May 2
373: “Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria…aggressive opponent of Arianism and polemicist against Judaism died today.”
693: The Sixteenth Council of Toledo, which had opened on April 25, met for the last time. Among its other accomplishments, the council took further steps in the on-going, ever more vicious, suppression of the Jews by the Christian Visigoth. The law code, which granted “tax freedom to Jewish conversos” now transferred the tax obligation to Jews who had not converted. Also, the council ruled that “converts were allowed to trade with Christians, but not until” they had proven themselves “by recitation of creeds and eating of non-kosher food. The council also enacted penalties against Christians who entered into business transactions “with unconverted or unproven Jews.”
907: King Boris I of Bulgaria died. At the time of his death, Boris was actually a monk having abdicated his throne in 889. During his reign, Bulgaria continued to provide a refuge for Jews fleeing from Byzantine persecution. According to some reports, there was an attempt to convert the pagan Bulgars to Judaism. True or not, Christianity would become the state religion.
1108 (20th of Iyar, 4868): Solomon Ibn-Farussal was murdered shortly before the forces of Islam defeated the Christians at the battle of Ucles. Yehuda Halevi composed an elegy upon hearing of Ibn-Farrusal’s murder. Ibn-Farussal reportedly was “in the service of a Christian prince” who had sent him as an emissary to the Spanish city of Murcia. The “Christian prince” may well have been Alfonso VII, the monarch who led the Spaniards to defeat at Ucles.
1160: In the Montpellier region of southern France, an agreement was concluded according to which every priest who stirred up the people against the Jews should be excommunicated. The Jews in return pledged to pay four pounds of silver every year on Palm Sunday
1194: In one his first acts after returning from his imprisonment in Austria, King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. The Jews had paid a disproportionate share of that ransom. The 5,000 marks the Jews were compelled to pay was triple that paid by the citizens of London. There is no record of any Jews having lived in Portsmouth during the Middle Ages, though there were a scattered few in nearby Bosham, Chichester and Southampton, and an important community in Winchester. The first Portsmouth Jews, attracted by the opportunity of trading with the fast-growing Royal Navy in its home port and possibly by a sense of kinship with the new German-speaking monarchs of these isles, settled in Oyster Street in the 1730s - Jacob Thulman signed in Hebrew in the Borough Sessions in 1736 - but soon moved out of Old Portsmouth to Portsea, in the heart of the city’s commercial district. The first recorded mention of a Jewish community in Portsmouth is the purchase of the thousand-year lease of a plot of land by Lazy Lane (now Fawcett Road) for use as a Jews’ burial ground in December 1749. The lessees were Benjamin Levi (engraver), Mordechai Samuel (jeweler), Lazarus Moses (chapman) and Mordechai Moses (chapman). Fawcett Road cemetery was still in use until it became full in the early 1990s. [Editor’s Note-The word “chapman” probably meant that these men were merchants or peddlers.]
1293(17th of Iyar, 5053): Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg passed away. The last of the Tosophists, he was the leading Rabbi in Germany. Convinced that there was no future in Germany, he agreed to lead a large contingent of families to Eretz-Israel. While waiting for the other families, he was seized by the Bishop of Basel. The Emperor ordered him held in prison as a lesson to any of "his Jews" who would try to leave Germany and thus cause him a financial loss. He refused to be ransomed, saying that it would serve as an impetus for further extortions. He died in a prison near Colmar, and his body was held there until it was ransomed some years later.
1352: In Nuremburg, “Vischlein the son of Masten, Semelin the son of Nathan of Grefenberg, and Jacob the son-in-law of Liebetraut appeared before the council requesting to be received again as citizens, declaring that, in return, they would remit all debts the citizens owed them and would sell all houses held in pawn; they agreed to settle only where the citizens permitted, and asked merely to be protected against the nobility.
1481: The Pope called upon all Christian princes to send back to Spain the Jews who had fled from the Inquisition.
1562: “By a decree promulgated today, King Sigismund August appoint Stanislav Dovorino as superior judge of Pinks and Korbin and placed all the Jews of Pinsk and the neighboring villages under his jurisdiction and their associates were ordered to turn over the magazines and stores to the magistrate and burghers of Pinks
1605: Massacre of the Jewish community of Bisenz, Austria.
1611: King James Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker. For many Jews (as well as non-Jews) the language of the King James Bible is the only version of the TaNaCh they know.
1634(Iyar 4): Jacob Bassevi of Treuenberg, the “court Jew” who provided financial assistance to Rudolph II, Matthias and Ferdinand II who used his influence to protect the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire and Italy passed away
1649: Solomon Franco, reportedly the first Jew to live in the “North American colonies” today “was given funds for passage to sail from Boston to Holland because the Puritans of the General Court in Massachusetts did not want him in their colony but apparently the English had no problem with him living after he “converted to Anglicanism” in 1688, the same year in which he published Truth Springing Out of the Earth “a royalist panegyric dedicated to King Charles II.”
1670: King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America. “The first known Jew to settle in what is now Canada was Ferdinande Jacobs, a fur trader with Hudson's Bay Company who came to Manitoba in 1732.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1713(6 of Iyar, 5473): Joseph Josel Wertheimer, father of Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, passed away today at the age of 87.
1718(1stof Iyar, 5478): Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi, known as the Chacham Tzvi, passed away in Lviv.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112072/jewish/Rabbi-Tzvi-Ashkenazi-Chacham-Tzvi.htm
1729: Birthdate of Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia. Regardless of how history views this German princess who replaced her husband on the throne of Russia, she was responsible for Russia acquiring most of its Jewish population. Under her reign, Russia acquired much of Poland and its large Jewish population. Her record of treatment of the Jews, is mixed to negative. As a follower of Voltaire, she could not help but be swayed by his low opinions of the Jews. Her policies led to the creation of what would be called the Pale of Settlement.
1740: In Philadelphia, “merchant and silversmith” Elias Boudinot III and Mary Catherine Williams gave birth to Elias Boudinot, the 10th President of the Continental Congress who was persuaded by James Adair’s History of the American Indians that the native Americans were descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes and that the Hebrew was the origin of their language,
1776: In Nederland, Jacob Hirsch Pinto and Levia Leonora Liebe Pinto gave birth to Branca Brendel Bernisse Hartog Kann (Pinto)
1782: One day after she had passed away, 20 year old “Yetta bat Asher” was buried today in the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery.”
1782: Twenty-five year old Benjamin Abraham Nones, the Bordeaux born son of Rachel and Abraham Benjamin Nones married Philadelphia native Miriam Marks with whom he had 13 children 12 of whom were born in Philadelphia and one of whom was born in the suburb of Germantown.
1782: Rabbi Ezekiel Landau, “who supported the study of general education including history, grammar and natural sciences, opened the first Jewish School in Prague
1784: Birthdate of Alexander Haindorf “a physician, a Jewish reformer, psychologist, university lecturer, journalist, art collector and co-founder of the Westphalian Kunstverein.”
1791: In Prussia “Daniel Itzig and his family received the first Naturalisationspatent, which granted them full citizenship. A year later the solidarische Haftung (collective responsibility and liability of the Jewish community for non-payment of taxes and crimes of theft) was abolished.”
1801: Jacob Hirsch Kann, the son of Miriam and Isaac Jacob Kann and his wife Jetta Kann gave birth to Eduard Jakob Hirsch Kann.
1801: James Madison, who learned Hebrew while studying at Princeton, and who has President would deal with his ally turned opponent Mordecai Noah, began serving as Secretary of State.
1806(14thof Iyar, 5566): Pesach Sheni
1810: In London, American born physician, Dr. Joel Hart married Louisa Levien. The Philadelphia native and only son of Ephriam had gone to England to study at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
1813: Two days after she had passed away, 57 year old Catherine Isaacs, the wife of Isaac Isaacs, was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery,”
1813: While fighting with forces opposing Napoleon, “German historian and poet Daniel Lessman was wounded at the Battle of Lutzen.
1814: Joel Benjamin married Dina Levy at the Hambro Synagogue.
1815: In Leiden, Emanuel Levie Goldsmith and Alijda Joseph Joel Goldsmith gave birth to “Henry/Hartog Emanuel Goldsmith, the husband of Anna Goldsmith and Alija Joseph Joel Goldsmith, the “teacher, cigarmaker and attorney who settled in New York City.
1825(14thof Iyar, 5585): Pesach Sheni
1833: In Philadelphia, PA, Julia Levy and Joseph Lyons Moss who had been married in 1828 gave birth to William Moss, the husband of Mary Nooronha whom he married in 1863 and the father of Mary, Joseph and William Moss, Jr.
1833: Birthdate of Abraham (Adolf) Berliner German Jewish theologian and historian who re-established The Mekitze Nirdamim literally "awakening the slumbering", a society for the publication of old Hebrew books and manuscripts that were either never published or long out of print in 1885.
1836: Three days after he has passed away, John Nathan, the two year old son of Joseph and Esther Nathan, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1836(15thof Iyar, 5596): Eighty one year old Aaron Worms the son of Abraham Aberle, the chief rabbi of Metz and author of "Meore Or" (Flashes of Light) passed away today.
1837: Birthdate of Selah Merrill, the first United States Consul in Jerusalem who served three terms over the years 1882 through 1907 and who opposed Jewish settlement in Palestine, writing, "Palestine is not ready for the Jews. The Jews are not ready for Palestine."
1839: Joseph Joseph married Phoebe Barnett today at the Great Synagogue.
1844: Birthdate of Aaron Wise, the Hungarian born American rabbi was the son of Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Weiss, and father of Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise.
