August 12
30 BCE: Cleopatra committed suicide. According to Josephus, the Egyptian tried to convince her lover and co-ruler, Marc Antony, to give her control over lands to the east including Syria and Palestine. Herod was so afraid of her that he reportedly built the fortress at Masada as place of refuge should she attack. While Antony did not give into all of her demands, he did give her control over Jericho and several towns surrounding the ancient city.
1099: During the First Crusade, the Crusaders defeated the Saracens at the Battle of Ascalon. This led to the creation of the Kingdom of Jerusalem under Godfrey of Bouillon. The Crusader victory led to a period of persecution of the small Jewish population living in Palestine. The Crusaders attempted to ban the Jews from living in Jerusalem. Apparently it did not occur to them that such a ban would have meant that Jesus could not live in the Christian kingdom.
1121: At the Battle of Didgori the Georgian army under King David the Builder won a decisive victory over the famous Seljuk commander Ilghazi. Georgian-speaking Jewry is one of the oldest surviving Diaspora Jewish communities. The origin of Georgian Jews, also known as Gurjimor Ebraeli, is debated, but some claim they are descendants of the ten tribes exiled by Shalmaneser. Others say the first Jews made their way to southern Georgia after Nebuchadnezzar conquered Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. after first fleeing to Babylonia. The first Jews in Western Georgia arrived in the 6th century when the region was ruled by the Byzantine Empire. Approximately 3,000 of these Jews then fled to Eastern Georgia, controlled by the Persians, to escape severe persecution by the Byzantines. The existence of the Jews in these regions during this period is supported by archaeological evidence showing that Jews lived in Mtzheta, the ancient capital of the East Georgian state of Kartli. The Ebraeli spoke Georgian and Jewish traders developed a dialect called Qivruli, or Judeo-Georgian, which included a number of Hebrew words. In the second half of the 7th century, the Muslim Empire conquered extensive Georgian territory, which became an Arab caliph province. Arab emirs ruled the majority of the region until 1122. Under the Arabs, in the late 9th century, Abu-Imran Musa al-Za'farani (later known as Abu-Imran al-Tiflisi) founded a Jewish sect called the Tiflis Sect which lasted for more than 300 years. The sect deviated from halakhah in its marriage and kashrutcustoms. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Georgia.html
1281: The fleet of Qubilai Khan, the Chinese emperor who celebrated the festivals of the Muslims, Christians and Jews, indicating that there really were a significant number of Jews living in China during his reign, is destroyed by a typhoon while approaching Japan.
1317: John XXII, the second of the Avignon Popes, issued “Ex Parte Vestra” a Bull that dealt with converts who relapse i.e. Jewish converts who wanted to return to the “faith of their Fathers and Mothers.”
1381(14th of Av, 5141): In the Balearic Islands, Sayd ben David was burned at the stake after being charged with “incontinence with a nun”
1452: Birthdate of Abraham Zacuto “a Sephardi Jewish astronomer, astrologer, mathematician and historian who served as Royal Astronomer in the 15th century to King John II of Portugal. The crater Zagut on the Moon is named after him.” The creator of new type of astrolabe that could be used at sea, he was one of the few Jews who was able to flee Portugal despite the edicts of King Manuel I. He either passed away in Jerusalem in 1515 or Damascus in 1520.
http://islamsci.mcgill.ca/RASI/BEA/Zacut_BEA.htm
http://thejewniverse.com/2017/the-jewish-astronomer-behind-vasco-da-gamas-maiden-voyage/
1484: The Papacy of Sixtus IV came to an end.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0018_0_18679.html
1530: A charter was granted to the Jews of Germany despite the protests of Martin Luther. Josel of Rosheim, the famous "shtadlan" (interceder) was instrumental in its passing.
1656: “The Jews of Barbados were granted ‘the privileges of laws and statutes of the Commonwealth of England and of this island, relating to foreigners and strangers.’” (Abraham P. Bloch)
1793(4thof Elul, 5553): Meyer Jacob passed away today and was buried at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery.
1811: Today Hamburg native Georg Harog Gerson, “the unsung Jewish hero of the Battle of Waterloo” “was proposed for the position of Assistant Surgeon…for the 5thLine Battalion, King’s German Legion.”
1816: Birthdate of Ion Ghica, the five-time Prime Minister of Romania “a valuable ally for Yiddish theater in Bucharest who n several occasions expressed his favorable view of the quality of acting, and even more of the technical aspects of the Yiddish theater. In 1881, he obtained for the National Theater the costumes that had been used for a Yiddish pageant on the coronation of King Solomon, which had been timed in tribute to the actual coronation of Carol I of Romania.
1816: Henry Harvey married Louisa Hart at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1817: Birthdate of German Orientalist Max Grünbaum
1819: Anti-Semitic riots broke out in Darmstadt and Bayreuth, Germany
1828: In Schubin, Prussia, Rabbi Benjamin Mielziner and his wife gave birth Moses Mielziner who would become a leading rabbi in the Reform Movement.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/mielziner-moses
1829: John Hadkins married Maria Woolf at the Great Synagogue today.
1829(13th of Av, 5589): Mordecai ben Abraham Benet, who was born in 1753 and became the chief rabbi of Moravia passed away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai_Benet
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Banet_Mordekhai_ben_Avraham
1833: Founding of Chicago. Jews were present in Chicago from its earliest days. The first Jews in the city were German and Ashkenazim. By 1847, there were enough Jews in Chicago to establish Kehilath Anshe Maariv — Congregation of the Men of the West — on an upper floor of a commercial building. The congregation was popularly referred to as KAM and found its home in Hyde Park among the South Side German Jewish community. German Jews generally were accepted into mainstream society. In Chicago, they were already being elected to political office in the 1850s. Among the enterprises established by Chicago's German Jews were Florsheim Shoe Co., Hart Schaffner & Marx clothiers, the Brunswick billiard-table empire, Spiegel mail-order Company and Mandel Brothers department store, long a fixture on State Street. The Jews of Chicago: From Shtetl to Suburb by Irving Cutler provides a readable, popular history of the Jews of the Windy City.
1835: Isaac Jacobs married Matilda Levy at the Great Synagogue today.
1840: At Petersburg, VA,Rabbi Abraham H. Cohen officiated at the wedding of Capt. I.S. Cohen of Columbia, SC and Virginia Davis, he daughter of Ansley Davis
1842: Birthdate of Emily Bath, the native of Jefferson, Indiana who was interred in the Jewish Cemetery in Natchitoches, LA when passed away in 1924
1843: Birthdate of American playwright Bartely Campbell, the son of Irish immigrants who wrote “Siberia” a play about the persecution of the Jews in Russia.
1844: Birthdate of Edward Lauterbach, successful defense attorney, leader of the Republican Party and trustee of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1845: Two days after he had passed away, Mendel Samuel, the husband of Amelia Emanuel with whom he had five children – Samuel, Charlotte, Jane, Anne and Lewis – was buried today in the United Kingdom
1845: Today a month after the death of Henrik Wergeland, the Norwegian leader who gone from being an anti-Semite to favoring the admission of Jews as full citizens of his country, passed away, “the constitution committee referred their recommendation to repeal” the ban on Jews to the Parliament.
1847(30thof Av, 5607): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1847: Lawrence Emanuel married Eve Braham at the Great Synagogue today.
1848(13thof Av, 5608): Avraham Ullmann, who had been born in 1791 and was the son Shalom Charif Ullman, the chief rabbi of Lackenbach, passed away.
1851: Luis Schlesinger, a Hungarian born Jew who had fled to the United States after the failed revolutions of 1848 was captured by the Spanish at Pinar del Rio when he led an unsuccessful raid on Cuba under the auspices of Cuban General Narciso Lopez. (As reported by Ben G.Frank)
1853: A German Jew, who has used a variety of aliases including J. Meyer, was arrested at the Irving House. While being taken to court he tried to get rid of a package containing pledge tickets for a large quantity of valuable goods recently pawned at the shops of Bernstein, Levy, Silver, Smith and Murdock. The items left at the pawn shop were all stolen.
1854: The Moral and Religious column described a new sect that has started in England called The Disciples. They believe that Christ will appear in 1864; that the Russians will triumph over the Turks and the Jews over the Russians-- the latter event to happen in ten years' time when the Jews will become a nation in the Holy Land. Christ is to be their King, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the rest of the righteous Jews of old, with a few elect among Christians, will rise from the dead and live forever in Palestine; but the heathen and the wicked Jews and Christians will sleep eternally.
