May 22
334 BCE: The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus. This was the first step of a “journey” that would lead to the turning Egypt and Asia Minor (a territory that included Jerusalem and Judea) into bastions of Hellenistic culture. This would create a collision course with Jewish values that would lead to the Maccabee Revolt followed by decades of internecine fighting that would really not come to an end until the Second Temple was destroyed.
124 BCE (23rd of Iyar, 3618): Simon the Hasmonean, drove the “Greeks” – the Syrians and their Hellenized Jewish allies – out of the citadel which was their last stronghold in Jerusalem. While Jews celebrate Chanukah, it is this victory, 40 years later, under Judah’s youngest brother that marks the defeat of the Syrians that led to an independent Jewish state under the Hasmonean dynasty.
337: Constantine, known as the first Christian Emperor of the Roman Emperor for legalizing the practice of Christianity in the Roman Empire passed away. As the following entry shows, Constantine not only promoted Christianity, he was instrumental in the creation of hostile environment for the Jewish people. “Constantine instituted several legislative measures regarding the Jews: they were forbidden to own Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves. Conversion of Christians to Judaism was outlawed. Congregations for religious services were restricted, but Jews were allowed to enter Jerusalem on Tisha B'Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple. Constantine also supported the separation of the date of Easter from the Jewish Passover stating in his letter after the First Council of Nicaea: "... it appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. ... Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way." Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History 1.9 records the Epistle of the Emperor Constantine addressed to those Bishops who were not present at the Council: "It was, in the first place, declared improper to follow the custom of the Jews in the celebration of this holy festival, because, their hands having been stained with crime, the minds of these wretched men are necessarily blinded. ... Let us, then, have nothing in common with the Jews, who are our adversaries. ... avoiding all contact with that evil way. ... who, after having compassed the death of the Lord, being out of their minds, are guided not by sound reason, but by an unrestrained passion, wherever their innate madness carries them. ... a people so utterly depraved. ... Therefore, this irregularity must be corrected, in order that we may no more have any thing in common with those parricides and the murderers of our Lord. ... no single point in common with the perjury of the Jews."
1176: Murder attempt by the Hashshashin (Assassins) on Saladin near Aleppo. This attempt on the Muslim Warrior-King was part of the on-going clash between sects of Islam. From the Jewish point of view, Saladin’s survival is good news. After capturing Jerusalem from the Crusaders, Saladin allowed the Jews to return to the City of David during a century long ban imposed by the Christians. The event was eloquently described by the Jewish poet Al-harizi in 1190. Saladin reportedly hired Moses Maimonides to serve as his personal physician.
1370: After killing a rich Jew in Brussels, Belgium, the perpetrators tried to cover their tracks by accusing the Jews of host desecration. The perpetrators escaped in the ensuing confusion. A few hundred Jews were killed and the rest banished from the country. A holiday was declared by the local churches.
1377: Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe. Wycliffe’s doctrines were part of the heresies threatening Papal authority throughout northern Europe. This is the same Pope Gregory who had ordered the burning of Jewish books a year earlier in 1376, an act that might be seen more as a way of enforcing Papal authority and the primacy of the Roman Catholic Church.
1549: Queen Bona Sforza rendered a decision today issued “regulations modifying and defining the rights of the Jewish community of Grodno” including a requirement that Jews “pay 17 percent of the taxes the government assessed against the city” while freeing the Jews “from special taxes paid in kind” but denying the Jews to “buy a house from a citizen without royal permission.
1608: Jacob Wolfgang, a German Jew who converted to Christianity became a reader at the Bodleian Library today.
1649: Birthdate of “German Orientalist,” Matthew Frederick Beck, the Augsburg “preacher” who “published a translation of the Targum on Chronicles” and the translator of “several other works from including a description of “the travels of Benjamin of Tudela.” (As reported by Joseph Jacobs and Richard Gottheil)
1753(18thof Iyar 5513): Lag B’Omer
1753: The Jewish Naturalization Act 1753 passed the House of Commons
1760(7th of Sivan, 5520): Second Day of Shavuot
1760: Rabbi Menachem Mendel Rubin of Linsk and his Beila the daughter of Rabbi Yitzchak Halevi Horowitz of Hamburg gave birth to Rabbi Naftali Zvi Horowitz of Ropshitz, “the first Ropshitzer Rebbe”
1760(7th of Sivan, 5520): Rabbi Israel (Yisroel) ben Eliezer (רבי ישראל בן אליעזר better known as the Baal Shem Tov, founder of Chasidic Judaism, passed away. [Hopefully this brief entry will spur readers to find out more about a person who had such an impact on the Jewish people.]
http://www.chabad.org/generic_cdo/aid/388609/jewish/The-Baal-Shem-Tov.htm
1771: Today Moses de Lyon married Rose Solomons in New York City.
1779: Birthdate of Hyam Jonas, the son Lyon Jonas, who died a month after his bith.
1787: In London, Daniel Cohen D'Azevedo, the son of Haham Moses Cohen d'Azevedo and Sara de Haham Moses Cohen D'Azevedo and his wife Ester Rodriques Cohen D'Azevedo gave birth to Abagail Daniel Cohen De Azevedo
1793(17th of Iyar 5553): Rabbi Ezekeil Landau passed away. Born in 1713, in Prague, he was a brilliant Talmudist and Halachic authority. Landau was also unusual in that he endorsed the idea of leaning math and science, and supported the traditionalist element within the Maskilim (Enlightenment) movement. Landau helped to establish the first Jewish school in Prague. His magnum opus is called the Nodeh B'Yehuda which is still very popular today. It contains eight hundred and fifty-five Responsa divided into two volumes.
1796(14thof Iyar, 5556): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time during the Presidency of George Washington.
1799: In Paris, Le Moniteur Universal published a short statement sent from the French forces besieging Acre that: "Buonaparte a fait publier une proclamation, dans laquelle il invite les juifs de l'Asie et de l'Afrique à venir se ranger sous ses drapeaux, pour rétablir l'ancienne Jérusalem; il en a déjà armé un grand nombre, et leurs bataillons menacent Alep." This has been translated in English as: "Bonaparte has published a proclamation in which he invites all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem. He has already given arms to a great number, and their battalions threaten Aleppo.” Unbeknownst to the newspaper, Napoleon had already abandoned the siege of the Acre, leaving it in the hands of the Ottomans and surrendering his designs to create a French empire in the Orient.
1802: Birthdate Bavarian poet Leopold Feldmann.
1804: Birthdate of Pharmacologist Jonathan Perieira, the native of London whose “book on Materia Medica was the first great English work on Pharmacology.”
1806(5thof Sivan, 5566): Erev Shavuot observed as Lewis and Clark made their way through what is now Montana on their way to the Pacific coast.
1809(7th of Sivan, 5569): Second Day of Shavuot
1811: Birthdate of Leopold Löw, Hungarian rabbi and theologian.
1813: Birthdate of composer Richard Wagner.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html
1814: Birthdate of Joshua Heschel Schoor, “Galician Hebrew scholar, critic, and communal worker.”
1817(7thof Sivan, 5577): Second day of Shavuot; Yizkor
1820: Birthdate of Isidor Binswanger, a leader of the Philadelphia Jewish community who served as President of Maimonides College, the first Jewish institution of higher learning in the United States and the father of Fanny Binswanger Hoffman.
1823: In London, Abraham Jacob Mocatta and the former Miriam Brandon gave birth to Miriam Mocatta.
1825(5thof Sivan, 5585): Erev Shavuot celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of John Q. Adams.
1835: Sixty-eight year old Isaac Lazarus was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1836(6thof Sivan, 5596): Shavuot is celebrated for the last time under the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.
1838: In Manchester, England, Phillip Solomon and Catherine Hart gave birth to Jacob P. Solomon, who studied at Notre Dame and earned a law degree from Columbia before marrying Frances Stitch and becoming the editor of several publications including the Jewish Record and the Hebrew Leader while also writing “Chronicles of the Rabbis” “Chips from Masonic Quarries” and “The Modern Wandering Jew.”
1839(9th of Sivan, 5599): Yisroel ben Shmuel Ashkenazi of Shklov, a disciple of the Vilna Gaon who “became the head of the German and Polish congregations of Safed and then of Jerusalem” passed away today at Tiberias
1842: Two days after she had passed away, Esther Norden, the daughter of Jacob Norden and Catherine Jacobs was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road ) Jewish Cemetery.”
1843: “The first major wagon train” heading for that part of the Northwest Territory now known as Oregon…”departs from Elm Grove, Missouri traveling along the Oregon Trail. According to Scott Cline, author of Community Structure on the Urban Frontier: The Jews of Portland, Oregon Jacob Goldsmith and Lewis May who arrived in Portland, Oregon in 1849. They were the first Jewish settlers in Portland and possibly in all of Oregon.
1843: Birthdate of Adolf Aron Baginsky, a leading German physician who was a staunch defender of his people against the growing anti-Semitism in his homeland. “He is also the author of an essay entitled, "Die Hygienische Bedeutung der Mosäischen Gesetzgebung," in which he comes forward as a stanch defender and enthusiastic admirer of the hygienic laws of Moses” and as a leader of the Berlin Jewish community opposed moving Sabbath services to Sunday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Aron_Baginsky
1846: One day after she had passed away, Catherine Barnet, the wife of Godfrey Barnet, was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1846: A wagon train owned by Albert Speyer left Independence, MO today headed for Santa Fe New Mexico. A native of Prussia, Speyer had been operating wagon trains since 1843. Two of the 25 wagons making this trip were reportedly filled with Yager rifles and ammunition that had been ordered by Angel Trias, the governor of Chihuahua, Mexico. At this time, Santa Fe was still a part of Mexico and Speyer had no way of knowing the United States was about to go to war with its neighbor to the south.
1847(7thof Sivan, 5607): 2nd Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1848: In Bavaria, Ephraim and Lea Kopple Waldstein gave birth to Zadok “Oskar” Waldstein, the brother of Sophie Waldstein.
1848: Birthdate of Elise Lehmann who was buried at the Jewish Cemetery in Morgan City, LA, when she passed away in 1923.
1850: The following article published today entitled “Paris—Foundation of a Jewish Hospital” described work being done to establish a Jewish hospital in Paris and provided a snapshot of the French Jewish community.
