July 26
412: “Emperors Theodosius II and Honorius ban compulsion of public service or court appearances for Jews on the Sabbath or any other Jewish holy day. Thus all legal issues involving Jews must be completed between Monday and Friday, and the Jewish Sabbath receives general protection. By the same token, Jews should not summon Christians to court on Christian holy days.”
657: Caliph Muawiya defeated Caliph Ali at the Battle of Siffin. Muawiya was the founder of the Umayyad dynasty. Earlier, he had been instrumental in the founding of a synagogue in Tripoli (in modern day Lebanon). The Umayyads would take control of Jerusalem, allow the Jews to live openly in the city and build one of their most famous mosques. This battle may be “ancient history” to westerners but for some followers of Islam it resonates in the Sunni vs. Shiite conflict we see in the 21st century.
1139: Count Alfonso, who declared independence from Leon, proclaimed himself the first king of Portugal and entered history as King Alfonso I. King Afonso I of Portugal entrusted Yahia Ben Yahi III, a Sephardic Jew born in Cordoba with the post of supervisor of tax collection and nominated him the first Chief-Rabbi of Portugal.
1305: Today, Rashba, who “was opposed to the philosophic-rationalistic approach to Judaism often associated with Rambam, and” who “was part of the beit din (rabbinical court) in Barcelona that forbade men younger than 25 from studying secular philosophy or the natural sciences (although an exception was made for those who studied medicine) wrote: ‘In that city [Barcelona] are those who write iniquity about the Torah and if there would be a heretic writing books, they should be burnt as if they were the book of sorcerers.’” Rashba is the Hebrew acronym for the title and name of Rabbi Shlomo ben Aderet, “a medieval rabbi, halakhist, and Talmudist. The Rashba was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1235. He became a successful banker and leader of Spanish Jewry of his time. He served as rabbi of the Main Synagogue of Barcelona for 50 years. His teachers were the Ramban and Rabbeinu Yona. Among his numerous students were the Ritva, Rabbeinu Behaye, and the Ra'ah. The Rashba was considered an outstanding rabbinic authority, and more than 3,000 of his responsa are known to be extant. Questions were addressed to him from Spain, Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, and even from Asia Minor. His responsa, which cover the entire gamut of Jewish life, are concise and widely quoted by halakhic authorities. The Rashba's responsa also illustrate his opposition to messianism and prophetic pretensions as a general phenomenon, with examples against Nissim ben Abraham and Abraham Abulafia. The Rashba defended Rambam (Maimonides) during contemporary debates over his works, and he authorized the translation of Rambam's commentary on the Mishnah from Arabic to Hebrew.” He passed away in 1310.
1309: Henry VII is recognized King of the Romans by Pope Clement V. Pope Clement V is first pope to threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt to force them to stop charging Christians interest on loans.”
1534: After a papal commission had attested to atrocities committed by the Inquisition against pseudo-Christians, Pope Clement VII issued a brief to the nuncio of the Portuguese court to press for the release and absolution of 1200 imprisoned Marranos. The Pope would die before action could be taken on his order and the effort ended with his death.
1555: The Jews of Rome were forced into a ghetto by order of Pope Paul IV
1581: Adoption of the Plakkaat van Verlatinghe (Act of Abjuration), the declaration of independence of the northern Low Countries from the Spanish king, Philip II. For Christians this is part of the battle between Protestants and Catholics; for Jews it is a conflict that will result in the independence of the Netherlands, a Protestant nation that would be a haven of tolerance for European Jews.
1605: A Jesuit Missionary traveling though China wrote a letter describing his meetings with Ai T'ien, a Chinese Jewish teacher. Most of what we know regarding the Kaifeng Jewish community is from this correspondence.
1612: Birthdate of Murad IV during whose Sultanate the Jews of Salonica suffered such severe financial losses that many of them were forced to migrate to Izmir.
1645: Alexis Mikhailovich succeeded his father as the “second czar of the Roman of dynasty.” The czar employed a Jewish physician named Stephan von Gaden. Unlike many other Russian rulers who pursued anti-Jewish policies, this Czar’s record is a mixed bag. “During his reign a considerable number of Jews lived in Moscow and the interior of Russia.” “From the edicts issued by Alexis Mikhailovich, it appears that the czar often granted the Jews passports with red seals (gosudarevy zhalovannyya gramoty), without which no foreigners could be admitted to the interior; and that they traveled without restriction to Moscow, dealing in cloth and jewelry, and even received from his court commissions to procure various articles of merchandise.” On the other hand he expelled Jews from various “newly acquired cities” in Poland and Lithuania.
1669: It was finally decided, today to expel a number of Jews from Vienna and Lower Austria; 1,346 persons were affected by this decree of banishment. In their dire need the Jews of Vienna once more sent a memorial to the emperor; but in vain, for the commission had attributed to them all kinds of crimes.
1670: The last Jews left Vienna, following expulsion orders. According to tradition, this took place on Tish'a b'Av.
1719 (10th of Av): Rabbi Samuel Filorintin, author of Olat Shemel passed away today.
1723: The mother-in-law of Joseph Delgado was burned at the stake for “refusing to renounce” her faith.
1723: Joseph Delgado of Castile, his wife Antonia de Cardenas and his brother Gabriel Delgado “were sentenced to imprisonment for life by the Inquisition at Llerena” for “refusing to renounce their faith.”
1729: In Dubno, Poland, the Hevra Kaddisah inadvertently moved the remains of Jakob Yaska today. (Abraham Bloch)
1773: In Montreal, 38 year old Ezekiel Solomon and Marie Elizabeth Louise Dubois gave birth to Samuel Solomon
1788: New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th state of the United States. The fate of the Jewish people and the state of New York has been intertwined since the earliest days of settlement in what is now the United States. For example, Isaac Moses was a co-founder of the New York Chamber of Commerce in 1768. There were approximately 350 Jews living in New York City at the time of the American Revolution. Many of them fled during the British occupation and did not return until after the war. Jews were active in New York politics from the early days of the Republic as can be seen by Solomon Simpson’s role as a founder of the famed Tammany Society (the cornerstone of the Democratic Party) in 1794.
1788: British “colonists” settle in Sydney, Australia. These “colonists” were part of an English transport of convicts shipped to New South Wales. Australia was founded as penal colony. According to at least one source there were eight Jews among the first shipment of eight hundred prisoners including “sixteen year old Esther Abrahams of London sentenced for stealing a piece of lace.”
1790(15thof Av, 5550): Tu B’Av observed on the same day The House of Representatives narrowly passed the Assumption Bill, making the federal government responsible for state debts, a fundamental plank in Treasury Secretary Hamilton's economic reforms and a critical part of the compromise that had made possible the ratification of the Constitution.
1799: Birthdate of Oskar Ludwig Bernhard Wolff the German Jewish author who “published under the pseudonym ‘Pliny the Youngest.’”
1803: Birthdate of Johann Jacob (Joseph Isidor) Sachs the German physician who practiced in Berlin where he also “was a prolific writer.”
1806: Napoleon formed the Conference of Notables to deal with the relationship between the Jews and the French State. It consisted of 112 deputies from all parts of the French Empire. At the assembly, led by the financier Abraham Furtado and Rabbi Joseph David Sinzheim, the delegates were confronted with a questionnaire on polygamy, usury, loyalty and intermarriage. Pleased with their answers, he decided to reenact the Sanhedrin, with representatives from all congregations under his careful direction. Even though the assembly was to be held on the Sabbath (some claim as a loyalty litmus test) it was decided to attend and not risk the wrath of the Emperor.
1806: In Dessau, author and publisher Moses Philippson and Marianne Levy-Wust gave birth Phoebus Moses Philippson the author and physician who married his cousin Sara Gottshalk in 1832 and then married her sister Pauline in 1849 after his first wife’s death.
