May 2
373: “Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria…aggressive opponent of Arianism and polemicist against Judaism died today.”
693: The Sixteenth Council of Toledo, which had opened on April 25, met for the last time. Among its other accomplishments, the council took further steps in the on-going, ever more vicious, suppression of the Jews by the Christian Visigoth. The law code, which granted “tax freedom to Jewish conversos” now transferred the tax obligation to Jews who had not converted. Also, the council ruled that “converts were allowed to trade with Christians, but not until” they had proven themselves “by recitation of creeds and eating of non-kosher food. The council also enacted penalties against Christians who entered into business transactions “with unconverted or unproven Jews.”
907: King Boris I of Bulgaria died. At the time of his death, Boris was actually a monk having abdicated his throne in 889. During his reign, Bulgaria continued to provide a refuge for Jews fleeing from Byzantine persecution. According to some reports, there was an attempt to convert the pagan Bulgars to Judaism. True or not, Christianity would become the state religion.
1108 (20th of Iyar, 4868): Solomon Ibn-Farussal was murdered shortly before the forces of Islam defeated the Christians at the battle of Ucles. Yehuda Halevi composed an elegy upon hearing of Ibn-Farrusal’s murder. Ibn-Farussal reportedly was “in the service of a Christian prince” who had sent him as an emissary to the Spanish city of Murcia. The “Christian prince” may well have been Alfonso VII, the monarch who led the Spaniards to defeat at Ucles.
1160: In the Montpellier region of southern France, an agreement was concluded according to which every priest who stirred up the people against the Jews should be excommunicated. The Jews in return pledged to pay four pounds of silver every year on Palm Sunday
1194: In one his first acts after returning from his imprisonment in Austria, King Richard I of England gives Portsmouth its first Royal Charter. The Jews had paid a disproportionate share of that ransom. The 5,000 marks the Jews were compelled to pay was triple that paid by the citizens of London. There is no record of any Jews having lived in Portsmouth during the Middle Ages, though there were a scattered few in nearby Bosham, Chichester and Southampton, and an important community in Winchester. The first Portsmouth Jews, attracted by the opportunity of trading with the fast-growing Royal Navy in its home port and possibly by a sense of kinship with the new German-speaking monarchs of these isles, settled in Oyster Street in the 1730s - Jacob Thulman signed in Hebrew in the Borough Sessions in 1736 - but soon moved out of Old Portsmouth to Portsea, in the heart of the city’s commercial district. The first recorded mention of a Jewish community in Portsmouth is the purchase of the thousand-year lease of a plot of land by Lazy Lane (now Fawcett Road) for use as a Jews’ burial ground in December 1749. The lessees were Benjamin Levi (engraver), Mordechai Samuel (jeweler), Lazarus Moses (chapman) and Mordechai Moses (chapman). Fawcett Road cemetery was still in use until it became full in the early 1990s. [Editor’s Note-The word “chapman” probably meant that these men were merchants or peddlers.]
1293(17th of Iyar, 5053): Rabbi Meir of Rothenberg passed away. The last of the Tosophists, he was the leading Rabbi in Germany. Convinced that there was no future in Germany, he agreed to lead a large contingent of families to Eretz-Israel. While waiting for the other families, he was seized by the Bishop of Basel. The Emperor ordered him held in prison as a lesson to any of "his Jews" who would try to leave Germany and thus cause him a financial loss. He refused to be ransomed, saying that it would serve as an impetus for further extortion's. He died in a prison near Colmar, and his body was held there until it was ransomed some years later.
1352: In Nuremburg, “Vischlein the son of Masten, Semelin the son of Nathan of Grefenberg, and Jacob the son-in-law of Liebetraut appeared before the council requesting to be received again as citizens, declaring that, in return, they would remit all debts the citizens owed them and would sell all houses held in pawn; they agreed to settle only where the citizens permitted, and asked merely to be protected against the nobility.
1481: The Pope called upon all Christian princes to send back to Spain the Jews who had fled from the Inquisition.
1605: Massacre of the Jewish community of Bisenz, Austria.
1611:King James Bible is published for the first time in London, England, by printer Robert Barker. For many Jews (as well as non-Jews) the language of the King James Bible is the only version of the TaNaCh they know.
1634(4th of Iyar): Jacob Bassevi of Treuenberg passed away
1670: King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America. “The first known Jew to settle in what is now Canada was Ferdinande Jacobs, a fur trader with Hudson's Bay Company who came to Manitoba in 1732.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1713(6th of Iyar, 5473): Josep Josel Wertheimer, father of Rabbi Samson Wertheimer, passed away today at the age of 87.
1718(1stof Iyar, 5478): Tzvi Hirsch ben Yaakov Ashkenazi, known as the Chacham Tzvi , passed away in Lviv.
1729: Birthdate of Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great, Czarina of Russia. Regardless of how history views this German princess who replaced her husband on the throne of Russia, she was responsible for Russia acquiring most of its Jewish population. Under her reign, Russia acquired much of Poland and its large Jewish population. Her record of treatment of the Jews, is mixed to negative. As a follower of Voltaire, she could not help but be swayed by his low opinions of the Jews. Her policies led to the creation of what would be called the Pale of Settlement.
1791: In Prussia “Daniel Itzig and his family received the first Naturalisationspatent, which granted them full citizenship. A year later the solidarische Haftung (collective responsibility and liability of the Jewish community for non-payment of taxes and crimes of theft) was abolished.”
1810: In London, American born physician, Dr. Joel Hart married Louisa Levien. The Philadelphia native and only son of Ephriam had gone to England to study at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.
1825(14thof Iyar, 5585): Pesach Sheni
1833: Birthdate of Abraham (Adolf) Berliner German Jewish theologian and historian who re-established The Mekitze Nirdamim literally "awakening the slumbering", a society for the publication of old Hebrew books and manuscripts that were either never published or long out of print in 1885.
