OCTOBER 13
54: Roman Emperor Claudius passed away. For Jews, Claudius has to rate as one of the best of the Roman rulers. Among other things, he took the side of the Jews when they were attacked in Alexandria; he maintained a genuine friendship with Agrippa and allowed the Jews to elect their own high Priest while refraining from tampering with the Temple treasury.
54: Nero ascends to the Roman throne. Nero would appoint four increasingly incompetent and venal governors whose misrule would play a key role in the outbreak of the Great Revolt. When the Jews did rebel, Nero appointed Vespasian to put down the revolt.
1307: In France, Phillip IV ordered the arrest of hundreds of Knights Templar on charges of heresy. What Phillip was really after was control of the wealth of the Templars. A year earlier, he had expelled the Jews from France after stripping them of their wealth. Philip’s behavior is just one more example of greed hiding behind a façade of religious belief.
1398:Richard Whittington was elected Lord Mayor of London. Whittington was one of those who defied the ban on Jews living in England when it suited his purposes. He brought a physician named Samson de Mirabeau into the realm for care for his wife in 1409. Whittington was in good company when it came to ignoring the ban since King Henry IV brought Elias Ben Sabbetai from Bologna to serve as his physician in 1410.
1483: Isaac Ben Judah Abravanel (also spelled Abarbanel) started his exegesis on the Bible. Born in Portugal 1437, Abravanel was one of the most colorful and interesting characters of the final decades of during which Jews lived in Spain and Portugal. He was part of a distinguished family and he was well educated in Jewish and secular studies. Abravanel was a financier, tax collector and advisor to the King Alfonso of Portugal. When Alfonso died, Abravanel had falling out with his successor. It was at this time that Abravanel decided to give up his political duties and devote himself to writing commentaries. For reasons that are too complex for this brief entry, Abravanel was forced to flee to Spain where he returned to his tax collecting duties. He left Spain in 1492 and ended up in Naples where he ended up as financier and tax collector again. He passed away in 1503 leaving behind a body of commentaries on the Torah and the Prophets. According to some authorities, his work is solid, but not original. He is, however seen as being the last in a long line of Jewish commentators and philosophers who were part of the Sephardic culture that flourished from the 8thto the 15th centuries.
1513: Today, German born Catholic scholar Johann Reuchlin “begged” “Bonet de Lattes, a Jewish physician and astrologer…known chiefly as the inventor an astronomical ring-dial” and the father of two sons – Joseph and Immanuel -- “to use his influence in order that the examination of the Augenspiegelshould not be given into the hands of a commission made up of strangers…”
1534: Papacy of Paul III began. In response to the threat of the Protestant Reformation, Paul “established a system of tribunals, administered by the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition’, and staffed by cardinals and other Church officials. This system would later become known as the Roman Inquisition.” Unfortunately for the Jews, this iteration of the Inquisition also dealt with the “crimes” relating to Judaism including the attempts by Jews who had been forced to convert to return to the faith of their ancestors.
1605: Eighty-six year old French Protestant theologian Theodore Beza, the successor to John Calvin at Geneva and like Luther was a believer “that Christian churches were largely responsible for the current unbelief among the Jews and “that there would a large-scale conversion of the Jews” while still acknowledging “the Justice of divine anger the Jewish people” passed away today.
1639(Tishrei, 5400): Simcha Heller Kahana, the son pf of Yaakov Yosef Heller Kahana and Raizel Segal Kahana passed away today.
1654: (2nd of Heshvan 5415): On this date Isaac Rodriguez Cunha, a citizen of Curacao, writes a letter which is addressed “to the illustrious Gentlemen, the Mahamad of the Holy Congregation Mikvah Israel, Curacao.” This is one of the first written pieces of evidence used in fixing the dates for the founding of the Jewish community and the synagogue in Curacao. Mahamad is a term used for the “board of directors of a Spanish-Portuguese Congregation
1676: “Compositor, Josel (Joseph) Witzenhausen” was warned “not to compete with ‘the alderman Wilhelm Blau and the jurist Laurens Ball, the Christian partners of Uri Phoebus when it came to printing “a Judaeo-German Bible” in the Netherlands.
1753(15thof Tishrei, 5514): Sukkoth and Shabbat
1753: In Philadelphia, Mathias and Tabitha Bush gave birth to Solomon Bush who will rise to the rank of Lt. Colonel during the American Revolution.
1755: In Arnheim, a resolution was adopted that assigned the Jews “a lot of forty feet by one hundred” which was to be fenced in by them” to be use used as a cemetery.
1757: In Georgetown, SC, Dinah Comgile and Moses Cohen gave birth to Solomon Cohen, the seventh of their eleven children.
1759(22ndof Tishrei, 5520): Shemini Atzeret
1773: It was reported today that “a gentleman” who has “returned from the interior parts of North America, beyond the Ohio,” claims to have discovered “a nation of Jews” living among the Indians, “who call themselves Naphthali.” (Naphtali was the second son born to Jacob the concubine Bilhah)
1788: In Kremenetz, Judah Levin, a grandson of Jekuthiel Solomon and his wife gave birth to Isaac Baer Levinsohn a leader of the Haskalah movement
1789(23rdof Tishrei, 5550): Simchat Torah
1791 :( 15th of Tishrei, 5552): Sukkoth
1797(23rdof Tishrei, 5558): Simchat Torah
1796: Censorship of Jewish books in Russia became official policy.
1801: Birthdate of Emil Roediger the German orientalist and Hebrew linguist who edited books on Hebrew grammar.
1808(22ndof Tishrei, 5569): Shmini Atzeret
1815: Eliza and Lewis Solomon, the parents of Henry, Louis and Esther Solomon, were married today at the New Synagogue.
1816: In New York, Michael and Elizabeth Daly gave birth to Judge Charles Patrick Daly author of The Settlement of the Jews in North America.
1818: In London, Samson Beck and his wife gave birth to Philip Beck.
1818: Birthdate for Regina Kohen, the wife of Angelo Vivante, both of whom were buried in Trieste Jewish Cemetery.
1820: Birthdate of Sir John William Dawson the Canadian geologist who “traveled extensively in Egypt and Syria” and whose works included “Archaia” Studies on the Cosmogony and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures.
1821: Birthdate of Rudolf Virchow, the German biologist and anthropologist whose family may have at one time been Jewish and who studied the biological characteristics of thousands of Jewish schoolchildren as part of his attempt to “provide a rational for the sense of Jewish acculturation” even though “he still assumed that Jews were a separate and distinct racial category.”
1823: Francis Ephriam Cohen who would change his name to Francis Palgrave married Elizabeth Turner following his conversion to Anglican Christianity, a move that no doubt advanced his career as an historian and archivist.
1829(16thof Tishrei, 5590): Second Day of Sukkoth.
1839: Isaias and Elisabeth Popper gave birth to the firs child Simon Popper
1843: B'nai Brithwas founded under the leadership of Henry Jones at Sinsheimer's cafe on Essex Street in New York. Its original mission was the maintenance of orphanages and homes for the elderly and widows. It extended its work to many spheres of American Jewish life, including combating anti-Semitism. (A.D.L.) and working with students on campus (Hillel).
1844: An election was scheduled to be held today to choose the Orthodox Chief Rabbi of the British Empire. The election was won by Dr. Nathan Marcus Adler who held the position from 1845 until his death in 1890.
1845: In Richmond, VA, Larkin White Glazebrook and America Henley Bullington gave birth to VMI graduate and Episcopal Bishop Otis Allan Glazebrook who served as American Counsel in Jerusalem during WW I where distributed relief funds to the Jews of Palestine for three years which earned him a ceremonial dinner of thanks organized by Henry Morgenthau, Felix Warburg, Jacob Schiff and Felix Elkus who “presented him with a sliver tea service as a symoble of the affection and esteem of the Jewish People of the United States.”
1846(23rdof Tishrei, 5607): Simchat Torah
1846: Birthdate of Hebrew poet and Yiddish author Isaac Rabinowitz the native of Kovno many of whose works can be found in Zemirot Yisrael and who passed away in the New York City where he went to join his children.
