April 10
1968: “Belle de Jour” a French film “based on the 1928 novel Belle de jour by Joseph Kessel was released in the United States today.
1971(15thof Nisan, 5731): Pesach
1968: “George M!” a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Francine Pascal, produced by Emanuel Azenberg and starring Joel Grey opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre.
1970: During the War of Attrition, “two 201 Squadron Phantoms attacked a radar facility at Wadi Zur.”
1973: Operation Spring of Youth came to an end. This was an amphibious assault by the IDF on Beirut and Sidon aimed at those who had massacred Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
1974: Yitzhak Rabin replaced Golda Meir as Prime Minister. Mrs. Meir had resigned, a casualty of the Yom Kippur War.
1974: “Our Time” a coming of age film directed and written by Peter Hyams was released in the United States today.
1974: In St. Louis, MO, Becky and Robert Greitens gave birth to Eric Greitens the decorated war hero and Rhodes Scholar whose accomplishments are so varied that he can truly be called “Renaissance Man.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-former-navy-seal-sets-his-sights-on-governorship/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/the-great-jewish-hope/
1975: The government of Israel recognized Falashas as Jews under the law.
1978(3rd of Nisan, 5738): Ninety-one year old Irma Levy Lindheim, the second president of Hadassah passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1978/04/12/archive/irma-levy-lindheim-dead-at-91
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/lindheim.html
1978: Harold H. Saunders who played a key role in the creation of the Camp David Accords, completed his service as the 6th Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the UNIFIL's acute lag in recruiting to beef up the projected 4,000-man force had decreased the prospects of an early, complete Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that top US officials were reported to have been studying the possibility of an American treaty guarantee for a Middle Eastern settlement, "backed by a US air base in the Sinai and a naval base at Jaffa." The use of glass bottles was prohibited on Israeli beaches.
1979(13thof Nisan, 5739): One person was killed and 36 were injured when a terrorist bomb went off in a market at Tel Aviv.
1980: Birthdate of Israeli tennis player, Andy Ram
401: Birthdate of Theodosius II. As Emperor he adopted many of the anti-Semitic views of his sister which led to the destruction of innumerable synagogues and the murder of the Nasi, Gamliel IV who had authorized the building of new synagogues. Theodosius abolished of the position of Nasi in 425. The term Nasi means Prince and starting with the last decade of the second century was the title given to the head of the Sanhedrin. The Romans had recognized the importance of the position and Jews were allowed to pay a tax for the upkeep of the Nasi. When Theodosius killed Gamliel and abolished the position Nasi, he did not end the tax. He diverted the money to the Roman government.
847: Papacy of Leo IV begins.
879: Louis III becomes King of the Western Franks (also known as France). Louis was part of the Carolingian Dynasty which was comparatively sympathetic and supportive of the Jews living in the realm as can be seen by the decrees of some of Louis III’s predecessors including Charlemagne and Louis the Pious.
1096: During the Crusades Bishop Egelbert offered to save all the Jews of Trier, Germany who are willing to be baptized. The Jews were seeking refuge from a mob that was threatening them with death. Most of the Jews chose to drown themselves rather than accept Christianity.
1191: In the enfolding saga of King Richard’s crusade to the Holy Land that was so costly to the Jews from the time of his departure until the payment of his ransom, the English monarch set sail from Sicily for Palestine.
1201: King John of England confirms Charter of the Jews. King John charged the Jews four thousand marks to re-confirm the rights that had first been guaranteed by his great grandfather, King Henry
1439(25th of Nisan): Poet and kabbalist Avigdor ben Isaac Kara of Prague passed away today.
1516: The first ghetto was established in Venice. There are various explanations of the origin of the term ghetto. "The mostly likely explanation for the word ghetto, as applied to a special place assigned to the Jews is that one such district, set up in the city of Venice, was located near an iron-foundry which was called ‘get’ in the dialect of Venice." While Jews had often sought to live in their own communities, the ghetto was different because it was compulsory. Under the ghetto system, Jews were restricted by law as to where they could live while Christians were free to live everywhere.
1560(14thof Nisan): The Pentateuch with a Yiddish translation was published in Cremona, Italy
1583: Birthdate of Delft native Hugo Grotious the diplomate and theologian who was a friend of Manasseh Ben Israel whose works he admired and an advocate for the admission of Jews to settle as full citizens in the Netherlands.
1570: The Chumash with Yiddish translation was published in Cremona, Italy. There were less than a thousand Jews living in Cremona at this time. In 1559, under pressure from the Dominicans, copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books had been publicly burned in Cremona. A quarter of a century after the printing of the above mentioned Chumash, the Jews were expelled from Cremona.
1607: As the Inquisition prepared to take action against “Jorge de Almedia, a Portuguese residing in Mexico, the husband of Dona Lenor de Andrada who was convicted by the Holy Office having kept observed the dead Law of Moses, document were posted on the door of the Cathedral in the next step to bringing him to “justice.”
1625(3rdof Nisan, 5385): Joshua Cohen Peixotto passed away.
1637: Venetian Rabbi, Judah di Modena “received word that his Italian manuscript entitled ‘History of Hebrew’ customs had been published in Paris.” A gentile Parisian publisher thought that “a book extolling Judaism, written by a Jew in Italian” would be of interest toChristian readers which was the authors “target audience.” (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1699: Rabbi Samuel Orgels, a friend of Baer Cohen for whom he had arranged both of his marriages, passed away. According to the diary of Glückel of Hameln he “fell into a faint and died on the spot” on a Friday evening while in the Synagogue.
1719: Fire destroyed the Ghetto of Nikolsburg, Moravia
1728(1stof Iyar, 5488): Rosh Chodesh
1728(1stof Iyar, 5488): Solomon Ayllon, the “Hacham” of Sephardic congregations in London and Amsterdam and who was alleged to a supporter of Sabbatai Zevi, passed away today.
1738: John Da Costa swears in writing that he has translated the will of Abraham Mendes Seixas, also known as Migule Pnacheo Da Silva from Portuguese into English to the best of his ability.
1739(2ndof Nisan, 5499): Netanel son of Yaakov passed away after which he was buried in the Yablonov Cemetery.
1754(18thof Nisan, 5514) Sixth Day of Pesach
1772: Empress Maria Theresa issued an order allowing Jews to “sell new garments they had made themselves" despite protests from the local tailor’s guild.
1792(18thof Nisan, 5552): Fourth Day of Pesach
1794: Birthdate of Edward Robinson an American biblical scholar, known as the “Father of Biblical Geography.” Robinson led a mission of exploration to Palestine in 1838. Among his many finds was “the tunnel dug by Hezekiah shortly before the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701/02 BCE.” He is the Robinson of “Robinson’s Arch,” a structure found on the south-western side of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
1800(15thof Nisan, 5560): First Pesach of the 19th Century
1816(12th of Nisan, 5576): M.H. Bock, the native of Magedburg founded a well-regarded private school “in 1807 at Berlin, and to which Christian as well as Jewish pupils were admitted” passed away today.
1825(22ndof Nisan, 5585): 8th day of Pesach
1828: Birthdate of Isaac Honig, brother of Henry Honig, the native of Mayence who came to the United States in 1850 where his mercantile prospered to the extent that he could retire in 1865.
