JUNE 29
1096: Crusaders massacred the Jews of Mehr.
1106: Moses Sephardi was baptized at Huseca, Spain and took the name of Petrus Alphonsi, the noted “physician, writer, astronomer and polemicist.” Among those who took issue with Alphonsi’s multiple attacks on Judaism was Jacob be Reuben, a Spanish rabbi who wrote Sefer Milhamot Adonai ("Book of the Wars of the Lord"
1312: Today, upon the return of Emperor Henry VII “from his coronation in the Lateran Basilica, he was presented with a scroll of the Law by a delegation of Jews which had gone to meet him.”
1397: Birthdate of John II of Aragon who reigned from 1456 until his death in 1479. During John’s reign Conversos and Jews held positions of power and influence. John even employed a Jew as his personal physician. Within 13 years of his death, the Jews would be expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.
1494: A fire broke out destroying part of Warsaw. The Jews were accused of setting the fire and attacked. King John I ordered them to leave the city and move to the "suburb" of Kazimierz, which became the first Polish ghetto. Jews were confined to the ghetto until 1868.
1509: Lady Margaret Beaufort whose son King Henry VII agreed to Spanish demands that Jews not be allowed to live in England as part of the terms of the marriage of his son to Catherine and whose grandson Henry VIII purchased a Talmud in his attempt justify divorcing Catherine and marrying Anne Boleyn, passed away today. (As reported by David Sedley)
1598: Birthdate of English preacher and political leader Hugh Peters who supported the ideas of Roger Williams which included “writing on behalf of the toleration of Jews.”
1613: Fifteen years after the copyright was obtained for the “Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre burned.
1652(23rd of Tammuz): Bible scholar Moses de Meccado passed away today.
1654: In Cuenca, Spain, 57 Marranos were taken to the auto-da-fe. Ten were burnt to death. One of them, Balthasar Lopez, announced as he was taken to the stake "I don't believe in Christ even if you bind me." He had returned recently from Bayonne in order to persuade his nephew to return to Judaism when he was captured by the Inquisition.
1654: A large auto-de-fe took place in Cuenca where many were burned to death. One man about to be burned threw the crucifix away from him. A priest scrambled to retrieve it and managed to talk the man into holding it again. As the executioner began to do his job, the priest asked if the man was truly repent, the dying man looked at him and said, "Father…do you think that this is a time to joke?"
1665: During the Inquisition, a “great auto-de-fe” took place in Cordova.
1720: Judah Monis, the son of Portguese conversos who had been educated at Jewish schools in Italy and Holland submitted handwritten copy of A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue to the Harvard Corporation which led to his being award a Masters of Degree making him the first Jew to graduate from Harvard. He would later convert so that he could join the school’s faculty.
1756(1st of Tammuz, 5516): Schoeneche Moses, A.M. Rothschild’s mother, dies from smallpox.
1776(12thof Tammuz, 5536): Parshat Chukat
1776: Jews in the 13 colonies observed Shabbat for the last time as British subjects since the Continental Congress would be publishing the Declaration of Independence in the upcoming week.
1776: As members of New York’s Congregation Sheartih Israel observe Shabbat, the massive British fleet carrying the army that was ordered to crush the rebellion in North America dropped anchor in the water’s just outside of the city.
1779: Birthdate of Amsterdam native Isaac Haim Bitton, who, at the age of ten, moved to London with his father where he became noted bare-knuckle (pre-Marquis of Queensbury) boxer.
1790(17th of Tammuz, 5550): Tzom Tammuz
1806: Two days after he passed away, Samson Gompertz, the son of Barent Gompertz and Rachel Benjamin Isaac was buried today in the United Kingdom
1807: Birthdate of mathematician Mortiz Abraham Stern, the native of Frankfurt who “was the first Jewish full professor at a German university” in this case Göttingen University.
1813: In New York, Eleazar Samuel Lazarus and Zipporah Lazarus gave birth to Moses Lazarus the husband of Esther Lazarus who were the parents of the famous poet Emma Lazarus.
1814: Aaron Nathan married Mary Mosely at the Great Synagogue.
1818: Nathan Mayer Rothschild and his wife gave birth to their fourth son, Baron Mayer Nathan de Rothschild who married his first cousin Juliana, the eldest daughter of Isaac Cohen in 1850. He was the father-in-law of Lord Rosebery.
1820: In Krakow, “Jekuthiel Solomon, a scholarly merchant who claimed he was a descendant of R. Moses Isserles” and his wife gave birth “to Polish Galician rabbi and historian Haim Nathan Dembitzer.”
1827(4th of Tammuz, 5587): Sixty-five year old Moses Belinfante who founded Sulamith, the first Dutch newspaper devoted to reporting the news of the Jewish community passed away today at The Hague.
1828: Birthdate of Solomon Loeb, the German-American merchant and banker who founded Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
1832(1st of Tammuz, 5592): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1832(1st of Tammuz, 5592): Eleven year old George Levy, the son of Hayman and Almeria Levy passed away today.
1847: Barnet Samuel Phillips married Philippa Samuel at the Great Synagogue.
1849: Birthdate of Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte, the 1st Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Russian Empire whose career had suffered because his second wife, Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich, was a converted Jew.
1852: “Hospital for the Jews” published today reported that "a number of Jewish citizens have united together for the purpose" of providing medical and surgical care to their poor co-religionists. The article provides a long list of names to which contributions can be sent including Samson Simson, John I. Hart and Benjamin Nathan.
1852: In Cincinnati, Oho, Fannie and Solomon Loeb were married today.
1852: Henry Clay, U.S. Senator from Kentucky and Secretary of State, passed away. In 1832, Senator Clay had used the term “Jew” in a manner that Samuel Etting of Baltimore considered a slur on his people. He wrote to Clay complaining of his language. Clay wrote back and apologized assuring Ettinger that he had not intended the use of the word Jew to be taken in that manner and that he had the utmost respect for the Jewish people. In 1850, Senator Clay led the fight in the Senate to reject a treat with the Swiss Confederation which would have subjected American Jews traveling in Switzerland to the laws of that country that discriminated against any Jews living there regardless of their nationality. [When you consider how few Jews there were living in the United States at this time, let alone in Kentucky, one cannot assume that Clay’s positive interaction on Jewish matters was one that he thought would bring him great political gain.]
1852(12th of Tammuz, 5612): Rabbi Aaron Moses Taubes passed away today.
1853: "France," subtitled "Theatrical and Operatic Intelligence" published today reports from Paris that Halevy's opera, "The Nabob" will be produced in less than a month. It is his first production since the close of "The Wandering Jew."
1855: Joseph Moses Levy agreed to print the Daily Telegraph & Courier which was founded today and which Levy acquired when the original owner failed to pay his printing bill.
1857: The New York Times reported that “both Houses of Parliament were engaged in consider the Jews’ Oath and Disabilities bill.” A motion to insert the words “on the true faith of a Christain” as is found in the current oath was rejected by a vote of 341 to 201. During the debate, Lord Palmerston said “that with the passage of the bill there was nothing to prevent Jews from hold the office of Lord Chancellor or Prime Minister.
1857: The New York Times reported that "In the House of Commons, Lord Palmerston gave notice that he would bring a bill to remodel the Parliamentary oaths - to omit the words 'on the true faith of a Christian’ and thereby to admit Jews into Parliament. Leave was given to bring in the bill."
1862(1st of Tammuz, 5622): A month to the day after General Beauregard’s Confederate Army abandoned Corinth to the Union Army, Jews observed Rosh Chodesh Tammuz.