1836(15thof Iyar, 5596): Eighty one year old Aaron Worms the son of Abraham Aberle, the chief rabbi of Metz and author of "Meore Or" (Flashes of Light) passed away today.
1837: Birthdate of Selah Merrill, the first United States Consul in Jerusalem. He served three terms over the years 1882 through 1907. Merrill opposed Jewish settlement in Palestine, writing, "Palestine is not ready for the Jews. The Jews are not ready for Palestine."
1844: Birthdate of Aaron Wise, the Hungarian born American rabbi was the son of Rabbi Joseph Hirsch Weiss, and father of Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise.
1844: Birthdate of Emil Schürer, “the German Protestant theologian who, for his time had the unusual distinction of studying the history of the Jews at the time of Jesus which led him to write A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ
1853: The Argentine Constitution promised freedom of religion and immigration. Argentina had already shown itself to be a hospitable place for Jewish settlement when it abolished the Inquisition in 1813 which contributed to an influx of Jewish immigrants from Western Europe and North Africa. The country’s first “Jewish wedding” would take place in 1860 and the Jewish community of Buenos Aires dates its start from 1862.
1856: The New York Times reported that Lord Derby’s government could not long survive because it was led by “a dilettante Jew whose only stary is self, and who has no care either for the national honor or glory…” The “dilettante Jew” had to be a reference to Disraeli, who not for the first time would be wrongly identified as a Jew. And the references were invariably used as a slur.
1860: Birthdate of Theodor Herzl. Born in Hungary, Herzl's family moved to Vienna. He was raised in an "enlightened Jewish home" and trained as a lawyer. Herzl pursued a career as a journalist and writer. Although he had encountered anti-Semitism, his views on the role of the Jews changed radically when he covered the Dreyfus Trial in 1894. If anti-Semitism could thrive in enlightened France, then the Jews were not safe any place except in a nation of their own. He electrified many with his book the Jewish State and he organized the World Zionist Organization. The six congresses that he chaired set much of the tone and program for the modern Zionist movement. Herzl died in 1904 at the age of 44. In 1949, his body was taken to Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem for its final resting place. Herzl is the embodiment of Hillel's most famous wisdom statements and proof that one person can make a difference. “Herzl coined the phrase ‘If you will, it is no fairytale,’ which became the motto of the Zionist movement. Although at the time no one could have imagined it, Zionism led, only fifty years later, to the establishment of the independent State of Israel.”
1861: Lieutenant Horace Porter returned to the arsenal at Watervliet, NY, with a letter from Colonel James Ripley rejecting Major Alfred Mordecai’s request for transfer and ordering him to prepare and ship much needed “artillery equipment” to Washington.” This brought to an end Mordecai’s attempt to stay in the U.S. Army without having to fight against family and friends living in the South.
1862: Joseph Wolff passed away today at Isle Brewers. Born at Weilersbach, Germany in 1795, to David Wolff, the town’s Rabbi, he “was baptized in 1812 by the Benedictine abbot of Emaus, near Prague.” Wolff trained as an Orientalist, traveled throughout the Middle East where he sought to convert Jewish populations and later searched for the Ten Lost Tribes in an areas stretching from modern day Turkey to Afghanistan.
1863: During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Sergeant Henry Heller was one of four soldiers who risked their lives to bring a wounded Confederate officer into the lines of the Union Army. The officer then “provided valuable information concerning the position of the enemy."
1863: During the American Civil War, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is wounded by friendly fire while returning to camp after reconnoitering during the Battle of Chancellorsville. Among the units fighting at Chancellorsville that tried to stop the advance of Jackson’s troops was a regiment from Illinois under the command of Frederick Hecker that included a company made up of (supplied by) Jews from Chicago.
1864(26th of Nisan, 5624): Giacomo Meyerbeer passed away.
1867: The Weekly Clarion of Jackson reported today: “We are gratified that measures are in progress for the erection of a place of worship in this city by our fellow citizens of the Hebrew descent.” The newspaper item referred to the purchase of property at the corner of South State and South streets on which the Beth Israel Congregation would soon erect a small, wood-frame building which they would use as a school and a house of worship. This was the first building erected in Jackson designed to serve as a house of worship for the Jews living in around the city that was the capital of the state of Mississippi.
1870: Antoine Maurer, who was charged with killing a Jew named Joachim Feurter, went on trial again in Rockland County, NY. Maurer had been found guilty and sentenced to death but the conviction was overturned because the accused had not been present when the Judge responded to a request from the jury for clarity on a point of law.
1870:Lothair, the first novel written by Benjamin Disraeli after his first term as Prime Minister was first published today by Longmans, Green and Company in 3 volumes
1871:The second trial of, Antoine Maurer indicted for the murder of Joachim Feurter, “a German of the Hebrew faith” commenced here today, before the Court of Oyer and Terminer for Rockland County. Maurer had been found guilty in the first trial, but the verdict was overturned on a technicality.
1873: The Jewish Messenger issued an appeal for financial support to send poor Jewish children on summer excursions. Among those who would benefit from some sea-side recreation are youngsters under the care of the Hebrew Benevolent Society and Free School Association. If these two groups cannot raise sufficient funds, then the paper will organize a Messenger Excursion Fund.
1877: A delegation of the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites, led by Benjamin F. Peixotto met with President Rutherford B. Hayes to discuss the persecution of the Jews of Romania. The delegation presented a written account of “the recent barbarities” inflicted on the Jews of Glurgevo, Romania. The President expressed his sympathy and concern over the treatment of the Jews. He referred the group to Secretary of State William Evarts whom he requested to take such as this dire situation may require.