1847(3rdof Cheshvan, 5608):Rabbi Jizchok Arye, (Isaac Loew Matthes Wormser) also called the Wonder Rabbi Michel city and Baal Shem of Michel City passed away today.
1851: Three days after he had passed away, 61 year old Solomon Lucas, a native of Kent and the husband of Elizabeth Lucas was buried today at the “Chatham Jewish Cemetery.”
1853: “Hebrew Ceremonial” published today reported that the Jews were absent from their businesses on New York City’s Chatham Street yesterday because they were observing the “Day of Atonement, which the Hebrew still duly celebrates though three thousand years have elapsed Moses delivered his Levitical command” concerning this Fast Day. It is the “same statute” the Jews have observed “by the rivers of Poland, in the streets of York, in the valleys of the Aragon” or now “by the banks of the Hudson” river.
1858: Birthdate of Pauline Ehrlich, the second wife of Biblical commentator and scholar Arnold Ehrlich whose daughter Olga was born in 1881.
1862: In Manchester, Rabbi Gustav Gottheil and his wife gave birth Birthdate of RabbiRichard James Horatio Gottheil
1864: Henry Berg who had begun his service with Company G of the 108th Regiment in 1862 was wounded at Richmond as the Union Army besieged the Confederates.
1864: In Keokuk, Iowa, “Mr. Falk handed in his resignation as schochet for the congregation” and he was replaced by “Mr. Berman” after he sharpened his ritual knife to remove “all of the rough edges making it sharp and smooth”
1865(23rd of Tishrei, 5626): Simchat Torah
1867: In Syracuse, NY, David Stoltz and Regina Straus gave birth to Benjamin Stoltz the graduate of Columbia University Law School and husband of Rose Landsberg who was the director of the Hebrew Free Loan Association and a trustee of the Jewish Orphan Asylum Association of Western New York.
1871(28th of Tishrei, 5632): Fifty-eight year old Moses Millaud, French banker, businessman and founder of Le Petit Journal passed away today. He was a supporter of Louis Napoleon (Emperor Napoleon) and was involved in some of the more infamous financial scandals of his time.
1871: In Vienna, Salomon Federn, “an important Viennese doctor who did pioneering work in blood” and Ernestine Spitzer, a member of a prominent Jewish merchant family gave birth to Paul Federn, he psychologist who was one of the early supporters of Sigmund Freud.
1873(22ndof Tishrei, 5634): Shemini Atzeret
1873: Today, the Hebrew Society of St. Joseph, MO, sent five hundred dollars to aid people in Memphis, TN caught in the grips of a Yellow Fever Epidemic.
1875(14thof Tishrei, 5636): Erev Sukkoth
1875: Two days after he had passed away, 51 year old Hyman Davis, the husband of Isabella Davis, with whom he had eight children, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1875(14thof Tishrei, 5636): Sixty-four year old Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw, the Hungarian Rabbi who incorporated elements of modernity in his Orthodox world passed away Szeged where he had been leading the community since 1850 despite many offers to lead large communities including Bucharest.
1875: It was reported today that a survey expedition composed of English officers and soldiers was attacked by marauders at their camp at Ain el Beida in Palestine. The group was conducting a triangulation exercise in western Palestine, specifically the Galilee and most important of all Safed “one of the ‘Holy Cities’ of the Jews’…” According to the report, Lieutenant Kitchener was of the English officers who was involved in this minor skirmish. [History would come to know him as Lord Kitchener, who was involved in all of those 19th British Imperial Campaigns from Egypt, to Sudan, to Khartoum to South Africa. He played a critical role in Britain’s early war effort in WWI before being drowned while on his way to Russia. But all of that began here, in Palestine, when a 24 year old lieutenant faced an armed enemy for the first time.]
1876: In New York, Clara Koffman and Joseph B. Bloomingdale gave birth to Rosalie Stanton Bloomingdale.
1877: It was reported today that New York State Supreme Court Judge Barrett has turned down the application of Rabbi Ash of the Ludlow Street Synagogue to be given the $200 that had belonged to the late Abraham Weisberg so that he could send it to a rabbi the Polish village where the descendant’s children live. Under the law, Barrett said that a guardian for the minor children would have to appointed before he could take action. (This is an example of the myriad conflicts that arose from the fact that fathers and husbands came to the U.S. ahead of their families with the intent to bring them to America once they had earned enough to pay for passage.)
1878(16thof Tishrei, 5639): Second Day of Sukkot
1878(16thof Tishrei, 5639): Twenty three days before his 71st birthday Seligman Baer Bamberger who was serving as the rabbi of Wurzburg passed away today.
1878: “Lord Beaconsfield’s Policy” published today, claimed that Great Britain has shifted her foreign policy for the first time in over 135 years to one of annexation and aggressive imperialism. This change is the result of Beaconsfield’s ability to dissemble and confuse the English people which is due, in part, to the fact that he is a Jew.
1880: Birthdate of Sasha Cherny, the pen name of Russian poet and satirist Alexander Mikhailovich Glikberg
1881: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends decided to speak Hebrew exclusively, marking the beginning of the revival of the language in modern times. Born Eliezer Perlman in Lithuania, Ben- Yehuda is proof that one person can make a difference. As a youngster, a rabbi gave Ben-Yeuda a Hebrew translation of Robinson Crusoe. That experience convinced him that Hebrew should be a modern, spoken language as well as a language of prayer. He devoted the rest of his life to the idea of living in the land of Israel where Hebrew would be the spoken language. He arrived in Jaffa with his bride in 1881 and he became associate editor of a Hebrew Language journal. His task of creating a modern Hebrew language was not an easy one. He was attacked both in print and physically by those who thought he was desecrating the holy tongue. At the same time, he had to keep inventing words since much had happened since Hebrew was last an active language. Life was a real challenge for his children. It was difficult for them to have playmates since they were the only people who spoke Hebrew. Ben-Yehuda did not give up his dream. He lived to see Hebrew become one of the three official languages of Palestine under the Mandate after World War I. Such was his success that by the time he died in 1922, a majority of the Jews in Palestine listed Hebrew as their native tongue on the census forms.
1884: “Two Love-Sick Ducks” published today described an altercation between a Jew and a Gentile who were competing for the affections of Jewish widow living in St. Mark’s Place. The two became so violent that they ended up in front of a Judge who agreed to release them “with the hope that Providence will improve the quality of your brains.
1884: Funeral services were held today for Rabbi Adoph Huebsch at Ahavath Chesed in New York City. The overflow crowd included numerous Jewish leaders from across the United States the most prominent of whom was Rabbi Wise of Cincinnati, the leader of the Reform Movement in the United States. Rabbi Theodore Guenzberg, Huebsch’s assistant, led the worship service. Temple Emanu-El’s Rabbi Gottehiel delivered a sermon in German. Rabbi Jacob delivered the English language sermon. Following the funeral services the rabbi was interred in Linden Hill Cemetery on Long Island.
1885: Harry Hershfield who has been described as “the Jewish Will Rogers” was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1885: The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), home of the Yellow Jackets, is founded in Atlanta, Georgia. Today, Tech’s undergraduate and graduate population of 19,000 includes approximately 600 Jewish students. There are several Jewish organizations on campus including AEPi Fraternity, Hillel and Jackets for Israel which co-sponsors the annual Israel-fest.
1888: In “Kensington, London,” Clotilde and Herman Schiff gave birth to Mortimer Edward Harold Schiff, graduate of Cambridge, “managing clerk with Stepheson, Harwood and Co” who “joined the Inns of Court OTC in 1915” after which joined the Suffolk Regiment where he rose to the rank of Captain before being killed on the Western Front on September 25, 1917.
1888: At the insistence of his future wife, Otto Pierre Siegelstein married Mary Bubis at City Hall; a fact that he would later contest in his attempt to have the marriage annulled.
1891: As the famine in Russia worsens, it was reported that “the destitute Jews who have expelled from Kiev, Moscow and Odessa are swelling the ranks of the famished” populated primarily by Christian peasants.