1844: Birthdate of Portsmouth, England native Kate Emanuel who gained games Katie Magnus (Lady Magnus) the wife of Sir Phillip Magnus, “the treasurer of the Jewish Girls’ Club, and author whose works included Little Miriam’s Bible Stories and About the Jews Since Bible Times.
https://www.jta.org/1924/03/03/archive/lady-katie-magnus-dies-at-age-of-eighty-years
1844: Birthdate of Emil Schürer, “the German Protestant theologian who, for his time had the unusual distinction of studying the history of the Jews at the time of Jesus which led him to write A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ
1847: Two days after she had passed away, 77 year old Phoebe Abrahams, the “widow of Abraham Abrahams” was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1853: The Argentine Constitution promised freedom of religion and immigration. Argentina had already shown itself to be a hospitable place for Jewish settlement when it abolished the Inquisition in 1813 which contributed to an influx of Jewish immigrants from Western Europe and North Africa. The country’s first “Jewish wedding” would take place in 1860 and the Jewish community of Buenos Aires dates its start from 1862.
1855(14th of Iyar, 5615): Pesach Sheni
1856: The New York Times reported that Lord Derby’s government could not long survive because it was led by “a dilettante Jew whose only stary is self, and who has no care either for the national honor or glory…” The “dilettante Jew” had to be a reference to Disraeli, who not for the first time would be wrongly identified as a Jew. And the references were invariably used as a slur.
1858(18thod Iyar, 5618) Lag B’Omer
1859: Five days after he had passed away, financier and social reformer Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, the son of Asher Aron and Rachel Goldsmid and the wife of Isabel Goldsmid with whom he had had eleven children and who was the first Jew to be honored as a baronet was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Isaac-Lyon-Goldsmid-1st-Baronet
1860: Birthdate of Theodor Herzl. Born in Hungary, Herzl's family moved to Vienna. He was raised in an "enlightened Jewish home" and trained as a lawyer. Herzl pursued a career as a journalist and writer. Although he had encountered anti-Semitism, his views on the role of the Jews changed radically when he covered the Dreyfus Trial in 1894. If anti-Semitism could thrive in enlightened France, then the Jews were not safe any place except in a nation of their own. He electrified many with his book the Jewish State and he organized the World Zionist Organization. The six congresses that he chaired set much of the tone and program for the modern Zionist movement. Herzl died in 1904 at the age of 44. In 1949, his body was taken to Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem for its final resting place. Herzl is the embodiment of Hillel's most famous wisdom statements and proof that one person can make a difference. “Herzl coined the phrase ‘If you will, it is no fairytale,’ which became the motto of the Zionist movement. Although at the time no one could have imagined it, Zionism led, only fifty years later, to the establishment of the independent State of Israel.”
1861: Lieutenant Horace Porter returned to the arsenal at Watervliet, NY, with a letter from Colonel James Ripley rejecting Major Alfred Mordecai’s request for transfer and ordering him to prepare and ship much needed “artillery equipment” to Washington.” This brought to an end Mordecai’s attempt to stay in the U.S. Army without having to fight against family and friends living in the South.
1861: In Papa, Hungary, Carl Ellinger and Marie Deutsch gave birth Emil Ellinger, who, after coming to the United States served as a Rabbi in Mount Vernon, Sioux City, Iowa and Alexandria, Louisiana home of Congregation Gemilas Hasodim.
1862: Joseph Wolff passed away today at Isle Brewers. Born at Weilersbach, Germany in 1795, to David Wolff, the town’s Rabbi, he “was baptized in 1812 by the Benedictine abbot of Emaus, near Prague.” Wolff trained as an Orientalist, traveled throughout the Middle East where he sought to convert Jewish populations and later searched for the Ten Lost Tribes in an areas stretching from modern day Turkey to Afghanistan.
1863: Birthdate of Russian native Fanny Pruzansky Bellin, the husband of Jacob Bellin and the mother of Katie, Samuel, Anna and Sadie Bellin.
1863: During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Sergeant Henry Heller was one of four soldiers who risked their lives to bring a wounded Confederate officer into the lines of the Union Army. The officer then “provided valuable information concerning the position of the enemy."
1863: During the American Civil War, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson was motally wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Among the units fighting at Chancellorsville that tried to stop the advance of Jackson’s troops was a regiment from Illinois under the command of Frederick Hecker that included a company made up of (supplied by) Jews from Chicago.
1864(26th of Nisan, 5624): Giacomo Meyerbeer passed away.
http://www.meyerbeer.com/whois.htm
1867: The Weekly Clarion of Jackson reported today: “We are gratified that measures are in progress for the erection of a place of worship in this city by our fellow citizens of the Hebrew descent.” The newspaper item referred to the purchase of property at the corner of South State and South streets on which the Beth Israel Congregation would soon erect a small, wood-frame building which they would use as a school and a house of worship. This was the first building erected in Jackson designed to serve as a house of worship for the Jews living in around the city that was the capital of the state of Mississippi.
1869: Stella Rothschild, the Randegg. Germany born daughter of Sara and Leopold Schott and her husband Wilhelm Benjamin Rothschild gave birth to Leopoldine Rothschild.
1870: Antoine Maurer, who was charged with killing a Jew named Joachim Feurter, went on trial again in Rockland County, NY. Maurer had been found guilty and sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned because the accused had not been present when the Judge responded to a request from the jury for clarity on a point of law.
1870: Lothair, the first novel written by Benjamin Disraeli after his first term as Prime Minister was first published today by Longmans, Green and Company in 3 volumes
1871: The second trial of, Antoine Maurer indicted for the murder of Joachim Feurter, “a German of the Hebrew faith” commenced here today, before the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Rockland County. Maurer had been found guilty in the first trial, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.
1872: In Minsk, Yehuda Leib Walt and Relie Hamburg gave birth to Abraham Walt who wrote under the nom de plume “A. Liesin” after he came to the United States.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_12518.html
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/11/06/99569872.pdf
1873: The Jewish Messenger issued an appeal for financial support to send poor Jewish children on summer excursions. Among those who would benefit from some sea-side recreation are youngsters under the care of the Hebrew Benevolent Society and Free School Association. If these two groups cannot raise sufficient funds, then the paper will organize a Messenger Excursion Fund.
1874: “The first ladies’ Hebrew benevolent society was founded” today in Oregon.
1877: A delegation of the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites, led by Benjamin F. Peixotto met with President Rutherford B. Hayes to discuss the persecution of the Jews of Romania. The delegation presented a written account of “the recent barbarities” inflicted on the Jews of Glurgevo, Romania. The President expressed his sympathy and concern over the treatment of the Jews. He referred the group to Secretary of State William Evarts whom he requested to take such as this dire situation may require.
1877: On the advice of President Hayes, a delegation of the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites, led by Benjamin F. Peixotto met with U.S. Secretary of State William Evarts to discuss steps that could be taken to relieve the suffering of the Jews of Romania. The delegation “urged the Secretary of State to cable” the U.S. ministers “at Vienna, Constantinople and St. Petersburg asking them to act in conjunction with the representatives of those powers in endeavoring to repress further atrocities. Mr. Evarts took the subject under consideration” [This was part of an on-going series of attempts to relieve the suffering of the Jews of Romania. The Great Powers thought they had resolved the matter at the Congress of Berlin, but Romanian anti-Semitism would trump their efforts. The best hope for Romanian Jews would be found in leaving for the United States where they became part of the mass of immigrants who flooded this country in the years leading up to World War I. This would not be the first or last time that a U.S. President’s sympathy for the plight of the Jews would not be translated into a policy bring about their salvation. Most of us do not recognize the name of Benjamin Peixotto. In his day, he was one of the most influential Jews in the United States. He was a successful lawyer and journalist who was active in the affairs of the Republican Party and the Jewish community. Sic Transit Gloria.]
1878(29th of Nisan, 5638): Anglo-Jewish barrister and politician Sir Henry Francis Goldsmid passed away. Born in 1808, the eldest son of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, was educated privately, and was called to the bar in 1833, becoming Queen’s Counsel in 1858. In 1859 he succeeded to his father's honors, which included a barony of Portugal. He entered Parliament in 1860 as member for Reading, through a by-election, and represented that constituency in the Liberal interest until his death. While still a young man he actively cooperated with his father to secure to the Jews full emancipation from civil and political disabilities. In 1839 he wrote "Remarks on the Civil Disabilities of the Jews," and in 1848 "A Reply to the Arguments Against the Removal of the Remaining Disabilities of the Jews." He was one of the chief supporters of University College and gave material aid to University College Hospital. He was associated with various Jewish religious and charitable organizations. He was connected with the Reform movement from its commencement and was elected president of the Council of Founders of the West London Synagogue. He was vice-president of the Anglo-Jewish Association from its establishment in 1871 and was president of the Rumanian Committee which originated in the association. His greatest services to his race were, however, in the direction of improving the social condition of the Jews in those countries in which they were oppressed. The condition of the Poles in 1863 moved him to organize meetings for the purpose of securing some alleviation of their sufferings, and he also forcibly protested on several occasions in Parliament against the oppression of the Jews, notably that in Servia and Rumania.Goldsmid was deputy lieutenant for Berks and a justice of the peace for Berks and Gloucester. Having no children, the baronetcy devolved upon his nephew, Julian Goldsmid. His writings include, besides those already mentioned: "Two Letters in Answer to the Objections Urged Against Mr. Grant's Bill for the Relief of the Jews" (1830); "A Few Words Respecting the Enfranchisement of British Jews Addressed to the New Parliament" (1833); "A Scheme of Peerage Reform, with Reasons for the Scheme" (1835).
(As reported by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1884: Today’s issued\ of Hamelitz, a Russian newspaper printed in Hebrew, recorded the events that led to members of the two existing synagogues in Quebec to leave and established what would become Temple Emanuel, a Reform congregation.
1884: In Oakland, CA, Aaaron and Jennie (Cahn) Jacobs gave birth to University of California trained surgeon S. Nicholas Jacobs, the husband of Rita Newman who in addition to maintain a private practice served as an “assistant lecturer in Surgery at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
1889(1st of Iyar, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1890: Mr. Cantor’s bill exempting the New York Sanitarium from local taxation was passed by the New York State Assembly today.
