JUNE 22
217 BCE: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III at the Battle of Raphia. The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was part of the ongoing power struggle between the Seleucids and the Ptolomies for the land mass that included Jerusalem and the land mass of Eretz Israel. Ptolemy's victory proved to be of short-term value. Antiochus would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE. This would ensure Seleucid rule over the Jewish population and set the stage for the Revolt of the Maccabees.
168 BCE: The Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured Macedonian King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna ending the Third Macedonian War and further diminishing the role of the Greeks. A year later, Judah Maccabee would start his revolt against the Selucids, another Greek Empire. In the end, it would be the Romans who supplant these fractured remnants of Alexander’s Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people. Yes, you can draw a line connecting Pydna, the Maccabees and the destruction of the Temple in 70.
816: Papacy of Stephen IV began today. Stephen is the author of the Letter Against Jews Owning Land” which read in part, For this reason We are touched by sorrow, anxious even unto death, since We have known through you that the Jewish people, ever rebellious against God and derogatory of our rites, within the frontiers and territories of the Franks, own hereditary estates in the villages and suburbs, as if they were Christian residents; for they are the Lord's enemies... Christian men cultivate their vines and fields, and Christian men and women, living with those same deceivers both in town and out of town, are day and night strained by expressions of blasphemy... What was sworn to and handed over to those unbelievers by the Lord himself... has been taken away deservedly, in vengeance for the crucified Savior.” (As reported by Alexis Rubin in Scattered Among the Nations)
1425: Francesco di Simone Tornabuoni and Nanna di Niccolo di Luigi Guicciardini gave birth to Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the Italian Renaissance poet who chose the Biblical figure of Queen Esther as a topic for her writings.
1559: Jewish quarter of Prague was burned and looted.
1623: William Leake II or the younger became a full member of the Stationer’s Company today. In 1652 he issued the 4th Quarto of The Merchant of Venice, featuring the evil Jew Shylock. There are those who contend that he printed this as part of an attempt to keep Jews from being readmitted to England as full citizens.
1689: The Jewish quarter of Prague was destroyed by French troops who shelled the area. In one synagogue, the roof caved in killing the 100 people who had sought refuge there. Their Christian neighbors took in most of the population until new shelters were built.
1691: Suleiman II’s brief reign, during which the Jews continued to live in comparative peace and tranquility in the Ottoman Empire came to an end with his death.
1770: Birthdate of German philosopher and writer Wilhelm Traugott Krug who was an advocated for the emancipation of the Jews of Saxony
1791: A day after he passed away, Aaron Isaac ben Gerson – aged 5 years and 11 months – was buried today at the Aldnerney Road Jewish Cemetery in London.
1809: In Hamburg, Germany, Johanna and William Leo Wolf gave birth to Dr. George Wolf.
1822: An order of the Prussian cabinet (German: Kabinettsordre) united the Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg which Salomon Oppenheimer had been serving as a banker and tax collector with the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine province.
1834: Isaiah Simmons married Caroline Benjamin at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1836: Birthdate of Gaston Cremieux who along with fellow Jew Adolphe Carcassone headed the Revolutionary Commission of the Département Bouches-du-Rhône for which he was condemned to death and executed because of his role in the revolt that had followed the Franco-Prussian War.
1836: Abraham Styer married Charlotte Levy at the Hambro Synagogue.
1838: In Hanover, Germany Dr. Herman Herz Cohen and Sophie Sara Cohen gave birth to artist Eduard Cohen, the husband of Ida Cohen.
1840: As Moses Montifiore prepared to go to Egypt to pleade for the release of eight Jews falsely imprisonsed in a blood libel connected to the disappeaerance of Father Tomaso, Lord Palmerston declared in Parliament, “I have already directed the English consul-general Hodges to represent to Mehmet Ali what effect news of such atrocities must produce in Europe…I have also sent instructions to her Majesty’s consul in Damascus to make a thorough investigation…and to send home a report as to the part which European consuls had taken in this matter.
1841: The Jewish community in Mobile, Alabama purchased land to be used as a cemetery.
1843: In Heidelsheim, Baden, “Abraham Sulzberger, a chazzan, shochet and teacher” and the former Sophie Einstein, “an ancestor of Albert Einstein gave birth to Mayer Sulzberger, an American judge and communal leader” who “went to Philadelphia with his parents in1848, and was educated at the Central High School of Philadelphia, and after graduating he studied law in the office of Moses A. Dropsie. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar, and attained eminence in the practice of his profession. He was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas on the Republican ticket in 1895, and was reelected as a nominee of both parties in 1904, becoming the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2.Sulzberger has throughout his career shown great interest in Jewish affairs. While studying for the bar he taught at the Hebrew Education Society's school.” For a time he served as the Secretary of Board of Maimonides College. “He was closely associated with Isaac Leeser, and assisted that scholar in editing "The Occident," contributing to it a partial translation of Maimonides'"Morch Nebukim." After Leeser's death Sulzberger edited vol. xxvi. of "The Occident." He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, which he served as president;” He was chosen to serve as vice president of and the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia in 1880 and has been…chairman of the publication committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America.” He was one of the original trustees of the Baron de Hirsch fund and has taken a great deal of interest in the establishment of agricultural colonies at Woodbine, N. J., and in Connecticut” Sulzberger had “one of the best private libraries in America; it contained a very large number of Hebraica and Judaica, together with many other early Hebrew printed books (including no less than forty-five Incunabula), and many manuscripts.” He presented these to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, an institution which helped to reorganize. His younger brother, Jacob, is well known in Philadelphia literary circles both “for his verse and for is unusual knowledge of English literature.”
1850: Birthdate of Ignác (Yitzhaq Yehuda) Goldziher, the Hungarian born Jew who was the one of the first Europeans who developed an expertise in Islam and the culture of the Muslim world
1851: In San Francisco, following a fire at their “temporary home in Merchant’s Court on Washington Street between Montgomery and Sansome, Congregation Shearith Israel moved to building on Kearny Street between Washington and Jackson Streets.
1851(22nd of Sivan, 5611): “Jacob Bach, a native of Posen” died today in a fire in the building housing Sherith Israel after which he was “interred in a plot” the congregation had “set aside for noted men.”
1853: “Medical News” published today described a lecture delivered by Professor Owen to the Royal College of Surgeons in which he said, “For 1800 years the Jewish race has been dispersed into different latitudes and climates and they have preserved themselves most distinct from any intermixture with other races of mankind.” He went on to say that they though they may have taken on the racial characteristics of those among whom they lived (dark skinned Jews living in Syrian and Lebanon; light skinned blue-eyed Jews in northern Europe) they have still been able to maintain themselves as unique people.
1859: Harris Michaels married Elizabeth Daniel at the Great Synagogue in the United Kingdom.
1859: In Breslau, Silesia, Helene von Heimburg, a former opera singer, and conductor Leopold Damrosch” whose father was Jewish gave birth to conductor Frank Damrosch
1863: During the Polish uprising, in an attempt to gain the support Rabbis and Jewish religious leaders, The Insurgent National Government issued a proclamation, in which it promised to guarantee the equality of Jews, after gaining independence
1864: During the Civil War, large number of those serving with the 59th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment which had been formed by Philip J. Joachimsen near Petersburg during the Wilderness Campaign.
1864: In Aleksota (Russian Empire), “Lewin Boruch Minkowski, a merchant who subsidized the building of The Choral synagogue in Kovno, and Rachel Taubmann gave birth to mathematician Hermann Minkowski who in 1907 “realized that the special theory of relativity, introduced by his former student Albert Einstein in 1905 and based on the previous work of Lorentz and Poincaré, could best be understood in a four-dimensional space, since known as the "Minkowski spacetime", in which time and space are not separated entities but intermingled in a four dimensional space–time, and in which the Lorentz geometry of special relativity can be effectively represented.”
1865:The Archbishop of York chaired today’s first meeting of The Palestine Exploration Fund, a society that “has been formed under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen.” The society chose Captain Charles Wilson to go out as the chief director of the explorations in Palestine that are to be made by the new society. [Wilson gained fame as the author of Ordinance Survey of Jerusalem published in 1886.]
