December 30
39: A black day on the Jewish calendar; birthdate of Roman Emperor Titus the man who destroyed the Second Temple. The Arch of Titus commemorates the exile of the Israelites.
987: Coronation of Robert II, who “conspired with his vassals to destroy all the Jews who would not accept baptism” and inspired mob violence against the Jews including “the learned Rabbi Senior”
1066((9 Tevet 4827): Joseph ibn Nagrela, son of Samuel ibn Nagrela, was murdered in Granada during the Granada Massacre. He had served as vizier to Badis, ruler of the Berbers. There had been constant tension between the Berbers and the Arab population. Joseph attempted to ease the conflict between the two camps and prevent excesses against the local Arabs. His enemies included Abu Ishak, Berber advisor to the prince, who accused him of trying to cede the city to a neighboring prince. Badis ordered Joseph killed and crucified. In the ensuing massacre of the Jewish population, 1,500 families were killed, including Joseph's wife and son. A few years later, Jews were readmitted to Granada and reassumed high offices.
1066(9thof Tevet, 4827): In what is called the 1066 Granada Massacre an untold number of Jews in this part of Muslim-ruled al-Andalus were murdered by a Islamist mob.
1066(9th of Tevet, 4827): Joseph ibn Naghrela, the eldest son of Rabbi Sh'muel ha-Nagid and vizier to the King of Granada, was crucified by an Arab mob
1299: The City of Damascus, except for its Citadel began it surrender to the forces of Mahmud Ghazan who had converted to Islam in 1295 marking the start of a downgrading of the conditions of the Jews in Persia because they were forced back into the role of “dhimmis” – official second class citizens.
1334: French born Jacques Fornier was elected Pope Benedict XII who came to the defense of Jews as can be seen by his letter to Duke Albert of Austria, “recommending that he take measures for the protection of Jews” and a letter to the Bishop of Passau urging him to investigate charges of host desecration aimed at the Jews “and to punish severely those who had invented such false accusations.”
1576: After spending four and one half years in prison, Fray Luis De Leon, a converso descendant was released. As a scholar of Hebrew at the University of Salamanca, he was punished by the Inquisition for translating the Song of Songs (Solomon) from Latin into Spanish.
1596(9thof Tevet, 5357): Menachem Rapoport (Menachem Abraham ben Jacob Ha-Kohen) passed away. Known as Rappa, this Italian rabbi witnessed “the burning of the Talmud pursuant to the papal bull of 1553” and was the author of several works including “Zofnat Pa’neach.”
1665: Sabbetai Zvi, the famous or infamous "False Messiah" departed for Constantinople
1669: Based on a case involving “the kahal of Brest and some Russian priests of Brest, “it appears that the latter caused much damage to the Jews of Brest, and that during the religious processions riots took place in which Jewish property was stolen and Jews were murdered or wounded by priests as well as by others.” Jews had been living in Brest-Litvosk since the 14th century and although their fortunes had fallen to a new low during the Cossack Uprising, in 1669, life was improving since King Michael Wisniowieck re-confirmed the privileges previously enjoyed by the Jews which allowed them to own property and engage freely in commercial activity.
1673: Birthdate of Ahmed III the sultan who appointed Judah ben Samuel Rosanes as chief rabbi of hakam bashi of the Ottoman Empire.
1695:Based on the diploma on display at the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem, today is the day on which Dr. Coppilia Pictor graduated from Medical School in Padua. He was the first doctor in Bochum, Germany
1673: Birthdate of Ahmed III, the Ottoman Sultan who signed the peace treaty of Passarowitz between Austria and Turkey in 1718. According to the treaty, “Jews who were Turkish subjects were permitted to live and trade freely in Austria. Their position was thus more favorable than that of Jews who were Austrian subjects. In 1736, Diego d'*Aguilar founded the "Turkish community" in Vienna.
1749: Birthdate of Rachel De Leon, the daughter of Abraham De Leon.
1769(2nd of Tevet, 5530): Parashat Mketz; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1775(7th of Tevet, 5536): Parashat Vayigash
1775: On the same day Jews observed Shabbat, General Washington’s officers discuss the possibility of recruiting free African-Americans to fight in the Continental Army.
1777(30th of Kislev, 5538): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah observed as Washington’s Army suffers in Winter Quarters in Valley Forge.
1783: In Charleston, SC, Sarah De La Motta and Levi Sheftall gave birth to Mordecai Sheftall, the husband of Virginia Russell and the father of Judith, Sara, Luara, Mordecai, Letheria, Henry, Benjamin and Thomas Sheftall.
1787: In Germany, Sara Anschuler and Salomon Schwarzenberg gave birth to Lazarus Schwarzenberg the husband of Eva Bach and the father of Sarah, Fannie, Nathan, Moses, Rosetta and Amelia Schwarzenberg.
1792(15th of Tevet, 5553): Abraham Samuel Covo, the Chief Rabbi of Salonica passed away.
1792: The day after she had passed away, 64 year old Eve Josephs was buried today at the “Alderney Road (Globe Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1799(2ndof Tevet, 5560): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1812: Joshua Lyon Phillips married Elizabeth Harris at the Great Synagogue today.
1815(28thof Kislev, 5576): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1815: In Lincolnshire, Elizabeth Cullen and George Toynbee gave birth to Joseph Toynbee, the grandfather of historian Arnold Toynbee who took exception to the continued existence of the Jewish people because according to his paradigm they should have disappeared like other ancient peoples.
1814: Birthdate of Barbara Elizabeth Gluck the native of Vienna who wrote her poetry under the name of “Betty Paoli.”
1829: Berton Gottheimer married Julia Zachariah today.
1832: At Donaldsonville, LA, Joseph Marks married Eliza Hyams, the daughter of Samuel Hyams of Charleston, SC.
1836: Birthdate of David Castelli, the native of Leghorn who became “an Italian scholar and educator in the field of secular Jewish studies” before passing away at Florence in 1901.
1845: In Wellington, NZ, Solomon and Jane Levy gave birth to Alfred Lipman Levy, the husband of Annie Elizabeth Levy and Mary Ann Levy.
1847: In Bonn, Loeb Leopold Ungar and Adelheid Edel Ungar gave birth to Adolph Ungar, the Chicago printer and author who was the husband of Henrietta Ungar
1850: Horatio Simon Samuel married Henrietta Montefiore at the Great Synagogue today.
1851:Horace Greely delivered a lecture tonight at the Philomathean Society of Brooklyn on "The World's Fair and Its Lessons” based on his visit to the Crystal Palace where the display of "Jerusalem, in her lonely humiliation, best typifies the Hebrew state and race."
1851: In Middlesex, England, Caroline Benjamin and Isaiah Joshua Simmons gave birth to Joseph Simmons
1854: In Siroka, Hungary, Leon Faber and his wife gave birth to Maurice Faber, who was the rabbi at B’nai Zion in Titusville, PA for ten years where he also taught German language and literature at the local high school before serving as rabbi at B’nai Israel in Keokuk, IA and finally filling the pulpit at Congregation Beth-El in Tyler, TX.
1855: In Sikora, Hungary, Leon Faber and his wife gave birth to Maurice Faber who served as Rabbi of Congregation B'nai Zion, Titusville, Pa., for ten years, and of Congregation B'nai Israel, Keokuk, Iowa, for two years and finally of Congregation Beth-El in Tyler, TX, Congregation B'nai Israel, Keokuk, Iowa, and Congregation Beth-El, Tyler, TX.
1855(21stof Tevet, 5616): Seventy-six year old German Jewish banker Samuel Bleichröder the father of Gerson von Bleichröder and Julius Bleichröder passed away today.
1856: Phillip Soman married Harriet Salkin today.
1857(13th of Tevet, 5618): Fourth Yahrtzeit of Judah Touro.
1861: Two days after he had passed away, 62-year-old Joseph Moseley “of King Street Commercial Road” was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1862: Based on information supplied by the Associated Press several newspapers carried stories about General Order11 including on that used the headline “Expulsion of Jews from General Grant’s Department – The Circumstances Stated and the Documents Quoted”
1863: Leopold Kompert was fined as a result of a suit “brought against him by the clerical anti-Semite Sebastian Brunner for libeling the Jewish religion.”
1864(1stof Tevet, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh day of Chanukah; for the first time in three years, the eighth candle of Chanukah are kindled in a Savanah, GA that is back in Union hands.
1864: In Kensington, Annie and Israel Edward Woolf gave birth to Isabelle Rebecca Woolf who did not live to see her twelfth birthday.
