March 7
1857: Birthdate of Julius Wagner-Jauregg, the Austrian born physician and Nobel Prize Winner. Apparently he saw no conflict between the fact that he had been a student of Salomon Stircker, the Jewish pathologist and his support of the Nazis.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Histadrut met to discuss the current wave of strikes which for more than seven weeks paralyzed the merchant marine, disrupted El Al flights and TV, radio and other communications.
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported thatSaudi Arabia United States
2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has ordered the state to demolish all illegal West Bank outposts built on private Palestinian land by the end of 2011, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser announced today.
2011: Publication of “Jewish Texts Lost in War Are Surfacing in New York”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/nyregion/08books.html?_r=2&hpwm
2012:“Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good” is scheduled to be shown at the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival in Pittsburgh, PA.
322 BCE : Aristotle passed away. “Aristotle was almost universally held in esteem by the Jews; at one time for his intelligence and mental power, at another as a penitent sinner. The following is Maimonides' verdict concerning him: "The words of Plato, Aristotle's teacher, are obscure and figurative: they are superfluous to the man of intelligence, inasmuch as Aristotle supplanted all his predecessors. The thorough understanding of Aristotle is the highest achievement to which man can attain, with the sole exception of the understanding of the Prophets." Shem-Ṭob ben Isaac of Tortosa (1261) styles Aristotle "the master of all philosophers." Elijah b. Eliezer of Candia, who edited the "Logic" about the end of the fourteenth century, calls Aristotle "the divine," because, having been endowed by nature with a sacredly superior intellect, he could understand of himself what others could receive only from the instruction of their teachers.”
161: Roman emperor Antoninus Pius passed away. He was the handpicked successor of Hadrian. Antonious undid the anti-Jewish decrees of his predecessor and when he died the Jewish people lost one of the few friends they ever had sitting on the throne in Rome.
161: Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus are named co-Emperors of the Roman Empire following the death of Antonious Pius. Marcus Aurilius had little understanding or appreciation of the Jewish people. He described them as “stinking and tumultuous” when he traveled through Judea. He reportedly said that he preferred the company of Germanic barbarians to that of Jews.
321: Constantine I, the first Christian Roman Emperor decreed that the dies Solis Invicti (sun-day) is the day of rest in the Empire. Thus would begin the conflict between the Christian Sunday and the Jewish Saturday. Of course the commandment says to hallow the 7th day and Sunday is the first day of the week.
1190(20th of Adar, 4950): During the Lenten Fair, Crusaders filled “with passion for crusade” and jealousy over the supposed wealth of the Jews, slaughtered them at Stamford, England.
1236(21st of Adar, 4996): The Jews of Narbonne began celebrating the Purim of Narbonne after Don Aymeric, the governor, intervened to protect the Jews from marauding Christian who had already carried off the library of Reb Meir ben Isaac as they made their riotous way through the Jewish quarter.
1274: Catholic theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas passed away. While no friend of the Jews, Aquinas’ view of Jews was a little better than the average one held by ecclesiastical and temporal leaders of his time. He opposed conversions at the point of the sword. He opposed the murder of Jews. He felt they should be allowed to live so they could serve as eternal witnesses to “the truth of Christianity.” The views of this influential Catholic theologian are best summed up in a letter to a widow who had inherited a duchy that included what is now Belgium Netherlands
1361(30th of Adar): Rabbi Simeon ben Zemah Duran, author of Sefer ha-Rashbaz passed away
1612(3rd of Adar II, 5372): Mordecai ben Avraham Yoffe passed away at Prague. Born in 1530, he the Rosh Yeshiva in Prague and author of “Levush Malkhut, a ten-volume codification of Jewish law that particularly stressed the customs of the Jews of Eastern Europe.”
1693: Birthdate of Carlo della Torre di Rezzonico, who as Pope Clement XIII would rule that there was no substance to the claim that Jews used blood in the preparation of their unleavened bread. Among other things he intervened with the Polish church and nobles and ordered the protection of Jacob Zelig, the Jewish spokesperson that the Polish Jews had sent to Rome to plead their case
1748: Birthdate of William V, Prince of Orange-Nassau who “donated a considerable sum for a new menorah” when he stayed with Benjamin Cohen in Amersfort and whose wife gave the same community a curtain for the congregation’s holy ark.
1788: The Jews of the Netherlands celebrated the birthday of William V as a holiday as a sign of their support for the Prince of Orange.
1789: Birthdate of Michel Martin Drolling the French painter who counted among his student the Alsatian Jew, Benjamin Ulmann whose works include “Sylla and Manus” which hangs in the Luxembourg Palace.
1799: (30th of Adar I, 5559): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1799: As Napoleon Bonaparte fought his way across Palestine, his army defeated “a 12,000-strong mixed force of Al Jazzar and the Mamluks” and captured the port city of Jaffa. In one of the first examples of what would become a recurring theme, westerners used modern technology to defeat a Muslim army. In this case, Napoleon use of bombardments from his heavy artillery was the key to victory. Following the victory, the French commander “set out to try and gain political advantages from his military achievements. Letters and proclamations were directed at the Sultan, the various communities of Palestine and Syria and their leaders, Akhmad Jasar, the pasha of Acre and commander-in-chief (seraskir) of the Ottoman forces at that time. All these aimed at paving the way for the complete occupation of the Holy Land by negotiation or by making alliances and contacts to ease further military conquest. Among these was the contact with the Jewish communities in Palestine and Syria, the first de facto attention to the Jews as a potential factor in international policy in modern times.”
