March 6
1239: With the Edict of Valencia, Spanish King James I validated privileges of the Jews of Aragon. The Jewish courts (Bet din) were authorized to try all cases except capital offenses.
1405: In Toro, Zamora, King Henry III and Catherine of Lancaster gave birth to John II, who as King of Castile and Leon overturned the Valladolid laws that restricted Jewish activities and adopted “a more tolerant attitude toward the already battered Jewish population of Castile following the mass wave of conversions” that had taken place from 1391 to 1415.
1447: The papacy of Nicholas V began today. According to Shlomo Simonsohn he “changed course several times in his policy the Jews just as his predecessors had done.” (For more on Nicholas V and the Jewish people see The Apostolic See and the Jews)
1475: Birthdate of famed Italian artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. Say Michelangelo to most people and they respond, Sistine Chapel ceiling. Say his name to Jews and the response is “Moses.” “Moses” is a marble sculpture which depicts the greater Jewish leader. Originally intended for the tomb of Pope Julius II in St. Peter's Basilica it was placed in the minor church of San Pietro in Vincoli on the Esquiline in Rome after the pope's death. The statue depicts Moses with horns on his head. This is believed to be because of the mistranslation of Exodus 34:29-35 by St Jerome. Moses is actually described as having "rays of light" coming from his head, which Jerome in the Vulgate had translated as "horns." This horned Moses provided further proof that the Jews were, as the Gospel says, “the Devil’s spawn.”
1663: Alexander VII issued the Papal bull “Illius, qui illuminat.”
1754: British statesman Henry Pelham who while serving as Prime Minister introduced the Jew Bill of 1753 “which allowed Jews to become naturalized citizens by application to Parliament” passed away today.
1758: Abraham de Mesquito was one of those witnessing the changes of the will made by Abraham Menedes Seixas also known as Miguel Pancheco Da Silva.
1766(25th of Adar): “The Sefardim congregation of London passed a resolution that a Sefardi marrying an Ashkenazi has forfeited his claim on congressional charities.
1781: James Wright, the British Colonial Governor ordered the Jews of the Georgia to leave; accusing them of disloyalty to his majesty by supporting the revolution. The order was never carried out. For the most part, Wright had it right. Most Jews did support the American Revolution.
1789(8th of Adar): Rabbi Aryeh Leib ben Jacob Joshua Falk, author of Penei Aryeh,passed away
1791: Birthdate of David Paul Drach the native of Strasbourg who converted to Catholicism after moving to Paris and eventually became the librarian of the College of Propaganda in Rome
1792: Moses Alexander (Moshe ben Abraham) was buried today at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.
1801: Phillip Abraham, the husband of “Jane Vogg” and the father of Victor Abraham was buried today.
1815: With the defeat of Napoleon, new restrictions were imposed on the Jews all over Europe.
1816: The Jews were expelled from the Free City of Lubeck, Germany at the instance of the local guilds. This was part of the reactionary backlash that followed the defeat of Napoleon a year earlier. Many of these Jews finally found refuge in the German of city of Moisling. After “a period of adjustment” where the citizens of Moisling determined how many Jews would live in their city and under what conditions, the government provided a house for a rabbi and constructed a building that the Jews were allowed to use as a synagogue if they paid “a moderate annual rent.”
1819: Birthdate of Fanny Neuda author of Studen de Anacht (Hours of Devotion) a prayer book for women.
1821: Start of the Greek War for independence. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, Jewish populations in the Peloponnese had become in disfavour with the Greeks by apparently supporting the Ottomans, and during the Greek War of Independence thousands of Jews were massacred alongside the Ottoman Turks by the Greek rebels, with the Jewish communities of Mistras, Tripolis, Kalamata and Patras completely destroyed. At the same time, Jews throughout other parts of Europe, including the Rothschilds supported the revolt, which captured the popular imagination with its imagery of Greece the cradle of Democracy versus the Ottoman Sultan.
1821: In Paris Elie Furtado and Rose Fould gave birth to Cécile Charlotte Julie Fould-Furtado who was the wife of Charles Heine who unlike his cousin Heinrich did not convert to Christianity.
1825(16th of Adar, 5585): Hungarian Talmudist Shalom Charif Ullman passed away at Lackenbach where he, his son and grandson all served as Rabbis.
1834: In Canada, York was incorporated as the city of Toronto. It was not until the 1840s that small numbers of Jewish immigrants from Western and Central Europe began to arrive in Ontario and settle in the cities of Hamilton, Kingston, and Toronto. In 1849, Abraham Nordheimer moved from Kingston to Toronto and purchased a plot of land for a cemetery on behalf of the Toronto Hebrew Congregation. The congregation was originally an Orthodox synagogue, made up of members from Germany, including Bavaria, Bohemia, and Alsace, Great Britain, the United States, Russia, Galicia, and Lithuania. It became known as the Daytshishe Shul because of its modernized services. In 1856, Lewis Samuel of York, England, immigrated to Toronto and helped organize the Sons of Israel Congregation. In 1858, the two congregations combined to form the Toronto Hebrew Congregation-Holy Blossom Temple. Holy Blossom was Orthodox, but in the 1920s joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and became Reform. It was the only Reform temple in Toronto until the 1950s, when it was joined by Temple Sinai and Temple Emanu-El. Today Holy Blossom is the largest Reform Congregation in Canada. In the 1880s, the arrival of large numbers of Eastern European Jews escaping the pogroms of czarist Russia, led to the creation of three new synagogues. Goel Tzedec and Beth Hamidrash Hagadol Chevra T'Hillim were founded in 1883, and were made up of mostly Russian members. They merged in the early 1950s to form Beth Tzedec, a Conservative congregation. The third synagogue, Shomrei Shabbos, was started in 1889 by Orthodox Galician Jews. Also in 1889, Beth Jacob, known as the Poylishe Shul and Rumanian Synagogue or Adath Israel came into existence. By the 1940s, Toronto had about 60 synagogues. These were mainly small Landsmannschaften, which were immigrant synagogues that represented the different hometowns of settlers from Russian Poland, the Ukraine, Lithuania, and Belorussia. In the 1950s and 60s, the smaller shtiblekh merged into larger synagogues. Therefore, the number of synagogues decreased, but in their place were larger and more stable congregations. The Jewish population of Toronto started out small in the 18th and 19th centuries and grew slowly but steadily into the early 20th century. In 1871, 157 Jews lived in Toronto, in 1891, the number rose to 1,425, and, by 1901, the Jewish population had increased to 3,090. The size of the community always depended on waves of immigration from Europe, based on pogroms and persecution in various countries. In 1911, the Jewish population of Toronto had expanded to 18,237 and, by 1921, had almost doubled to 34,619. In 1931, 45,000 Jewish immigrants, made up of mostly Poles, settled in Canada after the United States tightened its immigration quota in 1924. Because of restrictions imposed by the Canadian government during the Depression, Immigration preceding and during World War II declined significantly. This was a huge blow to Eastern European Jews trying to escape persecution, and only small groups of Austrian and German Jews fleeing Hitler were able to immigrate to Toronto during this period. In 1941, the number of Jews in Toronto had only risen slightly to 49,046, despite the thousands who desperately sought refuge in Canada. After World War II, the Canadian government established anti-discrimination laws and eased immigration regulations. The Canadian Jewish Congress and needle traders helped refugees come to Toronto from displaced persons camps. In addition, an important development in the Toronto community was the growth of the Jewish day school system in the post-World War II era. Previously, the Montreal and Winnipeg Jewish communities had larger networks of congregational and day schools. The 1950s and 60s saw a tremendous growth of population and community life. In 1951, the Jewish population of greater Toronto reached 66,773. It was augmented further after the 1956 Hungarian uprising brought a new influx of Jewish refugees to the city. In the 1960s, the first Sephardic Jews came to Toronto from Morocco, and established the first Sephardic synagogues and organizations in the city. Toronto's economic developments of the 1960s, combined with the rise of Quebec's separatist movement in the 1970s, led to a mass migration from Montreal to Toronto in the late 70s and early 80s. In 1971, the Jewish population stood at 105,000, by 1981, it reached 128,650 and, by 1991, increased to 162,605. When the Parti Quebecois won the provincial election in 1976, 20,000 to 30,000 Jews fled to Toronto, fearing an independent Quebec would divide and weaken the national Jewish community. Toronto assumed Montreal's position as the center of Jewish activity. However, the economic recession of the 1990s had a deleterious impact on the Jewish community's finances and its ability to subsidize Jewish day schools. Despite this setback, Toronto maintains the largest Jewish population of any Canadian city. In recent years, Toronto has received Jewish immigrants from South Africa, the former Soviet Union, the United States, and Israel. Today, the Jewish community stands at approximately 150,000 out of Toronto's 3.5 million inhabitants. Most Jews living in Toronto have only been there for one or two generations. With such close ties to their homelands, Torontonian Jews are typically more traditional than those in the rest of Canada and the United States. Of the 50 percent or so of the Jewish population that associate themselves with the community, 20 percent are Orthodox, 40 percent Conservative, 35 percent Reform, and the remainder nondenominational. Toronto maintains around 50 synagogues, a growing network of Jewish day schools, and a number of Jewish organizations.