1891: Three days after she had pass away, thirty year old Annie Gertrude (nee Earle) Newmann, the husband Isaiah Alfred Newmann with whom she had two children – “Percy and Winnie” – was buried today Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1892(22ndof Tishrei, 5653): Shemini Atzeret
1892: Isaac Issacs, the deposed Secretary of the League of Republicans who is Jewish said that the Jews would not accept an apology from Mr. Blake, the campaign manager for Major Warner, the Republican candidate for governor of Missouri. “The only thing that will conciliate the Jewish vote will be the removal of Mr. Blake.
1892: “A Republican Insult To Jews” published today described the problems facing William Warner, the Republican candidate for Governor of Missouri, following the denouement of Isaac Isaacs, the Secretary of the League of Republican Clubs and the “roasting” of the Jews by his personal manager John T. Blake.
1893: Edward Everett Hale delivered an address at the Lake Mohonk Conference of Friends of the Indians in which “he spoke of the great success of Massachusetts in assimilating the Hebrew immigrants by breaking up their clannishness and scattering them among the American populations and asked why the same principle should not apply to the Indian.”
1893: The Hebrew Journal express praise for the opposition of the New York Times to an upcoming prize fight between and American and an English man which is supported by powerful interest in New York and Brooklyn.
1893: Congressman Rayner of Maryland gave a speech in the House of Representatives expressing his views on the Geary Chinese Registration and Exclusion Act which “closed with a fervid appeal…to not commit a great national crime, as gross and wicked as the treatment accorded by Russia to the unfortunate Jews in her dominion and against which our own Government had protested.”
1893: “Curious Coincidences” published today described recently discovered connections between Columbus and the Jewish people including evidence that “Hebrews were among the sailors that composed crews of the three vessels,” the role of Luis de Toress and the evidence produced by Dr. Moses of Kayserling of Budapest that Columbus set sail on the 9th day of Av and made landfall in the New World on the “Seventh Day of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacle, the da of the great Hosanas.”
1893: Because it is erev Shabbat, there will be a pause in the festivities marking the Golden Anniversary of the B’nai B’rith.
1893(3rdof Cheshvan, 5654): Eighty-one year old Major Raphael J. Moses, CSA the Confederate officer who “pioneered the commercial growing of peaches in “the Peachtree State” passed away today in Belgium after which he was buried at the Esquiline Cemetery in Columbus, GA.
1894: “A Bully’s Career Ends in Death” published today described the demise of Otto Slimbach a Brooklyn bully who on the night he was mortally stabbed by an unknown party had beaten his mother and gone through the Jewish neighborhood indulging “in Jew-baiting for his further amusement.”
1894: In New York, Police Inspector Williams began an investigation into charges that the police had beaten the striking cloakmakers many of whom were Jewish including Israel Groman.
1894: Alfred Dreyfus is arrested by Commandant du Paty de Clam, an assistant to the Army Chief of Staff and charged with treason. Dreyfus was left alone with a pistol, having been encouraged to do “the honorable thing.” When Dreyfus refused he was marched off to prison where he would be kept in solitary confinement for the next five days.
1895(25thof Tishrei, 5656): Seventy-seven year old Jacob Reifrman the native of Opatow who wrote Hebrew poetry and was the son-in-law of Joseph Maimon passed away today.
1898:The Zionist Delegation including Joseph Seidener, Moses T. Schnirer, Theodor Herzl, David Wolffsohn and Max Bodenheimer takes the Orient Express to Constantinople as they pursue Herzl’s dream of top-down Zionism.
1899: Two days after he had passed away, 82 year old Abraham Hyams was buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”
1900: Birthdate of Gerald Marks, the Saginaw, Michigan native best known as the composer of the hit “All of Me.”
1900: Birthdate of New Yorker Ida Klein Clurman, the husband of Sam Clurman whom she married in 1921.
1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Shemini Atzeret
1903: In Brooklyn, Abraham Isaac Shiplacoff and Yetta Ettel Itta Shiplacoff” gave birth to William Morris Shipley
1903(22nd of Tishrei, 5664): Dr. Marcus M. Jastrow a noted Hebrew scholar and educator who was rabbi emeritus of Rodef Shalom, a synagogue in Philadelphia, PA, passed away today at his home in Germantown, PA. Born in Pozen in 1829 he graduated from the University of Berlin. He came to the United States in 1866 and became the Rabbi at Rodef Shalom, a position he held until his retirement in 1892. His major literary work was “A Dictionary of the Targumim, Talmud Babli, Talmud Yerushalmi and Midrashic Literature.”
1904: Birthdate of Isidore Grünbaum one of the last Jewish inhabitants of Kleinsteinach who in 1942 was deported to either Izbica or Theresienstadt.
1904: Today, “a small group of men organized Emanu-El Congregation of Borough Park who members who included Max Baron, Simon Frank, Isaac Ipp, Max Perlman, Louis Levy and Philip Abrahams
1905(14th of Tishrei, 5666): Erev Sukkoth
1905: “According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not be solemnized” today, the “day preceding the Feast of Tabernacles.”
1905(14th of Tishrei, 5666): Sixty-seven year old Sir Henry Irving the British actor manager whose first great career success came with his portrayal of Mathias in “The Bells” (an adaptation of “Le Juif Polonais” and whose portrayal of Shylock provided him with a dignity not usually seen in other actors, passed away today.
1905: Birthdate of Alice Vantochová the residence of Prague was murder at Ujazdow in 1942
1909: In Chicago, Theresa Lupe Block and David Julian Block, a Jewish chemist and electrical engineer gave to Herbert Lawrence Block, the Pulitzer Prize winning political cartoonist who gained fame as Herblock and set the standard by which all practice this genre are evaluated.
1910(10th of Tishrei, 5671): Yom Kippur
1910: As of this date, Joseph Shongut, the Coroner was shown to be
1911: Following the outbreak of war between Turkey and Italy, “fourth thousand Italian subjects, nearly all of whom were Jews” began leaving Salonica because they feared expulsion by the Ottomans
1911: Multiple telegrams were received in London from Malta, Gabes and Djerba, appealing for help for the many thousands of Jewish refugees from Tripoli.
1912: Birthdate of Hugo David Weisgall, the Moravian born American composer and conductor “who served as aid-de-camp to General Patton” during WW II.
1912: Ludwig Teller, the son of Isak and Anna Teller, who was married twice and was the father of three children, was buried today in his home town of Vienna.
1912: In Philadelphia, PA, Max and Olga Hirsh gave birth to “photographer and filmmaker” Hyman “Hy” Hirsch.
1912: Israel Abrahams, a Reader in Rabbinics at the University of Cambridge and a leader of the UK’s liberal Jewish movement addressed a meeting held in his honor at New York’s Astor Hotel. Dr. Henry M. Leipziger, President of Judeans, presided over the meeting and introduced Mr. Abrahams. Among the other speakers were Rabbi Joseph Silverman of Temple Emanu-El and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue. Oscar S. Straus, Progressive Party candidate for Governor of New York, who was to have delivered an address, sent a message expressing his regrets at having been unavoidably detained. Abrahams spoke about a favorite topic of the time “The Jewish Problem.” In a unique twist, Abrahams defined it as “The eternal question of living two lives harmoniously.”
1913: According to legend, German-Jewish philosopher Franz Rosenzwieg attended Yom Kippur services for what he thought would be his last visit to a Jewish house of worship before converting to Christianity. “But that prayer service moved him so profoundly that he gave up the idea of converting and became a committed Jewish philosopher, who saw his religion as preferable to Christianity.
1913: One day after she had passed away, sixty-five year old Russian-born Annie Summ, the wife of Joseph Summ with whom she had three children – “Tilly, Alexander and Samuel” – was buried today in the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery in Northern Ireland.”
1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5675): Simchat Torah
1914(23rd of Tishrei 5675): 50 year old Mrs. Rose Baruch Streng, the wife of Bernard Streng, a native of Landau, Germany passed away at her home on West 143rd Street in New York.
1914(23rd of Tishrei, 5675): Abram Scholomir, the son of Jakob Scholmir passed away today.