1799: The Royal Institution an organization devoted to scientific education and research is founded in London. The Royal Institution today is led by director Baroness Susan Greenfield, renowned scientist and the daughter of Jewish parents.
1802(3rd of Adar II): Rabbi Noah Chaim Zevi Berlin, author of Azei Arazim, passed away.
1807: On the day before “the Great Sanhedrin presented its responses and formally ended its proceedings, Rabbi Sinzheim delivered a short summary of its conclusions and proclaimed them as nothing less than a ‘social pact’ between ‘the People of God and the People of France.’”
1818: Birthdate of German born historian, author and rabbi David Cassel, the brother of Selig Cassel.
1822(14th of Adar, 5582): Purim
1822: Turkish soldiers killed 60 Jews in Bucharest
1824: Il crociato in Egitto (The Crusade in Egypt), an opera in two acts by Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer, premiered at La Fenice theatre in Venice, Italy.
1825: Birthdate of Alfred Edersheim, English biblical scholar. Edersheim converted to Christianity before the age of 20. He was the author of The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiahwhich is considered by many Christians to be a classic study on this topic.
1839: Birthdate of Dr Ludwig Mond a German-born British chemist and industrialist.
1841(14thof Adar, 5601): Purim
1851: A poll tax was levied on Russo-Polish Jews entering Austrian Galicia was discontinued.
1856: A letter from the Hahambashi discusses "reforms" to institute in the Jewish community. The Judeo-Spanish language is discussed, "As the language taught by the Jews of the Levant is not, properly speaking, a language, and cannot be useful to the youth, we order the creation of free schools for the poor where Turkish, Greek, French, and Italian will be taught."
1857: Birthdate of Julius Wagner-Jauregg, the Austrian born physician and Nobel Prize Winner. Apparently he saw no conflict between the fact that he had been a student of Salomon Stircker, the Jewish pathologist and his support of the Nazis.
1866: Birthdate of Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Epstein who was Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva Knesseth Yisrael in Slabodka, Lithuania and is recognized as having been one of the leading Talmudists of the twentieth century.
1869: Birthdate of Ernst Julius Cohen “a Dutch chemist known for his work on the allotropy of metals” who was gassed by the Nazis at Auschwitz.
1871(14th of Adar, 5631): Purim
1871: Receptions celebrating Purim were held at numerous New York Jewish institutions including the Asylum for the Aged and Infirm, the Orphans Home and the Industrial Home on west 17thStreet.
1871: Henry Cardoza and Mary Levi were married this morning by Justice Buckley in Brooklyn’s Second District Police Court. Cardoza opted for a civil ceremony because he could not afford a rabbi.
1872(27th of Adar I, 5632): Jekuthiel Süsskind (Süssel) Rapoport, a leader of the Russian Jewish community passed away today. Born in 1807, he was the son of Rabbi Chaim ha-Koen and the great-grandson of Rabbi Chaim ha-Koen Rapoport. He and his brother Jacob, rabbi of Ostrog, published their father's work "Mayim Ḥayyim"
1875(30th of Adar I, 5635): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1876: Attendance at tonight’s fancy dress ball sponsored by the Purim Association is expected to be greater than at such past events. The Association has increased its membership which should me more revelers will be dining and dancing at Delmonico’s.
1876: “Ben Israel or Under the Curse,” a 4 hour long drama about the travails of a Jewish patriarch named Ben Israel, his granddaughter Rachel and her suitors was described in a review published today as being “destitute of originality, coherence and interest.”
1878: Joseph Seligman was elected as one of the vice presidents of the newly formed American Pig Lead Association at a meeting of the leading lead miners and dealers held at St. Louis, MO.
1878: Reverend George H. Hepworth, a Unitarian Minister will deliver a lecture entitled “Our American Homes” to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association who are meeting at Lyric Hall in New York City.
1879: In New York’s Court of General Session, Judge Henry A. Gildersleeve heard evidence before rendering a decision on the application of the Commissioners of Charities and Correction to force Leopold, Felix and Alfred Salomon to pay six dollars a week in support of their 70 year old widowed mother, Fanny Salomon. The brother’s contested the request saying that she had rejected their offers to live with them and that she had been able to pay for a trip to France which would indicate she was not destitute.
1880: A service was held to this afternoon at Temple Emanu-El to honor the memory of the late Isaac Adophe Creimieux, the Frenchman who had served as President of the Universal Israelite Alliance. When word reached New York that the 84 year old philanthropist and statesman had passed away, the Board of Delegates on Civil and Religious Rights of the Union of American Hebrew congregations recommended a city-wide service. This afternoon’s service was a collaborative effort of 11 congregations under the leadership of Louis May.
1880: Former U.S. Secretary of State Elihu B. Washburne was the featured speaker at today’s memorial service in Chicago held at Temple Sinai to honor the memory of the late Adolphe Cremieux.
1883: Herzl withdraws from the Akademische Burschenschaft Albia. ("Ich sagte den edlen jungen Leuten Lebewohl und fing nun an, mich
1887: North Carolina State University is founded by the North Carolina General Assembly. According to recent figures there are approximately 250 Jewish students among an undergrad population of 20,000. The campus is home to a Hillel Chapter. The North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh contains a Judaic Art Collection that includes an array of historic and contemporary pulpit, life cycle and holiday objects.
1889: At a meeting of the Board of Trade, Jacob Schloss “agreed to support a scheme to drive an exploratory mining shaft to demonstrate the continuing viability of the mining district.
1890: Abraham Sudyham, a criminal defense attorney was sentenced to five years in New York State prison after having been convicted of grand larceny when he tried to sell the house belonging to his aunt.