1809: David Hyams married Judith Hart at the Great Synagogue.
1815: Birthdate of Dr. Robert Remak, “embryologist, physiologist, and neurologist” who was denied academic tenure and credit for his work because he was Jewish.
1816(1st of Av, 5576): Rosh Chodesh Av observed for the last time during the Presidency of James Madison who wrote a letter to his successor James Monroe today.
1826(21st of Tammuz, 5586): Thirty-one year old Elizabeth Evans, the Hillstown, PA born daughter of Mary and Josiah Lunn and the wife of David Evans passed away today.
1828(15th of Av, 5588): Shabbat Nachamu; Parashat Vaetchanan; Tu B’Av is observed for the last time during the presidency of John Q. Adams.
1832: In Brono, Johanna Jeitteles and Dr. Aloys Isidor Jeittels gave birth to women’s right activist Ottilie Bondy.
1832: “Abraham Isaacs, Esq.” was named today “to be a Magistrate and Assistant Judge” for the “Parish of St. Ann.”
1836: In Prague, Bohemia, Kulif (Leopold) Fischl and Rifka (Rebecca) Gutwelig Fischl who were married in 1820 gave birth to Ferdiand Fishcell, the husband of Lizzie Sicher Fishell whose children included theatrical manager Daniel S. Fishell.
1839(15th of Av, Tu B’Av observed for the first time during the First Aghan War which turned into a disaster for the British who were just one of many European powers to find that Afghanistan was beyond their ability to exercise control. (A lesson Bush and Chaney did not learn either)
1844: Today, during the last weeks of his life, Aron Chorin wrote from his sick-bed a declaration expressing his full accord with the Rabbinical Conference of Brunswick, and on August 11 he sent an address to the conference of Hungarian rabbis at Páks. He died at Arad, Hungary.
1844: Sixty-four year old Carl Streckfuss the Prussian privy council who in 1833 wrote a treatise, “On the Relation of the Jews to the Christian States” in which he expressed reluctance “to recommend a universal emancipation because of the alleged moral and deficiencies of the common type of Jew. (As reported by Jacob Katz)
1846(3rd of Av, 5606): Eighty-three old Esther Mordecai Russell “the first-born daughter of Mordecai Moses Mordecai and Zipporah "de Lyon" Mordecai” who was the wife of “Dr. Philip Moses Russell, a Jewish Surgeon's Mate, who received a special commendation from General George Washington for his services at Valley Forge” passed away today in Philadelphia.
1847: The Republic of Liberia declared its independence. One hundred years later, in November of 1947, Liberia would be one of 33 nations to vote for partition which would lead to the creation of the state of Israel.
1847: Birthdate of “Isaac Minis Hays. a Philadelphia physician and author and editor of books on medicine and Benjamin Franklin who was Librarian of American Philosophical Society from 1897-1922.
https://snaccooperative.org/view/72573446
1850: On Friday Rev. S. M. Isaacs, of New York, officiated at the dedication of the new Synagogue in Buffalo, NY. Those attending donated a sum of six hundred dollars following the ceremony. Rev. Isaacs is the spiritual leader of Gates of Prayer in New York City.
1851: Birthdate of Hungarian born German actor and playwright Gustav Kadelburg best known for his comedies.
1851: In “Somers Town, London,” John and Adelaide Collins gave birth to Kate Collins who would die at the age of four.
1852: Today in San Francisco, “Congregation Sherith Israel acquired a piece of land on the east side of Stockton Street, between Broadway and Vallejo” at which time “a committee was appointed to obtain plans for the erection of a permanent synagogue which was “to be built either of wood or brick, thirty feet wide, fifty feet deep and twenty feet high.” (As reported by Martin A. Meyer, Ph.D._
1856: Birthdate of New York native Albert Arnstein, the graduate of Packards Business College and the holder of an LL.B from St. Lawrence University who settled in St. Louis where he was President of the United Jewish and Charitable Associations.
1856: Birthdate of William Rainey Harper, the Professor of Hebrew at Yale, whose writings included “The Jews of Babylon” and “The Return of the Jews from Exile.” He was the first President of the University of Chicago where Emil Gustav Hirsch was among the first faculty members.
1858(15th of Av, 5618): Tu B’Av
1858: Sir Lionel Nathan Rothschild (the first Lord Rothschild), took his seat in the House of Commons after a long and bitter fight. The Christian oath was amended so that non-Christians could also serve in the House. He became the first Jew to sit in the House of Commons because a new oath of office was agreed upon that did not refer to Christianity.
1861: In Hamburg, Emmeline and Berman Bernays gave birth to Martha Bernays the wife of Sigmund Freud.
1861: At the start of the Civil War Elias Leon Hyneman, the son of Benjamin Hyneman, enlisted as a volunteer in Company C, Fifth Pennsylvania Cavalry. He fought in the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, at Gettysburg in 1863 and in the Wilderness in 1864 before being taken prisoner. He died at the infamous Andersonville Prison.
1862: The following telegram was sent today:
To Brif.-Gen. J.T. Quimby, Columbus, Ky.:
GENERAL: Examine the baggage of all speculators coming South, and, when they have specie, turn them back. If medicine and other contraband articles, arrest them and confiscate the contraband article. Jews should receive special attention.
(Signed) U.S. Grant Major-General
1863(10th of Av, 5623): Tish'a B'Av was observed on the same day that the Union forces routed John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry forces at the Battle of Salineville, OH which put an end to his annoying raids.
1865: Birthdate of Philip Scheidemann, German political leader and first Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. Scheideman was not Jewish but his first government included four Jews which provided ammunition for the anti-Semites and opponents to this post-war attempt at democracy in Germany. He left Germany when the Nazis came to power and died in exile in Denmark.
1865: In Philadelphia, Joseph Lodge No. 14 of the Free Sons of Israel “began operations” today
1869: Birthdate of anarchist Emma Goldman.
1872: Birthdate of Staten Island native and Columbia educated historian George Louis Beer, a member of the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference and winner of the Loubat Prize who was the husband of Edith Hellman, the niece of Columbia trained academic Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman, the son of banker Joseph Seligman.
1874: Birthdate of Dr. Sergei Aleksandrovich Koussevitzky the Russian born conductor best known for his long tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a position he held from 1924 to 1949.
1880: “Deception” directed by David Belasco opened today in San Francisco.
1881: It was reported today that Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem plan on taking an excursion to Staten Island next month.
1881: Birthdate of Clara Ferrin, the native of Tucson, AZ who taught at Stafford Elementary School before marrying merchant David Bloom becoming Clara Ferrin-Bloom a local civic and Jewish communal leader.
1881: Riots took place at Baerwald, Pomerania during which “a quantity of Jewish property was destroyed.”
1882: In San Francisco, Samuel L. Sachs disappeared after having shot his wife today. Sachs, the son of Louis Sachs, a co-owner of Sachs, Heller &Co is Jewish which his wife, whom doctors say will survive her wounds, is the daughter of Thomas Shanon, a prominent Christian who has severed as Collector of the Port.
1882: As the Freight Handler’s strike continued things became so violent that a group of Russian Jews working at the Red Star dock in Jersey City began fighting among themselves.
1883: In New York, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment disbursed over $32,000 to a variety of charities including $1,870.57 to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1883: Birthdate of Lina Bach, who was deported from Wurzbrug, to Nuremberg, to Terezin and finally to Auschwitz she was murdered.
1883: Birthdate of Lina Bach, a residence of Wurzburg who was transported several times before being murdered at Aushwitz.
1885: “The Summer Boarding House” published today provided a 19th century bucolic vision of the Catskills which would become home to the Borscht Belt in the 20th century.
