the right-wing Freikorps.

1919: It was reported today that Judge Julian W. Mack has been elected to serve as a member of “the Board of Overseers at Harvard University.”

1919: It was reported today that “Harriet B. Lowenstein” a representative of the Joint Distribution Committee working in Paris has purchased “a large quantity of surplus army supplies,” consisting most of clothing which have been shipped to Poland where the Jewish population is in great need of “raiment.”

1920: At today’s session of the Central Conference of American meeting in Rochester, the attendees “overwhelmingly rejected political Zionism” and elected officers including President, Leo M. Franklin of Detroit: Vice President, Edward N. Calisch of Richmond, VA; Treasurer, Louis Wolsey, Cleveland, OH; Recording Secretary, Isaac E. Marcuson of Macon, GA and Corresponding Secretary, Felix A. Levy of Chicago.

1920: In New York, Charles Polakoff, the son of Louis and Annie Polakoff and his wife Rebecca Polakoff gave birth to Leah Goldman

1921: It was reported today that Associate Supreme Court Justice Brandeis has been named “Honorary President of the Palestine Development Council” and that Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Nathan Straus have been named Honorary Vice President.

1922: “Palestine Mandate Upheld in Commons” published today described the failure of the attack in the House of Commons on the Government’s Palestine Policy during which Winston Churchill argued the case so well that the motion that attacking the policy was defeated by 292 votes to 35.

1923: In Fischhausen, Germany, “Herman Motulsky, a shopkeeper, and the former Rena Sass” gave birth Arno Gunther Motulsky, the “refugee from Nazi Germany who became a founder of medical genetics” and a mentor to at least one Nobel Prize winner. (As reported by Denise Grady)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/obituaries/arno-motulsky-dies-medical-genetics-founder.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1923: Third baseman Joe Bennett made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1924(3rdof Tammuz, 5684): Parashat Korach

1924: Official opening ceremonies conducted in Paris marking the start of the Summer Olympics during which Harold Abrahams won the 100 m in a time of 10.6 seconds and provided part of the plot line for “Chariots of Fire.”

1925: Birthdate of Anna Wittner the wife of Australian Jurist Sir Zelman Cowen and mother of Yosef, Kate, Ben and Rabbi Shimon Cohen, the “Director of the Institute of Judaism and Civilization in Melbourne.”

1928(17thof Tammuz, 5688): Tzom Tammuz observed for the last time under President Calvin Coolidge.

1932: In New York City “Esther (Goldberg) Navasky and Macy Navasky gave birth to Victor Saul Navasky youthful Zionist and “a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism” who held a variety of positions at the Nation from 1978 to 2005 when “he became the publisher emeritus” and was married to Anne (Strongin) Navasky with whom he had three children.

http://victorsnavasky.com/

1933: An agricultural settlement, Kadima, was founded on the initiative of Yehoshua Hankin.  In 2003, it merged with Tzoran to become Tzoran-Kadima

1933: Heinrich Brüning who served as Chancellor from 1930 t0 1932 during the Weimar Republic dissolved his Centre Party to pre-empt the Nazis from banning the party.

1933: In Brooklyn, Harold Baumbach, “a noted painter” and Ida Baumbach, “a school teacher gave birth to novelist Jonathan David Baumbach whose works included Separate Hours and Reruns passed away today.  (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/obituaries/jonathan-baumbach-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1934: In Vienna, The body of Chaim Nachman Biliak, the great Hebrew poet who died last night of a heart attack lay in state in the ceremonial hall of the Central Jewish Cemetery surrounded by an honor guard of Jewish students from the University of Vienna.

1934: In announcing plans for U.S. memorial services honoring the late Chaim Nachman Bialik, Morris Rothenberg, President of the ZOA, described him “the foremost Hebrew Poet of the last 500 years.

1935: The Bialik Institute invited authors throughout the world to compete for eight prizes with a total value of 900 pounds which will be awarded in January, 1936. The winners will be determined based on their contributions to Hebrew literature.  Submission may include original Hebrew works as well as efforts translated from the original into Hebrew.

1935: Konrad von Presying, who became “one of the strongest and most vocal opponents of the Nazis and their anti-Semitic policies among Germany's Catholic hierarchy” was made Bishop of Berlin today. (As reported by Austin Cline)

1936: A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night.

1936: “An increase of 300 per cent since 1934 in sums raised through Jewish welfare funds in the United States for non-local relief and other philanthropic activities were reported today in Notes and Newsthe publication of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds,

1936: The Palestine Post reported that in spite of the six-week-long general Arab strike, work was still going on the Jaffa Port improvement. A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night. Four cars belonging to Jews were set on fire in Jerusalem. The shooting, bomb throwing and tree uprooting by Arab terrorists continued throughout the country.

1936: In Providence, RI, “Morris Rothenberg announced at a caucus of his followers at 12:30 o’clock this morning that he had accepted the compromise proposal that will Rabbi Stephen S. Wise head of “the Zionist Organization of America.”

1936: In Jerusalem, an Arab was arrested after three Jews were wounded, two of them critically, as they were passing the new Public Works Department as they walked to work.

1936: As of today, more than 260 of food poisoning due to the consumption of tainted fruits and fish have been reported, most of them among the Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem.

1936: Delegates to the 39th annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America meeting in Providence, RI, upset this afternoon’s schedule to provide a final opportunity to settle the issue of who will serve as the organization’s President.

1936: “The Montag, a sports paper, carried a German government news service dispatch charge that ‘Jews were conspicuous’ in the group of journalists who are asserted to have molested Arthur Karl Greiser” after he gave a speech in Geneva “attacking the control of the League of Nations over the Free City of Danzig.”

1937: During the Spanish Civil, New Yorker Moe Fishman, a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was wounded while fighting in a battle west of Madrid.

1937: “Reform Judaism’s prospects in America are exceedingly favorable, Rabbi Joseph Ruach of Louisville, KY, concluded today in a paper he read before the Fourth Congress of the World Union Progressive Judaism” which is meeting in Amsterdam

1937: Birthdate of New York Congresswoman Nita Melnikoff Lowey.

1938:  Herb Caen's first column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Caen’s father was Jewish, but his mother was not.

1938: In an action by the Nazi controlled government that affects several hundreds of poor Jewish families, “Jewish tenants in Vienna’s municipal dwellings have received a notice” ordering them to move within a fortnight.

1939: “Despite demands from all parts of the House of Lords for a more liberal policy toward refugees, a government spokesman today reiterated its refusal either to loosen existing restrictions on immigration or to provide public funds to aid the proposed settlement of German Jews in British Guiana”  while the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Colonies announced “that the Home office was discussing…the possibility of permitting some of the 7,000 Jewish children brought” to the United Kingdom “from German to remain here after they become 18 years old, instead of being required to emigrate.”

1940: In Rumania, “the press resumed Jew-baiting which had been forsaken for the past several days” and “the State censor refused to permit publication of a statement of loyal by the Grand Rabbi, which he had intended to make in the Senate while “the bodies of seven Jews were found along the railway line running between Bucharest and Lespezile.”

1941: After 54 Jews were shot the prior day, 93 more were killed in Vilna by members of the Einsatzkommando unit. The Einsatzkommando were the SS killing squads that followed the Nazi Army into eastern Poland, the Baltic States and the Soviet Union. They were to round up the Jews and other undesirables and kill them. But special emphasis was placed on the Jews in this next phase of the Final Solution.

1941: InLiepāja, Latvia, Korvettenkapitan Brückner, of the Kriegsmarine, “issued a set of anti-Jewish regulations including:

1.     All Jews must wear the yellow star on the front and back of their clothing;

2.     Shopping hours for Jews were restricted to 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Jews were only allowed out of their residences for these hours and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.;

3.     Jews were barred from public events and transportation and were not to walk on the beach;

4.     Jews were required to leave the sidewalk if they encountered a German in uniform;

5.     Jewish shops were required to display the sign "A Jewish-owned business" in the window;

6.     Jews were to surrender all radios, typewriters, uniforms, arms and means of transportation

1941: In Lvov, the local Ukrainians continued to take Jews from their homes and murder them. Among the victims were a 49-year-old ophthalmologist, Kornelia Graf-Weisenberg, and her daughter.

1941: The Nuremberg Race Law was extended to include Czech citizens.

1941: In the Ukraine, 3000 Jews are murdered at Chernovtsy; 600 are killed at Skalat.

1942: Margot Frank, the sister of Anne Frank, received a notice to report to a labor camp

1942(20th of Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-eight year old Rabbi Chaim Fishel Epstein who “served as Chief Rabbi in St. Louis, MO for the Vaad Hoeir of the United Orthodox Community for 12 years from 1930 to 1942 passed away today.

1943: Heinrich Himmler orders that Sobibór, a death camp, be made a concentration camp.

1943: Today authorities put an end to the special status granted to personnel at the Westerbork section of the Jewish Council. Half of the personnel had to return to Amsterdam, while the other half became camp internees. Etty Hillesum joined the latter group: she wished to remain with her father, mother and brother Mischa, who had meanwhile been brought to Westerbork.

1943: “Thumbs Up” a musical with a score by Walter Scharf and produced by Albert J. Cohen was released today in the United SAttes.

1944: Additional deportations of Jews from Budapest which had been planned to take place today did not take place today because Regent Miklos Horthy cancelled them, in part because of pressure from the Pope, the King of Sweden and President Roosevelt.

1945: Great Britain holds its first general election since 1935.  The election pits Churchill and his Conservative Party against Atlee and the Laborites.  Churchill and the Conservatives will go down to defeat.  Unfortunately for the Jews, the new Laborite government will enforce the White Paper and support the Arab cause with even more tenacity than the Churchill government had.

1945: After a ten year absence, Barnett Janner, the future Baron Janner, returned to Parliament when was elected at the 1945 general election as Labour MP for Leicester West.

1946: “Representative Sol Bloom, Democrat, of New York, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said today he would demand United Nations action on the world Jewish problem as a result of the anti-Semitic riots in Poland.”

1947: William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor and Philip Murray, President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the two leading labor organizations in the United States, sent messages tonight to the 50thAnnual Convention ZOA demanding “that the doors of Palestine be opened to Jewish immigrants and that the Palestine Mandate be carried out pending the final decision of the United Nations.”

1947: Following the death of his first wife, Bertha Freshman who had died of a collapsed lung in 1946, movie make Mike Todd married his second wife Joan Blondell today creating a union that would not last but would lead to Todd’s third and final marriage to movie start Liz Taylor.

1948: It was reported today that “eight Jews were wounded and one Araba woman, a patient in the Israeli held Norte Dame Hospice was shot fatally by an Arab bullet” when Arab snipers began shooting in Jerusalem forcing Israeli troops to return fire.

1949: “Polish security police today arrested ten persons including the Rabbi of Walbrzych in Lower Silesia for helpings thousands of Jews” who were said to be on their way to Israel by of Western Germany, “to cross the frontier into Czechoslovakia.”

1950: The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, passed the “Law of Return” which “granted all Jews the right to live in and become a citizen of Israel.” (Editor’s note -  at the time most Jews did not know that a group of Orthodox in Israel would determine that a large number of people who thought they were Jews and had lived their lives as Jews really weren’t Jewish; something that certainly was not part of the Zionist dream)

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that registration began of all the Israeli-occupied houses in Jerusalem's no-man's-land by the joint subcommittee of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission. It was hoped that the registration would eliminate the neutral areas and all the trouble spots in which many lives were lost during the past three years. Israeli seamen demanded a large share in their foreign currency earnings.

1955: As Lord Russell prepared to release a anti-Nuclear message that had been signed by many leaders including the late Albert Einstein, “it was recalled in London tonight that sometime before his death, Dr. Einstein had said ‘At the decisive moment I shall speak” but “I am waiting for the right moment.”

1956: It was reported today that “President Eisenhower had personally decided against approval of the arms list submitted by Israel” which followed the policy originally recommended by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

1959: Birthdate of Daniel Gordis, a rabbi ordained at JTS who is the President of the Shalem Foundation and the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School

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

1959: In Israel, the 8th government “collapsed when David Ben Gurion resigned after Labor Unit and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West German and refused to leave the coalition.

1959: After being first shown to a limited audience at New York in June, a film version of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” directed by Otto Preminger and produced by Samuel Goldwyn opened at the Carthay Circle Theatre”

1959: “The Big Circus” a mystery “produced and co-written by Irwin Allen” was released in the United States today.

1960: In Detroit, Michigan, “Rhoda (Nemeth) and Archie Sills” gave birth to University of Michigan alum and  Tony Award nominated actor Douglas Sils

1960: The then 50-year old Jewish community of the Belgian Congo, consisting of 2500 Jews fled in the wake of riots that followed independence of that former Belgian colony.

1961: In Beersheba, Yitzhak Banai and his wife gave birth to “Israeli musician, singer and songwriter” Meir Banai, the brother of “comedian Orna Bania and singer Evitar Banai


http://www.timesofisrael.com/meir-banai-55-led-israeli-music-into-a-more-soulful-space/

1962: “Yossel Schumacher” the central figure in a case involving his “abduction by his Haredi Jewish grandparents” was reunited today for the first time in two years with his parents.

1964: Two days after she had passed away, funeral services as scheduled to “be held at the House of Living Judaism of the Union of American Congregations” for fifty-nine year old “Mrs. Rosa Brown Eisendrath” the Bonham, TX born wife “Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations who gave up her career as a concert pianist to help her husband fulfill his calling.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/07/04/86712588.pdf

1965: In the U.K., premiere of “Darling” directed by John Schlesinger, produced Joseph Janni, written by Frederick Raphael and starring Laurence Harvey, born Laruschka Mischa Skikne

1968: In Long Beach, CA, Susan and Mort Stuhlbarg gave birth to Julliard trained American actor Michael S. Stuhlberg who played Arnold Rothstein in “Boardwalk Empire.”