1857: Joseph Magnus married Sarah Natali today.
1859: Birthdate of Albert Lucas, he native of London who was the husband of Rebecca Nieto and “Secretary of the Union Orthodox Jewish Congregation of America, and Secretary of the Joint Distribution Committee.”
1860: Birthdate of Polish native Benjamin Feigenbaum, the American Socialist and journalist who was an associate editor of The Forward.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2018/10/benyomen-feygenboym-benjamin-feigenbaum.html
1862: In Springfield, Illinois, “Samuel Rosenwald and his wife Augusta Hammerslough Rosenwald, a Jewish immigrant couple from Germany” gave birth to Julius Rosenwald who turned Sears, Roebuck and Company into a retailing behemoth while using much of his fortune to support education for African-Americans when this was one of the least important social concerns in the United States.
http://www.searsarchives.com/people/juliusrosenwald.htm
1862: Construction was completed on the first synagogue built on Long Island which came to be known as the Boerum Schule because it was located in Boerum Hill.
1862: In the part of Germany that included the cities of Moisling and Lubeck, The Oath More Judaico or Jewish Oath was modified. It would remain in force until 1879, when the Germans adopted laws regulating civil procedure which abolished the oath.
1862: Philadelphian Samuel W. Rowe began serving as a 1st Lieutenant in Company B of the 122nd Regiment.
1862: Philadelphian Benjamin F. Baer began serving as a Captain in Company F of the 122nd Regiment.
1862: Philadelphian Solomon H. Kamer began serving as Corporal in Company G in the 128th Regiment.
1863: Philadelphian Nathan Fromm, a Corporal in Company A of the 167thRegiment completed his service with the Union Army today.
1863: Philadelphian Joseph Jacoby, a Sergeant in Company I of the 167thRegiment completed his service with the Union Army today.
1865: Birthdate of a British psychoanalyst, physician, Zionist and writer David Eder whose opposition to the partition of Palestine in the 1920’s was summed up in his statement that “There can be only one national home in Palestine, and that a Jewish one, and no equality in the partnership between Jews and Arabs.”
1870: A few days into the inquest being held to determine the facts surrounding the death of Benjamin Nathan, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle protested the disparity in treatment being shown to his son’s Washington and Frederick, and the Irish Catholic servants of the Nathan family who had suddenly become the prime suspects.
1972: Birthdate of Morris Largeman, “the husband of Annie R. Largmen” and member of Shaari Zedek in Brooklyn, NY.
1873: Birthdate of New Yorker Alexander Alexander who passed away in 1940 at Miami Beach, FL.
1876(22ndof Av, 5636): Parashat Eikev
1876(22ndof Av, 5636): Forty-eight year old Leopold Blumberg, the Prussian Army Veteran who came to the United States in 1854, settled in Baltimore, MD and joined the Union Army after the attack on Fort Sumter finally succumbed to the effects of the wounds he received when shot by a sharpshooter at the Battle of Antietam in 1862.
1877(3rd of Elul, 5637): Rabbi Jaques Judah Lyons passed away today in New York. Judah and Mary Lyons; gave birth to him at Surinam, Dutch Guiana in 1814. “He was educated in Surinam, and was minister of the Spanish & Portuguese congregation there, Neveh Shalom, for five years. He left Surinam in 1837 and went to Richmond, Va., where for two years he was minister of the Congregation Beth Schalom. In 1839 he was elected minister of the Spanish and Portuguese congregation Shearith Israel, New York city, in succession to Isaac Seixas, and served the congregation thirty-eight years, successfully combating every movement to change the form of worship in his congregation. Lyons was among those who founded The Jews' (now Mount Sinai) Hospital; he was actively concerned in founding the Jewish Board of Delegates and Hebrew Free Schools and was superintendent of the Polonies Talmud Torah School…For many years he was president of the Hebra Hased ve-Emet and of the Sampson Simpson Theological Fund. Lyons was an ardent student and collected a library that is now in possession of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.” In 1857, he joined with Dr. Abraham de Sola of Montreal, in preparing and publishing a Hebrew calendar covering fifty years, together with an essay on the Jewish calendar system
1878: Jewish representatives from the United States, Holland, Germany, England, Belgium, Romania, Palestine, Turkey, Italy Spain, France Austria and Russia met in Paris today to celebrate the anniversary of the Alliance Israelite Universelle of France. During the meeting, the attendees provided reports on the conditions of Jews in various countries and possible ways to improve their conditions. It was suggested that a medal “commemorating the emancipation of the Jews in the East” should be presented to each member of the Berlin Congress on behalf “of the Jews of the world.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9404E0DF153EE73BBC4D51DFBE668383669FDE
1878: It was reported today that details have been released regarding the will of the late Michael Reese. His generosity included $650,000 for the State University of California and $25,000 to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9F03E4DA143EE63BBC4A52DFBE668383669FDE
1879: It was reported today that Romania might agree “to accept the principle of equal rights for the Jews” if some consideration would be given to how it is applied. Germany might be willing to agree to such an arrangement.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940DE5D9133EE73BBC4A52DFBE668382669FDE
1879: “A Theory of Noses” published today provides an example of the outlandish 19thcentury that physical characteristics determined people’s behavior, intellect and social standing. The fact “that the Jewish nation has for ages maintained a high level of civilization and that nevertheless the Jewish nose is not straight but curved” presents a problem for this theory.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9803E5D9133EE73BBC4A52DFBE668382669FDE
1880: In Hungary, Kalman Hartman and the former Sarah Luchs gave birth Gustav Hartman attorney, Republican Party leader, jurist and philanthropist who founded the Israel Orphan Asylum in 1913 which he oversaw until his death in 1936
1881: In Ashfield, MA, Henry and Matilda Beatrice DeMille gave birth to movie mogul Cecil B. DeMille. His father was Episcopalian and his mother was Jewish. Regardless of how you view his religious background, he will forever be connected with Moses and the Jewish people through “The Ten Commandments.”
1881: It was reported today that anti-Semitism is so prevalent Pomerania and West Russia that recent government actions to protect the Jews living there will be totally ineffective.
1882: Today’s Congressional Record contained “a speech by the Honorable S.S. Cox on the persecution of the Jews in Russia.” It was “an elaborate paper illustrated with poetical extracts, two pages of tables and a neatly engraved map.”
1882: “Russian Jews” published today described the plan of Chicago banker Lazarus Silverman to settle several Jewish immigrant families totaling 150 men, women in children on 300 acres that owns on 300 acres of land on Carp Lake in Michigan. The group includes one tailor, one wagon-maker, one blacksmith, one cooper, one paper-hanger, two tinsmiths, three coppersmiths and most important of all, 3 farmers.
http://www.nndb.com/people/207/000104892/
1883(9thof Av, 5643): Tish’a B’Av
1883: “Bread Making” published today which describes the baking of bread in the British Isles begins by declaring that “since the time of the early Jews there has been very little change in the process.”
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C0CE6DF133BE033A25751C1A96E9C94629FD7CF
1883:”Ancient Manuscripts” published today described how Moses Shapira acquired an ancient copy of the Book of Deuteronomy in Palestine and sent it on to London where it can be preserved and studied. It is claimed this codex is 2,700 years old and provides evidence that the ancient Israelites were writing “consecutive narrative” at a time that corresponds to the Greeks Homer and Hesiod.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940CE6DF133BE033A25751C1A96E9C94629FD7CF
1884: It was reported today that a note had been found on the body of Israel Blatchky, a young Jew who had been living in Des Moines for three years. According to the note he was despondent over a failed love affair and bought poison six months ago.
1884: Birthdate of Yiddish writer David Bergeson whose “only child, Lev, was an eminent Soviet biochemist who served as a Soviet Army captain during World War II and emigrated to Israel in 1991 with his wife Naomi, where both he and his wife died in 2014 and who was ironically murdered by Stalinist anti-Semitic purge that took place 68 years to the day from the date of his birth.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Bergelson_Dovid
1884: Birthdate of May Belle Greenebaum, the wife of Herbert Fleishhacker and mother of Marjorie, Herbert, Jr and Alan Fleishhacker.
1884: In Telšiai, Lithuania, Isaac Noyk and Esther Chana Ravid gave birth to Michael Noyk who became a solicitor and Irish republican political leader.
1884: Leading Chicago businessman Morris L. Cohn was arraigned today and held for trial in lieu of $10,000 bond on numerous charges of forgery that included his issuance of $15,000 in bogus notes.
