August 3
8 C.E.: Roman Empire general Tiberius defeats Dalmatians on the river Bathinus. As the stepson of Augustus, Tiberius would become Caesar four years after this victory. Tiberius did appoint Pontius Pilate as the procurator of Judea. On the other hand, he did have the good sense to overrule Pilate when the Jews of Jerusalem complained that he had desecrated the city by bringing inscribed shields into the Jewish capital. Tiberius’ inconsistent treatment of the Jews was consistent with the moody behavior of the Roman ruler who would have much preferred to serve as a general.
435: Byzantine Emperor Theodosius II exiled the deposed Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius, considered the originator of Nestorianism, to a monastery in Egypt. Nestorianism was a form of Christianity that challenged the orthodoxy of its time and presented a political threat to the Roman Empire. Theodosius, like Constantine used the Christian religion as part of his political power base. Therefore, it is not surprising to note that this is the same Theodosius II who issued Anti-Judaic laws in 438 that “forbade the Jews to accede to any public task,” made proselytism a capital crime and denied Jews the right to build new synagogues or “to embellish the old ones.”
1108: Coronation of Louis VI during whose reign the monarch gradually ceded control of the Jews and the revenue they represented from the King to the Church.
1399: Thanks to the efforts of an apostate named Pesach-Peter a large number of Jews in Prague are arrested and imprisoned. Lipmann (Tab-Yomi) of Muhlhaussen, the German scholar versed in Torah, Talmud as well as the New Testament, which he had read in Latin was among the victims.
1492: Columbus set sail for the New World. There is an entry in Columbus' diary noting the expulsion of Jews from Spain right before he set sail. He was accompanied by Luis de Torres who is considered to be the first Jew to arrive in the “New World.”
1492: Jews depart Spain under orders of expulsion from the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand.
1493: Property confiscated from Jews and Conversos was used to finance the construction of the monastery of Santo Tomás de Ávila, which was completed today
1599: During the reign of Sigismund III Vasa, the great synagogue in Grodno was destroyed by fire.
1603: Tamar Barocas and twenty five year old Fra Diogo a Assungao, a Franciscan friar who became attracted to Judaism were burnt at the stake by the Inquisition at Lisbon.
1754(15th of Av, 5514): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu; Tu B’Av
1766: Birthdate Rabbi Aron Chorin, the Hungarian born Rabbi who would become a center of controversy for his non-conformists views about Judaism and support for some of the views connected with the new-born Reform Movement.
1770: Birthdate of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, the reactionary monarch who would undo the reforms of the Napoleonic period and repudiate the Edict of 1812 that had elevated the civil status of the kingdom’s Jews.
1786(9th of Av, 5546): Tish’a B’Av
1792(15th of Av, 5552): Tu B’Av
1797: The emperor of Bohemia ordered that Jews, who volunteered for army service, should be allowed to marry outside the restricted quota of marriage of Jews.
1797: “The Jewish Law of Franz II” dated today was “a milestone on the road towards equal status for the Jews.”
1799(2ndof Av, 5559): Parashat Matot-Masei
1803: Birthdate of London native Abigail Liondo, who 1837 published the first “Hebrew-English Dictionary” compiled by a British Jew.
1803: Birthdate of British architect Joseph Paxton who designed Mentmore Towers, the country home of Baron Mayer de Rothschild which “was the first of what was to become a virtual Rothschild enclave in the Vale of Aylesbury, as later, other members of the family built houses at Tring in Hertfordshire, Ascott, Aston Clinton, Waddesdon and Halton.”
1805(8thof Av, 5565): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1806: Joseph David Sinzheim completed answering the questions that had been laid before the Assembly of Notables to the satisfaction of the French government officials.
1816(9thof Av, 5576): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tisha’a B’Av
1822: Esther and Joseph Davis were married today at the Western Synagogue after which they had six children – Sarah, Hannah, Morris, Emilea, Elizabeth and Mary Ann.
1823: Birthdate of German painter Gustav Richter, the husband of Cornelle Meyerbeer and the son-in-law of composer Giacomo Meyerbeer.
1824(9thof Av, 5584): Tish’a B’Av
1829: In the Cape Colony, Sir Anthony Oliphant and his wife Maria gave birth to Laurence Oliphant who supported the building of a railway between Jaffa and Jerusalem, who starting in 1879 began working to “settle large number of Jews” especially those from Eastern Europe in Palestine and who himself lived for a time “in the Germany colony in Haifa.”
1830(14th of Av, 5590): Austrian Rabbi Joseph Moses Spiro, the son of Rabbi Abraham Moses whose works included Mesillah le-Elohenu passed away today at Kanitz, Moravia.
1833: One day after he passed away, 67 year old Godfrey Harris was buried at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery in London.
1835(8thof Av, 5595): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1836: In Rochester, NY, Alvah Strong and his wife gave birth to August Hopkins Strong, a Baptist minister and theologian whose Systematic Theology: The Doctrine of God “presented another explanation of the alleged inaccuracies in the Hebrew Bible” citing the use of idiom and metaphor by the author of the holy text which means that he was not part of those who believed in the concept of Biblical inerrancy which was so popular at the time.
1836(20thof Av, 5596): Fifty-six year old “Dutch Jurist” Carel Asser, the son of Moses Salomon Asser and husband of Rose Levin who worked for the full emancipation of the Jewish people despite the opposition of Daniel Cohen d'Azevedo, rabbi of the Portuguese, as well as by Jacob Moses b. Saul Löwenstamm, rabbi of the Ashkenazim, who were afraid that political emancipation would result in the disintegration of Judaism
1837: In Bavaria, Germany, Mendel Emanuel Suessenguth and Hannah Johanna Suessenguth gave birth to Lewis Seasongood, “the husband Emma Seasongood” with whom he had two daughters -- Alma Bettman and Clara Berolzheimer.”
1839(23rdof Av, 5599): Seventy-four year old German novelist Dorothea von Schlegel, the oldest daughter of Moses Mendelssohn, passed away today.
1842: Birthdate of Bertha Spiegelberg, the native of Borgholz, Germany who was the wife of Levi Spiegelberg and the mother of New York City native Eugene E. Sperry.
1851: Birthdate of Adolph Greenhut, the native of Bohemia, husband of Eva Greenhut, who came to the United States “around 1866, became a naturalized citizen in 1874” and served as Mayor Pensacola, FL from 1913 to 1915.
1853: Julius Landsberger married Pauline Leo the daughter of Rabbi Simon Leo with whom he had two children one of whom was Richard Landsberger, “the founder of a biological dentistry.”
1854(9thof Av, 5614): Tish’a B’Av
1856: Birthdate of Alfred Deakin, 2nd Prime Minister of Australia. In 1905, Deakin appointed Isaac Alfred Isaacs to the position of Attorney General, making him the first Jew to serve in that post. The following year, Deakin scored another “first” for the Jewish people when he named Isaacs as a Justice to the High Court of Australia,
1857: Today’s “Foreign Correspondence” column reports that the second reading of the Jew Bill has passed by an immense majority.
1857: Lord John Russell’s call for a Select Committee to inquire as to how far a certain act of Parliament that dispensed with the use of the words in the oath which excluded Jews from the House would go was agreed to.
1857: Handbills were posted in Goldsboro ordering all Germans and Jews to leave Goldsboro, NC by August 4, 1857.
1860(15thof Av, 5620): Tu B’Av
1860: Today, in Boston, Louis Goldenberg, a jeweler by trade, informed his neighbors that he was lonely and he was to visit his wife who had gone to the country. Louis Goldenberg aged 55, was a German Jew, born in Russia, who had lived in the United States for the last ten year and had been employed by Currier & Trott as a watch repairer for the last six years. For the last several months Mr. Goldenberg had been engaged in a series of swindles in which at least six prominent jewelers were victimized to the tune of $5,000 in losses…. Mr. Goldenberg’s “visit to his wife in the country” was actually his getaway.
1861(27thof Av, 5621): Parashat Re’eh read on the same day that, off the coast of Virginia a Union naval officer ascends in a tethered balloon to look at Confederate controlled Hampton Roads” in what is the first balloon ascent from a ship in naval history.
