March 27
538 BCE: Cyrus was crowned “King of Babylonia and King of All Lands.” Cyrus was the King who made it possible for the Jews to return to Judea marking the end of the Babylonian exile.
196 BCE: Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. Ptolemy was one of the Graeco-Egyptian rulers who fought with Antiochus for the control of Judea.
1188: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who was comparatively protective of his Jewish subject “took up the Cross” and joined what would become the Third CRusdae.
1191: Pope Clement III died. Clement was one of the Popes locked in a power struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV. The Jews were pawns in this battle. Henry considered the Jews to be his subjects and beyond the control of the Church. During the First Crusade, the hordes going through Germany killed and robbed the Jews. At the same time, many Jews were forced to convert. Henry was in Italy and much to the dismay of the Pope, when he heard what was going on in Germany, the Emperor set about punishing those of the perpetrators who were still around including at least one archbishop. He also ordered that any Jew who had converted under duress should be allowed to return to the faith of their fathers. Clement over-ruled the Emperor on this one. He did not how people were brought to Jesus, but once they were there, there was no going back.
1309: Pope Clement V, who in 1305 became the first pope to threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt to force them to stop charging Christians interest on loans, excommunicated Venice and all its population.
1378: Gregory XI, the last of the Avignon Popes, passed away. In 1375 Gregory had issued an order “to compel” Jews to hear sermons. The order would later be vacated and replaced by the older formula allowing one to “exhort” the Jews to listen. (For more see Popes, Church and Jews in the Middle Ages by Kenneth Stow)
1639: In Rome, a child is forcibly baptized after his father jokingly remarked that he would not mind it, on the condition that the Pope acted as godfather. The Jews rioted and were violently crushed. As a result, two of his children were taken, one a baby, and were carried in a ceremony by the Pope.
1775(25th of Adar, 1775): Rabbi Chaim Ben David Abulafia, author of Nishmat Chaim passed away.
1786(27th of Adar, 5546): Based on tombstone found in the original Jewish cemetery in Ghent, date on which an unnamed Jew passed away. This unknown Jew or Jewess was the first Israelite to be legally buried in the city under the reign of Joseph II.
1820: In Baghdad, David Sassoon and Hannah Joseph gave birth to businessman Elias David Sassoon.
1827(28th of Adar): Rabbi Samuel ben Nathan Ha-Levi author of Mahat-zit ha Shekel passed away
1836: During the Texas Revolution, an untold number of Jews died when Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texas POW's who had fought under James Fannin at Goliad, Texas.
1839(12thof Nisan, 5669): The Jews were forced to convert in Meshed, Iran. Influenced by other anti-Jewish riots under the Kajar Dynasty in Iran, the local community attacked the Jewish quarter. The Synagogue was destroyed, over 30 Jews killed and the rest of the community threatened with annihilation. Moslem leaders offered to prevent further riots on condition that the Jews convert, which they did. The Jews became known as Jadid al-Islam or New Moslems thus ending the presence of the Jewish community. They continued to practice their Judaism in secret and fled the city with their families whenever an opportunity for escape presented itself.
1847: Birthdate of German born chemist Otto Wallach who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
1850(14thof Nisan, 5610): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1850(14thof Nisan, 5610): Fifty three year old banker and astronomer Wilhelm Wolff Beer for whom the crater Beers on Mars is named and who is the brother of Giacomo Meybeer passed away.
1861: The New York Times reports a drop in the sale of livestock this week due to Lent and the observance of Passover.
1863: In response to the “recommendation by the President of the Confederacy” that this be a Day of Prayer, Rabbi M. J. Michelbacher, of the German synagogue Bayth Ahabah in Richmond, Virginia, preached a sermon, "to which he added a prayer for the Confederate States of America "to crown our independence with lasting honor and prosperity," and for its president, Jefferson Davis, "grant speedy success to his endeavors to free our country from the presence of its foes." [On a personal note, it never ceases to amaze me that Jews could support slavery. How does one go to a Seder after reciting such a prayer?]
1869: The New York Times reported that “At sundown last evening the Jewish Feast of Passover commenced. It was instituted in commemoration of the deliverance of God's chosen people from Egypt, in bondage, and the passing over by the destroying angel of those families the doors of whose dwellings were marked with the blood of the Paschal Lamb.”
1869(15th of Nisan, 5629): First Day of Pesach; in the evening count the Omer for the first time.
1869(15th of Nisan, 5629): In New York Temple Emanuel and the Nineteenth-street synagogue were among the Jewish houses of worship holding services on the first day of Passover.
1876: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association moved from its temporary quarters to the Harvard Rooms at Forty-second street and Sixth avenue in New York City.
1877: In New York City, Justice Murray dismissed charges filed against Henry Sollinger for having obtained money under false pretense from Mrs. Jane Ferguson. Sollinger was born Jewish but claimed to have converted to Christianity at which time he began using the alias Frederick E. Hall.
1879: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association has received $10, 840.60. The money was raised by the Purim Association at its dress ball that had been held on March 6th.
1880(15th of Nisan, 5640): First Day of Pesach
1880: It was reported today that Baron James de Rothschild is President of the newly formed society established in Paris to promote Jewish studies.
1884(1st of Nisan, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1888(15thof Nisan, 5648): Pesach
1890(6thof Nisan, 5650): Emanuel Berhnheimer a native of Germany who came to the United States in 1844 and formed a partnership with August Schmid that led to formation of Lion Brewery, passed away today.
1892: The Biennial Convention of the Jewish Theological Seminary Association was held at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1893: The Bowery Amphitheater “reopened as a Hebrew theatre under the management of Sigmund Magulesko, Isidore Lindeman and Joseph Levy.
1893: Birthdate of sociologist Karl Mannheim, author of Ideology and Utopia. Born in Hungary, he passed away in London in 1947.
1893: “Jews and Intermarriage” published today contains a refutation by Rabbi Mendes of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of previously published sermons that Jewish law does not prohibit intermarriage between a Jew and his earnest request that further discussion of this topic be limited to the Jewish press.
1895: Professor Felix Adler delivered a lecture tonight at the Hebrew Institute on “The Influences of Organized Labor.”
1898: “In Algeria the sixth paper devoted to anti-Semitism, L'Anti-Juif Algérien, appeared, with an illustrated supplement”
1898: “Austro-Hungarian Polity” published today described the some of the cause of that have led to unrest in certain agrarian districts including “a marked contempt and dislike for commerce and trade” among Hungarians, “so that the industry of this country is to a large extent, in the hands of the Jews.”
1899: New York Mayor Van Wyck met with six boys from the Hebrew Institute at Jefferson and East Broadway.
1900: Herzl had a meeting with Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber about sanctioning the Viennese electoral reform. He requests that the “Neue Freie Presse” should not oppose the reform too massively.
1901: Anti-Jewish riots began in Smyrna, Turkey. The riots were triggered by the reports of the disappearance of a child who was said to have been slaughtered by the Jews for 'ritual murder.' Though the riots continued for four days, the child was eventually found and paraded through the streets to show he was indeed alive.
1903: The Zionist Commission met Herzl in Cairo.
1904(11thof Nisan, 5664): Colonel Albert Edward Goldsmid the distinguished British officer who founded the Jewish Lads’ Brigade and the Maccabaeans passed away.
1906: At the insistence of the Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria, the Minister of the Interior of Bulgaria issues a circular to his governors to take every form of precaution against anti-Semitism over Easter.
