May 1
305: Due to age and ill health and a desire to provide stability for the Roman Empire Diocletian resigned as Emperor of Rome. Relatively speaking, Diocletian’s reign was a positive period for the Jews. Diocletian was not overly concerned with his Jewish subjects since he was much concerned about controlling the Christians whom he regarded as a source of major instability in the Empire. From his point of view their contempt for Roman state religion and zealous proselytizing made them enemies of the empire. The Jews posed no such threat. Therefore, he exempted them from the requirement to include national sacrifices in their services. The decrees of Diocletian are actually recorded in the Talmud. According to some Diocletian lived in Palestine as a youth and was a swineherd. As Emperor he visited Palestine at which time enemies of the Jews told him that he was mocked by the Jews for working with pigs. When confronted with this, the Jewish leaders allegedly told him that while they may have made jokes about swineherds (something they regretted) they never made jokes about an Emperor. This must have assuaged Diocletian’s anger because no reprisals were taken against the Jews. It should be noted that Palestine suffered economically during this time, but that was as a result of the general impoverishment of the region and not as a result of anti-Jewish policies. Diocletian looks especially good when you remember that the reign of Constantine is just over the horizon.
1160: Bishop William of Beziers, France, who was appalled by the custom of beating of Jews during Palm Sunday, issued an order excommunicating Priests who did so. Beziers was the home to many Albigensians and was one of the more liberal, open cities in France. The Albigensians would be labeled heretics by the Roman Catholic Church. Some times during the Middle Ages, areas that were hospitable to those quarreling with Rome provided some sort of comfort for Jews who might have otherwise been subject to persecution.
1218: Birthdate of King Rudolf I whose subjects included Meir of Rothenburg who was born three years before the monarch and who bring additional persecution to the Jews of his realm.
1338: Louis the Bavarian “informed the council of Worms that the Jews of that city were bound by agreement to pay the sum of 2,000 gulden toward the king's contemplated expedition against France, and that, if necessary, force might be employed in collecting this sum.”
1339: A party that included John of Marignola, who would report on his conversations with Jews in China, stopped in Constantinople before going on to The Middle Kingdom.”
1572: Pius V, the Pope who expelled Talmudist Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph and the rest of the Jews from Imola, Italy passed away. The expulsion cost him 10,000 gold pieces but he overcame the hardship to write the Sefer Shalshelet ha-Ḳabbalah before dying in Alexandria in 1587.
1707: The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain. While Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 and readmitted under Cromwell in the middle of the 17th century, Jews had been living in Scotland without interruption, possibly since Roman Times, but certainly since the 12th century. According Jewish-Scottish scholar David Daiches ,“there are grounds for saying that Scotland is the only European country which has no history of state persecution of Jews.” By the time that the Act of Union became law, Jews were attending and teaching at Edinburg University. Within a decade and a half after the Act of Union, there were 20,000 Jews living in Glassgow.
1769: Birthdate of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Wellington’s claim to fame is his victory over the French. It was in this role that he found the Jews most helpful since Nathan Rothschild had provided the financial backing for the Iron Duke’s campaign against the French in Spain at a time when nobody else would risk the funds. Few people remember that the Duke, like other war heroes entered politics, serving as Prime Minister in the 1820’s and 1830’s. It was here that betrayed those Jews who had supported him by defeating the attempts at Jewish emancipation first when he served in the House of Commons and then, even more viciously when he served in the House of Lords. The Duke had been able to support a bill emancipating seven million English Roman Catholics but he could not bring himself to do the same for thirty thousand English Jews.
1732:George Frideric Handel’s “Esther” which was based on the Biblical heroine and was the first English oratorio premiered at King’s Theatre in London. Handel drew on Biblical tales for many of his oratorios.
1799: In Prussia, Alexander Wolff and his wife gave birth to their second son, Michael, who would become Michael Solomon Alexander, the convert who became the first Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem.
1805: Königsberg merchant, Gerson Jacoby, and his wife, Lea Jonas gave birth to Prussian socialist leader Johann Jacoby.
1808: Birthdate of Sir Henry Francis Goldsmid, who "after receiving careful instruction, was called to the Bar in Hilary term, 1833 making him the first Jew who ever obtained that distinction in Great Britain.”
1817: Birthdate of Karl Isidor Beck the native of Baja, Hungary who became a noted Austrian poet.
1849(9th of Iyar, 5609): Isaac Bernays, Chief Rabbi in Hambrug, passed away.Born in 1792 at Mayence he completed his studies at the University of Würzburg, where he had been also a disciple of the well-known Talmudist R. Abraham Bing. Then he went to Munich as private tutor in the house of Herr von Hirsch, and afterward lived at Mayence as a private scholar. In 1821 he was elected chief rabbi of the German-Jewish community in Hamburg, to fill a position where a man of strictly Orthodox views but of modern education was wanted as head of the congregation. After personal negotiations with Lazarus Riesser (father of Gabriel Riesser), who went to see him in Mayence, Bernays accepted the office on characteristic terms; namely, that all the religious and educational institutions of the community were to be placed under his personal direction; he wanted to be responsible to the government only. Besides this he required a fixed salary, independent of incidental revenues, and wished to be called "clerical functionary" or "ḥakam," as the usual titles, "moreh ẓedeḳ" or "rabbi" did not seem to him highly esteemed at that time. (Based on an article in the Jewish Encyclopedia)
1852: In Great Britain, the Court Exchequer fined Mr. Salomons, the elected Member of Parliament from Greenwich, was fined for voting against the law that excluded the Jews from sitting in the House of Commons. Apparently he was found guilty of three separate violations since the court imposed three separate fines, of 500 pounds each.
1853: Birthdate of Jacob Michailovitch Gordin “a Russian-born American playwright active in the early years of Yiddish theater” who was “known for introducing realism and naturalism into Yiddish theater.”
1855: The New York Times reported that the American Hebrew Christian Assoication had issued a public invitation to all converted Jews to attend a meeting at the Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church in Manhattan on the evening of May 10th.
1855: Students at the Union Theological Seminary began taking their final exams today. One of the subjects in which they will be tested during the next week is the Hebrew Language.
1858: According to reports published today the Jews of Philadelphia have established a Permanent Hebrew Relief Association.
1860: Today’s “City Intelligence” column reported that Giacomo Meyerbeer is a favorite of New York opera goers. His principal works have been received with enthusiasm, and although inordinately expensive to produce -- when compared with others of the Italian repertoire equally celebrated -- have never failed to pay a handsome dividend to the enterprising manager who produced them.” Meyerbeer was German-Jewish opera composer.
1860: Today’s “City Intelligence” column described the performance of Fromental Halévy’s “La Juive” (The Jewess) at the Winter Garden Theatre. After providing a detailed description of each act the reviewer concluded “It is seldom that a work of such pretension receives fair treatment on a first night, and we do not assert unqualifiedly that even in this instance it did so, but there cannot be a doubt that in all the essentials of good management and liberal desire to praise, there was successful effort, and a most cordial response. If incessant applause means anything, it surely guarantees a long run for the "Jewess." A triumph more complete, in all that makes a triumph pleasing, has never been put on record.”
