OCTOBER 17
832 BCE (7 Cheshvan 2928): This is considered the traditional date of the inauguration of the first Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon. As far as many Jews are concerned, the dedication is tied to the holiday of Sukkoth and dating schemes such as these are of minimal value. In one of those oddities of the calendar, in 2005, Sukkoth began on the evening of October 17.
539 BCE: King Cyrus, The Great, of Persia marches into the city of Babylon. This will lead to the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile.
415: Emperors Honorius and Thedosius II issued an edict deposing Rabin Gamliel IV as the Nasi “because he had disregarded an earlier decree by Honorius, which had curtailed his privileges and the ban on the building of new synagogues and had adjudicated disputes between Jews and Christians.”
1448: Second Battle of Kosovo, where the mainly Hungarian army led by John Hunyadi is defeated by an Ottoman army led by Sultan Murad II. Murad is remembered favorably by the Jews since he allowed German Jews who were fleeing persecution and death to settle in Salonica. He also employed Jews as his court physicians. On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects. These two leaders would meet again a decade later during the siege of Belgrade with a different outcome. [Editor’s note – As you can see, conflicts between Moslems and Christians is not an invention of the 21st century]
1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. Their marriage led to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain. This rapacious duo would expel the Jews in 1492. While cloaking themselves in the Cross, they filled their pockets with stolen Jewish wealth.
1483: Pope Sixtus IV launched the Spanish Inquisition, placing it under joint direction of the Church and state. Despite his previous protest, Pope Sixtus III gave into Ferdinand's pressure and extended the authority of the Inquisition to Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. This consolidated the Inquisition under one central body under Torquemada. Tomas de Torquemada, 63, was the Grand Inquisitor in charge of removing Jews and Muslims from Spain. For those who are studying history in Cedar Rapids you will find out that one of the oddities of all this is that all of the major players – Ferdinand, Isabella and Torquemada – descended from Conversos which means that those who led the Spanish Inquisition had Jewish ancestors.
1532: Pope Clement VII issued an apostolical brief halting the Portuguese Inquisition “until further notice.
1700(4th of Cheshvan, 5461): Judah he-Hasid, an Ashkenazi rabbi who had made good on his call for Aliyah by leading 1,500 of his followers from Europe to Jerusalem passed away three days after they arrived at their destination.
1756: Birthdate of Isaac Abraham Euchel, the native of Copenhagen and nephew of Rabbi Masos Rintel who was one of the founders of the Haskalah movement.
1762(30th of Tishrei, 5523): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1762(30th of Tishrei, 5523): Sixty-three year old Samson Gideon, "one of the outstanding members of the London Jewish Community” and "a leader in the Parliamentary struggle to pass the Jews' Naturalization Act of 1753" passed away today after having contracted dropsy leaving £1000 of his £350,000 fortune to the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in London on condition he was buried with honor as a married man in their cemetery in Mile End.
1768: Birthdate of Israel Jacobson, the native of Halberstadt Germany who was a successful businessman, philanthropist and one of the founders of the Reform Movement
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_09920.html
1769: Birthdate of Curacao native Joshua Naar whose wife Sarah gave birth to Abraham, David and Benjamin Naar.
1775(23rd of Tishrei, 5536): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the Americans rebelled against the British.
1779: In Philadelphia, Rachel Franks and Haym Salomon, the merchant who bankrupted himself helping to finance the American Revolution gave birth to Sallie Salomon, the wife Joseph Andrews with whom she had twelve children.
1781: The Americans, with a lot of help from the French, defeated Cornwallis at Yorktown. This victory ensured the creation of the United States. For the most part, the small Jewish population supported the patriot cause. Of course the victory meant that the “last best hope of man” would become a haven for the Jews of Europe.
1781: Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the Dutch born son of Eva Jacob Cohen and Benjamin Jonas Cohen, and Elisabeth Gompertz gave birth to Anne Jean Philippe Louis Cohen.
1787: In New York City, Leah Nathan and Jacob Naphtali Hart gave birth to Ella Hart, who with her husband Hyam Moses Salomon had ten children
1793: Birthdate of Isaac Noah Mannheimer, the Copenhagen Talmudist and Rabbi who held a variety of posts in Denmark, Germany and Austria. A leader in the Reform Movement, he served as a representative in the Austrian Reichstag.
1794(23rd of Tishrei, 5555): Simchat Torah
1796(15th of Tishrei, 5557): Sukkoth
1801: In Paris Antoine-Isaac Silvestre de Sacy and his wife gave birth to French journalist Samuel Ustazade Silvestre de Sacy.
1803(21st of Tishrei,
1808: With Napoleon's arrival at the Duchy of Warsaw, the new State parliament called for equal rights. Unfortunately this did not include the Jews whose rights “would be postponed for 10 years in the hope of eradicating all their distinctions which set them apart."
1810: On the day after his death, Reb Nachman of Bratslav was buried at Uman making it the destination for an annual pilgrimage for thousands of Chassidim.
1812: In the Netherlands, Branca and Hirschel Eliazer Kann gave birth to Jacob Kahn
1813(12rid of Tishrei, 5574): As the war between Great Britain and the United States drags into its second year, Jews on both side of the Atlantic celebrate Simchat Torah.
1814(3rd of Cheshvan, 5575): Fifty-seven year old Mantua native Samuel Romanelli who combined the skills of a Hebrew poet with that of a traveler able to provide readable descriptions of his visits to a variety of Jewish communities passed away today.
1819: One day after he had passed away, Joseph Wolfe was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1830: Birthdate of Mortiz Ellinger, who emigrated to the United States from Bavaria in 1854 where he held several city government jobs while being active in the B’nai B’rith and editing The Menorah and The Jewish Times.
1831: Birthdate of Bernhardine Wetzlar.
1832(23rd of Tishrei, 5593): Simchat Torah
1832: In Philadelphia, Sarah Mocatta and Frederick Samuel gave birth to Lionel Jacob Samuel
1832(23rd of Tishrei, 5593): Forty-six year old Moses Lemans, the Dutch born Jewish educator and author whose works including The Spirit of the Talmudic Lord and a biography of Maimonides, passed away today.
1835: Birthdate of Abraham Harkavy (Avraham Eliyahu ben Yaakov Harkavy), the Russian born Jewish historian and author who was one of the first to write in Hebrew in modern times.
1835: In “Canterbury, Kent, “Mary Lazarus and David Nathan gave birth to Rosa Nathan, the wife of Henry Hart with whom she had ten children.
1841: In Charleston, SC, Mr. S. Frankford married Harriet Cohen, “the second daughter of A.N. Cohen.”
1843(23rd of Tishrei, 5604): Simchat Torah
1843: In Halberstadt, Prussia, Sara and Abraham Hildesheimer gave birth to Albert HIldesheimer, the resident of Manchester, England whose wife Emilie bore him three children –Abraham, Alice and Henry.
1843: Birthdate of Hebrew teacher, author and commentator Abraham Baer Dobsewitch, the native of Pinks who moved to the United States in 1891 where he continued his work until his death in 1900.
1846:On Sabbath Bereshit a Beth-din was established, composed of the following gentlemen: Chief Rabbi Lilienthal, Moreno [Isaac M.] Wise, Rabbi of Albany and Syracuse; Moreno Doctor Felsenheldt, and Moreno Doctor Kohlmayer. Dr. Lilienthal, elected Rosh Beth Din, presented the Dayanim to his congregations, and in a sermon, delivered on that occasion, declared, on behalf of the Beth-din, that their services were ready to be given to every Jewish congregation in America, without claiming any clerical rights or dues.
1850: Anti-Christian rioters pillage Christian neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria. Several Christians die during the riot. This serves as a reminder that sectarian violence in the Middle East was a fact of life before the birth of the Zionist movement and that this long-standing pattern of violence had nothing to do with the Jews.
1851(21st of Tishrei, 5612): Hoshanah Rabah
1851: A letter was sent to Samuel J. Rubinstein thanking him for his two years of “excellent service” as the treasurer of the synagogue in Dublin, Ireland.
1852: Today, in St. Louis, “a document was ratified that created B’nai El which resulted from a merger of B’nai B’rith, Emanu-El and United Hebrew” after Rabbi Lesser had convinced the Jewish population of the absurdity of such a small community trying to support three congregations.