The editor of the “Archives Israelites,” in his May number, says: “Among the establishments, the most imperiously demanded is a Jewish hospital. Let the individual opinions of each of us concerning our ceremonies, especially those which concern dietetic laws, be more or less rigid, it is nevertheless the duty of an Israelitish administration to take care of those under their charge, who would sooner die than enter an hospital, where the observance of their religious rules is impossible. Moreover, when we think of the interference of the clergy, who seek to fish for souls, and who often find auxiliaries against the tolerant wishes of the directors of hospitals, in the sisters (of charity) who attend on the sick, no one can deny that a Jewish hospital is necessary.”—After some farther remarks he continues: “Thanks to Mr. James Rothschild, Paris will have a Jewish hospital. He has just purchased a piece of ground in Rue Picpus, Nos. 62, 64, and 66, measuring 7,500 metres, of which 800 are occupied by buildings, and the other 6,700 are laid out in gardens, walks, &c. The buildings consist of three houses contiguous to each other. The price of the purchase, with the expenses and building, will reach nearly 120,000 francs, about $22,800. A large portion of the land can be taken, independently of the hospital, for the use of the poor class.” The consistory of Paris very properly called on Mr. Rothschild, on the 22d of May, to thank him for his generosity. Dr. Cahen, in a few, well-chosen words, expressed the gratitude felt by the whole community, and used this remarkable phrase: “God has given you wealth, but He has also given you a heart to make, so charitable a use of it as this is.” Mr. R. was greatly moved by the act, and the words addressed to him; and made a suitable reply. His wife was present, and active as she is in all that is charitable, she took part in the conversation which afterwards sprang up between them and the deputation, and Mr. R. made particular inquiries after many matters of interest to the congregation, and showed himself ready to continue them his kindness.—It is not often, our readers will confess, that we praise the rich; but such an act of true benevolence as this just exhibited by Mr. Rothschild of Paris richly deserves to be recorded in our magazine; and we hope to hear that he has found imitators in this country; for though we have none who control such ample resources, there is no lack of means among us, if their possessors could once be persuaded that they could devote a considerable portion of their wealth to worthy objects of charity without robbing their families, the usual
1851(20th of Iyar, 5611): Mordecai Manuel Noah, author, diplomat and one of the most influential Jewish leaders in the first half of the 19th century passed away. Born in 1785, he was a diplomatic representative for the U.S.in North Africa when the new nation was making its foray into the Moslem world. In a later episode he gained the support of Adams, Jefferson and Madison (all founding fathers and U.S. Presidents) in reiterating the American belief in the separation of church and state. He may best be remembered for his attempt to create a utopian refuge for displaced European Jewry on an island on the Niagara River called Ararat. [Editor’s note: this blog does not have a enough space to do justify to the life of this fascinating Jewish American leader who set the tone for American Jewry – proud to be both Jewish and a citizen of the United States.]
1851: In Luxembourg, Rabbi Samuel Hirsch and his wife gave birth to Emil Gustav Hirsch, the American Rabbi was a major leader of Reform Judaism.
http://americanjewisharchives.org/publications/journal/PDF/1952_04_02_00_martin.pdf
1852: Birthdate of Emil Gustav Hirsch the son of Rabbi Samuel Hirsh and the son-in-law of Rabbi David Einhorn who was a major leader in the Reform movement in the United States.
1853: In Baden, Germany a local brewer and his wife gave birth to William Simon, who at the age of 18 came to the United States where worked for different brewers before settling in Buffalo in 1888 and in 1894 becoming the sole proprietor of the John Schusler Brewing Company while raising two sons and three daughters with the former Theresa Bronsetetter.
1854: At Freetown, Prince Edward Island, Robert and Lydia Schurman gave birth to Jacob Gould Schurman who in 1905, while serving as President of Cornell University, sent a check to Jacob H. Schiff, the treasurer of the Jewish Relief Fund along with a letter that said, “I enclose herewith my check for the fund in relief of the suffering Jews of Russia, whose terrible condition appeals to the universal heart of mankind.
1855(5thof Sivan, 5615): Erev Shavuot
1856: Astronomer Hermann Goldschmidt discovered asteroid 41 Daphne.
1858: In London, Adam Spielmann, the son Judah Spielmann gave birth to their 8thchild, the art critic and “editor The Connoisseur and the Magazine of Art” who “wrote a history of Punch” and who was the brother of famed civil engineer Isidore Spielmann and Sir Meyer Spielmann as week as the husband of Mabel Henriette Samuel which made him the brother-in-law of British political leader Herbert Samuel,
1858(9thof Sivan, 5618): Maimonides scholar David Ottensosser passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15272.html
1859(18th of Iyar, 5619): Lag B’Omer
1859: Lipman Nathan and Phoebe Silver were married today in London.
1860: Today, “in the United States Senate” Louisiana Senator “Judah P. Benjamin spoke in scathing terms of Stephen A. Douglas and lauded Lincoln, the question under consideration being measures introduced by Jefferson Davis on the subject of States Rights and Slavery.” (Benjamin was Jewish – the rest were not.)
1861: In Philadelphia, Abraham and Cecilia (Adler) Goldmsith gave birth to Milton Goldsmith the President of Goldsmith – Tobias Advertising Agency and the author of Rabbi and Priest and A Victim of Conscience who was the husband of Sophie Hyman.
1864: During the Civil War, the Red River Campaign in which Colonel H. Newbold of the 14thIowa was killed came to an end.
1866: Daniel DeLeon arrived in Hamburg from Curacao.
1867: One day after he had passed away, 56 year old Asher Jacobs the son of Isaac and Catherine Jacobs and the husband of Caroline Cohen was buried today in Sheerness, at the “Halfway (Queensborough) Jewish Cemetery.”
1869: Ferdinand Esterhazy, the real villain in the Dreyfus Affair began his military career by joining the Roman Legion today having failed the entrance exams for Saint-Cyr.
1871: In Detroit, Kaufmann Kohler, the rabbi at Beth-El Congregation and the former Johanna Einhorn, the “third daughter of leading Reform Rabbi David Einhorn” gave birth to Max James Kohler, the Columbia Law School graduate and assistant U.S. District Attorney who was a leader of the American Jewish community and an advocate for immigrant rights, regardless of their nation of origin.
https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/max_/Max%20James%20Kohler.pdf
1871: Reverend Howard Crosby chaired a meeting at New York’s Fourth Avenue Presbyterian Church where plans were discussed to explore the area along the Jordan River this October. The explorers hoped to find tombs of the Israelite Kings, the Ark of the Covenant and/or the tablets of stone. Crosby pointed out that a previous expedition had found a large Moabite stone with letters that were more like English than ancient Hebrew.
1872: “Another Influential Southerner Declares For Grant” published today described the decision of Georgia General Henry C. Wayne to support the man who defeated the Confederacy because he did not want to support a party “being carried in the pockets of a foreign Jew banker” referring to August Belmont.
1873: Birthdate of Polish native Herman Gessner who was chosen to serve on the National Executive Committee at the Convention of the ZOA held in Cleveland in 1921:
1874(6thof Sivan, 5634): Shavuot
1875: Henrietta Held joined the people of Israel in conversion ceremony held following afternoon services at a synagogue located on Sixth Street near Second avenue in New York City
1877: Birthdate of Rangoon native and barrister Elisha Arakie Cohen the first husband of journalist Ruth Collie whom he married in 1908 in Cambridge, England.
1878: The funeral of Rabbi Samuel M. Isaacs took place this morning at Shaari Tephila on West 44th Street in New York City. Rabbis A.S. Solomon, Menes and Morais of Philadelphia participated in the service. Burial took place at Cypress Hill Cemetery
1880(12thof Sivan, 5640): Controversial reforming Rabbi Joseph Aub passed away in Berlin.
1880: Birthdate of Posen native Felix Pinner, the German “economist and journalist” who came to the United States as a refugee in 1937
1880: In Hungary, Jacob and Chaia (Blum) Klein gave birth to David Klein, the holder of a Ph.D from NYU and member of the English Department at CCNY who was the husband Hannah Heerschorn as well a member of the Jerusalem University Library committee and the Jewish Publication Society.
1883: One hundred thirty houses belonging to Jews were destroyed during a riot tonight at Rostoff. The riot began after it was reported that an unnamed Jew had murder a Russian.
1885: In Illinois, Max and Sophia Reens Brunwasser gave birth to Jacob H. “Jack” Brunwasser, the third of their six children.
1885: French author Victor Hugo passed away. His works included “Cromwell,” a play about the English leader that included a portrayal of Manasseh Ben Israel that was “a grotesque travesty, ” “Marie Tudor” a play that includes a “despicable Jewish ursuer” and “Toquemada,” a play about the Spanish Inquisition that was really “a protest against the Pogroms in Russia” that were occurring at the time of the play’s production.
1886(17thof Iyar, 5646): Parashat Bechukotai
1886(17thof Iyar, 5646): Seventy-six-year-old Martha Ezekiel, the Dutch born daughter of Hanna Rebecca Israel and Ezekiel Jacob Ezekiel and the wife Jacob Abraham Lev with whom she had eleven children, passed away today after which she buried in Hebrew Cemetery in Richmond, VA.
1887: In Providence, R.I., “Herman and Sarah (Eisenberg) Boas gave birth to Brown, University of Chicago and Harvard educated English professor Ralph Boas and husband of Louise Schultz who gave birth to mathematician Ralph Boas, Jr while teaching at Whitman College and who taught at Holyoke where his son spent his gap year.
1889: In Dombrad, Hungary, Chana Moskovitz and her shoemaker husband Vilmos Maltz gave birth to Herman Maltz, the founder Maltz Furniture Company in Los Angeles, CA.
1889: Newspaper coverage published today described the new building of the Moses Montefiore Congregation in Bloomington, Illinois “as, not only the handsomest and most unique in design of any building in the city, but comparable to the best of any Jewish synagogue in the West” and went on to say that the construction “was accomplished by a group of 24 members.”
1890(3rdof Sivan, 5650): Fifty year old Edmund H. Abrahams, the son of Alexander and Hannah Abrahams, the husband of Cecelia Solomons Abrahams and father of Edmund H. Abrahams passed away today.
1891(11thof Sivan, 5762): Louis Raphael who had shot his fiancée Rachel Weinberg before turning the gun on himself died today from the self-inflicted gunshot wound.
1891(14thof Iyar, 5651): Pesach Sheni
1891: Two days after he had passed away, three days after he had passed away, Alfred Goldsmid, the son of Alexander Goldsmid and Eliza Israel and the husband of Constance August Mocatta, was buried in the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1891: Sir Robert Fowler who in 1883, while serving as Lord Mayor of London refused to allow Adolf Stocker, the German “Jew-baiter” to lecture at the Mansion House passed away today.
