May 26 In History
1096(1st of Sivan): The Crusaders massacred the Jews of Neuss, Germany
1135: Alfonso VII of León and Castile was crowned in the Cathedral of Leon as Imperator totius Hispaniae, "Emperor of all of Spain". At the start of his reign he curtailed “the rights and liberties which his father had granted the Jews. He ordered that neither a Jew nor a convert might exercise legal authority over Christians, and he held the Jews responsible for the collection of the royal taxes.” After a few years, he adopted a more positive policy towards his Jewish subject. He restored the rights granted by his father and then granted new ones including the granting of a special fuero (charter) in 1136 that permitted the Jews of Guadalajara to outfit themselves like the Christian Knights of his kingdom. Judah ben Joseph ibn Ezra (Nasi) was one of the King’s most influential advisors. After the conquest of Calatrava in 1147, the king placed Judah in command of the fortress, later making him his court chamberlain. The king held Judah ben Joseph stood in such high esteem that he granted Judah’s request to let the Jews who had fled from the Almohades to settle in Toledo. The reigns of Alfonso and his father are proof that Jews prospered, and suffered, under both Catholic and Moslem rule, depending upon the ruler and the time period.
1171: The first ritual murder accusation in Europe occurred in Blois, France. Fifty-one Jews were burned, seventeen of them women. As they were burning, they chanted the hymn 'Aleinu' (composed in Talmudic times). Rabbenu Tam declared a day of fasting and prayer in
1232: Pope Gregory IX began the Inquisition in Aragon
1512: Bayezid II, the Ottoman Sultan who welcomed the Jews to his realm after the expulsion from Spain passed away. He not only sent a fleet under the command of Admiral Kemal Reis to evacuate the Jews, he sent a firman to all provinces telling the leaders to welcome the Jews. When you consider the large swath of territory he controlled (including much of southeastern Europe) this was quite gift. His Jewish subjects included Mordecai Comtino, Solomon ben Elijah Sharbit ha-Zahab, Shabbbethai ben Malkiel Cohen and poet Menahem Tamar.
1566: Birthdate of Sultan Mehmed III. During the reign of Sultan Mehmed III, Gabriel Buonaventura was appointed ambassador and established contacts with
1615(27th of Iyar): Abraham Samuel Bacharach, a leading Rabbi in Worms, passed away. Born in the Grand Duchy of Hesse in 1575, he had married Eva Bacharach, the daughter of Isaac ben Simson ha-Kohen and the granddaughter of Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel. She was the mother of Rabbi Moses Samson Bacharach and the grandmother of Rabbi Yair Bacharach, author of “Hawwot Yair.”
1648:As the Cossack uprising continued to gain momentuma force of Cossacks and Crimean Tatars attacked and defeated Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth forces at the Battle of Korsun. The defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian forces followed the pattern seen at the battle at Zhovti Vody. The Poles retreated and the Cossacks continued moving westward gaining support as they went The slaughter of the Jews was about to begin in earnest.
1697: The British colony of South Carolina issued naturalization papers to Simon Valentine.
1712: The leaders of the Dutch Jewish community decided to dismiss Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi as the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi congregation of Amsterdam at the end of the three year term described in the letter of appointment he had been given in January of 1710. Ashkenazi vowed to fight the dismissal which apparently had been orchestrated by Aaron Polak Gokkes.
1724: Beginning of the papacy of Benedict XIII, the pope who issued “Emanavit nuper,” a Papal Bull, dealing with “the necessary conditions for imposing Baptism on a Jew.”
1753: In Zhitomir, the castle court under the influence of Bishop Solik of Kiev sentenced 33 Jews to death for the "ritual murder" of a Christian child. The entire evidence was based on the "confessions" of the innkeeper and his wife which had been made after being tortured, although they later retracted their statements. Thirteen of them were released upon converting. Many others, including the local Rabbi, were quartered alive. One couple converted on the spot and was granted a beheading.
1757(7th of Sivan): Rabbi Jacob Daniel of Ferrara author of “Eden Arukh” passed away.
1820: Birthdate of Dr. Samuel Kristeller
1848: As part of its policy to force the Jews to assimilate, the Russian government issued a decree providing for the establishment of a rabbinical committee to be attached to the Ministry of Interior.