1863: During the Civil War, the 11th regiment of the New York State Militia under the command of Colonel Joachim Maidhof which had been folded into the Union Army, “took part in a skirmish near Oyster Point, PA.”
1864: Elias Leon Hyneman a trooper in the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry was taken prisoner during a raid near Petersburg, VA. Hyneman was captured after he had given his horse to a wounded trooper whose horse had been shot out from under him and gave his boots to another wounded comrade who was barefoot. Hyneman ended up the hell of Andersonville where he died in January of 1865. It was a miserable end for man who had volunteered at the start of the war and had fought with the Army of the Potomac from 1862 through the Wilderness Campaign of 1864.
1864(25th of Sivan, 5624): During the Civil War, Henry Cohen of South Carolina was killed while serving with the Confederacy.
1865: Philadelphian Ellis C. Strouss who had enlisted as a Private in Company K of the 57th Regiment in 1861 completed his service having reached the rank of Captain.
1865: Jacob Herrman, who had risen to the rank of Sergeant in Company C of the 98th Regiment and who had been “wounded at Cedar Creek, VA in 1864 completed his service that had begun in 1861)
1869: Elie-Aristide Astruc, who had been serving as the Chief Rabbi of Belgium of 1866 attended the Synod at Leipzig which began today.
1869: In Indianapolis, IN, John and Elizabeth Booth Tarkington gave birth to novelist Newton Booth Tarkington who gained fame as Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Booth Tarkington author of The Magnificent Ambersons whom, according to Greg Wright may, or may not have been an anti-Semite of sorts. (Editor’s note – I will leave this up to the readers to make their own decision)
1870(30th of Sivan, 5630): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1872: Jacob Levi, a Jew from Germany, living in New York, was arrested by Captain Leary on charges of having swindled Alois Grieshaber out of $545 and Joseph Ruath out of $1,000. He was “committed to the Tombs” where he will stay until his trial takes place.
1875: Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria passed away. During Ferdinand’s reign the Jews became full-fledged citizens of the Empire under the terms of the “Ausgleich”.
1877: Today, Frederick W. Seward, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State wrote a letter today to Meyer S. Isaacs, the President of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites. The letter was written in response to one that the Board of Delegates had sent asking that the U.S. government intervene on behalf of the Jews, many of them who are from Russia, living in and around Jerusalem. The secretary said that normally protection of the U.S. government is given only to U.S. citizens living abroad. However, the U.S. has shown its “sympathy for all the oppressed peoples in foreign countries” so long as it actions can be taken in accordance with “international courtesy and diplomatic usage.”
1878: “A Large Furniture House Fails” published today described the surprising demise of B.L. Solomon and Sons, a 45 year old concern whose partners included four Solomons – Barnet, Solomon, Judah and Simon. The company reported that it had $300,000 in liabilities. The failure was attributed to the inability to liquidate real estate own by B.L. Solomon which, if it had been sold, would have been able to provide more than adequate working capital for the company.[Drop in the real estate market causes business failure – sound familiar?)
1881: The Board of Estimate and Apportionment awarded $51,556.42 to a variety of charitable institutions including $2,020.00 for the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1882: As the Freight Handlers’ Strike continues to slow down commercial activity in New York and New Jersey, foreign born strike-breakers including150 Russian Jews were kept busy at the piers of the Empire and Star Union Lines. Other foreign born workers including those from Germany and Italy were work elsewhere on the docks.
1882: The Board of Estimate and Apportionment met in the Mayor’s office today and awarded $27,427.98 to a variety of charitable institutions including $1,433.81 to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1882: “A Noble Hebrew Charity” published today reported that the newly opened Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in Yonkers is the first of its kind to be built and furnished by the B’nai B’rith. The plan is to build an orphanage on the same grounds once funds are available. Both facilities are for the use members and their families. The home has a capacity for approximately 250 men and women.
1882: According to reports from Odessa (Russia), the District Court of Tiraspol (Moldavia) has sentenced the “anti-Semites” who killed one Jew and injured several others during riots at Dubosari (Moldavia) in April. The guilty parties have been deprived of their civil rights and transportation (to Siberia) for three years.
1882: It was reported today that the Sultan is about to issue a “firman” granting Jewish refugees the right to settle in parts of North Syria and Mesopotamia
1883: “Pauper Immigrants” published today described the quandary faced by the Emigration Commissioners in dealing with those arriving on ships from Great Britain who appeared to be indigent. According to the Attorney General of New York, those without funds would be admitted only if they could prove that they had friends who were willing and able to care for them. The deliberations never mentioned Russian or Romanian Jews, but they would obviously be affected by the ruling. [Editor’s Note – Immigration policy disputes are not a 21stcentury invention.]
1884: The Jewish quarter was pillaged today during anti-Semitic riots in Algiers.
1884: The Mound Street Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio was the scene of today’s graduation exercises for those who have successfully completed the course of study at the Hebrew Union College, which describes itself as the only Rabbinical College in the United States. The class of five was the second to graduate. All of last year’s graduates are employed. So far, one member of this year’s class has been hired by a congregation in Leavenworth, Kansas and the others expect job offers within the near future.
1887: It was reported today that the Hebrew Technical Institute on Stuyvesant Street is beginning new classes that will include instruction in mechanical drawing, word working, clay modeling and metal working as well as math, physics and English. The full course of instruction takes three years to complete. [The emphasis on vocational education reflects the need to provide skills for eastern European Jews who did not know how to compete in the industrial world of their new home country.]
1889(30th of Sivan, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1890: “Arrested For Arons published today described claims by authorities that they have affidavits from witnesses claiming they saw Samson Hiedenheimer, a prominent Galveston, TX Jewish businessman set fired to the Standard Oil Mill and then drive off in a buggy with his brother Isaac Heidenheimer. The Heidenheimers own the company and it is alleged they burned it to collect insurance money.
1891: In Xanten, Prussia, the libelous charges of ritual murder were uttered publicly. The rise of anti-Semitism culminating in this libel resulted in an exodus of Jews from Germany to the United States and other countries.
1891: Serious “anti—Semitic riots are reported” to have broken out in Kherson in southern Russia.
1892: “Will Challenge De Mores” published today described the plans of Captain AndreCrémieu-Foa, a Jew serving in the French army to fight a duel with Marquis de Mores after he has stood trial for killing Captain Armand Mayer. De Mores has already fought a duel with Eduard Drumont following his articles in Libre Parole claiming that Jews have too much control over the French Army
1892: “In a letter to his mentor Josef Breuer, Sigmund Freud makes his first references to the ‘unconscious’ and to unconscious motivation.”
1893(15th of Tammuz, 5653): Thirty-three year old historian Julius Aronius who was working on a history of the Jews of Germany during the Middle Ages which gave “in chronological order, under each date, an abstract of every entry in the medieval chronicles and documents relating to the Jews of Germany” at the time of his death today in Rastenburg.
1895: Annie Silverman, the wife of Wolf Silverman passed away today in New York.
1895: “Homeless and Destitute Jews” published today relies on information that first appeared in The London Daily News to described the plight of the “nearly two hundred Jews” who have been left “homeless and destitute” by the terrible fire at Brest-Litovsk. The refugees are being take care of by the Hebrew Benevolent Association at Odessa.
1896: Birthdate of Boris Podollsky, the Russian born American physicist who worked with Albert Einstein and Nathan Rosen, the father of Dr. Joe Rosen.
1896: Two days after he passed away, seventy-seven Hannah Nathan (nee Hart) who had been married to Morris Horowitz before she married Moses Nathan was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1896: Herzl leaves Turkey in possession of the "Commander's Cross of the Order of the Medjidje" as visible evidence of the seriousness of the negotiations. On the way back to Vienna, Herzl spends a few hours in Sofia. He his conducted to the Zionist Society and the synagogue. Hundreds of people cheer him.