1891: Birthdate of Marcel Barger. Born Meyer Streliskie the famed European cabaret performer died at Auschwitz in 1942.
1891: Professor Charles A.L. Totten “the well-known military instructor” at Yale University made a statement today in which he described his approval of the memorial presented to President Harrison by William E. Blackstone advocating a project for “restoring Palestine to the Jews.”
1891: “Collector Nathan To Retire” published today described Ernst Nathan’s repudiation of unfounded reports that he was retiring from his position or that he would seek the office of Mayor of Brooklyn.
1892: It was reported today that the 600 children living at the orphan asylum operated by the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society will be returning to school next week. They have been confined to the orphanage since January 1stdue to an outbreak of measles – a medical challenged that has been successfully dealt with. (In an era of vaccinations, we do not appreciate the deadly challenges of childhood illnesses)
1892: The Hebrew Orphan Asylum Bazar, sponsored by the Ladies’ Aid Society is scheduled to take place in Baltimore, MD. Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, the wife of the President is scheduled to be one of the guests. Mrs. Harrison had told Mrs. Edward Pels and Mrs. J.B. Eiseman that she will be sending a donation of flowers from the White House for the event.
1893: It was reported today that Russian Jews who had formed at a colony in Chesterfield, Connecticut are returning to New York after a suffering through a winter of hardships.
1894: Assemblyman Ainsworth apologized to the Jews for using the term “Jew pawnbrokers” during the debate on a bill to incorporate the “Provident Loan Society.” The bill passed by a vote of 86 to 6 with the Jewish members all voting no.
1894(29th of Adar): Abraham Baer author Ba’al Tifillah, passed away.
1895: The Beth Israel Hospital on East Broadway received a substantial benefit this evening from the proceeds of the Purim charity ball an concert sponsored by the Young Ladies and Gentlemen’s League, the purpose of which is to support the hospital.
1895: The last “open meeting” of the Monte Relief, “one of the best known Hebrew charitable organizations in” New York City, “will take the form of a “Cake Walk and Colored Jubilee.”
1896: The New York Times reports on the preparations for the upcoming celebration of the 45th anniversary of Dr. Sabato Morais beginning his service as the Rabbi for Congregation Mikvah Israel Philadelphia , PA.
1897: Professor Felix Adler delivered a lecture “Religion of To-day” at Carnegie Music Hall this morning.
1897: Rabbi Gustav Gottheil spoke on “The Present Bible Controversy” today at Temple Emanu-El.
1897: It was reported today that August Belmont was one of the principal financial backers of plan to unite the manufacturers of bourbon whiskey into a national syndicate.
1897: It was reported that Seymour Mork and Phillip Harrison won the prizes at a debate sponsored by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1898: “Tatza Jews Killed by Arabs” published today describe the pillaging of the Moroccan city by Ghiatz Arabs who abducted the women after murdering the men.
1898: Senator Cantor introduced a bill today that would exempt the real estate of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association from taxation, assessment and water rates.
1898: “Congregations to Unite” published today traces the decision of members Temple Beth-Elhoim to consolidate with Temple Israel. Both of the congregations are located in Brooklyn with Beth-Elhoim having 150 members and Temple Israel having 140 members. The enlarged congregation will have to build a new sanctuary as neither of the currently occupied edifices are big enough to accommodate the increase in attendance.
1898: It was reported today that the oldest resident of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews is a 99 year old man “whose only physical ailment is deafness.”
1900: Birthdate of Gerald Burton Windrod, the Kansas native whose virulent anti-Semitic views earned him the title of "the JayHawk Nazi
1903: In Athens, Ohio, newspaper editor and publisher Charles Harvey Bryson, who owned the Athens Morning Journal and his wife gave birth to Bernarda Bryson who married Ben Shan and gained fame in her own rights as Bernarda Bryson Shan (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1909(14th of Adar, 5669): Purim
1912: Hadassah was founded by Henrietta Szold. “At a meeting at Temple Emanu-El New York City Palestine
1914: Mrs. Simon Baruch had a surprise party for twenty-one Italian children from the Bronx at her home as part of her program to teach patriotism and American values to the children of immigrants newly arrived in the United States
1917: Birthdate of Ruth Dayan, ex-wife of Moshe Dayan.
1917: During World War I, on the Dialah River in Mesopotamia, Private Jack White, a signaler, during an attempt to cross the river, saw the two pontoons ahead of him come under very heavy fire with disastrous results. When his own pontoon had reached mid-stream, with every man except himself either dead or wounded, and not being able, by himself, to control the boat the private tied a telephone wire to the pontoon, jumped overboard and towed it to the shore, thereby saving an officer's life and bringing to land the wounded and also the rifles and equipment of all the men in the boat.
1921: Red Army under Trotsky attacked sailors of Kronstadt in a move to put down “a counter-revolutionary” plot. Soviet leaders were always putting down “counter-revolutionary plots” both real and imagined. Stalin would later brand Trotsky as a counter-revolutionary and drive him from the party and the Soviet Union .
1922: Birthdate of Hans Eduard Ephraimson-Abt, the Berlin born Jew who became an internationally known advocate for families of air-crash victims after the death of his daughter on Korean Air Lines Flight 007, shot down by Soviet fighter planes in 1983 (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1925: Dr. Chaim Weizmann is scheduled to sail for England today aboard the SS Olympic so that he can accompany Lord Blafour to Palestine where they will take part in the dedication of the new Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus.