1885: Americans living Haifa write today that their “colony” in that city “is well known as an industrious, intelligent and law abiding community and the members of it are justly entitled to the full protection of their government…The time has come when it is absolutely necessary for the United States government to take a firm stand against the aggressive and illegal policy of the Turkish authorities.” (As reported by Ruth Kark and Seth Frantzman)
1885: Birthdate of Russian native Samuel Maurice Pearl, who came to Boston in 1901, earned a medical degree from Tufts University and practiced medicine in Boston where he also served as a “trustee with B’nai B’rith.
1887: Congregation Keneseth Israel of Philadelphia, PA made a payment of $152 to the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1887: In France, Esther and Joseph Tcherniac gave birth to Dora Tcherniac.
1887: Seymour Bottigheimer the son of Ellis Bottigheimer of Richmond, VA turned celebrated his sixteenth birthday today while waiting to find out if he had been admitted to Hebrew Union College.
1888: It was reported today that the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children will be providing another free excursion for sick children under the age of six later this month.
1888: In St. Paul, MN, Silas Abraham Vehon and Anna Vehon gave birth to Isadore Vehon who was a merchant in Salina, KS and the husband of Josephine Bondy.
1890: The Lord Mayor of London announced that “inquiries into the persecution of the Jews of Russia give reason to believe that the Government’s edicts will not be enforced.” (He was wrong)
1890: Birthdate of Al Goodman. Born in Nikopol Russia, he was the orchestra leader for the NBC Comedy Hour, a show that dominated Sunday nights during the early 1950’s.
1891: In Russayn, Meyer Cohen and Rebecca Benyash gave birth to Canadian lawyer and professor Joseph Cohen
1892: In Canada, Judge Dugas ordered the extradition of two Jews - Harris Blank and Charles Rosenweigh - who are accused of murdering a Jewish peddler named Jacob Marks in Towanda, PA.
1892: Davis Rubenstein, a Russian Jew who lives at 183 Clinton Street lodged a complaint against Berman’s butcher shop at 9 Suffolk Street for the sale of “impure food.”
1893: Birthdate of Elmira, NY, native Irwin Wallace Alpert, the orthopedic surgeon educated at Union College and the University of Buffalo.
1893: In New Orleans, Maximilian Heller, the rabbi at Temple Sinai and a leading member of the Reform movement and Ida Annie Heller gave birth to Isaac Sherck Heller
1893: Birthdate of sculptor Bashka Paeff, the native of Minks who began her training at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and created such works as the “Lexington Militia Man” relief.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bashka_Paeff#/media/File:Lexington_Minute_Man_relief_(Basha_Paeff)_-_Lexington,_MA.JPG
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9B02E0DA1639E732A25755C2A9679C946890D6CF
1894(10thof Av, 5654): The 9th of Av fell on Shabbat so Tish’a B’Av is observed today
1895: Felix Fader who was found selling calico from a pushcart on Mulberry Street, Nathan Rablowitz who was caught selling dry goods at his store on Grand Street, Abraham Wolf who was arrested for selling three hats on Bowery and Max Rothman who was arrested for selling underwear from a wheelbarrow on Catherine Street went to court and pleaded that they observed the Jewish Sabbath which meant they should not have been arrested for violating the Sunday Closing Laws. The court “overruled their plea that they worked on the Christian Sunday they must do so quietly.” This downturn was consistent with the downturn for all immigrant groups.
1897: At Temple Emanuel, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil will officiate at the funeral of the late Moses Schloss the life-long Republican businessman who had served as the Congregation’s Vice President as well as President of the Hebrew Theological Institute. He was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Amalia Water, the daughter of I.D. Walter. He is survived by his bother Philip and his son Israel,
1897: A summary of immigration statistics published today showed that 22,750 Russian Jews had arrived in the United States as of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897. This compared with 45,137 Russian Jews who had arrived in the United States for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB0912FE385416738DDDAB0994D0405B8785F0D3
1897: Two days after he had passed away “in his 47thyear,” Michael Isaacs was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1898: An armistice took effect ending the Spanish-American War. “In the Spanish-American War, Jews once again demonstrated that they are willing and ready to fight and serve in defense of our country. When the battleship Main was sunk on February 15, 1898, there were 15 Jewish sailors who went down with the ship. The executive officer of the Maine, and later a vice admiral in the United States Navy, was Adolph Marix, a Jew. Marix was the chairman of a board of inquiry to investigate the mysterious sinking of the Maine. It is interesting to note that his father was an interpreter in the Lincoln Administration and that Abraham Lincoln appointed Adolph Marix to the United States Naval Academy. When the United States declared war against Spain on April 21, 1898 , the first volunteer was Colonel Joseph M. Heller, who left a thriving medical practice to become an acting assistant surgeon in the Army. About 5,000 Jews served in this war. When the Jewish High Holy Days were approaching in 1898, there were 4,000 requests for furloughs to attend services. There were indeed 30 Jewish Army officers and 20 more in the Navy in the Spanish-American War. Jewish casualties ran high for the percentage of Jews in the service. Twenty-nine were killed, 47 wounded, and 28 died from disease - for a total of 104. Corporal Ben Prager received the Silver Star Medal for his bravery in the Philippines in 19 skirmishes and engagements. The official citation describes his accomplishments: "When the engagement was fully opened up, Corporal Benjamin Prager and seven other soldiers from Companies A and L, 19th United States Infantry, moved out and charged the enemy ... and after twice charging in the face of heavy fire, succeeded in dislodging the enemy and putting the entire force to rout. With true soldierly spirit, the success was followed up and the enemy was driven out of the city across the river and mountains." Colonel Teddy Roosevelt commanded the Rough Riders, which included a large number of Jews. The first Rough Rider killed was a 16-year-old Jewish boy, Jacob Wilbusky. Colonel Roosevelt promoted five men in his command for their bravery in the field without knowledge of their religion. One of them was a Jew. Sergeant Maurice Joost of the First California Volunteers, a regiment that had more than 100 Jewish soldiers, was the first man to fall in the attack on Manila. There were 280,000 American soldiers in this war, which was four-tenths of I percent of the population. Jewish soldiers were one-half of I percent of the American Jewish population; therefore, Jews served in greater proportion than did the remainder of the nation's citizens.”
1898: Birthdate of actor Oscar Homolka who was not Jewish but whose first wife was Jewish and who left for Great Britain when the Nazis came to power.
1899: In Rennes, France, the President of the Court returned Dreyfus’ salute for the first time marking a shift in the tone of the Court Martial which indicates the Jewish Captain will be acquitted.
1899: “Third Zionist Congress” published today identified the “two chief questions” that will be discussed at the upcoming meeting in Basel, Switzerland which relate to the settlement in Palestine and the “financing of trust company” which will further that endeavor.
1899: Five thousand “enthusiastic” Jews gather in London this evening to express their sympathy with Captain Dreyfus.
1899:Herzl travels to Darmstadt and is received by the Grossherzog of Hessen, brother-in-law of the Czar. Herzl asks him to recommend the "Chartered Company" to the Czar.
1899: “Dreyfusites Ask Full Publicity” published today described the demand of Dreyfus’ supporters that that the secret dossier which was used to convict him should be made public so that everybody can see the obvious forgeries and understand that he was framed by the military.
1899: Jacob Adler performed the role of King Lear at the People’s Theatre, a Jewish playhouse located in the Bowery.
1900:A Garden Party was held in Regent's Park during Herzl’s visit to Great Britain.
1900(17th of Av, 5660): The Father of Modern Chess, Wilhelm Steinitz, passed away. Born in the Jewish Ghetto in Prague, in 1836, Steinitz began his professional career as a journalist. He won his first major chess tournament in Vienna in 1861. This marked the beginning of his domination of the game that would continue almost up to the time of his death.
1902(9th of Av, 5662): Tisha’ B’Av
1902: In Dallas, TX, Rabbi Simon Glazer and Ida Cantor Glazer gave birth to B. Benedict Glazer, the both Charles and Aubrey Glazer, who followed in his father’s footsteps after being ordained at HUC, leading congregations in New York and Detroit, Michigan where he also served on the state’s Commission on Civil Rights.
1904(1st of Elul, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1904(1st of Elul, 5664): Thirty-one year old Rumanian native Mary Bunderoff passed away today after which she was buried at the Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery in Hong Kong.