1969(19thof Tammuz, 5729): Parashat Pinchas

1969: In “Stand on Zionism” published today Paul Boutelle of the Socialist Workers Party takes issue with a letter written by Arnold Forster, general counsel of the ADL taking issue “with the A.D.L.’s recent defamation of the S.W.P.” in which it labels the organization’s “anti-Zionist stand as anti-Semitic.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/07/05/78385686.pdf

1969: In Los Angeles, novelist Rhea Kohan (née Arnold), and writer, producer, and composer, Alan W. "Buz" Kohan gave birth to television writer and producer Jenji Leslie Kohan the creator of “Weeds” and “Orange Is the New Black” and sister of David and Jono Kohan.

1970: Amos Zamir and Amos Levitov were captured when their FE4 Phantom was shot down by Egyptian SAM’s during the War of Attrition.

1972(: Birthdate of Leningrad native Igor Semyonovich Shteyngart who, 1979, came to the United States, graduated from Oberlin and gained fame as award winning author Barry Shteyngart whose “debut novel” was The Russian Debutante’s Handbook.

1974:“Leonard Cohen: Bird on the Wire,” Tony Palmer’s documentary about the singer, songwriter, novelist and poet was shown for the first and only time at the Rainbow Theatre in north London today. (As reported by Cathryn J. Prince)

1975: Sixty-seven year old Otto Skorzeny, the Austrian born German Waffen-SS Lieutenant Colonel who may have been the only person to be decorated by Hitler with the Iron Cross and to have worked for Mossad, passed away today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/29/hitlers-commando-lt-col-otto-skorzeny-worked-as-an-assassin-for/

1975(25th of Tammuz, 5735): In Jerusalem, a refrigerator that had five kilograms of explosives packed into its sides exploded on Zion Square, a main square leading to Ben Yehuda Street and to Jaffa Street. Fifteen people were killed and 77 were injured. After the attack, Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, said: "The murder serves as a warning not to get caught up in illusions about the intentions of the terror organizations ... Therefore we must follow a strict policy of not negotiating with them. We must speak to them only in the language they understand, the language of the sword." Ahmad El-Sukar, the terrorist responsible for placing the bomb, was released from Israeli prison in 2003 as a gesture to Arafat.

1975: “A 57 page new edition of the dissident “Chronicles of Current Events” began to circulate in Moscow.

1976: Birthdate of New York native Benjamin David “Jamie” Elman the Canadian born actor “who taught four graders at synagogue religious school in Southern California.” (Editor’s note – having taught Jewish youngsters in more than religious school, I can attest to the fact that all Jewish teachers don’t end up as famous thespians.)

1976:The Jerusalem Post reported on the successful completion of the Entebbe rescue operation, the joy at the freeing of hostages who arrived home to a jubilant Israel. Four Israelis - the commander of the rescue team, Yonatan Netanyahu, and three other soldiers - were killed during the operation. A number of wounded Israelis were still under treatment in Nairobi hospital. Idi Amin, Uganda's ruler was working together with Palestinian gunmen, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Knesset.

1976: The Associated Press published an interview with “Muki” Betser, one of the organizers of the Entebbe Rescue Operation.  According to the interview, the raid was so successful, in part, because of information supplied to the Israelis by the hostages who had been released by the terrorists.

1976: In an attempt to cover up the savage murder of Dora Bloch, Idi Amin instructed his Health Minister respond to any “inquiries about the sick hostage” by saying “she had been returned to the airport one hour before the Israeli commandos had arrived and that the commandos had taken her with them.”

1976: In an attempt to thwart an attack on Kenya by Idi Amin who had been warring with his neighbor and might know had provided a landing site to the Israelis, The United States Seventh Fleet “including the aircraft carrier USS Ranger” sailed toward East Africa, a naval frigate docked at Mombassa and US naval patrol aircraft flew o Nairobi’s Embakasi Airport.

1978(30thof Sivan, 5738) Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1978(30thof Sivan, 5738): In New York, Jacob Sasonkin, the husband of Millie Sasonkin and the father of Judith Lowenstein passed away today.

1978: Production of “Taxi” co-starring Judd Hirsh and Andy Kaufman began on Stage 23 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

1979(10th of Tammuz, 5739): Ninety-one year old Rose Alice Alschuler the daughter of Charles and Mary Haas and the wife of Alfred Samuel Alschuler, Sr. passed away today in Chicago.

1979: Sixty-seven year old Edis De Philippe, who founded the Israel National Opera Company in 1947 passed away today. (As reported by Shabtai Benaroyo)

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/de-philippe-edis

1981: Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Gorenstein announced the engagement of their daughter Cornell University graduate Jonina T. Gorenstein to theoretical physicist Dr. Jonathan Furth  Schonfeld, the son of Frances Schonfeld and Gabriel B. Schonfeld, the educational director of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY and the grandson of the late Rabbi Lazar Schonfeld of the Bronx, a former chief rabbi of Nagy Karoly, Hungary, who broadcast sermons in Hungarian for the Voice of America.”

1983: Menachem Begin appointed Sarah Doron Minister without Portfolio.

1985(16thof Tammuz, 5745): Fifty-seven year old Detroit native and television producer and director Barry Crane, a world class bridge champion was murdered today in Studio City.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-barry-crane-cold-case-killing-tv-director-20190510-story.html

1988: “Ben Briscoe Follows Father to Become Dublin’s 2nd Jewish Mayor” published today described the father-son relationship to the ceremonial position of Lord Mayor.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Ben-Briscoe-Follows-Father-to-Become-Dublin-s-2nd-Jewish-Mayor/id-f8628cd5a99251a6eed44d7d963006a5

1989: An exhibition entitled ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' appearing at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan comes to a close. The following review entitled “Slices of Time, Preserved in Deft Images” describes the exhibition and its importance.

A photograph, whether intended to or not, speaks of the time in which it was made. This is obvious in the case of images taken years ago -pictures from the first days of Israel's independence, for example, or from the tumultuous decade of the 1960's. But it is also true of contemporary art photographs of the sort one finds displayed in SoHo galleries. This weekend affords an unusually rich opportunity to look at photographs of the past and present, and to assess how much the world has changed in the last 40 years. Robert Capa's photographs of the first years of the State of Israel were taken at a time - 1948 to 1950 - when photojournalism was in full flower. Not only was this genre the most visible and provocative manifestation of photography, but it was also the primary means by which the events of the world were conveyed. Capa, considered by many the quintessential photojournalist, made a considerable reputation by photographing the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His images of those conflicts have become so well known that they could be considered among the lasting monuments of war. With relatively few exceptions, however, Capa's pictures of Israel did not achieve wide currency during his lifetime (he died, the victim of a land mine in Vietnam, in 1954). Curiously, given the potential interest in their subject matter, they have rarely been published or seen in exhibitions. Thus the show ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' which has opened this week at the Jewish Museum has an unusual fascination. The 107 black-and-white images in the exhibition, which was organized by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from the archives of the Capa estate, depict an Israel in the throes of self-definition. There are pictures of immigrants in transient camps, of politicians electioneering, of soldiers mobilizing. We see the first meeting of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as well as the unloading of mattresses beside rows of tents pitched in the desert. There are pictures of combat as well, but they do not seem as vivid or vital as Capa's earlier war work. Perhaps that is because Capa, a Jew born in Hungary, had his heart elsewhere. The most affecting images in the show are filled with human interest, not action. For a picture called ''Funeral,'' 1949, Capa framed a grieving elderly woman in the foreground, but the camera focuses behind her, on the beautiful and stoic face of a young girl. In his pictures of the transient camps, Capa concentrated on faces that bespeak optimism and pride. Children, especially, seemed to catch his eye. In addition to depicting farmers, construction workers, soldiers and shopkeepers, he photographed a couple dancing to the music of an accordion, a painter, several musicians - with the apparent aim of bearing witness to the perseverance of the nobler aspects of the human spirit. In appreciating these images as historical artifacts, however, one might also wonder why it is that they have lain in such desuetude all these years. Is it that once their news value had faded, they became no more than relics? That doesn't seem likely, since none of Capa's other work has remained unseen for so long. A more reasonable speculation would be that Capa's attempt to put a good face on what was happening in Israel was not sufficiently convincing to the editorial tastes of his day, and that consequently the pictures never acquired the aura of news. One could also wonder whether the photographs' focus on human interest, rather than on combat or other action, made them seem dispensable. But human interest is one of photojournalism's perennial staples, as can be gleaned from ''Life: Through the 60's,'' an exhibition at the International Center of Photography (1130 Fifth Avenue, at 94th Street, through May 21). The show consists of more than 100 photographers' pictures taken between 1956 and 1972 and culled from the archive of Life magazine. ''Life: Through the 60's'' has its fair share of bedrock photojournalism, including such ''hard news'' specimens as a view of James Meredith being shot during a civil-rights march, a frame from the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination, and a score of examples of first-rate war photography from Vietnam. But Life's editors, and Doris C. O'Neil, who selected the images in the exhibition, were savvy enough to know that the 60's could not be encapsulated solely by cataclysmic events. So the show also includes pictures of women in mini-skirts, communal-living hippies, sports figures and, of course, movie, television and rock stars like the Beatles. Compared with Capa's view of Israel at the end of the 40's, Life's retrospective of the 60's seems well balanced to a point close to blandness. But the period itself gives the show a flavor that is even more pronounced than the magazine's two previous forays into the past, ''Life: The First Decade'' and ''Life: The Second Decade.'' Any review of the 60's comes complete with a hearty helping of nostalgia to enrich its already complex, confounding texture, and the images here are no exception.

1989: The sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its first episode.  Much to everybody’s surprise, this sitcom built around the life of a New York Jewish comedian becomes a smash hit.

1991(23rd of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-one year old Pulitzer Prize winning, poet laureate of the United States Howard Nemerov passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/obituaries/howard-nemerov-poet-laureate-and-pulitzer-recipient-dies-at-71.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/howard-nemerov

1993: Opening of the 14th Maccabiah

1995: Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind completed his term as Secretary State for Defense.

1995: With his party in the opposition, Sir Malcolm becomes the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.

1997(30th of Sivan, 5757): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1998(11th of Tammuz, 5758): Football great Sid Luckman passed away. Luckman gained fame as quarterback with Columbia and then with the Chicago Bear. His success earned him a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.

1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Nineteen to the Dozens: Monologues and Bits and Bobs of Other Things by Sholem Aleichem.

1999(21stof Tammuz, 5759): Eighty-six year old Rabbi and Civil Rights leader Aaron Wise passed away today. (As reported by Myrna Oliver)

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/08/news/mn-53994

2000: “Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, have agreed to meet at Camp David next week for a summit conference intended to help them frame the peace agreement they hope to reach by September, President Clinton announced today.”

2001:Israel's security cabinet decided today to press ahead with a policy of assassinating suspected Palestinian militants in an effort to stop persistent killings of Israelis, officials said.”

2002: Opening of the Imperial War Museum which was designed by Daniel Libeskind

2002(25thof Tammuz, 5762): Just eight days before his 79th birthday Brazilian economist Samuel Isaac Benchimol whom the Brazilian government memorialized with the creation of the Benchimol Prize, passed away today.

2003: As of the first anniversary of the opening of the Imperial War Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind 470,000 had visited the building.

2004: In one of those cross-cultural mixtures that is uniquely America Takeru Kobayashi, a native of Japan won the “Mustard Yellow Belt at Nathan’s Famous hot-dog eating contest, an event meant to sell more of sausages originally by Nathan Handwerker.

2005: Two undercover police officers in Torrance, California, noticed a car nosing slowly past a Chevron station. Two men wearing ski masks jumped from the car, one brandished a shotgun, and they stole $252 from the night clerk. Police arrested the two men without incident, but a search of their shared apartment yielded jihadist literature and plans to bomb synagogues in Los Angeles.

2006: Today Israel responded to yesterday’s rocket attack that hit a “high school in Ashkelon” “with an airstrike that caused extensive damage to offices of the Interior Ministry in Gaza City.

2007:  The 24th Jerusalem International Film Festival opens. This is one of the world’s premier film festivals, featuring dozens of films from Israel and around the world. The 2007 festival will inaugurate the renovated Jerusalem Cinematheque.

2007:It was announced that Ken Feinberg would work pro bono as the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund (HSMF) which was set up by the Virginia Tech Foundation in the aftermath of the massacre of students and faculty by a lone gun man on the Virginia Tech Campus

2007(19th of Tammuz, 5767): Sylvan R. Shemitz, whose lighting designs warmed the facade of Grand Central Terminal and flooded the Jefferson Memorial, passed away at the age of 82.

2007(19th of Tammuz, 5767): Ninety-five year old “David Hilberman, whose union activities at Walt Disney Studios and brief membership in the Communist Party led to his blacklisting and shadowed a long career that included founding the innovative United Productions of America studio” passed away today.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/21/local/me-hilberman21

2008: At the Joyce Theatre in New York City, the Pilobolus Dance Theater, in collaboration with Inbal Pinto Dance Theater, performs “Rushes.”