1928(15th of Adar, 5688): Shushan Purim
1929: Today in Iraq, "Jewish journalist, Anwar Shaul, published an open letter in weekly magazine al-Hasid, addressed to the British High Commissioner and commander-in-chief, Brigadier-General Sir Gilbert Clayton, demanding full independence for Iraq from Britain
1930: Birthdate of Alfred Gottschalk, the native of Germany who “as head of Reform Judaism’s major institution of higher learning ordained the first women as rabbis in the United States and Israel.”
1930: Chief Justice MacDonnell and Justices Baker and Kermak heard the appeal of Simcha Hinkis, a 22-year-old Jewish policeman accused of participating in the murder of an Arab family at Jaffa in the August riots. Hinkis had been “found guilty of premeditated murder and sentenced to death.” “Mordecai Eliash, counsel for the defense, declared the conviction was based on insufficient evidence.” The court is expected to render its judgment next week. [It is ironic that a Jewish policeman is the one who was convicted of murder following the murderous Arab rampage of 1929.]
1930: The blue liveried state luxury saloon carriage of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia, which entered service today would gain an extra measure of fame when it became part of the 2009 Winton Train – “a private passenger train which travelled from the Czech Republic to England in September 2009, in tribute to the wartime efforts of Sir Nicholas Winton, described as the 'British Schindler' for his part in the saving refugee children from Czechoslovakia.”
1936: Hitler violated Treaty of Versailles by sending troops to the Rhineland . This was one of the early steps leading to World Word II and the Final Solution. Hitler was running a bluff. He really lacked sufficient military force to have made the remilitarization stick. If France Great Britain
1938: The Palestine Post reported that members of the Russian Zionist Center Soviet Union . They reported that in Moscow Odessa Japan Tokyo
1938: Birthdate of David Baltimore, American biologist, recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
1940: As Jews continued to protest against the newly enacted British laws limiting purchase of land in Palestine by Jews, the Chief Rabbis and leaders of the Vaad Leumi led a protest demonstration through the streets of Jerusalem while other Jews took part in a work stoppage in Haifa. In reaction to the protest in Jerusalem, the British imposed an over-night curfew on the Jewish quarter of the City of David.
1940: Birthdate of Arlene Hannah Butter, the New York born daughter of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who gained fame as artist Hannah Wilke.
1942: Birthdate of Michael Eisner President of The Walt Disney Company.
1942: Lucy Parsons the labor organizer and anarchist who addressed the striking members of the Chicago Tailors Union most of whose members were Jewish and who clashed with Emma Goldman passed away.
1943(30th of Adar I, 5703): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
1943: “The third American enlisted men’s club in the Middle East” is scheduled to be open in Tel Aviv today. The club has “sleeping quarters for 150 men and lounge, game reading and music rooms. It is 300 yards from the beach.” In addition, hospitality committees of the Jewish Agency arrange sightseeing trips in the Holy Land and the Tel Aviv Hospital committee is operating three clubs for solidiers and nurses of the Allied armies serving in Palestine.
1944: The poet David Vogel was deported from Drancy
1944: At Birkenau, 3,860 Jews who had been living in "family quarters", were sent to the gas chambers. Five days earlier, in their special "family quarters", they were shown off to Red Cross representatives (who were not allowed to see the rest of the camp.) The Jews were told to write postcards to their Czech relatives, but post date them March 25, 26 , and 27. The Jews would never live to see those days. Of this group, only 37 were spared, including eleven sets of twins. They would be sent to Dr. Mengele for medical experiments.
1945:Brigadier General Ernest Frank Benjamin began serving with the British Eighth Army in the Faenza Area, Italy; a posting that would last until the end of World War II in Europe. Born in 1900, Benjamin “was a British officer from Canada of Jewish birth who commanded the Jewish Infantry Brigade during the Second World War. Benjamin was commissioned into the Royal Engineers and served with that service during 1941-42 before being transferred as a General Staff Officer 1 to the Middle East Command in 1943. He served as Assistant Quartermaster-General there until 1944 when he was appointed Deputy Director of Military Training Middle East Command and in the autumn of the same year as the Commanding Officer, Jewish Brigade Group. yHis last post with the Brigade group was in north-west Europe as part of the VIII Corps of the British Army of the Rhine. He passed away in 1969.
1945: The US Germany Rhine and enter the German heartland. This is an amazing story of luck and unbelievable courage on the part of American soldiers which shortened the war and help end the nightmare for European Jewry.
1946: Birthdate of Ronald Reider, the New Jersey native who settled in Cedar Rapids, after earning his M.D. at the University of Iowa.
1947: Major Beneral R.N. Gale, the British commander of “Operation Elephant” expressed satisfaction with the results of having imposed martial law over a large area of Palestine and that it will be able to “cut out this canker of underground violence.”
1947: As the British continued their efforts to pacify Palestine, 5,000 troops and policemen surrounded Rehoveth, Nathanya and Hadera and began searching the communities for “terrorists” and weapons. The raid netted thirty-two detainees and a small cache of arms. Dr. Chaim Weizmann is a resident of Rehovoth. “After the searches ended” armed masked men attacked the police station at Rishon le Zion. As the British looked for the attackers, they let be known that they were looking for members of the Irgun and the Stern gang and not members of Haganah.
1949: During Operation Uvda, “Golani forces conquered the village Ein Harouf.
1949: During Operation Uvda, “the Alexandroni Brigade moved from Beersheba through Mamshit towards Sodom and then made an amphibious landing near Ein Gedi through the Dead Sea.”
