December 28
1235: A ritual murder massacre at Fulda resulted in the death of 32 Jews. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire established an investigation at Hagenau (located in modern Alsac) to confirm or disprove the charges. After hearing various experts he declared that since Jews are prohibited from eating animal blood, they would surely be banned from using human blood. He forbade anyone from accusing Jews of this charge. Who would have expected such logical conclusion from this particular source? Of course logic does not trump anti-Semitism and the blood libel continues to this day.
1703: Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan passed away. During his reign, the Turks conquered Belgrade and the Jews returned to the city. Mustafa continue the practice of his predecessors and employed Jews a court physicians including Doctor Tobias Cohen and Doctor Israel Koenigland
1753(3rd of Tevet, 5514): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1757(17th of Tevet, 5518): Moses Ben Aaron also known as Moses Lwow who was embroiled in controversy between Frederick William I and the elders of the Berlin Jewish community and who later successfully served chief rabbi of Frankfort-on-the-Oder passed away today while serving as “Landesrabbiner" of Moravia
1788: In Prague, Israel Landau and Serel Duschenes gave birth to printer, publisher, and lexicographer Moses Israel Landau, the husband of Rivka Landau and the grandson of Ezekiel Landau.
1791(2nd of Tevet, 5552): 8th day of Chanukah
1800(12th of Tevet, 5561): Aaron Philip Hart, considered to be “the father of Canadian Jewry” passed away.
1802: In Strasbourg, Alsace, France Adelaide Cerfbeer and Auguste Ratisbonne gave birth to Théodor Ratisbonne a member of a prominent Jewish banking family who was baptize in 1826, ordained in 1830 and who founded the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion.
1811: Civil rights were extended to Jews in Frankfurt, one of the most venerable Jewish communities in Europe. The change was initiated by a number of distinguished Jews including Meyer Anschel Rothschild; the result was that the New Duchy of Frankfort passed a law granting Jews "Civic rights and privileges equally with other citizens." The signing only took place after Rothschild and his co-religionist agreed to pay 400,000fl to the French official making the decision.
1815: Mordecai ben Samuel Nathan married Zischa bat Moshe Israel at the Western Synagogue.
1825: Birthdate of Jindřich Opper, the native of Boheima who gained fame as Henri Blowitz, the naturalized Frenchman who became a journalist and diplomat who covered the Franco-Prussian War and the Congress of Berlin
1828: Birthdate of Joseph (Josef) Ritter von Weilin the native of Tetin who became a note Viennese dramatist and historian.
1828: Having passed away on Shabbat, Myer Hayman was buried today at the Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1831: In Württemberg, Germany, Bernard Frankfurter, the son of Moses Levi Frankfurter and Mirjam Landauer and his wife, Esther Frank, gave birth to Nannett Frankfurter
1833: Joseph Moses Levy, the chief proprietor of the Sunday Times and his wife Esther (née Cohen) gave birth to Edward Levy-Lawson Burnham who was put in charge of the Daily Telegraph which was deliberately priced at one penny, making it the cheapest and the largest circulated paper in Britain, surpassing the Times.
1836: South Australia and Adelaide are founded. Jews were among the earliest settlers. Among them may have been Solomon Emanuel who would become a successful merchant was convicted of house-breaking in 1817 and sentenced to “seven years of transportation” and his brother Vaiben who had been convicted of larceny at the same time.
1842: Samuel Solomon married Rosetta Hart today at Canterbury, Kent.
1843: In Vienne, Moritz Moses Jacob von Goldschmidt and Anna Netti von Goldschmidt gave birth Salomon Goldschmidt.
1845: Three days after he had passed away, David Hart was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1846: Iowa enters the Union as the 29th state. “Iowa was reported to have suffered an ‘invasion’ of Jewish peddlers; about a hundred of them arrived in the first decade after statehood. The peddlers who hailed from Eastern Europe had one center, those from German another. The first congregation arose in 1855 in Keokuk which the ‘Eastern European’ center.” Iowa’s two most famous Jews were born in Sioux City and are known to the world as Dear Abbey and Ann Landers. Until 2008, Iowa was home to the largest kosher slaughtering operation in the United States.
1851: In New York August Belmont, who was Jewish and Caroline Sllidell gave birth to U.S. diplomat and politician Perry Belmont. Belmont led the life a privileged, well-connected gentile.
1852: Henry FitzRoy, the son-in-law of Nathan Mayer Rothschild, became Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department.
1856: Birthdate of Thomas Woodrow Wilson. To the world, Wilson is famous for the New Freedom, his leadership of America during World War I and the Fourteen Points. For Jews, his greatest claim to fame was naming Louis Brandeis as a Supreme Court Justice. Wilson was also the first President to publicly endorse a national Jewish philanthropic campaign. In a letter to Jacob Schiff, on November 22, 1917, Wilson called for wide support of the United Jewish Relief Campaign which was raising funds for European War relief.
1859: Fifty-nine year old British historian, MP and Cabinet Minister Thomas Babington Macaulay who in 1830 “spoke in favor of Robert Grant’s bill for the Removal of Jewish Disabilities” passed away today.
1859: In the United Kingdom Edward Ludwig Goetz and the former Angelina Levy gave birth to their first child, Lucy Esther Goetz who would not live to see her second birthday.
1859: Today, Congregation Beth El which had been “organized as an orthodox synagogue in 1854” which makes “the oldest Jewish house of worship” in the Lone Star State, “obtained a charter for the Hebrew Congregation” which had 22 members from the City of Houston.
1860: The Jewish Messenger published an editorial by Samuel Mayer Isaacs supporting the Union. “The Union...has been the source of happiness for our ancestors and ourselves. Under the protection of the freedom guaranteed us by the Constitution, we have lived in the enjoyment of full and perfect equality with our fellow citizens. We are enabled to worship the Supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience; we can maintain the position to which our abilities entitle us, without our religious opinions being an impediment to advancement. This Republic was the first to recognize our claims to absolute equality, with men of whatever religious denomination. Here we can sit 'each under his vine and fig tree, with none to make him afraid.'”
1862: Cesar J. Kaskel received an order from Captain and Provost Marshall L.J. Waddell informing him that “in pursuance of General Order No. 11…you are hereby ordered to leave the city of Paducah, Kentucky, within twenty-four hours after receiving this order.” (As described by Jonathan Sarna)
1863: In Germany, Benjamin Jaffa and his wife gave birth to Nathan Jaffa who in 1878 came to the United States where he eventually settled in what is now the state of New Mexico where, among other things he served as a regent of the University of New Mexico and Mayor of Santa Fe while raising a son, Benjamin with his wife Esther.
1862: In Bokshsa, Poland, “Ephraim Rosenfeld and Rachel Wilchinsky” gave birth to “Moshe Jacob Alter” later known as Morris Rosenfeld, the sweat shop tailor and diamond cutter turned journalist who became editor of the Jewish World and a delegate to several Zionist Congresses and raised a family with his wife Bella Guttenberg.
1864(29thof Kislev, 5625): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1864: In Taurogen, Russia, Isaac Epstein and his wife gave birth to Jacob Epstein the husband of Lena Weinberg who was the “founder and proprietor of the Baltimore Bargain House” as well as the Director of the Hebrew Benevolent Society and the Hebrew Friendly Inn and Aged Home.
1864: In San Francisco, Hannah Marks and Gershom Siexas Solomons gave birth to Lucius L. Solomons the California lawyer who married Helen Frank, served as President of the San Francisco World’s Fair Association and held several positions of Jewish communal leadership including grand president, District No. 4, Independent Order of B’nai B’rith.