2009(13thof Tammuz, 5769): Anita “Nita” Rabinowitz, who for 65 years was the wife or Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, Rabbi Emeritus of Adas Israel Congregation, and a woman of unique style and charm, passed away today. She is survived by two daughters, Dr. Sharon Chard Yaron of San Diego, CA and Judi Argaman of Herzlia, Israel; four grandchildren, Maiya Chard Yaron of San Diego, Omri, Elad and Noa Argaman of Herzlia,Israel  and her brother a brother, Kalman Lifson of Rydal, PA.

 Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing

2009: The Sixth Australian Israel Film Festival, sponsored by AICE, the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange comes to an end today.

2009(13thof Tammuz, 5769):  Ninety-seven year old poet and “renowned authority on Hans Christian Andersen” Naomi Lewis passed away today.




2009: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Radical:The Life and Times of I. F. Stone by D. D. Guttenplan.

2009: The Washington Post featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Sweet Science and Other Writings: The Sweet Science, The Earl of Louisiana, The Jollity Building, Between Meals, The Pressby A.J. Liebling and The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works by Henry Waxman and Joshua Green.

2010:Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present "Truly Very Strange People!": The heroes of the Second Aliyah

2010(23rdof Tammuz, 5770): Ninety year old CCNY and professional basketball player Hal Friend passed away today.


2010: Today Israeli-American Amar'e “Stoudemire and the New York Knicks agreed in principle to a contract estimated to be worth around $99.7 million over five years.”

2010: Firefighters succeeded in bringing a fire in the Yehudiah nature reserve in the Golan Heights under control this afternoon. Firefighters on the ground and in the air were still trying to control the giant fire burning out of control in the Bar'am forest north of Tzfat and the Meitzar stream. Additional crews are fighting a blaze that broke out in the area of Alonei Habashan in the Golan Heights. Firefighters are also at work on a brush fire in the city of Nesher near Haifa.

2011(3rdof Tammuz): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Illoway, a leader of American Orthodox Judaism, who passed away in Cincinnati on 3rd of Tamuz, 5631 (June 22, 1871).

2011(3rdof Tammuz): Yahrzeit of The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who passed away on 3rd of Tammuz, 5754 from creation (June 12, 1994)

2011: The Milwaukee Jewish Community Chorale Board of Directors is scheduled to meet at Fox Point, Wisconsin.

2011:Two bills aimed at alleviating the woes of women whose husbands refuse them divorces passed the Knesset Law Committee today, ahead of votes in the plenum.

2011:The Israel Air Force targeted a terror cell in Gaza today, after it was identified as attempting to fire projectiles at Israel.

2011: Israeli professional basketball player Gal Mekel signed a two-year contract with Italian team Benetton Treviso

 2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Trianon in Paris

2012:Funeral services for Lauren Reece Flaum (z"l) conducted by Rabbi Jeff Portman, are scheduled to be held this morning  at Agudas Achim Congregation with the burial at the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City. Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing

 2012:Woody Allen's romantic comedy, "To Rome With Love," is scheduled to open the 29th Jerusalem Film Festival.

2012:Israel will launch a brutal war against Lebanon if provoked by Hezbollah, senior Israel Defense Forces officers warned today.

2012: A Tel Aviv-bound El Al plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport early today morning after one of its engines caught fire. No injuries were reported

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-passenger-plane-has-emergency-landing-in-london/

2013: Pope Francis was scheduled to meet today at the Vatican with a delegation of relatives of victims of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. (As reported by JTA and Jerusalem Post)

2013: Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren announced today that he would conclude his term as envoy to Washington in the fall, after four years on the job. (As reported by JPost)

2013: Jonathan Yardley, reviewed My New Orleans, Gone Away by New Orleans native Peter Michael Wolf, “a sixth-generation member of the Godchaux-Weis clan.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-my-new-orleans-gone-away-by-peter-m-wolf/2013/07/05/a9e54afe-dccf-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html?utm_term=.ae9a0c918060

2014: In Cedar Rapids, the Traditional Minyan is scheduled to celebrate Red, White & Blue Shabbat with a Sundaes On Saturday Kiddush featuring that all-American treat – Kosher Ice Cream.

2014: Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, he founder of the Zimor Project a unique ensemble dedicated to incorporating Jewish art music into chamber music programs, is scheduled to perform works by Chausson, Messian, Weinberg, Yedidia and Weber at Bargemuisc, “New York City’s floating concert hall.”

2014: “The True Story of Curious George --- The Wartime Escape: Margret and H.A. Rey’s Journey From France” an exhibition that tells how “the Jewish Couple fled Paris in June 1940, starting a five-month odyssey by bike, train and boat that eventually would bring them to American shores” opens today at The Carl & Mary Koehler History Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2014: Three rockets fired from Gaza struck at Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel. (As reported by Itmar Sharon)



2014: Arabs continue to riot in Israel in response to the murder of a teenager in what was supposedly a revenge killing. 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/clashes-in-jerusalem-galilee-as-protests-spread/

2014: This evening Hamas threatened to reach “all” of Israel’s cities with its rockets, several hours after targeting the city of Beersheba. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion and Itamar Sharon)

2015: “Trained Oregon Holocaust Memorial docents” many of whom are Holocaust survivors are scheduled to host tours that “will focus on Holocaust history and the stories of Holocaust survivors and their families whose hard work and dedication is largely responsible for the conception, design, and construction of the Memorial.”

2015: Today,Carli Lloyd whose coach was Holocaust survivor Rudi Kolbach scored the “opening goal against Japan in the FIFA Women’s World Cup” being held in Vancover.

2015: The curtain is scheduled to come down on the final performance of “The Tale of the Allergist Wife” at Theatre J, sponsored by the Washington DCJCC.

2015: In Atlanta, GA, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to host a “theater workshop for Jewish girls ages 11-14 developed in collaboration with Out of Hand Theater!”

2015: “From Shtetl to Swing” is scheduled to be shown at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.

2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Seven Good Years: A Memoir by Etgar Keret and Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen.

2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Fast of the 17th Tammuz observed since the 17thof Tammuz fell on Shabbat.

2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-year old Ingram Berg “Burt” Shavitz, the Manhattan born Main beekeeper the co-founder of “Burt’s Bees” passed away today.

https://www.economist.com/obituary/2015/07/23/buzz-buzz

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/burt-s-bees-cofounder-dies-at-80-1.5375452

2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-five year old James Marcus the Goldman Sachs partner and managing director of the Metropolitan Opera passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/arts/james-marcus-opera-benefactor-and-ex-goldman-partner-dies-at-85.html?ref=topics&_r=0

2016: “Natural Resistance, an exhibition at the Y Gallery featuring the works of Israelis Shay Arick and Tamara Kostianovsky, is scheduled to close today.

2016: Jonathan Tobin is scheduled to moderate “a panel discussion about the Entebbe rescue with one of the hostages and a former Mossad officer at Congregation Mikveh Israel and then directly after emcee the 40th anniversary Commemoration ceremony at the Yoni Netanyahu Memorial off of Philadelphia's Independence Mall.”

2017: Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, Center for Jewish History and American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to present the first session of “Al-Andalus: Tolerance, Culture and Violence in Medieval Spain.”

2017: In Memphis, TN at Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to lead a discussion on “Abraham Isaac Kook: From Child Prodigy to Mystic and Beloved First Chief of Rabbi of Israel” which is part the Greatest Jewish Thinkers of All Time series

2017(5thof Tammuz, 5777): Sixty-eight Bracha Garber, the Tel Aviv native who was a driving force behind the “overhaul” of “New York City’s foster care system” passed away today.  (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

2017: “The Ministry of Antiquities’ Project Sector today approved the funds for restoring and developing the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, according to the head of the Islamic and Coptic Monuments Department, al-Saeed Helmy Ezzat,”

2017: Daniel Polisar is scheduled to present the first session “The Zionist Vision: A New Look at Theodor Herzl.”

2017: In Haifa, the HUB, “the Maccabiah version of an ‘Olympic Village” is scheduled to open today.

2017: Jewish Care’s 5th annual Bake Day is scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom today.

2018: The Jerusalem Festival of Light is scheduled to come to an end tonight.

2018: “A special screening of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ with a live shadow cast is scheduled to take place at the Cinematheque Tel Aviv.”

2018: “Batsheva – The Young Ensemble is scheduled to perform Ohad Naharin's Bessie Award-winning dance, Naharin's Virus, inspired by the great Austrian writer Peter Handke's play” at Jacobs Pillow today for the second time.

2018(22ndof Tammuz, 5778): Ninety-two year old Claude Lanzmann, the Paris born son of “Armand and Paulette (Grobermann) Lanzmann who served with the French Resistance during WW II and who is best known for “Shoah,” his “1985 groundbreaking film about the Holocaust” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/obituaries/claude-lanzmann-dead.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/05/claude-lanzmann-obituary

2018: Following yesterday’s “4.5 earthquake and 4.1 earthquake” that sent tremors from the Golan Heights to Tel Aviv, Israel’s have been cautioned “to listen only to official updates and instructions and to ignore unconfirmed reports.”

2019: In Terre Haute, IN, The CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education is scheduled to be closed in honor of its founder “Eva Mozes Kor, who underwent experiments in Auschwitz together with her twin sister” who passed away July 4, 2019

2019:  In Baltimore, MD, director Aviva Kempner is scheduled to take part in a Q and A following a screening of “The Spy Behind Home Plate” a biopic about Moe Berg.

2019: The Shabbat Shop, a one stop place to fill all the needs for the Sabbath which is a fundraiser Jack and Shirley Silver Center for Special Needs at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan is scheduled to be open from 8:30 to 5 at JCC Manhattan.

2019: Today, The Jerusalem Theatre is scheduled to “return to the tradition of Kabbalat Shabbat at the theatre, with the participation of the multidisciplinary Vocalists’ Workshop of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, led by Prof. Michael Wolpe”

2020: Michelle, Jacob and Rachel Levin will be among those adjusting to the executive order requiring the wearing of masks in Columbus, OH, which was scheduled to go into effect this weekend.

2020: The Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to livestream “Sunday Stories: Summer in the Catskills,” a talk about the summer resorts, music and comedy that became symbols of mid-century American Jewish life.

2020: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen and The Demagogue’s Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy form the Founders to Trump by Eric A. Posner as well as an essay, “The Book That Shaped Foreign Policy for a Generation Has More to Say” that examines the impact of Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among the Nations  and a Podcast in which Jules Feiffer examines “His long, varied  career.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/books/review/hans-morgenthau-politics-among-nations-henry-kissinger-george-kennan.html?campaign_id=69&emc=edit_bk_20200703&instance_id=20012&nl=books&regi_id=57747426&segment_id=32571&te=1&user_id=2c930c5636ea27f82410440938800f2f

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/books/review/podcast-jules-feiffer-smart-george-steve-inskeep-imperfect-union.html?campaign_id=69&emc=edit_bk_20200703&instance_id=20012&nl=books&regi_id=57747426&segment_id=32571&te=1&user_id=2c930c5636ea27f82410440938800f2f





 
July 5

1247: Pope Innocent IV, semi-retired by Emperor Frederick II, issued a Bull refuting blood libels and sent it throughout Germany and France.

1247: Today, Innocent IV dispatched a bull from Lyons to the Church dignitaries of France and Germany in which for the first time, the repeated baseless and fiendish imputations against the Jews were officially contradicted.  "Certain of the clergy and princes and nobles and great lords of your dioceses have falsely devised certain godless plans against the Jews, unjustly depriving them by force of their property and appropriating it themselves; they falsely charge them with dividing up among themselves on the Passover the heart of a murdered boy.  Christians believe that the Law of the Jews prescribes this to them, whilst in their Law the very reverse is ordained.  In the face of their malice, they ascribe every murder, wherever it chance to occur, to Jews.  And on the ground of these and other fabrications, they are filled with rage against them, rob them of their possessions, without any formal accusation without confession and without legal trial and conviction.  Contrary  to the privileges  graciously granted to them from the Apostolic chair, and opposed to god and his justice, they oppress the Jews by starvation, imprisonment and by other tortures and sufferings; they afflict them with all kinds of punishments, and sometimes even condemn them to  death, so that the Jews, although living under Christian prices are in a worse plight than were their ancestors in Egypt under the Pharaohs...Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be distressed, we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner.  Whenever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations."  Anti-Semitism and belief and in the blood libel were so much a part of European culture that the Pope's bull was ignored.

1345: Pope Clement VI banned forced baptism of Jews. Subsequent Popes overturned this decree in 1597 and 1747.

1532:  In a letter dated today, Erasmu derided the Theatre of Memory, the seminal work of Guilio Camillo who had “labored at building a seven level ‘memory theatre’ representing the seven sefiort (in Kabbalah, divine emanations) seven planets and plethora of Kabbalistic language imagery.”

1629: Jacob Bassevi von Treuenberg “a Bohemian Court Jews and financier” “was a warm friend of Rabbi Lipmann Heller, and befriended him during the latter's arrest today.

1687: Sir Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. Newton was also a millenarian and a theologian who thought the world would end in 2060. A treatise he wrote contains a diagram is of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. The Jewish National and University Library at Hebrew University has an exhibit of these more unusual aspects of Newton's career, and Ha'aretz has a story on the exhibit (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/871575.html). For more about Newton and the Jewish religion seeJudaismin the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt Goldish.