1853(15th of Tishrei, 5614): Sukkoth
1854:Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention in Philadelphia which opened on this date. At the Philadelphia meeting, Rose declared, "[I]s woman not included in that phrase, 'all men are created … equal'? ... Tell us, ye men of the nation … whether woman is not included in that great Declaration of Independence?"
1857: In Louisville, KY, Isaac Sale and Henrietta Dinkelspiel gave birth to Moses N. Sale, the husband of Florence D. Rider, who became a Circuit Court Judge in St. Louis, MO.
1858: Birthdate of David Samuel Margoliouth, The son of Ezekiel Margoliouth and the nephew Moses Margoliouth, both of whom were Anglican converts, he was a noted Orientalist and Oxford Don. Among other accomplishments, “He identified a business letter written in the Judeo-Persian language, found in Danfan Uiliq, northwest China, in 1901, as dating from 718 C.E. (the earliest evidence showing the presence of Jews in China).” He passed away in 1940.
1862(23rd of Tishrei, 5623): Simchat Torah
1862: As the Jewish “holiday season” comes to an end with the celebration of Simchat Torah, General U.S. Grant returns to active field service as he takes command of the Department of Tennessee. In that capacity he will issue the infamous General Order Number Eleven that expelled Jews, “as a class” from the district under his command. This regrettable episode would be used by some to unfairly brand Grant as an anti-Semite.
1863(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah
1864(17th of Tishrei, 5625): As the Jewish soldiers serving with the Army of Northern Virginia observe Sukkoth Chol Hamoed, General James “Pete” Longstreet, Lee’s good right arm resumes command of troops after having been seriously wounded during the Battle of Wilderness.
1866(8th of Cheshvan, 5627): Hungarian journalist Sigmund Saphir, who “edited several German papers including the Pesther Tageblatt and who was the nephew of “humorist Mortiz G. Saphir” passed away today.
1872(15th of Tishrei, 5633): Sukkoth
1875: It was reported today The Hebrew Charity Fair is to take placed in December at New York’s 22nd Regiment Armory. All proceeds from the event will go to support Mount Sinai Hospital. Women from all of the city’s synagogues are actively working to prepare for the event.
1875: According to an article entitled “The Wandering Jew” published today, the first document mentioning this mythic figure are about 650 years old, dating back to the reign of Henry III. The next references to him do not appear until the 16th century when he supposedly revealed himself to a weaver in Bohemia. Contrary to the name, the Wandering Jew has nothing to do with Judaism. Rather he is a Christological Character tied to one of the stories relating to the Crucifixion
1875: “The Bible in the Public Schools” published today described the conflict going on at the Board of Education of Union Hill, NJ concerning mandatory Bible readings at the start of each school day.
1877: Herman C. Bush wrote a letter from Cincinnati today addressed to his friend Christopher J. Bush of New York confessing that he had stolen seven piece of cassimere from his employer in New York City. He claimed that he had sold five of the pieces to a Jew on the corner of Baxter and Leonard Streets. Further investigation would establish that this was the address of a second-hand clothing store owned by Louis Lazarus, who had been arrested previously on charges of receiving stolen goods. Lazarus claimed the items in question had been bought by his son who had no idea that they were stolen. Lazarus would later be arrested. There is no word as to the fate or religion of either of the men named Bush.
1877: Dr. F. De Sola Mendez is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in New York City, starting at 8 p.m.
1879: Birthdate of German historian Eugen Täubler who worked as a lecturer at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Higher Institute for Jewish Studies) in Berlin from 1910 to 1914 and again from 1933 to 1941 after which he and his fled Nazi Germany for the United States where he became a professor at HUC in Cincinnati.
1880: James John Woolley married Hannah Cohen today in London
1881: “Minor Affairs Abroad” published today provides a statistical snapshot of births in Russia including the fact that Jews accounted for 3 percent of the 8,119 out-of-wedlock births
1881: One hundred thirty two more Jewish immigrants from Russia are expected to arrive in New York City today.
1882: Leo Pinkser published his famous pamphlet"Autoemancipation; A Warning of a Russian Jew to his Brethren."He published it as a result of the Russian pogroms of the previous year. Pinsker advocated establishing a homeland as a cure for anti-Semitism. He thought that a Jewish congress should decide if that homeland should be in Eretz-Israel, the United States or some third choice. Only later did he join with the “Lovers of Zion Movement” and acknowledge that Eretz-Israel was the only place for a Jewish homeland. Pinkser died in 1891, six years before the First Zionist Congress. His writings and efforts laid the groundwork for Herzl and others. In 1934, his remains were re-interred on Mt. Scopus.
1882: Mr. and Mrs. Julius W. Kaskel buried their three week old son Asher in the Hebrew Cemetery in Leadville, CO.
1882: It was reported today that the Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be sponsoring a concert at Chckering Hall later this week.
1882: It was reported today that Israel Ettler has been arraigned in the Harlem Police Court for his alleged role in the recent riot at Ward’s Island.
1884: It was reported today that Young Men’s Hebrew Association will be hosting a celebration marking the 100th birthday of Sir Moses Montefiore tomorrow night. (The overwhelming number of centennial celebrations marking the birth of Montefiore attests to his importance to Jews throughout the world and the affection in which he was held. But how many people know who is today/)
1885: The first American Rabbinical Conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio
1885: In New York, Leon Tanenbaum and his wife gave birth to 1907 Harvard graduate and real estate broker Jerome Tenanbaum, a business partner of B.M. Straus, treasurer and director of the Hebrew Technical School for Girls and the husband of Helen Tanenbaum with whom he had one child – Charles.
1885: “Statistics of the Jews” published today used figures provided by The Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Marseilles to present a demographic picture of world Jewry. There are 6,377,601 Jews in the world, 5,407, 602 of whom live in Europe, 245,000 in Asia, 413,000 in Africa, 300,000 in American and 12,000 in Oceania. Of the European countries, Russia has the largest population at over 2,000,000 followed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire with 1,600,000. With a combined Jewish population of 3,000 Norway and Sweden have the fewest.
1885:A law enacted on this date made religious instruction for Jewish children living in Lübeck who were attending public schools compulsory. The city paid an annual subsidy to the synagogue in Lubeck for providing this instruction.
1886(18th of Tishrei, 5647): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1886(18th of Tishrei, 5647): Seventy-one year old Michael Cashmore, the London born son of Alice and Joseph Cashmore and the Sydney, Australia businessman who “was the first Jewish settler of Melbourne where he owned a haberdashery business and raised a family with his wife “Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Solomon” passed away today.
1886: “Moses and Henry George” published today provided George’s praise for the system “Moses tried to found in which there was an absence of poverty and the idea of the brotherhood of man was paramount. To that end, “Moses proved not only for a fair division of the land among the people but for a redistribution every 50 years making monopoly impossible.”
1887: In Richmond, VA, Gustavus and Pauline Lonnersteadter Thalhimer gave birth to Wharton graduate Morton Gustavus Thalhimer, the husband of Ruth Wallerstein Thalhimer.
1888: “A Jewish Wedding” published today described the wedding ceremony that joined New Yorker Louis H. Rascover to Miss Carrie Thalheimer in Reading, PA which was one of the social highlights of the year. The ceremony was followed by a reception attended by five hundred people from New York and most of the major cities in eastern Pennsylvania. Before her marriage, Miss Thalheimrt “was the acknowledged belle in Hebrew society circles in Reading.”
1888: The leaders of the Jewish Order of the Harp of David who were sponsoring a series of “grand operas, tragedies and high comedies at Poole’s Theatre for the benefit of its charitable and mutual benefit funds” clashed with Professor Horowitz, the man it had retained to manage the events during which the latter ceased the proceeds from the ticket offices and only agreed to pay the actors after they threatened not to perform this evening.
1890: A citizen’s committee met with Mayor Grant today and urged him to appoint Coroner Ferdinand Levy to serve as a Police Justice.
1890: Three days after she had passed away today, 86 year old Hester Meyers, the daughter of Isaac and Sarah Levy and the widow of Daniel Meyers was buried today in the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1891(15th of Tishrei, 5652): Sukkoth
1891: In Jerusalem, “Rabbi Bernard and Miriam (Charlap) Abramowitz gave birth Abraham Elijah Abramowitz the graduate of Yishivah Meah Shearim who served as Rabbi at Agudath Achim in Shreveport, Ahavath Sholom in Ft. Worth, Texas and B’nai Bazalel in Chicago.
1891: Birthdate of Henry Torres, the attorney who defended Samuel Schwartbard, the Jewish poet and anarchist who was accused of assassinating Simon Petlioura for his role in the Ukrainian Pogroms in which thousands of Jews including his parents were murdered.
1892 In Chester, PA, founding of “Congregation Bena Israel Ansa” led by Rabbi Berman and whose members included S.D. Levy.
1893: In Berlin, “dental surgeon and businessman Dr. Hugo Ascher and Minna Luise (Schneider) Ascher gave birth to painter Fritz Ascher.
1893: In response to an allegation published in The Evening Post that Otto Irving Wise is a “hack politician” one of his friends said today “that Mr. Wise had been connected with Tammany Hall for short time only and then resigned and affiliated himself with the Republicans.”
1894: As reported today, the average age of the 163 people living at the Aged and Infirm Hebrews is seventy-two.
1894: The Lexow Committee (named for its chairman Clarence Lexow), the New York State Senate Committee investigating charges of corruption in the New York City Police Department heard more testimony including charges of police intimidation and payoffs in the operation of soda water stands on the Lower East Side by Samuel Ebert, Wolf Lipman, Samuel Cohen and Amelia Levine.
1896: The University of Wisconsin football team led by first year head coach Philip King, a Jewish native of Washington, DC won its third straight game this afternoon.
1897(21st of Tishrei, 5658): Hoshana Raba observed for the first time during the President of William McKinley.
1897: Letters were written today to a large number of charitable from Messrs. Barnato Brothers explain that the enclosed checks were part of bequests from that late B.I. Barnato.
1898: A.C. Wheeler writes a letter to the New York Times in which he takes issue with the surprise expressed by the paper’s London correspondent at the positive and warm reception received by Israel Zangwill during his highly successful lecture tour.
1898: One day after she had passed away, 56 year old Nellie Monk, “the widow of Israel Monk,” was buried at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery on Buckingham Road.”
1898: In Monmouth Country, NJ, two “Russian immigrants gave birth to Sayra Fischer, the Syracuse University trained attorney who became Sayra Fischer Lebenthal when in 1925 she married Louis Lebenthal with whom she formed the Wall Street brokerage firm of Lebenthal and Company.
1899: In Chelsea, MA, Celia and Morris Marget gave birth to Harvard educated economist Arthur William Marget, a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve, faculty member of the University of Minnesota and the husband of Edith Marget,
1900: Birthdate of molecular biologist Alfred Ezra Mirsky, the husband of children’s author Reba Paeff and the father of Reba Goodman and Jonathan Mirsky.
1900: Herzl meets with the Ernest von Koerber, Austrian Prime Minister.
1901: In Vitebsk, Russia, “Barnett (Dov) Freedman, a tailor, and his wife Beila Henah” gave birth to Harry Freedman the holder of two degrees from the University of London and recipient of “semicha from Jews College who was the husband of “Rebecca (Bea) Ginsberg” who served congregations in Melbourne and New York.
1903(26th of Tishrei, 5664): Lewis Abraham Tallerman, the brother of Australian merchant Daniel Tallerman passed away today.
1903: Birthdate of author Nathanael West best known for Miss Lonelyhearts and Day of the Locusts.
1905(18th of Tishrei, 5666): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1905(18th of Tishrei, 5666): Forty-six year old South African stockbroker Charles Ansell who moved to London in 1888 and was the uncle of Albert Hyamson passed away today in leaving an estate valued at £346,000.
1905: Birthdate of Lev Nussimbaum, the native of Kiev “who wrote under the pen names Essad Bey and Kurban Said.
1909(2nd of Cheshvan, 5670): Six year old “Feiwe Licht” passed away today.
1910(14th of Tishrei, 5671): Erev Sukkoth
1910: The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that “local Hebrews are preparing for the celebration of the feast of which begins tonight at the Sons of Israel Synagogue” where “they have three sprays of the lulav or bulrushes from Palestine which will be used in the declaration of the altar.”
1911: Today twenty-eight year old Abraham Falick the Rumanian born son of “Nathan and Mollie (Greenberg) Falick who came to the United States in 1903 as political refugee and began working in the furniture business where he formed and led two of his own companies – Bauman and Falick, Inc. and Windsor Furniture Company while becoming a leader in the Jewish community “married Frieda Schulman, the daughter of Getzel Schulman.”
1911: Henry Turner Bailey, the editor of National Art, is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Our Architectural Inheritance” this afternoon at a meeting of the Chicago Woman’s Aid being held in the Temple Sinai vestry rooms.
1911: In New York Dr. Morris Loeb said today that it was his understanding that his brother, James Loeb, the retired banker, was going to underwrite the expense of translating 200 hundred volumes of the classics into English. The volumes in question were originally written in Latin and Greek.
1914: Birthdate of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman.
1915: Birthdate of Arthur Miller. Two of this American playwright’s noted works were “Death of a Salesman” and “The Crucible.” His other claim to fame was his marriage to Marilyn Monroe. Monroe conversion to Judaism was tied to her relationship with Miller.
1915: “The Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society of American announced” today “the Isidore Hershfield, a New York lawyer” would be sailing for Europe “charged with the mission of locating the families and relatives of American citizens various war zones of Europe.”
1915: “The Jewish Congress Organization Committee, meeting” today “in the Broadway Central Hotel decided to hold” next month “a preliminary conference of representatives from Jewish organizations to decide on methods of election and other technical details of convening the congress which is to deal with the whole of the Jewish problem with special reference to the situation in Europe created by the war.”
1915: “Dr. Samuel Betttelheim, editor and proprietor of the Hungarian Jewish News of Budapest arrived in New York” today “with the intention of attending the American Jewish Conference which was scheduled to be held in Washington…but which has been called off” and which will be replaced by another national meeting whose attendees will be more representative of the Jewish community.
1915: “In his farewell sermon at St. Philip’s Episcopal Cathedral this morning” in Atlanta, GA, “Dean John R. Atkinson” said, “the most Christian people I have found in Atlanta are the Jews” because “they have more true charity.”
1915: “In an address this evening at public meeting” in Baltimore, MD, “held to celebrate the found of the Order of B’nai B’rith, Simon Wolf of Washington said that on the eve of his departure for California to attend the Peace Conference, President Wilson entrusted him” with “a letter in which the President wrote that when the hour of peace should arrive he, as the representative of a people firm in advocacy of civil and political rights, would use his best efforts to secure the rights of the Jews in Russia and Rumania.”
1915: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise was among the speakers who addressed the meeting at the Century Theatre where resolutions were adopted condemning the treatment of the Armenians by the Ottomans.
1916: It was reported today “a committee of women” whose members include Mrs. William Einstein, Mrs. Sidney Borg, Mrs. Henry Goldman, Mrs. Henry Zuckerman, Mrs. Israel Unterberg, Mrs. Samuel Elkeles and Mrs. Alexander Kohut has been formed to make a special appeal to those of their for contributions to the Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York City.
1916: Eighteen year old Mischa Levitz, famed Russian born concert pianist made his American debut in New York, at Aeolian Hall
1916: Cartoonist Rube Goldberg married Irma Seeman after which they set up housekeep at 98 Central Park West in New York City where they gave birth to two sons, Thomas and George.
1917: Birthdate of Herschel Schater, the Brownsville native who was youngest son of a 7th generation shochet and a real estate manager and as chaplain serving with the Third Army was the first rabbi “to enter and participate in the liberation of Buchenwald.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1917: Birthdate of Alfred Edward “Fred” Kahn “a leading regulatory scholar who wielded his influence in both government and academia, helped spur a broad movement beginning in the mid-1970s toward freer markets in rail and automotive transportation, telecommunications, utilities and the securities markets.”
1917: “Felix M. Warburg, Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers announced tonight that the Special Assembly of the Jews of America to plan the continuation of the Jewish war relief and completion of the $10,000,000 1917 fund which is to bring together about a thousand of the most prominent Jews from all parts of the United States will be held at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue on October 28th.
1917: In Ohio, Alexander A. Landesco, the Romanian born son of Abraham and Vera Landesco and Olga Landesco gave birth to Frederick S. Landesco
1918: Four days after he was killed, “Rifleman Israel Davis” was buried today in the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.”
1919(23rd of Tishrei, 5680): Simchat Torah
1919: Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created. RCA and NBC were inextricably linked with David Sarnoff.
1919: Birthdate of Russian physicist Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
1920: Today South Jersey's first Conservative congregation was officially "organized" and elected Morris Handle as Beth El's first President.
1920: Birthdate of Montreal native and McGill University graduate Elie Abel, who worked for the New York Times and NBC News before becoming “Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/24/us/elie-abel-newsman-and-teacher-dies-at-83.html
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf1n39n4q2/entire_text/
1920: In Brussels, Sadi Kirschen and his wife gave birth to Claude-Anne Kirschen who gained fame as Claude-Anne Lopez one of the most, if not the most formidable, expert on Benjamin Franklin. “Her father was a defense lawyer for Edith Cavell, the British nurse who was executed by the Germans after she helped scores of Allied soldiers escape German-occupied Belgium during World War I.” (As reported by William Yardley)
1920: Birthdate of Grangeville, Idaho native and USC graduate Betty Brown who gained fame as Betty Sarah Wouk, when she married Herman Wouk, the great American Jewish novelist whose service on the USS Zane gave him two great gifts, Mrs. Wouk and the material for the “Caine Mutiny.”
1921(15th of Tishrei, 5682): Sukkoth
1921(15th of Tishrei, 5682): Sixty-four year old Jacob Brenner who had passed the bar exam in 1879 and eventually became a Brooklyn magistrate married Louise Blumenau, “the daughter of prominent Brooklyn real estate developer Levi Blumenau” with whom head six children -- Arthur and Mortimer both of whom became lawyers and “Republican party leaders,” Rose who was President of the National council of Jewish Women, Rica, Selma and Caroline” passed away today “while giving a speech at Temple Beth-Elohim.”
https://brooklynhistory.org/library/wp/jacob-brenner-papers-1884-1921/
1922: In Manhattan, Jacob Brody, who made “a fortune in the hat business” and his wife gave birth to high end restaurateur Ira Jerome Brody. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/18/nyregion/jerome-brody-78-is-dead-guided-elegant-restaurants.html
1922: Birthdate of “Bulgarian movie director and author” Angel Raymond Wagenstein who was raised in France and has raised two sons, Raymond and Plamen with his wife Zora which may be some of the material covered in Andrea Simon’s documentary “Angel Wagenstein: Art is a Weapon.
1923(7th of Cheshvan, 5684): Albert Osterman, the “Director of the Washington Park Zoological Society” passed away today.
1923: Birthdate of Isaac Saba Raffoul, “a Mexican businessman.”
1924: The Ku Klux Klan staged its second march in less than six months in Las Vagas, Nevada but found little support for its message of hating Catholics and Jews.
1925: Birthdate of Irwin Silber, “a founder and the longtime editor of the folk-music magazine Sing Out!, who was one of the prime movers behind the folk-music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1927(21st of Tishrei, 5688): Hoshanah Rabah
1927: Birthdate of guitarist Barney Kessel.
1929: “The Informer,” a film version of the novel with the same name with a script by Benn W. Levy was released in the United Kingdom today.
1930: In Biddeford, ME, Samuel and Leah Osher gave birth to Marion Osher, the future wife of Hebert Sandler her partner in creating Golden West Financial.
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/marion-o-sandler-former-golden-west-co-chief-is-dead-at-81/
1931: After a month, filming of “The Trunks of Mr. O.F.” starring Peter Lorre and Hedy Lamarr came to an end today
1933: Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany. Strangely enough, the New York Times story referred to him as a German scientist. I guess the guys at the Times had not figured out that for all of his greatness, he was just another Jew fleeing Hitler’s Germany. When is a Jew in Germany a German and not a Jew? When he wins the Nobel Prize.
1935: When the Belgian steamship Leopold II was unloading 97 tons of cement at Jaffa, “a tin case of cartridges concealed in a barrel” was discovered. According to “unconfirmed reports…from Arab sources…800 rifles and 400,000 cartridges” were also found among the 537 barrels of cement.
1935: “The party of Haj Amin el Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem asserted” today that the arms discovered yesterday when the SS Leopold II was being unloaded in Jaffa yesterday, “were part of a Jewish plot” and gave rise to the threat of a general Arab work stoppage.
1936(1st of Cheshvan, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan and Shabbat
1936: At Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Making a Name.”
1936: At West End Synagogue, Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Neglected Teacher – Experience.”
1936: New York University, with Harry Shorten playing end lost to the University of North Carolina today.
1936: At Temple Israel, Rabbi William F. Rosenblum is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Another Flood – The Only Way Out.”
1936: Marvin Lowenthal is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Jews at the Crossroads” this after afternoon at the Central Synagogue on East 62ndStreet.
1937: As the Arab Reign of Terror designed to drive the Jews from Eretz Israel continued, The Palestine Postreported that the Mandatory Administration at last admitted that the renewed Arab terror and sabotage causes extensive damage. One of the main buildings at Lydda Airport was destroyed by arson and the authorities decided that severe measures would be taken against the town. British women and children living in Hebron were evacuated to Jerusalem and were accommodated at the YMCA. A Cook’s cruise was temporarily suspended and tourist agents reported cancellations. Railway service suffered from frequent interruptions. Jewish buses were shot at and a number of passengers were wounded. One Arab attacker was killed. The Mandatory Government decided to exert a stricter control over the activities of the Wakf (Moslem religious endowment fund).
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): A band of Arab terrorists shot and killed a ten-year old Jewish boy from Yemeni at Tirath Shalom which is located near Ness Zionah in southern Palestine.
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, “Samuel Gutman, a young Jewish theological student studying his Talmud lesson in the shade of a tree in the Schneller quarter of Jerusalem was attacked by an Arab, who stabbed him six times.”
1937 (12th of Cheshvan, 5698): In the wake of renewed Arab terrorism, two buses filled with Jewish workers returning to Jerusalem from the quarry near Motzah were fired on by Arabs. The gunmen escaped having failed to wound or kill any of their targets.
1937: A movement “led by Max Seligman” a lawyer from Cardiff, Wales, now living in Tel Aviv, that is seeking to convert Palestine into a British Crown Colony as a way of ending the fighting between Arabs and Jews files an application with the Palestine Attorney General’s office in attempt o register an organization called “The Palestine Crown Colony Association.”
1937: Late tonight Arab terrorists attempted to blow up a ridge on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. The bridge was partially damaged but the road remained opened to traffic.
1938(22nd of Tishrei, 5699): On the 45th birthday of her son, painter Frtiz Ascher, 71 year old Minna Luise Ascher passed away today.
1939: The Nazis deported over one thousand Jews from Moravska Ostrava, of the former Czechoslovakia, and sent them to Lublin region of Poland. There, they were forced to build themselves a labor camp. Adolph Eichmann, now in charge of “Jewish resettlement”, greeted the train
1939: With the cessation of hostilities the Nazis finally fixed the Polish-German frontier. At a meeting, Hitler made clear that the policy would be to cleanse Poland’s towns of Jews, Poles and intelligentsia from all lands falling within the Gerneralgouvernement. Implementation was put in the hands of Henreich Himmler and his SS.
1939: Hitler lectures General Wilhelm Keitel and other top Wehrmacht generals on the need for “Jews, Poles, and similar trash” to be cleared from old and new territories of the Reich.
1940(15th of Tishrei, 5701): Sukkoth
1941: “The Devil and Daniel Webster,” co-starring Simone Simon with music by Bernhard Herrmann who won an Oscar for his work on this picture was released in the United States today.
1942: According to reports published in the New York Times, Palestine is filling a dual role in the British war effort. It is home to a key military headquarters called the “Palestine Base and Lines of Communications Headquarters.” It has also become an industrial center that fills many needs of the British military in the Middle East including the manufacture of mines and hand grenades and the repair of British and American tanks and other military vehicles damaged during combat action. Many of the workers are refugees from central and Eastern Europe which has given them the capability of producing goods that used to be supplied by “Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany and other industrialized European nations.”
1942: Austrian librettist, lyricist and writer Fritz Löhner-Beda was deported to the Monowitz concentration camp near Auschwitz.
1942: Over 10,000 Jews were transferred from Buchenwald Concentration camp to Auschwitz.
1942: The Nazis murdered 1600 Jews from Buczacz, Ukraineat the Belzec death camp.
1942: Four hundred and five Jews held in the Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, Germany, concentration camps are deported to Auschwitz. Austrian-Jewish opera librettist Fritz Beda is among those deported from Buchenwald.
1942: Birthdate of Yosef Lahav (Joe Sikorel), the native of Alexandria, Egypt who died when the Dakar was lost at sea in 1968.
1943(18th of Tishrei, 5704): Sukkoth Chol Hamoed
1943(18th of Tishrei, 5704): Seventy-five year old Montgomery, AL native and founder of the Manufacturers Trust Company Nathan Jonas, the philanthropist and son of Jacob and Bella Jonas whose wife Jennie Straus Jonas pre-deceased him passed away today “in the Jewish Hospital of Brooklyn which he founded.”
1943: A Jewish partisan unit commanded by Abba Kovner destroys two rail engines and two bridges near Vilna, Lithuania.
1943: German Ambassador to the Vatican Ernst von Weizsäcker writes to the German Foreign Ministry that the College of Cardinals has been “particularly dismayed” since the roundup of Jews in Rome is occurring “below the very windows of the Pope.” He notes that the Pope continues to do everything he can “not to burden relations with the German government and German agencies in Rome.”
1944: Adolf Eichmann returned to Budapest. He demanded that 50,000 Jews be assembled to be used as forced laborers in Germany. He further ordered that they should march there on foot.
1944: At Birkenau, Dr. Mengele began another selection of children to be sent to the gas chambers. Only his small selected group of about 200 twins were continued to be spared his wretched wrath.
1945: Premiere of “Week-End At The Waldorf” based on Vicki Baum’s novel Grand Hotel with a script co-written by Bella Spewack
1946: King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia sent a letter to President Truman charging that the American leader’s “call for opening the gates of Palestine to more Jews was in ‘complete contradiction’” to what the King said were “presidential assurances to the Arabs.” The King described the Jews as “aggressors from the start” when it came to matters regarding Palestine.
1946: In Warsaw, “Ozjasz Szechter, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, and Helena Michnik, a historian, communist activist, and children's-book author” gave birth to Adam Michnik, the author and historian who was imprisoned by the Polish Communist regime and worked to bring it down.
1946: A production of “Lysistrata” written by Gilbert Seldes opened at the Belasco Theatre.
1947: Following a six day trial, Yossef Vavriel and Abraham Katalan, two members of the Irgun, “were convicted of carrying arms in a room of the house at Kiryat Sahul where two British policemen” who had been kidnapped from a swimming pool in June were being held prisoner. The two British policemen had not been harmed by their captors.
1947: David Ben-Gurion called on members of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to disband their organizations and join the Haganah as the Jewish community moved to protect itself from attacks from the Arabs. Ben-Gurion denied that negotiations were being held with the leaders of these organizations since his goal is to have only one military force that will answer to the civilian leaders of the Yishuv.
1947: Mr. Moshe Shertok the head of Political Department of the Jewish Agency, addressed the United Nations, making the case for the creation of a Jewish state as part of the Two State Solution. Moshe Shertok would become Moshe Sharett after the creation of the state of Israel, serving as it first Foreign Minister and second Prime Minister.
1947: U.S premiere of “The Exile” directed by Max Ophüls and filmed by cinematographer Franz Planer.
1948(14th of Tishrei, 5709): Erev Sukkoth;
1948: Israeli naval vessels shelled Majdal which had been occupied by invading Egyptian troops.
1948(14th of Tishrei) Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky, also known as the Maharitz, passed away. Born in 1865 he moved to Jerusalem in 1930. He was the first Rebbe of Dushinsky and Chief Rabbi (Govad) of the Edah HaChareidis of Jerusalem.
1948: The 52nd and 54thBattalions of the Givati Brigade began a three day action aimed at taking control of “the internal Negev road from Julis to Bror Hayial through Kawkaba and Huleiqat.”
1948: During Operation Yoav, Egyptian forces begin withdrawing from the Negev after suffering heavy attacks by the Israelis. The Egyptians were retreating from land to which they had no legal or moral claim. Operation Yoav was conducted during the Israeli War for Independence. It took place following numerous violations of the UN brokered cease fire about which the international organization did nothing.
1949: Premiere of “The Reckless Moment” a “film noir directed by Max Ophüls and produced by Walter Wanger.”
1950: David Ben-Gurion made an attempt to form a minority government consisting of Mapai and Sephardim and Oriental Communities today, but it was not approved by the Knesset.
1950: In New York, Edith (née Leibovitch)Tolkin, “a studio executive and film industry lawyer” and “the late comedy writer Mel Tolkin” gave birth to Middlebury College graduate Michael L. Tolkin, the novelist and film writer who won an Edgar Award for the screenplay for “The Player”
1952:The Jerusalem Post reported that the Joint Distribution Committee agreed to defray half the cost of the upkeep and medical treatment of the North African immigration. The forced migration of Jews living in Moslem lands to Israel is one of the untold “refugee” stories. Following the creation of the state of Israel Jews from such places as Morocco came to Israel, in part, because the local Arab population had turned against. This happened despite the fact that Jews had lived there for centuries. It is interesting to compare the efforts of the Israelis to integrate immigrants into their society as opposed to the Arab treatment of their Moslem brethren who had left what would become the state of Israel for whatever reasons.
1956: U.S. premiere of “What Happened to Julie on Her Honeymoon?” produced by Martin Melcher.
1956: “Attack” a WW II “anti—war” movie co-starring Robert Strauss was released today in the United States.
1957(22nd of Tishrei, 5718): Shemini Atzert
1958: NBC broadcast “An Evening with Fred Astaire,” the Emmy winning special directed and co-produced by Bud Yorkin (Alan David Yorkin)
1959(15th of Tishrei, 5720): Sukkoth
1959: In the UK, Julie Brett and Eric Selig Phllip Cowell, Sr. who is Jewish gave birth to television personality Simon Cowell.
1963(29th of Tishrei, 5724): Mathematician Jacques-Salomon Hadamard passed away at the age of 98. Although Hadamard claimed to be an atheist when it came to religion he became an active in support of Jewish causes following the Dreyfus Affair. Part of this may have stemmed from the fact that his wife was related to the wrongly accused French Colonel.
1963: “All the Way” the movie version of the 1960 play produced by David Susskind was released today in the United States.
1963: “Jennie,” “a musical with a book by Arnold Schulman, music by Arthur Schwartz and lyrics by Howard Dietz “opened on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre.”
1966: During a discussion of the construction of the new chapel at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim of Montreal Jack Breslow expressed his concerns about the arrangement of the seating and positioning of the bimah which he feared would be “a departure from the tradition of Conservative Judaism” and impractical while Rabbi Shuchat took the view that “the location of the bimah had no bearing on the tradition of Conservative Judaism.”
1967: Barbra Streisand starred in “Belle of 14th Street” a special on CBS television.
1967(13th of Tishrei, 5728): Seventy-one year old Eugene Otterbourg, the son American “envoy to Mexico, Marcus Otterbourg,” a 1904 graduate of CCNY and the third generation attorney who “was a founder and senior partner of Otterbourg, Steindler, Houston and Rosen” where he was “a specialist in bankruptcy and reorganization law” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/10/18/83636558.pdf
1967: Memorial service for Brian Epstein was held at New London Synagogue – The Jewish Connection to the lads from Liverpool.
1968: “Far From the Madding Crowd,” a film adaptation of the 19th century novel directed by John Schlesinger with a script by Frederic Raphael was released in the United States by MGM today.
1972: ABC broadcast the first episode of “Goodnight My Love” written and directed by Peter Hyams and co-starring Barbara Bain.
1973: The “Battle of the Chinese Farms” comes to an end when an Egyptian counter-attack fails to dislodge Israeli troops leaving the bridgehead across the Suez Canal intact. The battle, which began on October 15th was one of the bloodiest and costliest of the war.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, the Soviets were landing 70 planes per day crammed with modern supplies at Egyptian and Syrian airports. Egyptian forces failed in their attempts to dislodge Israeli forces from their new positions on the west bank of the Suez Canal. At the same time, the Egyptians were not making any progress with the attacks on Israeli positions east of the Canal. As the fortunes of war began to turn against the attacking Arab Armies, the Soviets increased the pressure for a cease fire. The Israelis were unwilling to consider any action that would reward Arab Aggression.
1973: OPEC started an oil embargo against a number of western countries. Supposedly OPEC was using the Oil Weapon to reverse the Arab defeat during the Yom Kippur War. In point of fact, OPEC succeeded in raising the price of petroleum which enriched OPEC, shifted the economic balance and along the way impoverished millions of people living in Third World Nations – untold numbers of Arabs and other followers of Islam living in non-OPEC nations.
1974: Birthdate of Larchmont, NY native and Wesleyan University graduate Ariel Levy, the author who is also a staff writer for the New Yorker.
https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/ariel-levy
1975: The United Nations declared that “Zionism is racism.” This came in the same period when the U.N. General greeted the pistol packing Yasser Arafat with a standing ovation. Arafat was still in the full flush of his victory; having been responsible for the terrorist attack on the Munich Olympics and the slaughter of the Israeli athletes.
1975: U.S. premiere of “Rooster Cogburn” produced by Hal Wallis.
1976(23rd of Tishrei, 5737): Simchat Torah
1977(5th of Cheshvan, 5738): Eighty-one year old English film producer Sir Michael Elias Balcon, the grandfather of Daniel Day-Lewis and Tasmin Day-Lewis passed away today.
1977(5th of Cheshvan, 5738): Seventy-five year old David “Dave” Ziff who played “end at Syracuse University in the early 1920’s” and then played two seasons for the nascent National Football League passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that a prominent, unnamed, West Bank figure, whom the local Arab politicians expected to become a central member of any Palestinian delegation at the renewed Geneva Peace Conference, was seeking an urgent meeting with Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, to check whether Israel would be prepared to negotiate an eventual self-determination for the Palestine Arabs at the conference table.
1978: “Goin’ Coconuts” a musical comedy directed by Howard Morris was released in the United States by Columbia pictures and proved to be box office flopped that was panned by ciritics.
1979(26th of Tishrei, 5740): Seventy-five year old Sidney Joseph Perelman, known as S.J. Perelman, who was born in Brooklyn in 1904, raised in Providence, where he graduated from Brown University passed away today. For almost forty years, Perelman was a true man of letters gaining fame as a cartoonist, author, screenwriter, and satirist. A city boy by birth, Perelman chose to live in rural Bucks County for forty years. During that time he wrote, “A farm is an irregular patch of nettles bounded by short-term notes, containing a fool and his wife who didn’t know enough to stay in the city.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/10/18/archives/sj-perelman-humorist-is-dead-sj-perelman-humorist-dead-at-75.html
1983(9th of Cheshvan, 5744): Seventy-eight year old Raymond Aron passed away. Born in Paris, the famed author and social commentator, served in the French Air Force and then fought with the Free French during WW II. While his name may not be a household word, he was a life-long friend and worthy intellectual opponent of Jean-Paul Sartre.
http://www.egs.edu/library/raymond-aron/biography/
1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Hoshanah Rabah
1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Seventy-one year old “retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge and graduate of what is now Rutgers Law School Morris Malech” the decorated WW II veteran and husband of “the former Freda Lipowitz” with he had two sons – Harry and Edward – passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/20/obituaries/morris-malech-71-former-jersey-judge-dies.html
1984(21st of Tishrei, 5745): Eighty-one year old Rabbi Levi Arthur Olan passed away. Born in 1903 at Cherkasy, Ukraine, he was Rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts from 1929 to 1948. From 1949 to 1970 he was Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El of Dallas, Texas.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0181/ms0181.html
1984: The Light Opera of Manhattan unveiled its new production of Sigmund Romberg’s 1928 Broadway hit “New Moon.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/arts/opera-new-moon-offered.html
1985(2nd of Cheshvan, 5746): Ninety-year old conductor and opera manager Joseph Rosenstock passed away today. (As reported by Dena Kleiman)
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/18/arts/joseph-rosenstock-90-conductor-of-operas.html
1985: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this afternoon at Hempstead, Long Island, for former New York Knicks basketball star Max Zaslofsky.
1988:Today’s announcement that chemist Gertrude Elion had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine represented the culmination of an unlikely career. The young Elion had known what she wanted to do—but nobody seemed ready to let her do it. New York’s Hunter College provided her with a free education during the Depression, but when she graduated at age 19, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, not one graduate school would provide her with needed financial aid. Unable to find a laboratory job, she started secretarial school. Supporting herself as a doctor’s receptionist and a substitute high school science teacher, Elion earned a master’s degree in chemistry from New York University in 1941 (she was the only woman in her classes). With more lab opportunities open to women during World War II, Elion found a job at Burroughs Welcome, a pharmaceutical company, in 1944.Elion’s research with her mentor and partner George Hitchings led to the first effective treatment for childhood leukemia and to immunosuppressants that made organ transplants possible. Her anti-viral research led to treatments for many ailments including AIDS. Elion, whose doctorates were all honorary, received the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Hitchings and British scientist James Black. Elion thus joined an impressive list of American Jewish female Nobel Prize winners in science that also includes American-born Rosalyn Yalow (1977), and Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (1947) and Rita Levi-Montalcii (1986) who were born and educated abroad. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive.
1989: An army inquiry completed today found that a Syrian MIG-23 fighter-bomber was able to penetrate Israeli airspace unchallenged last week because of an error by the air defense officer on duty at the time.
1989: “Closer Than Ever” a revue featuring the music of David Shire “opened in previews” today at the Cherry Lane Theatre.
1990: Publication of William Steig’s Shrek! a picture book for children about a young ogre whose name is derived from the Yiddish work for “fear” or “fright.”
1990: “Reversal of Fortune” film adaption of Alan Dershowitz’s book produced by Edward R. Pressman and co-starring Ron Silver was screened in Los Angeles for the first time.
1994: The draft of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan was finalized. This would prove to be one of the tangible positive by-products of the Oslo Peace Process.
1995(23rd of Tishrei, 5756): Simchat Torah
1995: “The Babysitter” starring Alicia Silverstone was released in the United States by Paramount Pictures.
1997(16th of Tishrei, 5758): Second day of Sukkoth
1997: “Shooting Fish,” a British comedy starring Dan Futterman as “Dylan” was released today in the United Kingdom by Entertainment Film Distributors.
1997(16th of Tishrei, 5758): Ninety-six year old character actor Ben Welden passed away today.
1998: A Palestinian conducted a grenade assault on the Beersheba bus terminal, wounding 67 Israelis, including 24 soldiers.
1999: The New York Times book section features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jews including Bad Jews And Other Stories by Gerald Shapiro and Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love by Dava Sobel.
2000: At the Library of Congress opening of an exhibition entitledHerblock’s History: Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium that presents works by cartoonist Herb Block, who chronicled the nation’s political history and caricatured twelve American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.
2001 (30th of Tishrei, 5762): Israel's tourism minister, Rehavam Zeevi was shot to death in the first assassination of a serving Cabinet minister by Palestinians. Born in Jerusalem in 1926, Zeevi served in the Palmach. He enjoyed a very successful thirty year career in the IDF. After retiring with the rank of Major General, he pursued a career in politics. A general in the Israel Army, Zeevi had a distinguished military career before pursuing a political career.
2001(30th of Tishrei, 5762): Eighty-six year old Oscar winning composer and lyricist Jay Livingston passed away today. (As reported by Richard Severo)
2003(21st of Tishrei, 5764): Hoshana Rabah
2003: U.S. premiere of “Runaway Jury,” co-starring Dustin Hoffman and Rachel Weisz
2004: The body of Sam Kellerman the brother of Max Kellerman an American boxing commentator and sports talk radio host based in Los Angeles was found in a Hollywood (CA) apartment” which led to the arrest of “former boxer James Butler” who “ later confessed to the murder and was given a 29 year sentence.”
2004(2nd of Cheshvan, 5765): Uzi Hitman “an Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality” passed away. His career began in 1976 and he became a popular Israeli artist during the 1980s and 1990s. He has famously composed a popular melody for Adon Olam in 1976. His most famous songs include Noladati Lashalom (I Was Born for Peace), Ratziti Sheteda (I Wanted You to Know), Todah (Thank you) and Kan (Here), which reached 3rd place during the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest. Hitman also appeared on the 1980s children's programmes Parpar Nehmad and Hopa Hei. He died after a heart attack at the age of 52. He was buried at the Yarkon Cemetery near Tel Aviv. The City of Ramat Gan renamed Kikar Hashoshanim (Roses Square) in his neighborhood of residence to Kikar Hitman (Hitman Square).
2005: Haaretz reported that Kinneret Mendel and Matat Rosenfeld-Adler, 21-year-old cousins from the settlement of Carmel, and Oz Ben Meir, 15, from the settlement of Ma'on were murdered by terrorist on Sunday and buried today.
2005(14th of Tishrei, 5766): Erev Sukkoth
2006: Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on President Moshe Katsav to resign in response to the police's recommendation to indict him on a number of charges including rape. "In the current situation, almost without connection to the criminal question, I believe that it would not be right for President Katsav to continue to serve as president," said Livni. Livni made the comments at a ceremony marking the opening of "Kadima House" in Hadera
2007(5th of Cheshvan, 5768): Ninety eight year old WW II Australian hero General Paul Cullen passed away today.
2007(5thof Cheshvan, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Hempstead, NY, native Milton “Mickey” Rutner the third baseman who played in 12 games for the 1947 Philadelphia Athletics passed away today in Georgetown, TX.
2007: “Bernard and Doris” a ‘semi-fictionalized” biopic directed and produced by Bob Balaban “premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival” today.
2007:Virtuoso Pianist Vladimir Feltsman plays “Music from Poland and Russia” at the Museum of Jewish Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Since his arrival in the U.S. from the Soviet Union in 1987, world-class pianist Vladimir Feltsman has graced every major concert hall in the country. Feltsman performs music from Poland's keyboard master, Chopin, and one of Russia's most dramatic piano pieces: Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition."
2007: As an example of the secular power 21st century Jews have attained, a photo is taken at 10:13 a.m. of Michael Mukasey, President Bush’s nominee for attorney general chatting with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman prior to the start of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The two Orthodox Jews were classmates at Yale Law School.
2007: The New York Times features a review of Just Say Nu: Yiddish for Every Occasion (When English Just Won’t Do) by Michael Wex.
2007:A London-based Jewish radio station, Shalom FM, founded by Mike Menoza as a way of providing, "some balanced reporting about the community and Israel" ceased broadcasting at midnight.
2008: In a reversal of cultural roles. The Jerusalem Cinematheque features an American film about an Israeli. The film is “You Don’t Mess with Zohan” an American made film about an Israeli
2008: Jerusalem mayoral candidate Nir Barkat toured Jewish and state owned lands in an area between the French Hill and the Arab neighborhood of Anata, promising that “In Anata, a new Jewish neighborhood will be established and this will provide a solution to the housing needs of students and the city’s younger generation.
2008 (18th of Tishrei, 5769): Eighty five year old Montreal native Ben Weider who was a founder and longtime president of the International Federation of Body Builders” passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2009: Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s “The Diary of Anne Frank” is performed at Kimmel Theatre on the campus of Cornell College in Mt. Vernon Iowa. The production is based on Wendy Kesselman’s acclaimed new adaptation of the play that makes thoughtful use of recently recovered segments of Anne’s diary to deepen our understanding both of the cultural context of the events and to present a much more complex (and less sentimental) Anne.
2009: At Agudas Achim in Iowa City, Sam Stalkfleet is called to the Torah as a the Bar Mitzvah
2009: PBS broadcast the first episode of “Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth” featuring Ruth Reichel, “the last editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine.”
2009: At the 14th St Y in Manhattan opening of the LABALMA Exhibition followed by the Y Dance party.
2009(29th of Tishrei, 5770): Sheldon Jerome Segal “an American embryologist and biochemist who spent his entire career working on contraception and made major innovations in the field of long-lasting alternatives, including in the creation of Norplant, the first major development advance in birth control since the birth control pill” passed away.
2009(29th of Tishrei, 5770): Seventy-eight year old novelist Norma Fox Mazer, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox) http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/arts/25mazer.html
2009: “A Believer in Heroism, to Jews’ Lasting Gratitude” published today told the tale of Dr. Tina Strobos who hid more than 100 Jews from the Nazis in occupied Amsterdam.
2010: The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival opened in Washington, DC.
2010: Dr. Stephen Whitfield, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis University, author of In Search of American Jewish Culture and one of Tulane University’s most distinguished graduates is scheduled to speak at the Guardain-Benefactor Luncheon sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Great House by Nicole Krauss and David Susskind: A Televised Life by Stephen Battaglio.
2010: The IDF Israel Defense Forces attacked a terrorist cell planning to launch Qassam rockets or mortar bombs at Israel from Gaza.
2011: President Shimon Peres is scheduled to open his residence to the public today from from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. It is the continuation of a long-held tradition for the presidents of Israel to open the residence to the wider public during one of the intermediate days of the Succoth.
2011: Philip Levine, the newly named Poet Laureate is scheduled to open the annual literary season of the Library of Congress with a reading of his work at the Coolidge Auditorium.
2011: Ron Skolnik, Executive Director of Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly Meretz USA) is scheduled to speak on "Rent, Cottage Cheese and Peace: What's making Israel tick these days?" at Kol Ami, the Northern Virginia Reconstructionist Community
2011: Dr. Michael Berenbaum is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Three German Jews Rediscover Their Judaism” during which he will examine the lives of Martin Buber, Franz Rosenzweig, and Gershom Scholem.
2011: A genuine simchah as the family and friends of Laurie Silber celebrate the birthday of this remarkable ayshish chayal: loving wife, devoted daughter, doting mother and grandmother, sweet singer of Psalms who brightens the Musical Shabbat and energetic community leader who taught in our Sunday School for many years and who brings new energy to Temple Judah in each of her terms as co-President. For those lucky enough to know her she is a “chever” – a friend for all seasons.
2011:The Israel Law Center (Shurat Hadin) is set to launch a hotline today, to help Jewish college students who are victims of anti-Semitism on their campuses. According to attorney Kenneth A. Leitner, the Law Center’s director of American affairs, students will be able to call the hotline to report incidents of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel acts on US college campuses, and the Law Center will use the data to take legal action against colleges believed to be breaching Jewish students’ legal rights, he added.
2011:The State today responded to petitions lodged against the release of 477 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Schalit at the High Court of Justice today, saying the swap was strictly a political matter to be carried out by the government.
2011:The High Court of Justice rejected numerous petitions against the execution of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal today, effectively removing the last legal obstacle en route to the release of the abducted Israel Defense Forces solder.
2011(19th of Tishrei, 5772): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
2011: Following a speech by David Einhorn today at the Value Investing Congress in which he “publicly announced his short position in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, its share price fell by 10 per cent.
2011(19th of Tishrei, 5772): Ninety-four year old audio innovator Edgar M. Villchur passed away (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012(1st of Cheshvan, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
2012(1st of Cheshvan, 5773): Eighty-nine year old “Stanford R. Ovshinsky, an iconoclastic, largely self-taught and commercially successful scientist who invented the nickel-metal hydride battery and contributed to the development of a host of devices, including solar energy panels, flat-panel displays and rewritable compact discs,” passed away today. (As reported by Barnaby J. Feder)
2012: University of Liverpool Professor Eve Rosenhaft is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Black People under Nazi Rule: Perspectives on the ‘Racial State’” at the Wiener Library in London.
2012: The Washington Jewish Film Festival and the Hebrew Language are among the sponsors of the scheduled screening of “Four Pairs of Shoes” at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
2012: Israeli singer-song writer Onili (Nili Ohayon) is scheduled to perform at Littlefiled in Brooklyn.
2012:Israel has not done enough to carry out the directive issued by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to increase the country's aerial firefighting capabilities, in spite of the growing threat of wildfires posed by rockets and missiles pointed at the Israeli home-front both from the north and south, the state comptroller's report stated today.
2012:Incoming Egyptian ambassador to Israel Atef Salem presented President Shimon Peres with his official credentials at the President's Residence in Jerusalem today. Salem, the first ambassador sent by new Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, said at the ceremony that Cairo is committed to all agreements with Israel, including the peace agreement.
2012: Friends and family look forward to celebrating the birthday of Laurie Silber a pillar of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Jewish community whose efforts has included multiple tours as President of Temple Judah, enthusiastic singing member of Shir Yehuda, long-time Sunday School teacher as well as a loving wife, devoted mother and “grand” grandmother An Ashish Chayil in the truest sense of the term.
2013(13th of Cheshvan, 5774): Eighty-four year old Emmy award winning producer Lou Scheimer passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013: At the Library of Congress, the Czech film series that features movies with Jewish themes is scheduled to show “Four Pairs of Shoes.”
2013: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to host a panel discussion on “The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem” featuring Jeremy Dauber author of The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Tevye
2013: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to present “Behind the Scenes of Elegy” in which Ron Hirsen discusses his play that “reveals the family dynamic between Holocaust survivors and the next generation.”
2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and the National Archives are scheduled to present “Discovery and Recovery: Preserving Iraqi Jewish Heritage”
2013: Middle Eastern vocalist and composer Galeet Dardashti is scheduled to demonstrate the melismatic vocal ornaments present in Mizrachi Jewish music and Persian classical music to students at Tulane University
2013: US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself against terrorism following an IDF guided tour of a recently unearthed tunnel running beneath the border with the Gaza Strip today. (As reported Naama Barak)
2013: While Israel issued no official response to a Washington Post report today that claimed Turkey had deliberately exposed a network of up to 10 Iranians working for the Mossad, a former Israeli spy chief fumed that, if accurate, the incident constituted a grave betrayal by Turkey of years of unwritten understandings between the two intelligence communities.
2014: SukkahPDX 2014 , Juried Outdoor Design Exhibit sponsored by the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to come to an end.
2014(23rd of Tishrei, 5775): Simchat Torah
2014(23rd of Tishrei, 5775): Ninety-five year old Mildred Puro Pittman, who had been pre-deceased by both of her husbands – Joseph Puro and Howard Pittman – passed away today in Delray Beach
2014(23rd of Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-five year old playwright Herb Shapiro passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2014: In the UK, the Oxford University Jewish Society chaplains are scheduled to host a festive lunch at their home.
2014: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Ritual Committee hosts a Pizza dinner prior to the Consecration Ceremony honoring the newest youngster in the Religious School.
2014: “The US State Department denied claims today that US Secretary of State John Kerry made statements yesterday suggesting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was fueling the spread of Islamic terror in the Middle East.” (As reported by Joshua Davidovich)
2014: Following yesterday’s congressional hearings, Dr. Tom Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, appears to have become the scapegoat for the current Ebola outbreak in the United States.
2014: “Fury” a very disappointing movie set in the last days of WW II starring Shia LaBeou, Logan Lerman, John Bethanal and Jason Isaacs was released throughout the United States two days after its premiere in Washington, DC.
2014: An Ebola defense exercise was held early today with participants including Ben-Gurion International Airport units, the Health Ministry, MDA, the Interior Ministry Population and Migration Authority and the Israel Police.
2015: Shabbat Noach
2015: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “a women’s tefillah service” this morning designed to provide “an opportunity for all women from whatever strand of Judaism to come together and pray together.”
2015: Rabbis and leaders of the Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and Reconstructionist movements in conjunction with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations have designated today as a special Sabbath of Solidarity with Israel.
2015: As a sign of the vitality of “small town Judaism” in Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah Shabbat morning services are scheduled to “go on the road this morning” when they are held at Cottage Grove Place for the convenience of its Jewish residents.
2015: “New York City mayor Bill de Blasio visited victims of a recent terror wave in Jerusalem today as part of a “solidarity visit,” saying that pain felt by Jerusalem was also being felt by his city.”
2015: The Tulane University Jewish Studies is scheduled to host Dr. Steve Whitfield, the Max Richter Professor of American Civilization at Brandeis University and the smartest person I ever met at Tulane as he speaks about “Franz Boas and the Struggle Against Racism.”
2015: “The Decent One” a documentary about Himmler is schedule to open at Cinema Village in NYC.
2016(15thof Tishrei, 5777): Sukkoth;
2016: Among the candidates for the short-list of the “Baillie Gifford Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for non-fiction are Ben Judah author of This is London and Phillipe Sands author of East West Street.
2016(15thof Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-two “celebrity” dentist Irwin Smigel passed away today.
2016(15thof Tishrei, 5777): On the Jewish calendar 73rd anniversary of the Sobibor Uprising which began in the early hours of a day when Jews were commanded “to dwell in booths.”
2016: Retired four-star Marine Corps General James E. “Hoss” Cartwright,” the former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff “pleaded guilty today to a federal felony charge of lying to the FBI in a probe of a leak of classified information about a covert U.S. –Israeli cyberattack on Iran’s nuclear program.” (As reported by Spencer S.HSU and Ellen Nakashima)
2016: On the final day of the Conference of the “US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation” a group whose leader is opposed to the existence of the state of Israel, attendees are scheduled to lobby members of Congress.
2017: The Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted “a film screening and conversation with Israeli documentary directory Boris Maftsir, creator of the Searching for the Unknown Holocaust film series this afternoon.”
2017: Master Canasta Teacher, Judie Begoun, from the L'Chaim Center in Deerfield is scheduled to offer tips as part of “Friends, Fun and Games” sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2017: At the Bard Graduate Center, Andrea M Berlin is scheduled to present “Jewish Daily Life in the time of Herod the Great” which is part of the Leon Levy Foundation Lectures.
2017: The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present Deborah Dash Moore and Ronit Stahl speaking on “Jewish New York, 1917” part the exploration of “New York Jewry’s myriad responses to WWI from the viewpoints of military and social urban history”
2017: Walter Isaacson’s biography of Leonardo da Vinci was published today after which Universal Pictures won “a bidding war” for the right to bring the book to the movie screen.
2018: From Milwaukee, to Memphis, to Cedar Rapids friends and family of Laurie Silber prepare to celebrate the natal day of the Matriarch of a Clan of three generations whose sense of Yiddishkite is a tribute to example, guidance and plain old fashioned hard-work.
2018: In Atlanta, GA, the Bremen Museum is scheduled to host another stop in its “Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours” with a visit to “historic Oakland Cemetery” whose “Jewish Hill” is the final resting place of “several members of the Rich family who founded Rich’s Department Store Dr. Joseph Jacobs, owner of the pharmacy that served the first Coca-Cola; Jacob Elsas, owner of the Fulton Bag & Cotton Mill; as well as members of the Montag, Selig, Massell, Haas, and Guthman families.”
2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is schooled to host “Nudge, Wink in Whitechapel: Secret Histories from the Lyrics of the Cockney-Yiddish Music Hall at the Turn of the Twentieth Century” – a lecture by “historian, Yiddishit and performer Vivi Lachs, the author of Whitechapel Noise: Jewish Immigrant Life in Yiddish Song and Verse, London 1885 – 1914.
2019: The Center for Jewish History and the American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to host a screening of “Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People,” “followed by a conversation with director Oren Rudavsky.”
2019: The Jewish Studies program at Vanderbilt is scheduled to sponsor a screening of “Sefarad” as part of the Nashville Jewish Film Festival.
2019: The exhibition “Jews, Money, Myth” is scheduled to come to an end at the Jewish Museum in London.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/arts/design/jews-money-myth-antisemitism-exhibition-london.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage
https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/jews-money-myth/
2019: In New York, Theaterlab is scheduled to present “A Ghost Tale” by Moti Brecher “created in collaboration with Roni Cohen, a scholar of 16th and 17thcentury popular Jewish literature…”
2019: Holocaust survivor Halina Peabody is scheduled to make the introductory remarks before the screening of “For Sama” at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum>
2019: “Cosmic Diaspora,” “A trio that combines experimental poetry, jazz and klezmer in an eclectic, improvised manner that touches on Jewish mysticism, the immigrant experience, ritual and much more” is scheduled to perform at Malloy Hall in San Francisco.
2019: As part of the Donald and Sue Pritzker Voices of Conscience Program, the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to present “No Surrender: A Father, A Son and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism” during with Pastor Chris Edmonds described how his father Sgt. Roddie Edmonds “refused to cooperate with the Nazis and identify the Jewish servicemen under his command” – an act of heroism that earned him recognition by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.
2019: In Atlanta the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “Music Talk – African Americans, American Jews and American Popular Music” featuring “pianist and author Ben Sidran” and “composer and musician Reverend Dwight Andrews.”
2019: In New Orleans, the National Council of Jewish Women is scheduled to host the Hannah Solomon Award Luncheon.
2019: The Sonoma County JCC’s 24th annual Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the Bay Area Premier of “Sustainable Nation” along “with the Israeli humorous short film ‘How to Swim.’”
2019(18th of Tishrei, 5780): Fourth Day of Sukkoth; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/