1836: The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas, fell to Mexican forces after a 13-day siege. Antony Wolfe, a young Englishman, was reportedly the only Jew who fought and died at the Alamo.
1838: Two days after he had passed away, Naphtali Cohen, the father of John Hart, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1841: Joseph and Nanny Rosenheim gave birth to Simon Rosenheim
1844: In Amsterdam, Ahasuerus Salomon van Nierop and Lady Rachel Salvador gave birth to Frederick Salomon van Nierop the Dutch lawyer who became a director of the Amsterdam Bank in 1871 and also served on the City Council.
1845: John Samuels, the 26 year old “son of Alexander and Ann Samuels” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1850: In Darmstadt, Germany, Moses Altheimer and Salome Loew gave birth to Benjamin Altheimer the math and language tutor in Germany and husband of Jennie Eisenstadt who settled in the United States where he “director of the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Asylum,” “Treasurer of the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver” and a member of of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Charitable and Educational Union in St. Louis, MO.
1851(2nd of Adar II, 5611): Benjamin Wolf Löw passed away today. Born at Loslau in 1775, this Polish-Hungarian rabbi was the son of Eleazar Low, the father of Eleazar Low and the grandfather of Abraham and Benjamin Singer.
1856: The University of Maryland, College Park is chartered as the Maryland Agricultural College. According to recent figures approximately 5,000 of the school’s 25,000 undergraduate students are Jewish while 1,500 of the 10,000 grad students are Jewish. These figures do not include the other U of Md. Campuses. The school offers 35 Jewish studies courses with a major and minor in Jewish Students. In 1949, Evelyn Levow Greenberg, the wife of the Hillel Rabbi at the University of Maryland published The Little Tractor who Traveled to Israel one of the first children’s books to celebrate the Kibbutz movement and the creation of the state of Israel.
1857(10th of Adar, 5617): Leopold Reiss, the husband of Caroline, the father of Emily and the Manchester woolen merchant who with his brother James owned Reiss Bros. passed away today in France “leaving £180,000 in England.”
1858: Isadore Untermyer and Therese Laudauer, two Jews from Bavaria, gave birth to Samuel Untermeyer in Lynchburg, VA. Untermeyer would move to New York as a child and become a prominent lawyer, civic leader, successful businessman and pillar of the Jewish Community
1860: Forty year old Henry Cantor was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1863(15th of Adar, 5623): Shushan Purim
1863: Mr. Max Maretzek resumption of his old position at the Academy of Music this evening was greeted with the full approval of “all classes of the music-loving community in New York.
1870: Birthdate of Austrian-born composer Oscar Straus whose most famous work is an operetta called “Der tapfere Soldat” or “The Chocolate Soldier.”
1870: In Rochester, NY, founding of the Hebrew Ladies’ Aid Society whose members included Mrs. Levi Adler, and Mrs. Simon Guggenheimer.
1871(13thof Adar, 5631): Fast of Esther
1871: In Blaydon, Newcastle on Tyne, Thomas and Hannah Oxberry gave birth to James Henry Oxberry, the proprietor of the Palace Hotel in Kowloon, China who was the founder of several lodges of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffalos, the fraternal organizations knowns as “the Buffalos” or “the Buffs.”
1871: Two days after she had passed away, “Ellen (nee Joseph) Jewell,” the wife of Moss Jewell with whom she had had eight children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1872(26th of Adar I, 5632): Fifty-one year old Theodor Goldstücker, the German born Sanskri school who was appointed professor of Sanskrit at University College London in 1852 passed away today in his adopted homeland.
1875: In Kensington, London Leopold (Lippmann) Seligmann, the son of Fanny and David Isaac Seligmann and Julia Levi gave birth to Clara Schloss
1876: Birthdate of Chaim Aaron ben David the native of Berlin who gained fame as artist Hermann Struck an ardent Zionist who “helped establish the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
1876: “Ben Israel or Under the Curse” opened at the Grand Opera House in New York City this evening. Described as “a Jewish drama” in five acts, the drama had previously been performed in Troy, New York.
1876: It was reported today that the Purim Association will host a full dress reception at Delmonico’s that will mark the end of five days of festivities celebrated the Jewish people who hold private masquerade parties as is their “usual custom.”
1877(21st of Adar, 5637): Seventy-one year old Johann Jacoby, the physician turned political activist passed away today in his native Konigsberg.
1877(21st of Adar, 5637): Franklin J. Moses, Sr. an attorney, planter, politician and judge in South Carolina who both opposed secession, then supported the Confederacy and then was accused of being a scalawag during Reconstruction, passed away. His maternal grandfather was Jonas Phillips a founder of Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, PA and the paternal grandfather Commodore Uriah P. Levy, the highest ranking Jewish officer to serve in the U.S. Navy during the Civil War. Yes, you got it right. These two Jewish grandees were on opposite sides during the Civil War, a fight that pitted brother against brother, father against son and in this case, grandson against grandson. For a contemporary view of Moses, written by a Northern newspaper see
1877: It was reported today that humorist Raphael J. de Cordova is scheduled to deliver a lecture at an upcoming fundraiser to be held at Steinway Hall sponsored by the Hebrew Lodge for those who suffered during the recent fire in Brooklyn.
1878: “Beaconsfield on the Jews” published today described Disraeli’s view of the Jews as described in Coningsby, a novel he wrote before he entered political life including the fanciful sentiment that “the Jews hold in their hands the destinies of Europe.”
1879 (11th of Adar, 5639): Fast of Esther observed because the 13th of Adar is Shabbat
1879: The Purim Association is sponsoring this evening’s fancy dress charity ball which is taking placed at the Academy of Music.
1880(23rd of Adar, 5640): Parasaht Vayakhel-Pekudi ending the reading of Exodus and Shabbat Parah.
1880: In Bavaria, Baruch and Fanny Rothschild gave birth to Ida Rothschild, who became Ida Strauss when she married Siegmund Strauss. (She died at Auschwitz and he died at Theresienstadt.)
1883(27th of Adar): Jacob Barit (Yankele Kovner) passed away
1886 Nine thousand members of the Knights of Labor struck Jay Gould’s Southwestern Railroad System. The Knights were one of the earliest attempts at forming a national labor union in the United States. The Cloak and Suit Maker’s Union which was made up largely of “westernized Jews from Austria, Galicia and Germany” was part of the Knights which made it one of the successful joining of Jewish laborers with this umbrella labor organization. Cultural and linguistic differences as well as plain old fashioned anti-Semitism trumped the supposed solidarity of labor.