1865(10thof Tevet, 5628): Asara B’Tevet observed for the first time during the President of Andrew Johnson.
1870: Birthdate of Abraham Ber Goldenson, the native of Lithuania who “served the Nusach Hari shul, St. Louis, Missouri as their head rabbi for over 13 years from 1918 to 1931.”
1873: It was reported today that Anshe Chesed, one of New York’s oldest and most traditional congregations is merging with Temple Adath Jeshrurn, one of the city’s leading Reform congregation. Anshe Chesed is commonly known as the Norfolk Street Congregation.
1875(30th of Kislev, 5636): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1878(2nd of Tevet, 5639): 8th & final day of Chanukah
1879: William Waddington, who had provided Laurence Oliphant with a letter addressed to the Sultan expressing support for Oliphant’s plan for large-scale settlement of Jews in Palestine which would improve the economy of the Ottoman Empire, completed his term as the 42nd Prime Minister of France.
1881: In Rochester, NY, founding of the Eureka Club whose members included Joseph Michaels, Charles L. Blum, Herman C. Cohn and Charles L. Blum.
1882: Eighty-two year old German orientalist and student of Semitic languages and who in 1861 authored a textbook of the Hebrew language ("Lehrbuch der hebräischen Sprache") passed away today.
1883: Birthdate of Lithuanian Israel Isidor Mattuck who was ordained at Hebrew Union College before moving to Great Britain where served as the rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in London for 35 years.
1884: “Louis Kossuth Living” published today dispelled the recent rumors of his death while describing the accomplishments of his life.
1884: Three days after he had passed away, 65 year old Michael Nathan, the husband of Sarah Green and the father of Simon Nathan, was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1885: Fifty-four year old Jules Glaser, a leading Austrian jurist and statesman passed away today. Glaser had converted from Judaism to Christianity because the attitude of his countrymen made it very difficult to advance professionally and because the government would not hire him because he was Jewish.
1885: It was reported today that there were 80,000 Jews living in New York City; another 20,000 living in Brooklyn; and no more than 15,000 living in Philadelphia. At the same time, there are approximately two million Jews living in Russia.
1885: “The Proposed Jewish College” published today described the decision of Philadelphia’s Rabbi Sabato Morais “to visit the rabbis and influential Jews in New York and Brooklyn” to discuss the need to establish a college “to offset the liberal tendencies of the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.”
1885: Based on information that first appeared in The Argonaut, it was reported today that Benjamin Disraeli and his wife attended a dinner where Mrs. Disraeli sat next to Bernal Osborne. When the men were alone after dinner, Osborn said to Disraeli, “Good God! What possessed you to marry that woman?” After a lengthy pause Disraeli replied, “Partly, Osborne, for reason which you are incapable of understanding – gratitude!” (Like Disraeli, Osborne was a Sephardic Jew and English poltician who had converted to Christianity.)
1885: “The Source of Republican Ideas” published today provided a lengthy review of The Origin of Republican Form of Government in the United States of America by Oscar Straus, the leading Jewish businessman who was active in the Republican Party.
1887: The Brooklyn Board of Estimates met today and awarded funds to a variety of public charities including $111.68 to the Hebrew Benevolent Asylum and $78.80 to the Hebrew Benevolent Association
1888: Pianist Moriz Rosenthal is scheduled to perform this afternoon at the Academy of Music.
1888: “To His Hebrew Brethren” published today provided Elliott F. Shepard’s description of Palestine which he had visited in 1885. The climax of the trip came when his party visited Jerusalem a city of 210 ten acres surrounded by walls that were 32 feet high. It seemed odd that a city that was now “the size of a New Hampshire farm” had once been allegedly home to 2,300,000 souls. (Where Shepard found that figure is not disclosed in his discourse.)
1888: It was reported today that the Industrial School at 177 East Broadway is an institution supported by the Jews of New York City that currently provides different kinds of manual training to anywhere from 130 to 150 girls so that they may “support themselves.”
1889(5th of Tevet, 5650): Seventy year old Jacob Lagowitz passed away today in New York City. Born at Frankfort in 1819, he came to the United in 1849 and started a company that manufactured trunks and luggage. He was a Director of the First National Bank of Newark and leaves behind a widow and seven daughters.
1890: In New York City, “Abraham S. and Fannie (Charness) gave birth to John Marshall Law School trained attorney who practiced law in Chicago and was so active in the city’s Jewish affairs that he received the Julius Rosenwald Memorial Award in 1970.
1890: “Coroner Ferdinand Levy” is scheduled to “deliver a lecture this evening before the Russian-American Hebrew Association at Harris’s Assembly Rooms on East Broadway” entitled “The Jew as a Citizen.”
1891(27th of Kislev, 5652): Third Day of Chanukah
1891: Among the charities that received a portion of the “$75,000 in excise moneys” allocated by the Brooklyn Board of Estimates today were Hebrew Benevolent Society of Brooklyn, $97.22: Hebrew Benevolent Association, $65.20; Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society, $390.
1892: At 3 p.m. Rabbi Leopold Winter began the ceremonies dedicating the Brooklyn Orphan Asylum’s new facility with a prayer followed by a song performed by the orphans. Among the speakers will Dr. Edward McGlynn.
1892: In Plotsk, Wolf Krotoshinsky and his wife gave birth to Abraham Krotoshinsky who earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his service in World War I where he was a member of the 77th division and part of the so-called Lost Battalion.
1892: Birthdate of New York native and NYU trained CPA Louis Weinstein who was active with the YMHA.
1893(19th of Tevet, 5654): Seventy-two year old Adolf Jellinik, the husband of Rosalie Bettelheim who had died the year before and who had served as the rabbi in Leipzig before assuming a similar position at the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna passed away today.
1893:The second annual meeting American Jewish Historical Society comes to a close. The two day event was held at the Columbia College Library Building in New York City. Among the papers presented today was “The Family History of the Rev. David Machado” in which Taylor Phillips “traced the family back to the time of the Inquisition, when of the members of the family who was the physician at the Court of Portugal was imprisoned by the Inquisitors for professing the Jewish faith” for which he was ultimately burned at the stake.
1894: In Vienna, Rosa Volk, the daughter of Leopold and Sofie Sara Pick and her husbnd Alexander Volk gave birth to Margarite Volk.
1894: Three days after she had passed away, 71 year old Maria (Jacobs) Freedman, the wife of Abraham Freedman and the mother of Emanuel and Israel Freedman was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1894: Sixty-three year old James Graham Fair on of the Comstock Lode “silver kings” and United States Senator from Nevada passed away today in San Francisco leaving behind numerous bequests including “$25,000 to the Hebrew asylums in that city.”
1894: Two days after she had passed away, 60 year old Hannah Abrahams, “the widow of Yitzhak Meir Abrahams,” was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: As of today 14 of the 23 Jews who died in Baltimore at the fire the Front Street Theatre where Schongold and Tansman production of the Jewish opera “Alexander” was being performed including 50 year old Louis Amolsky, ten year old Louis Cohen, 14 year old Ida Friedman, seven year old Theresa Goldstein and her 4 year old brother, forty year old Mr. Levenstein, 20 year old Lena Lewis, 15 year old Sarah Rosen, 25 year old Jacob Rosenthal (a tailor), 12 year old boy only identified as Salzberg, 16 year old Sarah Siegel, 14 year old Ida Silberman, a tailor simply identified as Wolf and 21 year old Jennie Hinkle who was trampled death.