1841(6th of Sivan, 5601): Shavuot
1854: Birthdate of Samuel Morais Hyneman a Philadelphia born lawyer who “was a member of the board of managers of Mikve Israel congregation, a member of the board of trustees the Jewish Theological Seminary at New York, and of the board of trustees of Gratz College, Philadelphia. He also served as president of the Young Men's Hebrew Association in Philadelphia, and served as an officer of The Hebrew Education Society in Philadelphia
1865(1st of Sivan, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1869: Boston University is chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BU was founded by three Methodist businessmen who had been active in the abolitionist movement. “From the day of its opening, Boston University has admitted students of both sexes and every race and religion.” According to one source, BU has the second largest enrollment (by percentage) of any private university in the
1871(6th of Sivan, 5631): First Day of Shavuot
1871: An article entitled “The Pentecost Festival” gives an amazingly detailed description of the Jewish festival of Shavuot.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9C02E5DA173AE63BBC4E51DFB366838A669FDE
1871: The New York Times reported that “the feast of Pentecost, in Jewish parlance,” Shavuot, “or, as the German Jews call it” Shavuos, “began last evening and will be observed in all Jewish houses of prayer today.
1874: Judge P.J. Joachimsen presided over the annual meeting of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites which was being held tonight at New York’s Temple Shaaray Tefillah. The Executive Committee recommended sending funds to aid the Jews of Romania and to support an agricultural school in Jaffa. (The funds for Romania reflected the concern of western Jewry for the worsening conditions of their co-religionists in that newly independent eastern European country. Funding for the school in Jaffa is one of the earliest examples of American Jewish support for what became the Zionist movement).
1876: It was reported today that at a recently adjourned meeting of delegates representing Hebrew congregations from various U.S. cities the possibility was discussed of establishing a seminary that would teach Jewish theology and the Hebrew language while preparing students to become Rabbis.
1881(27th of Iyar, 5641):Jakob Bernays a German philologist and philosophical writer passed away. The native of Hamburg German was born in 1824. His father, Isaac Bernays the first orthodox German rabbi to preach in the vernacular (German) his brother, Michael Bernays, was also a distinguished scholar. “Jakob studied from 1844 to 1848 at the University of Bonn, whose philological school, under Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker and Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl was the best in Germany. In 1853 he accepted the chair of classical philology at the newly founded Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau, where he formed a close friendship with Theodor Mommsen. In 1866, when Ritschl left Bonn for Leipzig, Bernays returned to his old university as extraordinary professor and chief librarian. He remained at Bonn until his death.”
1881: Birthdate of Sophie Munk, who gained fame as Austrian-American therapist and write Sophie Lazarsfeld, the wife of attorney Robert Lazarsfeld and the mother of Paul Lazarsfeld.
1886: Birthdate of Asa Yoelson, better known as Al Jolson. Jolson's father was a cantor at B'nai Israel Synagogue at Fifth and Eye Street in Washington, D.C. Instead of following in his father's footsteps, Jolson ran away to New York where he began his career in show business. His greatest claim to fame was his starring role in The Jazz Singer, the first talking motion picture. Although Jolson never served in the Army (he was turned down when he tried to enlist during the Spanish American War for being too young) Jolson was an active participant in Bond Drives during subsequent wars. He also entertained the troops during World War I and
1890(7th of Sivan, 5650): Second Day of Shavuot
1890(7th of Sivan, 5650): Hirschel Eliazer Kann, one of the co-founders of the Dutch banking house Lissa & Kann passed away today.
1890: “New Publications” published today included a detailed review of Jeremiah and His Times by Dr. T.K. Chenye a Professor at Oxford. He divided his work into two parts: “Judah’s Tragedy Down to the Death of Josiah” and “The Close of Judah’s Tragedy”
1890: It was reported today that Rabbi Kaufman Kohler will be officiating at the upcoming confirmation services for the students at the Hebrew Free School.
1890: At a dinner held this evening by the Grand Army of the Republic in Lowell, MA, General Benjamin Butler delivered a speech in which he claimed that during the Civil War the soldiers had been paid “in depreciated currency while Jew bankers were paid in gold with interest.” During the Civil War, Lincoln had tolerated Butler as a general because he needed his political support. He was a politician, not a general as could be seen by his inept performance in the field.