1687:Isaac Newton published “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica,” the ground breaking three volume work that included Newton’s Laws of motions and revolutionized the field of physics.  Based on documents from the Jewish National and University Library first shown to the general public in 2007, we know that we that Newton “found time to write on Jewish law”  and used the Book of Daniel “for clues about the” date for the end of the world. “In one manuscript from the early 1700s, Newton used the cryptic Book of Daniel to calculate the date for the Apocalypse, reaching the conclusion that the world would end no earlier than 2060. ‘It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner,’ Newton wrote. However, he added, ‘This I mention not to assert when the time of the end shall be, but to put a stop to the rash conjectures of fanciful men who are frequently predicting the time of the end, and by doing so bring the sacred prophesies into discredit as often as their predictions fail.’ In another document, Newton interpreted biblical prophecies to mean that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the world ends. The end of days will see ‘the ruin of the wicked nations, the end of weeping and of all troubles, the return of the Jews captivity and their setting up a flourishing and everlasting Kingdom,’ he posited.” Newton also wrote “treatises on daily practice in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. In one document, Newton discussed the exact dimensions of the temple — its plans mirrored the arrangement of the cosmos, he believed — and sketched it. Another paper contains words in Hebrew, including a sentence taken from the Jewish prayerbook.  For more about Newton and the Jewish religion seeJudaismin the Theology of Sir Isaac Newton by Matt GoldishFor more on the exhibit of his papers see:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2007-06-19-newton-religious-papers_N.htm#

http://www.jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/mss/newton/

1712(1stof Tammuz, 5472): Esther de Castro, the wife of Issac Orbio de Castro, the Portuguese marrano physician and philosopher who reclaimed in his Jewish heritage when he moved to Amsterdam, passed away today.

1719(18thTammuz, 5479): Rabbi Shmuel Schotten known as the Mharsheishoch, who was born  at Schotten in 1644 and was appointed Rosh Yeshiva of the yeshiva in Frankfurt am Main and Rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1685 passed away today.

1742: During “The War of Jenkins' Ear between Spain and the Kingdom of Great Britain, Spanish troops landed on St. Simons Island as part of their Invasion of Georgia. Most of the Sephardi Jews abandoned Savannah, fearing that if captured they would be treated as apostates and burnt at the stake. The Minis and Sheftall families of Ashkenazi Jews were the only ones to remain”  This quaintly named conflict between the Spain and Great Britain would become part of a larger conflict that engulfed most of Europe – The War of the Austrian Succession – which would come to a close with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This would lead in turn to the French-Indian War which would lead to the American Revolution.

1764: Birthdate of Daniel Mendoza ((often known as Dan Mendoza) an English prizefighter, who was boxing champion of England 1792-95. He is sometimes called the father of scientific boxing. Mendoza's style consisted of more than simply battering opponents into submission; his "scientific style" included much movement. His ability to overcome much heavier adversaries was a consequence of this. In 1789 he published The Art of Boxing. Mendoza was so popular that the London press reported news of one of his bouts ahead of the storming of the Bastille which marked the start of the French Revolution. He transformed the English stereotype of a Jew from a weak, indefensible person into someone deserving of respect. He is said to have been the first Jew to talk to the King, George III. His early boxing career was defined by three bouts with his former mentor Richard Humphries between 1788 and 1790. The first of these was lost due to Humphries’s second (the former Champion, Tom Johnson) blocking a blow. The second two bouts were won by Mendoza. The third bout was the first time spectators were charged an entry payment to a sporting event. The fights were hyped by a series of combative letters in the press between Humphries and Mendoza. Mendoza's "Memoirs" report that he got involved in three fights whilst on his way to watch a boxing match. The reasons were: (a) someone's cart cut in; (b) he felt a shopkeeper was trying to cheat him; (c) he didn't like how a man was looking at him. In 1795 Mendoza fought "Gentleman" John Jackson for the Championship at Hornchurch in Essex. Jackson was five years younger, 4 inches taller, and 42 lbs. heavier. The bigger man won in nine rounds, paving the way to victory by seizing Mendoza by his long hair and holding him with one hand while he pounded his head with the other. Mendoza was pummeled into submission in around ten minutes. Since this date boxers have worn their hair short. After 1795 Mendoza began to seek other sources of income, becoming the landlord of the "Admiral Nelson" pub in Whitechapel. He turned down a number of offers for re-matches and in 1807 wrote a letter to The Times in which he said he was devoting himself chiefly to teaching the art. In 1809 he and some associates were hired by the theatre manager Kemble in an attempt to suppress the OP Riots; the resulting poor publicity probably cost Mendoza much of his popular support, as he was seen to be fighting on the side of the privileged. Mendoza made and spent a fortune. His Memoirs (written in 1808 but not published until 1816) report that he tried a number of ventures, including touring the British Isles giving boxing demonstrations; appeared in a pantomime entitled Robinson Crusoe or Friday Turned Boxer; opening a boxing academy at the Lyceum in the Strand; working as a recruiting sergeant for the army; printing his own paper money; and being a pub landlord. Mendoza made his last public appearance as a boxer in 1820 at Banstead Downs in a grudge match against Tom Owen; he was defeated after 12 rounds. Intelligent, charismatic but chaotic, he died leaving his family in poverty. In 1954 Mendoza was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. In 1990 he was inducted into the inaugural class of the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Mendoza, who was Jewish, was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1981. The actor Peter Sellers was a descendant of Dan Mendoza. Prints of the boxer can be seen on Inspector Clouseau’s wall in the Pink Panther films.

1777: During the American Revolution, the Supreme Council of Pennsylvania appoint Solomon Bush, the son of Matthias Bush, Deputy Adjutant-General of the State Militia

1778: Abraham Furtado, the President of the Assemblee des Notables and his wife Sara Rodrigues Alvares gave birth to their first child Joseph Elie.

1784: Birthdate of Abraham Sutro, the native of Brück who served as a "Landesrabbiner" and wrote protests “against religious reforms, especially the use of the organ in the synagogue.”

1792: Francis II who relied on Bernhard von Eskeles the founder of the Austrian National Bank for financial advice began his reign as Holy Roman Emperor and King in Germany.

1796: In Philadelphia, PA, Samuel and Richea (Gratz) Hays gave birth to their second child and eldest son Isaac Hays, “a nephew of Rebecca Gratz, the alleged model for Sir Walter Scott’s “Rebecca” in Ivanhoe,” who chose to pursue a career as an ophthalmologist instead of entering the family business.

1797: “Naphtali Moses Taylor Phillips, generally known as N. Taylor Phillips” “married Rachel Hannah, daughter of Moses Mendez Seixas, a prominent Newport, RI, merchant and banker and a brother of Gershom Mendez Seixas…

1811: Venezuela declares its independence from Spain. According to the “Virtual Jewish History Tour,” Simon Bolivar, considered Venezuela's liberator, found refuge and material support for his army in the homes of Jews from Curaçao. Jews such as Mordejai Ricardo, Ricardo Meza and his brother 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.”

1814: Lyon De Symons, the husband of Mary Goldsmid with whom he had seven children was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.

1824(9thof Tammuz, 5584): Forty-three year old Amelia Leven, the wife of Jacob Leven passed away today after which she was buried at the Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.

1826: Michael Emanuel married Hannah Levy at the Great Synagogue today.

1832(7thof Tammuz, 5592): Fifty three year old Ernst Friedrich Ludwig Robert author of “Die Macht der Verhältnisse” the 1819 play that ‘deals with the position of Jews in society.”  Born Liepmann Levin, he was the brother Rahel Varnhagen, one of the most unusual women of her time who was the subject of Hannah Arend’ts biography, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess.

1834: In “Lobau” which was at time in West Prussia, Phillip and Esther Newmark gave birth to Harris Newmark who worked in boot-black manufacturing enterprise until he came to Los Angeles in 1853 where worked for his brother J.P. Newmark before founding “the wholesale grocery house of H. Newmark and Company” before moving on to San Francisco where he organized a successful business dealing in “hides, pelts and furs” before returning to Los Angeles where he married his niece Sarah Newmark, raised five children and served as “Chairman of the Charity Committee of the Hebrew Benevolent Society” from which position he raised thousands of dollars for those who had been trapped in the Johnstown Flood.

1838: The Jews of the city of Safed came under attack from the Druze, who also had sacked an Ottoman caravan capturing 300 fully loaded camels of the Sultan. "While it was still night, the entire city was suddenly and terrified because unknown men were seen walking around the streets, and there were signs of malice on their faces." The attack on the Jews was by a group men armed with rifles, knives, axes and clubs.

1843: Simon Bennett married Leah Solis today.

1848: Birthdate of Leone Bolaffia, the native of Padua, who became a lawyer in Venice and who became the editor of the judicial paper "Temi Veneta," in 1876.

1848: Philip Hanau married Maria Van Goor at the Great Synagogue.

1853: Birthdate of Cecil Rhodes one of the two dates that his Jewish rival Barney Barnato gave as his birthdate – the other being July 5, 1852. His birth certificate showed the date as February 21, 1851. (And you wonder why this is not always easy to do)

1853: At the Wentworth Street Synagogue, Rabbi Solomon Jacobs officiated at the wedding of Levy Drucker and Rebecca Cohen, the youngest daughter of Aaron N. Cohen of Charlotte, NC

1853(29thof Sivan, 5613): Sixty-two year old Isaac Levin Auerbach the German-Jewish education and reformer who was the son of Rabbi Levin Isaac Auerbach and the brother of Baruch Auerbach, the founder of the Jewish Orphan Asylum in Berlin, passed away at Dessau.

1857: In the Russian Empire, Baron Horace Günzburg, the son of Baron Joseph Günzburg, and his wife gave birth to Baron David Günzburg, a Jewish intellectual who had one of the best private libraries in Europe and who was a major leader of the Jewish community.

1858: The Hebrew Benevolent Society which “attend to the sick, assists members and buries the dead in the cemetery owned by the Society, was founded today in Alexandria, VA.

1860(15thof Tammuz, 5620): Seventy five year old Amsterdam native Leonardus Levy Abraham Verveer, the husband of Caroline Elkan passed away today in The Hague.

1861: Armed only with hunting-whip Sir Lawrence Oliphant fought off a Japanese attacker who was trying to kill them. If the attack had succeeded, Oliphant would not have lived to promote his project for colonizing the northern section of Palestine with Jewish settlers; a plan that he did not begin to pursue until the 1870’s

1862(7thof Tammuz, 5622): Parashat Balak

1862: According to reports in Hanover, Germany, an un-named Jewish banker in banker plans to present a proposal to the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury to raise the necessary revenue to fight the Civil War by adopting the same lottery system that the Austrians and Russians use.

1863(18thof Tammuz, 5623) Tzom Tammuz observed as Union cavalry fought with Lee’s Rebels who retreating back towards Virginia after their staggering defeat at Gettysburg

1864(1stof Tammuz, 5624): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz observed on the same day that General Jubal Early crossed the Potomac River in what would prove to be the Rebels final attempt to capture Washington, D.C. in their war to preserve slavery even though it meant destroying the United States of America.

1866(22ndof Tammuz, 5626): Forty-four year old Edmund Myer Tobias, the son of Myer Tobias and Hannah Woolf passed away today in the UK.

1867: Two days after he passed away, 23 year old Emanuel Israel Brandon, “the young son of Abraham Israel Brandon” was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1870(6thof Tammuz, 5630): Moses Sachs, the German rabbi who settled in Jerusalem in 1830 and “married Rachel, daughter of Rabbi Zadok HaLevi Cruiz” in 1832 passed away today after spending almost four decades trying to settle “Jews as farmers in the Land of Israel under Austrian protection.”

1870: The New York Times published a summary of reviews from English publication of Disraeli’s “Loathair.”

1871: Two days after she passed away, fifty-six year old Julia (nee Hyman) Phillips, the wife of Isaac Phillips with whom she had ten children was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.

1872: Today’s Foreign News Notes column cited a report by the Jewish Chronicle that the Jews of Smyrna are being persecuted by the Greeks as a way to gain the release of a group of “Greek ruffians now in prison.”  The Greek mob has threatened to burn the city and massacre the Jews if their demands are not met.

1873:  “Cosas D’Austria” published today provides a potpourris of information about various aspects of life in the Hapsburg Empire including a disparaging portrait of the Jews.  According to the author, “the Jews have not invented anything” but they exploit in the inventions of others to their own advantage.  For example, the Jews did not invent the telegraph, but Reuters profits from it by supplying all the news to British newspapers and the Wolff Agency, founded by Berhnard Wolff does the same by supplying news to the newspapers of Central Europe. The Agence Havas which is not owned by Jews but is indebted to them because they control the money, does the same in France.  The article contend that there are more Jews of Vienna are more numerous in number than the band that crossed the Jordan with Joshua and that there as many Jews in the Austrian Empire today as there Jews in Judea at the time of Titus’ victory.  The Jews own the best of everything.  But their wealth comes not from leading in combat but from being “gleaners who gather the fruits of victory.  [This article demonstrates how anti-Semitism rose at the same time as Jewish Emancipation became more of a reality. ]

1874: Birthdate of Dr. Eugene Fischer, the professor of eugenics who was a member of the Nazi Party and “was appointed rector of the Frederick William University of Berlin by Adolf Hitler.”

1874(20th of Tammuz, 5634): Rabbi Julius Eckman passed away.  Born in Rawicz, which was then part of Prussia, in 1805, he studied at Berlin before moving to the United States where held pulpits in a variety of cities including in New Orleans, Charleston, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon and then back to San Francisco.  During his first stay in San Francisco Eckman was the first rabbi employed by Temple Emanu-El and the published of a new Jewish weekly, The Gleaner, which merged into the Hebrew Messenger.  When he returned to San Francisco from Portland, Eckman served as the Superintendent of the Sabbath School at Congregation Shearith.

http://www.jmaw.org/eckman-rabbi-jewish-san-francisco/

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A02E7D91139EF34BC4C52DFB166838F669FDE

1875: Marcus Jastrow, the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom and Lewis Abrahams addressed the members of B’nai Brith who had gathered in Philadelphia for ground breaking ceremonies that marked the start of the building of a statute to religious liberty.  The statue should be ready for next year’s centennial observance.  Rabbi George Jacobs presided over the ceremonies and Moses Elbrigh of New York assisted him.