1906(1st of Nisan): First publication of Der Yiddisher Kemfer, a publication American Labor Zionism
1909: Birthdate of historian Golo Mann, the son of Thomas Mann. His mother was Jewish, which, according to Halachah, means the younger Mann was Jewish as well.
1913: Birthdate of SS Captain Theodore Dannecker, one of Eichman’s underlings who was a “ruthless” participate in the Final Solution.
1912: A Jew, for the first time, receives an appointment as an officer in the Ottoman Turkish Army upon graduation from the Imperial Military Academy.
1914: Birthdate of Budd Schulberg, the novelist and screenwriter whose credits include “What Makes Sammy Run” and “On the Waterfront.”
1917(4th of Nisan, 5677): Seventy-two year old Civil War veteran and sculpture Moses Jacob Ezekiel passed away in Rome, Italy
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ezekiel.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/mezekiel.html
1918: Henry Adams passed away. To many he was part of the last generation of the distinguished Adams family. For Jews he was that and a little more or should I say a little less. In 1894, Henry Adams organized the Immigration Restriction League to limit the admission to America of "unhealthy elements" -- Jews being first among these. In his famous book, The Education of Henry Adams, he wrote about those he was trying to keep out of America: "Not a Polish Jew fresh from Warsaw or Cracow - not a furtive Jacob or Isaac still reeking of the Ghetto, snarling a weird Yiddish to the officers of the customs..." He found many supporters for his cause, but he did not win
1921: During his fact finding visit to Palestine, Winston Churchill went to the British Military Cemetery on the Mount of Olives to attend a service of dedication honoring the sacrifice of Allied soldiers who had fought against the Turks.
1922: In San Francisco, Joseph and Lillian Kurzman gave birth to military historian Daniel Halperin Kurzman whose works included include Ben-Gurion: Prophet of Fire. (As reported by Daniel Slontnik)
1923: Birthdate of British impresario Victor Hochhauser who, along with his wife, promoted numerous events including those for the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.
1923: Lord Grey, who “had been the foreign secretary during the McMahon-Hussein negotiations”, addressed the House of Lords today. During his speech, “he made it clear that he entertained serious doubts as to the validity of the British government's interpretation of the pledges which he, as foreign secretary, had caused to be given to Hussein in 1915.
1923: Sidney and Helen Livingston Weinberg gave birth to Sidney J. Weinberg, Jr. who would become a senior director at Goldman-Sachs.
1923: Birthdate of Prof. Nahum M. Sarna, z"l the father of Jonathan Sarna and a noted scholar in his own right.
https://www2.bc.edu/~langerr/NMSarna/
1927: In New York City, Kassel Lewis and Sylvia Surut gave birth to New York Times correspondent Anthony Lewis, the author of Gideon’s Triumph
1928(6th of Nisan): Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzki, son of Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Ber Plotzker of Kutno, the President of Kollel Polen and a prolific author whose works included Chemdas Yisrael on Sefer ha-Mitzvot passed away today. When Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzki visited America, he “pronounced Manischewtiz matzah to be thoroughly reliable – ‘there is none more faithful to be found’ – citing “constant supervision of one of the sages of Jerusalem,” Rabbi Mendel M. Hochstein.
1930: “The meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency ended this morning after a short session with Felix M. Warburg, chairman, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Agency, expressing their satisfaction with the work that had been accomplished. There was a general feeling among the participants that the meeting had been fruitful of practical results for Palestine, and there was particular gratification that the complete budget of three and a half million dollars was confirmed.” (As reported by JTA)
1931: Charlie Chaplin received France's distinguished Legion of Honor
1933: In “Germany: Scared To Death,” Time reported that “To say that most German statesmen & politicians outside the Government's charmed circle were scared to death last week, would be understatement. Panic made cowards of the bravest of brave German Socialists and Communists. Even Catholics trembled—except Dr. Hans Luther. It was accurately said that in less than two weeks Chancellor Hitler has reduced his opponents to a lower level of groveling fear than did Premier Mussolini in the two years after the March on Rome, Oct. 30, 1922.”
1933: A gigantic anti-Nazi protest rally, organized by the American Jewish Congress, was held in New York City. 55,000 people attended and threatened to boycott German goods if the Germans carried out their planned permanent boycott of Jewish-owned stores and businesses.
1937(15th of Nisan, 5697): First Day of Pesach.
1937: In New York, at Shaarey Tefilah “two fires occurred simultaneously in the basement of the synagogue and caused minor damage. Later that same morning, at 10 o'clock, 700 persons assembled to celebrate the second Seder of the Passover. A few hours after the congregation had gone, a third fire was reported at 3:15 o'clock. This fire damaged the Ark of the Covenant and destroyed 18 hand-illuminated Torah kept in the Tabernacle. The $25,000 pipe organ was badly damaged and the entire south end of the synagogue was wrecked by flames, smoke and the axes of the firemen. After investigations by the Fire Marshall, it was discovered that the incendiary fires had been set by the synagogue's caretaker. The synagogue was reconstructed and remodeled to designs of S. Brian Baylinson, and a four-story synagogue house was added.
1938: Miss Henrietta Szold, 77-year-old founder of Hadassah, the Woman's Zionist Organization of America sent a cable from Jerusalem to Hadassah headquarters in New York describing her efforts to arrange for the transfer of Jewish children from Austria to Palestine. “The change is described as vital and as being the only hope for the youngsters to ever lead normal lives.”
1940: Himmler ordered the building of Auschwitz concentration Camp in southern Poland
1941: A Yugoslav government that was sympathetic to the Nazis “was toppled by an anti-German military coup” which lead to a Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece in April. This would prove to be disastrous for the Jews of the Balkans since it would bring them into the grasp of the Final Solution. Ironically, the long term effect of this would lead to the ultimate defeat of the Germans in WW II. The invasion of the Balkans delayed the German invasion of Russia. That delay meant the German army would be mired in the Russian Winter, which was a major factor in handing the Nazi war machine its first defeats on the eastern front.
1942: On day after the start of the deportation of Slovokian Jews, Slovakia’s Chief Rabbi Micahel Weissmand and the Slovokian Zionist leader Gisi Fleischann sent a message of SS Captain Dieter Wisliceny offering him a bribe stop the shipment of the Jews to the death camps.
1942: Goebbels described in his diary, Belzec and the cremation of the Jews, "The procedure is pretty barbaric, one not to be described here most definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. . . fully deserved by them."
1943: “Blue Ribbon Town” featuring Jewish comedian Groucho Marx was heard for the first time on CBS Radio
1944: Several of the leaders of the Yishuv including executives of the Jewish Agency and General Council of Palestine Jews, Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach and the municipal councilors of Tel Aviv and Mayor Joseph Saphir of Petak Tikvah met in Jerusalem this morning to deal with the latest outbreak violence by “the small terrorist group whose sabotage activities have led to a new and grave situation.” Among those calling for action to end the violence were chief Rabbis Isaac Herzog and Bension Uziel.
1944: In A Children’s Aktion, the Nazis collected all of the Jewish children of Lovno.
1944(3rd of Nisan, 5704): Forty Jewish policemen were shot by the Gestapo in the Riga Ghetto.