1863: Louis, duc Decazes who while serving as Foreign Minister in 1875 “informed Henri Blowitz, the Bohemian Jew who was the Paris correspondent of The Times of a confidential dispatch from the French ambassador to Berlin, discussing German plans to attack France” which he asked Blowitz to publish as part of an effective plan to prevent the Germans from carrying out their plans married “Séverine-Rosalie von Löwenthal” today.
1864(1stof Av, 5624): Rosh Chodesh Av observed as Union ships prepare for the assault on Mobile, one of the last ports remaining open to the Rebels.
1865: Philadelphian Theodore Jacobs completed his services as the Assistant Surgeon of the 187th Regiment of the Union Army.
1870: The Toledo Blade reported that Bennett Scope has been hung after being convicted of murdering a Jewish peddler named Jacob Goodman. Goodman had befriended his co-religionist Scope who had only recently arrived in this country, giving him money and employment. Although Scope protested his innocence to the end, the jury believed that the motive for the murder had been greed. Rabbi Mayer of Cleveland had unsuccessfully appealed to the governor of Ohio to spare his life. Mayer was with Scope at the execution.
1870: The Toledo (Ohio) Balde reported that Benenet Scop has been hung in Huron Count, Ohio after having been convicted of murder Jacob Goodman, a Jewish peddler for who he had been working. The motive appeared to be robbery.
1871: Birthdate of Versailles native and graduate of the Sorbonne Felix Weill, who in 1901 began teaching French at CCNY where he served as “Chairman of the Romance Language Department from 1935 to 1939” and who served as Secretary of the Alliance Francaise.
1873: “Death of an Eminent Hebrew” published today memorialized the life of the late Sir David Salomons the Jewish banker who was leader in the fight for Jews to received full rights of citizenship. It recounted his struggle which finally led to him serving as the Sheriff of London and sitting in the House of Commons. Described as an able and amiable man who was a generous benefactor to a variety of charities, readers were reminded that Prime Minister Gladstone had advised the Queen to “create him as a baronet,” a hereditary title that now passes to his nephew.
1873: It was reported today, that out of the approximately 320 religious “newspapers” listed in Rowell’s American Newspaper Directory, nine are Jewish as compared with the 47 published by the Methodists.
1876: Abraham and Zelda Rosenberg gave birth to Detroit College of Law trained attorney Louis James Rosenberg, the husband of Millard Simons whom he married in 1924.
1876: Birthdate of Joseph W. Pincus, the Russian born agricultural expert who worked with Jewish farmers in the United States who was the author of “The Jewish Farmers’ Best Friend.”
1878: Solomon Goldsmith of San Francisco received a cable today from Louis Goldsmith of New York stating that Michael Reese, a successful Jewish businessman and civic benefactor had died suddenly while visiting the Bavarian town of Wallerstein.
1879: In keeping with generally accepted practice, a Jew named Adolph D. Pollack sold cigars and neckties to customers in White Plains, NY. His action would lead to litigation challenging the violation of so-called “Blue Laws.”
1881: The body “of Samuel Alt, an aged Hebrew…was found in the water at the foot of East Seventy-sixth street… this morning” bearing marks that would later lead authorities to concluded he had been “robbed and murdered.”
1882: As the Tisza-Eszlar affair came to a climax, a Hungarian jury acquitted the Jewish defendants of murder charges touching off anti-Jewish riots in Budapest.
1883: In “Darlinghurst, New South Wales, Australia,” “Rebecca and George Judah Cohen” gave birth to Sefton Louis Cullen, a barrister and husband of Nancy Cullen who during WW I served with the Royal Fusiliers and the Yorkshire Light Infantry after which he returned to Sydney in 1919 and became “a shareholder of David Cohen and Company, Ltd. In 1935
1883: The anti-Semitic riots continued for another day at Ekaterinoslav, Russia.
1883: A woman and her two children burned to death in a cabin belonging to Ivan M. Lotowski at the Jewish Colony in Estillville, NJ.
1884: The body of Solomon Rintel, a 23 year old Hungarian Jew who worked as fresco painter, was found today in the room he was renting at 403 Sixth Street in New York. It appears the Rinel took his own life.
1884: Birthdate of composer Louis Gruenberg. Born near Brest Litovsk Poland, Gruenberg immigrated to the United States. He was one of several Jewish composers, including George and Ira Gershwin, who incorporated African-American themes in their musical works.
1886: Lord Randolph Henry Spencer-Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill became his party’s leader in the House of Commons. Churchill was also the cousin of Colonel Charles Henry Churchill who while serving as British diplomat in the Middle East in the middle of the 19th century “declared his support for Jewish restoration of sovereignty over Palestine.”
1887: In Rugby, Warwickshire, “William Parker Brooke, a Rugby schoolmaster and Ruth Mary Brooke, née Cotterill” gave birth to poet Rupert Brooke whom Alexander Aciman chosen to characterize as his “favorite anti-Semite.”
1888: Four days after she had passed away “in her 82ndyear, Sarah Salomons (nee Hurwitz) the daughter of Hyman Hurwitz was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1889: In Ulster County, NY, a group of ruffians known as the “Yellowstone Cowboys,” armed with pistols and bowie knives forced their way into a boarding house owned by J. Epstein, Jewish innkeeper in Saugerties, chased out the guests and demanded to be fed dinner. They departed after about an hour.
1890: The Young People’s Association of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn required the use of two barges for their excursion today to Washington Park on the Hudson River.
1890: “Hebrew, Israelite and Jew” published today which relies on information first published in the Hebrew Journal described the origins of these three terms which today are used in the following manner: “Hebrew refers to race, Israelite refers to the nation, Jews to the religion.”
1890: “Expected Migration of Jews” published today described the impact of new regulations of the Czar’s government which “will tend to drive vast bodies…of Jews who are settled in the frontier provinces” from the country. “The dread of wholesale transportation to Siberia for failure to observe the edicts will impel the flight westward of many thousands of Jews.” Jewish leaders in Berlin, Hamburg, and Frankfort have communicated with Jewish leaders in London “for the purpose of preparing” to provide relief for their “distressed” co-religionist.
1890: “An Empire’s Young Chief” published today provides a description of the young Kaiser’s Germany including the fact “that a very large proportion of Germany’s present authors are Jews and radicals which gives the contemptuous attitude of the dominant Berlin classes toward literature a decided political twist.”
1891: In Paris, a conference of French Jews approved the plans of Baron Hirsh “for the amelioration of the condition of the destitute” Jews which will require “the cooperation of the Jews in Europe and America” in organizing the emigration of the Jews from Russia.
1891(28th of Tammuz, 5651): Leopold Dukes, the Hungarian born student of Jewish literature who spent :20 years in England doing research that enable him “to completed the work of Leopold Zunz” the founder of what some call modern “Jewish Studies” or “Judaic Studies.”
1891: Birthdate of Nathan “Kid Dropper” Kaplan a petty gangster and labor racketeer in New York.
1893: In Warsaw, a Hebrew newspaper Ha’Tzfira printed a story describing “a festive dinner held in a Warsaw suburb” in honor of Rabbi Abraham Eliyahu Harkavi.(As reported by Vered Guttman)
1894(1st of Av, 5654): Rosh Chodesh Av
1894: The attorney for Jeremiah S. Levy the Jewish police officer accused of taking bribes began presenting testimony “in defense of his client” after the Judge denied his motion for acquittal on the grounds that the prosecution had failed to “prove its case.”
1894(1st of Av, 5654): Twenty-seven year old Adolph Hobart Henriques passed away today. He is the son of Solomon Nunes Henriques who passed away 20 years ago.
1895: “Sponging Houses” published today described the different literary treatment of these temporary quarters for English debtors including that found in Henrietta Temple a love story by the Earl of Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli.
1895: Despite attempts to silence him Aaron Drucker spoke out at a meeting in the Church of the Sea and Land being held to convert Jews to Christianity declaring that such meetings should not be held because they were “an outrage to humanity and “if a man is born a Jew of true Jewish parents he is always a Jew and nothing change him!”
