OCTOBER 19
1187: Pope Urban III passed away. Urban was a supporter of the Crusades, the cause of so much Jewish misery. A large part of his papacy was spent in struggle with Frederick I, the Emperor who issued “The Confirmation of Rights of the Jews of Regensburg” that stated, “We must make provision for them tom maintain their customs and secure peace for their persons and property.”
1216: King John of England died at Newark-on-Trent and is succeeded by his nine-year-old son Henry.Richard's brother John's lack of judgment and popularity meant that he was always short of money and support. While his barons might grumble at John's incompetence and resist his ever-increasing demands for money, the Jews had no such leverage. When the Baron’s forced him to sign the Magna Carta they included a clause that restricted claims of Jews against debtors who died owing them money. John pressed his Jews to provide a royal dowry for his daughter, Joan, followed too quickly by the massive so-called Bristol Tallage, which depleted the wealthiest Jews upon which it largely fell. Henry was only a nine year old child. As Henry III will also clash with the Barons and will look to the Jews as a source of revenue to prop up his throne.
1216: King Henry III who gave “Peter de Rivel gives him the office of Treasurer and Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and also "the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland" began his reign today.
1295: Coronation of Mahmud Ghazan who converted to Islam in 1295 marking the start of a downgrading of the conditions of the Jews in Persia because they were forced back into the role of “dhimmis” – official second class citizens.
1298: Two hundred Jews were massacred in Germany. This was part of a period half century of violence aimed against the Jews of Germany. Much of the popular sentiment was aroused by claims that Jews were using Christian blood to make matzoth. The clerics were working to enforce laws against any kind of intercourse between Christians and Jews. And the royalty was trying to figure out ways to strip the Jews of their wealth. It was this kind of violence that would cause Asher ben Yechiel (see above) to flee Germany in 1303.
1329 (9 Cheshvan 5090):Asher ben Yechiel passed away. Born in 1250 this great Talmudic commentator was known as Rabbenu Asher or the "Rosh". He fought against the over-philosophizing of his day. Asher was a unique case. He was Ashkenazi and had begun his work among the Jews of France of Germany. When his life was threatened in Germany he fled to Spain where he became rabbi of the Sephardic Jews of Toledo. His rabbinical academy attracted students from Europe and Russia. His works included "Diskei Rosh", discussions, over 1000 Responsa, a commentary of the MishnayotZerayim and Teharot, and notes on some Talmudic Tractates. He encouraged his pupil, Isaac ben Yoseph, to write Yesod Olam "Foundation of the World," a scientific work on astronomy and the calendar. At the time of his death he was preparing a codification of commentaries that for the first time included the views of the German and Spanish rabbinical authorities. His son, Jacob ben Asher, would finish his father’s task by writing a code called Turim.
1433: In Figline Valdarno, Republic of Florence, Diotifeci d'Agnolo , “a physician under the patronage of Cosimo de' Medici” and his wife gave birth to Marsilio Ficino, the Roman Catholic priest and Christian Kabbalist..
https://therealsamizdat.com/2014/09/26/marsilio-ficino-and-christian-kabbalah/
1466: In Poland, the Thirteen Years War comes to an end with Polish forces victorious over the Teutonic Knights. This victory came during that period of time when Poland was on its way to becoming home to the largest Jewish population in Europe.
1469: Ferdinand II of Aragon wedded Isabella of Castile, a marriage that paved the way to the unification of Aragon and Castile into a single country, Spain. The marriage also paved the way to Spanish Inquisition, The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain, and the discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus. In other words, these two Hispanic lovebirds closed out what had been one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in history and opened the door to what would become the most vibrant Jewish community in the history of the Diaspora.
1518: “Shealtiel a Sephardic Jew who had served as Kahya for twenty years was ousted from office by the community leaders, after many complaints of bribery and arbitrary taxes were lodged against him by Jews. The community banned him and his sons from holding the position of kahya or performing any other function involving contact with the Ottoman authorities.” (As described by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1587: Forty-six year old Francesco I de’Medici, the 2nd grand duke of Tuscany who “invited Jewish merchants to settle in Livorno, granting them free residence, unlimited access to trade and extensive self-government in this new Medicean free-port on the Mediterranean” passed away today.
1686(2nd of Tishrei, 5446): Jacob Abendana passed away today after which he was buried in the Velho Sephardic Cemtetery.
1733: The will of Barbados resident Abraham Burssy was dated today.
1735(2nd of Cheshvan, 5496): Moses Kalman, grandfather of A.M. Rothschild passed away.
1739: In Portugal, Antonio Jose da Silva, who was a Converso born in Brazil to Converso parents was found guilty of heresy. He was a well-known dramatist and his works were popularly referred to as those of “The Jew.” Da Silva whose parents had also been persecuted by the inquisition was arrested numerous times and tortured. Although the King himself was inclined toward leniency, he was burned. At the same time, one of his plays was playing in a popular theater in Lisbon. Despite the King’s inclination towards leniency Da Silva was garroted and burnt at a Lisbon auto-da-fe. His wife, who witnessed his death, did not long survive him. At the time of his death, one of da Silva’s plays was being performed in a popular Lisbon theatre. Da Silva's tragic story has inspired several modern writers, including the Portuguese Camilo Castelo Branco (author of the novel O Judeu), who was himself of Converso origin.
1753(21stof Tishrei, 5514): Hoshana Raba
1767: Birthdate of Salomon Heine, the Hamburg born banker who was the father of Amalie Friedlander and the uncle of Heinrich Heine.
1773: In New York City, Jonas Phillips, the son of Aaron Phillips and his wife Rebecca Mendz Machado gave birth to the their second child and first son, Naphtali Phillips who married Esther Siexas one year after the death of his first wife Rachel and became the publisher of the National Advocate and who in 1796 “took the first copy of George Washington’s farewell address that came off the press of the American Advertiser” which was later place in the cornerstone of the Washington monument.
1778: Marks and Rachel Dorris Lazarus gave birth to Leah Lazarus who became Leah Lazarus Cohen when she married Mordecai Cohen.
1780(20thof Tishrei 5541): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1781: Emperor Joseph II issues the Toleration Decree in which the Jews of Austria were accorded civil and political equality.
1781: The British fleet having been defeated by the French fleet thanks in no small part to the anti-Semitic plundering of St. Eustatius by Admiral Rodney, Cornwallis’s army which lacked supplies, provisions or a route of escape, marched out of Yorktown and surrendered to George Washington.
1781: The articles of capitulation were signed today marking the end of the siege of Yorktown and for all intents and purposes the end of the American Revolution.
1783(23rdof Tishrei, 5544): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since the signing of the Treaty of Paris which marked the end of the American Revolution
1790: Feiwel Duschenes and Brache Duschenes gave birth to Joachim Duschenes, the husband of Sara Duschenes.
1793: Birthdate of German native Julia Isaak, the wife of Samson Nathan Eisendrath with whom she had eleven children.
1798: In Rhode Island, Esther Mordecai and Philip Moses Russell gave birth to Rachel Russell, the wife of David de Oliveria Tobias and the mother of Orlando, Esther, Josephine, Thaddeus and Rachel H. Tobias.
1801(12th of Cheshvan, 5562): Michael Emanuel passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1803: In Great Britain, an official fast for success in the war against France begins.
1807: In Charleston, SC, Priscilla Moses and David Lopez gave birth to Priscilla Lopez, the wife of Edwin Warren Moise and the mother of Cecilia, Sallie and Theodore Moise.
1810: The Grand Duke of Frankfurt, a French official, resisted granting full equality to the Jews. A.M. Rothschild was sure that the Grand Duke was just holding out for a larger bribe.
1812:Napoleon begins his retreat from Moscow. This marks the beginning of the end for the emancipation of the Jews of Europe that had followed in the wake of France’s military victories. The defeat at Moscow would hasten the return of the reactionaries. Figuratively, if not literally, ghetto doors that had been thrown open would be closed again.
1821(23rdof Tishrei, 5582): Simchat Torah is celebrated for the first time since Mexico and the nations of Central America threw off the yoke of Spanish rule.
1826: Birthdate German Jewish philosopher Manuel Joel who followed Abraham Geiger as the rabbi in Breslau.
1827: In France, Barbe Levi and Jacques Goudchaux who were married in 1813 gave birth to Anne Gouchaux.
1829(22ndof Tishrei, 5590): Shmini Atzeret
1833: In “Canterbury, Kent” Hannah Barnard and Nathan Jacobs gave birth to Asher Jacobs.
1834(16thof Tishrei, 5595) Second Day of Sukkoth
1842: Birthdate of Adolph Meyer, the native of Natchez, Mississippi and student at the University of Virginia who left school to fight in the Confederate Army and who later represented Louisiana’s First Congressional District for 18 years.