1886: Birthdate of Shmuel “Samuel” Eisner, the native of Kolomyia, Austria-Hungary and father of “American cartoonist, writer and entrepreneur” William Erwin “Will” Eisner.
1890(14thof Adar, 5650) Purim
1890: It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities have offered to post a bond on behalf of Lazar Anezes, his wife and four children who have been detained by the Commissioners of Emigrations because they are “paupers.”
1890: It was reported today that the next event sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be held at the Vienna Hall on Lexington Avenue at 58thStreet.
1890: Solomon Barnett, a Jewish tailor who had thwarted an attempt to rob him “is lying at his home in a badly demoralized condition” as a result of the injuries he received at the hand of the thieves.
1891: I.S. Isaacs of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who a attended a conference in the office of the President of the Sanitary Aid Soceity where plans were made to promote a municipal lodging house law in New York City.
1891: It was rumored today that United States Collector of Internal Revenue Ernst Nathan had retired.
1891: “They Ask For Palestine” published today described the efforts of William E. Blackstone, Chairman of the Conference of Christians and Jews to present “a memorial to President Harrison concerning the Russian Government’s treatment of the Jews.”
1892: In New Jersey, two Jewish grocers operated their business today for which they would be arrested because they were open on Sunday.
1892: The Superintendent of the orphan asylum operated by the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society said that only of the youngsters was suffering from measles and that the twelve other youngsters who had been diagnosed with the disease have been sent to the Willard Parker Hospital.
1892: Henry Pereira Mendes, the rabbi at Shearith Israel is recovering from the gunshot wound he suffered at the hands of Jose Mizrachee who some describe as a “professional beggar”
1892: “To Establish ‘Special Alcoves’” published today described the efforts of the directors of the Aguilar Free Circulating Library to establish special alcoves at the various branches of the library” including the one in the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street “for the reception of works on particular lines of reading.”
1893: Charles W. Foster completed his service as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury during which he dealt with issues surrounding the massive influx of Russian Jews as can be seen by his response to the letters of 1891 from Simon Wolf and Lewis Abraham of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in which he expressed his appreciation for their “expressions of confidence” that the department would act humanely “while executing the immigration laws efficiently.”
1893: “The Answers to Correspondence Column” published today included the information that “a fellow badge, round or square, was the mark of degradation a Jew was obliged to wear in certain parts of medieval Europe.”
1893: Four days before what would have been his 83rd birthday, “Henry Sigismund Straus” the husband of Henrietta Straus with whom he had had seven children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: In New York City, Richard and Eugenie Hahn gave birth to Columbia University trained attorney Paul M. Hahan, the husband of the “former Nannette Hogan Wells” who gave up the law for tobacco which led to his serving as “President and Chief Executive officer the American Tobacco Company.”
1895: In Germany, by a vote of 167 to 51, the Reichstag rejected the bill to restrict Jewish emigration.
1896(21stof Adar, 5565): Yitzchak Elchanan Spektor a leading Russian rabbi and Talmudist passed away. Born in 1817, Rav Spektor engaged in a wide variety of activities including visiting St. Petersburg to ameliorate the suffering that followed the Pogroms of 1881, the establishment of yeshivas and involvement with the Hovevei Zion movement. His impact was so great that the Yeshiva University named it theologic seminary after him - Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), or Yeshivat Rabbeinu Yitzchak Elchanan,
1896: Rabbi M.H. Harris delivered the first in a series of lectures on the Inquisition tonight at Temple Israel in New York City.
1896: Thirty-four year old Behrendt Pick, who would eventually hang himself as a result of Nazi persecution began teaching “as an adjunct professor of ancient numismatics at the University of Jena” today.
1897: In City Court today, Justice McCarthy signed an order for the release of Oscar Altman from the Ludlow Street Jail where he has been held on a charge of “breach of promise of marriage.”
1897: In St. Louis, George Washington Milius, the son Eva and William Solomon Milius and his wife Pauline gave birth to Helen Dinah Milius who became Helen Dinah Baum when she married Isaac Albert Baum.
1897: It was reported today that Mrs. Esther Herrmann whose late husband was a partner in H. Herrmann, Sternbach & Co has given $10,000 to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. According Percival Menken, the President of the association, the money will make it possible to improve the facility at 861 Lexington Avenue which Jacob Schiff had donated to YMHA last January.
1897: Seymour Mork and Philip Harrison won the prizes at the debate hosted this evening by the Young Men’s Literary Society of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association which was held at Temple Ahawath Chesed.
1897(2ndof Adar II, 5657): Parashat Pekudi
1897: Cantor David Kahn led “the regular Sabbath” at Temple Rodloph Shalom at Lexington and 63rd.
1897: Rabbi Kaufman Kohler delivered the “charge” to Dr. Rudolph Grossman at services marking his installation as the new rabbi at Temple Roloph Sholom.
1897: A two day conference begins in Vienna with members of the Zionist circles of Vienna, Berlin, Breslau and Galicia. Herzl's proposal of a general Zionist Congress is adopted with the reservation that the cooperation of the Russian Zionists will be obtained. München is chosen as the city for the congress.
1898: Congregants from Beth Elohim with a membership of 150 and Congregants from Temple Israel with a membership of 140 met in Brooklyn and voted unanimously to consolidate the two congregations and build a new building to serve as their synagogue.
1898: More than a thousand people attended the annual Purim reception at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews hosted by the President Simon Borg and the Board of Trustees.
1898: It was reported today that the “heads of the army” refused to allow Commandant Esterhazy who played a key role in framing Dreyfus with Colonel Picquart because they were afraid of “the effect on popular sentiment if Esterhazy were defeated.”
1899: According to the Court Circular, today "The Emperor of Austria has given the title of Baron De Forest to M. Arnold [De] Forest and to his brother M. Raymond De Forest, both the adopted sons of Baroness de Hirsch de Gereuth, widow of the late Baron de Hirsch."
1899: Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark. According to Diarmuid Jeffreys, the author of Aspirin: The Story of a Wonder Drug, a Jew named Arthur Eichengrün, was “the Bayer chemist who first found an aspirin formulation which was tolerable in the human stomach and did not have the unpleasant side effects of nausea and gastric pain. Eichengrün also invented the name aspirin and was the first person to use the new formulation to test its safety and efficacy. However, Eichengrün was excluded from the official version of Bayer's history in 1934 because of his Jewish origin. Instead, it was claimed by Bayer that aspirin was ‘discovered" by an Aryan scientist, Felix Hoffman, to alleviate the sufferings of his rheumatic father.” Fritz ter Meer who “became chairman of Bayer's supervisory board” in 1956 had been “convicted at the Nuremberg trials for his part in carrying out experiments on human subjects at Auschwitz and was imprisoned for five years.”
1900: Birthdate of Avraham Shlonsky, a Russian born Israeli poet.
1900: Birthdate of Viennese native Ludwig Donath whose European acting career was cut short by the Anschluss which led him to the United States where his film career included the portrayal of Al Jolson in two biopics about the Jewish performer.
1903: On this date it is announced that the King has been pleased to give and grant unto the Right Honorable Sir Ernest Joseph Cassel, E.C.M.G., K.C.V.O., his Majesty's Royal license and authority that he may accept and wear the Grand Cordon of the Imperial Ottoman Order of the Osmanieh, conferred upon him by his Highness the Khedive of Egypt, authorized by his Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey, in recognition of valuable services rendered by him to his Highness.
1901: Birthdate of Russian born film director Mark Donskoy
1902: Herzl informs the Sultan that on March 15th three million francs will be deposited to his account in banks in Paris, Berlin and London.
1910(25th of Adar I, 5670): Sixty-three year old Zygmunt Wartski, the husband of Eugenie Wartski passed away today in Vienna.
1910: In New York, Nathan Feinerman, the future President of the Workmen’s Circle and Ida Joffe Feinerman gave birth to Louis Edwin Feinerman, the brother of Berta and Mollie Feinerman.