1886: “Life at Saratoga” published today reported that the section of Broadway that separates the Grand Union from Congress Hall is referred to as “the Red Sea” because it separates Jew from Gentile. Ever since Judge Hilton announced his policy of banning all Jews from the Grand Union, New York Jewish Gentry led by the Seligman family, has been staying at the Congress. According to Colonel Texas Ochiltree only two suspected Jews have stayed at the Grand Union – Jacob Hess and Abraham Hummel. The latter is considered to be a Bulgarian so he does not pose a threat.
1886: Several New York rabbis and a representative of the Hebrew Immigration Society met with Immigration Superintendent Jackson at Castle Garden. They asked him not send the Russian Jews currently staying at Ward’s Island back to Europe. They offered to post bonds so that the immigrants would not be treated as paupers. Jackson said he would refer the request to the Committee of Commissioners of Emigration.
1887: L. L. Zamenhof publishes Dr. Esperanto's International Language. The father of Esperanto was a physician, the son of Lithuanian Jews. Before his work with Esperanto, Zamenhof had published a Yiddish grammar book.
1887: Birthdate of Reuben Leon Kahn, the Lithuanian-American immunologist who developed the Kahn Test for syphilis.
1887: Birthdate of Sheffield, England native and “soccer enthusiast” Nathan Agar who came to the United States in 1900 after which he played for the Critchleys, served as the “owner-manager of the Brooklyn Wanders” and played a leading role in bringing the “Hakoah of Vienna soccer” to the United States for a series of exhibition games.
1888: Birthdate of Moselle Elias, the wife of Reuben Ezekiel Ezra Elias and daughter-in-law of E.E. Elias and Sarah Catherine Elias who was buried in the Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery in Hong Kong when she passed away in 1921.
1888(17th of Av, 5648): Thirty five year old Leopold Wiesner the son Estra (Therese) Wiesner and Rabbi Jonas Weiesner passed away today.
1890: The officers of the synagogue on Stone Avenue in Williamsburg that was incorporated today include Alter Birn, President; Jacob Alter, Vice President, Joseph November, Treasurer; Wolf Jakobowits, Secretary; Loeb Waldmann, Isaiah Zwinckel and Louis Zwickel, Trustees.
1890; “Amusements” in The Los Angeles Herald previewed the upcoming performance of the “Shatchen” a drama by Charles S. Dickson featuring Frank Mordaunt.
1890(9th of Av, 5650) Shabbat Chazon: Erev Tish'a B'Av
1890: Even though the Cloakmakers strike was settled, “very little work was in any of the factories” today because most the workers were Jews who do not work on Saturday.
1890: The headquarters of the Cloakmakers’ Union on Ludlow, Suffolk and Orchard street were decorated with American and Red flags while the workers praised Joseph Barondees “who had so completely vanquished the manufacturers.
1891: “Phases of City Life” published today described the relation between the new chef at the Democratic Club and famed thespian Sarah Bernhardt. Emanuel Bernard is her cousin and she adopted one of his girls, part of a family 15 children, after he wife died two years ago.
1891: While in London, Colonel John Weber, the former Congressman who is now the Commissioner of Immigration at Ellis Island said that “reports” of “the reshipment of destitute Russian Jews from England” “are unfounded. (There was a belief in the United States that western European countries and Great Britain were buying tickets for eastern European immigrants to travel to America.)
1891: Officials at the Hamburg-American Packet Company issued “indignant denials” to charges that the company is providing Russian-Jewish passengers tickets “at reduced rates.” The “exiles’ committee pays full price for each passenger” but the company allows them to deduct the commission associated with these bookings.
1891: France annexes Tahiti. The first Jew probably arrived in 1769 with Capt. James Cook. According to Virtual Jewish History, Alexander Salmon, a Jew, moved to Tahiti, and later entered the Tahitian royal family when he married Arrioehau, a Polynesian princess. Today there are approximately 200 Jews living in Tahiti.
http://www.jewishjournal.com/travel/article/tahitian_jews_make_do_on_their_island_paradise_20080104/
1892(2nd of Av, 5652): Forty two year old Yonah Halevi Ettinger who was born at Brody in 1850 passed away today.
1893: “No Mercy For Sick Children” published today described events surrounding the eviction of a widow, Mrs. Sarah Goldstein and her eight children which resulted which has led to a suit against her landlords Theodor Fischer and Marshal George Haztzel in which she is being represented by Maurice B. Blumenthal.
1894: Two days after she had passed away, “Esther bat Arvahom, the wife of Moshe bar Zvi” was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1895: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil officiated at the funeral of Abram C. Bernheim a partner in the firm of Shekan & Bernheim which was held this morning at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue.
1895: In Russia, today is the deadline for all Jews “who had resided in Moscow for a long time” to comply with the government’s order to lead the city. All other Jews living in Moscow have already been driven out under a government program that began last summer.
1895: The will of Bertha May was filed for probate in the office of the Surrogate today.
1896: The condition of Henry Clay Frick, the steel magnate who was shot by Jewish anarchist during the Homestead Steel Strike was said to be improving and that he would soon be out of danger.
1896: “Webb Charged With Abduction” published today described the case of Dora Henry and George Webb, the 16 year old Jewish girl and 20 year old Lutheran man who were secretly married but never lived together after the ceremony.
1896: According to Meyer Schoenfield, the contractors will join the tailors, most of whom are Jewish, today in their strike against the manufactures
1896: The clothing salesmen will join the tailors in their strike today if the owners refuse their demand for a ten hour work and a guarantee that they will not be laid off during “slack season.”
1898: In Atlantic City, NJ, Minnie and Ellis A. Gimbel, the chairman of the board of Gimbel Brothers gave birth to Colonel Richard Louis Gimbel the veteran of WW I who served with 8th Air Force during WW II and “in 1951, was appointed Professor of Air Science and Tactics at Yale and raised seven children with his wife Julia de Fernex Millhiser.
1899: Dr. J.H. Hertz addressed a meeting of “Uitlander” on the issue of excluding Russian and Romanian born Jews from the right to vote in South Africa. Hertz would later be expelled from the country for this and other similar addresses on this subject.
1897: Rabbi Kaufman Kohler was the principal speaker at today’s session of the National Jewish Chautauqua Assembly in Atlantic, NJ.
1897: A group of Jews who had gone to Woodside to visit the new Mount Sinai Cemetery and were robbed and beaten by a group of thugs, are in the jail in the town hall after having been charged with using the grounds as a picnic grounds which is against the law. In the meantime, their attackers have not been captured.
1898: During the Spanish American War the 6th Massachusetts Regiment whose members included Phillip Tworoger of Boston, in Company A; Johan Hamberg of Adams in Company B; Alfred J. Hermans of Boston in Company H and Jacob Ostreicher and Benjamin Baker both from Lowell and both in company C took part in the battle at Guanica which helped to secure Puerto Rico for the United States.
1899(19th of Av, 5659):Sixty-three year old Emil Breslaur a graduate of the Julius Stern Conservatory who composed music as well as taught music theory passed away today in Berlin.
1900(29th of Tammuz): On the Jewish calendar observance of the Yahrzeit of Rabbi Abraham b. David Portaleone of Mantua.
1901(10th of Av, 5661): Mme. Hortense Levi, “a sister of the late Baroness de Hirsch” passed away today in Belgium.
1902(21st of Tammuz, 5662): Parashat Pinchas
1902: “Rembrandt Close at Hand” published today provided a review of Jan of the Windmill in which the reviewer pointed that “the old commentators denounced Rembrandt as a barbarian and inveighed at this violations of chronology when he painted or etched the Jews of the Old and New Testament in any old garb that remotely suggested the Orient.”
1903: In Buffalo, NY, “the corner-stone of the synagogue Lovers of Peace was laid” today.
1903: “A meeting of the executive committee of the National Jewish Charities was called to order” today “in Atlantic, NJ.”
1904: It was reported today that the New York Festival Chorus and the Ocean Grove Festival Chorus are scheduled to sing “Elijah” by Felix Mendelsohn tomorrow at Ocean Grove, NJ.