1835: Birthdate of Johann Schnitzler “a Hungarian-Austrian Jewish laryngologist.”1847: Birthdate of Joseph Pulitzer. Born in Hungary, Pulitzer came to the United States during the Civil War where he served in the Union Army. After the war he learned English, became rich as publisher of the St Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World. He died in 1911. The Pulitzer Prizes were created by his will and were first awarded in 1917. Pulitzer's father was Jewish, but his mother was a Roman Catholic. Although he was not Jewish, Pulitzer's enemies attacked him as one even condemning him for hiding the "fact" that he was one.
1849(17thof Nisan, 5609): Third day of Pesach
1849: Lion Metz married Julia Hart at the Great Synagogue today.
1849(17thof Nisan, 5609): In Amsterdam, David Proops, the last member of a family of printers that date back to the 18th century passed away today.
1855: Birthdate of Kansas City, MO native Berry Dantzig, the husband of Anna Kasor Dantzig
1855: In Philadelphia, PA, Sigmund Juris and Theresa Trautmann gave birth to Louis Jurist, the husband of Louise Stieglitz and graduate of Jefferson Medical College where he served as a lecturer while also practicing laryngology at Jewish Hospital.
1857: Birthdate of David Edrehi who would be buried at the Temple Beth-El Cemetery in Pensacola, FL when he passed away.
1858: Jewish veterans of the Russian Army were given permission to settle in Finland which was a province in the Russian Empire. The Jewish soldiers would have had to complete 25 years of service to gain this right
1861(30th of Nisan, 5621): As Confederate forces prepare to begin for the attack on Fort Sumter, the Jews of Charleston joined their co-religionist throughout the world in observing the first day of Rosh Chodesh Iyyar.
1863(21stof Nisan, 5623): Seventh Day of Pesach
1863: Jacob C. Cohen of the 27th Ohio Infantry writes from Corinth, Mississippi about life in the Union Army which is resting in preparation for what will be the climatic campaign to take Vicksburg, the “Confederate Gibraltar” on the Mississippi River.
1863: Today Ferdinand Leopold Samer was the first rabbi to be commissioned as a chaplain in the Union Army. Born in Germany, Samar was elected by the 54th New York Volunteer Regiment made up of mostly German speaking soldiers. Samer was the first Jewish chaplain to be wounded in combat during the Civil War.
1865(14thof Nisan, 5625): On the day after the meeting at Appomattox ending the Civil War in the morning Jews, both North and South, observed the Fast of the First Born and in the evening sat down to their fist “peaceful” Seder.
1866(25th of Nisan, 5626): Fifty-nine year old Adolph Meyer, the scion of multi-generational Hanover, Germany, banking family who with his wife Fanny had eight children, passed away today.
1871: Anti-Semitic riots break out in Odessa Russia
1871: Adolph and Johanna Loeb gave birth to Esther Loeb who became Esther Greenebaum when she married Henry Napthali Greenebaum with she had four children.
1872: Thirty-one year old Philadelphia born attorney Leon da Silva Solis-Cohen, the son of Myer David Cohen and Judith Simha Solis, grandson of Jacob da Silva Solis and veteran of the Union Army married his cousin, Lucia Manness Ritterband, with whom he had two daughters (Jessie Myra and Gertrude) and one son (Leon Manness).”
1873: In “Passover: The Jewish Festival and Feast of the Year,” published today The New York Times reports that “to-morrow evening, the 11th of April the Jewish part of the inhabitants of this City will begin the celebration of the Feast of the Passover, an ancient Hebrew festival which Moses instituted to commemorate perpetually the passing over the houses of the Israelites, and the slaying of the first-born of the Egyptians, just previous to the exodus of the children of Israel.” The article is remarkable for its detailed description of the holiday including the insightful statement that “Passover is one of the three important of the festival calendar and although observed by the Jews everywhere yet the laws laid down in relation to its celebration are not followed by all classes of Jews with equal strictness”
1874: Birthdate Mehmed Talaat, a major leader of the Ottoman Empire during WW I who played a prominent role in the “Armenian Genocide” which was described in detail by Henry Morgenthau in his 1918 memoir Ambassador Morgenthau’s Story
1876(16th of Nisan, 5636): Second day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer.
1876: In New York City, Bertha and Levi Spiegelberg gave birth to Eugene E. Spiegelberg
1879(16th of Nisan, 5639): Second day of Pesach
1879(16thof Nisan, 5639):
1882: A pogrom in Podalia, Russia left 40 dead, 170 wounded and 1,250 dwellings destroyed. Fifteen thousand Jews were reduced to total poverty. It was events like these that spurred the First Aliyah in the Zionist movement.
1884(15th of Nisan, 5644): 1st day of Pesach
1885: Two days after he had passed away in New Zealand, 68 year old Samuel Jacobs, the son of Moses Jacobs and Sarah Levy was buried today.
1887: In New York City, “Meyer and Lena (Michael) Wyner gave birth to Brooklyn Polytechnic engineer Emanuel Meyer and husband of Theresa Gluckselig whose career including working for the Fort Pitt Bridge Company and the Wilputte Coke Oven Corporation.
1887: Pope Leo XIII authorizes the establishment of The Catholic University of America. Among its most distinguished alums is David R. Levin a graduate of university’s Columbus College of Law.
1890: Sixty-one year old Hungarian born Austrian poet Karl Isidor Beck who edited the Lloyd, passed away today in Vienna.
1890: The late Louis Lippman has left a bequest of $500 to each of the following: Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids and the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1892: In an article entitled “One of the Important Hebrew Festivals Begins To-Morrow Night,” the New York Times reports that “at sunset to-morrow evening, which corresponds with the evening of the fourteenth day of the month of Nissan in the Hebraic calendar the Jewish community through the world will commence the celebration of the feast of Pesach or Passover.”
1893: “Rabbi Gottheil’s Protest” published today described a lecture delivered by the leader of Temple Emanu-El in which he “declared himself forcibly against the missionary work among Jews which is carried on by the Christian churches.”
1894: Polish born, Manchester, England educated Samuel Hyman Borofsky who had been serving as a Justice of the Peace since 1891 became a Notary Public today in Boston.
1895: In Albany, NY, the State Board of Charities approved the certificate of incorporation of the Hebrew Infant Asylum of the City of New York.
1896: A Jew named Benjamin Dreyer who had been masquerading as Turk named Ben Ouni was arraigned in Brooklyn on charges of having stolen a tray of rings.
1896: “David Finkelstein of Bridgeport, CT, got a writ of habeas corpus” today “in Special Term, Part II of the Supreme Court commanding Pesach Isenbroch…to bring into court the court, the realtor’s wife, Ida Finkelstein” whom he alleges he married under false pretenses.
1896: The Young Folks’ League of the Hebrew Infant Asylum performed a two act play at the Lexington Opera house as a fundraiser.
1897: “Books and Periodicals” published today described plans to simultaneously release Ancient Hebrew Tradition by Dr. Firtz Hommel in May. In this work, the noted Semitic language expert “controverts the method employed by the higher critics of the Old Testament and attacks the Graf Wellhausen hypothesis, also known as the documentary hypothesis.