1869: Birthdate of Odessa native Jacob Magidoff who in 1886 came to the United States where he earned a law degree from NYU, co-founded the United Hebrew Trades of New York in 1899 and gave 42 years of service as the city editor of The Jewish Morning Journaland married Tinnie Magidoff with whom he had three daughters – “Bella, Dorothy and Helen”
https://www.jta.org/1943/08/29/archive/jacob-magidoff-jewish-morning-journal-writer-dies-in-new-york
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/08/27/88563894.pdf
1871(3rd of Tammuz, 5631): Bernard (Yissochar Dov) Illowy, the great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Illowy passed away. Born at Kolin, Bohemia in 1814, he moved to the United States after the failed revolutions in the Habsburg Empire where he filled pulpits for several Orthodox synagogues in St. Louis, New Orleans and Cincinnati.
1873: In Chicago, a cyclone destroyed Congregation Beth-El
1873: Members of Beth-El Congregation met this evening and began raising funds to replace their building which had been locate on the corner of May and Huron Streets on Chicago’s northwest side.
1873: In St. Louis, Rabbis Wolfenstein and Sonnenschein officiated at the ceremony where the cornerstone was laid for a chapel at the Mount Sinai Cemetery which was under the control of the Mount Sinai Cemetery Association.
1875(19th of Sivan, 5635): Sixty-one year old Rabbi Bernard “Yissachar Dov” Illowy who came to the United States after the failed Revolutions of 1848 where he served several congregations including United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis, Shaare Zedek in New York, Congregation Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia and Congregation Kneset Shalom in Baltimore” passed away today after which he was buried in Adath Israel Cemetery in “Price Hill, OH.”
1877: According to many of New York’s prominent Jewish merchants A.T. Stewart, the company controlled by Judge Hilton, could lose the business of the Jewish clothing merchants throughout the United States as a result of the Seligman Affair. These merchants are offended by Hilton’s attempt to defend his actions by differentiating between Hebrews and Jews. They contend that in the United States there are many variations among Jews just as there are among Christians. They feel that Hilton has used Seligman as a way of attacking all Jews and they find this unacceptable. They feel that Hilton is trying to create a clash between Americans and Jews while the real clash is between Hilton’s view of the Jews and the Jewish people.
1877: According to reports published today, Mr. Seligman, nor any other Jewish leader, has plans to call for a public meeting protesting the recent action of Judge Hilton regarding the banning of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel. Mr. Seligman said that if Christian leaders wish to hold such a meeting they may feel free to so. Several of them have expressed their negative view of Hilton’s behavior but the consensus appears to have developed to let the matter die down. Apparently only the Jews are still upset by this as can be seen from the decision by such firms as Fescheimer, Goodkind & Co., the largest clothing store in New York, Fescheimer, Frankel & Co. of Cincinnati and Bierman, Heidelberg & Co of Pittsburg to end all business dealing with Hilton’s A.T. Stewart and Co.
1878: It was reported today that a young Jew named Louis Hood from Newark, NJ had won the De Forest Medal at an oratorical contest conducted at Yale University. His topic was “The Ancient and Modern Jew.”
1878: “Jewish journalist, Egyptian nationalist and playwright” Yaqub Sanu (James Sanua) went into exile today “sailing on the ship Freycinet from Alexandria to Marseilles” after having been banished for publishing the satirical magazine Aboud Naddara.
1879(1st of Tammuz, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1879: In a review of The Lost Ten Tribes and 1882 published today, the author, Brooklyn minister Reverend Joseph Wild claims that “Queen Victoria is of ‘David’s Seed’ and the United States fulfills the role of the tribe of Manasseh.” In lampooning these and other such claims the reviewer concludes, “No wonder the Jews are accused of arrogance; they such folly rampant in Christian pulpits that they must feel themselves wise men in comparison.”
1880: Detective Field arrested Ernest Fink, the former Treasurer of the Hebrew Benevolent Society Chebra B’nai Prasko on charges that he had embezzled $600 from the society. He was arrested at his shoe shop on Catherine Street and confined to the Tombs.
1880: The Conference on Morocco resumed today in Madrid. The conference is expected to adopt a proposal on religious freedom which will benefit both Christians and Jews living in the North African kingdom. [Editor’s note – the real issues revolved around colonial control and revenue.]
1881: Rabbi Reuben officiated at the marriage of Louis Lyons of Manning, SC and Rose Levy, the second daughter of Marx Levy at her home in Charleston, SC.
1882: During the Samuel Obright’s sanitary hearing, relatives told the Judge that “he had procured” ten dollars from his mother “by threatening to kill” her. His attorney denied that charge as well as one that he had threatened to kill her if she did not give him $500 today.
1882: Birthdate of Jenny Shidorsky, the Norwegian homemaker arrested by the Nazis at Trondheim which was the first step on her road to Auschwitz.”
1882: Seventy Russian refugees arrived in New York from London by way of Boston and applied for assistance at the office of the Hebrew Emigrant Society. The group has been given permission to stay at Castle Garden until their permanent quarters are ready.
1882: The six orations given during today’s graduation ceremonies of the University of the City of New York included Charles Harris Gelston Jones speaking on the “Persecution of the Jews in Russia” as one of the anomalies of the 19th century and Alden A. Freeman on “Benjamin Disraeli.”
1883: It was reported today that several political leaders and office holders will attend the upcoming cornerstone laying ceremony for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn.
1883: A number of Jewish were pillaged during anti-Jewish riots at St. Gall, Switzerland. After police the police were stoned when they tried to stop the violence, authorizes summoned soldiers to bring things under control
1884: “From Across the Water” published today described how the “barbarity of Hungarian Jew-baiting has been brought to the attention of Londoners” with the arrival of Joseph Scharf, the emaciated sexton of the synagogue at Tisza-Ezler who was forced to flee for his life following accusations that the Jews kidnapped a Christian peasant girl to use in their religious rites. While the charges were eventually disproved, Scharf’s health was “shattered, his business ruined and his property looted.” “Literally in danger of starvation he fled to London where his co-religionists are raising funds on his behalf.
1886: The Hebrew Technical Institute, under the leadership of its President, James H. Hoffman hosted a reception and exhibition highlighting the accomplishment of its 68 pupils. The visitors, including noted journalist and political leader Carl Schurz, were told that the only limit on the size of the student body is the size of the facility since there are plenty of Jewish students who want to take vocational training courses.
1886: Ninety-five year old Elias Marks the Charleston born son of “Humphrey and Frances Marks,” “the physician and educator” who in 1828 founded “the South Carolina Female Collegiate Institute, an institution for the higher education of women located outside of Columbia, SC” which “Marks called ‘Barhamville’ to honor his late wife and teacher Jane Barham” passed away today after which he was buried in Washington’s Oak Hill Cemetery where his gave is marked by a tombstone topped by a cross.
1887(30th of Sivan, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1887: In St. Louis, MO, Pauline and George Washington Milius gave birth to Evelyn Milius who became Evelyn Mosenfelder when she married Simon Mosenfelder.
1888:Isaac and Dina Cohen, née Wolf gave birth Jeanette Wolff “one of the best-known German Jewish women in post-war Germany.” (As reported by Jael Geis)
1890: “First Introduction to A Russian Border Town” described a visitors first experience when he crossed into the Czars kingdom where “We were just in time to see the sentinel half playfully clubbing and kicking an old Polish Jew in his long gown and fur cap and to hear his piteous cries for mercy.”
1890: “New Publications” included a review of The Burnt Million, a novel by James Payn that revolves around. The “burnt million” refers to money burned by a Jewish money lender who then ships his brother off to America. From that point on the novel takes a rather convoluted turn where a Jewish millionaire has plans to marry off his three daughters but they can only inherit if they marry a Jew. (And the plot thickens)
1890: Dr. Alexander Kohut is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Jewish Theological Seminary Association meeting this morning at Cooper Union entitled “Entertainment Books in the Time of the Talmud.”
1890(4th of Tammuz, 5650): Thirty-five year old Hyman Harrowitz, a Russian-Jewish immigrant died today a Gouverneur Hospital from ammonia poisoning.