1896: “Julius S. Abecasis, the well-known rubber broker” and prominent member of the Sephardic community in New York, was injured today “in a collision between his bicycle and an express wagon driven by Charles Reilly.
1897: “The Hebrew Technical School for Girls held its commencement exercises today at the school building on Henry Street.”
1897(29th of Sivan, 5657): Sixty-five year old Solomon Bloomfield, a member of the Free Sons of Israel, died this morning at Mt. Sinai Hospital. A native of Germany, he came to this country 40 years settling first in New York before moving to California where he operated a successful tobacco business. Upon returning to New York “he opened a shoe store on Sixth Avenue” which he continued to operate “until two years ago when he retired.”
1897: “Jews Persecuted in Persia” published today described reports by the United States Minister of Persia of a recent Muslim invasion of the Jewish quarter in Teheran. His appeal to the Shah failed to improve matters since “the officers sent to protect” them “extorted all their money.”
1900: The Prinzessin Victoria Luise a German passenger ship of the Hamburg-America Line of some 4,409 gross register tons credited with having been the first purpose-built cruise ship which was built after Albert Ballin, the director of the Hamburg-American Line envisioned the project and order it built, was launched today.
1902:”A Museum of Peace and War” published today described the opening of the museum in Lucerned found by the late Russian financier, economist and author of The Future of War, Jan Gotlib Bloch who was born Jewish but converted to Calvinism.
1903: In New York City, real estate developer Abraham Felt and his wife gave birth to Wharton graduate James Felt who followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather when he went into to the real estate business instead of becoming a Rabbi and went on to become the Chairman of the City Planning Commission
1903: Birthdate of Alan Blumlein, English engineer, who played a key role in developing electronic equipment for the RAF that was critical in holding the Germans at bay in the years following the fall of France in 1940.
1906: Birthdate of Port Arthur, TX, native and Harvard Law School graduate Irving Loeb Goldberg, the WW II naval veteran who capped his legal career by serving as Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
1906: Birthdate of San Francisco native Benjamin A. “Benny” Lom, the three-season all-star halfback at the University of California, Berkley “best known for his attempt to stop a team mate from running the “wrong way” in the 1929 Rose Bowl
1908: Birthdate of Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon, American Jewish archaeological scholar. Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon was a scholar of Near East culture and a leading expert on ancient languages. Dr. Gordon was professor of Near Eastern studies at Brandeis University from 1956 to 1973 and chairman of its department of Mediterranean studies from 1958 to 1973. He was a professor of Hebrew studies at New York University from 1973 to 1989, when he retired. In part, his claim to fame came from his writings on Ugaritic, an ancient language spoken in part of what is today is modern Syria. Based on his linguistic and other studies, Dr. Gordon believed that the Greeks and the Israelites had a common cultural origin. Dr. Gordon passed away in 2001.
1910: Birthdate of composer Frank Loesser. Loesser wrote such Broadway hits as “Guys and Dolls” and “How To Succeed in Business Without Trying.” He won an Oscar for "Baby It's Cold Outside." He passed away in 1969.
1911: In Los Angeles, The American Medical Association elected 85 year old Dr. Abraham Jacob, “a specialist in children’s diseases” who “took part in the German revolution of 1848 and came to the United States as refugee, to serve as President making him the first person to be so chosen who was not a convention attendee.
1911: Joseph Seligman, son of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Seligman is scheduled to marry Josephine Knowles of Pensacola, FL, in Massawittie Lodge in North Hatley, Canada.
1911: Birthdate of composer Bernard Herrmann, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia who created the theme music of a whole host of films. He created the music for the Orson Wells’ classics, Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Amberson. He was a favorite of Alfred Hitchcock for whom provided the theme muic for Trouble with Harry, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho. He passed away in 1975. Herrmann is another example of the Jewish role in creating modern American culture.
1912: According to today’s issue of Scientific American, the U.S. Secretary of War selected a special board of officers to investigate the accident that killed test pilot Arthur L. Welsh and his passenger, Lieut. Leighton Hazelhurst, officer-aviator of the U.S. Signal Corps. The investigation would place the blame on Welsh. Investigators reported that Welsh and Hazelhurst were testing out a new weight-carrying military biplane just delivered for trial by the Wright Company. They began a climbing test of 200 feet a minute for 10 minutes with a weight of 450 pounds, and fuel for four hours. The investigation stated that Welsh rose to about 150 feet in order to dive at an angle of about 45 degrees to gain momentum for a sharp rise. The report concluded that the reversal occurred too suddenly. The Welsh family did not agree with the outcome of the investigation. Welsh’s “widow always believed that the War Department pushed too hard for tests that were sure to fail. On the day of the crash, not only was Welsh carrying too much of a load, but he also carried his passenger and was expected to climb too quickly and too high when you consider the weight. Too much was expected." Regardless of which view one believes, the final word on Welsh’s career may be been written by General “Hap” Arnold, the five star general who served in both the U.S. Army Air Forces and the newly created U.S. Air Force. In a 1930 letter to Welsh's sister, Arnold wrote, "The pioneers in the aviation game were the ones who took all the risks and received little in exchange for their daring. Al was one of those pioneers." In his book Global Mission, Arnold wrote: "He had taught me all he knew, or rather, he had taught me all he could teach. He knew much more."
1912: Birthdate of Lucie Bernard who married Raymond Samuel, the French Jewish engineer who gained fame as Raymond Aubrac and she gained fame as Lucie Aubrac his fellow fighter against the Nazi occupation.
1913: The convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of the United States and Canada which was founded 15 years ago is scheduled to open this morning at the Uptown Talmud Torah.
1913: In New York, Tifereth Israel dedicated its new synagogue.
1913: In Manhattan, formation of Temple of Moses Anshe Trob.
1913: Birthdate of Sir Gerald David Nunes Nabarro, the scion of “a prominent Sephardi family” who converted to Christianity and served as an MK for the Conservative Party.
1913: In New York dedication of Temple Moses Anshe Trob
1913: Start of the Second Balkan War.
1914: In McKeesport, PA, Sam and Lena Spiegel gave birth to Herbert Spiegel, the famous physician who “treated pain, anxiety and addictions by putting people into a trance.” (As reported by Benedict Carey)
1914: In Rochester, NY, the convention of the Federation of the American Zionists which Max Schulmam of the Knights of Zion and Miss Bessie Schulman of the “Hoachuzah Order are attending as delegates is scheduled to continue for a second day.
1914: A day after the Austro-Hungarians declared war on the Serbians, Czar Nicholas sent a telegram to Kaiser Wilhelm II suggesting “submitting the Austrian-Serbian problem to the Hague Convention” for resolution.
1916: Isidore Hershfield, Director of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society who has just returned from the European War Zone “declared in a meeting at Carnegie Hall that in occupied Russia alone, 750,000 Jews were on the verge of starvation” and he urged immediate relief measures” to alleviate their suffering including “the prompt shipment of foodstuffs to the staring districts of Poland, Courland, Lithuania and Galicia.”
1917: “British, French, Russian and Italian Ministers at the Hauge made joint representations to the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs asking that the Netherlands Minster at Constantinople be instructed to approach the Turkish Government and to request that in the name of humanity, a stop be put to Jewish persecutions.”
1918: “Yiddish conversation was prohibited in the streets” of Romania.
1918: Consecration of the Dalston Talmud Torah in London.
1919: “Sahara” a silent film with music Hugo Riesenfeld was released today in the United States.