1891: “Dr. Henry M Leipziger” published today described the career of the newly elected Assistant Superintendent of the New York Public Schools who had become the Director of the Hebrew Technical Institute in 1884 where he transformed the school in “a model institution of this kind.”
1892: It was reported today that in 1891 The Maimonides Library circulations amounted to 47,471, an increase of 20 per cent over that of 1890 and 30 per cent over that of 1888.
1893: A number of the Polish and Russian Jews who arrived yesterday aboard the SS Amalfi are being held at Ellis Island because they are destitute which means they may not be able to enter the United States.
1893: In an interview with a reporter from the New York Times, Rabbi Adolph Rabin denied accusations that he had not provided solace and comfort to convicted murders Isaac Rosenwig and Harris Blank before their execution in Pennsylvania. He claimed that the difficulty in meeting with them arose from the fact that the killers wanted him to help them commit suicide.
1894: The first conference of Hebrew and Christian Workers Israel in the United States and Canada was held today at Park Street Church in Boston, MA.
1894: The first American Congress of Liberal Religious Societies met at Temple Sinai in Chicago, Illinois.
1895: The Monte Relief Society, which was founded by Mrs. Sofia Monte Loebinger, is scheduled to host a fund raising festival today at the Grand Central Palace.
1898: In Vienna, 30 year old Siegfried Reginald Wolf married Ida Wolf.
1898: In Philadelphia, “Mayer Sulzberger delivered the decennial address” today at the annual meeting of the Jewish Public Society of America at Keneseth Israel.
1898: Dr. Stephen Wise is scheduled to officiate at the funeral services for 62 old year Herman Phillips “a teacher connected with the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society” who previously served as a rabbi at synagogues in Boston and Toronto, Canada.
1898: During the Spanish-American War, Sergeant Max J. Heinberg and Private William L. Hahn of Tampa, FL of Company H of the 1st Florida Volunteer Infantry were mustered into federal military service today.
1898: During the Spanish-American War, Texans Sam Cooper, Company A, Gus L. Berkman, Company C, , Herman H. Blum, Company M, Max Blumberg, Company B, Walter Falk, Captain’s Orderly Company A, Morris Farber, Company L, Henry Perlman, Company D, Charles Fischl, Company E, Harry Friedman , Hospital Corps Company M, Sol Gordon, Company K, H.S. Hyneman, Company F, Charles C. Jacobs, Company M and Joseph Levy, Regimental Band Company M all of the 1st Volunteer Infantry were among those who were mustered into federal service today at Galveston, TX.
1898: The Grand Lodge No. 1 of the Independent Order Free Sons of Israel hosted a patriotic service tonight at Temple Rodolph Sholom.
1898: “In Foreign Lands” published today described the “about-face” taken by French journalist Henri Rochefort, a leading anti-Dreyfus leader. At first he accused Dreyfus and his family of being responsible for the Spanish-American War. Now he claims that the Dreyfus family and the Rothschilds are responsible for the support shown by the French press for the cause of Spain.
1899: The Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls opened its doors on New York's East 63rd Street.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/22/1899/clara-de-hirsch
1899: The widow of Leopold S. Levy who died when ruffians fractured his skills is still hospitalized in New York Hospital following a failed attempt to take her own life. According to a note that was found, she was despondent and depressed by the death of her husband.
1900: Anti-Semitic riots came to an end at Stolp and Butow
1900: Birthdate of Voronezh, Russia native Dr. William Dameshek, the graduate of Harvard Medical School who became “the preeminent hematologist of our time.”
http://www.hematology.org/About/History/Legends/2077.aspx
1901: Over three thousand people attended the ceremonies marking the laying of the “cornerstone of the new building for Mount Sinai Hospital.”
1902: Today, a week after “20,000 women on the Lower East Side broke into kosher butcher shops and rendered the meat inedible by taking it into the street, soaking it in gasoline and setting it on fire” in protest against the jump in the price of meet “under pressure from their customers, the Retail Butchers Association once more aligned itself with the boycotters and refused to sell kosher beef in member shops.” (As reported by Jewish Virtual Library)
1902: In Newark, NJ, “fish and eggs were at premium today in the Jewish quarter” because none of the 2,000 or 3,000 chickens usually killed by kosher butchers on what is known as Chicken Day because all of the butchers are still closed following the riots that took place earlier this week.
1903: “Arnold Kohn the Treasurer of the Central Committee said today that he had received $500 from the Federation of Zionists and a ‘substantial check from New York Mayor Low.”
1905: It was reported today the newly elected officers of the Jewish Publication Society are: President – Edwin Wolf; First Vice President – Henry M. Leipziger; Second Vice President – Sol Blumenthal; Trustees Cyrus Adler, Henry M. Leipsizer, Judge Mayer Sulzberger, Edwin Wolf and Morris Newburger.
1906: Birthdate of comic Harry Ritz of the Ritz Brothers. Born Harry Joachim, Harry was the 'middleman' of the Ritz Brothers, and was an inspiration for Danny Kaye and Sid Caesar. In 1934, The Ritz Brothers appeared in their first film, "Hotel Anchovy". The team worked for Fox and later Universal. He died of cancer in 1986
1907: Birthdate of Harry Ritz, the youngest of the “Ritz Brothers.”
1908: Birthdate of Sheboygan, Wisconsin native and University of Wisconsin Law School trained attorney David Rabinovitz who served as Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin during the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson.
1909(2ndof Sivan, 5669): Parashat Bamidbar
1909: “According to a special imperial order just issued Jews will be admitted to the health resorts in the Caucasus” which reserves the order issued six weeks ago denying Jews admission “to the Caucausus during the coming season.
1910: “Answering a recent pulpit utterance of the Rev. Dr. Magnes of Temple Emanu-El, Dr. Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue in West Eighty-First Street ardently defended the Jewish reform movement this morning.”
1911: In “Dr. Wise Attacks Fifth Avenue Clubs” published today the distinguished rabbi said of the New York social clubs that banned Jewish members, “It is honoring to be shut out of some Fifth Avenue clubs in our city – the qualifications for admission to these being apparently a capacity for unlimited idleness and for an almost unlimited measure of strong drink.”
1912(6thof Sivan, 5672): Shavuot
1912(6thof Sivan, 5672): Brigadier General Morris Horkheimer, the Commissary General of the West Virginia National Guard, who was also a successful businessman and civic leader passed away today at Atlantic City, NJ where he was visiting in attempt to improve his failing health.
1912: In London, “Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Zhitomir, Pearl (née Gorinstein) and Charles Brovarnik, a hardware store manager and carpenter gave birth to Herbert Brovarnik who gained game as Herbert Brown, the American chemist who earned a B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, shared the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1979 with George Witting, while giving public credit to the support given to him by his wife Sarah Baylen
1913: Britain’s King George V who as Prince of Wales had attended a Seder in Jerusalem and would be the first English monarch to reign the Yishuv, Germany Kaiser’s Wilhelm II who would blame the Jews for him losing his throne and WW I and Russian Tsar Nicholas II the last in a long line of anti-Semitic rulers gathered in Berlin to attend the wedding the wedding Princess Luise, the Kaiser’s daughter.
1914: The Becker-Rosenthal trial in which Charles Becker and members of the Lenox Avenue Gang faced charges for having murdered bookmaker Herman Rosenthal came to a close.
1914(26thof Iyar, 5674): Rabbi Joshua Coblentz passed away today in Bath Beach, NY.
1914: Birthdate of Lipman “Lipa” Bers, the native of Riga who became an award-winning American mathematician and human rights activist.
http://www.ams.org/notices/199501/bers.pdf
1915: President harry Hersh was the toastmaster at “the fourth annual Banquet of the Wisconsin Menorah Society” which “was held today in the Women’s Building of the University.”
1915: It was reported today that Judge Arthur G. Powell, a former member of the State Court of Appeals in Georgia who has already written to the governor expressing his belief in the innocence of Leo Frank has “said he understand other prominent lawyers would write letters asserting their belief that Frank was not guilty, or at least that his guilt had not been sufficiently established.”
1915: According to reports published today, the Atlanta Journal is scheduled to publish “an editorial demanding clemency for Leo M Frank.”
1915: “The final effort to save the life of Leo M. Frank is in the hands of William W. Howard of Augusta, an ex-Congressman, who has been selected by friends of Frank to present the case to the State Prison Commission.”
1915: In Macon, GA, “Governor-elect Nat E. Harris announced this afternoon that if it should fall to his lot to render the final decision in the case of Leo M. Frank, he would deal with the matter from a purely Georgian standpoint.”
1915: “The petition for the life of Leo M. Frank to which a million names are to be signed before it is sent to the Governor of Georgia and the Pardoning Commission of that state, is nearing completion according to an announcement made” tonight “by the members of the Woman’s Peace Society who are procuring the signatures at Booth 3 in the Cosmopolitan Garden
1916: In Chicago, at a meeting of the Woman’s Board of Missions of the Interior, Henry Morgenthau, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, described “the conditions which led to the massacre by the Turks of hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Syrians” and said “that the remaining half million people of these races now face death by starvation and exposure unless immediate was given to them.”
1916: In an interview at Chicago, Henry Morgenthau said “No Republican will elected this year” since Wilson who enjoys the highest respect in Europe “will nominated and elected” because his “the best President” the United States “the can select in this crisis.”
1916: Henry Morgenthau said tonight that he had “good reason to believe that following this war the Turks can be persuaded to sell Palestine” and that Jews of the world should not buy Palestine, but rather “Jews and Christians should jointly unite in the purchase of this sacred land” which should then be turned “into a small free republic…”
1916: The Senate Committee on the Judiciary today distributed a letter from Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard University, endorsing Louis D. Brandeis of Boston for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Dr. Lowell, President of Harvard, has signed a memorial opposing Mr. Brandeis's confirmation on the ground that he was unfit for the Supreme bench. The confirmation process for Brandeis was a bruising affair laced with anti-Semitism.
1917(1stof Sivan, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1917(1stof Sivan, 5677): “Attorney, cotton broker and President of the Jewish Immigration Information Bureau” Felix Bath, the German born son of Abram Bath, passed away today after which he was buried at the Hebrew Rest Cemetery in Ft. Worth, TX.
1917: In Brooklyn, Yiddish comedian Isidor Meltzer, the brother of screenwriter Lewis Meltzer and his wife gave birth to Sidney Meltzer who gained fame character actor Sid Melton – a name you might not know but a face you will not forget.