1905: The Governor of Odessa “issued an extraordinary proclamation…which many have the effect of increasing the bitter feeling against the Jews among troops and the more ignorant classes of” the people of Odessa.”
1906: It was reported today that “about seventy Jews have been arrested on suspicion of belong to a self-defense organization” in Odessa where mobs had killed two Jews, wounded seventeen and wrecked twenty-seven shops.
1907(15th of Av, 5667): Tu B’Av
1908: In the Catskills, those staying at the Catskill Mountain House included Florence Adler and Nathan Sobel
1909(8th of Av, 5669): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1910: “Still Expelling the Jews” published today reported that from July 16 to July 25, 941 Jews were expelled from Kieff and the suburbs of Solomenka and Demieffka.
1911(1st of Av, 5671): Rosh Chodesh Av
1911: In London, services were held at the Great Synagogue honoring the memory of Rabbi Hermann Adler, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire who had passed away on July 18.
1911: The First Universal Races Congress, an anti-racist organization which discussed the “Jewish Question” opened today in London.
1913(21st of Tammuz, 5673): Parashat Matot
1913: Saturday morning services are scheduled to be held at Temple B’nai Jehosua where Rabbi Weil delivers the sermons in German.
1914: In what would prove to one of the final acts of folly on the road to World War, Germany and Russia rejected Great Britain’s offer to mediate a solution to the crisis that had started with the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne.
1914: Birthdate of Isaac Cohen the native of Wales and son of immigrants from Lithuania who began his rabbinic career “at Harrow and Kenton Synagogue in Middlesex in 1935,” earned a “PhD from Edinburgh University for research into Talmudic thought” and was he Chief Rabbi of Ireland for twenty years.
1914: German economist Moritz Julius Bonn and his wife set sail on board the passenger ship George Washington for the United States where he was scheduled to serve as a guest professor at three different universities.
1915: Following Governor Harris’ visit to the Georgia Prison Farm where he had gone to investigate the attack on Leo Frank, he expressed how appalled he was at conditions at the facility “tears rolled down his cheeks as he talked about them.”
1915: After converting to Judaism, Beatrice Venetia Stanley Montagu officially put an end to Prime Minister Asquith’s quest for her hand, by marrying Edwin Samuel Montagu.
1916: It was reported today that four as yet to named member of the commission chaired by Dr. Judah L. Magnes will be joining him in Europe to help with the investigation of how American funds intended to aid Jews in the war zones of Russia, Germany and Austria.
1916: As the three day pogrom at Lokachi in the Province of Volinski came to an end the Cossacks rode out to the place in the woods where the Jews had taken refuge, lined them up “and robbed them of all their money and valuables.
1917: A cable from Petrograd received by the New York Warheit said “that anti-Semitic propaganda is being actively carried on in Russia by both the Bolsheviks…and the reactionary groups” working for a counter-revolution which will restore the Czarist regime. (Editor’s note another example of both sides having one thing in common – hating Jews.)
1918: It was reported today that the War Department has appointed seven Jewish chaplains – Rabbis Elkan C. Voorsagner, Louis I. Egelson, Jacob Krohngold, David Tannenbaum, Harry S. Davidowitz, I.J. Sarasohn, and Lee J. Levinger – and the Navy Department has appointed Rabbi David Goldberg as a chaplain which has enabled him to minister “to the religious needs of the men of the Jewish faith on board United States battleships.”
1918: It was reported today that “the Jewish colony of Merchavya in Northern Palestine had been attacked by a band of robbers, one of whom was captured and handed over to the Turkish district commandant who released him the next day.
1919: Famed painter and President of the Royal Academy Sir Edward John Poynter passed away. Poynter was noted for his large canvases many of which drew on Biblical themes – “Visit of the Queen of Sheba,” “King Solomon” and “Israel in Egypt.” The latter was his first great artistic and commercial success.
1919(28th of Tammuz, 5679): Parashat Matot-Masei
1919(28th of Tammuz, 5679): Fifty-eight year old Oscar Bower Teller, the son of David and Rebecca Allen Hackenburge Teller and the brother of Solomon Teller and Alice Hannah Teller Fleischer passed away today after which he was buried at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.
1920: “The first international conference of Boy Scout executives” which Mortimer Schiff is attending as the chairman of the American delegation of the National Council of Boy Scout of America, is scheduled to continue today in London.
1920: In Paris, Béatrice de Camondo and composer Léon Reinach gave birth to their daughter Fanny who passed away in 1944.
1922: On New York’s Lower East Side, William and Bella Berger gave birth to “character actress” Anna Berger.
1925: Robert Benoist, “the son of Baron Henri de Rothschid’s gamekeeper and member of the French Resistance murdered by the Nazis at Buchenwald, won the French Grand Prix today.
1926: Featherweight Harry Blitman fought his first professional bout at Bacharach Ball Park in Atlantic City, NJ
1926: In Amsterdam, diamond cutter Emanuel Emden and seamstress Rosa Emden-Devries gave birth to Bloeme Emden a childhood friend of the Frank girls who survived the Holocaust and gained famed as Bloeme Evers-Emden a teacher and psychologist who has written four books on the “hidden children” of WW II.
1927: Just outside of Florence, Italy, Corrado and Olga (Liberati) Mazzetti gave birth to Lorenza Mazzetti “who as a child in Italy survived the wartime killings of her caretaker family by German soldiers and went on to help create an influential British film movement and write a prizewinning novel based on her experiences…” (As reported by Shelly Boettcher)
1928(9th of Av, 5688): Tish’a B’Av
1928: Birthdate of Sarah A. Oppenheim-Barnes the Dublin born daughter of a diamond cutter who followed in father’s footsteps before become a leader “British Conservative politician” who served as an MP alongside her son Phillip Oppenheim.
1928: At “the Lying-In Hospital at 307 Second Avenue in Manhattan, New York City,”
Sadie Gertrude Kubrick (née Perveler) and Dr. Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a graduate of “the New York Homeopathic Medical College gave birth award winning “director, screenwriter and producer” Stanley Kubrick and the husband of Toba Metz, three of whose favorite films of mine are “Paths of Glory,” “Spartacus” and “Dr. Strangelove.”
Sadie Gertrude Kubrick (née Perveler) and Dr. Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a graduate of “the New York Homeopathic Medical College gave birth award winning “director, screenwriter and producer” Stanley Kubrick and the husband of Toba Metz, three of whose favorite films of mine are “Paths of Glory,” “Spartacus” and “Dr. Strangelove.”
1928: Birthdate of Sarah A. Viner the native of Dublin and daughter of a diamond cutter who rose to become an MP, government minister and life peer known as Sally Oppenheim-Barnes, Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes and who served in Parliament with her son Phillip Oppenheim.
1929: “The Last of Mrs. Cheney” a film adaption of the Broadway play by the same name produced by Irving Thalberg and starring Norma Shearer was released in the United States today.
1929: Birthdate of Netiva Ben Yehuda “an Israeli author, editor, and former soldier of the Palmach” whose “writings, including a dictionary of Hebrew slang (written with Dan Ben Amotz) and several books on pre-state Israeli music, made her one of the aforementioned fighting force's most famous members.”
1929: Birthdate of Bulgarian born pianist Alexis Weissenberg. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1930: In Elgin, Illinois, “Sam Goldman and the former Bella Silvian, who ran an army surplus store” gave birth to economist Marshall Irwin Goldman, the Harvard Ph.D. who “was among the first Kremlinologists to predict the downfall Miakhail S. Gorbachev.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1931: “The Opera Ball” a musical comedy featuring Otto Wallburg was released today in Germany.
1933: The German government adopted a statute leading to the “de-naturalization of Jews” living in the Reich.
1933: “On the Streets,” “a crime drama directed by Victor Trivas, and starring Vladimir Sokooloff was released in the United States.