1891: It was reported today that there has been a serious outbreak of anti-Semitic violence at Corfu growing out of reports that the Jews “had murdered a Christian girl for the feast of Passover.”
1891: In Boston, Inspector Cogan arrested Samuel Steinhardt, a Polish Jewish immigrant who is wanted by the authorities in Newark, NJ.
1891: “The Union Square Mass Meeting” published today described Jewish participating in the mass meeting held at Union Square calling for an 8 hour day. The marchers wore red and blue caps that had been made by striking capmakers. The Jewish protestors were demonstrating for a more just society as could be seen by one of their banners emblazoned with “We Want the Children in Schools and Not In Shops.” (The Union Movement opposed child labor and supported universal public school eduation)
1891: “To Build A New Opera House” published today described the plans of Oscar Hammerstein, the owner of the Harlem Opera House and Columbia Theatre to build a new venue on 34th Street, just west of Broadway. Hammerstein plans to use the new building which is estimated to cost $250,000 will for German grand operas for four months of the year and then use it as a venue for grand theatrical performances during the balance of the year. This would keep the building in use for all 12 months which is a departure of normal business model.
1891: Religious Riot in Zante” published today described a religious riot in the capital city of this Greek Island of the same name. During a procession on Good Friday (according to the Greek Orthodox Calendar) the Christians attacked the Jewish quarter of the town. Soldiers fired on the mob which refused to disperse and threatened to burn down all of the homes and businesses of the Jews. (This stands in stark contrast to what happened during WW II. Mayor Loukas Career and Bishop Chrysostomos refused to give the Nazis the names of the Jews living there and instead hid them. All of the Jews survived the Holocaust.
1892: Today’s “New Publications” column contained a review of The Early Religion of Israel, as set forth by Biblical Writers and Modern Critical Historiansby James Robertson which is based on the Baird Lectures for 1889.
1893(16th of Iyar, 5653): Johann Schnitzler a Hungarian-Austrian Jewish laryngologist who was a native of Nagy Kanizsa (today part of Hungary) passed away. He was the father of famed playwright Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) and Julius Schnitzler. In 1860 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Vienna, where from 1863 to 1867 he worked as an assistant to Johann von Oppolzer (1808-1871). In 1880 he was appointed associate professor of laryngology at the University of Vienna, and later became director of its policlinic. Schnitzler was a pioneer of modern laryngology, and author of numerous works on diseases of the throat and larynx. His best known written work was Klinischer Atlas der Laryngologie (Clinical Atlas of Laryngology), which was published posthumously in 1895. In 1860 with Philipp Markbreiter (1810-1882), he founded the Wiener Medizinische Presse, a publication of which he remained as editor until 1886Schnitzler is credited with coining the term "spastic dysphonia" for a vocal disorder known today as spasmodic dysphonia
1893: “Jews Attacked by Anti-Semites” published today described an outbreak of violence at Trappau, the capital of Austrian Silesia. Forty anti-Semites attacked five Jewish officers who fired their revolvers in self-defense, wounding 12 of their attackers.
1894(26thof Nisan, 5654): Seventy-eight year old Rudolph Carl Hertzog, who founded his nationally known department store at 1839 in Berlin, passed away today.
1894(26thof Nisan 5654): Sixty-nine year old Sarah Miriam Carvalho the daughter of Jacob da Silva Solis and Charity Solis and the wife of Solomon Nunes Carvalho passed away today in New York.
1894: The funeral of Jesse Seligman, who passed away on April 23 in California, took place today at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F50D11F73C5A1A738DDDAA0894DD405B8485F0D3
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A07E0D6173EEF33A25750C0A9639C94659ED7CF
1895: Birthdate of Lorenz Hart, the son Jewish-German immigrants who was a highly productive lyricist for Broadway musicals and films. He is the Hart in the team of Rogers and Hart. Some of the tunes you might recognize are “Blue Moon,” “The Lady is a Tramp” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the world.” He passed away in 1943.
1895: In New York, Isidor Bader took a seven year old “deaf and dumb boy” who had been abandoned by an un-known man and woman to the police station of on Madison Street.
1895: Female members of Temple Emanu-El will meet at four o’clock this afternoon to discuss plans for the fair to be held in December at Madison Square Garden for the benefit of the Hebrew Technical Institute and Education Alliance.
1895: Dr. Henry M. Sanders and Professor Albert S. Bickmore delivered an illustrated lecture describing Jaffa, Hebron and Bethlehem in which they described Jaffa as “a place of 8,000 inhabitants composed mostly of fugitive from all parts of the world;” Hebron as now being “believed to be almost as ancient as Damascus;’ and “Bethlehem as being “noted for its fertility and the beauty of its women.”
1896: Henry Rice, Isaiah Joseph, J.H. Schiff, Simon Borge, Isidor Straus, Louis Stern and Louis Stern are among those who bought boxes for tonight’s concert at the Metropolitan Opera House the proceeds of which will go to the United Hebrew Charities.
1896: Harold Frederic reports from London on the financial consequences of the recent demise of Baron Hirsch. Members of the British government are expecting a windfall to the Exchequer from the death duties that will have to be paid. They are projected to exceed the amount collected from the estate of another prominent Jew, Sir Julian Goldsmid. On the other hand, the Prince of Wales is quite concerned over how he shall back the considerable sums that he had borrowed from the Baron. Rumor has it that the future King need not worry since there is a clause in the Baron’s will that absolves the Prince of Wales of his debts.
1897: Birthdate of Dr. Moses Paulson, the Baltimore born WW I Army veteran who specialized in research of concerning “digestive diseases.”
1898: Harry Bernstein said today “that he had no doubt that $10,000 could be raised by the Jewish residents of the Fifth Ward” in Cleveland, Ohio to purchase a warship for the fight against Spain.
1898: “A mass meeting” is scheduled to “be held in the auditorium of the Educational Alliance at 8 o’clock under the auspices of the Hebrew Volunteer Bureau for the purpose of encouraging” Jewish citizens to volunteer for service in the fight against Spain.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0DE0DF103CE433A25756C0A9639C94699ED7CF
1898: “To Encourage Hebrew Volunteering” published today described the intention of “a committee of thirty prominent citizens” to “muster and equip at least two regiments of “Jewish “volunteers from the down-town section” of New York where several hundred Jews “have already signed the enrollment roster.”
1898: “Predictions About The War” published today described the ease with which most American leaders thought the war with Spain would be won including “‘It will be a war of one encounter,’ cried Mr. Pulitzer of the New York World, that most patriotic of Polish Jews.”
1899: Martin Sigismund Eduard von Simson whose family converted to Protestantism in 1823 who served as the first President of the Reichstag passed away today.
1900: It was reported today that Hungarian painter Mihali Munkascy, born Leo Lieb, the son of a German Jew who had come to Hungary as a land agent ad participated in the uprisings of 1848, was to be buried in Budapest after taking his own life yesterday.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mihály_Munkácsy#/media/File:Munkácsy_Self-portrait_1870s.jpg
1901: Today, The Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association made public its program for the summer which included a lecture on Palestine by Reverend Davenport and a performance of the Oratorio “Elijah.”
1903(5thof Iyar, 5663): Parashat Tazria-Metzora; 20th day of the Omer.
1902: As part of today’s celebration of the 14th Arbor Day, at the Educational Alliance, “several hundred little immigrant boys and girls” who “had been instructed to bring with them little blocks of earth, of which, though it is a scarce article in the East side, each had one had managed to obtain a small supply” placed the earth in little boxes and planted seeds it them.
1903: As Jews prepared to count the 21st day of the Omer this evening, the world was being made richer by the births of Bing Crosby and Dr. Benjamin Spock
1904: In an act of leniency, the Justice at the Municipal court told Julius Goldman that he could stay in his apartment through May 5, the day his sister is scheduled to be married but would have to move on May 6 unless he paid his rent which was just one of the surprise rulings granted to the poor people living on the Lower East Side, a disproportionate number of whom were Jewish.
1905(27thof Nisan, 5665): Fifty-one year old Charity Lyon, the Philadelphia born daughter of Elvira and David Hays Solis, the wife of Edmund Robert Lyon and the mother of Eliva, Augusta and Walter Lyon passed away today in her home town
1906: In Riga, Morduch (Mark) Halsman, a dentist, and Ita Grintuch, a grammar school principal gave birth to “American portrait photographer” Philippe Halsman.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Halsman#/media/File:Philippe_Halsman_self.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_Halsman#/media/File:Philippe_Halsman_self.jpg
https://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/philippe-halsman/
https://npg.si.edu/exh/halsman/intro.htm
1907: Birthdate of McKees Rock, PA native and expert on the Soviet Union Merle Fainsod, the holder of Ph.D. from Harvard, Director of the Harvard University Library and one of seven Harvard professors to sign a letter published in the Times in 1970 criticizing Sec. of State Rogers’ new Middle East Policy who raised two daughters with his wife Elizabeth.”
1907: Birthdate of St. Paul, MN native Pincus Leff who gained fame as Pinky Lee host of the 1950’s children’s television program, Pinky Lee Show
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/04/07/obituaries/pinky-lee-85-host-of-children-s-tv-shows-dies.html
1908(1stof Iyar, 5668): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1908: “Take Me out to the Ballgame”, one of the most popular song’s connected with baseball was copyrighted today. The music for this American classic were written by a Jew named Albert Von Tilzer.
1909(11th of Iyar, 5669): Ninety-seven year old David Woolf Marks passed away today.
1910: “Jerusalem Jews in Danger” published today described the attack made on Mrs. Herbert Turell in March by “a fanatic Mohammedan” while she was in Jerusalem” and the fear expressed by Ambassador Straus to her that any demand for justice made on behalf of her and her companion “would have brought about a demonstration again the Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem.”