1895: Birthdate of Orange, VA native and Washington resident Ruth Levy Illich, an officer of the National Council of Jewish Women and husband of William G. Illich.
1895: Seventy-three year old Maria Moses, the daughter of Emanuel and Ann Moses, was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1895: Third base man Samuel Earl “Ike” Samuels makes his major league debut with the St. Louis Browns where he “went 1-for-2 in a 5-0 loss to Chicago.
1896: In Chicago, Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Isidore and Rose (Rabinoff) Horowitz gave birth to Ralph Horwitz who gained fame as Harvard All-American football player Ralph Horween who went to play football in the NFL—mirroring the career of his brother Arnold who also played for Harvard the Cardinals.
1896: Birthdate of New York City and fur merchant Abraham Isador Weinblatt, the son of “a cigar maker who had immigrated from Russia in 1888 and “traveling salesman for the firm of Kruskal and Kruskal” who with Milton Simon Mandel formed Mandel and Weinblatt.
1897: In “Hellenthal, Germany,” Bernhard Rothschild and “Henriette (Jetta) Rothschild gave birth to Hermann Rothschild, the “husband of Gertrude Augusta Rothschild and father of Marion and Ruth Rothschild, who died at the age of 44 in the Minsk Ghetto during the Holocaust.
1897: According to today’s Times of London, Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University said [The Cairo Genizah] “is a battle field of books, and the literary productions of many centuries had their share in the battle.... Some of the belligerents have perished outright, and are literally ground to dust in the terrible struggle for space, whilst others...are squeezed into big, unshapely lumps."
1898(15th of Av, 5658): Tu B’Av
1898: During the Spanish-American War, the USS Scorpion, under the command of Adolph Marix, the first Jewish graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, ended her blockade duties which had begun after the Battle at Manzanillo Harbor, and then headed back to Guantanamo Bay.
1898: The funeral for fifty three year old Elias Jacobs who had been realtor and “engage in the clothing business for 21 years” is scheduled to take place at nine o’clock this morning at his home on East 80thStreet.
1899: The funeral for 55 year old Samuel Firuski who has worked in the auctioneering and storage business in Brooklyn for the last 22 years are scheduled to be held today at Temple Israel in Brooklyn
1899: “Topics of the Times” published today described life among the Boers who are fighting the British including the decision of their Parliament to deny Jews and Catholics which shows these rebels to be something other than advocates for “toleration and progress.”
1900: In rural Indiana, Maria and William Clyde Pyle gave birth to newspaperman Ernie Pyle who was killed while covering the war in the Pacific after which the Navy honored him by naming a troopship the SS Ernie Pyle which transported Jewish DP’s from Europe to New York in 1947.
1901: Birthdate of New Orleans native and U. of Cincinnati graduate Rabbi Gustave Ferdinand Falk, who after being ordained at Hebrew Union College went on to post graduate studies at the University of Chicago before graduating from the New York School Social Work and serving as the “Director at the School for Jewish Studies” in New York City.
1902: Birthdate of Regina Jonas who when she ordained by Rabbi Max Dienemann in 1935 became the first female rabbi in Jewish history.
1903: Birthdate of Tunisian lawyer Habib Bourguiba, the first president of the Republic of Tunisia at a time when “judicial authority was transferred from the rabbinical court to the government court,” “the ancient Jewish cemetery of Tunis was confiscated for use as a public park” and the constitution was changed to read that Tunisia was a “Moslem country.”
1904: On the west side of Chicago, Vilna immigrant and small grocery store owner Isaac Halper and his wife Rebecca gave birth to author and playwright Albert Halper whose “first major novel was Union Square, the husband of painter Lorna Halper and the father of Thomas Halper.
1905: A telegram was received at the afternoon session at the conventions of the United Orthodox Rabbis of the United States in Springfield, MA, “from the United Reform Rabbis inviting the United Orthodox Rabis to cooperate with them in many matters” which was unusual because “the two bodies had never worked before.”
1907(23rd of Av, 5667): Parashat Eikev
1907: During a speech given tonight “before more than 1,000 members of the Industrial Workers of the World, Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor was characterized as a “labor fakir” who has “always been false to the laborers in every fight” (Editor’s note: This was part of the on-going battle between the Wobblies and the existing labor unions most of which were built along craft lines)
1909: “To Relieve Russian Jews” published today reports that while “the Jew has been the ever present victim of both revolution and reaction” there is hope on the horizon in the form of measure soon to be presented to the Duma that “frankly and dispassionately describes the conditions of the Russian Jews together with a series of recommendations for the improvement of his status” of which the Council of Ministers and the Czar have supposedly approved.
1910(27th of Tammuz, 5670): The former Chief Rabbi of Turkey, Moise Levy, passed away in Constantinople at the age of 89.
1911(9th of Av, 5671):Tish'a B'Av
1911: In Paramaribo, Suriname, Daniel Joseph Harogh, the “son of David Levy Hartogh and Rachel Fernandes” married Estelle Celine Abrahams today.
1912(20thof Av, 5672): Parashat Eikev
1912: Approximately 75 people attended services at the Social Hall of the Forest House in Kennebunkport, Maine, led by Rabbi Bernard. G. Ehrenreich of Montgomery, Alabama.
1913: Birthdate of Shmuel Tolchinsky, the native of shtetl near Odessa who gained fame as Mel Tolkin the head writer of “Your Show of Shows” where he helped to launch the careers of such greats as “Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Larry Gelbart.
1913: Sixty-eight year old Regina Cohn Watson is scheduled to be interred this afternoon at Rosehill.
1913: In Chicago, funeral services are scheduled to be held for Maurice H. Ellinger, the husband of Sadie Mark Ellinger and the brother of Albert Ellinger.
1914: During WWI, Germany declares war against France, while Turkey declares itself neutral. During the war, Jews from around the world came to help the French, including 600 Turkish Jews (as well as Jews from other Ottoman territories) signed up with the French Foreign Legion to help in the battle against the Germans.
1914: This afternoon, “two days after declaring war on Russia, Germany declared on France and France responded by declaring war on Germany – moves which among other things would pit French Jews against German Jews since Jews served in the armies of both countries.
1915: Congressman Mayer London was reported today to be the chairman of the newly formed People’s Relief Committee which is committed to raise funds to alleviate the suffering of the Jews in the European war zone.
1915: “Russian Allurements” published today described the importance of Riga the port city that was home to “the first Jewish synagogue known in Europe” to the Czar’s war effort.
1915: Edith Cavell a British nurse was arrested in Belgium and charged with harboring Allied soldiers. Sadi Kirschen, the father of Claude-Anne Lopez, would be chosen to serve as her defense attorney.
1916 Birthdate of Detroit, MI native a University of Chicago trained bio-chemist and medical doctor Arnold Lazarow, the husband of the former Jane Sybil Klein, the bio-chemist with whom he had two sons, Drs. Paul B. and Norman H. Lazarow.
1916: During World War I, near the Egyptian town of Romani the Central Powers launched their last offensive to seize the Suez Canal in what would become known as the Battle of Romani.
1916: It was reported today that “a new benefit for the Actors’ Fund of America has been arranged by Daniel Frohman in co-operation with the new theatrical club “The Lights” which will take place at the Amsterdam Theatre.
1917(15thof Av, 5677): Tu B’Av
1917: The “Red Glove” a “new anti-Jewish league formed at Simferopol” “incited the populace to participate in pogroms.”
1917: At Odessa, today, the “Jews were accused of molesting Christians going to church and desecrating churches.
1917: In Leeds, UK, a mass-meeting held “under the auspices of the Jewish Representative Council” adopted a resolution asking the council “to take the necessary steps to protect the interests of those affective by the convention with the Russian Government affecting Russian subjects of military age” living in the United Kingdom.
1917: In Egypt, a Zionist Organization was “formed to guide all Zionist societies” in the country
1917: In Warsaw the dean of the Polytechnic Institute declares “that Jews are merely guests in Poland and their use of Yiddish evidence of the opposition to Polish nationalism.”