1863:In common with the rest of their fellow-citizens, the Israelites assembled in their respective places of worship and carried out the precepts of the President's Proclamation. Most of the Synagogues were opened and he Psalms appointed to be read on penitential days, read on the occasion.
A very eloquent address was delivered by Rabbi Morris J. Raphal, at the Greene-street Synagogue. He remarked that it was a curious coincidence that on this, a fast day appointed by their own religious observances, they met in compliance with the Proclamation of the President of the United States, to fast and pray. He had been in this country fourteen years. During the first ten years no public proclamation had ever directed their thoughts and feelings to humiliation and fasting. Once in every year the highest functionary in every State proclaimed a day of general thanksgiving, and with that the debt of national gratitude was supposed to be paid. But now the rulers of the nation come year after year and call upon the people to weary Heaven with fruitless professions of a penitence they did not feel, and of a humility they did not practice. These proclamations fast days, on which no one fasts, are but the repetition of those so strongly reproved by the prophet Isaiah; and, though the people dare not put his questions, "Wherefore do we fast and Thou seest it not? Afflict our souls and Thou will not notice it!" -- since in reality the people do neither -- still the answer would stand good. "Because while you profess humiliation, you persist in your arrogance and your extortions do not cease." If ever a people needed to humble itself before God -- if ever fasting and prayer, sack cloth and ashes were to be worn -- it was by the people of these United States. Like our fathers, the Israelites of old, for whom pious Nekeiniah made such fervent supplication, the people of this country are justly amenable to his confession made for Israel: "In their dominions, in all the great prosperity Thou didst bestow upon them, and throughout the large and rich land which Thou gavest unto them, they did not serve Thee, neither turned they from their evil deeds." The preacher then drew a parallel between the sins of the Israelites, which called forth the reproof of the preacher, and the past conduct of this nation, which was equally amenable to the words of the inspired prophet.
What were they to say for the citizens of the United States who already and so long possess the two greatest earthly blessings, Education and Freedom, and yet make so bad a use of both. Education should be the guardian of freedom and of virtue, it was the birthright of every American, bestowed on all and withheld from none. But what principles did it actually inculcate -what virtues did it really teach? Did it inculcate respect for free institutions? Answer, ye place-hunters, ye ballot-box stuffers, ye shoulder-hitters, who reduce self-government to a disgusting farce. Did it teach patriotism? Answer, ye spoils-men, ye office-teekers and holders, who cement party lines with the cohesive force of public plunder. Did it teach common honesty? Answer, ye peculators and speculators, who fatten on the blood of the hard-worked masses, and who dignify roguery by the name of smartness. His heart ached as he spoke to them of the effects of perverted education; it would ache still more were he to direct attention to the bitter fruits of abused freedom. He need not remind them that while the best men North and South had long been driven aloof from the affairs of the country, demagogues, fanatics and a party Press had so managed matters that they found themselves in the third year of a destructive but needless sectional war, which has armed brother against brother, consigned hundreds of thousands to an untimely grave, and to ruin and devastation tens of thousands of square miles of flourishing and happy land; and what was worse than all this, while humanity weeps we must suppress our sympathy. However, our hearts may yearn for peace and brotherly love, our reason convinces us that the present is not the time to expect, or even to hope for the cessation of blood. On the contrary, though we may detest the cause and course of events, it is our duty loyally to stand by our section of the country, to maintain her quarrel and defend her rights, while we have the consolation to know that our side did not begin the fray, and that the cause of Union was the worthiest in the field.
"The preacher concluded his address with a fervent prayer.
1864: Joseph Seligman and his brothers founded J & W Seligman & Co.
1864: In an article entitled, “The City Cars and General Goods Delivery,” the author’s complaints about the about the crowded, smelly conditions on the city’s public include the statement that “immediate contact with a huge pile of superannuated Hebrew clothing stock is not desirable at any time: it is most undesirable in overheated and overcrowded cars.” The author then goes on to compare the aroma with that found in packages of partially dried codfish and, strangely enough, joints of half cured pork.
1869: In a classic American success story, J & W Seligman & Co was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange. Joseph Seligman, the founder of the firm had arrived from Bavaria in 1837 “with $100 dollars in the lining of his trousers. By 1860, he and his brothers, who started as itinerant peddlers” had entered the investment banking business. During the Civil War, they played a leading role in selling United States Government securities to Europeans which helped to finance the Union victory. By the end of the decade, the Seligman’s had branches in London, Paris, Frankfort, New Orleans and San Francisco. The brothers would take a leading role in financing the boom in railroads and in supporting Jewish charitable endeavors.
1870: It was reported today that the late Dr. George Frick, a resident of Baltimore, bequeathed $1,000.00 to the Hebrew Society of Baltimore.
1870: According to a report published today, Michael Isaacs and Isaac Goldstein, two Jewish packpeddlers who had been indicted on charges of rape were found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison by the Suffolk County court in New York.
1873: In Vienna, opening of the World’s Fair where the Illés Relief is a 1:500 scale model of Jerusalem by Stephen Illés “two wooden models of the Temple Mount” built by Conrad Schick were displayed.
1876: Establishment of Children of Israel Synagogue in the eastern part of Des Moines, Iowa.
1876: During the fiscal year that ended today the United Hebrew Charities “gave away 754 tons of coal, 716 pairs of shoes and 1,625 women’s and children’s garments”
1879: Birthdate of David M. Bressler, the son of Julius and Sarah Rothenberg Bressler, who attended City College, JTS and the New York Law School. He was widely known for his activities in Jewish, State and municipal relief and in charity organizations. His work with the Removal Office was aimed at diverting the flow of Jewish immigrants from eastern cities to areas in the South and the Mid-West and providing them funds and training to acclimate them to their new homes.
1869: Today’s issue of the French Jewish review “Archives Israélites,” published by Isidore Cahen, announced the marriage of Alphonse Hirsch, the painter of chief rabbiLazar Isidor, to Henriette Perugia. The notice adds that Perugia’s sister was married to Arthur Sassoon of the wealthy Sassoon family. (Based on reports from the Forward)
1880(20thof Iyar, 5640): Sixty-three year old French composer Samuel Naumbourg who was the chazzan and reader at Besançon and directed the choir at the synagogue Strasburg before moving to Paris in 1845 where he officiated atthe synagogue of the Rue Notre-Dame de Nazareth at Paris and became professor of liturgical music at the Séminaire Israélite passed away today.
1880: During the fiscal year ending today, the United Hebrew Charities had raised over $58, 00 of which almost $47,000 was spent in meeting the needs of 27,915 applicants for service.
1880: While visiting Freiburg, Germany, Texas banker Morris Lasker and Nettie Davis Lasker gave birth to Albert Davis Lasker who would leave his mark on the world of advertising as a partner of Lord & Thomas.
1880: According to a report from a Berlin correspondent, “all the Jews of foreign birth” have been given six hours to leave St. Petersburg, the Russian capital.
1881: It was reported today that the “Alliance Israelite Universelle” is extending its work among the Jews of the Orient. In the past six months, Alliance has opened 9 schools in the Ottoman Empire. All told the Alliance is supporting 33 schools serving a total of 6,300 pupils. Sixty-eight thousand francs have been raised towards the establishment of primary and professional schools in Palestine.