1897: The Relief Committee of the Board of Guardians is schooled to meet today at 3 3:30 p.m. in London.
1898: Birthdate of Joseph Ginsburg, the native of Kharkov who was the father of French multi-talented artist Serge Gainsbourg.
1898: Birthdate of Bialystok native Mischa Spoliansky, the son of an opera singer, whose career eventually led him to Great Britain where he pursued a career as a composer for several major motion pictures.
1899: Herzl met with Oscar Straus, the American ambassador to Constantinople
1899: Birthdate of Jack I Poses, the native of Russia who came to the United States in 1911 where he graduated from NYU and founded the Parfums D’Orsay Company.
1900: Sixty-five year old Yale University trained Congregational pastor turned author and Cornell University professor of American history and “corresponding member” of the American Jewish Historical Society passed away today.
1901: At the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basil, Max Nordau delivers a speech in which he called upon the Jewish people to “build a social structure of their own and to learn to know themselves sufficiently to think out their own future.” He lamented the fact that wealthy Jews too often turned their back on their less fortunate co-religionists and called upon these “millionaires” to support the causes of the Jewish people.
1902: In New York City, Ignatz Adler, “a jewelry salesman” and his wife Clarissa, “a former school teacher gave birth philosopher, author and teacher Mortimer J Adler whose accomplishments included helping in the creation of “The Great Books of the Western World” program who converted to Catholicism before his death.
1902: In Bucharest, Ecaterina Gaster Revici and Tulius Revici gave birth Melania Iancu
1905: Baron Michelham (verbally Lord) /mɪtʃ.ləm/, of Hellingly in the County of Sussex, a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom created today for the banker, businessman and philanthropist Sir Herbert Stern, 1st Baronet who was head of the firm Herbert Stern & Co
1905: “At a meeting of the National Committee for the Relief of Sufferers by Russian Massacre held” today” at Temple Emanu-El - the first such meeting since it was decided to collect a fund of $2,000,000 – Treasurer Jacob H. Schiff read a communication from the Foreign Relief Committee made up of delegates from London and Berlin” saying that it was impossible for them so visit “all the disturbed centers in Russia” on account of the conditions in that strife-torn country.
1905: Henry B. Greenthal, a manufacturer of clothing at 7 Lafayette Place in New York hosted a dinner tonight at Pacific Hall tonight, the anniversary of his birth, for 375 employees and friends including his colleague Isaac Rubenstein who has worked with him for 25 years.
1906: Birthdate of Ann Rosenblatt, the native of Omaha, Nebraska who gained fame composer and lyricist Ann Ronell “best known for the jazz standard ‘Willow Weep for Me.’”
1906: Seventy nine year old Solomon Buber who combined life of mercantile pursuits with a devotion to Jewish scholarship that included “fifty years of bringing to life the hidden treasures of Israel’s literature” with a special emphasis on “the careful editing of Midrashic literature” passed away today in his native Lemberg.
1906: The Independent Workmen’s Circle of America, Inc. with offices in Boston, MA, was organized today.
1906: Seventy-three year old Amsterdam native “Isaac Mozes Pereira Mendoza”, the husband of Sara Isaac Monis with whom he had had eight children was buried today,
1907: Birthdate of Ze’ev Woolf Goldman the native of Galicia who gained fame as Israeli linguist and president of The Academy of the Hebrew Language Ze’ev Ben’Haim
1908: It was reported today that the Grand Duchy of Finland is taking part in of it “periodic expulsions of Hebrews.” Under Finnish law, Jews are denied the rights of citizenship including the right buy and own land and are only “permitted to reside in Finland under close restrictions.” The Finnish legislature has refused to consider a measure that would abolish “Jewish disabilities.”
1908: It was reported today that a bill has been introduced in the Finnish Legislature that contains a clause forbidding the method used by Jews for slaughtering kosher meat.
1909(16thof Tevet, 5670): Jankel Kaplan passed away today.
1911: Birthdate of Sam Levenson who parlayed his experiences as a teacher in New York into a career as a humorist and television star during the 1950’s.
1911: Birthdate of Felicja Blumental. Born in Warsaw, this Polish-born Brazilian pianist would be known for her performances of 19th-century rarities and music by contemporary composers
1912: The National Council of Young Israel convened for the first time. The Council was originally created to combat the wave of assimilation by providing a palatable synagogue experience that was user friendly to newly arrived immigrants and their subsequent generations.
1912: Birthdate of William “Willie” Rubenstein “a guard from the Bronx, who was a three-year star for New York University (NYU) in the mid-1930s when the Violets were one of the best teams in the country.”
1913: In Toronto, Joseph and Fay Jacobivitch gave birth to Louis Harold Jacobovitch the Canadian actor who gained fame as Lou Jacobi.
1914: Dr. Simon Baruch, the father of Bernard Baruch spoke at tonight’s meeting of the Association of American Women of German Descent at the Hotel McAlpin “where he predicted ultimate friendly relations among those engaged in the present war.”
1914: “Lesson From Frank Case” published today provides a summary of Dr. William Rosenau’s speech “America” The Land of Milk and Honey” where he said that “America has meant the emancipation of the Jew” but that “occasionally there is an outbreak showing there is still feeling against the Hebrew” of which “the Leo M. Frank trial in Atlanta is an example.”
1914: “A Study in Scarlet” a silent movie version of the novel of the same name produced by G.B. Samuelson was released in the United Kingdom today.
1914: “Justice Lamar of the Supreme Court of the United States granted Leo M. Frank, under the sentence of death in Atlanta, an appeal for a writ of habeas corpus to the Supreme Court the immediate effect of” which “will be to stay Frank’s execution which had been set for January 22.”
1914: “The Young Men’s Hebrew Association’s campaign to raise $85,000 for a building in the Bronx is scheduled to end today with a luncheon at noon today at the Union Square Hotel.”
1915(21st of Tevet, 5676): Rabbi Mordecai Feinberg passed away today in Philadelphia.
1915: According to announcement made today at a campaign luncheon at the Union Square Hotel, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association raised $35,000 in the last two weeks during its campaign to raise funds for a “new clubhouse in the Bronx.”
1915: The list of newly elected officers of the National Association of Young Judea published today included: President, Isaac Rosengarten; Vice President, Rabbi Louis J. Hass of Woodbine, NJ; Treasurer, Isadore Blum and Secretary, Leon Spitz.
1915 Isaac Levy, the lawyer for Theresa Samuels who has been writing “poison pen” letter to young married women was informed by the psychiatrist who said she “was suffering from a form of insanity” that her “complaint will probably yield to treatment.
1915: As of today it was reported that the American Jewish Relief Committee for Jews suffering from the war has received more than $600,000 since the rally at Carnegie Hall including $50 from the Right Rev. David H. Greer, Protestant Episcopal Bishop of the Diocese of New York.
1915: “The Women of the Hour Committee” whose members “have volunteered to give at least an hour a week” of raising funds to aid the suffering Jews of war-torn Europe “launched its ‘heavy work’” today “with each woman being furnished a list of ten possible contributors from whom she was to solicit money.”