1914: “Russian Treaty Approved” published today described the decision of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to approve a peace treaty with Russia which might be a prelude to the signing of new treaty of commerce “to take the place of the treaty of 1832 abrogated by the United States because of Russia’s treatment of American Jews.”
1914: “Foreign Legion Of Jews published today provides Israel Zangwill’s view that Jews support the Allies over the cause of the Kaiser as can be seen by the number of Jews who have tried to enlist in the Jewish Territorial Organization which is a Zionist organization under the misconception that it is part of the British Army – proof that “it would be easy to form a foreign legion of Jews grateful for Britain’s sympathy” as can already be seen by the thousands of Jews already serving in the military.
1914: “15 Poisoned at Feast” published today described the unfortunate events at the Sukkoth Meal eaten by the large family of Samuel Horowitz where several of the attendees came down with ptomaine poisoning after having eaten some tainted fish.
1914: Judge Leon Sanders, the President of the Hebrew Shelter and Immigrant Aid Society, has organized “a special Relief Committee for the Jewish suffers in all of the nations at war, following an appeal sent to the Austro-Hungarian Legation in New York by Jews in Austria.
1915: A famous Russian Revolutionary who has recently returned to European Russia from Siberia was reported today to have said he regretted that the “abolition of restrictions endured by the Jews had not been removed a year ago” because “it might have save millions of Russian lives.”
1915: “A dispatch from Petrograd published today in The Daily Telegraph in London said that “Alexander Volzsin who “is credit with the initiator of the recently adopted statute extending residential rights to Jews” has been appointed “the new Procurator-General of the Holy Synod.”
1916: It was reported today that former New York State Assemblyman Aaron J. Levy had told a Columbus Day gathering that “he lived in expectation of the time when there be a more wholesome respect in the heart of every man for the religion of his fellow man.”
1916: “Dr. Magnes Reaches Warsaw” published today described the arrival of the Brooklyn born rabbi in the Polish capital city where he will be distributing money raised by American Jews to aid Jews suffering from the war.
1917: “In order to relieve the destitution of hundreds of Jews who are stranded in Yokohama, the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society announced” today that “it has forwarded to B.J. Fleisher, publisher of the Japan Advertiser of Yokohama , $3,000 with which to lease a suitable building for an immigrant station and that it will shortly send to the Far East a representative to superintend the caring for those in need” many of whom are Russian Jews who are trapped there because of the war.
1918: Today, “after being on duty continuously for thirty-six hours” Corporal Louis Sorrow with Company B, 307th Field Signal Battalion, “volunteered to repair telephone lines which had been cut by shell fire” and after working all night repairing breaks to the line made it possible for “constant communication” to be resumed with forward regiments.
1918: “Dies of Influenza” published today recounted the accomplishments of Reverend Madison Clinton Peters who in addition to his work as a minister, social reformer and advocate for defeating the Kaiser in the World War wrote several books including Justice to the Jews, The Wit and Wisdom of the Talmud, The Jews as a Patriot and The Jews Who Stood By Washington.
1920: In Berlin chess champion Mimi (née Heller) and psychiatrist Harry Marcuse gave birth to Albert Marcuse who was raised as a Lutheran because “his family considered their Jewish heritage a liability” and who gained fame as American composer and actor Albert Hague.
1920: The Bazaar and Fair sponsored by the Kane Street Temple in Brooklyn continued for a second day.
1921: “In San Salvador, Argentina, north of Buenos Aires”, Russian immigrant, small store owner and horse herder Mauricio Minuchin and “the former Clara Tolachier gave birth to Dr. Salvador Minuchin, a cutting-edge American psychotherapist. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1922(21st of Tishrei, 5683): Hoshana Rabah
1922: “Sodom and Gomorrah” an “epic film” directed by Michael Curtiz who also wrote the script was released in Austria today.
1922: “According to a German police report written today: "The fact cannot be denied that the anti-Semitic idea has penetrated the widest levels of the middle class, even far into the working class. It is clear that this movement [the NSDAP]...is gaining increasing ground and that it has a future."
1924(15th of Tishrei, 5685): Sukkoth
1925: Birthdate of Leonard Alfred Schneider who gained fame as Lenny Bruch a controversial comedian and satirist.
1925: Birthdate of Brooklynite film editor Ralph Rosenblum.
1926: In Chicago, Russian-Jewish immigrants Louis Stein, “a jewelry designer” and Zelda (Sam) Stein gave birth to Solomon Stein the author and playwright who helped to fashion the essays of his boyhood friend James Baldwin into Notes of a Native Son. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
1927: “In Chicago, Illinois, Hungarian born Jewess Rosika Schwimmer, an internationally known feminist, author, and lecturer, is denied American citizenship by Federal Judge George Albert Carpenter because she is a pacifist.”
1927: Birthdate of Lee Konitz, the native of Chicago who became one of the leading “Jazz-men” of the 20th century.
1928(29thof Tishrei, 5689): Seventy year old German Jewish otolaryngologist Wilhelm Fliess passed away today
1929(9thof Tishrei, 5690): Erev Yom Kippur
1929: In Manhattan, Joseph and Sylvia Slifka gave birth to twins – Barabara and Alan Bruce Slifka, “a New York investment manager who used his fortune to promote harmony among Israeli Arabs and Jews and to give the Big Apple Circus its start.” (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1930: “Darling of the Gods” “a German music written by Robert Lieberman “premiered at the Gloria-Palast in Berlin” today.
1930: In New York City, Dorothy (Friedlander) and General Sessions Judge Abraham N. Geller gave birth to Yale trained television script writer and producer Bruce Geller best known for his work on the western series “Rawhide” and the longer running “Mission Impossible.”
1933(23rdof Tishrei, 5694): Simchat Torah observed for the first time during the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt.
1935: “Barbary Coast” produced by Samuel Goldwyn, written by Ben Hecht, co-starring Edward G. Robinson and with music by Alfred Newman was released today in the United States by United Artists.
1936: Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau (FDR’s Jewish neighbor at Hyde Park) pointed out that “the tripartite agreement between the United States, France and Great Britain published” today which was designed to promote the stabilizing of the three nations’ currencies and foreign exchanges” could “on twenty-four hours’ notice be revoked or altered” which an observer might have quickly deduced meant that problem of currency stability that had been a cause and result of the Great Depression has not been addressed.
1937: Birthdate of Parisian actor Samuel “Sami” Frei whose movie career began in 1960 with an appearance “The Truth.
1937:The Palestine Post reported that a slight earth tremor was felt in Jerusalem. It lasted about a second, and caused in some cases a definite sway of upper stories of buildings. There were sporadic Arab attacks, accompanied by heavy firing, at Hadera, Safed and on Kibbutz Gordonia. A curfew was imposed on Safed. Robbers operated in the no-man's-land between the Palestinian and Lebanese French border posts at Nakura. The attackers were protected by other well-armed men in surrounding area.
1938:Hans and Lotte Liebermann boarded a ship today and left Germany for the United States where their son Hans had found refuge in June of 1938.
1938: German mathematician Fritz Noether who had immigrated to the Soviet Union after the Nazis came to power and destroyed his career and had been convicted of being a Nazi spy in a trial where the charges were based on “trumped up evidence” was sentenced to twenty five years in prison today by the Soviets who had originally welcomed him with open arms.
1939: Chaim Kaplan, the director of a Hebrew School in Warsaw, described the Jewish reactions to the Soviet occupation of Poland with the following diary entry: “The Jews there looked upon the Bolsheviks as redeeming messiahs. Even the wealthy, who would become poor under Bolshevism, preferred the Russians to the Germans. There is plunder on the one hand and plunder on the other, but the Russians plunder one as a citizen and a man, while the Nazis plunder one as a Jew. The former Polish government never spoiled us, but at the same time never overtly singled us out for torture. The Nazi is a sadist, however. His hatred of the Jews is psychosis. He flogs and derives pleasure from it. The torment of the victim is a balm to his soul, especially if the victim is a Jew.
1939: New York premiere of “Babes In Arms,” a musical produced by Arthur Freed with songs by Richard Rogers, Lorenz Hart, Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg.