1933: Twenty-two year old Abe Eliowitz, the All-American co-captain of the Michigan State Football Team married Gertrude Lipman today in the same year as his first season with Ottawa Rough Riders of the CFL?
1934: Today at Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson officiated at the funeral services for Max James Kohler, the Columbia Law School graduate and assistant U.S. District Attorney who was a leader of the American Jewish community and an advocate for immigrant rights, regardless of their nation of origin who was the Detroit born son of Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and the former Johanna Einhorn.
1934: In Jersey City, NJ, Michael and Esther Novick gave birth to Dr. Peter Novick, the University of Chicago history professor who challenged the seemingly overbearing centrality of the Holocaust among American Jewry.
1934: The Palestine Post reports that on July 14, 1934 a Jewish delegation from Adrianople spoke with the Turkish government, to ensure they do not remove all the police from the Adrianople towns in order to prevent the looting of abandoned homes.
1935: “The Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick announced today that a law forbidding marriages between Jews and non-Jews would shortly be promulgated, and recommended that registrars should avoid issuing licenses for such marriages for the time being.”
1936: It was reported today that Rabbi Max J. Wohlgelernter, executive director of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations has assumed the chairmanship of the American Committee Appeal for the Relief of Jews in Poland” which “is a non-sectarian organization…conducting a drive for $1,000,000.”
1936: It was reported today that no women were included in commission headed by Earl Peel that was selected by the British government “to inquire into unrest in Palestine” “because the government feared that Arabs and Orthodox Jews would object to negotiating with them.”
1936: According to the annual report of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee made public today by Joseph C. Hyman, “the Joint” “expended $300,000 in 1935 for the rehabilitation of the Jews in Germany.”
1936; The Palestine Post reported that a serious catastrophe, which might have involved a serious loss of life, was avoided only by chance when rails were loosened only a few minutes before a passenger train from Haifa was due to reach Lydda. A goods train, however, was derailed near Ras el-Ain. The Jerusalem water-pipeline pumping station was also sabotaged there.
1937: It was reported today that copies of a resolution condemning the “un-American” principles being taught at Nordland, the German-American Camp adopted by the New Jersey War veterans of the 29th Division were sent to President Roosevelt and the members of the New Jersey Congressional delegation. (Editor’s note – the German-American Bund and other such organizations added to the complications of American political leaders who wanted to do something about Hitler and/or help Jewish refugees.)
1938: As Arab violence continued to grow, a group of 80 American tourists who had arrived in Jerusalem yesterday are scheduled to leave for Jaffa today where their ship is waiting for them. The group arrived from Egypt at the same time that an explosion rocked Haifa. Ensuring concerns about their safety forced cancelation of part of their tour.
1939: Adolf Eichmann “established a Central Office for Jewish Emigration the purpose of which is to expel Jews from the Czech region now controlled by the Nazis. Eichmann was in charge of the previous office of Jewish emigration that had been established in Vienna in 1938.”
1939: Birthdate of Oscar Baylin Goodman, the native of Las Vegas who became a leading defense lawyer and the 21st Mayor of Las Vegas.
1940: Today with the approval of L. P. J. De Decker, the Dutch Ambassador in Riga. Jan Zwartendijk, the director of the Phillips factory in Lithuania and acting council of the Dutch government in exile, began to issue visas to Curacao that would save the lives of a couple of thousand Jews and earned him recognition by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations..
1940: Birthdate of Michael “Mike” Slive the Uitca, NY, born law school graduate who became Commissioner of the SEC (Southeastern Conference, not the Securities and Exchange Commission) who is also a member of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama.
1941(2nd of Av, 5701): Parsashat Matot-Maesei
1941(2nd of Av, 5701): Odessa. Russia born landscape painter Leonid Gechtoff, who came to the United States in 1922 and made his home in Philadelphia along with his wife who “ran a gallery in San Francisco from 1956 to 1958 passed away today.
1941: The Germans occupied Boguslav, a city in Kiev, today. By the end of the year they will have murdered most of the Jews in the town, living alive only some artisans whom they would execute in July of 1943.
1941: Max Dormoy, a friend and colleague of Leon Blum was assassinated today.
1941: In the second of a pogrom and roundup of Jews in Lvov, three of Rabbi Ben Zion Halberstam's sons-in-law Rabbi Yecheskel Halberstam (son of Rabbi Yeshayale Tchechoiver), Rabbi Moshe Stempel and Rabbi Shlome Rubin were taken prisoner.
1942: Sixty-one year old Titus Brandsma, the Dutch Carmelite friar who spoke out against the Nazis died today at Dachau where he had been sent after spending time in various Dutch prisons.
1942: Isaac Asimov married Toronto native Gertrude Blugerman with whom he had two children – David and Robyn Joan – before divorcing her in 1973.
1943: In New York City, Ruth Hurok and theatrical producer and publicist Barry Hyams gave birth to Peter Hayms, the grandson of “impresario” Sol Hurok, stepson of blacklisted conductor Arthur Lief, borther of casting director Nessa Hyams whose career has included directing a trio of sci-fi flics: “Outland,” “Capricorn One” and “2010.”
1943: Giorgio Bassani, the Bologna-born Jewish writer and editor who had been arrested for his anti-Fascist activities was released from jail today “the day after Mussolini was ousted from power.”
1943: American born expatriate poet Ezra Pound was indicted for treason today for his pro-Fascist, anti-American (and anti-Semitic) radio broadcasts that he made after Italy declared war on the United States.
1944: The Soviet army enters Lvov, a major city of western Ukraine, liberating it from the Nazis. Only 300 Jewish survivors left, out of 160.000 Jews in Lvov prior to Nazi occupation.
1944: The first German V-2 hits Great Britain. The V-2 was vast “improvement” over the V-1. Unlike the V-1 which was essentially a flying bomb, the V-2 was a true Guided Missile, posing a much greater threat to the British and the Allied forces already in Europe. Anglo-American military leaders were forced to alter their strategy to deal with this immediate threat. This diverted forces from driving into the German heartland which prolonged the war and the agony of the Holocaust.
1944: “Step Lively” a movie version of “Room Service,” play co-authored by Allen Broetz who also wrote the script for the film was released today in the United States.
1944: Henri Paul Gaston Maspero, the French sinologist and son of Egyptologist Gaston Maspero and his wife were arrested in Paris after which he was sent to Buchenwald where died at the age of 61 after he could no longer endure the Nazis’ brutal treatment.
1945(16th of Av, 5707): Sixty-three year old Polish native Max Cline, who in 1885 came to the United States where graduated from MIT and became “the chief chemist of the International Paper Company’s research division passed away today.
1945: The Labour Party wins the United Kingdom General Election, removing Winston Churchill from power. Labor’s Prime Minister Atlee betrayed the hopes of Jewish leaders by continuing to enforce the White Paper. The new Foreign Minister would demonstrate a streak of anti-Semitism when he declared that the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were “pushing their way to the head of the cue” demonstrating the pushiness which is a Jewish trait.
1946: The Czech government, through the influence of its foreign Minister Jan Masaryk, opened its borders to Jews wishing to flee Poland. Within 3 months over 70,000 Jews using transportation paid by the Czechs would use this route on the way to Eretz-Israel.
1946: Warner Bros. distributed “Two Guys from Milwaukee,” a comedy co-authored by I.A. L. Diamond with music by Friedrich Hollaender.
1947(9th of Av, 5707): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1947: As Jews observe Shabbat President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, that reorganized the military and intellegince branches of the government so that the United States could better responds to a whole range of crises including the threat of Russian imperialism and the chaos in the Palestine Mandate.
1948: The Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM) of the Ministry of Education which “took over the functions of the Department of Antiquities of the British Mandate in Israel” was founded today with archaeologist Shmuel Yeivin serving as director.