1949: The IDF established a based Ayn Husb at the junction of the Beersheba-Sodom and Sodom-Eilat tracks
1950(18th of Adar, 5710): Daniel Frisch, the President of the Zionist Organization of America, passed away today at the age of 52 following a surgical procedure that had been performed yesterday. Born in Palestine, Frisch was the son of Rabbi Eliezer and Haia Landau Frisch. His family moved to Roumania when Frisch was one year old. Frisch came to the United States in 1921 and settled in Indianapolis where he operated a successful salvage yard. Frisch who had been active in the Zionist movement since childhood, founded the Indianapolis Zionist District, served as President of the Ohio Valley Zionist Region and was elected to the ZOA Administrative Council in 1934. He retired from business five years ago and moved to New York so he could devote himself to the Zionist cause. Frisch reportedly made at least 14 trips to Israel and worked tirelessly to raise funding for a projects for the infant Jewish state.
1950: In what has to be one of the all time great whoppers of history, the Soviet Union issues a statement denying that Klaus Fuchs served as a Soviet spy days after he had been found guilty by a British court. Fuchs testified that Harry Gold was his courier for getting information to the Soviets. Harry Gold led to David Greenglass that led to the Rosenbergs.
1950: “The Communist newspaper Kol Ha’am charged today that Israel has instituted an anti-Communist campaign and inquirty to similar to those that it said had been launched by President Truman in all countries under American protection.” The paper charged that America was pulling the strings of anti-Communism in Israel just as it was in England. [This charge came at the same time when many right-wing Americans were warning of the Jewish Communist conspiracy.]
1951: Lillian Hellman's "Autumn Garden New York City
1951: In one of those incidents that undermine stability in the Middle East and thus prove worrisome to Israel
1952: Dr. Alexander Marx, director of libraries and the Jacob H. Schiff Professor at JTS is will leave for Israel today. This is his first trip to the new Jewish state during which he plans to establish closer working relationships between JTS and libraries in Israel.
1953(20th of Adar, 5713):Maksymilian Apolinary Hartglas passed away in Tel Aviv. Born in 1883, he was a lawyer, Zionist and a politician in pre-war Poland who courageously escaped from Warsaw and finally settled in Jerusalem.
1960: “Volpone” co-starring Lou Jacobi as “Corvino” was broadcast today at the Play of the Week.
1965: On Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, group of 600 civil rights marchers are violently prevented from marching to the state capital in Montgomery. Two weeks later a group of marchers would successfully begin the march from Selma to Montgomery. Included among them would be Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who said he was “voting with his feet.”
1965: Release date for “The Train” a film based on Le front de l'art by Rose Valland, which tells the story of a successful attempt to keep a train filled with looted French art from reaching Germany. In reality, the boxcar doors were opened by Free French forces under the command of Lt. Alexandre Rosenberg who had no trouble identifying the masterpieces since man of have them had been hanging in the Paris home of his father Paul Rosenberg
1967: Alice B. Tolkas passed away. Born Jewish in 1877, the San Francisco she gained fame as confidante, lover, cook, secretary, muse, editor, critic, and general organizer for another famous Jewess, Gertrude Stein. Before her death, Tolkas converted to Roman Catholicism.
1969: The Central committee of the Labor Party voted to nominate Golda Meir as Prime Minister.
1971: Birthdate of British-born Academy England
1971: Egypt Suez
1975(24th of Adar, 5735): Canadian born comedian Ben Blue passed away at the age of 73. Blue never achieved the fame of some his contemporaries like George Burns or Milton Berle. But he was good enough to have his own life variety show in the early days of television.
1977: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin met President Carter. Most people remember Rabin as the Prime Minister of Peace from the 1990's. But Rabin was first Prime Minister back in the 1970's. It was at this time that he and the Labor Party were rocked by a scandal dating from Rabin's days as Israel United States Israel
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the representatives of the Ministry of Finance and the Histadrut met to discuss the current wave of strikes which for more than seven weeks paralyzed the merchant marine, disrupted El Al flights and TV, radio and other communications.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that In Iran the shah warned that he might impose an oil embargo on Israel to make it more flexible in negotiations with Egypt.
1985(14thof Purim, 5745): Purim
1986: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor. The crew included Judith Resnik, the first Jewish American astronaut and the first Jewish woman to go into space.
1986(26th of Adar I, 5746): Former Senator from New York, Jacob K Javits passed away in Palm Beach FL at the age of 81. Javits was a political anomaly for his time. At a time when most Jews were Democrats, he was a Republican. True, he was part of the liberal wing of the Republican Party, but he was a Republican nonetheless. Javits was a champion of Civil Rights and stood against the right wing tide that swept his party in the 1960's. A lot of Jews were critical of Javits for supporting President Eisenhower in 1956. Ike and his Republican Administration sided with Egypt Israel
1987: In his “Jerusalem Journal,’ Francis X. Clines described the newly Ophel Garden which is “a magnificent ascending honeycomb of history at the southern foot of the Temple Mount that allows passing mortals to meander across 3,000 years of history, from the First Temple time of Solomon in the 10th century B.C. to the Ottoman extravagances of the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, 2,500 years later.
1993(14thof Adar, 5753): Purim observed for the first time under President Bill Clinton.
1996: The Third Way was formed today “towards the end of the thirteenth Knesset's term when two MKs, Avigdor Kahalani and Emanuel Zisman, broke away from the Labour Party.”
1996: MK Efraim Gur left Likud.