1911: Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the Jewish Theological Institute arrived on the Berlin tonight marking his return from an 11 month long vacations.
1912: Birthdate of Axel Springer German newspaper magnate. Springer was honored by numerous organizations included the Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University, and The New York Leo Baeck Institute for his work to preserve German Jewish Culture and History and his support of Israel. It was not just a personal commitment. His editorial policies stated that the organization was to promote "the reconciliation of Jews and Germans and support for the vital rights of the State of Israel."
1912: The British inquiry into the sinking of the Titanic whose survivors included journalist Edith Rosenbaum and Elizabeth and Martin Rothschild, the aunt and uncle of Dorothy Parker but claimed the lives of several other prominent Jews began today in London.
1912: In the Ottoman Empire Faisal, the future King Faisal I of Iraq, and Huzaima bin Nasser gave birth to Ghazi bin Faisal who served as King of Iraq from 1933 to 1939 during which time he was “won over by pro-Nazi elements in the government and military as the tide of public feeling began turning against Iraq’s Jews. C
1913(25th of Nisan, 5673): Cleveland, Ohio political leaders Ben Windecker passed away today.
1913: Cantor Millard conducted services this evening at the Chicago Hebrew Institute which hosted a “social dance” the following evening.
1913(25thof Nisan, 5673): Seventy-eight year old “railroad construction pioneer” passed away today in Los Angeles.
1914: The trial of those accused of murdering Herman Rosnethal resumed in New York City.
1915(18thof Iyar, 5675): Lag B’Omer
1915: At Columbia University, Louis D. Brandeis delivered “an appeal to the Jews living in America to support all of the small nations of the world” which he said was “the best means of obtaining fair treatment for the Jews.”
1915: The Independent Order of B’nai B’rith which had “40,083 members” held its “tenth quinquennial convention” today in San Francisco.
1915: In New York, songwriter Fred Fisher and his wife gave birth to singer/songwriter Doris Fisher who performed with Eddie Duchin.
1916: In Chicago, dedication of Kehillath Jacob Synagogue.
1916: During a luncheon meeting of the Clergy Club of New York, the guest of honor Sir Herbert Tree challenged the recent attempt of the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis to ban the performance of “Merchant of Venice” because of the creation of Shylock which they view as an archetypically anti-Semitic character.
1916: While continuing in his efforts to try “to get possession of the offices in the new Rialto Theatre build which he asserts were set aside for him” which the remodeling plans were being made told the magistrate in the West Side Court, that when he went to the theatre on April 29th“he found the room padlocked” and when he returned on May 1 “he found a guard who had been employed to keep him out” which led him to take further legal action today in the West Side Court of Magistrate Barlow.
1917(10thof Iyar, 5677): During WW I, 28 year old Captain Maixme Berr, an artillery officer in the French Army, the son of Lehmann Berr and Henrietta Alice Berr (nee Levy was killed today.
1917: “A dinner was held” tonight “at the home of Henry Morgenthau, the former Ambassador to Turkey” where Judge Otto A Rosalsky, Jacob Billikopf and Jacob H. Schiff discussed that national campaign of the American Jewish Relief Committee for Jewish War Sufferers and “it was announced that $900,000” had already been raised in New York to meet the national goal.
1917: “News of the demolition in Petrograd of the famous monument erected to Catherine II of Russia and its recasting into shells at the request of the Committee of Soldiers was cabled The Jewish Daily Forward” today “by its correspondent in Petrograd” who also reported that funds were being raised to erect a monument to Nicholas Tshernyshevsky “the Russian patriot and author who spent nineteen years in exile and hard labor in Siberia.”
1918(20th of Iyar): Joshua Barzilia Eisenstadt passed away today.
1918: In London, the War Office issued its official statement describing the successful assault during Allenby’s campaign by British infantry on the foothills south and southeast of Es-Salt which made it possible for Australian mounted troops to enter Es-Salt where they capture 33 Germans and 317 Turkish troops.
1919(2nd of Iyar, 5679): Gustav Landauer, German anarchist and pacifist, who was the grandfather of Mike Nichols the famous American writer, director and producer, passed away today.
1919: Birthdate of “Jacob Bigeleisen, a chemist who worked on the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project and helped discover new ways of analyzing chemical reactions…”
1919: Mrs. Nathaniel E. Harris, the President of the Council of Jewish Women attended the opening meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science in Philadelphia.
1920(14thof Iyar, 5680): Pesach Sheni
1920(14thof Iyar, 5680): Seventy-year old Odessa born American physician Adolph Zederbaum who was a friend of Dr. Charles David Spivak both of whom chose to practice medicine in the United States instead of Palestine passed away today.
1921: Riots in Jaffa, Palestine causes the deaths of 40 Jews and 200 wounded. Martial law was put in effect after Jewish stores were looted.
1922: David Lindo Alexander, the barrister and leader of the Anglo-Jewish community who opposed Zionism was buried today next to his wife at Wilesden Jewish Cemetery.
1922: In Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Harry Shipiatsky, who changed his name to Rosenthal after emigrating to Canada in the 1890’s and Sarah Dickstein gave birth to their youngest child , Abraham Rosenthal who as A.M. Rosenthal, rose to become the executive editor of the New York Times. He later became a columnist for the New York Daily News
1922: In New York City, Samuel Untermyer made a vigorous attack on critics of the Zionist cause at a meeting tonight sponsored by the Washington Heights Congregation. Other speakers were Nahum Sokolow, Colonel J.H. Patterson and Vladimir Jabotinsky, who appealed for contributions to the Palestine Foundation Fund that needs three million dollars to meet its budgetary goals. Untermyer said the funds were going to aid those seeking to “escape from the hate, persecutions, pogroms and massacres of the crazed, bigoted and Jew-baiting peoples of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.” Furthermore, the funds would only be used to develop the land including programs to buy land, build houses and finance public works projects.
1924: Miriam (née Riegler) and Josef Bikel from Bukovina gave birth to multi-talented performer, Theodore Bikel. (who is one of my all-time favorites) Born in born in Vienna, Bikel's family took him to Palestine during the 1930's. Bikel supported himself as a musician and appeared in several stage productions of Habimah, the Israeli theatre. He honed his stage acting skills in London. Ironically, one of his first American film roles was as a German naval officer in The African Queen. It was one of many times he would play German and Russian characters. In a linguistic tour de force, he played a southern sheriff in the Defiant Ones, a part for which he received an Oscar nomination. Bikel's most famous role on the American stage was the male lead in the Sounds of Music, playing opposite Mary Martin. Bikel is multi-lingual and a skilled guitarist. This has made a favorite among folk music followers. Bikel has been outspoken labor activist in the film and theatre industries. And, he is an ardent Zionist.
1927: Louis Zabar, who created Zabar’s the icon of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, married Lillian Teitlebaum. The future Mrs. Zabar had been living in Philadelphia before she moved to New York where she met Zabar whom she had originally known from the Ukrainian village in which they had both lived. They had three children – Saul, Stanley and Eli. She passed away in 1995.
1927: “The Heart Thief” a silent melodrama starring Joseph Schildkraut was released in the United States today.
1927: In Birthdate of Amos Levine, the Tel Aviv native who as Amos Kenan became an Israeli columnist, painter, sculptor, playwright and novelist. He was known as a critic of Israeli policy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/world/middleeast/06kenan.html
1928: In San Francisco, Sydney Myer, the creation of the Australian department store that bears his name and Merlyn Myer gave birth to their youngest child Marigold Merlyn Baillieu Myer.
1929: Tel Aviv celebrated its 20th anniversary today at an afternoon tea party. One of the highlights of the event was the congratulatory speech by Major J.F. Campbell, District Commissioner of Southern Palestine which was delivered entirely in Hebrew. “This was the first time in the history of the country since the British occupation that a high British official has delivered a public address entirely in Hebrew.” The first child born in Tel Aviv, who is now twenty years old, “welcomed the guests in the name of the city’s young people.”
1930: In Tel Aviv, Moshe and Sarah Kaniuk gave birth to Israeli author and journalist and Yoram Kaniuk.
1930: In Tel Aviv, Moshe Kaniuk, the first curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and his wife gave birth to Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk
1931: It was reported today that “General Ludendorff, who attributed his defeat in the war to the intervention of Jewry” and who wants “to have a Germany racially purely Germanic, free from Jewish-Marxist-Catholic domination” has now declared war on his old colleague” Adolph Hitler with whom he stood trial for the 1923 Munich Putsch at which time he declared “himself a violent anti-Semite.”
1932: Jack Benny's first radio show premiered on the NBC Blue Network, The color coding was to differentiate the two NBC networks from one another, not a reference to off-color material. This was one of the milestones in Benny's career which included vaudeville, films and television
1932: Birthdate of composer Malcolm Lipkin, the native of Liverpool who was a protégé composer Mátyás György Seiber, the Hungarian composer who fled Germany after the rise of the Nazis.
1933: The United Committee for the Settlement of German Jews is organized to aid immigrants.
1933: The polarization between the labor Movement (Histadrut and Mapai) and the Revisionists intensify and reach their peak after the assassination of Chaim Arlozoroff.
1934: Congressman Louis T. McFadden delivers an anti-Semitic speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
1934: Funeral services were held this morning for Israel Unterberg in the Unterberg Memorial Building of JTS followed by interment at the Shearith Israel Cemetery in Brooklyn
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/05/02/94520698.pdf
1934: The defense in the trial of three revisionist Zionists for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff obtained admissions today from men employed by the police to make plaster casts of the footprints of the accused that some of the casts did not fit. While cross-examining Inspector Riggs of the Palestine Police, defense counsel Horace Samuel attempted to establish the fact that the police had “hushed up the confession of Abdul Megid and his accomplice, Isa that they had murdered” the Zionist leader.
1935: Joseph Budko becomes director of the new Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem. Born in1888, he left Germany in 1933 and settled in Palestine. He passed away in 1940.