1944(3rd of Nisan, 5704): Two thousand Jews were murdered in Kaunas Lithuania
1944: One thousand Jews left the Drancy Concentration Camp in France for Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1944(3rd of Nisan, 5704): Resistance fighter Abraham Geleman, born in Lodz was killed in Belgium.
1944: As the Red Army approached Riga, Kovno and Vilna, Germany picked up the pace with actions against the surviving inhabitants of the ghettos. Children everywhere were being seized and driven off to their death. "The Children's Action" in Kovno resulted in the death of thousands of children under the age of 17. Most of them were shot. In order to spare their children from such horrors, some parents poisoned them. In Lodz, a mother killed her severely handicapped boy with a lead pipe across the head instead of allowing him to meet his fate with the Germans.
1945: Task Force Baum, the unit under the command of Captain Abraham Baum that had been sent behind enemy lines to liberate camp OFLAG XIII-B, near Hammelburg whose POW’s included the son-in-law of General Patton broke through the bridgehead at Aschaffenburg and “arrived in sight of the camp” by the afternoon.
1945(13th of Nisan, 5705): Jacob S. Kahn, the president of the Refrigeration Maintenance Company passed away today at the age of 62. Kahn had been a builder during the 1920’s, who erected the Hyde Park Hotel.
1945(13th of Nisan, 5705): The Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Moshe Avigdor Amiel, passed away today at the age of 65.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~szwetch/Stamps.of.Israel/6.html
1949(26th of Adar): Russian born Hebrew poetess Elisheva Bikhowsky passed away
1949: The Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace, co-sponsored by Herbert Aptheker came to a close today.
1950: After having been "rebuffed" by Levi Eshkol, the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency, Shlomo Hillel, "one of the Israeli organizers of the Iraqi Jewish emigration""went to see Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion who was totally supportive of the mass emigration from Iraq.’Tell them to come quickly,' Ben-Gurion said to Hillel...'What if the Iraqis change their minds and rescind the law? go and bring them quickly.'" Hillel would return to Iraq and try to expedite matters but the Jewish Agency "held the purse strings" and insisted on slowing down the immigration movement to what it considered were more manageable numbers.
1950: Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, the 75 year old conduct emeritus conductor of the Boston Symphony is scheduled to leave for Europe today after having conducted 16 concerts in Israel.
1950: Anglo-Israeli financial negotiations on problems dating from the days of the mandate are scheduled to come to a successful conclusion today with the planned signing of an agreement in London.
1950: The New York Times publishes a picture of Charlotte Johnson, The American Red Cross representative in Israel, watching as Jewish children who have arrived in Tel Aviv from Europe receive clothes made from textiles donated by the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Red Cross.
1950: An adaptation of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" a comedy written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart was broadcast on the Lux Radio Theatre.
1952(1st of Nisan, 5712: Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Jewish Agency decided to send 100 disgruntled immigrants from India, who had been squatting outside the agency's offices in Tel Aviv, back to where they came from, announcing that this should not serve as a future precedent insofar as other immigrants were concerned.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Ministry of Health had announced that every Israeli between the ages of four and 60 would be inoculated against typhoid.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that at The Hague the German delegation to the Reparations Conference expressed surprise at the extent of the Jewish request of the sum of $500 million, to be paid within five years. They expected a smaller sum, but agreed to recognize all claims as "urgent" and had "shown willingness" to meet them. Jewish delegates pointed out that they didn’t want to wait until all the Nazi victims were dead, but intended to help the living.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli delegation in London held extensive talks on possible oil deliveries and economic cooperation.
1952: Release date for “Singin’ in the Rain,” a musical comedy directed by Stanley Doenen written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
1959: Twenty-seven year old "Elizabeth Taylor took the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel and converted to Judaism."
1975(15thof Nisan, 5735): Pesach
1977: In Allentown, PA, Donald and Melina Kohn gave birth to Sally Rebecca Kohn founder and chief education officer of the Movement Vision Lab, a contributor to Fox News and “a distinguished Vaid Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute.”
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the week-long port workers’ go-slow strike continued and ships were loaded at half the normal rate. Angry citrus farmers called on the government to allow them to load their fruit by themselves. The Bank Leumi strike ended and its 300 branches opened for business. The hospital doctors’ strike was called off at the last moment. But radio and TV broadcasts were halted for seven hours as the result of a strike by the Broadcasting Authority administrative staff.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in New York US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance promised Jewish leaders that during his forthcoming visit to Moscow he would discuss the problems of Soviet Jewry at the Kremlin.
1991: Isaiah Berlin met with author Lewis M. Dabney, a professor of English at the University of Wyoming in London at the Athenaeum Club. Dabney was editing Edmund Wilson's last journal, ''The Sixties,'' and had begun a biography. Dabney wanted Berlin to fill out the account of Wilson he had begun in a short memoir published a few years earlier. In the course of their conversation, Berlin told Dabney two “funny stories” about Wilson’s visit to Israel. Wilson “ went to Jordan and when he came back he had to pass through the Mandelbaum Gate. The Israeli passport officer looked at his passport, noticed it was Edmund Wilson, then said: ''I think your dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls is not quite right. I think it should have been 50 years before.'' And Edmund answered, and the chief officer said: ''Stamp Mr. Wilson's passport. You can't discuss the scrolls here, not on the Government's time.'' He talked to me about that afterward, saying, 'Only in Israel would I find a passport officer who wished to question the date of the scrolls.'’ That amused him. It pleased him. Then he went to see the man he most admired in Israel, who was a scholar called Flusser (David Flusser) in Jerusalem, who talked to him about the Bible and the scrolls. Edmund asked him what he thought of Israel. Flusser said: 'Israel est un tres petit pays. Et je ne suis pas patriote.’ He was delighted with that. Anybody who said he wasn't a patriot went straight to his heart.”
1994(15th of Nisan, 5754): First Day of Pesach
1996: The New York Times featured a review of Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
1998: After meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai in the U.S. today U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen indicated that Washington has agreed to expand the joint Arrow anti-missile project and provide $45 million in funding for a third battery of missiles for Israel.
1998: The Times of London included a review of John Murray’s biography of Edmund de Rothschild entitled "A Gilt-Edged Life."
2000: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urges Israel to return the annexed Golan Heights to Syria.
2002 (14th of Nisan, 5762): A suicide bomber killed 29 Israelis during a Passover Seder in Netanya, Israel. The stark statement speaks for itself.
2002 (14th of Nisan, 5762): Milton Berle passed away. Born Mendel Berlinger on July 12, 1908, Berle's career began at the age of five when he modeled as Buster Brown. He starred in a variety of entertainment mediums. But he gained his greatest fame as Uncle Miltie, star of the Texaco Milton Berle Show. The show began airing in 1948. It was the first national television hit and became a must see every Tuesday night. Berle was also one of the first to learn that television was a devouring medium that used you up and spit you out. Although his career would last for another half century, he would never know the success he gained with his Tuesday night television triumph. Berle died at the age of 93, smoking cigars and stealing other people's material almost to his last day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/arts/milton-berle-tv-s-first-star-as-uncle-miltie-dies-at-93.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2002(14th of Nisan, 5762): Director Billy Wilder passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/us/billy-wilder-master-of-caustic-films-dies-at-95.html
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/mar/30/guardianobituaries
2004: Eighty-one year old Dr. Sabina Zimering sat in the audience at the Great American History Theatre in Saint Paul, MN and watched the remarkable story of her own survival in Nazi Europe unfold on stage.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of topics of special interest to Jewish readers including "Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages" by Jaroslav Pelikan and the recently released paperback edition of "Someone to Run With" by Israeli novelist David Grossman; translated by Vered Almog and Maya Gurantz.