1881: The funeral of Isaac Hendricks, a member of the prominent Hendricks family, is scheduled to take place today at the New York home of his brother-in-law, H.S. Henry.
1882: “Beaconsfield’s Birthday” published today described British reaction to the anniversary of the birth of Lord Beaconsfield who passed away last year. Admirers wore the primrose, the favorite flower of the late Benjamin Disraeli.
1882: It was reported today that General Nicholai Ignatief has issued a denial of claims that the anti-Jewish violence is the result of a lack of action by the government. Furthermore, the violence has been limited to Balta and was started by the Jews who were seeking “revenge for an insult to a Jew by a Christian child.”
1882: Amid reports that Jews are living Vilna en mass, two hundred families are to leave for America today.
1882(12thof Iyar, 5642): Anglo-Jewish architect David Mocatta passed away. Born in 1806, he designed the Montefiore Synagogue, the Brighton Regency Synagogue and the stations for the London and Brighton Railway.
1883: Israel Lewy who had succeeded David Joël as "Seminarrabbiner" began serving as chair of Talmudic Literature at Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau
1884: The Hebrew Technical Institute moved from 206 East Broadway to 129 Crosby Street. The Institute had occupied the Broadway facility since January of 1884 when it opened with 24 pupils.
1885: It was reported today that the late Isaac Vogel had made bequests of $1,000 each to the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, the United Hebrew Charities, the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the Hebrew Free School Association.
1886: The Moses Montefiore Congregation bought property at 160 East One Hundred and Sixteenth Street which was the site of a Baptist Church. Plans to use the structure for a synagogue came to naught when it was determined that the building was unsuitable for that purpose and that it would be too small for the number of congregants who would be using the synagogue.
1886: The American Federation of Labor, led by it’s newly elected President, Samuel Gompers, strikes on a nationwide basis in an attempt to secure an eight hour day.
1887: Birthdate of Felix Rosenblüth, who as Pinchas Rosen was Israel’s first Minister of Justice.
1889(30th of Nisan, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1890: The United Hebrew Trades Union is one of several organizations taking part in today’s march sponsored by the American Federation of Labor in support of an 8 hour work day.
1890: Following a fortnight of attacks on Jewish shops in outlying provinces, Austrian authorities fear that there will be a May Day attacks on Jews throughout the empire including Vienna.
1890: An unnamed anarchist has called for May Day attacks in Paris including the assassination of the Rothschilds.
1890: The old Hebrew Orphan Asylum building on 77th street is going to converted into a public school that should accommodate 1,200 children.
1890: Members of the American Federation of Labor, the union organization headed by Samuel Gompers will be taking part in a large demonstration this evening in support of the eight work day.
1891: The International Cloak Makers Union of America was founded today. Among the delegates attending the meeting was Benjamin Schlesinger, a delegate from Chicago who would become the business manager of Local 5 in Chicago.
1891: Oscar Hammerstein held a reception for newspaper men in which he discussed his plans to build a new opera house in New York.
1891: Approximately 4,000 Jewish who work in the clothing trades held a pro-union parade on the east side of New York.
1891: Alexander Becce, a Russian Jew “a native of the town of Byzlik received a notice from the government that he must either leave the country within thirty days or be exiled together with his family to Siberia for life on his account of his religion.”
1891: As of today, 142 people were residing at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1892(4thof Iyar, 5652): Rabbi Joseph Dov Soloveichik passed away
1892(4thof Iyar, 5652): Abraham L. Grabfelder who was born in Bavaria 53 years ago and was the General Southern Agent of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company for twenty wand who was a Director of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children passed away today.
1892: “Young Hebrew Gymnasts” published today described a demonstration of physical skills by members of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Young Woman’s Hebrew Association, the latter of whom showed their skills with dumbbells. The youngsters were coached by Professor Herman Weber.
1892 When the fiscal year of the Home for Aged and Infirm Homes ended today the charity had receipts of $66,113.01 while having made expenditures of $37, 783.80 leaving a balance of $28,329.21.
1892: “Art and Literature Abroad” published today included the note that “the result of Mr. Joseph Pennell’s visit to Russia will be published under the title The Jew At Home: Impression of a Summer and Winter Spent With Him.
1892: “For A New Clubhouse” published today described the plans of the Columbia Club, the lead Jewish social organization in Harlem to build a new facility on 127thStreet and 5th Avenue. The club paid $50,000 for this new location.
1893: “As A German Knows Bismarck” published today verified “Prince Bismarck’s statement that he was never a friend of the Jews” and that as Junker, he was “an enemy of everything that was liberal” which meant that he “disliked Catholics and workmen.”
1893: Among the books that will be published Putnam and Sons is The Jews of Angevin England by Joseph Jacobs
1893: According to “Literary Notes” published today A Study of the Jews in Medieval England compiles by Joseph Jacobs is “among the book on the announcement list of the Putnams.
1893: “A New Rabbi for Baith Israel” published today described the changes at the synagogue at Street and Boerum Place where Rabbi Marcus Friedlander who moved to Oakland to take the pulpit at Temple Sinai has been replaced by Rabbi Joseph Taubenhaus who is the brother of chess champion of Jacob Taubenhaus and the brother of the rabbi at Congregation Beth Elhoim
1894: Council No. 3 of the Council of Jewish Women was formed in Baltimore, MD with a membership of 115 led by Mrs. Bertha Rayner Frank as President and Miss Rose Summerfield as Secretary.
1894: At today’s May Day Parade the contingent of United Hebrew Trades that included “400 young women” led by Dora Levine” were greeted by cheers
1895: A lease was signed for a building at Mott Avenue and 149th Street which was to the home for the Hebrew Infant Asylum.
1895: The contingent from the United Hebrew Trades marching in today’s Labor Day Parade were life “by fifty members of the Mineral and Soda Water Makers’ Union on horseback wearing white jackets and red sashes.” (For “2 cents-plain made by Jewish union workers?)
1895: This evening Isidor Bader of 208 Madison Street in New York City received “a letter written Hebrew” saying that the mother of the little mute boy whom an unknown couple had left with Bader earlier in the day, was dead and that his father was unable to provide for him.
1895: “Nathaniel S. Rosnau, Superintendent of the United Hebrew Charities gave a talk on practical philanthropy to the Council of Jewish Women at Temple Emanu-El.”
1897: “Turks Still Advancing” published today described the Ottoman capture of Larissa from the Greeks. The Jews had remained at Larissa since they expected to be protected by the Turks.
1897: “Home For Working Girls” published today described the establishment of the Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls. The home is the first manifestation of aid for Russian Jews in America by possible by the $2,000,000 bequest from the Hirsch family.
1898: “Rabbi Grossman Approves the War” published described the views on the Spanish-American War of the leader of Temple Rudolph Sholom who “said that if a war was waged for a holy cause it was this one.”
1898: Joseph Baroness, the socialist leader and the Grand Marshall of last night’s proposed parade surprised authorities by agreeing to call of the parade to avoid the threat of violence. He also said that he never intended to criticize the United States for the war with Spain. He said that it was “a just war and if there is anyone who sympathizes with Spain we don’t want him in our parade.
