December 26
1135: Coronation of Stephen I, king of England, who in 1141 burned down the house of Aaron f. Isaac in Oxford as a way to “induce” the Jews to providing him with funds to continue his war with Empress Matilda who had previously extorted funds from the same Jewish community.
1194: Birthdate of Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor who improved the conditions for the Jews of Palermo, Naples and Jerusalem.
1424: The city of Barcelona, Spain was granted the right to exclude Jews for all time.
1495: Savonarola expelled the Medici and the Jews from Florence. The Jews, who had previously served as the Medici's bankers, were replaced by a Monte di Pieta, a public loan bank.
1634: Religious freedom was granted to Jews and Catholics in Brazil. This was the period of time when Brazil was under the control of the Dutch. Things would change in 1654 when Portugal took Recife, Brazil and the Jews were forced to flee. One group of these refugees would arrive in New Amsterdam and the rest is history.
1693: The parents of Sampson Gideon were married today by Haham Ayilon at the Creechurch Lane Synagogue in London which had been found by “Antonio Fernandez Carvajal, one of the Sephardic merchants allied to Oliver Cromwell and the Roundheads”.
1751: Birthdate of Lord George Gordon who took the name Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon when he converted to Judaism in 1787
1764(2ndof Tevet, 5525): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1769(27thof Kislev, 5530): Third Day of Chanukah
1769: Birthdate of German historian Ernst Moritz Arndt, who “played a crucial part in the development of German nationalism, with a corollary of hostility to, and fear of, the Jews” whom believed “had become ‘a depraved and degenerate people…unfit to be full citizens of a Christian state.’”
1772(30thof Kislev, 5533): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1775: On the day after Chanukah, “The Continental Congress called for another three million dollars in bills of credit to be issued to help defray the costs of building a navy and supplying the army” which is yet another example of the financial problems besetting the Americans and which Haim Solomon tried to help to ameliorate.
1776: In an act of daring-do Washington ferries his freezing, starving troops across the ice choked Delaware River and leads them to victory at the Battle of Trenton. There were certainly Jewish soldiers among those who joined in the Crossing of the Delaware two of whom may have been Abraham Levy and Phillip Russell. Since Washington’s Army was on the verge of destruction, defeat at Trenton would have meant the end of the American Revolution, a war which created a nation rightfully described as “the last best hope men” – an appellation with which the Jewish people would heartily agree. One of the most readable treatments of this turning point in American history is The Crossing by the Jewish author Howard Fast which was the source for a film by the same name.
1777(26thof Kislev, 5538): Second Day of Chanukah
1777: As Jews prepare to light the third Chanukah candle, Washington’s troops are completing their first full week at Valley Forge having arrived there on December 19.
1780(28thof Kislev, 5541): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1780: Sixty-eight-year-old Dr. John Fothergill who sought solace in the suffering of the Friends or Quakers by compares to the Jews as can be seen when he wrote “John Pemberton during the American Revolution that he often reflects “on the history of the Jewish people with humbling admiration” and that their sufferings affords “instructive lessons.”
1783: Áron Chorin, a Hungarian rabbi who sought to reform some Jewish practices, married today following which he had a short, unsuccessful career in business before making use of his Talmudic knowledge and rabbinic skills as the leader of the Jewish community of Arad.
1783: Isaac Baruh Lousada, a member of a family of prominent planters and merchants in Jamaica and his wife gave birth Emaneul Baruh Lousa, “a collateral ancestor of Moshe Baruh Louzada , a founder of the London Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue” who after moving to England lived at Sidmouth which he developed into a “popular resort.”
1783: In Germany, Voegele Juda and Loeb Moses Sontheimer gave birth to Moses Loeb Sontheimer, the husband of Ruchele Rosenheim with whom he had six children.
1787: Hannah de Jacob Dias and Aaron De Pass gave birth to Abraham De Pass who was living in Jamaica at the time of his death.
1791(30thof Kislev, 5552): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1796(26thof Kislev, 5557): Second Day of Chanukah
1796: In Amsterdam, Aaron de Sola and his wife gave birth to David Aaron de Sola, the great-nephew of the physician Dr. Benjamin de Sola, who in 1818 was called to London to become one of the ministers of the Bevis Marks Congregation under Haham Raphael Meldola who become his father-in-law when a year later he married Rica/Rebecca de Hezekiah Meldola with whom he had fifteen children and whose talents produced a popular tune for “Adon Olam” and several books including his Biography of Isaac Samuel Reggio.
1799(28thof Kislev, 5560): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1799: American Jews who have been welcomed by The Father of our Country join their fellow citizens in mourning the passing of George Washington who was buried today. (Washington’s letter to the Jews of Newport set a tone of acceptance that has been the unique hallmark of the Jewish experience in the United States)
1801: A deed bearing today’s date conveys land owned by Charles Carroll to Levi Solomon and Solomon Etting which the Baltimore Jewish community will use as a cemetery.
1809: Anne Emilie Furtado, the daughter of Abraham Furtado the President of the Assemblee des Notables married Moise Aime Solar, the son of Aaron Felix Solar.
1810: Solomon Jonas married Rosetta Joseph today at the Great Synagogue.
1815(24thof Kislev, 5576): In the evening light the first light of Chanukah which American Jews are doing in an environment of peace for the first time since 1812.
1823: As the struggle between Reform movement and traditionalists became more pronounced, a party of Orthodox Jews obtained a royal cabinet order that frustrated attempts “to adapt the old ritual to new forms” including sermons preached in German. This forced Isaac Noah Mannheimer, a rabbi who was a leader in the Reform movement to leave Berlin for a pulpit in Hamburg which led him to a position in Vienna where he was able to fully display his intellectual and oratorical gifts.
1825: In Amsterdam, Rachel Bueno and Samuel Coelho gave birth to Rebecca Coelho, the husband of Aaron Coronel, the mother of Rebecca, Moses, Rachel, Samuel, Eleazar and Jacob Coelho.
1825: Several Imperial Russia army officers lead force of approximately3000 soldiers on the Senate Square in the failed Decembrist uprising. Pavel Pestel, one of the leaders of the unsuccessful Decembrist revolt, proposed sending all Jews from Russia to some territory in Asia Minor, especially acquired for this purpose, where they would be able to establish independent state.
1829: One day after she had passed away, Francis Harris the wife of Henry Harris was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery
1830(10thof Tevet, 5591): Asara B’Tevet observed for the first time since the “Great Powers” recognized the independence of Belgium where Judaism was given the status of an officially recognized religion in the same year.
1834: Birthdate of Abraham Baer the cantor who was a native of Prussia and who moved to Gothenberg in 1857 at the age of 23 to pursue his career.
1838: Birthdate of Giueseppe Ottolenghi the native of Lombardy who rose to be a General in the Italian Army serving as the Commandant of the First Army Corps.
1843(24th of Kislev, 5595): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1843: In Paris, Count Salomon Henry d'Avigdor, Duke d'Acquaviva, the Nice born son “of Count Isaac Samuel d'Avigdor and Gabrielle Pauline Henriette Avigdor and his wife Countess Rachel d'Avigdor gave birth to Mariam Isabelle Olga Lucas the wife of Anglo-Jewish painter Horatio Joseph Lucas
1848: In Philadelphia. Buchau, Germany, native Max Einstein, the owner of a ribbon and silk store who would rise to the rank of Colonel during the Civil War married Helena Guggenheim.
1851:Lord Palmerston completed his term of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs during which the British blockaded the port of Piraeus as part of the response to Greece’s abuse of David Pacifico, whom Palmerston defended as this “man of Jewish persuasion” and on whose be he “made a celebrated speech which concluded that all British subjects ought to be able to say, as did citizens of ancient Rome, "Civis Romanus sum" ("I am a citizen of Rome"), and thereby receive protection from the British government.”
1852: The Reverend Samuel Osgood delivered a talk at the Church of the Messiah in NYC entitled “The Enigma of History- A Discourse on the Jewish Race” which was based, in part, on information provided by Rabbi Morris Raphall with whom Osgood had carried on a correspondence.
1853(25thof Kislev, 5614): 1st day of Chanukah
1854: In Bavaria, Mendel Emanuel Schloss and Adelheid Baer Schloss gave birth to Leopold Schloss, the husband of Karoline Schloss.