1877: Birthdate of Rabbi Judah Leib Magnes. Born in San Francisco and educated at Hebrew Union College, Magnes was a life-long maverick. He was an early and ardent Zionist, which was unusual among the Reform movement since it was largely anti-Zionist at the time. He was named Rabbi at New York’s prestigious Temple Emanu-el in 1906 but left four years later because he found it "too assimilationist", another unusual stance for a Reform Rabbi. He was an outspoken pacifist during World War I. (He would change his views during World War II.) In 1925, he became the first Chancellor of the brand new Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He held the post for ten years. He was ousted as Chancellor as a result of an academic squabble and "kicked upstairs to the Presidency. . Although he was a Zionist, Magnes believed in a binational Arab-Jewish state. While there were other Jews including the famous philosopher Martin Buber who supported Magnes, none of the "Moderate" Arabs would join his efforts. This did not stop Magnes from pursuing what became his Quixotic Quest. He passed away in 1948.

1877: It was reported today that the war between the Turks and the Russian has caused an “appalling” amount of misery as can be seen by the way Jews in Romania have been beaten, stabbed and “outraged in various ways.”

1878: It was reported today that the leaders of the Romanian government are holding secret meetings to determine how they will respond to the Congress of Berlin’s demands that the Romanians improve the treatment of their Jewish countryman.  The Congress wants the Jews to be grant full emancipation making them citizens in the true sense of the word.

1879: Birthdate of Wanda Landowska whose performances, teaching, recordings and writings played a large role in reviving the popularity of the harpsichord in the early 20th century.

1880: It was reported today that “Alfred Simpson, alias ‘Jew Al,’ a German, and a notorious …bank thief…was arrested” in Boston.  [Was Simpson really Jewish or was this a case of a tendency of some journalists and others to deal in catchy stereotypes]

1880: “A Rush to Long Branch” published today described the great popularity enjoyed by the New Jersey resort.  All of the hotels and cottages are filled with a cross section of the nation’s “high society” including W.W.(William Waldorf) Astor and family, the Hartman Kuhn family of Philadelphia and former New Jersey Governor J.D. Bedle and family. The fact that Joseph Seligman occupied one of the private cottages attested to the fact that the innkeepers in Long Branch had not succumbed to the anti-Semitic policies being followed in Saratoga and this fact had not harmed business.

1882: At the Pennsylvania Railroad’s piers No. 35 and 38, Hungarian and Austrian Jewish freight handlers were fired because the company could hire German workers. This took place during the Freight Handler’s Strike which was an example of how companies pitted native-born workers against immigrants and then immigrants against immigrants to keep wages low and working conditions miserable.

1882: “A Spanish Novel” published today provided a review of Gloria, a novel by Perez Galdos that incorporates themes of modern day anti-Jewish attitudes with the harsh reality of the persecution of the Jews completed with auto-de-fes and the Expulsion of 1492. [This was an unusual topic for its time and even more unusual one for a Spanish author to tackle.]

1883(30thof Sivan, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1883: Cartoonist Rube Goldberg was one day old today.

1884: It was reported today that in the matter of the Parisian court found in favor of the author and ordered the painter not display a picture that depicted Dumas as a “Baghdad Jew.” The ruling was based on the fact that the painter had not gotten the consent of the author to use his visage and that portraying him in this manner (as a Jew) was “very uncomplimentary.”

1884: It was reported today that last month in southern Russia, the Cossacks had to intervene in a conflict between the Armenians and Jews in Titlis. [Attacks against Russian Jews were not unusual.  But all too often the Cossacks (part of the government’s “police authority” sat by and let the Jews be brutalized.]

1887: The Board of Directors of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held a special meeting where they adopted a resolution praising and expressing their condolences at the passing of their colleague Jonas Heller.

1887: Grace (Colbert) Weinschenk, the wife of Albert Weischenk gave birth to a baby boy today in New York.  The father is a young German Jew whose Christian in-laws had originally opposed the marriage.  But they became reconciled to the fact and the couple was living with their in-laws at the time of the birth. [ Why does this matter  You will have to come back and the next installment]

1888: Birthdate of Herbert Spencer Gasser, the Wisconsin born doctor who won the 1944 Noble Prize In Medicine and became the director of the Rockefeller Institute.

1888: In Suwalki which at that time was part of the Russian Empire, Alexander and Sonia Daneilewicz Banov gave birth to Leon Banov who came to Charleston, SC at the age, earned a Ph.G. and an M.D. from the Medical College of South Carolina after which he “served as the public health officer for both the county and the city of Charleston which time he married Minnie Monash with whom he had three children. (As reported by Patricia Evridge Hill)

http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/banov-leon/

1891: The New York Times published a review of Dr. Mendlesonn’s Hebrew Jurisprudence: The Criminal Jurisprudence of the Ancient Hebrews.

1891: A meeting was held in St. Louis, MO to address the needs of the increasing number of Russian Jews arriving in the city.  The attendees decided to establish a school with daytime and night sessions that would make the new immigrants “thorough American citizens.”  They would first be taught the English langue which the key to learning about government, politics and the “social economy” of their new home.  Over one hundred of the attendees signed up to support such an endeavor and each paid three dollars in dues to support the project. 

1893: The 1,800 people who attended the Kra Kauer Charity and Aid Society Summer-night’s festival at Sulzer’s Harlem River Park were entertained by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Military Band and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Drum and Fife Corps.

1894(1stof Tammuz, 5654): Seventy-nine year old Barbara Elisabeth Gluck whose father’s death when she was very young which forced her to turn to writing poetry to earn a living, where she used the name Betty Paoli passed away today.

1894: Two days after he passed away “in his 71st year, Joseph Schloss was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.

1894: Seventy-seven year old British political leader and archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard, whose family had been close friends with Benjamin Disraeli in his youth and whose discoveries at Niniveh helped to provide proof for the portions of the TaNaCh that dealt with the Assyrians passed away today.

1896: Herzl met with Claude Montefiore and Frederic Mocotta of the Anglo-Jewish Association who are anti-Zionist.

1897: Birthdate of Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim. Born Paul Frankenburgerin Munich, “he trained at the Munich Academy of Arts from 1915 to 1920. He was assistant conductor in Walter and Knappersbusch, 1920 to 1924, and then conductor at Augsburg from 1924 until 1931. He then abandoned conducting and devoted himself to teaching and composition. In 1933, he emigrated to Tel Aviv and changed his name to Paul Ben-Haim. Some of his works include the Concerto Grosso (1931), Symphony No. 1 (1940) and Symphony No. 2(1945). In 1953, he won the Israeli State Prize for the composition Sweet Psalmist of Israel, scored for harp, harpsichord and orchestra. According to the critics, Ben-Haim’s music can best be described as late romantic with an Oriental/Mediterranean overtone. He embodies the general tendencies of this group of composers who were trained in the classic late romanticism of the late 19th and early 20th century. Ben-Haim died in 1984.”

1898: The first convention of the FAZ came to a close.

1898: Birthdate of New York native and author Zelda F. Popkin, (née Feinberg) the wife of Louis Popkin and “the first woman general-assignment reporter on The Wilkes Barre Times Leader whose novels on Jewish subjects included Quiet Street“based on the siege of Jerusalem during the Israeli War of Independence.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/05/27/obituaries/zelda-f-popkin-84-author-of-14-books-had-been-reporter.html

1898: Two days after he passed away, 54 year old Phillip Uri Felsenthal was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.

1898: Wisconsin native Louis C. Wolf began serving was promoted to the rank of 2ndLieutenant today.

1899: Birthdate of Israel Goldblatt, the native of Manchester who gained famed as cinema and television actor Harold Goldblatt.

1899: Major B. Albert Lieberman was appointed as the Surgeon for the 33rd U.S. Volunteer Infantry.

1899: Philip S. Golderman named a 1st Lt. in 26th U.S. Infantry.

1899: Louis C. Wolf of Wisconsin who had begun his military service as a Cadet at West Point in 1893, was made a 2nd Lieutenant.”

1900: Birthdate of Detroit native Bernard Zieger, the U of Michigan and Hebrew Union College graduate who while serving as the Hillel Rabbi at the University of North Carolina recited Kaddish at Duke Chapel after learning of the death of “Louis Stern, the director of the Psychological Institute of Hamburg who had coined the term ‘intelligence quotient’” who was the rabbi at Temple Beth Israel in Jackson, Michigan.

1901: The Conference of American Rabbis opened its annual meeting today in Philadelphia.  The major business of the day was resolving the question “Whether or not the religion of Jesus should be taught in the Jewish theological Schools.”  The conference unanimously adopted the conclusions of a report prepared by Rabbis Philipson, Deutsch,  Krauskopf that stated that while some of Jesus’ message contained “beautiful more teachings”  they “cannot form part of, nor be incorporated in any official statement of declaration of Jewish belief.”  This was defining moment for setting boundaries of the Reform Movement.

1902(30thof Sivan, 5662): Parashat Korach; Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1902: “The Story of the Moors” published today provided a review of The Moors: A Comprehensive Description by English journalist James Meakin that included “a chapter on the literal and primitive customs of the Jews as practiced by the Jews of Morocco” which “offers material for a comparative study of the social and religious customs of Israel in Morocco with the observance of Jewish ceremonial in other countries.”

1903: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of George Osterman and Rosa Pearlman.

1904: The body of Benjamin Cohen, who had passed away on July 2 remained in the morgue waiting to be claimed by his stepson Philip Simon after it was discovered that Roman Catholic Thomas Carroll who had also died on July 2 had been mistakenly buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery.

1905: This morning’s session of the 18th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis began with a prayer by Rabbi Jacob Mielziner followed by Rabbi Julian Morgenstern’s reading of “History and Functions of Ceremonies in Judaism” by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler

1906: The Executive Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis held its first post Conference meeting today in Indianapolis, Indiana.

1907: Today’s session of the meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened with a prayer by Rabbi Jacob Mielziner of Cincinnati, Ohio and in the afternoon sessions heard the Report on the Geiger Centenary prepared by Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and the Report of the Committee on Uniform Pronunciation of Hebrew

1908: It was reported today that a benefit will be held on August 4 to raise funds “for the erection of a Hebrew temple and religious school in Far Rockaway.

1909: The Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society of Richmond donated five dollars to the National Conference of Jewish Charities.

1910(28thof Sivan, 5670): Eighty-five year old Henry Levy, the son of Joseph Levy and Blumah Jacobs passed away today in the UK.

1911:”East Side Patriots March” published today described the participation of 75 Jewish organizations, including a unit of girls from the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian School in an Independence Day parade for which Joseph Barondess served as Grand Marshall.

1912: It was reported today that “the United Hebrew Charities is trying to induce” New York City “authorities to adopt ordinances for the control and protection of pushcart peddlers, from whom hundreds of thousands of people buy “many necessary articles at a much lower rate than they could be obtained even in the cheapest stores”, and having adopted them, to see to it that they are enforced” by the city.

1913: It was reported today that Rabbi David Frankel, formerly of Scranton, PA has begun serving as the Rabbi for “the Austrian congregation on Attorney Street, in New York

1913: The National Conference of Charities and Correction which Miss Francis Taussig, Superintendent of the Relief Department of the Jewish Aid Society  is attending as a delegate from Illinois because of a Gubernatorial appointment, was scheduled to open today in Seattle, WA.

1913: The National Conference of Charities and Correction which Simon I. Blum is attending as a delegate from Illinois was scheduled to open today in Seattle, WA.

1913: Staring today, “and until further notice Congregation B’nai Sholom Temple Israel will hold services on Saturday morning at the new Sinai Temple” in Chicago.

1913: Since today was Shabbat, the Conference of American Rabbis which had begun meeting in Atlantic City since July 2, did not have any business sessions today.

1914: Birthdate of Yitzhak Rafael, a native of Galicia who made Aliyah in 1935 and eventually became an Israeli political leader who served in the Knesset and as Minister of Religion.

1914: In Detroit, at Temple Beth El, Rabbi Samuel Sale of St Louis is scheduled to deliver the opening prayer at today’s session of the “25thanniversary Conference of the Central Conference of American Rabbis which will include a report by Rabbi Solomon Foster of Newark, NJ on “Synagogue and Industrial Relations” and report by Rabbi Louis Bernstein of St. Louis on “Defectives, Dependents and Delinquents.

1915: In the “Jewish neighborhood” on the Lower East Side, a part of Henry Street has been roped off for an “impromptu jollification” that included a “great neighborhood dance” as part of the two day celebration of Independence Day.

1916: It was reported today that the Central Conference of American Rabbis has authorized “its committee on national cooperation to ascertain the character and purposed of the National Federation of Religious Liberals with a view of joining this body” next year “if deemed advisable.”

1916: In Philadelphia, PA, at its closing session The Federation of American Zionists “endorsed the plan of the Palestine Committee of the Federation to undertake the organization of a corporation with capital stock of one million dollars for the purpose of aiding Jewish settlements in Palestine and developing its resources,” voted to spend $25,000 annually for the maintenance of a hospital unit in Palestine” and heard Hadassah President Henrietta Szold describe the need the war in Europe had created for doctors and nurses.