1898: “Russian Jews Will Enlist” published today described the Jewish response to the Spanish-American War including seventy Jewish Russian from the east side of New York who have signed enlistment, the papers, the carpentry class from the Jewish trade school that has volunteered and the Jewish farmers from the Hirsch Colony of Woodbine, NJ, many of whom served in the Russian Army, who have enlisted.
1899: Myer S. Isaacs, President of the Hirsch Fund has read about the bequest of the late Baroness Hirsch in the newspapers but has received no official communication on this matter.
1899: Dr. Lee K. Frankel of Philadelphia, PA, is scheduled to officially assume his duties as the manager of the United Hebrew Charities in New York. A native of Philadelphia who holds both a B.S. and a Ph. D. from the University of Pennsylvania, Frankel is secretary of Rodef Shalom, Vice President of the Baron de Hirsch Committee and Director of the Jewish Chautauqua Society.
1899: After twenty-three years of service, Dr. Herman Baar will be stepping down as superintendent of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum effective June, 1.
1899: “Hirsch Memorial Services” published today described plans the several New York Jewish charitable institutions are making to honor the memory of the late Baroness Hirsch.
1899(21stof Iyar, 5659): Joel Deutsch who had been principal of school for deaf-mutes established in Nikolsburg and moved to Vienna in 1852 passed away today.
1900: In Konitz, a county in the province of Prussia, Germany, a blood accusation occurred after the death of a local student. Wolf Israelski was accused and arrested, while Count Plucker promoted riots against the Jews. After Israelski was proven innocent, two others, Adolf Levy and Rosenthal, were arrested on the same charge. Rosenthal was acquitted and Lewy sentenced on a perjury charge to four years.
1900: Dutch Zionist leader Jacobus Kann resigns as director of the Bank designed to finance the purchase of land in Eretz Israel
1903: In his poem "Tale of the Slaughter," the famous Jewish poet Chiam Nachman Bialik chastised the Jews for not defending themselves in the Pogrom at Kishinev that had taken place in April, 1903. Herzl was also affected by the massacre and he decided to visit Russia Uganda America Kishinev
1905: Birthdate of movie director Henry Koster. A refugee from Nazi Germany, Koster directed numerous famous films. But he is best remembered as the man who discovered Abbott & Costello. He saw their comedy act and convinced Universal Studios to sign them to a contract. He directed their first film in which all of America
1908: In Warsaw Poland, Count Jerzy Skarbek, a Catholic, and Stefania née Goldfeder, the daughter of a wealthy assimilated Jewish family gave birth to their second child and first daughter Krystna who served with bravery and distinction as an agent who operated in occupied Europe for the British Special Operations Executive (SOE)
1908: Heinrich Conried “retired from the Metropolitan Opera House due to his poor health.”
1909: “During a worker’s demonstration in Buenos Aires, a Jewish anarchist murdered a local police chief. Rioters responded by attacking and sacking the city’s predominately Jewish small retail business quarter.”
1909: The Jewish anarchist, Simon Radowitzki, attempted to assassinate Ramon Falcon, the Argentinean chief of police.
1910: Birthdate of Henryk Ross “who was employed as a photographer by the Department of Statistics for the Jewish Council within the Łódź Ghetto,” survived the Holocaust and testified at the Eichman trial before passing away 1991.
1910: The Sunday New York Times published “‘Icy Italy As Seen: by Israel Zangwill’ the fourth in a series of ‘Italian Fantasies’ written by this well-known author.”
1913: Birthdate of comic Louis Nye. Born Louis Neistat to Yiddish speaking immigrant parents, Nye was one of a stable of comedians who first gained national notice on the “Steve Allen Show.”
1913: Birthdate of Czech born British conductor Jay Walter Susskind.
1913: As the investigation into the death of Mary Phagan continues, E.F. Holloway, the pencil factory’s day watchman saw Jim Conley, the pencil factory’s janitor washing a dirty shirt. At first Conley tried to hide the shirt and then claimed the stains were rust from the overhead pipe on which he had hung the shirt. Detectives examined it for blood, found none and returned it. [Conley would later testify against Leo Frank. Decades later, Conley would be exposed as the person who had murder Mary Phagan.]
1914: Nissim Mazliach is appointed to the Turkish Chamber for Smyrna.
1914: In Cincinnati, Ohio, founding of the Mizrachi Organization of America
1916: Labor activist Bessie Abramowitz and Amalgamated president Sidney Hillman announced their engagement while marching at the head of the clothing workers' contingent of the Chicago May Day Parade.
1919: The rabbis of Palestine hold a first conference. Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook is asked to serve as chief rabbi.
1920: Young anarchist Mollie Steimer began a 15-year prison term for distributing leaflets opposing American intervention in the Russian Revolution. She was later deported.
1921: Not for the first or last time, Arabs resort to violence to try and stop the growth of the Jewish community. In this case riots began in Jaffe resulting in the death of forty Jews and the wounding two hundred others. The riots soon spread to Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Kfar Saba, Hadera and Rehovot. Though casualties were relatively light, the British decided to appease the Arabs and "redefined" the borders of the Balfour Declaration. This was neither the first time nor the last time that the British would violation the terms of the Mandate. It was also one of the many examples in which the British sought to curry favor with the Arabs, even if it meant betraying the Jews.
1923: Birthdate of author Joseph Heller who created Catch-22, the literary masterpiece that gained additional fame as a film.
1923: “British Chief Rabbi Defends Schechita In The Times” published today by the Jewish Correspondence Bureau described the strongly expressed opposition of Joseph Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom proposed legislation that would end “the Jewish method of slaughtering animals for food” which he says “according to the testimony of competent experts including Lord Lister, Sir Michael Foster, Dr. Leonard Hill and Dr. T.H. Openshaw” is “the most human method” for doing this.
1928: A large number of workers in Palestine heeded the call of the Worker’s Councils for a general strike. In other May Day activities, Arab and Jewish workers held mass meetings in several towns including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where police dispersed the gatherings after arresting several demonstrators some of whom would later be labeled as “communists.”
1928(11thof Iyar, 5688): Fifty-eight year old Joseph Solomon Wallenstein, the son of Solomon and Esther Wallenstein, passed away today.
1930: in Siófok, Hungary to József and Ilona Hirsch, both of whom perished in The Holocaust gave birth to theatre director John Hirsch was brought to Canada “in 1947 through the War Orphans Project of the Canadian Jewish Congress.
1932: According to reports by John Martin published today, famed ballerina Belle Didjah has set sail from New York to begin her European Tour which will include performances in Tel Aviv and other communities in Palestine. The performances are being sponsored by the Cultural Committee of Histadruth.
1934: Julius Streicher's Nazi periodical, Der Stürmer--one of Germany
1934: The Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP(Racial Policy Office of the National Socialist German Workers Party) was established by Hitler's friend and secretary, Rudolph Hess
1938: Following the Anschluss, Austrians forced Jewish men and women to scrub the streets with small brushes and with the women's fur coats.
1939: In Hungary, discriminatory laws were passed against Jews engaged in law and medicine. Jewish participation in the economy was restricted to six percent.