1917: In Warsaw “anti-Semites openly agitate for a boycott” against the Jews, urge the closing of all business on Sundays” and “attacked” priests who trade with Jews.
1917: Samuel Gompers, speaking on behalf of organized labor in America, announced that he and his organization would not be attending the planned conference in Stockholm that is called by some a “peace conference.” Gompers is praised by Allied leaders for supporting the war against the Kaiser.
1918: Birthdate of Sidney Gottlieb who was an early and important official with the CIA .
1918: During WW I, British troops landed at Vladivostok in what the Bolsheviks would come to view as an attempt by the West to overturn their Revolution. (For a certain element in the British establishment the term Bolsheivk and Jew were interchangeable. According to at least on report Churchill supported Zionism as counterweight to the Bolsheviks.
1918:The proposal, made by the American Federation of Labor through its President, Samuel Gompers, to the Mexican labor unions, suggesting that conferences be held on the border between President Wilson and President Carranza, has been favorably accepted here. Gompers believes that the meetings will help improve relations between the United States and Latin America.
1918: Sixteen year old Yitak Jacov a member of the British Jewish Legion 38th Battalion Royal Fusiliers serving in Palestine wrote in his diary “Now that I placed my life at risk, it is becoming so interesting that I feel that everything must be written down, so that later either I – if I survive – or my friends can re-live these days.”
1919: A wireless dispatch received today in London from Moscow described the shooting of General Gregorieff, “the Russian commander who captured Odessa…and whose troops are reported to have carried out a massacre in the Jewish quarter of Odessa.”
1920: The Convention the Federation of Hebrew Teachers of America, whose purpose “advance the cause of Jewish Education in America came to a close today in Cleveland, OH.
1921: Birthdate of Broadway Composer Richard Adler. One of his most famous hits was Damn Yankees.
1922(9th of Av, 5682):Tish'a B'Av
1923: Birthdate of Hannah Golofski who would grow up to become noted fashion designer Anne Klein. Discovering her gift for design while attending Girl's Commercial High School in Brooklyn, she found work in the garment industry directly out of high school. Within a year, she was working at Varden Petites where she redesigned the firm's line, introducing a new style of ready-to-wear and sophisticated clothing for young (thin) women that would come to be known as Junior Miss. In 1948 she married clothing manufacturer Ben Klein and became principal designer of Junior Sophisticates, a new company established by her husband. In this role, Anne Klein transformed the type of clothing available for petite women like herself. Junior Sophisticates offered elegant styles to shorter women who previously had to make due with more child-like attire. In addition, Klein was the first designer to follow the example of French designer Coco Chanel, adapting men's clothes (suites, jackets, shirts) for women's use. Klein continued to innovate. During the 1950s, she introduced clothing that was sold as "separates," offering women a range of jackets, blouses, skirts, and slacks that could be bought together and then assembled into many different outfits. When the Klein marriage ended in 1960, so did her connection with Junior Sophisticates. In 1963, she remarried and established her own design studio. She specialized in redesigning the failing clothing lines of other companies. In 1968, Anne Klein and Company opened with Klein as director and half-owner. By the early 1970s, more than 800 American department stores and dress shops carried her creations. Klein won numerous fashion awards. In 1973, she was the only woman invited to participate in a fashion show consisting of five American and five French prominent designers, intended to raise money for renovations at Versailles. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York restaged the American component of this show in 1993. Since the designer's death in 1974, the Anne Klein label has remained a strong presence in retail stores around the world.
1923: Vice President Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th President of the United States following the death of President Warren Harding. Coolidge was not an anti-Semite but some of his actions had a negative impact on Jews. In 1924, he signed the Johnson Act. This immigration law effectively ended the wave of immigration that had started in 1880. It contained a National Origins Quota System that favored Western Europeans while barring those from Southern and Eastern Europe. This quota system would be in place during the Holocaust and would be used to deny Jews entry into the United States. Silent Cal did speak favorably about the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Finally, as Vice President he wrote a letter to a prominent Jewish leader which read in part, “’Teach the ancient landmarks to the youth of the Jewish race…That learning and wisdom which has been a sustaining influence to the Jewish race through all the centuries must be preserved for the benefit of mankind. The youth of your people can associate themselves for no more patriotic purpose.’”
1924: In New York William and Esther Diamond Kaufman gave birth to Melvyn Kaufman, “a quixotic, unabashedly contentious developer who helped shape Manhattan’s postwar streetscape and is credited with injecting his personal brand of whimsy into the city’s office towers…” (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1924: Birthdate of author Leon Uris. The Baltimore native first came to national attention with the publication of Battle Cry, one of a series in what were called “the great American war novels.” Uris based his on his own experiences as a Marine fighting during World War II. He gained greater acclaim for his next major work, Exodus. Exodus is one of those epic works of historic fiction which, in this case depicts the early days of Zionism and the fight to establish the Jewish state despite opposition from the British and the Arabs. The novel was turned into a cinematic box office hit. Uris followed this with several more novels on Jewish themes. Mila 18 recounted the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. QBVII, was based on a lawsuit actually filed by somebody who felt they had been defamed by a statement in Mila 18.
1925: In Brooklyn, “Henry A. Rosenthal, who owned a fabric business, and the former Cecile Coles” gave birth Lewis Phillip Rosenthal, who gained fame as Dr. Lewis Rowland, the “leading neurologist” whose name had been in changed while he was a teen because of the Jewish quotas at Ivy League schools. (As reported by Denise Grady)
1925: Birthdate of Chicago native and football coach Marvin Daniel “Marv” Levy, the WW II veteran and Coe College athlete who may have be the only holder of a master’s degree from Harvard to coach multiple NFL teams and who, as of the turn of the century, was the only coach to make it to four Super Bowls with winning the championship game.
1928(17thof Av, 5688): Seventy-seven year old Viennese native Alfred Sach, the son of Babette and Eduard Elkan Sachs and husband of Therese Sachs with whom he had three children – “Betty, Rudolf and Marie” passed away today.
1928: “Under Suspicion,” a “silent crime film” directed by Constantin J. David was released in Germany today.
1929(26thof Tammuz, 5689): Parashat Matot-Masay
1929(26th of Tammuz, 5689): Inventor and scientist, Emil Berliner, passed away. Born in German in 1851, Berliner worked in a number of fields. He developed a microphone for the telephone. He developed the prototype for the modern phonograph record which replaced Edison’s original recording cylinders. Until the advent of tape and CDs, his phonograph record was the backbone of the recording and music industries. He also developed a revolutionary lightweight engine which he then put into a experimental helicopter he developed.
1930(9thof, 5690): Tish’a B’Av
1930: In Newark, NJ. Melvin Lamb and “the former Minna Feldman” gave birth to feminist playwright Myrna Lila Lamb. (As reported by Neil Genzlinger)
1932: “Doctor X,” a horror film directed by Michael Curtiz was released today in the United States by First National Pictures through Warner Bros.
1933: The Foreign Office agrees to support a complaint submitted by Polish Jews of German Upper Silesia to the arbitration tribunal at Beuthen, against the prohibition of skechita in the plebiscite area.
1933: In Toronto, Mayor Stewart orders police to investigate the Swastika Club, an organization that has been placarding local beaches with swastikas.
1933: The Government approves movement for settlement of fifty Jewish families in the Macedonian part of Yugoslavia.
1933: Der Stuermer, Nuremberg daily, begins the publication of a black list of German young women seen in the company of Jewish men.
1933: In Wurzburg, All the Jewish student homes are occupied by Nazi storm troops to be used for party offices; the Jewish Student Association is ordered to dissolve.
1933: In Breslau, The Free Students Association, at a mass meeting decides to boycott lectures by Jewish instructors, and asks the Ministry of Education to expel the Jewish teachers remaining in the high schools.
1933: According to reports from Jaffa, three Revisionist Zionists are under arrest as suspects in the murder of Dr. Arlosoroff are formally charged with conspiring to assassinate the Zionist leader.
1934: Adolf Hitler becomes the supreme leader of Germany by joining the offices of President and Chancellor into Führer.