1997(28th of Adar I, 5757): Rabbi Emanuel H. Bronner passed away. Born in 1908, Emanuel H. Bronnerwas the eccentric maker of Dr. Bronner's castile soap, a concentrated liquid notable for the vast amount of lather produced from a few drops and the vast amount of tiny text on its packaging. Although his parents were killed in the Holocaust, Rabbi Bronner believed in the goodness and unity of humanity. He was born in Heilbronn, Germany to the Heilbronner family of soap makers. He emigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name to protest the rise of Hitler. He pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the Nazis, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father." He started his business making products by hand in his home. The product labels were crowded with statements of Bronner's philosophy, which he called "All-One-God-Faith" and the "Moral ABCs". Many of Bronner's references came from Jewish and Christian sources, such as the Shema and the Beatitudes; others from poets such as Rudyard Kipling. Sometimes they contained unusual product statements, for example suggesting a contraceptive use for the soap. They became famous for their idiosyncratic style, including hyphens to join long strings of words and the liberal use of exclamation marks. In 1947, while promoting his "Moral ABC 's" at the University of Chicago, Bronner was arrested and committed to a mental hospital from which he escaped. Eventually his operation grew into a small factory in Escondido, California. At his death in 1997, it produced over a million bottles of soap and other products a year but was still not mechanized. The firm did no advertising but has been the subject of many published articles. It supported many charitable causes. After Bronner's death, his family continued the business. They have said the labels he wrote will not change except when required by government regulations.
1999(19th of Adar, 5759): Sidney Gottlieb passed away.Born in 1918, Sidney Gottlieb was an American chemist probably best-known for his involvement with the Central Intelligence Agency mind control program (MKULTRA). Sidney was born in the Bronx under the name Joseph Schneider. He received a Ph.D. in chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Despite the fact that he was a stutterer since childhood, Sidney got a master's degree in speech therapy. He also had a club foot, but this did not stop him from practicing folk dancing, a lifelong passion. In 1951, Sidney Gottlieb joined the Central Intelligence Agency. As a poison expert, he headed the chemical division of the Technical Services Staff (TSS ). Sidney became known as the "Black Sorcerer" and the "Dirty Trickster". He supervised preparations of lethal poisons and experiments in mind control.
1999(19th of Adar, 5759): Movie director Stanley Kubrick passed away at the age of 70. Some of his more memorable films included “Spartacus,” “2001-A Space Odyssey” and “Dr. Strangelove.”
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including The Times of My Life: And My Life With The Times by Max Frankel, A Return to Modesty: Discovering the Lost Virtue by Wendy Shalit, Hirschfeld On Line by Al Hirschfeld and P.S.: The Autobiography of Paul Simon by Paul Simon
2000:Second showing of ‘The Life of the Jews in Palestine'' at the Museum of Modern Art. The classic documentary was produced in 1913 by the Odessa-based Mizrakh Company and presumed to be lost for some 80 years -- has resurfaced in New York. This excellent new print with English inter-titles of Noah Sokolovsky's 78-minute silent film is quite likely the rarest of the rarities featured in the museum’s 10-program tribute to France's national film archives, the Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie.
2001: Gesher pulled out of the coalition as a result of Ehud Barak’s participation in the Camp David Smmit.
2001: Shlomo Ben Ami completed his service as Israel’s Foreign Minister.
2001: Binyamin Be-Eliezer replaced Ehud Barak as Defense Minister.
2001:Dalia Rabin-Pelossof replaced Efraim Sneah as Deputy Minister of Defense.
2001: Shimon Peres begins serving as Israel’s Foreign Minister.
2001: Reuven Rivlin replaced Binyamin Ben-Eliezer as Communications Minister.
2001: Asher Ohana replaced Yossi Beilin as Minister of Religion
2001: Avigdor Lieberman replaced Avraham Shochat as the National Infrastructure Minister
2001: Natan Sharansky began serving as Minister of Housing and Construction.
2001: Uzi Landau replaced Shlomo Ben-Ami as Minister of Public Security.
2001: Gideon Ezra began serving as Deputy Minister of Public Security
2001: President Bush met with 25 leaders from the Jewish community in the White House Roosevelt Room.
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish readers including The Prisoner of Vandam Street by Kinky Friedman and the recently released paperback edition of Trains of Thought: From Paris to Omaha Beach: Memories of a Wartime Youth, by Victor Brombert in which the renowned literary scholar recalls his bourgeois Jewish childhood in Europe and his stateless youth: his parents escaped from France to the United States in 1941, and after joining the Army he returned to Europe to fight in the Normandy campaign and the Battle of the Bulge.
2004(14th of Adar, 5764): Purim
2005:After considering Hiram Bingham's deeds during the war years in Marseille for a number years, Israel's memorial Yad Vashem ("Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority") issued the Bingham family a letter of appreciation
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that
2006: The Cedar Rapids Gazette announced that it would no longer carry the column by Mitch Albom because he was not reliable. Apparently the Gazette could tolerate his fictional columns, just not the fact that he could not be trusted to get his work to the paper once a week as promised.
2007: The Ministry for the Development of the Negev and Galilee decided to move the national archive of Israel from Jerusalem to Arad,
2007: At the Skirball Cultural Center, a screening of Black Book. In the film “a beautiful chanteuse (Carice van Houten) joins the Dutch resistance in 1944 to track down the Nazis who killed her family and becomes embroiled in a web of seduction, betrayal, and revenge. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Black Book premiered at the Venice
2007: The Israel Air Force began incorporating the new "Shoval" drone, which according to the Israel Defense Forces has an improved ability to identify the launch of projectile rockets such as Katyushas and Qassams.The army said the drones will also be able to provide better assistance to troops on the ground. Shoval is the IAF nickname for the "Mahatz" drone manufactured by the Israel Aircraft Industries.
2007: An exhibition entitled “Superheroes and Schlemiels: Jewish Memory in Comic Strip Art” opens at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. “Superman, Maus, The Rabbi’s Cat and many other heroes and anti-heroes from the art of comics feature in this exhibition of comics and graphic novels by Jewish artists.