1865: Birthdate of English writer, Rudyard Kipling. In an article entitled “How not to be a stranger in a strange land” David Mamet wrote “My favorite poet was a Jewish man from Krakow, Rudolph Klepsteen. He wrote under the name of Rudyard Kipling, and his most famous poem is called “If.”It begins: “If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you, if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you.”He was writing, as he always did, about the Jewish experience.” This runs contrary to the standard biography that says Kipling was born in India. The death of his son in World War I had a profound effect on Kipling who became a very active member the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The man who wrote of “the white man’s burden” was particularly concerned that dead Jewish soldiers, as well as other non-Christians including Hindus and Muslims troops “were remembered in ways suitable and compatible with their religion and culture.” He also wrote a poem entitled “The Burden of Jerusalem” that begins:
“In ancient days
and deserts wild
There rose a feud –
still unsubdued –
'Twixt Sarah's son
and Hagar's child
That centred round Jerusalem.”
1867: In Philadelphia, PA, Meyer Guggenheim and Barbara Guggenheim gave birth to John Simon Guggenheim, “the director and member of the Executive Committee of the American Smelting and Refining Company, the husband of Olga Hirsh and the father of John and George Guggenheim who served as a U.S. Senator from Colorado.
1868: Birthdate of Philip Passon, the native of Russia who moved to Brooklyn where he was active in the Federation of Jewish Charities and served as director of the Machzike Talmud Torah.
1869: Birthdate of Belgian political leader, Adolphe Max.
1870(6th of Tevet, 5631): Thirty-five year old Rabbi Simon Tuska, the Hungarian born son of Rabbi Mordecai Tuska and the husband of Jeanette Nussbaum Tuska whose last pulpit was Temple Israel in Memphis, TN passed away today after which he was buried at the Temple Israel Cemetery .
1871: The annual report on deaths in New York published today reported that only one person had passed away at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1871: George Cruikshank, the illustrator who created the Copper plate engraving “Fagin in his cell” “published a letter in The Times which claimed credit for much of the plot of Oliver Twist” a work that helped create the image of Charles Dickens as an anti-Semite.
1872(30th of Kislev, 5633): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1873: Birthdate of Al Smith, 4-term Governor of New York and the first Catholic to run for President of the United States. Smith enjoyed a great of deal support among New York’s immigrant Jewish population. He served on the commission that investigated the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and championed laws to improve working conditions; a position that would have made very popular with the thousands of Jewish workers employed in the garment industry. Belle Moskowtiz was long-time political advisor to Smith and managed his 1928 Presidential campaign. Smith gave Robert Moses his big chance in New York State government allowing him to reorganize the state’s government on a basis fitting the 20thcentury. Smith’s 1928 campaign actually created the coalition that would lead to major Democratic victories over the next couple of years. Jews were a major component of that coalition and it ultimately gave them political influence that they had been sorely lacking.
1875(2nd of Tevet, 5636): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1878: The New York Times reported that last “Saturday was the anniversary of the feast of dedication as commemorated by the Jewish race; that is to say, the anniversary of the resuscitation of Jewish worship in the temple at Jerusalem, after the long interruption of the Assyrian conquest and the renewed (but brief) autonomy of the Jewish nationality, after one of the severest military struggles, waged by the Maccabees, recounted in ancient history.” (The NYT would not be the first, nor will it be the last, to confuse the Syrians with the Assyrians.)
1879: An article published today that traced the history of the hospitals of New York City, reported that when Mt. Sinai Hospital opened in 1852 with the support of the Jewish community, it was the third hospital founded by a religious group. During the 1840’s the Episcopalians had founded St. Luke’s and the Catholics had founded St, Vincent’s.
1879: In Galveston, TX, Louis and Rebecca (Schlenker) Schatzkey gave birth to Dora Schatzkey Zielonka, the wife of Martin Zielonka and the mother of
1880: Birthdate of Munich native Alfred Einstein, the German American musicologist, critic, and second cousin of Albert Einstein who was “an outstanding authority on music of Mozart and the Italian madrigal”
1880: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, “Samuel Hirsch…brought suit” today “against Rabbi Isaac Moses, the editor of a Jewish newspaper…for slander claiming $5,000 damages” because Rabbi Moses had described Mr. Hirsch as liar and a thief in his publication.
1880: Ernst Henrici, the “co-initiator of the so-called Anti-Semite Petition” delivered a speech at “Bock Assembly” espousing his “anti-capitalist, anti-liberal and anti-conservative agenda.”
1882: “Help for the Hospitals” published today provided a description of various New York City health institutions including Mt. Sinai Hospital which was originally created for the use of the Jews of New York City, but now serves patients regardless of “race, creed or nationality” and also maintains a system of “charity beds” to serve the city’s needy.
1882: Rachel and Morris L. Kramer gave birth to Hyman S. Kramer the younger brother of Beckie Kramer.
1884: In Philadelphia, PA, “Moses and Miriam (Levy) Sloman gave birth to Drexel Institute trained artist Joseph Sloman who designed the stained-glass memorials for Temple Israel in Union City, NJ, who was a member of Adas Emuno in Hobken and was the husband of the former Martha E. Stien.
1886: “A Bar But No Barroom” published today included Charles Goldstein response to complaints by members of St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church to his receiving a license to sell liquor at Webster Hall which is a block away from the church. Goldstein said that no objections were raised before or after the foundation was laid for the building last August. Webster Hall is a building designed to host various Jewish social events including weddings. Liquor would not be sold until 8:30 or nine in the evening. (Considering the popular image connecting certain groups of Catholics with the consumption of alcohol, one must wonder what the real motive for the late-blooming objections was)
1886: It was reported today that a ukase issued during the reign of Czar Nicholas compelling “resident German Jews to hold certificates as merchants of the first guild” has been revived in Poland. The certificates cost seven rubles. Since few of the Jewish merchants can afford the certificates, they will be forced to leave.
1888: Among the charitable institutions receiving money from city is the Hebrew Benevolent Society of the City of New York was got a payment of $60,000.
1888: The Seligman Solomon Society sponsored evening of entertainment at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
1889: It was reported today the Jesse Seligman, Henry Rice and Julian Nathan were among the dignitaries who attended the recent evening of entertainment held in the chapel of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum
1889(7thof Tevet, 5650): Thirty-three year old Myer Silberman, a jeweler from Poland, apparently took his own life today while “alone in his room at 5 Orchard Street.”
1889: It was reported today that Philip J. Joachimsen, the Chairman of Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Advisory is “confined to his home by illness” which made it impossible for him to take part in the events honoring state Senator Jacob A. Cantor and Assemblyman Joseph Blumenthal.
1891(29thof Kislev, 5652): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1891: “The Siege of Yemen” published today described 10 week siege of Yemenite town by an Arab army whose leader declared he would convert the Jews of Yemen to Islam “or extirpate them.” (That is a fancy way for saying “wipe them out.”)
1892: Benjamin Kossman transferred to the Company D of the Sixth Cavalry in the U.S. Army.
1892: Cornelius Herz, the English born American and French trained physician who worked to develop uses for electricity is in London, where he may stay for some time as France deals with the Panama Scandal.
1892: “No Mercy for the Jews” published today described reports “from St. Petersburg and other parts of Russia which show that the persecution of the Jews and the inhumanity of the Czar’s officals toward that unhappy race are greater than ever before” as can be seen by the issuance of “six edicts…aiming to disperse the Jewish subjects…weaken their position in the trading centers and crush out their religion.
1892: As of today, it is reported that many of the 20,000 Jews who have been converted to Orthodox Christianity since 1891 have been deported to Tcherkesovo, five miles from Moscow where they can be watch priests of the Russian Orthodox Church.
1892: It is reported that “many of the Jewish tradesmen and artisans who have been driven from Moscow” have gone to Lodz, a city in Poland which, thanks to their efforts “is fast become and an important manufacturing center.”
1893: As the economic crisis worsens, “the plan” for supplying bread, coal, tea and other necessities to the poor advocated by and financed by Nathan Straus “will be put in operation today.” Mr. Koppel, a nephew of Mr. Strauss will oversee the daily operation.
1893(21stof Tevet, 5654): Seventy-one-year-old Italian poetess and translator “of medieval Hebrew poems and original Italian verses in Jewish” Eugenia Pavia-Gentilomo-Fortis passed away today in Asolo.
1893: Russia signed a military accord with France. This treaty ended France's political isolation that dated from the Franco Prussian War. This meant that the next time France faced Germany, she would have any ally. The treaty also undid the alliance of the three emperors (Germany, Russia and Austro-Hungry). This treaty was part of the web of treaties that would create an aura of inevitability at the outbreak of World War I. World War I marked the beginning of the most catastrophic period in the history of European Jewry. Yes, it helps to understand the history of the world when studying Jewish History.
1894: Herzl published a long and detailed article in the Neue Freie Presse summing up the major events of the preceding year in France. The Dreyfus trial is not mentioned in the summary.
1894: Three days after he had passed away, “Edward Phineas Sanguinetti” the son of Isaac Sanguinetti and Harriet Nathan was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1894: “The Dreyfus Scandal and the Growth of French Anti-Semitism” published today described the growing power of General Mercier “who scored a distinct personal triumph…in the conviction of Captain Dreyfus” as well as the quadrupling of the circulation of Drumont’s Libre Parole which makes a specialty of anti-Semitic violence and which along with “Rocherfort’sIntransigeant are preaching…nothing less than the wholesale massacre of the Jews.”
1897(5thof Tevet, 5658): Seventy-one year old Hungarian born, Chicago resident Eduard Zeisler the husband of Josephine Ungar passed away today in Chicago.
1897: The Relief Committee of the Board of Guardians is scheduled to meet this afternoon in London.
1897: Oscar S. Straus, President of the American Jewish Historical Society presided over the last session of its annual meeting which was held today in the Assembly Room of New York’s Temple Emanu-El. The secretary of the society, Dr. Cyrus Adler, reported a proposed amendment to the constitution on behalf of the Executive Council that would increase the number of Vice Presidents from 3 to 4 and suggesting that Herbert B. Adams fill the newly created position. The amendment and recommendation were adopted.
1899: Birthdate of David Glick, the husband of Rose Shanis Glick and the father of Stephen Jack Glick, who was buried in Baltimore when he passed away in 1984.
1900: Adalbert Epstein and Emma Epstein gave birth to Friedrich “Fritz” Epstein
1900: Fifty-one-year-old Gratz Mortdecai, the Washington, DC born son of Sarah Ann Hays and Major Alfred Mordecai, the West Point graduate who had commanded the arsenal at Washington, D.C. during the Mexican-American War, married Frances Kingsland Gifford today.
1902(30thof Kislev, 5663): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1902(30thof Kislev, 5663): Fifty-five-year-old Rosa Gottschalk, the German born daughter of Saran and Joseph Ullman, the wife of Albert Gottschalk with whom she had four children – Levi, Lillie, Bertha and Joseph – passed away today in Baltimore, MD.
1902:Herzl considers the possibility of using the waters of the Nile as a means of irrigating the wilderness lands of the Sinai Peninsula.
1903(11thof Tevet, 5664): London born lawyer Abraham Lewis, a resident of Cincinnati and an active member in B’nai B’rith and the Union Of American Hebrew Congregations passed away today In Washington, D.C.
1904: It was reported today that Albert L. and Stanley Wolfson have bought “new seven-story loft building at 39 West 21st Street.
1904: It was reported today the Meyer Goldberg and Abraham Greenberg have a plot on the south side of 139th Street, east of St. Ann’s Avenue in New York.
1905(2ndof Tevet, 5666): Parshat Miketz; 8th day of Chanukah
1905: “The Great Work Ended” published today described the impact of the publication of the twelfth and final Volume of the Jewish Encyclopedia, “easily the largest work yet recorded of American constructive authorship.”
1905: Governor General Doubassoff sent a telegram to the government today that he had “prevented several thousand ‘loyalists’ from marching into Moscow for the purposed of attacking the strikers, revolutionists and Jews.”
1905: The lecture “How We Think” was delivered “before the St. Louis Jewish Educational Alliance.”
1905: Birthdate of philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.
1906: “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, who gave up one of the largest and richest of the Western Jewish synagogues, Beth Israel, at Portland, Oregon, to establish in this city what he calls the "Free Synagogue," announced today that he had obtained moral and financial support among New Yorkers sufficient to guarantee the establishment of his congregation and eventually the building of a synagogue.”
1907: Two days after she had passed away, Rabbi William Rosenau officiated at the funeral 27-year-old typhoid victim Cora Kaufman Kahn, the daughter of David Kaufman and wife of Bernard Kahn after which she was buried at the Hebrew Friendship Cemetery in Baltimore, MD.
1908: This afternoon, in Albany, NY, Governor Hughes issued a proclamation recommending that contributions being made for those who have suffered in the disaster in Southern Italy and Sicily be made to the New York State Branch of the American National Red Cross Society through its Treasurer Jacob H. Schiff or at the offices Kuhn, Loeb and Company.
1908: It was reported today that the newly elected officers of the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity which has 300 members are President, Arthur S. Levy, Jr.; Secretary, Abraham Rosenberg; Treasurer, Max Leibson; and Historian, A. Maurice Levine.
1909: Jacob Rogovin and the former Dora Shainhouse, who operated a dry goods business, in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn, gave birth to Milton Rogovin, an optometrist and persecuted leftist who took up photography as a way to champion the underprivileged and went on to become one of America’s most dedicated social documentarians. (As reported by Benjamin Genocchio)
1910(29th of Kislev, 5671): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1910(29th of Kislev, 5671): Sixty-six year old Lambert Goldsmith, the father of Ida Goldsmith Morris, passed away today after which he was buried in The Temple Cemetery in Louisville, KY.
1911(9th of Tevet): Parsahat Vayigash
1911: In Brooklyn, NY, Jacob Brenner was “appointed Sheriff’s Counsel” today.
1912: “The Firefly,” an operetta sponsored by Arthur Hammerstein that had premiered on Broadway at the Lyric Theatre moved to the Casino Theatre today where it ran for a total of 120 performances.
1912: In a two-column letter to The Times, Dr. Max Nordau, President of the Tenth Zionist Congress “points out the opportunity presented by the impending partition of the Turkish Empire for the earnest consideration by European diplomacy of the Zionist scheme for the resettlement of the Jews in Palestine.”
1913(1st of Tevet, 5674): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1913:“Jewish students representing most of the universities and large colleges of the United States at the second convention of the Intercollegiate Menorah Association for the study and advancement of Jewish culture and ideals, now in session at Columbia University, were advised tonight by Jacob H. Schiff that they could not expect to accomplish much without the Jewish religion.”
1914: Dr. William S. Friedman, the rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in Denver, “likens the persecution of Leo Frank to the persecution of Mendel Bellis in Russia” and “predicted that when the nations now engaged in the European war have finished the struggle, they will turn their attention to the Jews to make him the scapegoat.”
1914: “Shows Jews’ Sufferings” published today described how Oliver Bachrach wore a yoke built of ash, tore his air and “broke an earthen post…as did the patriarch in the time of old in token of great stress of mind” all of which he used to demonstrate the sense of suffering that he was trying to convey in his address about Jewish suffering.
1914: The Sixth Annual Convention of Pi Tau Pi Fraternity, led by President Herbert Frank of St. Louis MO, came to an end today in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1914: Austrian born, American architect Rudolph Michael Schinlder met Frank Lloyd Wright for the first time today.
http://makcenter.org/rm-schindler-bio/
1914: Today’s list contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee for Suffers from the War included the Cohn Raincoat, Co, the West St. Paul Congregation, Chattanooga Relief Committee and Davidson Bros & Co of Sioux City, Iowa.
1914: At Rochester, NY, “in an address tonight before about 1,000 delegates to the Jewish Chautauqua Convention Dr. Leon Harrison of St. Louis said that regardless of Leo Frank’s guilt or innocence, he is “certain that Leo Frank has not received the fundamental right to which every American citizen under arrest is entitled – a fair trial.”
1915: The Treasurer’s Report of the American Jewish Relief Committee released tonight showed that the total contributions had reached $965.886.25; $755,000 of which was in cash and $210,886.25 in pledges. Today’s largest contribution in the amount of $5,000 came from Henry P. Goldschmidt. Felix Warburg is the committee’s treasurer.
1915: “In a letter addressed to Benedict XV,” the American Jewish Committee asked the Pope to “help he Jewish cause by using “his influence with the Roman Catholic Poles” – a request that “was not a success” and which Italian Jews said “created in Italy an impression bordering on the ridiculous.
1915: Oscar S. Straus, Chairman of the Clothing Appeal Committee of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, issued a New Year’s appeal today for clothing and shoes for the destitute” people living in war-torn Belgium and Northern France. [Straus, a leading member of the Jewish community, also played a prominent role in the civic and charitable endeavors of the general community.]
1916: Today, “the Women’s Proclamation Committee” which is “the national women’s organization” collecting funds for Jewish relief led by its President, Mrs. Samuel Elkes “received a draft for $1,000” from its St Louis branch which had held a fund-raising bazar on December 11.
1917: At Temple Beth-El, Dr. Samuel Schulman is scheduled to speak on “Losses and Gains of 1917.”
1917: At Carnegie Hall, Rabbi Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon at the Free Synagogue on “Has Israel’s Hour Come At Last?”
1917: Dr. Alexander Lyons of Brooklyn is scheduled to speak on “Can We Still Believe?” at Temple Emanu-El.
1917: Felix M. Warburg, the Chairman of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthorpic Socieites announced today that on Sunday, January 6, 1918, a campaign would being with the gola of raising more than four a half million dollars “for the support of Jewish charities in New York City, many of which face large deficits for 1918.”
1917: Dr. Pierre A. Siegelstein presided over the second annual convention of the American Union of Rumanian Jews at the Park Avenue Hotel where T. Tileston Wells Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Rumanian Relief Committee said that “as an ally of the United States in the World War” Rumania “assuredly pay deference to the feelings of Americans with regards to the emancipation of the Jews.”
1917: Among the contributions reported today to have been received by the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering the War including $320 from Rabbi Moses S. Margolis, $100 from the Sons of Israel of Frostburg, MD, $500 from the Columbus, Ohio Committee and $100 from Centreville, Iowa.
1918: It was reported today that James Haines, the Chairman of the Zionist Society of Engineers, has announced “that in the near future the Society will send several engineers to Palestine to make a survey of the natural resources of the country.”
1919: Three days after he had passed away, the funeral is scheduled to be held today in Manhattan for Hartford, CT born, Columbia trained attorney Ira Leo Bamberg, the husband of Reba C. Bamberger with whom he had two children.
1921(29th of Kislev, 5682): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1921: Two days after he had passed away, Myer David Levine, the husband of Shulla Freeman with whom he had had three children – Flora, Leah and Jacob Solomon – was buried today at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Ireland.
1923: In New Haven, CT, Samuel and Lena Goodman gave birth NYU trained attorney and long-time County Clerk of Manhattan Norman Goodman. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1923: Philip Guedalla, the well-known English author and Liberal leader, was elected President of the Federation of English Zionists today. (As reported by JTA)
1925: U.S. premiere of “Ben Hur” the silent screen version of the novel by the same name produced by Louis B. Mayer and featuring Carmel Myers as Iras, “the Egyptian vamp.”
1926: Two days after he passed away, funeral service are scheduled to take place for Albany, NY born and Columbia trained attorney Samuel B. Hamburger, an active member of the Jewish community who “was a trustee of the Educational Alliance, a founder of the Jewish Board Guardians and long-time President of the Central Synagogue.”
1927: Birthdate of P.R. specialist Charles J. “Charlie” Brtoman whose “career” as the public address announcer for the Presidential Inaugural Parade began with Eisenhower and was end by Donald Trump.
1928: Birthdate of Yehuda Haffner, the native of Manchester England who gained as Yehuda Avner “personal secretary and speechwriter to Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, Golda Meir and Levi Eshkol, and as Israeli Ambassador to Australia and the United Kingdom.”
1928: The National Labor Committee hosted a reception in honor of Mayor David Block of Tel Aviv and the other members of the Palestine Labor Delegation including Miss Goldie Meyerson (who as Golda Meir would become Prime Minister of Israel) this evening at the Manhattan Opera House. Violinist Max Rosen and Metropolitan Opera soprano Nanette Guilford make their first joint appearance as part of the evening’s entertainment.
1928: A debate is held at Yeshiva College where teams from the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago and the Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary take opposing sides on “Resolved: The Cultural Restoration of Judaism depends upon the Restoration of Palestine.”
1928: Birthdate of Lawrence Haffner, the native of Manchester England who gained fame as Yehuda Avner the Israel diplomat, confidant of Prime Minister and author.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23739770.2015.1066940
1929(28th of Kislev, 5690): Fourth Day of Chanukah is observed for the first time during the presidency of Herbert Hoover.
1930: “Five Star” a play about journalism written by Louis Weitzenkorn opened on Broadway at the Cort Theatre.
1930(10th of Tevet, 5691): Asara B'Tevet
1932: “Frisco Jenny” featuring Harold Huber as “George Weaver” was released today in the United States.
1932: U.S. premiere of “Back Street” the film treatment of the novel by Fannie Hurst directed by John M. Stahl, produced by Carl Laemmle, Jr with a script co-authored by Ben Hecht and filmed by cinematographer Karl Fruend
1935(4th of Tevet, 5696): Seventy-five-year-old Rufus Isaacs, the son of a fruit merchant who rose from being a ship’s boy, to a barrister to a leadership role in the Liberal Party that included serving as Viceroy of Indian and Foreign Secretary passed away today.
http://theinfounderground.com/smf/index.php?topic=15884.0
1935: In Brooklyn, NY,Evelyn (née Lichtenstein) and Jack Braun, gave birth to Sanford Braun, the stepson of Irving Koufax who gained fame the great southpaw pitcher Sandy Koufax.
1935: “Magnificent Obsession” a movie version of the novel by the same name produced and directed by John M. Stahl and music by Franz Waxman was released today in the United States.
1935: Birthdate of Isaiah Sheffer, the native New Yorker who created “Symphony Space, a vibrant, eclectic institution known for its broadcasts of actors reading short stories…” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1936: In Manhattan, publicist Benjamin Sonnenberg and his wife gave birth to Benjamin “Ben” Sonnenberg, Jr. whose whims and myriad enthusiasms made Grand Street, the quarterly he founded in 1981, one of the most revered literary magazines of the postwar era. (As reported by William Grimes)
1936: The newly organized Palestine Symphony Orchestra is heard on the air for the first time today when a concert under the direction of Arturo Toscanini is broadcast over WJZ’s network from 2:50 to 3:40 pm. The seventy-piece orchestra is broadcasting from Exhibition Hall in Tel Aviv.
1936: At today’s session of the Peel Commission Jewish leaders including Beryl Katznenellenson, editor of the Jewish labor daily Davar and Miss Goldie Myerson, “denounced the government as ‘unfriendly, begrudging Jewish efforts, unmindful of the mandate and its purpose and negligent eve in fulfilling plain civic functions.”
1936: The Peel Commission interviewed Dov Hos a Russian born senior member of the General Federation of Jewish Labour who had been sentenced to death by the Turks for defending the Jews of Galilee and who had fought with the British during World War I. During his testimony Hos told the commissioners that where the Jews established hospitals and schools, the British government is being relieved of the responsibility and expense of creating and operating them. Commissioner Rumbold responded to these comments by angrily defending the Mandate government and referring to the Jews as “an alien race.” Hos responded that Jews were not an “alien race but a children returning to their country, to the country where they lived or to a country where they are going to have their home.”
1936: Members of the Peel Commission “attended a concert which attested to the new Jewish life in Jerusalem.” In what was described as the most important musical experience in its history, “ancient Jerusalem came alive musically.”
1937: The Palestine Post reported from London that the British government decided to publish a White Paper containing instructions for the new Palestine Commission which was to be empowered to plan on how to implement and if necessary to modify the Peel plan for the country's partition.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the Jewish settlement of Atarot and police patrols at Tulkarm and on the Nablus-Jenin road came under heavy Arab fire, but there were no reports of casualties.
1937: Birthdate of Paul Stookey. Stookey is “Paul” in the folk trio, Peter, Paul & Mary. He is the non-Jewish member of the famous trio.
1937: “Tovarich,” produced and directed by Anatole Litvakm featuring Fritz Feld and with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.
1937: The first edition of Botwin a Yiddish newspaper started by the 2nd Palafox Battalion, a Jewish company serving with the Polish Dombrowski Brigade during the Spanish Civil War was published today.
1938(8thof Tevet, 5699): Seventy-six year old Max Rabinovich, the Vice President of the Grand Forks Building and Loan Association and in 1930 the “honorary chairman of the North Dakota Allied Jewish Campaign” who was the “husband of Pearl Harstein” and father of Anna and Joseph Rabinovich passed away today.
1938: In an article in his newspaper, the Courrier Royal,“the Count of Paris, the heir to the pretender of the French throne, “condemned anti-Semitism” saying “that is certainly exaggerated to speak of a Jewish peril in France as it concerns the French Jews who become part of the French community” but said “foreign Jews are another matter.”
1939(18thof Tevet, 5700): Parashat Shemot; Starting the second book of the Torah on the last Shabbat of the year and of the decade.
1939(18thof Tevet, 5700): Fifty-year-old Charles Bear Mintz, the producer of cartoon and short subjects, two of which, “Holiday Land” and “The Little Match Girl” were nominated for Oscars passed a way today.
http://www.scrappyland.com/blog/2012/09/23/in-memoriam-charles-mintz/
1939: U.S. premiere of “Of Mice and Men” directed and produced by Lewis Milestone with music by Aaron Copland.
1939: The riverboat Uranus reached the Iron Gates gorge in Romania, on the Yugoslavian border, with 1210 fugitive Jews from Vienna, Austria, and Prague, Czechoslovakia. The boat's journey was halted after Great Britain, holder of the Mandate on Palestine, protested to the Yugoslavian government.
1940: Birthdate of James Burrows, son of Abe Burrows and director of television hits including’ Taxi,''''Cheers,'' and ''Will and Grace.''“He also presided over one of the most Jewish moments in television. In a medium in which Jewish characters rarely do anything Jewish, let alone marry within the faith (Valerie Harper as Rhoda Morgenstern in Rhoda and Paul Reiser as Paul Buchman in “Mad About You” are just two examples — and don’t even mention Seinfeld), Grace Adler (Debra Messing) of “Will & Grace,” not only was married by a rabbi under a chupah, but got hitched to a Jewish doctor. That was Leo Markus played by Harry Connick Jr. Certainly, Jewishness has increasingly factored into Burrows’ life. Both his parents were Jewish but not observant. But his first wife was a Conservative Jew and “made him get back on the bus.” He had a bar mitzvah at 47, prompting one of his producing partners, Les Charles, to say: “You’re the first Jew I know who was a bar mitzvah at 47 and bald at 13.”He is what he calls a once-a-year Jew, attending shul for Yom Kippur. But he still gathers with his daughters every Friday evening “to light the candles, have a challah and say a bracha.”
1940: Birthdate of Barbara Johnson, the native of Marshfield, Wisconsin, the wife of William Peyser “Bill Jacobson and the mother of Michael Peyster Jacobson and Stacy Ann Jacobson.
1940: Adopted birthdate for Karkow native Zoshia Zavatski who gained fame as fashion model and actress Gila Golan, the wife of Matthew “Matty” Rosenhaus with whom she three children – Sarita, Hedy and Loretta.
1941(10th of Tevet, 5702): Asara B'Tevet
1941(10th of Tevet, 5702):: Lazar Markovich Lissitzky, the Soviet artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect, better known as El Lissitzky, passed away. For examples of his art see:
1942: Pope Pius XII told an American representative that he regarded the atrocity stories about Jews as exaggerations "for the purposes of propaganda."
1943: The keel for the SS. Sigman, a U.S. Navy liberty ship, was laid today. A Russian immigrant, Morris Sigman was active in the labor movement and was president of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
1943: Birthdate of Sir John Andrew Likierman, the Dean of the London School of Business.
http://faculty.london.edu/ALikierman/index.html
1944(14th of Tevet, 5705): Parashat Vayechi
1944: “Jews In Palestine Debate The Future” published today described the differing views held Dr. Chaim Weizmann and supporters of the Biltmore Plan for the future of a Jewish state in Palestine and those held by others such as Dr. Judah Magnes whose more “moderate plan” has found no support among the Arabs which would be the key to its success.
1945: Mrs. William Prince President of the Women’s League for Palestine announced today that work has been started on an addition to the League’s home for immigrant girls in Tel Aviv
1945: Birthdate of director and actor Lloyd Kaufman.
1945: The New York Times reported that in their hunt for the Jews thought to be responsible for Thursday night’s violence in Palestine airborne troops surrounded the town of Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv and took more than 800 men into custody for questioning.
1947: Birthdate of historian Michael Burns the author of Dreyfus: A Family Affair, 1789-1945, France and the Dreyfus Affair: A Documentary History and Rural Societyand French Politics: Boulangism and the Dreyfus Affair” 1888-1900.
1947(17thof Tevet, 5708): Forty Jewish workers were killed by Arabs at the Haifa refineries
1947: A bus carrying hospital workers to Mount Scopus came under attack at the same place where Jewish doctors had been attacked the day before. Fourteen of the Hadassah Hospital workers were wounded.
1947: Arab gun men attacked a group of Jews as they began to bury ten of their murdered co-religionists at the Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives. British policemen accompanying the burial party carried on a gun fight with the attackers. One policeman and one Jew from the Burial Society were killed. The ten people who were to have been buried and the two new fatalities were put back on a bus and returned to Jerusalem.
1947: The Dora Trial came to an end today when the following verdicts were handed down: Death by hanging, Hans Moser; Life imprisonment – Erhard Brauny, Otto Brinkmann, Emil Buhring, Ruldof Jacobi, Josef Kilian, George Konig, Wilhelm Simon; 20 years imprisonment – Willi Zwiener; 20 years imprisonemtn Arthur Adra, Oskar Helbig, Richard Walenta; 7 years – Heinrich Detmers; 5 years – Walter Ulbricht, Paul Maischein
1948(28thof Kislev, 5709): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1948: Israeli armor and infantry captured the airfield south of El Arish and moved to capture the town itself.
1948: The original Broadway production of “Kiss Me Kate” with a book written by Samuel and Bella Spewack which earned them two Tony Awards.
1948: During Operation Horev, the Harel brigade moved further west into the Sinai Peninsula.
1948: The British government took an active role on the side of the Arabs in the Israel War for Independence. The British issued an ultimatum to Israel that unless it withdrew from the Sinai it would employ force to force the Israeli’s to leave.
1948: John McElroy and wingman Jack Doyle (in White 24) each shot down a MC.205V that had been strafing Israeli troops near the REAF Bir Hama air base, killing the two Egyptian pilots
1949(10th of Tevet, 5710): Asara B’Tevet
1949(10thof Tevet, 5710): Seventy year old Lomza native, Abraham Joseph Coen the graduate of Jefferson Medical College who specialized in the treatment of tuberculosis and was a member of the faculty of Temple University passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1949: “The Inspector General” a musical comedy directed by Henry Koster, produced by Jerry Wald and Sylvia fine, written by Harry Kurnitz and Ben Hecht and starring Danny Kaye was released today in the United States.
1949: In New York, “real estate mogul Abraham Hirschfeld” and Zipora Teicher Hirschfeld gave birth to Brown University grad and long-distance runner Elie Hirschfeld who followed in his father’s footsteps and then branched out into theatrical production, art collecdtion and philanthropy.
1950: “At War with the Army” a musical comedy starring Jerry Lewis and Polly Bergen and featuring Mike Kellin was released in the United States today.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US offered "no comment" on Israel's serious warning on Western arms sales to the Arab states. Britain denied that its arms sales to the Arab states contravened the joint
1952: “The Bad and the Beautiful” a Hollywood film about Hollywood starring Kirk Douglas premiered today in Los Angeles.
1953(24th of Tevet, 5714): Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler the Russian born Orthodox rabbi and Talmudist and son of Mussar movement leader Reuven Dov Dessler, whose words of wisdom included “When you have a true ambition for something, you will not give up hope. Giving up hope is a sign that you are lacking ambition to achieve that goal!” passed away today.
http://matzav.com/rav-eliyahu-eliezer-dessler-ztl-on-his-yahrtzeit-today-24-teves/
http://www.hevratpinto.org/tzadikim_eng/146_rabbi_eliyahu_eliezer_dessler.html
1954: “House of Flowers is a musical by Harold Arlen opened on Broadway at the Alvin Theatre and played for 165 performances.’
1957(2ndof Tevet, 5718): 8th Day of Chanukah
1957(2ndof Tevet, 5718): Eighty-six-year-old Kovno native Morris Turitz, the founder of “the New York Linen Supply Company and co-founder of both The Jewish Daily Forward and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/12/26/90876792.pdf
1957: The Israeli government of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion resigned.
1959(29th of Kislev, 5720): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1960(11th of Tevet, 5721): Seventy-five year old Ángelo Donati, “the Jewish Schindler” passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_05326.html
http://www.jspacenews.com/jewish-diplomat-angelo-donati-became-pope-jews-holocaust/
1960: Danielle Kahn and modernist architect Isi Metzstein gave fir to Scottish film director Saul Metzstein.
1960: A group of Israeli university professors signed and published a public letter denouncing Prime Minister David Ben Gurion.
1963(14thof Tevet, 5724): Eighty-three year old Bucharest native and Swiss trained ophthalmologist Dr. David H. Alperin, the hold of Ph.D in biochemistry from Columbia and the husband of Esther Wexler Alperin with whom he had a daughter and a son, ophthalmologist Benjamin J. Alperin passed away today.
1963: President Johnson and Ladybird Johnson were photographed standing with Jim Novy, one of the mainstays of Agudas Achim in Austin, TX.
http://transition.lbjlibrary.org/files/original/cce0ca8939266da849a8499ee06eec24.jpg
1965(7th of Tevet, 5726): Seventy-two year old Manfred George the German born Jewish journalist who came to the United States in 1939 where he “became the editor of Aufbau, a periodical published in German, and transformed it from a small monthly newsletter into an important weekly newspaper, especially during World War II and the postwar era, when it became an important source of information for Jews trying to establish new lives and for Nazi concentration camp survivors to find each other” passed away today.
1965: Birthdate of Heidi Fleiss convicted prostitute and Madame. Her doctor father is an opponent of circumcision, a rather strange position for a Jew to take.
1966: Seventy-seven-year-old Warsaw born and University of London alum Aaron Glanz-Leyeless the Yiddish journalist, poet, playwright and author whose works included the play “Shlomo Molcho and the award-wining A Jew at Sea and who had married “the former Sophia Kupfer” after his first wife “the former Fannie Wolynsky” had passed away died today “at the Hillcrest General Hospital.”
http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/abraham-lewis
1966: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Dr. Bela Fabian the exiled Hungarian leader who opposed the fascist regime of Admiral Nicholas Horthy whose marriage to Ilona Schwarz Fabian in 1924 at “the Dohany Temple in Budapest, the world's largest synagogue, with a capacity of 20,000, in was described as not only a wedding ceremony but a demonstration against anti‐democratic and anti‐Semitic rightists.”
1966(17thof Tevet, 5727): Sixty-one-year-old Piero Scacerdoti, the general manager of Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà passed away today in Saint Moritz.
1967(28thof Kislev, 5728): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1967(28thof Kislev, 5728): Thirty-eight year old “songwriter and record producer” Bert Berns who gave us such hits as “Twist and Shout,” “Hang on Sloopy’ and “Under the Boardwalk” (favorites of mine that I had no idea were written by a Jew) passed away today
https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/bert-berns
1968(28thof Kislev, 5728): 4th day of Chanukah
1968(28thof Kislev, 5728): Thirty-eight year old song writer and record producer Bertrand “Bert” Russell Berns passed away today.
1968: Trygve Lie passed away. Born in Norway in 1896, Trygve Lie was the first United Nations Secretary General. In that position he headed the U.N. at the time of creation of state of Israel. His support was critical in the birth of the Jewish state and the successful conclusion of the War for Independence.
1969:While living in Stretford, Greater Manchester, Karen Kay gave birth to twin boys, Jason and David, a few weeks after birth David died. Jason (Jason Kay) was born Jason Cheetham.
1969: Birthdate of Jason Kay, best known by his stage name Jay Kay. He “is Grammy Award winning English musician from the band Jamiroquai.”
1970(2nd of Tevet, 5731): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1970(2nd of Tevet, 5731): Eighty-year-old Lithuanian native and MIT graduate Joseph H. Cohen who was the “founder of the Atlantic Gelatin division of General Foods Corporation and the husband of the former Rose Stone with whom he had two sons and a daughter passed away today in Boston.
1970: Today during a television appearance on The Dick Cavett Show,” producer and screenwriter Robert “Kaufman revealed that when his family moved to the town in 1941 they were the first Jewish family to reside in Westport.”
1973: The New York Times featured a review of Selected Poems a collection of the poems of Jewish poet Joseph Brodsky.
1974(16thof Tevet, 5735): Seventy-year-old, Sid Terris, one of the leading “lightweight” boxers of the 1920’s passed away today.
1977: A frustrated Moshe Dayan told Israeli television that if Sadat insisted on an Israeli agreement to “return” all Arab lands and recognize Palestinian sovereignty as pre-conditions to peace negotiations than the peace process is finished. For the next six months there is virtually no progress in talks between Egypt and Israel.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that President Anwar Sadat of Egypt said that he was "disappointed" that US President Jimmy Carter lauded Prime Minister Menachem Begin as flexible. This, Sadat said, "will delay peace."
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that two persons were killed and another two injured by a bomb explosion in Rehov Shoham in Netanya.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported Ephraim Katzir, Israel¹s fourth president, declined a second term of office.
1978: Roger and Hammerstein’s “King & I" closed after 719 performances at the Uris Theater in New York City.
1979(10th of Tevet, 5740): Asara B'Tevet
1979(10th of Tevet, 5740): Composer Richard Rodgers passed away at the age of 77.
https://www.biography.com/people/richard-rodgers-37431
http://archives.nypl.org/the/21252
1980(23rdof Tevet, 5741): Thirty nine year old Rabbi Morton Waldman who has been leading the Jackson Heights Jewish Center suffered a fatal heart attack tonight.
1983: Birthdate of Santa Monic native Ashley Zuckerman, the Australian raised actor “best known for playing Dr. Charlie Isaacs on WGN America's Manhattan”
1983: In “Three Decades of Chaim Soutine Paintings” Grace Glueck provides a brief history of the late French expressionist painter and a description of his works now appearing at the Galleri Bellman.
1984(6thof Tevet, 5745): Eighty-four-year-old exotic food importer Max H. Ries who operated a textile factory in Munich until 1939, passed away today
1987: Two people were injured by a letter bomb in Or Yehuda.
1987: Terrorists were thwarted today in Israel when 10 letter bombs were discovered and disarmed without injury.
1988(22nd of Tevet, 5749): Yuli Markovich Daniel Soviet dissident writer, poet, translator, political prisoner and gulag survivor passed away.
1989: In “Pursue Peace, Not Just Elections,” Abba Eban, the former Foreign Minister of Israel, described what he sees as the next steps to be taken on the road to a Middle East settlement:
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/30/opinion/pursue-peace-not-just-elections.html
In January, the U.S. Secretary of State and the Israeli and Egyptian foreign ministers will meet in Washington to discuss how to form a Palestinian delegation to meet with Israel. If all goes well, these ministers, along with the Palestinians agreed upon in Washington, will all meet in Cairo to discuss procedures for holding West Bank and Gaza elections to choose representatives to negotiate with Israel for interim self-government.Since Israel refuses to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization, the U.S. will probably tell Israel that the Palestinian delegation in Cairo is dissociated from the P.L.O. But this tactic would not convince others, who would regard them as well-defined P.L.O. partisans. It is still not certain that West Bank and Gaza elections will be held. The reason is that the U.S. and Egypt disagree with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's view that the P.L.O. cannot have any role, direct or indirect, in the peace process. But Mr. Shamir, after all, initiated the idea of the elections, so it is urgent to hold them and to break out of procedural debates. Free, democratic elections would enable the Palestinians to say what they like, display their emblems, celebrate their leaders and assemble peacefully. This would be a positive change in the present situation in the territories. Elections, however important, are not the basic peace issues. Those issues are the status of the West Bank and Gaza, the distribution of sovereignty or control in those territories, the location of Israel's secure boundaries and the structural relationship among Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians in a permanent settlement. None of these issues is even remotely addressed in ''the only game in town,'' as the U.S. has described the elections. In preoccupying itself exclusively with elections, the U.S. is sidetracking the considerable Israeli and Arab opinion that is ready to think about central peace problems. U.S. officials tell us there has been no ''ripening'' of conditions for discussing peace, security, boundaries and constitutional structure. Contrary to conventional wisdom, our region has never been as ripe as it is today for large visions and hard facts. Israel's political parties, media and think-tanks are reflecting deeply on new possibilities, including confederative and community structures that could accommodate Palestinian freedom without risk to Israeli security. The leading Israeli institute of strategic studies (at Tel Aviv University), headed by mainsteam defense experts, has formulated the far-reaching principle that ''Israeli security can be maintained through continued military deployment but without physical control over all the territories and all of the Palestinian inhabitants.'' Israeli polls report majorities for territorial compromise and the principle of dialogue with whomever the Palestinians appoint. This is a promising prospect, because there is now a pragmatic school in Palestinian mainstream thinking. Eastern Europe's uprising strengthens the principle that every people is entitled to representatives of its own choice. Acceptance of this doctrine could bring the Middle East out of anachronism into the spirit of the age. Besides, the Soviet Union has never been more ready than now to oppose extremism and to cooperate in stabilizing the Middle East. The case for discussing the major problems now is strengthened by international experience, which instructs us that it is just as difficult to get agreements on small steps as it would be on central issues. Nothing is gained by procrastination. In the meantime, the U.S. should publicly clarify its own conclusions on the crucial issue of Palestinian representation in the peace process. Does the U.S. truly believe it is feasible to produce an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in total dissociation from the P.L.O.? If so, it should give its evidence for that belief.Or does it conclude, together with all the rest of the world, that this is not feasible? In that case, it should state its finding openly. This would galvanize Israel and the other parties to seek pragmatic decisions on their home grounds. The death of illusion is a necessary prelude to the birth of realism.
1991(23rdof Tevet, 5752): Ninety-one year old New York dermatologist Samuel M. Peck. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/04/nyregion/samuel-m-peck-91-dermatologist-and-professor.html
1991(23rdof Tevet, 5752): Eighty-six-year-old New York State Supreme Court Justice Mitchell D. Schweitzer passed away today. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
1992: “Ice Cream King Takes Another Dip” published today described the creation of Haagen-Dazs by Reuben Mattus.
1992: “Delta Heat” a cop movie set in New Orleans produced by Uri Harkham and filmed by cinematographer Avraham Karpick was released in the United States.
1993: Israel and the Vatican agreed to recognize one another.
1993(16th of Tevet, 5754): “Superagent” [Irving Paul] "Swifty" Lazar passed away at the age of 86.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/1994/04/michael-shnayerson-199404
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5D71126E733BC4953DFB26F958A
1991(23rd of Tevet, 5752: Eighty-six-year-old Judge Mitchell D. Schweitzer passed away today.
1993:Israel's Foreign Minister said today that Israel and the P.L.O. had concluded their latest round of talks with a "meeting of the minds," but there was no breakthrough and significant differences remained. The two sides, still trying to work out the details of the accord that they signed in Washington in September and that was supposed to have gone into effect two weeks ago, reached what an Israeli official described as "a set of understandings" on how to carry out the first phase -- an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho.
1993: Roni Milo resigned from the Knesset so he can concentrate on his role as mayor of Tel Aviv.
1995: In reviewing the events that flickered across our television screen, Walter Goodman described 1995 as being a year of “Emotional Overload and Emotional Lift.” As an example of this he wrote that “The shock at the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, Israel's Prime Minister was to some extent alleviated by the immediate surge of revulsion, expressed on television both in the United States and in Israel, over violent political language as well as acts of violence. At the widely covered funeral, the tributes of so many heads of state were heartening, with the pictures of an obviously moved King Hussein of Jordan carrying special force. Even amid the anxiety over the future, it was a historic and consoling moment: an Arab leader showing personal sorrow for the death of an Israeli leader.”
1996: Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
1997(2ndof Tevet, 5758): 8th& final day of Chanukah
1997: “Legends of Yiddish Stage Brought To Life” describes Fyvush Finkel’s homage to the world of theatrical Yiddish -- ''Fyvush Finkel -- From Second Avenue to Broadway.''
http://www.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9F0DE5DF1531F933A05751C1A961958260&_r=2&
1999: Two days after he had passed away, Milton Abrams was buried today at the Beth Shalom Cemetery in Shaler Township, PA.
2000(4th of Tevet, 5761): Ninety-one-year-old screenwriter Julius J. Epstein passed away today. (As reported by Richard Natale)
http://articles.latimes.com/print/2000/dec/31/local/me-6888
2000: In “Humble Bagel, Highly Priced But Worth It,” published today Clyde Haberman lamented the increasing cost of what was once the quintessential New York Jewish Food.
“The holidays required a stop at H & H, the bagel emporium on the Upper West Side. This produced a discovery that, since the last visit a few weeks earlier, the price of a bagel had gone up a dime. It now cost 95 cents. Nearly a buck for a bagel! A bagel! You could understand it, maybe, if you were able to read your fortune in the poppy seeds. But what is humbler than an unadorned, untoasted, unshmeared bagel? Ninety-five cents? At Zabar's, across the street, bagels sell for only 39 cents each. They're 60 cents at Barney Greengrass, nearby, and at Columbia Bagels, half a mile farther north on Broadway, and 50 cents at Kossar's, the bialy mavens on the Lower East Side. One bagel purveyor in Manhattan -- please, he said, no names -- was not aware of the new H & H price until a phone caller mentioned it. He had to share the news with a colleague. ''Hey,'' he called out, ''H & H gets 95 cents.'' Then he returned to the phone. ''You should see his grimace,'' he reported. ''That,'' he agreed, ''is a lot of money for a bagel.'' Indeed. At the H & H store, a counterman could muster little more than an embarrassed smile when asked why. ''Ask the boss,'' he replied. But the boss, Helmer Toro, was not to be found at the H & H headquarters in Midtown. A woman who picked up the phone did allow, however, that ''our bagels are great.'' No argument, even if there are those who insist that Columbia's or Kossar's are tastier. And the long lines at H & H this week suggested that 95 cents (with a discount price of $11 for a dozen, and an extra thrown in free) is hardly enough to deter committed New York shoppers.”
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Wittgenstein’s Poker: The Story of a 10-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers by David Edmonds and John Eidinow and Making The List:A Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999by Michael Korda.
2001(16th of Tevet, 5762): Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth passed away shortly before midnight, aged 82, after suffering from an illness. Born at Wojnicz, Poland in 1918, the son of Rabbi Avrohom Yosef Schermann and Perla Kreiswirth, he was an Orthodox rabbi who served as the longtime Chief Rabbi of Congregation Machzikei Hadass Antwerp, Belgium. He was the founder and rosh yeshiva of the Mercaz HaTorah yeshiva in Jerusalem and was a highly regarded Torah scholar.
2002: “The Israeli Supreme Court ruled today that reserve soldiers do not have a right to refuse to serve in the occupied territories. It held that Israeli society is too polarized and embattled to permit selective assertions of conscience by its fighters.”
2003: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recued himself and his office from investigating The Plame Affair. Palme is Valerie Plame the Jewish
2004: Airel Sharon “sealed a deal with the Labor Party to form a coalition with Shimon Peres becoming Vice Premier, restoring the government’s majority in the Knesset”
2004(18th of Tevet, 5765): Artie Shaw passed away. Born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky, Shaw gained fame for as a clarinet player and Big Band Leader. He received a Grammy Life Time Achievement Award and is member of the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.
2005(29th of Kislev, 5766: Seventy four year old Rona Jaffe, the Brooklyn born daughter of Samuel and Diana Jaffe, the author of The Best of Everything passed away at the age of 74.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/31/arts/31jaffe.html
2005: Pepe Eliaschev, the grandson of Russian Jewish immigrants, a fixture of Argentine media, and host of the daily radio show, “Esto Que Pasa” or “This is what’s happening” was fired in what he saw as a form of media self-censorship.
2005: The first kosher restaurant, Kineret Aruba Glatt Kosher Deli opened at the Playa Linda Beach Resort in Aruba.
2006:The second edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, a 22-volume work, was published which is to be released in January, was published today.
2006: “Deposed Iraqi leader, Sadam Hussein, was executed by hanging”today
2006: The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports about the growth of religiously orientated games in an article entitled “How about a game of Kosherland?” The story begins “The crazy Jewish fun of Kosherland looks la lot like the board game Candy Land, except gefilte fishing substitutes for he visits to the Ice Cream Sea…” The founder of Jewish Educational Toys said people are much more willing to buy religious toys since he helped create Kosherland in 1985.
2007: The Sunday New York Times features reviews of the books by Jewish authors and/or about matters of special interest to Jewish readers including Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg and The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/books/review/Oshinsky-t.html?_r=0
2007: In what would seem to be a reminder of the common origins of mankind, the Chicago Tribune reported that the a genetic mutation known to increase the odds of breast cancer in some Jewish women has been found in significant numbers of Hispanic and African-American breast cancer patients underscoring the need for genetic testing across ethnic lines to determine who is at risk.
2008: At
2008 (3 Tevet, 5769):Seventy-eight-year-old “Harvey Ginsberg, a New York book editor who served long tenures at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Harper & Row and William Morrow & Company, and whose most loyal writers included John Irving and Saul Bellow, passed away today in Manhattan.” (As reported Bruce Weber)
2009:New York’s classical music radio station, WQXR, 105.9 fm presented a broadcast of selections from the Keshet Eilon 2009 Violin Mastercourse, performed at its gala final concert at Kibbutz Eilon by participants in the course.
2009:The Gerard Bechar Center presented The Jerusalem Cantors Choir, in a concert entitled "Mizmor Le-toda:" a festive show combining Israeli and Cantorial classics. The evening is a tribute to Cantor Binyamin Glickman on the occasion of his 75th birthday and celebrating 55 years of his career as a conductor.
2009:The Psik Theater presented "The Jerusalem Comedy:" a comedy about Ultra Orthodox, Secular, and those stuck somewhere in the middle. The play tells the story of the struggle between the secular theatre "Le'Mehadrin" and the adjacent orthodox yeshiva in the same neighborhood. The juxtaposition of the two creates extreme comical situations.
2009: Closing session of the International Conference on Conservative Judaism: Halakhah, Culture and Sociology at The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
2009: Final session of The USY International Convention was held in Chicago, IL.
2009:Israel's population stands at 7.5 million, according to figures released today by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
2009:One or more mortars were fired from Gaza into southern Israel.
2009: “The Russian-born pianist Evgeny Kissin, who became a British citizen in 2002, has accused the BBC of “slander and bias” against Israel, broadcasting material he describes as “painfully reminiscent of the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda”.
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/pianist-kissin-protests-against-bbc-anti-israel-bias-1.13266
2009: Today, the Shin Bet, Israel's security service, released a report which showed that 566 rockets were fired on Israel from Gaza in 2009; most were fired in January, during Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza. By comparison, 2,048 rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza in 2008.
2010: In Orlando, FL, the USY International Convention is scheduled to come to an end.
2010: The 30th Limmud Conference is scheduled to come to an end today.
2010:The Rt. Hon. Sir Martin Gilbert, CBE is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled "Britain and Palestine, 1917-1947: Researching the Relationship" at Beit Avi Chai. Attendees will enjoy an evening with Sir Martin, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, who is one of the most knowledgeable, literate and prolific historians in the 20th and 21st century. His eighty-two books include Israel, Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century, Churchill and the Jews, Holocaust Journey and his latest offering, In Ishmael’s House
2010: The Shin Ben (Israel Security Agency) reported today that there was a decrease in the number of terrorist attacks targeting Israelis in 2010. There were 798 recorded terrorist attacks in 2010 at the time the report was written, compared to 1,354 in 2009.
2010:This evening, a group of Arab men attacked a soldier at the entrance to Kiryat Arba. The soldier suffered head injuries in the attack. His assailants were arrested.
2010:An exhibition on the Jews of Iran showcasing the community’s 2,700-year-old history and rich heritage opens today at Beit Hatefutsoth in Tel Aviv.
2010: Former president Moshe Katsav was found guilty of raping former Tourism Ministry worker "Aleph," in the Tel Aviv District Court this morning.
2010: The Limmud Conference, British Jewry’s answer to the Edinburgh Festival which has been celebrating its 30th anniversary came to an end today.
2011(4th of Tevet, 5772): Ninety-four-year-old Bernard Bellush,Professor Emeritus of History at the City College of New York (CCNY), who was part of “Alcove Number One” – “a group of student radicals at CCNY during the 1930’s – passed away today.
2011(4th of Tevet, 5772): Sixty-five-year-old of Adrienne Cooper, the singer who played a major role in reviving Yiddish culture and music with a special emphasis on Klezmer passed away today.
2011:The Jaffa Rd Walking Tour, an exploration of Jerusalem’s main artery to the coast for centuries which was also an Ottoman road with British influences, is scheduled to begin this morning. at Tzahal Square, Kikar Safra #10, across from Jaffa Gate Plaza, at 9:00am.
2011: The Israel Air Force struck a group of terrorists attempting to fire rockets into Israel this morning.
2011: Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the rabbi of the Har Bracha settlement and the dean of the Har Bracha yeshiva, strongly criticized gender segregation on buses in a column to be published in the B’Sheva weekly today
2012: Choreographer Ssmulik Gov-Are and Hadassah Badoch-Kruger Yemenite dance expert & former soloist with the Inbal and Batsheva dance companies are scheduled to attend the Israeli Folk Dance End-of-Year Party
2012: After a year, Uncovered & Rediscovered, an evolving eight-part exhibit that explores the Chicago Jewish experience at the Spertus Institute is scheduled to come to an end today.
2012: Celebration of the birthday of University of Iowa Hillel Director Jerry Sorkin
2012: “DADB – A Story of an Israeli Icon” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival
2012: Dorit Beinisch “was awarded as a knight of The Movement for Quality Government in Israel.”
2012: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg and Hallucinations by Oliver Sacks
2012: Israel’s population stands at 7,981,000 citizens, an increase of nearly 2 percent, according to an annual end of the year tally from the Central Bureau of Statistics, released on today (As reported by Gabe Fisher)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/on-eve-of-2013-israels-population-stands-at-cusp-of-8-million/
2012(17th of Tevet, 5773): Nobel Prize winner Rita-Montaclini passed away at the age of 103 (As reported by Benedict Carey)
2012(17th of Tevet, 5773): Eighty-nine-year-old Beate Sirota Gordon, “the unsung heroine of Japanese women’s rights” passed away. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2012: Security forces arrived early this morning at the West Bank outpost of Oz Zion, demolished makeshift structures and evacuated a small group of right-wing activists who had remained at the site..
2012: In “Several Eras End at One Lower East Side Building” published today David W. Dunlap described the world that surrounded the First Romanian-American Synagogue known as ‘the cantors’ Carnegie Hall.”
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/several-eras-end-at-one-lower-east-side-building/
2013: “Ender’s Game” and “The Godfather II” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Twenty-six more murdering Palestinian terrorists are scheduled to be released today as part of the Israeli compliance with the pre-conditions for the latest rounds of “peace talks” which are taking place against a background of stabbings, shootings and bombings.
2013: Hours before Israel was set to free another 26 Palestinians convicted of terrorism, the High Court of Justice refused the bereaved families' appeal against the release scheduled for midnight.
(As reported by Omri Efraim)
2013: An art historian has found two art works stolen by the Nazis inside Germany's parliament, a newspaper reported today, in a new embarrassment for authorities after a huge stash of looted art came to light last month.
2014: “October 7, 1944” an “installation, commissioned by the American Jewish Historical Society that offers a response by the internationally acclaimed choreographer Jonah Bokaer to an uprising organized by Jewish inmates at Auschwitz in 1944 which pays tribute to the role of four unheralded women who took part in the uprising” is scheduled to come to a close today.
2014: “Winter Sleep “and “David Perlov” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: A “federal civil suit was filed in Florida by Jane Doe 1 (Courtney Wild) and Jane Doe 2 against the United States for violations of the Crime Victims' Rights Act by the U.S. Department of Justice's NPA with Jeffrey Epstein and his limited 2008 state plea.
2014(8thof Tevet, 5775): One-hundred-four-year-old two-time Oscar winning actress Luise Rainer passed away today. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
2015: “The annual reading by recent graduates of the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing is scheduled to take place today in Tel Aviv.”
2015: The Fifth Annual Jerusalem Business Conference which “is for Jerusalemites, Olim and returning residents who have a business, or are considering setting one up” is scheduled to start this morning at the Begin Center.
2016(30thof Kislev, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
2016(30thof Kislev): Yahrzeit of Rav Zeligman Gantz, who “served as a Dayan in Prague” and “was a brother of Tzemach Dovid.”
2016: In addition to kindling the Chanukah and Shabbat lights, friends and family of Jerry Sorokin are scheduled to kindle the candles for his birthday.
2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host Shabbat Chanukah services followed by a special congregational dinner.
2017(12thof Tevet, 5778): Parashat Veyechi; on the final Shabbat of 2017, reading of the final chapters of Bereshit.
2017: Offensive lineman Adam Bisnowaty was “promoted to the active roster” of the New York Giants today.
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is scheduled to host a “survivor talk” by Magda Brown who as a 17 year old was “deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is to host a “Architecture Tour” lead by Stanley Tigerman, “the former director of the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
2018: “The Bender JCC of Greater Washington is scheduled to host “Mount Vernon Virtuosi: Dancing into 2018. In Albany, NY, B’nai Sholom is scheduled to host the “Ne’imah Jewish Community Chorus” this evening.
2018: Prime Minister Netanyahu continues the third day of a trip to Brazil which is scheduled to include talks with US Secretary of Mike Pompeo who is also in the country.
2018: In Washington, DC, the Arena Stage is scheduled to present the final performance of “Indecent,” which “tells the story of the artists who risked their lives to perform the controversial play ‘God of Vengeance’ in 1923.”
2018: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Late-Life Love: A Memoir by Susan Gubar and Jonathan Lethem’s essay “Fictions’ New Fake Drugs: A Preliminary Pharmacopoeia.”
2019(2ndof Tevet, 5780): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2019: The celebration of Chanukah, which has been marked by daily outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence culminating in a machette attack on Jews lighting their candles in suburban New York is scheduled to come to an end this evening.
2019: In London JW3 is scheduled to host a screening “Spider in the Web,” whose protagonist is “Adereth an aging, jaded Mossad Agent.”
2019: In Jerusalem, The Tower of David is scheduled to host its final “Chanukah Tour.”
2019: The Chanukah Festival at Ein Yael, the outdoor museum, is scheduled to come to an end today.
2020: YNY is scheduled to host a lunchtime concert with A special performance by the Berlin-based duo of Sveta Kundish (vocals) and Patrick Farrell (accordion/piano) followed by a climactic “Great Yiddish Culture Crawl.”
2020: B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host via Zoom “Kosher Fitness” with Rabbi, and certified person trainer Michael Unger.
2020: As part of its “Coffee with a Survivor” program, the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a presentation by “Second Generation Speakers Ron and Steve Coppel” talking “about how their father survived the infamous “Death March” from Auschwitz in 1945.
2020: Based on statements made yesterday by a joint command set which includes Hamas that runs Gaza, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and smaller armed groups, which were accompanied flying rockets, Israelis are going to be facing “a series of join exercise” which may be “a show of force organized by Iran.