1948: Operation Shoter came to a successful conclusion as the three villages south of Haifa in an area called the “Little Triangle” surrendered to Israeli forces.
1949: In Kansas City, KS, premiere of “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon” with a closing narration by Irving Pichel which helps to make this one of the finest movies of its type ever made. (Excuse the editorializing but it is a personal favorite.)
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, called in Cairo on heads of all Arab states to check the "brutal campaign of terror," carried out by the Jordanian authorities against Palestine Arabs, accused of carrying out the assassination of King Abdullah of Jordan. The new Jordanian Cabinet included only four Palestinians, out of 11.
1951: David Ben-Gurion visited Jerusalem as part of his successful campaign for re-election as Prime Minister. Included in the trip were visits with evacuees from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
1951: Six years after the end of WW II, Canada, Italy, New Zealand and the Netherlands formally ended their state of war with Germany today.
1952: King Farouk I of Egypt abdicated in the wake of a coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Nasser was the power behind the throne and did not immediately take power.
1952: In Chicago, the Democratic National Convention which had nominated Adlai Stevenson, who would later receive the highest award possible from the ADL, as its candidate for President.
1953: Armistice signed today ended the Korean War. Over 150,000 Jewish men and women served in the military during the Korean Conflict. Israel supported the American war effort in Korea and “sent $100,000 in foodstuffs to South Korea.”
1955: There was an 82.8% voter turnout as Israelis went to the polls to choose the members of the 3rd Knesset.
1956(18thof Av, 5716): New York furrier Motty Eitingon, the son of Itzhak Leib Eitingon and Rebecca Nemirof Eitingon, the usband of Bess Eitingon and Fannie Eitingon and the father of Tom Eitingon; Eva Chalaire and Lee Frizell passed a way today.
1956: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal. This action would lead to the Suez Crisis in the fall of 1956 that would include a lightning strike by Israeli troops across the Sinai that would take all of one hundred hours.
1956: Haim Laskov replaced Yitzhak Pundak, as the commander of the IDF armored forces.
1958(9th 5718): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1958: “The stature of Western powers soared in Israel when United States and British troops landed in Lebanon and Jordan but sagged after it became clear that the landings would not be followed up by an assault on pan-Arab imperialism.”
1960(2nd of Av, 5720): Rogers Adolphe Pinner “senior partner of the Mutual Electric Company” passed away. He was the son of Moritz and Melissa Pinner; the husband of Effie Woodruff; and the father of Karl Pinner.
1961(13th of Av, 5721): Sixty-five year old Polish born poet Ayzik Platner who lived and worked in the United States “from 1927 until 1932” which moved to the Soviet Union passed away today after which he was buried in Minsk.
1961: “A Cold Wind in August” with music by Gerald Fried and featuring Herschel Bernardi was released in the United States today.
1962: Funeral services were scheduled to be held this morning at “The Riverside” for Hannah Marx, “the widow of the late Dr. Alexander Marx, Director of Libraries and Jacob H. Schiff, the Professor of History” at the Jewish Theological Seminary.”
1963: Pitcher Alan Koch made his major league debut with the Detroit Tigers.
1965: Birthdate of Jeremy Piven the New York born actor who was raised in Evanston, Illinois and is best known for his role as Ari in the television series “Entourage.”
1966: Simon and Garfunkel recorded “Scarborough Fair/Canticle”, the first cut on side one of the album “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.”
1967: Funeral services are scheduled to be held at “The Riverside” for Blanche R. Morris, the “daughter of the late Harry and Rose Morris.
1967: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning a “The Riverside for Rae Nadel, the wife of Harry A. Nadel and the mother Richard and Eugene Nadel who was an active member of the Jewish Center of Mount Vernon and an officer in the congregation’s Sisterhood.
1969: Operation Boxer continued with more strikes by the IAF.
1969(11th of Av, 5729: Composer Frank Loesser passed away at the age of 59. His Broadway hits include Guys and Dolls, The Most Happy Fella, and How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.
1971: Twenty-nine year old Safi, Morocco native Nessim (Max) Cohen who made Aliyah in 1962 and whose record is “20 victories, seven defeats, eight draws and eight knockouts is scheduled to face Emile Griffith, a five time middle-weight world champion Emile Griffin tonight in Madison Square Garden.
1971(4th of Av, 5731): Forty-eight year old Diane Arbus the photographer who used the camera to create a unique form of black and white art, passed away today.
1973(26th of Tammuz, 5733): Sixty nine year old hydraulic engineer Hans Albert Einstein “the second child and first son of Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić” passed away today.
1973(26th of Tammuz, 5773): Sixty-one year old Louis A Pincus (Aryeh Louis Pincus), the former “chairman of South Africa’s Zionist Socialist Party who made Aliyah in 1948 after which he practiced law and served as “the first managing director of El-Al” passed away today.
1976: In “6 Film Studios Vie Over Entebbe Raid,” published todayRobert McFadden describes the intense interest to be first to make hey at the box office by telling the story of the Israeli rescue mission that took place less than three weeks ago.
1976: In “Book About Raid Says 50 Israeli Agents Paved Way in Kenya,” Robert Tomasson reviewed 90 Minutes at Entebbe in author William Stevenson reveals the key role that intelligence gathering played in the successful rescues of the Jewish hostages. The book takes on an added authoritative tone since Stevenson is the author of A Man Called Intrepid.
1979(1st of Av, 5739): Rosh Chodesh Av
1979(1st of Av, 5739): Seventy four year old Sir Charles Clore, the descendant of Lithuanian Jews who was a successful businessman, art collector and philanthropist passed away today.
1970: “Unidentified Flying Oddball” a film adaptation of a work by Mark Twain co-starring Ron Moody was released in the United States today.
1981: New York Mayor Ed Koch is given Heimlich maneuver in a Chinese restaurant.
1982: Yuval Ne’eman began serving as the first Minister of Science and Development
1984: The second congress of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to an end.
1985: “European Vacation” a National Lampoon inspired comedy directed by Amy Heckerling and featuring Maureen Lipman was released in the United States by Warner Bros.
1985: Two months after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, “Kiss of the Spider Woman” directed by Héctor Babenco was released today in the United States and Brazil.
1987: ''East End Synagogues: From the Shtiebel to Duke's Place,'' an exhibit at the Heritage Center in London is scheduled to come a close.
1987: The third congress of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) opened at Schloss Glienicke under the presidency of Professor Arnold Goldberg.
1992: After 205 performances the curtain came down on “The Substance of Fire” a Holocaust related play by Jon Robin Baitz today at the Lincoln Center Newhouse Theatre.
1993(8th of Av, 5753): Eight-four year old author and Academy Award winning screen writer Daniel Fuchs passed away today.
1993(8th of Av, 5753) Ninety-two year old Dr. Simon Greenberg the long-time member of the Jewish Theological Seminary Faculty and leading Conservative Rabbi passed away today in Jerusalem where he had been living for the last year. (As reported by Marvin Howe)
1996(10th of Av, 5756): Uri Munk, 53, and his daughter-in-law, Rachel Munk, 24, of Moshav Mevo Betar, were killed in a drive-by shooting attack near Beit Shemesh. 30-year-old Ze'ev Munk, Rachel's husband, was critically wounded and died in the hospital the following week.
1997: “Early Rabbinic Judaism,” a colloquium sponsored by the The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to an end.
1998: A year after his first wife had passed way, 65 year old investment consultant Bertram Frankenberg who as a Lt. Colonel was commander of the internment camp at Stringtown, OK during WW II, married Harriet Feldman Newman.
1998: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The International Encyclopedia of Dance, edited by dance historian Selma Jeanne Cohen and the recently released paperback edition of The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick
2000: A federal judge in New York approved a $1.25 billion settlement between Swiss banks and more than a half million plaintiffs who alleged the banks had hoarded money deposited by Holocaust victims.