2008(30 Adar I, 5768: Rosh Chodesh Adar II
2008 (30 Adar I, 5768): The eight victims of the attack on Mercaz Harav yeshiva in Jerusalem were buried this afternoon, each with Torah scrolls stained with their blood, in accordance with the Halakhic decision ruled by former Chief Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu. The victims included American student Avraham David Moses, aged 16, Doron Maharata, 26 the oldest of those killed whose family immigrated to Israel as part of Operation Moses when he was eight years old,Yochai Lipschitz, 18, of Jerusalem; Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shiloh; Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar; Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem; Roey Roth, 18, of Elkana; and Segev Pniel Avihayil, 15, of Neveh Daniel
2008: Roland E. Arnall completed his term as U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands.
2008: Today a state historical marker was erected by the Georgia Historical Society, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, and Temple Kol Emeth, near the building at 1200 Roswell Road, Marietta where Leo Frank was lynched. The memorial reads:
Near this location on August 17, 1915, Leo M. Frank, the Jewish superintendent of the National Pencil Company in Atlanta, was lynched for the murder of thirteen-year-old Mary Phagan, a factory employee. A highly controversial trial fueled by societal tensions and anti-Semitism resulted in a guilty verdict in 1913. After Governor John M. Slaton commuted his sentence from death to life in prison, Frank was kidnapped from the state prison in Milledgeville and taken to Phagan's hometown of Marietta where he was hanged before a local crowd. Without addressing guilt or innocence, and in recognition of the state's failure to either protect Frank or bring his killers to justice, he was granted a posthumous pardon in 1986.
2009: In “The Perfect Hamantaschen” published today Deborah Gardner attempts to settle the dispute between those who prefer prune and those who munch on “mun.”
2009:Journalist David Plotz, the editor of Slate, discusses and signs Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible at Politics and Prose Bookstore, 202-364-1919 .
2009:Israeli illustrator and artist David Polonsky discusses and signs his new graphic novel, Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story (created with Ari Folman, whose animated film of the same name inspired the book), at Busboys and Poets (D.C.)
2009: Shabbat Zachor 5769
2009: With demonstrators clashing with the police outside a near-empty stadium, Sweden won a doubles match to take a 2-1 lead against Israel in the Davis Cup series in Malmo, Swed
2009:In case involving Dead Sea Scrolls scholars, The Chicago Tribune reported thatNew York City authorities this week charged the son of University of Chicago professor Norman Golb with identity theft, criminal impersonation and harassment in connection with a campaign to smear opponents of his father's scholarly theories.
2010: The Jewish Women's Archive’s tour of Santa Fe is scheduled to come to an end today.
2010: “The Splendor of the House of Camondo: From Constatinople to Paris, 1806-1845” which opened at the Museum of Jewish Art and History in Paris on November 6, 2009 is scheduled to close today.
2010: The 121st annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis opened in San Francisco.
2010:The Twentieth Annual KOACH Kallah is scheduled to come to an end.KOACH is the college program of The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.
2010: After a year-and-a-half of careful restoration work by the Egyptian authorities, the Maimonides Synagogue in Cairo is scheduled to be rededicated today. The 19th-century synagogue and adjacent yeshiva, which stand on the site where Rabbi Moses ben Maimon, the Rambam, worked and worshiped more than 800 years ago, was restored by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA).
2010: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readings including The Ask by Michael Lipstye
2010(21 Adar, 5770):Arnold Forster, an American Jewish leader, lawyer and writer who was a longtime executive of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, passed away today in the Bronx at the Hebrew Home for the Aged in Riverdale. He was 97. Associated with the Anti-Defamation League for nearly six decades, Mr. Forster was its general counsel from 1946 to 2003. In that capacity he helped document, publicize and combat myriad forms of anti-Semitism in the United States and overseas. He was widely quoted in the news media over the years on a range of Jewish issues, including Zionism, a cause he defended ardently and about which he wrote frequently. His books, many of which began life as league reports, include “The Trouble-Makers” (Doubleday, 1952), “ ‘Some of My Best Friends ...’ ” (Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1962) and “The New Anti-Semitism” (McGraw-Hill, 1974), all written with Benjamin R. Epstein. Mr. Forster was also the author of a memoir, “Square One” (D. I. Fine, 1988), which has a foreword by Elie Wiesel. Mr. Forster began his work with the Anti-Defamation League in the 1930s. In 1938, he convened a group of lawyers to serve pro bono as the league’s legal arm. He formally joined the league in 1940 and later became its associate national director, presiding over an expansion of its law department and civil rights programs. In 1965 Mr. Forster hired a young law school graduate named Abraham H. Foxman as an assistant to the director of the league’s law department. Mr. Foxman is now the league’s national director. After retiring from the league in 1979, Mr. Forster was associated with two New York law firms, Shea & Gould and Baer Marks & Upham. Besides writing books, Mr. Forster wrote the screenplays of several documentary films. Among them are “The Avenue of the Just” (1978), about Gentiles who saved Jews during the Holocaust, and “Zubin and the I.P.O.” (1983), about Zubin Mehta, the music director of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Broadcast on NBC, “Zubin and the I.P.O.” won Daytime Emmy Awards for its director, Samuel Elfert, and for Mr. Mehta. In “Square One,” Mr. Forster recounted his decades-long campaign against bigotry. Reviewing the memoir in The New York Times Book Review, Marlene Sanders called it “an earnest chronicle of the useful life of a dedicated man.” Ms. Sanders continued: “The work of Mr. Forster and the league over the years has contributed to eliminating many institutionalized forms of prejudice.” She added, “We may not be back to ‘Square One’ in solving the problem, but this book is a reminder that there is still work to be done.”