1905(11th of Av, 5665): Shabbat Nachamu
1905: Birthdate of Chicago native Ruben Grossman, who moved to Palestine in 1929 where as Ruven Avinoam he taught English literature at Hezliyyah high school, became a published author, serve as “supervisor of English studies at the Israel Ministry of Defense” and raised a son Noam, an author who died in the War of Independence
.
1908(15th of 5658): Tu B’Av is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt.
1910: Jews in Serres, Salonica protested against the use of the 200-year-old Jewish cemetery site for the construction of a new hospital. The plan was later abandoned.
1911(18th of Av, 5671): Parashat Eikev
1911: It was reported today that 102 year old “Mrs. S. H. Cohen of London, the great aunt of Sir Rufus Isaac is the oldest Jewess in England.”
1911: It was reported today that “in a recent address Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria said that he hoped the Jews would always regarded as political equals in that country…”
1911: It was reported today due to “constant persecution,” one hundred Persian Jewish families from Shiraz “who have lost their homes” “have petitioned the Jews of London” for funds to help them emigrate to Palestine.
1911(18th of Av, 5671): Eighty-seven year old Dutch painter Jozef Israëls whose works included “David Singing Before Saul” and “Jewish Wedding” painted in 1903 passed away today
http://www.nndb.com/people/207/000104892/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jozef_Isra%C3%ABls#mediaviewer/File:Isra%C3%ABls-A_Jewish_Wedding-1903.jpg
1912:Yankee Guy Zinn sets a record by stealing home twice in the same game.
1912: On his 50th birthday Julius “Rosenwald made a dramatic entry into large-scale philanthropy” wheh he “announced he would be giving away close to $700,000 (about $16 million in current dollars), and encouraged other wealthy individuals to support good causes of their own. “Give While You Live,” was his slogan.”
http://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/hall_of_fame/julius_rosenwald
1912(29th of Av, 5672): Twenty-seven year old Chester H. Brunswick, the “Deputy Harbor and Wharf Commissioner” passed away today in St. Louks.
1912: In Worcester, MA, Benjamin Rabinovitch and his wife gave birth to author and screenwriter Samuel Michael Fuller the decorated member of the Army’s famous First Division which he immortalized in “The Big Red One,” the popular name for his WW II unit
1912: Birthdate of Max I Dimont, the native of Helsinki who moved to Cleveland as a teenager and wrote Jews, God and History while spending 35 years working for Edison Brothers.
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/jews-god-and-history-by-max-i-dimont/
1912: Birthdate of Whitney Harris, one of the prosecutors who brought high-ranking Nazi war criminals to justice at the Nuremberg trials and who, a half-century later, was a significant voice in the creation of the International Criminal Court.
1913(9th of Av, 5673): Tish’A B’Av
1913: The brand name "Oreo" was registered by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for exclusive use by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco) for its cookies which get its Chesher in 1988.
1914: As Europe stumbles its way into what will become World War I with all of its negative consequences for Jews Britain (and therefore the British Empire) declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1914: “Jewish historian Gustav Mayer…found his father bewailing the collapse of business as his drapery shop in Berlin’s Zehlendorf. (As reported by Max Hastings)
1915: In Wennetka, a suburb of Chicago Alfred Samuel Alschuler, Sr. and Rose Alice Alschuler, the daughter of Charles and Mary Haas, gave birth to Richard Haas Alschuler
1915: At the Dardanelles, during the Gallipoli campaign, for the first time a ship was sunk by torpedo from a British seaplane
1915: Sixty year old Eli Pochansky, “an Orthodox Jewish father” who believes that smoking cigarettes on the Sabbath is a sin deserving of severe punishment” appeared in Tombs Court today “on a charge of assaulting members of his family who do not conform to his views.”
1916: Isaac Don Levine, the Russian born American newspaperman who covered the Russian Revolution for the New York Herald Tribune described a meeting of the ruling Cabinet held in July where discussion of the “Jewish Question” included approval of the abolishment of the Pale of Settlement and agreement to discuss it further when “the Minister of Finances, Pierre Bark and the Imperial Controller N.N. Pokrovsky return from abroad.”
1916: At a farewell luncheon at the City Club, “Abram I. Elkus, the newly appointed Ambassador to Turkey, told Jewish editors and educators” including Herman Bernstein “that serious problems awaited him in Turkey but he hoped to to solve them to the satisfaction of the Administration and of his friends.”
1916: “Italian troops landed at Salonika” home to an ancient Jewish community that would be wiped in the Shoah, and joined in the fighting with Allied forces.
1916: In the aftermath of the Battle of Romani, the first clear victory by Allied troops over the Ottomans, the Anzac Mounted Division entered Bir el Abd and found that the Austrians, Turks and Germans had withdrawn and was head back to El Arish and beyond.
1917: It was reported today that, “following the example set by Nathan Straus who has offered his New York City home for sale for the benefit of Jewish war sufferers, Mrs. Charles Brady of Rock Island, Illinois has given away her jewels with the idea that they will be sold and the proceeds given to the Central Jewish Relief Committee” which is attempting to raise $10,000,000 under the leadership of Harry Fischel who is the treasurer.
1917: “About 100 Palestine Jews, principally the wives and children of men who were naturalized years ago in the United States arrived” in Berne, Switzerland “today from Jerusalem on their way to New York.”
1918: Birthdate of Sanford Daniel Garelik, the Bronx native whom became the first Jew to serve as Chief Inspector in the New York Police Department (As reported by Matt Flegenheimer)
1918: Birthdate of Sidney “Sid” Bernstein the “impresario whose long career included bringing the Beatles to Carnegie Hall in 1964 and Shea Stadium in 1965.” (As reported by Allan Kozinin)
1918: The “announcement of the decision of the Prussian Foreign Minister that Jewish laborers will not be admitted to Germany from the East has caused resentment in all Jewish circles especially in Austria” where the realization has set in that while “Russia has abolished all laws placing limitations on Jews” “Germany is the only European state which wises to drive out the Jews.”
1918: General John Monash was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the battlefield by King George V following the successful Battle of Amiens. (Monash was Jewish; King George wasn’t)
1918(4th of Elul, 5678): Anna Held Polish-born, American actress and singer, passed away. Held is variously described as the mistress and/or common-in-law wife of Flo Ziegfeld. Reportedly, she collaborated with Ziegfeld on the creation of his famed Follies review. She was 46 when she died of cancer.
1920: “Colonel Harry Cutler” who has been “named by Secretary Baker” to serve “on the War Memorial Commission left for Europe” today aboard the SS Imperator.
1921: Following an earlier donation by Mrs. Nathan Straus of jewels valued at $18,500 to the “Zionist Organization of America for medical and health services in Palestine, today, “Nathan Straus presented eight milk stations and a pasteurization laboratory” to the city of New York.
1922: Birthdate of Holocaust survivor and Polish journalist, Leopold Unger.
1924: Moshav Magdi'el (now part of Hod Hasharon) was founded. A Moshav is a form of collective settlement. Unlike the Kibbutz, the Moshav allowed for more private ownership. Hod Hashron has grown into a modern city in the Central District of Israel.
1926: In Southwark, “a professional photographer” and his wife gave birth to David Cyril Aarons who gained fame as “jazz pianist and songwriter” David Lee.
1927: Birthdate of cellist Mstislav Rostropovich winner of theJewish National Fund 1987 Man of the Year and the Humanitarian Award from the United Jewish Appeal Federation
1930: In Budapest,Erzsébet (also known as Elizabeth) Soros and attorney “Tivadar” Soros gave birth to “billionaire businessman and philanthropist George Soros “the right wing bogeyman” who in a 1993 speech essentially blamed Jews for anti-Semitism saying that the rise in European anti-Semitism was just the result of Israel’s policies which lead the “head of the Anti-Defamation League to describe his views as obscene.”
1931: In Highland Park, Illinois, Marion (née Weil) and Maurice Clarence Goldman gave birth to author
William Goldman, whose works included Marathon Man and Princess Bride as well as the script for “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/16/obituaries/william-goldman-dead.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/nov/16/william-goldman-obituary
1931:Louis Lipsky, former president of the Zionist Organization of America, returned today aboard the White Star liner Homeric from Europe where he had attended the World Zionist Congress, held recently at Basle, Switzerland.
1931: “Following the death of President George Cowen and the resignation of Sigmund T. Hess, Walter T. Kohn was elected president of Temple Beth Miriam in Long Branch, NJ.