1910: Fifteen hundred members of The Hebrew Actor’s Union honor the memory of Morris Horowitz with “an elaborate funeral” that remembered his contributions to the Yiddish Theatre yet belied the impoverished state to which he had fallen in his declining years.
1910: Rufus Daniel Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading, began serving as Solicitor General for England.
1915: As of today, “the Palestine Relief Ship Fund, which is being raised by the American Jewish Relief Committee and will used purchase supplies to be shipped on the naval collier Vulcan has reached a total of $34,413.86.
1915: The list of contribution to the Palestine Relief Ship Fund published today includes the Lawrence, MA Jewish Relief Committee,, the Zadek Lodge, International Order of B’nai Brith of Selma, Alabama and the Minneapolis American Jewish Relief Committee.
1916: Felix A. Levy is scheduled to present a paper on Egyptian Obelisks at this morning’s meeting of the Chicago Rabbinical Association at the Stratford Hotel.
1916: It was reported today from New York that Jacob H. Schiff has issued another statement expressing his continued opposition to “the negotiation of any loan by Russia in” the United States.
1916: It was reported today from New York that the custom tailors, many of whom are Jewish “are now on strike for higher wages.
1916: It was reported today from New York that Ambassador Henry Morgenthau has met with “two delegation of Oriental Jews” and after having discussed their problems with them “agreed to send them a Ladino-speaking chief rabbi to care for their spiritual needs” when he returns to his post in the Ottoman Empire.
1917: Birthdate of Haifa native Ruth Schwartz who gained fame as Ruth Dyan, the first wife of Moshe Dyan, the mother of Yael, Ehud and Assi Dyan and the sister of Reuma Schwartz, the wife of Ezer Weizman
1917: In Brooklyn, the former Fannie Ingber and Shmuel “Samuel” Eisner gave birth to cartoonist Will Eisner who was a mentor for Jules Feiffer.
1917: Albert Lucas, the Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee on Jewish War Relief traveled from Washington to New York today where he announced that the committee had made new arrangements making it possible to send money from the United States to people living “in the territory occupied by Germany and her allies.”
1917: Birthdate of Irving Torgoff, the Brooklyn born basketball player who led Long Island University to “an undefeated record and National Invitation Tournament” in 1939 before going on to a career as a pro.
1918(22nd of Adar, 5678): Ludwig Dreyfus whose estate was valued at $1, 305, 318, passed away today.
1918: During a patriotic gathering at Congregation Ohab Zedek attended by an array of dignitaries including Dr. Isaac Alcalsy, the Grand Rabbi of Serbia, Rabbi Bernard Drachman and Rabbi Pereira Mendes a “service flag bearing eighty-seven stars was presented to the congregation and Albert Lucas, he Secretary of the Union of Orthodox Congregations of American expressed the loyalty of American Jews saying “We shall continue to support the Government even to the sacrifice of our lives where this sacrifice is ask asked of us and as this flag expresses.”
1919: It was learned today that “the resignation of Henry Morgenthau, the former Ambassador to Turkey, as President of the Free Synagogue was due to his unwillingness to continue as lay leader of the congregation while its rabbi, Dr. Stephen S. Wise, champions the cause of Zionism.”
1919: Today, at the New York home of Henry Morgenthau Jacob Billikopf, the executive director of the American Jewish Relief Committee who was described as the “Marshal Foch of the army of solicitors of the Jewish Relief Committee” received “a check for $50,000 in recognition of his services as head of the Relief Committee since January, 1915.”
1920: “Harry Levine scored 25 points to lead” the University of Pittsburgh Panthers” to a 33-24 victory over “the University of West Virginia Mountaineers.”
1920(16th of Adar, 5680): Parashat Ki Tisa
1920(16th of Adar, 5680): Henry N. Wessel of Philadelphia, a long-time member of the American Jewish Committee passed away today.
1921: In Vienna, Max Bretholtz, a Polish born tailor and Yiddish actor and Dora Fischmann Bretholtz, a seamstress gave birth to Leo Bretholz a Holocaust survivor who played a key role in the class action lawsuit against the French railway system - the Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Français, or S.N.C.F.
1921: Birthdate of Austrian born conductor Julius Rudel who fled to the United States at the age of 17after the Anschluss.
1921: As the lockout aimed of members of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers enters its 14th week, Joseph Schlossberg told a meeting at New York’s Town Hall, that employers were trying to the old sweatshop environment. Schlossberg was a Russian born Jewish was one of the founders the Amalgamated and served as its Secretary General.
1924(30thof Adar I, 5684): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1924(30thof Adar I, 5684): Seventy-one year old Thomas Jefferson Levy, the three-term Congressman from New York who followed in the footsteps of his uncle Uriah P. Levy by spending a great deal of his time and fortune on the preservation and restoration on Monticello, the home of President Thomas Jefferson.
1924: The Jewish Transcript of the Pacific Northwest now known as JTNews was published for the first time today. (JTA and Times of Israel)
1926: “Miss Henrietta Szold, President of Hadassah…sailed” today for Palestine “take charge of the construction of the Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center in Jerusalem made possible by a recent gift of $100,000 by Mr. Straus.”
1926: Russian born New Yorker David Alper married his second wife “Minnie ‘Manya’ Machle Isiomin” today
1926: In Washington Heights (NYC) stockbroker and market analyst Herbert Greenspan and Rose Goldsmith gave birth to Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
1927: In Jersey City, NJ, “Herman Firstenberg, a plumber and the former Elizabeth Loeb gave birth to Elaine Firstenberg who gained fame as graphic designer Elaine Lustig Cohen.
1927: Fritz Lang's silent film epic “Metropolis” is released. Lang’s murky ethnic heritage is typical of many Germans of his era. Lang’s parents were practicing Roman Catholics. But Lang’s mother was born Jewish and she did not convert until Fritz was ten. Sort of makes hash of those easy answers about “who is a Jew” although by Nazi standards Fritz and his brother would have been fodder for the Holocaust.
1928(14thof Adar, 5688): Purim
1928(14thof Adar, 5688): Mrs. Lewis M. Nelson who was a member of the Directors of the Beth El Sisterhood and Hadassah, passed away today in Camden, NJ.
1929: In Weymouth, Massachusetts, “Ruth (Sward and Hollis Judson Wyman gave birth historian and author David Sword Wyman, the grandson of Protestant ministers who “was chairman of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.”
1930: In Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, Marion "Marie" Shulman Maazel, the founder of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and multitalented actor and musician Lincoln Maazel gave birth to conductor and composer Lorin Maazel(As reported by Allan Kozinn)
1930: In the Bronx, David and Dora Rubin gave birth to “Ira Rubin, a champion bridge player and an innovative theorist who was nicknamed the Beast because of the emotional intensity of his play…” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1932(26th of Adar I, 5692): Seventy-two year old German author Alfred Bock from Giessen, the father of author Werner Beck passed away today.
1932: As the confirmation process comes to a close, it was reported today that “Judge Benjamin N. Cardozo who has been appointed to succeed Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes on the Supreme Court bench is the author of two books, The Growth of the Law and The Nature of the Judicial Process by published by the Yale University.
1932: It was reported today that the Song of Songs Publishing Company in Jerusalem has recently issued a new edition of the Solomon’s Song of Songs with the text printed in Hebrew and English and with illustrations by Zeeb Raban, one of the leading artists of the Bezalel Arts and Crafts School” which “is on sale in a number of bookshops and department stores in New York.”
1933: Premiere of “The Merry Heirs” a German comedy directed by Max Ophüls.
1934(19th of Adar, 5694): Fifty-nine year old Antopol, Russia native Isaac Kahanowitz, the resident of “Greensburg, Pennsylvania…who in the early twentieth century amassed the greatest private collection of Yiddish and Hebrew books and periodicals in western Pennsylvania, meaning that his library surpassed anything that could be found even in Pittsburgh, with a Jewish population of over 50,000” passed away today.