1898(18thof Nisan, 5658): Fourth Day of Pesach
1898: Simon Jacoby, a native of England who had joined the U.S. Navy in December of 1897 was serving as a Gunner today aboard the U.S.S. Oregon.
1898: Birthdate of Evan P. Helfaer, the prominent Milwaukee businessman “who made a major contribution to the Helfaer Community Service Building, completed in 1973” before he died in February, 1974.
1898: In Los Angeles, Mamie and Henry Klein gave birth to their only son, Arthur Louis Klein who earned a Ph.D. in physics at Cal Tech where he eventually became a full Professor of Aeronautical Engineering – a position he held when in 1946 he went to Bikini to help evaluate the effect of the atomic tests.
1900: Herzl meets Arminius Vámbéry in Budapest in attempts to enlist Turkish support for the creation of the Jewish homeland in Palestine.
1903: In Vienna, Max Graf, “a member of Sigmund Freud’s circle of friends” and his wife gave birth to opera producer Herbert Graf, who was also “the Little Hans discussed in Freud's 1909 study ‘Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy.’”
1904: In Poland Ely and Bernice R. Shanis gave birth to Rose Shanis who became Rose Shanis Glick when she married David Glick with whom she had a son, Stephen Jack Glick and gained game as the founder of Rose Shanis and Company, a unique lending institution in Baltimore, MD.
1904: The Eighth Biennial Convention of the Independent Order of the Free Sons of Judah whose members included Isidor Byk, Isaac Grossman, Levy Abrahams and Victor Steiner was held today in New York City.
1905: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Jacob Lichmon and Rosa Dautschman.
1906: Birthdate of Wilhelm Kauders who gained fame as Czech electrical engineer Vilém Klíma who survived Terezin and the death march to Auschwitz.
1910: Two days after his death, sixty-three year old Dr. of Jurisprudence Alois Klemperer, the son Julie Klemperer and Rabbi Gutmann Klemperer and husband of Eugenie Klemperer was buried in Vienna.
1910: Rabbi Avraham Elyashiv (Erener) of Gomel, Belarus, and Chaya Musha, daughter of the kabbalist Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv gave birth to Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv
1910: More than seven hundred members of the Hebrew Retail Kosher Butchers' Protective Association met today at 763 First Avenue and resolved not to buy a pound of meat for twenty-four hours.
1910: Birthdate of New York businessman Samuel “Sam” Schulman who was best known as the owner of the NBA SuperSonics and a minority owner of NFL San Diego Chargers.
1910: “Oppressed Jews in Morocco Seek From Powers” published today described the desperate condition of these North African Jews and their attempts to get the Alliance Israelite of Paris and the Anglo-Jewish Association in London to enlist the aid of their respective governments ‘in forcing the Sultan to keep the promise of his grandfather, made to Sir Moses Montefiore in 1864, that his Jewish subjects should be dealt with justly, not cruelly”
1911: Today, The Edward Rosenstein Association distributed free matzoth to needy Jews living on the Lower East Side
1912: Sixty-eight year old French historian Gabriel Monod who “became convinced” that Dreyfus did not write the infamous “bordereau”, testified on his behalf at the Court of Cessation in 1899 and after his pardon assured Dreyfus “that come what may, he would always…defend him.”
1912: Due to an unexpected request from her editor to cover the “Paris-Roubaix races” which had forced her to delay her sailing for New York, todayEdith Rosenbaum, the Paris correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily boarded the RMS Titanic today along with her “19 pieces of baggage.”
1912: Archibald Grace IV, the man who would provide the account of Isidor Strauss’s last moments boarded the Titanic at Southampton today.
1912: Mr. Abraham Joseph Hyman who was born in the Russian Empire in 1878 and the husband of Manchester naïve Esther Levy boarded the Titanic today at Southampton as a third class passenger (ticket number 3470 which cost £7, 17s, 9d) which was the first step on journey to visit his brother Harry in Springfield, MA.
1912: Today twenty-four year old Philadelphian Jacob Morris Langsdorf who attended Haverford College for one year married Dorothy May Kirschbaum with whom he had three children – Jack Bernard, Robert Morris and Elizabeth May Langsdorf.
1912: Tonight marks the start of the Young Women's Hebrew Association’s campaign to raise $250,000 for a new building. Abram I. Elkus, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the campaign; Supreme Court Justice Samuel Greenbaum, Rabbi Schulman, and other speakers will address the workers at the kick-off function.
1913(3rdof Nisan, 5673): Fifty-five year old Isaac “Ike” Tuck the “publisher of the Produce Bulletin and one of the best known men in fruit trade circles all over the United States” passed away this evening at his home in Brooklyn
1913: In Romania, Morris and Mary Schachter gave birth Rabbi Marcus Schachter, the husband of Claire Schachter “who, for 46 years, was the central pillar of the Halachah L'Maaseh program at RIETS where he held the Rabbi Dr. and Mrs. Leon Katz Professorship in Rabbinics”
1913: Birthdate of Hellmuth Flieg, a German - Jewish writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym. He lived in the United States (or served in its army abroad) between 1935 and 1952, before moving back to the part of his now-partitioned native Germany which was the German Democratic Republic (GDR, "East Germany"). He published works in English and German at home and abroad, and despite longstanding criticism of the GDR remained a committed socialist.
1914: Birthdate of Raphael Silverman, the native of Ithaca, NY who gained fame as “Raphael Hillyer, the founding violist of the Juilliard String Quartet and a soloist and teacher known for the warmth and expressivity of his tone.”
1914(14th of Nisan, 5674): Four hundred and fifty Jewish servicemen including sailors from the battleships Texas, North Dakota, Washington, Ohio, Wyoming and Louisiana are scheduled to take part in a seder tonight specifically for military personnel at Tuxedo Hall in Manhattan.
1914(14th of Nisan, 5674): In a pre-Passover tragedy, George Rothstein discovered the bodies of his sister Bessie Diamond and three of her young children who were victims of an apparent murder-suicide. According to Mrs. Diamond’s husband, Mrs. Diamond had been suffering from severe depression for which her doctor had recommended she be sent to a sanitarium.
1915: As of today at Temple Emanu-El the sisterhood which was founded in 1889 and the brotherhood which was founded in 1900 are active in providing social service and settlement work on the Lower East Side.
1915(26thof Nisan, 5675): Parashat Shimini
1915: Services were held today at Congregation B’nai Jehoshua in Chicago were Rabbi A.R. Levy delivered the sermon in German.
1915: Rabbi Joseph Hewesh delivered the sermon at Anshe Emeth in Chicago.
1916: Birthdate of Abraham Basalinsky, the native of Bethnal Green, London who gained fame as actor Alfie Bass.
1916: One day after he had passed away, Aaron Herbert, the husband of the former Rebecca Jenny and the father of Leo, Sophia and Eley Herbert, was buried today in the Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.
1916: In Berlin at a meeting of the Relief Committee for Indigent Jews, “the President that 700,000 Jews in the occupied districts of Poland required assistance.