1931: Martha and Jackie Fields, the winner of two boxing world championships were joined in a marriage today which did not last since they separated in 1940 and divorced in 1944.
1935: Birthdate of Joan Hamburg, “New York Radio’s First Lady” and the first cousin of Arthur Liman.
1936: In Vienna, Ernest and Mimi Hausner gave birth to Evelyn Hausner, the Austrian born refugee who gained fame as Evelyn Lauder, the wife of Leonard Lauder.
1936: Today, New York City “Mayor La Guardia accepted…membership on a committee sponsoring the publication of the United Palestine Appear Year Book for 1936 which will aid the $3,500,000 campaign for the settlement in Palestine of Jews from Germany, Poland and other lands” writing to the committee that “the regeneration of Palestine through the settling of more than 30,000 refugees from Germany is a warning to oppressors and tyrants.”
1936: “A proposal was made today to finance by an individual tax the permanent world organization that the World Jewish Congress is meeting” at Geneva “to create” while “the boycott commission agreed today to recommend that the Jewish congress endorse the German boycott, establish a special department to extend and strengthen this boycott and issue economic reports exposing subsidies for products made in Germany.”
1937: The British Colonial Secretary, Mr. W.G.A. Ormsby-Gore, declared in Geneva, during the deliberations of the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission, that he was told by Dr. Chaim Weizmann that the political resolution adopted by the 20th Zionist Congress opened the door to negotiations for giving effect to the Peel Commission¹s proposals for the partition of Palestine and that talks on this subject would start at the conclusion of the September sessions of the League of Nations Council. Reports from Damascus indicated that Syria had become the center of activity for the training of armed men, the future leaders of the Palestine Arab uprising. The recent attack on Kfar Menahem was a trial measure perpetrated by such roving terrorist bands. The Arab Higher Committee denied that foreign money donations were used to carry out such military and sabotage training, carried out in preparations for future disturbances.
1937: “A contract was drawn up today requesting ‘musical dramatic work…suitable for radio broadcasting” that would result in Marc Blitzstein creating “I’ve Got the Tune,” an opera dedicated to Orson Wells for CBS Radio.
1937:A proposal to settle 200,000 Jews in Palestine within the next three years, involving an investment of about $175,000,000, was laid before the World Zionist Congress today. The proposal was made by Elieser Kaplal, treasurer of the Zionist executive committee, who said American Jewry was expected to contribute $2,000,000 to the Zionist movement and Palestine fund in the current fiscal year.
1938(15th of Av, 5698): Tu B’Av
1938(15th of Av, 5698): Seventy-four year old German born Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt who married Emilie (Mimi) Cohen, the daughter of artist Eduard Cohn, in 1903, and was involved in the excavations of the Pyramid of Sahure and Amana where the bust of Nefertiti was found passed away today in Paris.
1939: In Greenwich, CT, Walter E. Sachs, an investment banker with Benjamin & Sachs married actress Mary Williamson.
1939: Birthdate of David Jacobs, the Baltimore screenwriter who created “Dallas” the prime-time CBS soap opera that made JR Ewing a household name.
1939: “The Spy in Black” produced by Alexander Korda with a screenplay by Emeric Pressburger was released in the United Kingdom today by Columbia Pictures.
1940(8th of Av, 5700): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1940: In New York City, Ruth (née Goldberg) Kostner and her husband, Wall Street executive Theodore Kostner, gave birth to Gail Kostner who gained fame as screenwriter and author Gail Parent.
1941: In Vire, France, Abraham Drucker and his wife gave birth to television executive Jean Drucker, the brother television host Michel Rucker and Professor of Medicine Jacques Drucker and the father of journalist Marie Drucker.
1941(19th of Av, 5701): Nazis began the systematic murder of the Jews of Dvinsk, Latvia.
1941: The House of Representative votes to extend the first peace time conscription bill. Proponents of the bill prevailed by one vote. This one-vote victory was one of Sam Rayburn’s proudest legislative accomplishments. If the bill had not passed, the United States would have been in the process of disbanding its newly created military force just at the moment when the Japanese were attacking Pearl Harbor. One can only imagine of how much longer World War II would have lasted and how many more than six million Jews would have perished in a prolonged Holocaust.
1941: “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” the movie version of the 19th century novella with a script co-authored by Samuel Hoffenstein, music by Franz Waxman and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today.
1942: Despite a campaign under the leadership of Hashomer Hatzair activist Zvi Dunski to stay away, “all the remaining Jews in Bedzin, Sosnowiec and Dabrowa Gornicza, the three neighboring towns located in the Zaglebie district in southwest Poland reported to the soccer field in Sosnowiec, where instead of having their papers revalidated they were subjected to “a large selection resulting in the deportation of 8,000 to Auschwitz.”
1942: Eighty-seven year old Jacob Gould Schurman who as President of Cornell University in 1905 sent a check to Jacob H. Schiff “for the fund in relief of the suffering Jews of Russia” along with a letter saying “The atrocities of the Russian mob have been beyond all description or imagination” and that it was his prayer “that the Christians of America may…remember with compassion and help with the generous contributions their sorely stricken Jewish brethren in Russia” passed away today.
1942(29th of Av, 5702): Fifty-six year old pioneering psychoanalyst Sabin Spielrein was murdered by the Nazis at Rostov-on-Don.
1943: “Phantom of the Opera” directed by Arthur Lubin and featuring J. Edward Bromberg was released today in the United States.
1944: Members of the 16thSS-Panzergrenadier Division “Reichsfuehrer SS,” killed more than 500 civilians in the Tuscan Village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema (As reported by David Rising)
1944: Birthdate of American actor Bruce Solomon who appropriately played Rabbi David Small in the television series “Lanigan’s Rabbi.”
1944(23rd of Av, 5704): Berl Katznelson “one the intellectual founders of Labor Zionism, instrumental to the establishment of the modern State of Israel, and the editor of Davar, the first daily newspaper of the workers' movement,” passed away today. “He was born in Bobruysk, Russia in 1887, and dreamed of settling in the Jewish homeland from an early age. In Russia, he was a librarian in a Hebrew-Yiddish library and taught Hebrew literature and Jewish history. He made aliyah to Ottoman Palestine in 1909, where he worked in agriculture and took an active role in organizing workers' federations based on the idea of "common work, life and aspirations." With Meir Rothberg, Katznelson founded the consumer co-operative known as Hamashbir Latzarhan. He helped to establish the Kupat Holim Clalit sick fund, a major fixture in Israel's network of socialized medicine. He was the editor of the newspaper, Davar, as well as the founder and first editor-in-chief of the Am Oved publishing house.” Katznelson was buried in the cemetery on the shores of the Sea of Galilee.
1944: “Just days before the liberation of Paris” 39 year old Suzanne Spaak, the lady of luxury who joined the joined Leopold Trepper’s “Red Orchestra and saved 163 Jewish children from sent to the death camps before being captured, tortured and murdered by the Nazis – actions for which she recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations – “was executed by the Gestapo today.
1944: Birthdate of Jersey City, NJ native Steven Katz, the hold of Ph.D. from Cambridge (UK) who has served as “the director Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies” at Boston University.
1945: In Brooklyn, Henry Rascoff, a pediatrician, and the former Minna Martz, a criminal lawyer gave birth to Joseph Fishel Rascoff the accountant who “became the business manager and tour producer of the Rolling Stone, U2 and Paul Simon. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
1945: From Halkis, Greece it was reported, "The one man capable of teaching Hebrew and Judaism, Rabbi Davidson Matsa and his wife and 6 children have recently left for Janina, where he hopes to function as rabbi. He originally came from Janina. Individual Jews are trying to fill his place by carrying on religious activities in the Synagogue."
1946(15thof Av, 5706): Tu B’Av
1946: President Harry Truman sent a telegram rejecting the ”Morris-Grady” plan because it would turn the Jewish zone in Palestine into “a ghetto” and “a betrayal” of promises made to the Jews and to Jewish aspirations for a homeland.
1946: Birthdate of New York native William D. Rubenstein, the Swarthmore and Johns Hopkins University trained historian who has taught in Great Britain and Australia and is the author of Men of Property: The Very Wealthy in Britain Since the Industrial Revolution.
1948: The first diplomatic envoy of the United States arrived in Israel
1948: The Czech government ordered a halt to arms shipment to Israel. The new Communist Czech government’s policy was conforming to the increasing anti-Israel policy of their Soviet masters.