1915: A New York butcher Ignatz Weiss was charged with violating a law that went into effect last September that required that meat sold as kosher must bear the imprint of the supervising rabbi officiating at the slaughter house that provided the meat. Bail was set at $100.00
1916: A meeting is scheduled to take place as part of the attempt to settle the dispute between Kosher Packing Houses and the Retail Kosher Butchers Federation during which an additional attempt will be made to reassure that charging them 15 cents a pound for kosher beef is justified. The 15 cents is 3 cents less than the price charged when the federation announced their refusal to make any purchases at that price, but some may feel that even that is too much.
1916(3rdof Tevet, 5677): Sixty-nine year old University of Virginia graduate Moses R. Walter, a “prominent Maryland lawyer, former President of the Baltimore Bar Association and “an active member of the American Jewish Relief Committee for Baltimore which raised funds for the relief of the Jews of Europe who suffered as a result of the war” passed away today.
1916: The order disbanding the Zion Mule Corps was issued today.
1916: At a luncheon held at New York’s Union Square Hotel, it was announced that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association had raised $35,000 in the last two weeks. The funds are part of the $85,000 that are needed to build a new clubhouse in the Bronx. The money came from 2,500 contributors, most of whom gave $10 or less. Only twelve contributions were larger than $100.
1917: Rabbi Samuel Colombo sent a cablegram to Dr. Hertz, the chief rabbi of the British Empire expressing “on behalf of the Federation of Italian Rabbis, joy and felicitations on the capture of Jerusalem and thanking the British Government for” the Balfour Declaration.
1917:“Having beaten back the Turkish attempt to recapture Jerusalem, Allenby ordered his men to advance to make the perimeters of the city secure.”
1917: According to a cablegram which had been sent to the Jewish Daily Forward by its correspondent in Petrograd which was published today, the Bolshevik “Government has appropriated 2,000,000 rubles for the purpose of propagating a world-wide revolution” and “250 military detachments have been formed to combat the anti-Jewish outbreak throughout the country.”
1917: “In an interview with a representative of the Jewish press” the Polish Prime Minister “states that he is not an anti-Semite” and “that by mutual understanding Jews in Poland will receive equal rights’ as can be seen by the fact that the Home Secretary “would accord the same rights and privileges to the Jewish press as are accorded to the Polish Press.
1917: At today’s “meeting of the quinquennial convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association which” is being held at Columbia University, “Chancellor Henry Hurwitz read a letter from Israel Zangwill in which the writer criticized the failures of those who believed that Judaism is a world mission to be presented through their religion as to their failure to universalize their religious teachings and observed that the Jewish religion in England ‘is kept alive only by Christian prejudice and a Jewish superstition.’”
1918: Based on dispatches from Paris today American delegates to the Peace Conference have given a great deal of consideration to the question of intervening in Russia where Jews are the victims of both sides of the fighting, but they have not reached any decision.
1918: Bavarian born Texas merchant Alexander Sanger assumed the Presidency of Sanger Brothers in Dallas where he had already helped to form the first Jewish congregation in Dallas.
1919:”A meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Jewish Social Service” is scheduled to meet at 10 A.M. at the Hotel Astor in New York Astor.
1919: Today, Abraham Nathan, the son of Sarah Costa and Henry Nathan and the husband of Katherine Lyons was buried at the “East Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1920: Birthdate of Fatima Kuinova a Bukharan Jewish Shashmakom singer who was named "Merited Artist of the Soviet Union" who settled in Rego Park in 1980 “where she founded and was the lead vocalist for the Shashmaqom Music of the Bukharan Jews Ensemble.”
1921:“Orphans of the Storm,” a silent film sent in the French Revolution, starring Joseph Schildkraut as “Chevalier de Vaudrey” was released in the United States today.
1922: In a New York City apartment, Celia (née Solomon) and Jack Lieber gave birth to Stanley Martin Leiber who gained fame as Stan Lee creator of The Hulk and Spiderman.
1922: In New York City, Romanian-born Jewish immigrant parents, Celia (née Solomon) and Jack Lieber, gave birth to Stanley Martin Lieber, known as Stan Lee, the creator of the cartoon figures “The Hulk” and “Spiderman.”
1923: Broadway premiere of Shaw’s “St. Joan” in which Michael Stuhlberg would play the “the Dauphin, Charles VII” in the 1993 revival at the Lyceum Theatre.
1923: In Suwalki, Poland, Owseij Chasyd and his wife gave birth to Józef Chasyd) who gained fame as violinist Josef Hassid.
1924(1st of Tevet, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1924: U.S. premiere of “So Big” the “silent film based on Edna Ferber’s novel of the same name.”
1924(1st of Tevet, 5685):Léon Bakst, Russian costume designer an painter, passed away. To see examples of his work go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Bakst https://web.archive.org/web/20090411070131/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/features/Costume/1739_Designers_Speak/1739_Leon_Bakst/index.html
1925 George and Ira Gershwin's musical "Tip-Toes" premieres in New York, NY
1927: The New York Times describes the importance and significance of the gift of $2,000,000 recently made by John D. Rockefeller Jr. for the building of a museum in Jerusalem.
1927: George Kaufman”s "Royal Family" which when it opened at the Maplewood Theatre in 1940 found Edna Ferber among the cast, premiered in New York today
1927: In Boston, world premiere of Alexander Tansman’s Second Concerto for piano and orchestra
1928: Birthdate of Canadian jazz musician and composer Moe Koffman.
1928: Featherweight Harry Blitman fought is 69th bout today which he won by a TKO.
1929: Birthdate of Albert Edmund Wolf.
1929: According to Joseph M. Levy a reporter for the New York Times, Americans have replaced Englishmen as the greatest travelers visiting Palestine, particularly Jerusalem. In a change from pre-World War I days, “it is estimated that seven out of every ten visitors to Palestine are from the United States.”
1932: In Hamburg, Helene and Hildebrand Gurlitt gave birth to art collection Cornelius Gurlitt.
1932: “The Animal Kingdom” a film version of the stage play of the same name, produced by David Selznick, starring Leslie Howard and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States by RKO.
1932: Hildebrand Gurlitt and his wife gave birth to German art collector Conrelius Gurlitt whose family was labeled “a quarter-Jew under the Nazi race law” because his great-grandmother was Jewish.
1933(10thof Tevet, 5694): Asara B’Tevet
1933: In a case of Jew replaces Jew today “Lazarus Joseph was elected, to the New York State Senate (21st D.) to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Henry G. Schackno
1934: “The Little Minister” a movie version of the novel and play of the same name, produced by Pandro S. Berman and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.
1934: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Herbert George “Herb” Garnder, the creator of the comic “The Nebbishes” and scriptwriter whose most famous work may have been “A Thousand Clowns.”
1934: “Kid Millions” a comedy produced by Samuel Goldwyn and starring Eddie Cantor was released today in the United States today.
1935: U.S. premiere of “Captain Blood” a swashbuckler directed by Michael Curtiz with music by Erich Wolfgange Korngold.
1936: “At a time when highway robberies, brigandage and murder have again become the chief topic of news in the Palestine press and anarchy one more threatens the peace of the Holy Land,” the Vaad Leumi (the governing body for the Jewish community in Palestine) submitted evidence at today’s meeting of the Royal or Peel Commission that “the recent disturbances proved how unstable the state of public security is even in normal times and particularly how unprepared the country in in emergencies.”
1936: In Washington, DC, the delegates to final session of the annual convention Junior Hadassah adopted resolutions “urging the British Royal Commission to make recommendation that will facilitate constructive building for all sections of the population” and creating a $1,000 scholarship in honor of Miss Alice Seligsberg, of New York, one of the first members of Hadassah who for several years served as an advisor to Junior Hadassah.