1936: As Jews prepared to observe Shabbat this evening and Purim tomorrow evening, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson of Temple Emanu-El sent a letter to all of his colleagues reminding them and their congregants of “the campaign of the American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee to raise $1,500,000 in” the New York metropolitan area “as a part of the nationwide effort to raise $3,500,000 for the benefit of Jews in Germany and in other European countries.”
1936: In Amsterdam, “Julius Streicher’s anti-Semitic Stuermer was burned during a mass meeting” tonight “organized by the Liberal State party as a protest against the distribution of this paper in the Netherlands by an Amsterdam news store circulating propaganda for the Netherlands National Socialist movement.”
1936: “In a sharp message to the Legislature delivered today, New York Governor Herbert Lehman demanded that that the Republicans restore to the budget an item of $11,160,010 for the debt service” which he said was a clear violation of the state constitution.
1936 In Warsaw, “prohibition of Hebrew ritual slaughtering would unconstitutional, Monseigneur von Golowicz, State Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Education and former Professor of Canon Law at Vilna University declared today at a meeting of the Sejm committee appointed to deal with the bill for the abolition of ritual killing of cattle.”
1936: In Berlin, “it was confirmed today that the first mutually satisfactory agreement for the exodus of foreign Jews from Germany had been concluded between the Reich and the Netherlands” (Editor’s note – the term mutually satisfactory cannot have been applied to the Jews since the price of being effectively deported was that they had to give up most of their wealth.)
1936: While “official records on the number of German Jewish refugees received visas for the United States were not available in Washington, DC, as of today it is know that “the annual quote for Germany is theoretically 25,957 but nothing near that number of German immigrants has been admitted” to the United States “in any recent year.
1936: “The Home Office has received a series of complaints from Jews in Jewish districts of London who have been subjected to abuse and in some cases assault” and “there can be no doubt…people have been molested because they are Jews in pursuance or as an outcome of a campaign that is being carried on to some extent by Fascist speakers at Fascist meetings” in Britain.
1937: And on the other side of the financial ledger, birthdate of Ivan Boesky the stockbroker convicted of insider trading.
1937: “Despite the official statement of regret made by the State Department yesterday for Mayor La Guardia’s attack on Adolf Hitler, the Mayor said he would stand by what he had said.”
1937: In the Old City section of Jerusalem, an Arab shot and wounded M. Schneerson as he walked to daven at the Western Wall.
1938: Author Ludwig Lewisohn “declared in an address before the congregation of the Free Synagogue in Carnegie Hall” this morning that “the Greeks had their Homer and the Jewish people have their Torah which is their great historical novel” that “is the eternal expression of our character and our faith.”
1938: Birthdate of Bronx native and note photographer Joel Meyerowitz.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that an armed Arab gang was routed by troops in the Umm el-Fahm area. One British soldier was killed and three wounded in this operation, while numerous Arabs were killed, wounded or arrested. There was also unrest in the Acre northern district.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the new High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael, had outlined his immediate policy in a radio broadcast. He asked the rival parties in the area to reconcile their claims “upon an amended basis.”
1938: Today “Communist activity and propaganda were denounced at the closing session of the first national convention of the Jewish Labor Committee at the Capitol Hotel” where “delegates…representing more than 500,000 organized Jewish workers in this country, rejected suggested participation and cooperation with Communist groups” in the labor committee’s “fight against anti-Semitism and fascism)
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the first Palestinian “Who’s Who” was published by Masada in Tel Aviv.
1939(15th of Adar, 5699): Purim
1939: “Representative Sol Bloom of New York” is scheduled to “read President Roosevelt’s greeting from Washington today in a Purim festival program” being “broadcast by the National Broadcast Company that will include speeches by “Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein and Mrs. Moses L. Isaacs, the chariman of the women’s division of the Orthodox Union for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the inauguration of George Washington.”
1939: “Plans for a ‘Jewish College of Exile’ at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and a program for a ten-year campaign of spiritual education by the college and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations were outlined” tonight “at a dinner at the Hotel Ambassador by Ralph W. Mack, hairman of the board of the college and Robert P. Goldman, president of the Union.”
1939: In Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Jack London, “a lapsed socialist who sold fabric, leather and vinyl for upholstery” and “Esta (Epstein) London gave birth to Herbert Ira London, the basketball playing Columbia graduate and husband of Vicki London, who made the transition from “New York Liberal” to self-proclaimed Conservative (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1940: The Nazis barred Jewish physicians from treating Aryans and vice-versa.
1940: Vladimir Jabotinsky, president of the New Zionist Organization of the World lectures on "The Fate of, Jewry" at Manhattan Center.
1940: “Three leaders of the Jewish Labor party were sentenced to three months in prison today on charges of organizing recent demonstrations against the British government that took place in Tel Aviv.
1940: Laborite M.P. Philip J. Noel introduced a motion to censure the British government in response to the newly enacted laws restricting the purchase of land in Palestine by Jews. In defending the government’s action, Malcolm MacDonald, the Colonial Secretary, said, in effect, that the restrictions were put in place to placate the Arabs and avoid more Arab-led violence. Baker contended that the enactment of the new laws was in violation of the rules of the League of Nations. Furthermore he said that “if the Jews were not a weak and hunted race today, the British government would have repudiated the moral contract which we made with them while the last great was going on.” Sir Archibald Sinclair, the Liberal leader and Leopold S. Amery, the former Colonial Secretary spoke out against the government’s action, with Mr. Amery reminding the House that Winston Churchill also opposed the new rules. All of the talk was useless since the Chamberlain government had the votes to thwart any vote of censure.
1942: Adolph Eichmann talked of deportation of 50,000 Jews from the Old Reich. He emphasized the importance of secrecy.
1943: In Swieciany, Ukraine, 20 youths armed with two revolvers escaped the ghetto and hid in the forest.
1943: The Bulgarian army started to liquidate Jewish property. All confiscated gold and silver was deposited it in sealed packages in the Bulgarian National Bank. Many Bulgarian officials became rich by stealing from the Jews.
1944: An internal memo from the United States Government War Refugee Board states that the United States was negotiating the purchase of a ship for $400,000. The S.S. Necat would be donated to the Turkish Red Crescent after evacuating 5,000 Jewish refugee children from Romania to Palestine.
1947: Birthdate of John Stossel, the Chicago born journalist who was born to two Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany who raised him as a Protestant.
1947: In the Bronx, “Estelle Reiner (née Lebost), an actress, and Carl Reiner, a renowned comedian, actor, writer, producer, and director” gave birth to actor and director Rob Reiner best known for his role of “Meathead.” Archie Bunker’s son-in-law in the comedy hit “All in the Family.”
1947: In his second visit to Tel Aviv in two days, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, the former President of the Zionist organization and world-class chemist, told a group of civic leaders that he is setting aside his research to do whatever he can to help the people on the coastal plain who are living under strict martial law.
1947: “The Guilt of Janet Ames” a post-WWII movie directed by Henry Levin, produced by Helen Deutsch, with a screenplay co-authored by Devery Freeman and Allen Rifkin and co-starring Melvyn Douglas was released in the United States today.
1947: In a demonstration of how successful their campaign has been, British authorities announced today that “25 known terrorists have been captured in Palestine in recent days.” Authorities said that many of them are members of Irgun or the Stern Gang.
1948: It was announced today that the Joint Distribution Committee “has appropriated $50,400 for emergency aid and relief” for Jews in the British protectorate of Aden where “Arab violence…has totally paralyzed Jewish business” and led to “four synagogues and two schools” being “looted and ruined.”
1949: Birthdate of Norman Spector, the native of Montreal who after a career as a civil servant became publisher of the Jerusalem Post in 1997.
1949: In Los Angeles, novelist Blossom Elfman (aka “Clare Elfman”) and elementary school teacher Milton Elfaman gave birth to actor, director and author Richard “Rick” Elfman.