1916: Chairman Nathan of the Hebrew Benevolent Association today “paid a tribute to the work of American Jews in supporting the sufferers in Poland.
1916: The Professional Golfers Association of America (PGA) is created in New York City. In 1942, Herman “Barron became the first Jewish golfer to win an official PGA Tour event by winning the Western Open by two strokes over Henry Picard at Phoenix Golf Club in Phoenix, Arizona.”
1917: “Henry Morgenthau, Chairman of the campaign to raise $10,000,000 for the immediate aid of the Jewish sufferers in the eastern war zone said” today “that Governor Simon Bamberger of Utah had pledged to give one-tenth of the total amount that his state might raise for the fund.” (Editor’s note – Simon Bamberger was the first non-Mormon and the first Jew to serve as governor of Utah.)
1917: In New York, “the Provisional Executive Committee for general Zionist affairs announced” tonight that it had received a cablegram from Moscow saying that today, “the first Zionist convention ever held in Russia has just closed its sessions which were marked with tremendous enthusiasm, due to the fact that this is the first time they have been able to assemble from all part of the country and to publicly discuss questions of interest to the Jewish people without fear or arrest.”
1918: Birthdate of Alfred P. Slaner, the developer of Supp-Hose hosiery who also made Nixon’s Enemies’ List.
1918: “Zionist Unit Prepares” published today described the upcoming departure for Palestine of “the American Zionist Medical Unit with forty members” that “will co-operate with the Jewish Administrative Commission which is laying the foundation for the future Jewish State.”
1918: Birthdate of Cornell Capa, a globe-trotting photojournalist who founded the International Center of Photography in New York and dedicated himself to preserving the legacy of his older brother, war photographer Robert Capa. He died on May 23, 2008 at the age of 90 of Parkinson’s disease.
1919: Based on reports the American Jewish Committee has received from its agents in Czechoslovakia which are similar to others received from Jews in Poland, Rumania and the Ukraine, the committee led by Judge Julian W. Mack, its Chairman and Louis Marshall, its Vice Chairman “are building their case to convince the Peace Conference that the Jews in Eastern European countries must have their rights provided for by treaty.”
1920(22nd of Nisan, 5680): Moritz Benedikt Cantor, a German historian of mathematics, passed away.
1920(22nd of Nisan, 5680): 8TH Day of Pesach
1920: First Lieutenant Meyer L. Casman was completed the treatment for his eyes today at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.
1920: Birthdate of Alexander Livshiz, the son of Russian born parents living in Yokohama who gained fame as Dr. Alexander Leaf.
1923: In the Netherlands, Sophie Josephine Frank, the daughter of Louis and Emma Sachs and Siegfried Frank gave birth to Julius Frank.
1923: Premiere performance of Kurt Weil’s “Divertimento for Orchestra” by the Berlin Philharmonic.
1924: Today, Michael “Balcon married Aileen Freda Leatherman, the daughter of Max Jacobs and Beatrice Leatherman, with whom he had two children Jonathan and Jill who married Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis whose children were Tamasin Day-Lewis and Oscar winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
1925: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is first published in New York City, by Charles Scribner's Sons. Among the characters who populate this classic study of life in the Roaring Twenties is Meyer Wolfsheim a gambler with underworld connections who claims to have fixed the 1919 World Series. The character is a thinly veiled fictional version of the Jewish gambler Arnold Rothstein, whom according to some, fixed the 1919 World Series. Rothstein has been portrayed as the evil Jew who corrupts America’s pristine pastime and its innocent Christian athletes. Is Fitzgerald trying to imply that whatever shady deals Gatsby may have engaged in are the product of the corrupting influence of this Jewish gambler?
1926: “Simche and Reizel Ehrenreich” gave birth to Bernard Ehrenreich, the father of Laurence and Simon Ehrenreich.
1926: In Nuremberg, Germany, “Juda and Fanny Metzger immigrants from Poland” gave birth to “artist and political activist” Gustav Metzger who came to Great Britain from Germany as part of the Kindertransport and created the concept of Auto-Destructive Art while being an active member of the anti-nuclear peace movement.
1926: “Chairman David A. Brown of the United Jewish Campaign which is seeking to raise $15,000,000 for relief and reconstruction work among the Jews of Eastern Europe” reported today “to the 1,200 members of the national committee” that original goal would be surpassed and the contributions would actually come close to $25,000,000.
1927: Birthdate of Marshall Warren Nirenberg “an American biochemist and geneticist who shared a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968.”
1927: “Anti-Semitism in Russia” published today provides the views of Alexander Kerensky, who led the Russian government after the fall of the Czars and before the takeover by Lenin, “that hatred toward Jews is intense at present in his country” and that “only the advent of a politically free and economically sound system of government in Russia will put an end to anti-Semitism there.”
1928(19thof Nisan, 5688): Fifth day of Pesach
1928: In Mount Vernon, NY “Chauncey Freedman and the former Dorothea Kornblum” gave birth to “Monroe H. Freedman, a dominant figure in legal ethics whose work helped chart the course of lawyers’ behavior in the late 20th century.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1928(19thof Nisan, 5688): Seventy-one year old Amalia “Molly” Finkelstein Mogulesko who performed in Goldfaden's "Grandmother with Grandson" and was the widow of Yiddish actor Sigmund Mogulesko passed away today.
1928: Birthdate of Claude Newman Rosenberg, the Jewish philanthropist who authored, “Wealthy and Wise: How You and America Can Get the Most Out of Your Giving”
1930(12thof Nisan, 5690): Fast of the First Born
1930: In Austin, TX, “the land for Agudas Achim’s new building was purchased for $12,500” today
1931: “My Cousin from Warsaw” produced by Arnold Pressburger was released today in Germany and France.
1931: It was reported today that Montreal gave a banquet yesterday in honor of the 500 scientists” including Professor A.M. Oppenheimer of Columbia University attending “the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.
1932: Birthdate of actor Omar Sharif. The Egyptian born Sharif, who starred in such films as “Dr. Zhivago” and “Lawrence of Arabia,” found his films banned in the Arab world because he played opposite Jewish singing star Barbra Streisand.
1933: German Vice-Chancellor Frtiz von Papen met with Cardinal Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII and presented Hitler’s offer for a Concordant between the new Nazi government and the Vatican.
1934: In Englewood, NJ. Jacob and Florence Landau gave birth Jacob Charles “Jack” Landau the attorney who served as one of the founders of the Reported Committee for Freedom of the Press.
1934: U.S. premiere of “Viva Villa!” produced by David O. Selznick with a script by Ben Hecht and featuring Joseph Schildkraut as “Gen. Pascal.”
1934: Birthdate of David Halbestram one of the many Jewish journalists that have dominated the American literary scene. Halbestram won a Pulitzer in 1964 for his coverage in the New York Timesof the Viet Nam War. He gained further fame as the author of the best-selling Best and the Brightest. He has been a prolific author on a variety of topics. Ironically, he never wrote a book on a “Jewish” topic.
1935 At Temple Emanu-El, Mrs. Israel Goldstein presided over a conference of the “leaders of Jewish women’s organizations with a combined membership of several hundred thousand” where the attendees “pledged cooperation with the Jewish National Fund” in the work of redeeming the land of Palestine.