2011: Israeli choreographer Michal Samama is scheduled to perform ‘Still Life with Seven Stones’ in New York City.
2011:Israeli violinist Misha Keylin, Seymour Lipkin and the Jupiter musicians are scheduled to perform at the Good Shepherd Church in New York City.
2011: On the day before Mardi Gras, Jews in the Crescent City have the opportunity to participate in Breakfast with Maimonides during which Rabbi Zelig Rivkin is scheduled to lead a study of the writings of the Rambam
2011: (1 Adar II 5771): Rosh Chodesh Adar II
2011: (1 Adar II 5771) Yahrzeit for the passengers killed on Egged Bus #53 8 years ago in Tel Aviv:
· Kmer Abu Khamed, 12, from Daliyat al Karmel
· Yuval Mendelevitch, 13, from Haifa
· Smadar Firstatter, 17, from Haifa
· Avigail Lietel, 14, from Haifa
· Asaf Tzur, 16, from Haifa
· Daniel Harush, 16 , from Safed
· Tom Hershko, 16, from Haifa, and his father-
· Motti Hershko, 41, from Haifa
· Tal Kehrmann, 17, from Haifa
· Elizabeth (Liz) Katzman, 17, from Haifa
· Meital Katav, 20, from Haifa
· Moran Shushan, 20, from Haifa
· Anatoly Biryakov, 20, from Haifa
· Be'eri Ovad, 21 , from Rosh Pina
· Eliyahu Laham, 22, from Haifa
· Miriam Atar, 27, from Haifa
· Mark Takash, 54, from Haifa
2011:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has ordered the state to demolish all illegal West Bank outposts built on private Palestinian land by the end of 2011, Cabinet Secretary Zvi Hauser announced today.
2011: Publication of “Jewish Texts Lost in War Are Surfacing in New York”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/nyregion/08books.html?_r=2&hpwm
2012:“Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good” is scheduled to be shown at the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival in Pittsburgh, PA.
2012: The junior faculty at the University of Haifa is scheduled to go on strike as part of “an ongoing dispute with the Committee of University Presidents over work conditions”
2012: Friends and family of Dr. Ron Reider join together to celebrate his natal day. Besides being a crack physician, Reider is an avid wrestling fan, a pillar of the Jewish community and a loyal supporter of the Traditional Minyan. In addition to which, he is one of only two people in Cedar Rapids who wraps his tefillin around his right arm.
2012(13th of Adar, 5772): Fast of Esther
2012: As part of their Fast of Esther observance, the 9thgraders at Temple Judah have agreed to take part in “Say No To Lashon Hara Day.” Purim is a holiday that reminds of the evil consequences of the Evil Tongue.. Traditionally, on the day before Purim, we give up food and drink to show our solidarity with Esther. They are going to avoid Lashon Hara, both in its literal and figurative meaning, on the day before Purim to show that modern world would be better off without it just as the Jews of Shushan would have benefited from its absence.
2012:Education Minister Gideon Saar announced today that Rabbi Chaim Druckman will receive the Israel Price for his contributions to society and education.
2012: Thirteen Israelis made this year’s list of billionaires which totaled 1,226 people.Idan Ofer, director of Ofer Group, leads the list of Israeli billionaires in the 161st spot, with an estimated fortune of $6.2 billion. Beny Steinmetz of Steinmetz Business Group ranked eight spots bellow Ofer, with a net worth of $5.9 billion. Another Ofer brother, Eyal, came in 173rd on the list, with $5.8 billion. Iscar founder Stef Wertheimer and his family ranked 255th with some $4.2 billion, while Bank Hapoalim's Shari Arison was placed in the 288th spot with $3.9 billion. Other Israelis included on the list were film producer Arnon Milchan (290th, $3.8 billion); Kazakh-Israeli tycoon Alexander Machkevich (418th, $2.8 billion); Check Point founder Gil Shwed (683, $1.9 billion); Delek Group owner Yitzhak Tshuva (683, $1.9 billion);Lev Leviev (764, $1.7 billion); Marius Nacht (1015, $1.2 billion); Teddy Sagi (1015, $1.2 billion) and Moris Kahn (1153, $1 billion). (As reported by Y Net)
2013:Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present a discussion of the soon-to-be published book FDR and the Jews.
2013: In Cedar Rapids, the family and friends of Dr. Ronald Reider, a pillar of the Jewish community and an ardent supporter of the Shabbat Minyan, celebrate his natal day. Dr. Reider is one of two men in Cedar Rapids who uses “left-handed’ tefillin.
2013(25thof Adar, 5773): Ninety-eight year old Jacques Torczyner, the Belgian born former president of the ZOA passed away today.
2013:”British Fascism, Anti-Fascism and Jewish Defence,” a one day conference co-sponsored by the Board of Deputies of British Jewish is scheduled to take place at the Wiener Library.
2014: JW3 is scheduled to host a “100% Shabbat friendly” Friday Night Supper Club in London.
2014: The Library of Congress is scheduled to screen “Sukkah City,” Jason Hutt’s documentary that “explores the artistic process of architects and documents how an ancient building was reinvented for the 21st century.”
2014: In Coralville, Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host Shabbat Across America.
2014: Following a congregation spaghetti dinner, the 9th grade class is scheduled to lead Friday night services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2014: The third bi-annual LimmudFest New Orleans is scheduled to open this evening with registration at Temple Sinai on St. Charles Avenue.