1877: On the advice of President Hayes, a delegation of the Board of Delegates of the American Israelites, led by Benjamin F. Peixotto met with U.S. Secretary of State William Evarts to discuss steps that could be taken to relieve the suffering of the Jews of Romania. The delegation “urged the Secretary of State to cable” the U.S. ministers “at Vienna, Constantinople and St. Petersburg asking them to act in conjunction with the representatives of those powers in endeavoring to repress further atrocities. Mr. Evarts took the subject under consideration” [This was part of an on-going series of attempts to relieve the suffering of the Jews of Romania. The Great Powers thought they had resolved the matter at the Congress of Berlin, but Romanian anti-Semitism would trump their efforts. The best hope for Romanian Jews would be found in leaving for the United States where they became part of the mass of immigrants who flooded this country in the years leading up to World War I. This would not be the first or last time that a U.S. President’s sympathy for the plight of the Jews would not be translated into a policy bring about their salvation. Most of us do not recognize the name of Benjamin Peixotto. In his day, he was one of the most influential Jews in the United States. He was a successful lawyer and journalist who was active in the affairs of the Republican Party and the Jewish community. Sic Transit Gloria.]
1878(29th of Nisan, 5638): Anglo-Jewish barrister and politician Sir Henry Francis Goldsmid passed away. Born in 1808, the eldest son of Sir Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, was educated privately, and was called to the bar in 1833, becoming Queen’s Counsel in 1858. In 1859 he succeeded to his father's honors, which included a barony of Portugal. He entered Parliament in 1860 as member for Reading, through a by-election, and represented that constituency in the Liberal interest until his death. While still a young man he actively cooperated with his father to secure to the Jews full emancipation from civil and political disabilities. In 1839 he wrote "Remarks on the Civil Disabilities of the Jews," and in 1848 "A Reply to the Arguments Against the Removal of the Remaining Disabilities of the Jews." He was one of the chief supporters of University College, and gave material aid to University College Hospital. He was associated with various Jewish religious and charitable organizations. He was connected with the Reform movement from its commencement, and was elected president of the Council of Founders of the West London Synagogue. He was vice-president of the Anglo-Jewish Association from its establishment in 1871, and was president of the Rumanian Committee which originated in the association. His greatest services to his race were, however, in the direction of improving the social condition of the Jews in those countries in which they were oppressed. The condition of the Poles in 1863 moved him to organize meetings for the purpose of securing some alleviation of their sufferings, and he also forcibly protested on several occasions in Parliament against the oppression of the Jews, notably that in Servia and Rumania. Goldsmid was deputy lieutenant for Berks and a justice of the peace for Berks and Gloucester. Having no children, the baronetcy devolved upon his nephew, Julian Goldsmid. His writings include, besides those already mentioned: "Two Letters in Answer to the Objections Urged Against Mr. Grant's Bill for the Relief of the Jews" (1830); "A Few Words Respecting the Enfranchisement of British Jews Addressed to the New Parliament" (1833); "A Scheme of Peerage Reform, with Reasons for the Scheme" (1835).
(As reported by the Jewish Encyclopedia)1884: Today’s issued of Hamelitz, a Russian newspaper printed in Hebrew, recorded the events that led to members of the two existing synagogues in Quebec to leave and established what would become Temple Emanuel, a Reform congregation.
1889(1st of Iyar, 5649): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1890: Mr. Cantor’s bill exempting the New York Sanitarium from local taxation was passed by the New York State Assembly today.
1891: It was reported today that there has been a serious outbreak of anti-Semitic violence at Corfu growing out of reports that the Jews “had murdered a Christian girl for the feast of Passover.”
1891: In Boston, Inspector Cogan arrested Samuel Steinhardt, a Polish Jewish immigrant who is wanted by the authorities in Newark, NJ.
1891: “The Union Square Mass Meeting” published today described Jewish participating in the mass meeting held at Union Square calling for an 8 hour day. The marchers wore red and blue caps that had been made by striking capmakers. The Jewish protestors were demonstrating for a more just society as could be seen by one of their banners emblazoned with “We Want the Children in Schools and Not In Shops.” (The Union Movement opposed child labor and supported universal public school education)
1891: “To Build A New Opera House” published today described the plans of Oscar Hammerstein, the owner of the Harlem Opera House and Columbia Theatre to build a new venue on 34th Street, just west of Broadway. Hammerstein plans to use the new building which is estimated to cost $250,000 will for German grand operas for four months of the year and then use it as a venue for grand theatrical performances during the balance of the year. This would keep the building in use for all 12 months which is a departure of normal business model.
1891: "Religious Riot in Zante” published today described a religious riot in the capital city of this Greek Island of the same name. During a procession on Good Friday (according to the Greek Orthodox Calendar) the Christians attacked the Jewish quarter of the town. Soldiers fired on the mob which refused to disperse and threatened to burn down all of the homes and businesses of the Jews. (This stands in stark contrast to what happened during WW II. Mayor Loukas Career and Bishop Chrysostomos refused to give the Nazis the names of the Jews living there and instead hid them. All of the Jews survived the Holocaust.
1892: Today’s “New Publications” column contained a review of The Early Religion of Israel, as set forth by Biblical Writers and Modern Critical Historiansby James Robertson which is based on the Baird Lectures for 1889.
1893(16th of Iyar, 5653):Johann Schnitzler a Hungarian-Austrian Jewish laryngologist who was a native of Nagy Kanizsa (today part of Hungary) passed away. He was the father of famed playwright Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931) and Julius Schnitzler. In 1860 he earned his medical doctorate at the University of Vienna, where from 1863 to 1867 he worked as an assistant to Johann von Oppolzer (1808-1871). In 1880 he was appointed associate professor of laryngology at the University of Vienna, and later became director of its policlinic. Schnitzler was a pioneer of modern laryngology, and author of numerous works on diseases of the throat and larynx. His best known written work was Klinischer Atlas der Laryngologie (Clinical Atlas of Laryngology), which was published posthumously in 1895. In 1860 with Philipp Markbreiter (1810-1882), he founded the Wiener Medizinische Presse, a publication of which he remained as editor until 1886Schnitzler is credited with coining the term "spastic dysphonia" for a vocal disorder known today as spasmodic dysphonia
1893: “Jews Attacked by Anti-Semites” published today described an outbreak of violence at Trappau, the capital of Austrian Silesia. Forty anti-Semites attacked five Jewish officers who fired their revolvers in self-defense, wounding 12 of their attackers.