1891: In Berlin, Dr. jur. Hugo Preuß and Else Preuß gave birth to Ernst Gustav Preuß
1891: Today, Isidor Straus wrote to Abraham Abraham “Two members of the firm of R H Macy & Co. contemplate finding their way to that suburb on the other side of the bridge Wednesday next Object of the expedition primarily to attend the unveiling of the Statue of Beecher - great men seem to be a country product. Secondarily to see what a small dry goods establishment looks like. Lastly but not leastly to themselves for the of the expedition by inflicting on Mr. Abraham a genuine city appetite for lunch - N BWater is a good thing for bathing purposes. (Translation, Isidor and Nathan Straus of Macy’s were coming to Brooklyn to visit their fellow Jewish merchant Abraham Abraham)
1892: Birthdate of Morris Aaron Pawley, the native Cohoes, NY, the businessman and communal fundraising executive who helped organize Aleph Zadek Aleph and was active in the B’nai B’rith.
1892(27th of Sivan, 5652): Sixty-nine year old Baruch Rothschild, the native of “Bruck, Germany” who wives were Fanny Rothschild and Miriam Marianne Rothschild passed away today.
1892: The Democratic National Convention which was attended by George Washington Ochs Oakes as a delegate from Tennessee continued for a second day in Chicago.
1893(8th of Tammuz, 5653): Forty-two year old Benaimino Luzzatto, passed away a Padua. Born in 1850 at Padua, this son of Samuel David Luzzatto received his medical degree in 1872 and served as an assistant professor at Padua University while pursuing his medical career.
1894: In Budapest, Prime Minister Sándor Wekerle announced that Government would introduce a bill next week “providing for equal religious rights for Jews and Christians.
1894: Harry Houdini married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner who became known as Bess Houdini who was his stage assistant as well as his wife.
1895: Georges Picquart who “became a Dreyfusard after having identified Estherhazy as the author of the incriminating bordeau, was appointed head of the French military’s Intelligence Office today.
1896(11th of Tammuz, 5656): Forty-four year old actor and dramatist Sir Augustus Harries passed away at Folkstone. He also found time pursue a political career which included serving as one of the Sheriffs of London starting in 1891. “He was of a Hebrew family, and properly proud of his race.”
1897: The Board of Trustees of Williams College met today and announced faculty appointments including S.T. Livingston to serve as the instructor for Hebrew.
1897: Birthdate of Academy Award winning art director, Vincent Korda, a native of Túrkeve, Hungary who joined his brothers Alexander and Zoltan in England where they all pursued their film careers.
1897: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Lydia and Millard William Mack gave birth to William Jacob Mack.
1898: (19 Sivan 5658): Rabbi Samuel Mohilever passed away. Born in 1824 in Russia, Mohilever was a Talmudic scholar and one of the leading orthodox rabbis of Eastern Europe. A graduate from the famous Voloshin Yeshiva, he was conversant in math, engineering and a number of languages. Mohilever encouraged Baron Edmond de Rothschild to support the resettling of Russian families in Eretz-Israel and was a mediator between the settlers and Rothschild in various disagreements that arose. He was the founder of Mizrachi, a religious Zionist organization. In 1881, he was one of the founders of the Hovevei Zion, Lovers of Zion.
1898: Those attending today’s exhibition of work done by the students at the Hebrew Technical Institute saw electrical appliances made by the boys including a birchromate battery, a galvanometer and models of an Edison dynamo.
1898: Albert W. Lilienthal began serving as a Captain with the 7thUnited States Volunteer Infantry today.
1898: Birthdate of oil executive Rudolf Sonneborn, the fourth husband of New York Post owner Dorothy Schiff, President of the Israel Bond Drive and a key player in the secret shipments of arms to pre-State Jewish forces. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
1898: The Board of Trustees of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held a special meeting day to adopt a memorial marking the passing Getta Scholle who was serving as Vice President at the time of her death.
1899: The Hebrew Technical Institute hosted its commencement exercises tonight at Cooper Union.
1899: Sixty year old Max Sandreczky, a German Christian pediatric surgeon who settled in Jerusalem in 1868, where in 1872 he established and ran the first pediatric hospital in Palestine where he treated all patients without regard to religious belief and refused to proselytize the children which meant he operated without funding from any church sources passed away today.
1899; “Pierre Marie René Waldeck-Rousseau, the initiator of Alfred Dreyfus's 1899 pardon, as well as the law that, in 1900, offered amnesty for "all crimes and misdemeanors related to the Dreyfus Affair, or that have been included in a proceeding relative to one of these deeds” began serving as Prime Minister of France today.
1899: The City College of New York held its 47th annual commencement exercises at Carnegie Hall. Among those honor students giving “senior orations” were Menahem Eichler, Henry Moskowitz and A.W. Levy. This, along with a list of graduating seniors with names like Pinchas Israel, Henry Mendelsohn, Leon Schwartz, and Louis Jacob Cohen, attest to the extent to which Jewish youngsters availed themselves of this country’s educational opportunities which were their passport into mainstream America.
1899: After 14 months, Julius F. Lewis completed his service with the Hospital Corps of the 2nd U.S. Volunteer Infantry in Santiago, Philippines.
1901: Birthdate of “Finnish track and field athlete” Elias Katz, a silver medal winner at the 1924 Summer Olympics in the “3000 meter steeple chase” who made Aliyah in 1933 after which he was coach of the Palestinian track team for the 1948 Maccabi Games” before being killed by “Arab terrorists.”
1903: Justice Scott is scheduled to deliver an oral opinion in the case of Isidor Wormser, Jr. versus Metropolitan Street Railway Company and Interurban Street Railway Company
1906: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Mrs. Herman Cramer, a native of Jersey whose maiden name was Rebecca Amelia Lawton, gave a concert at Steinway Hall.
1906: In Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary Max and Eugenia (née Dittler) Wilder gave birth to Samuel Wilder who became famous a movie director Billy Wilder whose hits included Some Like It Hot, Apartment, and Stalag 17.
1907: Birthdate of Saul Elkins, the motion picture writer and director who was the father of David Elkins.
1909: Birthdate of producer Michael Todd. In addition to his other accomplishment, Todd was the husband of Elizabeth Taylor. He died in accident at the age of 48.
1911: Birthdate of Ludwig Teller who served who represented New York’s 20th Congressional District from 1957 until 1961.
1911: Birthdate of classical cellist Harvey Shapiro.
1911: Birthdate of Manhattan native Ludwig Teller, the WW II Navy veteran and law school professor who “was elected as a Democrat to the 85th and 86th United States Congresses.’
1911: Prague native Hugo PIesen and his wife Annie gave birth to Edmond Ludwig Piesen
1911: The Anglo-Jewish boxer Matt Wells defeated “the great Jewish New York Boxer Leach Cross” in a ten round bout today at the Madison Athletic Club in New York
1911: George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom, succeeding his father, Edward VII.Lord Balfour and his king, George V, are proudly commemorated all over Israel.
1912: The Republican National Convention adopted a plank in its platform that approved of the action taken by the President and Congress to protect the rights of American Jews visiting Russia on business.
1913: In Chicago, dedication of the Rachel Jackson Memorial Addition to Rest Haven.
1913: Thirty-seven students are scheduled to receive their diplomas today during the 23rd annual graduation exercises of the Jewish Training School in Chicago.
1914: Lucille Fannie Hirsch, “the daughter of Isaac Hirsch” married Julian K. Hilborn of Philadelphia this evening at the Hotel Blackstone in Chicago.
1914: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Myer “Mike” Feldman the U of Pennsylvania lawyer WW II Army Air Force Veteran and attorney with the SEC who went on to serve as White House Counsel under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.
1915: Today is the date set for the execution of Leo Frank in Georgia. (The sentence was commuted and the execution did not take place)
1915: “Martial law is still in force at Governor Slaton’s country estate five miles from Atlanta where two battalions of infantry with machine guns” are protecting Slaton from a mob “that threw bricks at the troops” injuring several of the soldiers.
1915: After having spent his first night at the state prison in Milledgeville, Leo Frank is scheduled to be examined by the prison physician to determine if he “is in the proper physical condition” to be put to “work as a farm hand – hoeing or plowing.”
1915: The remarks of Louis Marshall who had represented Leo Frank before the Supreme Court made when received news of the commutation were published today and concluded with “Whatever those who sought to consign Frank to the gallows may now think, the time will certainly come when they will show their gratitude to Governor Slaton for having saved the State from the perpetration of a stupendous crime, for it is as sure as truth itself that ere long Frank’s innocence will be triumphant established.”