1939: NBC radio made its first attempt to cancel The Guiding Light, a soap opera created by Irna Phillips.
1939: In “the Nazi Amtsleiter in Łódź appointed Chaim Rumkowski the Judenälteste ("Chief Elder of the Jews"), head of the Ältestenrat ("Council of Elders").
1940: Jews from Warsaw's suburbs were ordered into the Warsaw Ghetto.
1940: On his 55th birthday, humorist Harry Hershfield, the Cedar Rapids, IA native, in making a reference to the inclusive of American society was quoted as saying, “The is the only country in the world where they would allow Columbus Day to fall on Yom Kippur.”
1940: “In a plea for tolerance” the leader of the Knights of Columbus in New York was quoted as having taken notice of the fact that this year Columbus Day and Yom Kippur were celebrated on the same day this year.
1940: Having been snuck across the border between Nazi-occupied France and Spain by American diplomat Varian Fry, Franz Werfel and his wife, Anna Mahler, arrived in New York on ship that had sailed from Lisbon.
1941(22ndof Tishrei, 5702): Shemini Atzeret
1941: “Odilo Globocnik, SS and Police Leader of Lublin, is ordered by Heinrich Himmler to begin constructing the Belzec extermination camp and launch a program to Germanize the region.”
1942: In Newark, NJ, Louis Simon “a college professor, upright bass player, and dance bandleader who performed under the name "Lee Sims" and his wife Belle, “an elementary school teacher” gave birth to America’s troubadour, Paul Simon.
1942: It was reported today that “Len Levy, the former star for the University of Minnesota will be playing right guard when the Great Lakes Bluejackets” square off against the University of Wisconsin Badgers at Soldiers Field in Chicago.
1943: One hundredth anniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith
1943: A revolt took place in Camp Number I at Sobibor. Alexander Pechersky distributed knives and hatchets to other prisoners. Nine SS and two Ukrainians were killed in the fighting. Three hundred of the prisoners from Camp Number I' escaped. The other 300 would be killed. However, as a result of this revolt, Sobibor ended its operation.
1944: In San Francisco, “Edward and Dorian (Goldman) Goldstein, both of whom were jewelers” gave birth cultural “impresario” Sydney Goldstein. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)
1944: Hans-Jürgen Graf von Blumenthal “a German aristocrat and army officer” who began working with the anti-Hitler resistance in 1942 was executed today for his part in the plot to assassinate Hitler.
1944: The Soviet Troops entered Riga. Only a handful of Jews had survived in city where there were 30,000 Jews just ten years earlier.
1944: “The special People’s Court sentenced “Hans Neumann, Leo Drabant, his wife along with eight other resistance members” “to death because they had ‘attempted to destroy the resistance of the German People…”
1945 (6th of Cheshvan, 5706): On Shabbat, Leon Recanati, Sephardic leader of Palestine and formerly of Salonika passed away. Recanati was a "happy admixture of a learned Jew with his Biblical wisdom on the one hand and a man of affairs with a sense of reality on the other."
1945: “Star in the Night” which marked the directorial debut of Don Siegel, with a script by Saul Elkins and which “won an Academy Award in 1946 for Best Short Subject” was released in the United States today.
1946: “Three masked gunmen” believed to members of the Irgun “escaped with $12,000 after a daring daylight robbery in down town Tel Aviv.
1946: Members of Hashomir Hatzair (Young Guard), a left-wing Zionist organization, “distributed pamphlets in Tel Aviv calling on the Jewish community in Palestine to take ‘active measures’ against Jewish terrorist organizations.”
1948(10th of Tishrei, 5709) Yom Kippur
1948: An Israeli army unit held Yom Kippur services on Mt. Zion, right outside the [then] sealed Zion's Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. There they blew the Shofar, the closest place to the Western Wall they could get.
1948: U.N. “observers reported that the Arabs had fired with automatic weapons ‘for several hours, from an area under UN supervision, and with any provocation by Jewish Forces.’”
1949: Birthdate of Marc Mandel, the son of a New York taxi driver who was nicknamed “Babaloo” by his “longer-time writing partner Lowell Ganz.”
1949: Having been confirmed by the United States Senate yesterday to serve as on Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Illinois, Casper Platt received his commission today.
1950: U.S. premiere of “All About Eve,” a drama written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz with music by Alfred Newman.
1950: Birthdate of Montreal native and Canadian Conservative Party Leader Hugh Segal who left politics to serve as “Master of Massey College in the University of Toronto.”
1950: “Harvey” a film version of the Broadway comedy directed by Henry Koster (Hermann Kosterlitz) was released in the United States today.
1952(24th of Tishrei, 5713):Samuel Bortzell, the native of Russia who moved to Sydney before World War I, enlisted with the ANZACs in 1915 and served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front before being discharged in September of 1918 passed away today leaving behind a his second wife Zena Ardon and his daughter Reva whose mother Eileen Harwood had passed away in 1931.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the cabinet had appointed a seven-member Board of Directors of the German Reparations Purchasing Company. The board was responsible, through Foreign Minister Levi Eshkol, to a five-man ministerial committee which was aided by a 13-member Planning Committee and an Advisory Council of 25 members. You might recognize the name of Levi Eshkol. He would be Prime Minister in June of 1967 when Israel defended itself against its Arab neighbors and reunited the city of Jerusalem
1953(4th of Cheshvan, 5714): “Arab terrorists called Fedayeen, infiltrate into the Israeli village of Yahud and kill Suzanne Kinyas and two of her children (the youngest of which was only 18 months old) in their sleep bringing the toll of Israeli civilian victims to 124.
1954(16thof Tishrei, 5715): Second Day of Sukkoth
1954(16thof Tishrei, 5715): Sixty-nine year old Viennese born soprano and music teacher Emily (Emilie) Heim who found ultimate refuge from European anti-Semitism in Canada passed away today in Toronto.
1954: “A 60-minute adaptation of “The Man Who Came to Dinner” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart was aired today on the CBS Television series The Best of Broadway
1955: Premiere of “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” written by George Axelrod, whose father was Jewish.
1955: “The Pajama Game,” the Richard Adler and Jerry Ross musical opened in London, UK today for the first of 588 performances.
1957(18thof Tishrei, 5718): Sukkoth IV
1957: CBS television broadcast the final episode of “You Are There” a half-hour program of historical re-enactments created by Goodman Ace that included appearances by Paul Newman and Martin Gable.
1957(18thof Tishrei, 5718): Sixty-four year old literary critic and philologist Erich Auberbach passed away today.
1958(29thof Tishrei, 5719): Seventy-year old Lithuanian born Joseph Katz who in 1891 came to the United States where he served as the director of the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Baltimore, passed away to.
1959: CBS television broadcast a live version “The Jazz Singer” with Jerry Lewis starring the “Al Jolson” role and featuring Molly Picon and Alan Reed.
1960(22ndof Tishrei, 5721): Shemini Atzeret
1960: Birthdate of Ari Fleischer, former Press Secretary for President Bush
1960: In the seventh game of the World Series, as future hall of famer Bill Mazeroski rounded first base after having hit the series winning home run, he runs past first base coach, Lenny Levy, the Pittsburgh native who spent most of his life serving in some capacity with the Pirates organization.
1961(3rd of Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-six year old Hungarian born “screenwriter, director and producer” Zoltan Korda part of the trio of Korda brothers (the other two being Alexander and Vincent ) whose works include the anti-war “The Four Feathers” and the WW II classic “Sahara” passed away today. (Editor’s note – these three brothers are fascinating, worthy of at least one of those big biographies as well as one or more epic film like the ones they used to make.)
1961(3rd of Cheshvan, 5722): Sixty-nine year old Cincinnati, OH, native Carl J. Fechheimer, the Purdue trained engineer who settled in Milwaukee the husband of Carla Wilhemine Rich Fechheimer who left “a $150,000 bequest…to establish a chair in electrical engineering at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology” passed away today.