1917: In Chicago, funeral services are scheduled to be held for Adolph J. Meyers, the brother of Mrs. Abe Adler and Mrs. H. J. Marks.
1917: In Chicago, funeral services are scheduled to be held for Caroline Newman, “the wife of the late Adolph Newman” with internment at Graceland cemetery.
1917: The Annual meeting of the Chicago-Winfield Tuberculosis Sanatorium is scheduled to be held this evening at the Standard Club at Michigan Avenue and 24thStreet.
1918: “Dozens of important people lined the staircase” at Beit Yehudayoff, known as “the Palace” “in a fabulous reception for General Allenby.”
1919: The Rumanian government granted citizenship to all native-born Jews.
1919: The annual meeting of the Jewish Aid Society, of which Mrs. Ralph J. Rosenthal is secretary, is scheduled to take pace this afternoon at the Standard Club on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
1920(5thof Sivan, 5680): Parashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1920: The Dearborn Independent, owned by Henry Ford, began publishing the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
1920: Birthdate of astrophysicist Thomas Gold. Gold was bron in Austria and educated in Switzerland and Great Britain, In early 1959, when Cornell University offered him the opportunity to set up an interdisciplinary unit for radio-physics and space research, and take charge of the Department of Astronomy, he accepted the appointment. He remained at Cornell until his death.
1922: Birthdate of Quinn Martin, head of Quinn Martin Productions.
1922: Today’s Dallas News reported that 789 Klansman had participated in their march through downtown Dallas which increased the feeling of fear among the Jewish community of Dallas whose mayor was said to be a Klan sympathizer, whose “police was thought to be a Klansman,” whose “district attorney was on the side of the KKK” and whose police and fire departments were home to “a high percentage of Klan members.”
1922: “Silver Wings” produced by William Fox and photographed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today.
1922: In Manhattan, Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Klein gave birth to Judith Klein whom the world would come to know as film critic Judith Crist.
1923(7thof Sivan, 5683): Second Day of Shavuot
1924: Cornerstone laying ceremony for the construction of the building housing the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva began today.
1924: In Romania students hired a servant girl to run through the street screaming, "My Jewish employers dragged me down into the cellar and wanted my blood for ritual purposes." This had the result of causing attacks on Jews in the country. Several months later in Aleppo, Syria, the same charges of "blood ritual" surfaced against the Jews.
1924: In Chicago, the ransom note mailed by Nathan Leopold yesterday arrived at the home of Robert “Bobby” Franks the teenager was already dead.
1925: With the approach of summer Beth-El Congregation in Camden, NJ held the last of its “late services on Friday evening.
1926: It was announced today that Mrs. Bertha V. Guggenheimer of Lynchburg, Va., has a established a $50,000 trust fund that will build playgrounds in Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv, as well as other cities and farming settlements in Palestine. The playgrounds will operate on a non-sectarian basis meaning they are open to Christian, Moslem and Jewish children.
1926: Dr. Lewis Browne the English born American author who was an ordained Reform Rabbi set sail today aboard the steamship Leviathan a tour that will include visits to England, France, Switzerland, Germany. Belgium, Holland, Poland, Lithuania, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Italy and Spain after which he will write articles for the Jewish Daily Bulletin describing “the Jewish situation in each of these countries.”
1927(20thof Iyar, 5687): Sixty-one year old Louis Bandes, the journalist who wrote under the name of Louis Miller passed away today.
http://www.yiddishkayt.org/miller-bandes/
1928: “Unveil Tablet At First London Synagogue Site” published today described the ceremony under the leadership of Sir Francis Montefiore, where a “where a wall tablet marking the site of the first London synagogue which was used in the days of Cromwell” was unveiled followed by Rabbi David Bueno de Mosquita’s prayer “offered in memory of the founders of the modern London Jewish community.” (JTA)
1929: “The Brandenburg Arch” produced by Joe Pasternak was released today in German.
1930: The Jewish community in Palestine begins a general strike to protest the blocking of immigration
1930: In Woodmere, NY, William Milk and Minerva Karns gave birth to Harvey Milk, San Francisco’s first openly homosexual member of the City Council who along with the Mayor of San Francisco was brutally gunned down in 1978 by a political rival who would get off on the Twinkie Defense.
1931(6thof Sivan, 5691): Shavuot
1931: In Camden, NJ, Rabbi Nachman S. Arnoff officiated at Confirmation Services this morning where Ruth Kaplan, the President of the Confirmation Class presented the class gift to the synagogue.
1931: Dr. Phoebus A. Levene of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, New York, tonight received the Willard Gibbs medal, one of the highest distinctions in chemical science, from the Chicago section of the American Chemical Society.
1931(6thof Sivan, 5691): One day before his 66th birthday Solomon Barnato Joel, one of the nephews of Barney Barnato who made a fortune in the diamond mining business which enabled him to become an owner and breeder of thoroughbred racehorses passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joel-solomon-barnato
1931: “Svengali,” a horror film featuring Carmel Myers, the daughter of a San Francisco rabbi was released in the United States today.
1931: After enlisting in the 1st Heavy Brigade of the Austrian Garrison Artillery, in 1927, Paul Alfred Cullen received his commission today
1931: In Camden, NJ, Ruth Kaplan offered the “Opening Prayer” to start Confirmation Services at Congregation Beth-El
1932: The Hakoah All-Stars rallied in the second half to gain a tie with the German All-Stars in what was billed as goodwill soccer game at the Polo Grounds. The contest was sponsored by leading Jewish and German citizens as a means of promoting interracial understanding. Mayor Walker, honorary chairman of the sponsoring committee kicked off the ball at the start of play. At half time, Carol Sherman, former Attorney General of New York Stated presented medal to the Americans who had competed in the International Jewish Olympics recently held in Tel Aviv.
1932: Birthdate of Yosef Haim Yerushalmi, a groundbreaking and wide-ranging scholar of Jewish history whose meditation on the tension between collective memory of a people and the more prosaic factual record of the past influenced a generation of thinkers.
1933(22ndof Iyar, 5693): Fifty-nine year old Sandor Ferenczi, the noted Hungarian psychoanalyst and friend of Sigmund Freud passed away today.
http://www.maccoby.com/Articles/ReviewSFerenczi.shtml
1933: “Irving Wexler, better known as Waxey Gordon, wealthy beer distributor and all-around racketeer” spent tonight in the Federal House of Detention after having “pleaded not guilty to income tax evasion today.
1934: Birthdate of Ya'acov Ra'anan, the native of Vienna who made Aliyah in 1939, who served as the commander of the INS Dakar on its last voyage.
1934: Photo of Dr. George Gordon, the Director of the Minneapolis Talmud Torah who “began his career as a Jewish education at the first Hebrew Free School on Minneapolis’s north side, where, as a twenty-year old he helped to the teach the Hebrew alphabet to young students.”
http://reflections.mndigital.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/jhs/id/165/rec/3
1934: Mrs. Samuel W. Halprin, “the national president of Hadassah” who has recently returned from a trip to Palestine, is scheduled to this evening “on the weekly radio program of the Jewish Daily Bulletin on the subject of “Palestine in 1929 and 1934.”
1935(19th of Iyar, 5695): Max Hans Kohn, a Jewish student died in Dachau. Reportedly he was the first Jew to die there in 10 months.
1936(1stof Sivan, 5696): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1936(1stof Sivan, 5696): Seventy-three year old Richard Gottheil the son of Rabbi Gustav Gottheil, and a noted scholar, Zionist leader and the founder of Zeta Beta Tau (ZBT) passed away today.
http://jewishmag.com/118mag/richard_gottheil/richard_gottheil.htm
1936: Jewish-operated buses were again fired at today on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, but there were no casualties and the curfew in Jerusalem was extended starting a half hour earlier (6:30 p.m.) in response to escalating Arab violence.
1936: Based on information based on “hints in the German press” it was reported today that “negotiations are now under way to explore the possibilities of the emigration of no fewer than 20,000 German Jews to Ethiopia” which has been cruelly conquered by the Itlanians.
1936: British aircraft “flew over Jaffa and helped police to search the hills adjoin the Jerusalem-Jaffa road for Arabs involved in the ambush of Jewish bus in which two Jews and a British soldier were wounded.”
1937: According to a report “made public” today by the American Joint Distribution Committee, there are 35,500 “refugees from Germany…in other European countries” of whom “about 29,000 ae Jewish and 6,500 are Aryan or non-Aryan Christians” and that of the less than 400,000 Jews in Germany, “100,000 are jobless and in need of aid.
1938: Birthdate of actor/ director Richard Benjamin whose work includes Goodbye Columbus and He & She.
1938: As Arab terrorism escalated, The Palestine Post reported that the Government forces practically occupied Arab villages in Galilee in an effort to check the increasing terror and lawlessness. Jewish settlements of Ein Hazorea and Mishmar Haemek came under a concentrated Arab terrorist fire. The Iraq Petroleum Company pipeline was cut once more and set on fire near Nazareth.
1938: The Palestine Post published a special, 20-page Palestine-British supplement to mark the Empire Day.
1938: In New York City drama coach Lee Strasberg and actress Paula Strasberg gave birth to Susan Strasberg who was the original Anne Frank.
1938(21st of Iyar, 5698): Rabbi Simon Glazer passed away. Born in 1878 at Kovno Russia, Glazer the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogues in Montreal (1907-1918); Chief Rabbi of Kansas City (1920-1923); Rabbi of Beth Hamidrash Hagadol in NYC (1923-1927); Temple Beth-El in Brooklyn (1927-1930); Maimonides Synagogue of NYC starting in 1930. Glazer had also served as President of the Central Council of Rabbis of America and Chairman of its Executive Committee. He wrote or translated 26 books including a “History of Israel” and translations of the works of Maimonides and the High Holiday prayer books.
1939: Germany signs a "Pact of Steel" with Italy. This is one more step on the road to World War II.
1939(4th of Sivan, 5699): Ernst Toller, a German-Jewish playwright and active anti-fascist, who had fought for the Kaiser in World War I and whose sister and brother had been taken to a concentration camp, hung himself at the Mayflower Hotel. W.H. Auden memorialized him with a poem entitled “In Memory of Ernst Toller” published in 1940 in an anthology called Another Time.
1940(14thof Iyar, 5700): Pesach Sheni
1940(14thof Iyar, 5700): Hyman I Vener, the recently elected president of the Southern California Public Health Association passed away today.
1940: This afternoon at the White House, FDR met with a group of military leader and one civilian, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr.