1915: According to reports published today, The Rome Tribune Herald, in commenting on the commutation of Leo Frank’s sentence that “Governor Slaton must be credited with having done what he thought was right in the circumstances” and that Georgia will stand that much higher in the estimation of the country because of the Governor’s action.”
1915: In its editorial on the Frank commutation The Atlanta Journal concluded that “The Governor has shown wisdom and courage in his performance of an act of simple justice and time will vindicate his moderation.”
1915: In its editorial on the Frank commutation, The Enquirer-Sun concluded that the paper “has no inclination to criticize the Governor. On the contrary it believes that he deserves the highest commendation for having performed his duty as he saw it.”
1915: In its editorial on the commuting of the sentence of Leo Frank, The Brunswik(GA) News wrote that the governor “has spared the life a man where the evidence upon which was convicted was clouded with doubt and the atmosphere at which the trial occurred was charged with prejudice and with passion.” “Time will vindicate the Governor, and in the meantime, we commend him for his conduct.”
1915: Pope Benedict was quoted in an interview published today as saying that he had “received from Austrian Bishops assurance…that the Russians on one occasion pushed before them 1,500 Jews so that they could advance behind this living barrier thus exposed to the bullets of the enemy.”
1915: The New York Timeseditorially expressed the view that “The commutation of the death sentence of Leo M. Frank was the act of a righteous and fearless man”
1916: The Foreign Office replied to criticism directed at the British Government by Judge Leon Sanders, President of the Hebrew Sheltering Aid and Immigrant Aid Society who said that the “British were holding up checks and drafts mailed from America for the relief of the suffering civil population of Russian Poland” by claiming that “an arrangement has been made with the American Express Company” to have that company convey remittances to Poland as long as American Express can guarantee that the funds “will reach the individual for whom they are intended and not fall into German hands.”
1917: Special Reception Committees are scheduled to meet all delegates arriving in Baltimore, MD for the Twentieth Annual Convention of the Federation of American Zionists “at all railroad stations and steamer landings.”
1917: In Chicago, the funeral for 76 year old Rosa Berman, the widow of the late Lewis Berman is scheduled to be held at 1 p.m. at Waldheim.
1917: The funeral of Rose Stein Wolbach, the wife of Samuel N. Wolbach and the mother of Dr. S. Burt, Edwin J. and Emil Wolbach, is scheduled to take place in Grand Island, Nebraska.
1917: It was reported today that due to pressure from the Russian government and the Romanian desire to take over Austrian provinces where Jews now enjoy complete rights of citizenship the government Romania is preparing to give the Jews of that country “complete citizenship.”
1917: “Socialists serving on a Reichstag Committee criticized the Chancellor for forcing Jewish laborers in Poland and Lithuania to work for lower than standard wages” and get the committee to adopt a resolution calling for treating “Jewish workmen from Poland and Lithuania on an equal footing with Germans.”
1917:In Wilmington, Delaware, Rabbi Samuel Rabinowitz delivered a sermon about thoughts that should be in people's minds during the coming summer months.
1918: Today, “in a cablegram to the Jewish Monthly Journal, Romanian Premier Bratiano stated: ‘Our determination to give Jews equal civil and political rights is unanimous and definitive” but “technicalities of the Romanian constitution oblige us to postpone the vote on this reform till after the new elections which will take place on after the liberation of our territory.” (Editor’s Note – Starting with the middle of the 19thcentury Romania would finds reasons not to fulfill its promises about full citizenship for the Jews, always stalling until the Holocaust made this a moot point.)
1918: The Cantors’ Association of America, “the official body of the cantors of Jewish synagogues” today organized “a war saving society” through which they pledged “to save and buy War Savings Stamps” and perform at no charge at any meeting held to increase the purchase of war savings stamps.
1918: The Federation of Oriental Jews, who, remembering their persecutions in Turkey, “are eager to help win the war” have formed a war savings society.
1920: General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud was published for the first time in the United States.
1920: Opening of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 featuring Eddie Cantor and songs written by the Banjo Eyed performer.
1920: At the Merrill Theatre in Chicago, Temple B’nai Jeshurun hosted a fundraising benefit to raise money for a new school and social center.
1920: Birthdate of Solomon Hersh Frees the Chicago native who gained fame as Paul Frees whose ability to provide the vocalization for a variety of cartoon figurers earned him the sobriquet “The Man of a Thousand Voices.
1920: In the Bronx, “fur manufacturer Harry Wunderman” and “Dorothy (Horowitz) Wunderman” gave birth to advertising executive Lester Wunderman, “the co-founder of the Wunderman Group” and the “father of direct marketing.” (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1921(16th of Sivan, 5681): “Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr.,” one of the world’s foremost authorities on Semitic languages and a “Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania since 1893 died suddenly today of heart disease at the home of his brother-in-law, F.H. Bachman, in Jenkintown, a suburb” of Philadelphia. The sixty year old academic had not shown any signs of illness. A native of Warsaw, Jastow graduated from Penn in 1881 and earned a Ph.D. from Leipzig University in 1884. Besides his work with Semitic languages, Jastrow had written extensively about “religion, education and Near Eastern politics. He edited the Semitic department of the International Encyclopedia…and was a delegate to the last three European Congresses of Orientalists. Among “his more important works were ‘Religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians,’ ‘The Study of Religion,’ ‘Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions,’ and ‘Zionism and the Future of Palestine.’”
1921: In Brooklyn, “Yetta (née Miritch), a seamstress, and Samuel Papirofsky, a trunkmaker” gave birth to Joseph Papirofsky, who gained fame as Joseph Papp, the producer/director best known for his Shakespeare in the Park.“Aside from his incredible creative talents which forever revolutionized the Broadway theatre, he immersed himself in doing acts of good deeds especially when the care and welfare of children were concerned. During his trips to Russia he saw firsthand the desperate conditions facing the handicapped, orphaned and neglected children in the Ukraine, which numbers in the thousands. It was then that he dedicated himself to do whatever he could to enhance the lives of these children caught in the midst of economic and political turmoil. His untimely passing came before he was able to fulfill his dream. Tzivos Hashem, with Gail Papp's blessing, has vowed to continue Joe's dream. Thanks to the successful Tzivos Hashem sponsored "Joseph Papp Children's Humanitarian Fund" Dinners, thousands of Ukrainian homeless, deprived and starving children are being given a second chance at life.”
1922: In Paris, the body of Louis Stern, the President of Stern Brothers, was taken from Claridge’s Hotel to the mortuary where it will remain until a decision is made up where the burial will take place. The seventy-five year old Stern had gone abroad with his daughter Beatrice and her husband to recuperate following surgery that had taken place in May. He was also planning on visiting his daughter Baroness Leo de Grafferies and his grandchildren during the trip.
1923(8thof Tammuz, 5683): Sixty year old “Moshe Jacob Alter” later known as Morris Rosenfeld, the Polish born sweat shop tailor and diamond cutter turned journalist who became editor of the Jewish World and a delegate to several Zionist Congresses while raising a family with his wife Bella Guttenberg passed away today.
1924: In, Makó, Hungary, Terezia (Riesz) and liberal journalist Emo Vermes, gave birth to Geza Vermes “a religious scholar who argued that Jesus as a historical figure could be understood only through the Jewish tradition from which he emerged, and who helped expand that understanding through his widely read English translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (As reported by William Yardley). All three converted to Catholicism when Geza was seven years old which did not save his parents from dying in the Holocaust.
1925(30thof Sivan, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1926: Birthdate of Arthur Rosenfeld, the Birmingham born “physicist who became widely known as the father of energy efficiency for championing energy-saving requirements for appliances and buildings.”
1926: In Washington, DC, Harold Ripley and actress Mabel Ida Albertson, the sister of Jack Albertson gave birth to George Englund whose film resume includes directing “The Ugly American” a provocative look at Viet Nam before it became a national crisis and producing “The Shoes of the Fisherman” which provided an unconventional look at the Papacy.
1927: “Men Before Marriage” a silent film directed by Constantin J. David and music by Artur Guttman was released today in Germany.
1928: Wall Street Bankers Louis and Sayra Fischer Lebenthal gave birth to Princeton trained businessman James “Jim” Avram Lebenthal , the husband Jacqueline Beymer and a nominee “for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for his first and only film production T Is for Tumbleweed.”