1891: “Russia Home Policy” published today described the various aspects of the Czar’s anti-Semitic policies. Police are being sent throughout St. Petersburg with orders to arrest an Jews they find and ship them back to the Pale. Conditions are so bad in Kiev that even Jews who have a legal right to live there are allowing themselves to be expelled. The governor of Kiev has said “I will make Kiev too hot for the whole brood of rascals, rights or no rights.”
1892: Opposition was expressed today in the House of Representatives to an appropriation for the upcoming World’s Fair since exhibits would be open on Sunday in violation of the Christian Sabbath. No such concern was expressed for being open on Saturday.
1892: “Rome and the Hebrews” published today described the recent meeting that Jesse Seligman and Dr. O’Connell rector of the American College had with Cardinal Rampolla, Papal Secretary of State. In response to a request for protection of the Jews by the Catholic Church, Rampolla said that “the Popes…had always been the protectors of the Jews.” (Considering the behavior of the Popes following the revolts of 1848, this statement can best be described as, at best, “disingenuous”
1893: “Paulus Meyer Arrested” published today described the arrest of Paulus Meyer a Jewish convert and ex-Russian Talmudist “who asserted that he was an eye witness to a terrible massacre of Jews in Russia. He was arrested at the request of the German Supreme Tribunal at Leipzig.
1894: Emanuel Lasker became a World Champion chess player. Born in
1894: Theodore Seligman who is one of the executors of the will of his father, the late Jesse Seligman, filed “a statement of the condition of the estate” and “an itemized list of the bequests to the family and charitable societies in the Surrogate’s Office.
1895: “In The World Of Art” published today acknowledgement is made of the generosity of the men who arranged the East Side Art Exhibition in the auditorium of the Hebrew Institute which attracted a large throng of the less fortunate for whom this was the first opportunity to see such works.
1895: Birthdate of Professor Salo Wittmayer Baron, the author of a sweeping multivolume history of the Jews who “was undoubtedly the greatest Jewish historian of the 20th century…” (As reported by Peter Steinfels)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/26/obituaries/salo-w-baron-94-scholar-of-jewish-history-dies.html?scp=2&sq=Salo+Wittmayer+Baron&st=cse&pagewanted=print
1895: Rabbi Joseph Silverman will deliver the opening prayer at today’s ceremony dedicating the new Hebrew Infant Asylum. Following remarks by New York City Mayor Strong, Rabbi Kaufman Kohler and N.S. Rosenau will address the attendees. Cecilia Goldsmith is among those responsible for providing refreshments at the end of the event.
1896: Eben Israel Cemetery, the Jewish Cemetery in Cedar Rapids that served both the Orthodox Beth Jacob and Reform Temple Judah congregations opened. Max Oshman was one of the founders of the cemetery which is still in use at the start of the 21st century.
1896: Nicholas II becomes Tsar of Russia. Nicholas was the last of the Tsars. He was a weak man who lacked the skill to rule. He was also totally out of touch with what was going on in his country. The fact that he had three rabbis at his coronation did not mean that his views about Jews were any different from those of his predecessors. There were Pogroms both before and after the first uprising against the Tsar in 1905. The Tsar spent a great deal of money on anti-Semitic literature including mass distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. He also supported the trumped up charges in the Bellis Case, the scandalous trumped charges in one of the last “Ritual Murder” of the 20th century. During his reign, the Tsar declared,” During my reign Jews in Russia will not enjoy equal rights.”
1890: The Chicago Jewish Courier has opened a drive to help defray the expenses of a newly formed Jewish military organization that is volunteering to serve in an Illinois Regiment that will probably join the fight against Spain.
1899: The Hebrew Union Veterans’ Association held its annual memorial service tonight at Temple Emanu-El. The event, which was well attended, began with the veterans marching en masse to house of worship by a drum and bugle corps.
1899: A list published today of the institutions receiving aid from the state of New York and the amount they are getting included: Sanitarium for Hebrew Children - $5,080; Hebrew Benevolent Society - $100,000; Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society - $99,500;
1903: Herzl meets the Portuguese ambassador in Vienna to ask for a territory habitable and cultivable by Europeans.