1941: Jews in Croatia are forced to wear yellow badges.
1941: Germans stole a 16th century Torah scroll from the Sephardic community at Salonica. This Torah was said to have come from Spain. The Germans then burned all the books and three Sefer Torahs. When the chief rabbi returned, he found all of the libraries and Jewish manuscripts destroyed.
1942(6th of Sivan, 5702): First Day of Shavuot
1942: Herbert Baum and his wife Marianne were arrested today for their part in “an arson attack on an anticommunist and anti-Semitic propaganda exhibition prepared by Joseph Goebbels at the Berliner Lustgarten.”
1942(6th of Sivan, 5702): In an exercise conducted in a forest outside Mielec, Poland, Gestapo agents "cast" Jews as partisans, beat and mutilate them, and then kill them.
1942(6th of Sivan, 5702): Three hundred children are taken away and sent to Chelmno where they were gassed to death.
1943(17thof Iyar, 5703): Parashat Behar
1943: It was reported today that ant-Semitic elements in French North Africa that do not like the policies of General Henri Honore Giraud’ “doctrine of racial equality have” rallied around General de Gaulle’s standard with one woman in Tunis saying, “The French follow de Gaulle, the Jews are for Giraud.”
1944: George Mandel-Mantello, a Jewish diplomat who, while working for the Salvadoran consulate in Geneva, Switzerland, saved thousands of Jews from the Holocaust by providing fictive Salvadoran citizenship papers and by publicizing the deportation of Jews from Hungary to the death camps” left Switzerland for Bucharest.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/MandelMantello.html
1944: In London, the Bevis Marks Synagogue held a “Service of Mourning and Prayer for the Martyrs of the Warsaw Ghetto” where Rabbi Joseph delivered a sermon “The Battle of Warsaw.”
1944: As part of the campaign to convince the West, that the Soviet Union was a benign partner in the fight against fascism, a campaign in which Stalin used many Soviet Jews whom he later liquidated, “the Communist International” or Comintern was dissolved today.
1944(29th of Iyar, 5704): For five days Jews readied for rail transport from Munkács, Ukraine, and from the Hungarian town of Sátoraljaújhely resist being loaded. Some are shot. Resistance began on May 22 and ended on May 27.
1945(10th of Sivan, 5705): Polish freebooters stopped a train in the Bialystok region of Poland and beat and abduct a Jew named Mejer Sznajder. This took place after V.E. Day and the end of Holocaust.
1946: Karl Frank, Nazi protector of Bohemia-Moravia, was executed in Prague.
1946(21st of Iyar, 5706): Two Jews were killed and another fifteen were injured in pogrom begun because a crowd of Hungarians in Kunmadras believed the Jews had made sausage out of Christian children.
1947: It was learned today that “the Russian military administration has granted permission to the American Joint Distribution Committee to send food to Jewish communities in the Russian zone” of occupied Germany.
1947: In Rome, “Jacob I. Trobe, director of Italian operations for the American Joint Distribution Committee called attention to the plight of 25,000 displaced Jews in Italy” for whom no arrangements have been made when “UNRA ceases operations” on June 30.
1948: David Ben-Gurion ordered Yigal Yadin, the Chief of Staff, to launch an attack on the police fort at Laturun “without delay.” Ben-Gurion wanted Yadin to use the Seventh Brigade for the attack. Yadin was opposed to the attack. The brigade was composed of 2,000 troops several hundred of whom were Holocaust survivors who had just gotten off the boat from the Cyprus detention camps. They had little or no training. Many of them did not speak Hebrew. In other words, the Seventh Brigade was a brigade in name only. Yadin knew they were not a fighting force and sending them to attack a hilltop fortress manned by the Jordanian Arab Legion was a recipe for disaster. To make matters worse, the Seventh lacked basic equipment, including water bottles or canteens. Considering the heat, a lack of water would hamper even veteran troops. Ben-Gurion’s stubborn insistence must be seen against the backdrop of the times. Despite a great deal of criticism, Ben-Gurion had accepted the partition plan even though it meant Jerusalem would not be part of the Jewish state, Instead it was to governed by an international body. The Arabs rejected this concept and turned Jerusalem into a battleground. They laid siege to the city and sought to cut it off from the rest of the Jewish state. Ben-Gurion was determined to do whatever it took to ensure that Jerusalem would be Jewish. The hilltop fortress of Latrun was the main obstacle to opening the road to from the coast to Jerusalem. Hence his insistence on the attack even if it flew in the face of the best advice from is commanders
1948: Troops from the Carmeli Brigade took up positions at Masada and Sha'ar HaGolan in expectation of a counter-attack from the Arabs that did not come. After a week, despite their edge in armor and artillery, apparently, they had had enough.
1948: The fighting that had begun on May 15 known collectively as the Battles of the Kinarot Valley came to an end. The most memorable fighting took place between the Israelis and the Syrians at Dagania Alef and Degania Bet. Words cannot describe the heroism of the Jewish fighters who stood their ground against overwhelming odds.
1948: It was reported today that Thomas C. Wasson, the U.S. Consul General for the United States in Jerusalem had attempted to stop the Arab Legion shelling of the Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University on Mount Scopus: "The American Consul is reported to have contacted the Legion requesting it to stop firing on Jewish positions in and around the buildings. The Legion Commander replied that the buildings were being used by Jewish forces to mortar and machine-gun the Arab-occupied Sheikh Jarrah quarter and handed the Consul surrender terms to convey to the Jews. The Commander asked that all fighting Jews in the hospital and University surrender as prisoners of war and that all doctors, nurses, professors, and scientists be handed over to the Red Cross.”
1948: “Just after 2.00pm, Consul General Thomas C Wasson was shot while returning to the US Consulate from a meeting of the UN Truce Commission at the French Consulate in Jerusalem. While crossing Wauchope Street (now Abraham Lincoln/Hess) to enter the alley leading to the Consulate, he was shot by a .30 caliber rifle. The bullet entered his chest via his right upper arm and left level to his second costal cartilage
1948: To the amazement of everybody, it was reported today that of the five Armies and Air Forces “now fighting on the borders and within Palestine only the Arab Legion has made any important advances” and that “in the north, none of the armies has been able to keep its forces in Israel’s territory and the Syrians are now digging in on their own side of the border.”
1949: In “A Communist’s Career: The Story of Eisler,” Ira Henry Freeman recaps the career of “Gerhart Eisleer…the professional, international, Communist revolutionary.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1949/05/22/96458624.pdf
1950(6th of Sivan, 5710): First Day of Shavuot
1950: Russian spy Harry Gold confessed to the FBI.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that according to the Jordanian complaint, Israel occupied three Arab villages in the Jordanian-occupied Latrun area and two in the Tulkarm District. Israel denied all such allegations, but claimed frequent Jordanian marauders' infiltration.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Mr. Shimon Peres, the Director-General of the Ministry of Defense, claimed at an exhibition of the locally-manufactured products, that few countries in the world produced as wide a variety of armaments as Israel.
1954: Bar Mitzvah of Robert Zimmerman who gained famed as Bob Dylan.
1955: “The television play ‘A Catered Affair,’ written by Paddy Chayefsky, was first shown on television as part of the Philco Television Playhouse.”
1955: Final broadcast of the “Jack Benny Program” on CBS radio. Benny, whose real name was Benjamin Kubelsky, would continue to broadcast on television until 1965.
1956(12thof Sivan, 5716): Sixty-eight year old mezzo-soprano Maria Winetzkaja passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9E04E6DB1F3BE333A05750C2A9639C946792D6CF
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/winetzkaja-maria
1959: Birthdate of David Blatt, the Princeton graduate who played for and coached several Israeli basketball teams.
1959: Final performance of “Tall Story” “based on the 1957 novel The Homecoming Game by Howard Nemerov featuring Marian Winters as “Myra Solomon.”
1961(7thof Sivan, 5721): Second Day of Shavuot
1961: “Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild, and his wife Serena Dunn Rothschild” gave birth to their “eldest child” Hannah Mary Rothschild the documentarian and author whose first novel was The Improbability of Love.
1962(18thof Iyar, 5722): Lag B’Omer
1965(20thof Iyar, 5725): Parashat Behar
1965(20thof Iyar, 5725): Sixty-six year old Samuel Cooke the founder and chairman of the Penn Fruit Company which opened its first store in 1927 using the “revolutionary self-service concept” and an active supporter of the Jewish Farmer School who raised two daughter – Lily Beth and Geraldine – with his wife, “the former Doris Beyer” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/05/23/101548661.pdf
1965: Birthdate of Shlomo Lahiani, the Israeli political leader who has served as mayor of Bat Yam.
1966: Today Rabbi Jacob Rudin officiated at the marriage of Linda Halpern, the granddaughter of the late Judge David L. Weill and stockbroker Freeman Arthur Shore.
1967: In violation of international agreements, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran, blocking all Israeli shipping from the south, thereby raising tension in the Middle East. In Israel, a broad based coalition was formed under Levi Eshkol with Menachem Begin and Yoseph Sapir and Moshe Dayan who became the Minister of Defense. Under international law, blockade is an act of war and this action by Egypt actually gave Israel the legal right to go to war, a fact conveniently ignored at that time and by the current generation of revisionist historians.
1967: Two months after being released in the UK, “The Honeypot” a comedy directed and written by Joseph L. Mankiewicz was released today in the United States.
1969(5th of Sivan, 5729): Erev of Shavuot
1969: Female Palestinian artist Mona Saudi, Iraqi Suheir Razzak and Swede Rolf Svensson were imprisoned in Copenhagen on suspicion of plotting to murder David Ben-Gurion.
http://www.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/The-Danish-connection
1969: U.S. premiere of “Winning” starring Paul Newman.
1969: Mayor John V. Lindsay greeted his Jewish constituency today on the eve of Shavuot, which begins tomorrow. Speaking of the Jewish people's receiving of the Torah, which the holiday celebrates, the Mayor said: "From that hallowed event on Mount Sinai, through the ages, from the days of ancient Palestine, and up to our times and the rebirth of the State of Israel, the Torah has been at the very heart of the Jewish experience. Moses...stands as a towering figure not only in the life of the Jewish people but in the life of our civilization."