1935: As Palestine endures a heat wave, temperatures reach 104 degrees “in the shade.” The average temperature for May is 65 degrees.
1935: With Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor, Jack Benny came to radio on The Canada Dry Program on the NBC Blue Network
1935: Arguments began before the Supreme Justices including Louis Brandeis and Benjamin Cardozo in the case of “A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States,”
1936: Sixty-second running of the Kentucky Derby. “The Kentucky Derby was, in effect, a Jewish "sweep." Bold Venture was the winner, owned by Morton Schwartz, trained by Max Hirsch and ridden by Ira Hanford. All the human beings involved in this horse racing victory were Jews. Sometimes we suspect that Bold Venture was Jewish that day, too”
1936: “The Appellate Court at Hamm in the Ruhr which has been sentencing alleged traitors to the regime (Jews, trade unionists and Socialists) “to penal servitude in batches of 90 to 100 sentenced another back to terms ranging from 8 months one and three quarter years” today on the same day that Chancellor Hitler was “offering assurances” on the way that the “German people were leading, ordering and guiding themselves.
1936: Mrs. Estelle M. Sternberger, executive director of World Peaceways “praised the work of ORT (a non-profit global Jewish organization that promotes education and training in communities worldwide) in providing constructive relief for the Jews of Eastern and Central Europe” saying “saying that “while malicious propagandists throw dust into the eyes of their fellow-citizens by weird stories of Jewish plots to dominate this earth, the ORT builds school after school to rain Jewish workers and artisans to be humble but respected men and women and youth in the ranks of world industry.
1936: “The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee announced” today “that on the basis of reports from offices abroad, all remaining Jewish actors, singers and concert artists were deprived of employment in German in 1935 and 1,000 of the 6,000 remaining physicians had emigrated” while at the same time medical licenses were no being issued to Jews.”
1936: “A report from Jerusalem made public” today “by the United Palestine Appeal announced the $10,337,000 had been spent in Palestine from October 1, 1932 to March 31, 1936 by the Palestine /foundation Fund, the Jewish National Fund and the German Settlement Bureau of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.”
1936: “Julliard-trained pianist Jeanne Rabin” and violinist George Rabin gave birth to violinist Michael Rabin who is part of long list of distinguished Jewish violinists that runs from A to Z; from Joseph Achron and to Paul Zukofsky.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/michael-rabin-mn0001203069
1937: “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise celebrated his thirtieth anniversary service as head of the Free Synagogue today by paying tribute to colleagues, leaders of the Christian church and to world figures whose achievements were sources of inspiration to him.
1937: “Mayor La Guardia received the medal of The American Hebrew for promotion of understanding between Jew and Christian tonight in a ceremony at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel- in which he was praised for his political and economic beliefs as well as his tolerance.
1938(1stof Iyar, 5698): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1938(1stof Iyar, 5698): Sixty-eight year old 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” passed away tonight.
1938: “The British partition commission began its tour of inquiry this morning, driving from Jerusalem to Jaffa and Tel Aviv.” Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach took the commissioners on a tour of Tel Aviv harbor. The commissioners expressed a great deal of interest in the harbor facilties in Tel Aviv and nearby Jaffa. They were surprised to learn that the Jews of Tel Aviv supplied most of that city’s funding for the harbor and that Jewish taxpayers of Tel Aviv paid to support the educational and health services in Jaffa. Residents of Jaffa made no such contribution to Tel Aviv.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that six Arab constables were killed when a gang of Arab terrorists attacked a police post near Kalkilya. Several casualties were suffered by the attackers who retreated with horses and rifles of their victims. Arab terrorists fired at the Jewish quarter of Safad and at Rosh Pina. They tampered with railway tracks, cut telephone wires and carried other acts of sabotage.
1939: Helen Fixler, a native of Sighet and and Polish born Elias (Elihyahu) Irom gave birth to Barbara Irom
1939:Kibbutz Dalia and Kibbutz BaMifne which had been unified by a decision in the secretariat of Hashomer Hatzair settled in Ramat Menashe today.
1940: In the morning President Roosevelt met with Secretary Henry J. Morgenthau, Jr.
1940: This evening actor Melvyn Douglas arrived at the White House as a “houseguest.”
1941: Release date for “My Favorite Wife,” a comedy directed by Garson Kanin.
1941: Today after much tension between the Rashid Ali government and the British, the besieged forces at RAF Habbaniya under Air Vice-Marshal H. G. Smart launched pre-emptive air strikes against Iraqi forces throughout Iraq which marked the real beginning of the Anglo-Iraqi War began for real which lead to the Farhud, an Iraqi Pogrom aimed at that country’s ancient Jewish community in June.
1941: In Nazi occupied Netherlands Jewish journalists are laid off.
1942(15thof Iyar, 5702): Parashat Emor
1942(15thof Iyar, 5702): Fifty year old Abraham Epstein the Russian born son of Leon and Bessie Levoitz Epstein a pioneer in the field of providing financial support for the “elderly” which led to what we now know as Social Security who raised one son, Pierre Leon Epstein, with his wife Henritte, passed away today.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-miscellaneous-biographies/abraham-epstein
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1942/05/03/170362012.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/29/opinion/l-remembering-a-father-of-social-security-302692.html
https://www.amazon.com/Abraham-Epstein-Forgotten-Father-Security/dp/0826216811
1943(27th of Nisan, 5703): Four thousand Jews from Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Poland are murdered at the Treblinka death camp.
1943(27th of Nisan, 5703): At Luków, Poland, 4000 Jews are killed
1943: Memorial rallies were held today as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of European Jewry and gain support for providing aid. “The memorial rallies …were in many instances jointly led by Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox rabbis--an uncommon display of unity. Equally significant, the Federal Council of Churches (whose Foreign Secretary had addressed the students' inter-seminary conference earlier that year) agreed to organize memorial assemblies at churches in numerous cities on the same day. Many of the assemblies featured speeches by rabbis and Christian clergymen, as well as prominent political figures. The gatherings received significant coverage in the newspapers and on radio. This important Jewish-Christian alliance helped raise American public consciousness about the Nazi slaughter of European Jewry.” (As reported by the David S. Wyman Institute)
http://www.wymaninstitute.org/articles/2003-02-golinkin.php
1944: Robert Abshagen, was sentenced to death for his work in the anti-Hitler resistance.
1945: In Germany, the SS guards at the Neustadt-Glowen, labor camp near Lübeck fail to report for morning roll call, giving freedom to Jewish women who have been brought from Ravensbrück and Breslau, Germany, to dig defensive trenches and anti-tank ditches.
1945: Members of the U.S. Army’s 522nd Field Artillery Battalion “a Nisei unit” “discovered the survivors of a death march headed southwards from the Dachau main camp towards the Austrian border nearest the town of Waakirchen” today.
1945: Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Army. Out of a pre-war Jewish population of 33,000, only 162 survived
1945: “James Venture, one of those aboard the infamous Train de Loos, which carried French resistance fighters, Communists and Jews from a prison in the northern French village of Loos to concentration camps in Germany in September 1944” was liberated from the camp at Wöbbelin today.
1945: The Central Board of the Charity Institution for Aged Needy People (at Athens) attempted to make the elderly Jews comfortable in their last years. In a letter to the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece, they wrote: "Honorable Sirs, The Central Board of the Charity Institution for Aged Needy People deeply sympathize with the martyrdom of the so terribly persecuted Jewish race by the wild and barbaric conqueror."
1945: “Raising a flag over the Reichstag,” a historic World War II photograph taken during the Battle of Berlin which depicts several Soviet troops raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the German Reichstag building was taken today by Yevgeny Khaldei in another example of Jewish photographer taking an iconic WW II photograph such as the Iwo Jima Flag Raising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Soviet_flag_on_the_Reichstag_roof_Khaldei.jpg
1945: President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9547 which made possible the Nuremberg Trials.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/order9547.html
1946: In Brooklyn, Leo Goldstein, “the owner of Peter Pan, a children’s swimwear and underwear manufacturer and Ronny Gore gave birth to Lesley Sue Goldstein who gained fame and singer, songwriter and actress Lesley Gore, the sister of composer Michael Gore.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/its-my-party-singer-lesley-gore-dies-aged-68/
1946(1stof Iyar, 5706): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1946(1stof Iyar, 5706): Eighty-three year old Dr. Simon Flexner, the Louisville, KY born son of “Morris Flexner and Esther Abraham, the pharmacist who went on to earn his M.D. and became on the nation’s leading pathologists passed away today.
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.1949.0006
https://rockfound.rockarch.org/biographical/-/asset_publisher/6ygcKECNI1nb/content/simon-flexner?
1946(1stof Iyar, 5706): Forty-six year old Adolphus Leo Weil, Jr, the son of “Cassie Ritter Weil” and Adolphus Leo Weil passed away today after which he was buried in the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, PA.
1946: A funeral service is held in Kraków, Poland, for seven Jews who were murdered on April 30 by anti-Semitic thugs at Nowy Targ, Poland.
1947(12th of Iyar, 5707): Henry Monsky, international president of B'nai B'rith and chairman of the interim committee of the American Jewish Congress passed away today in the Hotel Biltmore at the age of 57, while attending a meeting of the future organization committee of the conference.
1947: U.S. premiere of the Christmas classic “Miracle on 34th Street” produced by William Perlberg.
1948: Rusztem Vambery, the son of orientalist Armin Vambery, completed his service as Hungary’s ambassador to the United States.
1948: In response to the illegal attacks by Arab forces that had begun the day after the Partition vote, the Palmach 3rd Battalion, commanded by Moshe Kelman, attacked Ein al-Zeitun with a Davidka, two 3-inch mortars and eight 2-inch mortars
1949: Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman." “Death of a Salesman” went on to be a successful film as well. Born in 1915, Miller's long career has included plays on a variety of topics including “The Crucible,” which used the Salem Witch Trials to challenge the Right Wing reactionaries including the followers of Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950's.