1905(21st of Iyar, 5665): French banker Mayer Alphonse de Rothschild passed away. Born in 1827, Alphonse was the son of James, the founder of the French branch of the House of Rothschild. He succeeded his father just before the Franco-Prussian War. After the French were defeated, Alphonse arranged the financing to pay for the indemnity the Germans extracted from the French as part of the peace settlement. The loan was a key to the re-emergence of
1905: A pogrom broke out in
1908: At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia (Iran), the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East is made. The rights to the resource are quickly acquired by the United Kingdom. The connection between the oil strike the quest to establish a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel is too obvious to have to explain.
1909(6th of Sivan, 5669): Shavuot
1910:Political trailblazer Belle Moskowitz wins passage of bill regulating New York dance halls
1911: In the Bronx, Gittle “Gussie” Weinstein and Yithak Asher “Isaac” Ephron gave birth to Henry Ephron. While he was a noted playwright , screenwriter and producer, his greatest claim to may be that he was the father of four daughter – Nora, Dilia, Hallie and Amy – who became famous writers in their own right.
1911: In Wilkes-Barre, PA, Jacob and Bessie Kushner gave birth to Aid Kushner, the Oak Park, Michigan, resident “who for many years…constructed models of famous synagogues from around the world including the state of Michigan as well as a model of President Truman’s home in Independence and an early British fort built at Detroit before it became part of the United States.
1912: The annual meeting of the Jewish Publication Society of America was held this evening at Keneseth Israel Temple in Philadelphia, PA. Edwin Wolfe, the president of the society, called the meeting to order. Oscar Solomon was the only member from Cedar Rapids, IA.
1914: Anglo-Jewish art dealer said today “that dispatches from New York were his first intimation that a syndicate of dealers heady by Duveens would hold a sale of the Morgan art treasures in London.” He said that in his opinion, “the story is false.”
1915: Herbert Samuel, 1stViscount Samuel, began serving as Postmaster-General under Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith.
1916: The Zion Mule Corps was disbanded after the end of the Gallipoli Campaign. The disbanding of this Jewish group did not represent a failure. The British were impressed with the bravery and diligence of the Jews and this led to the formation of a Jewish combat force in the British Army later in World War I. This was one more of the halting steps that would lead to the creation of the modern IDF.
1918:The
1920: Dr. H. Pereira Mendes resigns as Rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in
1920: Birthdate of Jan Wiener, a Czech Jew who fought in the British air force during World War II after fleeing Nazis in Germany and Czechoslovakia.
1920(9th of Sivan, 5680): Julius J. Lyons, the son of the late Rabbi Jacques J Lyons, who had served as Director and legal counsel to the State Bank passed away at San Diego, CA. He was born in New York in 1843 and was active in several Jewish institutions including the Montefiore Home, Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Technical Institute. He had gone to California a year ago to stay at the ranch of his son Edwin where he had hoped to regain his health.
1921(18th of Iyar, 5681):Lag B'Omer
1925: In Bayonne, NJ, Isaac and Lillian Goodman Cohen gave birth to Robert B. Cohen whose chain of Hudson News shops at airports, bus terminals and railroad stations across the country offered untold numbers of people a respite from the tedium of travel…(As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1926: “Ten students received their degrees tonight at the first graduation exercises of the Jewish Institute of Religion founded four years ago by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise as the only liberal Jewish theological seminary in New York.” Honorary degrees were conferred on Calude G. Montefiore, nephew of Sir Moses Montefiore and Chaim Nachman Bialik.
1926: Shalom Schwarzbard traveled from the
1928(7th of Sivan, 5688): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1931: Elections began today in forty-five countries in Europe to selected delegates for the World Zionist Congress to be held in June.
1933(1st of Sivan, 5693): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1934: In Tel Aviv, the third biennial Levant Fair comes to an end.