1938: Birthdate of Yehoram Gaon “an Israeli singer and actor” a Sephardic Jew from Jerusalem
1938: As Leon Trotsky prepared to depart for Norway, one of the countries that had offered him refuge from the murderous wrath of Stalin, Trotsky writes in his diary, “Stalin wishes to strike not at the ideas of his opponent, but at his skull, at his very life force” Ironically, when Stalin’s assassin killed Trotsky he accomplished the deed by driving an ax into Trotsky’s brain.
1939: In the Beit Hakerem section of Jerusalem, Moshe-David Gaon a well-known historian born at Sarajevo in 139 and Sara Hakim gave birth to Yehoram “Yoram” Gaon, an Israeli singer, actor, director, producer, television and radio personality who has also written and edited books on Israeli culture.
1940: In Chile, Erick Kreutzberger and Anna Blumenfeld Neufeld, gave birth to Mario Luis Kreutzberger Blumenfeld, the Chilean television personality known as Don Francisco.
1941:Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, the two men designated to carry out Operation Anthropoid (the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich) were airlifted by a Royal Air Force Halifax of No. 138 Squadron into Czechoslovakia at 22:00
1941: The Nazis sanctioned performances known as Kameradschaftsabende (evenings of fellowship) in Terezín, reasoning that the prisoners would cause less trouble.
1942: In Augusta, GA, Leonard Scheinman a doctor from Brooklyn serving in the U.S. Army and the former Sera Mani, a Hebrew School teacher gave birth to Victor David Scheinman “who overcame his boyhood nightmares about a science-fiction movie humanoid to build the first successful electrically powered, computer-controlled industrial robot.” (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1942: In the Warsaw Ghetto, as part of the work of the Oyneg Shabes group, Rokhl Auerbach began interviewing “Abraham Krzepicki, an escapee from the Treblinka extermination camp.” (Editor’s Note: For more on this see Who Will Write Our History)
1942(20th of Tevet, 5703): Two Jews are shot for mutiny at the Stalowa Wola, (Poland) slave-labor camp.
1942(20th of Tevet, 5703): Danzig native Alfred Flatow, the gymnast who helped Germany win Gold Medals at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens died today at Theresienstadt.
1942: Dr. Carl Clauberg begins his sterilization experiments on women prisoners at Auschwitz.
1943: “What A Woman” a romantic comedy that marked the film debut of Shelly winters was released in the United States today.
1943: Reports out of Ankara, Turkey say the Germans are rushing material and reinforcement troops onto the Island of Rhodes by air, due to sea difficulties. At the time there were 10,000 Germans on the island.
1944: Members of Hungary's Arrow Cross abduct 28 Jews in a Budapest hospital. They will murder them two days later.
1944: On the Town opened on Broadway. It was lyricist Betty Comden's first hit. It was also the first big success for her three collaborators: Composer Adolph Green, Leonard Bernstein, and Jerome Robbins. Comden and Green also acted in the show, which featured the hit song "New York, New York." The musical, which followed a day in the lives of three sailors on leave in New York, ran for 462 performances on Broadway before going on tour. This success marked the beginning of Comden and Green's long career working together on Broadway and in Hollywood. When MGM turned On the Town into a movie with Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in 1949, it was the first feature-length musical to be filmed on location. In 1953, Comden and Green worked again with Bernstein, creating the show Wonderful Town, which won a Tony Award for Outstanding Musical. Collaborating with Green in a decades-long partnership, Comden wrote lyrics and librettos for numerous additional Broadway musicals and movies, including Singin' in the Rain (1952), Peter Pan (1953), Auntie Mame (1958), Say Darling (1958), and The Will Rogers Follies (1991). Their work garnered five more Tony Awards and two Academy Award nominations. In 1991, Comden and Green were awarded Kennedy Center Honors.
1945: Arnold Hans Weiss, who left Nazi German at the age of 13 and returned as an officer in the United States Army’s Counter-Intelligence Corps completed a mission for which he received a Commendation Ribbon for assuming “the responsibility of apprehending a personality high in the annals of the Nazi system..” The Nazi was “Wilhelm Zander, chief aide to Martin Bormann, the Nazi Party official who had controlled access to Hitler.”
1945: “Spellbound,” a murder mystery with a strange twist produced by David O. Selznick, written by Ben Hecht and with music by Miklós Rózsa which had premiered in New York City on Halloween was released to the rest of the United States today.
1945: Moshe Shertock, head of the Jewish Agency political department was released today at 9 am after having been arrested last night along with 1,500 other Jews following the bombing of British installations in Palestine. Shertock could have been released as early as 4 in the morning but he “refused to leave until most the prisoners were freed; something that did not happen until 9 o’clock.
1946(5th of Tevet, 5707): Elie Nadelman, the Polish-born American sculptor and founder with his wife of the Museum of Folks Arts passed away today in NC at the age of 64.
1946(5th of Tevet, 5707): Odessa born American jurist and Zionist Alexander Haim Pekelis passed away today.
1946(5th of Tevet, 5707): Fifty-five year old Pierre Leon Dreyfus the Paris born son of Alfred Dreyfus and Lucie Eugénie Hadamar and the husband of Marie Apollonie Dreyfus passed away today in Ireland.
1946: Joseph Clark Baldwin a Congressman from New York and a member of the Political Action Committee for Palestine appealed to Menachem Begin to end “terrorist’s activities.”
1947: As the Arabs continue their violent reaction to the UN partition vote, a convoy of Jewish trucks was ambushed near Dier Balah. The Jews fought their way through the ambush in which two Arabs were killed and another nine were wounded.
1947: Five Arabs were killed in Jerusalem by members of the Stern Gang who forced their way into an Arab house and shot those inside.
1947(15th of Tevet, 5708): Five Jews are killed in random terror attacks in Jerusalem. One was stabbed to death while on his way to a funeral. Another, Miriam Meir, the mother of six, was hanging her washing on a line when she was shot by an Arab sniper. Dr. Hugo Lehrs, a British government medical officer was walking with an Arab doctor and an Arab nurse when they were confronted by three armed Arabs. “Which is the Jew?” They asked. The two Arabs stood aside and Dr. Lehrs was gunned down.
1947: Moshe Sneh resigned as Jewish Agency executive. He criticized the Agency for emphasis on a friendship with the West and says they should pay more attention to Soviet Union
1948(26th of Kislev, 5709): Erving Max “Goldy” Goldstein, “a three-time All-Southern selection” who played Guard for the University of Florida Gators followed by one season with the professional Newark Bears passed away today.
1948: As the fortunes of war turned against the invading Arab armies, the IDF crosses the Egyptian border moving into the Sinai Peninsula.1948: During Operation Horev, the Negev brigade followed the tanks of the 8th brigade across the Egyptian border tonight and moved towards El-Arish
1948: Kitty Carlisle performed as Lucretia when the two act opera The Rape of Lucretia opened on Broadway at the Ziegfeld Theatre.
1948: The Alexandroni brigade is sent to break through an Egyptian stronghold in Iraq-El-Manshia, as part of the big campaign aimed to capture Kis Fallujah which is held by the Egyptian Army. The brigade did not succeed in this mission either.
1948: Syd Cohen dined on breakfast of boiled eggs and black coffee before he took off in his Spitfire Merlin on his first mission for the Israeli Air Force.
1948: “Dressed casually, without any badge of rank Gordon Levett the WW II, RAF veteran who flew covert missions bringing dis-mantled planes to Israel and who was the first English Gentile to fly with Israel’s first squadron took off today on his first mission with the IAF.