1919: Soldiers, sailors and marines who are in uniform were admitted free of charge at this evening’ dance hosted by the Chicago Hebrew Institute.
1919: This afternoon, The Maccabee School is scheduled to host “entertainment” in the Social Hall of the Administration Building of the C.H.I.
1919: The 21st Annual Convention of the Progressive Order of the West ended today in Chicago.
1919: In New York City, “Edgar J. and Mabel (Untergerg) Nathan gave birth to Yale University trained attorney and U.S.A.A WW II veteran Edgar J. Nathan, the husband of Ruth Gottesman with whom he had three children while serving as Judge for the United States District Court and as President of Congregation Shearith Israel in NYC
1920: Colonel Gustav Porgas was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal today.
1920: This evening in Rochester, NY, “Miss Sadie Huyla Rose, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Rose” married Rabbi Baruch Weilerstein, the spiritual leader of “Temple Emanu-El of Borough Park in Brooklyn.
1921: Dr. Emil G. Hirsh, the Rabbi of Chicago’s Temple Sinai, officiated at the marriage of Mrs. Edith R. Sulzberger the daughter Mr. and Mrs. Julius Rosenwald and Edgar B. Stern of New Orleans. This Stern should not be confused with Alfred K. Stern who is the fiancée of Edith’s sister Marion.
1922: Birthdate of Trondheim native Lilly Dvoretsky, the seamstress who was deported from Norway February of 1943 aboard the Gotenland and murdered at Auschwitz in March of 1943.
1922: Birthdate of Ottawa born Royal Canadian Air Force Flying Officer Lawrence Balfour who enlisted in 1940 and was killed almost three years to the day later after which he was buried in Cheshire, UK.
1923: Meyer Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv, addresses a letter to the New York Times thanking everybody from the Mayor on down for the hospitality shown to him during his recent trip to New York. He expressed his hope that the “first Jewish city” would benefit from the things shown him including the city’s public utility system.
1924: Birthdate of composer Ezra Laderman, a leading 20th century classical composer. He has won the Rome Prize and several Guggenheim Fellowships. He has taught at several leading institutions including Sarah Laurence and has been the visiting composer at Yale.
1925: In Brooklyn, baker Sam Storch and his wife Bessie gave birth to actor and producer Arthur Storch. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
1927: In Vienna, the former Anna Kahane and Kalman Rubinger gave birth to Israeli photojournalist David Ruginger.
1925: In Brooklyn, Sam and Bessie Storch gave birth to actor and director Arthur Storch.
1926(17th of Tammuz, 5686): Tzom Tammuz
1926: “We Belong to the Imperial and Royal Infantry Regiment” a silent film directed, produced and written by Richard Oswald and starring Frit Spiral was released in Germany today.
1926: Arthur Meighen returns to office as Prime Minister of Canada. In 1925, while serving as leader of the “loyal opposition” he spoke during ceremonies dedicating the new Hebrew University. Echoing traditional English-Canadian views on the Holy Land and Jewish restoration, Meighen said, “Of all the results” of World War “none is more important and more fertile in human history than the re-conquest of Palestine and the rededication of that country to the Jewish people.” Meighen went on to express the hope that “Jews in Canada [would] take a proper pride in this great event and that the sons of generations to come may go back to the land of their destiny.”
1928(11th of Tammuz, 5688): Morris Rich, founder of Atlanta’s famed Rich’s Department Store, passed away.
1929: Birthdate of Lalla Fatima Zohra the wife of Moulay Ali Alaoui, the Moroccan prince who was one of the two principal negotiators with the Israelis in Operation Yakhin that made it possible for almost 100,000 Jews to leave the country and go to Israel.
1929: After his first wife passed in 1927, today in the New Kahal Chassidim Synagogue, Titanic survivor Abraham Joseph Hyman married the “widow Esther Libbert, née Rosengrass” whose husband, the jeweler Abraham Libbert” with whom she had had two children – Jack and Fanny
1929: Birthdate of Edgar Bronfman, Sr. CEO of Seagram’s until 1994
1930: Birthdate of producer Robert Evans
1931: The Seventeenth World Zionist Congress is scheduled to open in Basle.
1932: Birthdate of British poet and critic Philip Dennis Hobsbaum.
1932: The Dow Jones industrial average dipped to 42 and Roy R. Neuberger married Marie Salant, a graduate in economics from Bryn Mawr who had gone to work in the research department of Halle & Stieglitz two years earlier.
1933(5th of Tammuz, 5693): Seventy year old Ellen Odette Cuffe, Countess of Desart, née Bischoffsheim who has been called '"the most important Jewish woman in Irish history" passed away today.
1934: Birthdate of Alan Cohen who gained fame as Corey Allen “an American film and television director, writer, producer, and actor… be best known for playing the character Buzz Gunderson in Nicholas Ray's 1955 film classic, “Rebel Without a Cause.”
1936: Rumania was wracked with widespread “anti-Semitic and Fascist agitation today” during which several Jews “were wounded.”
1936: In Tirguocna, Rumania, anti-Semitic students forced a boycott of Jewish shops while “a number of Jews were beaten” and the windows of their stores and homes were smashed.
1936:The Palestine Postreported that a government school was set on fire in Jaffa. Sniping continued on convoys of buses traveling on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv and Jerusalem-Hebron roads. The long-awaited reply of the Arab Higher Committee addressed to the High Commissioner and the Colonial Office stated that the British government continued to ignore all its undertakings given to the Arab people.
1936: In Saratoga Springs, NY, Governor Lehman addressed the convention of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham today during which “he advocated the founding of more Jewish community centers declaring ‘the future depends upon the integrity, intelligence and character of our youth.’”
1936: The newly formed American League for Religious Liberty “composed of Catholics, Protestant and Jews” of which Governor Lehman is one of the honorary chairmen, “began a national campaign today to unite Americans religious persecution”
1937: Leon Blum began serving as Vice-Premier of France.
1937: At a public meeting marking the closing of the 40thanniversary convention of the Zionist Organization of America, United States Senator Robert F. Wagner told the delegates that “Great Britain must honor her objection to the Jews in Palestine and America has the right to expect her to do so.”
1937: In Bulgaria, the latest anti-Semitic attacks took place tonight when a ‘bombing attempt was made against a synagogue” at the same time that “the explosion of an infernal machine at Varna…wrecked a Jewish merchant’s house.”
1937: In San Antonio, policeman conducted a “violent” raid on the headquarters of the Worker’s Alliance which was condemned by Ephraim Firish the rabbi at Temple Beth-El a reform congregation in this southwest Texas city.
1938: “The Voelkischer Beobachter, the official Nazi organ, today published the names of 7,126 Vienna Jews ‘temporarily removed’ from the list of practicing lawyers.
1938: “In the Augruarten, the park in the Second District or center of the Jewish population in Vienna, Jewish women were forced to cut grass and afterward groups of Hitler Youths accompanied by Storm Troopers raided many houses and forced Jewish men and women to come out and paint on the walls of the Augarten ‘Entry to this park is prohibited to Jews.’”
1938 (30th of Sivan, 5698): Chanting the song of the Revisionist party and dressed in its uniform, 19-year-old Solomon ben Yosef steadily walked to the gallows in the troop-surrounded prison at Acre at 8 A. M. He was sentenced to be hanged by the British for alleged terrorist activities, which in fact consisted of being part of a group that scared away Arabs by firing a shot in the air. His last words were "Yechi Jabotinsky (Long live Jabotinsky); Lamut o Lichbosh et Hahar (To die or take the mountain)" after which he sang “Hatikvah.” No Rabbi was present since today was Rosh ChodeshTammuz. In fact, some Jews had hoped that the British might use this as an excuse for commuting his death sentence. British airplanes, policemen and troops tonight patrolled a Palestine which had been made tense by the hanging of the Jewish youth.