2006(27th of Adar, 5766): Eighty-one year old Rudolf Vrba, who as a young man escaped from Auschwitz and provided the first eyewitness evidence not only of the magnitude of the tragedy unfolding at the death camp but also of the exact mechanics of Nazi mass extermination passed away at a hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/world/europe/07vrba.html
2008: Sammy Ofer donated £20 million to London's National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, as part of a £35 million program of expansion.
2008: The 92nd Street Y presents a lecture by Professor Robert Seltzer a professor of history at Hunter College and Director of the Hunter Interdisciplinary Program in Jewish Studies who answers the questions “Why was the State of Israel needed? What were the reasons behind its establishment by the Jewish Diaspora?”
2008: Haaretz reported that two of its writers Shmuel Rosner and Or Kashti were recently named winners of the B'nai B'rith World Center Award for Journalism for 2007 on the basis of their work for the paper. Rosner was awarded a certificate of merit for his current series, "The State of Judaism," which surveys trends among Jews in the United States. Kashti was awarded a certificate of excellence for a series on Jewish education in the U.S., France and Ukraine .Honored for electronic journalism by B'nai B'rith were Tamar Ish-Shalom and Yisrael Rosner, for a series on U.S. Jews broadcast on Channel 10. Rabbi Eliahu Birnbaum was awarded the print journalism award for his articles in Makor Rishon on remote Jewish communities in the U.S. Veteran journalist Shalom Rosenfeld, former editor of Maariv, was given a lifetime achievement award. "It's nice to discover there is an audience of readers in Israel that is interested in the fate of the Jewish community in the United States. That interest on both sides of the ocean is important and even critical for the continued survival of the Jewish people as a single entity," Rosner said. Kashti, Haaretz education correspondent, said, "the variety of forms of Jewish education in the Diaspora is a rich learning resource, including for the Israeli education system."
2008: As President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria’s visit to Israel came to an end, Bulgaria accepted responsibility for the genocide of more than 11,000 Jews in its jurisdiction during World War II. The 11,000 Jewish victims were residents of Thrace in Greece and Macedonia in Yugoslavia, areas annexed to Bulgaria in April 1941.
2009: In Baltimore, Maryland B’nai Israel Synagogue presented a Friday night event featuring Philip J. Tulkoff, President, Tulkoff Food Products who delivered a talk entitled “Memories of Horseradish Lane and the Growth of Tulkoff Foods” in which he reminisced about “the good old days.” Thanks to the efforts of Lena and Harry Tulkoff that began in the 1920’s Tulkoff Horseradish Products Company became one of the nation's largest manufacturers of prepared horseradish products.
2009(2 Nisan, 5769): Eighty-six year old Irving R. Levine whose ever-present bow tie was his unique visual signature while he covered business and the economy for NBC News passed away. Unlike the blowhards and blow dried talking heads who read this news beat today, Levine understood the subject matter and conveyed it a low keyed professional manner. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/28levine.html
2010: Shabbat HaGadol
2010: Sidney Ferris Rosenberg, the radio personality who is the cousin of former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman “returned to WFAN hosting a show in Port St. Lucie before the New York Mets faced the Washington Nationals.”
2010: The Jewish Ensemble Theatre is scheduled to present Wendy Kesselman’s newly adapted version of The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, MI
2010: Opening of the “Legacy of the Shoah Film Festival” at John Jay College in New York City. The opening night features Forgotten Transports: Women’s Stories – Estonia, Children of the Night by Marion Wiesel and a discussion with the award-winning director Lukas Pribyl.
2011 Dr. Jane Katz “was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Commack, New York for her pioneering athletic contributions to the field of aquatics”
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including “Great Soul Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India” by Joseph Lelyveld and the recently released paperback edition of” Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” by Lori Gottlieb
2011: YU Center for Israel Studies, Yeshiva University Museum, YU Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies presented "Talmuda de-Eretz Israel: Archaeology and the Rabbis in Late Antique Palestine."
2011: “Norman Gorbaty: To Honor My People,” exhibition at the Walsh Art Gallery is scheduled to come to a close at Fairfield University, Fairfield, Conn.
2011: “The Chosen” is scheduled to be performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC under the sponsorship of Theatre J.
2011: The Harry Houdini Exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York is scheduled to come to an end.
2011: The second annual Limmud Conference is scheduled to take place in Chicago, Illinois.
2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor A Walking Tour of Old Jewish Alexandria.
2011: “The Infidel” and “The Human Resources Manager” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2011: “The Whipping Man,” featuring a Seder on the first night of Pesach as its dramatic hook, is scheduled to have its last performance at the City Center State in New York.
2011: Six gunmen in Sinai targeted the pipeline that carries natural gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan today, overpowering a guard and planting an explosive device before fleeing, The Associated Press reported.
2011: Bank Leumi and Hashava – The Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets ended months of arbitration by signing an agreement in which the bank will pay the company NIS 130.8 million, the two sides announced today. The money will go to heirs of Holocaust victims and toward projects that help Israeli Holocaust survivors – more than a quarter of whom live under the poverty line, according to government estimates.
2011(21st of Adar II, 5771): Ninety-five year old Bernard B. Roth; founder of South Gate-based World Oil Corporation passed away today.(As reported by Shan Li)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/31/local/la-me-bernard-roth-20110331
2012: The 16th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end with a reception and a tango party.
2012: The Andy Statman Trio is scheduled to perform klezmer music at the Charles Street Synagogue.
2013(16thof Nisan): Second Day of Pesach
2013: “Jews of Egypt” a “controversial documentary on Egypt’s expulsion of its long-resident Jewish population opened” to at three movie theatres in Cairo and Alexandria “despite an initial effort by the Egyptian government to block its release.”
2013: The 23rdannual Haifa International Children’s Theatre Festival is scheduled to open at the Haifa Municipal Festival Theatre Complex.
2013: Bulgaria will provide more evidence that Hezbollah planned the airport bus bombing that killed five Israelis in Burgas last year, and to use that proof to pressure the European Union to formally label the Iran-backed Islamist group a terrorist organization, Reuters reported today
2013: Some of Israel’s most sensitive computer information is stored on servers in a building above ground in the south of the country, acutely vulnerable to attack or natural disaster, a TV investigative report said today.
538 BCE: Cyrus was crowned “King of Babylonia and King of All Lands.” Cyrus was the King who made it possible for the Jews to return to Judea marking the end of the Babylonian exile.
196 BCE: Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. Ptolemy was one of the Graeco-Egyptian rulers who fought with Antiochus for the control of Judea.
1188: Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, who was comparatively protective of his Jewish subject “took up the Cross” and joined what would become the Third CRusdae.
1191: Pope Clement III died. Clement was one of the Popes locked in a power struggle with the Holy Roman Emperor, Henry IV. The Jews were pawns in this battle. Henry considered the Jews to be his subjects and beyond the control of the Church. During the First Crusade, the hordes going through Germany killed and robbed the Jews. At the same time, many Jews were forced to convert. Henry was in Italy and much to the dismay of the Pope, when he heard what was going on in Germany, the Emperor set about punishing those of the perpetrators who were still around including at least one archbishop. He also ordered that any Jew who had converted under duress should be allowed to return to the faith of their fathers. Clement over-ruled the Emperor on this one. He did not how people were brought to Jesus, but once they were there, there was no going back.