1916: In Wildwood, NJ, “A special commission on ‘Jews of Other Lands’” chaired by Rabbi Louis Grossman of Cincinnati, “reported to the central Conference of American Rabbis today that conditions arising due to the war in Europe had prevent the commission from proceeding with its work” because “it had been impossible to maintain correspondence” so “there had been no access to sources of information which ordinarily would available.”

1917: Political philosopher, Leo Strauss who would be forced to flee his country when the Nazis came to power, began serving in the German Army during WW I today.

1917: Former Ambassador Abram I. Elkus was honored with a formal reception at City Hall in New York City.

1918: It was reported today that the members of the Executive Committee of the Central Conference led by Rabbi Louis Grossman of Cincinnati includes, G.G. Fox, Fort Worth, TX; E.N. Callisch, Richmond, VA; Ephraim Frisch, New York; Max J. Singer, Evansville, Indiana; Jacob Singer, Lincoln, Nebraska; W. H. Fineshriber, Memphis, TN; Joseph Stolz, Chicago, Illinois and David Lefkovits, Dayton, Ohio.

1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): Parasaht Chukat

1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): “Mr. Samuel Kaplan of the Hebrew Union College” is scheduled to leader Shabbat morning services at Isaiah Temple in the absences of Rabbi Joseph Stotltz who is visiting in Syracuse, NY.

1919(7thof Tammuz, 5679): Thirty-six year old Eugen Leviné was executed in Munich after it was retaken by the German Army and the right-wing Freikorps.

1919: It was reported today that Judge Julian W. Mack has been elected to serve as a member of “the Board of Overseers at Harvard University.”

1919: It was reported today that “Harriet B. Lowenstein” a representative of the Joint Distribution Committee working in Paris has purchased “a large quantity of surplus army supplies,” consisting most of clothing which have been shipped to Poland where the Jewish population is in great need of “raiment.”

1920: At today’s session of the Central Conference of American meeting in Rochester, the attendees “overwhelmingly rejected political Zionism” and elected officers including President, Leo M. Franklin of Detroit: Vice President, Edward N. Calisch of Richmond, VA; Treasurer, Louis Wolsey, Cleveland, OH; Recording Secretary, Isaac E. Marcuson of Macon, GA and Corresponding Secretary, Felix A. Levy of Chicago.

1920: In New York, Charles Polakoff, the son of Louis and Annie Polakoff and his wife Rebecca Polakoff gave birth to Leah Goldman

1921: It was reported today that Associate Supreme Court Justice Brandeis has been named “Honorary President of the Palestine Development Council” and that Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Nathan Straus have been named Honorary Vice President.

1922: “Palestine Mandate Upheld in Commons” published today described the failure of the attack in the House of Commons on the Government’s Palestine Policy during which Winston Churchill argued the case so well that the motion that attacking the policy was defeated by 292 votes to 35.

1923: In Fischhausen, Germany, “Herman Motulsky, a shopkeeper, and the former Rena Sass” gave birth Arno Gunther Motulsky, the “refugee from Nazi Germany who became a founder of medical genetics” and a mentor to at least one Nobel Prize winner. (As reported by Denise Grady)

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/obituaries/arno-motulsky-dies-medical-genetics-founder.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

1923: Third baseman Joe Bennett made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Phillies.

1924(3rdof Tammuz, 5684): Parashat Korach

1924: Official opening ceremonies conducted in Paris marking the start of the Summer Olympics during which Harold Abrahams won the 100 m in a time of 10.6 seconds and provided part of the plot line for “Chariots of Fire.”

1925: Birthdate of Anna Wittner the wife of Australian Jurist Sir Zelman Cowen and mother of Yosef, Kate, Ben and Rabbi Shimon Cohen, the “Director of the Institute of Judaism and Civilization in Melbourne.”

1928(17thof Tammuz, 5688): Tzom Tammuz observed for the last time under President Calvin Coolidge.

1932: In New York City “Esther (Goldberg) Navasky and Macy Navasky gave birth to Victor Saul Navasky youthful Zionist and “a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism” who held a variety of positions at the Nation from 1978 to 2005 when “he became the publisher emeritus” and was married to Anne (Strongin) Navasky with whom he had three children.

http://victorsnavasky.com/

1933: An agricultural settlement, Kadima, was founded on the initiative of Yehoshua Hankin.  In 2003, it merged with Tzoran to become Tzoran-Kadima

1933: Heinrich Brüning who served as Chancellor from 1930 t0 1932 during the Weimar Republic dissolved his Centre Party to pre-empt the Nazis from banning the party.

1933: In Brooklyn, Harold Baumbach, “a noted painter” and Ida Baumbach, “a school teacher gave birth to novelist Jonathan David Baumbach whose works included Separate Hours and Reruns passed away today.  (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/obituaries/jonathan-baumbach-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

1934: In Vienna, The body of Chaim Nachman Biliak, the great Hebrew poet who died last night of a heart attack lay in state in the ceremonial hall of the Central Jewish Cemetery surrounded by an honor guard of Jewish students from the University of Vienna.

1934: In announcing plans for U.S. memorial services honoring the late Chaim Nachman Bialik, Morris Rothenberg, President of the ZOA, described him “the foremost Hebrew Poet of the last 500 years.

1935: The Bialik Institute invited authors throughout the world to compete for eight prizes with a total value of 900 pounds which will be awarded in January, 1936. The winners will be determined based on their contributions to Hebrew literature.  Submission may include original Hebrew works as well as efforts translated from the original into Hebrew.

1935: Konrad von Presying, who became “one of the strongest and most vocal opponents of the Nazis and their anti-Semitic policies among Germany's Catholic hierarchy” was made Bishop of Berlin today. (As reported by Austin Cline)

1936: A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night.

1936: “An increase of 300 per cent since 1934 in sums raised through Jewish welfare funds in the United States for non-local relief and other philanthropic activities were reported today in Notes and Newsthe publication of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds,

1936: The Palestine Post reported that in spite of the six-week-long general Arab strike, work was still going on the Jaffa Port improvement. A Czechoslovak press photographer, Stephan Lux, shot himself in Geneva, during the League of Nations Assembly meeting, in protest against the treatment of Jews in Germany. He died in hospital the following night. Four cars belonging to Jews were set on fire in Jerusalem. The shooting, bomb throwing and tree uprooting by Arab terrorists continued throughout the country.

1936: In Providence, RI, “Morris Rothenberg announced at a caucus of his followers at 12:30 o’clock this morning that he had accepted the compromise proposal that will Rabbi Stephen S. Wise head of “the Zionist Organization of America.”

1936: In Jerusalem, an Arab was arrested after three Jews were wounded, two of them critically, as they were passing the new Public Works Department as they walked to work.

1936: As of today, more than 260 of food poisoning due to the consumption of tainted fruits and fish have been reported, most of them among the Jews living in the Old City of Jerusalem.

1936: Delegates to the 39th annual convention of the Zionist Organization of America meeting in Providence, RI, upset this afternoon’s schedule to provide a final opportunity to settle the issue of who will serve as the organization’s President.

1936: “The Montag, a sports paper, carried a German government news service dispatch charge that ‘Jews were conspicuous’ in the group of journalists who are asserted to have molested Arthur Karl Greiser” after he gave a speech in Geneva “attacking the control of the League of Nations over the Free City of Danzig.”

1937: During the Spanish Civil, New Yorker Moe Fishman, a volunteer with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, was wounded while fighting in a battle west of Madrid.

1937: “Reform Judaism’s prospects in America are exceedingly favorable, Rabbi Joseph Ruach of Louisville, KY, concluded today in a paper he read before the Fourth Congress of the World Union Progressive Judaism” which is meeting in Amsterdam

1937: Birthdate of New York Congresswoman Nita Melnikoff Lowey.

1938:  Herb Caen's first column appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Caen’s father was Jewish, but his mother was not.

1938: In an action by the Nazi controlled government that affects several hundreds of poor Jewish families, “Jewish tenants in Vienna’s municipal dwellings have received a notice” ordering them to move within a fortnight.

1939: “Despite demands from all parts of the House of Lords for a more liberal policy toward refugees, a government spokesman today reiterated its refusal either to loosen existing restrictions on immigration or to provide public funds to aid the proposed settlement of German Jews in British Guiana”  while the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Colonies announced “that the Home office was discussing…the possibility of permitting some of the 7,000 Jewish children brought” to the United Kingdom “from German to remain here after they become 18 years old, instead of being required to emigrate.”

1940: In Rumania, “the press resumed Jew-baiting which had been forsaken for the past several days” and “the State censor refused to permit publication of a statement of loyal by the Grand Rabbi, which he had intended to make in the Senate while “the bodies of seven Jews were found along the railway line running between Bucharest and Lespezile.”

1941: After 54 Jews were shot the prior day, 93 more were killed in Vilna by members of the Einsatzkommando unit. The Einsatzkommando were the SS killing squads that followed the Nazi Army into eastern Poland, the Baltic States and the Soviet Union. They were to round up the Jews and other undesirables and kill them. But special emphasis was placed on the Jews in this next phase of the Final Solution.

1941: InLiepāja, Latvia, Korvettenkapitan Brückner, of the Kriegsmarine, “issued a set of anti-Jewish regulations including:

1.     All Jews must wear the yellow star on the front and back of their clothing;

2.     Shopping hours for Jews were restricted to 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Jews were only allowed out of their residences for these hours and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.;

3.     Jews were barred from public events and transportation and were not to walk on the beach;

4.     Jews were required to leave the sidewalk if they encountered a German in uniform;

5.     Jewish shops were required to display the sign "A Jewish-owned business" in the window;

6.     Jews were to surrender all radios, typewriters, uniforms, arms and means of transportation

1941: In Lvov, the local Ukrainians continued to take Jews from their homes and murder them. Among the victims were a 49-year-old ophthalmologist, Kornelia Graf-Weisenberg, and her daughter.

1941: The Nuremberg Race Law was extended to include Czech citizens.

1941: In the Ukraine, 3000 Jews are murdered at Chernovtsy; 600 are killed at Skalat.

1942: Margot Frank, the sister of Anne Frank, received a notice to report to a labor camp

1942(20th of Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-eight year old Rabbi Chaim Fishel Epstein who “served as Chief Rabbi in St. Louis, MO for the Vaad Hoeir of the United Orthodox Community for 12 years from 1930 to 1942 passed away today.

1943: Heinrich Himmler orders that Sobibór, a death camp, be made a concentration camp.

1943: Today authorities put an end to the special status granted to personnel at the Westerbork section of the Jewish Council. Half of the personnel had to return to Amsterdam, while the other half became camp internees. Etty Hillesum joined the latter group: she wished to remain with her father, mother and brother Mischa, who had meanwhile been brought to Westerbork.

1943: “Thumbs Up” a musical with a score by Walter Scharf and produced by Albert J. Cohen was released today in the United SAttes.

1944: Additional deportations of Jews from Budapest which had been planned to take place today did not take place today because Regent Miklos Horthy cancelled them, in part because of pressure from the Pope, the King of Sweden and President Roosevelt.

1945: Great Britain holds its first general election since 1935.  The election pits Churchill and his Conservative Party against Atlee and the Laborites.  Churchill and the Conservatives will go down to defeat.  Unfortunately for the Jews, the new Laborite government will enforce the White Paper and support the Arab cause with even more tenacity than the Churchill government had.

1945: After a ten year absence, Barnett Janner, the future Baron Janner, returned to Parliament when was elected at the 1945 general election as Labour MP for Leicester West.

1946: “Representative Sol Bloom, Democrat, of New York, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said today he would demand United Nations action on the world Jewish problem as a result of the anti-Semitic riots in Poland.”

1947: William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor and Philip Murray, President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the two leading labor organizations in the United States, sent messages tonight to the 50thAnnual Convention ZOA demanding “that the doors of Palestine be opened to Jewish immigrants and that the Palestine Mandate be carried out pending the final decision of the United Nations.”

1947: Following the death of his first wife, Bertha Freshman who had died of a collapsed lung in 1946, movie make Mike Todd married his second wife Joan Blondell today creating a union that would not last but would lead to Todd’s third and final marriage to movie start Liz Taylor.

1948: It was reported today that “eight Jews were wounded and one Araba woman, a patient in the Israeli held Norte Dame Hospice was shot fatally by an Arab bullet” when Arab snipers began shooting in Jerusalem forcing Israeli troops to return fire.

1949: “Polish security police today arrested ten persons including the Rabbi of Walbrzych in Lower Silesia for helpings thousands of Jews” who were said to be on their way to Israel by of Western Germany, “to cross the frontier into Czechoslovakia.”

1950: The Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, passed the “Law of Return” which “granted all Jews the right to live in and become a citizen of Israel.” (Editor’s note -  at the time most Jews did not know that a group of Orthodox in Israel would determine that a large number of people who thought they were Jews and had lived their lives as Jews really weren’t Jewish; something that certainly was not part of the Zionist dream)

1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that registration began of all the Israeli-occupied houses in Jerusalem's no-man's-land by the joint subcommittee of the Israel-Jordan Mixed Armistice Commission. It was hoped that the registration would eliminate the neutral areas and all the trouble spots in which many lives were lost during the past three years. Israeli seamen demanded a large share in their foreign currency earnings.

1955: As Lord Russell prepared to release a anti-Nuclear message that had been signed by many leaders including the late Albert Einstein, “it was recalled in London tonight that sometime before his death, Dr. Einstein had said ‘At the decisive moment I shall speak” but “I am waiting for the right moment.”