1939: Thirteen Arabs were killed and four wounded in shooting outrages in the early hours of this morning in Southern Palestine. Two of the victims were shot dead on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. In general, Jewish opinion condemns the attacks on innocent Arab civilians. “This evening’s edition of the daily Davar headlines all its news with this bold type query: ‘Who will put an end to the outrages that sully our struggle and ruin our population.’” The attacks are seen as a reaction to the new British land law that “is regarded even by moderates as flagrant breach of faith on the part of Great Britain to the Jews.”
1939: “Early this morning a boat carrying 742 Jewish immigrants trying to land clandestinely without visas was apprehended by the Coast Guard near Gaza”. The passengers were taken by train to Haifa. If they are released, their number will be deducted from small quota of “legal Jews” who will be allowed to enter Palestine.
1941 (4th of Tammuz, 5701): In Jassy, Rumania; soldiers and police, under the watch of the SS, kill over 260 Jews. 5,000 other Jews are stripped of all belongings and then placed into cattle cars, (over 100 in each), and sent to Mirteshet. On the way over 600 Jews would die. Once there another 327 would die. Within an eight-day period, over 2,500 people would die during the train ride.
1941: Nazis murdered the male Jews of Drobian, Lithuania.
1941: Nazi forces led by the 291stInfantry Division captured Liepāja, Latvia which lead to a series of massacres of the Jewish population.
1942: One-year anniversary of the founding of the Judenrat in Bialystok. A quote from Ephraim Barash's diary captured the feelings of the time, "It is lucky that we cannot foresee the future, for if we could, we would not have lived and reached the present stage. There is no place for optimism in the ghetto."
1942(14th of Tammuz, 5702): Armed Jewish resistance takes place at Slonim, Belorussia. The Germans burn Jews to death, killing nearly 15,000.
1942: A 13-year-old girl in Amsterdam who would gain fame as Anne Frank wrote in the diary which she had received as a birthday present only eight days before: "I want to write, but, more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart."
1942: A second gas chamber begins functioning at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
1942: The Blue Network broadcast the last episode of “I Love a Mystery” sponsored by Fleischmann’s Yeast and featuring Tony Randall (Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg).
1943 (26th of Sivan, 5703): South of Warsaw, five Poles are shot for hiding four Jews. The latter also are shot.
1943 (26th of Sivan, 5703): At the Biala-Waka labor camp near Vilna, Lithuania, 67 inmates are shot as reprisal for the escape of six Jews to a nearby forest.
1943(26thof Sivan, 5703): Fifty-three year old Polish born cantor and composer who had served as chazzan for synagogues in New York and Detroit before assuming that position at Beth Sholam in Pittsburgh passed away today.
1945: Churchill writes to Weizmann justifying his decision to continue the White Paper of 1939 by reminding the Jewish leaders that many Conservative MP’s were opposed to the Zionist cause and that many members of the Labor Party were adopting the view as well. He urged Weizmann to stop looking to the British and seek support from the United States to gain the opening of Palestine to Jewish immigration.
1945: Sir Louis Halle Gluckstein “was appointed as a King’s Counsel” today.
1946: Birthdate of Zvi (Mickey) Har-Even (Harivan), the son of Sylvia and Aurel who emigrated from Romania in 1950. He died at the age of 22 while serving on board the Submarine Dakar.
1946: This day was the Black Sabbath in Pre-state Israel. In the largest operation to date, thousands of British soldiers and policemen raid kibbutzim looking for hidden weapons. The British arrested 2,700 Jews living legally in Palestine in an attempt to destroy the Yishuv. The British dubbed this action “Operation Agatha” and Kibbutz Yagur, an important center for the Haganah, was a major focal point for their raids. The British claimed their actions were part of a plan to stamp out terrorism. Apparently, there were no Arab terrorists since no Arabs we arrested.
1946: A scheduled luncheon meeting between Abba Eban and Moshe Sharett is cancelled amid reports that the British are arresting large numbers of Zionist leaders.
1947: Birthdate of Brooklyn native and Ohio State University alum Richard Philip Lewis who began a career as a standup comic in the 1970’s
1947(11th of Tammuz, 5707): Judge Isaac Siegel, a Republican politician who had represented New York’s 20th District in the House of Representatives, passed away.
1948: Mike Flanagan Irishman who fought in the British army during World War II and participated in the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945 and his friend and tank commander Harry McDonald, broke into a military base near the Haifa airport, stole the two tanks and drove them to Tel Aviv where Hagana operatives were waiting.
1948: Meir Tobianski, native of Kovna who joined the Haganah and was working as an engineer for the Jerusalem electricity company swore allegiance to the newly created IDF.
1948: Al Freeman arrived in Israel to serve as pilot with 101 Squadron of the Israeli Air Force.
1948: Birthdate of William “Billy” Keyserling” the native of Beaufort, SC and grandson of immigrant Jews who after earning degrees from Brandeis University and Boston University pursued a career in politics that was capped by becoming Mayor of his home town.
1949(2nd of Tammuz, 5709): Eighty-seven year old Dr. David Philipson, a native of Wabash, IN, who became a leader of the Reform movement whose literary works included The Reform Movement in Judaism and Old European Jewries passed away today
1949: “The Great Sinner” directed by Robert Siodmak, produced by Gottfried Reinhardt and co-starring Melvyn Douglas (Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg) was released in the United States today.
1949: Birthdate of Micky Arison an Israeli-American businessman and the Chief Executive Officer of Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise operator, and owner of the NBA's Miami Heat. At one time, Forbes magazine places Arison's wealth at $6.1 billion, making him the 94th wealthiest person in the world as of 2006. He is the son of the late Ted Arison, Carnival Corporation's founder and the brother of Shari Arison reputed to be the wealthiest woman in Israel. While Arison is a resident of Miami, he maintains a home in Israel.
1949: Tonight, “at a dinner given by the UJA at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in memory of Dr. Stephen S. Wise,’ former Governor Herbert H. Lehman, who had just returned from a trip to Israel “said that the faith of Israelis in their future was based in no small measure on the encouragement and support that has been given them by the American Jewish community” while providing “a serious appraisal of the enormous problems” still confronting the newly formed state.
1950: “The Next Voice You Hear” produced by Dore Schaty and with music by David Raskin released in the United States today.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that the zone limits scheme, imposed on the public by the Ministry of Transportation in order to save foreign currency, will continue. M.S. Tamar, Zim's newest fruit-carrier vessel, was launched in Holland.
1952: Travel writer Diana Rice describes the progress being made on constructing the Nordeau Plaza Hotel in Tel Aviv. The hotel is scheduled to open in September. The four million dollar seaside structure boasts luxury suites, a variety of shops intended to attract tourists and a banquet hall that will seat 1,000.
1952(5th of Tammuz, 5712): Parshat Korach
1952(5th of Tammuz, 5712): Sixty-four year old Nathan David Perlman whose career included serving in the House of Representative, “justice of the Court of Special Sessions of the City of New York” and as “a senior official of the American Jewish Congress” passed away today at Beth Israel Hospital.
1954: After is premiere in New York City “About Mrs. Leslie” directed by Daniel Mann, produced by Hal Wallis and with a script co-authored by Hal Kanter opened in Los Angeles today.
1954: The Atomic Energy Commission refused to reinstate the security clearance of Robert J. Oppenheimer, the “father of the Atomic Bomb.” This might be seen as a case of Jew v Jew since Edward Teller testified against Oppenheimer and Lewis Strauss, chairman of the commission, had pushed for the revocation in the first place.