1940: Birthdate of Colette Avital, the Bucharest native who made Aliyah in 1950 and developed a career as a diplomat and political leader.
1940: Polish and Baltic-area Jews began to escape across the Soviet Union to Japan Dutch East Indies , Australia Canada United States Israel
1940: The Lodz Ghetto is closed. At the outbreak of the war, Lodz was the second largest Jewish community in Europe, Warsaw being the largest. When the Ghetto was sealed, it imprisoned over 230,000. Those who did not die of starvation, pestilence, etc. ended up being transported to the Chelmno death camp. There were less than 900 Jews left alive when the Soviets liberated the ghetto in January, 1945.
1940(23rd of Nisan, 5700): One hundred forty Palestinian Jews died as German planes bombed their ship
1940: Rudolf Höss, adjutant at the Sachsenhausen, Germany Auschwitz , Poland
1940: From today through December 1940 thousands of Polish Jews are sent eastward as forced laborers to construct fortifications along the new Soviet frontier.
1941: New York City premiere of “Citizen Kane” with a screenplay co-authored by Herman J. Mankiewicz and a score by Bernard Hermann.
1941: Thousands of Jews who had fought in the French Foreign Legion against Germany in 1940 are deported to slave-labor camps in the Sahara to build railroads.
1941(4th of Iyar, 5701): In Bucharest, Romania 120 Jews are slain in the streets during anti-Semitic violence
1941: Jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and businesses in Zagreb , Yugoslavia
1941: A concentration camp is established at Natzweiler , Alsace , Germany
1941: Gross-Rosen, formerly a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen , Germany
1942: From today through the 31st of the month, more than 3600 Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto die of starvation. Nazis force their way into Jewish apartments in Warsaw
1942: During May a slave-labor camp opens near Minsk , Belorussia
1942: During May small groups of Jewish youths manage to escape into the woods outside Lida and Stolpce, towns in Belorussia
1942: During May, in the Eastern Galicia region of Poland
1942: During May inmates at Auschwitz-Birkenau are put to work as slave laborers at the camp itself and at a synthetic-oil and rubber plant at nearby Monowitz.
1942: During May, Jewish women at Auschwitz-Birkenau are selected for medical experiments. A Jewish inmate at a labor camp at Schwenningen , Germany
1942: During May, a slave-labor camp opens at Maly Trostinets, Byelorussia
1942: During May in Holland
1942: During May, Communist Jews in Paris
1942: During May, The Bund (Jewish Labor Organization of Poland) appeals to the Polish government-in-exile in London
1942: In early May, 260
1942: In early May, Jewish Council members at Bilgoraj , Poland
1942: More than 1750 Jews are deported from Tripoli , Libya Benghazi Homs
1942: In that part of North Africa occupied by the Axis Powers (Germany Italy Giado , Libya
1942(14th of Iyyar, 5702): Approximately 1000 Jews are murdered at Dvinsk, Latvia. Only about 450 Jews are left in Dvinsk, down from 16,000 from the previous year.
1942: In its daily broadcast, Radio Orange issued a call to defy the order to wear the "Jewish star." During World War II, Radio Orange was the name given to the broadcasts by the Dutch government-in- exile which were carried by the B.B.C.
1942: Trucks began transporting the Jews out of the Dvinsk ghetto. Dvinsk was a town in the Baltic state of Latvia
1943: SS-GruppenführerJürgen Stroop completes his official written chronicle of the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto which is entitled “The Stroop Report.”
1943: The first of four trains carrying nearly 11,000 Jews arrive at Auschwitz from Salonika , Greece
1943: The Axis send the first of what would total 5000 Sephardic Jews from Occupied Tunisia to labor camps near North African battle zones.
1943: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising had lasted eleven days. By now, the Jews knew that the Polish Underground would not come to their aid. The Jews fought on even as they awaited the inevitable. Among the those who died at this time were Abrasha Blum, an organizer of armed resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto and a member of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations> He was shot by Germans after enduring confinement and torture
1943: German Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels, reacting to the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto revolt, notes in his diary: "Heavy engagements are being fought there which led even to the Jewish Supreme Command's issuing daily communiqués. Of course, this fun won't last very long. But it shows what is to be expected of the Jews when they are in possession of arms."
1943: Jewish writers and artists, inspired by the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, gather in the Vilna (Lithuania
1943(26th of Nisan, 5703): Many members of the Jewish community in Brody, Ukraine, are killed at the Majdanek death camp.
1944: An internal memo from the United States Government War Refugee Board states that as of late March: "All registered Jews in Athens are said to have been placed in a concentration camp; registered Jews from the provinces were subsequently added."
1944: An internal memo of this week from the United States Government War Refugee Board states that a small group of Jews in Greece
1944: Christian Wirth, SS-Sturmbannführer and commandant of the Belzec, Poland Fiume , Yugoslavia
1944: Starting today the Nazis begin the liquidation of the Lodz (Poland) Ghetto.
1994(8thof Iyar, 5704): Itzhak Katzenelson and his son Zvi were murdered at Auschwitz. Born in 1886, he was a teacher, poet and dramatist. His wife and two of his other sons had already been murdered at Treblinka. Katznelson participated in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and was one of the few survivors. While being held at a detention in Vittel, France, he wrote the Yiddish epic poem “Song of the Murdered Jewish People” which he buried in bottles before being shipped to the death camp. The Ghetto Fighters' House Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum in Israel, is named in his memory. For more about his epic work see http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=ivKVLcMVIsG&b=476157
1944(8th of Iyar, 5704): As mass deportations of Jews from Hungary to death camps begin, hundreds of Hungarian Jews at Sátoraljaújhely and Miskolc are shot after refusing to board trains destined for Auschwitz.
1944: Between today and the 31st of May, 33,000 Jews from Munkács, Hungary, are killed at Auschwitz.
1945: After 68 months of war, just one of every ten of Poland
1945(18th of Iyar, 5705): Lag B’Omer
1945(18th of Iyar, 5705): A Jew in a group of laborers from the camp at Sonneberg, Germany, chants and dances with joy upon word of Hitler's death. A German guard calmly shoots the man dead.
1945: The concentration camp at Stutthof , Poland
1945: The Death Marches to Mauthausen continued even as the U.S. Army approached, and even though Hitler committed suicide the prior day. The Jews were being marched to Mauthasan in Austria
1946(30th of Nisan, 5706: Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1946(30th of Nisan, 5706): Former Jewish partisan leader and Red Army officer Eliyahu Lipszowicz is murdered by an anti-Semitic Pole at Legnica, Poland.
1946: In a draft of a letter to British Prime Minster Clement Atlee, Winston Churchill reiterated his belief in Partition as the only realistic was for settling the conflict in Palestine.
1946: The English-American Commission on the Jewish Refugee Problem in Europe recommended the immediate entry of 100,000 Jews into Eretz Israel Palestine
1947: Leonard Bernstein introduces his "Jeremiah" symphony in the Edison Cinema in Jerusalem.
1948: “The Arabs opened a large scale attack on Ramot Naphtali in the northern hills near Lebanon.” The settlement was the key to a Jewish victory in the Galilee. If the Arabs could take the settlement, they would be able to keep the Palmach from sending reinforcements Safed. In the end, the settlers held and Jewish forces were able to take control of Safed after an extremely difficult battle later in the month.