1928: In the Bronx, Louis Slobodkin and Florence (Gersh) Slobodkin to Professor Lawrence B. (Larry) Slobodkin one of the leaders in the field of ecology to whom, if the world had listened, it might have avoided the damage done by extreme weather in the first part of the 21st century
1929: In Baltimore, MD Israel and Fannie Gravitz Rehert gave birth to Rose Rehert who gained fame as American journalist and breast cancer advocate Rose Kushner author of Why Me? What Every Woman Should Know About Breast Cancer to Save Her Life.
1933: In Chicago, “The XXXIII Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations” is scheduled to come to an end today.
1933: The Jewish world continues to reel from the shock of the murder Hayim Arlosoff, a Zionist leader who was killed just outside of Tel Aviv. The Labor Zionist leaders contended that the killer was Abraham Stavsky, a member or the Revisionists. The victim’s widow who was walking with him on the beach at the time of his murder identified Stavsky. Stavsky was found guilty but his conviction was overturned on appeal because of a lack of corroborating testimony. The facts surrounding the case are murky to this day. But the episode help to further poison the relationship between the Labor Zionists and the Revisionists. Ironically, Stavsky was killed aboard the Altalena in 1948. The issue stills looms large in the memory of the early Zionists. Leah Rabin made reference to this episode when she talked about the causes of her husband’s death in 1995.
1933: The Social Democratic party was officially banned as Hitler consolidated his power.
1933: Birthdate of Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein was Mayor of San Francisco and is now a United States Senator from California.
1935(21st of Sivan, 5695): Sixty-nine year old the Polish historian who promoted the “idea of describing a nation's history through its social and economic development as well as its international and diplomatic backdrop” and whose works included Danzig and Poland passed away today
1936:The Palestine Postreported a seven-hour battle fought near Tulkarm between Arab terrorists who ambushed a convoy and British troops. British infantry and police rounded another Arab gang near Nablus where they lost a sergeant and a private. Arab losses were not known, but might have been considerable.
1936: The Paris Tageszeitung reported today that “Germany has placed a ban on the motion picture ‘The Country Doctor” staring the Dionne quintuplets” because of the participation of “non-Aryans” in the production of the picture. (The non-Aryan may have been a reference to script writer Sonya Levien.)
1936: This evening at a dinner at the Waldorf Astoria movie producer Carl Laemmle, Nathan Straus, Judge Julian W. Mack and Member of Parliament Major Henry Adams Proctor urged attendees to provide the maximum amount of support to the United Palestine Appeal which is working to raise $3,500,000 for the settlement of persecuted German and Polish Jews in Eretz Israel.
1937: Leon Blum resigned as Prime Minister of France after losing support due to remain neutral during the Spanish Civil War.
1937: Al Jolson is scheduled to serve as Master of Ceremonies on WABC’s variety show starting at 8:30 this evening.
1937: The final report of the Royal Commission on Palestine chaired by Earl Peel was signed tonight but its contents remain secret and will probably not “published until early July” when it is presented to the League of Nations in Geneva.
1938: Father John LaFarge, American Jesuit, met with Pope Pius XI about the drafting of an encyclical to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. LaFarge is told: "Simply say what you would say if you were Pope!" Impressed with Father LaFarge's antiracist writings and activism in America, Pope Pius XI goes outside the usual Vatican personnel to assign LaFarge the job of secretly writing Humani Generis Unitas ("The Unity of Humankind") to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. Father John LaFarge's draft of this encyclical is completed in September but it delayed by the Vatican bureaucracy. It won't reach the pope's desk until he suffers a heart attack in February 1939. His successor, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, takes the name Pope Pius XII and shelves the encyclical. No one hears about it again until well after the Holocaust. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1938: Joe Louis beat Max Schmeling in the re-match that had been arranged by the German boxer’s Jewish manager Joe Jacobs, whom Schmeling had refused to fire despite intense pressure from the Nazis.
1939: Birthdate of Ada E. Yonath “an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2009, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize out of nine Israeli Nobel laureates, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences,[citation needed] and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. However, she said herself that there was nothing special about a woman winning the Prize.”
1940(16thof Sivan, 5700): Parashat Sh’lach
1940: After 1,108 performances the curtain came down on the ILGWU production of “Pins and Needles” a revue with music and lyrics by Harold Rome who also wrote the book along with several others including Marc Blitzstein, directed by Charles Friedman and choreographed by Benjamin Zemach.
1940: In Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Katherine Flora (née Leverson) and Henry Barnato Rantzen gave birth to Dame Esther Louise Rantzen, the English journalist and television personality best known for the 21 years she spent with the television series “That’s Life!”
1940: The French Government led by 84 year-old Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany. This would mark the start of one of the most shameful periods in French history. The fascists at Vichy would not only do the bidding of the Germans when it came to the Jews, they would actually move more quickly than expected in round up after round up of Jewish refugees and native born French Jews.
1940: When France surrendered today “one of the terms of the armistice gave the Germans the right to demand that France surrender all "Germans named by the German Government" to the German occupation authorities” including Herschel Feibel Grynszpan who had assassinated Ernst von Rath in 1938.
1940(16th of Sivan, 5700): Three days before his 75thbirthday, Rabbi Julius “Hesselson” Hess who served several congregations in the Middle West passed a way today after suffering perforated stomach ulcer.
1940: In Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Katherine Flora (née Leverson and Henry Barnato Rantzen gave birth to British journalist and television personality Esther Louise Rantzen
1940: General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed leader of the so-called “Free French” broadcast an appeal to the French people to continue the fight against the Nazis. He assured them that the Americans and the British would support them in the effort. Winston Churchill gave permission for the French brigadier to give the address over the BBC. At a secular level, there is real irony in this since de Gaulle would become “the cross of Lorraine” that Churchill would have to carry throughout the war. Several Jews would rally to de Gaulle, the Resistance and the Free French. As to Frenchmen in general, to put it politely, Drancy and Vichy were exemplars of their true feelings for an extended period of time.
1941: Operation Barbarossa begins. Germany began its surprise attack on the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the two nations had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. Stalin had ignored a myriad of warnings that the attack was coming. For days after the attack, Stalin still refused to believe that Hitler had struck since the Russians had been supplying the Nazis with vital material. This day would see the start of systematic destruction of Jewish towns and communities. German killing squads, the Einsatgruppenwould begin to organize local collaborators in Lithuania, Latvia and the Ukrainian states. Thousands of Jews would be killed within the next few days. Within a few weeks millions more of the Jews of the Soviet Union would fall under Nazi rule.
1941: While many refer to Operation Barbarossa that began today as a “surprise attack” such was not really the case since the Soviets received warnings from several sources including Krystyna Skarbek better known as British intelligence agent Christine Granville.
1941: Special mobile killing squads--Einsatzgruppen--each assigned to a particular area of the Occupied Soviet Union began killing Jews on the spot wherever they are found; often with the help of local anti-Semites recruited to help.
1941: Birthdate of David P. Landau, the winner of the Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics and Director of the Center for Simulational Physics at the University of Georgia
1941: Twenty-six year old American author and historian Milton Meltzer married Hilda "Hildy" Balinky
1941(27th of Sivan, 5701): In the Soviet village of Virbalis, Einsatzgruppen machine-gunned all adult Jews and cover the corpses with lime. Local children are seized by the ankles, and their heads are smashed against walls and roads. Many of these children are buried alive.
1941: In Brooklyn, George Lerner, “a fisherman and antiques dealer” and his wife Blanche gave birth to Academy Award nominated actor Michael Lerner.
1942(7thof Tammuz, 5702): Sixty-six year old Hugo Piesen, the native of Prague and husband of Annie Piesen passed away today in Amityville, NY.
1942: The Jewish Brigade was formed was formed as part of the British military. The Jewish Brigade fought in Italy and after the war helped many Jewish refugees escape to Palestine, despite the British Blockade. Veterans of the brigade would use their skills in the War For Independence.
1943: “So Proudly We Hail!” produced and directed by Mark Sandrich with music by Edward Heyman was released in today in the United States.
1943: In Poland, 5,000 Jews were deported from the Będzin Ghetto to a Nazi death camp.
1943: In Aberdeen, Scotland, German Jewish émigrés, pioneering biochemist Hans Walter Kosterlitz and Hannah Gresshöner, German Jewish émigrés, gave birth to John Michael Kosterlitz, the winner of the Lars Onsager Prize in 2000 and the Noble Prize in Physics in 2016.