1309: Pope Clement V, who in 1305 became the first pope to threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt to force them to stop charging Christians interest on loans, excommunicated Venice and all its population.
1378: Gregory XI, the last of the Avignon Popes, passed away. In 1375 Gregory had issued an order “to compel” Jews to hear sermons. The order would later be vacated and replaced by the older formula allowing one to “exhort” the Jews to listen. (For more see Popes, Church and Jews in the Middle Ages by Kenneth Stow)
1639: In Rome, a child is forcibly baptized after his father jokingly remarked that he would not mind it, on the condition that the Pope acted as godfather. The Jews rioted and were violently crushed. As a result, two of his children were taken, one a baby, and were carried in a ceremony by the Pope.
1775(25th of Adar, 1775): Rabbi Chaim Ben David Abulafia, author of Nishmat Chaim passed away.
1786(27th of Adar, 5546): Based on tombstone found in the original Jewish cemetery in Ghent, date on which an unnamed Jew passed away. This unknown Jew or Jewess was the first Israelite to be legally buried in the city under the reign of Joseph II.
1820: In Baghdad, David Sassoon and Hannah Joseph gave birth to businessman Elias David Sassoon.
1827(28th of Adar): Rabbi Samuel ben Nathan Ha-Levi author of Mahat-zit ha Shekel passed away
1836: During the Texas Revolution, an untold number of Jews died when Antonio López de Santa Anna ordered the Mexican army to kill about 400 Texas POW's who had fought under James Fannin at Goliad, Texas.
1839(12thof Nisan, 5669): The Jews were forced to convert in Meshed, Iran. Influenced by other anti-Jewish riots under the Kajar Dynasty in Iran, the local community attacked the Jewish quarter. The Synagogue was destroyed, over 30 Jews killed and the rest of the community threatened with annihilation. Moslem leaders offered to prevent further riots on condition that the Jews convert, which they did. The Jews became known as Jadid al-Islam or New Moslems thus ending the presence of the Jewish community. They continued to practice their Judaism in secret and fled the city with their families whenever an opportunity for escape presented itself.
1847: Birthdate of German born chemist Otto Wallach who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
1850(14thof Nisan, 5610): Ta’anit Bechorot; Erev Pesach
1850(14thof Nisan, 5610): Fifty three year old banker and astronomer Wilhelm Wolff Beer for whom the crater Beers on Mars is named and who is the brother of Giacomo Meybeer passed away.
1861: The New York Times reports a drop in the sale of livestock this week due to Lent and the observance of Passover.
1863: In response to the “recommendation by the President of the Confederacy” that this be a Day of Prayer, Rabbi M. J. Michelbacher, of the German synagogue Bayth Ahabah in Richmond, Virginia, preached a sermon, "to which he added a prayer for the Confederate States of America "to crown our independence with lasting honor and prosperity," and for its president, Jefferson Davis, "grant speedy success to his endeavors to free our country from the presence of its foes." [On a personal note, it never ceases to amaze me that Jews could support slavery. How does one go to a Seder after reciting such a prayer?]
1869: The New York Times reported that “At sundown last evening the Jewish Feast of Passover commenced. It was instituted in commemoration of the deliverance of God's chosen people from Egypt, in bondage, and the passing over by the destroying angel of those families the doors of whose dwellings were marked with the blood of the Paschal Lamb.”
1869(15th of Nisan, 5629): First Day of Pesach; in the evening count the Omer for the first time.
1869(15th of Nisan, 5629): In New York Temple Emanuel and the Nineteenth-street synagogue were among the Jewish houses of worship holding services on the first day of Passover.
1876: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association moved from its temporary quarters to the Harvard Rooms at Forty-second street and Sixth avenue in New York City.
1877: In New York City, Justice Murray dismissed charges filed against Henry Sollinger for having obtained money under false pretense from Mrs. Jane Ferguson. Sollinger was born Jewish but claimed to have converted to Christianity at which time he began using the alias Frederick E. Hall.
1879: It was reported today that the Hebrew Free School Association has received $10, 840.60. The money was raised by the Purim Association at its dress ball that had been held on March 6th.
1880(15th of Nisan, 5640): First Day of Pesach
1880: It was reported today that Baron James de Rothschild is President of the newly formed society established in Paris to promote Jewish studies.
1884(1st of Nisan, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1888(15thof Nisan, 5648): Pesach
1890(6thof Nisan, 5650): Emanuel Berhnheimer a native of Germany who came to the United States in 1844 and formed a partnership with August Schmid that led to formation of Lion Brewery, passed away today.
1892: The Biennial Convention of the Jewish Theological Seminary Association was held at the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1893: The Bowery Amphitheater “reopened as a Hebrew theatre under the management of Sigmund Magulesko, Isidore Lindeman and Joseph Levy.
1893: Birthdate of sociologist Karl Mannheim, author of Ideology and Utopia. Born in Hungary, he passed away in London in 1947.
1893: “Jews and Intermarriage” published today contains a refutation by Rabbi Mendes of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of previously published sermons that Jewish law does not prohibit intermarriage between a Jew and his earnest request that further discussion of this topic be limited to the Jewish press.
1895: Professor Felix Adler delivered a lecture tonight at the Hebrew Institute on “The Influences of Organized Labor.”
1898: “In Algeria the sixth paper devoted to anti-Semitism, L'Anti-Juif Algérien, appeared, with an illustrated supplement”
1898: “Austro-Hungarian Polity” published today described the some of the cause of that have led to unrest in certain agrarian districts including “a marked contempt and dislike for commerce and trade” among Hungarians, “so that the industry of this country is to a large extent, in the hands of the Jews.”
1899: New York Mayor Van Wyck met with six boys from the Hebrew Institute at Jefferson and East Broadway.
1900: Herzl had a meeting with Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber about sanctioning the Viennese electoral reform. He requests that the “Neue Freie Presse” should not oppose the reform too massively.
1901: Anti-Jewish riots began in Smyrna, Turkey. The riots were triggered by the reports of the disappearance of a child who was said to have been slaughtered by the Jews for 'ritual murder.' Though the riots continued for four days, the child was eventually found and paraded through the streets to show he was indeed alive.
1903: The Zionist Commission met Herzl in Cairo.
1904(11thof Nisan, 5664): Colonel Albert Edward Goldsmid the distinguished British officer who founded the Jewish Lads’ Brigade and the Maccabaeans passed away.
1906: At the insistence of the Chief Rabbi of Bulgaria, the Minister of the Interior of Bulgaria issues a circular to his governors to take every form of precaution against anti-Semitism over Easter.
1906(1st of Nisan): First publication of Der Yiddisher Kemfer, a publication American Labor Zionism
1909: Birthdate of historian Golo Mann, the son of Thomas Mann. His mother was Jewish, which, according to Halachah, means the younger Mann was Jewish as well.
1913: Birthdate of SS Captain Theodore Dannecker, one of Eichman’s underlings who was a “ruthless” participate in the Final Solution.
1912: A Jew, for the first time, receives an appointment as an officer in the Ottoman Turkish Army upon graduation from the Imperial Military Academy.
1914: Birthdate of Budd Schulberg, the novelist and screenwriter whose credits include “What Makes Sammy Run” and “On the Waterfront.”