1894(26thof Nisan, 5654): Seventy-eight year old Rudolph Carl Hertzog, who founded his nationally known department store at 1839 in Berlin, passed away today.
1894: The funeral of Jesse Seligman, who passed away on April 23 in California, took place today at Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
1895: Birthdate of Lorenz Hart. Born of Jewish-German immigrants, Hart was a highly productive lyricist for Broadway musicals and films. He is the Hart in the team of Rogers and Hart. Some of the tunes you might recognize are “Blue Moon,” “The Lady is a Tramp” and “The Most Beautiful Girl in the world.” He passed away in 1943.
1895: In New York, Isidor Bader took a seven year old “deaf and dumb boy” who had been abandoned by an un-known man and woman to the police station of on Madison Street.
1895: Female members of Temple Emanu-El will meet at four o’clock this afternoon to discuss plans for the fair to be held in December at Madison Square Garden for the benefit of the Hebrew Technical Institute and Education Alliance.
1895: Dr. Henry M. Sanders and Professor Albert S. Bickmore delivered an illustrated lecture describing Jaffa, Hebron and Bethlehem in which they described Jaffa as “a place of 8,000 inhabitants composed mostly of fugitive from all parts of the world;” Hebron as now being “believed to be almost as ancient as Damascus;’ and “Bethlehem as being “noted for its fertility and the beauty of its women.”
1896: Henry Rice, Isaiah Joseph, J.H. Schiff, Simon Borge, Isidor Straus, Louis Stern and Louis Stern are among those bought boxes for tonight’s concert at the Metropolitan Opera House the proceeds of which will go to the United Hebrew Charities.
1896: Harold Frederic reports from London on the financial consequences of the recent demise of Baron Hirsch. Members of the British government are expecting a windfall to the Exchequer from the death duties that will have to be paid. They are projected to exceed the amount collected from the estate of another prominent Jew, Sir Julian Goldsmid. On the other hand, the Prince of Wales is quite concerned over how he shall back the considerable sums that he had borrowed from the Baron. Rumor has it that the future King need not worry since there is a clause in the Baron’s will that absolves the Prince of Wales of his debts.
1898: “A mass meeting” is scheduled to “be held in the auditorium of the Educational Alliance at 8 o’clock under the auspices of the Hebrew Volunteer Bureau for the purpose of encouraging” Jewish citizens to volunteer for service in the fight against Spain.
1898: “To Encourage Hebrew Volunteering” published today described the intention of “a committee of thirty prominent citizens” to “muster and equip at least two regiments of “ Jewish “volunteers from the down-town section” of New York where several hundred Jews “have already signed the enrollment roster.”
1898: “Predictions About The War” published today described the ease with which most American leaders thought the war with Spain would be won including “‘It will be a war of one encounter,’ cried Mr. Pulitzer of the New York World, that most patriotic of Polish Jews.”
1899: Martin Sigismund Eduard von Simson whose family converted to Protestantism in 1823 who served as the first President of the Reichstag passed away today.
1907: Birthdate of Pinky Lee host of the 1950’s children’s television program, Pinky Lee Show
1908: “Take Me out to the Ballgame”, one of the most popular song’s connected with baseball was copyrighted today. The music for this American classic were written by a Jew named Albert Von Tilzer.
1911:Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the Jewish Theological Institute arrived on the Berlin tonight marking his return from an 11 month long vacations.
1912: Birthdate of Axel Springer German newspaper magnate. Springer was honored by numerous organizations included the Weizmann Institute, Hebrew University, and The New York Leo Baeck Institute for his work to preserve German Jewish Culture and History and his support of Israel. It was not just a personal commitment. His editorial policies stated that the organization was to promote "the reconciliation of Jews and Germans and support for the vital rights of the State of Israel."
1914: The trial of those accused of murdering Herman Rosenthal resumed in New York City.
1915: In New York, songwriter Fred Fisher and his wife gave birth to singer/songwriter Doris Fisher who performed with Eddie Ducin.
1919(2nd of Iyar, 5679):Gustav Landauer, German anarchist and pacifist, passed away. He was the grandfather of Mike Nichols the famous American writer, director and producer.
1919: Birthdate of “Jacob Bigeleisen, a chemist who worked on the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project and helped discover new ways of analyzing chemical reactions…”
1921: Riots in Jaffa, Palestine causes the deaths of 40 Jews and 200 wounded. Martial law was put in effect after Jewish stores were looted.
1922: David Lindo Alexander, the barrister and leader of the Anglo-Jewish community who opposed Zionism was buried today next to his wife at Wilesden Jewish Cemetery.
1922: In Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Harry Shipiatsky, who changed his name to Rosenthal after emigrating to Canada in the 1890’s and Sarah Dickstein gave birth to their youngest child , Abraham Rosenthal who as A.M. Rosenthal, rose to become the executive editor of the New York Times. He later became a columnist for the New York Daily News
1922: In New York City, Samuel Untermyer made a vigorous attack on critics of the Zionist cause at a meeting tonight sponsored by the Washington Heights Congregation. Other speakers were Nahum Sokolow, Colonel J.H. Patterson and Vladimir Jabotinsky, who appealed for contributions to the Palestine Foundation Fund that needs three million dollars to meet its budgetary goals. Untermyer said the funds were going to aid those seeking to “escape from the hate, persecutions, pogroms and massacres of the crazed, bigoted and Jew-baiting peoples of Eastern and Southeastern Europe.” Furthermore, the funds would only be used to develop the land including programs to buy land, build houses and finance public works projects.