1944: The SS closes the concentration camp at Riga-Kaiserwald, Latvia.
1944: Birthdate of Edna Arbel, the native of Jerusalem whose legal career included serving as State Attorney for 8 years before starting her service as a member of Israel’s Supreme Court.
1944: FDR signs the GI Bill of Rights. Viewed as part of the war effort, this modestly named law was one of the most far-reaching pieces social legislation ever enacted. It gave a whole group of Americans a chance at homeownership and college education that would not have otherwise occurred. Among Jews, it sent people as disparate in temperament as Art Buchwald and Henry Kissinger on to the college campus. Along with the automobile, the G.I. Bill of Rights created suburbia which destroyed many old Jewish neighborhoods and provided new challenges for Jews seeking to maintain their ethnic identity and religious customs in what would become a culture of rootlessness.
1944: One thousand Jews were transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to work in the factories of Dachau. They were "lucky" if you can call being at Dachau lucky. Ninety-eight percent of the Jews sent to Birkenau were gassed there. One thousand, five hundred pairs of twins were tortured by Dr. Joseph Mengele in during his "medical experiments".
1944: Sir Nicholas George Winton the Englishman “who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport” “was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on probation” today.
1944: In Lyon Janine Sochaczewska and Alter Mojze Goldman, who were not married, gave birth to Pierre Goldman, “a French left-wing intellectual who was convicted of several robberies.”
1944: “You Always Hurt the One You Love,” a “pop standard with music by Doris Fisher “first reached the Billboard magazine Best Seller chart today and lasted 20 weeks on the chart, peaking at #1
1945: Birthdate of Alexander Pines, the native of Tel Aviv who became “Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and the Department of Bioengineering.”
1947: Birthdate of Maurice David Landau the native of the Golders Green neighborhood of London who was the diplomatic correspondent of The Jerusalem Post for 12 years, and its managing editor for four years following which he founded the English edition of Haaretz of which he was editor-in-chief and capped his career his career by serving as the paper’s editor-in –chief from 2004 to 2008.
1947: Albert Einstein withdraws his support for theAlbert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc.
1948(15th of Sivan, 5708): Sixty-four year old Joseph Nunes Nabarro, the native of Islington, who was a partner in the firm of Narbarro Nathanson (Solictors) who “was an Elder of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and a strong Zionist” passed away today.
1948: Samuel Hamilton Kaufman, “received a recess appointment” to the U.S. District Court” today from President Truman.
1948:Szapsel (Shabtai ) Rotholc, the boxer who had been expelled from the Jewish community for two years because he worked as a member of the Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto, “was reinstated as a member of the Jewish Sports Federation.
1949: In a move that showed where the British really stood in the Arab-Israel Conflict, Foreign Minister Bevin today told the House of Commons that Britain would no longer be making contribution to the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, but said that instead it would one hundred thousand pounds “available to British voluntary societies for the maintenance of Arab refuges…”
1949: Two hundred Conservative rabbis met today at the Rabbinical Assembly of America’s 49th annual convention at Kiamesha Lake in New York.
1950:A Government spokesman disclosed today that Israel had asked the United Nations to take all necessary steps to insure implementation of the armistice agreement between her and Jordan.
1950(7th of Tammuz, 5710): Seventy-year old legal scholar Max Radin, the son of Rabbi Adolph Moses Radin, passed away today.
1950(7th of Tammuz, 5710): Forty-three year old “cantor, radio and concert singer” Yssak Gladstone the native of Krivozer, Russia, passed away today in New York City.
1951:The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel spent IL50m. during 1950 on housing and work for more than 100,000 immigrants. The UN allocated a yearly sum of $100m. for a plan to resettle the Arab refugees. Mr. Blanford, the newly appointed head of UNRWA, hoped that he would thus be able to resettle some 30,000 Arab refugee families.
1951: In a statement made to the Sephardic Community of Salisbury in Rhodesia Haham Solomon Gaon said, "The lack of spiritual leadership is unfortunately evident today even in the highest places. A Sephardic institution for the provision of teachers, ministers and rabbinic authorities is one of the most pressing needs of the present age…We, Sephardim, if properly organized, could give a lead to the Jewish world generally."
1952: A small home-made bomb exploded at 1:30 A.M. today on the doorstep of the apartment of Minister of Communications David Z. Pinkas. The bombing was seen as part of protest against restrictions on driving which are to go into effect next week. Israelis will not be allowed to drive their car for two days of each week. One of the days that on which one cannot drive is Shabbat. Opponents of the ban claim that the action has more to with attempts by Orthodox Jews to ban driving on the Sabbath than it does with gasoline conservation. Pinkas is a leader of the Mizrachi Party and thought to be a leader of those supporting the Shabbat driving ban.
1952(29th of Sivan, 5712): Eighty seven year old actress Clara Lipman Mann, the Chicago born daughter of “Abram and Josephine (née Brumer) Lipman” and husband of fellow thespian Louis Mann, passed away today.
1952: Journalist Ames Keinan and Shaltiel Ben Yair a reserve army officer who has no civilian occupation were arrested today for their alleged role in the bombing of the apartment building housing David Z. Pinkas.
1952: In Israel, Scott George, the United States Vice Consul, said that because of upcoming changes in Israeli laws regarding citizenship, immigrants from the United States arriving in Israel after July 14 would lose their American citizenship unless they “opt out” of receiving Israeli citizenship.
1957: In Los Angeles, Art Ginsburg opened Art’s Deli – “where every sandwich is a work of Art.”
1957: After 717 performances the curtain came down “The Diary Anne Frank” which had opened at the Cort Theatre in October of 1955 before moving to the Ambassador Theatre.
1960: Birthdate of Representative Adam Schiff, Congressman for California’s 29thDistrict.
1960: The Mayor of New York announced at City Hall today that George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, will not receive a permit to speak in New York “on July 4th or any other time” due to concerns for public safety and Rockwell’s personal safety.
1962(20th of Sivan, 5722): Eighty-one year old Hugo Gutmann Hitler’s Jewish commanding officer who recommended him for the Iron Cross First Class and was known as Henry G. Grant in the United States passed away today in San Diego, CA.
1962: Final broadcast of PM East/PM West, “a late night television talk show co-hosted by Mike Wallace.”
1965(22nd of Sivan, 5725): Sixty-three year old movie producer David O Selznick, the son of silent film director Lewis J. Selznick, the son-in-law Louis B.Mayer and the man most responsible for making the film classic “Gone With the Wind” passed away today
1965: Dr. Milton D. Glick who would eventually serve as the 15th president of the University of Nevada Reno, married Peggy Porter today.
1966: U.S. premiere of “Born Free” produced by Sam Jaffe and Paul Radin with an Oscar-winning title song co-authored by lyricist Don Black.
1966: Release date for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” the cinematic version of Edward Albee’s play directed by Mike Nichols, produced by Ernest Lehman, with a script by Ernest Lehman costarring Elizabeth Taylor and George Segal.
1968:Jan Peerce made last appearance with the Metropolitan Opera Company today at a parks concert in ''Faust.''
1969: Author Jonathan Lewis Nasaw, the son of attorney Joshua J. Nasaw and the former Beatrice Kaplan married Soo Stone.
1970: Birthdate of rock star Steven Page the lead singer for “Barenaked Ladies.”
1970: Eighty-year old Harvard trained archaeologist Ashton Sanborn the husband of Agnes Goldman, “the granddaughter of Rabbi Samuel Adler” and the brother-in-law of Hetty Goldman of the Goldman-Sachs banking family who was “executive secretary of the American Red Cross Commission with headquarters in Jerusalem after WW I passed away today.
1972(10th of Tammuz, 5732): Eighty-two year old Austrian born British “writer, director and producer” Paul Czinner whose career began with “Inferno” in 1919 and was still going strong in 1966 with “Romeo and Juliet’ starring Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn, passed away today.
1972: Three days after he had passed away, funeral services were scheduled to be held this morning for sixty-nine year old Long Island College Hospital trained pathologist Dr. William Antopol, the husband of “the former Bella Scholer” and father of Michael and Stephen Antopol who was serving as “director of laboratories and research at Beth Israel Medical Center” when he passed away in San Francisco.