1936: It was announced today that “Dr. Stephen S. Wise, national chairman of the $3,500,000 campaign of the United Palestine Appeal for the settlement in Palestine of a maximum number of the Jews of Germany, Poland and other lands has received messages endorsing the drive from Governor Paul V. McNutt of Indiana, Representative Schuyler Merritt of Connecticut, Governor Tom Berry of South Dakota and Governor Harold Hoffman of New Jersey.”
1936: Tonight in a broadcast over WEAF in New York, banker and philanthropist Felix M. Warburg described “the rehabilitation work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in fifty countries during the last twenty-two years including the current training programs “to train and rehabilitate for vocational work Jewish youths and adults in Germany who have been barred” by law taking part in commercial and professional activities.
1936: “Citing a clause of the Treaty of Versailles, Supreme Court Justice Philip J. McCook refused to recognize the ‘sovereign immunity’ claim in the courts by the German State Railroads which was the basis for its defense brought by Marcel M. Holzer, a former employee who claimed he had been discharged as a ‘non-Aryan’ and his internment in a German concentration camp.
1936: The mandatory government “prohibition on the use of the term ‘Eretz Israel’ (Land of Israel) over the radio became a national issue today when a suit was filed” in Jerusalem” to force lifting the ban.”
1937: In a pre-birthday interview given today, Dr. Pereira-Mendes, the rabbi emeritus of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue said that any celebration of his upcoming 85th birthday would be a “surprise” to him.
1937: “She Was an Acrobat’s Daughter,” an animated short directed by Isadore Freleng, produced by Leon Schlesinger and featuring the voice of Mel Blanc was released in the United States today.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Itzhak Petrenko, 32, had been shot and killed and that two Arab terrorists were killed in their attack on the Nesher quarry, near Haifa. Two other Arab terrorists were killed after they attempted to attack a convoy escorting the mayor of Nablus, Suleiman Bey Toukan, on his official duties. A number of unexploded bombs were found in Jerusalem's Ben-Yehuda pedestrian mall.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that Maestro Toscanini, who had turned down an offer to participate in the Salzburg Festival, arrived in Haifa for a series of concerts.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that The Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulcher was closed to the public due to urgent repairs and restorations.
1938: Birthdate of Denny Zeitlin the son of Highland Park, Il physician who gained fame as a jazz pianist and composer.
1938: In Tel Aviv, Arturo Toscanini directed his first rehearsal with the Palestine Orchestra.
1938: In the revolving door of French politics during the Third Republic, the government led by Premiere Leon Blum fell and meaning the first Jewish Premier of France, who had been physically attacked by anti-Semites lost his position for the second and final time.
1939: Laurence Steinhardt completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Peru.
1939: Birthdate of Alan Rothenberg, President of the U.S. Soccer Association.
1939: The Dutch government opened camp Westerbork for German Jews. The impulse to start the construction of the camp came from the Dutch authorities themselves, who in the years preceding the Second World War, sought to provide housing and shelter for Jewish refugees fleeing the horrors of Nazi-Germany. A camp was necessary because the authorities wanted to keep these refugees out of the cities, towns and villages. When the Nazi-armies invaded The Netherlands during the month of May 1940 the camp-infrastructure including inhabitants was an easy prey.”
1940(2ndof Nisan, 5700): Marie Knapp, the wife of concert pianist Harold Bauer whom he had married in 1906, passed away today.
1940: Justice Felix Frankfurter and two others met with President Roosevelt today at the White House at 4:30 and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. and two others met with him at 5:30 pm.
1941: Rav Aaron Kotler who had been rescued by the Vaad Hatzalah arrived in San Francisco and two years later “in 1943 fond Beth Medrash Vovoha in Lakewood, NJ.
1943: Twelve Jewish patients of Herren Loo-Lozenoord, a facility for the mentally disabled escaped from the Nazi's.
1943: Katherine Scherman, the New York born daughter of Harry and Bernadine Scherman married Book-of-the-Month Club chairman Axel G. Rosin and became Katherine Scherman Rosin under which name she worked as an editor and author of ten books.
1944: “Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler escape from Auschwitz and carry detailed information about the death camp to outside world.” (Virtual Jewish Library
1944: In Tel Aviv, the deputy superintendent of police “beat death” by surviving the attack of an unknown gunman who fired three shots at him in front of the police headquarters in the central part of the city.
1944: “Tampico” starring Edward G. Robinson, with music by David Raksin was released in the United States today
1945: U.S. Armed forces liberated the prison camp at Buchenwald, Germany. It was estimated that nearly 57,000 prisoners (mostly Jews) perished in the gas chambers of Buchenwald during its eight-year existence as a Nazi concentration camp.
1946: In Cleveland, Ohio, the Men’s Club of the Euclid Avenue Temple hosted Variety Nite, an evening of entertainment “for men’s club members and their ladies.”
1946: U.S. premiere of “Dragonwyck,” directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who also wrote the script, co-produced by Ernst Lubitsch with music by Alfred Newman.
1946: At its annual spring luncheon at the Hotel Astor, the Women’s League for Palestine launched a building drive designed to raise $150,000 to upgrade the league’s Home for Immigrant Girls in Tel Aviv. According to Mrs. David Isaacs, the League’s vice president, “Palestine will soon have an influx of thousands of young women from displaced camps abroad seeking shelter and rehabilitation.” The luncheon was attended by 1,340 supporters.
1947: Birthdate of New York native David Abraham Adler the author “of nearly 200 books for children and young adults” including “several acclaimed works about the Holocaust for young readers.”
1947: The Hapoel soccer team is scheduled to arrive in New York today, on the first stop on its good will tour of the United States. The team is scheduled to play all-star teams in several cities including Philadelphia, Baltimore, St. Louis, Chicago Detroit, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
1948: “A group of Jewish immigrants from Egypt set up a camp in an area near Sderot which would be the future location of Bror Hayil.
1948(1st of Nisan, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1948: The Haganah repelled an Arab attack on Mishmar HaEmek. Kibbutz Mishmar Ha-Emek (Guard of the Valley) was located on the western rim of the Jezreel Valley and had been founded by Polish chalutzim in 1926. The fight for this strategic point lasted for eight days during which the Arab Liberation Army had the military advantage thanks to having the use of field artillery supplied by the Syrian Army. Please note that this fight took place before the creation of the state of Israel in May, 1948. It came during the unsuccessful attempt by the Arabs to cutoff Jerusalem from the rest of the Yishuv.
1949: What Makes Sammy Run?, Budd Schulberg’s novel based on his father B.P. Schulberg that gave the world “Sammy Glick” was dramatized for the first time on Philco Television Playhouse.
1950: Birthdate of Haim Ramon, a native of Jaffa who served in the IAF before pursuing a political career.
1952(15th of Nisan, 5712): 1st day of Pesach
1952: In Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, Alexei Yavlinsky and “Vera Naumovna, a Russian Jewish chemistry teacher gave birth to free market economist Grigory Yavlinsky, the twice defeated candidate for the Presidency of Russia.
1953: Ernest Gruening completed his term as 7th Territorial Governor of Alaska.