1949: On the second day of Operation Uvda “the Negev Brigade travelled to Sde Avraham and began to clear land for an airfield there” and that night the “7th Brigade reinforcements from the Gahal platoon arrived by air in the newly cleared airfield” carrying “supplies and fuel vital to continue the operation.”
1950(17th of Adar, 5710):Fifty-your year old Lew Lehr, the comedian, writer and editor who authored Lew Lehr's Cookbook for Men and Stop Me If You've Heard This One passed away toda
1951: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg go on trial charged with espionage for providing secret information concerning the Atomic Bomb to the Soviet Union. In this case the defendants, the prosecutor and the Judge will all be Jews. But right wing America fixated on the ethnicity of the defendants and used it to equate beings Jewish with being anti-American.
1953: U.S. premiere of “Battle Circus” a Korean War movie directed by Richard Brooks (b. Ruben Sax) and produced by Pandro S. Berman.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Stalin¹s condition was very grave.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that The World Jewish Conference, scheduled to open in Zurich was postponed.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill had promised that the British sales of jet aircraft to Arab States would take care to preserve the balance of power in the area.
1954: “New Faces” a film adaptation of 1952 musical revue directed by Harry Horner and written by Mel Brooks was released today in the United States.
1956: CBS Television broadcast the last episode of “Meet Millie,” a sitcom that had featured Marvin Kaplan as Alfred Prinzmetal
1956(23rd of Adar, 5716): Seventy-five year old Russian born Englishman Abraham Joseph Hyman, the Titanic survivor and husband of Esther Levy with whom he had five children – Julius, Ann, Lilian, Morris and Ena – passed away today.
1957: United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana. Israel and Ghana formed several joint ventures including a shipping company. The leaders of Ghana and other emerging African countries saw Israel as a non-threatening source of Western technology and training. The African leaders were afraid that accepting similar assistance from the major Western powers would lead to re-colonization, something they did fear from the tiny nation of Israel. The Israelis provided aid to Ghana and other newly independent countries as a way of breaking out of the diplomatic and economic isolation that the Arabs and their allies were trying to use to destabilize and destroy the Jewish state.
1957: Israel withdrew its troops from the Sinai Peninsula. The withdrawal followed the October, 1956 war with Egypt. The Americans and the Soviets joined forces to make the Israelis leave. They saved President Nasser of Egypt. The Soviets quickly re-armed Nassar. The American action had the effect of giving Nasser a free hand to follow his Pan-Arab dream which included the destruction of the state of Israel.
1958: U.S. Premiere of “Star Struck” directed by Sidney Lumet and co-starring Susan Strasberg.
1959: Birthdate of actor Tom Arnold.
1964: Allan Sherman sang “The Dropouts March” on tonight’s edition of “That Was The Week That Was.
1964: Jewish movie star Liz Taylor divorced Jewish “crooner” Eddie Fisher so that she could marry Richard Burton. Fisher and Taylor were Jewish – he by birth, she by choice.
1965: “Alain Calmat of France won the men’s world figure skating championship in Colorado Springs, CO today” (As reported by Bob Wechsler)
1965: On the day before her 17thbirthday, Vivian Joseph joined her brother Ronald to “win a silver medal in pairs skating.”
1966(14th of Adar, 5726): Purim
1967: Today, “the architect, Saul Berkoiwtiz, gave an elaborate description” of the Chapel planned for Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Montreal which “will seat approximately 289 people, cover an area 50 feet by 70 feet” with “windows that will be fitted with solar bronze glass.”
1967: In New York City, Arlene and Daniel Greenwald gave birth to “lawyer, journalist and author” Glenn Greenwald.
1969: Twenty-nine people, most of whom were students were injured when a terrorist detonated a bomb in the cafeteria at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
1969: One person was injured when a terrorist exploded a grenade at a bank in Al Bireh
1969: Yonatan Netanyahu wrote to his parents, "In another week I'll be 23. On me, on us, the young men of Israel, rests the duty of keeping our country safe. This is a heavy responsibility, which matures us early... I do not regret what I have done and what I'm about to do. I'm convinced that what I am doing is right. I believe in myself, in my country and in my future"
1971: Publication of “Diplomacy in the Living Room.”
1972: Birthdate of Israeli Olympic swimmer Yoav Bruck
1973: Marcel Marceau appears at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA.
1974(12th of Adar, 5734): Forty-nine year old Pulitzer Prize winning author and cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker passed away today.
1975(21st of Adar, 5735): Eleven people were killed and twelve more were injured during a terrorist attack in Tel Aviv.
1975: “On the ABC late-night television show Good Night America (hosted by Geraldo Rivera), two assassination researchers presented the first-ever network television showing of the Zapruder home movie.
1976(4th of Adar II, 5736): "Slapsie" Maxie Rosenbloom light-heavyweight box champion from 1932 to 1934 passed away at the age of 71. Rosenbloom boxed during a period when Jews dominated the ring. In 1933, during Maxie's reign as light-heavyweight champion, Jewish boxers were the champions in four out of the eight weight classes.
1977(16th of Adar, 5737): Shushan Purim
1977(16th of Adar, 5737): Seventy-six year old Richard Jacob Mack, the son of Bertha and Jacob William Mack and the husband of Elizabeth Mack passed away today in his home town of Cincinnati.
1978: Birthdate of Sage Rosenfels, the native of Maqkoketa, Iowa, who as quarterback, led Iowa State University to its victory in a bowl game before going to a career in the NFL.
1978:The Jerusalem Post reported that Premier Menachem Begin, on the eve of his departure to the US, was adamant that Resolution 242 did not specify the withdrawal of the “territories occupied in the recent conflict” and that the war of 1967 was a war of national self-defense, while the West Bank was never under Jordanian sovereignty. Begin did not rule out any West Bank territorial compromise, but argued that 242 was unspecific, and Israel reserved its position until there was a practical prospect of negotiating the issue.
1981: Canadian attorney Samuel “Sam” Berger sold the Montreal Alouettes football team to a Vancouver businessman.
1981: The Mannes Orchestra performed under the baton of Yakov Kreizberg as part of his graduation ceremony from the Mannes College The New School for Music.
1981: U.S. premiere of “On the Right Track” featuring Herb Edelman and Norman Fell.
1982(11th of Adar, 5742): Russian born Ayn Rand, author and social commentator, passed away.
1984: Ninety-two year old “German anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller passed away today. He is best known for his statement
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-- Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me
1985(13th of Adar, 5745): Ta’anit Esther and Erev Purim
1986: “The West End production” of “Lend Me a Tenor” for which Jerry Zaks won a Tony Award as Best Director opened today at the Globe Theatre.
1986: In Santa Monica, CA, Penny Marienthal and Joseph Cross gave birth to actor Eli Marienthal whose two siblings Harley Cross and Flora Cross are also thespians.
1986: It was reported todaythat those who gathered at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City to celebrate the wisdom of Maimonides whose work they have been studying for the past year “were centuries removed from the life” of the sage “who was born 851 years ago in Cordoba, Spain.
1987(5th of Adar, 5747): Fifty-eight year Edward Zorinsky, the Democrat who served as Mayor of Omaha and United States Senator from Nebraska while raising three children – Barry, Jeffrey and Susan – with his wife Cece.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/08/obituaries/edward-zorinsky-58-dies-us-senator-from-nebraska.html
1987: U.S. premiere of “Tin Men,” the second of Barry Levinson’s four “Baltimore films co-starring Richard Drefyus and Barbara Hershey, whose father was Jewish.
1989(29th of Adar I, 5749): Eighty-three year old Erwin Charles Ginsburg who earned All-Far Western Conference honors while playing for Fresno State College from 1925 thought 1929 passed away today.
1990: In Tel Aviv, architect Arik Ginzburg and his wife gave birth to fashion model Esti Ginzburg.
1991: Harry Heinz Schwarz began serving as the Ambassador of South Africa to the United States.