1970(16th of Iyar, 5730): Arab terrorists killed 9 children and 3 adults on a school bus
1971(27thof Iyar, 5731): Parshat Behar-Bechukotai
1971(27thof Iyar, 5731): Seventy-seven year old Stella Isaacs, Marchioness of Reading, Baroness Swanborough, the secretary to the wife of the Viceroy of India, Rufus Isaacs, 1st Earl Reading who married him shortly after her became a widower who went to a life of public service including the founding of the Women’s Voluntary Service which played such a vital role during WW II, passed away today.
http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/stella_isaacs,_marchioness_of_reading
1972: Time published “Israel: Battle of Flight 517”
Sabena Flight 517 from Brussels to Tel Aviv was 20 minutes out of Vienna last week when two Arabs waving pistols rushed the cockpit. "As you can see," Captain Reginald Levy calmly informed his 90 passengers, "we have friends aboard." The friends—the men and two women, who produced explosives from under their skirts—were members of a Palestinian guerrilla organization called Black September.* Their audacious plan: to land the Boeing 707 at Tel Aviv and embarrass Israel by threatening to blow up the plane on a Lod Airport runway unless 317 imprisoned fedayeen were released. Levy's radioed alert that his plane had been commandeered rang top-level alarms in Israel. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and Chief of Staff General David Elazar hurried to the airport to supervise the troops mustered to meet the jet. As soon as Levy touched down in the Tel Aviv dusk and rolled to an isolated runway, mechanics at Dayan's orders immobilized the plane by deflating its tires and draining the hydraulic system. After presenting their demands for the prisoners' release to Lod's control tower, the skyjackers were alarmed to discover that they could not take off again. Emotionally, they kissed one another goodbye and prepared to detonate the explosives. Levy started a conversation to calm them down, and kept on chatting through the night. "I talked about everything under the sun," he said later, "from navigation to sex." Next morning, in response to Levy's plea, Dayan promised to prepare the plane for takeoff and produce the fedayeen. A group of bogus prisoners were shown to the skyjackers from a distance and Dayan had an airplane taken out to a runway, supposedly to fly the released fedayeen to Cairo. From the control tower, one of the "prisoners"—actually an Arabic-speaking Israeli soldier—lulled the skyjackers: "They tell me I'm being sent to Cairo. Is that true? Praised be Allah." Meanwhile, out of sight, commandos were practicing assault tactics on a 707. When they were able to force the doors, swing aboard and start shooting in 90 seconds, Elazar deemed them ready. His "ground crew" approached the jet, allowed themselves to be frisked by Red Cross negotiators who had been called in at Arab request. No pistols turned up in the search; they had been hidden in boots or tool boxes. Suddenly the "mechanics" burst into the plane with guns blazing. The two male skyjackers died from bullets in the head and one of the two women was wounded. In all, the action took precisely 90 seconds. Israelis hailed the jet's recapture as a military victory—and as an example of how other nations ought to handle skyjacking. Dayan himself was host at a dinner for Levy, a British citizen with a Jewish father and a Christian mother who was celebrating his 50th birthday. Prime Minister Golda Meir later threw a second dinner for all the participants. She kissed Levy and cried, "We love you." Publicly, Mrs. Meir justified the recapture, citing "the terrible significance of submission" to terrorism. Elsewhere the response was less enthusiastic. The International Air Line Pilots Association protested the danger to passengers in such go-for-broke shootouts. As it happened, three aboard Flight 517 had been wounded. One 22-year-old Israeli was in critical condition; she had leaped up in panic when the firing started and was shot in the head by a commando who mistook her for one of the Arabs. The International Red Cross angrily cried that it had been duped by the Israelis. Arabs nevertheless accused the agency of complicity. In Beirut, where Red Cross week was in progress, volunteers soliciting donations were attacked on the street by Black September supporters. The leader of the group, who called himself Captain Rafat, was later identified as Ali Tasha, 34, a onetime Jerusalem tour guide and seasoned skyjacker. In 1968 he helped divert an El Al jet to Algeria.
1973: Avner Shaki left the National Religious Party and continued to sit as an Independent in the Knesset until the election in 1974
1975: Seventy-four year old historian George W. F. Hallgarten the grandson of Charles Hallgarten and the great-grandson of Lazarus Hallgarten passed away today.
1976: NBC broadcast “Call of the Wild” a made for television adaptation of the novel of the same name with music by Peter Matz this evening.
1977(5th of Sivan, 5737): Erev of Shavuot
1978: “The Off-Broadway production” of “Torch Song Trilogy” a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein opened today at the Players Theatre.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel empowered the Minister of Defense and the Chief of Staff to discuss with U.N. and UNIFIL the arrangements aimed to prevent the terrorists in South Lebanon from attacking Israel and harming local inhabitants. The UNIFIL assured the Christian leader, Major Saad Haddad, that it is prepared to recognize his 600-men strong force and that the humanitarian "Good Fence", which allowed Lebanese villagers to receive aid and work in Israel, will continue even after the complete Israeli withdrawal.
1978: ABC began broadcasting “The Bastard” a mini-series co-starring Lorne Greene as “Bishop Francis” William Shatner as “Paul Revere” and Tom Bosley as “Benjamin Franklin.”
1980(7thof Shavuot, 5740): 2nd day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1981(18th of Iyar, 5741): Lag B’Omer
1981(18thof Iyar, 5741): Fifty-eight year old movie director Boris Segal passed away today. (As reported by Shawn G. Kennedy)
1981: “The Outland” a sci-fi thriller directed and written by Peter Hyams, with music by Jerry Goldsmith and featuring Steven Berkoff was released today in the United States.
1981: Jack Lang began serving as Culture Minister of France for the first time.
1981: “The Four Seasons,” a romantic comedy produced by Martin Bregman was released today in the United States.
1981: Antatole Boyard reviewed Where the Jackals Howl and Other Stories by Israeli author Amos Oz.
1983: “An estimated 180,000 people took part in a New York rally on the occasion of the 12th annual Solidarity Sunday for Soviet Jewry.”
1983: The New York Times featured a review of Art & Ardor by Cynthia Ozick.
1985: “Rambo: First Blood Part II” co-starring Steven Berkoff as “Lt. Col. Podovsky” and with music by Jerry Goldsmith was released in the United States.
1985: “The play ‘White Rose’ by Scottish playwright Peter Arnott that portrays Lydia Litvyak's imagined political thoughts, with her character discussing war and Soviet women's resistance against Nazism. It was first performed today at the Edinburgh Festival, in the Traverse Theatre.”
1986: In Redwood City, California, Angie and Francis Edelman gave birth to Boston Patriots wide-receiver Julian Edelman
1986(13thof Iyar, 5746) Seventy-three year old Martin Gabel the Philadelphia born Jew known both for his film career and being the husband of Arlene Francis with whom he appeared on “What’s My Line?” passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-24/local/me-7505_1_broadway-actor
1986: In Philadelphia, PA, “Nina Zebooker and William Ephraim gave birth to Princeton University graduate Molly Ephraim who pursued a career in acting which included six years playing the role of “Mandy Baxter” the middle daughter in the sitocom “Last Man Standing.”
1988(6th of Sivan, 5748): First Day of Shavuot
1990: In The Los Angeles Times, Sheldon Teitelbuam reviewed A Miracle, A Universe: Settling Accounts With Torturersby Lawrence Weschler, the grandson of Viennese-Jewish émigré composer and Pulitzer Prize-winner Ernst Toch.
1990: For the first time CBS broadcast “A Killing in a Small Town” starring Barbara Hershey who “won a 1990 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress - Miniseries or a Movie” for her performance
1991(9thof Sivan, 5751): Ninety-one-year-old Professor of Entomology Abe Ezra Michelbacher, the Riverside, CA native and holder of Ph.D. from UC Berkley and the husband bacteriologist Martha Meyer passed away today.
https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/auth_per_fbr_eacp219
1992: “Alien3” a sci-fi thriller with music by Elliot Goldenthal was released today in the United States.
1992: On the final episode of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson which was aired tonight, Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra closed the show with "I'll Be Seeing You" a popular song, with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Irving Kahal published in 1938, because “it was one of Carson's favorite songs.”
1992: “Encino Man” a comedy co-starring Pauly Shore and featuring Richard Masur was released in the United States today.
1992: “Far and Away” co-produced by Brian Grazer and filmed by cinematographer Mikael Salomon was released in the United States today.
1993: NBC broadcast “Saved by the Bell” a sitcom co-starring Dustin Diamond.
1993: For the first time ABC broadcast “Deadly Relations” the made for television movie co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow as “Carol Ann Fagot Applegarth Holland”
1995: “Brian Kowitz hit a 1-2 pitching into right field for a single with two out and the bases loaded in the 10th inning giving the Richmond Braves a 2-1 victory over the Norfolk Tides in the International League. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)
1998: The Times of London included a review ofIsrael by Martin Gilbert which like all of his work is historically accurate while having the flow of a well written novel. If you read no other book about the history of the Jewish state, this is the one you must read.
1998: The Baltimore Jewish Times described the New Yorker who is the first rabbi to win honor from pope
As another in a series of recent Roman Catholic overtures toward the Jewish community, Baltimore's Cardinal William H. Keeler last week presented a papal honor to a New York rabbi long active in Catholic-Jewish relations. In an afternoon ceremony at St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore, Rabbi Mordecai Waxman of Great Neck, N.Y., became the fifth Jew, and the first rabbi ever, named a Knight Commander of Saint Gregory the Great. Pope John Paul II bestowed the award on Waxman "in recognition of his extraordinary leadership over the past several decades in fostering improved relations between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church," Keeler said. Waxman, 81, is chairman of the National Council of Synagogues and a past chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, where he did much of his work toward healing Catholic-Jewish relations, according to Keeler. In 1987, when Waxman was president of the Synagogue Council of America, the predecessor to the National Council, he and then-Bishop Keeler began a tradition of regular meetings between rabbis and Catholic bishops that continues today, Keeler said. Waxman helped prepare the pope's visits with American Jewish leaders in 1987, and he addressed the pontiff on behalf of the Jewish community in Miami that year. "Over the years, Rabbi Waxman has been a consistent peacemaker and worked for reconciliation between the Jewish people and the Catholic Church," Keeler said. Waxman praised the pontiff for his interest in Catholic-Jewish enterprises, including the Vatican's recent statement of repentance for the Holocaust. "That he has undertaken to honor Jews for such activities and has bestowed such recognition upon several of my co-religionists for their notable contributions is typical of the innovative thinking which he has brought to world affairs," Waxman told an audience of more than 100, including scores of his congregants who traveled from Temple Israel, where the rabbi has presided for 50 years. The Order of St. Gregory the Great was created by Pope Gregory XVI in 1831 in honor of his predecessor, Pope St. Gregory. It has several classes, the highest being the Grand Cross. Previous Jewish recipients include Sir Sigmund Sternberg of London, a recent Templeton Prize winner; the late Joseph Lichten, who was European director of the Anti-Defamation League; Gerhardt Riegner, a former general secretary of the World Jewish Congress; and, most recently, conductor Gilbert Levine, one of Waxman's congregants. For his part, the rabbi acknowledged and tried to assuage the continuing suspicion many Jews hold toward the Catholic Church, despite 30 years of papal teachings against anti-Semitism. But he said future generations will see the fruits of the current efforts. "That perhaps is what the Talmud means when it says, `There are things that take fruit of which a man enjoys in this world...but the capital endures for all time. And among these is the effectings of peace between man and his fellows.'"