1950: “A United Nations plane flying southward over Israeli territory was forced down at Lydda Airport today after Israeli Army fighters had fired across its nose. The plane was permitted to continue on to an Arab field at Kallandia, in Jordan after an official check.”
1950: Sketches of the Pulitzer Prize Winner in Jouranlism, Letters and Music for 1950” published today contained bios of
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1950/05/02/94256974.pdf
1951: Prime Minister David Ben Gurion left Israel for a private visit in the United States, accompanied by Chaim Herzog. During the trip he will meet with President Truman, as well as with young leaders from both political parties. One of them is Congressman John F. Kennedy. Ben Gurion will also vit Israeli air force students in California and a company manufacturing aircraft parts. The plant belongs to Al Schwimmer, a former American volunteer in the War of Independence.
1951: Syrian forces took positions in Tel Mutilla, in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, and Meir Amit was ordered to dislodge them. Leading his Golani infantry brigade - he had become its commander in 1950 - Amit pressed the attack for four consecutive days, compelling the Syrians to withdraw. But with 40 of his soldiers killed in action and many others wounded, he faced serious criticism from senior officers and was called to defend his actions. The Battle of Tel Motila took place near Almagor, a Moshav north of the Sea of Galilee founded in 1961.
1951: For the only time in major league history, a Jewish batter faced a Jewish pitcher whose battery mate was also Jewish. Detroit Tiger Pitcher Saul Rogovin was on the mound. Catcher Joe Ginsberg was behind the plate. Lou Limmer, the Philadelphia Athletics’ first baseman was at bat. Limmer hit the first pitch into the stands.
1952: “Belles on Their Toes” the Henry and Phoebe Ephron sequel to “Cheaper by the Dozen” directed by Henry Levin was released today in the United States
1952: “Young Man with Ideas” a romantic comedy co-starring Sheldon Leonard with a script co-authored by Arthur Sheekman, music by David Rose and filmed cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released today.
1953: Faisal II of Iraq’s regency came to an end as he assume rule of his country – a rule that would come to violent end with his murder that would strengthen the hand of Pan Arabist Gamal Nasser, the Egyptian leader who failed in his efforts to destroy Israel.
1954: Birthdate of Elliot Goldenthal, the native of Brooklyn and “the youngest son of a Jewish housepainter father and a Catholic seamstress mother” who won “the Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2002 for his score to the motion picture Frida.”
1956: “The Many Loves of Hilda Crane” a screen adaptation of a Samson Raphaelson play with music by David Raskin was released today in the United States.
1957(1stof Iyar, 5717): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1957(1stof Iyar, 5717): Sixty-five year old Yale trained ophthalmologist Arthur M. Yudkin, the husband of Adel Yudkin and father of Marvin and Dr. Gerald Yudkin passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/05/04/84722781.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1312661/pdf/taos00044-0025.pdf
1958: Opening of the Cannes Film Festival where one of the entrants was “The Brothers Karamazov” directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Pandro S. Berman, with a script by Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein and Richard Brooks and featuring William Shatner in his film debut.
1960(5thof Iyar, 5720): Israel marks its 12th year of independence on Yom HaAtzma’ut.
1962: In Philadelphia, PA, Lillian Jenkins and Manuel Jenkins, a Jewish “car salesman and nightclub owner” gave birth to actress Tamara Jenkins.
1963: In London, Lucian Freud and Bernadine Coverley gave birth to British novel Esther Freud who is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and a niece of Clement Freud.
1962(28th of Nisan, 5722): Seventy-two year old composer and songwriter Irving Bobo who may have been a descendant of Nathan Bobo, a German Jewish immigrant who helped to settle New Mexico, passed away today.
1966(12thof Iyar, 5726): Eighty-eight year old Hyman Pearlstone, the native of Buffalo, TX who was a businessman in Waco, Palestine and Dallas, TX where he was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and who was born exactly ten years before his brother Julius Hart Pearlstone passed away today. (Some sources show May 1 as the day he passed away.)
1967(22ndof Nisan, 5727): Eighth Day of Pesach
1968(4th of Iyar, 5728): Yom HaAtzma'ut
1968: Israeli television began broadcasting.
1968: Birthdate of Edward Frenkel, the Russian-born, Harvard educated mathematician and filmmaker who won the Hermann Weyl Prize in 2002.
1968: Release date of the cinematic version of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple co-starring Walter Matthau and directed by Gene Saks.
1972(18thof Iyar, 5732): Lag B’Omer
1973: “Messiah of Evil’ a horror film co-directed, co-produced and with a script co-authored by Gloria Katz was released in the United States
1974(10thof Iyar, 5734): Fifty-six year old, Philadelphia native Abraham Allen Weintraub, a long-time administrator of St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock, a very dedicated civic worker and an inspiration to all who worked with him” and who is the namesake of “The A. Allen Weintraub Memorial Award, the highest honor bestowed upon an individual by the Arkansas Hospital Association” passed away today.
1975: Larry Blyden (born Ivan Lawrence Blieden) “reprised his role as “Ensign Pulver” in a tribute for director Joshua Logan at the Imperial Theatre.
1975: The American Jewish Committee announced publication of a guidebook by Gladys Rosen suggesting ways to recognize Jewish contributions to the United States during the Bicentennial celebrations.
1976(2ndof Iyar, 5736): Fifty-nine year old Polish born shipping executive Samuel H. Wang, who had four children – Nathan, Daniel, Hanita and Devorah – with his wife Gloria passed away today.
1976: Agudath Achim, the Orthodox congregation in Little Rock, AR, dedicates its newest building. This is the third home for the congregation; the first one that is not in the downtown section of the city.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, told the visiting Premier, Menachem Begin, that the U.S. will "never waiver" in its "absolute commitment to the Israeli security," even though "we may, from time to time, have a transient difference with the people of Israel". Some 150 American rabbis participating in the White House reception given to honor the Prime Minister Menachem Begin, presented the U.S. National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, with a petition protesting the proposed Middle Eastern arms embargo, which would directly affect Israel.
1978(25th of Nisan, 5738): Seventy-five year old New York attorney and executive director of the National War Labor Board Robert Abelow who was the Editor-In Chief of the Employee Relations Law Journal passed away today.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that despite the U.S. State Department's official objections, the Palestine Liberation Organization opened an information office in Washington, under the management of Hatem Husseini, a Palestinian citizen of Jordan.
1979(5thof Iyar, 5739): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1979(5thof Iyar, 5739): Just a week before his seventieth-eighth birthday Russian born French Professor of Genetics Boris Ephrussi passed away.
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ge.14.120180.002311?journalCode=genet
1979: Seventy-eight year old “Betty Blanc Glassbury, a poet and collector of Asian art,” the widow of John Adam Glassbury, whom his grandson Dr. Richard Dombroff described as “Dr. Welby in real life” and the mother of Eunice Glassbury Dombroff, passed away today.
1980(16th of Iyyar, 5740): Arab terrorists kill 6 Jews and injure 17 at Hebron. Israeli military authorities order the deportation of the mayors of Hebron and the nearby village of Halhoul for incitement to violence. The mayors appeal to Israeli courts, which affirm the order. In December, they will be deported to southern Lebanon.
1981: Rabbi Joseph P. Weinberg officiated at the wedding of Harolyn Sue Landow and Michael H. Cardozo at Washington Hebrew Congregation. Mr. Cardozo is a cousin the late Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo.
1981(28thof Nisan, 5741): Eighty-five year old Dr. David Wechsler, a psychologist who was the author of widely used intelligence tests, passed away today in New York City. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
http://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/03/obituaries/dr-david-wechsler-85-author-of-intelligence-tests.html
1981(28thof Nisan, 5741): Eighty-one year old Rabbi Joseph Hager, founder and senior rabbi of the Wall Street Synagogue, passed away today. A native of Rumania, Rabbi Hager founded two schools, the Hebrew Institute of Long Island, in Far Rockaway, and the Yeshiva of Spring Valley, in Rockland County. He was the founding editor and publisher of Synagogue Light, a monthly publication. The Wall Street Synagogue was first situated at Broadway and Duane Street and later move to 47 Beekman Street.
1981: A police sapper was moderately injured by an explosive charge that had been placed in a trash can near Cafe Alno in Jerusalem.
1982: “Talk With George Steiner” published today provides a look at the views of this Jewish philosopher, author and academic.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/02/books/talk-with-george-steiner.html
1982: Mayor Ed Koch is expected to be among the 450 guests attending the dinner tonight celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Hebrew Tabernacle of Washington Heights which has been led by Rabbi Robert L. Lehman for the past twenty-five years.
1982: “Alive And 90 In The Jungles of Brazil” published today provides a detailed review of The Portage To San Cristobal of A.H., George Steiner’s novel about Adolph Hitler.
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/05/02/books/alive-and-90-in-the-jungles-of-brazil.html?pagewanted=all
1983(19thof Iyar, 5743): Seventy year old Brooklyn born Benjamin R Epstein, the Pennsylvania educated former director of the ADL and author who raised two children – Ellen and David – with his wife Ethel passed away today.
1983: Barrick Resources Corporation which had been founded by Peter Munk “became a publicly traded company today” when it was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
1984: The three day suspension of publication of Hadashot mandated by the military censor for publication of an article about the Kav 300 affair came to an end
1984: “Sunday in the Park with George,” a music with lyrics and a score by Stephen Sondheim opened at the Booth Theatre today.
1985: In Great Neck NY, John Hughes and Amy Pastarnack, a Jewish breast cancer survivor gave birth to Olympic medal winning figure skater Sarah Elizabeth Hughts.
1987: “P.L.O., Reunited But Isolated” published today described the disarray among those committed to the destruction of Israel.