1917(4th of Nisan, 5677): Seventy-two year old Civil War veteran and sculpture Moses Jacob Ezekiel passed away in Rome, Italy
http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ezekiel.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/mezekiel.html
1918: Henry Adams passed away. To many he was part of the last generation of the distinguished Adams family. For Jews he was that and a little more or should I say a little less. In 1894, Henry Adams organized the Immigration Restriction League to limit the admission to America of "unhealthy elements" -- Jews being first among these. In his famous book, The Education of Henry Adams, he wrote about those he was trying to keep out of America: "Not a Polish Jew fresh from Warsaw or Cracow - not a furtive Jacob or Isaac still reeking of the Ghetto, snarling a weird Yiddish to the officers of the customs..." He found many supporters for his cause, but he did not win
1921: During his fact finding visit to Palestine, Winston Churchill went to the British Military Cemetery on the Mount of Olives to attend a service of dedication honoring the sacrifice of Allied soldiers who had fought against the Turks.
1922: In San Francisco, Joseph and Lillian Kurzman gave birth to military historian Daniel Halperin Kurzman whose works included include Ben-Gurion: Prophet of Fire. (As reported by Daniel Slontnik)
1923: Birthdate of British impresario Victor Hochhauser who, along with his wife, promoted numerous events including those for the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.
1923: Lord Grey, who “had been the foreign secretary during the McMahon-Hussein negotiations”, addressed the House of Lords today. During his speech, “he made it clear that he entertained serious doubts as to the validity of the British government's interpretation of the pledges which he, as foreign secretary, had caused to be given to Hussein in 1915.
1923: Sidney and Helen Livingston Weinberg gave birth to Sidney J. Weinberg, Jr. who would become a senior director at Goldman-Sachs.
1923: Birthdate of Prof. Nahum M. Sarna, z"l the father of Jonathan Sarna and a noted scholar in his own right.
https://www2.bc.edu/~langerr/NMSarna/
1927: In New York City, Kassel Lewis and Sylvia Surut gave birth to New York Times correspondent Anthony Lewis, the author of Gideon’s Triumph
1928(6th of Nisan): Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzki, son of Rabbi Chaim Yitzchak Ber Plotzker of Kutno, the President of Kollel Polen and a prolific author whose works included Chemdas Yisrael on Sefer ha-Mitzvot passed away today. When Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzki visited America, he “pronounced Manischewtiz matzah to be thoroughly reliable – ‘there is none more faithful to be found’ – citing “constant supervision of one of the sages of Jerusalem,” Rabbi Mendel M. Hochstein.
1930: “The meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency ended this morning after a short session with Felix M. Warburg, chairman, and Dr. Chaim Weizmann, president of the Agency, expressing their satisfaction with the work that had been accomplished. There was a general feeling among the participants that the meeting had been fruitful of practical results for Palestine, and there was particular gratification that the complete budget of three and a half million dollars was confirmed.” (As reported by JTA)
1931: Charlie Chaplin received France's distinguished Legion of Honor
1933: In “Germany: Scared To Death,” Time reported that “To say that most German statesmen & politicians outside the Government's charmed circle were scared to death last week, would be understatement. Panic made cowards of the bravest of brave German Socialists and Communists. Even Catholics trembled—except Dr. Hans Luther. It was accurately said that in less than two weeks Chancellor Hitler has reduced his opponents to a lower level of groveling fear than did Premier Mussolini in the two years after the March on Rome, Oct. 30, 1922.”
1933: A gigantic anti-Nazi protest rally, organized by the American Jewish Congress, was held in New York City. 55,000 people attended and threatened to boycott German goods if the Germans carried out their planned permanent boycott of Jewish-owned stores and businesses.
1937(15th of Nisan, 5697): First Day of Pesach.
1937: In New York, at Shaarey Tefilah “two fires occurred simultaneously in the basement of the synagogue and caused minor damage. Later that same morning, at 10 o'clock, 700 persons assembled to celebrate the second Seder of the Passover. A few hours after the congregation had gone, a third fire was reported at 3:15 o'clock. This fire damaged the Ark of the Covenant and destroyed 18 hand-illuminated Torah kept in the Tabernacle. The $25,000 pipe organ was badly damaged and the entire south end of the synagogue was wrecked by flames, smoke and the axes of the firemen. After investigations by the Fire Marshall, it was discovered that the incendiary fires had been set by the synagogue's caretaker. The synagogue was reconstructed and remodeled to designs of S. Brian Baylinson, and a four-story synagogue house was added.
1938: Miss Henrietta Szold, 77-year-old founder of Hadassah, the Woman's Zionist Organization of America sent a cable from Jerusalem to Hadassah headquarters in New York describing her efforts to arrange for the transfer of Jewish children from Austria to Palestine. “The change is described as vital and as being the only hope for the youngsters to ever lead normal lives.”
1940: Himmler ordered the building of Auschwitz concentration Camp in southern Poland
1941: A Yugoslav government that was sympathetic to the Nazis “was toppled by an anti-German military coup” which lead to a Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece in April. This would prove to be disastrous for the Jews of the Balkans since it would bring them into the grasp of the Final Solution. Ironically, the long term effect of this would lead to the ultimate defeat of the Germans in WW II. The invasion of the Balkans delayed the German invasion of Russia. That delay meant the German army would be mired in the Russian Winter, which was a major factor in handing the Nazi war machine its first defeats on the eastern front.
1942: On day after the start of the deportation of Slovokian Jews, Slovakia’s Chief Rabbi Micahel Weissmand and the Slovokian Zionist leader Gisi Fleischann sent a message of SS Captain Dieter Wisliceny offering him a bribe stop the shipment of the Jews to the death camps.
1942: Goebbels described in his diary, Belzec and the cremation of the Jews, "The procedure is pretty barbaric, one not to be described here most definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews. . . fully deserved by them."
1943: “Blue Ribbon Town” featuring Jewish comedian Groucho Marx was heard for the first time on CBS Radio
1944: Several of the leaders of the Yishuv including executives of the Jewish Agency and General Council of Palestine Jews, Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach and the municipal councilors of Tel Aviv and Mayor Joseph Saphir of Petak Tikvah met in Jerusalem this morning to deal with the latest outbreak violence by “the small terrorist group whose sabotage activities have led to a new and grave situation.” Among those calling for action to end the violence were chief Rabbis Isaac Herzog and Bension Uziel.
1944: In A Children’s Aktion, the Nazis collected all of the Jewish children of Lovno.
1944(3rd of Nisan, 5704): Forty Jewish policemen were shot by the Gestapo in the Riga Ghetto.
1944(3rd of Nisan, 5704): Two thousand Jews were murdered in Kaunas Lithuania
1944: One thousand Jews left the Drancy Concentration Camp in France for Auschwitz Concentration Camp
1944(3rd of Nisan, 5704): Resistance fighter Abraham Geleman, born in Lodz was killed in Belgium.
1944: As the Red Army approached Riga, Kovno and Vilna, Germany picked up the pace with actions against the surviving inhabitants of the ghettos. Children everywhere were being seized and driven off to their death. "The Children's Action" in Kovno resulted in the death of thousands of children under the age of 17. Most of them were shot. In order to spare their children from such horrors, some parents poisoned them. In Lodz, a mother killed her severely handicapped boy with a lead pipe across the head instead of allowing him to meet his fate with the Germans.