1924: Birthdate of multi-talented performer, Theodore Bikel. Born in born in Vienna, Bikel's family took him to Palestine during the 1930's. Bikel supported himself as a musician and appeared in several stage productions of Habimah, the Israeli theatre. He honed his stage acting skills in London. Ironically, one of his first American film roles was as a German naval officer in The African Queen. It was one of many times he would play German and Russian characters. In a linguistic tour de force, he played a southern sheriff in the Defiant Ones, a part for which he received an Oscar nomination. Bikel's most famous role on the American stage was the male lead in the Sounds of Music, playing opposite Mary Martin. Bikel is multi-lingual and a skilled guitarist. This has made a favorite among folk music followers. Bikel has been outspoken labor activist in the film and theatre industries. And, he is an ardent Zionist.
1927: Louis Zabar, who created Zabar’s the icon of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, married Lillian Teitlebaum. The future Mrs. Zabar had been living in Philadelphia before she moved to New York where she met Zabar whom she had originally known from the Ukrainian village in which they had both lived. They had three children – Saul, Stanley and Eli. She passed away in 1995.
1927: In Birthdate of Amos Levine, the Tel Aviv native who as Amos Kenan became an Israeli columnist, painter, sculptor, playwright and novelist. He was known as a critic of Israeli policy.
1928: In San Francisco, Sydney Myer, the creation of the Australian department store that bears his name and Merlyn Myer gave birth to their youngest child Marigold Merlyn Baillieu Myer.
1929: Tel Aviv celebrated its 20th anniversary today at an afternoon tea party. One of the highlights of the event was the congratulatory speech by Major J.F. Campbell, District Commissioner of Southern Palestine which was delivered entirely in Hebrew. “This was the first time in the history of the country since the British occupation that a high British official has delivered a public address entirely in Hebrew.” The first child born in Tel Aviv, who is now twenty years old, “welcomed the guests in the name of the city’s young people.”
1930: In Tel Aviv, Moshe Kaniuk, the first curator of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and his wife Sarah gave birth to Israeli author Yoram Kaniuk
1932: Jack Benny's first radio show premiered on the NBC Blue Network, The color coding was to differentiate the two NBC networks from one another, not a reference to off-color material. This was one of the milestones in Benny's career which included vaudeville, films and television
1933: The United Committee for the Settlement of German Jews is organized to aid immigrants.
1933: The polarization between the labor Movement (Histadrut and Mapai) and the Revisionists intensify and reach their peak after the assassination of Chaim Arlozoroff.
1934: Congressman Louis T. McFadden delivers an anti-Semitic speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
1934:The defense in the trial of three revisionist Zionists for the murder of Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff obtained admissions today from men employed by the police to make plaster casts of the footprints of the accused that some of the casts did not fit. While cross-examining Inspector Riggs of the Palestine Police, defense counsel Horace Samuel attempted to establish the fact that the police had “hushed up the confession of Abdul Megid and his accomplice, Isa that they had murdered” the Zionist leader.
1935: Joseph Budko becomes director of the new Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem. Born in1888, he left Germany in 1933 and settled in Palestine. He passed away in 1940.
1935: As Palestine endures a heat wave, temperatures reach 104 degrees “in the shade.” The average temperature for May is 65 degrees.
1935:With Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor, Jack Benny came to radio on The Canada Dry Program on the NBC Blue Network
1936: Sixty-second running of the Kentucky Derby. “The Kentucky Derby was, in effect, a Jewish "sweep." Bold Venture was the winner, owned by Morton Schwartz, trained by Max Hirsch and ridden by Ira Hanford. All the human beings involved in this horse racing victory were Jews. Sometimes we suspect that Bold Venture was Jewish that day, too”
1936: Birthdate of violinist Michael Rabin. Rabin is part of long list of distinguished Jewish violinists that runs from A to Z; from Joseph Achron and to Paul Zukofsky. He passed away in 1972.
1938: “The British partition commission began its tour of inquiry this morning, driving from Jerusalem to Jaffa and Tel Aviv.” Tel Aviv Mayor Israel Rokach took the commissioners on a tour of Tel Aviv harbor. The commissioners expressed a great deal of interest in the harbor facilties in Tel Aviv and nearby Jaffa. They were surprised to learn that the Jews of Tel Aviv supplied most of that city’s funding for the harbor and that Jewish taxpayers of Tel Aviv paid to support the educational and health services in Jaffa. Residents of Jaffa made no such contribution to Tel Aviv.
1938: The Palestine Post reported that six Arab constables were killed when a gang of Arab terrorists attacked a police post near Kalkilya. Several casualties were suffered by the attackers who retreated with horses and rifles of their victims. Arab terrorists fired at the Jewish quarter of Safad and at Rosh Pina. They tampered with railway tracks, cut telephone wires and carried other acts of sabotage.
1941: Release date for “My Favorite Wife,” a comedy directed by Garson Kanin.
1941: In Nazi occupied Netherlands Jewish journalists are laid off.
1943(27th of Nisan, 5703): Four thousand Jews from Miedzyrzec Podlaski, Poland are murdered at the Treblinka death camp.
1943(27th of Nisan, 5703): At Luków, Poland, 4000 Jews are killed
1943: Memorial rallies were held today as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the plight of European Jewry and gain support for providing aid. “The memorial rallies …were in many instances jointly led by Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox rabbis--an uncommon display of unity. Equally significant, the Federal Council of Churches (whose Foreign Secretary had addressed the students' inter-seminary conference earlier that year) agreed to organize memorial assemblies at churches in numerous cities on the same day. Many of the assemblies featured speeches by rabbis and Christian clergymen, as well as prominent political figures. The gatherings received significant coverage in the newspapers and on radio. This important Jewish-Christian alliance helped raise American public consciousness about the Nazi slaughter of European Jewry.” (As reported by the David S. Wyman Institute)
1944: Robert Abshagen, was sentenced to death for his work in the anti-Hitler resistance.