1991: “CBS Newsman Bob Smon Tells of Ordeal as Captured Jew” published today
1992: U.S. premiere of “Once Upon A Crime” a comedy directed by Eugene Levy with a script co-authored by Nancy Meyers and co-starring Richard Lewis as “Julian Peters.”
1993: Having just completed a short run at the WPA, Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey” opened at the Off-Broadway Minetta Lane Theatre today.
1994: It was reported today that “The Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel in Los Angeles has installed stained-glass "Sephardic Heritage Windows" designed by Israeli artist Raphael Abecassis.”
1994: Twenty-six year old Rabbi David Keehn, who is legally blind, is one of 144 rabbis who is honored with formal ordination at the quadrennial Chag HaSemikhah (rabbinic convocation) of Yeshiva University's affiliated Rabbis Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) in the Nathan Lamport Auditorium, Joseph and Faye Tanenbaum Hall, New York City.
1997: Janet Rosenberg Jagan, the daughter of middle class Jewish parents from Chicago moved from being the first lady of Guyana to the role of Prime Minister.
1998: The Times of London featured a review of The Founding Myths of Israel: Nationalism, Socialism and the Making of the Jewish State by Zeev Sternhell; translated by David Maisel.
2000: First showing of ''The Life of the Jews in Palestine'' at the Museum of Modern Art. The classic documentary was produced in 1913 by the Odessa-based Mizrakh Company and presumed to be lost for some 80 years -- has resurfaced in New York. This excellent new print with English inter-titles of Noah Sokolovsky's 78-minute silent film is quite likely the rarest of the rarities featured in the museum's 10-program tribute to France's national film archives, the Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie.
2002(22nd of Adar, 5762): Seventy-four year old “Walter Goodman, a former reporter and critic at The New York Times and the author of a widely read history of the House Committee on Un-American Activities” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2002(22nd of Adar, 5762): Eighty-five year old Scottish economist and psychologist Ralph Glasser passed away today.
2005: After 138 years, Rich's (as Rich's-Macy's) disappeared and became part of Macy’s-Central. Rich’s began as a dry goods store run by Morris Rich in 1876.
2005: The Washington Post book section features a review of Michael Medved’s autobiography, The Faith of a Critic.
2005: The Chicago Tribune reported that despite an anti-Semitic backlash, the renaissance of Jewish culture and religion continued its growth in Russia. This “quiet cultural revolution” has been fueled, in part, by Jews who moved to Israel during starting in the 1970’s and have returned at the start of the 21st century.
2005: The New York Times reported that Robert K. Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots made his thirtieth visit to Israel since 1963. On this most recent visit he took the Lombardi Trophy which was proof of his teams’ Super Bowl Victory and showed it Prime Minister Sharon. While Sharon is not known as a football fan, he posed for the obligatory photo with a major Jewish philanthropist.
2005: The New York Times reviewed Ester and Ruzya by Masha Gessen. The title characters are Gessen’s grandmothers. The biography tells how these two women maintained their Jewish identities while living through Stalin, Hitler and the Cold War.
2005: The cover story of The New York Times Magazine was “A Memory Loop” by Joseph Lelyveld featuring an account of life with his father Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld.
2006(6th of Adar, 5766): Ninety-seven year old Ruth F. Weiss, also known as Wèi Lùshī, an Austrian born Chinese “educator, journalist and lecturer” passed away today.
2007: The Colorado Jewish Artist’s Guild of the Mizel Museum hosts a workshop styled “Catapulting Your Visions to Achievements: Do You Want to Be A Working Artist or An Artist Who Works?”
2007: Former White House aide I. Lewis Libby, Jr. was found guilty on four of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice trial. The one person convicted in the whole Plame Affair was a practicing Reform Jew.
2008: As part of its Israel at 60 celebration, the 92nd Street Y presents “Lee Saar The Company & Netta Yerushalmy: Out of Israel” as two innovate Israeli dance companies join forces to present a compelling evening of duets.
2008(29th of Adar, 5768): Ninety year old screenwriter who was nominated for Best Story Oscar for “Naked City” passed away today.
2008(29th of Adar, 5768): Eight people were killed and nine others were wounded this evening when a terrorist infiltrated a Jerusalem yeshiva and opened fire. Three of the wounded in the attack at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood were serious condition and taken to Hadassah Medical Center in Ein Karem. The other six were lightly hurt and taken to Sha'arei Tzedek Medical Center. One of the wounded is 15 years old. Magen David Adom emergency medical service declared the incident a "multiple casualty event."
2009: Agudas Achim hosts Shabbat Across Iowa City with an early Friday evening service followed by a Shabbat Dinner.
2009:Composer Samuel Adler lights up the marquee at Temple Emanuel’s Synaplex Shabbat service on Friday night. The German-born son of a cantor showcases a sampling of his music, performed by the Los Angeles Zimriyah Chorale. In addition to putting his musical talents on display, Adler also exhibits his strong faith in a musical sermon.
2009: At the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City, Kirk Douglas appears in “Before I Forget” a scripted one-Douglas show all about the 92-year-old Hollywood icon. . In this rare theatrical appearance, Douglas shares stories about his life and acting career — the stroke he suffered in 1996 that left him unable to speak, his numerous starring roles and his return to Judaism.
2009: Today was a double-header for Jews and the criminal justice system. The lawyers for Bernard Madoff, the goniff who ran the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history, has taken steps that could lead to him pleading guilty as early as next Tuesday. In Des Moines, a federal judge rejected a motion to dismiss illegal immigration and bank fraud charges against Agriprocessors Inc. and its former owner/manager, Sholom Rubashkin. Rubashkin’s attorneys asked that the charges be dismissed claiming the grand jury proceedings were tainted by improper comments about religion, race and anti-Semitism. In her rule, Chief Judge Linda Reade rejected the claims pointing out that the statements under discussion were made by witnesses by the members of the Grand Jury. Additionally, she was highly critical of the defense’s expert witness saying that reasoning was “flawed” and that she had a “deep unfamiliarity with the federal grand jury process.”
2009: The Foreign Ministry said today it had closed its embassy after the government of Mauritania, an overwhelmingly Muslim West African nation asked the Israeli ambassador and his staff to leave.
2009: In Davis Cup competition, Thomas Johansson put Sweden ahead of Israel with a five-set win over Harel Levy Israel’s Duda Sela even the series with a five-set victory against Andreas Vinciquerra.
2010 (5770): Shabbat Parah
2010: The 40th Annual Scholars’ Conference on the Holocaust and the Churches” opened in Philadelphia, PA.
2010: Theater J in association with Jonathan Reinis Productions is scheduled to present the World Premiere of Andy Warhol - Good for the Jews?
2010: In London, UK, Jewish Book Week came to an end.
2010: U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell met with Defense Minister Ehud Barak in Tel Aviv today as he began a round of meetings aimed at relaunching peace negotiations.
2011: Today, Professor Geoffrey Alderman was named the recipient of the Chaim Bermant Prize for Journalism.
2011: Veretski Pass is scheduled to perform their new composition “Klezmer Shul” as well as their standard repertoire and some special surprises at the Freight and Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, CA as part of the Jewish Music Festival.
2011: Mlle. God” by playwright Nick Kazan is scheduled to have is final performance at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles. “The subtext of Kazan’s production is an attempt to mitigate the controversial role the playwright’s father — Oscar- and Tony-winning director Elia Kazan — played during the era of the Hollywood blacklist.” Regardless of how you may view the elder Kazan’s role during the Red Hunting days of the 1950’s, this Greek immigrant had the courage to serve as director of “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” the 1947 film that dealt with the issue of anti-Semitism in the United States. Jewish directors and movie moguls had shied away from making the film because they were afraid of an anti-Semitic backlash. [Yes, this is post Holocaust America]
2011: “Down Home,” a multi-media project that “celebrates Jewish contributions to North Carolina social, civic and commercial life” that has been appearing at the North Carolina Museum of History in Raleigh is scheduled to come to a close today.
