September 3
141 BCE (18th of Elul, 3619): The fight begun by Matthias and Judah came to a successful conclusion when Simon was elected High Priest and was recognized as the governing authority of an independent Jewish state.
301: San Marino, one of the smallest nations in the world and the world's oldest republic still in existence, is founded by Saint Marinus. During World War II the 15,000 people of San Marino provided a refuge for 100,000 fleeing the fascists, including a large number of Jews.
590: Gregory I, known to history as St. Gregory and/or Gregory the Great became Pope at the age of 50. At first blush, Gregory seems to be a classic anti-Semite. He regarded Judaism as “depravity” and Jewish interpretation of the Bible as “perverse.” For all intents and purposes he banned conversion to Judaism. He banned Christians from working for Jews. He also limited opportunities by ordering Christians not to use Jewish doctors and forbidding the clergy from employing Jewish clerks. Following the precedent of Justinian, he barred Jews from holding public office, forbade the building of new synagogues and urged the rescuing of Jews from “their false” doctrines i.e. conversion to Christianity. At the same time, Gregory opposed forced conversion, calling on church officials to use “gentleness and kindness to make the Jews desire to change their way of life.” For Jews who did not wish to convert he said, We will not have the Hebrews oppressed and afflicted unreasonably.” On more than one occasion Gregory intervened on behalf of the Jews when they were attacked even by mobs led by officials of the Church. When synagogues were invaded, Gregory ordered the buildings to be restored to the Jews and repairs made to any damaged items. When a converted Jew entered a synagogue and tried to make it into a church, Gregory responded with the following admonition, “Just as the law forbids he Jews the building of new synagogues, it also guarantees them preservation of the old ones.” Gregory strongly opposed Judaism, but compared to his contemporaries and successors, he “did not lack scruples.”
1189: Many Jews living in London were killed in riots during the coronation of Richard I. One of the victims was Rabbi Jacob of
1260: The Mamelukes defeat the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in Palestine, marking their first decisive defeat and the point of maximum expansion of the Mongol Empire. The battle was fought in the Jezreel Valley in the Galilee. It seems a little strange to those who connect this geography with David and Goliath to think of the Mongols of the Kahns fighting to control Eretz Israel. The Mamluks were Moslems. Their immediate connection with the Jewish people can be traced to one of the founders of the Egyptian Caliphate, Saladin who allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem. After 1260, inland Jewish communities such as Safed grew replacing coastal communities such as Acre in importance. The battle was the high water mark for Mongol attempts to conquer the land that came to be known as the Ottoman Empire.
1658: Oliver Cromwell the Lord Protector of
1730: Sixty-year old Nicholas Mavrocordatos, the Prince of Moldavia and Wllachia who employed Daniel de Fonseca, a Marano from Portugal as his personal physician passed awa today.
1758(30th of Av, 5518): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1758: During a power struggle in Portugal, failed attempt to assassinate King Joseph I during a period when the Portuguese Inquisition was punishing untold numbers of conversos throughout the empire.
1763(25th of Elul, 5523): Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilech; Leil Selichot observed for the first time with the possibility of Jews living in Canada since the French had lost the territory with the signing of the Treaty of Paris earlier in the year.
1777(1st of Elul, 5537): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1777: During the American Revolution in New Castle County, Delaware, “British and Hessians defeated American militia” today.
1778: Forty three year old Ezekiel Solomon and the former Marie Elizabeth Louise Dubois gave birth to Elisabeth Solomon.
1783: The American Revolutionary War ends with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. The majority of Jews in the Colonies had supported the American cause. The treaty ensured them and their progeny a life in “the last best hope of man.”
1808: Birthdate of Michael Sachs, one of the first rabbis to a Ph.D. from a “modern university” who led congregations in Prague and Berlin before retiring because of his strong opposition to the rising Reform movement.
1814: In London, English merchant Abraham Joseph and his wife gave birth to James Joseph who gained famed as mathematician James Joseph Sylvester who taught at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University wrote “Laws of Verse,” a paper on the “theory of versification.”
1813: In Buda, Ignacz baron Eötvös de Vásárosnamény and Anna von Lilien gave birth to József baron Eötvös who began advocating Jewish emancipation in 1841 and succeeded in having “the diet pass his bill for the emancipation of the Jews” in 1867.
1819: “Le Moniteur Universel reported today in an article from Hamburg…that quarrels and fights erupted every night” in Hamburg where “if a Jew dared to be seen on a public walkway or enter a coffeehouse frequented largely by Christians, he would certainly meet violent opposition.”
1825(20thof Elul, 5585): Parshat Ki Tavo; Leil Selichot observed as laborers work to complete the famous Erie Canal which open by the end of next month.
1826: Coronation of Czar Nicholas I a“narrow-minded, reactionary, despot who was so incompetent that he led Russia to disaster in the Crimean War. As a totalitarian dictator, Nicholas was fully responsible for all of his action aimed at his Jewish subjects. These included but were not limited to expulsion from a variety of cities including Kiev; the drafting of under-age Jewish boys for twenty-five years of military service; the banning of beards and a sidelocks for men and banning of women shaving their heads at the time of marriage; the banning of Yiddish; censorship and destruction of Jewish books. And this list does not include the mistreatment of the general populace with such measures as the establishment of a secret police system designed to stamp out any manifestation of democracy or Western values.”
1827: William Huskisson who in 1830 would present “a petition signed by 2000 citizens of Liverpool” which was the first step toward gaining full citizenship for the Jews completed his service as President of the Board of Trade.
1834:Birthdate of German rabbi, Hermann Tietz.
1836: Birthdate of Kingston, Jamaica native Abigail Flamingo the wife of Alexander Aria and the mother of Judith, Morris, Charles, Sarah, Marie and David Aria.
1836 (21st of Elul, 5596):Daniel Mendoza who was boxing champion of England from 1792 to 1795 and is called “the father of scientific boxing” passed away.
1837: “Representatives of New York’s three synagogues and two benevolent society launched the city’s first communal charity drive.”
1839: Birthdate of Charles Wessolowsky an immigrant from Prussia who became a leading citizen in Albany, GA.
1845: In Prague, Joseph Hershman and Katherine Urbach gave birth Louise Herschman who married Professor Sigmund Mannheimer and gave fame as Louise Herschman Mannheimer, the author, contralto, “founder of the Cincinnati Jewish Industrial School for Boys and the mother of Eugene, Leo, Jennie and Edna Mannheimer.
1845: In Besançon, France, Adelaide (née Friedmann) and Leopold Herz, gave birth to Cornelius Herz a pioneer in the field of electricity who “was the founder, along with Alphonse de Rothschild, of the American Syndicate of Electricity.”
1845: Hyam Samuel married Miriam Levy at the Great Synagogue today.
1849: In Philadelphia, Max Friedman a native of Mulhausen who arrived in the United States in 1848 at the age of 23 and became a successful businessman married “Adeline J. Comelien, the daughter of Rowland and Amelia (nee Judah) Cromelien “today.
1851: Today Charlotte Rothschild, “regretfully noted” that she “could not that much improvement had taken place since last December” in the academic progress of her son “Natty” and decided she was to “determined to have a new” tutor.
1852: Anti-Jewish riots broke out in Stockholm.
1853(30th of Av, 5613): Parashat Re’eh; Rosh Chodesh Elul
1853(30th of Av, 5613): Daniel Block, a German or Bohemian born butcher who arrived in St. Louis in the late 1840’s and who was a founder of the B’nai B’rith Synagogue also known as the “Bohemian shul” which later merged with two other congregations – Emanuel and United Hebrew – “to form B’nai El Congregation passed away today leaving behind four children – Heinrich, Jacob, Dora and Abraham – who donated the tombstone in the New Mount Sinai Cemetery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Block#/media/File:First_B%27nai_El_Building.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Block#/media/File:Daniel_Block_Tombstone_St._Louis.jpg
1855: Birthdate of Heinrich Conreid, the Silesian native who became director of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
1855: In London, birthdate of communal worker Oswald John Simon.
1855: In Cincinnati, Ohio, founding of Sherith Israel whose members included Joseph Lazarus, Dave Dreifus, William Levendorf, Meyer Weil, Joseph Block, Louis Loeb, Emanuel Marks and Morris Tuch.
1857: In Kokomo, Indiana, Abraham Hays and Fanny Kahn gave birth to Emma Hays Eckhouse, the husband of Moses Eckhouse and resident of Indianapolis who was the Director of the Auxiliary to the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver, vice president of the Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society and a delegate to the National Conference of Jewish Charities.
