February 16
600: Pope Gregory the Great decrees that the phrase "God bless You" is an appropriate response to a sneeze. Gregory's policy in regard to the Jews is expressed in the following sentence, which was adopted by later popes as a fixed introductory formula to bulls in favor of the Jews: "Just as no freedom may be granted to the Jews in their communities to exceed the limits legally set for them, so they should in no way suffer through a violation of their rights" (As reported by the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1086: In response to a solar eclipse, citizens of Sicily burn torches and lamps during normal daylight hours. Jews would have been among those burning these lights. They had been living in Sicily since the end of the Great Revolt in 70 when they came to the island as slaves. Jews lived at Palermo, Syracuse and Catania. The community would survive until they were expelled as part of the Spanish Inquisition.
1249: Louis IX of France, also known as St. Louis, dispatched Andrew of Longjumeau as his ambassador to meet with Mongol Khagan of the Mongol Empire. Louis was in Egypt engaged in the first of his two Crusades aimed at regaining the Holy Land from the “Islamic infidels.” Andrew’s mission was part of an attempt to forge an alliance with the Mongols against the Moslems. Louis had financed his first crusade (known to history as The Seventh Crusade) in part by expelling all of the Jews engaged in usury and confiscating their property. Further acts of his pre-Crusade piety included the burning of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other Jewish books and an expansion of the Inquisition. The alliance with the Mongols failed to materialize and the crusade was a total failure.
1267: “Alfonso the Wise and Afonso III signed the Treaty of Badajoz, a pact of friendship and mutual assistance” which “established the border between Castile and Portugal to the latter's disadvantage.”
1349: The Jews were expelled from Burgsdorf Switzerland
1525: During the Great Peasants Revolt which will test the skills “Shtadlan: Josel (Yosel) of Rosheim, “25 villagers belonging to the city of Memingen rebelled” demanding an improvement in their economic conditions and change in the political environment that controlled their lives.
1565(15th of Adar): In Mantua, Italy first printing of Menorat ha-Ma’or by Rabbi Isaac Aboab
1570: The Jews miraculously escaped the impact a violent earthquake in Italy.
1594: Astronomer Tycho Brahe arranged for The Maharal (Judah Lowe, the Chief Rabbi of Prague) to meet with Emperor Rudolph II.
1616: Elias Felice Montalto passed away. Montalto had converted to Christianity but later returned to Judaism. A physician and author who had lived in Venice, Montalto was living in Paris and serving as the private physician to Queen Maria de Medici at the time of his death. The queen had him embalmed and sent to the Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk near Amsterdam.
1761: Birthdate of German native Handel bat Gumbert, the wife of Joseph ben Ephriam Zimmern and the mother of Rosina and Moses Zimmern
1762: Sarah and Moses Franks gave birth to Rachel Franks, the wife Polish born, Philadelphia businessman and American patriot Chaim Solomon and the mother of Ezekiel, Sallie, Deborah and Chaim Moses Solomon.
1780: Acher Ascher Lion ou Loew and Gitlé Loëw gave birth to Benjamin Wolf Loew.
1786: In Savannah, GA, Sarah de la Motta and Levi Sheftall, of the noted Sheftall clan gave birth to Emanuel Sheftalll, the father of Solomon, Rebecca, Emanuel and Elizabeth Sheftall.
1794: In Maryland, Rachel Gratz, and York, PA native Solomon Etting gave birth to Fanny Etting, an early member of one Maryland’s most important Jewish families.
1799(11thof Adar I, 5559): Parashat Tetzaveh
1799: French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Egyptian town of El Arresh after an eight-day siege. The French Army then began a march towards Khan Younis and Gaza.
1803: Moses Lazarus married Judith Magnus today at the Great Synagogue.
1803: Forty-two-year-old merchant Benjamin S. Judah, the son of Samuel Judah was married today to Eliza Israel.
1804: The “child” of Michael Oppenheim and Kitty Joseph was buried today.
1811: In New York City, Sarah Seixas and Isaac Mendes Seixas Nathan who were married in 1808 in NYC gave birth to Jonathan Nathan, the husband of Rebecca Moses with whom he had seven children.
1825(28thof Shevat,5585): Seventy-two-year-old Brandy Lazarus, the daughter of Sampson Lazarus and wife of Joshua Isaacs passed away today in New York City.
1828(1stof Adar, 5588): Parashat Mishpatim; Rosh Chodesh Adar; Shabbat Shekalim
1829: Henrietta Samuel and Solomon Benedict de Worms who “owned large plantations in Ceylon and was made a hereditary baron of the Austrian Empire by Franz Joseph I gave birth to George de Worms, 2nd Baron de Worms the English official and banker whose sibling included Anthony Mayer de Worms, Ellen Henreitta de Worms and Henry de Worms.
1837: Birthdate of Asher Asher the native of Glasgow who was the first Jew in Scotland to become a Doctor of Medicine and the author of The Jewish Rite of Circumcision.
1837(11thof Adar I, 5597): Seventy-year-old Cary J. Judah, the New York City born son of Samuel Judah passed away today in New York.
1840: Birthdate of Gotha native, Frederike Bognar who became a successful German singer and actress.
1842: Judah Cohen married Caroline Davis today at the New Synagogue.
1842: Isaac Somers married Hannah Marks today at the New Synagogue.
1844: One day after he had passed away, 22-year-old Henry Marks was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1845: Birthdate of explorer George Kennan who spent two years working in Russia which gave credibility to his comments in 1893 that the Russians were indeed issuing edits aimed to punish the Jews which were forcing them to leave and come to the United States.
1848: Joseph Solomon married Caroline Kesner today at the Great Synagogue.
1854: L'étoile du nord (The North Star) an opéra comique in three acts by Giacomo Meyerbeer was performed at the Salle Favart by the company of the Opéra-Comique, Paris, for the first time today. Meyerbeer whose birth named Jacbo Liebmann Beer, was the son of the German-Jewish financier Jacob Judah Herz Beer and Amalia Liebmann Meyer Wulff
1855: Today, in The Israelite, H.A. Kusel of Milwaukee, WI, advertised for “a gentleman who is capable of acting as Chazan, Schochet and teacher” and who has the certificates to verify these skills.
1855(28th of Shevat): Jacob Raphael Furstenthal passed away in Breslau. Born at Glogau in 1781, he is known for his German translations of and Hebrew commentaries to the Moreh Nebukim of Moses Maimonides and the Ḥobot ha-Lebabot of Baḥya ibn Paḳuda,
1857: "Strange Piece of Rascality and Shysterism" published today reported on an apparent attempt to defraud Samuel Goldberry who had been arrested on a charge of petty larceny last March and who was still waiting to stand trial. According to the article "Heitman, a Jew," a police officer named Frank White, a man named Piser, a Jew named Rosenbaum and a Jew named Rosenberg, conspired to con Goldberry out of $165.00. [Interestingly, the author only the Jews were identified by religion.]
1857: The National Deaf-Mute College (later renamed Gallaudet University) is established in Washington, DC, becoming the first school for the advanced education of the deaf. In the course of fulfilling its educational mission Gallaudet has created a selected bibliography styled, “Deaf Persons in the Holocaust.”
1858: In Richmond, VA, Solomon H. Myers and his wife gave birth to track star Laurence Eugene “Lon” Myers.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/LonMyers.htm
1860: In Yancyville, NC, Bavarian born Lazarus and Susannah Fels gave birth to Samuel Fels, the Philadelphia businessman and philanthropist and the brother of Joseph Fels whose company produced Fels-Naptha.
1861(6thof Adar, 5621): Parashat Teruman
1861: As Jews observed Shabbat, President-elect Lincoln continued his train trip to Washington, stopping in a New York town today where he met and kissed Grace Bedell, a young girl who had written to the presidential candidate suggesting that he grow a beard.”
1864: After enlisting in 1861, Captain Morris Kayser completed his service with Company A of the Ninety-First Regiment.
1866: In New York City, Henry and Natalie (Wittkowsky) Mannes gave birth to violinist and conductor David Mannes, the husband of Clara Mannes and son-in-law of Leopold Damrosch, who helped to “found the Colored Music Settlement School” and the Mannes Music School
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/04/25/83683650.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1868:Charles August Lauff, the German native and California businessman, and his wife, Maris J. Sebran, the daughter of Gregorio and Ramono Briones, gave birth to twin daughters – Valentina and Julia.
1869: Birthdate of Julius Tandler native of Moravia who became a physician and political leader in Vienna.
1870: The Jews of Sweden were emancipated.