1948: Abba Eban makes his maiden speech in the U.N. General Assembly.
1948: Israeli forces liberate the Qatamon neighborhood of Jerusalem
1949:An article published in“Harefuah”, a medical journal published by the Israel Medical Association, described how Aaron Valero first observed the outbreak of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in Palestine.
1950: In Tel Aviv, Israel Eldad and his wife gave birth to Professor Aryeh Eldad who combined medicine with a career in politics.
1950: Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion’s attempts to form a new government suffered a setback tonight when the executive committee of the General Zionist Party decided not to join the coalition. The party, which is more conservative than those represented by the labor movement, had been offered the Commerce and Industry ministries as an enticement to join the new government but the leadership felt that Ben Gurion had not made a strong enough commitment to adopt some of their economic and educational reform policies.
1950: “South Pacific,” the famous musical by Rogers and Hammerstein wins the Pulitzer Prize as the best original American Play.
1954: J & W Seligman & Company celebrated two anniversaries today – the 90thanniversary of its founding and the 85th anniversary of its being listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
1955: Birthdate of Julien Mark Wiener “a former Australian cricketer who played in six Tests and seven one-day internationals from 1979 to 1980. A right-handed opening batsman and a very occasional off spin bowler, he is the only known Jewish Australian to represent his country at cricket…Wiener's mother and father, Vella and Sasha, were Polish and Austrian Jews respectively, and both escaped the concentration camps of Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. The surname Wiener came from Vienna, the home of Sasha. His parents married in 1947 in Paris, before coming to Australia as refugees on the famous Dunera ship in 1947. Wiener's father ran a successful textile business, which allowed him to send Wiener to the private Brighton Grammar School. Wiener's father had early sporting success in table tennis, which Wiener applied to his cricket, playing for Prahran in Melbourne grade cricket. He subsequently completed his university education at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in business management, before moving to England to pursue his cricket career.”
1956: The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public. For all those who like to talk about greedy Jews, considering the following. Salk refused to take out a patent on his vaccine. Some things, he said, were more important than making money.
1956: Moshe Dayan, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, made a speech at the funeral of a young settler, Ro'i Roitberg, killed in a clash with Palestinian infiltrators from the Gaza Strip
1959: Birthdate of Lawrence Seeff the Johannesburg native who was a South African First-class cricketer. “He played with Western Province and Transvaal and was one of the South African Cricket Annual's Cricketers of the Year in 1981. He opened the batting for Western Province with his brother Jonathan Seeff.”
1960(4thof Iyar, 5720): Yom HaZikaron
1962: Birthdate of actress Maia Morgenstern. A native of Bucharest, Morgenstern played the Virgin Mary in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ.
1964: The Center for Jewish History marked today as the beginning of the public movement for freeing Soviet Jewry.
1967: Birthdate of Yael Arad Israel, an Israeli judoka who won a silver medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
1967: The Pulitzer Prize was awarded to Bernard Malamud for his novel, The Fixer. Born in 1914, Malamud wanted to be thought of as great writer, not just a great Jewish writer. In other words, even though he often used Jewish themes and motifs, he was writing about the human condition. The success of The Natural, a book about a baseball player was an example of that desire. "Malamud explicated the tragic role of the Jew in many of his stories, including The Fixer (1966), which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and later was adapted into a motion picture. That novel was based on the true story of Mendel Beilis, victim of the Kiev Blood Libel of 1913." He passed away in 1986.
1968(3rd of Iyar, 5728): Yom HaZikaron
1979(4thof Iyar, 5739): Yom HaZikaron
1979: Elton John became the first pop star to perform in Israel.
1981(27th of Nisan, 5741): Yom HaShoah
1981: President Ronald Reagan issued a proclamation today declaring the week starting on May 3, 1981 as Jewish Heritage Week. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=43771#axzz1Kxu92zHU
1983: “Past That Stay Present” includes a review of Points of Departure by Israeli Poet and Holocaust Survivor Dan Pagis.
1985: Today, the American Jewish World Service (AJWS) was established in Boston when Larry Phillips and Larry Simon, together with a group of rabbis, Jewish communal leaders, activists, businesspeople, scholars and others came together to create the first American Jewish organization dedicated to alleviating poverty, hunger and disease among people across the globe.
1985: Showtune which was originally titled Tune the Grand Up, and premiered today as a cabaret production at The 1177 Club in the Gramercy Towers on Nob Hill in San Francisco. “Showtune is an internationally popular Off Broadway musical revue celebrating the words and music of Broadway composer Jerry Herman. Its title was inspired by Herman's autobiography of the same name.”
1987: Birthdate of Shahar Pe'er, Israeli female professional tennis player.
1987: Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Born Edith Stein, she became a Carmelite nun. She was arrested by the Nazis in Holland Auschwitz . For those who question the role of the Pope during the Holocaust, the fate of Edith Stein, and others who had converted to Catholicism before World War II, raises an interesting dilemma. There are those who can understand why the Pope did not move to save the Jews, but wonder why he did not move to save Jews who had become Catholics. In the end, did he not consider them real Catholics? This is something for use to ponder at this season of the year which often coincides with Yom Hashoah.
1987: It was reported today that Israel’s governing coalition “was under strain” as deal with proposals for an international peace conference and “the Israeli investigation in the Jonathan Jay Pollard spy case.”
1990: At an Arab summit meeting held in Baghdad, President Saddam Hussein of Iraq threatens to use "weapons of total destruction" in response to an Israeli attack against Arabs. The main item on the summit agenda is immigration of Soviet Jews to Israel Syria
1990: Greece establishes full diplomatic relations with Israel.
1990: Opening night of the Israel Film Festival attended by two of the most famous mayors in Jewish history - Teddy Kollek and Ed Koch
1994: Israeli and PLO delegates opened a final round of talks in Cairo leading to an agreement on PLO self-rule. The resulting entity, the Palestine Authority would sink under the weight of Arafat’s corruption and unwillingness to do the things necessary to create a viable, responsible government.
1996(12th of Iyar, 5756): Asher Wallfish journalist for the Jerusalem Post passed away at the age of 67
1996: In an article entitled “Moises Ville Journal: Sun Has Set on Jewish Gauchos, but Legacy Lives,” Calvin Sims describes the fate of Argentina’s rural Jews.
1997:The Jerusalem Post reported that the sentenced American spy, Jonathan Pollard, petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to order the Prime Minister to declare that he had been an agent of Israel. Pollard also requested a temporary injunction ordering the Government of Israel to reveal who had been in charge of his case and what steps had been taken to secure his release from the American prison. The petition queried the official Israeli position, according to which Pollard had been part of a rogue operation. It called for a temporary injunction outlining what he was paid for his services. The High Court issued a temporary injunction, apparently at the request of the security services, forbidding the publication of Pollard's petition. This ban was lifted following an appeal by the "Yediot Aharonot" newspaper.
1997:The Jerusalem Post reported that Mr. Norman Spector assumed the post of the President and Publisher of The Jerusalem Post.