1989(27thof Nisan, 5749): Yom HaShoah
1990: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addressed the Women’s International Zionist Organization at its Centenary Lunch
1990(7th of Iyar, 5750): Thirty-eight year old David Rapport the London native who was born with achondroplasia and began his acting career in 1979 passed away today.
1991(18th of Iyar, 5751): Lag B’Omer
1991: Final broadcast of season six of The Cosby Show, a co-creation of Ed Weinberger.
1991(18th of Iyar, 5751): Eighty-two year old Leib Lensky, an actor who appeared in plays, films and television programs and performed in English, Yiddish and Hebrew, passed away today
1992(29th of Nisan, 5752): Dr. Lee Salk passed away. Born in 1926, Salk gained famed as a “baby doctor" and author on family matters. He died of cardiac arrest at the age of 65.
1993(11thof Iyar, 5753): Eighty-six year old Polish born Arthur B. Belfer, “the founder of Belco Corporation who married his wife Diane after the death of his first wife “the former Rochelle Anisfeld” passed away today.
1995(2ndof Iyar, 5755): Eighty-nine year old screen writer passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/06/obituaries/edwin-blum-89-writer-for-stage-and-the-screen.html
1997: In the U.K. Peter Benjamin Mandelson, began serving as Minister without Portfolio.
1997: Malcolm Rifkind completed his service as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
1999: Daniel Goldfein’s F-16 was shot down today over western Serbia while serving as commander of the 555th Fighter Squadron and successfully ejected so that he could be rescued “by NATO helicopters.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including“Israel and Europe:An Appraisal in History” by Howard M. Sachar and “The Majors: In Pursuit of Golf's Holy Grail” by John Feinstein.
2000(27th of Nisan, 5760): Yom HaShoah
2000(27thof Nisan, 5760): Ninety-year old All-American quarterback for the University of Michigan Harry Lawrence Newman whose skills were honed by fellow Wolverine Benny Friedman and went on to lead the New York Giants to an NFL title passed away today.
2000: Israeli jet fighters turn back an Egyptian civilian aircraft from the Gaza airport
2001: “Israel Arrests an ex-general as a spy for spilling old secrets” published today described action taken against seventy-five year old Itzhak Yaakov, a retired IDF general.
2001: A meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to discuss the Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative ends with little advancement.
2001: In “Anti-Semitism: An All-American Attribute” published today Jonathan Zimmerman reminded us that Jew-hating is common currency of culture regardless of century, gender or race.
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2001/may/02/local/me-58214
2002: Today, during Operation Defensive of Shield the siege of the Mukataa, the official headquarters of Arafat and the PA was lifted “after 6 men wanted by Israel – 4 of them convicted of involvement in the October 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister Rehavam Zeevi – were moved to a prison in Jericho to be guarded by U.S. and British wardens
2003(30thof Nisan, 5763): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2003: Today, in Israel the government identified the suicide bombers who killed three people in an attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub on April 30 as “British citizens Asif Hanif, 21, who died in the suicide attack, and Omar Khan Sharif, 27, an accomplice who reportedly escaped after failing to detonate his bomb making them “the first Britons known to be prepared to kill themselves in the militant Islamic cause.”
2004: On the PGA tour, Bruce Fleisher won Bruno’s Memorial Classic.
2004: 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 Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning study that maintains that the Soviet concentration-camp system was equal to the Nazi killing machine and supports Solzhenitsyn's assertion that the gulag was not a Stalinist aberration but an integral part of Lenin's Socialist dream.
2004(11th of Iyar, 5764) A pregnant mother and her four daughters are shot dead by terrorists as they drive on the Kissufim road in the Gaza Strip.
2004(11thof Iyar, 5764): Eighty-year old Hyam Maccoby, the grandson and “namesake of Rabbi Hyam Maccoby known as the ‘Kamenitzer Maggid’” and British scholar whose academic work successfully challenged the image of Jesus and the Pharisees painted in the Gospels passed away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jul/31/guardianobituaries.religion
2004: Vowing to fight for coexistence and mutual respect among mankind around the world, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lays the cornerstone of Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance and pays tribute to the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Governor concludes his speech with the Hebrew saying, "Am Yisrael hai"– (the nation of Israel lives) – gives the crowd a thumbs-up sign, and adds his signature movie line, "I'll be back."
2004: Sixty-five per cent of those participating in an internal Likud referendum voted against Ariel Sharon’s plan to disengage from Gaza.
2004: Natan Sharansky, the Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, and the World Zionist Organization, launch the new "Combating Anti-Semitism" Kit.
2005(23rdof Nisan, 5765): Seventy-eight year old NYU trained physician William Kohlmann Rashbaum, “the chief of family planning services at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center” passed away today.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2005-05-06-0505060176-story.html
2005: Neiman Marcus Group was the subject of a leveraged buyout (LBO), selling itself to two private equity firms, Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus
2005: Publication today of Nicole Krauss’ award winning novel The History of Love.
2006(4th of Iyar, 5766): Yom Hazikaron – Israel Remembrance Day. On the day before celebrating its independence, Israel remembers the human cost. In the past year, 138 members of the security forces have been killed in the line of duty, bringing the total of men and women killed defending the state since 1860 to 22,123. This does not count the thousands of innocent bystanders who died in everything from terrorist attacks on Jerusalem pizza parlors to the sinking of ships filled with immigrants bound for Palestine in defiance of the infamous British White Paper.
2006: The Peter Jay Sharp Building of the Brooklyn Academy of Music which Harvey Lichtenstein led for 32 years starting in 1967 was added to the NRHP today
2006: Random House published Absurdistan, a 2006 novel by Gary Shteyngart” that “chronicles the adventures of Misha Vainberg, the 325-pound son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, as he struggles to return to his true love in the South Bronx.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdistan_(novel)#/media/File:Absurdistan.jpg
2007: The Jewish Center for History and the Leo Baeck Institute in New York presented “Hannah Arendt Rediscovered” a program “featuring the distinguished philosopher Richard Bernstein and author Jerome Kohn.”
2007( 14th of Iyar): Pesach Sheini
2008: As part of the PEN World Voices, Israeli author Yael Hedaya participates in a panel discussion entitled Writing Sex and Sexuality. Yael Hedaya was born in Jerusalem in 1964.
She has worked as a screenwriter for the acclaimed Israeli TV drama series Betipul (In Treatment), which was adapted for the United States and currently airs on HBO. She is the author of Dramatis Persona, Housebroken, and Accidents, which was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award in 2006. Her latest novel, Eden, will be published in 2008.
Yael Hedaya teaches creative writing at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa Friday evening services Temple Judah are dedicated to bidding Muriel and Fred Rogers a fond farewell. Fred and Muriel have been mainstays of the Jewish community and while we are all glad that they are enjoying a long, healthy life, we will miss them as they return to their Chicago roots.
2008: “One of a Kind,” a play that Yossi Vassa co-wrote with Shai Ben Attar about his family’s flight from Ethiopia in the mid-1980s opens at The New Victory Theater in New York City
2008(27thof Nisan, 5768): Seventy-two year old Uzbekistani musician and poet Ilyas Malayev who fell victim to anti-Semitism in his homeland lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and passed away today in Queens, NY.
2008: “Imaginary Coordinates” featuring the Spertus Institute’s collection of Holy Land maps, which date back to the 16th century as well as contemporary Israeli and Palestinian women artists’ works that take up the question of regional borders opens at the Spertus in Chicago, Il.
2009: The Lincoln Center presents Orient- Occident: A Dialogue of Cultures as part of the Jordi Savall Jerusalem Series.
2009(8thof Iyar, 5769): Alfred Appel Jr., a scholarly expert on Vladimir Nabokov, whose lecture course he attended at Cornell, and the author of wide-ranging interpretive books on modern art and jazz, died today in Wilmette, Illinois at the age of 75. (As reported by William Grimes)
2009:Wayne L. Horvitz, a longtime labor relations mediator and the son of David Lyon Hurwitz, discusses and signs What's the Beef?: Sixty Years of Hard-won Lessons for Today's Leaders in Labor, Management, and Government at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.
2010(18th of Iyar, 5770): Lag B'Omer
2010(18th of Iyar, 5770): Inna Hecker Grade, the widow and a translator of the great Yiddish novelist and poet Chaim Grade, who earned her own literary niche for her zealous guardianship of her husband’s legacy, died today at the age of 85 in the Bronx, New York City. (As reported by Joseph Berger)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/nyregion/13grade.html?pagewanted=print
2010: Silvia Planas and Manuel Forcano are scheduled to discuss A History of Jewish Catalonia their book that traces the rich and fertile history of the Jews in Catalonia from the earliest references, that is, from the time of the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages, until the drastic decree of expulsion by the Catholic Monarchs in a program sponsored by The American Sephardi Federation
2010: As part of the third annual program in memory of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter, Prof. Eugene Orenstein of McGill University is scheduled to speak on the topic, "Ber Borokhov: A Revolutionary of Yiddish Philology" followed by Prof. Joshua (Shikl) Fishman who is scheduled to speak about Dr. Schaechter.
2010(18thIyar, 5770): Eighty-six year old Rabbi Moshe Hirsch, a leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that opposes the existence of the Israeli state and a longtime adviser to the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, died today at his home in Jerusalem. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/world/middleeast/05hirsch.html?pagewanted=print
2011: Today, “the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY), at their monthly public meeting, voted to remove (by tabling to avoid debate) Tony Kushner's name from the list of people invited to receive honorary degrees, based on a statement by trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld about Kushner's purported statements and beliefs about Zionism and Israel” after which “the CUNY Graduate Center Advocate began a live blog on the "Kushner Crisis" situation, including news coverage and statements of support from faculty and academics.”
2011: As reported by Tom Tugend in “Auschwitz bar mitzvah for 78-year-old Oscar-winner Branko Lustig”: Branko Lustig, 78, two-time Oscar winner for “Schindler’s List” and “Gladiator,” is scheduled to celebrate his bar mitzvah today at Auschwitz, in front of barrack No. 24.