1935: Egyptian Chief Rabbi Haim Nahum officiated at services in the Ashkenazi Synagogue of Cairo. He was there to lead a memorial service for the Polish Jews of Egypt, who were honoring Marshal Josef Piludski. The respected Russian revolutionist and Polish nationalistic military leader had died
1935: In Tel Aviv a group of Yiddish authors sponsored a lecture in observance of the 70th birthday of Dr. Chaim Zhitlowski, social critic, political activist and author who was a “Yiddishist.” Members of Betarim, “a young military Revisionist-Zionist group” were responded violently to the fact that the lecture was conducted in Yiddish instead of Hebrew. They cut off the electricity, pelted members of the audience with stones and were so disorderly that police had to break up the meeting.
1936:For the first time ever, the Mandatory government in Palestine today mobilized Jewish settlers for self-defense as an open Arab revolt swept the country. Settlers at Rehoboth were armed and prepared to repel further assaults by Arabs after two days' of their marauding had resulted in the destruction of various “agricultural enterprises.”
1936: After a lumber yard was set on fire and nine bombs were tossed by Arab attackers in Nevei Shalom, Jewish settlers fled to Tel Aviv.
1936(5th of Sivan, 5696): Erev Shavuot; in Jerusalem, the British relaxed the curfew in the Jewish section of the city delaying its start from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. so that the Jews could gather to observe the start of the festival.
1936:British women and children were evacuated tonight from the troubled town of Nablus in an atmosphere made increasingly tense by bold Arab terrorists. They were sent to Jerusalem where it was thought they would be safe from Arab attacks.
1937: Birthdate of composer Yehuda Yannay
1938: The House Un-American Activities Committee met for the first time. HUAC would become the tool of right-wing political leaders who would use it attack “the Communist Conspiracy,” something that many of them equated with a Jewish conspiracy.
1939(8th of Sivan, 5699): Rabbi Ya'akov Meir, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Palestine, passed away. Jacob Meir was born in
1942: Belgian Jews were required by Nazis to wear a Jewish star.
1943: Jews rioted against
1944: In Bogota, Columbia, Polish refugees Rifka and Israel Joseph Lederman gave birth to David Mordechai Lederman, the doctor “who led the team of scientists that developed the first fully implantable artificial heart.” (As reported by David Hevesi)
1944: Mordechai and Yehuda Eldar arrived at Auschwitz. Mordechai Adler was slated to die in October but through a fluke received a reprieve when he was one of 50 prisoners chosen to work in “Canada,” the warehouse operation where the Nazis greedily stored the belongings of their Jewish victims. In 1947, Eldar and two of his sisters (the only surviving members of his extended family) sailed to Palestine on the SS Exodus. Sent back to Hamburg by the British, he returned to Tel Aviv in June of 1948. He joined the IDF and served for 30 years before retiring as a colonel in 1978.
1944: Birthdate of Jan Schakowsky, Congresswoman representing the 9th District of Illinois.
1948: At the United Nations, the Arabs “indicated a willingness to stop the fighting on condition that the Jews would regard the proclamation of statehood as null and void and that no further Jewish immigration would be accepted. Abba Eban responds publicly; “If the Arab states want peace with
1948: The position of Jewish forces in the Old City was beyond desperate. "There was nothing to eat; nothing to shoot with..." One hundred Haganah troopers had been killed with even more wounded as the Arab Legion pressed its attack on all sides.
1950: The United States, Great Britain and France announced a plan to regulate arms sales in the Middle East which would equalize sales between the Arab states and Israel. The three western powers also promised to see to it that the frontiers or armistice lines dividing the states would not be violated.
1950: The Israeli government announced that Aubrey S. Eban has been appointed as Israel’s Ambassador to the United States. [Yes, Aubrey Eban is the man whom we know as Abba Eban.]
1952: President Harry S. Truman addressed a dinner sponsored by the Jewish National fund.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dr. Dov Joseph, the Acting Minister of Finance, introduced in the Knesset a Bill on "Income Tax Advances for Relief Works" and described the scheme which was expected to provide 2,650,000 work days for the country's unemployed for the next six months.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the rationing of potatoes came to an end and potatoes were put on the free market sale for the first time in four years. Over 250 immigrants were expected to arrive from Iran
1958(7th of Sivan, 5718): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1959(18th of Iyar, 5719): Lag B’Omer
1964: Birthdate of musician Lenny Kravitz
1964: Sylvia Rothschild’s novel “Sunshine and Salt” was released today
1967: As the crisis that would result in the Six Day War intensified, President Nasser of Egypt declared, “the battle will be a general one and our basic objective will be to destroy Israel.” While President Johnson worked to develop an international response that would open the Straits of Tiran, the Soviet Union let the members of the Security Council know that Moscow Syria Egypt
1967: As the crisis that will lead to the Six Days War worsens, Military intelligence chief Aharon Yariv tells the Israeli cabinet that “the roots of the current situation are connected to the active Soviet regional initiative” that began “over a year ago.”