1858: Birthdate of San Francisco native Louis Solomon Haas, a “member of the stock brokerage firm of Sutro and Company who was “president of the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum.”
1859: Birthdate of French socialist leader Jean Jaurès who was an early and energetic defender of Alfred Dreyfus.
1860: Birthdate of Edward Albert Filene,
1862: Birthdate of Moses Hyamson, the Russian born Rabbi who served as Chief Dayan (Judge) of the London Beth Din and acting Chief Rabbi of the British Empire.
1863: In Kotteso, Hungary, Joseph Deutelbaum and Fannie Zalenka gave birth Leopold Deutelbaum, the graduate of the Royal Jewish Teacher’s Seminary in Budapest and the National German-German Teachers’ Seminary in Milwaukee and husband of Johanna Kurz who lived in Cleveland from 1892 to 1900 where taught at the Jewish Orphan Asylum and the Sabbath Schools of Tifereth Israel and Anshe before becoming the Superintendent of the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans in 1900.
1863: In Philadelphia, Lazarus and Barbara (Kahnweiler) Shloss gave birth to Florence Shloss Guggenheim.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/guggenheim-florence-shloss
1864: Birthdate of Samuel Abraham Poznański, “the Polish Reform rabbi, known for his studies of Karaism and the Hebrew calendar who was a delegate to the First Zionist Congress.
1864: The Varieties Theatre which would eventually become a Jewish theatre opened today at 37 Bowery.
1864: Birthdate of Francis Crawford Burkitt, the British scholar and divinity professor at Cambridge whom Solomon Schechter trusted to go through many of the Greek language manuscripts that had been found in the Cairo Geniza. (For about this see “Sacred Trash” by Hoffman and Cole).
1870: Twenty-one year old Jeanne Clemence Weil, the granddaughter of Baruch Weill and the daughter of Nathe Weil married “French doctor Adrien Proust” with whom she had two sons – Robert and Marcel.
1872(30th of Av, 5632): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1872: “John H. Morton, boatswain of the Packetship Charles H. Marshall of the Black Ball line appeared before U.S. Commissioner of Emigration Osborne on charges of having inhumanly treated Meyer Velt, a German Jew who was a passenger on board the ship.” Velt claimed that he had been tied up by Morton and the “repeatedly cuffed, kicked and beaten.” Credence was added to his charges by the fact that several others on the ship complained of “bad treatment” and because similar charges had been brought against the Charles H. Marshall before. The Commissioner sent Morton back to Castle Garden expressing regret that the law did not allow him to punish the boatswain but suggested that he be sent to Police Court to answer for his crimes.
1875: Birthdate of Albert von Breitenbach, the native of Cologne, Germany who gained fame as American songwriter Fred Fisher whose works including “Come Josephine In My Flying Machine” and “Peg O’ My Heart.”
1877: A synagogue that followed the Sephardic ritual and funded by contributions by Daniel Orsis located on the Rue Buffault in Paris was dedicated today.
1877: Hermann Ullman, the Czech born son or Rabbi Benjamin Ullmann and Theresia Ester Ullmann and his wife Bertha Ullman gave birth to Olga Ullman.
1878: In Frankfort, Germany, Eleonore and Abraham Seligman gave birth to Robert Henry Seligman.
1879: Three days after she had passed away “Dimante bat Moshe wife of Issachar bar Baruch HaLevi” was buried today at the Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1879:It was reported today that Vasile Boerescu , the Romanian Foreign Minister, has been visiting governments in Europe in an attempt to gain modifications of those parts of Treaty of Berlin which committed his government to emancipating its Jewish population. Boerescu justified Romania’s treatment of the Jews by comparing it to the plight of Chinese in the United States.
1880(27th of Elul, 5640): Fifty-six year old Charles Steckler, a leading merchant in Jackson, CA passed away today, apparently having taken his own life.
http://www.weeklypioneer.com/2010/08/charles-steckler.html
1881: It was reported that the Board of Estimate and Apportionment has made the distributions to several New York charities including $1,957.14 to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society.
1882: “Cairo, A Mountain Town” published today provides a description of this Catskill mountain village which provides a summer retreat for a variety of visitors “a good many” of whom “are Jews who “don’t care anything about…Sunday” and “want to play croquet, play the piano and go out riding.” According to the locals the Jews “are just like anybody else. There’s nice Jews and there’s them that aint nice.”
1883(1st of Elul, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1883: G.D. Ginsburg wrote to his daughter that he had spent a month to make sure that the recently discovered scroll of Deuteronomy presented by Moses Shipra was a fake because the forger had shown “extraordinary cleverness” and skill and his diligence would make it impossible “for this clever band of rogues to” traffic in any more take antiquities.
1885: In Vienna, discovery of 250 Bettina a large main belt asteroid “named in honour of Baroness Bettina von Rothschild, the wife of the prominent Viennese banker Albert Salomon von Rothschild who had bought the naming rights for £50.”
1885: Salomon Linnewel married Rebecca Van Biene in Amsterdam today.
1885: In New York City the apartment belonging to the family of Samuel Neuman and the adjacent schhol for Jewish children are scheduled to be fumigated today as the Health Department continues its fight against small-pox. Neuman, the son of a Jewish tailor, was found to be infected with the disease and is being treated at Riverside Hospital.
1890: Coroner Levy went to Bellevue Hospital and had Lemuel Jaynes arrested after he ascertained that the nurse had mistakenly administered a lethal dose of carbolic acid to a typhus patient.
1891(30th of Av, 5651): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1891(30th of Av, 5651): Two months before his 2nd birthday, Frank T. Fleisher passed away today after which he was interred at Mt. Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1891: A special inquiry is to be made into the fitness of Hirsch Birchanski to remain in the United States. The Russia Jew contends that contrary to the contention of Immigration Commissioner, he does have the ability to support himself and tis therefore eligible to enter the United States.
1892: Birthdate of Brigadier General Henning Linden led a group of reporters including Marguerite Higgins and a detachment of the 42nd (Rainbow) Infantry Division as the soldiers received the surrender of the camp commander, generating international headlines by freeing more than 30,000 Jews and political prisoners
1892: As concerns of a cholera outbreak worsened, members of the Peekskill, NY, Board of Health began inspecting the streets and houses in neighborhood populated primarily by Hebrews, Hungarians and Italians. (The immigrant population was thought to be the primary carry of the disease which had broken out in Europe.)
1892: It is reported that a group of Russian Jews who had been “expelled from Odessa and traveled to Paris by way of Constantinople” under the sponsorship of the Israelite Alliance have left for Dieppe where they will set sail for Canada. Many of the Jews sailing for Canada really want to settle in the United States and doing this to avoid the cholera quarantine at several U.S ports.
1892: “Suffering at Ziontown” published today described the desperate condition of the fifty Russian Jews at the settlement in New Jersey who are so poor that they “have been subsisting on berries and fruit picked by the wayside.”
1892: Based on reports published today, Baron de Mohrenheim, the Russian Ambassador to France believes that the Parisian press is “in the hands of the Jews” and “that the Rothschilds had opposed the Russian loan…in order to promote” a financial “collapse.”
1892: It was reported today that any plans by England, the United States and “Continental countries” to shut off the flow of immigrants from Russia because of the threat of cholera might be part of plan to stop the flow of Jews from that country, which is a problem in and of itself for these same countries.
1892: As Europe and the United States contend with a possible cholera epidemic, the “officials of Jewish relief societies confirm” that no Russian Jews are entering the Thames, the gateway to London.
1893: “Dramatic Debut…In The House” published today described the maiden speech of Coningsby Disraeli the son of Ralph Disraeli and the nephew of Benjamin Disraeli in the House of Commons.
1893: that Moses Hirschdorfer, who was facing charges of embezzlement while serving as the manager of the offices of banker, broker and steamship passage agent Bernhard Weinberger, was seen by his neighbors for the last time today.
1893: “Sketches of Business Men in New York City” published today provided a detailed sketch of the life of Oscar S. Straus.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F1081FFB3D5A1A738DDDAA0894D1405B8385F0D3
1893: “Individual Wealth” published today traced the history of wealth distribution back to Biblical times when “The Old Testament indicates that the trade of the Jews with the East was in the hands of Solomon and that is profits enriched the King and not the people.” In modern times “the colossal fortunes of Hirsh or Rothschild…are really insignificant when contrasted with the wealth of a nation” but they attract attention like the point of a pyramid while no one looks at the base where the real wealth is.
1894: Three days she had passed away, Priscilla Levy, the daughter of Aaron Hendricks and the former Ann Mosely and the wife of Benjamin Levy was buried today at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1894: “Renan’s Final Volume” published today provides as detailed review of Histoire Du Peuple D’Israelby Ernest Rean, the fifth volume of the French Jewish authors History of Israel.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30711FF3A5515738DDDAA0894D1405B8485F0D3
1894: Members of the boards of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and United Hebrew Charities will attend the funeral of Jacob Bamberger which begins at ten thirty this morning at Temple Emanu-El
1894: About 400 clothing cutters, most of whom are Jewish held a meeting at Metropolitan Sienger Hall today and voted to go out on strike.
1894: Birthdate of Worcester, MA native and Harvard Law School graduate Joseph Talamo who was a served in WW I and was a member of the Zionist Organization of America.
1895: “Isyobr” Silberman and his wife gave birth to Sarah Silberman who did lived less one year and was buried in the Happy Valley Jewish Cemetery in Hong Kong.
1895: In Bessarabia, “Nahum and Pearl (Treistman) Backman gave birth to encomiast Theodore N. Beckman, the holder of a Ph.D. from the Ohio State University where he became a Professor of Marketing and husband of Esther G. Baker, who served “as the faculty adviser of the OSU Menorah Society and a member of the advisory board of Hillel.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/04/22/90932508.html?pageNumber=54
1896: Based on information that first appeared in The Menorah Monthly“Jules Simon” published today reiterated the fact that the late French Prime Minister was not a Jew although he was often attacked for being one by his anti-Semitic detractors. He was a member of the Israelite Universal Alliance and was a close friend of Aoldphe Cremieux, the French leader who was Jewish.
1896: Jesse Isidor Strauss, the son of Isidor Strauss and nephew of Oscar Solomon Strauss “began working at Macy’s” today 37 years before he began serving as U.S. Ambassador to France.
1896(25th of Elul, 5656): Eliezer ben Moses Bregman a successful Grodno businessman who gave “more than 100,000 rubles for charitable institutions” passed away today in Teplitz, Bohemia.
1897: Nathan Straus decided to stop the sale of raw milk following the arrest of one of the employee’s at the milk booth at the Hebrew Institute “on charges of selling milk below the required standard.” Straus had begun the sale of milk in 1893 as part of his campaign to improve the health of the immigrant and poor populations.
1898: In Hempstead, Long Island, Rabbi Cohen of Manhattan was among those attended a meeting at the home of Dr. A.D. Rosenthal where plans were discussed for holding High Holiday services which led to a discussion for the need for a permanent place of worship.
1898: It was reported today that according to the Irish author Edward Dowden, the tale of Shylock wanting a pound of flesh is actually a variant on a Persian tale in which the “Jew is not impelled to cruelty because the money is not returned to him but for the reason that he is in love with debtor’s wife and” he wants to get the husband out of the way.
1899(28th of Elul, 5659): Sixty-five year old Offenbach, Germany native Herman Felsenthal who “came to the United States in 1852 and pursued a banking career in Chicago and who married Gertrude Hyman Felsenthal with whom he had “nine children” passed away today after which he was buried in the Rosehill Cemetery.
1899: “Prodded the Prince of Wales” published today described a park-bench encounter at Marienbad between the Prince of Wales and an un-named Polish Jew who carried on a conversation with the future British monarch without knowing his identity that ended with him “digging his Royal Highness in the ribs and telling him he looked too healthy to need the water cure.”
1899: In The Hague, the first meeting The International Congress of History, of which Oscar S. Straus is a member of the American Section, came to a close.
1899: “Hebrew New Year Cards” published today described the growth in the sale of these “fancy affairs, ornamented with lace and flower and each with a motto or greeting in English and Hebrew” which “have been sold for some time in the Jewish stores” but a now being sold in the large department stores.
1899: It was reported today that “throughout Austria, the Radicals and Socialists are now practically united in demanding their Constitutional rights” and “complete equality for the Jews.”
1899: In Albuquerque, NM, the cornerstone for the building to house Congregation Albert was set but it would not be until April of the following year that the building would be dedicated with Pizer Jacobs who had succeeded Dr. William H. Greenburg serving as the Rabbi.
1899: Selma Kurtz made her debut at the Viennese theatre that “would become her artistic and spiritual home” today in the role of “Mignon” in the opera of the same name.
1900: The Hague Convention of 1899 which would be part of the legal foundation for the trial of Nazis after World War II went into effect today.
1901: Pitcher Bill Cristall made his major league debut with the Cleveland Blues.
1902(1st of Elul, 5662): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1902: Two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Spanish and Portuguese Congregation Beth Israel at
1903: Fire destroyed a synagogue at Travnik, Bosnia.
1904(23rd of Elul, 5664): Parashat Nitzavim-Vayeilich; Leil Selichot
1904: “Beginning of Hebrew Stories” published today provided a complete review of the Early Hebrew Story, Its Historical Background by Dr. John P. Peters which is based on a series of lecturers that covered such topics as Creation, Eden, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1904/09/03/101396342.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1905: “Free Meals For All In Sweatshop Land” published today described an experiment in feeding people on the Lower East Side where Russian and Polish Jews wearing derby hats were among the diners.
1906: Bernhard Dernburg, the Director of the Bank of Commerce and Industry has named Director of the Colonial Office making this “the first time a Jew has been appointed to such a high office in the German Empire.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/09/04/101378165.html?pageNumber=1
1907: “A dispatch from Odessa says that the "Black Hundred" attacks upon Jews, which began yesterday, have continued this morning when two more were killed, making five deaths from violence, while nearly 100 Jews are in the hospitals suffering from injuries from revolvers, knives, or India rubber rods, with which the Black Hundred belabor the unhappy objects of their violence.”
1908: In Czernowitz, theFirst Conference for the Yiddish Language came to a close.
1909: In Superior, Wisconsin, “Lena (Krasnovsky) and Israel Bazelon, a general store proprietor” gave birth to Northwestern University undergrad David Lionel Bazel who began his legal career by reading law and eventually reaching the position of “Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/sep/03/1910/kitty-carlisle-hart
1910: In New York. Isidore Rabinowitz, the Grodno born son Shimon and Libbie Rabinowitz and his was wife Rebecca gave birth to Marion Rabinowitz who became Marion Gilbert when she married Paul David Gilbert.
1910: Birthdate of Maurice Papon “a senior police official in the Vichy regime” who used his authority over the Jewish population to send over 1,500 Jews to their ultimate death at Auschwitz.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/world/europe/18papon.html?pagewanted=all
1911: Birthdate of British author Naomi Lewis, the native of “Great Yarmouth” who was the daughter of “a Latvian Jewish herring exporter” and a talented artist and musician whose name she took to avoid the anti-Semitism prevalent in the 1930’s.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jul/14/obituary-naomi-lewis
1911: At its annual convention the Independent Order of Ahawas Israel passed “resolutions advocating abrogation of the Treaty of 1832 with Russia.
1911: Founding of Beth Hamidrash Hagadol in Philadelphia, PA.
1911: An “athletic meet” sponsored by the Chicago Hebrew Junior League is scheduled to take place.
1912: In Dorchester, Massachusetts, founding of Temple Beth El.
1913(1stof Elul, 5673): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1913: Burton Harris who had delivered a speech on “Our Duty to Our Citizens abroad in which he spoke “on the attitude of the Russian government toward Jews, both naturalized and American born and the efforts that have been made through diplomatic channels to obtain recognition of their rights as American citizens” completed his service as the Congressman from the 20th district of New York and was succeeded by Jacob A. Cantor.
1913: Former President William Howard Taft elected President of the American Bar Association.
1914: Birthdate of Paula Adelsheimer who was transported from Stuttgart to Terezin to Auschwitz where she was murdered in 1944
1914: Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa was elected Pope serving as Benedict XV who dealt with issues related to the suffering European Jewry during WW I and the early days of the implementation of the Balfour Declaration under the British mandate.
1915(24thof Elul, 5675): Ernst Nathan, the former Collector of Revenue under President Benjamin Harrison and prominent Brooklyn Republican passed away in his 74thyear. A native or Prussia, Nathan had served as President of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, Temple Beth Elohim and the Jewish Federation of Brooklyn Charities.
1915: Governor Moses Alexander of Idaho, the only Jew serving in that capacity in the United Sates is scheduled to visit Congregation Shaare Zedek in Brooklyn this evening as part of his trip to New York City.
1916: It was reported today that “there is a deplorable need for medicines and medical supplies in the Jaffa and Jerusalem districts” which is extremely for the local population since “practically the whole population of Palestine both Jew and Mohammedan, relies on the Jewish hospitals.
1916: “After a journey of nearly 20,000 miles with her three year old son Mrs. Etta Kaufman was reunited with her husband Aaron Kaufman, formerly a professor at the Royal Petrograd Conservatory of Music in Brooklyn today thanks to information provided by the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society on East Broadway.
1916: In a raid that would pre-sage the Blitz of WW II when over 20,000 Londoners would be killed including an untold number of Jews, thirteen Zepplin’s raided England “eastern counties” tonight with three of them making their way to outskirts of London where they met by anti-aircraft fire and attacks from British Air Service bi-planes.
1916(5thof Elul, 5676): Second Lieutenant Andrade Haines, 11th East Surrey, the son of Louise and Marcus Haines, the chazzan at the New West End Synagogue and the step-son of Stephen Simon Hyam was killed on the Western Front.
1917: It was reported today that Mr. Henry Morgenthau, the former American Ambassador to Turkey and his wife who just received he Legion of Honor for her work with the wounded and sick French citizens in Constantinople plan to sail from France for the United States “on the first steamship on which they obtain suitable accommodations.”
1917: It was reported today that Hugo Freund of 47 Fort Washington Avenue has said that the $10,000 he had given to the American Jewish Soldiers Bureau would be available for the use of “the committee chaired by Mrs. Louis Glucksman to raise funds for Jewish soldiers.
1917: “The Federation of Oriental Jews of America announced” today that it had received cables stating that the “recent disastrous fire at Salonika, Macedonia” that destroyed “practically the entire city” which has a large Jewish population “was caused by the explosion of enemy bombs.”
1917: The British cabinet formally discusses the document that will be known as the Balfour Declaration. While most ministers favored the declaration, Edwin Montagu a Jewish member of the cabinet spoke out against the declaration. He feared that the declaration of
1918: The Republican Parity Primary in which Solomon Levitan of Madison, Wisconsin, the President of the Commercial National Bank, is a candidate for State Treasurer, is scheduled to be held today.
1918: As of today, untold thousands of Jews are scattered in locations east of the Urals in such places as Harbin and Vladivostok as well as in Japan.
1919: In Philadelphia, “Alix and May Stern, Jewish immigrants from Russia” gave birth to photographer Philip Stern.
1920: The Inwood Country Club (a golf club on Long Island that accepted Jewish members) is scheduled to host “an extra golf tournament” today that “will be an eighteen hold medal play.”
1920: The American Hebrew published an excerpt from The Valley of Hinnon, a novel of the Urkaine by Daniel L. Mordovstev.
1920: Applications for admission to the Hebrew Technical Institute may be made in person today.
1920: Rabbi Max Reichler led Friday night services at Sinai Temple.
1920: Rabbi I Mortimer Bloom delivered a sermon on “Suffrage Achieved – the Next Step” this evening at the Hebrew Tabernacle on Broadway.
1920: Rabbi Norman Salit delivered a sermon at Friday nights entitled “Gerizim Against Ebal” at Adath Israel; pm East 169th Street.
1920: The 12 week’s seasons of concerts sponsored by Columbia University, one of which was given at the Montefiore Home came to an end this evening.
1921: In Boston, Massachusetts, Mary Ruby and Samuel Orkin gave birth photographer and photojournalist Ruth Orkin whose assignments included photographing the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on its first tour of the United States in 1951 photographing Jewish refugees from Iraq as they arrived in Israel.
http://www.orkinphoto.com/photographs/europe-and-israel/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/150026231307475169/
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/01/17/nyregion/ruth-orkin-photojournalist-and-film-maker-dead-at-63.html
1922: Birthdate of Alexander Petrovich Kazhdan, the Soviet born American expert in Byzantine studies.
1923: “Merry-Go-Round,” a feature film produced by Carl Laemmel, directed by Erich von Stroheim who along with Irving Thalberg wrote the scenario was released in the United States today by Universal Pictures.
1924: Pitcher Happy Foreman made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1925: In Tajik, Sivyo Davydova and Rubin Mullodzhanov gave birth Shoista Mullojonova, the Bukharian Jewish singer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEfxDXSKn0k
1925: Birthdate of Mannheim, Germany native Edith Stern who fled Germany after Kristallnacht, lived in Switzerland and moved to the United States after marrying Arthur Stern.
1926: In Oklahoma City, OK, Theodore and Esther Greenberg gave birth to Alan Greenberg the future leader of Bears Stearns.
1926:“A heated debate marked today's session of the Council of the League of Nations when it came to consider the report of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations on the situation in Palestine.” (As reported by JTA)
1926: A fight broke out today between a group of Bedouins and the residents of Avodath Israel after the Jews refusing the shepherds’ request to their sheep graze on land belonging to the settlement. The Jews refused because they it would be a violation of the government quarantine imposed in response to the current cattle plague. (As reported by JTA)
1926: “The Son of a Sheik” a silent adventure film with music by Artur Guttman was released today in the Unites States today.
1926: The “Philadelphia Jewish Times” expressed its agreement with the statement made by Louis Marshall “that the rights guaranteed by the national minority treaties are essentially the same as those guaranteed to citizens by the United States Constitution and therefore the Turkish Jews had no right to renounce their minority rights.” (The Turkish Jews were responding to the reform movement in Turkey where the leaders were trying to create a secular state.)
1927Benjamin Morris Jebaltowsky the middleweight who fought under the name Ben Jeby began his pugilistic career with a victory.
1928: In San Francisco, businessman Sydney Fisher and cabinetmaker Aileen Emanuel gave birth to Donald Fisher who with his wife Doris co-founded The Gap clothing stores.
1928(18thof Elul, 5688): Fifty-two year old Hyman Goldstein, the London born son of Hannah and Solomon Goldstein passed away today in “Coogee, NSW, Australia.”
https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/Member-details.aspx?pk=1290
1929: British forces repulsed an Arab raiding party this evening at El Mesha, a village east of Mount Tabor. The Arabs suffered 26 casualties to one wounded British private. Fourteen Arabs were killed when they attacked Yesod Ha’Maalah and two others were killed when they attacked Nishmar Ha’Yarden.
1931: Elmer Berger, a Reform Rabbi who would emerge as a lead of the anti-Zionist movement, married Seville Schwartz today.
1931(21stof Elul, 5691): Sixty-five year old Eliza Aria, the London born daughter of photographer Hyman Davis and wife of “Jamaican-born merchant David Bonito Aria” who “was described as the most successful journalist of the day” passed away
1933: Birthdate of Dr. Charles Joseph Epstein, the geneticist who survived an attack by the Unabomber.
1934: The United Singers Society of Newark sponsored a Labor Day program at Union Singers Park featuring band music, fireworks and folk dancers dressed in authentic German costumes. The program was attended by 4,000 people. While the park was decorated with a variety of banners and flags emblematic of the German groups participating in the event, there were Nazi decorations or pictures of Hitler. The Singers Society was a conservative organization that had distanced itself from the pro-Hitler elements in the United States.
1935: Sir Julien Cahn XI, a cricket team formed and captained by Sir Julien Cahn played Lancashire.
1936: While speaking “before the Midwest Institute of Human Relations at Lawrence College,” “Roger W. Straus, a New York engineer and co-chairman of the National Conference of Jews and Christians called for protecting of each individual man and woman “through the affirmation of religious liberty” while declaring “that a diversity of religious belief is in itself a safeguard of the tolerant conception of religion.”
1936: In his New Year’s greeting to the Jewish population published today, President Roosevelt wrote, “Mindful of the signal part taken by the Jewish people of America in upholding the traditions and aims of our country it gives me special pleasure to extend cordial greetings to all those of the Jewish faith on this Rosh Hashanah” and expressed the hope “that the new year will bring to our fellow Jewish citizens great prosperity and happiness.”
1936: In his New Year’s greeting to the Jewish population published today, New York Governor Lehman wrote, “At this season, American Jews can with grateful hears join in thanksgiving because, in love and pride of country they can look forward with high confidence to a year of increased prosperity for American and of security for all who live here” which stands in stark contrast to “our brethren in many other lands” for whom “the past year has brought unjust oppression imminent danger and underserved distress.”
1937: “Big City” starring Luise Rainer, with a script by Dore Schary and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today by MGM.
1937: After premiering in New York, “Soul at Sea” featuring Joseph Schildkraut as Gaston de Bastonet was released in the rest of the United States today.
1938(7thof Elul, 5698): Parashat Shoftim
1938(7thof Elul, 5698): Sixty-three year old Jerome Hanauer, the son of Moses and Henrietta Hanhauer, who rose from being an office boy at Kuhn, Loeb to a full partnership who raise a daughter, Alice, with his wife Carrie Hellman Hanauer passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1938/09/04/99559478.html?pageNumber=16
1938:The Italian newspaper Tevere, which has been publishing harshly anti-Semitic material for several years, praises the Mussolini decree rescinding the citizenship of all Jews who entered Italy after 1919.
1938: The curtain came down on “You Can’t Take It With You” a three act play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart which had been playing at the Booth Theatre so the production could be moved to another Broadway theatre.
1938: “Exile From Italy” published today examined possible reasons for Mussolini following the lead of Hitler by adopting “the extraordinary and ruthless decree…ordering all Jews who have taken up residence in Italy since the World War to leave that country within the next six months” which will result in “some ten thousand people who have been living quietly and peacefully and no doubt usefully in Italy” to “pull up stakes and seek refuge in a cheerless world.”
1939:
1939: As a result of the UK’s declaration war on Germany mathematician and codebreaker Max Newman’s wife Lyn and his two sons – Edward and William – would be evacuated to the United States where they would stay until they returned in October, 1943.
1939(19th of Elul, 5699): The SS executed 26 Jews in the Polish frontier town, Wieruszow. The victims included Israel Lewi, Abraham Lefkowitz, Moseh Mozes and Usiel Baumatz. Their fate presaged the fate of all the Jews of Poland.
1939: In Mannheim, Germany, the Gestapo ordered all “able-bodied Jews” including Ernst Wolfgang Michel “to report to the local train station where they were to be sent to forced-labor camps” which in the case of Ernest Michel would eventually mean Auschwitz.
1939: At a meeting of the Jewish Agency Executive, an organization informally recognized as the ad hoc Jewish government of
1939:German troops invaded the home in Bielsko, Poland 15 year old Gerda Weissmann, the future American author and human rights activist.
1939: Franny Krongold and Jacob Silberman, the parent of Rosie Silberman Canada’s first Jewish woman judge, were married today in Poland.
1939: In response to today’s declaration of war by Britain against Germany, “Iraq deported German officials and broke off diplomatic relations with Germany” but the Arab kingdom did not comply with the terms of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and declare war on the Nazi government – a movement that helped to set the stage for the Fahud.
1939: The last Kindertransport, did not begin its scheduled trip because of the outbreak of World War II.
1940: Birthdate of Los Angeles native Joseph Stern, the actor and producer best known as “the founder of the Matrix Theatre Company.”
1940: Following a private service at her some in Westport, CT, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue is scheduled to officiate at the “funeral service for Lillian D. Wald, the founder of the Henry Street Settlement” a the Neighborhood Playhouse.
1941(11th of Elul, 5701): Sixty-two year old Philadelphia born, NYU Law School graduate City Court Justice Israel J.P. Adlerman and husband of Saide Adlerman with whom he had three daughters – Marion, Leona and Elaine – passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/09/04/105838521.pdf
1941: The Germans hung three Jewish brothers in Dubossary. Dubossary was in
1941: In Romania, Jews began wearing the “yellow badge” in response to an order from the national government.
1941: The Germans test Cyclon B for effectiveness at
1942: At
1942 The Geneva-based World Jewish Congress learns of deportations of French Jews.
1942: The Germans informed Dov Lopatyn, the head of the Judenrat in Łachwa, Poland was to be liquidated today. Lopatyn rejected the Nazi offer to spare his life if he would cooperate when he led the uprising that day claimed the life of approximately 1,100 Jews but enabled another 1,000 to escape. Yitzhak Rochzyn, one of the leaders of the uprising was killed by the Germans but Lopatyn escaped, joined a partisan unit with whom he fought until he was killed in 1944. “Either we all live or we all die” is a statement attributed to Lopatyn which Jews of the 21st century might do well to remember.
1942: Josef Kaplan, a leader of the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization), is arrested in
1942: The Times of London began running articles describing the deportations of French Jews. The articles ran until September 14.
1943: The New York Times published an article entitled “50,000 Jews Dying In Nazi Fortress.”
1943: During World War II, the Allies invaded mainland
1943: “Rothchild Rites Planned” published today summarized the accomplishments of the late Edward S. Rothchild the banker who “is believed to have built the first sizable office building in San Francisco after the San Francisco Fire and Earthquake.”
1943: Judge Louis E. Levinthal, President of the Zionist Organization of America was reported today to have issued a statement “hailing the resolution” adopted by the American Jewish Conference “calling for the right of Jewish refugees who can reach Palestine to establish permanent homes” as “an impressive manifestation of the overwhelming and enthusiastic support of American Jewry for the reconstruction of Palestine as a Jewish Commonwealth.”
1943: In Dordogne, France, David Feuerwerker and of Antoinette Feuerwerker gave birth to historian Atara Marmor.
1944:Bloeme Evers-Emden was placed on the last transport from the Netherlands bound for Auschwitz.
1944: The day after famous painter Felix Nussbaum arrived at Auschwitz, his brother was sent to the Nazi death camp.
1944: The Allies begin air evacuations of Jews from partisan-held regions of
1944: Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Kahn and their nurse Lea Schweiger were among the 2,500 people who were pack into freight cars for the trip to Theresienstadt.
1944: A senior Italian police officer named Giovanni Palatucci was arrested in the German-held Yugoslavian city of Fiume for aiding Jews, is sent to the concentration camp at Dachau, Germany, where he would die.
1944: The Frank family, including sisters Margot and Anne, were put on the first of the three final trains at Westerbork concentration camp that shipped its human cargo to Auschwitz.
1945(25th of Elul, 5705): Fifty-four year old Vienna born American movie composer Artur Guttman who created the music for “The Son of the Shiek,” the 1926 Rudolph Valentino silent epic.
1945: The Shanghai Ghetto which, despite its name, provided a safe haven for many stateless Jews fleeing the Nazis was officially liberated today.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005589
1946: Those charged with war crimes and the evidence against them was returned to Dachau when the Soviets failed to arrive at the border zone and take possession of them
1946(7th of Elul, 5706): Eighty-three year old pianist and composer Moriz Rosenthal who studied with Franz Liszt passed away today.
1946(7th of Elul, 5706): Sixty-five year old Russian born American Reform Rabbi Isaac Landman, an ardent supporter of better relations between Christians and Jews and author who testified as an opponent of Zionism before Congress in the 1920’s passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/landman-isaac
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1946/09/05/91099415.pdf
1947: The World Jewish Congress announced that four more groups – the Central Committee of Liberate Jews in the British Zone of German, the Jewish Association of Calcutta, the Congregation Israelite de Katanga of the Belgian Congo and the Jewish Community of Cyrenaica – “bringing the total of counrties with Jewish communities for which it speaks to fifty-nine.”
1947: Tonight, entertainer Eddie Cantor received the United Jewish Appeals’ 1947 Humanitarian Award at dinner in Philadelphian.
1948: “Larceny” a crime film produced by Leonard Goldstein, starring Shelley Winters and filmed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg opened in New York City today.
1949: Birthdate of Villa Domínguez, Argentina native José Néstor Pékerman Krimen who gained fame as José Pékerman, “the Argentine football player and coach” who was the manger “of the Colombian national football team.”
1949: Birthdate of Raik Haj Yahia, an Israeli Arab who served in the Knesset in 1998 and 1999 as a member of the Labor Party.
1950: In Calgary, Alberta, “community builders and philanthropists, Harry B. Cohen and Martha Cohen” gave birth to Dartmouth Phi Beta Kappa grad and University of Toronto trained physician Philip F. Cohen, the award winning “clinical director of Nuclear Medicine at Lions Gate Hospital” and specialist in fighting prostate cancer.
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Philip_Cohen7
1950: In Mexico City, Simon Sneider and Esther Bessudo Perez gave birth to their “youngest child and only daughter” Estella Sneider, the Mexican television start known as “Dr. Estella” who also appeared on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” and an active member of the “entertainment and charity scenes in Los Angeles.”
1950: Dr. Pinchas Churgin, President of the Mizrachi Organization of America announced today that a tract of land has been set aside in Tel Aviv for the construction of new college of arts and sciences patterned after American undergraduate colleges. The plan is for the new school to begin accepting applicants within the next three years.
1951: President Harry Truman sent a message to Alexander Kahn, general manager of the Forwardexpressing his sorrow over the death of Abraham Cahan whom he described "as a teacher and guide to generations of Jewish immigrants" (As reported by JTA)
1951: CBS broadcast the first episode of “Search For Tomorrow” a popular soap opera in which Lee Grant played the role of “Rose Peabody.”
1951(2nd of Elul, 5711): Eighty-five year old Russian born French surgeon Serge Abrahamovitch Voronoff passed away today.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11624870
http://www.fampeople.com/cat-serge-voronoff_4
1951: According to published reports Israel is facing the worse food crisis that has confronted the Jewish state since its birth three years ago. Except on the black market, fruits and vegetables have been all but unavailable on the local market. The meat ration has been canceled for the last three weeks and there was no sugar ration available during August. The cause of the shortage is the continued flow of new immigrants to the country which means that the food supply is always outstripped by the ever-increasing demand.
1954: “Private Hell 36” directed by Don Siegel was released today in the United States.
1954: The German U-Boat U-505 begins its move from a specially constructed dock to its final site at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. Ironically, this captured Nazi ship would be a must-see stop each time a certain Jewish family visited Chicago during the summers of the 1950’s
1955(16th of Elul, 5715): Parashat Ki Tavo
1955(16th of Elul, 5715): Sixty-four year old Russian born “men’s clothing manufacturer and Zionist leader” Paul Kaminsky, the president of the company created by the merger with Max Udell Sons and Company and husband of Miriam Kaminsky with whom he had two children – Milton and Rosalyne – passed away today at the Lido Hotel on Long Island.
1963(14th of Elul, 5723): Sixty-one year old Dr. Asher Isaacs, the Cincinnati born “son of Abraham and Rachel (Friedman) Isaacs and husband of Flora Meyers, the University of Cincinnati Undergrad who earned his MA and Ph.D from Harvard before pursuing an academic career in economics that led to his being name Chairman of the Department of Economics at Pittsburgh passed away today.
1965(6thof Elul, 5725): Fifty-four year old Jersey City native Mortimer Taube, the holder of a B.A. from U. of Chicago and Ph.D from UC, Berkley the innovator in the field of information who was listed as one the “100 most import leaders” in his field during the 20th Century and who raised three children with his wife Bernice passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/09/07/96717746.pdf
1966(18th of Elul, 5726): Parashat Ki Tavo
1966(18th of Elul, 5726): Sixty-six year old Charleston born, Yale Law School educated attorney and WW I veteran, Arthur Israel, the secretary of the Paramount Picture Corporation and president of the National Music Publishers Association passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/09/05/82509206.pdf
1966(18thof Elul, 5726): Fifty-four year old Jersey City native and holder of a Ph.D. from the University of California Martin Taube, the “chairman of the board and founder of Documentation, Inc.” and lecturer in documentation at Chicago and Columbia universities who was the author Computers and Common Sense, the Myth of the Thinking Machines and the husband of Bernice Taube with whom he had three children, passed away today.
1966: Birthdate of Memphis native and Ivy League educated journalist Edward Felsenthal who spent “Friday nights with his German-immigrant grandparents, listening to the rabbi recite “Shalom Rav” as the organist played the melody to “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.”
1969: In Brooklyn Georgia Brown and Jonathan Baumbach gave birth to screenwriter and director Jonathan Baumbach
1969: “The Valley of Gwangi” starring Holocaust survivor and Israeli actress Gila Golan with music by Jerome Moross that was filmed by cinematographer Erwin Hiller was released today in the United States.
1972: Thirty-six year old Israeli racewalker who had survived Bergen-Belsen placed 19th in the 50-kilometer walk with a time of 4 hours, 24 minutes and 38 seconds at the Munich Olympics.
1972(24th of Elul, 5732): Eighty-seven year old Mrs. Blanche Cohen Schlang Nirenstein, founder and past president of the Manhattan chapter of the Mizrachi Women's Organization passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1972/09/04/archives/mrs-blanche-nirenstein-official-of-mizrachi-87.html
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/nirenstein-blanche-cohen
1974: “Shimon Grillius and Oleg Frolov were released from Perm camp 36 after serving five year sentences”
1974(16th of Elul, 5734): Seventy –four year old Russian born American painter Moses Soyer passed away today.
http://www.phillipscollection.org/research/american_art/bios/soyer_m-bio.htm
1975: As the Soviets continue their policy of allying themselves with the Araba nations that want to destroy Israel, the USSSR Supreme Soviet ratified “an agreement on Soviet-Libyan cultural co-operation that had been signed in Tripoli.
1975(27th of Elul, 5735): Eighty-six year old Isidore Ostrer the husband of Helen Ostrer and father of actress Pamela Ostrer, a wealthy industrialist and banker who became president of the Gaumont British Picture Corporation in the early 1920s passed away today.
1976: ABC broadcast “Death at Love House” a Leonard Goldberg/Aaron Spelling film featuring Sylvia Sydney and Bill Macy.
1984(6th of Elul, 5744): Songwriter Arthur Schwartz passed away after suffering a stroke. He was 83. Born in
1985(17th of Elul, 5745): Seventy-five year old Johnny Marks, the Colgate and Columbia educated decorated WW II veteran who ironically wrote some of America’s favorite Christmas music including “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and who raised three children - Michael, Laura and David – with his wife Margaret May Marks passed away today.
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Johnny_Marks
1985(17th of Elul, 5745): Seventy-eight year old Cecile Gwendolyn Pofcher Strauss, the wife of the late Harry Strauss passed away today in Massachusetts.
1989: On the 50th anniversary of the Anglo-French declaration of war on German The Independent published Time for Mourning” by Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill and one of the outstanding historians of the 20th century.
http://www.martingilbert.com/blatt/more-a-time-for-mourning/
1999: The Times of London reviewed The Rich and the Poor: Jewish philanthropy and social control in nineteenth-century London by Mordechai Rozin.
The nature of the relationship between rich and poor, which is the subject of Mordechai Rozin's book on Jewish philanthropy in nineteenth-century London, is a contentious one. Since the collapse of socialism in 1989, students of British philanthropy have moved on from analyses based on a theory of class conflict to a more benign view of the charitable. Today, social historians, captivated by those buzzwords "community" and "civil society", are prone to see charities as valuable intermediary institutions acting as buffers between the individual and the State. In the past, they were more likely to treat those societies as devices by which the rich created a subservient class of Mr Pooters while maintaining the status quo. It is thus surprising to read a book published at the end of the 1990s which has all the hallmarks of the 70s. Nothing dates a history book more than a fashionable concept, and the term "social control" in The Rich and the Poor: Jewish philanthropy and social control in nineteenth-century London is redolent of an earlier way of thinking. Of course, many philanthropists wished to keep the poor in their place, particularly at times of social unrest, and used charitable work to confirm their status or climb the social ladder. Concentrating on the philanthropy of a small band of wealthy Jews, Rozin makes a case for this line of argument, but he does so by ignoring a great deal else, not least the religious and psychological pressures which so often lay behind charitable endeavor. By defining the function of philanthropy "as collective action . . . for the sake of the combined interests of the elite as a group, regardless of personal contributions of its individual members", he sidesteps the risk of having to deal with expressions of personal service. The successive waves of Jewish immigrants to London would have tested any system of relief. It certainly tested the Jewish Board of Guardians, established in 1859 to co-ordinate Jewish charity. The Board is central to Rozin's thesis, and he concludes that the rich and powerful who ran it were self-serving despots hostile to the basic needs of the Jewish poor, paternalists who put class interest ahead of ethnic solidarity. The Board's treatment of new immigrants was insensitive, but difficult decisions had to be made when charitable funds were limited. Rozin, somewhat surprisingly, believes that Jewish plutocrats had the financial resources to deal with sick and destitute Jews. A more usual refrain among historians is that nineteenth-century charitable resources were woefully inadequate, so much so that government intervention became a necessity. As an advocate of state welfare, Rozin must take added pleasure in accusing his plutocrats of stinginess. By concentrating on the Board of Guardians, Rozin ignores the enormous contribution made by wealthy Jews to non-Jewish charities such as the Prince of Wales's Hospital Fund for London (King's Fund). The financiers Baron Hirsch and Sir Ernest Cassel, who gave vast sums in aid of the London poor, are not even mentioned. Innovative Jewish charities in the East End, for example mothers' meetings and nursing societies, are likewise neglected. Still, the most valuable sections of the book touch on the variety of Jewish philanthropy. Like Engels, Rozin believes that the working classes were more charitable than the rich, and the pages on good works beyond the elite are particularly welcome. Institutions established by the poor themselves offered an alternative source of relief to the Board of Guardians. Their very existence, in Rozin's view, was evidence that the Board had failed in its duty by the harshness of its policies. They are also evidence of its failure to "control" the poor. As Rozin confirms, leading Jewish institutions shared the same social philosophy that marked English philanthropy, with its emphasis on casework, dislike of indiscriminate doles, and incentives to work. Yet, in practice, the charity of wealthy Jews, like that of their Christian counterparts, was more compassionate than such a doctrine suggests. In the case of the Jewish poor, who were known to be frugal and industrious, distinctions between deserving and undeserving claimants were often inappropriate. To those on the doorstep, not least Jewish lady visitors, the destitution and disease could be so overwhelming that abstract debate about the causes of poverty was meaningless; they were not to be reasoned out of their humanity by doctrinaire guidelines, or, dare one say it, even by self-interest. There may be something to be said for this study as a corrective to former glowing accounts of Jewish philanthropy, but charitable enterprise was more complex than is suggested here, where indulgence in social theory masks, and distorts, the lived experience.
2000:The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about topics of Jewish interest includingIt Didn’t Happen Here: Why Socialism Failed in the United Statesby Seymour Martin Lipset and Gary Marks, Stella in Heaven: Almost a Novelby Art Buchwald and JEW VS. JEW The Struggle for the Soul of American Jewryby Samuel G. Freedman which is reviewed by Stephen J. Whitfield the smartest person I ever met at Tulane University. He now teaches at Brandeis University.
2000: A ceremony was held at the site where the Struma was sunk to commemorate the tragedy. It was attended by 60 relatives of Struma victims, representatives of the Jewish community of Turkey, the Israeli ambassador and prime minister's envoy, as well as British and American delegates. There were no delegates from the former Soviet Union
2000(3rd of Elul, 5760): Fifty-eight year old Samuel Mayer “Sandy” Palley, the husband of Julie Kardon Palley passed away today in South Kingstown, RI after which he was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Trevose, PA.
2000(3rd of Elul, 5760): Fifty-eight year old Julie Kardon Palley, the wife of Samuel Mayer Palley passed away today in South Kingstown, RI after which she was buried at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Trevose, PA.
2000: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) expressed concern at the Vatican’s beatification of Pope Pius IX, who was responsible for the 1858 abduction of a six-year old Jewish child through the following statement issued by Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.“The beatification of Pius IX is troubling for the Jewish community. Pius was responsible for the case of Edgardo Mortara, who at the age of six was abducted from his family in
2001: The nations of Israel and Georgia “jointly issued postage stamps to honor Shota Rustaveli. Designed by Yitzhak Granot, the Israeli stamp (3.40 NIS) showed the author with Hebrew text in the background.” A fresco depicting the Georgian poet can found at the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. (This serves as another reminder of the multi-national and multi-religious affiliations that have been part of the history of the Israeli capital for centuries.)
2001(15th of Elul, 5761): Eighty-two year old film critic Pauline Kael, passed away today. (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)
2001: In Jerusalem, three people were injured during a series of car bombings.
2002: Pitcher Justin Wayne made his major league debut with the Florida Marlins.
2002: Today, “Nigella Lawson opened the John Diamond Voice Laboratory at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London’ which was named in memory of journalist and broadcaster John Diamond who had died of throat cancer.
https://web.archive.org/web/20091216113301/http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/diamond/2603916
2002: A production of “Pacific Overtures,” “a musical written by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman” set in Japan when the Americans were arriving in 1853 opened at the Eisenhower Theatre of the Kennedy Center.
2003: “Regretting that Israel had not already done so, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said today that it might move to expel the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, by the end of the year.” (As reported by Lizette Alvarez)
2004:The Seventh Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, under the musical direction of pianist Elena Bashkirova, opens in
2004: Jonathan David Leibowitz was sworn as a member of the Federal Trade Commission.
2004: “The Take” a documentary directed by Avi Lewis and written by Naomi Klein both of whom narrated the film was premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
2004: Governor Vilsack proclaimed this as Celebrate 350 Day in
2005: Premiere in Deauville, of “The Ice Harvest” directed by Harold Ramis
2005: The end of the summer holidays proclaims the start of the performing arts season and it begins with Dan Ettinger on the podium at the Rishon Performing Arts Center.
2005: The Jerusalem Post reported that Palestinian leaders were “upset” with Pakistani officials for meeting with Israeli government officials in
2005: As evidence of the vitality of the century old Cedar Rapids Jewish Community,Natalee Birchansky celebrated her Bat Mitzvah at
2005:Mike Bloom married a woman named Farah at Caleo Resort & Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona
2006: The New York Times featured a review of Janna Levin’s A Madman Dreams of Turing Machinesa historical novel featuring Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing as characters.
2006: The Washington Post featured reviews of Richard Grant’s Another World, a novel about an “unlikely hero who goes behind Germany's front line to retrieve evidence of the Nazis' Final Solution and A.B. Yehoshua’s A Woman In Jerusalem“a dreamlike novel by an Israeli master” in which a Jewish human resource manager is sent on an odd quest. [Speaking from experience, there is more fact than fiction to this since Jewish human resources professionals spend a lot of time dealing with odd requests.]
2007: Maimonides finishes third in the Hopeful Stakes at
2007: In Jerusalem, the weeklong festival known as Jewish Music Days begins with a grand opening concert at Beit Shmuel, featuring Frank London and the AndraLaMoussia Ensemble. “
2007: On Labor Day a statue of labor leader Samuel Gompers was unveiled in
2007(20th of Elul, 5767): Dr. Jacob Levin passed away in
2007:Rabbi Aaron Sherman, of Temple Judah said he supports same-sex marriage in Iowa. "I don't find that two people of the same sex getting married in any way diminish the sanctity of marriage," he said.
2008: In
2008: The Budapest Short Film Festival opens featuring “Mother Economy” as an official selection. The nineteen minute film is artist Maya Zack’s powerfully imaginative meditation on Holocaust remembrance and on the myth of the Jewish mother.
2008:Brad Meltzer reads from and signs his new thriller, The Book of Lies, at Barnes & Noble, in
2008: FX broadcast the first episode “Sons of Anarchy” co-starring at Ron Perlman.
2008: A critically acclaimed fully staged off-Broadway production of Joseph Stein’s “Enter Laughing: The Musica”l opened at the York Theatre. Stein is the son of Charles and Emma (Rosenblum) Stein, two Jewish immigrants from Poland.
2009:Agi Mish'ol launches his new book Bikkur Bayit (House Call) at Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem.
2009:Beit Avi Chai presents Part 4 of a workshop for people interested in Rambam (Maimonides), his unique philosophy, and its significance today. Part 4, led by Dr. Meir Buzaglo, Department of Philosophy, Hebrew University is entitled “That He Created as He Wished” and asks the questions: How does Rambam’s conception of the world differ from those of Spinoza and Einstein? Was the creation of the world a Divine desire or a necessity?
2009: The Antiquities Authority said a 3,700-year-old wall that is the oldest example of massive fortifications ever found Jerusalem will be opened to the public beginning today.
2009: The Washington Post features a review of Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow
2010:In Washington, DC, Adas Israel is scheduled to kick-off the Labor Day Weekend and Erev Shabbat observance with L'Dor VaDor - The Back to Shul BBQ
2010: The Minnesota Vikings trade quarterback Sage Rosenfels to the New York Giants today.
2010: The New York Times published a review of Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends by Tom Segev. In the book, the author reports for the first time that Wiesenthal received financial support from Mossad and that he played a key role in the capture of Adolph Eichmann.
2010(24 Elul, 5770): Sixty year old Standup comic Robert Schimmel, a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio show, has died after suffering serious injuries in a car accident..
2011: The 14th Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival is scheduled to open.
2011; Matisyahu is scheduled to perform in Lowell, MA.
2011: Kandi Abelson is scheduled to perform at the Off The Wall Comedy Basement in Jerusalem.
2011:An estimated 460,000 people gathered across the country this evening to protest for social change as part of the "March of the Million," Channel 10 news reported.
2011:An estimated 400,000 Israelis are marching across the country as part of the 'March of the Million,' a rally which organizers hope will grow to be the biggest social protest in Israel's history
2011:Egypt's military has begun an operation to close a network of smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border following tension with Israel, security officials said today. Hundreds of tunnels snake under the 9-mile (14-kilometer) border, where smugglers bring Gaza supplies and fuel limited by an Israeli blockade. Israel charges Gaza's Hamas rulers get weapons, ammunition and rockets through the tunnels and smuggle militants out.
2012: “Labor on the Bimah,” a three-day social justice activity that “focused on the importance of workers' rights and organized labor and the challenges workers face” is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The French Israeli singer Françoise is scheduled to perform her Paris-Jazz show at Avram’s Bar in Jerusalem.
2012: Retired Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel Ayala Procaccia is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State: Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Religion.” This event is in memory of Sir Zelman Cowen, a leading legal mind who served as 19th Governor General of Australia.
2012:A member of the Jewish community of Alexandria today denied reports that Egyptian authorities had canceled Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur prayers in the city – citing security concerns – saying he would personally lead the services during the High Holidays. Youssef Gaon, the caretaker of the Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue, was quoted by a Jewish official as saying prayers will be held at the 180-year-old house of worship this year, albeit without an ordained rabbi or cantor.
2012:A new public elementary school named after a Holocaust survivor opened in Silver Spring, Md. The Flora M. Singer Elementary School, whose name was unanimously approved by the Montgomery County Board of Education on May 8, opened its doors to students today.]
2012: On Labor Day, American Jews can reflect on their role in the American Labor Movement:
http://www.ajwnews.com/archives/14322
http://magazine.discoverjcc.com/the-jewish-people-and-the-american-labor-movement/
2013: “Fill the Void” is scheduled to open at the Biltmore Grande Stadium 15 in Asheville, NC
2013: “Under the Skin” directed by Jonathan Glazer is scheduled to debut at the Venice Film Festival.
2013: Elisabeth Leonskaja and Jerusalem Quartet are scheduled to perform Dvořák’s Piano Quintet no. 2 in A major, op. 81 at The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival.
2013:“Two Palestinians in a speeding truck penetrated the first security barrier at Ben Gurion International Airport overnight today, prompting the initiation of emergency protocol and shutting down the airport for an hour.” (As reported by Yoel Goldman
2013: Russia raised a brief alarm in the Middle East today after apparently detecting a joint Israel and US missile launch test in the Mediterranean (As reported by Joshua Davidovich and Mitch Ginsburg)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-says-ballistic-objects-fired-near-syria/
2014: Dr. Moshe Lavee of University of Haifa, Israel, is scheduled to lecture on "The Egyptian Midwives: Gender and Identity in Lost Aggadic Traditions from the Genizah" at the University of Connecticut.
2014: “Israel signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan today, under which it will supply the Hashemite Kingdom with $15 billion worth of natural gas from its Leviathan energy field over 15 years.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: As he prepares to lead an Israeli delegation to Washington in an effort to pressure the White House on Iran, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz says that unless there is a “dramatic development” in nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1, Israel won’t be able to accept the outcome of the negotiations,
2014(18th of Elul, 5774): Eighty-five year old museum curator Mildred Friedman passed away today.
2014: Michael Bloomberg announced today that he would be resuming the senior leadership role at Bloomberg L.P. at the end of this year.
2014: Steven Sotloff’s family broke their silence today, describing the journalist not as a hero but “a mere man” who tried through his reporting to show the plight of people in Syria. “He was no war junkie,” family spokesman Barak Barfi said, reading a statement from the family.
2014(8th of Elul, 5774): Forty-eight year old Andrew Madoff, the surviving son of Bernard Madoff passed away today.
2015: Seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Shanghai Ghetto.
http://www.shanghaighetto.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/20/travel/jewish-life-in-shanghais-ghetto.html
2015(19th of Elul, 5775): Ninety-four year old Daniel Thompson, the husband of Ada Schatz whom he had married in 1946 and the man who invented a commercially viable bagel making machine passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/
2015: China’s celebration of the victory in the “Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War” (WW II) which has included the launching of a new exhibition of “a new exhibition at a museum dedicated to Jewish refugees” that promotes Shanghai’s role in sheltering Jews from the Nazis is scheduled to culminate with “a giant military parade in Beijing.”
2015: Academy Award-winning actress Natalie Portman told the Associated Press today, just prior to the Jerusalem premier of “A Tale of Love and Darkness” that when she read the book on which was based for the first time she could visualize an entire film in her head and “it was so personal” she could related to it because of the family stories with which she had grown up with. (As reported by Aron Heller)
2015: Today, “an official from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the leading pro-Israel lobby in the US, blasted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for harming the opposition to the Iran nuclear deal by insisting on addressing Congress on the issue in March.”
2016(30th of Av, 5776): Parashat Re’eh; Rosh Chodesh Elul
2016(30th of Av, 5776): In one of those quirks of the calendar that some find fascinating today, on both the secular and religious calendars we mark the 163rd Yahrzeit of Daniel Block, one of the early leaders of the St. Louis, MO Jewish community.
2017: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including I’ll Have What She’s Having: How Nora Ephron’s Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson, Warner Bros: The Making of an American Movie Studio by David Thomson and You’ll Never Know, Dear by Hallie Ephron.
2017: “As part of History Week 2017, The Sydney Jewish Museum is scheduled to host “The Buchenwald Boys” which offers “a unique opportunity to hear three Polish Holocaust survivors; Kuba Enoch, George Grojnowski and Jack Meister in discussion with Museum Education Officer, Dr Rebecca Kummerfeld.”
2017: The Australian Jewish Historical Society and the Sydney Jewish Museum are scheduled to host a viewing of “the current exhibition Battle of Beersheba followed by an address from Sam Lipski” entitled “Audacity and Watershed on the charge of the Australian Light Horse at Beersheba.
2017: “Paul Simon: Words and Music” is scheduled to come to a close at the Skirball Cultural Center.
2017: “Victor and Abdul,” a biopic directed by Stephen Fears, with music by Thomas Newman and filmed by cinematographer Danny Cohen premiered at Venice International Film Festival
2018: As Labor Day is celebrated in the United States, Jews, who are commanded to Labor for six days before they can rest, might want to contemplate their changing views and roles in the history of the American Labor Movement (Lest we forget, in the garment industry it was often Jewish owners versus Jewish sweatshop workers
http://www.csjo.org/resources/essays/jews-in-the-american-labor-movement/
https://www.marxists.org/subject/jewish/herberg-labor.pdf
http://www.jewishlaborcommittee.org/2006/01/readings_on_the_american_jewis_1.html
2018: JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Dough” a film that is quite timely considering the tensions existing between various ethnic and religious groups.
2018: In an attempt to enhance Labor Day enjoyment and to honor the sacrifice of Americans in uniform and their families, the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to “offer free admission to all active duty personnel and their family members.”
2018: Tourists walking through Times Square can look up and see a billboard that reads “My name is Marc, I need a Kidney, YOU can Help!” “alongside a photo of a smiling Marc Weiner” who has “lost both of his kidneys and his bladder.:
2018: The President of the Philippines, “Rodrigo Duterte, who has stirred controversy with comments about the Holocaust in the past, is scheduled to continue the second of his four day visit to Israel.
2019: In Tacoma, WA, the Grand Cinema is scheduled to host a screening of Aviva Kempner’s “The Spy Behind Home Plate.”
2018: In William Shatner gets candid about his estrangement from Leonard Nimoy” pubished today Mark Gray examines the relationship between the Jewish stars of the “cult” sci-fi television series.
2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Blinded by the Light.”
2019: Eightieth Anniversary of Great Britain and France declaring was in Germany which ended a period of uncertainty and meant what really was a “twenty year truce for the Germans” was now ended and WW II had begun.
2019: Music Square is scheduled to host “Goov’in Jerusalem.”
2019: The four day long Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2020: Temple Sinai of Marblehead is scheduled to present online “Selichot: The Power of Forgiveness” which is part of its series on “preparing for the High Holidays with Rabbi David.”
2020: B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to present “A Kabbalistic Guide to Forgiving with Rabbi Stephen Weiss” who “will hold a Elul discussion based on the book, The Palm Tree of Deborah at noon today.”
2020: The Virtual Sephardic Film Festival is scheduled to host the final screening of “The Women’s Balcony” and the first screening of “Hummus!”
2020: The Chabad of North Peninsula is scheduled to host the virtual “Kabbalah of Rosh Hashanah” during which “Chabad Rabbi Yossi Yaffe explores the profundity of the High Holidays through the lens of the mystics.”
2020(14th of Elul): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of the Jews of Sarny, Bereznitz, Rokitno, Klesiv Tomashgorod who were massacred in the forest just outside of Sarny (August 27, 1942).
2020: For the third straight, This Day…Jewish History has returned to its regular posting, no thanks to Mediacom but with great gratitude to a passing electrician.