1962(15th of Tishrei, 5723): Sukkoth
1967(9th of Tishrei, 5728): Erev Yom Kippur
1968: B’nai B’rith celebrates its 125th anniversary
1968: “A Birthday Today For B’nai B’rith” published today traces the history and contributions of the Jewish fraternal organization from its inception during the Presidency of John Tyler to the middle of the twentieth century.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10B1FF9355B14728FDDAA0994D8415B888AF1D3
1969: Episode 5 of My World…and Welcome to it created by Melville Shavelson and co-starring Harold J. Stone was broadcast today.
1971(24th of Tishrei, 5732): Fifty-seven Phoebe Ephron, part of a noted artistic family passed away today in New York City.
http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/06/28/nora-ephron%E2%80%99s-potato-chip-legacy/
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/ephron-phoebe
1971: Birthdate Sacha Baron Cohen, the British born comedian who first gained fame portraying his highly successful comedy character Ali G.
1973: Jordan entered the Yom Kippur War. Thinking that initial Arab victories would spell the demise of Israel, King Hussein thought he would get back the West Bank and east Jerusalem. In the end he lost again and ended up having to surrender his claims to these lands to the PLO.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian reinforcements continued to cross the Suez Canal and began attacking Israeli forces.
1973: Israeli forces confronted large numbers of Iraqi tanks both on the road to Damascus and on the Golan Heights. In both battles, Israeli forces destroyed considerable number of the Iraqi tanks while sustaining minimal losses. Israeli aircraft refrained from shooting down the Soviet transports that were landing at Damascus. However, Israeli forces did destroy at least two Soviet craft once they had landed sparking threats from Moscow.
1973: After much hesitation and despite opposition from America’s Western Allies, President Nixon ordered a massive airlift of supplies for the IDF. The material helped offset the tons of modern weaponry being shipped into the region by the Russians. Many Jews shifted their allegiance to Nixon and the Republicans based on the airlift. However, they seemed to have forgotten that if the Nixon administration had not kept the Israelis from conducting a pre-emptive strike against the Egyptians before they crossed the Canal, none of this would have been necessary in the first place.
1973: Avraham Lanir was scrambled for a reconnaissance mission deep in Syrian territory. During his return to Israel, Lanir was caught in a missile ambush and his Mirage was hit in the rear, forcing him to eject. The wind carried the parachuting pilot back over the border into Syrian territory and he landed in the area of Mazra'at Beit Jinn. Israeli Armor Corps soldiers witnessed him land and attempted to rescue him, but he was captured by a Syrian jeep patrol that reached him first. Lt. Col. Lanir was tortured to death by his Syrian captors. His body was finally returned by the Syrians in 1974. “Former Israel Air Force Commander Mordechai Hod noted that Lanir had information that would have placed the existence of Israel at risk had he revealed it to the Syrians.”
1973:Ady Bnaya and David Ya'ir made it back safely to Israeli lines after their F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.
1973: Iftach Zemer and Itzhak Amitai returned safely to Israeli lines when they were forced to eject from their F-4E Phantom Jet after it suffered a technical malfunction.
1973: After his Phantom F-4E Jet fell victim to “friendly fire,” Uri Bakal safely ejected and made it back to Israeli lines.
1974(27thof Tishrei, 5735): Eighty-year old Romanian born Israeli artist Reuven Rubin who returned to his native land to serve as Israel’s first ambassador passed away today.
1974: Seventy-two year old Austrian conductor Josef Krips, whose father was Jewish which meant he had to leave his native land to pursue his career while the Nazis were in power, passed away today.
1976: In Livingston, NJ, “Mike and Sandi Friedman” gave birth to Duke University left guard “Leonard Lebrecht Friedman” whose pro career included stops with the Broncos, Redskins, Bears and Bears.
1977:The Jerusalem Postreported that US President Jimmy Carter welcomed the Israeli cabinet's approval of a "working paper" on procedures for reconvening of the Geneva Middle East peace conference.
1977: Four Palestinians hijacked a Lufthansa Airlines flight to Somalia and demand release of 11 members of the Red Army Faction. Yes, twenty-five years ago, terrorists were interconnected, often sharing resources, training facilities and killing assignments.
1975: As the Russians worked to increase their influence in the Middle East, Soviet President Zhivkov began a visit to Tunisia.
1979(22ndof Tishrei, 5740): Shemini Atzeret combines with Shabbat
1980: Eric Levin examined the reasons for the longevity of 67 year old Garson Kanin’s marriage.
1985(4thof Cheshvan, 5646): Eighty-four year old Sidney R. Rabb, the Boston born third generation philanthropist and grocery store chain executive passed away today.
1986:Rita Levi-Montalcini’s pioneering work on nerve growth earned her the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Born in Turin, in northwestern Italy, on April 22, 1909, Levi-Montalcini had begun her research on nerve cells at the University of Turin. Banned from the university in a purge of Jews in 1938, and then forced to hide during the Nazi occupation of Italy, she immigrated to the United States and joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1946. Levi-Montalcini went to St. Louis at the invitation of embryologist Viktor Hamburger; his support helped her to continue her work at a time when very few women worked in basic science research. It was at Washington University, in 1951, that Levi-Montalcini first hypothesized the existence of the nerve growth factor. Between 1953 and 1959, she worked with collaborator Stanley Cohen to identify nerve growth factor as a protein. For this work, Levi-Montalcini and Cohen shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Their work had significant effects on cancer research, and has also been important in work on Parkinson’s disease. Levi-Montalcini retired from Washington University in 1977. Beginning in the 1960s, she also held an appointment at the National Laboratory for Cell Biology in Rome. After the Nobel Prize, Levi-Montalcini won many other honors. In 1986, she and Cohen were awarded the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award. The following year, she received the National Medal of Science, America’s highest scientific award. She also became the first woman ever named to membership in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in Rome. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)
1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Sixth day of Sukkoth
1987(20th of Tishrei, 5748): Ninety-seven year old Albert Lorch “Al” Loeb who played center from 1910 through 1913 for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets where he was known as the Yiddish Wildcat passed away today.
1988(2nd of Cheshvan, 5749): Seventy-five year old Melvin Frank who wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite movies “Mrs. Blandings Builds His Dream House” passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/15/obituaries/melvin-frank-producer-director-and-writer-of-movies-dies-at-75.html
1989: “Look Who’s Talking” a comedy-fantasy directed by Amy Heckerling and featuring George Segal and Abe Vigoda was released today in the United States by Tri-Star Pictures.
1989: Israeli soldiers killed an 18-year-old Palestinian in a West Bank village, Qalqilya, after they were attacked by masked youths.
1989: “Crimes and Misdemeanors” directed and written by Woody Allen co-starring Martin Landau as “Judah Rosenthal” and Claire Bloom as “Miriam Rosenthal” was released in the United States by Orion Pictures.
1990: Syria invaded Lebanon killing over 500. There was no noticeable protest from Arab states or the U.N.
1990(24thof Tishrei, 5751): Eighty-five year old German-born Dutch mathematician Hans Freudenthal who survived the Holocaust thanks to his wife who was a non-Jews passed away today.
1991: “At the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center in East Rockaway, LI” Rabbis Stanley Platek and Abraham Kelman officiated the marriage of Amy Beth Spector and Steven A. Adler.
1992: Charlotte “Pomerantz's story ‘The Piggy In The Puddle’ was featured today on Reading Rainbow, where it was retold using a claymation process
1993: 150thanniversary of the founding of B’nai B’rith.
1993: U.S. Premiere of the Notre Dame football film “Rudy” co-starring Jon Favreau with music by Jerry Goldsmith
1993: Anthony Paul Lester, the Baron Lester of Herne Hill began serving as a Lord Temporal.20
1994: Fifty thousand Jews gathered at the Wailing Wall to pray for the life of Nachshon Wachsman, a nineteen year old Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped by Hamas.
1995(19th of Tishrei, 5756): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1995(19thof Tishrei, 5756): Eighty year old Rena Galibova who is buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery passed away today.