1968(28th of Iyar, 5728): Yom Yerushalayim
1969:Abdel el Rahman el Latifi, a 65-year-old Jerusalem Arab who stabbed a soldier outside the Damascus gate last year, was sentenced today to 10 years' imprisonment by the district court here. There was no apparent reason for the act, but the court rejected the defense plea of insanity.
1971: Birthdate of cartoonist Matt Stone co-creator of South Park
1973: The IDF announced a state of emergency today “and reserve troops were called up in response to a movement of Egyptian troops. The state of emergency was cancelled when it became clear that this was only an exercise. This event had a major impact on the General Staff, as it led them to believe that the Egyptian forces were not preparing for war, later that year, on Yom Kippur. After the war however, it became apparent that these frequent maneuvers carried out by the Egyptians were part of an elaborate ruse meant to induce complacency in the Israelis regarding the true intentions of Egyptian troop movements at the time the actual attack took place.”
1976: German philosopher Martin Heidegger passed away. Although considered a major force in the world of philosophy by some, Heidegger was a member of the Nazi Party and remained in Germany during the war. Strangely enough,Heidegger had several extramarital affairs, including two very important ones with Jewish women who were his students, Hannah Arendt and Elisabeth Blochmann. Apparently Arendt knew more about Nazis than she let on when she was writing about “the banality of evil.”
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported how John Henry Weidner, 65, a Dutchman now living in U.S. led so many groups of Jews, allied pilots and other victims of the Nazi persecution across the border of the German-occupied France into Switzerland that he knew the way "blindfolded." He was awarded the Righteous Gentile Medal by the Yad Va'shem Chairman, Gideon Hausner, who told him: "You are a soldier of humanity in the world's darkest years."
1980: In Monaco, Gary and Peggy Selesner gave birth to Lisa Selesner, the international model known as “Lisa S.” Her mother was Jewish, her father was not.
1983: Amnon Rubenstein completed his term as Communications Minister in Israel.
1985(6th of Sivan, 5745); Shavuot
1987(27th of Iyar, 5747): Seventy-three year old psychiatrist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Arthur Sackler passed away. (As reported by Grace Glueck)
1987: Amnon Rubinstein completed his service as Communications Minister.
1991: In an article entitled “Fund Guides Jobless Soviet Immigrants,” Kathleen Teltsch describes the challenges facing the Baron de Hirsch Fund in helping the latest wave of Jewish immigrants from Russia “make new lives in America.” “The fund was created in 1891 by Baron Maurice De Hirsch, a prosperous German Jewish financier who wanted to help Jewish families fleeing Czarist Russia make a fresh start by becoming farmers. Thousands came to the United States at the turn of the century and became poultry farmers, mainly in southern New Jersey.” This latest influx of refugees from the Soviet Union will be looking for help in fitting into the urban environment including jobs in the health care and construction industries.
1993(6th of Sivan, 5753): First Day of Shavuot
1996(8th of Sivan, 5756): Resistance fighter and politician Halka Grossman passed away at the age of 76.
1998(1st of Sivan, 5758): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2001:In an article entitled “Latest Disaster Tests Resiliency of Jerusalem's Residents,” Deborah Sontag describes how the residents of Israel’s capital city are coping with the latest wave of Arab terror.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/26/world/latest-disaster-tests-resiliency-of-jerusalem-s-residents.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of “O’Neill: Life With Monte Cristo” by Arthur and Barbara Gelb.
2003: According to “Battle of Brooklyn” article published today Ari Taub has received the Best New Director award at the Brooklyn International Film Festival for his new film “Letter from the Dead” which “focuses on a doomed unit of German and Italian soldiers” fighting in Italy in 1944.