1949: Birthdate of Rachel Elior an Israeli professor of Jewish philosophy and mysticism at Hebrew University.
1951(29th of Kislev, 5712): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1951(29th of Kislev, 5712): Forty-six year old Harry Strauss, who had married Cecile G. Pofcher in 1931, passed away today in West Roxbury, MA.
1951(29th of Kislev, 5712): Eighty-year old Vicksburg, Mississippi, native Edward E. Scharff passed away today
1952(10th of Tevet, 5713): Asara B’Tevet
1954: “The Flower Peach” by Clifford Odets which tells “the story of Noah and his struggle to carry out his mission” and which New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson “praised” for “its human warmth and wisdom’ opened at the Belasco Theatre for the first of 135 performances.
1955: The funeral for 72 year old “Samuel Niger (Charney), the famous Yiddish author, literary critic and editor” is scheduled to be held today in New York.
1956: J. Sinclair Armstrong, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission today announced the appointment of Joseph B. Levin as an Assistant General Counsel of the Commission.
1958: Bob Wolf was the radio voice of today “sudden-death overtime NFL championship game between the Giants and the Baltimore Colts where he excitedly proclaimed “The Colts are the world champions — Ameche scores!” as “Colts fullback Alan Ameche won the game on a 1-yard touchdown plunge.”
1959(27th of Kislev, 5720): Third Day of Chanukah
1959: First graduation ceremony at Bar-Ilan University
1959: “The Cherry Orchard” produced by David Susskind co-starring Susan Strasberg as Anya was broadcast today as the “Play of the Week,
1959: Shlomo Yisrael Ben-Meir began serving as Deputy Internal Affairs Minister.
1963: German-born composer Paul Hindemith passed away. The very successful Hindemith was not Jewish but his wife and many of his friends were. Hindemith fled Germany when the Nazis came to power. He started a new career in the United States.
1963: “Love With a Proper Stranger,” an off-beat comedy featuring Herschel Bernardi and Tom Bosley and with music by Elmer Bernstein was released today in the United States.
1963: After 82 performances and four previews” at the Majestic Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Jennie,” “a musical with a book by Arnold Schulman, music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz.
1963: President Lyndon B. Johnson attended the dedication of the new home for Agudas Achim on Bull Shoals Boulevard in Austin, TX. The dedication was originally scheduled for November 23 at which then Vice President Lyndon Johnson was going to be the honored guest. The assassination on November 23 changed all of that and it came as a great surprise to the congregants when President Johnson contacted the synagogue after the official mourning period was ended to make arrangements to come to Austin. (Editor’s Note- This is but one of the many little known stories about Lyndon Johnson and the Jewish community. I taught at Agudas Achim five years after this event and people spoke of it with an understated pride that one usually did not find in Texans)
1966(15th of Tevet, 5727): Seventy-nine year old Frank Chodorov (born Fishel Chodorowsky) whose economic and philosophic views can be seen in his Founding of the Intercollegiate Society of Individualist with patrician conservative William F. Buckley as President.
https://mises.org/library/frank-chodorov-nonvoter
1967:Muriel 'Mickie' Siebert became the first woman member of the New York Stock Exchange, one of many firsts that have earned the feisty Siebert the moniker "The First Woman of Finance."
1968: Israeli forces conducted a commando raid aimed at Beirut Airport as part of its war against Palestinian terrorists.
1969: Neil Simon's "Last of the Red Hot Lovers" premieres in New York City.
1971(10th of Tevet, 5732): Asara B'Tevet
1971(10th of Tevet, 5732): Eighty-three year old Viennese native Maximilian Raoul Walter “Max” Steinerthe composer nominated for 26 Oscars and winner of six for scores for “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca.”
http://www.americancomposers.org/raksin_steiner.htm
1972: Four Black September members took over the Israeli embassy in Bangkok, holding 12 hostages. They raised the PLO flag over the building, and threatened to kill the hostages unless 36 PLO prisoners were released.
1972: Martin Bormann's skeleton was found in Berlin. Bormann was one of Hitler’s closest associates in the waning days of World War II. He was last seen alive leaving Hitler’s Berlin Bunker as the Soviet forces were closing in for the kill. For almost a quarter of century, Nazi hunters looked for Bormann because they assumed that he might be hiding in South America or some place in the Middle East.
1973: Birthdate of actor Seth Meyers, a SNL regular.
1974: Final broadcast of the National Lampoon Radio Hour whose writers and performers included Gilda Radner, Harold Ramis and Richard Belzer.
1975: A revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” which was an all-African-American production came to a close in New York City.
1976 "Fiddler on the Roof" opens at Winter Garden Theater NYC for 167 performances.
1976(7th of Tevet, 5737): Eighty-four year old Solomon Zeitlin, the native of Byelorussia who became professor of rabbinical studies at Dropsie College in Philadelphia where he taught in the same classroom for over five decades and who is known both as the author of the three volume The Rise and Fall of the Judean as well as challenger of the authenticity of the Dead Sea Scroll passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1976/12/30/archive/solomon-zeitlin-dead-at-84
1976: Edward Zorinsky began serving as U.S. Senator from Nebraska.
1977(18th of Tevet, 5738): In Tel Aviv, a terrorist bombing killed two and injured two.
1980(21st of Tevet, 5641): Sixty-five year old Charles Tannen, who followed in the thespian footsteps of his father Julius passed away today.
1980:“Yona Kolchinsky was forewarned that he will be called up for military service beginning from December 29th of this year.”
1980(21st of Tevet, 5641): Seventy-five year old Sam Levene whose fifty year stage and film acting career began with five lines in a 1927 play passed away today.
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19801230&id=c54cAAAAIBAJ&sjid=42cEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4805,7505194
1981(28th of Tevet, 5742): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1981(28th of Tevet, 5742): David Abraham Cheulkar, a Jewish-Indian film star passed away. Born in 1909, his career began in 1941 when he made the first of over 110 films.
1982: The New York Times featured a review of The Belarus Secret by John Loftus which explains “how some Nazi war criminals and collaborators were able to make their way to the United States after World War II, attain citizenship and live undetected or unmolested” by the authorities.
1984(4th of Tevet, 5745): Seventy-six year old Soviet physicist Isaak Kikoin passed away.
1985:Sulayman Khatir who had machine-gunned to death seven Israelis at Ras Burqa, “a beach resort area in the Sinai peninsula” was tried by a closed Egyptian military tribunal today after which he was “sentenced to life in prison at hard labor.”
1986: It is reported that a gift of eight colorful and high-spirited children's books for each day of Hanukkah is available from the Ktav Publishing House. The books are ''Chanukah Fun and Story Book: Stories, Poems, Games & Things to Do for Chanukah,'' edited by Bernard Scharfstein ($6.50), and the following books written by his brother, Sol, a resident of Livingston: ''Chanukah Game and Story Book'' ($7.95), ''What Do You Do on a Jewish Holiday,'' a flip-flap book ($8.95), ''Let's Do a Mitzvah'' ($10.95), ''See, Smell and Touch Hanukah'' ($8.95), ''The Dreidel'' ($6.95) and ''Hanukah Popup'' ($6.95).
1986: It was reported today that the following are now available just in time for Chanukah:
''The Hallah Book: Recipes, History and Traditions,'' by Freda Reider which tells about the ''ceremonial loaves that grace the Jewish Sabbath and the holiday tables.'