1945: In Germany, the SS guards at the Neustadt-Glowen, labor camp near Lübeck fail to report for morning roll call, giving freedom to Jewish women who have been brought from Ravensbrück and Breslau, Germany, to dig defensive trenches and anti-tank ditches.
1945: Berlin surrendered to the Soviet Army. Out of a pre-war Jewish population of 33,000, only 162 survived
1945: The Central Board of the Charity Institution for Aged Needy People (at Athens) attempted to make the elderly Jews comfortable in their last years. In a letter to the Central Board of Jewish Communities of Greece, they wrote: "Honorable Sirs, The Central Board of the Charity Institution for Aged Needy People deeply sympathize with the martyrdom of the so terribly persecuted Jewish race by the wild and barbaric conqueror."
1945: “Raising a flag over the Reichstag,” a historic World War II photograph taken during the Battle of Berlin which depicts several Soviet troops raising the flag of the Soviet Union atop the German Reichstag building was taken today by Yevgeny Khaldei in another example of Jewish photographer taking an iconic WW II photograph such as the Iwo Jima Flag Raising
1945: President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9547 which made possible the Nuremberg Trials.
1946: Birthdate of musician Lesley Gore
1946: A funeral service is held in Kraków, Poland, for seven Jews who were murdered on April 30 by anti-Semitic thugs at Nowy Targ, Poland.
1947(12th of Iyar, 5707): Henry Monsky, international president of B'nai B'rith and chairman of the interim committee of the American Jewish Congress passed away today in the Hotel Biltmore at the age of 57, while attending a meeting of the future organization committee of the conference.
1948: Rusztem Vambery, the son of orientalist Armin Vambery, completed his service as Hungary’s ambassador to the United States.
1948: In response to the illegal attacks by Arab forces that had begun the day after the Partition vote, the Palmach 3rd Battalion, commanded by Moshe Kelman, attacked Ein al-Zeitun with a Davidka, two 3-inch mortars and eight 2-inch mortars
1949: Arthur Miller won the Pulitzer Prize for "Death of a Salesman." “Death of a Salesman” went on to be a successful film as well. Born in 1915, Miller's long career has included plays on a variety of topics including “The Crucible,” which used the Salem Witch Trials to challenge the Right Wing reactionaries including the followers of Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950's.
1950: “A United Nations plane flying southward over Israeli territory was forced down at Lydda Airport today after Israeli Army fighters had fired across its nose. The plane was permitted to continue on to an Arab field at Kallandia, in Jordan after an official check.”
1951: Prime Minister David Ben Gurion left Israel for a private visit in the United States, accompanied by Chaim Herzog. During the trip he will meet with President Truman, as well as with young leaders from both political parties. One of them is Congressman John F. Kennedy. Ben Gurion will also vit Israeli air force students in California and a company manufacturing aircraft parts. The plant belongs to Al Schwimmer, a former American volunteer in the War of Independence.
1951: Syrian forces took positions of Tel Mutilla, in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, and Meir Amit was ordered to dislodge them. Leading his Golani infantry brigade - he had become its commander in 1950 - Amit pressed the attack for four consecutive days, compelling the Syrians to withdraw. But with 40 of his soldiers killed in action and many others wounded, he faced serious criticism from senior officers and was called to defend his actions. The Battle of Tel Motila took place near Almagor, a Moshav north of the Sea of Galilee founded in 1961.
1951: For the only time in major league history, a Jewish batter faced a Jewish pitcher whose battery mate was also Jewish. Detroit Tiger Pitcher Saul Rogovin was on the mound. Catcher Joe Ginsberg was behind the plate. Lou Limmer, the Philadelphia Athletics’ first baseman was at bat. Limmer hit the first pitch into the stands.
1952: Release date for “Belles on Their Toes” the Henry and Phoebe Ephron sequel to “Cheaper by the Dozen.”
1960(5thof Iyar, 5720): Israel marks its 12th year of independence on Yom HaAtzma’ut.
1963: In London, Lucian Freud and Bernadine Coverley gave birth to British novel Esther Freud who is the great-granddaughter of Sigmund Freud and a niece of Clement Freud.
1968(4th of Iyar, 5728): Yom HaAtzma'ut
1968: Israeli television began broadcasting.
1968: Birthdate of Edward Frenkel, the Russian-born, Harvard educated mathematician and filmmaker who won the Hermann Weyl Prize in 2002.
1968: Release date of the cinematic version of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple co-starring Walter Matthau and directed by Gene Saks.
1975: Larry Blyden (born Ivan Lawrence Blieden) “reprised his role as “Ensign Pulver” in a tribute for director Joshua Logan at the Imperial Theatre.
1975: The American Jewish Committee announced publication of a guidebook by Gladys Rosen suggesting ways to recognize Jewish contributions to the United States during the Bicentennial celebrations.
1976: Agudath Achim, the Orthodox congregation in Little Rock, AR, dedicates its newest building. This is the third home for the congregation; the first one that is not in the downtown section of the city.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the U.S. President, Jimmy Carter, told the visiting Premier, Menachem Begin, that the U.S. will "never waiver" in its "absolute commitment to the Israeli security," even though "we may, from time to time, have a transient difference with the people of Israel". Some 150 American rabbis participating in the White House reception given to honor the Prime Minister Menachem Begin, presented the U.S. National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, with a petition protesting the proposed Middle Eastern arms embargo, which would directly affect Israel.
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that despite the U.S. State Department's official objections, the Palestine Liberation Organization opened an information office in Washington, under the management of Hatem Husseini, a Palestinian citizen of Jordan.
1979(5thof Iyar, 5739): Yom HaAtzma’ut
1980(16th of Iyyar, 5740): Arab terrorists kill 6 Jews and injure 17 at Hebron. Israeli military authorities order the deportation of the mayors of Hebron and the nearby village of Halhoul for incitement to violence. The mayors appeal to Israeli courts, which affirm the order. In December, they will be deported to southern Lebanon.