2004(6th of Sivan, 5764): First Day of Shavuot
2004: What is believed to be the largest cheesecake in the world has been baked in Haifa for Shavuot. The cake measured more than three yards in diameter and was more than one yard high.
2005: Closing session of Biotech-Israel 2005
2005(17th of Iyar, 5765): Ninety year old journalist and political activist Israel Epstein passed away in Beijing, China (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/02/international/asia/02epstein.html
2005: Percussionist, composer and Grammy nominee Roberto Rodriguez, brings his signature blend of Latin rhythms and Jewish melodies to the Skirball Cultural Center’s World Mosaic series. In 2002 Rodriguez recorded his first album “El Danzon de Moies” or “The Dances of Moses.” The cover of the album combines Latin and Jewish images. It is the red, white and blue of
2006(28th of Iyyar, 5766): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Holocaust victims' names may remain in Mormon database. Jewish leaders in a dispute with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over its practice of posthumous baptisms say there is new evidence that the names of Jewish Holocaust victims continue to show up in the church's vast genealogical database.
2007: As part of an escalating wave of violence, a Border Policeman and an Israeli security guard were moderately to seriously wounded this evening when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli roadblock near the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Saad.
2007(9th of Sivan, 5767):British foreign correspondent Edward Behr, the Parisian native who was the son of Russian Jewish refugees passed away at the age of 81. His wide travels and reporting experiences inspired a number of books, including The Algerian Problem(1961), The Last Emperor (1987), Hirohito: Behind the Myth (1989) and Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite (1991) about the now-fallen Romanian dictator and his wife .He provided a telling look at his own trade with Anyone Here Been Raped and Speaks English? (1981), a query reportedly called out by a British reporter looking for sources during a crisis in
2008:Today, Texas Rangers All Star second baseman Ian Kinsler knocked one out of the ballpark in a game against the Tampa Bay Rays, in the process slugging the 2,500th home run by a Jewish player in the game’s history, according to Jewish Major Leaguers, Inc. The statistic, announced just recently, might seem slightly obscure to those who don’t follow America’s favorite pastime, but true baseball fans appreciate the value of such things. “It took a while to comb through all of Baseball-Reference.com’s box scores,” said JML president Martin Abramowitz in a press release, explaining the three month lag time in publicizing the feat. According to Abramowitz, Jewish players have hit roughly 1% of all home runs in the game’s history, while having a slightly less than 1% representation of all athletes who have played the game. “We’ve clearly held our own,” Abramowitz noted. Hank Greenberg is the Jewish home run king, with 331 dingers. Shawn Green comes in a close second, hitting 328 in his career. It was unclear if Kinsler, who hit the 2,499th Jewish home run a day earlier, was aware of his achievement.
2008(21stof Iyar, 5768):Sydney Pollack, a Hollywood mainstay as director, producer and sometime actor whose star-laden movies like "The Way We Were," "Tootsie" and "Out of Africa" were among the most successful of the 1970s and '80s, passed away today at the age of 73.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/movies/26cnd-pollack.html?_r=0
2008: Tensions rose between Egypt and Israel when 45 elderly Jews, most of whom were born in Egypt, were forced to cancel their four-day trip to Egypt
2008:Memorial Day observed. The National Museum of American Jewish Military featured a Memorial Day tribute to those Jewish servicemen and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. http://www.nmajmh.org/docs/jahm08/May%2026%20Memorial%20Day.pdf
2009: The 92nd Street Y presents “Women’s Prominence, Women’s Femininity: From Biblical Times to Today” during which Israeli novelist Eva Etzioni-Halevy, the author of the novels “The Song of Hannah,” “The Garden of Ruth” and “The Triumph of Deborah,” and Maggie Anton, the author of the Rashi’s Daughters series, engage in a spirited conversation about Biblical women who broke through the glass ceiling and the lessons we can learn from them today. Maggie Anton is the award-winning author of “Rashi’s Daughters, Book I: Joheved,” “Rashi’s Daughters, Book II: Miriam,” and for younger readers, “Rashi’s Daughter: Secret Scholar.”