1956: It was reported today that “President Eisenhower had personally decided against approval of the arms list submitted by Israel” which followed the policy originally recommended by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.

1959: Birthdate of Daniel Gordis, a rabbi ordained at JTS who is the President of the Shalem Foundation and the founding dean of the Ziegler Rabbinical School

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

1959: In Israel, the 8th government “collapsed when David Ben Gurion resigned after Labor Unit and Mapam had voted against the government on the issue of selling arms to West German and refused to leave the coalition.

1959: After being first shown to a limited audience at New York in June, a film version of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” directed by Otto Preminger and produced by Samuel Goldwyn opened at the Carthay Circle Theatre”

1959: “The Big Circus” a mystery “produced and co-written by Irwin Allen” was released in the United States today.

1960: In Detroit, Michigan, “Rhoda (Nemeth) and Archie Sills” gave birth to University of Michigan alum and  Tony Award nominated actor Douglas Sils

1960: The then 50-year old Jewish community of the Belgian Congo, consisting of 2500 Jews fled in the wake of riots that followed independence of that former Belgian colony.

1961: In Beersheba, Yitzhak Banai and his wife gave birth to “Israeli musician, singer and songwriter” Meir Banai, the brother of “comedian Orna Bania and singer Evitar Banai


http://www.timesofisrael.com/meir-banai-55-led-israeli-music-into-a-more-soulful-space/

1962: “Yossel Schumacher” the central figure in a case involving his “abduction by his Haredi Jewish grandparents” was reunited today for the first time in two years with his parents.

1964: Two days after she had passed away, funeral services as scheduled to “be held at the House of Living Judaism of the Union of American Congregations” for fifty-nine year old “Mrs. Rosa Brown Eisendrath” the Bonham, TX born wife “Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, the president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations who gave up her career as a concert pianist to help her husband fulfill his calling.

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/07/04/86712588.pdf

1965: In the U.K., premiere of “Darling” directed by John Schlesinger, produced Joseph Janni, written by Frederick Raphael and starring Laurence Harvey, born Laruschka Mischa Skikne

1968: In Long Beach, CA, Susan and Mort Stuhlbarg gave birth to Julliard trained American actor Michael S. Stuhlberg who played Arnold Rothstein in “Boardwalk Empire.”

1969(19thof Tammuz, 5729): Parashat Pinchas

1969: In “Stand on Zionism” published today Paul Boutelle of the Socialist Workers Party takes issue with a letter written by Arnold Forster, general counsel of the ADL taking issue “with the A.D.L.’s recent defamation of the S.W.P.” in which it labels the organization’s “anti-Zionist stand as anti-Semitic.”

https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/07/05/78385686.pdf

1969: In Los Angeles, novelist Rhea Kohan (née Arnold), and writer, producer, and composer, Alan W. "Buz" Kohan gave birth to television writer and producer Jenji Leslie Kohan the creator of “Weeds” and “Orange Is the New Black” and sister of David and Jono Kohan.

1970: Amos Zamir and Amos Levitov were captured when their FE4 Phantom was shot down by Egyptian SAM’s during the War of Attrition.

1972(: Birthdate of Leningrad native Igor Semyonovich Shteyngart who, 1979, came to the United States, graduated from Oberlin and gained fame as award winning author Barry Shteyngart whose “debut novel” was The Russian Debutante’s Handbook.

1974:“Leonard Cohen: Bird on the Wire,” Tony Palmer’s documentary about the singer, songwriter, novelist and poet was shown for the first and only time at the Rainbow Theatre in north London today. (As reported by Cathryn J. Prince)

1975: Sixty-seven year old Otto Skorzeny, the Austrian born German Waffen-SS Lieutenant Colonel who may have been the only person to be decorated by Hitler with the Iron Cross and to have worked for Mossad, passed away today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/29/hitlers-commando-lt-col-otto-skorzeny-worked-as-an-assassin-for/

1975(25th of Tammuz, 5735): In Jerusalem, a refrigerator that had five kilograms of explosives packed into its sides exploded on Zion Square, a main square leading to Ben Yehuda Street and to Jaffa Street. Fifteen people were killed and 77 were injured. After the attack, Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, said: "The murder serves as a warning not to get caught up in illusions about the intentions of the terror organizations ... Therefore we must follow a strict policy of not negotiating with them. We must speak to them only in the language they understand, the language of the sword." Ahmad El-Sukar, the terrorist responsible for placing the bomb, was released from Israeli prison in 2003 as a gesture to Arafat.

1975: “A 57 page new edition of the dissident “Chronicles of Current Events” began to circulate in Moscow.

1976: Birthdate of New York native Benjamin David “Jamie” Elman the Canadian born actor “who taught four graders at synagogue religious school in Southern California.” (Editor’s note – having taught Jewish youngsters in more than religious school, I can attest to the fact that all Jewish teachers don’t end up as famous thespians.)

1976:The Jerusalem Post reported on the successful completion of the Entebbe rescue operation, the joy at the freeing of hostages who arrived home to a jubilant Israel. Four Israelis - the commander of the rescue team, Yonatan Netanyahu, and three other soldiers - were killed during the operation. A number of wounded Israelis were still under treatment in Nairobi hospital. Idi Amin, Uganda's ruler was working together with Palestinian gunmen, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told the Knesset.

1976: The Associated Press published an interview with “Muki” Betser, one of the organizers of the Entebbe Rescue Operation.  According to the interview, the raid was so successful, in part, because of information supplied to the Israelis by the hostages who had been released by the terrorists.

1976: In an attempt to cover up the savage murder of Dora Bloch, Idi Amin instructed his Health Minister respond to any “inquiries about the sick hostage” by saying “she had been returned to the airport one hour before the Israeli commandos had arrived and that the commandos had taken her with them.”

1976: In an attempt to thwart an attack on Kenya by Idi Amin who had been warring with his neighbor and might know had provided a landing site to the Israelis, The United States Seventh Fleet “including the aircraft carrier USS Ranger” sailed toward East Africa, a naval frigate docked at Mombassa and US naval patrol aircraft flew o Nairobi’s Embakasi Airport.

1978(30thof Sivan, 5738) Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1978(30thof Sivan, 5738): In New York, Jacob Sasonkin, the husband of Millie Sasonkin and the father of Judith Lowenstein passed away today.

1978: Production of “Taxi” co-starring Judd Hirsh and Andy Kaufman began on Stage 23 at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

1979(10th of Tammuz, 5739): Ninety-one year old Rose Alice Alschuler the daughter of Charles and Mary Haas and the wife of Alfred Samuel Alschuler, Sr. passed away today in Chicago.

1979: Sixty-seven year old Edis De Philippe, who founded the Israel National Opera Company in 1947 passed away today. (As reported by Shabtai Benaroyo)

http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/de-philippe-edis

1981: Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Gorenstein announced the engagement of their daughter Cornell University graduate Jonina T. Gorenstein to theoretical physicist Dr. Jonathan Furth  Schonfeld, the son of Frances Schonfeld and Gabriel B. Schonfeld, the educational director of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, NY and the grandson of the late Rabbi Lazar Schonfeld of the Bronx, a former chief rabbi of Nagy Karoly, Hungary, who broadcast sermons in Hungarian for the Voice of America.”

1983: Menachem Begin appointed Sarah Doron Minister without Portfolio.

1985(16thof Tammuz, 5745): Fifty-seven year old Detroit native and television producer and director Barry Crane, a world class bridge champion was murdered today in Studio City.

https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-barry-crane-cold-case-killing-tv-director-20190510-story.html

1988: “Ben Briscoe Follows Father to Become Dublin’s 2nd Jewish Mayor” published today described the father-son relationship to the ceremonial position of Lord Mayor.

http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1988/Ben-Briscoe-Follows-Father-to-Become-Dublin-s-2nd-Jewish-Mayor/id-f8628cd5a99251a6eed44d7d963006a5

1989: An exhibition entitled ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' appearing at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan comes to a close. The following review entitled “Slices of Time, Preserved in Deft Images” describes the exhibition and its importance.

A photograph, whether intended to or not, speaks of the time in which it was made. This is obvious in the case of images taken years ago -pictures from the first days of Israel's independence, for example, or from the tumultuous decade of the 1960's. But it is also true of contemporary art photographs of the sort one finds displayed in SoHo galleries. This weekend affords an unusually rich opportunity to look at photographs of the past and present, and to assess how much the world has changed in the last 40 years. Robert Capa's photographs of the first years of the State of Israel were taken at a time - 1948 to 1950 - when photojournalism was in full flower. Not only was this genre the most visible and provocative manifestation of photography, but it was also the primary means by which the events of the world were conveyed. Capa, considered by many the quintessential photojournalist, made a considerable reputation by photographing the Spanish Civil War and World War II. His images of those conflicts have become so well known that they could be considered among the lasting monuments of war. With relatively few exceptions, however, Capa's pictures of Israel did not achieve wide currency during his lifetime (he died, the victim of a land mine in Vietnam, in 1954). Curiously, given the potential interest in their subject matter, they have rarely been published or seen in exhibitions. Thus the show ''Robert Capa: Photographs From Israel, 1948-1950,'' which has opened this week at the Jewish Museum has an unusual fascination. The 107 black-and-white images in the exhibition, which was organized by the Tel Aviv Museum of Art from the archives of the Capa estate, depict an Israel in the throes of self-definition. There are pictures of immigrants in transient camps, of politicians electioneering, of soldiers mobilizing. We see the first meeting of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) as well as the unloading of mattresses beside rows of tents pitched in the desert. There are pictures of combat as well, but they do not seem as vivid or vital as Capa's earlier war work. Perhaps that is because Capa, a Jew born in Hungary, had his heart elsewhere. The most affecting images in the show are filled with human interest, not action. For a picture called ''Funeral,'' 1949, Capa framed a grieving elderly woman in the foreground, but the camera focuses behind her, on the beautiful and stoic face of a young girl. In his pictures of the transient camps, Capa concentrated on faces that bespeak optimism and pride. Children, especially, seemed to catch his eye. In addition to depicting farmers, construction workers, soldiers and shopkeepers, he photographed a couple dancing to the music of an accordion, a painter, several musicians - with the apparent aim of bearing witness to the perseverance of the nobler aspects of the human spirit. In appreciating these images as historical artifacts, however, one might also wonder why it is that they have lain in such desuetude all these years. Is it that once their news value had faded, they became no more than relics? That doesn't seem likely, since none of Capa's other work has remained unseen for so long. A more reasonable speculation would be that Capa's attempt to put a good face on what was happening in Israel was not sufficiently convincing to the editorial tastes of his day, and that consequently the pictures never acquired the aura of news. One could also wonder whether the photographs' focus on human interest, rather than on combat or other action, made them seem dispensable. But human interest is one of photojournalism's perennial staples, as can be gleaned from ''Life: Through the 60's,'' an exhibition at the International Center of Photography (1130 Fifth Avenue, at 94th Street, through May 21). The show consists of more than 100 photographers' pictures taken between 1956 and 1972 and culled from the archive of Life magazine. ''Life: Through the 60's'' has its fair share of bedrock photojournalism, including such ''hard news'' specimens as a view of James Meredith being shot during a civil-rights march, a frame from the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination, and a score of examples of first-rate war photography from Vietnam. But Life's editors, and Doris C. O'Neil, who selected the images in the exhibition, were savvy enough to know that the 60's could not be encapsulated solely by cataclysmic events. So the show also includes pictures of women in mini-skirts, communal-living hippies, sports figures and, of course, movie, television and rock stars like the Beatles. Compared with Capa's view of Israel at the end of the 40's, Life's retrospective of the 60's seems well balanced to a point close to blandness. But the period itself gives the show a flavor that is even more pronounced than the magazine's two previous forays into the past, ''Life: The First Decade'' and ''Life: The Second Decade.'' Any review of the 60's comes complete with a hearty helping of nostalgia to enrich its already complex, confounding texture, and the images here are no exception.

1989: The sitcom “Seinfeld” aired its first episode.  Much to everybody’s surprise, this sitcom built around the life of a New York Jewish comedian becomes a smash hit.

1991(23rd of Tammuz, 5751): Seventy-one year old Pulitzer Prize winning, poet laureate of the United States Howard Nemerov passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/07/obituaries/howard-nemerov-poet-laureate-and-pulitzer-recipient-dies-at-71.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm

http://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/howard-nemerov

1993: Opening of the 14th Maccabiah

1995: Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind completed his term as Secretary State for Defense.

1995: With his party in the opposition, Sir Malcolm becomes the Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in the United Kingdom.

1997(30th of Sivan, 5757): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz

1998(11th of Tammuz, 5758): Football great Sid Luckman passed away. Luckman gained fame as quarterback with Columbia and then with the Chicago Bear. His success earned him a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame.

1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Nineteen to the Dozens: Monologues and Bits and Bobs of Other Things by Sholem Aleichem.

1999(21stof Tammuz, 5759): Eighty-six year old Rabbi and Civil Rights leader Aaron Wise passed away today. (As reported by Myrna Oliver)

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jul/08/news/mn-53994

2000: “Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, have agreed to meet at Camp David next week for a summit conference intended to help them frame the peace agreement they hope to reach by September, President Clinton announced today.”

2001:Israel's security cabinet decided today to press ahead with a policy of assassinating suspected Palestinian militants in an effort to stop persistent killings of Israelis, officials said.”

2002: Opening of the Imperial War Museum which was designed by Daniel Libeskind

2002(25thof Tammuz, 5762): Just eight days before his 79th birthday Brazilian economist Samuel Isaac Benchimol whom the Brazilian government memorialized with the creation of the Benchimol Prize, passed away today.