1973: “A Touch of Class” starring George Segal was released today in the United States.
1973: Former U.S. New York Senator Kenneth B. Keating was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1974(2nd of Tammuz, 5734): Eighty-one year old “French composer and teacher” Darius Milhaud whose students included Jazz Great Dave Brubeck and Burt Bacharach passed away today.
1976(24th of Sivan, 5736): Fifty-nine year old “Dr. Maurice S. Sage, president of the Jewish National Fund” passed away this evening “an hour after collapsing on the dais of Grand Ballroom of New York’s Hilton Hotel.”
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the prices of foodstuffs (bread, milk, cooking oil, sugar etc.) would increase by about 30 percent due to another IL150m. subsidy cut.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the US State Department had announced that a public expression of thanks by President Gerald Ford to the Palestine Liberation Organization for its assistance in evacuating Americans from Beirut did not represent any change of policy towards this terrorist organization.
1978: Neo-Nazis called off plans to march in the Jewish community of Skokie, Illinois.
1979: “Escape from Alcatraz” a prison movie directed and produced by Don Siegel with music by Jerry Fielding was released in the United States today.
1979: “The Main Event,” a comedy directed by Howard Zieff, produced by Howard Rosenman and starring Barbra Streisand was released in the United States today.
1979: “Nightwing” the film version of the book by the same name directed by Arthur Hiller, produced by Martin Ranshoff and featuring David Warner and Stephen Macht was released in the United States today.
1979: Weeks after having been released in the United Kingdom “The Muppet Movie” co-produced by Lew Grade with Frank Oz as the voices of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle,and Marvin Suggs was released in the United States.
1980: The New York Times featured a review of Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler.
1982: In Tucson, AZ, Howard Kinsler, college basketball player and “warden at a state prison” and his Catholic wife gave birth to major league second baseman Ian Kinsler who was proud to be “featured in the 2008 Hank Greenberg 75th Anniversary edition of Jewish Major Leaguers Baseball Cards, licensed by Major League Baseball, commemorating the Jewish major leaguers from 1871 through 2008.”
1983: “The Survivors” an off-beat comedy co-starring Walter Matthau was released today in the United States.
1984:”The Pope of Greenwich Village” a crime film directed by Stuart Rosenberg and co-produced by Howard Koch was released today in the United States.
1986: Sir Moses I Finley, the American expatriate professor suffered a stroke today upon hearing that his wife had passed away.
1989(19th of Sivan, 5749): In Jerusalem Professor Menachem Stern, a Hebrew University Scholar and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities was stabbed to death by two teenage Arabs as he walked home.
1990: “Robocop 2” directed by Irvin Kershner was released in the United States today.
1992: Gil Stein was announced as the new president of the National Hockey League and formally took the position, succeeding John Ziegler
1996: Pitcher Al Levine made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Look, Listen, Read” by Claude Levi-Strauss, “Nazi Gold: The Full Story of the Fifty-Year Swiss-Nazi Conspiracy to Steal Billions From Europe's Jews and Holocaust Survivors” by Tom Bower
2001(21st of Tammuz, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2001: In Vienna, the International Conference sponsored by the Dubnow Institute on “Restitution Memory” On Historical Remembrance and Material Restitution in Europe in Europe” continued for a second day.
2001(21st of Tammuz, 5761):Sgt. Aviv Iszak, 19, of Kfar Saba, and Sgt. Ofir Kit, 19, of Jerusalem, were killed in a suicide bombing near Dugit in the Gaza Strip as a jeep with yellow Israeli license plates, supposedly stuck in the sand, blew up as they approached. Hamas took credit for the attack,
2001:Daniel Charles Kurtzer left his post as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt. [Yes, an American Jew represented the U.S. in Cairo.] Born in 1949, he earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and served as dean of his alma mater Yeshiva University. President Clinton had appointed him to the position in Egypt. President Bush would appoint him as Ambassador to Israel in 2001; a post he would hold until 2005.
2002(12th of Tammuz, 5762): Seventy-eight year old Fred Rochlin, architect, artist, photographer and collector of Western Jewish Americana passed away.
2002: Funeral services for 92 year old Nachman Libeskind the survivor of Russian labor camps and the Holocaust are scheduled to be held today at the Plaza Jewish Community Chapel in New York.
2002(12th of Tammuz, 5762): Ann Landers passed away. Esther Pauline Friedman was born in Iowa on July 4, 1918. She began writing an advice column in the 1950’s. Her sister wrote an equally famous column under the name of Dear Abbey. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2002: Actress Embeth Davidtz married entertainment attorney Jason Sloane in a Jewish wedding in Los Angeles.
2003(22nd of Sivan, 5763): Eighty-one year old tennis player and trail-blazer phi beta kappa Stanford graduate Gladys Medalie Heldman, “the daughter of New York Court of Appeals judge George Z. Medalie and the husband of Julius Heldman passed away
2003(22nd of Sivan, 5763): Sixty-seven year old Joseph Chaikin, the Brooklyn born “actor and director” who was raised in Des Moines, Iowa and attended Drake University passed away today.
2003:Jonathan Andrew Kaye won the Buick Classic, a major PGA tournament.
2005: Opening session of Security Israel - The 19thannual International Homeland Security Exhibition .
2006: The Red Cross humanitarian movement overcame Muslim objections and cleared away the last obstacle to full Israeli membership setting up formal admission after nearly six decades of exclusion, Israel's ambassador to international organizations in Geneva said. The International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent approved a resolution that enables Israel's Magen David Adom society to join while retaining its Red Star of David instead of having to adopt the Red Cross or Crescent used by other societies, Ambassador Itzhak Levanon said.
2006: In “Brooklyn’s Oldest Synagogue Celebrates Its 150thAnniversary, Evan Barton traces the history of the Kane Street Synagogue.
2007: In Jerusalem, the Center Stage Theater presents a matinee performance of Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing," followed by special party after the show.
2008: A new government strategy to redefine ties with the Diaspora designed to be less patronizing and more humble which was developed jointly by Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel and Alan Hoffman, director-general of the Jewish Agency’s Education Department is unveiled.
2008: In New York City, The Yeshiva University Museum presents the 2nd annual Family Puppet Festival.
2008: In New York City, Logan Joseph Kleinwaksv presents “Searching Online Historical Directories - and - A New Tool for Shoah Research” at the Center for Jewish Studies.
2008: In an election to select France’s next Chief Rabbi three hundred rabbis and communal leaders choose between the incumbent, Joseph Sitruk, a 63-year-old Sephardic rabbi known for his common touch, and the challenger, Gilles Bernheim, a 56-year-old Ashkenazic philosopher who is the rabbi of Paris’s largest synagogue.
2008: The general assembly of the Central Consistory elected Giles Bernheim Chief Rabbi of France.
2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics With an 18th-Century Brain” by Jewish linguist George Lakoff.
2008: The Washington Postfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Darin Smith’s “More Than It Hurts You” “a polarizing novel in which a black doctor accuses a Jewish mother of child abuse” and “My Five Years in Iraq” byRichard Engel, the Middle East correspondent who when he was interviewing the President was asked by Mr. Bush if he was Jewish; a question which he answered in the affirmative.
2008: The New York Timesreported on the downbeat emotional and political attitudes of Israelis as the “truce” with Hamas begins in an article entitled “Israel in the Season of Dread.”
2009: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5769 (first day of a two day Rosh Chodesh)
2009: “Demise of the Jewish Club” published today
2009: In “Dead Sea Peril” published today Joseph Marks described the growing impact and causes of sinkholes on this unique Middle Eastern body of water.
2009: In the United Kingdom, John Simon Bercow was elected Speaker of the House of Commons making him the first Jew to hold that position.
2010: The Jewish Community Research Council is scheduled to hold its final session of the season by hosting a luncheon meeting with Virginia House Speaker William Howell and Virginia State Senate Chairman of Education & Health Committee Ed Houck.
2010: Publication of Feeling “Phil Spector’s Pain.”
2010: Judge Martin “Feldman issued a preliminary injunction blocking a six-month moratorium on deep-water offshore drilling in Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar.”
2011: The Art Show that began on June 13 is scheduled to come a close at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.
2011: The Sixth Street Community Synagogue and John Zorn's Tzadik Records are scheduled to present “Masada Guitars Revisited + Edom,” one of six concerts by some of the best and brightest musicians on New York's Downtown Jewish Music scene.