1981:Rabbi Joseph P. Weinberg officiated at the wedding of Harolyn Sue Landow and Michael H. Cardozo at Washington Hebrew Congregation. Mr. Cardozo is a cousin the late Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo.
1981(28thof Nisan, 5741): Eighty-five year old Dr. David Wechsler, a psychologist who was the author of widely used intelligence tests, passed away today in New York City. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
1981(28thof Nisan, 5741): Eighty-one year old Rabbi Joseph Hager, founder and senior rabbi of the Wall Street Synagogue, passed away today. A native of Rumania, Rabbi Hager founded two schools, the Hebrew Institute of Long Island, in Far Rockaway, and the Yeshiva of Spring Valley, in Rockland County. He was the founding editor and publisher of Synagogue Light, a monthly publication. The Wall Street Synagogue was first situated at Broadway and Duane Street and later move to 47 Beekman Street.
1981: A police sapper was moderately injured by an explosive charge that had been placed in a trash can near Cafe Alno in Jerusalem.
1982: “Talk With George Steiner” published today provides a look at the views of this Jewish philosopher, author and academic.
1982: Mayor Ed Koch is expected to be among the 450 guests attending the dinner tonight celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Hebrew Tabernacle of Washington Heights which has been led by Rabbi Robert L. Lehman for the past twenty-five years.
1982: “Alive And 90 In The Jungles of Brazil” published today provides a detailed review of The Portage To San Cristobal of A.H., George Steiner’s novel about Adolph Hitler.
1987: “P.L.O., Reunited But Isolated” published today described the disarray among those committed to the destruction of Israel.
1989(27thof Nisan, 5749): Yom HaShoah
1990: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher addressed the Women’s International Zionist Organization at its Centenary Lunch
1991(18th of Iyar, 5751): Lag B’Omer
1991(18th of Iyar, 5751): Eighty-two year old Leib Lensky, an actor who appeared in plays, films and television programs and performed in English, Yiddish and Hebrew, passed away today
1992(29th of Nisan, 5752): Dr. Lee Salk passed away. Born in 1926, Salk gained famed as a “baby doctor" and author on family matters. He died of cardiac arrest at the age of 65.
1999: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including“Israel and Europe:An Appraisal in History” by Howard M. Sachar and “The Majors: In Pursuit of Golf's Holy Grail” by John Feinstein.
2000: Israeli jet fighters turn back an Egyptian civilian aircraft from the Gaza airport
2001: “Israel Arrests an ex-general as a spy for spilling old secrets” published today described action taken against seventy-five year old Itzhak Yaakov, a retired IDF general.
2001: A meeting between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to discuss the Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative ends with little advancement.
2004: On the PGA tour, Bruce Fleisher won Bruno’s Memorial Classic.
2004: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback edition of Gulag: A History by Anne Applebaum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning study that maintains that the Soviet concentration-camp system was equal to the Nazi killing machine, and supports Solzhenitsyn's assertion that the gulag was not a Stalinist aberration but an integral part of Lenin's Socialist dream.
2004(11th of Iyar, 5764) A pregnant mother and her four daughters are shot dead by terrorists as they drive on the Kissufim road in the Gaza Strip.
2004: Vowing to fight for coexistence and mutual respect among mankind around the world, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger lays the cornerstone of Jerusalem's Museum of Tolerance and pays tribute to the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Governor concludes his speech with the Hebrew saying, "Am Yisrael hai"– (the nation of Israel lives) – gives the crowd a thumbs-up sign, and adds his signature movie line, "I'll be back."
2004: Sixty-five per cent of those participating in an internal Likud referendum voted against Ariel Sharon’s plan to disengage from Gaza.
2004: Natan Sharansky, the Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs, and the World Zionist Organization, launch the new "Combating Anti-Semitism" Kit.
2006(4th of Iyar, 5766): Yom Hazikaron – Israel Remembrance Day. On the day before celebrating its independence, Israel remembers the human cost. In the past year, 138 members of the security forces have been killed in the line of duty, bringing the total of men and women killed defending the state since 1860 to 22,123. This does not count the thousands of innocent bystanders who died in everything from terrorist attacks on Jerusalem pizza parlors to the sinking of ships filled with immigrants bound for Palestine in defiance of the infamous British White Paper.
2007: The Jewish Center for History and the Leo Baeck Institute in New York present “Hannah Arendt Rediscovered” a program “featuring the distinguished philosopher Richard Bernstein and author Jerome Kohn.”
2008: As part of the PEN World Voices, Israeli author Yael Hedaya participates in a panel discussion entitled Writing Sex and Sexuality. Yael Hedaya was born in Jerusalem in 1964.
2008: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa Friday evening services Temple Judah are dedicated to bidding Muriel and Fred Rogers a fond farewell. Fred and Muriel have been mainstays of the Jewish community and while we are all glad that they are enjoying a long, healthy life, we will miss them as they return to their Chicago roots.
2008: “One of a Kind,” a play that Yossi Vassa co-wrote with Shai Ben Attar about his family’s flight from Ethiopia in the mid-1980s opens at The New Victory Theater in New York City.
2008(27thof Nisan, 5768): Seventy-two year old Uzbekistani musician and poet Ilyas Malayev who fell victim to anti-Semitism in his homeland lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and passed away today in Queens, NY.
2008: “Imaginary Coordinates” featuring the Spertus Institute’s collection of Holy Land maps, which date back to the 16th century as well as contemporary Israeli and Palestinian women artists’ works that take up the question of regional borders opens at the Spertus in Chicago, Il.
2009: The Lincoln Center presents Orient- Occident: A Dialogue of Cultures as part of the Jordi Savall Jerusalem Series.
2009(8thof Iyar, 5769):Alfred Appel Jr., a scholarly expert on Vladimir Nabokov, whose lecture course he attended at Cornell, and the author of wide-ranging interpretive books on modern art and jazz, died today in Wilmette, Illinois at the age of 75. (As reported by William Grimes)
2009:Wayne L. Horvitz, a longtime labor relations mediator and the son of David Lyon Hurwitz, discusses and signs What's the Beef?: Sixty Years of Hard-won Lessons for Today's Leaders in Labor, Management, and Government at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C.
