March 21
456 BCE: The convocation summoned by Ezra on intermarriage came to an end
629: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army with the support of Jewish inhabitants. The Jews who had previously fought with the Persians against Byzantine rule decided to support him in return for a promise of amnesty. Upon his entry into Jerusalem the local priests convinced him that killing Jews was a positive commandment and that his promise was therefore invalid. Hundreds of Jews were massacred and thousands of others fled to Egypt. Thus, much of the rich Jewish life in the Galilee and Judea came to an end.
1349(1stof Nisan): Three thousand Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany. This was one of only a series of wholesale murders of Jews that took place in Germany in 1349. The Jews provided a convenient scapegoat for the Black Death. In some places they were accused of poisoning the wells which supposedly caused the plague. Since The Black Death provided an interesting excuse of murdering Jews, the following few summary might be of interest. "A Genoese trading post in the Crimea was besieged by an army of Kipchaks from Hungary and Mongols from the East. The latter brought with them a new form of plague. Infected dead bodies were catapulted into the Genoese town. One Genoese ship managed to escape and brought the disease to Messina, in Sicily. From this time forth the disease became an epidemic. It moved over the next few years to northern Italy, North Africa, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, the Low Countries, England, Scandinavia and the Baltic. There were lesser outbreaks in many cities for the next twenty years. An estimated 25 million died in Europe and economic depression followed."
or there is this version
1349: After a mob marched into the Jewish quarter in Erfurt, Germany, carrying a flag with a cross the Jews tried to defend themselves. Over a hundred Jews were killed and much of the ghetto burned.
1475: Simon of Trent disappeared from Trento, Italy. The disappearance led to a blood libel that led to 8 Jews being hung by local authorities for their part in a plot use the blood of this Christian child in the making of Matzah.
1497: On the evening of the Seder, all Jewish children in Portugal between the ages of four and fourteen were actually baptized.
1697(28th of Adar, 5457): Amsterdam Rabbi Abraham Cohen Pimentel passed away. A student of Saul Levi Morteira, he served as hakham of the synagogue in Hamburg and was initially a signator to a letter of approbation for Sabbatai Zevi. He was the author of the “Minchat Kohen,” published in 1668.
1758: The councilor of the Holy Office, Lorenzo Ganganelli , the future Pope Clement XIV, who had been charged with investigating the blood libel against the Jews of Yanopol, Poland, presented "Non solis accusatoribus credendum," to the congregation of the Inquisition which showed that not only were these charges groundless but demonstrated that “all the principal cases of blood accusation since the 13thcentury were groundless.
1759: A letter was received in New York at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue from Newport, Rhode Island. It was a request from the congregation at Newport asking for funds to help build a synagogue. New York sent financial assistance, and on May 28 the congregation at Newport sent a letter of thanks, signed by 10 of its members, back to New York.
1776: The President of Congress, John Hancock, arranged to send George Washington $250,000 cash to be used to maintain the siege of Boston. Hancock wrote in the letter that accompanied the funds sent that he had selected three "gentlemen of character whom I am confident will meet your notice." One of these men was the Jewish patriot, Moses Franks of Philadelphia.
1799(14th of Adar II, 5559): As the British, French and Turks fight it out for control of Egypt and Eretz Israel and Syria, the Jews celebrate Purim
1807(11th of Adar II, 5567): Shabbat Zachor
1807(11th of Adar II, 5567): Chaim Joseph David ben Isaac Zerachia Azulai passed away. Born in 1724, he was “known as the Chida (by the acronym of his name, חיד"א) and was a rabbinical scholar and a noted bibliophile, who pioneered the history of Jewish religious writings.”
1831(19th of Adar II): Chaim ben Naphtali Coslin, author of Maslul, passed away
1837(14thof Adar II, 5597): Purim
1837: Birthdate of Gustave-Hippolyte Worms, the Parisian born actor who made his debut as Achille in “Duc Job” in 1850. He retired from the stage in 1901.
1844: The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. “The Bahá'í Faith has its administrative centre in Haifa on land it has owned since Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment in Acre in the early 1870s by the Ottoman Empire. Pilgrims from all over the world visit for short periods of time. Apart from the circa six hundred volunteer staff, Bahá'ís do not live or preach in Israel”
1847: “The Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel,” the largest congregation in Philadelphia, was organized” today. “Its first rabbi was B. H. Gotthelf, who held services in a hall at No. 528 N. Second Street.”
1848: The ghetto pillars of Ferrara were destroyed by the professors and students of the Athenaeum
1860: Birthdate of Sigmund Freud’s sister Regina Debora
1861: A Jew by the name of Guranda who is the Editor of the Ost Deutsche Post was among those whom the city of Vienna has chosen to serve in the Provincial Diet.
1864(13th of Adar II, 5624): Fast of Esther
1867(14thof Adar II, 5627): Purim
1869: Birthdate of Florenz Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld was born in Chicago. His father was a successful doctor and patron of the arts. He encouraged Ziegfeld's flair for showmanship. Eventually, young Florenz moved to New York where he gained fame for lavish productions "celebrating" the physical aspects of the American female. The Ziegfeld Follies launched the careers of many showgirls and comedians including Will Rogers and Eddie Cantor. Ziegeld was one of the first in a long line of Jews who were connected with the musical theatre. Ziegfeld married the famed Billie Burke and later moved to Hollywood. He passed away in 1932.
1869: Birthdate of Albert Kahn, foremost industrial architect of his times. He created several of the signature buildings in Detroit, Michigan, including the General Motors Building, the Detroit News Building, the Willow Run Bomber building, the foremost production site of B-24 bombers during WW II and Temple Emanuel.
1870(18th of Adar II, 5630: Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin of Aleksander passed away. Born in 1798, “he served as the rebbe of a community of thousands of Hasidim during the "interregnum" between the Chidushei HaRim of Ger and the Sfas Emes. Heynekh was one of the leading students of the Rebbe Reb Simcha Bunim of Pshischa. After the latter's death he became one of the most prominent followers of Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Kotzk and the senior disciple of Chidushei hoRim. Following the death of the Chidushei hoRim in 1866, the bulk of his numerous chasidim chose Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh as the next rebbe. Chanokh Heynekh served as the Rabbi in the Jewish communities of Aleksander from 1837 (or earlier) till 1853, Nowy Dwór from 1853 to 1859 and Przasnysz from 1859 to 1864 (or 1866). After his tenure In Przasnysz he retired from the rabbinate and settled in Aleksander[7], where he lived during his period of leadership as rebbe. His teachings are collected in Chashovoh leToivo (first published in 1929[, and are quoted widely. While few may know his name today, his successor was the renowned Yehudah Aryeh Leib which means he must have been quite a personage in his own right.
1871: Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire. In the 1840’s, when Bismarck began his political career he held the views of a reactionary Junker “who could not accept Jews serving in the name of his ‘holy majesty’” and who opposed legislation offering Jews full emancipation. By 1869, Bismarck was the leader of a government that passed an emancipation law stating, “All still existing limitations of the…civil rights which are rooted in differences of relgious faith are hereby annulled.” Bismarck explained the change in views by stating, “Man grows with his goals.” In Bismarck’s case the goal was elimination of Austria as Prussia’s rival for leadership of a modern unified Germany. Bismarck turned to his personal banker, a Jews named Gerson Bleichroeder, to supply the financing for the war which drove Austria from the German equation and allowed him to modernize the German Army. Bismarck realized that Jewish support was necessary for his nationalistic goals. But in working with Jews, he came to see them as human beings, and as human begins capable of making a major contribution to the new Germany. All of these elements helped to make the new chancellor a more enlightened leader when it came to matters concerning the Jews. Evidence of this new enlightenment would be seen in 1878 when he took the side of the Jews at the Congress of Berlin when dealing with Czar Alexander II over the question of the horrible treatment of the Jews of Romania.