2011: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Eisenhower 1956: The President's Year of Crisis — Suez and the Brink of War by David A. Nichols
2011: Most of the Israel’s welfare services will be suspended indefinitely starting today morning after negotiations between representatives of social workers and the Finance Ministry broke down two days ago.
2011: A sanitation worker of the Jerusalem Municipality was moderately injured today by an explosion apparently set off when he picked up a garbage bag in Jerusalem. The blast occurred on the corner of Hebron Road and Rosemary Street in the Gilo neighborhood in the city. The worker lost his arm in the explosion, which police say was caused by a small pipe bomb that was placed in the garbage bag.
2011(30th of Adar I, 5771): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
2011(30th of Adar I, 5771) Ninety-two year old Dr. Sholom Omi Waife a noted writer and medical researcher who was the grandson of Sholom Aleichem passed away today.
2012: The annual AIPAC Policy Conference is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host its annual Humanitiarian Awards Dinner.
2012: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a noontime screening of “Jewish Women in American Sport: Settlement Houses to the Olympics,”
2012: Jewish Women's Morning at the Capitol (JWMC) is scheduled to take place in St. Paul, MN.
2012: Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt is scheduled to deliver the annual Charles Grossman Lecture In Jewish Intellectual History entitled “History Written, History Re-Written: On American, The Holocaust and Playing the Blame Game” at The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning at Temple Emanu-El
2012: The organization Peace Now filed a complaint with police this morning after a death threat was made against director Yariv Oppenheimer the night before. (As reported by Ben Hartman)
2012: Following the death of Robert Sherman, the founder of Music World, “his son Robert J. Sherman succeeded him as CEO and President.”
2012(12thof Adar, 5772): Ninety-four year old “Albert Abramson, who became a principal force in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington by using the same pragmatic approach that had made him a successful developer of apartments, offices and malls” passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012: Israel Military Industries will be barred from submitting bids for Indian defense contracts for the next ten years, along with five other firms, The Times of India reported today.
2013: The Humanitarian Awards Dinner co-sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to take place this evening in Chicago, Illinois.
2013: To mark its acquisition of the defense archive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host a public panel discussion on the subject of Anglo-Jewish responses to domestic fascism in the 1930s.
2013: “The Last White Knight: Is Reconciliation Possible?” is scheduled to have its Minnesota Premier tonight at the Minneapolis Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Hebrew language edition of Playboy will be available on newsstands today in Israel.
2013: “Agriculture Ministry workers armed with pesticides went into action at first light today morning, distributing both aerial and ground sprays in the area where millions of locusts descended upon southern Israel from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula the day before.” (As reported by Sharon Udasin)
2013: New York police today said they arrested a suspected hit-and-run driver following a weekend accident that killed a young Orthodox Jewish couple whose baby was later delivered by C-section but then died.
2013: A global Shi’ite terrorism network made up of Iranian Quds Force operatives and Hezbollah continues to target Israelis overseas, the National Security Council’s counterterrorism bureau warned today, ahead of the Passover vacation season.
2013: The Los Angeles mayoral runoff opened today with Democrats Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greue, each of whom have Jewish connections,l fighting over who can best craft an image of fiscal restraint in a cash-strapped city whose voters refuse to raise taxes to maintain public services.
2014: Shaul Magid, professor of Religious Studies and Jewish Studies at Indiana University Bloomington is scheduled to deliver a lecture “After Multiculturalism: Postethnicity and Judaism in America” at the University of Colorado Boulder.
2014: Leslie Maitland is scheduled to discuss “Crossing the Borders of Time: A True Story of War, Exile and Love Reclaimed.”
2014: “Dove’s Cry and “Sukkah City” are scheduled to be shown at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2014(4th of Adar II, 5774): Eighty year old theatre critic and author Martin Gottfried passed away today. (As reported by Daniel E. Slotnik)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/theater/martin-gottfried-theater-critic-and-author-dies-at-80.html
2014: Dr. Rose Cohen is scheduled speak on “Facets of Holocaust Research: Victims and Survivors, Possessions and Plunder Search strategies and Integrating Resources” at the Center for Jewish History.
2014: A source at the Foreign Ministry confirmed today that the trip of Pope Francis scheduled for this May has been cancelled because Foreign Ministry workers “are currently on strike and are unable to make the necessary arrangements for the visit.”
2014: In Columbus, Ohio, Abbie and Feivel Straus have a new daughter; Joseph Straus has a new sister and Dr. Bob & Laurie Silber have a new granddaughter.
2014: Today’s decision “in Crimea’s parliament to hold a referendum on March 16 asking whether the semi-autonomous region should become part of Russia took some members of the peninsula’s 17,000-strong Jewish community by surprise.”
2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the “penultimate Friday night dinner.”
2015: Agudas Achim is scheduled to host “Shabbat Across Iowa City.”
2015: Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Club Regent Event Center in Winnipeg, Canada.
2015: “In U.C.L.A. Debate Over Jewish Student, Echoes on Campus of Old Biases” published today Adam Nagrourney described the assault that Rachel Beyda endured from members of the Undergraduate Students Association because, as they said, she “a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community.”
2015: “Police in the northern town of Dokkum said in a statement today that they are investigating the attempted sale of the soap online dating back to WW II that purportedly contains remains of Jews murdered in the Holocaust,
2015: “Five people were injured Friday morning in a car-ramming terror attack near a Jerusalem Light Rail station in the north of the city.”
2015: “Deli-Man” a documentary by Erik Greenberg Anjou opened in New York City.
2016: “A tribute to Ephraim Kishon’s work that includes
2016: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Master of Ceremonies: A Memoirby Joel Grey with Rebecca Paley and Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan
2016: Hunter College is scheduled to host the Sixth Annual Diaspora-Israeli Russian Film Festival.
2016: In Iowa City Rabbi Avremel and Chaya Blesofsky are scheduled to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of their son Yehoshua.
2016: In Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “a very special one-time-only performance of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow: The Music of Harold Arlen."
2016: Evelyn “Evie” Banko, a native of Vienna whose family fled after the Anschluss, is scheduled to speak at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education.
2016: “A Torah scroll from the synagogue in the northern Italian town of Biella has been identified as probably the oldest in the world still owned and used by a Jewish community” is scheduled to “returned to the Biella synagogue at a ceremony” today.
2016: Temple Beth Ami is scheduled to Dr. Ramon Tasat speaking on the “Music of the Jews In Italy” – a lecture that includes musical selections.
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Hershey Felder in “George Gershwin Alone.”
2007: The Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to host “Out of the Whirlwind: Hugh Mesibov and the Legacy of the Book of Job” during which Mordechai Cohen will “explore the character of the Book of Job and its legacy within the Jewish imagination.”
2017: The Times of Israel is scheduled to host a screening of “Norman” at Cinema City In Jerusalem
2018: In Washington, DC, the annual AIPAC Conference is scheduled to come to an end today. (Editor’s note – you have to wonder how many of the attendees feel about the fact the state of Israel does not recognize them as Jews and/or does not regard their religious practices as being Jewish?)
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Hummus Off where teams compete to create the best form of this Oriental treat.
2018: The screening of “The Jews of Syria” is scheduled to be shown at the 21stNY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival “followed by an After Party! Featuring Music by Maury and Josh Blanco, Mazza and a special performance by crooner Steven Chera and his quartet.”
2019: Tonight’s opening of the 22nd NY Sephardic Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to include the New York Premiere of “El Hara.”
2019: At the Jewish Book Festival, Anna Nyburg and Daniel Snowman are scheduled to examine Insiders/Outsiders which “examines the extraordinarily rich contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to the visual culture, art education and art-world structures of the United Kingdom.”
2019: In Beverly Hills, CA, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled “to honor Sylvie and Mark Deutsch and Linda and Tony Rubin as they receive the National Leadership Award.
2019: In Washington, DC, Adas Israel is scheduled to host its annual Latke-Hamentasch Debate.