1935(4thof Av, 5695): Shabbat Chazon
1935: As Jews observed Shabbat, thousands of people marched through Harlem protesting Italy’s rumored plans to invade Abyssinia, the only independent state in sub-Saharan Africa that was governed by the “indigenous people.”
1936: “A petition designed to bring the German oppression of Jews and non-Aryans formally before the League of Nations as an ‘issue of international concern’ was made public” in New York “and in Paris at the same time” today.
1937: The debate over the Peel Commission report continued at the League of Nations meet at Geneva. The Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations decided to postpone until September its deliberations of the Royal (Peel) Commission¹s Report on Palestine. It set forth, however, in writing, the advantages and disadvantages of such options as the maintenance of the existing Mandate or its modification, the division of Palestine into cantons after the Swiss federal system, or a complete partition. It was also open to other suggestions.
1937: At Zurich, during a meeting of the Zionist Congress the Jewish leaders were also discussing the Peel Commission Report. Dr. Chaim Weizmann said that for the past 2,000 years the Jewish people had not been confronted by the necessity to make such an important decision. In the meantime, a Jewish water expert warned that the proposed partition border would deprive the Jewish state of all the most important water sources. Chaim Weizmann and David Ben Gurion led the majority that decided to accept the partition plan in light of the Peel Report. Berl Katznelson, Menachem Ushishkin from Mapai (Labor) as well as the Revisionists and the Orthodox fiercely argued against it.
1937: “In Stepney in the East End of London,” “Pauline (née Hyman), a housewife, and Alfred Berks, a tailor” gave birth to Leslie Steven Berks who gained fame as English playwright and actor Steven Berkoff.
1938: “After having spent fourteen weeks in Palestine the British commission for implementing the partition scheme, head by Sir John Woodhead, has finished it task and its members sailed from Haifa today.
1938: While speaking at a testimonial luncheon being given “to honor him for his work on behalf of Jewish refugees children, comedian Eddie Cantor warned “against a spread of anti-Semitism” in the United States and “bitterly denounced Henry Ford for accepting a decoration from the German government on July 27, 1938.
1939: Less than a month before the start of WW II, “The Spy in Black” a WW I spy movie co-produced by Alexander Korda with a script by Emeric Pressburger was released today in the United Kingdom.
1940(28thof Tammuz, 5700): Parashat Masei
1940: The government at Vichy France passed anti-Jewish racial laws.
1941(10thof Av, 5701): Tish’a B’Av
1941: One thousand, two hundred Jews arrested in Czenowitz of whom almost seven hundred were executed.
1941: One thousand, five hundred fifty Jews were removed from the town of Mitau.
1941: In the East Galician town of Stanislawow, which was the home of Jerzy Feliks Urman which the Russians had occupied in 1939 but was taken by the Nazis in 1941, “nearly 1,000 intellectuals and professionals” including hundreds of doctors “were murdered” by the Germans and their Ukrainian allies.
1942(20th of Av, 5702): Sixty-nine year old German born Nobel Award winning chemist Richard Willstätter who in 1924 he left his post a prominent German university because of the overt anti-Semitism he encountered passed away today in Switzerland after having left his homeland in the 1930’s.
1942: Fifteen year old Inge Fisherova was transported today from Prague to Terezin, the next stop on her ultimate destination – Auschwitz.
1943(3rd of Av, 5703): At Bedzin, a man named Baruch tried to challenge Nazi deportation orders and was shot for his effort.
1943: “The last major deportation of residents from the Bedzin Ghetto” which sparked an uprising by members of the ZOB ended today.
1944(14th of Av, 5704): At Strassenhof Camp, 2,400 Jews were marched away never to return. They were all under the age of eighteen and gassed in a makeshift crematorium. Three days later the Red Army liberated the 600 surviving camp members
1944: After a series of delays, Monuments Man Lt. James Rorimer landed at Normandy on what had been Utah Beach on D-Day.
1944: At the Haidari Concentration Camp, having stolen all of the glass from the Jews of Rhodes and extracted the gold from their teeth, the Germans loaded them in animal wagons, sealed the doors and shipped them to Auschwitz.
1944: Fifty-five year old Oslo businessman Ludvig Paul Cohen was deported to Auschwitz today.
1944: The Henry Gibbons arrived in New York carrying a shipload of Jewish refugees bound for the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter.
1945: In London, “Dr. Abba Hillel Silver of Cleveland told the World Zionist Conference today that the Jews could not be patient because a new British Government had come into office and declared that they would fight for Palestine.”
1945: It was reported today that “the Esther Orphanage” which is providing a home “for Jewish children who lost their parents during the German invasion of Greece has been opened near Athens, Greece “with funds supplied by the Joint Distribution Committee.
1946(6thof Av, 5706): Parshat Devarim and Shabbat Chazon
1946(6thof Av, 5706): Seventy-seven year old Edwin I. Hyneman, the son of the Leon and Grace Marks Hyneman, varsity football and baseball player for the University of Pennsylvania and “former part owner of the Philadelphia Phillies” passed away today after enduring the after effects of broken hip sustained when he fell on icy pavement. (Editor’s note - http://www.jewsinsports.org/profile.asp?sport=football&ID=40shows him passing away in 1945, but the New York Times obit is dated 1946)
1947: As tensions mounted in Great Britain following the killing of two British sergeants by the Irgun in retaliation for the execution of three of its fighters, violence broke out today in Manchester where “groups of men began breaking the windows of shops in Cheetham Hill…which had home to a Jewish community since the early 19th century” while others tore “down the canopy of the Great Synagogue on Cheetham Hill Road” and surrounded “a Jewish wedding party at the Assembly Hall” shouting “abuse at the terrified guests until one in the morning.”
1947: Three British ships - Runnymede Park, Ocean Vigour and Empire Rival – arrived in Marseilles carrying the Jewish immigrants from the SS Exodus whom the French said would only be allowed to leave the vessels if their departure were voluntary and not coerced by the British.
1948(27thof Tammuz, 5708): Sixty year old Beatrice Venetia Stanley Montagu who chose Edwin Samuel Montagu over Prime Minister Asquith and converted to Judaism to marry the Liberal MP – a marriage that was cut short by his death and was unfulfilling for her while it lasted.
1948(27thof Tammuz, 5708): Emanuel Rothstein died today while flying his Auster for the IAF.
1948(27thof Tammuz, 5708): While flying her Auster, twenty-one year old Zahara Levitov an “American education bomber pilot with the IAF died today in an air crash between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
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1948(27thof Tammuz, 5708): Seventy-year old Hungarian nationalist and international pacifist Rosika "Rózsa" Bédy-Schwimmer “died of pneumonia today in New York City.”
1948: “In testimony under subpoena before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC),” penitent Communist Party member Whitaker “Chambers identified Lee Pressman” the son of Jewish immigrants, “as a member of the Ware group.”
1949: Founding of the National Basketball Association. Jewish players and coaches had played a major role in professional basketball prior to World War II. Ironically, the establishment of permanent professional league came at a time when Jewish participation had begun to decline. There were still a few stars like Dolph Schayes and Red Holtzman. Red Auberbach would prove to be the dominant coach of the fledgling league and Eddie Gottlieb continued his life time of involvement in professional basketball as the owner of the Philadelphia Warriors.
1950: In Chicago, “Shirley Levine (née Magaziner) and Marshall Landis, an interior designer and decorator” gave birth to John David Landis, the director of such comedic classic hits “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” “The Blues Brothers” and “Trading Places.”
1950: “A Lady Without Passport” a film noir directed by Joseph Lewish, produced by Samuel Marx, starring Hedy Lamar, featuring Steve Hill with a score by David Raskin was released in the United States today by MGM.
1951(1st of Av, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Av
1951: “The Secret of Convict Lake,” a western produced by Frank P. Rosenberg, with music by Sol Kaplan and script that Ben Hecht helped to write was released in the United States today.
1952: In Helsinki, the Summer Olympics, during which Holocaust survivor Agnes Keleti and gymnast, won four medals, came to an end today.
1952: The “chairman of the Bronx Independent Democrats announced” today “the formation of the Ideal party, to support M. Maldwin Fertig” who is a Democrat who has served Governors Roosevelt and Lehaman” “for election as Surrogate of Bronx Country.”
1953: Birthdate of San Pedro, CA native Robert Edwin “Bob” Gross the forward who played college ball at Seattle University and Long Beach St. before pursuing an NBA career with the Portland Trail Blazers and San Diego Clippers.
1954: After having premiered in New York and Los Angeles, “About Mrs. Leslie” directed by Daniel Mann, produced by Hal Wallis and with a script co-authored by Hal Kanter was released throughout the United States today.
1955(15th of Av, 5715): Tu B’Av
1955: Birthdate of Mitchell Shubow Steir the UNC alum and chairman and CEO of Savils Studley who is married to entrepreneur Nancy Ganz with whom he had two children – Max and Rachel.
1958: The oil pipeline from Eilat to Haifa was completed. Since Israeli ships and ships that stopped at Israeli ports were barred from using the Suez this joining of Israel’s two major seaports was of great economic importance.
1958: Today the USS Nautilus which “was constructed under the direction of U.S. Navy Captain Hyman G. Rickover, a brilliant Russian-born” Jewish “engineer who joined the U.S. atomic program in 1946” “accomplishes the first undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole.”
1960(10thof Av, 5720): Irwin Stuart Block, the husband of Sonia Block and the brother of Louis Block passed away today.
1963(13thof Av, 5723): Parashat Vaetchcanan and Shabbat Nachamu
1963(13thof Av, 5723): Seventy-one year old James D. Zellerbach, the California born son of “Isadore Zellerbach and the former Jennie Baruh” who served as Chariman of the Board of the family business Crown Zellerbach before pursuing a career in public service that including being the U.S. Ambassador to Italy.
1963: Allan Sherman releases "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda" the musical parody on letters campers sent home to their parents.
1963: Philip L. Graham, the chief executive officer of the Washington Post and the husband of Katherine Graham passed away today.
1964: Anthony Newley’s “Feelin’ Good” was performed for the first time in public tonight on the opening night of “The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd at the Theatre Royal” in Nottingham
1965: “You Must Be Joking” a comedy directed by Robert Michael Winner was released today in the United Kingdom.
1965: Sixty year old Murray Webber, the Los Angeles businessman who “served on the City of Hope board of directors for 15 years” passed away today.
1966(17th of Av, 5726): Comic Lenny Bruce passes away from a morphine overdose
1966: “This Property Condemned” a tragic film set in the Deep South directed by Sydney Pollack and produced by John Housman who was the son an Alsatian Jew was released today in the United States by Paramount Pictures.
1966: “Two hundred delegates from conservative synaogues in twenty-one countries are expected to attend “The sixth international convention of the world Council of Synagogues opened” which opened in Geneva today. (JTA)
1966: “The Man Called Flintstone,” an animated film featuring the voices of Mel Blanc, Harvey Korman and Paul Hersh Frees was released in the United States today.
1967: In Paris, a Hungarian Jewish director and writer Peter Kassovitz and his Roman Catholic wife, film editor Chantal Remy gave birth to Mathieu Kassovitz who “has described himself as ‘not Jewish but I was brought up in a world of Jewish humor’”
1970(1st of Av, 5730): Rosh Chodesh Av
1970: “The Adventures of Huckleberry” a film version of the novel directed by Michael Curitz, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr, co-starring Tony Randall and with music by Jerome Moross was released today in the United States.
1970: Igal Shohat and Moshe Goldwasser were taken prisoner when their F4-E Phantom was shot down during the War of Attrition. Tragically, Goldwasswer reportedly died while in captivity and Shohat lost his leg. [This is entry is a tragic reminder that the brave, unsung heroes have paid the highest price for the Jewish state of Israel. The least we can do is remember – Zachor – their sacrifice and courage.]
1971(12thof Av, 5731): Sixty-two year old Rutgers law school graduate Philip Jerome Levin, the husband of “the former Janice Hoffman” with whom he had three children “Catherine, Susan and Adam” and “the majority shareholder of MGM” as well as the “head of Madison Square Garden” passed away today.
1973: It was reported today that Shaare Zedek in Jerusalem has announced “that its South African friends” have “decided to endow a ‘Louis Pincus post-operative intensive care project’ in memory of the late Zionist leader Louis A. Pincus.
1975(26thof Av, 5735): Sixty-three old NYU trained “labor lawyer and arbitrator” Irving Robert Feinberg, the husband Lucille Feinberg, and the father of Jean and Richard Feinberg who was active in Jewish communal activities as can be seen his with the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, United Jewish Appeal, National Jewish Welfare Board, Development Corporation for Israel, Montefiore and Maimonides Hospitals, and the Hebrew Home for the Aged” passed away today.
1975: “Prisoner of Zion Vladimir Markman arrived in Israel after serving three years imprisonment in the USSR.”
1976: “Entebbe Raid Leader Moving Up” published described plans for Brigadier General Dan Shamron the 39 year old commander who led the operation to free the hostages at Entebbe and commanded an armored brigade during the Yom Kippur War to assume a more important position in the near future.
1976: The 1976 Summer Paralympics opened in Toronto where Hagai Zamir would win a medal for volleyball.
1977: The United States Senate held hearings on MKULTRA. MKULTRA was a study of mind control methods begun at the CIA under Allen Dulles. Sydney Gottleib was the director of the project.
1977: The former chief of US Air Force Intelligence, Maj.-Gen. George Keegan (Ret.) accused the Carter Administration of basing its current Middle Eastern policy on quicksand. Keegan charged that the US was not disclosing its back-door intelligence which indicated that the real intentions of the Arab desire to destroy Israel were still there.
1978: A Broadway reivival of “Stop the World – I Want to Get Off Off” a musical “with a book, music, and lyrics” co-authored by Anthony Newley directed by Mel Shapiro with a cast that included Sammy Davis, Jr. opened today “at the New York State Theatre in Lincoln Center.
1978: Ezzedine Kalak, chief of the PLO's Paris bureau, and his deputy Hamad Adnan, were killed at their offices in the Arab League building. Three other members of the Arab League and PLO staff were wounded
1979: “North Dallas Forty,” the movie version of a marvelous little sports novel produced by Frank Yalbans who co-authored the script was released in the United States today.
1980: “Israel Applying The 'Brakesim' To Foreignisms; Begin Favors Updating of Hebrew Old Language for New Needs” published today described what some view as “the plague” of invented, non-Hebraic terms that are rapidly being added to what was once viewed as the holy tongue. “Israelis have injected so many non-Hebrew words into ‘the language of holiness’” such as “autonomiya” for the English word “autonomy” or “pluggim” for spark plugs, that “some ultra-Orthodox Hasidic sects which formerly forbade Hebrew speech because it was the language of prayer, have all their members to witch from Yiddish to Hebrew.”
1981(3rd of Av, 5741): Seventy-year old chess champion Wolfgang Heidenfeld the father of chess champion Mark Heidenfeld, passed away today.
1982(14thof Av, 5742): Ninety-two year old Leopold Philipp passed away after which he was buried at the Adath Jeshurun Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1983(24thAv, 5743): Seventy-two year old year old Walter Landauer, the Viennese native who was part of a popular piano duo whose career spanned almost 40 years.
1985(15thof Av, 5745): Tu B’Av
1985: “An exhibition of Al Hirschfeld’s caricatures” including “several dozen of his works dating from the 1920’s to the 1980’s” that has been on display “on the second floor of London’s National Theatre” marking the first time such a showing had taken place in the United Kingdom is scheduled to come to an end today.
1986: It was reported today that Beatrice Siegel's latest book for young readers is Sam Ellis's Island.
1991(23rdof Av, 5751): Seventy-six Isador Perlman who worked with radio isotopes and taught archeology at Hebrew University passed away today.
1992: Los Angeles premiere of the “Unforgiven” a dark western featuring Saul Rubinek as W. W. Beauchamp.
1993: The Senate voted 96-3 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
1993: Yakov Kreizbergmade his debut at The BBC Proms conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra today.
1994: A plane piloted by King Hussein of Jordan flew over Jerusalem. It was the King’s first aerial view of the city and, at the time, seen as harbinger for better times.
1994: Stephen G. Breyer completed his service as Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
1994: Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as a Supreme Court justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's Vermont summer home. At this time Jews are less than two per cent of the population and make up twenty two percent of the Justices on the Court.
1994: Hadassah’s 80th Convention, held at the New York Hilton, comes to an end
1997: The Long Island Journal featured a report about Camp Wonderland, part of the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack that contains a city-of-Jerusalem-playground which is the newest addition to the Y.
1997: It was reported today that “American Jewry funneled more money into religious education, and less into social activism, as the concern grew about runaway assimilation.”
1997: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century by Donald Sassoon who describes himself as a middle Eastern Jew despite having lived in England for forty years, Selected Poems, 1960-1990by Jewish born Pulitzer Prize winner Maxine Kumin, Our Guys: The Glen Ridge Rape and the Secret Life of the Perfrect Suburb by Bernard Lefkowitz and Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Streetby Roni Schotter.
1998: Russian composer Alfred Garyevich Schnittke whose father was Jewish and whose mother was not, passed away.
1999: Janet Yellin completed her service as Chair of “President Bill Clinton’s Council of Economic Advsioers.”
1999(21st of Av, 5759: Eighty-five year old Yitzhak Rafael passed away today. Born in Galicia, he made Aliyah in 1935 and eventually became active in Israeli political life as an MK and Minister of Religions.
2000(2ndof Av, 5760): Seventy-nine year old 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 passed away today.
2001: 98 U.S. senators express concern about popular anti-Semitism in Russia by sending a letter to then-President Vladimir Putin. The letter asks Putin to take a stronger stance in publicly condemning anti-Semitism, which gained traction from “ideological...
2002(25thof Av, 5762): Parashat Re’eh
2002: As Jews were observing Shabbat, the Bush administration was working on plans for the invasion of Iraq.
2003: The Sunday New York Times book section features a review of Fabulous Small Jews by Joseph Epstein, a collection of short stories in which “most of the characters are secular Jews who -- like Epstein himself -- are men over 50 who grew up in or around Chicago.”
2003: HBO broadcast the comedy special “Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales” which starred Ullman who also wrote the script and directed the show.
2004: The United Jewish Communities (UJC) eighth annual Jewish Leadership Forum (JLF) in Aspen, CO comes to a close.
2005: In a triumph for Israeli scientific and engineering capabilities a “new $250 million desalination plant in Ashkelon began pumping potable water filtered from the Mediterranean Sea” today.
2005: Cynthia Aaron Glassman, the holder of a Ph.D. in economics from Penn completed a month-long stint as “acting chair” of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
2006(9th of Av, 5766) Tish'a B'Av
2006: Jews all over the world observe the Fast Day of Tisha B’Av as the IDF battles against Hezbollah and Hamas as barrage of Hezbollah rockets slammed into northern Israel today, killing at least eight Israelis. Four people
2006: In “Hezbollah Missile Threat Assessed” published today, Frank Gardner described the threat still facing Israel after three weeks “of an intensive…air campaign.”
2007: “Hot Rod,” directed by Akiva Schaffer, starring Andy Samberg and with music by Trevor Rabin was released today in the United States.
2007: Israel Defense Forces troops shot and killed Read Abu Ads, the Islamic Jihad commander in Nablus
2008: The Sunday New York Times Editor’s Choice listings included Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists, by Susan Neiman in which the Jewish born author “champions Enlightenment values without any hint of oversimplification, dogmatism or misplaced piety.”
2008: The Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Book of Dahliaby Jewish author Elisa Albert Hitler, The Germans and the Final Solution by Ian Kershawand Hitler’s Priests: Catholic Clergy and National SocialismbyKevin P. Spicer
2008: At the Jewish Museum in New York, an exhibition entitled Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered comes to an end. Andy Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century(1980) depicts renowned luminaries of Jewish culture: Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Gertrude Stein. Warhol referred to this pantheon of great thinkers, politicians, performers, and writers as his "Jewish geniuses." Warhol's iconic portraits attest to the lasting achievements and fame of these singular figures. Originally published as a portfolio of silkscreen prints on paper, Warhol was so pleased with the commercial success of his Ten Portraits that he decided to create additional versions of the series as silkscreen paintings on canvas. The Jewish Museum initially showed three sets of paintings and an edition of prints in the fall of 1980. On view in this exhibition are one of the five complete sets of ten paintings, an edition of the final print portfolio, several sketches, a preparatory collage, and the photographs that Warhol used as source images, offering new insights into their development and historical context.
2009: In Jerusalem,Beit Avi Chai's Music on Monday’s series presents A Groyse Metsie: Jewish music in various styles..
2009:About half of Israelis believe that in order to be a "true Israeli," one has to have been born in Israel, so finds the Israel Democracy Institute in its annual Israeli Democracy Index, published today.
2009:An American-Israeli crime ring conspired to defraud United States tax authorities of tens of millions of dollars for at least five years, according to Israeli and American court documents filed today.
2009(13th of Av, 5769): Rabbi Aharon Zelig Epstein Rosh yeshiva of Yeshiva Shaar HaTorah-Grodno, passed away today.
2009:Chabad Lubavitch presented a request today to Yad Vashem to recognize a high-ranking military commander in the Third Reich as a righteous gentile for saving Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef Schneerson, the sixth Chabad rebbe. Admiral Canaris, commander of the Nazi Abwehr, or intelligence, had a central role in securing Schneerson's escape from the Warsaw Ghetto along with members of Schneerson's family and entourage, said Yosef Kaminetzky, a writer who recently completed a book on the escape story.
2010: Tzofim Friendship Caravan Family Concert featuring the Israeli Scouts is scheduled to take place at the Washington DCJCC.
2010(23rd of Av, 5770):Israel Defense Forces analysts believe that the Lebanese sniper fire at the Israel-Lebanon border today , which killed Lt. Col. Dov Harari and seriously wounded Captain Ezra Lakia, was in fact an ambush planned by a Lebanese officer who was encouraged by his commanders.
2010(23rd of Av, 5770):Family and friends of Dov Harari, affectionately called "Barry", who was killed in a military confrontation on the Israel-Lebanon border, said that Harari loved his country and the Israel Defense Forces, and that everyone who knew him loved
2010(23rd of Av, 5770):A Jewish father of three was among the victims of a shooting rampage at a Connecticut beer warehouse. Louis Felder, the director of operations at the Hartford Distributors in Manchester, was one of eight people shot dead Tuesday morning by an employee accused of stealing, who then killed himself.Felder was a member of the Young Israel of Stamford.Steve Hollander, the company's head of marketing, and a member of the Hollander family that founded and owns the company, was reported to have been shot, according to the Hartford Courant. “The Hollander family is probably one of the most venerated families in the Hartford area in the Jewish community," U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) told the Courant. "There isn’t a charity that they haven’t contributed to.”
2010(23rd of Av, 5770):American Rabbi Bruce M. Cohen, who joined with Farhat Agbaria an Israeli Arab in found Interns for Peace passed away today at the age of 65.
2010(23rd of Av, 5770): Ninety-seven Herman L. “Reds” Bassman the native of Philadelphia native, alum of Ursinus College and Army Air Corps Veteran who was the “oldest living former Philadelphia Eagles player” when he passed away today in Petersburg, VA.
2011: Rabbi Alfredo Borodowski is scheduled to give the first in a series of lectures entitled “The Essential Heschel: Teachings of a Modern Day Revolutionary Prophet” at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.
2011: Dr. Regina Stein is scheduled to give the first in a series of lectures entitled “Jewish Holidays for Grownups” at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.
2011: Michael “Fishman appeared on the Passover episode of Roseanne Barr’s reality show “Roseanne’s Nuts.”
2011:The Knesset passed a controversial housing bill today, despite the objections of leaders of the housing protest movement that has been gaining momentum across the country in recent weeks. The bill, which will slash red tape for construction by setting up national committees to approve new housing projects, was passed by a vote of 57 to 45.
2011:MK Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) told Army Radio today that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak political asylum several months ago
2012(15th of Av): Tu B’Av
2012: Fifty-nine year old award winning theatre and television producer Joan Stein passed away today.
2012: The celebration of the Israeli holiday of love, Tu B’Av is scheduled to begin this morning in the open courtyard of the Citadel of the Tower of David Museum with a musical performance of Neapolitan love songs.
2012: Sam Kringlen, son of Janice Binder and Jim Kringlen is scheduled to participate in Friday Night Services at Temple Judah as his Bar Mitzvah weekend begins.
2012: Hamas freed a Salafi leader of an al-Qaeda affiliated terror group, it was reported today.(As reported by Ron Friedman and Michal Shmulovich)
2012: A bipartisan group of six Congress members is sponsoring a bill that would ensure recognition of the plight of 850,000 Jewish refugees displaced from Arab countries since Israel's War of Independence in 1948. Their bill in the US House of Representatives also would recognize other displaced populations, including Christians from countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Persian Gulf.
2013: “Lies in the Closet” is among the films scheduled to be shown this evening at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: A revival performance of Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman opened at the Dentsu-Shiki Theatre in Tokyo.
2013: Final performance of “Division Avenue,” a new comedic play by Miki Bone that uses the orthodoxy of the Hasidic culture to explore the challenges facing those trying to find their way in the face of doubt and modern culture´ is scheduled to take place at the June Havoc Theatre.
2013: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the traditional minyan at Temple Judah is scheduled to observe Raoul Wallenberg Shabbat where we Remember the Righteous Among the Nations including Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who defied his government by issuing transit papers to Lithuanian Jews so they could escape the Holocaust and Aristides de Sousa Mendes who defied his government and issued transit papers to Jews so they could escape
2013(27th of Av, 5773): Eighty-six year old journalist Yehuda Lev the WW II veteran who helped to smuggle Jews into Palestine passed away today.
2013: Israeli swimmers, Guy Barnea and Jonathan Koplover, finished first and fourth respectively qualiftying to swim in the finals at the World Swimming Championships in Barcelona, Spain.
2013: “Betrayed by Braun, Brewers Owner Twists in an Ill Wind” published today described the impact Ryan Braum, “The Hebrew Hammer” has had on fans, friends et al when “he was exposed as serial liar” whose greatness may rest not on his skill but on his use of performance-enhancing drugs.
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein, The Magician’s Landby Lev Grossman, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman, J.D. Salinger: The Escape Artist by Thomas Beller, The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton and Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War by Ken Adelman as well as an interview with Amy Bloom.
2014: The Coen Brother’s double feature is scheduled to be shown for the last time at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2014 The IDF spokesman announced early this morning, Israeli time that at 11:25 p.m. yesterday, August 2, the Chief Rabbi of the IDF, Brigadier Gen. Rafi Peretz, declared the death of IDF officer Lt. Hadar Goldin, who fell in the Gaza Strip on August 1, 2014. (In life he was loved and admired. He was swifter than eagles and stronger than lions.)
2014: “Israeli singer David Broza was at the Yehud military cemetery today to sing his song "Mitahat LaShamayim" ("Under the Sky"), the song that was to be Captain Omri Tal and his girlfriend Liat Zimerman's wedding song. Instead, Broza's words floated through the air of the cemetery, over Omri's grave.”
2014: “Some 12,000 people turned out Sunday in Johannesburg, South Africa at a rally in solidarity with Israel.”
2014: “Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel on Sunday of deliberately killing Palestinian mothers and warned it would "drown in the blood it sheds”
2015: “As Israel sweltered in the grips of a sizzling heat wave, with temperatures in Jerusalem breaking 100º Fahrenheit (40º Celcius), the country broke its electricity use record today for the second day in a row.
2015: In Aspen, CO, Ambassador Dennis Ross is scheduled to speak at the Chabad Jewish Community Center.
2015: “One of the oldest surviving Hebrew manuscripts, a bible dating back more than 1,000 years, will soon be available online in a joint project with The British Library in London, the National Library of Israel said today. Aviad Stollman, the library’s chief of collections, said the Gaster Bible would go online as part of a project to digitize all of the 3,200 rare Hebrew manuscripts at The British Library.” (As reported by Miriam Berger)
2015: Starting today, “the Jewish Museum of Maryland in conjunction with the Baltimore Jewish Council and the Maryland State Department of Education, is scheduled to host a three day workshop on Holocaust education that focuses on giving educators the tools to help their students understand the Holocaust.”
2016: Today, “Hasbara Fellowships Canada filed a formal complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, where it accused the student and faculty associations of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) and Durham College of discriminating against Jewish students and Israel, following the banning of Hasbara Fellowships Canada from participating in a student association-sponsored “Social Justice Week” five months ago.
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2016: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host a screening of John Frankenheimer’s “The Young Savages.”
2016(28th of Tammuz, 5776): Eighty-six year old Dolphin researcher Louis M. Herman passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016: “International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach led a mourning ceremony today for the 11 Israeli athletes and coaches slain by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics — a tribute that a widow of one of the victims said brought “closure” for the families
2016: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to host an exploration of the rebirth of the Lower East Side by a tour of four art galleries conducted by Ronnit Vasserman.
2017: “The Heart and the Wellspring, an Israeli ensemble led by Naor Carmi and clarinetist Chilik Frank” is scheduled to present and evening of “Chassidic Music from Israel at YSW
2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the final screening of “The Zookeeper’s Wife.
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host “Carnival, a Summer Soiree” a fun, fundraising activity that includes everything from acrobats to silent auctions.
2017: “In conjunction with the exhibition 500 Years of Treasures from Oxford presented by Corpus Christi College, the Center for Jewish History, and Yeshiva University Museum,” Jan Joosten, Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Oxford is scheduled to lecture on “Hebrew: A Holy Language?
2018: The Cornelia Street Café is scheduled to host the second night of the Israeli Jazz Spotlight Festival.
2018(22nd of Av, 5778): Eighty-six year old Egyptian born Israeli director Moshe Mizrahi, the winner of the Oscar for Madame Rosa as the Best Foreign Language Film of 1977 passed away today.
(As reported by Richard Sandomir)
2018: “The Prayer” and “Cellfish,” a film that “explores the life and work of artist Shelly Federman” are scheduled to shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
2018: “The American Sephardi Federation Young Leaders” is scheduled to host a “Sephardic Summer Shabbat Dinner” this evening at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan.
2019: Art Omi is scheduled to host a performance by Gilad Jerusalmy, “an independent dancer and creator for stage and media from Tel Aviv.
2019: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host screening of “The Tobacconist” and “American Factory.
2019(2nd of Av, 5779): Parashat Matot-Masay;
2020: Dr. Ellen J. Kennedy is scheduled to be the Keynote Speaker on the opening day the Summer Teachers Institute, a virtual conference hosted by the Jewish Museum of Maryland.
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a webinar on “Prison, Politics and the Jewish People” with Natan Sharansky and Rabbi Rick Jacobs.
2020: Jewish LeaerningWorks is scheduled to present a virtual “Conversation About Racism” during which Matt Fieldman, author of White Jews Wake Up, leads a discussion about white supremacy and “our role” in racial and economic inequalities.
2020: The LSJS (London School of Jewish Studies) Summer of Love, a special three week program led by Rabbi Dr. Zarum and clinical psychologist Dr. Abram Sterne is scheduled to begin today
2020: On line, “Aquarian Minyan class with ex-GTU and current U. of Toronto professor Naomi Seidman is scheduled to talk about how Jewish education pioneer Sarah Schenirer and her Bais Yaakov schools in pre-war Poland were instrumental in reviving Tu B’Av years before Israel and the U.S.”
2020: As Israelis prepare to face another day of the Pandemic they must contend with the challenge of the possibility of more rocket attacks from Gaza like the one last night which was successfully thwarted by the Iron Dome.