''Jewish Holiday Treasure Box: How to Be Jewish,” an attractively boxed package of 16 items for year-long fun and learning that includes 8 picture books, 6 play-and-learn magazines, a cassette tape of songs and stories and a parent handbook to be used with children from 4 through
''A History of America's Jews: This Land of Liberty,'' by Helene Schwartz which is packed with illustrations that include many historic photographs.
''The Guide to Everything Jewish in New York,'' by Nancy Davis and Joy Levitt, a thoroughly resourceful guide and fun to read reference book that helps even the most assimilated yuppie to find ''Jewish-style food'' and almost anything else you could think of that might be needed or wanted by the Jewish community.
1987: Israeli officials said today that Israeli soldiers had resorted to using live ammunition against Palestinian demonstrators when their own lives were endangered. The comments by Shimon Peres, Israel's Foreign Minister, and Yitzhak Rabin, the Defense Minister, were made after two weeks of rioting in the occupied territories Mr. Rabin, interviewed from Tel Aviv on the NBC News program ''Meet the Press,'' said the Israeli Army had sought to use minimum force against the rioters, but he defended the use of live ammunition in situations when the lives of soldiers were in jeopardy. ''I believe we have tried and will continue to try in coping with violent public disorder with minimum measures -rubber bullets, tear gas,'' Mr. Rabin said. ''But whenever our soldiers are in danger, their life is in danger, they are allowed to open fire with live ammunition.''
1987(7th of Tevet, 5748): Forty-eight year old lyricist Edward “Ed” Kleban best known his Tony Award winning work on “A Chorus Line” passed away today.
http://www.masterworksbroadway.com/artist/edward-kleban/
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/30/obituaries/edward-kleban-48-chorus-line-lyricist.html
1989(30th of Cheshvan, 5750): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1989(30th of Cheshvan, 5750): Ninety eight year old Solomon Birnbaum, the oldest son of Rosa Korngut and Nathan Birnbaum, who was a noted “Yiddish linguist and Hebrew paleographer” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/03/obituaries/solomon-birnbaum-scholar-98.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Birnbaum
1989: An Israeli widely regarded as Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega's closest associate has been seized by United States troops in Panama, a senior American Embassy official said today. The prisoner, Mike Harari, 62 years old, who formerly was an Israeli intelligence official, played an important advisory role in developing Panama's armed forces. He is known to have recruited and trained the general's personal security detail, which at one time included former Israel soldiers as well as Cuban military advisers. Mr. Harari, who retired in 1979 as head of the Israeli intelligence service in Central America and Mexico, has also been identified as a longtime business associate of the deposed Panamanian leader. (As reported by David E. Pitt)
1989: An Israeli Government official said today that Mike Harari was ''absolutely not connected in any way to the Government, and his activities in Panama have no connection to any official Israeli organization or body.''
1992: Shmuel Zailer, a director of Raz-Lee Ltd., an Israeli software company tells the New York Times, "It's easier exporting to the moon than to America." This complaint is often heard at Israel's software companies, even though the industry expects to export about $130 million in programs this year, up from $75 million in 1990. About 40 percent goes to the United States. Israel has one of the largest concentrations of software engineers, with about 12,000 people employed in the field.
1992: The Southwestern Bell Corporation and Clal Industries of Israel will jointly bid for control of Israel's national telephone company, Clal said today.
1993: William L Shirer passed away at the age of 89. Shirer was born in Chicago and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa where he graduated from Coe College. Shirer is not Jewish. However, as radio correspondent for CBS in the 1930’s, Shirer was one of the first to warn of the threat posed by Hitler and Nazi Germany. His massive tome, Rise and Fall of the Third Reich continues to be one of the best books ever written on that period. His incisive writing on the collapse of the French Third Republic is an underappreciated classic.
2001(13th of Tevet, 5762):Seventy-three Samuel A. Goldblith, an American food scientist who had been captured at Corregidor and survived being a Japanese POW passed away.
http://news.mit.edu/2002/goldblith-0109
2003(3rd of Tevet, 5764): Seventy-three year old“Manny Dworman, a nightclub owner, musician and long a colorful fixture on the Greenwich Village scene” passed away today at New York Hospital in Manhattan. (As reported by Stephen Holden)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/02/arts/manny-dworman-73-musician-who-owned-the-comedy-cellar.html
2003: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. by Wil Haygood and Gonna Do Great Things: The Life of Sammy Davis, Jr. by Gary Fishgall.
2004(16th of Tevet, 5765) Jerry Orbach, the American actor who may be best remember for his role as a detective on the long-running series, “Law & Order,” passed away.
2004(16th of Tevet, 5765): Susan Sontag, feminist, author and social critic passed away (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/29/world/americas/29iht-sontag.html
2004(16th of Tevet, 5765): Tzvi Tzur, the 6th Chief of Staff of the IDF passed away.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/141509
2005: Today an immigration judge ordered John Demjanjuk, who had not disclosed his role as guard at Sobibor, be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukrainea\.
2006: The annual Limmud Conference held at Nottingham, England, featuring presentations by 52 Israeli speakers, comes to a close. Based in the UK, Limmud is a global leader in innovative, inclusive Jewish education.
2007(19th of Tevet, 5768): Two Israelis were killed and a third was wounded in a drive-by shooting in the south Hebron Hills. The victims, David Rubin and Ahikam Amihai, were in elite units of the IDF, with Rubin serving as a sergeant in the Israeli Naval commandos and Amihai as a corporal in the Israel Air Force commandos unit. The two soldiers were on leave. Before being fatally wounded, the two managed to return fire and wounded one or more of the four Palestinian gunmen. The Fatah-affiliated Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade took responsibility for that attack.
2008: In Clayton, MO, The New Jewish Theatre presents “The Last Seder.”
2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Michael Lewis’ Panic: The Story of Modern Financial Insanity.
2008:The Israeli Air Force today blew up 40 tunnels that have been used to smuggle arms and terrorists into Gaza.
2008:Gaza terrorists continued firing rockets at the western Negev this afternoon, although the pace of the attacks had slowed by 4:00 p.m. Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, suffered shrapnel wounds and several others suffered traumatic shock this afternoon when the missiles bombarded the coastal city of Ashkelon at mid-day.
2009: Famed dancer and choreographerKobi Rozenfeld, a native of Rehovot, Israel, conducts a hip hop workshop at the Peridance Center in New York. Kobi Rozenfeld is coming from LA to teach three guest Street-Jazz classes:
2009:Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Weisz, the Brooklyn-based Grand Rebbe of the Spinka sect, was sentenced to two years in federal prison today for a decade-long fraud and money-laundering scheme. Weisz, 61, had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy before U.S. District Judge John F. Walter in Los Angeles last August.
2009:Significant progress was made today in the case concerning the rights to the literary estates of Franz Kafka and Max Brod. Tel Aviv Family Court gave the heirs of Max Brod's estate - the sisters Eva Hoffe and Ruth Wisler - 15 days to come to an arrangement with the representatives of the state and the National Library with regard to the material in their possession. Judge Talia Pardo Kupelman ruled that if negotiations fail, five vaults in various banks in Tel Aviv, containing the manuscripts of the two Czech writers, will be opened without the sisters' consent in the presence of both a representative of the State Archive and the court-appointed executor of the estate.