1955: Haim-Moshe Shapira succeeds Israel Rokach as Minister of Internal Affairs.
1959: It was reported today that “Premier David Ben-Gurion has informed leaders of his Mapai Party that he resign if the Left-wing labor parties in his coalition Government continue their attacks on the sale of Israeli-manufactured arms to West Germany” a move which was quite controversial coming just fifteen years after the end of the Holocaust
1959(23rd of Sivan, 5719): Seventy-year old French art dealer Paul Rosenberg passed away today.
1960: “Strangers When We Met” a story of infidelity starring Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau was released in the United States today.
1960: In London, “Soviet historian Alexander Nove” and his wife gave birth to BBC newsreader and announcer Charles Alexis Nove.
1961: NBC broadcast the final episode of “The Ford Show” written by Norman Lear and directed by Bud Yorkin.
1966: “Walk, Don’t Run” a comedy produced by Sol Siegel with a script co-authored by Sol Saks was released today in the United States.
1966: “A Fine Madness” a film version of the novel by the same name directed by Irvin Kershner, produced by Jerome Hellman and featuring Zohra Lampert was released in the United States today.
1967: The official reunification of Jerusalem begins as 8,570 acres of west Jerusalem are united with 18,750 acres of east Jerusalem. It was not only Jews who hailed this event. Nabil Khoury wrote in the Beirut weekly al-Hawadith, ‘On June 29, in Jaffa Road, the main street of Jerusalem, the Hebrew tongue disappeared. On that day, along the entire length of the street, Palestinian Arabic, in all its different dialects, was heard.’
1967: In Tel Aviv, David Ben-Gurion told his supporters that “the re-building of Jerusalem must be at the center of the national effort.” These words followed naturally for the man who had fought to keep the road to Jerusalem open during the dark days of 1947-1948 when so many told him that it could not be done.
1971(6thof Tammuz, 5731): Sixty-one year old Amelia Held Ullman, the wife of Gilbert Victory passed away today in her hometown of Richmond, VA.
1972(17th of Tammuz, 5732): Tzom Tammuz
1972: “The Candidate” a movie about senatorial politics featuring Melvyn Douglas, Allen Garfield and Michael Lerner with music by John Rubinstein, the son of pianist Arthur Rubinstein, was released in the United States today.
1974: David Chernoglaz, who was sentenced in Kishinev trial in June 1971 to five years labor camp, was scheduled to be transferred from Perm camp to Vladimir prison for participating in hunger strike before President Nixon’s visit.
1975: “Two groups of refusniks met separately with ten senators visiting Moscow in the room of New York Senator Jacob Javits.
1975(20thof Tammuz, 5735): Seventy five year old New York native Jess Ward the “founder and president of Jess Ward & Co., Inc., woolen merchants” and husband of Lenore Ward with whom he had had two sons – Sanford and Berry—passed away today in Jerusalem while on trip where he and his wife were “to dedicated an amphitheater they had donated to the Kfar Batya Children’s Village.”
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported from Entebbe, Uganda, that hijackers held there more than 250 Air France Airbus passengers and threatened to blow them all up if Uganda's security forces intervened. Uganda's President Idi Amin paid a visit to the hijackers. The Israeli Embassy in Paris was assured that France would do everything it could to secure the release of all hijacked passengers.
1976: From Entebbe, the terrorists released their demands : The release of fifty three of what they called freedom fighters and civilized people called murdering terrorists and/or their supporters, imprisoned in five countries had to be flown to Uganda by noon GMT along with $5 million “or the terrorists would blow up the plane with the hostages on board.”
1976: In the evening, the terrorists at Entebbe began the process of separating the Israelis and Jews from the other hostages.
1978: United Artist released “Fedora,” directed by Billy Wilder with a screenplay by Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond.
1978(24th of Sivan, 5738): Two people were killed and 47 were injured when terrorists set off a bomb in Jerusalem market.
1979: In Canada, premiere of “Meatballs” the first of series of off-beat comedies directed by Ivan Reitman, written by Len Blum, Dan Goldberg and Harold Ramis with music by Elmer Bernstein.
1980: After 557 performances and 19 previews, ”Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” a Stephen Sondheim musical completed its first Broadway run.
1983: Helen Reddy who had converted to Judaism before marrying Jeff Wald, married Milton Ruth today.
1984(29thof Sivan, 5744): On his seventy-eighth birthday San Francisco native Benjamin A. “Benny” Lom, the three-season all-star halfback at the University of California, Berkley “best known for his attempt to stop a team mate from running the “wrong way” in the 1929 Rose Bowl passed away today.
1987: ''Yiddish Theater in London, 1880-1987,'' an exhibition that is part of this summer's Jewish East End Celebration at Lyttleton Circle Foyer, National Theater
1987: Birthdate of Gal Nevo, the Olympic Israeli swimmer who is a native Kibbutz Hamadia in the Beit She’an Valley.
1990(6th of Tammuz, 5750): Seventy-four year old author Irving Wallace passed away.
1995(1st of Tammuz, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1995(1st of Tammuz, 5755): Eighty-one year old Lewis Jacob Affelder, the Cleveland born son of Harry Fleishman Affelder and Rhoda E. Affelder and the husband of Ruth Steinbach Affelder passed away today in his home town.
1995: Betzalel Tabib who had been Head of the Local Council in Arad since 1986 completed his service today.
1996:“As Marie and Roy Neuberger celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary today, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed to 5,704. Mr. Neuberger later described their time together as “64 wonderful years together.”
1997: After 89 performances and 27 previews “An American Daughter,” a play written by Wendy Wasserstein completed its first Broadway run.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Handsome Is Adventures With Saul Bellow: A Memoir” by Harriet Wasserman, “The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich” by Michael H. Kater and “A Tale of Two Continents: A Physicist's Life in a Turbulent World, the autobiography of Dutch born Jewishphysicist Abraham Pais
1999(15th of Tammuz, 5759): Sixty-two year old Northwestern University alum Allan Carr who went from running the talent agency Allan Carr Enterprises to a successful career as a screenwriter and a producer who “was named Producer of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners.”
2001: “A,I.” a science fiction film about artificial intelligence directed and produced by Steven Spielberg who also co-authored the script was released in the United States today.
2003: “During the Second Intifada a temporary armistice was unilaterally declared by Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which declared a ceasefire and halt to all attacks against Israel for a period of three months which really meant that violence decreased somewhat in the following month but suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.”
2003: President Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met at the White House.
2003: Today, in the Denver Botanic Garden, basketball coach and teacher Todd Schayes married Diane Lipner.
2003: The pre-Broadway run of the Stephen Schwartz musical “Wicked” came to a close in San Francisco where it was favorably received by critics and the public.
2003(29th of Sivan, 5763):Aluf (Maj. Gen.) Mordechai "Mottie" Hod who “was the Commander of the Israeli Air Force during the 1967 Six-Day War” passed away today. A sabra born at the famous Kibbutz Degania, Hod was one of the real heroes who helped to create and defend the state of Israel.
2004(10th of Tammuz, 5764): Thirty-six year old Sgt. Alan D. Sherman was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad. “Alan Sherman is most remembered for being a loving and devoted father. A Marine reservist who worked as a licensed practical nurse when he was not on duty, Sherman spent most of his time with his two sons, Joshua and Logan. Sherman lived with his parents in the Wanamassa section of Ocean Township, N.J. His ex-wife, Dolores Sherman, told The Associated Press that the two had maintained a close friendship and kept in regular contact even while he was away. Sherman adored his children, spending as much time with them as he could. Michael Sherman said his brother had “left [his children] his honorable name, as a hero and as a loving father.” “He wanted to come home to his boys. But he knew he was doing the right thing. He wanted to fight for his boys so they wouldn’t have to do it,” Dolores Sherman said. “He totally believed in what he was doing.” (As reported by The Forward)
2004(10th of Tammuz, 5764): Seventy-seven year old singer and actor Arik Lavie passed away today.