1945: Task Force Baum, the unit under the command of Captain Abraham Baum that had been sent behind enemy lines to liberate camp OFLAG XIII-B, near Hammelburg whose POW’s included the son-in-law of General Patton broke through the bridgehead at Aschaffenburg and “arrived in sight of the camp” by the afternoon.
1945(13th of Nisan, 5705): Jacob S. Kahn, the president of the Refrigeration Maintenance Company passed away today at the age of 62. Kahn had been a builder during the 1920’s, who erected the Hyde Park Hotel.
1945(13th of Nisan, 5705): The Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, Moshe Avigdor Amiel, passed away today at the age of 65.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~szwetch/Stamps.of.Israel/6.html
1949(26th of Adar): Russian born Hebrew poetess Elisheva Bikhowsky passed away
1949: The Scientific and Cultural Conference for World Peace, co-sponsored by Herbert Aptheker came to a close today.
1950: After having been "rebuffed" by Levi Eshkol, the Treasurer of the Jewish Agency, Shlomo Hillel, "one of the Israeli organizers of the Iraqi Jewish emigration""went to see Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion who was totally supportive of the mass emigration from Iraq.’Tell them to come quickly,' Ben-Gurion said to Hillel...'What if the Iraqis change their minds and rescind the law? go and bring them quickly.'" Hillel would return to Iraq and try to expedite matters but the Jewish Agency "held the purse strings" and insisted on slowing down the immigration movement to what it considered were more manageable numbers.
1950: Dr. Serge Koussevitzky, the 75 year old conduct emeritus conductor of the Boston Symphony is scheduled to leave for Europe today after having conducted 16 concerts in Israel.
1950: Anglo-Israeli financial negotiations on problems dating from the days of the mandate are scheduled to come to a successful conclusion today with the planned signing of an agreement in London.
1950: The New York Times publishes a picture of Charlotte Johnson, The American Red Cross representative in Israel, watching as Jewish children who have arrived in Tel Aviv from Europe receive clothes made from textiles donated by the Brooklyn Chapter of the American Red Cross.
1950: An adaptation of "The Man Who Came to Dinner" a comedy written by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart was broadcast on the Lux Radio Theatre.
1952(1st of Nisan, 5712: Rosh Chodesh Nisan
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Jewish Agency decided to send 100 disgruntled immigrants from India, who had been squatting outside the agency's offices in Tel Aviv, back to where they came from, announcing that this should not serve as a future precedent insofar as other immigrants were concerned.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that The Ministry of Health had announced that every Israeli between the ages of four and 60 would be inoculated against typhoid.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that at The Hague the German delegation to the Reparations Conference expressed surprise at the extent of the Jewish request of the sum of $500 million, to be paid within five years. They expected a smaller sum, but agreed to recognize all claims as "urgent" and had "shown willingness" to meet them. Jewish delegates pointed out that they didn’t want to wait until all the Nazi victims were dead, but intended to help the living.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli delegation in London held extensive talks on possible oil deliveries and economic cooperation.
1952: Release date for “Singin’ in the Rain,” a musical comedy directed by Stanley Doenen written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green
1959: Twenty-seven year old "Elizabeth Taylor took the Hebrew name Elisheba Rachel and converted to Judaism."
1975(15thof Nisan, 5735): Pesach
1977: In Allentown, PA, Donald and Melina Kohn gave birth to Sally Rebecca Kohn founder and chief education officer of the Movement Vision Lab, a contributor to Fox News and “a distinguished Vaid Fellow at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Policy Institute.”
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that the week-long port workers’ go-slow strike continued and ships were loaded at half the normal rate. Angry citrus farmers called on the government to allow them to load their fruit by themselves. The Bank Leumi strike ended and its 300 branches opened for business. The hospital doctors’ strike was called off at the last moment. But radio and TV broadcasts were halted for seven hours as the result of a strike by the Broadcasting Authority administrative staff.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that in New York US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance promised Jewish leaders that during his forthcoming visit to Moscow he would discuss the problems of Soviet Jewry at the Kremlin.
1991: Isaiah Berlin met with author Lewis M. Dabney, a professor of English at the University of Wyoming in London at the Athenaeum Club. Dabney was editing Edmund Wilson's last journal, ''The Sixties,'' and had begun a biography. Dabney wanted Berlin to fill out the account of Wilson he had begun in a short memoir published a few years earlier. In the course of their conversation, Berlin told Dabney two “funny stories” about Wilson’s visit to Israel. Wilson “ went to Jordan and when he came back he had to pass through the Mandelbaum Gate. The Israeli passport officer looked at his passport, noticed it was Edmund Wilson, then said: ''I think your dating of the Dead Sea Scrolls is not quite right. I think it should have been 50 years before.'' And Edmund answered, and the chief officer said: ''Stamp Mr. Wilson's passport. You can't discuss the scrolls here, not on the Government's time.'' He talked to me about that afterward, saying, 'Only in Israel would I find a passport officer who wished to question the date of the scrolls.'’ That amused him. It pleased him. Then he went to see the man he most admired in Israel, who was a scholar called Flusser (David Flusser) in Jerusalem, who talked to him about the Bible and the scrolls. Edmund asked him what he thought of Israel. Flusser said: 'Israel est un tres petit pays. Et je ne suis pas patriote.’ He was delighted with that. Anybody who said he wasn't a patriot went straight to his heart.”
1994(15th of Nisan, 5754): First Day of Pesach
1996: The New York Times featured a review of Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
1998: After meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai in the U.S. today U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen indicated that Washington has agreed to expand the joint Arrow anti-missile project and provide $45 million in funding for a third battery of missiles for Israel.
1998: The Times of London included a review of John Murray’s biography of Edmund de Rothschild entitled "A Gilt-Edged Life."
2000: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urges Israel to return the annexed Golan Heights to Syria.
2002 (14th of Nisan, 5762): A suicide bomber killed 29 Israelis during a Passover Seder in Netanya, Israel. The stark statement speaks for itself.
2002 (14th of Nisan, 5762): Milton Berle passed away. Born Mendel Berlinger on July 12, 1908, Berle's career began at the age of five when he modeled as Buster Brown. He starred in a variety of entertainment mediums. But he gained his greatest fame as Uncle Miltie, star of the Texaco Milton Berle Show. The show began airing in 1948. It was the first national television hit and became a must see every Tuesday night. Berle was also one of the first to learn that television was a devouring medium that used you up and spit you out. Although his career would last for another half century, he would never know the success he gained with his Tuesday night television triumph. Berle died at the age of 93, smoking cigars and stealing other people's material almost to his last day.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/arts/milton-berle-tv-s-first-star-as-uncle-miltie-dies-at-93.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
2002(14th of Nisan, 5762): Director Billy Wilder passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/us/billy-wilder-master-of-caustic-films-dies-at-95.html
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/mar/30/guardianobituaries
2004: Eighty-one year old Dr. Sabina Zimering sat in the audience at the Great American History Theatre in Saint Paul, MN and watched the remarkable story of her own survival in Nazi Europe unfold on stage.
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of topics of special interest to Jewish readers including "Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages" by Jaroslav Pelikan and the recently released paperback edition of "Someone to Run With" by Israeli novelist David Grossman; translated by Vered Almog and Maya Gurantz.