2010(18th of Iyar, 5770):Lag B'Omer
2010(18th of Iyar, 5770):Inna Hecker Grade, the widow and a translator of the great Yiddish novelist and poet Chaim Grade, who earned her own literary niche for her zealous guardianship of her husband’s legacy, died today at the age of 85 in the Bronx, New York City. (As reported by Joseph Berger)
2010:Silvia Planas and Manuel Forcano are scheduled to discuss A History of Jewish Catalonia their book that traces the rich and fertile history of the Jews in Catalonia from the earliest references, that is, from the time of the late Roman Empire and the Early Middle Ages, until the drastic decree of expulsion by the Catholic Monarchs in a program sponsored by The American Sephardi Federation
2010: As part of the third annual program in memory of Dr. Mordkhe Schaechter, Prof. Eugene Orenstein of McGill University is scheduled to speak on the topic, "Ber Borokhov: A Revolutionary of Yiddish Philology" followed by Prof. Joshua (Shikl) Fishman who is scheduled to speak about Dr. Schaechter.
2010(18thIyar, 5770):Eighty-six year oldRabbi Moshe Hirsch, a leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect that opposes the existence of the Israeli state and a longtime adviser to the Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat, died today at his home in Jerusalem. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2011: As reported by Tom Tugend in “Auschwitz bar mitzvah for 78-year-old Oscar-winner Branko Lustig”:Branko Lustig, 78, two-time Oscar winner for “Schindler’s List” and “Gladiator,” is scheduled to celebrate his bar mitzvah today at Auschwitz, in front of barrack No. 24.
2011: The Consultation on Conscience, Reform Judaism's flagship social justice conference is scheduled to continue with a reception featuring guest host Richard Dreyfus at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
2011:The 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society Heritage Award Dinner is scheduled to take place in Denver. The 2011 Heritage Award Dinner will salute early Colorado Jews in the Arts and will feature the premiere of a film called "Civilizing the West: Early Colorado Jews in the Arts."
2011:This morning at 10 a.m., sirens will wail throughout Israel as people observe a moment of silence in memory of the victims of the Nazi persecution. The closing ceremony of Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day will take place at Yad Mordechai, the kibbutz adjacent to Gaza named after Mordechai Anielewicz, the leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising who was killed in the fighting.
2011: In the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, Chicago police are taking additional measures to guard against possible retaliatory terrorist attacks. Police were paying closer attention to many buildings including synagogues, particularly in the Rogers Park and West Rogers Park neighborhoods, areas that have large Jewish communities. Some Chicago synagogues said they're not enhancing security because they're always on high alert. "The reality is that because of Osama bin Laden and other terrorists . . . we have been instituting additional security for a very long time," said Rabbi Leonard Matanky, of Congregation KINS in West Rogers Park. In the wake of 9/11, many synagogues installed cameras and began locking their doors, among other security measures that officials declined to specify.
2011:The Supreme Court delayed the start of former President Moshe Katsav's jail sentence until a ruling is reached on an appeal filed by his lawyers. Katsav, who was convicted on two counts of rape for indecent assault and sexual harassment of female employees, appealed the ruling against him this week.
2011(28thof Nisan, 5771): Yom HaShoah
2011: The trustees of the City University of New York voted to shelve plans to award an honorary degree to Tony Kushner because he “had disparaged the State of Israel in past comments.
2011: The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas condemned the killing by U.S. forces of Osama bin Laden and mourned him as an "Arab holy warrior." (As reported by Jack Khoury)
2012: A limited run of 'Welcome to America' by H. Leivick (the penname of Leivick Haplern) is scheduled to begin in New York.
2012: Dr. Jonathan Sarna is scheduled to discuss his marvelous new book, When General Grant Expelled the Jews at the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia, PA.
2012: Dr. Edna Nahshon, Professor of Hebrew and Theater at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and editor of Jews and Theater in an Intercultural Context, is scheduled to discuss this new book of essays, including her own research on passion plays in America at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
2012: The Westchester Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The International Workshop on Holocaust Testimonies: Truth and Witness being held at the Wiener Library in the UK is scheduled to come to an end.
2012: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to present “Jews in Early Modern Europe: A Day-to-Day Perspective.”
2012(10thof Iyar, 5773): Ninety year old violinist Zvi Zeitlin passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2013: In Chicago, the Spertus Institute is scheduled to present “Ballot, Babies and Banners of Peace,:” a lecture in which Dr. Melissa R. Klpaaher “will discuss how the activism of American Jewish women was grounded in their gender, religious, cultural, and ethnic identities…”
2013: “The key witness in the breach of trust trial against former foreign minister Avigdor Liberman, his former deputy Danny Ayalon took the stand today and gave incriminating testimony, confirming that while serving in the Foreign Ministry, Liberman had acted to promote a man who had done him a favor.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2013: The Maccabeats and Sarah Aroeste and Daniel Kahn & the Painted Bird are scheduled to perform at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2013: A terrorist opened fire at two people this evening in Wadi Kelt, near Mitzpeh Yericho. The two were attacked as they sat in a car
2013: Terrorists in Gaza fired two rockets at southern Israel tonight. The rockets hit the Eshkol region.
2014: Coralville, Iowa, The House of David Softball Team, sponsored by Agudas Achim is scheduled to take the field.
2014: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its final Musical Shabbat of the season.
2014: Annalisa Capristo the librarian at the Centro Studi Americani, Rome, Italy whose work focuses on anti-Jewish persecution in Italy under Fascist rule, particularly against Jewish scholars is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “An Overview of the Italian Jewish Immigration in South America” at the Third Regional New Conference sponsored by the Latin American Jewish Studies Association (LAJSA)