2009:For the first time since its founding, the Knesset is officially marking today asYiddish Language and Culture Day. A Yiddish-Hebrew Knesset lexicon was released for the occasion. The date for the parliamentary nod to Yiddish, a language once spoken by more than 12 million Jews, was selected to mark 150 years since the birth of the Yiddish author Shalom Aleichem. This past week was also the 20th anniversary of the founding of Yiddishshpiel, Tel Aviv's all-Yiddish theater. The day's events include a joint meeting of the Knesset's Absorption, Immigration and Diaspora Committee and the Education and Culture Committee to discuss Yiddish culture. The Knesset is also holding a special session to discuss the place of Yiddish in modern Israeli society. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Deputy Minister of Pensioners Affairs Leah Ness are delivering the main speeches of the session. Ahead of the unique Knesset session, a lexicon of the Yiddish translations of several key phrases often used by Israeli parliamentarians was distributed to all Knesset members. A few key phrases from the lexicon that veteran MKs may find useful include:
Ich hob eich nisht geshtert, toshter nisht mir! - "I didn't interrupt you, don't interrupt me!"
Ich ruf eich tzum seder dus ershte mol.... - "I am calling you to order for the first time...."
Ordners, derveitert im fun zal! - "Ushers, remove him from the hall!"
Vehr siz far, zol veilen 'far'. Vehr siz keigen, zol veilen 'keigen'. - "Whoever is in favor, vote 'in
favor'. Whoever is opposed, vote 'opposed'."
2010: Zemer Chai, Washington, DC’s premier Jewish Choir is scheduled to present a concert entitled “Psalm Enchanted Evening” at Ohr Kodesh Congregation in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
2011: “The Great Kugel Throwdown” is scheduled to take placed at the Washington State Historical Society in Seattle, Washington.
2011:Congress decided tonight that a memorial commemorating US Jewish chaplains who died in battle will be erected at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia,. “This memorial will be a fitting commemoration of 13 chaplains who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation,” bill sponsor Sen. Charles Schumer said.
2011: "Jews, Slavery, and the Civil War" is scheduled to have its final sessions in Charleston, South Carolina.
2011: The JCC in Manhattan is scheduled to present an evening with Eran Zur& Korin Alal, two of the freshest musical voices in Israeli culture.
2011:Gail Barnum, daughter of Joel and Amy Barnum,Natalee Birchansky, daughter of Lee and Cyndie Birchansky and Marissa Carson, daughter of Bill and Laura Carson, each of whom is part the Temple Judah “family” are scheduled to graduate from Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, IA this evening.
2011: Benjamin Levin, son of David R. Levin graduated from Harvard Law School making him the third generation of Levin Lawyers!
2011(22ndof Iyar, 5771): Eighty-nine year old dental expert Irwin D. Mandel passed away. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2011: The New York Mets announced that David Einhorn had agreed to buy a minority share of the baseball team for $200 million
2011: David Einhorn called for Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, to step down after Microsoft had been passed by both IBM and Apple in market value
2011: Elaine’s the restaurant that the late Elaine Kaufman turned into a New York icon will close tonight.
2012(5thof Sivan): Erev of Shavuot
2012: The Chabad Center of Rechavia, 8 Ramban Street is scheduled to host a traditional all-night learning session as part of the Shavuot celebration.
2012:The Carlebach Minyan of the Old City is scheduled to offer an all-night Shavout learning session.
2012(5thof Sivan): Tessa Cohen, Curtis Litow and Sarah Maikon were confirmed tonight at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2012(5thof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-six year old educator Irving I. Lipskind passed away today.
2013:“Threshold to the Sacred: The Ark Door of Cairo's Ben Ezra Synagogue” is scheduled to come to an end at the Walters Museum in Baltimore, MD.
2013: The final performance of “Sherlock Holmes” by the late Greg Kramer is scheduled to take at The Segal Centre for the Performing Arts.
2013: The IPO is scheduled to perform a special concert with violinist Itshak Perlman
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hollywood and Hitler: 1933-1939 by Thomas Doherty, The Guns At Last Light” The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson and ‘Til Faith Do Us Part: How Interfaith Marriage Is Transforming America by Naomi Schaefer Riley