1998(26th of Iyar, 5758): Seventy-two year old Yitzhak Moda’I passed away. Born in Tel Aviv in 1926, he became an Israeli political leader who served in the Knesset and who held several cabinet positions including Minister of Justice and Minister of Economics which is fitting for a man who studied both at the London School of Economics.
1998: “The Opposite of Sex” co-starring Lisa Kudrow was released in the United States today.
1998: “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” a movie version of the novel by the same name featuring Ellen Barkin, Laraine Newman and Jeanette Goldstein was released today in the United States
1999(7thof Sivan, 5758): Shavuot is observed for the last time in the 20thcentury.
2000: “Prime Minister Ehud Barak recalled his peace negotiators from Sweden today after a firebomb critically wounded a 2-year-old Israeli girl in a car passing through the sleepy Palestinian-ruled city of Jericho.”
2001:The BBC broadcast “Britannia Incorporated” the 10th episode of “A History of Britain a documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama” which began its second season tonight.
2002(11thof Sivan, 5762): Sixteen year old Elmar Deshabrielov and 65 year old Gary Tauzniaski were killed and forty people were wounded “when a suicide bomber detonated himself in the Rothschild Street downtown pedestrian mall of Rishon Lezion.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
2002: Final broadcast of “Felicity” a television series created by J.J. Abrams.
2002: David Blaine began another of his highly publicized “feats” when a crane lifted him “onto a 100-foot (30 m) high and 22-inch (0.56 m) wide pillar in Bryant Park, New York City.”
2003: Hamas claimed responsibility for today’s bus bombing at Netzarim where nine people were injured.
2004(2ndof Sivan, 5764): Parashat Bamidbar
2004: It was reported today that IDF has announced it was redeploying some of the forces it had sent into Gaza earlier this week as part of a major operation it said was intended to sever weapons-smuggling routes in tunnels from Egypt” following the killing of 13 Israeli soldiers last week.
2005: The Wolf Prizes were awarded by the President of the State of Israel Mr. Moshe Katzav at the Chagall Hall at the Knesset, in the presence of the Minister of Education and Chairperson of the Wolf Foundation Council, Mrs. Limor Livnat, the Speaker of the Knesset MK Reuven Rivlin and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Zeev Schleisner
2005: The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Good, The Bad, And Me In My Anecdotage by Eli Wallach and The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank by Ellen Feldman, an appealing and inventive novel about Peter van Daan, one of Anne Frank’s companions in the secret annex that imagines what his life might have been like if he'd survived to take on a new identity as a gentile in postwar America.
2006: Haaretz reported that the Dan David Prizes went to cellist Yo-Yo Ma, four journalist and two medical researchers. The Dan David Prizes are distributed annually to people who embody realms of human achievement related to the past, present and future. They are endowed by the Dan David Foundation headquartered at Tel Aviv University.
2007: Nineteen tombstones were toppled in the Jewish cemetery in Chernigov, an eastern Ukraine city.
2007: As part of Jewish Heritage Month, the National Archives presents a lecture entitled “Einstein: His Life and Universe” during which Walter Isaacson will discuss his latest work, Einstein: His Life and Universe. Albert Einstein was the most influential scientist of the 20th century, and Isaacson’s book is the first full biography of this great icon of our age since all of his papers have become available. Isaacson looks at Einstein’s science, personal life, and politics and explains how his mind worked, what he was really like, and the mysteries of the universe that he discovered. Isaacson, the CEO of the Aspen Institute, has been chairman of CNN and managing editor of Time magazine.
2007(5th of Sivan, 5767): Erev of Shavuot – Confirmation Ceremony at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Those reaching this milestone are Zach Burstain, son of Jennifer and Todd Burstain; Nathan Cooper, son of Mary and Bob Cooper; Kelsey Fisher, daughter of Ann Hagie; Joel Gasway, son of Julie and Scott Gasway; Cassy Novick, daughter of Denise Novick and Don Novick of blessed memory; Josh Siegel, son of Kris and Ken Siegel. This is an impressive number for a “small community” on the banks of the Cedar River. Am Yisroail Chai – The Jewish People Lives!
2007: A rare Torah scroll fragment from the Book of Exodus dating back to the 7th century that includes the famous “Song of the Sea” is put on display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, The manuscript, which is a fragment of a Torah scroll from the Book of Exodus (13:19-16:1), comes from the six-hundred year period from the 3rd through 8th centuries known as the "silent era," from which almost no Hebrew manuscripts have survived.
2008: The JCC Manhattan and The Museum of Biblical Art in New York presents “The History and Legacy of Greek Jews” during which Steve Bowman, Professor of Judaic Studies, University of Cincinnati Professor Bowman looks at the history of Jews in Greece - their ancient origins, their contribution to Jewish culture, and fate within the larger Christian community.
2008: Today, “at a ceremony held at the US State Department in Washington, DC,” eighty-eight year old Max “Kampelman was presented by the National Endowment for Democracy with its Democracy Service Medal in recognition of his lifetime achievement in advancing the principles of freedom, human rights, and democracy.”
2008: As part of the celebrations of Israel at 60, The Quad Cities Jewish Federation sponsors a recital by Carmel Harel, Israeli Shlicha of New Hampshire. A graduate of Israel Art and Science Academy in Jerusalem, she will play the piano and sing Israeli songs from the last 60 years.
2008: In Israel's answer to the Woodstock Festival, nearly half a million people gather on a Galilee mountaintop, where they pitch tents and engage in 24 hours of feasting, singing and ecstatic dancing. They are taking part in the annual celebrations held on the Yahrzeit of second-century sage Rabbi Shimon bar Yohai at his burial place on Mount Meron, near the northern Israeli city of Safed. The Yahrzeit coincides with the minor festival of Lag B’Omer. The celebrations are widely viewed as a resounding display of Jewish unity. "All shades of the rainbow come. There are Ashkenazim and Sephardim, Hasidim and knitted kippah-wearers, religious and secular," said Shlomo Shalvash, head of the Sephardic trust for the upkeep of the site. What makes bar Yohai such a crowd pleaser is the fact that he did not merely rule on matters of Jewish law. He is believed to have left the answers to life, the universe and everything, making him a figure of fascination for all these people. Bar Yohai is the purported author of the “Zohar,” the central text of Kabbalah.
2008: The Cedar Rapids Jewish community watches with pride as Ben Handler and Vanezzia Levi take part in the graduation ceremonies at Washington High School.
2009(28th of Iyar, 5769): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day
2009: Opening of Conference 2009 hosted by The Philadelphia Kehila for Secular Jews
2009(28th of Iyar, 5769: Funeral services are held at Temple B’nai Israel in Little Rock, AR, for Mrs. Joyce Ehrenberg, “dear and loving wife of Mr. Harry L. Ehrenberg, Sr. of blessed memory, and deeply proud mother of Harry L. Jr., and his sisters Linda and Terry. A consummate promoter in helping those that were less fortunate, Mrs. Ehrenberg lived a richly meaningful life.”
2009: IDF forces killed two armed terrorists who approached a security fence in southern Gaza before dawn today. The terrorists intended to plant bombs, which were to be detonated as IDF troops passed through on patrol.
2010(9th of Sivan, 5770): At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Shannon Williams is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2010: “Jacob’s House” August Schulenburg’s play based on the life of the Biblical character is scheduled to have its final performance the Access Theater in New York.
2011: To avoid desecration of Shabbat, the traditional Sephardi bonfire in Meron marking Lag B’Omer will be lit tonight instead of last night.
2011: The AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled to open today in Washington, D.C.
2011; The Jewish community of metropolitan Washington, DC, is scheduled to celebrate Israel’s birthday at Israel@63.
2011: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Rabbi David Ellenson, president of HUC-JIR, is scheduled to speak about the important place of the Jewish seminary in American life and scholarship in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month and the 100th anniversary of the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
2011: Chabad Lubavitch of Iowa City is scheduled to hold the grand opening of Iowa City’s Kosher Co-op, the first such emporium in the Iowa City – Cedar Rapids Corridor.
2011(18th of Iyar, 5771): Lag B’Omer
2011(18thof Iyar, 5771): Seventy-three year old composer and one-man movie making machine Joseph Brooks whose jingle “You’ve got a lot to live, and Pepsi’s got a lot to give” was known to millions even his name was not passed away today.
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life” by Harold Bloom, “2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America” by Albert Brooks and “The Convert: A Tale of Exile and Extremism” by Deborah Baker which tells the story of “how a Jewish girl from Larchmont became an Islamic polemicist.”
2011: President Obama addressed American Israel Public Affairs Committee this morning.
2012: The annual meeting of the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan featuring a speech by Arthur Horwitz, President of Renaissance Media and former publisher of the Detroit Jewish News and presentation of the Leonard N. Simons History Award is scheduled to take place this evening at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, MI.
2012: In recognition of the contributions of Jewish Americans to literature, poet Jody Bolz, editor of Poet Lore, America's oldest poetry magazine, is scheduled to read her work in Washington, DC.
2012(1st of Sivan, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2012: “The Bad Guys” featuring Raviv “Ricky” Ullman opened at a theatre on the Upper West Side in New York City.
2012(1stof Sivan, 5772): Fifty-three year old Aharon Zandi a mechanic from Sarna and “a pillar of Yemen’s dwindling Jewish community” was murdered today. (As reported by Elhanan Miller)
2012: Israeli radio reported today that 24 year old Nadav Ben Yehuda went to the aid of a stranded climber which put an end to attempt to become the youngest Israel to reach the summit of Mount Everest.
2012: Israel responded with immediate skepticism to reports that the UN had concluded an agreement with Iran to probe that country’s suspected nuclear site
2013: The American Jewish Historical Society and Beta Israel of North America are scheduled to present a screening of “Leah,” a documentary that depicts the experiences of Ethiopian Jews trying to adjust to life in Israel.