1846(29thof Tishrei, 5607): Sixty-nine year old Jacob Hirsch Kann, the son Miriam and Isaac Jacob Kann and the husband of Jetta Kann with whom he had 13 children passed away today.
1847: After struggling for two years, Temple Emanu-El purchased “a church on Chrystie Street between Hester Streets for $12,000 which it would alter so that it was ready to be used as a Jewish house of worship by Pesach, 1848.
1851(23rdof Tishrei, 5612): As the turmoil that would lead to the coup that would end the Second Republic gripped France, Jews observed Simchat Torah
1853(17thof Tishrei, 5614): Third Day of Sukkoth
1854: In Spitalfields, Jane Silver and Henry Woolf gave birth Louis Woolf.
1854:Ernestine Rose, a leading early American advocate for women's rights, presided over the Fifth National Woman's Rights Convention in Philadelphia which ended today. (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)
http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/19/1854/ernestine-rose
1859(21stof Tishrei, 5620): Hoshan Rabba
1859: In Mulhouse, Alsace, Second French Empire,Raphaël Dreyfus was a prosperous, self-made, Jewish textile manufacturer and his wife Jeannette Dreyfus (née Libmann) gave birth to the youngest of their nine children, Alfred Dreyfus, the French army officer whose trumped up treason trial would split French society and become a prime catalyst for the creation of the Zionist movement under Herzl.
1859: In Liverpool, Professor Prag and his wife gave birth to Joseph Prag, the graduate of Queen’s College who was a member of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Conjoint Committee for Foreign Affairs as well as a Warden of the North-West London Synagogue.
1859: Birthdate of Cincinnati native and University of Cincinnati trained attorney Alfred Morton Cohen, who served as a state legislator and city councilman.
1860(3rdof Cheshvan, 5621): Rebbe Eliezer Horowitz of Dzhikov, the son of Rebbe Naftali Tzvi passed away today.
1861: One day after he had passed away, 40 year old Lazarus Leopard was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1862: Philadelphian, Abraham Kuhn completed his service with Company B of the 27thRegiment.
1863(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah
1863: During the American Civil War, on the same day marking the end of the Jewish “holiday season” General U.S. Grant replaces William Rosecrans as Commander of the Army of with General George Thomas. Thomas will appoint Major Alfred Mordecai Junior, Senior and Supervising Ordinance Officer of the Army of the Cumberland. Young Mordecai was a West Point Graduate and the son of one of the Army’s highest ranking Jewish officers in the pre-Civil War U.S. Army.
1864(19th of Tishrei, 5625): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
1864: During the American Civil War, Union forces under the command General Sheridan decisively and dramatically defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Cedar Creek. This victory marked the end of the Valley Campaigns of 1864. From this time on no Confederate Army could threaten Washington with invasion through the Shenandoah Valley and the rich valley farms would no longer be a source of supply for the armies of Robert E. Lee. The defeated Confederate was commanded by a general with a name straight out of Bereshit – Jubal Early. Major Lyon Levy Emanuel, a member of a prominent Jewish family from Philadelphia was among those fighting with Union in the Shenandoah Valley
1864: "Our Paris Correspondence" published today reported that "Baron Erlanger and his fair bride, Miss Slidell, were the prime pets of the brilliant feudal throng, and the joy at Baden-Baden knew no bounds…nothing remains of all the Summer's gay humbug but Erlanger’s courtship with Miss Slidell. The Erlangers are German Jews, originally from Marburg, a University town in the Electorate of Hessen, but the academic glories of that town made but little intellectual impression upon the Erlanger stock, who took themselves to Frankfort, where they attained to wealth by stock-jobbing, and to a baronetcy by the grace of the King of Portugal, to the great distress of Rothschild-- he being no longer the only Jew Baron…” Erlanger was a member of family of German-Jewish bankers who was head of the leading banking house in France. Miss Slidell was the daughter of John Slidell of Louisiana, a Confederate diplomat living in France who tried unsuccessfully to get the French to recognize the South’s independence during the Civil War. Erlanger was not the first Jew to marry into Slidell’s family. August Belmont was his brother-in-law. The Rothschild’s claim to the title Baron stemmed from the Austrian house of the famous banking family.
1867(20thof Tishrei, 5628): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth
1876: Argentina completed legal reforms that would permit the establishment and consolidation of Jewish agricultural settlements.
1876: Judith Aria, the eldest child of Alexander Aria and the former Flaimngo Abigail was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1876: Rosalie and Samuel Peck gave birth to Eleanor Peck, who became Eleanor Kuh when she married Millard F. Kuh with whom she had one son, Howard Michael Kuh.
1877: The report of a correspondent who is traveling with the Russian Army during the Czar’s war with the Ottoman Empire reported that there are more Jews at the Bulgarian town of Sistova now than on his last visit. He described the Jews as “more bestial than before.” Once he had reached the Czar’s headquarter encampment, the correspondent found himself eating food provided by “a firm of enterprising Israelites” that charges “Fifth Avenue Hotel prices.”
1878(22nd of Tishrei, 5639): Shemini Atzeret
1878: “In Lipine, Silesia,” Whilhelm and Johanna Lebowitsch Sonderling gave birth to Jacob Sonderling who in 1904 received a Ph.D. from the University of Tiibgingen, “was ordained by Dr. Baruch Jacob” and “married Emma Kleman” with whom he had three sons – Egrmont, Fred and Paul – after which “during the First World War he served as a Germany Army Chaplain on the staff of Field Marshall Paul von Hindenburg and then came to the United States where he “founded the Fairfax Temple in Los Angeles.”
1879: In Bucharest, the Chamber of Deputies is scheduled to vote on a measure designed to resolve the issue of Jewish emancipation. Under the proposal, the Jews will have to apply individually for naturalization except for those who have served in the army. Jewish veterans will be granted full citizenship en bloc.
1880: It was reported today that in the past year St. Luke’s Hospital treated 1,114 patients in the last year, four of whom were Jewish.
1880: An article published today described the bustling commercial activity in Smyrna, a Turkish city where trade “is chiefly in the hands of the Greeks and the Jews.” Smyrna, according to the article, was the scene of “one of the most striking episodes in the history” of the Jews – the rise to prominence of Shabbetai Zvi.
1881: Birthdate of Harold Hirsch the University of Georgia football player who studied law at Columbia and went to serve as the General Counsel for The Coca-Cola Company. According to some, Hirsch played a role in designing Coke’s uniquely shaped bottle.
1881: In Charleston, Rabbi David Levy officiated at the marriage of Albert De Leon of Baltimore, MD and Amanda Moise, the “eldest daughter of B.F. Moise.”
1882: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association is sponsoring tonight’s concert at Chickering Hall in New York.
1882: Israel Ettler, is scheduled to return to court today where he will face charges involving his role in the recent “riot” among the immigrants on Ward’s Island.
1882(6th of Cheshvan, 5643): Seventy-four year old Celia Marks, the daughter of Moshe and Hannah Wolfe and the wife of David Woolf Marks passed away today.
1883: In New York City, “Jacob Meyer and Hannah Horn” gave birth to Julia Horn the college educated public school teacher who after marrying Gabriel Max Hamburger became Julia Horn Hamburger, the champion of numerous social causes and the mother of Maxsina and Bernard Hamburger. (As reported by Daniel Bender)
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/hamburger-julia-horn
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/09/16/98446051.html?pageNumber=19
1883: Three days after she had passed away, Henrietta (Montefiore) Samuel, the daughter of “Horatio Joseph Montefiore and the former Sarah Daniel Mocatta” and the wife of Horatio Simon Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1883: It was reported today that Mrs. Martin Scherbner has filed for a divorce in New Jersey Chancery Court because her husband deceived her before they were married. Before their wedding he assured his Catholic bride that he was not Jewish, but Catholic like her. After the wedding, he confessed that he was Jewish.
1883:Sir Moses Montefiore has given a gift of 99 English pounds to the London Sheriffs' charitable fund. That sum represented 1 pound for each year of the giver's age. Nearly 50 years ago the aging philanthropist had held the office of Sheriff for London and Middlesex.
1884: It was reported today that 40 year old Benjamin Levy “is lying at his home…dangerously near death.” According to Levy and those who witnessed the event, Levy was beaten by a policeman in plain clothes. The officer claimed he had been provoked by Levy and his companions “who were full of liquor” The officer’s claim is questionable since the beating took place on Yom Kippur.
1884: “Statistic of the Deaf and Dumb” published today reported that “in Berlin the greater proportion of deaf-mutes is found the Israelites where consanguineous marriages are frequent and the smaller number among the Catholics to whom such marriages are forbidden.” In evaluating these statistics it should be noted that the same article said that the causes of “deaf-mutism” are “damp atmosphere, uncleanliness, bad air in dwellings and” parents who are laundresses, excavators, miners and weavers.
1885(10th of Cheshvan, 5646): A mounted officer serving with the New York Park Police found the dead body of a man identified as 29 year old Albert Unger propped against a tree just south of Camp Grant.
1886: Birthdate of Reb Velvel (Yitzchok Zev) Soloveitchik, the native of Belarus and son Rabbi Chaim Soloveitchik of Brisk
1886:”A Thrifty Prince” published today erroneously reported that the Princess of Battenburg, the wife of Prince Alexander of Hesse “was the daughter of a German Jew” named Haucke. (Actually her father was a German professional soldier).
1886: “Violated the Sunday Law” published today described the plight of Wolf Bloom, a 26 year old Jewish immigrant from Russia who had been arrested on charges brought Cornelious Leary for having violated the Sunday Law (aka Blue Laws) by having the employees of his cloak factory work on Sunday. In his defense Bloom said that as a Jew he observed Saturday as “his holy day” which is why he worked on Sunday. (In a world where everything seems to be open 7/24/36, it is hard to remember that Sunday closing laws were the norm in many parts of the U.S. well into the second half of the 20th century)
1886: In New York City Angeline Seligman married Albert H. Gross
1887: Joseph Krauskopf began serving as the rabbi for Keneseth Israel, a Reform congregation in Philadelphia, PA.
1888: Moshav Gederah was attacked by Arabs. Gederah was one of the first agricultural settlements developed by Jewish pioneers. It was established by a Russian-born Jew named Yehiel Michael Pines in 1884. Money for purchasing the land came from the Moses Montefiore Testimonial Fund. Grapes and grain were the principal products of the moshav.
1888: As charges of financial mismanagement swirl around the theatrical productions that the Jewish Order of the Harp of David have been sponsoring at Poole’s Theatre in New York, a threatened injunction brought by one group of claimants might cancel tonight’s performance of “King Solomon.”
1888: It was reported today that Mrs. John Jacob Astor has made a bequest of $25,000 to St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City.
1888: It was reported today that of the 1,793 patients treated at St. Luke’s, an Episcopal Hospital in New York, 19 of them were Jewish
1889: It was reported today that property valued at $27,500 owned by the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and property valued at $4,000 owned by the Talmud Torah on East Broadway, were among those charitable and educational institutions granted an exemption from paying property taxes.
1890: It was reported today that during 1889, St. Luke’s Hospital a New York facility supported by Episcopalians that is non-denominational when it comes to offering services, served 1,997 patients of whom 38 were Jewish.
1890: The managers of the Society of St. Luke’s hospital reported that of 1,384 patients treated this year four of them were Jewish.
1890: The Jews of Alpena, Michigan met today and adopted the articles of incorporation and by-laws creating Temple Beth El for which they agreed to purchase a building on White Street to use as a sanctuary.
1890: “A Big Hotel Planned Where Jews Will Be Welcomed” published today described the purchase of 10,000 acres owned by the Mutual Life Insurance Company in the Adirondacks around Lake Saranac Nathan Strauss on which he along with Isidor Straus, Max Nathan and Mayor Hugh J. Grant will spend one million dollars to develop with cottages and a luxury hotel that will be open to all who wish stay which would set it apart from many of the hostelries in the areas which do not accept Jewish guests.
1891: “An Indictment of Russia “ published today described the “golden age of the Jews in Russia” which “lasted from 1857 to 1877” was followed by a “return to oppression” in which “nobody in Russia has dreamed of paying a debt owed to a Jewish trader or artisan” in the past twelve months.
1892: In Lancashire, Thomas and Annie Mackereth give birth to Sir Gilbert Mackereth who in 1937 while serving as the British council “advised an increase in border patrol around Palestine due to the high numbers of Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazism in Hitler's Germany” At the same he “observed that the Arab nationalists had hired known criminals in Syria who crossed the frontier to join bandit groups in Palestine where they blew up passenger trains, menaced and murdered both soldiers and civilians alike, and indiscriminately robbed Arabs, Christians and Jews.” (As reported by Leslie Stein)
1892: In New York City, William Israel Walter, the son of Henriette and Isaac David Walter, and his wife Florence Walter gave birth to Marjorie Walter who became Marjorie Goodhart when she married Howard Lehman Goodhart.
1893: On Manhattan’s Lower East Side, German born Tammany Hall political leader Simon Steingut and the former Lean Wolbach gave birth to St. John’s College of Law trained attorney and Speaker of the New York State Assembly Irwin Steingut the husband of Rae Kaufman Steingut and the father of Stanley Steigut who followed in his father’s political footsteps.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/09/27/84583213.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1894(19th of Tishrei, 5655): Fifth day of Sukkoth
1894(19th of Tishrei, 5655): Forty-five year old James Darmesteter who “published a thesis on the mythology of the Avesta, in which he advocated that the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism had been influenced by Judaism (and not backwards as many scholars say) passed away today
1894: After visiting his son Lester, Abraham Keyser, a retired grocer left to go home and was never seen alive again.
1894(19th of Tishrei, 5655): Forty-five year old James Darmesteter author of Les Prophetes D’Israel (The Prophets of Israel) passed away today.
1894: In New York, morning newspapers described the decision of the Trustees of the Hebrew Institute to not to let the Women’s Municipal League use its building for a meeting even though only one of the five, Nathan Straus had opposed the request.
1894: The two children of Mrs. Urchittel, who had been sent to the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society, were returned to her at a meeting of the Lexow Committee which is investigating corruption in the New York City Police Department. The children had been taken from her based on the testimony of two men from the 12th Precinct who claimed she ran “a disorderly house” when in fact her only crime was her refusal to pay them blackmail. State Senator Cantor had previously testified before the committee on her behalf.
1895: Birthdate of New York City native Walter Staunton Mack, Jr. the Harvard educated, WW I Naval officer and long-time President of Pepsi-Cola.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-03-19/news/mn-579_1_pepsi-syrup
1896: The Vitascope Theatre opened in Buffalo, New York. It was one of the first buildings built deliberately for the showing of motion pictures. The theatre was owned by Mitchell Mark. In 1906 this Jewish entrepreneur teamed with his brother Moe, Adloph Zucker and Marcus Lowe to for the Automatic Vaudeville Company.
1896:Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy and Hélène Koenigswarter gave birth to Nicole Germaine Oulman
1896: Colonel J.E. Bloom, Chairman of the Wage Earners Patrotic League presided over a mass meeting at Cooper Union where delivered an address opposing William Jennings Bryan and his Free Silver Platform.
1896: Birthdate of NYU star basketball player Nat Holman who went on to a successful coaching career at City College of New York that included winning both the NCAA and NIT titles
http://digital-archives.ccny.cuny.edu/exhibits/holman/intro.html
1896: Morris Lincoln Bettman, the son Matilda and “Baerlein (Bernhard) Betterman and Alma Bettman gave birth to Arthur Bettman, the brother of Louis Rauh Pappenheimer.
1897(23rd of Tishrei, 5658): Simchat Torah is observed for the first time during the Presidency of William McKinley
1897(23rd of Tishrei, 5658): In London, the Hambro Synagogue is scheduled to hold services at Bonn’s Hall.
1897: “The East London Jewish Communal League winter session” opened this evening “with a social gathering at the Stepney Jewish Schools.”
1898:The Zionist Delegation aboard the "Emperor Nicolai II" is on its way to Palestine.
1898: Forty-two year old Harold Frederic the journalist who visited Russia in 1891 to investigate the conditions of the Jews and who wrote The New Exodus: A Study of Israel In Russia in 1892 passed away today.
1900: In Baltimore, the organization overseeing The Frank Free Sabbath School led by principal Martha Sromberg met today.
1901(6th of Cheshvan, 5662): Parashat Noach read for the first time during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.
1902(18th of Tishrei, 5663, Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1902: It was reported today that Major Evans Gordon, M.P., a member of the Royal Commission on Alien Immigration, who has just returned from a two months' visit to Russia, Poland, Galicla, and Roumania, where he has been studying the causes underlying the Jewish exodus thence, speaking to a representative of The Associated Press today, said that quite apart from the Jewish side of the question of Romania’s treatment of these citizens, he believes “that England is being made and has long been made a dumping ground not only for the paupers, but for the criminals and undesirable persons of all Europe.”
1903: “Dr. Kohler Installed’ published today described the services in Cincinnati, OH marking the inauguration of Dr. Kaufman Kohler as the President of the Hebrew Union College which were opened by “Bernard Bettmann, President of the Board of Governors” who said “Let us not speak today of the trials and troubles of the Hebrew Union College but of its achievements and its triumphs.”
1904: Birthdate of Hayyim Schirmann, the Russian born Jewish scholars who specialized in Hebrew Poetry of the Middle Ages and who worked in Berlin until the rise of the Nazis when moved to Palestine and began teaching at Hebrew University. He passed away in 1981.
1905(20th of Tishrei, 5666): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1905: A two day Pogrom began at Kishinev. This was the second Pogrom at Kishinev in two years. The Kishinev Pogrom of 1903 is the more famous (or infamous) of the two.
1906: Birthdate of Polish born, American cinematographer Irving Glassberg
1907: After winning the first two games of the season, The Tennessee Volunteers coached by Izzy Levene lost to arch rival Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
1907: Twenty year old actor and manager Nathan Goldberg the Austrian born son of Jacob and Paulina Goldberg married seventeen year American stage actress Rose Goldberg, the Austrian born daughter of Jacob and Bessie Finkenthal.
1907: In Morristown, NJ, Adelaide “Addie” Wolf and “Otto Herman Kahn, a wealthy banker and patron of the arts gave birth to Roger Wolfe Kahn, jazz bandleader and composer, who like his father appeared on the cover Time magazine.
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Kahn_Roger_Wolfe.html
1908: “Irving Lehman” published today described the qualifications, career and family history of 33 year old Irving Lehman “who was nominated for Justice of the Supreme Court by the Tammany County Convention” and who will be the youngest person to serve on the bench if elected which seems to be highly likely.
1909: The Jewish Record Story Contest which offers three cash prizes to the Jewish women who write the best articles “on prominent modern Jews” as well as the possibility of being published in The Jewish Record came to an end today.
1912: Italy takes possession of Tripoli, Libya from the Ottoman Empire. “According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Jews were first settled in Cyrene and other parts of present-day eastern Libya by the Egyptian ruler Ptolemy Lagos (323-282 B.C.E.) With their numbers likely bolstered by Berbers who had converted to Judaism, later supplemented by Jews fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, and, from the seventeenth century, by Jews from Leghorn and other Italian cities, Jews lived continuously in Libya for well over two millennia, predating the Muslim conquest in 642 C.E. by centuries. In 1911, 350 years of Ottoman rule ended and the Italian colonial period began. At the time, Libya’s Jewish population numbered 20,000. The next quarter century was to prove a golden age for Libya’s Jews. By 1931, nearly 25,000 Jews lived in Libya.” For more about the Jews of Libya see
1913(18th of Tishrei, 5674): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1913: “" Christianity and Christlessness in the Home of Jesus" was the subject of the second of the series of addresses based upon recent studies and observations in the Holy Land, given by Dr. Stephen S. Wise before the Free Synagogue at Carnegie Hall this morning.”
1914: “Predicting that the close of the European war will be the signal for a tremendous Jewish immigration to American shores, Dr. Joseph Krauskopf, President of the National Farm School, nearly Daylestown, speaking at the annual meeting of the school today, urged that plans be made at once for sending the thousands of immigrants "back to the soil," and thus prevent congestion in the tenement-house district of the great Eastern cities.”
1914: The Germans clash with the French, Belgian and BEF forces on the opening day of the First Battle of Ypres, one of the many futile attempts by both sides to try and outflank the other and bring the war to the quick close that had been promised with the slogans of “home by Christmas.
1915: In New York City, Jacob and Esther Nahem, immigrants from Aleppo, Syria gave to major league pitcher Samuel Ralph "Subway Sam" Nahem
1915: Ethel Seligman, the daughter of Addie and “De Witt J. (David) Seligman) and Edgar Dinkelspiel, the son of Lazarus and Pauline Dinkelspiel gave birth to Edgar Ned Dinkelspiel
1916(22nd of Tishrei, 5677)” Shmini Atzeret
1916: Birthdate of New South Wales native Julius Cohen, the RAAF pilot and public servant who changed his name to Richard Kingsland to avoid being a victim of anti-Semitism.
1916: Tonight, “at a series of big rallies… which marked the start of the homestretch” of the Presidential campaign in New York, Oscar charged “that President Wilson and his advisers had insulted the Jews by appealing to them to sell their birthright as American citizens by voting for the President on the ground that he had appointed a number of Jews to responsible offices…”
1916: Birthdate of pianist Emil Gilels. Born in Odessa, Gilels is variously described as a Ukrainian, and a great artist who made his career in the Soviet Union until his death in 1985. But his name appears on the list of Jewish Pianist. This litany of origins points once again to the difficulty of answering the question, “Who is A Jew?”
1916: Dr. Judah Magnes, “who went abroad in July armed with credentials from the Secretary of State to investigate the methods of distribution of the vast sums of money raised in this country for the relief of Jewish War Sufferers” sailed from Europe today with the expectation that he will return to New York next week.
1917: Benny Leonard (the Ghetto Wizard) defeated Jack Britton in what would be the first of three bouts between the two.
1917: At Moscow, the mayor and members of the Council of Workmen and Soldiers intervened to stop anti-Jewish rioting.
1917: In Indianapolis, IN, Bella and Bernard Isaacs, the future “Superintendent of Hebrew Schools” in Detroit gave birth Irving Raphael Isaacs, WW II Army Air Corps veteran and the husband of Martha Lillian Horelick.
https://jewishchronicle.timesofisrael.com/irving-raphael-isaacs/
1917: In Lugansk, “several Jewish shops and houses were looted and burned before the militia could restore order.
1917: In Petrograd, “several Jews were injured” during “anti-Jewish rioting” which was triggered by “a shortage of supplies.”
1918: Sergeant Abraham Blaustein, who was serving with the 165thRegiment on the Western Front left Excamont today to attend the Army Candidate School at La Volbonne.
1918: In Lockhart, Texas, Edith Violet (née Schwarz) and Charles H. Strauss gave birth to Robert Straus the Democratic political leader whose career including serving as U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union under Republican President George H.W. Bush.
1918: In the Bronx, Samuel and Molly Eisen gave birth to their only child, Max. Max Eisen was one of the nation’s leading press agents who “from 1954 to 1997… was the press agent for more than 60 Broadway shows and dozens of Off Broadway productions.”
1919: “Jewish Critic Here Tells of Pogrom” published provided the Samuel Charney’s description of the attacks on the Jews of Vilna which he experienced while with his wife Bessie Lauria from which he was saved due to the intervention Colonel House who was attending the Peace Conference in Paris.
1919:The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago White Sox, 5 games to 3 in the16th World Series. This series is known as the Black Sox Scandal since 7 White Sox players threw the series. Supposedly the Series was fixed by Arnold Rothstein. Although raised as an observant Jew, Rothstein turned his back on his Jewish upbringing after his Bar Mitzvah. A son of wealthy middle class parents, Rothstein hung out with “Irish gangsters” and married out of the faith. Did Rothstein fix the series? Or was this part of a pattern of blaming Jewish and other foreign influences for corrupting a pristine America. This was a common theme among Natavists during the 1920’s.
1921: Today, Franz Kafka wrote in his diary, “Moses fails to enter Canaan, not because his life is too short but because it is a human life.”
1921:, Blanche Sternberger of Greensboro, N. C., daughter, of Emanuel Sternberger, a leading industrialist of Greensboro, N. C., and Bertha Strauss married New Orleans native and Harvard graduate Edward Bernard Benjamin, the father of Edward Bernard Benjamin, Jr.
1922: Birthdate of author and historian Ruth Gay, a writer known for her nonfiction books documenting Jewish life in the Old World. Ms. Gay's books include Safe Among the Germans: Liberated Jews After World War IIwhich dealt with a little-studied subject - the more than 250,000 Jews who returned to Allied-occupied Germany in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She also wrote The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait which chronicled Jewish life in Germany from the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 to the rise of Hitler in 1933. Reviewing the book in The New York Times Book Review, Peter Filkins called it "moving and lively.""What emerges is the portrait of a culture very much alive and aware of its own rich heritage," he wrote. In 1997, Ms. Gay received the National Jewish Book Award for nonfiction for Unfinished People: Eastern European Jews Encounter America. In that book, she examined the immigrant experience through the lens of her own girlhood in the Bronx. Ms. Gay has also coauthored a book with her daughter, Sophie, entitled Ms. Gay's book The Jewish King Lear Comes to America. She passed away in 2008.
1923: Hadoar, a Hebrew Language weekly published in the United States temporarily suspends publication
1923:Czernowitz born authorRosalie Beatrice Scherzer married Ignaz Ausländer. Her increasingly famous works were published under her married name, Rose Ausländer even though her marriage proved to be short-lived.
1923: Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett completed his service as Minister of Health in the government led by David Lloyd George.
1924(21st of Tishrei, 5685): Hoshana Rabah
1926: In New Haven, CT, Anna Henrietta Mendel and Sol Ellis Wallant gave birth to author Edward Lewis Wallant.
1926: Birthdate of American moral philosopher Joel Feinberg.
1927(23rd of Tishrei, 5688): Simchat Torah
1927: Pan American World Airways, one of the corporate clients of press-agent Benjamin Sonnenberg, began operations today.
1927: Birthdate of Schaerbeek, Belgium native abstract painter Pierre Alechinsky.
1927: Harry Blitman who had not lost a bout, fought his 26thbout.
1928: Birthdate of “animator and voice actor” Louis Sheimer, the Pittsburgh, PA who helped to found Filmation.
1928(5th of Cheshvan, 5689): Sixty-seven year old Chess Champion Berthold Lasker passed away. Chess must have been in his genes since he was the brother of Emanuel Lasker.
1929(15th of Tishrei, 5690): First Day Sukkoth observed for the first time during the Presidency of Herbert Hoover.
1930: Sir Hermann Gollancz, “the first British rabbi to be granted knighthood” was buried today at the Willesden Jewish Cemetery followed by a memorial service at the Bayswater Synagogue.
1934: Boxer Harry Blitman fought his 76th and penultimate bout.
1934: “Forbidden Territory,” a film version of the book by the same name starring Gregory Ratoff and with Music by Louis Levy was released in the United Kingdom today.
1936: Harry Newman scored the Brooklyn Tigers' only touchdown in a loss to Pittsburgh at Forbes Field
1936: In Philadelphia, “about 2,000 delegates and visitors from 45 states” attending the annual convention of Hadassah hear a message from President Roosevelt in which he praised the “women’s Zionist organization” for its “fine humanitarian work.”
1936: “Sir Philip Game, the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police is demanding some Cabinet decision… on which to base his plans for protecting the people of East London” a large number of whom are Jewish from “physical attack and oratorical abuse by Sir Oswald Mosley’s Black Shirts.”
1937: Haj Amin el Huseini, the Mufit of Jerusalem, leader of the latest wave of Arab violence who is currently in Syria, is trying to get permission to take refuge in Italy, where Mussolini’s fascist government has expressed support for the Arabs.
1937: Arab violence continues as bombs were thrown in the Shimon Hazadik quarter of Jerusalem, in Safed at group of reserve Jewish policeman and in the Tel Aviv/Jaffa area.
1937: In Berlin, Sala and Jacob Max gave birth to American Pop Artist Peter Max who was raised in Shanghai, China and in Israel before his family settled in the United States in 1953 where his art work was influential and much imitated in advertising design in the late 1960s and early 1970s. His artwork may be viewed at numerous websites.
1938: In Great Neck, NY, Jeanette and Bernard Workman gave birth to Peter Israel Workman the founder of Workman Publishing.
1938: The National Council of Catholic Men sent a letter to President Roosevelt today asking him “to exercise his influence to avert the closing of the doors of Palestine to Jewish refugees and the abandonment of the Jewish national home policy Great Britain.”
1939: At the World’s Fair in New York, members of the New York Council Pioneer Women’s Organization meet this morning for a ceremony at the Palestine Pavilion followed by a luncheon at the Café Tel Aviv.
1939: A Jewish ghetto at Lublin, Poland, is established.
1939: In Pittsburg, Ross Freedman, “a traveling salesman” and Selma Freedman, “a nurse,” gave birth to “street photographer” Jill Freedman. (As reported by John Leland)
1939: The American film classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” starring Jimmie Stewart premiered. The real Jewish connection comes from Columbia Studios the production company that made the movie. Harry Cohn owned and ran the studios. He was one of a group of Jewish movie moguls who helped to create the middle brow American culture and the myths that were a part of it.
1939: Otto Blumenthal and his wife moved from Utrecht to Delft because they had been able to find a flat in that Dutch city. Blumenthal could only find one student to tutor which left them so impoverished that they had to live on charity. After the Nazi invasion, the Blumenthals would be forced to leave Delft because of ethnic cleansings. The tragic life of the mathematician would end at Theresienstadt in 1944 where he had gone voluntarily to care for his sister.
1940(17th of Tishrei, 5701): Shabbat Shel Sukkoth
1940: Air raid sirens sounded tonight in Jerusalem as Axis planes were spotted approaching the coast of Palestine. No bombs fell on the City of David.
1941(28th of Tishrei, 5702): Just ten days after celebrating 77th birthday, “Jessica Blanche Peixotto, Professor of Social Economics, Emeritus” at U.C. Berkeley passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/peixotto-jessica-blanche
http://texts.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb3199n7tr&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00011&toc.depth=1&toc.id=
1941: During the Battle of Moscow, Stalin institutes martial law, ordering the NKVD to shoot looters and anybody else who looked suspicious. Yes, this was more of Stalin the brutal. But it replaced Stalin, the confused, the supreme leader of the Soviets who had so supremely bungled everything in the fight against Hitler. Although the Battle for Moscow would rage into the spring of 1942, these aggressive tactics provided the impetus for the defense that brought the seemingly invincible Nazi military machine to a grinding halt. From a Jewish perspective (and from the point of view of the western democracies as well) whatever was good for the Russians was good for the Jews and the West in the fight against fascism in general and the Holocaust in particular.
1942: Today, the Gestapo arrested Robert Abshagen who would later be beheaded for his work with the Red Orchestra resistance group.
1943: In Trieste, the Nazis conduct a round up Jewish citizens.
1943: Operation Reinhard, the German program to murder all of the Jews in Poland, “was terminated today by a letter from Odilo Globocnik which meant that operations at Treblinka came to an end but the murder of the Jews continued.
1943: Streptomycin the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis, was first isolated by researchers at Rutgers University by a Jewish research student from Connecticut named Albert Schat. However, according to academic tradition, Schatz's supervisor, Professor Selman Abraham Waksman, took credit for his student's discovery and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology in 1952. Schatz was belatedly awarded the Rutgers medal in 1994, at the age of 74.
1944(2nd of Cheshvan, 5705): Sixty-seven year old screen writer Isadore Bernstein, passed away today.
1944: Today fifty-nine year old Dr. Ernst Eylenburg who had been transported from Berlin to Terezin in 1943 was transported from Terezin to Auschwitz where he was murdered.
1944: Today, a month after her 51st birthday, Anna Skobisova who had been transported from Prague in 1943 was transported to Terezin to Auschwitz where she was murdered.
1945: Today, Syria ratified the charter of the United Nations, the organization that two years later would, much to Syria’s dismay would vote to partition Palestine and create a Jewish state.
1946: After two weeks, the curtain comes down on “A Flag is Born” at the Adelphi Theatre.
1947: Prosecutors completed their preparations for the start of tomorrow’s trial for the Nazi leaders of the “SS Race and Settlement Office.”
1948: In some of the fiercest fighting of the War of Independence Israeli forces are victorious at Huleikat after fighting both Egyptian and Saudi army units. This victory opened the road to rest of the Negev.
1948: A naval battle took place between three Israeli warships near Majdal, and an Egyptian corvette with air support. An Israeli sailor was killed and four wounded, and two of the ships were damaged. One Egyptian plane was shot down, but the corvette escaped. This naval clash was part of the Israeli attempt to thwart the Egyptian drive up the coast through Gaza with the aim of taking Tel Aviv. [While people have heard of the Israeli Air Force and the accomplishments of the IDF’s armored and infantry units, they are unaware of the fact that Heil HaYam HaYisrael (the Israeli Navy) has played an active role in the defense of Jewish people going back to the days of the British Mandate.
1948: Stan Andrews, who had promoted to the rank of major and made the IAF “liaison to the UN truce supervision forces in the South” today “flew as an observer in a Beaufigher D-171” belonging to Squadron 103.
1948:This afternoon, Len “Fitchett left Ramat David to take part in a naval skirmish off Majdal but before he could reach the Egyptian vessel, he encountered three Egyptian fighters: two Spitfire LF9s and a Fury. Fitchett jettisoned his ordinance and dove for the surface, maneuvering violently. The Fury moved in for a rear attack. Just before hitting the sea, Fitchett hauled back on the stick and leveled out. The Fury slammed into the sea. Its pilot, Sqn Ldr Muhammad Abd al Hamid Abu Zaid, commanding officer of 2 Sqn REAF since May 22, was considered one of the REAF's top flyers and had flown 72 sorties since May.”
1948: In Iraq, “the discharge of all Jewish officials and workers from all governmental departments was ordered.’
1948: Tonight, the 51st Battalion of the Givati Brigade launched an unsuccessful attack from the south on the Egyptian held police fort of Iraq Suwaydan
1948: Founding of Tzova, a kibbutz in the Judean hills outside of Jerusalem.
1949: The first session of the 81st Congress, which came to an end down, sixteen million dollars was appropriated for the relief “of 500,000 refugees in Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Egypt and Iraq.”
1949: It was reported today that Gottlieb Hammer, the executive director of the American section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine who has just returned from a three week tour of Israel said that “he and his group were as much to blame as the other Jewish organizations “for giving out statements that resulted in pessimism and defeatism” that appear in the newspaper stories about Israel.
1951: During the Korean War, near Kumson, when his platoon came under enemy attack Sgt. JackWeinstein volunteered to stay and provide cover while his men withdrew. Weinstein killed six enemy combatants and, after running out of ammunition, used enemy grenades around him to keep the enemy forces back. Weinstein held his position until friendly forces moved back in and pushed the enemy back. (He received the Medal Honor for this action)
1951: In compliance with a decision reached in 1950 at a meeting of the foreign ministers of France, the UK and the US, the United States officially ended the “state of war with Germany” that had existed since December of 1941.
1952: “Two’s Company” a musical revue with lyrics by Sammy Cahn opened its out of town tryout at the Shubert Theatre in Detroit, Michigan.
1953: In a radio broadcast to the nation Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion blatantly “says that no IDF unit had left its base on the night of the attack on Qibya and that it seems as though it was done by a group of local Israeli villagers.”
1953(10th of Cheshvan, 5714): Forty-six year old attorney Felix Solomon Cohen who received the Department of Interior’s Distinguished Service award for his handbook on federal Indian law passed away today.
https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1232
1954(22nd of Tishrei, 5715): Shmini Atzeret
1954(22nd of Tishrei, 5715): Seventy year old Sholom Joseph Perlmutter, the vice president of the Hebrew Actors Union, co-founder of the Society of Jewish Composers and the Jewish Playwrights League as well as a “historian of the Jewish theatre” who wrote Jewish Dramatists and Jewish Composers passed away today at Coney Island Hospital.
1961: Helen Shaprio’s “Walkin’ Back to Happiness” topped the UK pop charts today.
1963(1st of Cheshvan, 5724): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; Parashat Noah
1963(1st of Cheshvan, 5724): Eighty-one Russian born American author Elias Tobenkin, the son of Marcus and Fanny Tobenkin and the husband of the former Rae Schwid with whom he had one son, Paul, passed away today.
http://snaccooperative.org/ark:/99166/w6259g62
http://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=00256
1963: Birthdate of New York native “Jonathan David Haidt, the Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business.”
1963: Today actress Hope Lang married Jewish producer, director and writer Alan J. Pakula who would marry the former Hannah Cohn Boorstin after this union ended in 1971.
1964:Simon and Garfunkel's first LP, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., which consisted of 12 songs in the folk vein and five written by Paul Simon was released today and initially was a flop.
1965(23rd of Tishrei, 5726): Simchat Torah
1965: “The Man Who Has Almost Everything Gets Another Honor” published today tells of Sandy Koufax being named the outstanding player in this year World Series, which helped the Dodgers win by pitching three victories even though he had refused to pitch the opening game because it was Yom Kippur.
1966: United Artists released “The Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed and produced by Bill Wilder, with a screenplay written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and starring Walter Matthau.
1966: In Queens, Madeleine and Charles gave birth to actor Jon Favreau who followed the faith of his mother and “attended Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah.”
1967(15th of Tishrei, 5728): Sukkoth
1967: Polish born Canadian physician and Holocaust survivor Henry Morgentaler “presented a brief on behalf of the Humanist Association of Canada before a House of Commons Health and Welfare Committee that was investigating the issue of illegal abortion.”
1968(27th of 5729): Parashat Bereshit – on Shabbat the cycle begins again
1968(27th of Tishrei, 5729): Sixty-eight year old Polish born poet Anatol Stern who was sent to the Gulag at the start of WW II and then allowed to live in Palestine before returning to Warsaw where he passed away today.
1970(19th of Tishrei, 5731): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1970: Seventy-five year old Lazaro Cardenas, the President of Mexico, whose government had hired Morris Swadesh to promote the education of “indigenous peoples” passed away today.
1970: Birthdate of SNL cast member Chris Kattan the son of an Iraqi born Jew
1970: After thirteen previews, the Broadway production “The Rothschilds” produced by Emanuel Azenberg and directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd, opened today at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it ran for 505 performances. Hal Linden, who happened to be Jewish, played Mayer Rothschild. “The Rothschilds” is a musical that tells the story of the rise of the famous Jewish banking family
1971: Broadway premiere of “The Incomparable Max,” with a script co-authored by Jerome Lawrence based on a collection of short stories by Max Beerbohm.
1971: Reed v. Reed for which Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote the plaintiff’s brief was argued before the Supreme Court today.
1971: Look magazine which had carried a large feature article on the demise of the American Jewish community was published for the last time – while the Jewish community continued to survive and thrive.
1973: “The Way They Were” a film that spans the Depression through the Post-War years directed by Sydney Pollack, written by Arthur Laurents, with must by Marvin Hamlish, starring Barbra Streisand and featuring Herb Edelman was released today in the United States by Columbia Pictures.
1973 (23rd of Tishrei, 5734): Simchat Torah
1973: The Battle of Ismail which took place south of the Egyptian city as part of a plan to cut off supplies to Egypt’s Second Field Army continued for a second day.
1973: The Yom Kippur War continued to exact its toll. By nightfall, the Syrian counterattack on the Golan Heights had been repelled with losses that included thirty Jordanian and Iraqi attacks. Israel may have been alone, but the Syrians certainly were not. On the Suez front seventy Egyptian tanks were knocked out and fourteen of Sadat’s aircraft had been shot down. With the war entering the end of its second week, the Arabs were looking to the Soviets to bring about a face-saving cessation of hostilities. Secretary of State Kissinger, who had arrived in Moscow, joined the Soviets in issuing a call for the end of hostilities.
1976: “Thirteen activists held a demonstration at the Supreme Soviet” at the end of which participants were detained and taken into the woods where some of the refuseniks, including Zahar Tesker, were beaten up by the police.
1976: A “press-conference organized by Natan Sharansky was held at Vladimir Slepak’s apartment in connection with beating of activists in the forest near Moscow, following the demonstration at the Supreme Soviet.”
1976: At “a joint Israeli-American committee meeting in New York participants agree in principle to restrict aid to “drop-outs” in Vienna.”
1977: U.S. premiere of “Looking For Mr. Goodbar” the film version of the novel by Judith Rossner directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Freddie Fields, the brother of band leader Shep Fields.
1979: “French Postcards” a comedy produced and written by Gloria Katz and starring Mandy Patinkin and Debra Winger was released today in the United States.
1979: After premiering in Toronto, “And Justice for All” a film that looks at the dark side of the judicial system with an Oscar nominated script co-authored by Barry Levinson, featuring Lee Strasberg, Darrell Zerwling and Sam Levene was released in the United States today.
1980(9th of Cheshvan, 5741): Sixty year old Sydney Stuart Baron, the “son of a Brooklyn shoemaker,” “an ‘A’ English student at New Utrecht High School” and husband of high school sweetheart Sylvia Schreibman whose public relations clients included Anheuser-Busch, Iona College, Beth Jacob Schools and Carmen G. DeSapio whom he served as press agent passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/02/13/97657964.pdf
1982: Yitshak Moda’I began serving as Minister of Energy and Water Resources.
1984(23rd of Tishrei, 5745): Simchat Torah
1984: In “New Moon Offered” published today, Allen Hughes provides a glowing review of Light Operate of Manhattan’s production of Sigmund Romberg’s 1928 class “New Moon.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/19/arts/opera-new-moon-offered.html
1986(16th of Tishrei, 5747): Second Day of Sukkoth
1986(16th of Tishrei, 5747):Eighty-one year old Moses Asch, the driving force behind Folkways Records passed away today. (As reported by Jon Pareles) Eighty-one year old
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/21/obituaries/moses-asch-who-founded-folkways-records-dies-at-81.html
1987(26th of Tishrei, 5748): Forty two year old Jacqueline du Pre the brilliant Anglo-Jewish cellist who had been stricken by multiple sclerosis passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/10/20/obituaries/jacqueline-du-pre-noted-cellist-is-dead-at-42.html
1988: Leon Lederman, Melvin Schwartz and Jack Steinberger win the Nobel Prize for Physics.
1989: A London revival of “Stop The World – I Want to Get Off “directed by, and starring, Anthony Newley opened today at the Lyric Theatre.
1990: Two days after opening in Los Angeles, “Reversal of Fortune” a film adaption of Alan Dershowitz’s book produced by Edward R. Pressman and co-starring Ron Silver opened in New York today.
1992(22nd of Tishrei, 5753): Shemini Atzeret
1992(22nd of Tishrei, 5753): Eighty-three year old Magnus Alfred Pyke “the son of a wholesale confectioner and cousin of Geoffry Pyke” passed away today after enjoying a career as food scientist, author and broadcaster.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-magnus-pyke-1558840.html
1994(14th of Cheshvan, 5755): Twenty-one Israelis and one Dutch national were murdered and another fifty were injured by a Hamas terrorist who set off a bomb as bus was approaching Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizengoff_Street_bus_bombing
1994: Sivan Horesh survives the No. 5 bus bombing on Dizengoff Street in central Tel Aviv.
1995: A revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” opened at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
1996: During the U.S Presidential election, Chris Wallace served as moderator for the Third Presidential Debate.
1996: “The Fortune Cookie,” a comedy directed, produced and written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond and co-starring Walter Matthau was released to theatres today.
1996: The talents of cartoonist, playwright, screenwriter and novelist Jules Feiffer were on display as he spoke to a gathering at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
1997: The New York Timesfeatures reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history or culture including Perfidiaby Judith Rossner,Miriam’s Kitchen A Memoir by Elizabeth Ehrlich and The World Is The Home Of Love and Death by Harold Brodkey.
1999: The 1960 production of Peter Pan with music by Mark “Moose” Charlap and July Styne and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green was released today on DVD.
2000(20th of Tishrei, 5761): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
2000(20th of Tishrei, 5761): Sixty-four year old Rabbi Binyamin Herling was murdered today when “Fatah members and Palestinian security forces opened fire on a group of men, women and children” at Mount Ebal.
2000: “Disregarding a plea by the United Nations secretary general, the Palestinians carried their bitter confrontation with Israel into a special session of the General Assembly today” which “prompted an angry rebuttal from the Israeli ambassador, Yehuda Lancry.
2001: In “Her Name Still Rings A Bell” published today described the “life of Mercedes Jellinek, daughter of a wealthy Austrian businessman with a passion for the newly invented motorcars at the turn of the 20th century.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/19/automobiles/her-name-still-rings-a-bell.html
2001: “Israelis and Palestinians talked today about assassination and war rather than any peace effort, as their forces clashed in two West Bank cities” following the murder of Rehavam Zeevi, Israel’s Minister of Tourism.
2002: “Assistant Secretary of State William J. Burns, who arrived in Egypt today at the start of a Middle East tour, is to meet Israeli and Palestinian officials next week to discuss an American blueprint for a peace settlement that was given to Mr. Sharon in Washington.”
2003(23rd of Tishrei, 5764): Simchat Torah
2003: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to Jewish history or culture including Blacklist by Sara Paretsky, Arthur Miller: His Life and Work by Martin Gottfried and The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis by Leon R. Kass.
2004: Archivists in the Dutch City of Tilburg announced the discovery of the diary of a Holocaust victim that has an eerie similarity to that of Anne Frank. The Holocaust era diary and love letters written by Helga Deen, a Jewish woman, for her Dutch boyfriend while she imprisoned in a Dutch internment camp were donated by the family of the now deceased Dutch man. Deen died at Sobibior.
2004: In “Cole Porter and Moss Hart’s Jubilee: Still Smart, Funny and Tuneful” published today Michael Dale sings the praises for the musical Juiblee.
2004: Adam Aptowitzer, a tax and charity lawyer in Ottawa and “former Ontario chairman of B'nai Brith Canada’s Institute for International Affairs” “made statements today on the broadcast of the Michael Coren Show defending the bulldozing of Palestinian terrorists' homes as a means of deterring further suicide bombings” arguing “that such actions were permissible when used to prevent deaths.”
2005(16th of Tishrei, 5766: Second Day Sukkoth
2005: “Stalking Kosher Game (Hold the Giraffe)” published today described the unique meals created “in the strictly kosher kitchen at Levana on the Upper West Side” run by chef Bill Spitz.
2005: “Israel is weighing a plan to bar Palestinians from the main roads in the West Bank with the aim of protecting Israeli motorists from roadside shootings, according to Israeli officials and a newspaper report today.”
2006: The Times of Londonreported on the premier of the documentary “Spell Your Name” by the Ukrainian director Sergei Bukovsky. The 90 minute film records testimonies of Jews who survived the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. The highlight of the event was the appearance of Steven Spielberg whose grandparents came from the Ukraine.
2006: While speculation about the political ambitions of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are subject of intense it was reported that he has decided to sell Bloomberg LP which “could be worth as much as twelve billion dollars.”
2007: “Things We Lost In The Fire” directed by Susanne Bier with a script by Allan Loeb was released today in the United States and Canada.
2007: Rex Ditto, one of the men convicted of murdering Allen Shalleck who co-authored parts of the Curious George series with Margaret Rey in the 1970’s was sentenced to life in prison today.
2007: The Washington Postfeatured a review of Jezebel: The Untold story of the Bible’s Harlot Queenby Leslie Hazelton.
2007: The New York Timesfeatured a review of Young Stalin by Jewish historian Simon Sebag Montifore. This book could be viewed as a prequel to Mr. Montifore’s Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar.
2007: “The Last Jews of Libya” opens at São Paulo International Film Festival in São Paulo, Brazil.“The Last Jews of Libya documents the final decades of a centuries-old North African Sephardic Jewish community through the lives of the remarkable Roumani family, who lived in Benghazi, Libya, for hundreds of years. Thirty-six thousand Jews lived in Libya at the end of World War II, today none remain. The film traces the story of the Roumanis from Turkish Ottoman rule through the age of Mussolini and Hitler to the final destruction and dispersal of Libya's Jews in the face of Arab nationalism.”
2008: The New York Timesincludes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein and Explainersa new anthology “which gathers all of Jules Feiffer’s Village Voice strips from 1956 to 1966.
2008:A former Israeli soldier, Marti Mintz, who was trained in a counter-terror unit of the IDF and is married to an Australian risked his own life today to save five people during during a fire that had broken out in supermarket in Perth, Australia.
2009(1st of Cheshvan, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
2009(1st of Cheshvan, 5770): Ninety one year old Joseph Wiseman a Canadian actor, best known for starring as the titular antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No, passed away today. (As reported by Adam Benstein)
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-joseph-wiseman21-2009oct21-story.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/20/arts/20wiseman.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/20/AR2009102003549.html
2009: At Olam Tikvahthe new sisterhood Co-President Rachel Rothberg, leads a discussion of the well-reviewed book Sarahby Marek Halter.
2009:In Chevy Chase, MD, Richard Breitman, a professor of history at American University, discusses and signs Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries and Papers of James G. McDonald, 1935-1945. McDonald was the first U.S. ambassador to Israel.
2009: In “A Believer in Heroism, to Jews’ Lasting Gratitude,” published today Joseph Berger described the exploits of Dr. Tina Strobos who is scheduled to be honored today by the Holocaust and Human Rights Education Center, based in Westchester. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/nyregion/17metjournal.html
2009: CBS is scheduled to hold a memorial service today at the Time Warner Center in New York for Don Hewitt the creator and longtime executive producer of ''60 Minutes.'' Hewitt died of cancer in August at age 86. In addition to his work at ''60 Minutes,'' Hewitt also produced the first televised presidential debate in 1960.
2009: At The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival a screening of “Adam Resurrected” based on novel of the same name in which “a former circus clown who was spared the gas chamber so that he might entertain thousands of Jews as they marched to their deaths, Adam Stein is now the ringleader at an asylum in the Negev desert populated solely by Holocaust survivors.”
2009:“Jewish Transit Berlin: From Hell to Hope,” the 52-minute documentary, which premiered today at the Berlin Jewish Museum, relates the unusual and brief history of the Displaced Persons camps set up in postwar Berlin.
2009:“Schmatta: Rags To Riches To Rags,” a documentary about the rise and decline of New York’s garment district — and the efforts to preserve what remains of a sector that played a vital role in the American Jewish experience during the past century — premieres tonight on HBO.
2010: Scribner published a collection of short stories, Palo Alto, by James Franco
2010:Israeli author David Grossman who was named the winner of the Germany's book publishers' association’s 2010 Peace Prize in honor of his support for reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians is scheduled to be awarded the $30,200 prize today during the annual Frankfurt Book Fair. In his epic novel To the End of the Land, Grossman tells the story of a woman's journey through Israel. It was written after Grossman's son was killed by a Hezbollah missile in 2006. Past winners include Orhan Pamuk, Susan Sontag, Amos Oz, Vaclav Havel and Octavio Paz.
2010: Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor at The New Republic is scheduled to introduce “Ruth Franklin, A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction” at the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival in Washington, DC.
2010:Labor Party lawmakers lambasted their fellow MK, Einat Wilf today for proposing to cancel the annual memorial rally marking the assassination prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
2010:Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that his cabinet needed more time to decide when and how to dismantle certain illegal West Bank outposts, due to the "political implications" involved.
2010(11th of Cheshvan, 5771): Tom Bosley, best known for his role as Richie’s father on the t.v. sitcom “Happy Days” passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/arts/television/20bosley.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
2011(21st of Tishrei, 5772): Hoshanah Rabbah
2011: This afternoon Israel Defense Forces soldiers thwarted a stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction in the West Bank, Channel 10 reported.
2011:A day after returning to his home in Mitzpe Hila after five years in Hamas captivity, Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit marked the Simchat Torah holiday at home with his family tonight.
2012: At the Wiener Library in London, Dr. Ruth Levitt is scheduled deliver a lecture on “Jews in the Netherlands,” a country where “some 75 percent” of the Jews “were deplored and killed in the Holocaust
2012: Director Arnon Goldfingers award winning film, “The Flat,” is scheduled to open at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas
2012:Four masked individuals infiltrated the IDF's Naftali camp near the Golani junction in the North early this morning and stole four weapons. The infiltrators tied up the soldier on guard duty, stealing his and three other weapons before escaping
2012:The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) announced today that the long-time director of its Jerusalem office, Wendy Singer, will be leaving her position early next year. Singer will be replaced by Leslie Levy Mirchin, who is currently the lobbying group’s local director of policy and research
2013: As part of the Performing Arts Series, the Jewish Community Center is scheduled to present “The Marcy and Zina Show” featuring Marcy Heisler and Zina Goldrich.
2013: In California, the Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present Khaossia, performing EOSLove Across Time, Space, and Sound, a concert based on a love story from Puglia, after the Shoah.
2013: Gaza-based Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called today for Palestinians to wage a “popular uprising” in the West Bank.http://www.timesofisrael.com/haniyeh-calls-for-intifada-in-the-west-bank/
2014: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including Spoiled Brats by Simon Rich and The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century by Steven Pinker.
2014: In Washington, DC, the Hyman S & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival is scheduled to begin today.
2014: Ed Stein’s comic strip “Freshly Squeezed” ended today.
https://www.gocomics.com/freshlysqueezed/about
2014: “Hitler’s Hidden Drug Habit” is scheduled to be shown on British Channel 4.
2014: The Center For Jewish History is scheduled to show “Jacques Faitlovitch and the Lost Tribes,” a film that explores the ‘extraordinary odyssey’of Jacques Faïtlovitch, a Polish Jew who “discovered” Ethiopian Jewry, in 1904, and thereafter set about reestablishing a connection between their community and the rest of the Jewish world.”
2014: “Police opened an investigation today after graffiti was found in the Temple Mount compound depicting a swastika as the equivalent of a Star of David.”
2014: “The daughters of slain American tourist Leon Klinghoffer released a statement today, a day before the opening of the play recounting the murder of their father, saying it “rationalizes, romanticizes and legitimizes” the killing. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014: A spokesman for Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital confirmed reports issued today by Reuters that it had treated a daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, a top leader for Hamas, following complications during a standard medical procedure in Gaza.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: In Boston, Ashkelon native Roni Vorvoreanu, 16, will fly the Israeli flag today for the first time in the Head of the Charles Regatta rowing race, considered one of the sport’s premier events. (As reported by Tamar Pleggi)
2014: Funeral services for Mildred Puro Pittman, the widow of Joseph Puro and Howard Pittman is scheduled to take place in Great Neck, NY
2014: “Louis-Fest!” a celebration of the life of local realtor, bicycle enthusiast and musician Louis Lederman of blessed memory will be held today at The Willow (formerly Jimmy’s Music Club
following the Saints vs. Detroit Lions game. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News)
2014: “Dancing in Jaffa” is scheduled to be shown at The Twin City Jewish Film Festival
2014(25thof Tishrei, 5775): Eighty-four year old photographer Alfred Werthimer passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
http://www.alfredwertheimer.com/
2015: “Israeli Bedouin leaders today expressed shock, surprise and outrage at news that the perpetrator of yesterday’s deadly terrorist attack at the Beersheba central bus station was an Israeli Arab from a Bedouin village east of the city, in the country’s Negev region.”
2015: “A Jewish and a Muslim cemetery were defiled with Nazi symbols and anti-migrant slogans in western Austria, police said today, just weeks after similar attacks on a refugee hostel and Jewish museum.”
2015: Martin Kaufman is scheduled to begin teaching the Leon Finley Course in Jewish Studies which will focus on the lives and teachings of Maimonides and Nachmanides.
2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to a screening of “The Blum Affair” directed by Erich Engel.
2016(17thof Tishrei, 5777): Third Day of Sukkoth
2016: Today, “the municipality of Amstelveen south of Amsterdam where several thousand Jews live, inaugurated a street sign bearing the name of” writer Jules “Schelvis, who survived seven Nazi concentration and death camps” and who “died earlier this year in Amstelveen.”
2016: In Little Rock, Chabad Center for Jewish Leadership under the leadership of Rabbi PInchas Ciment hosted “Sushi in the Sukkah.”
2016: In Jerusalem, the Admaya Conference “where architects, builders and creative types discuss the opportunities for building with earth” is scheduled to open today.
2016: Dora Horn is scheduled to “provide a look at the contemporary significance of the Book of Job” during an appearance at Ursinus College.
2016: “A safari in search of wild animals” is scheduled to place in the center of Jerusalem this evening.
2016: The Holocaust Memorial & Tolerance Center of Nassau County (HMTC), in cooperation with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), is scheduled to present a one-day professional development workshop on "Choice and Responsibility during the Holocaust."
2017: Case Western Reserve University is scheduled to host “What are the Dead Scrolls and Why are They Important” with Alex Jassen.
2017: “Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters launched major protests against the arrest of draft-dodging community members today, capping a week of road-blocking actions and scuffles with the police”
https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/10/000_TJ5XX-e1508423081425.jpg
2017: JW3 is scheduled to host two screening of “Moos,” a comedy about Jewish families following their dreams.
2017: “Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters launched major protests against the arrest of draft-dodging community members today, capping a week of road-blocking actions and scuffles with the police.”
2017: The Dodgers defeated Theo Epstein’s defending World Champion Chicago Cub denying them a chance to return to the World Series to try for a second chance championship.
2017: “Designs on Britain” an exhibition depicting “how much of the most iconic British design was produced by immigrants” to the UK opened today at the Jewish Museum in London.
2017: Katinka’s Tail, the latest book by Judith Kerr, the 94 year old English author whose family fled Nazi Germany is scheduled to “be published by HarperCollins in hardback” today.
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host “An Evening with Mel Brooks,” the man who gave us The 2000 Year Old Man, The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
2017: The Leo Baeck Institute and the Jewish Review Books are scheduled to present Abraham Socher, David Sorkin and Leora Batnitzky discussing “Why Moses Mendelssohn Matters.”
2017: The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to present “Rescuing Endangered Jews: The Unit for Aliyah, Absorption, & Special Operations.”
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7gZZmhBv3JnswnbfqUKv4xdLF3sEQExDIjwTvhdUzMIHTJQ/viewform
2018: “Architect Leora Berry, the Deputy Director of the Bible Land Museum is scheduled to lead a tour that “will highlight the architectural qualities originating from countries of the ancient East, which are incorporated in the museum`s modernist façade, as well as models from the museum`s collection that illustrate ancient construction techniques and the philosophies and beliefs associated with architectural elements that appear on ancient artifacts.”
2018: “Architect and geographer Michael Jacobson” is scheduled to lead a tour of the Library and Garden at the National Library of Israel.
2018: The Oxford University Jewish Society Friday Night Book Club is schedule to “Rachel Adler’s short essay ‘Feminist Judaism: Past and Future.’”
2018: After premiering at Tellluride, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” a film “based on the confessional memoir of the same name by Lee Israel” with a screenplay co-authored by Nicole Holofcener was released today in the United States.
2018: Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak is scheduled to “deliver remarks during” Friday night serves at Temple-Emanuel followed by “an extended Oneg Shabat and a moderated conversation.”
2019: Despite having found “an Israeli flag defaced with a swastika and white supremacist symbols” on its grounds right after Yom Kippur, the Falmouth Jewish Congregation is scheduled to host its “open Sukkah program” this afternoon.
2019: In Napa, CA, Congregation Beth Shalom is scheduled to host “L’Chaim Napa Valley,” “a benefit and dinner celebrating Jewish vintners.”
2019: In New Orleans, the New Avodah 2019-2020 Cohort is scheduled to celebrate Havdalah in their Sukkah.
2019(20th of Tishrei, 5780): Shabbat Chol Hamo’ed Sukkoth
2020: The JCC Literary Consortium is scheduled to host a “virtual JCC Book Fest in Your Living Room” during which “Jonathan Safran Foer talks about his new environmental nonfiction book, We are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast.”
2020: The Mandel JCC Cleveland Jewish FilmFest is scheduled to make available a home-viewing window for “Asia.”
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “live from Israel” a presentation on “Israel and the Dangers Ahead” presented by Carmi Gillon, the former head of Shin Bet.
2020: The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present online “Jews and Race: A Fireside Conversation with Former Governor Deval Patrick and Rabbi Jonah Pesner.”
2020: The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host “a virtual tour revealing Black History and Black Jewish History” in the museum’s collection led by Learning Officer Shereen Hunte.
2020: In New Orleans, the Jewish Community is scheduled to host a “Seminar on the 2020 Election.”
2020(1st of Cheshvan, 5781): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/