2004(10th of Tammuz, 5764): Moshe Yohai, 63, of Ashdod, was found shot to death in Beit Rima, a Palestinian Authority-controlled village near Ramallah, where he had apparently gone on business. The Aksa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility. (Jewish Virtual Library)
2004: “Three Way,” a crime film co-starring Al Israel and Gina Gershon was released in the United States today.
2006(3rd of Tammuz, 5766): Early this morning, “the IDF recovered the body of 18 year old Eliyahu Asheri who had been kidnapped and murdered by Palestinian terrorists, from an open field near Ramallah.
2006: This afternoon at the Mount of Olives Shlomo Amar, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi eulogized Eliyahu Asheri during his funeral.
2006: In “Holocaust collides in 2 Lives, As the Camera Rolls” published today, Mary McNamara reviewed “Inheritance,” which “documents the story of Monika Hertwig, a German woman who in her early 60s finally comes to terms with her parents' participation in the Holocaust.”
2006: “Mary McNamara reviewed ‘Inheritance,’ a film that shows an interview between the daughter of the commandant of Plaszow and a Holocaust survivor.”
2007:”Baroness Neuberger” better known as Julia Babette Sarah Neuberger – Britain’s second female rabbi “was appointed by the incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the government's champion of volunteering.”
2007: At the Israel Museum in Jerusalem an exhibit entitled “Yemima Ergas: Hidden Cities” opens. “A new series of drawings by artist Yemima Ergas depicts fantastical cityscapes reminiscent of the majestic Modernist architecture of the early twentieth century. In the delicate pencil and charcoal drawings we see bridges, public buildings, factories, and stadiums, but a longer look reveals that it is all a fiction – we are in fact looking at discarded computer motherboards.”
2007: In Jerusalem, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performs Berg`s Concerto for Violin and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony at the Sherover Theater at The Jerusalem Theater
2007: As part of his plea bargain President Moshe Katsav resigned as President of Israel. Katsav is schedule to be indicted on Sunday July 1. At the time he is expected to plead guilty to to three charges, and will receive a suspended sentence and be ordered to pay compensation to the complainants. While one of the charges will be for a serious sex related crime, under the terms of the plea bargain he will not be charged with rape.
2007: Anthony Paul Lester, Baron Lester of Herne Hill “was appointed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown as a special adviser on constitutional reform to the Secretary of State for Justice” today
2007: Acting President Dalia Itzik replaces Moshe Katsav and will serve as President of Israel until July 15 when President-elect Shimon Peres takes office. Ms. Itzik is a 54 year old native of Jerusalem who has enjoyed a long political career.
2007(13th of Tammuz, 5767): Joel Siegel, Emmy Award-winning film critic for ABC’s “Good Morning American” passed away at the age of 63.
2008: In Chicago, the Spertus features “Private Lives of Public Figures: How Moral Do Our Leaders Need To Be?”From King David to contemporary politicians, leaders who engage in immoral or unethical behavior inevitably face questions regarding their suitability to govern.
2008: Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois holds it annual meeting and presents “Ask the Experts at Temple Beth Israel in Skokie, Il. www.jewishgen.org/jgsi
2008: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of The Spies of Warsaw, a novel by Jewish mystery writer Alan Furst, The Hebrew Republic:How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Lastby Bernard Avishai and Maps and Legends: Reading and Writing Along the Borderlands, Michael Chabon’s first collection of nonfiction as well as an essay entitled “Cultural Crossroads of the Levant” which describes Ibis Editions “a boutique Jerusalem Press owned by the husband and wife team of Peter Cole, a MacArthur award-winning poet and translator, and Adina Hoffman, a biographer and critic that has published English translations of works in Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, French, German and Judeo-Spanish — all relating to the Levant.
2008: The Washington Post book section features reviews of The Dream by Harry Bernstein and America Americaby Ethan Canin
2008: At Congregation Ansche Chesed on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, One World Symphony presents a performance of the opera “Adriadne Auf Naxos” by composer Richard Strauss who was appointed President of the German State Music Bureau by Joseph Gobbels. In fairness to Strauss he later resigned the position and is credit with saving “several Jewish lives later in the war, specifically those of his daughter-in-law and her son.” On the other hand, the true measure of the man may be found in his 1945 declaration “that the Allied bombing of the Hoftheater, his favorite opera house in Munich, was ‘the greatest catastrophe that has ever disturbed my life.
2008: Israel’s government voted to trade one of the most notorious convicts in its prisons, a Lebanese murderer, for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers whose cross-border capture led to and partly motivated its month long war with the Lebanese militia Hezbollah in summer 2006.
2008: Veteran Civil Rights leader John Lewis was honored at a luncheon on Sunday by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind and the black-Jewish Alliance, which was inaugurated in January to address the 25 percent surge in anti-Semitic and racist incidents in the black and Jewish communities.
2008: United Nations negotiator Gerhard Konrad informed the Israeli government that according to Hesbollah, Ron Arad is dead. This claim has yet to be confirmed by the government
2008: As part of his first concert tour in fifteen years, Leonard Cohen appeared on the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in Somerset, England
2009: Starting today, Cantor Jack Chomsky of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Columbus, helps to lead “Poland to Israel: A Journey Through Time,” in which 100 cantors connect 1,000 years of Jewish History in Poland with 4,000 years of history in the homeland of the Jewish people.
2009: Bernard Madoff is sentenced to 150 years. This record sentence is fitting for the man who engineered the largest Ponzi swindle in history.
2009: JuliusGenachowski, a yeshiva student who had studied in Israel, assumed the position of Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
2009: During Question Period Lord Steinberg asked “Her Majesty's Government what were (a) the total value of trade between Israel and the United Kingdom, and (b) the total value of exports from the United Kingdom to Israel, over the past three years.
The Minister for Trade and Investment (Lord Davies of Abersoch): The data requested are shown in the following table:
£ million | UK exports of goods to Israel | UK exports of services to Israel | UK imports of goods from Israel | UK imports of services from Israel |
2010: Gilad Barkan Trio is scheduled to perform at 55 Bar in New York City
2010(17th of Tammuz, 5770): Tzom Tammuz
2010: Today forest fires raged across Israel, destroying over 300,000 trees and burning over 750 acres of forested and open areas. Arson is suspected in many cases, and conditions worsened due to Israel's severe heat wave.
2011: The Peltz Center for Jewish Life and Lubavitch of Wisconsin are scheduled to sponsor “Gimmel Tamuz,” “a community wide event to mark the anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe of righteous memory.”
2011: Tnuva caved in to a nationwide cottage cheese boycott today and announced that they would be lowering the product’s price to the recommended retail price of NIS 5.9. Tnuva announced that instead of selling cottage cheese to stores at the fixed price of NIS 5.2, they will now sell the cheese for NIS 4.55, thus enabling stores to sell the staple product at the recommended price. Tnuva guaranteed that they would not raise their prices at least until the end of 2011.
2011: Today the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) sent a letter to Delta Air Lines CEO Richard H. Anderson voicing concerns that the airliner's new alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines would lead to discriminatory practices against Jewish travelers.
2011(27th of Sivan, 5771): Rabbi Chaim Stein one of the Roshei Yeshiva the Rabbinical College of Telshe passed away.