1995(19th of Tishrei, 5756): Eighty-nine year old Henry Roth, author of Call It Sleeppassed away. Born in 1906, Roth was ignored for most of his career and was reduced to holding a variety of jobs since he could not support himself as a writer. Later in life, he enjoyed a re-birth of interest which continued for at least a decade after his death. (As reported by Richard Nicholls)
1996: After 196 performances at the Shubert Theatre the curtain came down n “Big, the musical” which featured the music of David Shire.
1997: Syria Invaded Lebanon again. Actually, Syrian troops had occupied parts of Lebanon since 1977. Lebanon is more like a satellite of Syria, than a truly independent nation. The late President Assad had a vision of ruling Greater Syria – nation that would include Syria, parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Israel.
1997: In “A Shrine to Books Past Clings to Independence” Dinitia Smith described the history and status of The Argosy Book Store which is operated by Ruth Shevin Cohen, the 90 year old widow of the founder Louis Cohen and their three daughters – Judith Lowry, Naomi Hample and Adina Cohen.
1998(23rdof Tishrei, 5759): Simchat Torah
1999: U.S. premiere of “The Story of Us” directed, produced and written by Rob Reiner.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of special interest to Jews includingThe Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, by Steven Pinker, Jackie Robinson and the Integration of Baseball by Scott Simon and Rereading Sex: Battle Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century American by Helen Lefkowitz
2004(28th of Tishrei, 5765): In London, Bernice Rubens passed away at the age of 76. The prolific British novelist drew on her Jewish upbringing to tell stories of vice and grimness with warmth and humor. “She won Britain’s’ prestigious Booker Prize for fiction in 1970 for The Elected Member, the story of a Jewish family whose secrets drive one son insane.”
2005(10th of Tishrei, 5766): Yom Kippur is observed by Jews all over the world.
2006(21st of Tishrei, 5767): Hoshana Rabah
2006: “Stage Killing: Solving an Attempted Murder” published today provides Faith Jones account of the love triangle surrounding David Levinson, Morris Finkel and Yiddish theatre star Emma Thomashefsky Finkel.
2006(21st of Tishrei, 5767): Ninety-two year old Newburyport, MA native Hilda Terry, one of the first female cartoonist and creator of “Teena” which ran for over almost a quarter of a century starting in 1941 passed away,
2006: Six days after she had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held for portrait artist Rosalind Weinman the Portland, Maine born daughter of Ana and Nathan Weinamn who was also coauthor of the children's book Nate the Great and the Pillowcase, part of a series named for her father Nathan…” and then novel A Visit with Rosalind followed by burial at Mt. Sinai Cemetery.
2006: The End, Lemony Snicket’s final novel is scheduled to come out today.
2006: Daniel Handler, who wrote under the penname Lemony Snicket “appeared on the Today show today “as Lemony Snicket's representative.”
2007: Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan, 5768(Second Day) – First of Cheshvan
2007: Yaakov Katz the military correspondent and defense analyst for The Jerusalem Post, the Middle East's leading English daily speaks at Agudas Achim in Iowa City, IA.
2007:Haaretz reported that in Lakewood, New Jersey, a man wielding an aluminum baseball bat attacked an Orthodox Jewish rabbi walking to synagogue critically injuring the 53-year-old man and threatening to strain the already tense ethnic relations in a New Jersey city, officials and residents said. The beating of Mordechai Moskowitz, reportedly at the hands of am African-American man, has put residents on edge in Lakewood, a diverse city of 70,000 near the Jersey Shore that is home to a large Orthodox Jewish population, as well as black and Hispanic communities. An Orthodox Jewish middle school teacher was found not guilty this summer of assaulting a black teenager. And a few weeks ago, a group of Orthodox Jews was pelted with eggs by teenagers from another town, The New York Times reported Thursday. Authorities have arrested no one and have no motive in the beating of the rabbi, police Lt. Joseph Isnardi said.
2008: Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity
2008(14th of Tishrei, 5769): Erev Sukkoth
2008: As reports multiplied of Harvey Weinsten’s ruthless and aggressive behavior continued to multiply, today Newsweek magazine ran a story accusing him of “"hassling Sydney Pollack on his deathbed" about the release of the film The Reader.
2009(25th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-seven year old producer Daniel Melnick passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/21/daniel-melnick-obituary
2009: Publication of “Chronic City,” a novel by Jonathan Lethem, was published today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2009: Assaf Ramon, the son of Colonel Ilan Ramon who died on the Columbia in 2003, was commemorated today during a military rememberance ceremony marking the 30-day anniversary of his death.
2009: Former Agriproccessor executive Shlomo Rubashkin is scheduled to go on trial in St. Louis, MO.
2009: Channel Two reported that Dalia Itzik spent NIS 75,000 of taxpayers' money on an unnecessary hotel upgrade during a 2006 4-night trip to Paris, France.
2009: The Library of Congress opens a new exhibition "Herblock!," highlighting the life and works of the great political cartoonist.
2009: A Massachusetts judge has denied a motion by Brandeis University to dismiss a lawsuit brought by three overseers of the school’s Rose Art Museum who are seeking to stop the university from closing the museum and selling its works. In January, as Brandeis’s finances worsened, its trustees voted to “transition” the museum into a teaching center and gallery, followed by “an orderly sale or other disposition” of work from its highly regarded collection. The decision was met with widespread criticism. After the vote the university backtracked, saying that no works were to be sold in the immediate future. In court today the university pledged not to sell any artwork that had been donated by the overseers, Meryl Rose, Jonathan Lee and Lois Foster, and said it would give the Massachusetts attorney general an opportunity for review if it decided to sell works donated by others.
2009(25thof Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-seven year old movie producer and studio executive Daniel Melnick passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/movies/17melnick.html
2010(5thof Cheshvan, 5771): Eighty year old lexicographer, author and tenured member of Olbom (On Language’s Board of Octogenarian Mentors) Sol Steinmetz passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/25/books/25steinmetz.html
2010: David Grossman and Nicole Krauss are scheduled to talk about their new novels, To the End of the Land and Great House at the New York Public Library.
2010: Among the 20 finalists for the National Book Awards that were announced today was Nicole Krauss for her third novel, Great House, a sprawling story of memory and loss
2010: Ron Charles reviewed “The Finkler Question” the Howard Jacobson comic novel about anti-Semitism which just won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in London.
2011(15thof Tishrei, 5772): Sukkoth
2011(15thof Tishrei, 5722): Yahrzeit of William Schueller, husband of Eleanor Schueller and father of Deb Levin
2011: The National Basketball Association “formally approved” the purchase of the Philadelphia 76ers by an investment group that included David S. Blitzer, Art Wrubel, Adam Aron, Martin J. Geller and managing partner Joshua Harris.
2011: Milan's La Scala opera house said today that Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim would serve as its new music director from December for the next five years.
2011: IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz met with Noam and Aviv Schalit this evening, confirming that their son Gilad Schalit would be returning to Israel on October 18, Channel 2 reported.
Gantz told the Schalits at their home in Mitzpe Hila that on October 18 Gilad would be flown from a military base in Egypt to the Tel Nof Air Force Base near Rehovot. According to the report, Noam and Aviva Schalit will have their first meeting with Gilad at Tel Nof.
2011: Hamas-affiliated media outlets began today publishing names of imprisoned terrorists who will reportedly be set free by Israel in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit. The list, which has not been confirmed by Israel as of tonight, contains the names of terrorists behind painful images of death and destruction.
2012: Six13 “a six-man vocal band that brings an unprecedented style of Jewish music to the stage” is scheduled to appear in the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Performing Art Series.
2012: Israeli films “Chasing A Star” and “One Day After Peace” are scheduled to be shown at the Syracuse Film Festival in Syracuse, NY.
2012: Tosha Skolnik, an 8th grader at Alice Deal, is scheduled to be called to the Torah as Bar Mitzvah at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2012: Seventy year old Barbra Streisand is scheduled to “return to her roots” with a concert at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
2012(27thof Tishrei, 5773): The cycle begins again as Jews all over the world read Bereshit.
2012: One man was reportedly killed and two others were injured tonight in an IAF attack in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip. The strike targeted Islamic Jihad members who had reportedly planned to carry out an attack against Israelis during the Sukkot holiday.