2009: It was announced today that for the first time in 10 years the number of immigrants to Israel has risen this year, according to Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky and Immigration and Absorption Minister Sofa Landver. In 2009, 16,244 people immigrated - a 17 percent jump over last year's 13,859. The number of immigrants from English-speaking countries has also increased by 17 percent this year, from 4,511 to 5,294, said Eli Cohen, the director-general of the agency's aliyah department.
2009: Israel announced today it would build nearly 700 housing units in Jewish areas of Jerusalem on territory conquered in the 1967 war that the Palestinians claim for their future state. The move was harshly condemned by Palestinian leaders as evidence that the Israelis are undermining efforts to restart peace talks.
2010:Just Say "Know" to Judaism! “a weekly series explores the relevant texts in Judaism that provide guidance for becoming a better person in an entertaining, informative and meaningful manner is scheduled to meet today at The Jewish Community Center in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2010: “Reform Reading and Liberal Leyning – The Torah Service in Progressive Jewish Services” with Paul Freedman and “Ben Shahn: Political Artist, Personal Imagery” with Irene Wise are two of the programs scheduled to take place at today’s session of the Limmud Conference.
2010:Today Iran hanged an Iranian convicted of spying for the country's archenemy Israel, the official IRNA news agency reported. The report identified the man as Ali Akbar Siadati and said he was hanged in Tehran's Evin prison. Earlier in the week, Iran's judiciary announced that a spy for Israel would be executed soon after an appeals court confirmed the man's death sentence.
2010: A natural gas field discovered in Israel's territorial waters contains an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of the natural resource. Electrical log tests confirmed the size of the natural gas field, which was discovered in drilling earlier this year off the Mediterranean coast near Haifa and dubbed "Leviathan." Noble Energy Inc. announced the results of the tests today
2010(21st of Tevet, 5771): Avraham “Avi” Cohen an Israeli footballer who served as chairman of the Israel Professional Footballers Association was declared brain dead after being seriously injured in a motorcycle accident on December 20.
2011: Adrienne Khana Cooper, “a Yiddish singer…who played an integral role in the revival of klezmer music” was buried at Oakmont Cemetery in Lafayette, CA following a memorial service at Congregation B’nai Shalom in Walnut Creek.
2011(2nd of Tevet, 5772): 8th & final day of Chanukah
2011(2nd of Tevet, 5772): Ninety-four year old Irving Raphael Isaacs, the University of Michigan trained photographer, advertising executive and WW II Army Air Corps bombardier who was the son of Bernard Isaacs, the Superintendent of Hebrew Schools in Detroit and the husband of the former Martha Lillian Horelick passed away today.
https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/irving-raphael-isaacs/
2011: Matisyahu is scheduled to perform at the “9:30 Club” in northwest Washington, DC.
2012: “The Gatekeepers” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
2012: The Eden-Tamir Music is scheduled to be the site of a noon-time concert featuring Piano Chamber Music and a Young Artist Competition.
2012(15th of Tevet, 5773): Ninety-two year old Benjamin Franklin expert Claude-Anne Lopez passed away today. (As reported William Yardley)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/us/claude-anne-lopez-expert-on-franklin-dies-at-92.html?hpw
2012:A senior Muslim Brotherhood official called on Jews who immigrated to Israel from Egypt to return to Egypt and leave Israel to the Palestinians, Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm reported today. Senior Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood offcial Essam el-Erian said in an interview to television station Dream TV that every Egyptian has the right to live in Egypt, and Egyptian Jews living in Israel were contributing to the occupation of Arab lands, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm.
2012: Some 200 settlers clashed with security forces attempting to evacuate the illegal West Bank outpost of Oz Zion near the Beit El settlement today. The settlers threw stones at security forces, who eventually abandoned the evacuation attempt prior to the start of the Sabbath.
2013: Roman Rabinovich, winner of the Arthur Rubenstein Competition for Young Artist of the Year 2012 is scheduled to be featured at a piano recital in at the Eden-Tamar Musical Center.
2013: After Shabbat world renowned artists Miriam Fried-violin, Paul Biss-viola Zvi Plesser-cello and Ron Regev-piano are scheduled to perform in several pieces including Brahms Trio No. 3 in Jerusalem
2013: “Frozen” and “The Escape” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013:An earthquake measuring 5.9 on the Richter scale shook Cyprus tonight, with the effects felt as far east as Northern Israel. The two areas primarily affected were Haifa and the Krayot. (As reported by Tova Dvorin)
2013: Dozens gathered today in front of the Jerusalem residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protest against the release of Palestinian prisoners. Protesters included family members of the prisoners' victims, and carried signs reading "only Israel releases murderers." (As reported by Noam Dabul Dvir)
2014: “The Rover” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Suspended Sentences: Three Novellasby Patrick Modian
2014: “Hamas prevented 37 Palestinian war orphans living in the Gaza from entering Israel” to participate in an “educational and recreational visit organized by Yoel Marshak of the Kibbutz Movement in collaboration with the Arab Israeli towns of Kfar Kassem and Rahat which was meant to bring the teenage children of Hamas operatives killed during Operation Protective Edge to the Ramat Gan Safari and to Israeli towns along the Gaza border.” (As reported by Elhanan Miller)
2014:Today, Judge Salim Joubran, speaking at a High Court hearing for a petition against the Knesset law that raises the threshold to 3.25 percent of total votes struck out against the new rules raising the minimum vote threshold for entrance into the Knesset, saying it could result in a total lack of Arab representation in the Knesset.
2015: In Tel Aviv Poetry “Slam Israel’s Slamstival” is scheduled to come to an end.
2015: In New Orleans, which most people connect with jazz another 2 hour round of Israeli folk dancing is scheduled to begin this evening.
2016(28th of Kislev, 5777): Fourth Day of Chanukah
2016: “In his address” today, Secretary of State John Kerry “defended America’s decision not to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334 which condemned settlements as illegal and called for a halt in all settlement activity.”
2016: In Little Rock, AR, Lubavitch of Arkansas is scheduled to host the Chabad Young Professional Chanukah Party at Dave and Busters.
2016: At La Mama, Yiddish New York & New Yiddish Rep are scheduled to present: “God of Vengeance” (Got fun nekome) by Sholem Ash followed by “Ahava Oylem – An Evening of Sacred Music” at the Town and Village Synagouge and a “Late Night Klezmer Jam Session” at Mona’s.
2017(10thof Tevet, 5778): Fast of Tevet
2017(10thof Tevet, 5778): Yahrzeit of Judith Sharon Rosenstein – nee Levin. “Judy” to one and all: a true woman of valor – loving wife, devoted mother, a grand grandmother and a great sister. Unfortunate proof of the statement that “the good die young!”
2017: Tonight Haylyards Bar is scheduled to host the post-Chanukah Chanukah Party that includes a screening of “The Hebrew Hammer!”
2017: YNY is scheduled to host its annual Student Concert
2018: As Israelis prepare for Shabbat they consider the impact of this week’s surprise announcement of election in April of 2019, the discovery of new terror tunnels on the border with Lebanon and the issuance of the official order paving the way for the immediate of U.S. troops from Syria despite previous pleas from Prime Minister Netanyahu not to do this.
2018: In Winchester, MA, Temple Shir Tikvah is scheduled to host “Hot Chocolate Shabbat.”
2018: In Memphis, TN, the Sisterhood is scheduled to host a “Preneg” prior to Friday evening services.
2018: In Rochester, NY, Temple Emanu-El is scheduled to host its last “Challah Baking” of 2018.
2018: “The DC Improv” is scheduled to host an evening with Dov Davidoff