1872: It was reported today that the Jews of Cahul in Romania have endured three days of attacks by the local citizens. There are 1,000 Jews living in this town of 7,000. Two of the synagogues have been desecrated and property losses are valued are 49,000 ducats
1872(11th of Adar II, 5632): Fast of Esther observed because the 13th of Adar II falls on Shabbat
1872(11th of Adar II, 5632): Russian Talmudist Samuel ben Joseph Strashun, also known as Rashash (רש"ש) passed away today in Vilna. As we shall see, he embodied the concept of not making a profit from the crown of the Torah. Born in 1794, he was educated by his father, married at an early age, and settled with his wife's parents in the village of Streszyn, commonly called Strashun (near Wilna), where he assumed his last name. The distillery owned by his father-in-law was wrecked by the invading French army in 1812, and the family removed to Wilna, where Samuel established another distillery and became one of the most prominent members of the community. His wife conducted the business, as was usual in Wilna, and he devoted the greater part of his time to studying the Talmud and to teaching, gratuitously, the disciples who gathered about him. The Talmud lectures which for many years he delivered daily at the synagogue on Poplaves street were well attended, and from the discussions held there resulted his annotations, which are now incorporated in every recent edition of the Babylonian Talmud (Hagahot v'Chiddushei HaRashash). His fame as a rabbinical scholar spread throughout Russia, and he conducted a correspondence with several well-known rabbis. Strashun was offered the rabbinate of Suwałki, but he refused it, preferring to retain his independence. His piety did not prevent him from sympathizing with the progressive element in Russian Jewry, and he was one of the few Orthodox leaders who accepted in good faith the decree of the government that only graduates of the rabbinical schools of Wilna and Jitomir should be elected as rabbis. He wrote good modern Hebrew, spoke the Polish language fluently, was conspicuously kind and benevolent, and was highly esteemed even among the Christian inhabitants of Wilna. Besides the above-mentioned annotations, he wrote others to the Midrash Rabbot, which first appeared in the Wilna editions of 1843-45 and 1855. Some of his novellæ, emendations, etc., were incorporated in the works of other authorities.
1875: The Anshe Bikur Cholim Society hosted a Purim Ball tonight at Irving Hall in New York City.
1875: Over 200 contributors signed the “Silver Book of Life” at this evening’s Purim reception at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York City
1879: A Jewish peddler from New York was beaten and robbed by 3 men while walking along the railroad tracks between Norton and Stamford, Conn.
1880(9th of Nisan, 5640): Just six days short of his 60th birthday, Indian businessman Elias David Sasson passed away in Ceylon.
1882: Birthdate of Gilbert M Anderson. Born Max Aronson in Little Rock AR, Anderson was an early silent screen actor, appearing as Bronco Billy in that famed 1903 hit, The Great Train Robbery. Anderson also was a promoter of the new industry and was one of the first to move his operation to California where he made at least one film featuring the famous Ben Turpin.
1883(12th of Adar II, 5643): Sir George Jessel, the son of a Jewish coral merchant who became on the U.K.’s most influential jurists passed away.
1887: Birthdate of Erich Mendelsohn “a German Jewish architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.”
1890: Austrian Jewish communities were defined by law.
1890: Based on information that first appeared in the London Daily News“Sobriety Among Jews” which was published today espouses the theory that the Jews have survived despite having been oppressed “by cruel laws” and forced to live “in abodes where others must have died” because “they lead, as a rule, simple lives and are mindful of the expressive maxim in Proverbs, ‘wine is a mocker.’” In other words, while Jews do not refrain from drinking, they drink in moderation and condemn intemperance.
1891: “The members of the Baron de Hirsch Club opened their clubhouse at 208 East Broadway” in New York City today.
1893: Hermann Ahlwardt delivered “a rabidly anti-Semitic speech” in the Reichstag in which “he declared that he had eleven documents which showed that while Prince Bismarck was Chancellor, fraudulent contracts had been made repeatedly with Jewish financers…”
1893: “For Jewish Working Girls” published today provided the efforts of the Jewish Working Girls’ Vacation Society to provide a summer time respite by renting a house in the country where they can spend a few restful days at no charge. The environment will be moral and all dietary laws will be observed. The society, led by Mrs. A.L. Freudenthal rented a house in Westchester County last year and provided two week vacations for 125 young women.
1894: It was reported today that the Don Quixote Club will host a fundraiser for the United Hebrew Charities at the Manhattan Athletic Club.
1894: It was reported today that the industrial school in New York is only one of the institutions supported by the Bikur Cholim which is currently under the leadership of Mrs. Emma L. Toplitz.
1895: “Contest of the Grunhut Will” published today described the attempts by Louis Grunhut and Mrs. Mary Ballowa, the son and daughter of the late Dr. Bernhard Grunhut, who are trying to break the will of the descendant. They are contending that the Doctor had not married Eva L. Jacobs who claims to be his widow and that the couple had not had a baby which died after only 15 deaths. As matters stand now she will inherit his entire estate less $50,000 that has been left to Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Benevolent Society.
1896: For the first time Shaaray Tefila will use the Union Prayer Book which was recently adopted by the Union of American Congregations.
1896: The celebration Shaaray Tefila’s Jubilee will continue this morning with an address delivered after Shabbat morning services by “Henry Morrison, a veteran lawyer who as a youth delivered an address at the dedication of the first synagogue..
1896: “Inquisition and the Jews” published today summarized the views expressed by Dr. M. H. Harris. In speaking of the long-term consequences suffered by the perpetrators of the Inquisition, he concluded that “Spain brought upon itself its own punishment. In driving out the Moors and Jews it drove out its best citizens. ..Spain is the most insignificant of nations. It is no longer a first-rate power. In driving out the Moors and Jews it wrote its own epitaph.”
1897: A Purim Reception today marked “the formal opening of the new building and the improved hospital wards of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews at West 106thStreet.
1897: Cantor David Cahn will officiate at today’s funeral for Rabbi Ignatz Grossman which will be held at Rodef Sholom. Rabbis Kaufman Kohler and Joseph Silverman will deliver eulogies.
1897: The Superintendent of the Montefiore Home For Chronic Invalids hosted its annual Purim Masquerade Ball tonight.
1898: In Albany, Governor Black signed into law a bill introduced by Senator Cantor incorporating the Hebrew Charities Building in New York City.
1898: When the Austrian Reichsrath reconvenes today legislation will be introduced to exclude “from the privilege of suffrage all Jews and those remotely connected with that race either by marriage or remote ancestry.
1899: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor delivered an address on “The Working Day” tonight at the People’s Home in New York City.
1899: The first plenary session of the Supreme Court of Appeals, with all three Chambers sitting jointly and Charles Mazeau presiding.
1902(12th of Adar II): Abraham Shalom Friedberg (Bar Shalom) passed away
1902: Birthdate of Holocaust survivor Jermie Adler. A poor Jew born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he and his wife moved to Liege, Belgium during the 1930’s where he ran a tailor shop that provided a living for him, his wife and their three children. The family hid successful for four years during the brutal German occupation. Tragically, while Adler was sick in the hospital, the Gestapo came and arrested his family including his nephew. They all perished except for one daughter, who, along with Adler survived the war.
1905: Albert Einstein publishes his theory on special relativity.
1905(14thof Adar II, 5665): Purim
1906: Birthdate of Benjamin Samberg, the New York native who gained fame as singer-songwriter Benny Bell.
1913: Birthdate of movie producer, Max Youngstein.
1916: Birthdate of Novelist Harold Robbins. There seems to be some dispute about this since May 5, 1916 is also given as his birthdate. An orphan, Robbins was also known as Francis Kane and Harold Rubin. Some of his more famous works included The Carpetbaggers and The Betsy. While not critically acclaimed, Robbins was a hit with the public. According to one source, his books have sold more than fifty million copies and some of them have been turned into popular Hollywood films. Robbins died in 1997.
1917: Birthdate of Yigal Sukenik who as Yigael Yadin gained fame fighting in the War for Independence, serving as the second Chief of Staff for the IDF and becoming a first-rate archeologist. If you did not know he was a real person, you would swear that some novelist had invented this fascinating person.
1918: Birthdate of Howard Cosell. A lawyer by training, Cosell gained fame as a sportscaster. He was part of the trio of on-air talent that made Monday Night Football a national event. Interestingly enough, the man many think of as the epitome of the New York Jew was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His family moved to Brooklyn shortly after his birth. As to being Jewish, Cosell once said he remembered "going to school in the morning, a Jewish boy. I remember having to climb a back fence and run because the kids from St. Theresa's parish were after me. My drive, in a sense, relates to being Jewish and living in an age of Hitler. I think these things create insecurities in you that live forever, and your desire to offset them is a drive to accumulate economic security."
1919: The National Jewish Council in Constantinople asked the British High Commander for the discharge of all Jewish soldiers from the Ottoman army. They stated that the Jewish soldiers endured terrible suffering, as they were used to build roads across Anatolia. Thousands died due to lack of food, illness, insufficient equipment and cruel treatment.
1919: In Budapest, Zsigmond Kunfi, minister of education in the newly formed Hungarian Social Democratic government met with Bela Kun chairman of Hungary’s Communist party at the Marko Street Jail. Kunfi was seeking Kun’s support in the formation of coalition government. The irony is that Kun and Kunfi whose name was Kohn, were both Jewish.
1920: President Harding pushed Congress to limit immigration. Passage of this legislation would have a direct negative effect on Jewish immigration prior to and during World War II.
1920(2nd of Nisan, 5680): Sholom Dovber Schneersohn, the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe passed away. There is no way that this simple blog can do justice to this leader of Chabad and we urge to check elsewhere for more about his life and contributions to the Jewish people
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/110470/jewish/A-Brief-Biography.htm
1922: Winston Churchill cautions Zionist Pinhas Ruttenberg against ordering machinery for the newly approved power project for Palestine from Germany when unemployment is still a major problem in Britain. Ruttenberg took the hint and re-channeled his purchases of heavy equipment accordingly.
1924: Birthdate of Dov Shilansky an Israeli politician and who served as Speaker of the Knesset from 1988 to 1992.
1924(15th of Adar II, 5684): Shushan Purim
1924(15th of Adar II, 5684): Samuel Ullman passed away in Birmingham, Alabama. Born in Germany in 1840, he moved to the United States where he became a successful businessman, poet, humanitarian.
1925: Viking Press was founded by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. “The firm's name and logo—a Viking ship drawn by Rockwell Kent—were meant to evoke the ideas of exploration and enterprise implied by the word ‘Viking’".
1929: Birthdate of Jules Bergman, ABC television’s news space and science reporter. When the world of space flight was considered the province of the geeks, Bergman took on the beat and made it intelligible to the average American.
1932: Birthdate of Walter Gilbert winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980.
1932: Birthdate of violinist and conductor Joseph Silverstein. Born in Detroit, Silverstein has enjoyed a distinguished career that has included both the concert hall and the world of academia.
1932: The American athletes who will compete in the upcoming Jewish Olympics are re-united in Trieste where they begin the last leg of their trip to Tel Aviv.
1933: The German government opens its first concentration camp at Dachau.
1933: The New York Times reported on the increased number of German immigrants arriving in Palestine. “Oscar Kahn, who was a (German) State Secretary in 1918 and who had been threatened by the Nazis” was among the many German families who reached Eretz Israel this week.
1937: As the wave of terror continues, Dov Zemel, the chauffeur of the Meshek Haotzar, is in critical condition in Tel Aviv hospital after having been shot by an assailant firing from an Arab owned orange grove.
1937(9th of Nisan) Historian and Zionist leader Jacob De Haas passed away today
1937: The Palestine Post reported that "unfettered discretion" had been conferred upon the High Commissioner to make the Defense Regulations under a new Palestine (Defense) Order-in-Council effective. The proclamation, published in Gazette Extraordinary, had also empowered the High Commissioner to delegate his powers to the General Officer, Commander of all Forces in Palestine. It was reported from London that the Palestine (Peel) Commission was drafting its final report.
1939(1st of Nisan, 5699): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1939: Birthdate of Joseph Raz the Israeli philosopher whose works include The Concept of a Legal System and The Morality of Freedom.
1939: A 24 hour strike protesting Great Britain’s latest plan to deal with the situation in Palestine was scheduled to come to and at 5 A.M. today. According to The National Council Of Palestine Jews, the plan would lead to the “liquidation of the Newish national home” and strangle Jewish settlement in Palestine
1940: Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France. Reynaud would be the Prime Minister when the Germans would end the Phony War and come crashing through the Ardennes in May of 1940. Within six weeks, France would suffer a crushing military defeat. Reynaud was one of the leaders who wanted to continue the fight against the Nazis from France’s overseas colonies. He was overruled. To his credit, Reynaud refused to sign an Armistice with the Germans, a role that fell to the willing hands of Marshall Petain. Petain’s shameful behavior led to the active betrayal of the Jews of France by their non-Jewish countrymen.
1941: Release date for “Sea Wolf” co-produced by Jack L. Warner co-starring Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield (Jacob Julius Garfinkle) and featuring Howard Da Silva as he leading mutineer.
1943(14th of Adar II, 5703): Purim
1943: At Radom, Poland, Jewish physicians were removed from the ghetto and executed at nearby Szydlowiec.
1943: Eight members of the Jewish intelligentsia were taken from Piotrków, Poland, to a Jewish cemetery and shot, along with the cemetery's caretaker and his wife. The Germans engineer these killings to total ten, in a macabre reference to the biblical story of the hanged ten sons of the Jew-hating Haman--a crucial character in the Purim story.
1943: During the Jewish festival of Purim, 2300 Jews from Skopje, Yugoslavia, were deported to Auschwitz.
1944: Eichmann went to Hungary to oversee German interests in a country that was still hesitant about deporting its Jews. The Hungarians would soon capitulate to German demands. The Hungarian Arrow Cross would be an enthusiastic participant in the Nazis roundups.
1945: At the end of the “Flossenberg March,” the remaining survivors of the march were crammed into cattle cars over a three day period and awaited further transport. Many died of thirst. They were sent to Belsen. Only 200 of the original 1000 women survived the entire trip.
1945: Red Army troops entered the Pruszcz, Poland, camp near Stutthof. Only about 200 women prisoners, out of an original 1100, remained alive.
1945: Dozens of small concentration camps in Germany were liberated by the Red Army.
1947: According to reports published in Tel Aviv today, a combination of loans and the Jewish Agency has been able to obtain a direct allocation of $500,000 have made it possible to reopen five diamond plants. The plants had been closed for the past ten weeks. Seven more plants are scheduled to reopen next week. The money will be used primarily to purchase rough-cut diamonds which the Palestinians can cut, polish and sell or be used to create jewelry. About five hundred polishers will be employed in these efforts.
1947(29th of Adar, 5707): Philip Lehman an American investment banker passed away. Born in New York City to Emanuel and Pauline (nee Sondheim), his father, was a co-founder of investment bank, Lehman Brothers. Philip became a partner in the family-owned firm in 1887 and was the firm's managing partner from 1901 to 1925. He was also the first chairman of the board of the Lehman Corporation. [1] Lehman was notable as one of the first financiers to recognize the potential of issuing stock as a way for new companies to raise capital. Lehman began collecting major artworks in 1911, the bulk of which he willed to his son Robert. His collection today forms part of the exhibition in the Robert Lehman Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1947: In Parliament, Churchill mocks the Labor government’s willing to “scuttle everywhere” surrendering Egypt, India and Burma but continuing to waste treasure on a barren Palestine policy.
1948: Two days after Ambassador Warren Austin to the UN Security Council that the U.S. no longer viewed the partition as viable, an exasperated and angry President Harry Truman wrote "The striped pants conspirators in the State Department had completely balled up the Palestine situation." President Truman overruled the Arabists, oil industry and self-described foreign policy pragmatist and continued his support of the creation of a Jewish state.
1950: In New York City, Jackson T. Holtz of Boston, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans (JWV) presented a 32 passenger bus to Adolf Robison, board chairman of Material for Israel, Inc. The bus will be used to take disabled veterans from “Tel Hashomir Hospital in Israel to” their worksites in Tel Aviv which is seven miles away.
1951: During the Cold War Red Scare, actor Larry Parks testified before the strangely named House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) saying "I don't think this is American justice to make me..crawl through the mud...this is what I beg you not to do.""Despite his confessions and informing, Parks was blacklisted."
1952: Jewish born DJ and producer Alan Freed presented the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt had joined the Islamic Union.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that preliminary secret reparations talks between the Israeli-Jewish and German delegations had begun at The Hague.
1952: The Jerusalem Post was happy to announce, that together with all other Israeli newspapers, it would no longer appear as a two-page issue, but would be able to return to four pages daily and eight pages on Friday.
1953: Edward H. Weiss, president of Weiss & Geller spoke at Emory University’s advertising clinic in Atlanta, GA.
1958: Seventy-four year old Hans Ehrenberg, who converted to Christianity in 1911 and founded the Confessing Church passed away. He was forced to flee to England by the Nazis because under their laws he was Jewish. ”Hans Ehrenberg was one of the few German Protestant theologians, even within the Confessing Church, to publicly express his vehement opposition to the anti-Semitism of the Nazis and publicly declare his support of the Jewish people. He strongly urged the Protestant church to take the same stand. He criticized Christian anti-Semitism and emphasized the similarities between Judaism and Christianity.”
1960: David Susskind was the Executive Producer for tonight’s broadcast of “The Master Builder,” this week’s “Play of the Week.”
1961: "A law was passed that sequestered for the Government 'all goods and property in Libya, belonging to organizations or persons resident in Israel or connected to them by professional affiliation”
1964: Mayor Wagner was among those who spoke at the celebration marking the 30thanniversary of Aufbau which was held at the Hunter College Assembly Hall and to which “President Lyndon Johnson sent greetings/”
1965: Martin Luther King Jr leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Among those in the front rank is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who prays with his feet as he joined King and other civil rights leader on the march which is part of the campaign to pass the Voting Right’s Act.
1968: Israeli forces crossed the Jordan River to attack PLO bases. The organizational names may change but the war against the terrorists has been going on for decades.
1969: Birthdate of columnist Jonah Goldberg. His father is Jewish. His mother is Episcopalian.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the 293 members of the Palestine Council ended their 13th session in Cairo with an endorsement which called for the eventual dismantling of the State of Israel.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had told the nation that there were major differences with Washington on two key issues: Israel¹s final borders and the Palestine question.
1978: Operation Litani, which was designed to dislodge the PLO from its bases in southern Lebanon came to a successful conclusion.
1981(15th of Adar II, 5741): On Shabbat, Soviet film director Mark Semyonovich Donskoy passed away.
1981: Jewish journalist Jessica Savitch married Donald Payne.
1994(9th of Nisan, 5754): Estelle Sommers passed away. Sommers got her start in the dance world when she transformed her husband's Cincinnati piece-goods retail store into a dancewear specialty shop. Passionate about dance since taking ballet and tap lessons in childhood, Sommers remained committed to the dance world both professionally and personally until her death. After a divorce and a move to New York, Sommers married "Mr. Capezio," Ben Sommers, and her career was thereafter linked to his. As owner-manager of Capezio Fashion Shop, designer-owner of Estar, Ltd., and as vice president and head administrator for six Capezio Dance-Theatre Shops nationwide, she achieved success in various branches of retail dancewear. Along the way, she introduced Antron-Lycra/Spandex, then a new fabric, into Capezio's dancewear, revolutionizing the industry. Due to the nature of her business, Sommers could not support or publicly promote any one dance company over others, but she was deeply involved in general dance causes. She served on the boards of the Joffrey School of Ballet, the International Dance Alliance, the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, and the Center for Dance Medicine. She was also committed to projects in Israel, serving on the boards of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Israeli Dance Institute. Her greatest impact may have been made as the U.S. Chairwoman of the International Committee for the Dance Library of Israel. In this position, which she held from 1979 until 1994, Sommers helped to establish the Tel Aviv library as the second most important dance collection worldwide.
1989(14thof Adar II, 5749): First Purim during the Presidency of George Bush.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including “Years of Renewal” by Henry Kissinger, “The Jewish Lover” by Edward Topol and “Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land” by Victor K. McElheny.
2000: “Pope John Paul II arrived in Israel, for a historic five-day visit, during which he visited the holy sites of the three major religions and met with Israel’s political leaders and Chief Rabbis.”(As reported by Mitchell Bard)
2002: In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish readers including “Codex” by Lev Grossman and the recently released paperback edition of “The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror” by Bernard Lewis.
2006: The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu probably entered Israel from Egypt, according to sources at the Agriculture Ministry. This conclusion - which ministry officials are currently willing to offer only off the record - is based on the fact that the virus was first discovered in southern communities (Holit and Amioz) located near the Egyptian border.
2007: “Hungarian Folk,” an exploration of the Jewish-Hungarian musical traditions featuring Magyar Khasene with Jacob Shulman-Ment and Joshua Cohen reading from his novel A Cadenza for the Schneiderman Violin Concerto, takes place at the Eldridge Street Synagogue.
2007: At the Shankar School of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gat, an exhibition styled “There’s No button without a Buttonhole” comes to a close.
2007: Raleb Majadele replaced Yuli Tamir as Minister for Science and Technology
2008: Purim, 5768
2008: In New York, the 92nd Street Y presents an evening with David Grossman one of Israel’s best known authors.
2008: Three Kassam rockets fired from Gaza landed in open areas in the Sdot Negev region as Purim festivities were underway in the area.
2008: “The Band’s Visit,” the Israeli film about an Egyptian band stranded in a village in the Israeli film opens in a most unusual venue, the Fleur Cinema & Café in Des Moines, Iowa.
2009: Shabbath Hahodesh - The Sabbath of the Month; Completion of Shemot, the Book of Exodus.
2009: The 92nd Street Y presents Erev Shira, tuneful evening where members of the audience sing along to their favorite Israeli hits and classics of the past 60+ years, accompanied by a singer and live band! Erev Shira is part of the Merchav Ivri Hebrew programming initiative.
2009: Police foiled a terror attack at a Haifa mall tonight. Sappers safely neutralized several explosive devices found in a bag in a car at the entrance to Haifa's Lev Hamifratz shopping center. No casualties were reported in the incident. Hundreds of people were evacuated from the center as police and security forces scoured the surrounding area for other such devices. It was not immediately clear whether the event was nationalistically or criminally motivated. As a result of the event, severe traffic jams were reported in the area.
2009: Idina Mentzel “was an Honorary Chair of the Imperial Court of New York's Annual Charity Coronation Ball, Night of A Thousand Gowns
2009: An air disaster was narrowly averted this afternoon when an Iberia passenger plane came dangerously close to a Cargo Air Lines jet as the two aircraft were preparing to land at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The near-collision occurred as both planes were approaching the airspace above Israel's seashore, beginning their landing procedures. The Iberia plane then unexpectedly dipped to within 3,000 feet of the cargo jet. An air traffic controller spotted the situation and instructed the Spanish airliner to change course.
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History” by David Aaronovitch, “Backing Into Forward: A Memoir” by Jules Feiffer, and “Blooms of Darkness” by Aharon Appelfeld
2010: Keshet is scheduled to host its 22nd Annual Rainbow Banquet.
2011: Gina Waldman is scheduled to speak at Congregation Edmond J. Safra where she will discuss “how her experience of anti-Semitism growing up in Libya, and her family’s expulsion from their ancestral home there, led her to become a human rights activist.”
2011(15th of Adar II, 5771): Shushan Purim
2011(15th of Adar II, 5771): Seventy-six year old movie executive Joe Wizan passed away.(As reported by Dennis McLellan)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/25/local/la-me-joe-wizan-20110325
2011: The field hospital Israel is establishing in Japan is the first to be set up by any nation offering outside assistance, Israel’s Ambassador to Japan Nissim Ben Shitrit said today, and the Japanese are extremely appreciative.
2011: An Israel Air Force fighter jet struck a Gaza tunnel running along the border with Israel, as well as Hamas militants in the northern Gaza strip today, an IDF statement confirmed. The IDF spokesperson's office released a statement saying that the Gaza tunnel was used to smuggle terrorists into Israeli territory with the intent to execute attacks against Israeli citizens.
2012: The Sy Kushner Klezmer Ensemble is scheduled to perform as part of the East Village Klezmer Serioes
2012: Yael Shahar - Director at Israel’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism is scheduled to present "Cyber-Terrorism: Threats and Counters" sponsored by The Israel Project.
2012: “Obsession” is scheduled to be shown tonight at the 16th Annual New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present 5th Annual Writers on View featuring artist Sebastian Mendes and writers and poets Terese Svoboda, Willie Perdomo, Ken Chen, Janet Kaplan, Aldina Vazão Kennedy, Matthew Thorburn, Rachel Zucker, Tracy K. Smith and Sima Rabinowitz
2013: Dr. Elliot Lefkovitz, Loyola University and Spertus Institute faculty member is scheduled to review and discuss Bernard Wasserstein’s On the Eve: The Jews of Europe Before the Second World War, a 2012 National Jewish Book Award finalist.
2013: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Professor Melissa Klapper author of Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940
2013: Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon’s “The Sounds of Silence” was named as one 25 recordings selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.
2013(10thof Nisan, 5773): Ninety-five year old Rabbi Hershel Schacter, who was serving with the U.S. Army’s VIII Corps when it liberated Buchenwald making him the first U.S. Army chaplain to enter the camp where he would later conduct services passed away today. Among those whom he personally rescued was 7 year old Yisrael Meir Lau, the future chief rabbi of Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/first-rabbi-to-enter-liberated-buchenwald-dies/
2013: The Kubbeh Project hosted by Zucker Bakery on East 9th Street is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: President Obama visited the Israel Museum seeing the Dead Scrolls at first hand and delivered an address to young Israelis in Jerusalem.
http://www.robertabzug.com/
456 BCE: The convocation summoned by Ezra on intermarriage came to an end
629: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius marched into Jerusalem at the head of his army with the support of Jewish inhabitants. The Jews who had previously fought with the Persians against Byzantine rule decided to support him in return for a promise of amnesty. Upon his entry into Jerusalem the local priests convinced him that killing Jews was a positive commandment and that his promise was therefore invalid. Hundreds of Jews were massacred and thousands of others fled to Egypt. Thus, much of the rich Jewish life in the Galilee and Judea came to an end.
1349(1stof Nisan): Three thousand Jews were killed in Black Death riots in Efurt Germany. This was one of only a series of wholesale murders of Jews that took place in Germany in 1349. The Jews provided a convenient scapegoat for the Black Death. In some places they were accused of poisoning the wells which supposedly caused the plague. Since The Black Death provided an interesting excuse of murdering Jews, the following few summary might be of interest. "A Genoese trading post in the Crimea was besieged by an army of Kipchaks from Hungary and Mongols from the East. The latter brought with them a new form of plague. Infected dead bodies were catapulted into the Genoese town. One Genoese ship managed to escape and brought the disease to Messina, in Sicily. From this time forth the disease became an epidemic. It moved over the next few years to northern Italy, North Africa, France, Spain, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, Germany, the Low Countries, England, Scandinavia and the Baltic. There were lesser outbreaks in many cities for the next twenty years. An estimated 25 million died in Europe and economic depression followed."
1349: After a mob marched into the Jewish quarter in Erfurt, Germany, carrying a flag with a cross the Jews tried to defend themselves. Over a hundred Jews were killed and much of the ghetto burned.
1475: Simon of Trent disappeared from Trento, Italy. The disappearance led to a blood libel that led to 8 Jews being hung by local authorities for their part in a plot use the blood of this Christian child in the making of Matzah.
1697(28th of Adar, 5457): Amsterdam Rabbi Abraham Cohen Pimentel passed away. A student of Saul Levi Morteira, he served as hakham of the synagogue in Hamburg and was initially a signator to a letter of approbation for Sabbatai Zevi. He was the author of the “Minchat Kohen,” published in 1668.
1758: The councilor of the Holy Office, Lorenzo Ganganelli , the future Pope Clement XIV, who had been charged with investigating the blood libel against the Jews of Yanopol, Poland, presented "Non solis accusatoribus credendum," to the congregation of the Inquisition which showed that not only were these charges groundless but demonstrated that “all the principal cases of blood accusation since the 13thcentury were groundless.
1759: A letter was received in New York at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue from Newport, Rhode Island. It was a request from the congregation at Newport asking for funds to help build a synagogue. New York sent financial assistance, and on May 28 the congregation at Newport sent a letter of thanks, signed by 10 of its members, back to New York.
1776: The President of Congress, John Hancock, arranged to send George Washington $250,000 cash to be used to maintain the siege of Boston. Hancock wrote in the letter that accompanied the funds sent that he had selected three "gentlemen of character whom I am confident will meet your notice." One of these men was the Jewish patriot, Moses Franks of Philadelphia.
1799(14th of Adar II, 5559): As the British, French and Turks fight it out for control of Egypt and Eretz Israel and Syria, the Jews celebrate Purim
1807(11th of Adar II, 5567): Shabbat Zachor
1807(11th of Adar II, 5567): Chaim Joseph David ben Isaac Zerachia Azulai passed away. Born in 1724, he was “known as the Chida (by the acronym of his name, חיד"א) and was a rabbinical scholar and a noted bibliophile, who pioneered the history of Jewish religious writings.”
1831(19th of Adar II): Chaim ben Naphtali Coslin, author of Maslul, passed away
1837(14thof Adar II, 5597): Purim
1837: Birthdate of Gustave-Hippolyte Worms, the Parisian born actor who made his debut as Achille in “Duc Job” in 1850. He retired from the stage in 1901.
1844: The Bahá'í calendar begins. This is the first day of the first year of the Bahá'í calendar. “The Bahá'í Faith has its administrative centre in Haifa on land it has owned since Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment in Acre in the early 1870s by the Ottoman Empire. Pilgrims from all over the world visit for short periods of time. Apart from the circa six hundred volunteer staff, Bahá'ís do not live or preach in Israel”
1847: “The Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel,” the largest congregation in Philadelphia, was organized” today. “Its first rabbi was B. H. Gotthelf, who held services in a hall at No. 528 N. Second Street.”
1848: The ghetto pillars of Ferrara were destroyed by the professors and students of the Athenaeum
1860: Birthdate of Sigmund Freud’s sister Regina Debora
1864(13th of Adar II, 5624): Fast of Esther
1867(14thof Adar II, 5627): Purim
1869: Birthdate of Florenz Ziegfeld. Ziegfeld was born in Chicago. His father was a successful doctor and patron of the arts. He encouraged Ziegfeld's flair for showmanship. Eventually, young Florenz moved to New York where he gained fame for lavish productions "celebrating" the physical aspects of the American female. The Ziegfeld Follies launched the careers of many showgirls and comedians including Will Rogers and Eddie Cantor. Ziegeld was one of the first in a long line of Jews who were connected with the musical theatre. Ziegfeld married the famed Billie Burke and later moved to Hollywood. He passed away in 1932.
1869: Birthdate of Albert Kahn, foremost industrial architect of his times. He created several of the signature buildings in Detroit, Michigan, including the General Motors Building, the Detroit News Building, the Willow Run Bomber building, the foremost production site of B-24 bombers during WW II and Temple Emanuel.
1870(18th of Adar II, 5630: Chanokh Heynekh HaKohen Levin of Aleksander passed away. Born in 1798, “he served as the rebbe of a community of thousands of Hasidim during the "interregnum" between the Chidushei HaRim of Ger and the Sfas Emes. Heynekh was one of the leading students of the Rebbe Reb Simcha Bunim of Pshischa. After the latter's death he became one of the most prominent followers of Rebbe Menachem Mendel of Kotzk and the senior disciple of Chidushei hoRim. Following the death of the Chidushei hoRim in 1866, the bulk of his numerous chasidim chose Rabbi Chanokh Heynekh as the next rebbe. Chanokh Heynekh served as the Rabbi in the Jewish communities of Aleksander from 1837 (or earlier) till 1853, Nowy Dwór from 1853 to 1859 and Przasnysz from 1859 to 1864 (or 1866). After his tenure In Przasnysz he retired from the rabbinate and settled in Aleksander[7], where he lived during his period of leadership as rebbe. His teachings are collected in Chashovoh leToivo (first published in 1929[, and are quoted widely. While few may know his name today, his successor was the renowned Yehudah Aryeh Leib which means he must have been quite a personage in his own right.
1871: Otto von Bismarck is appointed Chancellor of the German Empire. In the 1840’s, when Bismarck began his political career he held the views of a reactionary Junker “who could not accept Jews serving in the name of his ‘holy majesty’” and who opposed legislation offering Jews full emancipation. By 1869, Bismarck was the leader of a government that passed an emancipation law stating, “All still existing limitations of the…civil rights which are rooted in differences of relgious faith are hereby annulled.” Bismarck explained the change in views by stating, “Man grows with his goals.” In Bismarck’s case the goal was elimination of Austria as Prussia’s rival for leadership of a modern unified Germany. Bismarck turned to his personal banker, a Jews named Gerson Bleichroeder, to supply the financing for the war which drove Austria from the German equation and allowed him to modernize the German Army. Bismarck realized that Jewish support was necessary for his nationalistic goals. But in working with Jews, he came to see them as human beings, and as human begins capable of making a major contribution to the new Germany. All of these elements helped to make the new chancellor a more enlightened leader when it came to matters concerning the Jews. Evidence of this new enlightenment would be seen in 1878 when he took the side of the Jews at the Congress of Berlin when dealing with Czar Alexander II over the question of the horrible treatment of the Jews of Romania.
1872: It was reported today that the Jews of Cahul in Romania have endured three days of attacks by the local citizens. There are 1,000 Jews living in this town of 7,000. Two of the synagogues have been desecrated and property losses are valued are 49,000 ducats
1872(11th of Adar II, 5632): Fast of Esther observed because the 13th of Adar II falls on Shabbat
1875: The Anshe Bikur Cholim Society hosted a Purim Ball tonight at Irving Hall in New York City.
1875: Over 200 contributors signed the “Silver Book of Life” at this evening’s Purim reception at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews in New York City
1879: A Jewish peddler from New York was beaten and robbed by 3 men while walking along the railroad tracks between Norton and Stamford, Conn.
1880(9th of Nisan, 5640): Just six days short of his 60th birthday, Indian businessman Elias David Sasson passed away in Ceylon.
1882: Birthdate of Gilbert M Anderson. Born Max Aronson in Little Rock AR, Anderson was an early silent screen actor, appearing as Bronco Billy in that famed 1903 hit, The Great Train Robbery. Anderson also was a promoter of the new industry and was one of the first to move his operation to California where he made at least one film featuring the famous Ben Turpin.
1883(12th of Adar II, 5643): Sir George Jessel, the son of a Jewish coral merchant who became on the U.K.’s most influential jurists passed away.
1887: Birthdate of Erich Mendelsohn “a German Jewish architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.”
1890: Austrian Jewish communities were defined by law.
1890: Based on information that first appeared in the London Daily News“Sobriety Among Jews” which was published today espouses the theory that the Jews have survived despite having been oppressed “by cruel laws” and forced to live “in abodes where others must have died” because “they lead, as a rule, simple lives and are mindful of the expressive maxim in Proverbs, ‘wine is a mocker.’” In other words, while Jews do not refrain from drinking, they drink in moderation and condemn intemperance.
1891: “The members of the Baron de Hirsch Club opened their clubhouse at 208 East Broadway” in New York City today.
1893: “For Jewish Working Girls” published today provided the efforts of the Jewish Working Girls’ Vacation Society to provide a summer time respite by renting a house in the country where they can spend a few restful days at no charge. The environment will be moral and all dietary laws will be observed. The society, led by Mrs. A.L. Freudenthal rented a house in Westchester County last year and provided two week vacations for 125 young women.
1894: It was reported today that the Don Quixote Club will host a fundraiser for the United Hebrew Charities at the Manhattan Athletic Club.
1894: It was reported today that the industrial school in New York is only one of the institutions supported by the Bikur Cholim which is currently under the leadership of Mrs. Emma L. Toplitz.
1895: “Contest of the Grunhut Will” published today described the attempts by Louis Grunhut and Mrs. Mary Ballowa, the son and daughter of the late Dr. Bernhard Grunhut, who are trying to break the will of the descendant. They are contending that the Doctor had not married Eva L. Jacobs who claims to be his widow and that the couple had not had a baby which died after only 15 deaths. As matters stand now she will inherit his entire estate less $50,000 that has been left to Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Benevolent Society.
1896: For the first time Shaaray Tefila will use the Union Prayer Book which was recently adopted by the Union of American Congregations.
1896: The celebration Shaaray Tefila’s Jubilee will continue this morning with an address delivered after Shabbat morning services by “Henry Morrison, a veteran lawyer who as a youth delivered an address at the dedication of the first synagogue..
1896: “Inquisition and the Jews” published today summarized the views expressed by Dr. M. H. Harris. In speaking of the long-term consequences suffered by the perpetrators of the Inquisition, he concluded that “Spain brought upon itself its own punishment. In driving out the Moors and Jews it drove out its best citizens. ..Spain is the most insignificant of nations. It is no longer a first-rate power. In driving out the Moors and Jews it wrote its own epitaph.”
1897: A Purim Reception today marked “the formal opening of the new building and the improved hospital wards of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews at West 106thStreet.
1897: The Superintendent of the Montefiore Home For Chronic Invalids hosted its annual Purim Masquerade Ball tonight.
1898: In Albany, Governor Black signed into law a bill introduced by Senator Cantor incorporating the Hebrew Charities Building in New York City.
1898: When the Austrian Reichsrath reconvenes today legislation will be introduced to exclude “from the privilege of suffrage all Jews and those remotely connected with that race either by marriage or remote ancestry.
1899: Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor delivered an address on “The Working Day” tonight at the People’s Home in New York City.
1902(12th of Adar II): Abraham Shalom Friedberg (Bar Shalom) passed away
1902: Birthdate of Holocaust survivor Jermie Adler. A poor Jew born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he and his wife moved to Liege, Belgium during the 1930’s where he ran a tailor shop that provided a living for him, his wife and their three children. The family hid successful for four years during the brutal German occupation. Tragically, while Adler was sick in the hospital, the Gestapo came and arrested his family including his nephew. They all perished except for one daughter, who, along with Adler survived the war.
1905: Albert Einstein publishes his theory on special relativity.
1906: Birthdate of Benjamin Samberg, the New York native who gained fame as singer-songwriter Benny Bell.
1913: Birthdate of movie producer, Max Youngstein.
1916: Birthdate of Novelist Harold Robbins. There seems to be some dispute about this since May 5, 1916 is also given as his birthdate. An orphan, Robbins was also known as Francis Kane and Harold Rubin. Some of his more famous works included The Carpetbaggers and The Betsy. While not critically acclaimed, Robbins was a hit with the public. According to one source, his books have sold more than fifty million copies and some of them have been turned into popular Hollywood films. Robbins died in 1997.
1917: Birthdate of Yigal Sukenik who as Yigael Yadin gained fame fighting in the War for Independence, serving as the second Chief of Staff for the IDF and becoming a first-rate archeologist. If you did not know he was a real person, you would swear that some novelist had invented this fascinating person.
1918: Birthdate of Howard Cosell. A lawyer by training, Cosell gained fame as a sportscaster. He was part of the trio of on-air talent that made Monday Night Football a national event. Interestingly enough, the man many think of as the epitome of the New York Jew was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His family moved to Brooklyn shortly after his birth. As to being Jewish, Cosell once said he remembered "going to school in the morning, a Jewish boy. I remember having to climb a back fence and run because the kids from St. Theresa's parish were after me. My drive, in a sense, relates to being Jewish and living in an age of Hitler. I think these things create insecurities in you that live forever, and your desire to offset them is a drive to accumulate economic security."
1919: The National Jewish Council in Constantinople asked the British High Commander for the discharge of all Jewish soldiers from the Ottoman army. They stated that the Jewish soldiers endured terrible suffering, as they were used to build roads across Anatolia. Thousands died due to lack of food, illness, insufficient equipment and cruel treatment.
1919: In Budapest, Zsigmond Kunfi, minister of education in the newly formed Hungarian Social Democratic government met with Bela Kun chairman of Hungary’s Communist party at the Marko Street Jail. Kunfi was seeking Kun’s support in the formation of coalition government. The irony is that Kun and Kunfi whose name was Kohn, were both Jewish.
1920: President Harding pushed Congress to limit immigration. Passage of this legislation would have a direct negative effect on Jewish immigration prior to and during World War II.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/110470/jewish/A-Brief-Biography.htm
1922: Winston Churchill cautions Zionist Pinhas Ruttenberg against ordering machinery for the newly approved power project for Palestine from Germany when unemployment is still a major problem in Britain. Ruttenberg took the hint and re-channeled his purchases of heavy equipment accordingly.
1924: Birthdate of Dov Shilansky an Israeli politician and who served as Speaker of the Knesset from 1988 to 1992.
1924(15th of Adar II, 5684): Shushan Purim
1924(15th of Adar II, 5684): Samuel Ullman passed away in Birmingham, Alabama. Born in Germany in 1840, he moved to the United States where he became a successful businessman, poet, humanitarian.
1925: Viking Press was founded by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheim. “The firm's name and logo—a Viking ship drawn by Rockwell Kent—were meant to evoke the ideas of exploration and enterprise implied by the word ‘Viking’".
1929: Birthdate of Jules Bergman, ABC television’s news space and science reporter. When the world of space flight was considered the province of the geeks, Bergman took on the beat and made it intelligible to the average American.
1932: Birthdate of Walter Gilbert winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1980.
1932: The American athletes who will compete in the upcoming Jewish Olympics are re-united in Trieste where they begin the last leg of their trip to Tel Aviv.
1933: The German government opens its first concentration camp at Dachau.
1933: The New York Times reported on the increased number of German immigrants arriving in Palestine. “Oscar Kahn, who was a (German) State Secretary in 1918 and who had been threatened by the Nazis” was among the many German families who reached Eretz Israel this week.
1937: As the wave of terror continues, Dov Zemel, the chauffeur of the Meshek Haotzar, is in critical condition in Tel Aviv hospital after having been shot by an assailant firing from an Arab owned orange grove.
1937(9th of Nisan) Historian and Zionist leader Jacob De Haas passed away today
1937: The Palestine Post reported that "unfettered discretion" had been conferred upon the High Commissioner to make the Defense Regulations under a new Palestine (Defense) Order-in-Council effective. The proclamation, published in Gazette Extraordinary, had also empowered the High Commissioner to delegate his powers to the General Officer, Commander of all Forces in Palestine. It was reported from London that the Palestine (Peel) Commission was drafting its final report.
1939(1st of Nisan, 5699): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1939: Birthdate of Joseph Raz the Israeli philosopher whose works include The Concept of a Legal System and The Morality of Freedom.
1939: A 24 hour strike protesting Great Britain’s latest plan to deal with the situation in Palestine was scheduled to come to and at 5 A.M. today. According to The National Council Of Palestine Jews, the plan would lead to the “liquidation of the Newish national home” and strangle Jewish settlement in Palestine
1940: Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France. Reynaud would be the Prime Minister when the Germans would end the Phony War and come crashing through the Ardennes in May of 1940. Within six weeks, France would suffer a crushing military defeat. Reynaud was one of the leaders who wanted to continue the fight against the Nazis from France’s overseas colonies. He was overruled. To his credit, Reynaud refused to sign an Armistice with the Germans, a role that fell to the willing hands of Marshall Petain. Petain’s shameful behavior led to the active betrayal of the Jews of France by their non-Jewish countrymen.
1941: Release date for “Sea Wolf” co-produced by Jack L. Warner co-starring Edward G. Robinson and John Garfield (Jacob Julius Garfinkle) and featuring Howard Da Silva as he leading mutineer.
1943(14th of Adar II, 5703): Purim
1943: At Radom, Poland, Jewish physicians were removed from the ghetto and executed at nearby Szydlowiec.
1943: Eight members of the Jewish intelligentsia were taken from Piotrków, Poland, to a Jewish cemetery and shot, along with the cemetery's caretaker and his wife. The Germans engineer these killings to total ten, in a macabre reference to the biblical story of the hanged ten sons of the Jew-hating Haman--a crucial character in the Purim story.
1943: During the Jewish festival of Purim, 2300 Jews from Skopje, Yugoslavia, were deported to Auschwitz.
1945: At the end of the “Flossenberg March,” the remaining survivors of the march were crammed into cattle cars over a three day period and awaited further transport. Many died of thirst. They were sent to Belsen. Only 200 of the original 1000 women survived the entire trip.
1945: Red Army troops entered the Pruszcz, Poland, camp near Stutthof. Only about 200 women prisoners, out of an original 1100, remained alive.
1947: According to reports published in Tel Aviv today, a combination of loans and the Jewish Agency has been able to obtain a direct allocation of $500,000 have made it possible to reopen five diamond plants. The plants had been closed for the past ten weeks. Seven more plants are scheduled to reopen next week. The money will be used primarily to purchase rough-cut diamonds which the Palestinians can cut, polish and sell or be used to create jewelry. About five hundred polishers will be employed in these efforts.
1947(29th of Adar, 5707): Philip Lehman an American investment banker passed away. Born in New York City to Emanuel and Pauline (nee Sondheim), his father, was a co-founder of investment bank, Lehman Brothers. Philip became a partner in the family-owned firm in 1887 and was the firm's managing partner from 1901 to 1925. He was also the first chairman of the board of the Lehman Corporation. [1] Lehman was notable as one of the first financiers to recognize the potential of issuing stock as a way for new companies to raise capital. Lehman began collecting major artworks in 1911, the bulk of which he willed to his son Robert. His collection today forms part of the exhibition in the Robert Lehman Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1947: In Parliament, Churchill mocks the Labor government’s willing to “scuttle everywhere” surrendering Egypt, India and Burma but continuing to waste treasure on a barren Palestine policy.
1948: Two days after Ambassador Warren Austin to the UN Security Council that the U.S. no longer viewed the partition as viable, an exasperated and angry President Harry Truman wrote "The striped pants conspirators in the State Department had completely balled up the Palestine situation." President Truman overruled the Arabists, oil industry and self-described foreign policy pragmatist and continued his support of the creation of a Jewish state.
1950: In New York City, Jackson T. Holtz of Boston, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans (JWV) presented a 32 passenger bus to Adolf Robison, board chairman of Material for Israel, Inc. The bus will be used to take disabled veterans from “Tel Hashomir Hospital in Israel to” their worksites in Tel Aviv which is seven miles away.
1951: During the Cold War Red Scare, actor Larry Parks testified before the strangely named House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) saying "I don't think this is American justice to make me..crawl through the mud...this is what I beg you not to do.""Despite his confessions and informing, Parks was blacklisted."
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Egypt had joined the Islamic Union.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that preliminary secret reparations talks between the Israeli-Jewish and German delegations had begun at The Hague.
1953: Edward H. Weiss, president of Weiss & Geller spoke at Emory University’s advertising clinic in Atlanta, GA.
1958: Seventy-four year old Hans Ehrenberg, who converted to Christianity in 1911 and founded the Confessing Church passed away. He was forced to flee to England by the Nazis because under their laws he was Jewish. ”Hans Ehrenberg was one of the few German Protestant theologians, even within the Confessing Church, to publicly express his vehement opposition to the anti-Semitism of the Nazis and publicly declare his support of the Jewish people. He strongly urged the Protestant church to take the same stand. He criticized Christian anti-Semitism and emphasized the similarities between Judaism and Christianity.”
1960: David Susskind was the Executive Producer for tonight’s broadcast of “The Master Builder,” this week’s “Play of the Week.”
1961: "A law was passed that sequestered for the Government 'all goods and property in Libya, belonging to organizations or persons resident in Israel or connected to them by professional affiliation”
1964: Mayor Wagner was among those who spoke at the celebration marking the 30thanniversary of Aufbau which was held at the Hunter College Assembly Hall and to which “President Lyndon Johnson sent greetings/”
1965: Martin Luther King Jr leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Among those in the front rank is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel who prays with his feet as he joined King and other civil rights leader on the march which is part of the campaign to pass the Voting Right’s Act.
1968: Israeli forces crossed the Jordan River to attack PLO bases. The organizational names may change but the war against the terrorists has been going on for decades.
1969: Birthdate of columnist Jonah Goldberg. His father is Jewish. His mother is Episcopalian.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the 293 members of the Palestine Council ended their 13th session in Cairo with an endorsement which called for the eventual dismantling of the State of Israel.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had told the nation that there were major differences with Washington on two key issues: Israel¹s final borders and the Palestine question.
1978: Operation Litani, which was designed to dislodge the PLO from its bases in southern Lebanon came to a successful conclusion.
1981(15th of Adar II, 5741): On Shabbat, Soviet film director Mark Semyonovich Donskoy passed away.
1981: Jewish journalist Jessica Savitch married Donald Payne.
1994(9th of Nisan, 5754): Estelle Sommers passed away. Sommers got her start in the dance world when she transformed her husband's Cincinnati piece-goods retail store into a dancewear specialty shop. Passionate about dance since taking ballet and tap lessons in childhood, Sommers remained committed to the dance world both professionally and personally until her death. After a divorce and a move to New York, Sommers married "Mr. Capezio," Ben Sommers, and her career was thereafter linked to his. As owner-manager of Capezio Fashion Shop, designer-owner of Estar, Ltd., and as vice president and head administrator for six Capezio Dance-Theatre Shops nationwide, she achieved success in various branches of retail dancewear. Along the way, she introduced Antron-Lycra/Spandex, then a new fabric, into Capezio's dancewear, revolutionizing the industry. Due to the nature of her business, Sommers could not support or publicly promote any one dance company over others, but she was deeply involved in general dance causes. She served on the boards of the Joffrey School of Ballet, the International Dance Alliance, the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, and the Center for Dance Medicine. She was also committed to projects in Israel, serving on the boards of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and the Israeli Dance Institute. Her greatest impact may have been made as the U.S. Chairwoman of the International Committee for the Dance Library of Israel. In this position, which she held from 1979 until 1994, Sommers helped to establish the Tel Aviv library as the second most important dance collection worldwide.
1989(14thof Adar II, 5749): First Purim during the Presidency of George Bush.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including “Years of Renewal” by Henry Kissinger, “The Jewish Lover” by Edward Topol and “Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of Edwin Land” by Victor K. McElheny.
2000: “Pope John Paul II arrived in Israel, for a historic five-day visit, during which he visited the holy sites of the three major religions and met with Israel’s political leaders and Chief Rabbis.”(As reported by Mitchell Bard)
2002: In Pakistan, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other suspects are charged with murder for their part in the kidnapping and killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of interest to Jewish readers including “Codex” by Lev Grossman and the recently released paperback edition of “The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror” by Bernard Lewis.
2007: “Hungarian Folk,” an exploration of the Jewish-Hungarian musical traditions featuring Magyar Khasene with Jacob Shulman-Ment and Joshua Cohen reading from his novel A Cadenza for the Schneiderman Violin Concerto, takes place at the Eldridge Street Synagogue.
2007: At the Shankar School of Engineering and Design in Ramat Gat, an exhibition styled “There’s No button without a Buttonhole” comes to a close.
2007: Raleb Majadele replaced Yuli Tamir as Minister for Science and Technology
2008: Purim, 5768
2008: In New York, the 92nd Street Y presents an evening with David Grossman one of Israel’s best known authors.
2008: Three Kassam rockets fired from Gaza landed in open areas in the Sdot Negev region as Purim festivities were underway in the area.
2008: “The Band’s Visit,” the Israeli film about an Egyptian band stranded in a village in the Israeli film opens in a most unusual venue, the Fleur Cinema & Café in Des Moines, Iowa.
2009: Shabbath Hahodesh - The Sabbath of the Month; Completion of Shemot, the Book of Exodus.
2009: The 92nd Street Y presents Erev Shira, tuneful evening where members of the audience sing along to their favorite Israeli hits and classics of the past 60+ years, accompanied by a singer and live band! Erev Shira is part of the Merchav Ivri Hebrew programming initiative.
2009: Police foiled a terror attack at a Haifa mall tonight. Sappers safely neutralized several explosive devices found in a bag in a car at the entrance to Haifa's Lev Hamifratz shopping center. No casualties were reported in the incident. Hundreds of people were evacuated from the center as police and security forces scoured the surrounding area for other such devices. It was not immediately clear whether the event was nationalistically or criminally motivated. As a result of the event, severe traffic jams were reported in the area.
2009: Idina Mentzel “was an Honorary Chair of the Imperial Court of New York's Annual Charity Coronation Ball, Night of A Thousand Gowns
2009: An air disaster was narrowly averted this afternoon when an Iberia passenger plane came dangerously close to a Cargo Air Lines jet as the two aircraft were preparing to land at Ben-Gurion International Airport. The near-collision occurred as both planes were approaching the airspace above Israel's seashore, beginning their landing procedures. The Iberia plane then unexpectedly dipped to within 3,000 feet of the cargo jet. An air traffic controller spotted the situation and instructed the Spanish airliner to change course.
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Voodoo Histories: The Role of the Conspiracy Theory in Shaping Modern History” by David Aaronovitch, “Backing Into Forward: A Memoir” by Jules Feiffer, and “Blooms of Darkness” by Aharon Appelfeld
2010: Keshet is scheduled to host its 22nd Annual Rainbow Banquet.
2011: Gina Waldman is scheduled to speak at Congregation Edmond J. Safra where she will discuss “how her experience of anti-Semitism growing up in Libya, and her family’s expulsion from their ancestral home there, led her to become a human rights activist.”
2011(15th of Adar II, 5771): Shushan Purim
2011(15th of Adar II, 5771): Seventy-six year old movie executive Joe Wizan passed away.(As reported by Dennis McLellan)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/25/local/la-me-joe-wizan-20110325
2011: An Israel Air Force fighter jet struck a Gaza tunnel running along the border with Israel, as well as Hamas militants in the northern Gaza strip today, an IDF statement confirmed. The IDF spokesperson's office released a statement saying that the Gaza tunnel was used to smuggle terrorists into Israeli territory with the intent to execute attacks against Israeli citizens.
2012: The Sy Kushner Klezmer Ensemble is scheduled to perform as part of the East Village Klezmer Serioes
2012: Yael Shahar - Director at Israel’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism is scheduled to present "Cyber-Terrorism: Threats and Counters" sponsored by The Israel Project.
2012: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present 5th Annual Writers on View featuring artist Sebastian Mendes and writers and poets Terese Svoboda, Willie Perdomo, Ken Chen, Janet Kaplan, Aldina Vazão Kennedy, Matthew Thorburn, Rachel Zucker, Tracy K. Smith and Sima Rabinowitz
2013: Dr. Elliot Lefkovitz, Loyola University and Spertus Institute faculty member is scheduled to review and discuss Bernard Wasserstein’s On the Eve: The Jews of Europe Before the Second World War, a 2012 National Jewish Book Award finalist.
2013: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present a lecture by Professor Melissa Klapper author of Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940
2013: Art Garfunkel and Paul Simon’s “The Sounds of Silence” was named as one 25 recordings selected for preservation by the Library of Congress.
2013(10thof Nisan, 5773): Ninety-five year old Rabbi Hershel Schacter, who was serving with the U.S. Army’s VIII Corps when it liberated Buchenwald making him the first U.S. Army chaplain to enter the camp where he would later conduct services passed away today. Among those whom he personally rescued was 7 year old Yisrael Meir Lau, the future chief rabbi of Israel.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/first-rabbi-to-enter-liberated-buchenwald-dies/
2013: The Kubbeh Project hosted by Zucker Bakery on East 9th Street is scheduled to come to an end.
2013: President Obama visited the Israel Museum seeing the Dead Scrolls at first hand and delivered an address to young Israelis in Jerusalem.
2013: Four rockets were fired at Israel out of Gaza this morning, as red alert sirens rang out in south, breaking a tense several month calm in the area.
2014: “The Real Inglorious Bastards” is scheduled to be shown this afternoon at the Houston Jewish Film Festival.
2014 In Jerusalem, traffic is scheduled to come “to a standstill from 5:30 am through 1:30 pm as runners race through the streets in a marathon with “a finish line on Haim Hazaz Boulevard alongside Sacher Park.” (As reported by Jessica Steinberg and Rebecca McKinsey)
2014: Coe College is scheduled to host a lecture by Dr. Waitman Beorn, the Louis and Frances Blumkin Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at University of Nebraska – Omaha entitled “Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocuast in Belarus.”
2014: The Tulane Jewish Studies Department under the Chair of Dr. Brian Horowitz is scheduled to host the annual Strug Lecture delivered this year by Dr. Robert Abzug on "'Not in Our Town': Christians, Jews, and Skinheads in Billings, Montana, 1993-94"
http://www.robertabzug.com/