2013: In Denver, CO, the Mizel Institute is scheduled to present Pat Bowlen, the owner of the Denver Broncos with its 2013 Community Enrichment Award.
2013: The Matlz Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host a panel discussion entitled “How We Survive.”
2013: “Juadica,” the first ever Jewish film festival to be held in Lisbon is scheduled to open today.
2013: Rashad Hussain, the United States Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will join newly appointed Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Ira Forman will leave for Poland today “to visit Jewish communities, the site of the former Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau, and other Holocaust historical sites.” JPost)
2013: Anthony Weiner announced today that he was running for Mayor of New York City
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/nyregion/anthony-weiner-new-york-city-mayor.html?hpw
2013: City Councilman Eric Garcetti defeated Controller Wendy Greuel to become next mayor of Los Angeles after a campaign in which he depicted his rival a pawn of powerful labor bosses. With all precincts reporting today, the city councilman grabbed 54 percent of the votes against his fellow Democrat. Greuel had 46 percent.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/garcetti-elected-los-angeles-mayor-over-greuel/
2014: The final full day of the 4th International Writers’ Festival is scheduled to open with dancer Ohad Naharin and Nicole Krauss discussing the language of writing and of movement followed by encounters and conversations with Marilynne Robinson, Jake Wallis Simons, and Jan-Philip Sendker, and a final one between Krauss and David Grossman. (As reported by Jessica Steinberg)
2014: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host “an intimate evening” with Israeli cantor and stage performer Dudu Fisher.
2014: In Germany, the Federal Court of Justice ruled today “that 95-year-old Michael Karkoc’s service as a commander in the SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion made him the “holder of a German office” which means that “Germany the legal right to prosecute him even though he is not German, his alleged crimes were against non-Germans and they were not committed on German soil.” (Times of Israel)
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “War Children Just the Same.”
2014: Forty-eight year old Rainer Hoess, the grandson of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hosess, “tweet a picture of himself standing about Tel Aviv’s marina today and described the location as ‘very nice.’”
2014(22ndof Iyar, 5774): Eighty-six year old Don Levine, the developer of the G.I. Joe action figure passed away today.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/don-levine-who-developed-gi-706992
2015: In an attempt to reassure American Jews of his support for Israel, President Obama addressed 1,000 people at Washington’s Adas Israel – the large Conservative synagogue – saying that the nuclear agreement with Iran did change the fact “that the United States had an “enduring friendship with the people of Israel” and “unbreakable bonds with the state of Israel” that could never be weakened.”
2015: Today “The United States blocked a global document toward ridding the world of nuclear weapons, saying Egypt and other states “cynically manipulated” the process by trying to set a deadline for Israel and its neighbors to meet within months on a Middle East zone free of such weapons.”
2015: The Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a concert at noon as part of the Israel Festival.
2015: Among the 11 Democrats and one Republican pledged to observe “Solidarity Sabbath” which begins this evening is Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Senate minority leader and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), one of two Muslims in Congress. The sole Republican so far pledged is Rep. Peter King (R-NY).
2015: Rabbi Susan Grossman is scheduled to lead a discussion on the “Jewish View - To the Huppah and Beyond: Egalitarian Marriage and Divorce in Jewish Law” at Beth Shalom in Columbia, MD.
2016: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Paper: Paging Through History by Mark Kurlansky, The Romanovs:1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore and The Politicians and Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics by Sean Wilentz.
2016: The Jewish Museum of Florida – FIU is scheduled to present a “special edit-a-thon in partnership with the Miami Book Fair” the goal of which is “to edit and create Wikipedia pages about American Jewish Authors, Musicians, Artists and other cultural influencers.”
2016: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter and NYC Depart of Cultural Affairs are scheduled to host “A Tribute to Sholem Aleichem.”
2016: In Marion, Iowa at The Giving Tree Theatre the curtain is scheduled to come down on Wendy Kesselmans’ adaptation of “The Diary of Anne Frank” the three week long performance of which has been sponsored by The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund which “was established in 1995 by Dr. David and Joan Thaler to provide support for education about the Holocaust to residents and students at the local colleges in Linn County, Iowa.”
2016: Adas Israel is scheduled to host a ceremony adding Father Joachim Alexopoulous, who in 1943 as Archbishop of Volos “devised a plan for hiding 700 Jewish residents of Volos -- saving them from deportation and almost certain death” to is Garden of the Righteous.
2016: In New York City, the Jerusalem Post is scheduled to host its 5thannual conference today with the theme of “Israel, the US and the Free World in the Shadow of Terror.”
2016: The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a tour of Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery which will included an exploration of the history, burial customs and symbolism found throughout the Jewish Grounds of this powerful city landmark” as well as a recounting of the “stories of life and persistence as waves of Jewish immigrants entered and adapted to the culture of Victorian America.”
2016: “Sixty-Minutes” is scheduled to include a special memorial segment honoring Morley Safer, the long-time CBS correspondent who considered himself first and foremost a writer which makes last name, for those who know Hebrew, extremely appropriate.
2017: President Donald Trump is scheduled to “touch down at Ben Gurion International Airport” this
afternoon “for a 28 hour visit to Israel and the West Bank.”.2017: Per the orders of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu all members of his cabinet are scheduled to attend the airport welcome ceremony for visiting US President Donald Trump
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to co-host a weekly interfaith discussion looking at issues “from the perspectives of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”
2017: “After learning that some of his ministers planned to skip the ceremony,” “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu order all members of his cabinet to attend today’s airport welcome ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump.”
2017: Today, Donald Trump “became the first sitting American President to visit the Western Wall.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2017: Hallie Bram Kogelschatz, the CEO of shark & minnow is scheduled to discuss the need to modernize Judaism’s “mainstream identity” at Tribe Talk “an informal discussion series at the Landmark Centre in Beachwood, Ohio
2017: “French-Jewish celebrity intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy” “present a new documentary – ‘The Battle for Mosul’ – at the annual Tel Aviv film festival DocAviv.”
2018: Choreographer Andrea Miller and Gallim are scheduled to begin their second round of performances at The Met Breuer.
2018(8thof Sivan, 5778): Eight five year old award winning novelist Philip Milton Roth, the Newark born son of Herman Roth, a frustrated life insurance agent and “the former Bess Frankel” and author of such noted works as Portnoy’s Complaint, Goodbye Colum and Sabbath’s Theatre, passed away today. (As reported by Charles McGrath)
2018: It was reported today that images have been released showing a Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter belonging to the IAF flying over Beirut which is the “first-ever combat mission” flowing by the state of the art aircraft.
2018: “The Australian wing of Toys "R" Us, part of the chain founded by Charles Lazarus entered voluntary administration” today.
2018 Ailing PA President Mahmoud Abbas is scheduled to remain in the hospital for one more night amidst reports by Saeb Erekat “that Palestinian institutions are robust enough to endure the post-Abbas era.” (As reported by Alexandra Lukash and Nir Cohen)
2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to host “a concert featuring a variety of chamber music by Joachim Stutschewsky and composers of his coterie both in Russia and in Israel, as well as the premiere of a new composition by Ofer Ben-Amots, commissioned by YIVO” preceded by a lecture by Neil W. Levin on Joachim Stutschewsky’s life and work.
2019: JBI and Yeshiva University Museum are scheduled to present “a tour of ‘Kindertransport – Rescuing Children on the Brink of War’” which illuminates “the organized rescue efforts that brought thousands of children from Nazi Europe to Great Britain in the late 1930s” lead by curator Ilona Moradorf.
2019: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present a performance of “Nabucco,” “the opera by Giuseppe Verdi, “adapted by and starring David Serero as Nabucco” which builds “on the Biblical accounts of the Babylonian Exile found in Jeremiah and Daniel” and which “combines political and love intrigues with some of the greatest songs ever written (including “Va, pensiero, The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”).
2019(17thof Iyar, 5779): Ninety-five year old British author Judith Kerr, the Berlin born daughter of theatre critic Alexander Kerr and composer Julia Anna Franziska Weismann, the sister of British jurist Michael Kerr and wife of Nigel “Tom” Kneale passed away today.(As reported by Laura Holson)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/obituaries/judith-kerr-dead.html
2019: Today, Tiffany Haddish “became a naturalized citizen of Eritrea while taking part in festivities commemorating the 28th anniversary of Eritrean independence Ethopia.
2019: In Edmonton, Alberta, the Edmonton Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host a screening of “From to the Cloud” which tells the story of the World of the Cairo Geniza.
2020: Today during a special LSJS Torah Show, Bidud Beyachad, celebrating Yom Yerushalayim. Rabbi Zarum is scheduled to link LIVE to the Old City of Jerusalem to walk and talk with expert tour guide and archaeologist, Rabbi Barnea Selavan.
2020: CJP’s Boston-Haifa Connection is scheduled to host a special Kabbalat Shabbat program marking Jerusalem Day and Memorial Day for Ethiopian Jews honoring the 4,000 Ethiopian Jews, known as the Beta Israel, who died during this mass immigration.
2020: Via Zoom, “Francesco Spagnolo, Curator of the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, University of California, Berkeley, is scheduled to host a presentation on the current exhibition “Threads of Jewish Life: Ritual and Other Textiles from the San Francisco Bay Area” during which Spagnolo will explore early Jewish life in San Francisco through the textiles and objects on view in the exhibition, including the mysterious origins of the exhibition's extraordinary Torah ark.
2020(28thof Iyar, 5780): Yom Yerushalayim
2021(11thof Sivan, 5781): Parashat Nasso; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2021: In Palm Beach, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host an early morning Torah Study session with Rabbi Feivel Strauss.
2021: The Eden Tamir Center in Jerusalem is scheduled to host a “Millennium Ensemble with Julia Gurvitch.”
2021The Guy Mintus Trio is scheduled to give a CD release concert in celebration of their latest album on ENJA Records, “A Gershwin Playground” which “offers a fresh and contemporary take on the iconic repertoire of George Gershwin…”
2021: As the fragile cease fire between Hamas and Israel appears to be taking affect, the political infighting in Israel begins again with attacks on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s handling of the events of the last eleven days as well as the events that preceded the fighting.
2021: In Orange Village, OH, Temple Emanu El is scheduled to host a study of the weekly Torah portion.
2021: The Manchester Community Theater in Manchester, N.H. is scheduled to host an in-person screening of a new musical, “Miriam, The First Woman Prophet.”
https://www.jewishboston.com/events/a-new-musical-miriam-the-first-woman-prophet/