2011: Today Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren defended the blockade of Gaza as a “matter of life and death” and said that it fully comports with international law, as a flotilla prepares to attempt to reach Gaza.
2011: The number of millionaires in Israel rose in 2010 by more than 20.6 percent to 10,153, according to the latest annual Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report released today.
2011: Israel Defense Forces made history when a woman was officially promoted to the rank of Major General for the first time. Major General Orna Barbivay, 49, replaced Major General Avi Zamir as commander of the IDF's Manpower Branch in an official ceremony today, which was attended by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF chief Benny Gantz, and other senior army officials
2011: Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, an Israeli socialite, investor and talk show host twitted about a rumor regarding the departure of journalist Yair Lapid to the world of politics
2011(20thof Sivan, 5771): Eighty-seven year old screenwriter David Rayfiel whose work included “Three Days of the Condor,” “Out of Africa” and “The Way We Were” passed away. (As reported by William Grimes)
2012: Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to celebrate “Shabbat Under the Stars” in Springfield, VA.
2012: As part of the attempts to undo some of the damage done through his relationship with Bernard Maddorff “J. Ezra Merkin agreed to pay back $405 million to investors in his hedge funds”
2012: Cantor Larry Paul and musician Robyn Helzner are scheduled to a lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Historic 6th& I Syngagogue.
2012: The Go North & Northern Communities of Nefesh B’Nefesh are scheduled to offer a guided tour at Tzippori Park so Olim can see “amazing mosaics, a crusader fortress, an ancient reconstructed synagogue and the first century underground water system.
2012: Two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel today. No injuries or damage were reported. The remnants of a Grad missile were also discovered in the Be’er Tuvia Regional Council, near Ashdod. As security forces arrived at the scene this morning, it remained unclear when the missile had landed. (As reported by Yoel Goodman)
2012: Israeli Air Force strikes carried out today against terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip killed two and injured at least four others.
2012: In “The Germans Are Prisoners of Their Past” published today Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim “explains why the Israeli antipathy toward Wagner is grotesque and argues that Israel shouldn't depend too.”
2012: The findings of the 2011 census, released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, revealed the Jewish population to be 97,335. This means that Australia’s official Jewish population has risen by about 10 percent in the last five years (As reported by JTA)
2012: Daphni Leef, one of the leaders of last summer’s mass social protest movement, was arrested, along with seven other activists, in Tel Aviv today after attempting to pitch tents on Rothschild Boulevard.
2013: The Edin-Tamar Music is scheduled to host “Romantic Violin” program II featuring violinist Saida Bar Lev and pianist Yonatan Zak.
2013(14th of Tammuz, 5773): Sixty-eight year old writer producer Gary David Goldberg, creator of “Family Ties” passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2013: Barbara Streisand is scheduled to perform at Bloomfield Stadium as part of the Israeli Presidential Conference.
2013: Traffic Police over the weekend caught about 140 drunk drivers, the majority of which were subject to suspended licenses, Israel Radio today. Police suspended more than 130 driver's licenses for 30 days citing traffic violations. Earlier today, an approximately 50-year-old man was struck by a vehicle and seriously hurt on Route 5 east of Tel Aviv after he got out of his own car to help several people who had been involved in an earlier accident on the highway. (As reported by Jerusalem Post staff)
2013: Today, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) called this week’s “price tag” incident in Abu Ghosh a terror attack, and vowed the police would continue to combat racially motivated violence
2014: Masses are scheduled to take place at churches in Newark, NJ, Mineola, NY and Yonkers, NY honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese diplomat who defied his government and issued thousands of life saving visas to Jews trying to escape Hitler’s Europe.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by genealogist Miriam Weinter and Avrum who will ”reveal important—but relatively unknown—resources for family-history research.”
2014: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers inducing The Train to Warsaw by Gwen Edelman, Suddenly, Love by Aharon Appelfeld and Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill.
2014: The funeral for ‘the former director of the Shin Bet internal security organization Avraham Shalom” is scheduled to be held today.
2014(24th of Sivan, 5774): Fifteen year old Mohammed Karkara, from the town of Arraba in the lower Galilee, who had accompanied his father to work on what was the first day of the summer vacation was killed in the Golan Heights this morning when an anti-tank missle was fired from Syria at an a vehicle delivering water to Israeli contractors working on a fence
2014: “A Palestinian man armed with a hand grenade broke through the Gaza fence and tried to infiltrate an Israeli community before he was stopped early this morning, the military said.”
2014: “May the force be with Jew” published today described the decision to have Israeli Ram Bergman produce “the next two Star War films, Star Wars Episodes VIII and IX.” (Debra Kamin)
2014: Today Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the “disgraceful decision by the US Presbyterian Church to divest from three companies that provide supplies to Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank.”
2015: Professor Ellen Eisenberg, “the author of two forthcoming books on Jewish Oregonians,” is scheduled to be the guest speaker at the Annual Meeting of the Oregon Jewish Museum Center for Holocaust Education in Portland.
2015(5th of Tammuz, 5775): Sixty-one year old Oscar winning composer James Horner passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2015: After a vote taken yesterday, the Berlin Philharmonic Symphony announced the appointment of Kirill Petrenko, 43, a Russian-born Jew, to replace Sir Simon Rattle
2015: French-Moroccan baritone David Serero is scheduled to appear as Shylock in his “Sephardi adaptation of” Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice” which will feature Sephardi music.
2015: Ruth Behar is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Reflecting On Adio Kerida,” the awarding winning film that chronicles “the lives of Jews in Cuba and Jewish Cubans in Miami and New York.”
2016: In Oregon, “P.S. Jerusalem” is scheduled to be shown today at the 24th annual Portland Jewish Film Festival.
2017(28th of Sivan, 5777): Seventy-eight year old St. Louis born “feminist” Sheila Babs Michaels, the daughter of “Alma Weil Michaels (née Weil), a playwright and theatrical producer and Ephraim London, a civil rights attorney” passed away today.
2017: The Jewish Federation of Greater did not hold its annual meeting today where it planned to present the Tikkun Olam Award to Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole on behalf of her department for incorporating Holocaust education into police training and collaborating with Jewish groups on a real-time communications tool developed after a shooting at the Federation’s headquarters in 2006 in the wake of “the death of Charleena Lyles, a 30-year old black woman, at the hands of police.”
2017: “Some of Israel’s top chefs were on hand at today’s Tel Aviv launch of Joan Nathan’s latest cookbook, King Solomon’s Table: A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World.” (As reported by Jessica Steinberg)
2017: In Coralville, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to hold its Congregational Meeting.
2017: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to host a “Twilight Tour” of downtown Washington that will included visits to “four historic synagogues.”
2017: “Letters from Baghdad,” a documentary about the role of Gertrude Bell in the history of Iraq is scheduled to be shown for the last time in Montclair, NJ.
2017: In Brooklyn the Batsheva Learning Center is scheduled to host an evening of “Sushi and Study.”
2018: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of a clip from “Spiral” followed by director and veteran journalist Laura Fairrie talking about” the rise of anti-Semitism in France and the quandary facing French Jews: “Pack up for Israel or remain to battle the rising hostility.”
2018: “On the Edge,” an “exhibition on loan from the Universcience Museum in Paris Is scheduled to open at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem.
2018: After have premiered at Sundance in January, “The Catch Was a Spy” the movie version of the book by the same named directed by Ben Lewin and starring Paul Rudd as Moe Berg was released today in the United States.
2018: Sitting in his home at Jaffa, erev Shabbat, Moshe Sakal, a product of the writing program at the University of Iowa describes his journey of self-discovery and discusses his first novel, The Diamond Setter.
2019: The Joyce Theatre is scheduled to host a performance of “Rushes pairs Pilobolus creativity with global dance mavericks Israeli choreographers Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak”
2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a docent tour “of the inspirational Museum which seamlessly weaves history with local Survivor narratives.”
2019: Following President Trump’s explanation for cancelling the attack on Iranian missile batteries because it would cause a “disproportionate number of causalities” Prime Minister Netanyahu, who worked to elect the Republican might be wondering what kind of support he would receive if Israel is attacked by Iran or its proxies such as Hezbollah.
2019(19th of Sivan, 5779): Parashat Beha’alotcha; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/