2000: Following the failure of the peace negotiations sponsored by President Clinton with Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Yassar Arafat returned to Gaza having rejected a compromise peace agreement because doing so would be, in his words, signing his own death warrant.
2001: Seventeen year old Ronen Landau was shot by terrorists today in Jersualem.
2002(17th of Av, 5762): Four people including a rabbi were killed and two children were wounded by terrorist gunfire south of Hebron.
2003(26th of Tammuz, 5763): Parashat Matot-Masei
2003: “President Bush received the new Palestinian prime minister at the White House today for the first time, and he used the occasion to signal to both Palestinians and Israelis that he would push them toward tough decisions for peace.”
2004(8th of Av, 5674): Erev Tish’a B’Av
2004: Premiere of “The Village” a horror film produced by Scott Rudin, with Adrien Brody and Jesse Eisenberg
2005: “Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel arrived in today France for a three-day visit described by both countries as an opportunity to turn the page after years of diplomatic tension.” (As reported by Katrin Bennhold)
2006: Hezbollah fired an additional 130 rockets into northern Israel wounding at least five Israelis.
2006(1st of Av, 5766): Rosh Chodesh Av
2006(1st of Av, 5766): In an act of unbelievable self-less courage, Major Roi Klie threw himself on a live grenade, sacrificing his life so that his comrades would live. The action took place on the second day of the Battle of Bint Jbeil.
2006(1st of Av, 5766): The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hezbollah war: Maj. Ro'i Klein, 31, of Eli; Lt. Amihai Merhavia, 24, of Eli; Cpl. Ohad Klausner, 20, of Beit Horon; Lt. Alex Schwarzman, 23, of Acre; St.-Sgt. Shimon Dahan, 20, of Ashdod; Cpl. Asaf Namer, 27, of Kiryat Yam; St.-Sgt. Idan Cohen, 21, of Jaffa; Sgt. Shimon Adega, 20, of Kiryat Gat; Lt. Yiftach Shrier, 21, of Haifa.
2007: The Vilna Shul / Boston Center for Jewish Heritage presents a screening of “Shalom Y’All,” a documentary that examines life of Jews living the South.
2007: Aluf David Ben Ba’ashat ended his service as commander of the Israeli Navy.
2007(11th of Av, 5767): Ninety-four year old Senetta Yoseftal the wife of Giora Yoseftal, founder of Kibbutz Galed who served as an MK passed away today.
2008: In Jerusalem, Beit Avi Chai's Saturday night concert series continues with a performance by Rona Keinan, daughter of the famous Israeli author Amos Keinan and singer of “Through Foreign Eyes” – her 2006 hit single - fame. Keinan, who began singing at a young age and quickly rose to prominence through her collaboration with noted Israeli artists including Dana Berger and Eran Zur, is also an icon of Israel's gay and lesbian community.
2009: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel by Allis Radosh and Ronald Radosh and Is real is for Real: An Obsessive Quest to Understand the Jewish Nation and Its History by Rich Cohen
2009: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Essays of Leonard Michaels. “Leonard Michaels writes in perfectly shaped sentences. This would be cause for admiration and celebration in any writer, but surely it is far more so for one who did not begin to speak English until he was 5 years old. His parents immigrated from Poland to Manhattan's Lower East Side only steps ahead of the Holocaust – ‘When the Nazis seized Brest Litovsk, my grandfather, grandmother, and their youngest daughter, my mother's sister, were buried in a pit with others’ -- and in their tiny apartment the language spoken was Yiddish. That, and Jewishness, permeate his writing, as no one knew more keenly than he did;”
2009: The Cedar Rapids Gazette published “Morocco challenges Mideast mind-set on Holocaust” which described the North African Kingdom’s attempt to deal with the Shoah.
2010(15th of Av, 5770): Tu B’Av
2010: Rabbi Zerach Greenfield, an expert scribe, is scheduled to be at Tifereth Israel in Columbus to check your Tefillin and discuss repairs and for questions about any other ritual objects that people need reviewed.
2010: A screening of Hungry Hearts is scheduled to take place at the Castro Theatre during the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010: The parents of missing Druze soldier Majli Halabi demanded today that authorities investigate convicted murderer Yichya Farhan regarding the case of their son, according to Israel Defense Forces Radio.
2010: After three years of renovation, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem reopened to the public firmly reestablishing itself as Israel’s national museum and the most important repository of Jewish culture in the world.
2010: The head rabbi of a prominent yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar was arrested today for writing a book that allegedly encourages the killing of non-Jews. Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira is the alleged author of the book "The King's Torah," which deems as legal, according to "Jewish law," the killing of non-Jews.
2010: The Israel Air Force demolished a weapons plant in northern Gaza
2010(15th of Av, 5770): Six members of the IDF - Lt. Col (Res.) Avner Goldman, 48, from Modi'in; Lt. Col. Daniel Shipenbauer, 43, from Moshav Kidron; Maj. Yahel Keshet, 33, from Hatzerim; Maj. Lior Shai, 28, from Tel-Nof; Lt. Nir Lakrif, 25, from Tel- Nof; and Staff Sergeant Oren Cohen, 24, from Rehovot – were killed when their helicopter crashed in Roumania.
2011: The International Master Course for Violinists is scheduled to begin at Kibbutz Eilon “amid the scenic mountains of the western Galilee.”
2011: Following his appointment as “chief of the Washington Bureau of the New York Times” four days ago, David Leonhardt wrote “his final Economic Scene column, ‘Lessons from the Malaise,’” today.
2011: Avi Issacharoff, the Palestinian and Arab Affairs Correspondent, Haaretz, is scheduled to deliver an address entitled “Shifting Sands: The Mainstreaming of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood” in Waukee, IA.
2011: The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip hanged a father and son at dawn today for collaborating with Israel, a government spokesman said.
2011: Protesters in Tel Aviv's impromptu "tent city" housing protest dismissed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's latest plan today, saying that he was trying to create divisions within the protesters, by offering discounts only to students.
2011: An Israeli orchestra broke a taboo today as it played the music of Adolf Hitler's favorite composer, Richard Wagner, in Germany. Some 700 spectators in Wagner's hometown of Bayreuth loudly applauded the Israel Chamber Orchestra as its 34 musicians concluded their concert with the Siegfried Idyll, becoming the first Israeli ensemble to perform a Wagner piece in Germany.
2011: The Anti-Defamation League is organizing a free "community briefing" tonight on First Amendment religious freedoms which will explain why it is concerned about Texas Governor Rick Perry's Christian-only day of prayer in Houston next month
2011: “Olive and the Bitter Herbs” is scheduled to have its first preview performance at 59E59 Theaters
2012: University of Pennsylvania Law School Professor Harry Reicher is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “The Future of International Justice” at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center
2012: “Harbor of Hope” is scheduled to have its West Coast Premiere at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival while “Sharqiya” is slated to have its California Premiere at the same venue.
2012: The 12th Annual Summer Institute for Synagogue Musicians, Mifgash Musicale is scheduled to come to an end today at the HUC-JIR campus in Cincinnati, OH.
2012: Jibril Rajoub, the former head of the Preventive Security Force and current president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, expressed his approval the IOC’s decision not observe a moment of silence at the opening of the Olympics in memory of those athletes murdered at the Munich Olympics. Apparently the killers do not want to be reminded of their crime.
2012(7th of Av, 5772): Ninety-four year old Miriam Porat, the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Israel passed away today. (As reported by Tomer Zarchin)
2013: “Jew New York” an exhibition at Zach Feuer Gallery and Untitled Gallery is scheduled to come to an end today.(As reported by Nathan Burstein)
2013: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host the final session of the “Yiddish Film Festival.”
2013: Mercedes Bend, Boom Pam, Vaadat Charigim are among the bands scheduled to perform in Jerusalem at the Indie City Music Festival.