1948(7th of Av, 5708): Three Jewish soldiers, Moshe Eliash, Alfred Rabinowitz and Pinah Solevetchik, were killed when Arab Legion shells fell on Mount Zion.
1948: “Arab Legion forces blew up the Latrun water pumping station” forcing Jewish Jerusalem to rely on private cisterns for its water supply.
1949: In Glasgow, Scotland Erwin Knopfler a Jewish refugee Hungary and Louisa Mary gave birth to rock musician Mark Freuder Knopfler
1949(17th of Av, 5709): Eighty-one year old Al Shean the German born Jewish comedian who was the “Shean” in the vaudeville team of Gallagher and Shean passed away. (Editor’s note – is comedy genetic; Shean was the brother of Minnie Marx meaning he was the uncle of the Marx brothers)
1950: Riots broke out at Kikar HaShabbat (Sabbath Square) in Jerusalem when members of the Haredi community clashed with youth from Hashomer Hatzair who were upset by the problems they were having delivering milk from their farms.
1950(29thof Av, 5710): Parashat Re’eh
1950(29thof Av, 5710): Fifty-nine year old Austrian native Morris Jacobovits, who served as a rabbi in Cologne and Strasbourg as well as a chaplain in the French Army and worked with “the French Underground and various American relief organizations” to help adults and children regardless of religion during the occupation before escaping to Switzerland with his family and finally arriving in New York where he was serving “Congregation K’hall Adath Jeshurun” when he passed away today.
1950: After 581 performances, the curtain came down today at the Broadhurst Theatre on the original Broadway production of “Detective Story” written by Sidney Kingsley and in which Lee Grant “earned praise for her role as a shoplifter.”
1951(10th of Av, 5711): Since the 9thof Av fell on Shabbat, observance of Tish'a B'Av
1951: Joseph B. Levin was designated Assistant Director of Office of Opinion Writing at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
1952: The government withdrew from the Knesset the bill granting the World Zionist Organization a special status, as “the representative of the Jewish people.” The government felt that there were many Jews and Jewish organizations in the world which were not a part of the Zionist movement and who had no intention of joining it, and yet they were interested and working for Israel. The government did not wish to do anything to lessen their goodwill or to interfere with their direct connection with the State. It was, however, prepared to support a corrected version of the WZO status. A new, blue Israeli passport was shown to the press for the first time.
1952: “Park Row” a drama directed, produced and written by Samuel Fuller was released in the United States today.
1952(21st of Av, 5712): In what was part of a wave of post-war anti-Semitism, 24 of the foremost Yiddish writers of Russia were executed by the Soviet Government. Among the victims were Peretz Markish, David Bergelson, Itzik Fefer, Leib Kwitko, David Hofstein,Benjamin Zuskin, Solomon Lozovsky and Boris Shimeliovich
1955: Today Columbia trained attorney William Bernard “Herlands received a recess appointment from President Dwight D. Eisenhower to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.”
1956: William Shatner married Gloria Rand.
1957(15th of Av, 5717): Tu B’Av
1957: “Chances Are” a popular song with lyrics by Al Stillman was released today.
1958: In New York, psychologist Sally Landsburg and Alan Landsburg gave birth to actress Valerie Landsburg “best known for her role as Doris Schwartz in the 1982 television series ‘Fame.’”
1959: It was reported today that The World Jewish Congress has elected Dr. Nahum Goldmann to serve a second term as President.
1961(30th of Av, 5721): Parashat Re’eh; Rosh Chodesh Elul
1961(30th of Av, 5721): Bryn Mawr grad and pioneering psychiatrist Sadi Muriel Baron, the wife of Dr. David Raskind and the mother of Dr. Richard Raskind who gained fame as Dr. Renee Richards passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/Baron-Sadi-Muriel
1961: Dr. Arthur G. King wrote to Dr. Jacob R. Marcus discussing “the origin of the Jewish cemetery located in the Cincinnati, Ohio suburb of Clifton.
1962: Birthdate of David Horovitz, the London born Israeli journalist who made Aliyah in 1983 and founded the newly created The Times of Israel.
1964: “The Patsy” a comedy directed by Jerry Lewis who co-wrote the script and co-starred along with Ina Balin, Phil Foster and Peter Lorre was released in the United States today.
1964: Ellen Siegel, a “Freedom Summer volunteer” wrote a letter today in which she said, ““For the first time in my life, I am seeing what it is like to be poor, oppressed, and hated. And what I see here does not apply only to Gulfport or to Mississippi or even to the South … The people we’re killing in Viet Nam are the same people whom we’ve been killing for years in Mississippi. True, we didn’t tie the knot in Mississippi and we didn’t pull the trigger in Viet Nam—that is, we personally—but we’ve been standing behind the knot-tiers and the trigger-pullers too long.” (JWA)
1965: In Tel Aviv, “the $150,000 Anna Lazaroff Synagogue of the Lubavitcher Vocational Schools in Kfar Chabad, created with contributions from a number of American Jewish families, was dedicated today.” (JTA)
1970: “Soldier Blue” a movie based on the Sand Creek Massacre produced by Harold Loeb and co-starring Peter Strauss was released today in the United States.
1971: Birthdate of actor Michael Ian Black
1971: “The Black Belly of the Tarantula” an Italian horror film featuring Barbara Bach was released today.
1972(2nd of Elul, 5732): Sixty-two year old Richard “Dick” Fishel who played halfback for Syracuse in the 1930’s and then turned pro as a linebacker with the Brooklyn Dodgers football team passed away today.
1976(14th of Av, 5733): Sixty-three year old Harry A. Pearson the graduate of Cooper Union and NYU and director of research for the Sontone Coporation passed away today in White Plains, NY five days after his birthday.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A03E0DA103DE63ABC4C52DFBE668388669EDE
1976(14th of Av, 5773): Seventy-five year old Pittsburgh native J. Marshall Taxay, the graduate of the University of Cincinnati and Hebrew Union College who served as the Rabbi at Temple Israel in Bath, OH from 1945 to 1953 and at Temple B’nai Israel in Pinellas Count from 1960 until his retirement in 1969 and who raised one child, Emil, with his wife Mildred passed away today.
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Message_of_Rabbi_J_Marshall_Taxay_Pr.html?id=rsOBNAAACAAJ
1976: “The Israeli Ministry of Commerce and Industry” announced today that “an agreement had been worked out between the Government and Ted Ashley, the Chairman of the Board of Warner Bros., to produce a film about the” rescue “of more than 100 Israeli hostages” who had been “held last month in a hijacked Air France plane at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
1976: Daniel P. Moynihan said today “that the United Nations was lax in combating terrorism and pointed to the Istanbul bombing…as proof of the need for the ‘world’s democracies’ to form an ‘international force to do the job.”
1976: First Lady Betty Ford “shook hands with the 160 members” of “the national board of Hadassah” who attended a reception in the Blue Room where they enjoyed “tea, pastries and string ensemble music.”
1976: In Istanbul, the state prosecutor said tonight that “two Palestinian terrorist will face the death penalty in a Turkish court on charges stemming from their attack at Istanbul airport” where they killed four and wounded more than thirty people” in a vain attempt to hijack an Israeli airliner”
1979(19th of Av, 5739): Seventy-nine year old Ernst Boris Chain, the Berlin born son of Margarete (née Eisner) and Michael Chain, biochemist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945 who had fled Nazi Germany in 1933 passed away today.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1945/chain/biographical/
1988: “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” a biopic comedy written by Arnold Schulman and David Seidler and co-starring Martin Landau was released in the United States today.
1988: “The Last Temptation of Christ” co-starring Harvey Keitel and Barbara Hershey and featuring Irvin Kershner was released today in the United States.
1990: Iraq President Saddam Hussein says he is ready to resolve the Gulf crisis if Israel withdraws from occupied territories. Of course, invading Kuwait had nothing to do with Israel, but Israel is always a good smoke screen when Arab dictators are up to devious deeds.
1991(2nd of Elul, 5751): Yeruham Cohen, an early Israeli undercover soldier, died on today, at the age of 75 years. “Mr. Cohen, an Arabic-speaker of Yemeni origin, died of an unspecified illness. He was a top aide to the commander of Israel's underground forces during the country's war for independence in 1948 and also belonged to a unit whose members disguised themselves as Arabs to infiltrate enemy lines. Mr. Cohen is most famous for his acquaintance with Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, whom he met in 1948 during the Israeli war for independence while Israeli forces encircled Egyptian troops the southern Negev. According to historical accounts, Mr. Cohen saw the future President while watching the Egyptians retreat, shouted and ran toward him, and they shook hands warmly.