2003: As of the first anniversary of the opening of the Imperial War Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind 470,000 had visited the building.

2004: In one of those cross-cultural mixtures that is uniquely America Takeru Kobayashi, a native of Japan won the “Mustard Yellow Belt at Nathan’s Famous hot-dog eating contest, an event meant to sell more of sausages originally by Nathan Handwerker.

2005: Two undercover police officers in Torrance, California, noticed a car nosing slowly past a Chevron station. Two men wearing ski masks jumped from the car, one brandished a shotgun, and they stole $252 from the night clerk. Police arrested the two men without incident, but a search of their shared apartment yielded jihadist literature and plans to bomb synagogues in Los Angeles.

2006: Today Israel responded to yesterday’s rocket attack that hit a “high school in Ashkelon” “with an airstrike that caused extensive damage to offices of the Interior Ministry in Gaza City.

2007:  The 24th Jerusalem International Film Festival opens. This is one of the world’s premier film festivals, featuring dozens of films from Israel and around the world. The 2007 festival will inaugurate the renovated Jerusalem Cinematheque.

2007:It was announced that Ken Feinberg would work pro bono as the chief administrator to the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund (HSMF) which was set up by the Virginia Tech Foundation in the aftermath of the massacre of students and faculty by a lone gun man on the Virginia Tech Campus

2007(19th of Tammuz, 5767): Sylvan R. Shemitz, whose lighting designs warmed the facade of Grand Central Terminal and flooded the Jefferson Memorial, passed away at the age of 82.

2007(19th of Tammuz, 5767): Ninety-five year old “David Hilberman, whose union activities at Walt Disney Studios and brief membership in the Communist Party led to his blacklisting and shadowed a long career that included founding the innovative United Productions of America studio” passed away today.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/21/local/me-hilberman21

2008: At the Joyce Theatre in New York City, the Pilobolus Dance Theater, in collaboration with Inbal Pinto Dance Theater, performs “Rushes.”

2009(13thof Tammuz, 5769): Anita “Nita” Rabinowitz, who for 65 years was the wife or Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, Rabbi Emeritus of Adas Israel Congregation, and a woman of unique style and charm, passed away today. She is survived by two daughters, Dr. Sharon Chard Yaron of San Diego, CA and Judi Argaman of Herzlia, Israel; four grandchildren, Maiya Chard Yaron of San Diego, Omri, Elad and Noa Argaman of Herzlia,Israel  and her brother a brother, Kalman Lifson of Rydal, PA.

 Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing

2009: The Sixth Australian Israel Film Festival, sponsored by AICE, the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange comes to an end today.

2009(13thof Tammuz, 5769):  Ninety-seven year old poet and “renowned authority on Hans Christian Andersen” Naomi Lewis passed away today.




2009: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Radical:The Life and Times of I. F. Stone by D. D. Guttenplan.

2009: The Washington Post featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Sweet Science and Other Writings: The Sweet Science, The Earl of Louisiana, The Jollity Building, Between Meals, The Pressby A.J. Liebling and The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works by Henry Waxman and Joshua Green.

2010:Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present "Truly Very Strange People!": The heroes of the Second Aliyah

2010(23rdof Tammuz, 5770): Ninety year old CCNY and professional basketball player Hal Friend passed away today.


2010: Today Israeli-American Amar'e “Stoudemire and the New York Knicks agreed in principle to a contract estimated to be worth around $99.7 million over five years.”

2010: Firefighters succeeded in bringing a fire in the Yehudiah nature reserve in the Golan Heights under control this afternoon. Firefighters on the ground and in the air were still trying to control the giant fire burning out of control in the Bar'am forest north of Tzfat and the Meitzar stream. Additional crews are fighting a blaze that broke out in the area of Alonei Habashan in the Golan Heights. Firefighters are also at work on a brush fire in the city of Nesher near Haifa.

2011(3rdof Tammuz): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Bernard (Dov) Illoway, a leader of American Orthodox Judaism, who passed away in Cincinnati on 3rd of Tamuz, 5631 (June 22, 1871).

2011(3rdof Tammuz): Yahrzeit of The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson who passed away on 3rd of Tammuz, 5754 from creation (June 12, 1994)

2011: The Milwaukee Jewish Community Chorale Board of Directors is scheduled to meet at Fox Point, Wisconsin.

2011:Two bills aimed at alleviating the woes of women whose husbands refuse them divorces passed the Knesset Law Committee today, ahead of votes in the plenum.

2011:The Israel Air Force targeted a terror cell in Gaza today, after it was identified as attempting to fire projectiles at Israel.

2011: Israeli professional basketball player Gal Mekel signed a two-year contract with Italian team Benetton Treviso

 2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Trianon in Paris

2012:Funeral services for Lauren Reece Flaum (z"l) conducted by Rabbi Jeff Portman, are scheduled to be held this morning  at Agudas Achim Congregation with the burial at the Agudas Achim Cemetery in Iowa City. Zichrona Livracha - May Her Memory Be A Blessing

 2012:Woody Allen's romantic comedy, "To Rome With Love," is scheduled to open the 29th Jerusalem Film Festival.

2012:Israel will launch a brutal war against Lebanon if provoked by Hezbollah, senior Israel Defense Forces officers warned today.

2012: A Tel Aviv-bound El Al plane was forced to make an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport early today morning after one of its engines caught fire. No injuries were reported

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-passenger-plane-has-emergency-landing-in-london/

2013: Pope Francis was scheduled to meet today at the Vatican with a delegation of relatives of victims of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community building in Buenos Aires. (As reported by JTA and Jerusalem Post)

2013: Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren announced today that he would conclude his term as envoy to Washington in the fall, after four years on the job. (As reported by JPost)

2013: Jonathan Yardley, reviewed My New Orleans, Gone Away by New Orleans native Peter Michael Wolf, “a sixth-generation member of the Godchaux-Weis clan.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/book-review-my-new-orleans-gone-away-by-peter-m-wolf/2013/07/05/a9e54afe-dccf-11e2-85de-c03ca84cb4ef_story.html?utm_term=.ae9a0c918060

2014: In Cedar Rapids, the Traditional Minyan is scheduled to celebrate Red, White & Blue Shabbat with a Sundaes On Saturday Kiddush featuring that all-American treat – Kosher Ice Cream.

2014: Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, he founder of the Zimor Project a unique ensemble dedicated to incorporating Jewish art music into chamber music programs, is scheduled to perform works by Chausson, Messian, Weinberg, Yedidia and Weber at Bargemuisc, “New York City’s floating concert hall.”

2014: “The True Story of Curious George --- The Wartime Escape: Margret and H.A. Rey’s Journey From France” an exhibition that tells how “the Jewish Couple fled Paris in June 1940, starting a five-month odyssey by bike, train and boat that eventually would bring them to American shores” opens today at The Carl & Mary Koehler History Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

2014: Three rockets fired from Gaza struck at Beersheba, the largest city in southern Israel. (As reported by Itmar Sharon)



2014: Arabs continue to riot in Israel in response to the murder of a teenager in what was supposedly a revenge killing. 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/clashes-in-jerusalem-galilee-as-protests-spread/

2014: This evening Hamas threatened to reach “all” of Israel’s cities with its rockets, several hours after targeting the city of Beersheba. (As reported by Ilan Ben Zion and Itamar Sharon)

2015: “Trained Oregon Holocaust Memorial docents” many of whom are Holocaust survivors are scheduled to host tours that “will focus on Holocaust history and the stories of Holocaust survivors and their families whose hard work and dedication is largely responsible for the conception, design, and construction of the Memorial.”

2015: Today,Carli Lloyd whose coach was Holocaust survivor Rudi Kolbach scored the “opening goal against Japan in the FIFA Women’s World Cup” being held in Vancover.

2015: The curtain is scheduled to come down on the final performance of “The Tale of the Allergist Wife” at Theatre J, sponsored by the Washington DCJCC.

2015: In Atlanta, GA, the William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is scheduled to host a “theater workshop for Jewish girls ages 11-14 developed in collaboration with Out of Hand Theater!”

2015: “From Shtetl to Swing” is scheduled to be shown at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA.

2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Seven Good Years: A Memoir by Etgar Keret and Book of Numbers by Joshua Cohen.

2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Fast of the 17th Tammuz observed since the 17thof Tammuz fell on Shabbat.

2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-year old Ingram Berg “Burt” Shavitz, the Manhattan born Main beekeeper the co-founder of “Burt’s Bees” passed away today.

https://www.economist.com/obituary/2015/07/23/buzz-buzz

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/burt-s-bees-cofounder-dies-at-80-1.5375452

2015(18thof Tammuz, 5775): Eighty-five year old James Marcus the Goldman Sachs partner and managing director of the Metropolitan Opera passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/arts/james-marcus-opera-benefactor-and-ex-goldman-partner-dies-at-85.html?ref=topics&_r=0

2016: “Natural Resistance, an exhibition at the Y Gallery featuring the works of Israelis Shay Arick and Tamara Kostianovsky, is scheduled to close today.

2016: Jonathan Tobin is scheduled to moderate “a panel discussion about the Entebbe rescue with one of the hostages and a former Mossad officer at Congregation Mikveh Israel and then directly after emcee the 40th anniversary Commemoration ceremony at the Yoni Netanyahu Memorial off of Philadelphia's Independence Mall.”

2017: Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, Center for Jewish History and American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to present the first session of “Al-Andalus: Tolerance, Culture and Violence in Medieval Spain.”

2017: In Memphis, TN at Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to lead a discussion on “Abraham Isaac Kook: From Child Prodigy to Mystic and Beloved First Chief of Rabbi of Israel” which is part the Greatest Jewish Thinkers of All Time series

2017(5thof Tammuz, 5777): Sixty-eight Bracha Garber, the Tel Aviv native who was a driving force behind the “overhaul” of “New York City’s foster care system” passed away today.  (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

2017: “The Ministry of Antiquities’ Project Sector today approved the funds for restoring and developing the Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue, according to the head of the Islamic and Coptic Monuments Department, al-Saeed Helmy Ezzat,”

2017: Daniel Polisar is scheduled to present the first session “The Zionist Vision: A New Look at Theodor Herzl.”

2017: In Haifa, the HUB, “the Maccabiah version of an ‘Olympic Village” is scheduled to open today.

2017: Jewish Care’s 5th annual Bake Day is scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom today.

2018: The Jerusalem Festival of Light is scheduled to come to an end tonight.

2018: “A special screening of ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ with a live shadow cast is scheduled to take place at the Cinematheque Tel Aviv.”

2018: “Batsheva – The Young Ensemble is scheduled to perform Ohad Naharin's Bessie Award-winning dance, Naharin's Virus, inspired by the great Austrian writer Peter Handke's play” at Jacobs Pillow today for the second time.

2018(22ndof Tammuz, 5778): Ninety-two year old Claude Lanzmann, the Paris born son of “Armand and Paulette (Grobermann) Lanzmann who served with the French Resistance during WW II and who is best known for “Shoah,” his “1985 groundbreaking film about the Holocaust” passed away today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/obituaries/claude-lanzmann-dead.html

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jul/05/claude-lanzmann-obituary

2018: Following yesterday’s “4.5 earthquake and 4.1 earthquake” that sent tremors from the Golan Heights to Tel Aviv, Israel’s have been cautioned “to listen only to official updates and instructions and to ignore unconfirmed reports.”

2019: In Terre Haute, IN, The CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education is scheduled to be closed in honor of its founder “Eva Mozes Kor, who underwent experiments in Auschwitz together with her twin sister” who passed away July 4, 2019

2019:  In Baltimore, MD, director Aviva Kempner is scheduled to take part in a Q and A following a screening of “The Spy Behind Home Plate” a biopic about Moe Berg.

2019: The Shabbat Shop, a one stop place to fill all the needs for the Sabbath which is a fundraiser Jack and Shirley Silver Center for Special Needs at the Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan is scheduled to be open from 8:30 to 5 at JCC Manhattan.

2019: Today, The Jerusalem Theatre is scheduled to “return to the tradition of Kabbalat Shabbat at the theatre, with the participation of the multidisciplinary Vocalists’ Workshop of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, led by Prof. Michael Wolpe”

2020: Michelle, Jacob and Rachel Levin will be among those adjusting to the executive order requiring the wearing of masks in Columbus, OH, which was scheduled to go into effect this weekend.

2020: The Contemporary Jewish Museum is scheduled to livestream “Sunday Stories: Summer in the Catskills,” a talk about the summer resorts, music and comedy that became symbols of mid-century American Jewish life.

2020: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Surviving Autocracy by Masha Gessen and The Demagogue’s Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy form the Founders to Trump by Eric A. Posner as well as an essay, “The Book That Shaped Foreign Policy for a Generation Has More to Say” that examines the impact of Hans Morgenthau’s Politics Among the Nations  and a Podcast in which Jules Feiffer examines “His long, varied  career.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/09/books/review/hans-morgenthau-politics-among-nations-henry-kissinger-george-kennan.html?campaign_id=69&emc=edit_bk_20200703&instance_id=20012&nl=books&regi_id=57747426&segment_id=32571&te=1&user_id=2c930c5636ea27f82410440938800f2f

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/books/review/podcast-jules-feiffer-smart-george-steve-inskeep-imperfect-union.html?campaign_id=69&emc=edit_bk_20200703&instance_id=20012&nl=books&regi_id=57747426&segment_id=32571&te=1&user_id=2c930c5636ea27f82410440938800f2f







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