1997:The transfer of the ownership of The Chattanooga Times from the four grandchildren of Adolph S. Ochs, who bought the paper in 1878 and remained its publisher until 1935, to his 13 great-grandchildren is scheduled to be completed today.
1997: “The Return of Tobias” oil on canvas by Benjamin Ulmann was sold today. A French Alsatian Jew born in 1829 he was a pupil of Michel Martin Drolling and of François-Édouard Picot. He passed away in 1884.
2000: Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails begin a hunger strike to draw attention to their poor conditions.
2000:After almost seventeen months in prison, the trial of the 13 Jews opened in the Revolutionary Court Shiraz
2001: Former government intern Chandra Levy disappears.
2002: Yasser Arafat's five-month imprisonment in his Ramallah headquarters draws to an end as the Palestinians hand over six high-profile prisoners to Anglo-American custody.
2004:Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Gil Dor, together with the noted Israeli rhythm and dance troupe Mayumana, gave a joint performance between the two final games of the Euroleague basketball championship, broadcast to thousands of television viewers around the world.
2004: Maccabi Tel Aviv crushes Italy's Skipper Bologna 118-74 to become European champions for the fourth time in the club’s history.
2004: Rabbi Sir Jonathan Henry Sacks begins serving as Rabbi and Spiritual Leader, Western Marble Arch Synagogue London.
200522nd of Nisan, 5765): 8thday of Pesach
200522nd of Nisan, 5765):Rene Rivkin an Australian entrepreneur, investor, investment adviser, and stockbroker passed away. He was a well-known stockbroker in Australia for many years until his conviction for insider trading.
2005: The New York Observer features a review of “The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom From My Father on How to Live, Love, and See” by Naomi Wolfe
2005: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or special interest to Jewish readers including Soldiers and Slaves: American POWs Trapped by the Nazis' Final Gamble by Roger Cohen, Given Up For Dead: American GI's in the Nazi Concentration Camp at Berga by Flint Whitlock and the recently released paperback editions of Conspiratorby Michael Andre Bernstein and Madame Secretary by Madeline Albright with Bill Woodward, an “insightful memoir that focuses as much on Albright’s voyage of personal discovery (she belatedly learned of her Jewish heritage) as on her years as President Clinton's secretary of state.”
2006: First episode of “The Perfect Home” a television series based on The Architecture of Happiness by Alain de Botton, the scion of a prominent Egyptian Jewish family that was forced to flee to Switzerland.
2007: Hilary Koprowski was awarded the Albert Sabin Gold Medal by the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Baltimore. Koprowski was one of three Jews (the others being Salk and Sabin) who played a key role in developing a vaccine against polio.)
2007: “Secretary-General of Labor Party, Minister Eitan Cabel announced today that he was resigning from the government, following the conclusions of the Winograd Commissions.”
2007: May is celebrated as Jewish Heritage Month by proclamation of the President of the United States.
2008: “Brothers: Rahm Emanuel and His Family” published today looks at the lives and accomplishments of Rahm, Zeke and Ari.
2008: In New York City, PEN World Voices, a festival of international literature presents“Conversations Between A. B. Yehoshua and Leon Wieseltier”an event during which “Yehoshua discusses a lifetime in literature, fact in fiction, writing politics and atonement with Leon Wieseltier, Literary Editor of The New Republic and author of Kaddish.”
2008:Local elections are held in Great Britain. Community organizations have come together to encourage the British Jewish community to vote in these local elections being held across the country because of a fear of gains that could be made by for the ultra-nationalist British National Party (BNP ). The Board of Deputies of British Jews - working with the London Jewish Forum and Community Security Trust - had launched a new campaign, with the slogan, "Your Voice or Theirs," to raise awareness of the importance of first registering to vote and then voting in the May 1 local elections. The BNP has enjoyed some electoral success which alarms the Jewish community as well as ant-fascists organizations and other minority groups. BNP literature is described as anti-Semitic and the party is viewed by some as latter day Nazis.
2008 (26 Nisan): Yom Hashoah – Eastern Iowa observes Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Cedar Rapids The Holocaust Memorial Fund (created and endowed by Dr. David and Joan Thaler) and the Jewish-Christian Dialogue are sponsoring Yom Hashoah Service at Westminster Presbyterian Church at 7:00 pm .Rabbi Stephanie Alexander will be the speaker. In Iowa City Europe and America
2009: In Alexandria, Va., Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Jules Feifferreads and discusses “Which Puppy” a children’s picture book he recently co-authored with his daughter Kate.
2009:The American Society for Jewish Music and the American Jewish Historical Society present a lecture by Rabbi Jeffrey A. Summit of Tufts University entitled “The Participating Observer: Fieldwork in Jewish Settings.”
2009: In an article entitled “Roosevelt and the Jews: A Debate Rekindled,” Patricia Cohen reviews Refugees and Rescue: The Diaries’ and papers of James G. McDonald, 1935-1945.
2009(12thof Iyar, 5769):Sam Cohn, whose nearly endless client roster of top actors, writers and directors and imaginative engineering of deals for them made him the most powerful talent broker in theater and film during the 1970s and 1980s and a progenitor of the Hollywood superagent passed away today at the age of 79. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/arts/07cohn.html?_r=0&pagewanted=print
2010: Jewish American Heritage began today as proclaimed by President Barak Obama. The proclamation read as follows:
In 1883, the Jewish American poet Emma Lazarus composed a sonnet, entitled “The New Colossus,” to help raise funds for erecting the Statue of Liberty. Twenty years later, a plaque was affixed to the completed statue, inscribed with her words: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free….” These poignant words still speak to us today, reminding us of our Nation’s promise as a beacon to all who are denied freedom and opportunity in their native lands. Our Nation has always been both a haven and a home for Jewish Americans. Countless Jewish immigrants have come to our shores seeking better lives and opportunities, from those who arrived in New Amsterdam long before America’s birth, to those of the past century who sought refuge from the horrors of pogroms and the Holocaust. As they have immeasurably enriched our national culture, Jewish Americans have also maintained their own unique identity. During Jewish American Heritage Month we celebrate this proud history and honor the invaluable contributions Jewish Americans have made to our Nation. The Jewish American story is an essential chapter of the American narrative. It is one of refuge from persecution; of commitment to service, faith, democracy, and peace; and of tireless work to achieve success. As leaders in every facet of American life—from athletics, entertainment, and the arts to academia, business, government, and our Armed Forces—Jewish Americans have shaped our Nation and helped steer the course of our history. We are a stronger and more hopeful country because so many Jews from around the world have made America their home. Today, Jewish Americans carry on their culture’s tradition of “tikkun olam”—or “to repair the world”—through good deeds and service. As they honor and maintain their ancient heritage, they set a positive example for all Americans and continue to strengthen our Nation. NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2010 as Jewish American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies to celebrate the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of April, in the year two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.
[Editor’s Note: … President Obama has made a subtle, symbolic gesture that some would say demonstrates uncommon sensitivity to the Jewish community. Thanks to the New Jersey Jewish News for this story, which reports that President Obama removed the standard phrase “in the year of our Lord” from a proclamation welcoming May as Jewish Heritage Month. As the newspaper reports, previous similar proclamations — by Obama, George Bush, and Bill Clinton — all included the standard line affixed at the end, pegging the missive’s date to the birth of Jesus Christ … Obama, in praising Jews for their unique contributions to American culture, took the extra step of taking it out this time. This may not sit well with “the our-country-is-a-Christian-nation crowd” and it may seem like a small thing, but it shows a certain level of sensitivity if not outright political courage. There are those who think that Jewish community should be more outspoken in acknowledging this, and in voicing appreciation.”]