1992: NBC begins broadcasting season four of “Seinfeld.”
1997(9th of Av, 5757): Tish’a B’Av
1999(30th of Av, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1999(30th of Av, 5759): Eight-two year old character actor Ross Elliot passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/24/arts/ross-elliott-82-an-actor-on-tv-series.html
2000: Television wizard Steve Bocho, whose hits included “Hill Street Blue” re-married today.
2001: The New York Timesbook section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Houdini’s Box: The Art of Escapeby Adam Phillips, a children’s book entitled Sigmund Freud Pioneer of the Mindby Catherine Reef and two books about Nixon’s Jewish born Secretary of State: The Trial of Henry Kissingerby Christopher Hitchens andNo Peace No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnamby Larry Berman.
2001: Palestinian Islamic Jihad took credit for today’s bombing at the Wall Street Café in Kiryat Motzkin that injured 21 people. (According to other sources one person was killed and fifteen were injured.)
2003(14th of Av, 5763): Eighteen year old Erez Hershkovitz and twenty-two year old Amatzia Nisanevitch were murdered by a Hamas terrorist bomber.
2003(14th of Av, 5763): Forty-three year old Yehezkel (Hezi) Yekutieli was murder today by terrorist suicide bomber at Rosh HaAyin.
2004(25th of Av, 5764): Thirty year old Capt. Michael Y. Tarlavsky was killed today when his unit was attacked in Najaf, Iraq.(As reported by Maia Efrem)
2005: A report in the Jerusalem Post concerning absenteeism among workers may come as a surprise to some Americans. For the first seven months of 2005, the rate of absenteeism was higher among men than women. There was no explanation for this reverse in the statistical model from past years. The report also revealed that absenteeism rates rise when economic conditions improve. During economic slowdowns workers are loathe to be away from work for fear of being replaced.
2005: It was announced at Texas Tech University that an article about co-option for which Michael Levin was the lead author was accepted for inclusion to the American Marketing Association's Winter Educators Conference which is the top conference for strategists.
2005: Today, the Younker’s main store in downtown Des Moines which had been operating at the 7th and Walnut Streets location since 1899 when it moved there “by three Polish Jewish immigrant brothers Lipman, Samuel, and Marcus Younker” was closed today
2005: Reuben Greenberg resigned as Chief of Police in Charleston, SC.
2006(18th of Av, 5766):Staff Sgt. Uri Grossman, 20, the son of renowned novelist and peace activist David Grossman was killed in Lebanon, just days after his father made a public call for the government to halt its military operation and enter negotiations.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including How American Grew From Sea to Shining by Jewish Pulitzer Prize winning author Richard Kluger and The Man In The White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado in which she “chronicles her Jewish family’s flight from the rise of Nasser.”
2007: The Chicago Sun Timesbook section featured a Q&A with Gail Carson Levine author of Fairy Haven and the Quest for the Wand and a review of What Goes Up by Eric J. Weiner.
2007: In a story entitled, “A Museum to Get Lost In, And How Israel Is Fixing It” the New York Times describes “an $80 million expansion and renovation that will transform the way a visitor navigates and experiences” the Israel Museum, “
2007(28th of Av, 5767): Eighty-six year old Dr. Ralph Asher Alpher, author of the Big Bang Theory, passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/18/us/18alpher.html
2007: The City of Toronto “granted a closure of Bloor Street between Bathurst and Markham Streets to accommodate a celebration in honor of Ed Mirvish” the late Canadian “businessman, philanthropist and theatrical impresario.”
2008: In Little Rock, AR at the Chabad House, second session of From Ruins to Glory, a course of study based on a virtual tour of the Temple
2008:Rabbi David Loksen and Rabbi Shmulie Hecht, of the Brooklyn, New York-based Chabad Lubavitch Jewish Community Enrichment Program who are volunteers with Chabad Hawaii, leave Guam. They have been working with the island’s small Jewish community since July 22, 2008
2008:Two Israeli physicians were dispatched to Georgia to treat Yedioth Aharonot journalist Zadok Yehezkeli, who was seriously wounded in Gori when shrapnel from an artillery shell, reportedly fired by the Russians, hit him.
2008: General Norton A. Schwartz became the 19th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and the first Jew to hold that position.
2008: Janet Jagan was lected as editor of the PPP newspaper, Thundertoday.
2009:Tzfat [Safed] Klezmer Festival comes to a close.
2009:Two Israelis were lightly wounded in a shooting attack in the northern West Bank tonight, according to the IDF. An initial investigation established that two of three young passengers driving in a car near the settlement of Ma'ale Levona, near Nablus, were lightly injured when Palestinians in a passing car opened fire on them.
2009:The youth movement Habonim Dror, a driving force behind the popular campaign for Gilad Schalit's return, organized a global prayer for the captured IDF soldier's safe return the focus of which was a communal service held at the Western Wall tonight at time that coincided with the soldier's 23rd birthday according to the Hebrew calendar. Aviva and Noam Schalit, Gilad's parents, as well as hundreds of others, were present at the Jerusalem gathering. Habonim joined forces with Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau to organize the ceremony, and released a statement which read, "We are calling on all Jews - one people, one heart - to pray on behalf of our brother Gilad's well being and for his safe return." Rabbi Lau penned a special prayer for the service, which begins "May he who blessed our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Ya'akov, Joseph, Moses and Aaron, David and Solomon bless and guard over and save Gilad son of Aviva and Noam Schalit." The prayer also beseeches god to "redeem [Schalit] from his captivity and return him in the immediate future." The event took place amid a flood of rumors in the Arab media that a deal for the prisoner's release was nearing, despite the lack of official statements from either Israel or Hamas.
2010:YAD Detroit Book Club Cluster is scheduled to discuss The Piano Teacher by Janice Y. K. Lee at the Barnes & Noble Book Store in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2011:A special performance by Makela, DC’s co-ed Jewish a cappella group, is scheduled to take place at the Sixth &I Historic Synagogue.
2011:Tel Aviv municipal inspectors distributed an eviction notice today to a tent dweller who erected a structure that served as a kitchen and storage room at the Nordau Boulevard tent city in north Tel Aviv.In response to the eviction notice, one of the tent protest organizers said that the structure has been standing since the "first day of the protest, and there is no reason to remove it". "The municipality must decide whether it will allow a legitimate and non-violent protest, or whether it is more interested in fighting the protest", said the organizer. Organizers also stated the protests will continue despite the municipality's recent attempts at dissolving it with a Friday night Shabbat service to be held on Nordau Boulevard. The last few days have seen municipal inspectors remove several tents, claiming that they were not being used. The inspectors also distributed eviction notices to protesters in Tel Aviv's Kikar Hamedina, towed a caravan and confiscated a guillotine from Rothschild Boulevard. The municipality has stated that they support the protest and have allowed for it to take place since day one, but are also responsible for maintaining public order. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel strongly criticized the move, saying the mayors are attempting to "push the police to silence the protest".
2011: A hearing to discuss political redistricting in the Baltimore area began this evening at 6:30 p.m. The hearing was originally scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. but was changed to the earlier time to accommodate Jewish citizens who need to be at home or in their synagogues to mark the start of Shabbat. Like all other citizens, Jews can e-mail in their testimony.
2011: The New York Daily News published the first interview that Levi Aron, the man charged with killing 8 year old Leib Kletzky, has given to the media.
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books written by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann and the recently released paperback editions of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Heddy’s Folly:The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes.
2012: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to sponsor a contra-indicated (by the weather) fundraiser – Community Eat-for-Heat featuring a pancake feast and water play.