1953: Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as movie star Hedy Lamar, became a citizen of the United States.
1953: “Small Town Girl” a musical produced by Joe Pasternak, with a score by Nicholas Brodszky and André Previn and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released today in the United States.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that the foreign minister, Moshe Sharett, had held "a brief interview" at the White House, with US president, Dwight Eisenhower.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel received as a gift, or purchased at lowered prices, America's food surplus: wheat, beans, potatoes, cheese, powdered milk, dried eggs and butter. Another important purchase was 100,000 tons of the strictly rationed American steel for local pipe factories.
1955: Dr. Jonas Salk successfully tested his Polio vaccine.
1958: Birthdate of Yefim "Fima" Naumovich Bronfman a Russian born Israeli pianist.
1962(9th of Nisan, 5722): Seventy five year old Michael Curitz passed away. Born Manó Kertész Kaminer on Christmas Eve in 1886, to a Jewish family in Budapest, Hungary(then Austria-Hungary), he ran away from home at age 17 to join a circus, then trained for an acting career at the Royal Academy for Theater and Art. His best known films include, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca and White Christmas.
1962: Birthdate of New York native Daneile Joyce “Dani” Shapiro the author of Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage who is married to Michael Maren.
1962 South Korea and Israel whose relationship dated back to 1950 when Ben Gurion supported sending UN Troops to stop the invasion from North Korea established official diplomatic relations today.
1963(16thof Nisan, 5723): Second Day of Pesach; 1st day of the Omer.
1966(20thof Nisan, 5726): Sixth day of Pesach
1966(20thof Nisan, 5726): Eighty-six year old Joseph Newman, the husband of Tilly Cohen, of blessed memory and the father of Captain Isidore Newman who had served as “Beadle and Collector” for Hull Central Synagogue passed away today.
1968: “Belle de Jour” a French film “based on the 1928 novel Belle de jour by Joseph Kessel was released in the United States today.
1971(15thof Nisan, 5731): Pesach
1968: “George M!” a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Francine Pascal, produced by Emanuel Azenberg and starring Joel Grey opened on Broadway at the Palace Theatre.
1970: During the War of Attrition, “two 201 Squadron Phantoms attacked a radar facility at Wadi Zur.”
1973: Operation Spring of Youth came to an end. This was an amphibious assault by the IDF on Beirut and Sidon aimed at those who had massacred Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics.
1974: Yitzhak Rabin replaced Golda Meir as Prime Minister. Mrs. Meir had resigned, a casualty of the Yom Kippur War.
1974: “Our Time” a coming of age film directed and written by Peter Hyams was released in the United States today.
1974: In St. Louis, MO, Becky and Robert Greitens gave birth to Eric Greitens the decorated war hero and Rhodes Scholar whose accomplishments are so varied that he can truly be called “Renaissance Man.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-former-navy-seal-sets-his-sights-on-governorship/
http://freebeacon.com/politics/the-great-jewish-hope/
1975: The government of Israel recognized Falashas as Jews under the law.
1978(3rd of Nisan, 5738): Ninety-one year old Irma Levy Lindheim, the second president of Hadassah passed away today.
http://www.jta.org/1978/04/12/archive/irma-levy-lindheim-dead-at-91
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/lindheim.html
1978: Harold H. Saunders who played a key role in the creation of the Camp David Accords, completed his service as the 6th Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the UNIFIL's acute lag in recruiting to beef up the projected 4,000-man force had decreased the prospects of an early, complete Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that top US officials were reported to have been studying the possibility of an American treaty guarantee for a Middle Eastern settlement, "backed by a US air base in the Sinai and a naval base at Jaffa." The use of glass bottles was prohibited on Israeli beaches.
1979(13thof Nisan, 5739): One person was killed and 36 were injured when a terrorist bomb went off in a market at Tel Aviv.
1980: Birthdate of Israeli tennis player, Andy Ram
1980: A funeral service is scheduled to be held this afternoon in Amherst, MA, for fifty year old Vanderbilt University Phi Beta Kappa graduate Peter Farb, the linguist and author of such books as Man’s Rise to Civilization and Word Play: What Happens People Talk, the New York City born son of Solomon and Cecilia Farb and the husband of the former Oriole Horch with whom he had two sons – Mark and Thomas.
1983:Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Abrams of Roslyn, L.I., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Lori Sue Abrams, to Alan Barry Greenfield, son of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Greenfield, also of Roslyn. The groom is attending the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel
1984(8th of Nisan, 5744): Eighty-seven American movie producer and director Jack White, born Jacob Weiss in Budapest, who used “the pseudonym ‘Preston Black’” after his divorce passed away today.
1985(19thof Nisan, 5745): Fifth Day of Pesach
1987(11th of Nisan, 5747): Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two wounded in southern Lebanon, The attack occurred near Qantara, inside the ''security zone.'' Military sources said the attackers were Shiite Moslem guerrillas from the Party of God and Amal movements.
1989: Rite Aid, the drug store chain founded by Scranton businessman Alex Grass, acquired Peoples Drug’s 114 unit Lane Drug of Ohio.
1990(15thof Nisan, 5750): Pesach
1990: NBC broadcast the first episode of the sitcom “Wings” co-starring Rebecca Schull.
1990: Following his major league debut yesterday, White Sox pitcher Scott Radinsky “picked up his first major league win with one and a third innings” of relief pitching today.
1990; Ninety year old actress Natalie Schafer whose career which began in the 1920’s is remembered primarily for her role on the sitcom “Gilligan’s Island” passed away today.
1992: In the UK, Malcolm Rifkind completed his service as Secretary of State for Transport and began serving as Secretary of State for Defense.
1992: After premiering in Cleveland, Ohio, “The Player” a satirical film featuring appearances by Sydney Pollack, Peter Falk, Jeff Goldblum and Gina Gershon was released today in the rest of the United States.
1992: U.S. premiere of “Newsies” with music by Alan Menken, filmed by cinematographer Andrew Laszlo.
1993(19thof Nisan, 5753): Fifth Day of Pesach; Shabbat Shel Pesach
1993(19thof Nisan, 5753): Ninety-five year old Maxim Lieber, the son of Adolph and Natalie Leiberman and the husband of Minna E. Lieber, the literary agent and alleged Communist spy passed away today.
1998(14th of Nisan, 5758): In the evening, First Seder.
1998: In “At the Movies” published today Bernard Weinraub described the making of a film about Lindberg based on the work of biographer A. Scott Berg.
1998: “My Giant” a comedy starring Billy Crystal who also produced and wrote script for the film was released in the United States today.
1998 “The Odd Couple II” written and produced by Neil Simon, directed by Howard Deutch and co-starring Walter Matthau in his second to last film was released in the United States today.
1999(24th of Nisan, 5759): Heinz Ludwig Fraenkel-Conrat passed away. Born in Germany in 1910, he fled Nazi Germany ultimately settling in the United States where he served on the faculty of the University of California for over 40 years. He was a noted biochemist famous for his viral research.