2011(27th of Sivan, 5771): Sixty-four year old Larry Bogdanow, the founder of Bogdanow Partners Architects and restaurant designer whose work included the Union Square Café, passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2012: Without any frosting, lace, or chuppahs in our midst, Rabbi Shira Stutman is scheduled to lead a salon-style Shabbat evening with prayers and conversation about the “rites” and wrongs of women in Judaism, as well as God’s feminine side at the historic 6th& I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2012: Israeli cellist Yoed Nir is scheduled to perform at the Garden Party Festival in Helsinki, Finland.
2012: Austrian authorities are investigating the desecration of 43 graves in two Jewish sections of Vienna’s main cemetery.A police statement said toay that tomb stones and slabs were found toppled or damaged at the Austrian capital’s Central Cemetery. It said the vandals did not deface the graves with graffiti. Vienna Jewish community head Oskar Deutsch says he is confident that police will find the culprits.
2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s supersize coalition was showing its first serious signs of stress today in its quest for a more universal draft system in Israel.
2012: The United States and Israel are expected to hold a joint military exercise sometime around October, after postponing it earlier this year, the US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said today, confirming previous reports that it was back on track.
2013: “A seven-week immersion experience in Hebrew” offered by Brandeis University-Middlebury School of Hebrew is scheduled to begin today.
2013: Communications Minister Gilad Erdan and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz attacked each other fiercely today ahead of tomorrow’s elections for the heads of the Likud's institutions. (As reported by Gil Hoffman)
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers includingOn The Run: Fugitive Life in an AmericanCity by Alice Goffman and Clouds of Glory: The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee by Michael Korda,
2014: “Shabbat – Inside and Out” an exhibition at the Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to come to an end.
2014: “Tel Aviv's secular residents suffered a double blow in their fight for freedom from religion today when Interior Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni thwarted two pieces of legislation that would allow the opening of businesses during Shabbat and the operations of public transport during Judaism's weekly day of rest.” (As reported by Gilad Morag and Moran Azulay)
2014: Firefighters responding to a call to put out a small brush on the Golan Heights “were fired on by forces on the other side of the Syrain border” but completed their mission successfully without any casualties. This is the latest in a series of incidents on the border one of which claimed the life of an innocent 15 year old boy.
2014: In two different responses today to the kidnapping of three Israeli teens, a mammoth rally featuring artists and celebrities was held at Rabin Square while “the Rosh Yeshiva of the Beit El Yeshiva, Rabbi Zalman Melamed, urged the public to set up a protest in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv to call for a tougher crackdown against Hamas.”
2014: As rocket attacks from Gaza continue for another night one terrorist was killed and several more were wounded when the IAF “launched a targeted attack against a rocket launching cell in the Gaza Strip apparently belonging to Hamas' military branch.”
2014: “The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the Skirball Culture Center in Los Angeles and the Circle Cinema in Tulsa, OK.
2014: Nate “Freiman was called up to the A's today, after leading the Pacific Coast League to that point in RBIs, and tying for seventh in home runs.”
2014: “The Last of the Unjust” is scheduled to be shown on the final day of the Portland Jewish Film Festival
2015: “Tiger, Mog and Pink Rabbit: A Judith Kerr Retrospective” is scheduled to open at the Jewish Museum in London.
2015: “Vandals attacked the Max Rayne Hand-to-Hand dual Hebrew and Arabic language school in southern Jerusalem tonight” making this the second such incident in eight months.” (As reported by Judah Ari Gross)
2015: “After a grueling legislative battle, US President Barack Obama signed into law a trade measure that also contains landmark legislation combating the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in Europe.” (As reported by Rebecca Shimoni Stoil)
2016: The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to host a presentation by Monika Hanková who “will present the unique biography of Magdalena Robitscher-Hahn, a German-Jewish doctor from the Sudetenland, whose life story allows for analysis of specific theoretical issues connected with biographies of German-Jewish women from former Czechoslovakia.”
2016(23rd of Sivan, 5776): Eighty-five year old “Irving Gottesman, a pioneer in the field of behavioral genetics whose work on the role of heredity in schizophrenia helped transform the way people thought about the origins of serious mental illness” passed away today.
2016: “The captain of Israel’s soccer national team Eran Zahavi signed a deal with the Chinese club Guangzhou R&F today, ending a period of doubt that the beloved star would remain with Maccabi Tel Aviv.”
2016: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Bonnie Slotnick, “owner of Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks who “will share some of her experiences with Jewish cookbooks over many years of selling out-of-print cookbooks, and bring a fresh perspective to the real significance of historical and contemporary culinary texts.”
2016: Israeli Bassist and arranger Noam Wiesenberg is scheduled to debut “his new and original compositions” at the Cornelia Street Café alongside the Haggai Cohen-Milo Trio.
2016: In a testament to the vitality of small Jewish communities, in Cedar Rapids, the Hadassah Book Club is scheduled to meet this evening where it will discuss The Ritual Bath by Faye Kellerman.
2016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to host its Annual Membership this evening flowed by the opening of “Every Minute Counts”“a remarkable vision of Roosevelt-Era social and political culture through the lens of photojournalist Katherine Joseph.”
2017: The last screening of Elan Kolirin’s “Beyond The Hills” sponsored by JW3 is scheduled to take place today in London.
2017: The “jstyle Summer Premiere Party” is scheduled to take place this evening in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.
2017: Today, “the American pilots” who had ferried aircraft to Israel during the Yom Kippur War “attended a flight course completion ceremony at the Hatzerim Air Force base, where they saw Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin speak.”
2017: The final screening of “Letters from Baghdad” is scheduled to take in several California cities including Los Angeles, Pasadena, Claremont and San Francisco.
2018: After six months, the exhibition styled The Invisible Museum: History and Memory of Morocco is scheduled to be shown for the last time at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkley
2018: “High Holy Days at the Luna Park: Show-card Posters from the Firschein Press (Brooklyn, NY, 1920-1974)” an “exhibition that presents a selection from the over one hundred “show-card” posters printed by the Firschein Press, a small business operated by East European Jewish immigrants, that served local Jewish and non-Jewish communities in Brooklyn for the better half of the 20th century” is scheduled to come a close today at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at the University of California, Berkley.
2018: Today, “a week after an El Al flight was delayed by ultra-Orthodox men’s refusal sit beside women,” an “Austrian Airlines plane left Ben Gurion Airport 40 minutes late due to the refusal of 26 ultra-Orthodox men to be seated by women passengers” which led to a late arrival in Vienna which meant other passengers missed their connecting flights.
2018(16th of Tammuz, 5778): One-hundred-four year old pioneering attorney Patricia Schiller, the Brooklyn born daughter “pharmacist Louis Silverman” and “homemaker Gussie (Zuckerblatt) Silverman” and wife of fellow attorney Irving Schiller passed away today,. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
2019(26th of Sivan, 5779): Parashat Shelach-Leach
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2019: Limmud Bay Area is scheduled today with both Orthodox and Egalitarian Shacharit services and a variety of presentations including “Indian Jews and their synagogues – A New Guide to 30+Syangoues in India” by Janice Farber and Marian Scheuer Sofaer and “It Isn’t Neild Diamond Singing Kol Nidre: the influence of Traditional Jewish Melodies on Classical Music” with Brian Wilson.
2019: As part of the “Survivor Speaker” program the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a presentation by Steen Metz.
2019: Today, in one of those quirks of the calendar Shabbat falls on June 29, just as it did in 1776 when Jews in the thirteen colonies observed the day of rest for last time as British colonials which should provide subject matter for a sermon as Americans begin a week-long celebration of their independence.