2011: The ITV network broadcast the first episode of “Case Sensitive” which based on The Point of Rescue by British poet and novelist Sophie Hannah.
2011: The Consultation on Conscience, Reform Judaism's flagship social justice conference is scheduled to continue with a reception featuring guest host Richard Dreyfus at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
2011: The 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society Heritage Award Dinner is scheduled to take place in Denver. The 2011 Heritage Award Dinner will salute early Colorado Jews in the Arts and will feature the premiere of a film called "Civilizing the West: Early Colorado Jews in the Arts."
2011: This morning at 10 a.m., sirens will wail throughout the country as people observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Nazi persecution. The closing ceremony of Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day will take place at Yad Mordechai, the kibbutz adjacent to Gaza named after Mordechai Anielewicz, the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising who was killed in the fighting.
2011: In the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Chicago police are taking additional measures to guard against possible retaliatory terrorist attacks. Police were paying closer attention to many buildings including synagogues, particularly in the Rogers Park and West Rogers Park neighborhoods, areas that have large Jewish communities. Some Chicago synagogues said they're not enhancing security because they're always on high alert. "The reality is that because of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists . . . we have been instituting additional security for a very long time," said Rabbi Leonard Matanky, of Congregation KINS in West Rogers Park. In the wake of 9/11, many synagogues installed cameras and began locking their doors, among other security measures that officials declined to specify.
2011: The Supreme Court delayed the start of former President Moshe Katsav's jail sentence until a ruling is reached on an appeal filed by his lawyers. Katsav, who was convicted on two counts of rape for indecent assault and sexual harassment of female employees, appealed the ruling against him this week.
2011(28thof Nisan, 5771): Yom HaShoah
2011: Today, “More than a year after his death, Michael T. Kaufman was included in the byline for the New York Times obituary of Osama bin Laden
2011: The trustees of the City University of New York voted to shelve plans to award an honorary degree to Tony Kushner because he “had disparaged the State of Israel in past comments.
2011: The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas condemned the killing by U.S. forces of Osama bin Laden and mourned him as an "Arab holy warrior." (As reported by Jack Khoury)
2012: A limited run of 'Welcome to America' by H. Leivick (the penname of Leivick Haplern) is scheduled to begin in New York.
2012: Dr. Jonathan Sarna is scheduled to discuss his marvelous new book, When General Grant Expelled the Jews at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.
2012: Dr. Edna Nahshon, Professor of Hebrew and Theater at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and editor of Jews and Theater in an Intercultural Context, is scheduled to discuss this new book of essays, including her own research on passion plays in America at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
2012: The Westchester Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The International Workshop on Holocaust Testimonies: Truth and Witness being held at the Wiener Library in the UK is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Jews in Early Modern Europe: A Day-to-Day Perspective.”
2012(10thof Iyar, 5773): Ninety year old violinist Zvi Zeitlin passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013: In Chicago, the Spertus Institute is scheduled to present “Ballot, Babies and Banners of Peace,:” a lecture in which Dr. Melissa R. Klpaaher “will discuss how the activism of American Jewish women was grounded in their gender, religious, cultural, and ethnic identities…”
2013: “The key witness in the breach of trust trial against former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, his former deputy Danny Ayalon took the stand today and gave incriminating testimony, confirming that while serving in the Foreign Ministry, Liberman had acted to promote a man who had done him a favor.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2013: The Maccabeats and Sarah Aroeste and Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird are scheduled to perform at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2013: A terrorist opened fire at two people this evening in Wadi Kelt, near Mitzpeh Yericho. The two were attacked as they sat in a car
2013: Terrorists in Gaza fired two rockets at southern Israel tonight. The rockets hit the Eshkol region.
2014: Coralville, Iowa, The House of David Softball Team, sponsored by Agudas Achim is scheduled to take the field.
2014(2ndof Iyar, 5774): Eighty-two year old director and playwright Charles Marowitz passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2014: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its final Musical Shabbat of the season.
2014: Annalisa Capristo the librarian at the Centro Studi Americani, Rome, Italy whose work focuses on anti-Jewish persecution in Italy under Fascist rule, particularly against Jewish scholars is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “An Overview of the Italian Jewish Immigration in South America” at the Third Regional New Conference sponsored by the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA)
2014: Day Two of Jewish American Heritage Month
2014: “Palestinian gunmen fired at an IDF force on the Gaza border tonight, near the Kissufim border crossing in the central Gaza Strip.”
2014: “The patriarch of the Maronite church will travel to Jerusalem next month to greet Pope Francis, the first head of his Lebanon-based denomination to visit since Israel’s creation in 1948, he said today.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-bishop-to-make-historic-jerusalem-trip
2015: “Firing Line,” the three year old colt owned by Arnold Zechter, the former CEO of Talbots, is scheduled to run in today’s Kentucky Derby.
2015: Fred Spiegel, the Shoah Survivor who wrote Once the Acacias Bloomed: Memories of a Childhood Lost is scheduled to speak at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2015: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “Folk Songs in Artistic Arrangement/”
2015: The Samaritan community is scheduled to hold its annual sacrifice of the lamb marking the Exodus from Egypt on Mount Gerizim today. (As reported by Amanda Borschel-Dan)
2015(13thof Iyar, 5775): Parashat Achrei Mot - Kedoshim
2015: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mother’s Day Shabbat – “All Women Are Mothers In the House of Israel” -- includes flowers for everybody and a Kiddush prepared by the male members of the minyan.
2015(13thof Iyar, 5775): Eight-nine year old ballerina and choreographer Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya passed away today in Munich
http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-mourns-jewish-ballet-rebel-maya-plisetskaya/
2016: Professor Richard Schwartz is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Advancing Veganism in Israel” at Ginger, 8 Balfour Street, Jerusalem.
2016(24thof Nisan, 5776): Eighty-eight year old stamp collector Irwin Weinberg passed away today. (As reported by James Barron)
2016: The Historic Sixth and I Synagogue is scheduled to host Café Nite where attendees can “explore several learning options with MesorahDC.
2017: Yom Ha’Atzmaut - Israel Independence Day;
2017:Sagiv Lugasi, a student at the Ort school in Ma’alot-Tarshiha, took first prize in the annual competition in Jerusalem Independence Day making him “the first secular student to win the International Bible Quiz in over 30 years.” (As reported by TOI)
2017: The Iowa Jewish History Symposium is scheduled to begin in Iowa City.
2017: GiveNOLA Day scheduled for today provides an opportunity to make donations to JCRS, a Jewish charity that has delivered a multiplicity of services to Jews throughout the region.
2017: “Beneath the Helmet,” a film about five Israeli high school graduates is scheduled to be shown at East Bay Jewish Film Festival.
2017:The LA Jewish Film Festival and Yiddishkayt are scheduled to co-host the West Coast of “Menashe.”
2018: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a discussion on Great Jewish Renegades led by Rabbi Feivel Strauss that will focus on the life of Leonard Cohen.
2018: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble and Telsa String Quartet “Serenading Mozart.”
2018: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open with “Sammy Davis Jr.: I’ve Gotta Be Me.”
2018: As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, the William G. McGowan Theatre will host historian talking about his latest work The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics.
2019: In New York, the Fort Gansevoort Gallery is scheduled to host the hoping of the exhibit “Soviet Childhood’ featuring the works of Zoya Cerkassky
2019: “Claude Lanzmann’s ‘Shoah: Four Sisters’” is scheduled to be shown at Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center.
https://www.emanuelnyc.org/event/claude-lanzmanns-shoah-four-sisters-part-2/
2019: In San Francisco, Congregation Emanu-El is scheduled to host “Iran Talks: Next Steps After the Collapse of the Deal and Iran’s Role in the Region” featuring Abraham D. Sofaer and Dr. Michael Ledeen.
2019(27thof Nisan, 5779: In the wake of the latest synagogue shooting and the revelation that Labour Party leader has endorsed and written a forward for “a book containing overtly anti-Semitic tropes” observance of Yom HaShoah
2020: As the number of Coronavirus deaths continues to rise, Israelis await to see which schools will and will not open tomorrow following yesterday’s vote by the cabinet “to return some of Israel’s students to school” tomorrow. (As reported by Jacob Magid
2020: The UK Jewish Film is scheduled to provide on-line a screening of “An Act of Defiance.”
2020(8thof Iyar, 5780): On the Jewish calendar Yarhzeit of the Jews of Speyer who massacred today during the First Crusade (1096) and the Jews of Lemberg who massacred (1667)
2020(8thof Iyar, 5780): Parashat Acharay Mot and Kedoshim; Pirke Avot Chapter 3.
2021: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Month County is scheduled to present “Kreplach and Dim Sum: Yes, There are Jews in China” led by Robyn Helzner “who shares stores, photos, videos, and music to explore the extraordinary history of the Jewish communities in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Kaifeng; ad traces their emergence as the fastest growing Jewish region in the world today.”
2021: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Names of New York: Discovering the City’s Past, Present, and Future Through Its Place-Names by Joshua Jelly-Schapiro whose father’s family are Jews from Eastern Europe and the recently released paperback edition of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (as Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb
2021: Jookender Community Initiatives, Inc is scheduled to present “Lag Ba’Omer for Russian-Speaking Jewish Community.”
2021: Temple Isaiah is scheduled to present online “Jews & Blacks in the Civil Rights Era & Now: Midrash & Fact.
2021: “The Jewish Psychedelic Summit” is scheduled to begin today online.
2021: The ASF Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present “The Jewish Effendiya: Between Jewishness and Middle-Classness in Modern Egypt” with Dr. Alon Tam.
2021: While many of those injured in the Mt. Meron still remain in the hospital, Israel continues to cope with the aftermath of what some have described as the worst civilian catastrophe in the state’s history.