2001(17thof Nisan, 5761): Third Day of Pesach
2001: Belgium born American billionaire Michel P. Fribourg, the “chairman and CEO of Continental Grain” who was the fifth generation to lead the family business that stretched back to the early decades of the 19th century and who raised five children – Robert, Paul, Charles, Nadine and Caroline – with his wife Mary Ann passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/12/classified/paid-notice-deaths-fribourg-michel-p.html2002(28thof Nisan, 5762): Ninety-two year old Israel political leader and jurist Haim Cohen passed away. The native of Lubeck is also the author of The Trial and Death of Jesus “in which he argued that it was the Romans, not the Sanhedrin, who tried and executed Jesus.
2002(28thof Nisan, 5762): “Eight were killed and 22 injured in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #960, en route from Haifa to Jerusalem, which exploded near Kibbutz Yagur, east of Haifa. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Avinoam Alfia, 26, of Kiryat Ata; Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Shlomi Ben Haim, 27, of Kiryat Yam; Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Nir Danieli, 24, of Kiryat Ata; Border Police Lance Cpl. Keren Franco, 18, of Kiryat Yam; Sgt.-Maj.(res.) Ze’ev Hanik, 24, of Karmiel; Border Police Lance Cpl. Noa Shlomo, 18, of Nahariya; Prison Warrant Officer Shimshon Stelkol, 33, of Kiryat Yam; and Sgt. Michael Weissman, 21, of Kiryat Yam.”
2003(8thof Nisan, 5763):St.-Sgt. Yigal Lifshitz, 20, of Rishon Lezion, and St.-Sgt. Ofer Sharabi, 21, of Givat Shmuel were killed and nine others wounded when Palestinian terrorists opened fire before dawn on their base near Bekaot in the northern Jordan Valley. (As reported by Jewish Virtual Library.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio by Jeffrey Kluger, Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky and the recently released paperback edition of Potemkin: Catherine the Great's Imperial Partner by Simon Sebag Montefiore
2005: In Stockholm, The Zionist Federation of Sweden presents "Herzl: Up Close and Personal," the traveling exhibit which was produced by the Department for Zionist Activities, World Zionist Organization, to celebrate the visionary of the Jewish state on the 100th anniversary of his passing.
2006: The Cedar Rapids Gazette featured a photo display entitled “preparing a Jewish Tradition,” featuring pictures of bakers at the Shmurah Matzoh Bakery in Brooklyn preparing “the unleavened bread traditionally eaten by Jews at Passover.”
2007(22nd of Nisan, 5767): Eighth Day of Pesach; Yizkor, for Orthodox and Conservative Jews
2007:Moshiach's Seudah marks the end of Pesach
2007: At the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, the “Fourth Annual Stanley F. Chyet Literary Event” features Etgar Keret. “Israel's popular young writer Etgar Keret is at once court jester, literary crown prince, and national conscience. His painfully funny and honest books, including “The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God”and “Jetlag,” have earned him international recognition. Also a respected filmmaker, Keret took home the Israeli Film Academy Award for Best Picture for his film Skin Deep.”
2008: In Washington, D.C., Madeleine M. Kunin, the former governor of Vermont, the first Jewish woman governor and an ambassador under the Clinton administration, discusses and signs her new book, “Pearls, Politics, and Power: How Women Can Win and Lead.”
2008(16th of Nisan, 5769): Barry H. Gottehrer, a journalist whose award-winning newspaper series “City in Crisis” helped elect John V. Lindsay mayor of New York in 1965 and who then joined the administration to help defuse the subsequent crises the city faced, died tonight near his home in Wilmington, N.C. at the age of 73.
2008: “Fram” featuring Clare Lawrence Moody in the role of “Ruth Fry” premiered in London today.2008: In New York, at the Jewish Museum presents a lecture “When Great Art Meets Great Evil” during whichchief New York Times music critic James Oestreich speaks with authors Henry Grinberg and Eugene Drucker about their respective novels “Variations on the Beast” and “The Savior.” Both books deal with the contradictions between the greatness of German musical cultureand the depths of depravity to which Germany sank while the Nazis were in power.
2008: The Jerusalem Post reported that while Jewish parents are well-known for wanting their children to work in certain professions with law and medicine have usually topping the list, a new challenger is climbing the ranks - hi-tech. The old standbys are still strong but hi-tech has edged out law for second place.
2009(16 Nisan 5769): Second Day of Pesach; first day of the Omer
2009: The French government appointed Rabbi Gilles Uriel Bernheim Knight [Chevalier] in the Légion d'honneur
2009: In Artwork from Hearst Castle returned to heirs of Jewish couple,” published today Michael Rothfeld describes how the grandchildren of a two German Jews who perished in the Holocaust received some their artistic legacy.
2009: In Next Year In Jerusalem,” published today Cecilia Hanley, the food editor for the Cedar Rapids Gazette described attending a home Seder noting that “the food Deborah [Levin] served was so delicious, I ate way more than was comfortable.” She noted that Deb made brisket with her adaptation of the Classic Brisket Recipe from “New York Times Passover Cookbook” which Hanley shared with her readers.
2010: The Westchester Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to show “Ahead of Time,” a documentary narrated by Ruth Gerber, the Brooklyn born foreign correspondent, photojournalist, author, and humanitarian who describes her remarkable 70-year career during which she escorted Holocaust refugees to America in 1944, covered the Nuremberg trials in 1946, and documented the voyage of the ship Exodus in 1947, emerging as the eyes and conscience of the world with her lifelong devotion to assisting Jewish refugees
2010: “A Tiny Piece of Land” is scheduled to have its first performance at the Pico Playhouse in Los Angeles, CA.
2011: The American Jewish Historical Society, Centro Primo Levi, Center for Jewish History, The Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Yeshiva University Museum are scheduled to present: “Conversations on Conversion” moderated by WNYC's Brian Lehrer
2011: “Jewish veterans of the 1960s women’s liberation movement gathered at New York University for a conference on "Women's Liberation and Jewish Identity."
2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor “Walking Tour: Downtown Jewish Washington” including the Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum and the former sites of Ohev Sholom, Adas Israel, and Washington Hebrew Congregation.
2011: Tulane Professor Brian Horowitz is scheduled to attend a seminar on Hebrew literature at the University of Florida.
2011: The Los Angeles Times published reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Panorama,” a novel in which “Holocaust survivor H.G. Adler depicts the world of German and Austrian Jews before the Nazis came to power.”
2011: The New York Times published reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Say Her Name” by Francisco Goldman and “The Eichmann Trial” by Deborah E. Lipstadt.
2011: Israel's government approved the famous personalities who will appear on a new series of shekel banknotes. The approval of the list today, which includes some of Israel's most beloved national poets, comes after the list was finalized last month by the Bank of Israel following more than a year of heated debate. The personalities who will grace the new notes are Rachel the Poetess on the 20 shekel note, Shaul Tchernichovsky on the 50 shekel note, Leah Goldberg on the 100 shekel note and Natan Alterman on the 200 shekel note. Rachel, who died in 1931, is a leading poet in modern Hebrew whose works have been set to music. Tchernichovsky was a two-time winner of the Bialik Prize for Literature. Goldberg, who died in 1970, was a poet, author, playwright, literary translator and researcher of Hebrew literature who translated "War and Peace" into Hebrew. Alterman, an author, playwright, poet and newspaper columnist who died in 1970, won the 1968 Israel Prize for Literature. "In order to maintain the public's trust in the State's currency, the governor decided to replace the currency series with a new series which will include some of the world's most advanced security and identification markings in a bid to make counterfeiting more difficult," the Bank of Israel said in a statement. The current faces on Israeli currency are former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett on the 20 shekel note; S.Y. Agnon on the 50 shekel note; and former presidents Yitzhak Ben- Zvi and Zalman Shazar on the 100 shekel and 200 shekel notes.