2010: At The Library of Congress an exhibition entitled “Herblock!" highlighting the life and works of the great political cartoonist is scheduled to come to a close.
2010A Secret, a film adapted from the award-winning autobiographical novel by Philippe Grimbert, is scheduled to be shown tonight at the Northern Virginia International Jewish Film Festival.
2010: In article entitled “Death on the Baltic” published today, Jeremy Elias described an eyewitness account of the sinking of the Cape Arcona.
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Death-on-the-Baltic
2010:Achinoam Nini, the world famous Israeli performer known as Noa, is scheduled to appear in concert tonight at East Brunswick (NJ) Performing Arts Center.
2011:The Cedar Rapids community is scheduled to mark Yom Hashoah with “”Lest We Forget,” A Service in Memory of the Victims of the Shoah sponsored by The Jewish Christian Dialogue Group and The Thaler Holocaust Memorial Foundation.(See The Story of Historywhich provides background information on the Thaler Holocaust Memorial Fund which was co-founded by David and Joan Tahler)
2011: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present “Growing Up Jewish in Montreal” a panel discussion during which “four distinguished scholars reflect on their formative years in one of North America's most vibrant Jewish communities.”
2011: “Recipes Remembered: A Celebration of Survival” by June Feiss Hersh is scheduled to go on sale today at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
2011: A memorial service for Maj. Gen. Orde Wingate, who trained members of the Haganah, is scheduled to take place today at the Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony is being held under the auspices of the Jewish War Veterans Association of the United States of America.
2011:Reform Judaism’s flagship social justice conference, the Religious Action Center’s Consultation on Conscience is scheduled to open in Washington, DC.
2011: Start of Jewish American Heritage Month
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of book by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World” by William D. Cohan, “Iphigenia in Forest Hills: Anatomy of a Murder Trial” by Janet Malcolm that is set against a backdrop of the “Bukharin Jewish immigrant community in Queens” and the recently released paperback edition of “Crossing Mandelbaum Gate Coming of Age Between the Arabs and Israelis, 1956-1978” by Kai Bird
2011:The March of the Living participants are scheduled to visit Auschwitz on Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, on May 1, to commemorate the Nazi murder of 6 million Jews and to pledge to fight intolerance and prejudice in the future.
2011(27thof Nisan): Yom Hashoah – observance of the holiday will take place in many places tomorrow “to avoid adjacency with Shabbat).
2011(27thof Nisan, 5771):Moshe Landau, the fifth president of the Supreme Court and an Israel Prize laureate, died on today, only two days after his 99th birthday, and 50 years after presiding at the trial of Adolf Eichmann.
2011:The 6 million Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust will be honored at ceremonies held across Israel this evening, the start of Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz and other dignitaries will attend the official state ceremony at Yad Vashem. This year, the central theme of the ceremony will be Fragments of Memory: The Faces Behind the Documents, Artifacts and Photographs, a campaign launched by the Holocaust museum aimed at collecting and preserving documents so that future generations may learn about the genocide of the Jewish people by the Nazis from first-hand sources. During the ceremony, six Holocaust survivors will light torches in memory of those who suffered under Nazi persecution before and during World War II. Yona Fuchs, whose nickname is Janek, will be among the honorees at the event. In 1942 he escaped from a concentration camp and found work as a translator for a German company in Kiev. In that capacity he managed to save over a dozen Jews by recruiting them as workers for his employers. Later, he evaded arrest by posing as a German soldier. He arrived in British-controlled Palestine in 1944, fought in the War of Independence and settled in Haifa. He has 14 grandchildren.
2011: After 443 performances a revival of Jerry Herman’s “La Cage aux Folles” came to a close.
2011:Israel's new Police Commissioner Yohanan Danino was sworn in today, replacing David Cohen, who served in the post for four years. Danino was formerly the head of the Israel Police investigations and intelligence branch, and comes to the commissioner's chair from his last posting as the commander of the Southern District Police.
2011: Distinguished composer Gilbert Levine, whose grandparents emigrated from Poland and whose mother-in-law was a survivor of Auschwitz, will be among the hundreds of thousands of people converging on the Vatican for the beatification of Pope John Paul II. (As reported by Ruth Ellen Gerber)
2011: Osama Bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
2011: As part of its Yom HaShoah observance, in Hollywood, Temple Israel’s newly established arts council invited community members to join the jury at a mock trial of Rudolph Kastner (As reported by Johan Lowenfeld.
2012: Israeli photographer Gil Cohen-Magen is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Hassidic Courtyards: A Photographic Study of the Ultra-Orthodox Community in Israel” at the JCC of Northern Virginia.
2012: “Kafka’s Last Story” is scheduled to be shown at the Westchester Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Rabbi Ed Cohn and Cantor Joel Colman officiated at the graveside services for Inge Elsas, holocaust survivor, Temple Sinai Sunday School teacher and pillar of the New Orleans Jewish community.
2012: Start of Jewish American Heritage Month
2012: Thirty-one year old Daniel Timerman, the son of Jacobo Timerman “was sentenced today to 35 days in jail for refusing to serve with the Israeli Army in Lebanon.”
2013: The 36th International Convention of the World Union for Progressive Judaism is scheduled to open in Jerusalem.
2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to presents “The Quest for Justice in the Postwar Jewish Community - Function and Role of Honor Courts in the Displaced Persons Camps.”
2013: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to co-host “Guernica – Bravery and Gender in Confessional Writing.
2013: In a case of “the East” meets the Jews, Iron Man 3, based on a creation of Stan Lee, Don Heck, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby and co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow opened in China today.
2013: Gravestones and bones from an ancient Turkish Jewish cemetery were unearthed during construction work.The remains in the Turkish city of Izmir were found more than 20 feet below the ground, during construction work on an underground tunnel, the Hurriyet Daily News reported today.
2013: Israel needs to reach peace with the Palestinians to prevent becoming a bi-national state, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said today, stressing – however – that the core of Israel's conflict with the Palestinians is not territory, but a Palestinian unwillingness to recognize Israel's legitimacy within any boundaries.
2013: Start of Jewish American Heritage Month
2014(1stof Iyar, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2014: “The White Rose Exhibit” which commemorates the work of one of the few genuine resistance movements in Nazi Germany is scheduled to open at the College of Public of Health of the University of Iowa.
2014: Washington Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to host Adam Mendelsohn of the College of Charleston, whose book Jews and the Civil War: A Reader (co-edited with Jonathan D. Sarna) was published in 2010 speaking on “Beyond the Battlefield: The Legacy of the Civil War for America’s Jews.”
2014: “The Prime Minister: The Pioneers” is scheduled to be shown at the Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival in West Bloomfield, Michigan.
2014: American Jewish Heritage Month opens with a special tribute to the American Joint Distribution Committee that is celebrating its centennial anniversary.