2012: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present a special screening of “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator”
2012(24th of Av, 5772): Eighty-five year old comic book artist Joe Kubert passed away today. (As reported Margalit Fox)
2012: The Summer Learning Institute at Hebrew Union College is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: “Word Games (Mischakei Milim)” is scheduled to be shown at the Abingdon Theatre in NYC
2012: An off-duty female soldier was forced to disembark from a bus before she had completed her journey in order to avoid a verbal assault by ultra-Orthodox passengers who complained about her attire and point of boarding onto the vehicle, Israel Radio reported today
2012: Luiza Nahari, a Yemenite Jew whose husband, Moshe, was murdered in their hometown of Raydah in December 2008, immigrated to Israel this morning with four of her children.Nahari was reunited with her five other children, who had moved to Israel following her husband’s murder.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/widow-of-murdered-yemenite-jew-immigrates-to-israel/
2012: “More than 1,000 people gathered at Rostov-on-Don, which 70 years ago witnessed the worst Holocaust atrocity in Russia. Wearing arm bands marked with a Star of David, the crowd today marched to the mass grave of approximately 27,000 people executed by German soldiers near the city in 1942. Most of the victims were Jewish, according to the Russian Jewish Congress. Leading the procession was Rabbi Meir Lau, a Holocaust survivor and former chief rabbi of Israel. “The unprecedented turnout shows the memory of the Jewish genocide in Rostov is shared and preserved by Jews and non-Jews,” Russian Jewish Congress President Yury Kanner said.(As reported by Haaretz)
2013: “The A Word” which tells the story of the Rotenberg clan who live in the Arava desert is scheduled to shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Lisa Levine of the Wharton Business School is scheduled to present “Negotiate with Israelis – Like a Pro!” at Talpiyot Jerusalem.
2013: MK Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) today called for implementing the death penalty for terrorists. She said the measure was necessary to ensure that terrorist murderers are "never released." (As reported by David Lev and Ari Soffer)
2013: The recently deployed Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a least one of the rockets that was fired towards Eilat tonight. (As reported by Elad Benari)
2013: The Israel Prisons Service published “the list of the first 26 convicted terrorists who will be released as part of Israel’s confidence-building measures to help the restart of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. The list included 17 names of prisoners who had murdered Israelis, including Abu-Musa Salam Ali Atia of Fatah, who murdered Holocaust survivor Isaac Rotenberg in a Petah Tikvah construction site in 1994.” (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur and Aaron Kalman)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-name-26-prisoners-to-be-released/
2014: It was announced today that Steve Ballmer “would become the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers.
2014: In New Orleans Bruce Spizer is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Uptown JCC on the cause of Beatlemania were the attendees will be able to enjoy a catered kosher lunch.
2014: Tova Birnbaum, Director of the North America Region of the World Zionist Organization, is scheduled to speak on Is Zionism Still Relevant for the Next Generation? with Hadassah’s Lauren Katz.
2014: Prime Minister Netanyahu “summoned senior ministers late tonight to discuss” developments at the Cairo ceasefire talks in what is described as a “preparation talk.” (As reported by Attila Somfalvi)
2014(16thof Av, 5774): Ninety-three year old photographer Lida Moser passed away today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/lida-moser-photographer-of-new-york-and-beyond-dies-at-93/2014/08/30/ea3fb98a-2ec3-11e4-9b98-848790384093_story.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/arts/lida-moser-photographer-with-an-urban-eye-dies-at-93.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
2014(16thof Av, 5774): A month before her 90th birthday, actress Lauren Bacall, the first cousin of Israeli President Shimon Peres, passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/movies/lauren-bacall-sultry-movie-star-dies-at-89.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LargeMediaHeadlineSum&module=photo-spot-region®ion=photo-spot&WT.nav=photo-spot&_r=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lauren_Bacall_with_Vice_President_Truman.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bogart_and_Bacall_To_Have_and_Have_Not.jpg
2014: “Members of the United States Senate are demanding an independent investigation into the role of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency during Israel's most recent war in Gaza with Hamas.” (As reported by Michael Wilner)
http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Senators-want-UNRWA-investigated-over-troubling-Gaza-role-370897
2014: New York Governor Mario “Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate co-leaders Dean Skelos and Jeff Klein are scheduled to travel to Israel” today for a two-day visit as a “demonstration of solidarity” with that country in the conflict in Gaza. (As reported by David Klepper)
2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to show “The Love Bug” as part of its “August at Noon – Car Movies” program.
2015: “Researchers open 'neglected chapter' of Ukraine's Holocaust history” published today revealed how a “project commemorating the killing of Jews” revealed “tensions between Soviet and modern Ukrainian historical narrative.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/12/ukraine-holocaust-history-project
2015: The Thaler Holocaust Programming Committee under the leadership of Dr. Robert Silber is me today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2015: Holocaust survivor Peter Kubicek who “calls himself the luckiest man alive” is scheduled to speak at the National Czech & Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
http://thegazette.com/subject/life/people-places/holocaust-survivor-will-speak-at-national-czech-slovak-museum-and-library-20150809
2015(28thof Av): Yarhrzeit for Larry Rosenstein, of blessed memory, husband of Judy Levin Rosenstein, of blessed memory. Gone too soon but always remembered!
2016: Today, “Treasure hunters relaunched their search for a lost Nazi gold train allegedly loaded with loot and buried in southwestern Poland, despite there being no scientific evidence it exists.”
2016: “Israel’s Or Sasson beat Cuba’s Alex Maxell Garcia Mendoza to win a bronze medal in the men’s over-100kg competition at the Rio Games” today,
2016: Diana van den Boogaard and Adam Brown are scheduled to provide a Preview of the 2017 conference to be held at Orlando on the final day of the 36thIAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Seattle, Washington.
2016: Flooding began in Baton Rouge, LA, which would eventually cost 34 families in the state capitol’s Jewish community their homes.
2016: “From the Deep” a play “inspired by the story of Gilan Shalit and Israeli POW Ilan Shaiach” is scheduled to open at The Fringe in New York City.
2017(20th of Av, 5777): Parashat Ekev
2017: Following the June Chicago Dyke March, “when three Jewish participants at the LGBTQ demonstration were ejected for carrying LGBTQ Pride flags adorned with the Star of David
2017: In the Negev, Mitzpe Ramon is scheduled to host “special events in the Spice Route Quarter” complete with telescopes to provide the best possible viewing of the Perseids Meteor Shower which is at its most impressive today organizers of the Slutwalk Chicago used “red umbrellas to block sings being held by Zioness Movement members who had “joined the initial rally in a local park, carrying signs depicting a woman wearing a Star of David necklace and some wearing rainbow-colored T-shirts emblazoned with a Star of David.”
2017: Hatikva 6 is scheduled to host Hanan Ben Ari at the International Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Fair -(the Hutzot Hayotzer festival)
2017: In Weimar, The Yiddish Summer Farewell Ball is scheduled to be held tonight marking the end of YSM 2017.
2017: As Jews observe Shabbat, they mourn the passing at Haifa Erev Shabbat of “Yisrael Kristal, a Holocaust survivor who was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s oldest man who He was one month shy of his 114th birthday. (As reported by Liel Leibovitz)
2018: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest Jewish readers including Famous Father: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein by Jamie Bernstein and Get What’s Yours: The Secrets to Maxing Out Your Social Security co-authored by Laurence J. Kotlikoff
2018(1st of Elul, 5778): Rosh Chodesh Elul – Blow the shofar for the first time
2018: In Beverly Hills, CA, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts hosted the last performance of “Hershey Felder: Beethoven.”
2018: Demonstrators who are expected to be carrying Nazi flags as they did last year in Charlottesville, VA are scheduled to take to the streets of Washington, DC
2018: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Through Lotte’s Lens” a documentary that tells the extraordinary story of the ‘Hitler Émigrés’, the refugees – mainly Jewish who escaped the Nazi regime in the 1930s and found refuge in the UK.”
2018: Israeli cellist Inbal Segev is scheduled to perform solo works by 21stcentury women including “Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzoli, Augusta Reed Thomas and Gity Razaz.”
2018: In Los Angeles, “Yiddishkayt is scheduled to join with the Southern California Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle and the Sholem Community to view the 1925 classic film JEWISH LUCK, with titles in English translation” as part of events marking “the 66th anniversary of Stalin's purge of the members of the Jewish Antifascist Committee and” the 70thanniversary of the “murder of the Committee leader, the great Yiddish actor Shloyme Mikhoels.”
https://mailchi.mp/yiddishkayt/head-to-the-heartland-of-jewish-culture-1488937?e=3efca73e9a
2019: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “German and True” a “multi-media presentation by Michael Haas, Chair of the exil.arte Center at Vienna's University for Music and Performing Arts, who will highlight the lost contributions of Jewish composers who identified culturally as German, both those who survived and those who perished.”
2019: In New Orleans, the Jewish Community Day School is scheduled to hold its board meeting this evening.
2019: Having finished a four game series with the Phillies, outfielder Kevin Pillar and the San Francisco Giants are scheduled to have a day off before taking the Athletics for a two game series.