1854: Two days after he had passed away, Hyam Hyam, the husband of Hannah Lazarus with whom he had had eight children, was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1860: In “Ballston Spa, NY,” Lewis Muhlfelder and Rosa Schwarz gave birth to Union College undergrad and Albany Law School trained attorney David Muhlfelder
1861: During the Civil War, in what was known as The Trent Affair, Confederate diplomatic envoys James M. Mason and John Slidell are freed by the United States government, thus heading off a possible war between the United States and Britain. Slidell, the Louisiana politician who had been a power in the Democrat Party, before the war, was a close ally of August Belmont who had married his niece. During the war, Slidell would serve in Paris where his daughter would marry a leading French-Jewish financier.
1862: The Union “Army of the Cumberland” including the 79th Indiana Regiment under the command of Colonel Frederick Knefler left Nashville to face the Rebel “Army of Tennessee” which was camped at Murfreesboro.
1862: In Bremen, Germany, Sophia and Israel Frank gave birth to Hanover Seminary trained rabbi who in 1892 came to the United States where he became the spiritual leader of Congregation Oheb Shalom in Reading, PA and married Florence W. Weitzenkorn, daughter of Levi and Henrietta F. Weitzenkorn in 1909.
http://www.pa-roots.org/data/read.php?117,409119
1864(27thof Kislev, 5625): Third Day of Chanukah
1864: Today as Jews prepare to light the Fourth Chanukah candle, Abraham Lincoln wrote to General William Tecumseh Sherman ““Many, many, thanks for your Christmas-gift—the capture of Savannah. When you were about leaving Atlanta for the Atlantic coast, I was anxious, if not fearful; but feeling that you were the better judge, and remembering that ‘nothing risked, nothing gained’ I did not interfere. Now, the undertaking being a success, the honor is all yours; for I believe none of us went farther than to acquiesce.”
1866: Birthdate of Toby Cohn, the native of Breslau, who became a “German physician and medical author.”
1867: Birthdate of Julien Benda, the Paris born “philosopher and novelist” best-known for his short book, La Trahison des Clercs (The Betrayal of the Intellectuals).
1870(2nd of Tevet, 5631): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1870: Dr. Max Landsberg was chosen to serve as Rabbi at Berith Kodesh in Rochester, NY. He began serving in that capacity in March of 1871. Prior to his selection, the position had been vacant for 2 and a half years. Landsberg’s three predecessors were Marcus Tuska, Isaac Mayer and Aaron Ginbserg who completed his service in 1868.
1872: The London Daily Telegraph reported on a paper presented by George Smith on recent explorations of the Tigris and Euphrates river valley which should shed further light on the origins of the ancient Hebrews including the dates for the life of Abraham.
1873: Rabbi Aron Chorin gets married and leaves the rabbinate for the world of Commerce. The change will be short-lived and will become the Rabbi in Arad in 1789.
1874: In Posen Louis Kaplan and Minna Margolius gave birth to Jacob Kaplan who in 1885 came to the United States where he was “ordained as a rabbi at H.U.C. in 1902 after which he served a congregation New Mexico before starting in 1926 to serve as the rabbi for Miami’s Temple Israel.
1875(28th of Kislev, 5636): Fourth day of Chanukah
1875: Birthdate of London native and solicitor Emile Maurice Marx, a captain in the 1st Sussex Royal Engineers and Mayor of Brighton from 1903 to 1904.
1875: It was reported today that “an ‘English Jew’ had recently written an essay modern Judaism in which he asserted that it was utterly impossible to convert a respectable Jew to Christianity. When it was pointed out to the author that the Prime Minister of England was a convert to Christianity from Judaism, the ‘English Jew’ claimed that the Disraeli’s father, Isaac, had a quarrel with the Synagogue about money and that he had left the Synagogue. While the Prime Minister had somehow become a churchgoer, he had “never been baptized as a Christian.” [Editor’s note – “The English Jew” was right about Isaac but wrong about Benjamin. The father had the children baptized after his falling out with the synagogue.]
1876: Three days after she had passed away Esther (Brandon) Varicas, the wife of Abraham Varicas was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1877(20th of Tevet, 5638): Israel Jones, the younger brother of Solomon Jones, who became a leader of the Jewish community in Mobile, Alabama as well as serving on the City Council, passed away today.
1878(30th of Kislev, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1878: “A Romance of Rascality” published today described the life and times of South Carolina’s Franklin J. Moses, “a Jew” who “held his head high among the planter aristocracy.”
1879(11th of Tevet, 5640):Sarah Reibeiro-Furtado, the daughter of Abraham Furtado, the President of the Assemblee des Notables passed away in Paris.
1880: “The annual meeting of the patrons and members of the Mount Sinai Hospital” is scheduled “to be held at the Standard Club” at eleven o’clock this morning.
1880: Tonight’s “driving snow-storm” did not keep a throng from filling the Plymouth Church this evening to hear Reverend Henry Ward Beech deliver his talked entitled “Persecution of the Jews in Germany.”
1880: It was reported today that the growth in attendance at the opera in New York City is attributable, in part, to the growth of the German-Jewish population in New York. After all, the members “of this ancient race were drawn to New York because of its rapid development in literature, in art and…in operatic music.”
1881: It was reported today that a riot broke out in Warsaw when a pickpocket who was allegedly a Jew was caught plying his trade during the recitation of high mass in the Church of the Holy Cross. During the violence four shops owned by Jews were destroyed and 30 people were injured.
1881: It was reported today that the Directors of Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York have agreed to provide a doctor to work at the offices of the Society for the Aid of the Russian Hebrew Immigrants and Refugees. 1881: It was reported today that during the 3,182 patients were admitted to Mt. Sinai Hospital, of whom 1,566 were not charged for treatment.
https://www.amazon.com/American-bedlam-Harry-Allen-Gordon/dp/B0007EH9H6
1883: “Georgia In Early Times” published today provided a detailed review The History of Georgia by Charles C. Jones, Jr. which included a description of the arrival of the first Jews in 1733. Governor Oglethorpe championed their cause despite opposition from some of his English supporters because he saw that as being “peaceful,” “orderly” and industrious.
1885: It was reported today that the population of Sofia has grown from 15,000 to 25,000 since it became the capital of Bulgaria. Approximately half of the citizens are Jewish.
1885: Fifty four year old Austrian jurist Julius Anton Glaser who converted to Christianity passed away today.
1886: Birthdate of Gyula Gömbös the right-wing Hungarian politician who recanted his anti-Jewish views in order to become his country’s Prime Minister during the 1930’s,
1886: Paul Heyse, the German-Jewish writer, is one of the “eminent authors of the 19th century according to Dr. George Brandes, whose book Eminent authors of the nineteenth century: Literary portraits was reviewed in today’s New York Times. (Brandes is Georg Morris Cohen Brandes, a Danish born Jews who was a leading literary critic)
1886: “When To Go Long Or Short” published today traces the career and financial dealings of Solomon Mopus a Polish born Jew living in New York City.
1886: In “Mr. Tooker on Religion” published today, Joseph Tooker a leading New York merchant, writer and theatre managers provided his views on the celebration of Christmas. Among other things he believes that the Jewish merchants “are heart glad over every return of this jubilee season of their Christian fellow-citizens” since “they make so much money.” He also marveled at the fact that some Jewish children hang up stockings on Christmas eve which he sees as an example of “where ignorance is bliss ‘tis folly to be wise.”
1887: In South Carolina, Albert E. Hertz married Laura E. Bonnoitt today.
1887: It was reported today the society providing financial support for Mt. Sinai Hospital had grown by 101 during the year and now totaled 3,564.
1888: Moriz Rosenthal, “the eminent pianist” will give a recital today at the Academy of the Music in New York.
1888: It was reported today that children under the care of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum will be among those New York youngsters who will attend upcoming performances of “Little Lord Fauntleroy.”
1889: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association had assets of $58,682.37 which it uses to support three schools that are open daily from 3:30 in the afternoon until 6 in the evening.
1889: Birthdate of actor Vladimir Sokoloff, the Moscow native who went from the Moscow Art Theatre, to Berlin in 1923, Paris in 1932 to avoid the Nazis and finally to the United States in 1937 where he appeared on Broadway, television and films that included oddly enough his portrayal of a Filipino in John Wayne’s “Back to Bataan.”
1889: In St. Louis, George Washington Milius, the Cincinnati born son of William and Eva Milius and his wife Pauline gave birth to William Stix Milius
1890: Sixty-year-old Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court William Dunlap Simpson, who as Governor of South Carolina had pardoned Francis Cardozo, the “son of Lydia Weston, a free woman of color, and Isaac Nunez Cardozo” and a cousin of Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo” who had been convicted on trumped up charges of fraud, passed away today.
1891(25th of Kislev, 5652): First day of Chanukah
1891: In New York, Sarah Rachel Bluestone and Joseph Isaac Bluestone gave birth to Columbia trained physician Ephraim Michael Bluestone, a Lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps during WW I, a director of the Hadassah Hospital in Palestine and director of Montefiore Hospital and the husband of “the former Rodetsky.
1892: “Our Superstitious Lore” published today described quaint customs of different national groups including the Jews “who have a custom of breaking crystal at a wedding to scatter brightness upon the happy pair” and who like others, “throw rice…to bring” the newlyweds “good fortune.”
1892: It was reported today that of the more than one million people buried in and around Brooklyn an untold number are buried in Washington Cemetery in Gravessend which is only used by the Jews.
1892: Birthdate of Dvinsk native Isidor Kadis who in 1905 came to the United States where he attended the University of Cincinnati and HUC and became a “field director of the JNF” who worked with Chaim Weizmann and raised two children with his wife Jean Price Kadis.
1893: Twenty-one year old Louis Topkis, the Odessa born son of Jacob and Rachel Topkis and leading Delaware businessman married the former Esther M. Krigstein today.
1894: Today, in France, “many journals urged that the degradation of Captain Dreyfus should be” done “as a public ceremony.” They say “he should be stripped of his military honors…on the Longchamps race course or the Vincennes rifle range, where thousands could witness his disgrace rather than in the privacy of the barracks.” (The term degradation refers to the formal stripping of ranking and branding of the convict military officer as a traitor before he his shipped off to Devils Island.)
1894: “A reception and ball was given by the Progressive Bowling Club at the Hebrew Young Men’s Hall on Plane Street” tonight.”
1893: Four days after he had passed away, 88 year old Joseph Isaacs was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery” on Buckingham Road.
1894: Oscar S. Straus presided at the third annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society which began this morning at the Arlington Hotel in Washington, D.C.
1894: According to reports published today the newly elected officers of the Hebrew Free School Association are President Albert F. Hochstadter, Vice President Henry Budge and Honorary Secretary Edmund E. Wise
1894: “Loyal Hebrew Children” published today described the Americanization of Jewish immigrant children from Russia and Romania that takes place at classes financed by the Baron de Hirsch Fund at the Hebrew Institute which also include basic academics with an emphasis on English.
1894: In New Orleans, LA, Rabbi Maximilian Heller and Ida Annie Heller gave birth to Max Heller
1895: The objective of those attending the Hebrew Anarchist “was to devise ways and means for” promoting Anarchist principles” and their newspaper Die Freie Gesellschaft (The Free Society)
1895: Toledo native Edward Nathan Calisch and Hebrew Union College graduate who became rabbi of Congregation Beth Ahabah in Richmond, Virginia in 1891 officiated at a service attended by members of the Travelers Protective Association which he said the “first instance in which any organization, not composed of Jewish members, had attended service in a body that house of worship.”
1895: In Richmond, VA, “members of “Post A, Travelers Protective Association attended services” today at “Beth Ahabah Synagogue” during which Rabbi Edward Nathan Calisch said in his sermon “that this was the first instance in which any organization, not composed entirely of Jewish members had attended services in a body in that house of worship.
1896: In San Francisco, La Loie Fuller “declined to either confirm or deny that the report” that she was engaged to New York State Senator Jacob A. Cantor whom she described as “a dear friend.”
1897(1st of Tevet, 5658): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1897: Birthdate of Sarah “Salle” Blumberg Parnes, the widow of Harold Solomon Gerstner and Maxwell Parnes and the daughter of David Blumberg, passed away today after which she was buried in the Mount Ararat Cemetery
1897: The American Jewish Historical Association held its seventh annual meeting in Philadelphia. The meeting was chaired by First Vice President Simon W. Rosendale who read a letter of resignation from the association’s President, Oscar S. Straus who can no longer fulfill his duties because he is serving as United States Minister at Constantinople
1897: Founding of the Hebrew Hospital and Asylum Musical Association which gave concerts at the Hebrew Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and whose members included Dr. Joseph Blum, Mrs. J.J. Seldner and Miss Hennie Van Leer.
1898: President Albert F. Hochstadter presided over the annual meeting of the Hebrew Free School Association which was held today at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. With but one dissenting vote, the association voted to decide on a plan that would lead to a merger with the Educational Alliance. The Association had ended the year with a shortfall of $5,000 and it is believed that the merger might allow the two groups to meet their goals in a more economic manner. Uriah Hermann volunteered to pay for the new prayer books needed for the People’s Synagogue
1898: Birthdate of Ernst Fraenkel, German born political scientist, lawyer and university lecturer who fled Nazi Germany but returned to Germany after the war and resumed his career.
1899: In New York City Clara and David Mannes gave birth to Leopold Mannes, the “American musician” who played a leading role in creating “the first practical color transparency film, Kodachrome.”
1900: Birthdate of Samuel Cashwan, the Russian born American sculptor whose works include “Aquarius,” “Musicians” and the “Lincoln Memorial Statue at the Lincoln Consolidated Training School in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
1901: The Fifth Zionist Congress convenes in Basel. The Jewish National Fund is established. The Jewish Colonial Trust, the monetary arm or bank of the World Zionist Organization, finally raises sufficient sums to be established. By the end of the year, 250.000 English Pounds have been collected.
1902: Birthdate of Anatoli Lvovich Kaplan, the Russian painter whose work often reflect his Jewish origins.
1902: Final publication of the American Hebrew which would merge with The Jewish Messenger and resume publication in 1903 as The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger
1903: It was reported toady that Lord Rothschild had president over “a joint meeting of the Foreign Committee and Board of Deputies of the Anglo-Jewish Association” where reports predicting a renewal of anti-Jewish outrages at Kishineff” were reviewed and “it was decided to approach the Foreign Secretary and urge him to take joint action with the government of the United States for the purpose of averting further persecution of the Jews in Russia.”
1903: “The Paris correspondent of The Times of London says it will probably be a few weeks before the Court of Cassation takes up the Dreyfus case.”
1904: It was reported today that the family of Adolph Herschkopf, who after having served eight years of a life sentence in Sing Sing, was pardoned by Governor Odell “is glad because the jury judge and prosecuting attorney” have changed their minds as to the guilt of the Jewish tailor.
Herschkopf was not the most miserable man in New York last night. He had been employed in the prison tailor shop, and had not felt the touch of snow on his face since entering the prison gate
1905(28th of Kislev, 5666): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1905: Winston Churchill was approached by a leading Jewish constituent, Dr. Joseph Dulberg of Manchester, who was seeking British support for a Jewish national home.
1905: “Jewish Refugees in London” published today described the arrival “in the last few weeks of hundreds of Russian Jews victims of the recent onslaughts in South Russia” in the British capital most of whom have “only a few shillings in their pockets” or are completely penniless and if they are “fortunate, find work with sweating tailors” that earns them five or six shillings a week “which enables them to share a night’s lodging…where eight or ten men sleep on sacks on the floor” and to buy “black bread, a bit of pickled herring and a cup of bad tea.
1906: Charles Frohman moved “The Beauty of Bath” a musical with songs by Jerome Kern to the Hicks Theatre where “it ran for a total of 287 performances.”
1907: Months of organizing work by sixteen-year-old Pauline Newman culminated in the start of the largest rent strike New York City had ever seen. One reason for the strike's success was Newman's enlistment of neighborhood housewives. While working-class activists like Newman had to work during the day, the impassioned housewives that they organized could go from tenement to tenement to convince others to strike. Thus, the success of the strike depended on shop floor networks of teenaged girls and on networks of neighborhood housewives and mothers. The strike, involving 10,000 families in lower Manhattan, lasted only until January 9, but about 2,000 families succeeded in having their rents reduced. More importantly, the strike attracted the attention of leading figures in the settlement house movement who suggested capping rents at 30% of a family's income. Though their suggestion was not implemented, it introduced the idea of rent control into New York politics. The idea stayed alive into the 1930s, when rent control was finally implemented in New York City. Newman's leadership of the strike began a lifetime of activism. It brought her to the attention of the Socialist party, which ran her for secretary of state of New York the following year (despite the fact that women did not yet have the vote in New York). She used the opportunity to call for woman's suffrage. Newman also began organizing female garment workers and was a key organizer in the 1909 Uprising of the 20,000.
1908: In New York City, “Alex and Sarah (Reichick) Elson gave birth to Washington University trained lawyer Sam Elson, the holder of JSD from Yale who taught at his alma mater, was a member of the National Conference of Christians and Jews and was the husband of Getrude Clemens Palmer with whom he had four children.
1908: Hyman Hirsch and Miriam Phillips Hirsch gave birth to Hyman Hirsch, Jr. who would only live to the age of 23.
1909: Birthdate of Jersey City, NJ, native Robert S. Marcus, the City College and Yeshiva University trained rabbi and hold of doctorate of Jurisprudence from NYU Law School who led congregations in Lawrence and Newburgh, NY before serving overseas as a chaplain with the Ninth Tactical Air Force where he worked with concentration camp survivors and returning to the United States where among other things, he served as the Director of the Department of World Jewish Affairs of the American Jewish Congress while raising two children with his wife Fay.
1909(14th of Tevet, 5670): Schaie Gittelsohn passed away today.
1909: Three days after he had passed away, George Joel Marks, the son of Solomon Marks and Amelia Joel and the husband of Elizabeth Samuels with whom he had had ten children was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1909: Dr. Felix Kornfeld and the former Paula Mandle gave birth to their first child, Peter Kornfeld, the older brother of Ulrich Kornfeld and brother-in-law of the former Lorie Granitsch.
1909: In London, Hans Leopold Hoff, a “German Jewish merchant” and his German Lutheran wife gave birth to Australian scholar Ursula Hoff.
1910(25th of Kislev, 5671): Chanukah
1910:“Rabbi Philip Klein of Ohab Zedek, First Hungarian Orthodox Congregation” officiated at the wedding of attorney Harris Koppelman and attorney “Esther Kunstler, the daughter of real estate dealer Felix Kunstler.”
1910: Ten months after Avrohom Bornsztain, founder and first Rebbe of the Sochatchover Hasidic dynasty” who was “known as the Avnei Nezer ("Stones of the Crown") after the title of his posthumously-published set of Torah responsa, which is widely acknowledged as a halakhic classic” passed away, today his wife Sara Tzina passed away leaving their “only son, Shmuel,” to mourn their passing.
1911: Today, the “Baltimore section of the National Council of Jewish” voted to withdraw “from the National body” using a resolution that “expressed dissatisfaction with the administration of the National officers.”
1912: In Portland, OR, Isaac and Ruth Neuberger gave birth to Senator Richard Neuberger who was succeeded by his wife Maurine who was elected to the office after his death in 1960.
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/neuberger_richard_1912_1960_/#.XCGMMfZFx9B
1913(27th of Kislev, 5674): Third Day of Chanukah
1913: In Camden, NJ, the Hebrew Ladies’ Aid Society are making plans to host their tenth annual reception at Turner Hall in January, 1914.
1913: “Atlantis” a Danish film featuring future award winning director Michael Curitz in one of his early acting appearances was released today.
1914: In New York City, Leo Simonson, “a successful wigmaker for the theatre and movies businesses” and Irene Simonson, a member of the family that owned the Illinois Watch Case Company” gave birth to gold medal winning chess champion Albert Charles Simonson
1914: “Josephus Daniels, the Secretary of the Navy, took immediate steps today to obtain verification of reports that the USS North Carolina, which was on its way to deliver aid to the Jews of Jaffa had threatened to bombard Tripoli when “a mob attempted to prevent the departure of an American merchant vessel” carrying refugees.
1915: In St. Louis, Rabbi Max Heller of New Orleans was the principal speaker at today’s session of 24th annual assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society.
1915: In an attempt to “weaken Russia internally, the authorities in Berlin handed Russian Jewish Bolshevik, Alexander Helphand, a million rubles to spread anti-war propaganda through Russia.
1915: Having fallen too ill to be treated at Alexandria, Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson arrived in London today leaving Joseph Trumpeldor, the Jewish veteran of the Russian army, in command of the Zion Mule Corps.
1915: A list those who have contributed to “the American Jewish Relief Committee which is raising $5,000,000 for the Jewish suffers of the war” and plan on contributing more is scheduled to be prepared today.
1915: In speaking at Temple Beth-El in New York, Rabbi Schulman “advocated the plan of the League to Enforce Peace as the only suggestion yet put forward which promised peace-loving nations a method of escape from the necessity of arming themselves to avoid conquest by aggressive nations.”
1915: The second annual conference of Young Judeans which had been opened by Rabbi David De Sola Pool opened yesterday with a speech “on the subject of Judaism in America and the patriotism of the Jews” continued for a second day.
1915: Admit reports of possible general strike in New York at the beginning of 1916, “Dr. Felix Adler, Chairman of the Arbitration Committee appointed by the May at the suggestion of Jacob Schiff to which both the garment workers and manufacturers agreed to submit their differences said” tonight “that the committee had no notification that a strike of 85,000 workers was at hand.”
1915: It was reported today that after the Russian forces retreated from Brest-Litovsk ending the destructive battle around the city, the refugees who had been hiding in the swamps, most of whom were Jews sick with “malignant diseases” “began to straggle back into the city.”
1915: “Henry Fisher, Chairman of the Brooklyn Jewish Volunteer Relief Committee…announced” tonight “at the headquarters at 16 Manhattan Avenue that the street collections of the day amounted to $5,000.”
1915: “The Bath Beach division of the Brooklyn Jewish Volunteer Relief Committee for War Sufferers obtained contributions amount to $1,034 in a house to house canvass” today.
1915: Dr. J. L. Magnes said tonight that “the most recent report from Russia was that the 3,500,000 Jews” many of whom were being driven from place to place without food and shelter “were in need of assistance.
1916(1st of Tevet, 5677): Rosh Chodesh Tevet, Seventh Day of Chanukah
1916: In New Orleans, the Jewish Chautauqua Society led by Chancellor Berkowitz of Philadelphia met for a fifth day today in New Orleans
1916: It was reported today that the movement to hold a congress to demand the removal of civil and political disabilities imposed on Jews has been one of the most widely debated movements in the history of the Jews” of the United States and developed divisions of opinion with Louis Marshal, Jacob H. Schiff and Oscar S. Straus and “others in the American Jewish Committee opposed to idea of such a congress” and another group led by Justice Louis Brandeis, Judge Hugo Pam and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise” favoring the convening of such a congress in the United States.
1916: In a protest against the high cost of kosher beef, nearly 3,000 shops refused to receive or sell kosher meat today. “Many kosher butchers closed theirs shops and put up signs in their windows reading ‘Because of the high prices on kosher-killed products, this shop will be closed until further notice.’”
1916: Inspectors working for Joseph Hartigan, New York City’s Commissioner of Weights and Measures, reported to him tonight that the people had virtually all stopped buying kosher meat.
1917: Orthodox rabbis in Jerusalem establish the Ashkenazi Community Council to oppose the Zionist dominated City Council of Jerusalem Jews.
1917: The Menorah Quintennial Convention, a gathering of the leaders of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association, which Israel Zangwill said he could not attend, was scheduled to open today in New York.
1917: Fresh Turkish troops attack the British hoping to take back Jerusalem. After eight hours of fierce nighttime combat, the British beat them back.
1917(11th of Tevet, 5678): Ninety-two year old Henry Sonneborn a “manufacturer” passed away in Baltimore, MD.
1917: Twenty-two year old Cleveland born featherweight Danny Frush fought and won his fifth bout leaving him with a record of four wins and one loss.
1918: Following the British elections, Churchill wrote Prime Minister Lloyd George cautioning him against appointing three Jews to a cabinet that had only seven openings. This was not based on any anti-Semitic feelings on Churchill’s part. He was merely expressing concerns for the reality of British politics at a time when Lloyd George needed to build a broadly supported government that could “win the peace” now that the World War had been won. In the end, Lloyd George appointed only one Jew to the first post-war cabinet.
1919:Sir John Monash, Australia’s ranking General on the Western Front in World War I, who served with great distinction, returned home to a hero’s welcome. Monash was the son of a German-Jewish couple who had arrived in Australia two years before Monash’s birth.
1919: Birthdate of Sam Aaronovitch, the native Londoner who became a leading economist and a “senior member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
1919: Harry Frazee, owner of the Boston Red Sox, sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Boston fans never forgave Frazee for the sale of the Bambino which was the start of the Yankee dynasty. On top of everything else Frazee was one of those gentiles who had the dubious distinction of being smeared for being Jewish. “The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper published by one of this nation’s most infamous anti-Semites, automobile pioneer Henry Ford, published an article titled “The Jewish Degradation of Baseball”, which insisted that Frazee was a Jew, that he was out to “get” Ban Johnson and that he was part of a grand Jewish conspiracy designed to place Organized Baseball under Jewish control. Frazee was in fact Presbyterian and a Mason and, though he was not Jewish, being a Freemason branded him guilty by association. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a forgery originating in Russia that detailed a Jewish plot to dominate the world, claimed that Jews and Freemasons were acting in concert. Judaism and Freemasonry were so intertwined in Europe, even as far back as the 1860s, that the Nazis eventually adopted the slogan “All Masons Jews—All Jews Masons,” and Hitler abolished Freemasonry in Germany in 1935. But, as evidenced by Ford and his newspaper, bigotry wasn’t just endemic of Europe, and Organized Baseball certainly was no stranger to it.”
1920: The 29th annual assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society is scheduled to being today in Cleveland, Ohio.
1920: The Intercollegiate Zionist Association is scheduled to hold its annual convention today at Columbia University.
1921(25th of Kislev, 5682): First Chanukah celebrated during the Presidency of Warren Harding.
1921(25th of Kislev, 5682): Eighty-three-year-old James Martin Eder, the Russian born son of “Martin Sass Eder and Dorina Kaiser” the Harvard Law School student and wife of London born Elizabeth “Lizzie” Benjamin who was known as Santiago Martín Eder Kaiser, the founder of the Columbian sugar industry,
1921: “School Days,” a comedy produced by Harry Rapf was relased today in the United States.
1923: One day after he had passed away, 52 year old Samuel Lewis was buried today at the Crumpsall Jewish Cemetery.”
1923: In Washington, DC, “Prussian born Protestant botanist” Ernst Artschwager and the former Eugenia Brodsky, a Ukrainian born Jewish designer game birth to painter and sculptor Richard Ernst Artschwager.
1924: Birthdate of Israeli spy Eli Cohen. Since we cannot do justice to this heroic figure you might want to go to http://www.elicohen.org/ for more information about his contribution to the survival of the Jewish state.
1925: “Lady Windermere’s Fan” a silent film version of the stage play by the same name directed, produced and edited by Ernst Lubitsch was released today.
1926:“A benefit concert of Hebrew music was given under the auspices of the League of Zionists-Revisionists at Carnegie Hall this evening” featuring performances by Eugenia Eranow, soprano; Leon Cortilli, tenor; Yascha Fishberg, violinist; Gdal Saleski, cellist; Ignace Hilsberg, Isidor Gorn, Max Barnett and William Sauber, pianists, and Naum Zemach of the Moscow Theatre Habima.
1927: Birthdate of Alan King. King was equally adept as a comedic actor and as monologist. One of his most famous lines was, “It is not how long you live, but how well you live” that counts. After uttering that bon mot, he would take a deep, long pull on his signature cigar and give you that knowing smile. His philanthropic commitments included founding the Alan King Diagnostic Medical Center in Jerusalem, establishing a scholarship fund for American students at Hebrew University, and establishing a Dramatic Arts Chair at Brandeis University. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He passed away in 2004.
1928: During “the first public meeting of the American Academy for Jewish Research at the Jewish Theological Seminary,” D.S. Blondheim, the secretary of the academy read a paper prepared by Professor Max L. Margolis of Dropsie College that provided a plan for the preparation of “an authoritative edition of the Hebrew text of the Scriptures” that would involve “forty scholars in Europe, Asia and America working for ten years.”
1929(24th of Kislev, 5690): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah during the first year of The Great Depression
1930: The Jewish Daily Bulletin reported today that four Jews will sit as judges of the Cleveland Municipal Court during the coming year, as a result of the appointment this week by Governor Myers V. Cooper of Maurice J. Meyer and Alfred L. Steur to fill vacancies on the Municipal Court bench where they will join the other two Jewish judges -- Jacob Stacel and Mary D. Grossman.
1931: U.S. premiere of “Arrowsmith” the film version of the novel by the same name produced by Samuel Goldwyn with music by Alred Newman.
1931:George and Ira Gershwin's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical play "Of Thee I Sing" premieres on Broadway
1931: “Mata Haria” a movie about the WW I spy produced by Irving Thalberg with a script by Leo Birinsky and Benjamin Glazer was released in the United States today.1933: U.S. premiere of “Queen Christina” a film treatment of the life of Queen Christina of Sweden produced by Walter Wanger with a script by S.N. Behrman and Ben Hecht.
1932(27th of Kislev, 5693): Third Day of Chanukah
1932: The NBC Blue Network broadcast episode five of “Flywheel, Shyster, and Flywheel” starring Chico and Groucho Marx.
1934: “Pipe Paid” with a script by Viola Brothers Shore opened today on Broadway at the Ritz Theatre.
1934: In London, “Barnett Samuel, a solicitor a and Minna Nerenstein, a composer and partner in Jewish publishers Shapiro, Valentine” gave birth to Raphael Elkan Samuel, the Marxist and Professor of History at the University of East London who left the Communist Party when the Soviets crushed the Hungarians in 1956 and who was the husband of historian Alison Light.
https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-raphael-samuel-5588939.html
1934: Anna Birshtein married Louis Geffen. Anna’s uncle was a rabbi and Louis was the son of Tobias Geffen had been who had been an orthodox rabbi in Atlanta, GA, since 1910. Geffen and his brother Samuel formed the Atlanta law firm of Geffen and Geffen, a firm founded out of the need for the brothers to be able to practice law while remaining observant Jews.
1935: “The mobilization of world Jewry to resist the establishment of a Legislative Council in Palestine to combat the menace of the ‘disgraceful Nuremberg laws’ of the Hitler regime was ordered today by the executive of the World Zionist Organization” headed by Dr. Chaim Weizmann.
1936(12th of Tevet, 5697): Parashat Vayechi
1936: A delegation of American Jewish labor leaders including Joseph Schlossberg, Max Zaritzky, Isador Nagler, Reuben Guskin, Samuel Perlmutter and Joseph Brislaw is scheduled to set sail for Europe today where members are going “to confer with experts in France, England, and Poland on the Jewish labor movement in Palestine.”
1936: Founding of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The Polish born violinist Bronislaw Huberman is credited with founding the orchestra. It was originally called the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra but changed its name after the founding of the state of Israel.
1936: In Tel Aviv, Arturo Toscanini, who had fled Mussolini’s Italy, conducted the first performance of the Palestine Philharmonic. At the end of the concert Bronislaw Huberman, declared that “Nothing could describe this concert except the word divine."
1936: Founding of the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, now known as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under the leadership of Bronislaw Huberman. “The orchestra, first conducted by Arturo Toscanini, debuted after a struggle that also involved Albert Einstein, Chaim Weizmann and a characteristically defiant David Ben-Gurion.Huberman’s epic quest is the subject of the new documentary “Orchestra of Exiles,” a real-life tale of Jewish musicians in need of a home, and a nascent country in need of an orchestra.
1936: It was announced today that ten thousand dollars had been pledged to ORT by the American Committee Appeal for the Jews in Poland at a dinner hosted by Samuel Lamport who had pledged five hundred dollars in his own right.
1936: Birthdate of Kitty Dukakis the Jewish wife of U.S. Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
1937: The Palestine Postreported that over 1,000 British troops, police and troopers of the Transjordan police force, spent Christmas under pouring rain in a raging battle in the Wadi Hamud area, north-west of Tiberias, where nearly forty Arab terrorists were killed. The troops and police suffered five wounded.
1937: The Palestine Postreported that Taleb Nanini, a local notable, was killed by an Arab terrorist in his village of Akraba. Yehuda Mintz and his two sons, Isaac, 35, and Eliahu, 27, watchmen of the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives were wounded on their way to work. In Haifa, Private Mott, a British soldier of the Essex Regiment, picked up a bomb with a burning fuse and threw it off the pavement, saving by his bold action lives of numerous passersby.
1938: Harold Goldblatt presided over the second session Avukah’s three day conference being held at the Hotel Claridge.
1938: In Montreal, Sarah and Jack Lev gave birth to Judy Feld Carr, the “Canadian woman” who “would rescue more than three thousand five hundred Syrian Jews between 1975 and 2000.” (As reported by Jewish Women’s Archives)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/carr-judy-feld
1939(14th of Tevet, 5700): Fifty-four year old Romanian born University of Michigan Professor of Economics, Max Handman, who had earned his Bachelor’s degree at the University of Oregon and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 1917 after which served as a professor of sociology and economics at several universities including Texas and Minnesota passed away today from the effects of heart attack he suffered “while listening to a radio broadcast of the declaration of war by Great Britain against Germany.”
1940(26th of Kislev, 5701): On the second day of Chanukah, 89-year-old Daniel Frohman, the “Jewish American theatrical producer and manager and early film producer’ passed away today.
1940: U.S. premiere of “The Philadelphia Story” a romantic comedy directed by George Cukor, produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg with music by Franz Waxman.
1940(26th of Kislev, 5701): One day after her 71stbirthday, Chicago native Benvenida Solis Firth, the daughter of Moses and Esther Ritterband and the wife of Emil Firth passed away today in Beverly Hills.
1940: The British government suspended the quota for legal immigration for three months, thus halting all immigration until March, 1941.
1940: The Broadway production lf “My Sister Eileen” written by Joseph A. Field and Jerome Chodorov and directed by George S. Kaufman opened at the Biltmore Theatre today.
1940: Birthdate of record producer Phil Spector.
1941: The USS Blue, which had not been sunk or damaged during the attack on Pearl Harbor thanks to the efforts of Ensign Nathan Asher, a graduate of the Naval Academy who took command U.S.S. Blue since the skipper was ashore” unloaded supplies at Midway which would be the scene of the pivotal battle in June of 1942.
1942: The U.S. Army Medical Corps completed establishing an evacuation hospital at Tlemcen, the Algerian city whose “most important place pilgrimage of all religions was the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of town.”
1942: “Marine in the Making” an Oscar nominated documentary filmed by cinematographer Richard Freyer (born Morris Kolsky) was released today.
1943: “The American Jewish Conference, 521 Fifth Avenue, today urged intensified efforts to rescue the Jews of Europe and criticized Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long's report to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on rescue measures taken since the discussions in Bermuda.”
1944: During WW II, the Red Army and the Romanian completed their encirclement of Budapest, a city which had lost most of its Jewish population to Auschwitz.
1945: The Jewish Agency charges that Palestinian government has stopped issuing immigration certificates despite British foreign minister Ernest Bevin's declaration that monthly quota would be permitted.
1946: Diamond factories in Natanya and Tel Aviv are raided, reportedly by Jews who would have been using the proceeds of the raid to finance the fight against the British.
1946: Peter H. Bergson, Hebrew Committee of National Liberation, formed exile government for Hebrew Republic of Palestine in France. In the wake of British intransigence, he promises a revolt.
1946: Zero Mostel opened in tonight’s Broadway premier of “Beggar’s Holiday” a musical which Dale Wasserman would update and present with the Marin Theatre company in 2004.
1946: Bronislaw Huberman the Polish born violinist who was President and founder of the Palestine Symphony Orchestra returned as a soloist performing in Tel Aviv on the tenth anniversary of Arturo Toscanini’s first appearance as conductor of the orchestra.
1947: The second radio broadcast series of “The Thin Man” which was produced by Himan Brown came to an end today.
1947: The SS Abril left New York today bound for France sailing under a Honduran flag and operated by the American Sea and Air Volunteers for Hebrew Repatriation, an offshoot of the American League for Free Palestine and the Hebrew Committee for National Liberation
1947: “Good News” a musical with a screenplay by Betty Comden and Adolph Green was released in the United States today.
1947: Birthdate of Israeli soccer player Manacham Bello.
1947(13th of Tevet, 5708): Hans Beyth, a central figure in welcoming newly arrived immigrant children to Eretz Israel, was one of seven Jews killed by Arab snipers as they traveled in convey coming from the coast up to Jerusalem. Beyth had just completed arrangements for the care of 20,000 young survivors of the Holocaust and other youngsters from Europe.
1947: Golda Meyerson, acting head of the Jewish Agency’s Political Department escaped injury today when the convoy in which she was traveling came under attack by Arabs.
1947: One Jew was killed and two were wounded today when Arabs attacked a Jewish patrol at Imara in the Negev.
1947: A four-year-old Jewish girl, whose name has not been made public was killed today a bullet in Tel Aviv. The assailant has not been identified.
1947: Lazar Kaganovich completed his second term as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine.
1947: In Jerusalem, an Arab Legion truck that had illegally entered the city, was fired on by Jews manning a Haganah outpost. No casualties were reported by either side.
1948: Despite defending itself against a war of annihilation, immigrants keep coming as can be seen by the fact that today; Israel greeted the arrival of its 100,000th immigrant since its declaration of statehood in May.
1948: The International Ladies' Garment Workers, Union (of American Federation of Labor) donates $250,000 and lends another $500,000 to Israel.
1948: A six plane formation of Spitfires arrived in Israel from Czechoslovakia.
1948(24th of Kislev, 5709): In the evening, the Chanukah light is kindled for the first time in almost 2,000 years in an independent Jewish state.1948: The Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, which had been meeting in Tel Aviv moves to Jerusalem.
1948: As Israel clandestinely moved aircraft from Czechoslovakia to the fighting front, Jack “Cohen led” fellow pilots Sinclair, Ruch, Jacobs, Schroeder, and Finkel across the sea. Cohen flew Spitfire 2014, the plane that he, as test pilot and flight leader, considered the worst. Just after take-off, Cohen had to turn 2014 around and land again. A flap on the cowling had come open and he returned to have it secured after which he rejoined the others.
1948: King Abdullah of Jordan attendeda Palestinian conference in Ramallah that “declared its support for the Jericho Conference resolution, calling for unification of the two banks of the Jordan under the Hashemite crown.” (And that is what happened. The West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem were annexed by Transjordan which changes its name to Jordan. No state of Palestine was created or contemplated by a large swath of the Arab leadership.)
1949(5th of Tevet, 5710): Sixty-five-year-old Philadelphia, PA native Leon Schlesinger, the motion picture producer “behind Warner Bros. cartoons of the 1930’s and 1940’s” who “oversaw the creation of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Elmer Fudd” and who was the husband of Bernice Schlesinger passed away today.
https://www.cartoonbrew.com/classic/leon-schlesingers-obituary-6088.html
1950: It was reported today that “German rearmament has been sharply attacked in the Knesset, most of who 127 members have mourned kinsmen murdered by the Nazis.”
1951: “Double Dynamite,” a comedy “based on a story by Leo Rosten,” with a screenplay co-authored by Mel Shavelson and starring Groucho Marx was released today in the United States.
1951: Birthdate of Roslyn, NY and Barnard College Columbia University School of Journalism trained “sportswriter” and author who has written books about Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth and the worlds that produced them.
1952: The Jerusalem Postreported that the Mapam Council voted, by 232 to 49, to support a very carefully worded "protest" against the Czech anti-Zionist trials and activities while identifying itself completely with "the world's revolution." The Sneh-Riftin bloc justified the trials and advocated a complete acceptance of the accusations.
1953(20th of Tevet, 5714): Eighty-two year old Lee Shubert, the Lituanian born eldest of seven brothers who build the Shubert theatrical empire passed away today.
http://www.shubertfoundation.org/about/brothers.asp
1953: Monnett B. Davis passed away while serving as the second U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1953(20th of Tevet, 5714): Dr. Alexander Marx, the director libraries and Jacob H. Schiff Professor of History at the Jewish Theological Seminary passed away today at the age of 75. A native of Germany, Marx served in the Prussian Army and earned his Ph.D. in 1903 following which he came to the United States where he took up his position with JTS. When he arrived, the library contained 5,000 volumes. At the time of his death, the collection had grown to 144,000 books and 8,000 manuscripts making it one of the finest collections of Judaica in the world.
1954: ABC broadcast the final episode of “What’s Going On” a gameshow created and produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.
1955: “Storm over the Nile” based on “The Four Feathers” directed and produced by Zoltan Korda, with music by Benjamin Frankel and co-starring Laurence Harvey was released today in the United Kingdom.
1956: Birthdate of Yehudit Ravitz, the native of Beersheba and member of “Sheshet” who is a successful singer-songwriter, composer and music producer.
1956: Los Angeles premiere of “This is Baby Doll” a dark comedy starring Carroll Baker and Eli Wallach and filmed by cinematographer Boris Kaufamn.
1959(25th of Kislev, 5720): Chanukah and Parshat Vayeshev
1960: “Do Re Mi” a musical with music by Jule Styne, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with a cast that included Phil Silvers and Al Lewis “opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre” today.
1961: From February 17, 1952 through today, Dolph Schayes played in 706 games setting an NBA record for not missing a single game.
1962: “David and Lisa” the movie based on Jordi, Lisa and David by Theodore Isaac Rubin starring Janet Margolin and Howard Da Silva was released in the United States.
1963(10th of Tevet, 5724): Asara B’Tevet
1963: “Act One,” the film version of the Moss Hart autobiography directed and produced by Dore Schary who also wrote the script and featuring Sam Levene,George Segal, Jack Klugman and Eli Wallach was released today in the United States.
1963(10th of Tevet, 5724): A year after the death of his son John, 83 year old, Jacob J. Shubert, the Lithuanian born son of David Schubart and Katrina Helwitz and the last of the three Shubert Brothers who created a mini theatrical empire passed away today.
1964: The Buffalo Bills defeated Sid Gillman’s San Diego Chargers in the American Football League Championship Game.
1965(3rd of Tevet, 5726): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1965: Today “at the 38th annual meeting of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Norman Gold, an assistant professor of Medieval Jewish Studies at the University of Chicago, announced the discovery of a document that “bears the date of 1020” which “he called the oldest extant legal document of the Jews in Sicily” and which he said “showed that a community of Jews flourished in Syracuse under the Arabs before the Norman conquest of the island in 1080.”
1965: "Funny Girl" with Barbra Streisand closes on Broadway. The Broadway hit had a Jewish diva portraying Fanny Brice, the Jewish comedic star of the Follies and radio-fame.
1967(24th of Kislev, 5728): In the evening kindle the first Chanukah candle
1968(5th of Tevet, 5729):Arthur Fellig, known by his pseudonym Weegee passed away.
http://backflashes.tumblr.com/post/15053833751/weegee-was-the-pseudonym-of-arthur-fellig-june
1968(5th of Tevet, 5729):Fifty-year old Leon Shirdan, a marine biologist from Haifa was murdered today when two Palestinian terrorists attacked El Al Flight 253 when it stopped in Athens on its way to New York.
1969: Operation Rooster 53 was launched at 9 p.m. as A-4 Skyhawks and F-4 Phantoms began attacking Egyptian forces along the western bank of the Suez Canal and Red Sea which provided cover for three Aérospatiale Super Frelons, carrying Israeli paratroopers, made their way west towards the communication network which was their ultimate target.
1970(28th of Kislev, 5731): Parashat Miketz, Fourth Day of Chanukah
1970(28th of Kislev, 5731): Seventy-nine year old University of Maryland trained physician George Piness, the Odessa born son of Louis and Sara Piness and husband of the former Hortense Weil passed away today.
1971: In New York the 22nd national convention of the Farband, which “finallybrought about the merger of Farband, Poalei Zion, and the American Habonim Association” came to an end.
1972: Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States passed away in Kansas City, Mo. Truman’s activist, anti-Communist policy and his progressive domestic program earned Truman the support of Jewish voters. But his greatest moment, from a strictly Jewish perspective, came when he decided that the U.S. would support the creation of the state of Israel and single-handedly ensured that the U.S. was the first nation to recognize the new Jewish state
1973(1st of Tevet, 5734): Rosh Chodesh Tevet and 7thDay of Chanukah
1974(12th of Tevet, 5735): Comedian Jack Benny passed away at age 80
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jack-benny
1976(5th of Tevet, 5737): Fifty-seven year old Western Electric general manager David Kass, the husband of “the former Hortense Tackler” passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Postreported from Ismailia that Prime Minister Menachem Begin, after a meeting with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, saw "peace in a few months." Begin had also expressed his anger and disappointment with Knesset members who leaked details of his peace plan before he could hand it over to Sadat. The Egyptian president described the meeting as "one of the happiest days of his life" and added that he was now ready for full ties and normalization with Israel.
1977(16th of Tevet, 5738): Seventy-five year old University of Chicago trained attorney Benjamin Barnard Davis, the Lithuanian born son of Max and Dora Flaxman and husband of Janice Muller with whom he had one son – Muller Davis – who was a partner in several law firms including Davis, Jones and Baer passed away today.
1978: Birthdate of Alan Senitt, a British political activist and volunteer in the campaign of Virginia’s Mark Warner. Senitt was stabbed to death in Washington, D.C. defending his female campaign co-worker from street thugs.
1981: “The Prince and the Aviator” directed by Jerry Adler and featuring Ellen Greene opened at the Alvin Theatre.
1982: The New York Timespublished a review of Leon Blum by Jean Lacouture.
1984: “Mrs. Soffel” a prison moved produced by Scott Rudin and featuring Maury Chaykin was released today in the United States.
1985: It was reported today that “Moscow may restore diplomatic ties with Israel and dramatically increase the number of Jews permitted to immigrate to Israel, according to reports of a conversation between a representative of an American Jewish group and a Soviet diplomat. The Jewish representative met a few days ago with an unidentified Soviet official who predicted the restoration of full Soviet-Israeli diplomatic relations and an increase in emigration to Israel.
1985: One person was injured in terrorist bombing that took placed out of a restaurant in Tel Aviv.
1987(5th of Tevet, 5748): Parashat Vayigash
1987: Sixty-five year old U of Pennsylvania Phi Beta Kappa graduate Hershel Johan Matt, the Minneapolis, MN, born son of Rabbi Calman David Matt and Lena Matt, who after earning a MHL from JTS and receiving Semicha at JTS went to lead several congregations while raising four children – Jonathan, Daniel, David and Deborah—with his wife Gustine passed away today.
1988: Benjamin Netanyahu began serving as Deputy Foreign Minister
1989(28th of Kislev, 5750): Fourth Day of Chanukah celebrated for the first time during the Presidency of George Bush.
1990: Tele 5, a Spanish television station, is scheduled to broadcast an interview with President Hussein that had been taped on December 22nd in Baghdad during which the Iraqi leaders says Tel Aviv will be Iraq's first target if war breaks out in the Persian Gulf.
1991: Robert S. Strauss began serving as the United States Ambassador to Russia during the Presidency of George H.W. Bush
1992: New York Jet announcer Marty Glickman retires at 75
1992:The standoff between Lebanon and Israel over the fate of 415 Palestinian deportees trapped in a snow-covered valley in southern Lebanon, continued today as both sides again rejected appeals to allow relief agencies to deliver food or medicine. Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, whose Government has blocked relief assistance from reaching the group, asked Washington to intervene with Israel to allow aid to reach the Palestinians. But at the same time, his Government turned down a request by the deportees to give the ill and injured treatment in Lebanese hospitals. An envoy of Yasir Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said he supported the Lebanese Government's decision to refuse entrance to the men.(As reported by Chris Hedges)
1993: Comedian Rodney Dangerfield weds Joan Child.
1994: The French now suffer the fate of the Israelis at Entebbe when an Air France Flight is hijacked by four members of the Armed Islamic Group.
1996: Eighty year old actress Eleanor Lynn, a star in Clifford Odets’ “Rocket to the Moon” who was the wife of movie executive Morris Helprin and the mother of novelist and journalist Mark Helprin passed away today.
1997(27th of Kislev, 5758): Third Day of Chanukah
1999: The New York Timesbook section includes a review ofMy First 79 Years by Isaac Stern with Chaim Potok.
2000(29th of Kislev, 5761): Eighty-seven years old Felicia Shpritzer who was the first woman to earn “sergeant’s stirpes” in the NYPD passed away today.
2001: In Moscow, a monument honoring Shalom Aleichem was unveiled at a public ceremony attended by Nathan Meron, the Israeli Ambassador. The Moscow newspapers reporting the event described Solomon Rabinovich as “the great Russian Jew” and “a sagacious writer.”
2001: Benyamin Ben-Eliezer won the Labor primaries that were held today.
2002: “The Hours” a film version of a novel by the same name produced by Scott Rudin was released today in the United States.
2002: In “The Cultural Spoils of War,” Ronald Lauder the chairman of the Commission for Art Recovery and co-chairman of the Research Project on Art and Archive describes attempts to reclaim and return cultural treasures stolen during the Holocaust.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/26/opinion/the-cultural-spoils-of-war.html
2003(1st of Tevet, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2003: “The Company” a ballet movie with a screenplay by Barbara Turner was released in the United States today.
2004: Sir Martin Gilbert “argues that Bush and Blair may one day be seen as akin to Roosevelt and Churchill. (Editor’s note – even the great ones get it wrong once in a while)
2004(14th of Tevet, 5765): Ninety-five year old Simon “Si” Gerson a leading member of the Communist Party USA whose political activism spanned 7 decades passed away today.
2005: “Builders Reveal Hidden Synagogue and Dark Era of Portugal's Past” published today describes the fate of Medieval Jewish Community of Porto.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/international/europe/26portugal.html
2006: Two boys, both 14, were injured about 9 p.m. when a Qassam rocket landed in the street near where they were walking. Both were treated by Magen David Adom paramedics and taken to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. A total of eight Qassams were fired at Israel during the day, the most in a single day since the cease-fire was declared about a month ago. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing the missiles from the Gaza Strip at the western Negev town. One of the Qassams fired at Israel Tuesday landed in the industrial area in south Ashkelon, close to a strategic infrastructure installation.
2006: About Alice by Calvin Trillin, “a slightly expanded version of the essay Alice, Off the Page” was published today.
https://www.amazon.com/About-Alice-Calvin-Trillin/dp/1400066158
2007 (17 Tevet): Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Aaron Zelig Ben Joel Feivush, author of Toldot Aaron and Rabbi Yaakov Wolf Krantz, Maggid of Dubna
2008:HaTzofe (The Observer) printed its last edition today.
2008: Closing session of the Hazon Jewish food conference in Pacific Grove, California.
2008: The New York Times publishes a review of Searching for Schindler by Thomas Keneally
2008: “Waltz With Bashir” opens in selected movie theatres across the United States.
2008:The final decision to launch Operation Cast Lead was made on this morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin
2008:In “Author Defends Disputed Memoir,” Dave Itzkoff describes the controversy surrounding the soon to be published Angel at the Fence by Herman Rosenblat.
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7D6103AF934A15751C1A96E9C8B63
2009: The Gilad Barkan Band, led by Israeli native Gilad Barkan, appears at the Café Vivaldi in New York City. Barkan's band includes Israeli flutist Amir Milstein, co-leader of Bustan Abraham, who bestows the music with a mesmerizing and soulful new dimension.
2009: Itamar Jobani makes his final appearance at the “Open Studios: Artist at Work program hosted by New York’s Museum of Art and Design.
2009:The Israeli military killed six Palestinians today, three in the West Bank whom it accused of killing a Jewish settler and three in Gaza who it said were crawling along the border wall planning an attack. It was the deadliest day in the conflict in nearly a year.
2010: The Gateways Winter retreat at Whippany, NJ came to an end.
2010: Klezcamp is scheduled to open today in the Catskills. Henry Sapoznik, a Ukrainian cantor’s son who founded KlezKamp in 1984, calls it a “Yiddish Brigadoon.”
2010: The Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Letters: Saul Bellow edited by Benjamin Taylor and When They Come for Us, We'll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry by Gal Beckerman
2010: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hero:The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
2010:IDF troops, with the help of a helicopter gunship, fired on insurgents who detonated an explosive device against a passing Israeli patrol near the border in the southern Gaza Strip today.
2010:Opening day of the Limmud Conference, the British Jewish community’s answer to the Edinburgh Festival, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this week at the University of Warwick in Coventry.
2010:Today, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal filed by Israeli settlers requesting it postpone again a long-awaited order to evict an apartment building they constructed illegally in a predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
2011: For the first time ever, Jews in the I-380 corridor will have a chance to light a menorah made from bowling pins at the Chabad-Lubavitch Chanukah Bowl under the direction of Rabbi Avremel & Chaya Blesofsky
2011: The final performance of The Kinsey Sicks in Oy Vey in a Manger is scheduled to take place tonight in Washington, D.C.
2011: Singer, composer, guitarist, and living exponent of Sephardic music Gerard Edery is scheduled to perform at the 6thStreet Synagogue Center for Jewish Arts and Literacy as part of Sephardic Music Festival in NYC
2011(30th of Kislev, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
2011:A police officer was wounded as clashes erupted between ultra-Orthodox Jews in two separate neighborhoods in Beit Shemesh.
2011: The Foreign Ministry warned that Israel's possible recognition of the Armenian genocide, which was discussed in a Knesset committee today, could lead to the serious deterioration of Israel's ties with Turkey.
2011: Thirty-nine-year-old Maya Amsellem is scheduled to marry 42 year old Israeli actor Lior Ashkenazi. (As reported by Jada Yuan)
2012: Inebriated gondoliers vying for the throne of Barataria are scheduled to take over the Hirsch Theater at Jerusalem’s Beit Shmuel starting today, with the next Gilbert and Sullivan production from the Encore Educational Theater Company.(As reported by Jessica Steinberg
2012:“Zaytoun” a film about a downed Israeli pilot who escapes from Lebanon with a disaffected Palestinian will be released today exclusively at Curzon Renoir.
2012: “High Noon” the classic American western film starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012(13th of Tevet, 5773): Ninety year old Canadian poet Elizabeth Brewster passed away today.
2012: “Senior officials confirmed today that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a secret meeting in Jordan with King Abdullah II, yesterday focusing on the possibility that Syrian President Bashar Assad would use chemical weapons against rebels in the ongoing sectarian conflict raging in that country.
2012:A 2,750-year-old temple and a cache of sacred vessels from biblical times were discovered in an archaeological excavation near Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced today.
2012:Hawaii Lieutenant Governor Brian Schatz was named today to fill the US Senate seat left vacant by the death of fellow Democrat Daniel Inouye.
2013:A Kassam rocket was fired from Gaza this evening, the second in as many days. The rocket fell in open ground right near a community in the south, causing no injuries or damage.
In response, the IAF struck several targets in Gaza. According to an IDF statement, the sites including a weapons production site in central Gaza, along with a weapons storehouse in northern Gaza.
2013: “Captain Phillips” starring Tom Hanks is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: “A total of 38 Indian citizens from the Bnei Menashe community made aliya today, the first cohort to arrive since the Knesset approved another wave of immigration for the group.” (As reported by Henry Rome and Sol Sokol)
2014: The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host the next in its Future Generation Series of concerts.
2014: “Bullets holes were discovered at the entrance to a Paris publishing this morning” marking the third time this week that Jewish buildings have been fired upon the other two being at the Al Haeche Kosher Restaurant and the David Ben Ichay Synagogue. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014: As “worshippers were leaving the Temple Mount complex after morning prayers, two Border Police officers were stabled near the Lions Gates” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2014: “The Zig Zag Story” and “The Farewell Party” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” the $140 million Hollywood film about the biblical escape of the Jews from Egypt, will not be shown there because it asserts historical falsehoods and spreads a “Zionist view,” the Egyptian culture minister was quoted as saying today meaning that it will join Morocco as the second Arab country to ban the film. (As reported by Rick Gladstone)
2015(14thof Tevet, 5776): Shabbat Vayechi
2015: “Nightlife -- A festival of light and art, intent on illuminating the multicultural abundance and complexity of Tel Aviv's Neve Sha'anan neighborhood is scheduled to take place this evening
2016(26thof Kislev, 5777): Second Day of Chanukah; in the evening, kindle the third light
2016(26thof Kislev, 5777): Ninety-four year old Tony winning veteran Broadway actor George S. Irving passed away today. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
2016(26thof Kislev, 5777): Fifty one year old Chicago filmmaker David J. Steiner died in a bus crash while traveling in Uganda.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?pid=183243867
https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/chicago-filmmaker-david-steiner-killed-in-uganda-bus-crash/
2016: In Little Rock, Lubavitch of Arkansas under the leadership of Rabbi Pinchas Ciment is scheduled to host a Family Chanukah Party complete with Latkes and a Smooth bar at the Chabad House.
2016: At the Town and Village Synagogue a variety of acoustic acts led by “Book of J – an amazing new Bay Area collaboration between singer/guitarist Jeremiah Lockwood (Sway Machinery) and singer Jewlia Eisenberg (Charming Hostess) making their New York debut” are scheduled to appear as part of YNY (Yiddish New York) Unplugged.
2017: Pete and Paul, A Fargenign: Yiddish Swing Dance Party! Is scheduled to take place tonight as part of Yiddish New York.
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to kickoff “Winter Break at the Museum” by offering freed admission to “kids and students.”
2018: “A special workshop on improvisation for instrumentalists by renowned pianist/composer Anthony Coleman, longtime faculty member of New England Conservatory” is scheduled to take place today at “Yiddish New York.”
2018: Penultimate session of the USY International Convention is scheduled to take place today in Orlando, FL.
2018: In Albany, NY, “Rabbi Deb Gordon of Congregation Berith Sholom in Troy” is scheduled to facilitate this year’s final Pirkei Avot Class sponsored by the Women’s Table.
2019(28thof Kislev, 5780): Fourth Day of Chanukah
2019: In Brisbane, CA, Cantor Barry Reich is scheduled to lead the menorah lighting at “Latkes, Lumpias and Horns.”
2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host the last screening of “Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles.”
2019: Chabad of Downtown Boston is scheduled to host the “Chanukah Celebration at the Seaport.”
2019: In San Francisco, Sherith Israel is scheduled to host “Latkes and Vodkas” for adults only.
2020: YNY is scheduled to open this evening with Yiddish singer Sarah Gordon in a traditional Zingeray (Yiddish sing-along).
2020 The final performance of The 28th annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy is scheduled to take place today.
2020: After yesterday’s interception of two rockets fired by terrorist from Gaza at Ashkelon, Israelis are confronted with a triple header of challenges – pandemic, electoral chaos and terrorism.
2020(10thof Tevet, 5781): Vayigash; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/