2012: Grand Central published A Natural Woman: A Memoir the autobiography of Carole King.
2012: Heather Klein is scheduled to provide a program of Yiddish Passover Songs in Palo Alto, CA.
2012: Ayn Sof Arkestra & Bigger Band are scheduled to perform at The Sixth Street Community Synagogue in New York City.
2012(18thof Nisan, 5772): Eighty five year old Zvi Dinstein, the native of Tel Aviv who served as an MK for a decade passed away today.
2012(18thof Nisan, 5772): Ninety-seven year old French Resistance leader Raymond Aurbrac, born Raymond Samuel, passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013: On the secular calendar, 65th anniversary of the Haganah’s victory over the Arabs at Mishmar ha-Emek (On the Jewish calendar this event took place on the 1st of Nisan, 5708)
2013: As part its “Days of Remembrance” program, the University of Utah is scheduled to host “Holocaust Workshop” for which students can receive course credit.
2013: “Aliyah” is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival
2013: In Skokie, Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, is scheduled to “a special advance screening and reception for ‘No Place On Earth.’”
2013(30thof Nisan, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2013: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to be considering a proposal by Jewish Agency head Natan Sharansky to establish an egalitarian prayer plaza along part of the Western Wall.
2014: Ed Millieband, the leader of the British Labor Party who has a good chance of becoming the next Prime Minister, is scheduled to arrive in Israel today for a three day visit that will have special meaning for this son of Jewish immigrants. (As reported by Raphael Ahren and Miriam Shaviv
2014: Today, French author and college professor Alain Finkielkraut whose father was Polish leather goods manufacturer and Auschwitz survivor “was elected member of the Académie française.”
2014(10thof Nisan, 5774): If the legislation is by the Knesset today, the 10thof Nisan will be the “official day of national celebration in which Jewish immigration to Israel is honored and noteworthy immigrants are recognized for their contributions to the nation. (As reported by Debra Kamin)
2014: “The Sturgeon Queens’ is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Golda’s Balcony” staring Tova Feldshuh is scheduled to be performed at DCJCC’s Theatre J.
2014: In Bethesda, MD, Congregation Beth El is scheduled to host Ambassador Gideon Meir who will speak on “International Media Coverage of Israel During Conflict.”
2014(10thof Nisan): According to the Book of Joshua today is the day “that the Israelites crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land on that date, ending their 40 years of wandering in the desert.” (As reported by Debra Kamin)
2015(21stof Nisan, 5775): Seventh Day of Pesach
2015: Fifty eight year old Cornell College (IA) graduate Rocel R. Kingman, the Minneapolis born daughter of Samuel and Betty Rattner and wife of David Kingman with whom she raised three sons – Sam, Benner and Teddy—passed away today.
2015: “The Decent One,” “Gett: The Trial of Viviane Ansalem” and “Anywhere Else” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2015: “Woman in Gold” is scheduled to premiere in the United Kingdom.
2015: “Dutch researchers said today they believe they have uncovered a new mass grave at the former Nazi concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen, almost exactly 70 years after it was liberated’”
2015: Jewish graves were destroyed today when a tropical storm “devastated the Jewish cemetery of the State of Bahia” in eastern Brazil according to Luciano Fingergut, the community’s president.
2015: Temple Judah is scheduled to host another of its ever-popular “Musical Shabbats.”
2016: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers included the recently published paperback editions of When the Facts Change: Essays by Tony Judt, Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitaniaby Erik Larson and Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson.
2016: “Rabin In His Own Words” is scheduled to be shown on the final day of the Hartford Jewish Film Festival today.
2016: “Karski & The Lords of Humanity” a documentary about the mission of Jan Karski, is scheduled to be shown at The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center
2016: “Raise the Roof” and “Fauda, Part III” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2017(14thof Nisan, 5777): One-hundred-three year old journalist Jesse Lurie who began writing for the Palestine Post (now Jerusalem Post) in the 1930’s and continued having his columns published until January of this year passed away today.
2017: “Eric Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general paused to wish his fellow Jews” a happy Pesach saying “We are commanded not only to remember our story, but to imagine that we ourselves were enslaved in Egypt, and then freed — so that we may empathize with the plight of those who are fleeing oppression and danger today” in what some saw as a thinly veiled jab at President Donald Trump” whose ban on entry into the US by refugees as well as travelers from seven Muslim majority countries Schneiderman had successfully challenged.
2017(14th of Nisan, 5777):Fast of the First Born; Erev Pesach
2017: Jews living in the lands of “the former Soviet Union” will be able to enjoy a ritually appropriate seder thanks to the efforts of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee which has provided their co-religionists “with at least ten tons of matzah.”
2018: It was reported today that “Yasser Murtaja” who had been described as a “Palestinian journalist” after he “was shot dead by Israeli protests along the Gaza border” was, “for years,” “an officer in the Hamas security apparatus in Gaza.”
2018: Director Aviva Kempner and Pam Horowitz, a former attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the widow of Julian Bond are scheduled to attend tonight’s screening of “Rosenwald” at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
2018: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Four Strangers, Three Faiths, One Escape to Freedom”
2018: Author Gil Troy is scheduled to “discuss the impact of Young Judaea on the Zionist Ideas” at an alumni gathering in Manhattan.
2018: The Temple Emanu-El Steicker is scheduled to host and “Evening with David Grossman,” “one of Israel’s most celebrated writers, winner of countless awards, the only Israeli ever to win the prestigious International Man Booker Prize, for his novel, A Horse Walks into a Bar”
2019: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a discussion led by Mark Slobin that will those attending Carnegie Hall’s upcoming “musical program ‘From Shtetl Stage’” that highlights “the musical legacy of Eastern European Jews.”
2019: In Philadelphia, at the University of Pennsylvania, the Kata Center for Advanced Judaic Studies is scheduled to host Yigal S. Nizri, an assistant professor in the Department for the Study of Religion and Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, as he presents “The Hebrew Tongue That Prevails in Our Times”: Jewish Moroccan Language and Writing at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.
2019: Shiva is scheduled to come an end this morning for Cantor Sherwood Goffin.
2019: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a presentation by Holocause survivor by Louise Lawrence Israel’s as part of its “First Person” series
2019(5th of Nisan, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit for fifty-four year old Amy Barnum, the wife of Joel Barnum with whom she raised three daughters – Emma, Sasah and Gail – and daughter Jack and Bette Kozlen of Omaha who was a pillar, in the truest sense of that term, of the Jewish community in Cedar Rapids and a driving force behind the Traditional Services at Temple Judah whose untimely passing can only be described as a tragic loss for all of us.