2006(27th of Adar, 5766): Eighty-one year old Rudolf Vrba, who as a young man escaped from Auschwitz and provided the first eyewitness evidence not only of the magnitude of the tragedy unfolding at the death camp but also of the exact mechanics of Nazi mass extermination passed away at a hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/world/europe/07vrba.html
2008: Sammy Ofer donated £20 million to London's National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, as part of a £35 million program of expansion.
2008: The 92nd Street Y presents a lecture by Professor Robert Seltzer a professor of history at Hunter College and Director of the Hunter Interdisciplinary Program in Jewish Studies who answers the questions “Why was the State of Israel needed? What were the reasons behind its establishment by the Jewish Diaspora?”
2008: Haaretz reported that two of its writers Shmuel Rosner and Or Kashti were recently named winners of the B'nai B'rith World Center Award for Journalism for 2007 on the basis of their work for the paper. Rosner was awarded a certificate of merit for his current series, "The State of Judaism," which surveys trends among Jews in the United States. Kashti was awarded a certificate of excellence for a series on Jewish education in the U.S., France and Ukraine .Honored for electronic journalism by B'nai B'rith were Tamar Ish-Shalom and Yisrael Rosner, for a series on U.S. Jews broadcast on Channel 10. Rabbi Eliahu Birnbaum was awarded the print journalism award for his articles in Makor Rishon on remote Jewish communities in the U.S. Veteran journalist Shalom Rosenfeld, former editor of Maariv, was given a lifetime achievement award. "It's nice to discover there is an audience of readers in Israel that is interested in the fate of the Jewish community in the United States. That interest on both sides of the ocean is important and even critical for the continued survival of the Jewish people as a single entity," Rosner said. Kashti, Haaretz education correspondent, said, "the variety of forms of Jewish education in the Diaspora is a rich learning resource, including for the Israeli education system."
2008: As President Georgi Parvanov of Bulgaria’s visit to Israel came to an end, Bulgaria accepted responsibility for the genocide of more than 11,000 Jews in its jurisdiction during World War II. The 11,000 Jewish victims were residents of Thrace in Greece and Macedonia in Yugoslavia, areas annexed to Bulgaria in April 1941.
2009: In Baltimore, Maryland B’nai Israel Synagogue presented a Friday night event featuring Philip J. Tulkoff, President, Tulkoff Food Products who delivered a talk entitled “Memories of Horseradish Lane and the Growth of Tulkoff Foods” in which he reminisced about “the good old days.” Thanks to the efforts of Lena and Harry Tulkoff that began in the 1920’s Tulkoff Horseradish Products Company became one of the nation's largest manufacturers of prepared horseradish products.
2009(2 Nisan, 5769): Eighty-six year old Irving R. Levine whose ever-present bow tie was his unique visual signature while he covered business and the economy for NBC News passed away. Unlike the blowhards and blow dried talking heads who read this news beat today, Levine understood the subject matter and conveyed it a low keyed professional manner. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/28/business/28levine.html
2010: Shabbat HaGadol
2010: Sidney Ferris Rosenberg, the radio personality who is the cousin of former Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman “returned to WFAN hosting a show in Port St. Lucie before the New York Mets faced the Washington Nationals.”
2010: The Jewish Ensemble Theatre is scheduled to present Wendy Kesselman’s newly adapted version of The Diary of Anne Frank by Frances Goodrich & Albert Hackett at the Ford Community and Performing Arts Center in Dearborn, MI
2010: Opening of the “Legacy of the Shoah Film Festival” at John Jay College in New York City. The opening night features Forgotten Transports: Women’s Stories – Estonia, Children of the Night by Marion Wiesel and a discussion with the award-winning director Lukas Pribyl.
2011 Dr. Jane Katz “was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in Commack, New York for her pioneering athletic contributions to the field of aquatics”
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including “Great Soul Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India” by Joseph Lelyveld and the recently released paperback edition of” Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” by Lori Gottlieb
2011: YU Center for Israel Studies, Yeshiva University Museum, YU Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies presented "Talmuda de-Eretz Israel: Archaeology and the Rabbis in Late Antique Palestine."
2011: “Norman Gorbaty: To Honor My People,” exhibition at the Walsh Art Gallery is scheduled to come to a close at Fairfield University, Fairfield, Conn.
2011: “The Chosen” is scheduled to be performed at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC under the sponsorship of Theatre J.
2011: The Harry Houdini Exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York is scheduled to come to an end.
2011: The second annual Limmud Conference is scheduled to take place in Chicago, Illinois.
2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor A Walking Tour of Old Jewish Alexandria.
2011: “The Infidel” and “The Human Resources Manager” are scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2011: “The Whipping Man,” featuring a Seder on the first night of Pesach as its dramatic hook, is scheduled to have its last performance at the City Center State in New York.
2011: Six gunmen in Sinai targeted the pipeline that carries natural gas from Egypt to Israel and Jordan today, overpowering a guard and planting an explosive device before fleeing, The Associated Press reported.
2011: Bank Leumi and Hashava – The Company for Location and Restitution of Holocaust Victims’ Assets ended months of arbitration by signing an agreement in which the bank will pay the company NIS 130.8 million, the two sides announced today. The money will go to heirs of Holocaust victims and toward projects that help Israeli Holocaust survivors – more than a quarter of whom live under the poverty line, according to government estimates.
2011(21st of Adar II, 5771): Ninety-five year old Bernard B. Roth; founder of South Gate-based World Oil Corporation passed away today.(As reported by Shan Li)
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/mar/31/local/la-me-bernard-roth-20110331
2012: The 16th Annual Hartford Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end with a reception and a tango party.
2012: The Andy Statman Trio is scheduled to perform klezmer music at the Charles Street Synagogue.
2013(16thof Nisan): Second Day of Pesach
2013: “Jews of Egypt” a “controversial documentary on Egypt’s expulsion of its long-resident Jewish population opened” to at three movie theatres in Cairo and Alexandria “despite an initial effort by the Egyptian government to block its release.”
2013: The 23rdannual Haifa International Children’s Theatre Festival is scheduled to open at the Haifa Municipal Festival Theatre Complex.
2013: Bulgaria will provide more evidence that Hezbollah planned the airport bus bombing that killed five Israelis in Burgas last year, and to use that proof to pressure the European Union to formally label the Iran-backed Islamist group a terrorist organization, Reuters reported today
2013: Some of Israel’s most sensitive computer information is stored on servers in a building above ground in the south of the country, acutely vulnerable to attack or natural disaster, a TV investigative report said today.
2014: “Aftermath” is scheduled to be shown at the Northern Virginia Jewish Film Festival.
2014: In Boston, attendees of the Keshet Cabaret are scheduled to have the opportunity to bid on a personal voicemail from Sarah Silverman.
2014: “For the first time since 1993, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is scheduled to perform at Jones Hall in Houston.”
2014: Leon Botstein , the president of Bard College and the music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra for whom he is scheduled to conduct Max Bruch’s ‘Moses’ at Carnegie Hall
2014: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism in partnership with the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London and The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is scheduled to host “No Stab in the Back!” Race, Labour and the National Socialist Regime under the Bombs, 1940-45”
2014: Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism in partnership with the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London and The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is scheduled to host the opening session of “Labour and Race in Modern German History”
2014: In commemoration of “the 70thanniversary of the beginning of the nationwide mass deportations in Hungary, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a screen of “Free Fall” a documentary that “explores the unique circumstances of the Holocaust in southern Hungary.”