2013: San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s announcement today that he will undergo two weeks of intensive therapy amid sexual harassment allegations me with a negative reaction from members of the city council (As reported by Tony Perry)
2013: “Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Friday that he “won’t be pushed” into a quick deal on a new labor contract for workers at the Department of Water and Power. (As reported by Michael Finnegan and Kate Linthicum)
2013: In Paris, prosecutors said that Dominique Strauss-Kahn is to stand trial on charges of pimpin (As reported by Kim Willsher)
2013: 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean Conflict
2013: In what might be called a tale of Three Jewish Musketeers “In Tug of of War Over New Fed Leader” published today described the competition between Janet Yellin and Lawrence Summers, both of whom are Jewish, to replace Ben S. Bernanke who is also Jewish as Federal Reserve Chairman is described.
2013: “Israel has agreed to release 24 Israeli Arab prisoners serving life sentences who were incarcerated before the 1993 Oslo Accords, having already agreed to free 82 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, Israel Radio reported today. The releases would be carried out in phases, the radio report said, in parallel with progress at Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which are set to resume next week. (As reported by Michal Shmulovich and Elhanan Miller)
2013: Art Ginsberg the founder of Art’s Deli in Los Angeles who kibitzed with his customers “amid the knishes and the kreplach” was buried today at Sholom Memorial Park in Sylmar. (As reported by Steve Chawkins)
2014: “Vertigo,” a leading Israeli dance company is scheduled to perform on the open night of the American Dance Festival in New York.
2014(28th of Tammuz, 5774): Parashat Masei
2014(28th of Tammuz, 5774): Eighty-four year old University of Indiana graduate Arthur J. Klein, the metals broker who owned Arthur J. Klein and Associates, was a member of Shaarey Tefilla and the husband of Ruth Edelman Klein with whom he had two sons – Marc and Matthew -- passed
2014: The demonstration by “several thousand left-wing activists in Tel Avi…calling for an end to bloodshed in Gaza and a return to negotiations with the Palestinians” was cut short “when Hamas unilaterally ended a humanitarian truce with Israel and resumed rocket-fire from Gaza.”
2014: “The Hidden Passages,” an exhibition organized by Avi Lubin, a curator and head of the theoretical studies and the visiting artists at the postgraduate program, Ha’midrasha Art school.
2014: “Israel agreed to halt its military offensive in Gaza for 12 hours starting this morning amid intense international efforts to seal a broader cease-fire deal and a new explosion of violence in the West Bank, where at least six Palestinians were killed during clashes with Israeli forces.” (As reported by Isabel Kershner and Michael R. Gordon)
2015(10th of Av, 5775): Tisha B’av observed
2015: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Hirschfeld Century: Portrait of an Artists and His Age by Al Hirschfeld.
2015: At the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust (LAMOTH), Tomas Kovar, a native of Slovakia, is scheduled to talk about his experiences surviving the Holocaust.
2015: In Memphis, TN, at 4pm, members of Temple Israel are scheduled to share their personal stories of destruction, inspiring renewal, and hope, followed by a thoughtful learning session with Rabbi Feivel Strauss, and lovely, hopeful songs sung by Rabbi Bess Wohlner and our Music Director Abbie Strauss followed by a reading and discussion of a brief excerpt from the Book of Lamentations.
2016: Three days after Monica Lewinsky’s 43rd birthday, 69 year old President Bill Clinton is scheduled to address the Democratic National Convention which will not be chaired by Debbie Wasserman Schultz as previously planned.
2016: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host a musical evening – “Kings of Stride.”
2016: In New York, The Jewish Museum is scheduled to conduct a docent led tour of the exhibition “Roberto Burle Marx: Brazilian Modernist.”
2017: In “Auschwitz Artifacts to Go on Tour, Very Carefully” published today, Joanna Berendt described plans for the first traveling display of artifacts from the “Nazi death camp” to be seen in “14 cities in Europe and North America.”
2017: Dr. Rachel Stein is scheduled to present the last lecture on “Al-Andalus: Tolerance, Culture and Violence in Medieval Spain.”
2017: “Bombshell: The Hedy Lamar Story” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival today.
2017(3rd of Av, 5777): Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz turns 80.
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening of “Keep the Change” a movie about two people with autism directed by Rachel Israel.
2018: The Arthur and Rochelle Belfer National Conference for Social Studies and History educators which is designed to “introduce participants to the” United States Holocaust Memorial “Museum’s pedagogical approaching to teaching about the Holocaust, as well as Museum resources” is scheduled to open today.
2018: Mercaz Hatarbuyot is scheduled to host “Musical Journey in Duo” featuring concert pianist Eliah Zabaly and violinist Gabriel Chouraki.
2018: The Jerusalem Film Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2018: Hershey Felder began a series of concerts “at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts” featuring the works of Beethoven.
2018: Dr. Robert Silber of Cedar Rapids, IA is scheduled to lead “a discussion about love in honor of Tu B’Av” as part of Temple Israel’s Prime Timer’s Coffee and Conversation program.
2019: In Atlanta, “ a week-long workshop at The Breman Museum which is part of ChopArt, “a multidisciplinary arts organization serving homeless youth ages 10-18 to help build community, cope and heal is scheduled to come to an end today.
2019: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screenings of “Army of Lovers in the Holy Land” and “Beyond the Bolex.”
2019: In New York, the Landmark is scheduled to host a screening of Avi Belkin’s “Mike Wallace Is Here” a documentary about, depending on your point of view, one of the most controversial or one of the most important television journalists of the 20th century.
2019: In Little Rock, AR, funeral services are scheduled to be held at Congregation B’nai Israel for 73 year old David Alan Lockwood, the son of Shirley and Saul Lockwood, and for 45 years the husband of Ricki Lockwood with whom he created an amazing life followed by burial at the Oakland Jewish Cemetery.
2019: “Goldman Sachs honcho David Solomon” is “slated to take the stage” as a DJ at “Tomorrowland” where he “will be among more than 100 acts, including New York rapper A$AP Rocky and pop duo The Chainsmokers.”
2019: As the week comes to an end Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin is faced with the challenge of selling the administration’s budget deal to a Republican Senate many of whose members have made a career of calling for fiscal integrity and reduced federal spending and supporting the investigation of Amazon which he claims has ruined the retail industry in America, something his critics say his performance with the closure of Sears is something he himself has helped to precipitate.
2020: The New York Times features brief reviews of books by Jewish authors including Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All by Suzanne Nossel, The Death of the Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech, by William Deresiewicz and Unspeakable Acts:True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession, edited by Sarah Weinman
2020: “Jewish Federation of the Corridor is scheduled to launch its first event in this Zoom session, cosponsored together with Agudas Achim's Tikkun Olam and Adult Ed committees during which Ari Braverman and Julia Zalenski will describe their work with these Eastern Iowa social justice groups. Please join the discussion with your questions and comments.
2020: The 11th annual Axelrod Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to provide a screening of “Born in Jerusalem and Still Alive.”
2020: In Cedar Rapids, the Temple Judah Board Meeting is scheduled to take place this evening.
2020: The Greater New Orleans Section of the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) is scheduled to put on its second in the series of educational anti-Semitism webinars this afternoon.
2020: Klezmer violinist Cookie Segelstein is scheduled to lead a KlezCalifornia workshop about rhythmic flexibility, melody chords and counterlines” which is for intermediate-and-above musicians on any instrument.
2020: The 2020 Keshet Eilon Music Center String Mastercourse is scheduled to start today with an Alumni Concert in memory of the legendary violinist Ida Haendel, who had joined the Keshet Eilon Faculty as a distinguished guest-artist from 1999 to 2010.
2020: Akiva is scheduled to offer a “free virtual Israel tour that “will include Israel experts, Israeli culture, live cooking demonstrations, discussions about security issues, and visits to the northern border and Jerusalem.”