1871: The Executive Committee of the Hebrew Charity Fair presented Emanual B. Hart with an engraved silver dinner service tonight in recognition of the services he has rendered in making the latest fund raiser a successful event. Mr. S.L. Cohen made the presentation speech and Mr. Hart responded with the appropriate words and toasts.
1872: It was reported today that of the 73 private charitable institutions in New York City controlled by religious denominations that received state aide in 1870, two of them were controlled by Jewish organizations. They received $11, 453.72 out of a total allocation of $688,048.86. No final figures were available for 1871.
1872: “An Oriental Seeks Justice” published today described the legal difficulties of Rabbi Aarons, an octogenarian from Jerusalem who while preaching in a small uptown New York City synagogue “denounced certain wind-dealers who” he claims “pretended to sell wine especially prepared for Jewish religious observances” when it was in fact prepared by non-Jews which meant that it was ritually unfit.
1872: It was reported today that Mr. Rosenfeldt had committed suicide in Kingston, Jamaica. Mr. Rosenfeldt had converted to Christianity from Judaism. Many of the Jews in Kingston thought that Rosenfeldt had changed his mind. But in a suicide note written to the Bishop the deceased said he had killed himself because “others were conspiring against” and he wanted to leave part of his estate to those working to convert Jews. [Editor’s note – I can find no further reference to Mr. Rosenfeldt or his family who was living in Germany at the time of his death.]
1877: In Poland, Jacob and Sarah Markowski gave birth to self-taught Talmudist and history student Nisson Markel, the husband of Rose Scharjowicz who went from being a Polish importer and exporter of chemical products to serving as a Rabbi Brith Shalom a Buffalo, NY, congregation after WW I.
1879: It was reported today that out of the 40,000 people living in Krakow, 12,000 of them are Jews most of whom are “Orthodox or Rabbinical.
1880: David Harfeld, the brother of Rabbi Eugene Harfeld failed to return the furnished room he was renting with his wife, the former Julia Harlan. This desertion would lead to charges of bigamy in case that would be heard nine years later.
1880: Telegrams were received in Cleveland, Ohio from Evansville, Indiana, inquiring about the whereabouts of Bethold Landua, the Secretary of Kescher Sher Bassel. Landau, who has not been heard from in two weeks, has possession of nearly $40,000 of the society’s money. The society is holding its annual national convention in Evansville.
1881: Birthdate of Hans Meiser, the pro-Nazi Nuremberg native who served as Bishop of the Bavarian Evangelical-Lutheran Church. In 1938 he imposed the following loyalty oath: I swear to God the Almighty and All-knowing: I will be loyal and obedient to the Führer of the Reich and Volk, Adolf Hitler, I will obey the laws, and I will conscientiously fulfill all my official duties, so help me God."
1882: According to the Times of London, the British Foreign Office is about to issue a report based on information provided by its consular officials describing attacks on the Jews living in Russia. While there are no proven “cases of the violation of women” there is clear evidence of “other serious outrages.” If the authorities had used the proper amount of force, “the outrages” might have been confined to a more limited area. For obvious reason, the Jews still living in Russia have been reluctant to provide information to the British officials. [Editor’s Note – Use the term “outrages” to describe a Pogrom must be a classic example of the English penchant for understatement.]
1882: German immigrants Marcus and Hannah (Itzig) Cronbach gave birth to Abraham Cronbach, the graduate of HUC and the University of Cincinnati who combined his pulpit activities with deeply held pacifist beliefs.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0009/ms0009.html
1885(1stof Adar, 5645): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1885: Birthdate of New York City native and NYU Law School grad Abraham Landau, an executive with clothing manufacture Julius Schwartz and Sons which later “became a personal investment firm” starting in 1922, a “president of the fifteenth Assembly District Republican Club” and “a trustee of Beth Israel Hospital” who with his wife Hannah raised two daughters.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/02/11/105178222.pdf
https://www.nypl.org/blog/2010/06/18/maurice-wertheim
http://brookhavensouthhaven.org/history/Wertheim/WertheimDegasToMatisse.htm
1890: The 23-piece Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band played at this evening’s concert sponsored by the Seligman Solomon Society.
1890(26thof Shevat, 5650): Fifty-eight-year-old Philadelphia Myer Asch, the son of Clarissa and Joseph M. Asch who reached the rank of Colonel while serving with the Union Army during the Civil War and pursued a career in dentistry after the war passed away today in New York.
1890(26thof Shevat, 5650): Isaac Jacob, a Jewish peddler, ambushed Herman Rogozinski, a Washington Market poultry carrier and shot him with a 38 caliber “Blue Jacket” pistol fatally wounding him when the bullet struck Herman in the breast. He then committed suicide after a failed attempt to kill Mrs. Rogozinksi.
1890: “The Jew Question in France” published today described the attempts of the Boulangists to revive interest in the movement by exploiting “discontent in financial and social circles with” successful Jewish banks in general and the Rothschilds in particular. (The Boulangists were a right-wing militarist movement named for General Boulanger and was an example of the social unrest in the Third Republic that produced, among other things, the Dreyfus Affair)
1891: In “Rogachev, Russia, Louis and Rose Goedelberg Cohen gave birth to bacteriologist Dr. Barnett Cohen who served as an “associate professor of physiological chemistry at John Hopkins University School Medicine”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/10/25/83801189.pdf
1891: It was reported today that Lewis May and Jesse Seligman spoke at the memorial service held to honor the memory of Lazarus Rosenfeld. They recounted “his efforts in the founding of Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Home for the Aged, the Montefiore Home and Temple Emanu-El.”
1891: It was reported today that the newly elected officers of the Jewish Alliance of America are: President – Simon Wolf of Philadelphia; Vice Presidents – Dr. H.W. Schneeberg of Baltimore, Dr. Charles D. Spivak of Philadelphia and Ferdinand Levy of New York; Secretary – Barnard Harris of Philadelphia; Treasurer – Simon Wolf of Washington, D.C. The goal of the alliance is to help teach the newly arriving immigrants from Russia “habits of self-support” with an emphasis on farming.
1892: As the outbreak of typhus fever continues to spread, The Health Department is scheduled to accept the offer of the Immigration Commissioners to use Ward’s Island as a quarantine site for those found to be suffering from typhus. The fever seems to be most prevalent among recently arriving immigrants including a large number of Jews from Russia.
1892: The Second Conference of the Russian American Hebrew Agricultural Fund Association will meet this evening at the Hebrew Institute on East Broadway.
1892: Birthdate of Rochester, NY, native David Hochstein, the distinguished violinist and soloist with the Rochester Orchestra who sailed to France as a lieutenant with the AEF where he performed his last concert at Nancy before being killed during the fighting at the Argonne Forest in 1918.
1892: It was reported today that all of the 84 people quarantined on North Brother Island because of typhus fever are Jewish immigrants from Russia who arrived aboard the SS Massilia.
1893(OS): “Glouskine a clever young Jew who served in the Russian army with distinction, rising to be an under officer” and who “then became the manager of important iron works in the village of Kamieny” was ordered today “ to get out within eight days together with his family” as part of the forced Russian expulsion of Jews in Poland.
1895: The Jewish Lads’ Brigade, (which would eventually become the Jewish Lads’ and Girls’ Brigade) “the United Kingdom’s old Jewish youth movement,was founded, after a lecture by Colonel Albert Goldsmid before the Maccabaeans, at a meeting held at the Jews' Free School in the East End of London today, when the first company of boys was enrolled” and who would being there first weekly drills six weeks from this date.
1896: “Synagogue Members In A Fight” published today described fight that broke between supporters of Solomon Bentowski and Heyman Solomon during the business meeting of synagogue that met at 112 Clinton Street in New York. The police were called but no arrests were made.
1897: Three days after head passed away, 35-year-old Myer Hecht was buried today at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1897: The third monthly conference of representatives of New York City charities including N.S. Rosenau of the United Hebrew Charities is scheduled to take place today.
1897: In Philadelphia, PA, “Rabbi Nathan I. and Mollie (Sattenstein) Brennder gave birth to Temple University and Dropsie College alum Jay Gerson Breener, the Jewish Institute of Religion trained Rabbi whose career took him from being the Superintendent of Ahavath Israel Religious School in Philadelphia to sering as the leader of Temple Beth Mordecai in Perth Amboy, NJ.
1897: Three days after he passed away, 28-year-old Arthur Lionel Falk, the Manchester born son of Sarah and Philip Falk, was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1898: It was reported that Judge Meyer S. Isaacs will speak at the next meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1899(6thof Adar I, 5659): Track-star Laurence “Lon” Myers passed away today on his 41stbirthday
http://www.usatf.org/HallOfFame/TF/showBio.asp?HOFIDs=118
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1975/JSH0202/jsh0202b.pdf
1899: French President Félix Faure dies in office. Faure was the “addressee” of one of the most famous letters in Jewish History. On January 13, 1898 The French newspaper L’Aurore published a letter written by Emile Zola entitled J’accuse addressed to Faure. The letter exposed the conspiracy known as the Dreyfus Affair.
1901(27thof Shevat, 5661): Parashat Mishpatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1902: In a letter to the Sultan, Herzl summarizes his negotiations. The Sultan's decision is unfavorable.
1903: Birthdate of Liverpool native Louis Pollock whose family moved to the United States in 1916 where he eventually developed a career as screenwriter – a career that was ended when he was put on the Blacklist because the Witch Hunters confused him with another writer, Louis Pollack. (What a difference an “a” makes.)
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8f76fxq/entire_text/
1904: Birthdate of George Kennan, the American diplomat best known as the author of the policy of containment which blocked Soviet imperialism in Europe and eventually led to his downfall but who, unbeknownst to his many admirers was writing in his diaries that Jews were “among the inferior races” whose ability “to breed copiously” threatened “our modern civilization.”
1905: It was reported today that “State Librarian Melvil Dewey was rebuked by the Board of Regents for the publication by the Lake Placid Club, in which he is interested, of circulars containing matter considered to be a reflection upon Jewish citizens” while at the same time he was admonished by the Regents that his continued responsibility for the circulation of such literature would be incompatible with his position as State Librarian.
1906(21stof Shevat, 5666): Carl Joubert, the author whose works included Aspects of the Jewish Question, Spiritual Forces in Judaism and Tyranny of Faith passed away today in London.
1907: “The Siegel Cooper Company announced today the apportionment in its annual distribution of $10,000 to local charitable institutions, in accordance with the vote of its customers” which meant “the Hebrew Orphan Asylum received the largest amount, $500, and the Salvation Army, having received the next greatest number of votes, got $250.”
1908: Ukrainian born New York Socialist and state legislature, Abraham Isaac “Abe” Shiplacoff, the son of Naphthalia Hertz Shiplacoff and Chana Tshipliacov and Yetta Ettle Itta “Henrietta” Shilpacoff gave birth to Lydia “Libby” Aaron Greene, he wife of Matthew Greene.
1909: Joseph Chabot, “a Spanish rabbi from Syria” officiated at the wedding of Sameal Hanania whose family were Sephardim from Constantinople and Rosa Penso whose family came from Turkey to the United States ten years ago
1910: Colonel Claude Reignier Conder passed away. During his service with the Corps of Engineers, he took part in a survey of Western Palestine from 1872 to 1874 along with Lieutenant Horatio Kitchener, the future British military leader known as Lord Kitchener. He also served two tours with the Palestine Exploration Fund Among his literary accounts of his work were TentWork in Palestine, Memories” The Survey of Western and Eastern Palestine, and The City of Jerusalem.
1911: “On the ground that Russia has violated the treaty concluded with the United States on Dec. 18, 1832, because of discrimination against American citizens of the Jewish faith, Representative Parsons of New York and Louis Marshall of New York City to-day urged the House Foreign Affairs Committee to report favorably the Parsons resolution for the abrogation of that treaty.”
1912: A Turkish Jew, G. Valensin Bey, who was a member of the municipal council of Alexandria, was appointed Commander of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus by the King of Italy
1912(28thof Shevat, 5672): Eighty-five-year-old theatrical manager and writer Albert L Parkes passed away in New York City.
1912: Six days after he had passed away “British banker, Liberal Member of Parliament and philanthropist, Sydney James Stern, 1st Baron Wandsworth, “the eldest son of Viscount David de Stern, senior partner of the firm of Stern Brothers, and Sophia, daughter of Aaron Asher Goldsmid, brother of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid” was buried today at the “Balls Pond Jewish Cemetery.”
1913: “After an interregnum of eighteen months and a spirited contest between candidates, Dr. Joseph H. Hertz of New York was to-day elected Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire at a meeting of the Electoral College, presided over by Lord Rothschild, President of the United Synagogue.”
1913(9thof Adar I, 5673): Organist Samuel L. Hermann passed away today in Philadelphia, PA.
1913: In Rozwadow, Poland, Sara Jitka Birnbaum and Mamci Springer gave birth to Abraham Chaim Springer.
1913(9th of Adar I, 5673): Sig Livingstone, a banker from Tamaqua, PA passed away today in Havana, Cuba.
1914: It was reported today that the Young Women’s Hebrew Association must raise another $45,000 to pay off the debt created when it built a new facility at 110thStreet and Fifth Avenue which provided accommodations for 150 young Jewish girls.
1915(2nd of Adar, 5675): French composer Emil Waldteufel passed away.
1915: The American Jewish Relief Committee issued a plea to every Jew in New York asking that they send at least one dollar to the office of Treasurer Felix Warburg so that the committee could take advantage of the offer of U.S Navy to ship 900 tons of food supplies “for the suffering and starving population of Palestine.”
1915: Birthdate of Leah Ray Hubbard, the Norfolk, VA born singer who became Leah Ray Hubbard Werblin when she met MCA executive and future owner of the New York Jets “Sonny” Werblin.
1915: “Order Jews to Rear” published today described the forced deportation of Jews from a large part of Poland by the Russian government.
1915: Jacob N. Chester took issue with claims by Russia that Jews were being forcibly being deported from Zyrardow because “of the discovery of a concrete base for heavy guns” at M. M. Dietrich’s factory where only Jews were employed before the war because “as a matter of fact not a single Jew was ever employed in this factory” which employed 20,000 Polish and German workers.
1916: Thanks to the efforts of Albert Lucas, representing the Central Relief Committee of New York the U.S. Collier Sterling is scheduled to leave today carrying “a cargo of medicine and matzos” to Palestine.
1916: Mayer Sulzberger, who had been “elected a member of the Philadelphia Board of City Trusts in January” of this year was “award an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by Temple University” today.
1917: One day after he had passed away, 80 year old Rabbi Abraham Abelson, “the husband of Rachel Abelson” with whom he had had eleven children including Rabbi Joshua Abelson was buried today at the “Merthyr Tydfil Jewish Cemetery.”
1917: After 425 years, dedication of the first synagogue to open in Madrid. We all know about 1492 when the Jews were expelled. Now we know a little about their official readmission.
1917: While speaking tonight at Temple Israel in Harlem on “the possibility of the United States entering the war” Rabbi M.H. Harris said that Jews have “mixed sympathies” because they believed the Allied cause deserves the endorsement of America” but are bothered by the long history of Russian oppression of the Jews while feeling tied to Germany because of its place in the development of “modern Judaism.”
1918: Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Germany. Lithuania would have to fight both the Germans and the Soviets for its right to be independent. According to one source, at least 3,000 Jews fought in the armies defending Lithuanian independence. This active role brought Jews and their institution a certain amount of early recognition in the early days of Lithuanian independence. This acceptance would recede during the thirties. Following the outbreak of World War II, over 90 per cent of the Jewish community would perish at the hands of the Soviets and the Nazis.
1919: Louis Lipsky, Rabbi Ephraim, Judge Hugo Pam and Myer Arbrams are among some of the speakers scheduled to address the delegates attending the Zionist Convention in Chicago.
1920: In Brooklyn, “Isaac Sackler and the former Sophie Ziesel, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe who ran a grocery store” gave birth to Raymond Raphael Sackler “whose family made a fortune from OxyContin.”
1920: Today, following her divorce from vaudeville actor Lou Leslie, Belle Baker, the famous “torch singer, vaudevillian and movie actress, married her second husband, Maurice Abrahams, with whom she had one son Herbert Joseph Baker, before Abrahams died in 1931.
1921: Today, Sir Alfred Mond, who has just returned to London from Jerusalem gave “an encouraging account of the reconstruction of Palestine” in which he said that “a very fine class of young Jews from the Ukraine and Galicia” have been coming to Palestine.
1922: As England prepares for the Marriage of Princess Mary, one gift which will “give her great pleasure is a portrait of Viscount Lascelles now being paitned by Solomon J. Solomon, R.A.” the brother of another Jewish painter, Lilly Delissa.
1923: “In Częstochowa in southern Poland to Perec Willenberg and his wife Maniefa (née Popow)” gave birth to Samuel Willenberg, the Jewish veteran of the Polish Army who escaped from Treblinka during the uprising, settled in Israel in 1950 where he worked as a surveyor, created sculpture and wrote Revolt in Treblinka while living long enough to become at his death the last survivor of that death camp which had claimed the lives of his two sisters. (Telegraph News)
1924: A bazaar sponsored by the People’s Relief “Ort” of America which will raise funds for Jews of Central and Eastern Europe is scheduled to open at the Grand Central Palace.
1925: Dr. Chaim Weizman, the President of the World Zionist Organization, was greeted with a standing ovation tonight when he delivered his first public address at meeting in Carnegie Hall which was the kick for the one million dollar fund raising driving of the Palestine Foundation Fund.
1926: In London, “Winifred Henrietta (née Regensburg) and Bernard Edward Schlesinger, a physician” gave birth to director John Schlesinger who won the Oscar for Best Director for his work on “Midnight Cowboy” which won the 1969 Oscar for Best Picture.
1926: In Frankfurt, Edith and Otto Frank gave birth to their first daughter Margot, the older sister of diarist Anne Frank
1927: In Suffolk, England, Louisa Ann (née Butler) and Henry William Melton Brown gave birth to British actress June Muriel Brown.
1928: It was reported today that Senator William H. King of Utah has “stressed the duty of the Jews to rebuild their homeland and expressed his sympathy with the Zionist cause” while “upbraiding certain Jews” who he called “assimilationists” for their opposition to Zionism.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/16/91475358.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1929(6thof Adar I, 5689): Parashat Terumah
1929: Rabbi Nathan Krass of Temple Emanu-El and Dr. S.M. Rubinow, the executive director of the ZOA were among the speakers at tonight meeting of the United Palestine Appeal in Mt. Vernon where it was announced that $20,000 of the $50,000 quota for the New York campaign has already been raised.
1930: On New York’s Lower East Side, Rabbi Yitzchak Mattisyahu Weinberg and his wife Hinda gave birth to Yisrael Noah Weinberg the Rosh Yeshiva at Aish HaTorah.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/834580/jewish/The-Rosh-Yeshivah-and-the-Shliach.htm
1931: On day after he had passed away and one day before his funeral, the family of veteran performer of Louis Mann announced the list of honorary pallbearers which included “Mayor James J. Walker, former New York Governor and Presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith, Lt. Gov. Herbert Lehman and entertainers Al Jolson, Eddie Cantor and George Jessel.
1932(8th of Adar I, 5692): Sir Edgar Speyer, 1st Baronet an American-born financier and philanthropist who became a British subject in 1892 and was chairman of Speyer Brothers, the British branch of his family's international finance house, and a partner in the German and American branches passed away today. He was stripped of his honors as a British citizen following a smear campaign that accused him of being pro-German during World War I.
1932: Birthdate of Romanian born and Holocaust survivor Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/appelfeld.html
1932: Birthday of Harry Goz who played Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof” on Broadway in 1966 and 1967.
1932: In the Bronx homemaker Sarah Greenberg and Samuel Greenberg, “a carpenter who worked as the foreman of shop in Queens that made upscale furniture” gave birth to Arnold Greenberg, the founder of the law firm of Greenberg and Tuchman who was the owner of the Completer Traveler, a truly unique bookstore.
1932: The New York Times said of Benjamin Cardozo's appointment to the Supreme Court that "seldom, if ever, in the history of the Court has an appointment been so universally commended"
1932: It was reported today that before nominating Justice Cardoza, President Hoover “conferred with Senator Watson of Indiana, the Republican floor leader in the Senate who predicted a unanimous confirmation” Senator Borah of Idaho responded by saying that if there were two Virginians on the court and John Marshall was a candidate for the vacancy, I don’t think there would be any hesitation to confirm him.”
1932: It was reported today that when objection was raised to the nomination of Justice Cardoza because he would make the third New Yorker on the High Court (the other two being Justices Hughes and Stone)
1934: Sixty-five-year-old Charles Pearce Coady, a Democrat who served as a Congressman from Maryland’s Third District and was one of the opening speakers at the 13thannual convention of the Order of Brith Shalom in Baltimore passed away today.
1934: The Austrian Civil War, also known as the February Uprising which had begun on February 12 came to an end today. When the dust settled, the Socialists were in disarray and/or in exile while the right combined to form what their enemies called Austrofascism which did not share the anti-Semitism of German fascism.
1934: “The Lost Patrol” a talkie version of the British silent film with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.
1934: “The Knife of the Party” a comedy starring Shemp Howard and filmed by cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg was released in the United States today.
1935: Birthdate of Barbara Myerhoff, acclaimed anthropologist and documentary filmmaker.
1935: Birthdate of Gilbert de Botton, the financier who invented the open architecture model of asset management. A native of Alexandria Egypt, he was a descendant of a distinguished Sephardic family whose ancestors included Abraham de Boton. His mother was Yolande Harmer, a Zionist who was imprisoned by the Egyptians on charges of spying for Israel. (As reported by The Telegraph)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1368137/Gilbert-de-Botton.html
1936: In St. Louis, celebration of the 60th anniversary of the birth of Zionist leader Gustave Kalusner.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,811931,00.html
1936: In honor of her 75th birthday, Henrietta Szold, American Zionist leader will be honored today by the Jews of Palestine with the title of “freewoman” which makes her an honorary citizen of Tel Aviv The title is the feminine form of “freeman” that has been confirmed on such leaders as the Earl of Balfour and former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. The Jewish community is also collecting funds for a social welfare project to be named for Miss Szold.
1936: It was reported today that “Chancellor Hitler’s power and popularity are unchallenged at present and the Germans are becoming so used to National Socialism and all it implies that, according to the latest witticism, this year’s party congress will be held not under slogans like ‘Triumph of Will,’ or ‘Victory of Faith,’ but ‘Force of Habit.’”
1936: Birthdate of Jerusalem native Eliahu Inbal the Israeli conductor.
1936: In Beirut, Lebanon, Shneor Cheshin, who would become a Justice on the Israeli Supreme court and Ruth Chehsin, “the founding president of the Jerusalem gave birth to Michael Cheshin who served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Israel from 1992 to 2006.
1936: It was reported today that “during 1935 more than 61,000 Jews entered Palestine” and that “if normal conditions should prevail the Jewish National Home could receive at least another 500,000 Jews within the next ten years.”
1936: “Charging that Great Britain is failing to carry out the spirit of the Balfour Declaration creating a Jewish homeland in Palestine, Rabbi Meyer Berlin, its honorary world president, told the opening session of the Mizrachi Zionist Organization of America today that appeals would be taken to the League of Nations, the United States and to the ‘cultural world’ to show the injustice being done to Jews.”
1936: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at Riverside Chape for forty-four year old Charles David Isaacson, the “writer on music, director of thousands of free concerts in the metropolitan New York Area, former opera impresario and radio director” who died yesterday in Bellevue Hospital.
1937: In Bucharest, in another example of nationalist lawyers keeping Jewish lawyers from entering the Palace of Justice, “Jewish lawyers attending Court 8 in the course of their duties were seized by nationalist colleagues and violently ejected” today.
1938(14thof Adar I, 5698) Purim Katan
1938(14thof Adar I, 5698): Thirty-one-year-old Lev Lvovich Sedov, the son of Leon Trotsky, died under mysterious circumstances today in Paris.
http://spartacus-educational.com/Lev_Sedov.htm
1938: “Benito Mussolini issues an official declaration that there is no ‘Jewish Problem’ in Italy and the Fascist government isn't considering any special anti-Semitic measures. This will change in July, 1938, when Jews are stripped of their Italian citizenship and banned from many professions.”
1938: I.J. Singer, the author, is scheduled to address a membership tea being held by the Women’s American Ort as part of their drive to increase membership to better aid the suffering Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that two Jews were wounded when Arabs fired at a Jewish bus which was on its way to the Kastel quarries. Over a dozen of shooting incidents and attempts to sever communications were reported from all over the country.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that the total number of Jewish immigrants in 1937 was 12,475, compared to 31,671 a year earlier. Of these, 3,648 immigrants came from Poland, 3,601 from Germany and the rest from other countries. This painful and unjustified reduction was directly attributed to the new British and Palestine governments' immigration policy.
1938: Abraham Pais was awarded two Bachelor of Science degrees in physics and mathematics, with minors in chemistry and astronomy. [Pais was the Dutch born Physicist who survived the Holocaust and came to America to pursue his career. The Abraham Pais Prize for the History of Physics attests to the esteem in which he was held by his colleagues.]
1939: In London, “the British suggestions for a substitute for the independent state demanded by the Arab’s was presented at today’s meeting between the British and Arab delegates at the Palestine conference.”
1940(7thof Adar I, 5700): Sixty-three-year-old University of Pennsylvania trained attorney and confirmed bachelor Isaac Hassler, the Philadelphia born member of a family that reaches back to colonial times who “was a former President of Young Men’s Hebrew Association and of the board of trustees of Congregation Rodelph” died today leaving his four siblings – Harry, Eugene, Victor and Essie – to mourn his passing.
1940: The Foreign Minister of Rumania met with Ben Horin, a member of the World Executive Committee of the New Zionist Organization for over an hour and with the Rumanian ambassador to Washington who is currently in Bucharest, but with will leaving with Mr. Horin tomorrow for a trip back to the capital city of the United States.
1941: “Faced with the ever-increasing problem of assisting European Jews both in their native countries and in transit to freedom via far-flung routes along which many have been stranded, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee held an extraordinary meeting at the Hotel Astor today that will serve as a springboard for its 1941 campaign.”
1942: Columbia Professors, Joseph P. Chamberlain, Leo Wollman and Jerome Wollman, Dr. Jacob Robinson and Dr. Nahum Goldman are among those scheduled to attend a dinner tonight at the Columbia Faculty marking the “first anniversary of the founding of the Institute of Jewish Affairs” which “has been function in the field of research with respect to developments in Europe with a view to establishing Jewish rights when world peace comes.”
1943: Seventy-four-year-old Russian born Socialist and University of Berne trained physician Dr. Sergious Ingerman who joined Eugene V. Debs and Morris Hillquit in forming the Socialist Party of America, suffered a stroke tonight that would eventually prove fatal.
1943: The White Rose, an anti-Nazi group posted a sign in Munich, Germany, reading “Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!” The members of White Rose were not Jewish, but they were a courageous group that did what it could to oppose Hitler. Many of its members were caught and beheaded, a favorite form of death among the Nazis.
1944(22nd of Shevat, 5704): Rabbi Gabriel Shusterman, author of Ben Moshe Yedaber passed away
1944(22nd of Shevat, 5704): Danish writer and director Henri Nathansen passed away. Born in 1868, he gave up his legal career to become an author and theatrical director. His Jewish background provided a major theme for some of his efforts. “His best-known work, ‘Inside the Walls,’ premiered in 1912 and centers around a wealthy, loving, but conservative Jewish family whose only daughter breaks away from tradition by attending lectures at the university and secretly becoming engaged to her teacher, a gentile.” His 1932 novel Mendel Philipsen and Son, features “a Jewish woman who falls in love with a gentile painter but instead enters into a loveless marriage with her Jewish cousin…” In 1929, he wrote a biography of fellow Danish Jew, Georg Brandes. In October 1943, when the Nazis attempted to round up the Danish Jews, Nathansen fled to Sweden just four months before his death.
1944: “Passage to Marseille” an off-beat war movie directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Hal B. Wallis, featuring George Tobias, Vladimir Sokoloff and Peter Lorre and with music by Max Steiner was released today in the United States.
1945: “The premiere performance of” “Concerto for Trombone” by Nathaniel Shilkret with the famed Tommy Dorsey as the soloist “was broadcast over WNYC” today.
1946(15thof Adar I, 5706): Parashat Tetzaveh
1946: “Hechalutz” which means “the worker” a “Palestinian folk opera in Hebrew, with music and book by Jacob Weinberg was performed tonight at Carnegie Hall during the sixth Festival of Jewish Arts sponsored by the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx Zionist Clubs.
1947: Famed violinist Isaac Stern joins Jack Benny in a laughed filled appearance on the Jack Benny Program.
1947: Two months after premiering in New York City“The Bishop’s Wife” a romantic comedy directed by Henry Koster, produced by Samuel Goldwyn, with a script co-authored by Bill Wilder was released in the rest of the United States.
1947: Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony premiered. In 1995 Gould won the Pulitzer Prize for “Stringfellow.”
1948: The Arabs began their first organized attack, on Tirat Tzvi. Tirat Tzvi (Zevi's Castle) was a Kibbutz founded in 1937 near the Jordanian border. It was named in memory of Rabbi Zevi Hirsh Klaischer who urged his fellow Jews to form a national movement following the failed revolutions of 1848 in Europe. In 1862, he published a book combining the themes of agriculture and spiritual re-awakening in what was then called Palestine. He had hoped to move to Mikveh Israel but at the age of eighty felt himself too old and he died in Germany, one of the first religious champions of what was to become the Zionist dream. The attack in 1948 took place between the vote to partition Palestine and the actual British departure from the Mandate Territory. In other words, Arab military forces were on the attack determined to wipe out as many of the Jewish kibbutzim as possible thus destroying the Jewish state before it was even born. The attack on Tirat Tzvi failed thanks to the bravery of the outnumbered defenders.
1948: The U.N. Palestine Commission which “was never permitted by the Arabs or the British to go to Palestine to implement the” U.N.’s resolution partitioning Palestine “reported to the Security Council” today that “Powerful Arab interests, both inside and outside Palestine, are defying the resolution of the General Assembly and are engaged in a deliberation effort to alter by force the settlement envisaged therein.”
1948: Two months after its premiere in New York City, “The Bishops Wife” the movie version of Robert Nathan’s novel by the same name directed by Henry Koster and produced by Samuel Goldwyn was released in the rest of the United States today.
1949: In Manhattan, Seymour and Anne Kornblum gave birth to Allan Mark Kornblum “whose love for poetry and printing led him to start Coffee House Press, an independent publisher widely respected for finding and nurturing new authors.” (As reported by William Yardley)
1950: “If I Knew You Were Coming’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake” a popular song written by Al Hoffman was recorded today by Coral Records.
1951: “Vengeance Valley” the movie version of the cowboy novel by the same name with a screenplay by Irving Ravetch (the son of a New Jersey rabbi) was release in the United States today.
1952: Thirty-one-year-old “Henry Laskau won the one-mile walk at the AAU indoor track championships in New York City. (As reported by Bob Wechsler)
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that from the establishment of the state in May 1948 to the end of 1952, 707,576 immigrants arrived, including 124,225 from Iraq, 121,536 from Romania, 106,727 from Poland, 62,565 from North Africa and 48,447 from Yemen and Aden. The immigrants hailed from 69 countries.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had sent anti-typhoid vaccine to flood victims in Holland.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that forty prominent American senators prepared a program of action to stop the excesses of the anti-Semitic propagandists in the Soviet Union and its satellite nations.
1954(13thof Adar I, 5714): Fifty-six-year-old Harry Passon the brother of Herman and Nathan Passon who in 1918, “along with Eddie Gottlieb and Hughie Black organized a basketball team in Philadelphia that would come to be known as the “SPHAS” and who had one daughter with his wife Bessie Greenbaum passed away today.
http://probasketballencyclopedia.com/player/harry-passon/
https://sabr.org/research/harry-passon-philadelphia-baseball-entrepreneur
1959(8thof Adar I, 5719): Eighty-year-old Henry Abraham Boehm, the Austrian born son of Abraham and Ida Boehm, husband of Minnie Boehm and father of George Boehm.
1961: In London, world premiere of “Jungle Fighters” produced by Michael Balcon, with a screenplay by Wolf Mankowitz, music by Stanley Black and starring Laurence Harvey
1963:The first of the articles that, in expanded form, would become Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt's most controversial work, was published in The New Yorker
https://jwa.org/thisweek/feb/16/1963/hannah-arendt
1964: Larry Blyden began playing the role of “Doc” in the Broadway production of “Foxy.”
1965: “After six previews, the Broadway production” of the musical “Baker Street” with lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Jerry Bock, directed by Hal Prince and co-starring Martin Gabel “opened at The Broadway Theatre where it ran for nine months.
1966: Twelve days after premiering, “The Ugly Dachshund” a Disney comedy starring Suzanne Pleshette was released in the rest of the United States today.
1967(6thof Adar I, 5727): Seventy-three-year-old Vilna native and “descendant of the Vilna Gaon” Rabbi Berl Aronovitz, “the author of books on Hebrew grammar and the Bible” and husband “of the former Rose Zuckerman” with whom he had two children – Evelyn Silver and Dr. Milton Aron, the direcot of the JNF of America – who served as dean of the Hebrew Theological College of Chicago for twenty-five years, passed away today in Miami Beach, FL.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/02/18/89660112.html?pageNumber=29
1967: The original West End production of “Fiddler on the Roof” opened on at Her Majesty's Theatre and played for 2,030 performances. It starred Chaim Topol, as Tevye and Miriam Karlin as Golde.
1968(17thof Shevat, 5728): Seventy-five-year-old Isaac Hamlin, the Russian born founder of “Histadrut, the Israeli Labor Federation” passed away today at his home in Tel Aviv.
1968: The Court of Appeals of the first Appellate District of Ohio affirmed the conviction of KKK leader Clarence Brandenburg who had threatened to take revenge “Niggers and Jews” for having violated Ohio’s criminal syndicalism statue paving the way for an ultimate hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.
1972(1stof Adar, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1972(1stof Adar, 5732: Sixty-two-year-old Austrian native Mac Kinsbrunner, the son of Nettie and David Kinsbuner and husband of Florence Kinsbruner who was a star athlete at St. John’s Universirty passed away today in New York
1973(14thof Adar I, 5733): In the first year of President Nixon’s second term, Jews observe Purim Katan.
1974: “In the United States, Barbra Streisand’s album ‘The Way We Were’ debuted at number 97 on the Billboard 200 chart for the week ending” today/
1974(24th of Shevat, 5734): Ninety-one-year-old Harvard educated philosopher Horace M. Kallen of the seven children of Rabbi Jacob David Kallen and Esther Rebecca Glazier all of whom came to the United States where he became the first Jewish professor at Princeton and leader in the American Jewish Community while raising his children Harriet and David with his wife, “the former Rachel Oatman Van Arsdale, passed away today
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kallen-horace-meyer
http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=1278441
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0001/ms0001.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/02/17/archives/dr-horace-kallen-philosopher-dies.html
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/422
1977: “The Princess Who Is Everywhere” published today provides a sketch of Diane von Furstenberg who has expanded from fashion guru to author.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E0CE1DA163EE23BA15755C1A9649C946690D6CF
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that two persons were killed and 46 injured when an Arab threw a bomb at a bus passing through Rehov Tzefania in Jerusalem.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that in Washington the US Administration threatened to withdraw its request for the sale of advanced F-15 and F-16 fighter planes to Israel if Congress blocked the sale of F-15s to Saudi Arabia and F-5Es to Egypt.
1985: The founding of Hezbollah, another Arab/Moslem terror group dedicated, in part, to the destruction of the state of Israel.
1986(7thof Adar I. 5746): Seventy-six-year-old character actor Howard Da Silva whose work in Hollywood was temporarily interrupted because he was named to the Hollywood Blacklist passed away today.
https://spartacus-educational.com/USAsilva.htm
1987: In Atlanta, GA, Sydney, Australia native Heather Fenton and Richard Ossoff, the owner of Strafford Publications gave to Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service graduate Thomas Jonathan Ossoff, the husband of Alisha Kramer, who, when he was elected to the Senate in 2021 became “the first Jewish senator from Georgia, the first senator born in the 1980s, and, at 33, the youngest member of the chamber” who was “also is the first Democrat elected to a full six-year term in the Senate from Georgia since 2003.
1987:“Following the refusenik protests, Iosif Begun's release from prison was announced today, by Georgy Arbatov, a member of the Central Committee, in a Face the Nation interview on CBS.”
1987: The Demjanjuk trial opened in Jerusalem. Ivan Demjanjuk, a former Ukrainian SS volunteer, was accused of overseeing the gas chambers in Treblinka. His cruelty had earned him the name "Ivan the Terrible." Demjanjuk was extradited to Israel in 1986, was found guilty and condemned to death. The verdict was appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court. After 3 years of deliberation, they ruled that there wasn't enough sufficient proof that Demjanjuk and Ivan the Terrible were one and the same person. This was mainly due to the lack of first-person witnesses and the length of time that had elapsed made definite identification impossible. In September 1993 he was released and returned to the United States. He was later stripped of his citizenship for falsifying his documents when he entered the United States.
1988: Refuseniks met with the British Foreign Minister today.
1989: Mordecai and Donna Haim gave birth to Danielle Haim of the three sisters whom made up “the all-female Jewish pop-rock group HAIM” which was nominated in 2015 “for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.” (As reported by Jordyn Rosenzwig)
1989: Publication of “Jews and Geniuses” by Robert Craft.
https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/02/16/jews-and-geniuses/
1989: Larry Bloch opened “Eco-Saloon,” in a former Chinese-food warehouse just south of the Holland Tunnel some of the profits which were used to fund a not-for-profit Center for Social and Environmental Justice.
1990: Elyakim Rubenstein, the Cabinet secretary, called Ariel Sharon here at his ranch today, just to be sure he was serious about his intention to resign.
1991: After 73 performances the curtain came down on the “Off-Broadway” production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Assassins.”
1991: At Shabbat synagogue services, congregants were mindful of the deaths of Iraqi civilians, but they were also reminded that Israel had been subjected to indiscriminate Iraqi missile attacks for more than a month and that fighting was the price of peace. Worshippers at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan expressed regret over the killing of Iraqi civilians and said they were disturbed by the television images of broken bodies. But most said their support for the war was undimmed. "War is a terrible thing," said Billy Sussis. But he added that the deaths of the civilians had not shaken his support for the allied effort. "If you're going to fight a war, terrible things like this are going to happen." Rabbi Helene Ferris, however, expressed hope that the incident would "wake up the world's conscience" and disrupt wide impressions of a bloodless conflict. "War is about killing," she declared. "It's about mothers bleeding, fathers bleeding. If we lose sight of that, we may stop trying to find a better way." At the Forest Hills Jewish Center in Queens, Rabbi Gerald C. Skolnik, just back from a visit to Israel, gave his congregation graphic impressions of life in a war zone: an old woman standing beside the ruins of her home in Tel Aviv, an infant in a gas-mask crib, wailing sirens in the night, the sight of his own parents donning gas masks and the vibration of windows as the missiles exploded nearby. "It's not just that the air raids are terrifying, though certainly they are," Rabbi Skolnik said. "It's more that the entire rhythm of the country has been thrown out of kilter."
1992: An Israeli helicopter strike killed the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Abbas al-Musawi. According to western officials, al-Musawi was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks including the 1983 terror attack in Beirut that killed 300 U.S. and French soldiers. Musawi may be dead, but Hezbollah and its murderous ways live on.
1995(17thof Adar I, 5755): Eighty-six-year-old Omaha, Nebraska native Elmer Greenberg an all-star offensive lineman for the University of Nebraska passed away today.
http://dataomaha.com/huskers/player/4131/elmer-greenberg
1996: Youssef Majed al-Molqi who had been sentenced to 30 years for murdering 69-year-old wheelchair bound Leon Klinghoffer “left the Rebibbia prison in Rome today, on a 12-day furlough and fled to Spain.
1997: The first Conference on Feminism and Orthodoxy opens in New York City leadingto the founding of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
1997: The New York Times includes a review of The Boy Who Went Away, “Eli Gottlieb’s touching coming-of-age novel…”
1998: The funeral of Abraham Bloch, a graduate of Yeshiva Yitzchak Elchanan who served as the Rabbi of Congregation Petach Tikvah, is scheduled to take place in Brooklyn, NY today.
1998(20th of Shevat, 5758): Martha Gellhorn, whose father was Jewish, passed away at the age of 89. Gellhorn gained fame for her reporting during the Spanish Civil War and as one of the many wives of Ernest Hemingway.
1999 (30thof Shevat, 5759): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1999: Today, the police “questioned for 11 hours Avigdor Ben Gal, a former army general who testified in an unsuccessful libel trial Ariel Sharon had brought against Ha’aretz.
1999: The United States Third Court of Appeals ruled on the constitutionality of holiday displays in ACLU versus Schundler.
2000: In an address before the Knesset, German President Johannes Rau asked forgiveness for Germany’s murderous treatment of Europe’s Jews during World War II.
2000: U.S. premiere of “Hanging Up” written by Delia Ephron and Nora Ephron, who also co-produced the comedy which co-starred Lisa Kudrow and Walter Matthau “in his final film appearance.
2001: “Sweet November” produced by Elliot Kastner and Erwin Stoff and featuring Jason Isaacs and Michael Rosenbaum was released in the United States today.
2002(4thof Adar, 5762): Three teenagers from Ginot Shomron – Rachel Thaler, Keren Shatsky and Nehemia Amar – were murdered by terrorist from the PFLP in front of a pizza parlor at the Karnei Shomron Mall on a Saturday night.
2002: “The Vatican announced today that it would partly open its prewar archives next year, but would not make available documents on Pius XII's controversial World War II pontificate for at least three more years” leading to expressions of “considerable disappointment by “Jewish leaders and scholars..”
2003: Haifa native Uri Lupolianski began serving as Mayor of Jerusalem.
2003: “The Unsettlers” published today provides one version of life for Jews living near Nablus.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/magazine/the-unsettlers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2004: As part of its celebration of Black History, tonight Showtime broadcast “Crown Heights,” “a drama set during the 1991 racial unrest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn” that “follows the friendship of two teenagers, a former gang member named T. J. (DeQuan Henderson) and a Hasidic Jew named Yudi (Jeremy Blackman), who in the wake of the violence form a bicultural rap group, Project Cure.”
2005: By a vote of 59 to 40 with 5 abstentions, the Knesset “finalized and approved” Sharon’s plan for withdrawal from Gaza after having rejected “a proposed amendment to submit the plan to a referendum.”
2005: Allen Weinstein began serving as Archivist of the United States.
2006(18thof Shevat, 5766): Seventy-four-year old Brooklyn born and Cornell and Columbia trained historian Paul Avrich, the son “Yiddish theatre actress Rose (Zapol) Avrich” and “dress manufacturer Murray Avrich” and the husband of Ina Avrich with whom he had two daughters – Jane and Karen – passed away today
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/apr/10/guardianobituaries.obituaries
2006: Britain's most senior Jewish leader has condemned the Church of England for voting this month to review its investments in companies whose products are used by Israel in the occupied territories. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said the Anglican vote on whether to pull money from "companies profiting from the illegal occupation" was ill-judged and would inflame relations between the two religions.
2006: A revival of Neil Simon’s “Barefoot in the Park” opened at the Cort Theatre
2007: Sheik Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch gave a sermon in Jerusalem’s Wadi Joz neighborhood in which he “urged supporters to start a third intifada in order to save Al-Aksa Mosque, free Jerusalem and end the end occupation.” Salah, who denies any Jewish historical claim to Jerusalem or the existence of a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount included these words, “We are not those who ate bread dipped in children’s blood.” (The Blood Libel is alive and well.)
2007: The Sabbath Queen gets a royal welcome at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa as Rick Recht returns with “Shabbat Alive” Part II.
2007(28th of Shevat, 5767): Mordkhe Schaechter, a leading Yiddish linguist who spent a lifetime studying, standardizing and teaching the language passed away at the age of 79. As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/16/obituaries/16schaechter.html
2008: The Jerusalem Cinematheque features a showing of the internationally acclaimed “The Band’s Visit”
2008:Owing to high U.S. digital sales, "New Soul", a song by the French-Israeli R&B/soul singer Yael Naïm, debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 for the chart week starting today at No. 9, becoming Naïm's first U.S. top ten single, and making her the first Israeli solo artist to ever have a top ten hit in the United States.
2009: In New Orleans, “The Expanse of Russia in Israel,” an international conference sponsored by Tulane University’s Jewish Studies Program under the Chairmanship of Dr. Brian Horowitz, enters its second day. “The conference is devoted to a long-awaited investigation of Zionism and the influence of secular Russian culture on Israeli life.”
2009:France's top judicial body formally recognized the nation's role in deporting Jews to Nazi death camps during the Holocaust - but effectively ruled out any more reparations for the deportees or their families.
2009: Wilm Hosenfeld, the German officer made famous in Roman Polanski's 2002 film The Pianist for sheltering two Jews who escaped from the Nazis during the Holocaust has been posthumously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial.
2010: Yeshiva University Museum, Center for Jewish History, University of Pennsylvania in cooperation with Centro Primo Levi are scheduled to present “Between Sacred and Profane: Jews and the Modern City: Three Snapshots” part of “a series of talks by fellows at the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies (U of Penn) who are engaged in a critical analysis of the notions of the "secular" and "religious" as they affect all aspects of Jewish life over the past three centuries.
2010: Israel will erect a memorial commemorating the Red Army’s crucial role in the victory over the Nazis, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at a photo opportunity before their meeting today.
2010: Four hundred cadets graduated from the IDF Infantry Officers Training Course today and will be awarded the rank of second lieutenant. 7% of them are young women, 25% are religious, 5% are from kibbutzim, 61% are from cities. For the first time, three of the infantry officer graduates are women who completed the grueling combat course. The highest number of awards for excellence went to the Golani Brigade.
2011: “Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln’s City,” a lecture by Laura Cohen Apelbaum the Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, is scheduled to take place at Adas Israel in Washington, D.C.
2011: “Precious Life,” an “acclaimed documentary that explores the paradoxes of a Palestinian infant being treated for a rare immune disorder at an Israeli hospital” during a period when the IDF was fighting to halt rocket attacks from Gaza, is scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.
2011: The Jewish community of Tunisia filed an official complaint with Tunisian Interior Minister Fahrat Rajhi after several of its members were harassed by protesters outside a synagogue in the capital, Tunis.
2011: Human rights lawyers are attempting to challenge a government decision designating the planned city of Harish as a haredi-only town.
2011: The Iron Dome missile intercept system will be declared operational within a number of weeks, after the Israel Air Force – who will be responsible for operating the system – conducted successful test-runs for the first time yesterday and today.
2011(11th of Adar I, 5771): Len Lesser, a veteran character actor best known for his recurring role in the 1990s as Uncle Leo on the hit NBC-TV comedy "Seinfeld," passed away today at the age of 88 8n Burbank, CA ( As reported by Bruce Weber)
2011: Today in celebration of Black History month Knicks legend and Assistant General Manager Allan Houston received the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Award in front of players and fans at Madison Square Garden. Mr. Houston received the award from Ido Aharoni, Acting Consul General of Israel in New York, in honor of his efforts in spreading compassion and uniting communities of all backgrounds. The Martin Luther King Jr. Award has been presented by the Consulate General of Israel in New York for the past 20 years to individuals and organizations promoting ethnic and cultural understanding. This annual tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. honors the dream of peaceful coexistence between people of diverse religions, cultures, and ethnicities. To commemorate this great visionary, each year the State of Israel, together with the Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York, honor those whose work keeps alive Dr. King’s legacy of hope and peace.
2012: “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber” is scheduled to be shown at the Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale in New York.
2012: Yasmin Levy is scheduled to weave her Ladino musical magic at Pace University’s Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts
2012: Mossad chief Tamir Pardo visited New Delhi just days before an attack on Israeli officials in the Indian capital this week, Indian media reported today, highlighting the extent to which Israeli intelligence was in the dark regarding possibility of a terror attack taking place in the country.
2012: Today, the Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning for Israelis in Thailand. The warning said that in the wake of the attacks on Israelis in India and Georgia earlier this week, Israelis should “act with caution” when traveling in Thailand. Similar warnings were released Thursday for travelers to Italy, Norway, and Taiwan.
2012(23rdof Shevat, 5772): At the age of 101, Ethel Stark who in 1940 established the Montreal Women’s Symphony Orchestra, the first all-female Canadian symphony orchestra which first performed “on the top of Mont Royal” and was “the first Canadian orchestra to play at Carnegie Hall” passed away today.
http://www.jewishpubliclibrary.org/blog/?p=1630
2012: Yair Lapid warned today that Israel might "bring on its own demise" and demanded a change in the system of government.
2013: Cirque du Purim, the YLD”s annual Purim Party is scheduled to take place in Irvine, CA this evening.
2013: “Off White Lies” is scheduled to be shown at the Denver Jewish Film Festival
2013: The IDF evacuated seven Syrian nationals injured in Syria's civil war to the Ziv Medical Center in Safed today.
2013: The incarceration of “Prisoner X”, the high-security prisoner who committed suicide in Ayalon Prison in 2010, was made necessary by Israel’s “unique” security situation, Vice Premier and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya’alon said today
2013: The Justice Ministry is mulling the release of the file concerning the death of Ben Zygier, who committed suicide in prison two years ago, Israeli media reported tonight.
2014: B’nai B’rith Unit # 182 is scheduled to continue a 35-year-long tradition this morning, bringing music and Mardi Gras throws to patients at Touro Infirmary and the residents of Malta Park assisted living facility.
2014: Merna Lyn, author of The Ten Second Diet is scheduled to speak at Congregation Beth Israel in Metairie. LA (As reported by Alan Samson in the Crescent City Jewish News)
2014: In White Plains, NY, “Focus on the Family” sponsored by Frum Divorce is scheduled to come to an end.
2014: The 24thannual Jewish Film Festival in San Diego is scheduled to come to a close.
2014: “Ruth Gruber: Photojournalist,” an exhibition that “celebrates the remarkable life of this photojournalist” is scheduled to open at the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
2014: “Israeli rights groups asked the High Court of Justice today to overturn a law that bans Israelis from calling for a boycott of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.”
2014: A memorial service is scheduled to be held today for “Mary Gordon, devoted wife of author Max Shulman for 24 years who passed away at the age of 95 on January 22, 2014.
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Mad As Hell: The Making of “Network” and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies by Dave Itzkoff, Arik: The Life of Ariel Sharon by David Landau, Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence by Shai Held and Our Mathematical Universe by Max Tegmark, the son of Professor Harold S. Shapiro.
2014: “After blast ripped through tourist bus – killing four – Israeli rescue forces lined up along border crossing in bid to aid rescue operations, transfer wounded to Israeli hospitals – but Egypt refused.” (As reported by Roi Kais)
2015: Ukrainian born Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to perform with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.
2015(27thof Shevat, 5775): Sixty-eight-year-old singer Lesley Gore (Lesley Sue Goldstein) passed away today.
2015(27thof Shevat, 5775): Fifty-four-year-old Pensioner Affairs Minster Uri Orbach passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-jewish-home-minister-uri-orbach-dies-at-54/
2015: “French prosecutors said” today “they had taken five teenagers into custody suspected of vandalizing hundreds of Jewish graves” “at the Jewish cemetery of Sarre-Union in northeastern France.”
2015: At the Jewish Museum Of London is scheduled to host a talk by curator Elizabeth Selby on the exhibition “For Richer For Poorer: Weddings Unveiled.”
2015: “Tens of thousands of Danes gathered for a torch-lit vigil in central Copenhagen” this evening “to commemorate the victims of two weekend shootings that have shocked the nation and heightened fears of a new surge in anti-Semitic violence.”
2015: Bar-Illan Professor Tova Cohen is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “How Has the Changing Role of Women In Israel Affected Jewish Orthodox Society?” was FIU.
2016” The American Jewish Historical Society and the American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to host a screening of “Flory’s Flame” – a “one-hour documentary about the life and music of renowned 90-year-old Sephardic composer and performer Flory Jagoda.
2016: The Temple Emanu-El Skirball Center, America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Golden Land Concerts & Connections are scheduled to present a concert by Israeli singer/song writer Noa (Achinoam Nini) and her “longtime collaborator/virtuoso guitarist Gil Dor.
2017: The Oxford JSOC hosted its “Pub Crawl” which began at the Turf Tavern.
2017: “Beer Sheva” hosted “Besiktas of Turkey in a first-leg match in the Eruopa League’s Round of 32.”
2017: Following yesterday’s declaration by the President “that he was ‘looking at two-state and one-state’ formulas for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” today “Israelis and Palestinians were feverishly debating what might come next” especially since they were “still confused about American policy after Mr. Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki R. Haley, reasserted that the administration “absolutely” supported two states.” (As reported by Isabel Kershner)
2017: “Winter weather swept across” Israel today “ as a storm system” that has been “lashing” Israel for the last two days, “reached its peak, dumping snow on northern Israel and freezing rain in Jerusalem.”
2017: David Friedman, President Trump’s nominee for U.S. Ambassador to Israel is scheduled to apologize for “derogatory remarks he made about liberal Jews” including calling them “worse than Kapos” during his confirmation hearings today. (Editor’s note – apparently his mornings prayers do not begin with injunction “I hereby accept upon myself the positive commandment to love my fellow Jew.)
2017: Professor Steve Feller is scheduled to lead the Coe College Thursday Forum in “The Conflicted Jewish World of Chaim Potok” – an examination of the conflicts within Judaism mirrored in the author’s novels.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Rina Wolfson speaking on “From the Family to the House of Learning” in which she examines “how Biblical and Rabbinic texts deal with a student's shift from the family home to the house of learning.”
2017: “The Wounded Land” and “The Mezuzah” are scheduled to be shown at the San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2017: Former NBA player Amar'e Stoudemire whom Israel’s Interior Ministry is working with to help him gain citizenship today played for Hapoel Jerusalem in a game against Maccabi Tel Aviv in Jerusalem.
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to present “Astrologers, Spies, Merchants and Travelers” which examines the “crucial roles” the Jews played “in Italian courtly life.”
2018: Following Shabbat Dinner, the Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to elections for President and Vice President to serve during Trinity Term.
2018: “Mathew Shear starred opposite Zosia Mamet in the 2017 Tirbeca Film Festival feature, ‘The Boy Downsatirs” which was released in the United States by FilmRise.
2018(1st of Adar, 5778): Rosh Chodesh Adar – Second Day
2018: With more than 1,000 mourners including Gov. Rick Scott packed into Temple K’ol Tikvah, Andrew Pollack looked down at the plain pine coffin of his 18-year-old daughter, Meadow, one of the first victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre to be buried and then told the crowd, “I am very angry and upset about what transpired.” (As reported by Terry Spencer)
2018: The funeral for Alyssa Alhadeff, one of those gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School was held today.
2019: Kulanu is scheduled to host its “25thanniversary celebration in Washington, DC” this evening at “Ohen Shalom, the National Synagogue.”
2019: On the first day of the Jewish Film Institute’s WinterFest 2019 “Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People,” “A Fortunate Man,” “Working Woman” and “Untogether” are scheduled to be shown at the Alamo Draft House.
2019: Paris born author Alain Finkielkraut, the son of an Auschwitz survivor “was verbally assaulted on the street by a group of yellow vest protesters in Paris when they chanced on him in Boulevard du Montparnasse” following which “a 36-year-old French convert to Islam was indicted after saying that Finkelkraut was "going to die".
2019: In Marion, IA, the Artisan’s Sanctuary is scheduled to host a reception and book signing for Barbara Feller, the author of Road to Waubeek: Discovering Jay G. Sigmnund
2019: The Red Sea Jazz Festival is scheduled to come to an end today at Eilat.
2019: In Tiburon, CA, Congregation Kol Shofar is scheduled to host “Jewish Ecstatic Dancing.”
2019(11th of Adar I, 5779): Parashat Tetzaveh
2020: “Shakespeare Trial: The Shylock Appeal,” “a mock trial based on “The Merchant of Venice” argued by UC law deans Erwin Chemerinsky (Berkeley) and Song Richardson (Irvine)” is scheduled to take place at mid-day in Berkley, CA.
2020: Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik is scheduled to lecture on “Abraham Lincoln, The Bible & Leadership” during which he “will speak on the ideals, concepts, and qualities of leadership as can be learned from Biblical personalities in difficult and trying times as well as America’s president Abraham Lincoln who led the United States through the American Civil War, its bloodiest war and perhaps its greatest moral, constitutional and political crises. Through his unique leadership abilities, and despite fierce opposition, Lincoln preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the government and modernized the economy.”
2020: In Scottsdale, AZ, Congregation Beth Tefillah in partnership with the Aleph Society, is scheduled to host the first day of the Soul Conference whose speakers includes Rabbis Simon Jacobson, Arthur Kurzwell and Pinchas Allouche.
2020: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County, NJ, is scheduled to host a talk on India native Gila Rosenblatt on the “Jews of Cochin.”
2020: In Atlanta, the Breman Museum’s seventh annual Molly Blank Concert Series is scheduled to begin this evening with “Let’s Fall In Love,” “featuring the Joe Alterman Trio with Special Guest Lena Seikaly.”
2020: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Kaddish.Com, a novel by Nathan Englander.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/05/books/review/nathan-englander-kaddish-com.html
2021: The Tikvah Online Academy is scheduled to host the first session “The Artist in Modern Jewish Literature.”
2021: The Leo Baeck Institute is scheduled to present “Jewish Life in Late Antiquity: From Colonia Agrippina to Augusta Raurice” with Dr. Thomas Otten and Dr. Werner Eck, who had been the Professor of Ancient History at the University of Cologne for almost thirty years.
2021: The Schusterman Center for Israel Studies is scheduled to present online “Rethinking Blackness in Israel.”
2021: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host a conversation with Bill Gates, author of How to Avoid a Climate Disasterand The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah.
2021: The Jewish Community Center of the North Shore is scheduled to host online “An Evening with Bari Weiss” the award-winning journalist and author of How to Fight Ant-Semitism.
2021: Mardi Gras won’t be the same this year since the parades have been canceled due to the Pandemic, we could spend some time looking at the Jewish connection to this “Catholic” celebration including Lewis J. Salomon serving, in 1872, as the first King of the Krewe of Rex,