2012: Iran hinted today that it was responsible for a drone that flew deep into Israel on October 6, before being shot down by the Israeli Air Force.
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Devil That Never Dies: The Rise and Threat of Global Anti-Semitism by Daniel Johnah Goldhagen and the Kraus Project: The Essays of Karl Kraus translated and annotated by Jonathan Franzen as well as an interview with Scott Turrow whose latest work is Identical.
2013: “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War” is scheduled to open today at the Maryland Museum of Jewish History
2013: “Her” starring Puerto Rican born Jewish actor Joaquin Phoenix is scheduled to debut at the New York Film Festival.
2013: The Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to host a Local Author Fair featuring Melissa Ford, author of Measure of Loveand David Bruce Smith, author of American Hero: John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States
2013: After almost a year, “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and Jewish Community in New York and Beyond comes to an end at the Yeshiva University Museum
2013: “Skokie: Invaded, But Not Conquered” is scheduled to shown this afternoon at the Illinois Museum and Education Center.
2013: Led by Amy Barnum, Hadassah is scheduled to hold its annual dinner at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2014(19thof Tishrei, 5775): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
2014(19thof Tishrei, 5775): Richard Larkin, “a longtime family friend” of Renee Ghert-Zand, was shot and stabbed by Palestinian terrorists while waiting for a bus in Jerusalem in attack that would lead to his death two weeks later. (As reported by Renee Ghert-Zand)
2014: In Scarsdale, NY, the funeral for Edward M. Davidowitz, retired Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York is scheduled to be held Westchester Reform Temple
2014: As part of its series on the Jewish Experience in the Trenches and at the Homefront” during WW I, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to show La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion), a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir
2014: “The principal photography” for “Get Ready For Ricki,” a cultural-wars comedy featuring Ben Platt and Charlotte Rae “began today in Rye, NY.
2014: The JCC of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a presentation by Bill Schneider entitled 2014 Election – Viewpoint from the Nation’s Electionmeister.”
2014: British lawmakers voted today to recognize Palestine as a state in a debate unlikely to change government policy but laden with political symbolism. The ayes carried the vote with 274 votes, against only 12 nays. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/british-mps-vote-overwhelmingly-to-recognize-palestine/
2014: “Dozens of Arab rioters, primarily young men, were holed up today in the Al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-rioters-holed-up-on-temple-mount/
2014: According to a report made public today one of the few remaining Jewish families in Syria “was secretly smuggled into Israel several months ago with the aid of a network of Israeli businesspeople and has begun a new life in the Jewish state.” (As reported by Gavriel Fiske)
2015(30thof Tishrei, 5775): Rosh Chodesh 1 Cheshvan
2015(30thof Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-eight year old commercial real estate mogul Julien Studley passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/realestate/commercial/julien-studley-real-estate-broker-who-began-career-in-a-bedroom-dies-at-88.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well
2015: Richard Larkin “an American educator who marched for civil rights in the 1960s and advocated coexistence between Muslims and Jews when he moved to Israel” was mortally wounded today “when two Palestinians boarded a bus in Jerusalem and began shooting and stabbing passengers.”
2015: The Center for Jewish History, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Fordham University are scheduled to mark the 50th anniversary of the issuance of “Nostra Aetate” at the Second Vatican council with a screening of “Ida followed by discussion with Magda Teter, Fordham University; Jonathan Brent, Executive Director of YIVO, and Father Guy Massie, Chair, Catholic-Jewish Relations for the Diocese of Brooklyn.”
2015: LBNY Productions is scheduled to present a performance by “Ehud Banai who will perform inspiring songs that became Israeli rock n' roll anthems.”
2015: In the UK, Rabbi Jonathan Romain is scheduled to lecture on “Royal Jews – Jewish Life in Berkshire from the Readmission till Today.”
2015: Violinist Gil Shaham is scheduled to perform this evening with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
2016: The chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, the President of the Sharia Court of the Palestinian Authority and two rabbis from a West Bank yeshiva’ were among the guests who attended a meeting this evening at the home of Israel’s president.
2016: “Bob Dylan was named the winner of the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature today, in a stunning announcement that for the first time bestowed the prestigious award to someone primarily seen as a musician.”
2016: As Jews transition from Yom Kippur to Sukkoth, The London Jewish Cultural Centre is scheduled to host “an interactive learning experience” in which Dina Brawer will present “the underlying theme behind each of the festivals.”
2016: At a meeting in Paris, a committee of UNESCO approved a “resolution sponsored by several Arab countries that referred to the Temple Mount and Western Wall…only by their Muslim names and condemned Israel as ‘the occupying power’.”
2016: “Mexico supported a resolution on Jerusalem at UNESCO’s executive board that Israeli and Jewish leaders decried as denying the Jewish people’s historic connection to the ancient city and to the Temple Mount, or Al-Haram Al-Sharif, as most Muslims refer to the site.”
2016(11thof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-three year old socially conscious and documentary photography Louis
Stettner passed away today.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/15/arts/design/louis-stettner-dead.html?hpw&rref=obituaries&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
2016: “Wallflower” “a collaboration project between Inbal pinto and Avshalom Pollak is scheduled to open at the Kay Theatre in College Park, MD.
2016: Having defeated the Giants, the Chicago Cubs led by Theo Epstein the Jewish baseball executive who worked miracles for the Boston Red Sox, turn their eyes to the East and West coasts to see if they will be facing the Dodgers or the Nationals in the next leg of their quest to break the World Series jinx.
2016: The American Jewish Historical Society and Center for Jewish History are scheduled to sponsor a Fathers and Sons concert featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble playing music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and Weinberg.
2017(23rd of Tishrei, 5778): Simchat Torah
2017: Once again the Children of Israel deal with the question of Jews and Friday the 13th.
https://www.thejewniverse.com/2017/why-friday-the-13th-is-a-lucky-day-for-jews/
http://joshuahammerman.blogspot.com/2009/11/why-friday-13th-is-lucky-day-for-jews.html
2017: “In a New York Times op-ed titled ‘Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein’s World’ published today, Jewish actress Mayim Bialik said she was shocked by the scope of Holly producer Harvey Weinstein’s predatory behavior toward women…but was not surprised by the fact he abused his position of power to do so.”
2017: The Irish Times reported today that “according to the 2016 census” the country’s “Jewish population rose by 573 people to 2,557 since 2011.”
2017: Dance Tel Aviv is scheduled to host the first performance by Compagnie Thor “directed by Belgian dancer Thierry Smits.”
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat service followed an hour later by a Shabbat Dinner.
2018: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Joseph Heeren is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah. (Editor’s note – this is a cool kid who is one of the most regular attendees of Shabbat services in the world)
2018: In Jerusalem, the Eden-Tamir Concert is scheduled to host “We Love Tchaikovsky,” the season’s opening concert.
2018(4thof Cheshvan, 5779): Parashat Noah
2019:
2019(14thof Tishrei, 5880): Erev Sukkoth
2019: “According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not be solemnized” today, the “day preceding the Feast of Tabernacles.”
2019: At the Chicago YIVO Society Sarah Lazarus Memorial Concert “Klezmer violinist Alicia Svigals and pianist/composer Donald Sosin are scheduled to perform the live original score from The Ancient Law, a recently restored 1923 Weimar silent cinema classic.”
2019: In Albany, CA, the Albany Community Center is scheduled to host “The Assault on Jews Today,” a “discussion of contemporary anti-Semitism on the political left and right. Facilitated by UC Berkeley Jewish history professor John M. Efron.”
2019: In New Orleans, Gates of Prayer, the last congregation in the city to have “a Judaica gift shop: is scheduled to “hold a clearance sale” under the leadership of Janet Krane.
2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak JCC is scheduled to host “Challah for Hunger,” a “charity baking even for families with children two to eight.”
2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors including The World That We Knew, Alice Hoffman’s “Holocaust novel,” Transaction Man by Nicholas Lemann whom I first met when I was his Sunday School teacher at Temple Sinai in New Orleans, The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution by Eric Foner, and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins At Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer