JUNE 11
1509: Marriage of King Henry VIII of England and Katherine of Aragon. Before marrying Henry, the Spanish made him promise that he would never permit Jews to live in his Kingdom. Henry agreed which was no big deal at the time since Jews had been officially banished from the realm for centuries. In one of those ironic twists of history, Henry would rely on the book of Leviticus when seeking to divorce Katherine. He sought support from Rabbis in Italy whose interpretation of the divine text might be different from the prelates in England. The Italian Rabbis did not jump at the opportunity to bail out the English monarch since they had no desire of angering the “Bishop of Rome” who had power over their existence.
1557: The reign of King John III of Portugal came to an end. During his reign, John brought the Inquisition to Portugal and its colonies. Since the Jews had been expelled from his realm the Inquisition was aimed at Conversos. Oddly enough, John met with David Reubeni in November 1525 where the King promised to supply him with ships and cannons. The King recanted when he realize that it made sense to arming Jews while his Inquisition was hunting backsliding marranos.
1590: The entire Jewish quarter of Posen which was built almost entirely of wood burned while the gentile population watched and pillaged. Fifteen people died and eighty scrolls were burned.
1616: Sir Henry Finch, author of a book that called “for the restoration of the Jews to the promised land” “was called to the degree of serjeant-at-law” today.
1634: After having been pilloried twice last month, William Prynne, an opponent of Jews settling in England sent a letter to Archbishop Laud charging him with “illegality and injustice.
1774: Jews in Algeria escape the attacks of the Spanish army.
1776: In South Moravia, Chaile/Caroline and Salomon Strakosch “the elder” gave birth to Leopold "Löbl Jünger" Strakosch
1777(6thof Sivan, 5537): Shavuot
1796(5thof Sivan, 5556): Parashat Bamibdar and Erev Shavuot observed for the last time during the presidency of George Washington.
1798: Troops from Napoleon’s Army that were on their way to fight the British in Egypt, Palestine and Syria disembarked at Malta in defiance of the Grand Master of the Knights, a reactionary opposed to the French Revolution.
1807(5thof Sivan, 5567): Erev Shavuot’
1807(5thof Sivan, 5567): Sashia, the wife of Reb Nachman of Bratslav and the daughter of Rabbi Ephraim, died today from tuberculosis
1807: Curacao businessman Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto landed in North America. He would not be able to return to Curacao and settled in New York where he served as the Rabbi for Congregation Shearith Israel
1813: In St. Thomas gave, Jacob Baiz, a native of Bayonne, France, and his wife Leah birth to Isaac Baiz
1826(6thShavuot 5586): Shavuot
1829: Birthdate of Alphonse Millaud, the nephew of French published and banker Moïse Polydore Millaud
1832: The original version Robert le diable(Robert the Devil) an opera in five acts composed by Giacomo Meyerbeer was performed at the Haymarket Theatre in Great Britain.
1832: In Brussels, Jonathan-Raphaël Bischoffsheim a founder of the National Bank of Belgium married Henriette Goldschmidt with who had three children, Clair, Ferdinand and Hortense.
1834: Lewin Aron (`Libesch') Pinner, who served as a rabbi in Bombst and Wronke became a naturalized citizen of Posen under the terms of the Emancipation Act of 1834.
1835: Congregation B'nai Israel laid the cornerstone for the first synagogue to be built in Cincinnati, Ohio. The congregation would hire Max Lilienthal as its Rabbi in June of 1855.
1841: Twenty year old Rabbi Haim Nathan Dembitzer married Doba Duetscher.
1845(6thSivan, 5605): Shavuot
1845: In Pikeln, Russian Empire, Rabbi Benjamin Rabinowitz and his wife gave birth to Elijah David Rabinowitz-Teomim, who served as Rosh Yeishiva of Mir before emigrating to Jerusalem in 1901.
1846 In Tabor, which is now part of the Czech Republic gave Rabbi Gutmann Klempere and his wife Julie birth to Dr. Jur. Alois Klemperer
1847: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Maurice S. Mawson of Pernambuco had married Rose Phillips, the second daughter of Michael Phillips. The bride was from Jersey and the wedding took place at St. Helier.
1849: At the 14th meeting of The Free Sons of Israel, Noah Lodge Number 1, a constitution was adopted marking the real date from which the society began working as an effective organization.
1852: “America’s Mail – Some Additional Items” published today included a copy of Lionel Rothschild’s “address to the independent electors of London” in which he thanked them for their twice electing him to the House of Commons even though he has been denied his right to take his seat in Parliament and soliciting their support in the upcoming election so that the will of the people will hold sway and he will finally be seated.
1852: In Hammerstein, Prussia, Marcus Hertzberg and his was wife gave birth to A.M. Hertzberg, the Mayor of Roma, “J.P. for the Colony of Queensland, Australia,” and husband of Miriam Cohen, “the third daughter of Samuel Cohen” who began serving as President of the “Brisbane Hebrew Congregation” in 1894.
1857: "Denominations in London," published today reports that according to Mr. Low's Handbook to Places of Worship London has 11 synagogues with 8,642 seats.
1857: Today, Kehillat Anshe Ma'arab, the first Jewish congregation closed its original burial grounds which had been established by the now defunct Jewish Burial Ground Society and had the first burial in its new cemetery.
1859: In Beaufort, SC, cotton plant owner “Morris Pollitzer and Anna Kuh Pollitzer gave birth to Columbia University alum Sigmund Pollitzer, the dermatologist who “who served as a surgeon in the Serbian-Bulgarian War” and was President of the American Dermatological Association.
1859: Prince Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, who served as Austria’s foreign minister for nearly forty years, passed away. Metternich’s dealings with Jews were as devious and Machiavellian as were his dealings with anybody else. Metternich was careful not to pursue anti-Jewish policies that would offend the powerful Salomon Rothschild. He did come to the defense of the Jews during the Damascus Blood Libel. But Heinrich Graetz, the Jewish historian who lived during the Metternich Era, viewed him negatively saying that Metternich was prone to treat the Jews in a manner consistent with Maria Theresa rather than with the benevolence shown by Emperor Joseph II. During the Napoleonic era Metternich said of the Jews, “I fear that” they “will believe Napoleon to be their promised Messiah.”
1859: A major silver strike known as the Comstock Lode is discovered in Nevada. David H. Cohen was one of several who Jews worked “as ordinary muckers and miners” where they earned four dollars for spending 12 hours beneath the earth. Adolph Sutro was a self-taught engineer who tried to bring modern technology to the mining operations. This included the building of the Sutro Tunnel which a “passageway” designed to improve ventilation in the mines while providing an easier way to haul the ore and drain excess water.
1859: Disraeli was replaced by his arch-rival William Gladstone as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1863: In Frankfurt, Selig Meier Goldschmidt and his wife Clementine Fuld the daughter of Herz Salomon Fuld and Caroline Schuster gave birth to Hedwig Goldschmidt
1864(7thof Sivan, 5624): Second Day of Shavuot
1864: Ignaz Israel Bondy and Ottilie Bondy gave birth to Alois Ernst Bondy.
1864: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Emil Myer completed his three year enlistment in the Union Army mustering out as a Captain in Company C of the 27thRegiment.
1864: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Jacob Luescher completed his three year enlistment in the Union Army mustering out as Sergeant in Company A of the 27 Regiment.
1864: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Henry Roengarten who had begun his service as a Corporal with Company completed his three year enlistment mustering out as a Sergeant in Company K of the 27th Regiment.
1864: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Jacques Adelsheimer, who had risen from the rank of private to Captain while serving with the 27th regiment and who had been wounded at Chancellorsville in 1863 completed his three year enlistment.
1865(17thof Sivan, 5625): Elias Chaim Lindo, the nephew of Moses Mocatta who moved from St. Thomas to London in the 1830’s where he pursued a life of Jewish scholarship that included writing The History of the Jews of Spain and Portugal passed away today.
1865: Frederick Knefler is mustered out of the Union Army with the rank of Brevet Brigadier General. He had joined the army in 1861 with the rank of Lieutenant.
1867: In Königsberg, which was then part of Germany, Pinkus and Ida Stern gave birth to Georg Joseph Stern an electrical engineer who retired from AEG in 1930 and “devoted himself to his musical compositions until he passed away in 1934.
1868(21stof Sivan, 5628): Lazar Horowitz, the leading Orthodox Rabbi in Vienna who defended the historian Heinrich Graetz against charges of heresy and whose most famous work was “Yad Eleazar” passed away today.
1870: The funeral of Mrs. D. Dinkelspiel, the wife of the Treasurer of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society is scheduled to be held this morning at Number 7, West 53rd St.
1871: In Louisville, KY, Lazarus Selligman and Carrie Sabel gave birth to Alfred Selligman the graduate of the University of Louisville law school, husband of Jennie Katz, defeated Republican candidate for Commonwealth attorney who is a trustee of the Jewish Free Hospital, director of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and leader of Congregation Adath Israel.
1871: It was reported today that the Jewish Times has taken issue with criticism published in some Connecticut newspapers of the fact that a rabbi had been asked to lead the opening prayer at the state legislature. The Times contended Protestant, Catholic or Jew could call upon the Divine to provide support for the legislators and that anybody who questioned that was neither a Christian nor a gentleman.
1871: The Notes and News column reported on the efforts of Polish authorities to enforce the new Russian rules that require the Jews to give up their traditional garb and hairstyle – including the requirement that they shave their beards, cut off their side curls, give up their long coats and their short pants. The Jews are resisting the changes and the authorities are resorting to trickery and force to accomplish their goals.
1871: Hatzofeh B’Eretz HaChadashah (The New Land Speculator) “the first Hebrew periodical in America published its first issue today in New York.”
1872: On the day after his death, “watchmaker Joseph bar Yitzhak, the husband of Fanny and Sarah Joseph and the father of Julia, Louis and Rose Joseph was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1872: “Jews versus Christians” published today described the efforts of various societies, many of which are located in England, to convert Jews. These efforts have met with “very limited success.” Most Jews do not respond to these expensive attempts and the few that do “are of a sort whose private life and reputation does not render them very valuable acquisitions as citizens.” The article continues with a repute of the attacks on the Jews of Smyrna and suggests that the money might be better spent teaching the Christians of Smyrna to behave like Christians. The article concludes that considering the Christian violence in Smyrna, “people almost be excused for thinking that a liberal-minded Jew may easily be a better man than a Smyrna Christian.”
1873: In Hobken, NJ, founding of the Hebrew Ladies’ Aid Society of Congregation Adath Emuno which had been founded in 1871.
1876: Birthdate of NYU and JTS alum Bernard Calonius Ehreneich, the Hungarian born son of Henry Reuben and Hannah Ehrenreich, the husband of Irma Bock and the father of Rosemarie and Louis Sigmund Ehrenreich who served as a rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Atlantic City, Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Philadelphia and Congregation Kahl Montgomery in Montgomery, AL.
1876: “Consecration of a Synagogue” published today described the services consecrating a new orthodox synagogue in Washington, DC which were attended by U.S. Grant, the President of the United States and the Speaker Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate (Editor’s note: The article fails to name the Synagogue. It was Adas Israel which is still located in Washington, DC.)
1876: Louis Raminsky, a Jew living on Mott Street was assaulted by Irishman named George Richardson who mistook him for a man named Rubenstein.
1877(30th of Sivan, 5637): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1877: As part of their on-going and rather unsuccessful attempt to convert Jews, the Conference on Jewish Mission began today “under the Presidency of the Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells.
1878(10thof Sivan, 5638): Thirty-eight year old Lucien Levy passed away this afternoon. Based on the note found with the body, he had committed suicide by taking strychnine. Levy, a successful New York businessman had been for a week prior to this death.
1879: “American Israelites in Russia” published today described the attempts of the U.S. House of Representatives to remedy an inequity when it came to Jews owing landing in Russia. Under Russian law, Jews, including Jews who are citizens of the United States are not allowed to own land in Russia. British Jews are allowed to own land in Russia under a treaty that exists between those two countries. The House wants the situation remedied since it amounts to discrimination again American citizens based on their religion; something which the legislators feel is intolerable.
1881: Maruice Lippmann and Marie-Alexandrine-Henriette Dumas gave birth to French gold medal winning fencer Auguste-Alexandre Lippmann.
1881(14thof Sivan, 5641): British painter and engraver Solomon Alexander Hart, the son engraver and Hebrew teacher Samuel Hart passed away. An observant Jew, “he was the first Jewish member of the Royal Academy in London.” “Among Hart's Jewish works are: "Hannah, the Mother of Samuel"; and "The Conference Between Manasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell," which was bought by F. D. Mocatta, who subsequently presented it to Jews' College.”
1881: It was reported today that there are 277,000 Jews living in Kiev; 155,000 in Kovno, 143,000 in Minsk; 119,000 in Vilna and 98,000 in Bessarabia. The total Jewish population of Poland is reported to be 815,000. Large communities of Jews can also be found in St. Petersburg and Moscow where they have been settling since the ban instituted by Nicholas I was overturned by his successors.
1882: The New York Times published a review of Spinoza: A Novel by Berthold Auerbach which has been translated into English from the original German.
1882: It was reported today that a dispatch from St. Petersburg states appointing Jews as Chief Surgeons in the Russian Army has been forbidden.
1882: Birthdate of Cacilie Altmann who was transported from Hannover, to Terezin and finally to Auschwitz where she was murdered in 1944.
1883(6thof Sivan, 5643): Shavuot
1883: “Felix Adler and Israelites” published today described the belief of some Jewish leaders, including those who are friends of Felix Adler, that membership in his Ethical Cultural Society means that Jews have joined a group that is beyond the pale of the Jewish community. Dr. Solomon H. Sonneschein a leading rabbi in St. Louis has written an open letter published in the American Israelite that asks his friend Adler, “Are you still an Israelite, a disciple of Moses and the prophets, a standard bearer of God’s love and truth, as understood by reformed Judaism…or have you hopelessly abandoned the faith in which you were born and bred?”
1884: Myer Lipman Nathan and Esther Sarluis were married today at the Great Synagogue in London.
1884: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Grace Baer Bachrach, the school teacher and wife of attorney Clarence G. Bachrach with whom she had two children who was so active in various civic and cultural organizations including the “Brooklyn division of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies” that was honored as “Brooklyn’s First Lady of Philanthropy in 1956.
1885: It was reported today that a Jew named Solomon Ovitch has arrested for seditious practices at Kharkoff.
1886(8th of Sivan, 5646): James Koppel Gutheim, who has been serving as Rabbi at Temple Sinai, the leading Reform congregation in New Orleans, passed away this evening in the Crescent City
1886: In New York City “Louis Kelvin and Eva (Scollard) Steinman gave birth today to CCNY and Columbia educated award winning structural engineer David Barnard Steinman, the husband of Irene Hoffman.
1887: Mrs. Abraham Bernstein, the wife of Jewish peddler living at Port Chester, found today that her husband was living in Glenville, Connecticut, with another woman. The towns are only a couple of miles apart.
1887: Birthdate of Max Sievers, the chairman of the German Freethinkers League whose inability to get a visa while living in the United States in 1939 after having fled the Nazis meant he had to return to Europe where he was evening beheaded by the Germans.
1888: In New York during trial being held in the Court of General Sessions, the defense attorney “spoke to the Jury as Christians and became very indignant” when held them that Jews do not believe “in the divinity or miracles of Christ.” He apparently forgot that five the jurors were Jewish.
1889: Birthdate of Joseph Lewis, the Montgomery, Alabama born Jew turned atheist who as President of The Freethinkers of America” called on Jews to “renounce their ‘antiquated creed’” and denounced “Yom Kippur as the ‘most degrading and humiliating day in all the superstitious annals of religion’”
1891: In Berlin, an Associated Press correspondent met today with Herr Goldberg a prominent Jewish financer who is the Director of the International Bank in Berlin and serves as Consul General for Belgium
1891: The first vice president and second vice president of the New York Life Insurance Company admitted today that Julio Merzbacher had not retired as the company’s Spanish-American because of ill health as previously announced but that he had left the company after his embezzlement of from $300,000 to $500,000 had been discovered.
1893: The new Jewish cemetery on Long Island was dedicated today by the Mount Zion Association.
1893: Timothy J. Campbell was among those who delivered a speech when “a granite monument was unveiled today” in “memory of the late Moses Mehrbach” at Cypress Hills Cemetery where Rabbi Hirsch “conducted the devotional services and made the dedicatory address.”
1893: In Atlantic City, N.J., dedication of the Jewish Seaside Home takes place. The home was the outgrowth of a project in which four cottages had been rented to provide a refuge designed to help improve the health of invalid mothers and their children. The cottages were purchased and converted into a thirty room institution which would meet the needs of these women and their offspring.
1893: George Kennan will the guest of honor at dinner in London in honor of Colonel Goldsmid “who has just returned from organizing Hirsch colonies in Argentina
1894(7th of Sivan, 5654): Second Day of Shavuot
1894: “Movement to Christianize the Jews” published tdaoy described a speech given at the meeting of the American Hebrew Christian Society in New York where Rev. John Wilkinson, Director of Mildmay Mission to the Jews of London, England “said that he had come to tell his American brethren how to establish mission for Christianization of the Jews and to try to influence the Christian Americans to take a more active part in reclaiming them.”
1895: S.K. Brown, the son of an Austrian rabbi was ordained as a Baptist minister in Camden, NJ.
1897: Dental surgeon and businessman Dr. Hugo and Minna Luise Ascher gave birth to Maragarete Lilly (Grete) the younger sister German expressionist painter Fritz Ascher.
1897: The Jewish community in München protests against holding the Zionist congress in the city.
1897: Texas native Andrew Moses began serving as a 2nd Lt. in the 11thInfantry, USA.
1898: “London Literary Notes” published today includes a review of Jew, Gypsy and El Islam in which the author, the late Sir Richard Burton expresses his admiration for Mohammedanism but “abuses the Jews.”
1898: “Mr. and Mrs. Bierman’s Garden Party” published today described the soiree given for more than 100 residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews who were served refreshments after enjoying musical selections played by the band from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum
1898: “New Rabbis To Be Ordained” published today described the upcoming plans for the graduation exercises to be held at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1899: “Dreyfus and Picquart” published today noted that Captain Dreyfus “has done nothing, absolutely nothing to become the center of all this fury except not have sold the military secrets of France.” The real hero of affair is Major George Picquart, the Minister of War.
1899: The ninth version the French anti-Semitic publication of Anti-Juif du Midi was published at Montpellier.
1899: “Aid Asked for a Worthy Family” published today described the efforts of the United Hebrew Charities to raise $400 for a 35 year old man, his wife and four children. “Through overwork, both the man and the wife have become chronic invalids” and the money would be used to help them open “a notion store” that would provide them with income and allow the family to stay together.
1899: “In The Russian Capital” published today described the attack in Nicolaieff in which an unknown number of Jews have been killed or wounded.
1900: Birthdate of journalist, producer and broadcaster Lawrence E Spivak, one of the creators, first producers and first moderators of Meet the Press the original television news interview show. It was unique for its time because it put a major political or other such leader on live television facing the unfiltered question of four members of the working press. In various formats, this program has survived for almost six decades. Spivak died in 1994.
1901: “The first annual meeting of the National Conference of Jewish Charities” took place at Chicago,
1901: In London Herzl attends a banquet at the Maccabaeans with Israel Zangwill and Sir Francis Montefiore and other influential and wealthy Jews. But the successes in London are merely social.
1902(6th of Sivan, 5662): Shavuot
1903: Leo Wise wrote a letter to Rabbi Zadok Kahn, the Chief Rabbi of France
1903: Rabbis Pereira Mendes and Rabinowitz address of joint meeting of B’nai Zion Kadimah and Benoth Zion Kadmah at the First Romanian Synagogue on Rivington Street.
1903: In Boston, the Hebrew National Association held a meeting today during which new officers were installed and was then followed by concert that raised $65.00 for the Kishinev Fund.
1904(28th of Sivan, 5664): Parashat Sh’lach
1904: “Russia” published today provided a lengthy review of George Drage’s Russian Affairs in which the author writes “Concerning the Jews” that “from 1887 to 1890 all Jews resident districts were harried from the homes and forced to living in the Pale” and that the Russian persecution stands apart from other of the anti-Semitic movement on account of its unparalleled magnitude and ferocity and also because it is the direct act of a government deliberately, systematically, remorselessly seeking to reduce to utter misery about four and a half million of its own subjects.
1905: Samuel Shimansky “acted as master of ceremonies” today when “the cornerstone of the new synagogue of the Congregation Beth Israel was laid this afternoon” while ten policeman “were on guard fearing the possibility that the ceremony would be disturbed.”
1906: As a prelude to the Bialystok Pogrom, “the Police Chief of Białystok, Derkacz, was murdered, most likely on the orders of the Russian commissar and fervent anti-Semite Szeremietiev. Derkacz, who was Polish, was known for his liberal sympathies and opposition to anti-Semitism; for this he was respected by both the Jewish Bund and the Polish Socialist Party. On a previous occasion, when Russian soldiers attacked Jews in the marketplace, Derkacz had sent in his policemen to put down the violence and had declared that a pogrom against the Jews would occur “only over his dead body”.
1906: Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed The Wadsworth District Sunday Bill which would have the effect of unduly penalizing Jewish merchants in Washington, D.C. who would have to closed for both days of the weekend.
1907: In Mulhouse, Constance Kenendel Lang and Baruch Kahn gave birth to Arthur Kahn
1909: In New York, a two day conference that has created Young Judaea came to an end.
1909(22nd of Sivan, 5669): Jacob Michailovitch Gordin “a Russian-born American playwright active in the early years of Yiddish theater” who “is known for introducing realism and naturalism into Yiddish theater” passed away. https://www.bartleby.com/228/0852.html
1910(4th of Sivan, 5670) Parashat Naso
1910: While sentencing Michael Lazarus and Maxy Mayer to the Workhouse today “for attempting to pick pockets, Magistrate Cornell in the Essex Market Court said, “It is perfectly appalling to me to see the number of young Hebrews who come to this court these days” because “when I was first a Magistrate there were few Hebrews that came before me for this offense.
1911: “Colonel Garrard Explains” published provided Fort Meyer Commandant Colonel Joseph Garrard explanation “for expressing, in an official indorsement, the sentiment that a Jew, the son of a tailor would be a desirable army” saying that “the custom in the service requires officers to call on and receive calls from brother officers and their families” and this would not be appropriate in the case of a Jew and besides which he was sure that the papers explaining all of this had been stolen and given to attorney Solomon Wolf who then gave them to the President.
1912: The City of Sumter, South Carolina where Jews purchased land for a cemetery in 1874 and is the home of Temple Sinai, adopted the council-manager form of government, making it the first city in the United States to do so.
1912: As of today, there are four Jewish candidates seeking election to the Duma from Odessa.
1912: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Benjamin R Epstein, the Pennsylvania educated former director of the ADL and author who raised two children – Ellen and David – with his wife Ethel.
1912(26th of Sivan, 5672): Arthur L. Welsh passed away. Born in Kiev in 1881, Leibl Welcher, came to the United States with his father Abraham and mother Deborah at the age of 10 where he would become Arthur L. Welsh. After trying a variety of careers, including a stint in the U.S. Navy, Welsh found his calling as test pilot with Orville and Wilbur Wright. In 1912, the Wrights had sent Welsh to the U.S. Army Signal Corps in College Park, MD, to serve as a civilian test pilot for a new plane being developed for the War Department. On June 11, 1912, Welsh, accompanied by Signal Corps Lt. Leighton W. Hazelhurst, was attempting to complete final military tests of the Wright Model C airplane when the airplane buckled under its 450- pound load. Both men were killed instantly, the first-ever fatalities at College Park. Hap Arnold who gained fame as one of the most decorated leaders of the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II was one of his most famous students.
1913(6th of Sivan, 5673): Shavuot
1913: Cantor Millard conducted Shavuot services at the Chicago Hebrew Institute.
1913: Rabbi Gerson B. Levi officiated at the Confirmation Services held at B’nai Sholom-Temple Israel in Chicago.
1913: While fighting in the Philippine Islands against rebels resisting the American occupation, Private Louis C. Mosher “risked his life” so that he could “rescue a wounded soldier under enemy gunfire.” He was awarded the Medal of Honor for this rescue.
1913: In the Bronx, Christian Steenberg, a Norwegian American and Sadie Mechanic who was Jewish gave birth to Risë Gus Steenberg who would gain fame as “Risë Stevens, the internationally renowned mezzo-soprano who had a 23-year career with the Metropolitan Opera, where she practically owned the role of Carmen during the 1940s and ’50s.” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1914: Birthdate of actor Gerald Mohr, who although not Jewish joined Tony Curtis as a pallbearer at the funeral of fellow actor Jeff Chandler (Ira Grossel)
1915: American ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, received an honorary degree of LL.D. from University of Constantinople.
1915: In Youngstown, Ohio, dedication of Rodef Sholem Temple.
1915: In Chicago, the Executive Board of the Anti-Capital Punishment Society of America is scheduled to host “conference for those active to save Leo M. Frank from the gallows” at the Auditorium Hotel.
1915: Tonight “former State Tax Commissioner Joseph S. Schwab, Chairman of the New York Committee on the Commutation of the Sentence of Leo M. Frank…sent a telegram to Governor Slaton of Georgia asking clemency for Frank.”
1915: Several prominent men from Illinois including Governor Dunne, Senator James Hamilton Lewis and Harlow N. Higinbotham “sent final pleas by wire today” asking Governor Slaton to commute Leo Frank’s death sentence.
1915: Based on remarks he made to attorneys representing both sides of the case, it was reported today that Governor Slaton does not want “to pass Leo Frank’s application over to his successor, Governor-elect Nat E. Harris, but to decide it himself.”
1915: In Copenhagen, at the second day of its meeting, The Action Committee (Va;ad HaPoel HaZioni) rejected Jabotinsky’s “plan to establish a Jewish Legion” resolving that "The Jewish Legion project stands in deep contradiction to the principles of Zionist activity... no Zionist will participate or support this activity." (Editor’s note – “Jabotinsky refuses to heed them and despite objections by the majority of Zionist leaders, moves to London where he continues to work towards the establishment of a regiment.”)
1915: It was reported that “mass meetings are being held daily throughout the state” of Georgia at which resolutions are being adopted protesting against” the commutation of Leo Frank’s death sentence.
1916: Aaron Mann, the Kovno born son of Zelick Mann and the brother Harry Mann, the owners of Mann Iron and Steele Company in Norristown, PA today married “Miss Sadei Leftco of Philadelphia, PA with whom he had one daughter.
1916: Djemal Pasha, military governor of Palestine for Ottoman Turkey, issued a warning to the Jewish settlers that the creation of future settlements would become more difficult. (This may have been in reaction to fact that a lot of the Zionists were Russians and the Turks assumed that they would make common cause with the Czar whose army they were fighting.)
1916: Today, “the Board of Directors announced the purchase of the Hope Chapel” on East Fourth Street in New York so that it could become “the new location for a new Jewish school – Talmud Torah Ansche Zitomerer.”
1916: Eight hundred people attended the wedding of Jacob Scheiner, the son of Rabbi Samuel Scheiner and Bella Schwartz, the daughter of Samuel Schwartz in New York.
1916: In the seven months following today’s meeting of the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, Greensboro Hebrew Congregation in Greensboro, NC, United Hebrew Congregation in St. Louis, New Synagogue in NYC and Temple Sinai in Lake Charles, LA have joined the Union.
1916: “Seven candidates received the degree of rabbi, Preacher and Teacher in Israel and twenty-two young men and women” were “awarded diplomas from the Teachers’ Institute during the graduating exercises of the Jewish Theological Seminary this afternoon where attendees heard speeches from Dr. Cyrus Adler, acting President of the Seminary and Professor Mordechai Kaplan who said that “the fundamental duty of the Jewish home is to keep alive he demand for religious training of the young” and that “Jewish education must come to be regarded as the one constructive activity in Jewish life which is of supreme important and to which every man, woman and child in Israel should in duty bound to contribute something whether it be in means, energy or in idealism.”
1916: The Federation of the Oriental Jews of America held its third annual meeting in New York. Joseph Gedalecia served as President and Albert J. Amateau served as secretary. The 1000 member organization's purpose was the "Americanization and betterment of condition of Oriental Jews."
1917: “The Women’s Proclamation Committee, the national women’s organization for Jewish War Relief began its Summer Campaign in behalf of the Ten Million dollar Fund which has already received a contribution “from prominent women in Kingston, Jamaica” which was sent to Mrs. Albert Lucas, the committee’s executive secretary.
1917: The Executive Board of the Jewish Congress Association is scheduled to hold the first of two days of meetings concerning the upcoming meeting of the national organization.
1917: It was reported from New York today Judge Julian W. Mack of Chicago and Dr. Horace M. Kallen of Madison, WI, will participate in “a summer course of lectures on Zionism” sponsored by the Intercollegiate Zionist Association of America.
1917(21st of Sivan, 5677): German banker Julius Rosenheim passed away today in Berlin.
1917: “Scores of counters were employed all day” today at the headquarters of the American Jewish Congress Committee in the Metropolitan Building opening ballot boxes tallying the votes for delegates to the upcoming meeting of the American Jewish Congress.
1918: In Stamford, CT, “Leila (née Hughes), an opera singer, and Alfred E. Aarons, a Broadway theatrical producer gave birth to Table Tennis (Ping Pong) Champion Ruth Hughes Aarons who went on to a career as theatrical manager.
1918: In Odessa, Ukraine, Rabbi Joseph J. Kaplan and Chava Lerner Kaplan gave birth to American philosopher Abraham Kaplan author of The Conduct of Inquiry.
1918: During World War I, at Bois de Belleau, France, “after all the other members of his group had been killed or wounded by from an enemy machine gun” Jean Mathias, a Private in the U.S. Marines, “charged the gun position alone, killing three of the crew and capturing the gun” – an action for he which he was “awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross and the French Croix de Guerre.”
1919(13th of Sivan, 5679): Seventy-one year old German born U.S. Naval Academy Graduate Adolph Marix who served aboard the battleship Maine when she exploded before the Spanish American War and who was promoted to the rank of Admiral in recognition of courageous conduct during the Battles of Manzanillo during that conflict and who was the husband of Grace F. Marix passed away today after which he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1920: Birthdate of Irving Howe graduate of City College and a veteran of World War II who was a professor at CUNY, Brandeis and Stanford. A noted editor of Yiddish literature who discovered the author Isaac Bashevis Singer for an English-speaking audience, his work includes A Treasury of Yiddish Poetry. His greatest popular acclaim came with the writing of World of Our Fathers. He was a lifelong Socialist and was considered to be one of this country's most influential literary critics until his death in 1993.
1920: It was reported today that “General Allenby has sent his resignation to the government in London as a protest against the appointment of Herbert Samuel as High Commissioner of Palestine.”
1920: It was reported today that “the head office of the Jewish National Fund has received messages from all parts of the world to the effect that big movements were being organized everywhere to raise the money the Jew National Fund needs for carrying out the immediate tasks” of settling Palestine.
1921(5th of Sivan, 5681): Parashat Bamidbar; Erev Shavuot
1921: In Manhattan, Joel Russ, the founder of Russ and Daughters and his wife Bella gave birth to Ann Russ, the future Anne Russ Federman, one of the “daughters” in Russ and Daughters. (As reported by Sam Roberts. (If you haven’t been to Russ and Daughters, you haven’t lived, or at least that is what my wife would say)
1921: Birthdate of London native Michael Leverson Meyerson the scion of “a timber merchant family of Jewish origin” who “won the 1971 Whitbread Award for Biography” and whose “autobiography Not Prince Hamlet was published in 1989.
1921(5th of Sivan, 5681): Daniel Joseph Jaffé, the son of Martin Jaffé and a nephew of Sir Otto Jaffé, passed away. A noted waterworks consulting engineer, his most famous efforts were completed in China. Evidence of his fame can be seen Hong Kong’s Jaffe Road which was named in his honor.
1922: Prominent New York merchant Louis Stern arrived in Paris having crossed the Atlantic on board the SS Homeric.
1922: “The betrothal of Dora Harrison and Fred Sirsky of Camden was solemnized today in Prosperity Hall.
1922: In Mannville, Alberta, Canada, Max Goffman and Anne Goffman (née Averbach) gave birth to sociologist Erving Goffman, the 73rd president of the American Sociological Association
1924: In Brooklyn Morris and Pauline Faust gave birth to high school guidance counselor and author Irvin Faust.
1924: Rabbi Samuel Schulman offered the invocation at the opening of the second day of the 1924 Republican National Convention during which he spoke with appreciation for "the Republican Party's precious heritage of the championship of human rights" and he called for "every form of prejudice and misunderstanding" to be "driven forever out of our land."
1926: Louis Greenspan who had been arrested after the car he was driving struck and killed Congressman London is scheduled to return to court today when police believe they will have completed their investigation into the fatal accident.
1926: The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that “a concert hall will be erected in Tel Aviv through the efforts of Palestinian Jewish musicians as a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the musical composer Engel.”
1927(9th of Iyar, 5687): Fifty-seven year old Louis Samuel Montagu, 2nd Baron Swaythling, “the first professing Jews to inherit a peerage and seat in the House of Lords, the President of the Federation of Synagogues and anti-Zionist who opposed the Balfour Declaration passed away today.
1929: The British High Commissioner wrote to the Mufti defending the right of the Jews to ‘conduct their worship’ (at the Western Wall) as in the past.
1929: Manny Sinwell began serving as Financial Secretary to the War Office.
1932(7th of Sivan, 5692): Second Day of Shavuot and Yizkor are recited for the last time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover who appointed Justice Cardozo to the Supreme Court.
1933: The New York Times reported that the German government “is digging through the backgrounds of over 350,000 civil servants to find out who is of ‘Jewish extraction’ and thus ‘liable to dismissal.’”
1933: “The Jewish organizations of Silesia eold a conference to discuss the safeguarding of rights of German Jews.”
1933: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, William J. and Jeanne (Baer) Silberman gave birth to Jerome Silberbman the University of Iowa graduate who gained fame as the multi-dimensional creator of comedy Gene Wilder.
1934: Birthdate of Murray Wolfe, successful businessman, playwright, poet, Yiddishist, and, most important of all, a first class mensch. If you did not know that Murray was a real person, you would think his life story was one of those big historic novels written Leon Uris.
1934(28th of Sivan, 5694): Lev Semenovich Vygotsky a developmental psychologist known for his socio-cultural perspective passed away. Born into a middle-class Jewish family in Orsha, Russia in 1896, Vygotsky's faith and social standing shaped many of his choices and views.
1935: In Oklahoma City, OK Sylvan N. Goldman and Margaret Katz Gold man gave birth to real estate developer and philanthropist Monte H. Goldman.
1935: Birthdate of Gene Wilder. Born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee Wisconsin, Wilder is known for his roles in “Young Frankenstein” and “Silver Streak.”
1936: As the wave of Arab violence increased, The Palestine Post reported that many Arabs were injured and a number might have been killed in a battle with police and British troops in the Ein Harod area and during a demonstration in Hebron. Arab crowds were dispersed in Jaffa where a British constable was stabbed. Arab terrorists cut telephone wires and set some forests on fire. The Second Battalion of the Dorset Regiment arrived in Jerusalem from Egypt. Over a thousand one-year-old citrus trees were uprooted in Kfar Yona and the late Field-Marshal Allenby's statue was damaged in Beersheba
1936: As the Arab uprising continued, arsonists set fire to the fields of Kfar Joshua and to the forest at Ataroth which is located outside of Jerusalem. Guards at the forest fired shots at the arsonists as they escaped.
1936: In New York, a Grand Jury voted to indict anti-Semitic pamphlet Robert Edward Edmondson on charges of libel Dean Virginia Gildersleeve of Barnard College, U.S. Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and “the Jewish religion.”
1937: Marx Brothers'"A Day at the Races" released to popular acclaim.
1937: Stalin moves forward with the Great Purge which was animated in part by anti-Semitism as the Soviet Dictator went after those whom he claimed were followers of Trostky and which denuded the general staff of many seasoned officer which helps to explain the abysmal showing of the Russians when the Germans invaded in 1941.
1938: “Mr. Moto Takes a Chance,” “the fourth in a series of eight films starring Peter Lorre as Mr. Moto” and produced by Sol M. Wurtzel was released in the United States today.
1939: “All business in the Jerusalem post office was suspended” today except for telegraph and cable service following the explosion of a bomb that killed “a British constable” and the discovery of “an unexploded bomb which was found in the post office garage.”
1939: “Dr. Chaim Weizmann…sent a letter today to the Mandates Committee of the League of Nations attacking Britain’s new policy on Palestine as ‘the triumph of force over moderation.’”
1940(5th of Sivan, 5700): Erev Shavuot
1940: As the Nazis sweep across France, Eugène Tisserant, a French Cardinal working at the Vatican writes to the Archbishop of Paris lamenting the silence of the Pope when it comes to the evil of the Nazis.
1940: “As a result of internal pressure from citizens objecting to the large number of “transient” refugees (many of whom were Jews fleeing Hitler’s Europe) who had reached Ciudad Trujillo and were waiting there to procure entry into other North and South American countries, the Dominican Congress passed a bill barring all immigration except of persons intending to make the Republic their permanent home.” (JA)
1940: Leon Blum, who was in London, “decided to return to Paris” today.
1941: Following the bombing of Haifa, which is an important naval base for the British, by German planes, the Vichy government has condemned reports by the British that the German war planes “returned” to the Aleppo airfield in Northern Syria. The term “returned” implies that the planes had flown from Aleppo to attack Haifa and the Vichy French claim that there are no German aircraft in Syria. Syria is a French colony which is supposedly governed by the Vichy government under the terms of the surrender agreement signed with the Nazis.
1941: Hans and Margaret Rey try to buy two bikes so that they can leave Paris. The search is fruitless.
1941: Hans Rey spent 1,600 francs for two unassembled bikes. He then spent the rest of the day putting them in working order.
1942: Major Liebmann and his hundred surviving men (out of a company that had been 400 strong when the fight began on June 2) linked up with the forces of General Marie Pierre Koenig of the 1st Free French Division who was in charge of the fort at Bir Hakeim. The French general had no idea that his unit had been supported by this group of Jewish volunteers. In perfect French, Major Liebmann told him that his men were fighters from Palestine, but that they could not serve under their flag because of British rules. Koenig then told him to raise their Star of David flag, and all Free French officers around him saluted it.
1942: One thousand Jews were deported from Prague, Czechoslovakia, to the “East,” where they are murdered.
1942(26th of Sivan, 5702): Ten thousand Jews from the ghetto at Tarnów, Poland, were murdered at the Belzec extermination camp.
1942(26thof Sivan, 5702): Thirty year old Herbert Baum a Jewish member of the anti-Nazi resistance was tortured to death today at Moabit Prison.
1942: “They All Kissed the Bride” starring Melvyn Douglas was released today in the United States.
1943: Himmler ordered the liquidation of all Polish ghettos.
1943: U.S. premiere of “Coney Island” produced by William Perlberg, co-starring Phil Silvers, for which Alfred Newman received an Oscar nomination “in the category of Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.”
1944: For the next seven days the Germans shipped an additional 50,805 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz.
1944: Joel Brand, who is being held by the British, and Moshe Sharett continue their meetings where Brand continues to explain the “Jews for trucks” deal that he hopes will save the Jews of Hungary.
1945(30th of Sivan, 5705): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1945(30th of Sivan, 5705): Fifty-two year old Eliyahu Golomb who played a key role in the creation of the Haganah and the Palmach passed away today. Born in Russia in 1893, he made Aliyah in 1909. After working at the famed kibbutz Dagania Alef he served with the British in the Jewish Legion during WW I. During the inter-war years he worked with the Revisionists to try and form a unified Jewish military defense force. During the Arab Revolts in the 1930’s he served with the FOSH.
1946:“President Truman created today a special Cabinet committee to assist him in formulating and implementing "such policy with regard to Palestine and related problems as may be adopted by this Government."
1946: “It was learned today” that Isaac Darwich have a given to letter to the government of France form his uncle Haj amin el Husseini, thanking the French their hospitality before he snuck out of the country headed for Damascus and eventually Jerusalem. (Editor’s note – apparently the brave French had no trouble in providing refuge for the Grand Mufti who had spent of the war with Hitler in Berlin)
1947: “Forty business and professional men attended a private dinner” tonight “at the Hotel Astor sponsored the Men’s Committee of the American League for a Free Palestine presided over by Paul O’Dwyer, chairman of the Zionist organization working to raise $7,500,000.(Editor’s note – prior to 1948, Palestine was a Jewish expressince)
1948: Jordan’s King Abdullah ordered a “hunda” or ceasefire.
1948: King Abdullah visited Jerusalem and promoted Abdullah el-Tell to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and gave him command of three Jordanian infantry companies occupying the Old City. El-Tell would be the lead negotiator who met with Jewish military leaders in matters regarding Jerusalem.
1948: The first truce between the Israelis and the Arab invaders began. During four weeks the Israelis had not only survived, they were in control of respectable amount of territory. This included the eastern and western portions of the Galilee, the Jezreel Valley from Haifa on the Mediterranean to the Jordan River, the coastal plain as far south as Ashdod, a major portion of the Negev and the corridor that connected Jerusalem with the rest of the Jewish controlled territory. The U.N. sponsored truce was supposed to last four weeks.
1948: As the first truce between Arabs and Israelis went into effect, Kfar Darom was completely surrounded by Egyptian forces laying siege to the Negev Kibbutz. The Kibbutz had been under attack since December. The Moslem Brotherhood had tried to capture it in April and the Egyptians had begun their assault in May. Although the Kibbutz would eventually have to evacuated, its gutsy stand gave heart to the embattled Israelis and prevented the Arabs from sweeping up the road to Tel Aviv.
1948: David Shaltiel the Haganah district commander in Jerusalem began the first in a series of meetings with Abdullah el Tell the commander of the Arab Legion under the auspices of the UN.
1948: As of today, 300 people have been killed and 1,400 more have been wounded since the battle for Jerusalem began on May 14. The Arab Legion had lobbed more than 14,000 shells at the Jewish defenders since the British High Commissioner flew off to Haifa.
1948 (4th of Sivan, 5708): As night fell on the first night of the truce, tragedy struck. The Jewish commander of the Jerusalem Front, Mickey Marcus aka Mickey Stone, was shot by an Israeli guard. Marcus was spending the night with a Palmach battalion. When return from a trip to the latrine, Marcus was challenged by a guard. Marcus spoke no Hebrew and was unable to respond. The youngster fired a warning shot and called again for the password. Marcus did not respond, but kept moving forward. The young guard fired several more shots one of which hit Marcus, mortally wounding him. Marcus’ most famous accomplishment was the construction of the “Burma Road” – the roadway to Jerusalem built under the threat of Arab guns that guaranteed Jerusalem would be part of the Jewish state. Marcus’ body was taken back to the United States, escorted by several leading Israeli leaders. Marcus was buried at West Point, the military academy that gave him the training to fight for his country during World War II and to fight for his people during the War of Independence.
1948: Syrian forces captured Bnot Ya’akov Bridge which spans the Jordan River. The Syrians will be forced to withdraw as a result of the 1949 Armistice Agreement.
1948: Birthdate David Lehman, the son of Holocaust survivors the poet and editor for “The Best American Poetry” series.”
1948: American Syd Antin and South African Lionel Bloch joined the Israeli air force.
1949: “A message from President Truman was read tonight at the opening session of the eleventh national convention of Pioneer Women, the woman’s Zionist organization meeting in Philadelphia.
1950: “Israel notified Jordan that it was holding up the establishment of mixed border patrols” that are intended “to check Arab infiltrations into Israel” and thus limit the possibility of clash between the military forces of the two neighbors. Israel said that its action was in response to Jordan’s failure to return three soldiers who had been captured six weeks ago. Israel claims that three are survivors of a five-man patrol that had accidently crossed the Armistice line with Jordan. The Jordanian killed two of the Israelis and imprisoned the three survivors. In the meantime, armed Arab gangs continue to infiltrate the Jewish state from Jordan.
1950: Plans to proceed with the construction of what is to be the "Harry S. Truman" village (Kfar Truman) in Israel were announced here tonight at the "Land for Israel" dinner of the New England Jewish National Fund. “Vice President Alben W. Barkley who addressed the 1,500 guest accepted honorary chairmanship of the project.” In a letter addressed to Dr. Harris J. Levine, chairman of the JNF which was read at the dinner President Truman wrote, “I am highly honored and appreciate very much what you are proposing to do.
1950: It was reported today that Rosemary Sebag-Montefiore the daughter of Colonel Thomas Henry Sebag-Montefiore and the late Mrs. Sebag-Montefiore plans to be married in England this October to her fiancé, Dr. Joseph Richmond, Levenson, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard who is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Max Levenson of Massachusetts
1951(7th of Sivan, 5711): Second Day of Shavuot.
1951: Eleven days after having been released in the United Kingdom “Sirocco” a film based on Coup de Grace written by Joseph Kessel, directed by Curtis Bernhardt and co-starring Lee J. Cobb was released in the United States today.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel resumed the Hula drainage work with full UN authorization. Syria closed the frontier with Lebanon as a protest against the expulsion of about 1,000 Syrian laborers from Lebanon.
1952: The Israeli Foreign Ministry sent a note to the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry “drawing attention to the ‘atmosphere of mystery’ surrounding the arrest of Mardechai Oren, an Israeli citizen.
1953: Gunmen attacked a young couple in their home in Kfar Hess, and shot them to death.
1953: In response to a request made in March by Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier, the Archbishop of Lyon, Germaine Ribière reported that the Finlay children being held Basque priests. She was a Catholic member of the French Resistance who had rescued Jews during the war. The Finlay children were Jewish orphans who had been baptized and were being kept from the surviving members of their family.
1954: Archeologist Yigael Yadin sent a telegram to Teddy Kollek stating that four Dead Sea Scrolls, including the Book of Isaiah, had been brought to the United States and were being offered for sale. Yadin said they could be purchased for $250,000, what he considered a paltry sum for so great a treasure. He said that he could raise the money from private sources but that it would take a year. He pleaded with Kollek to get the Israeli government to provide the funds immediately. Prime Minister Sharett agreed and authorized the Minister of Finance to provide the funds. Thanks to the quick action, this national treasure was secured for Israel.
1956: In Great Neck, NY, “a dress manufacturer in Manhattan's garment district and a part-time piano teacher” gave birth to Steven A. Cohen, one of the richest hedge fund managers in America who beat charges of insider trading.
1956: Recording began of the LP, “Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings” produced by Buddy Bregman and featuring songs by Irving Berlin, Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern.
1957: “Philip Klutznick, president of B’nai B’rith and Moshe Feinstein, president of the Hebrew P. E. N. Club of America. Dr. Moshe Davis, Provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and chairman of the Hadoar executive committee were the speakers at a dinner celebrating the 35th anniversary of Hador, “the only Hebrew language weekly published in the United States.” (JTA)
1958: In Camden, NJ, the Beth El Choral Group conducted by Cantor Louis J. Herman and accompanied by pianist Rose Solomon performed to at the installation of the congregation’s board of director.
1958: Two months after premiering in the United Kingdom, “The Camp on Blood Island” featuring Lee Montague and Wolfe Morris was released in the United States today.
1959(5thof Sivan, 5719): Erev Shavuot
1959(5thof Sivan, 5719): Yiddish author Chaim Pett who had been born in Russia in May of 1902 passed away today in New York City.
1962: CBS broadcast “Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hal” a “musical showcase” written by Mike Nichols for which Irwin Kostal was the musical director that included the introduction of “Meantime,” a song with lyrics by Al Stillman.
1964: “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” “a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich” was recorded today for the first time.
1965(11thof Sivan, 5725): Sixty-five year old Morris Raskin, the son “of Louis Raskin and Pia Reza Rose Pauline Raskin” and husband of Marjory Raskin passed away today in Michigan
1965: In the UK, premiere of “Repulsion” directed by Roman Polanski who also co-authored the screenplay.
1967: During a meeting at David Ben-Gurion’s home, “Defense Minister Moshe Dayan proposed autonomy for the West Bank, the transfer of Gazan refugees to Jordan, and a united Jerusalem serving as Israel's capital. Ben-Gurion agreed with him, but foresaw problems in transferring Palestinian refugees from Gaza to Jordan, and recommended that Israel insist on direct talks with Egypt, favoring withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in exchange for peace and free navigation through the Straits of Tiran.”
1967: “A delegation of former residents of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem asked the municipality for permission to rebuild their old homes.
1967: Teddy Kollek arranged for 20,000 bottles of milk for infants to be taken in to the Muslim, Christian and Armenian Quarters of the Old City.
1967: David Ben Gurion visited the Western Wall today.
1968: Birthdate of Michelle Levin, mother and daughter-in-law par excellence
1969: Pierre Goldman, the son of Alter Mojze Goldman, robbed the Royal Bank of Canada in Puerto La Cruz, taking 2.6 million bolívars (the biggest hold-up of that year).
1969: U.S. premiere of “Heaven With A Gun” starring Barbara Hershey as “Leelopa.”
1970(7thof Sivan, 5730): Second Day of Shavuot
1970: Two days after he had passed away the funeral was held today for seventy-four year old Irving A Mancher, who was brought to the United States from his native Minsk at the age, lost his eyesight at the age of 15, at still went on to run “two of the largest independent coal and fuel-oil distributing concerns” while supporting numerous causes including “the Jewish Institute for Religion” and raising two sons, Jay and Horace, with his wife, passed away today.
1971(18thof Sivan, 5731): Seventy-year old “television producer and writer Louis Solomon, the husband of “the writer Wilma Shore” with whom he had two daughters, Hilary and Dinah, passed away today.
1972: In East Brunswick, NJ, psychiatrist Stanley Gottlieb and his wife Marsha gave birth Mount Sinai Medical Center trained physician Scott Gottlieb, 23rdCommissioner of Food and Drugs who was nominated for the position by President Trump
1975: “Lepke” a movie based on the life of gangster Louis “Lepke” Buchalter starring Tony Curtis in the total role and featuring Warren Berlinger and Milton Berle which was directed and produced by Menahem Golan.
1976: The album “A Kind of Hush” featuring “You” by Randy Edelman was released today.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that in view of the voices emanating from Arab organizations "inviting Jews to return to Iraq and Morocco," Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that Israel would not act under threats and would deal with this issue "in fundamental fashion." Syrian troops were reported to be moving east to face the Iraqi Army which expressed readiness to man the Golan front. Both the US and Israel were concerned that both Algeria and Libya might participate in the Arab League's "Peacemaking Force" aimed to patrol a proposed Lebanese cease-fire.
1978(6th of Sivan, 5738): First Day of Shavuot
1978(6th of Sivan, 5738: Herman Barron, the first Jewish golfer to win a PGA Tour event passed away.
1978: In Italy, Premier Giulio Andreotti's government scheduled a national referendum for today despite the fact that it had been told that it was a Jewish holiday and observant Jews would not be able to participate in the vote.
1979(16th of Sivan, 5739): Seventy-year old Jesse Abramson, whose sport’s writing career spanned fifty-six years passed away today
1980: Today, “Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft making him Microsoft's 30th employee and the first business manager hired by Gates”
1981: Alan Joseph Shatter began representing Dublin South in the Teachta Dala.
1982: The Jerusalem Post published a front page photograph of 21 year old Yoav Blum an IDF soldier pictured holding a portrait of Yasser Arafat taken from the PLO’s headquarters in southern Lebanon.
1982: Israel and Syria stopped fighting in Lebanon. Israel has since withdrawn from Lebanon. Syria finally withdrew its armed forces from Lebanon which the late President Assad liked to consider was a province of Greater Syria. Syria continues to “meddle” in Lebanon’s internal politics. At the same time, Lebanon continues to be a battleground for a variety of political and ideological groups that have interests beyond Lebanon including the destruction of the state of Israel. Israeli casualties so far: 214 killed, 23 missing in action, one prisoner of war and 1,114 wounded.
1982: Today, “the Moscow refusenik and Hebrew teacher Pavel Abramovich was summoned to the KGB for the fourth time in the course of a month.”
1983: Mayor Ed Koch and Bronx Borough President Stanley Simon are scheduled to a gathering that will celebrate the 10thanniversary of Lambert Houses, the award low-rising public housing buildings in the South Bronx.
1983: Nigel Lawson completed his service as Secretary of State for Energy under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
1983: Nigel Lawson began serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
1985: Seventy-year old Sir Charles Myer Abrahams who “served a flight-lieutenant in the RAFVR” in WW II and was the Vice President of the Nightingale House of the Home for the Jewish Aged and Vice President of the British Paraplegic Sports Federation passed away today.
1986: In Los Angeles, Shayna (née Saide) La Beouf who was Jewish and Jeffrey Craig LaBeouf gave birth to actor Shia LaBeouf.
1987: Leo Abse completed his service as a Member of Parliament from Torfaen
1988: Dire Straits, the rock group co-founded by Mark and David Knoplfer regrouped today for Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, in which they were the headline act,\.
1989: “Where The Ace Is King”
1989: “Hotel Monterey” “a silent documentary” directed, produced and written by Chantal Akerman, the Brussels born daughter of Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor.
1989: After 153 performances at the 46thStreet Theatre, the curtain came down on a revival of Garson Kanin’s “Born Yesterday” with a cast that included Tony Award nominee Madeline Kahn
1990(18th of Sivan, 5750): Seventy-four year old philanthropist Beatrice Coleman the widow of Dr. Joseph Coleman and head of Maidenform since 1968 passed away today.
1990: Ariel Sharon succeeded David Levy as Minister of Housing and Construction.
1990: Avner Shaki succeeded Zevulen Hammer as Minister of Religious Services.
1990: Yuval Ne’eman began serving as Energy and Water Resources Minister.
1990: Roni Milo began serving as Minister of Public Security.
1993: In Boston, MA, Israeli Wendy Buchanan and her husband gave birth to “American-Israeli” figure skater Aimee Buchanan “was not able to enter the Olympics single women’s qualifier competition in Germany in 2017, because the qualifier was scheduled to take place on Yom Kippur.”
1993(22nd of Sivan, 5753): Fifty-nine year old English actor Bernard Bresslaw who appeared in 15 of the “Carry On Films” passed away today.
1994(2nd of Tammuz, 5754): Parsaht Sh’lach
1994: The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the umbrella organization of the Reform Movement is scheduled to vote tonight on the application for membership by Congregation Beth Adam, a congregation whose “liturgy does not explicitly acknowledge…God”
1997: Herb Gray began serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.
1997(6th of Sivan, 5757): Shavuot
1997(6th of Sivan, 5757): Benjamin (Ben) Dunkelman passed away. Born in 1913 to Polish-Jewish parents who had settled in Toronto, he had a distinguished military career in the Canadian Army during WW II followed by service with the IDF during the 1948 War for Independence.
1998: In “Turf; The Neighbors Rally Around the Mayor of Bedford Street, William Hamilton described Lawrence Selman’s fight to spend the rest of his life at his Greenwich Village home.
1999: Polo Ralph Lauren became a public company traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol RL.
2000: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Ordinary Resurrections: Children in the Years of Hopeby Jonathan Kozol and the recently released paperback edition of Another Life: A Memoir of Other People by Michael Korda.
2001: The Right Honourable Barbara Roche completed her term as Minister of State for Asylum and Immigration under Prime Minister Tony Blair.
2001: Five month old Yehuda Shoham was stoned to death by an unknown terrorist at Shilo.
2001: “Fear Factor” a game show that Jeff Zucker used to keep NBC on top of the ratings game premiered this evening.
2002: The BBC broadcast “The Empire of Good Intentions” the 14th episode of “A History of Britain a documentary series written and presented by Simon Schama” which is now in its third season.
2003(11th of Sivan, 5763): In Jerusalem, seventeen people - 11 women and six men - were killed and over 100 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #14A outside the Klal building on Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem.
2003: Seventeen people were killed and over 100 wounded in a suicide bombing on Egged bus #14A outside the Klal building on Jaffa Road in the center of Jerusalem. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. The victims: Sgt. Tamar Ben-Eliahu, 20, of Moshav Paran; Alan Beer, 47, of Jerusalem; Eugenia Berman, 50, of Jerusalem; Elsa Cohen, 70, of Jerusalem; Zvi Cohen, 39, of Jerusalem; Roi Eliraz, 22, of Mevaseret Zion; Alexander Kazaris, 77, of Jerusalem; Yaffa Mualem, 65, of Jerusalem; Yaniv Obayed, 22, of Herzliya; >Bat-El Ohana, 21, of Kiryat Ata; Anna Orgal, 55, of Jerusalem; Zippora Pesahovitch;, 54, of Zur Hadassah; Bianca Shahrur, 62, of Jerusalem; Malka Sultan, 67, of Jerusalem; Bertine Tita, 75, of Jerusalem. Miriam Levy, 74, of Jerusalem died of her wounds on June 12. The 17th victim, male, who has not yet been positively identified, is believed to be a foreign worker from Eritrea.
2003: President and Mrs. Bush host 70 members of the Jewish community at the White House for a Kosher dinner to honor of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 10th anniversary.
2004:After having premiered at the Palm Beach International Film Festival, “Broadway: The Golden Age” featuring interviews with Beatrice Arthur, Tom Bosley, Kitty Carlisle, Betty Comden, Sheldon Harnick, Jerry Herman,, Martin Landau, Hal Linden and Arthur Laurents, among others was released today in the United States.
2004: In “Hebrew National Certified Kosher – But Not Kosher Enough for Some” Miriam Colton and Steven I Weiss discuss the fate of this iconic brand that has been the source of salamis and hot dogs for Jews across the decades and all across America.
2005: The Queen’s Birthday Honors List published today awarded a knighthood (Knight Bachelor) to Michael Kadoorie.
2005(4th of Sivan, 5765): Eighty-six year old veteran Yiddish actress Lillian Lux passed away today.
2006: Shalshelet’s Second International Festival took place today at Ohr Kodesh Congregation, Chevy Chase, Maryland
2006: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Mohr by Frederick Reuss and The Good Fight:Why Liberals — and Only Liberals — Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Againby Peter Beinart
2007: Nobel Laureate Dr. Elie Wiesel delivered the 2nd Annual Gershon Jacobson Memorial Lecture at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
2007(25thof Sivan, 5767): Ninety-three year old Isadore Weinstock, the Denver born son of Harry and Sarah Wilner Weinstock and the husband of “Helen A. Karsh Weinstock” passed away today in his home after which he was buried at the Rose Hill Cemetery in Commerce City, CO.
2007: On the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War, U.S. News & World Report magazine features three articles on the subject including “A Changing Mind-Set Among Jerusalem's Palestinians,” “A Look Back at the Six-Day War” and “Marking the 40th Anniversary of the 1967 Six-Day War.” This last article was written by Fouad Ajami, a Lebanese born American professor who states that “at the heart of the war lay the willful Arab refusal to accept Israel’s Legitimacy and statehood.”
2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Temple Judah combines the Annual Congregation Meeting with a BBQ Dinner.
2008: In “Tulchinsky’s History of Canada’s Jewish In An Impressive Work” published today Bill Gladssone reviews the “magnus opus” by “Gerald Tulchinsky, professor emeritus of history a Queen’s University that examines almost 250 years of Canada and her Jewish population.
2008: The Croatia Jewish Film Festival opened in Zagreb.
2008: The New York Times includes a review of Travel Pictures by Heinrich Heine. Of Judaism, he writes, “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It gives you nothing but scorn and shame, I tell you, it’s no religion at all, just a lot of hard luck.” “Heine refers only once, bitingly, to German anti-Semitism. Pointing out a hunting area, he concedes the sport’s pleasure for some. ‘My ancestors, however, did not belong to the hunters, but rather to the hunted.’”
2009: President Obama's former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright again sought to tamp down controversy in the wake comments blaming "them Jews" for keeping him away from the president. He had meant to refer to "Zionists" and not all Jews, he said in an interview on SIRIUS Satellite Radio's "Make it Plain" with Mark Thompson."Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke," Wright said. "Let me just say: Zionists."
2009: In Washington, D.C. the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is closed for the day in honor of the memory of Stephen T. Johns who died from the wounds inflicted by an anti-Semitic white supremacist who attempted to shoot his way into the building on Wednesday
2009(19thof Sivan, 5769): Eighty-seven year old Irving Schulman, MD who helped to found the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital passed away today.
2009: In Washington, D.C., David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, signs copies of his new book, which he coauthored with Ambassador Dennis Ross, special advisor to the secretary of state for the Gulf and Southwest Asia, entitled Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East
2010: Men’s Club Shabbat, completed with the installation of next year’s Board of Directors is scheduled to take place Congregation Olam Tikvah
2010:“Called up to life- Legends of the Baal Shem Tov” is scheduled to open in Gaithersburg, MD.
2010:“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” comes out today.
2010:Two Border Police officers were lightly wounded in Wadi Joz this afternoon when a pickup truck rammed into them as they entered the east Jerusalem neighborhood amidst reports of potential rioting in the area..
2011:Shelby Zukin is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah in Iowa City, IA at Agudas Achim.
2011:In New York City the duet "Heroes" is scheduled to be performed by Israeli based Yossi Berg and Oded Graf on the 4th night of the Contemporary Israeli Dance Week
2011: Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer has decided to become a candidate for head of the International Monetary Fund, Israel's Channel Two News reported today.
2011: Representative Anthony D. Weiner planned to check himself into a treatment center today after House Democratic leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, called on him to resign and suggested he needed psychiatric counseling
2012: The Carmen at Masada Opera Festival is scheduled to come to a close.
2012: Dr. Paris Chronakis is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Greeks and Jews in the 20th Century Salonika: History Through the Kaleidoscope,” at UCLA.
2012: The Vatican is about to "indirectly recognize" Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem, according to a report published today. This would be done if the draft of an economic agreement between the Jewish state and the Holy See, containing no distinction between sovereign Israel and the territories occupied by it in 1967, is approved by the two sides, Ha'aretz online reported.
2012: Forty-year old Scream star David Arquette, whose mother was Jewish, celebrated his Bar Mitzvah today at the Wall.
2013: Friends and family gather to celebrate the birthday of Michelle Levin an ashyish chayil of the first order who has done a wonderful job of creating a Jewish home for Jacob and Rachel Levin
2013: “Life in Stills” (Ha-Tzalmania) is scheduled to be shown at The JCC in Manhattan
2013(3rd of Tammuz): Yahartzeit the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory who passed away 19 years ago.
2013(3rd of Tammuz, 5773): Eight-six year old Nobel prize winning economist Robert W. Fogel passed away. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr)
2013: Chairwoman of the Knesset Committee on the Rights of the Child Likud Beiteinu MK Orly Levy-Abecasis called for “real and substantial integration” of Ethiopian pupils into the education system with their native-Israeli classmates at a meeting of the Committee on the subject held today. (As reported by Danielle Ziri)
2013(3rd of Tammuz, 5773): Evelyn Kozak, who at age 113 is reputed to be the oldest Jew in the world, passed away today.
2013: Professor Deborah Dash Moore, co-editor of Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon, film producer Scott Berrie, musicologist and conductor Leon Botstein, and Russ & Daughters, New York’s century-old purveyor of appetizers were presented with the Jewish Cultural Achievement Award from the Foundation for Jewish Culture today.
2013: A bill to reserve four places on the rabbinical judges appointments committee for women was successfully passed into law in this morning, but not before haredi MKs repeatedly stalled the legislative process due to their vehement opposition to the terms of the new law. (As reported by Jeremy Sharon)
2014: Despite opposition from 22 Arab nations, "People, Book, Land, The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People to the Holy Land" is scheduled to open today under the auspices of UNESCO.
2014: The Oregon Jewish Museum is scheduled to host a reception marking the opening the exhibition “Vida Sefaradi: A Century of Sephardic Life In Portland.”
2014: The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, DC is scheduled to host its annual meeting.
2014: The IDF said that today’s attack on a terror target in Sudaniya in the northern Gaza Strip tonight by the IAF was a joint operation with Shin Bet that targeted “global jihad-affiliated terrorists” who were planning an attack on Israel. (As reported by Roi Kais and Yoav Zitun)
2014: A day after being defeated by a Tea Party Challenger in the Republican Primary Eric Cantor — looking composed and even unusually at ease — went before the press this afternoon and announced he’s stepping down as majority leader, ending an 11-year run in Republican leadership. Cantor is the only Jewish Republican in the House of Representatives and the only Republican to have been defeated so far this year in a primary challenge.
2015(24th of Sivan, 5775): Ninety-one year old Anglo-Jewish actor Ron Moody, who ironically is best known for his portrayal of “Fagin” passed away today.
2015: In “Texarkana Synagogue Shuts Doors For Good” published today Ben Tinsley described the fate Mt. Sinai Temple Congregation” – a fate which is being endured by many small town Jewish congregations.
2015: “Zero Motivation” is scheduled to be shown on the final day The Israel Center Film Festival
2015: “Every Time We Say Goodbye” is scheduled to be shown today at the Cinema South Film Festival today in Sderot.
2016(5th of Nisan, 5776): Shabbat Bamidbar – begin reading the fourth book of the Torah.
2016: As Jews observe Shabbat today they will mourn the victims of the Tel Aviv terror attack – 42 year old Ido Ben Ari from Ramat Gan, 39 year old Ilana Naveh from Tel Aviv, 58 year old Micahel Feige from Ramat Gan and 32 year old Mila Mishayev from Rishon Lezion.
2016: Sara Shalva, Director of Jewish Innovation at the Edlavitch JCC is scheduled to lead “a musical exploration of the Book of Ruth using a brand new curriculum by Alicia Jo Rabins’s indie-folk project Girls in Trouble” at the 17th Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2016: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a J.S. Bach Concerti Series featuring soloist: Tom Zalmanov, piano, soloist: Yevgenia Pikovsky, violin, soloist: Alon Mamo, piano and the Millennium Ensemble.
2017: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Al Franken, Giant of the Senateby Al Franken and Swell, a novel by Jill Eisenstadt.
2017(17th of Sivan, 5777): Eighty-four year old U. of Chicago grad and history professor David Fromkin author of the must-read A Peace to End All Peace passed away today.
2017(17th of Sivan, 5777): Eighty-four year old historian Norman Pollack passed away today. (As reported by Jesse Lemisch)
2017: Israeli Alon “Day won the NASCAR Whelen Euro race in England at Brands Hatch” which led to him joining “BK Racing for his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sonoma Raceway's Toyota/Save Mart 350, driving the No. 23 Toyota Camry” later in the month.
2017: Among those with a Jewish connection being considered for an award at tonight’s Tony presentation are “Oslo,” J.T. Rogers’ play about the 1993 Oslo Accords, Paula Vogel’s “Indecent,” which recounts the bumpy journey to Broadway of Shalom Asch’s controversial Yiddish play “God of Vengeance,” “Falsettos,” a musical about neurotic Jews (are there any Jews who aren’t), “Hello Dolly,” Ben Platt in “Dear Evan Hansen and Patti LuPone who is not Jewish for her role in “War Paint” a musical about the two Jewish cosmetic queens. (As reported by Linda Buchwald)
2017: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines is scheduled to host a family styled BBQ followed by its annual meeting.
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Dudu Fisher In Concert.”
2017: The Jewish Genealogical Society is scheduled to hold its monthly meeting where Dr. Andrew Zallewski will speak on “Galician Portraits: The Story of Jews, Gentiles and Emperors.”
2018: In Atlanta, GA, The Breman Museum is scheduled to the “2018 Summer Institute on Teaching the Holocaust.”
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host three different screenings of “The Boy Downstairs” starring Zosia Mamet and Matthew Shear in London.
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to offer two choices for the Monday meal – Shawarma or Vegetarian Shawarma -- both of which are Kosher, of course!
2019: Shavuot may have ended yesterday, but the simcha continues for another day as friends and family are scheduled to celebrate the natal day of the woman extraordinaire, Michelle Levin, an Eishet Chayil in the truest sense of that term.
2019: The American Jewish Historical Society and The Village Temple are scheduled to present “An Innocent Bystander: The Killing of Leon Klinghoffer” during which author Julie Salamon and Warren Bass, Senior Editor at The Wall Street Journal, revisits the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro and the brutal murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer” by Palestinian terrorists.
2019: The Skirball Center is scheduled to host “Behind the scenes of the Unorthodox Drama, Shtisel” during which attendees “watch clips from the series” and get to meet the cast of this successful Israeli television show.
2019: Hadassah of the Upper Midwest is scheduled to host an informative evening where Stephanie Perelstein, St. Paul Hadassah President, will talk about her Hadassah Israel Mission Trip, Sara Lynn Newburger will speak about Hadassah’s involvement with the Hineni Summer Learning Series and Leslie Strohm will give an update on the “It’s Your Legacy” Program in the Twin Cities”
2020: S.F. JFCS Holocaust Center’s book club is scheduled to host a virtual discussion of Rywka’s Diary: The Writings of a Jewish Girl from the Lodz Ghetto.
2020: Kerem Shalom is scheduled to host “Fun with Yiddish Online Class.
2020: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host the opening of Orchestra of St. Luke's four-week (online) festival, Bach at Home 2020…”
2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a discussion The Choice: Embrace the Possible, a memoir by Holocaust Survivor and internationally acclaimed psychologist Dr. Edith Eva Eger.
2020: The Israel Film Center Film Festival is scheduled a screening of “Chained” followed by a Q and A.
2020: As part of the “Leading through Crisis and Change: Jewish Women at the Turn of the 20th Century” is scheduled to feature Karla Goldman. the Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan and director of the Jewish Communal Leadership Program as she talks about Henrietta Szold.