May 19
363: For a second day in a row, a series of earthquakes that took place along a fault-line stretching from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Aqaba shook the region around the Galilee. According to some, this seismic event was part of the reason the Temple in Jerusalem was not rebuilt despite Emperor Julian’s support for the project.
614: According to some date of the Christian led revolt in Jerusalem against the Sassanids began today during which an untold number of Jews were killed
1103 (10 Iyar 4063): Isaac Alfasi passed away. Born in Fez in 1013, he is also known as the "RIF". He compiled the first codification of Jewish law, called Sefer Halachot. It still appears today in every volume of the Talmud. Joseph Caro later used it as a basis for his work. Sefer Halachot was the most important codex until Maimonides'Mishna Torah. Alfasi was 25 years old when Hai Gaon died. He was called Gaon by many authorities and his death marked the very end of that (Gaonic) period. His students included Judah Halevi and Josef ibn Migash.
1555: Today, “in a document…Nahum Psakohovich, as representative of all the Jews in the grand duchy of Lithuania, lodged a complaint with the king against the magistrate and burghers of Kiev because, contrary to the old, established custom, they had prohibited the Jews from coming to Kiev for trading in the city stores and compelled them to stop at, and to their wares, in the city market recently erected by the burghers.”
1581: “The proclamation controlling usury was issued today” making the subject of “Three Ladies of London,” an Elizabethan comedy about usury by Robert Wilson which is unusual and noteworthy as a philo-Semitic response to the prevailing anti-Semitism of Elizabethan drama and the larger contemporaneous English society” quite topical since it was first performed in 1581.
1588: The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon. The Armada was the most massive fleet of its day including 130 ships and 30,000 soldiers and sailors. The Armada was designed to take control of the English Channel and facilitate the invasion of England from the Netherlands. The English were at a great a disadvantage in terms of ships and manpower. The all-important question was when would the Armada begin its trip north? Until the English knew this they would not when or where to make their first move. Dr. Hector Nunes, a secret Jew living in England provided the information about the Spanish departure. The Jews may have played a small part in one of the great turning points in history, but it was a small part that made a big difference.
1604: The city of Montreal was founded today. Jews would not start arriving in Montreal until the 18th century following the British defeat of the French. Today Montreal boasts a vibrant Jewish community number approximately 90,000 which some describe as the “most Orthodox” in North America. However it has lost its position as the leading Jewish community in Canada to Toronto because of the rise of the French separatists and their political party, Parti Quebecois.
1707(17thof Iyar, 5647): Chief Rabbi Saul ben Joshua Heschel passed away today in Breslau while on his to Amsterdam.
1762: Birthdate of German philosopher and anti-Semite Johann Gottlieb Fichte who “in his defense of the ideals of the French Revolution in 1793, singled out Jews and Judaism as constituting a ‘state-within-a-state’ that was ‘predicated on the hatred of the entire human race’ and ‘spreading through almost all lands of Europe and terribly oppressing its citizens.’”
1769: Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, who as councilor to the Holy Office had issued a memorandum declaring that the Jews were innocent of the “Blood Libel”, was elected Pope Clement XIV today.
1771: Birthdate of Rahel Levin, the prominent 19th century literary figure who converted when she married and gained fame as Rahel Varnhagen who was the subject of a biography by Hannah Arendt, Rahel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewess.
1792: The Russian army entered Poland. Ultimately Poland would be partitioned among its three imperial neighbors. Much to the dismay of the Russians, the partition brought them a large mass of Jews, something they found quite upsetting to say the least.
1794(19thof Iyar, 5554): Fifty-four year old Hyam Simon passed away today in the UK.
1798: As the French Army set sail from Toulon in campaign designed to weaken British access to India by taking control of territory from Egypt to Syria that included Palestine, Napoleon delivered one of those visionary speeches intended to inspire the forces to perform beyond their capability.
1799(14thof Iyar, 5559): Pesach Sheni observed for the last time in the 18thcentury
1802: The Légion d'Honneur is founded by Napoleon Bonaparte. Among the Jewish recipients are Rabbi
Langer of New York’s Congregation Orach Chaim, Rabbi David Feuerwerker,a veteran of the French Army who served with the Marquis during World War II, David Saul Marshall, political leader in Singapore and Victor Attias and Henry Smadja who were members of the Jewish Resistance in Tunisia during World War II.
1813: In Strasbourg, Babette Marx married Alexandre Blum and “moved with him to Algiers.”
1818: Eliza Frances (née Campbell) and Mr. Lionel Prager Goldsmid, an officer in the 19th Dragoons, and a scion of the well-known London family of that name whose maternal grandmother's father was Revolutionary War aide-de-camp David Franks gave birth to Sir John Goldsmid who would rise to the rank of Major General in the British Army
1820(6thof Sivan, 5599): Jews in the United States celebrate Shavuot in tranquility since the nation has just avoided a potential breakup over the issue of slavery with the adoption of the Missouri Compromise.
1832: Birthdate of German native Abraham Hart who rose to the rank of Captain in the 73rd Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War and raised 6 children with his wife Bertha Swope Hart.
1837(14thof Iyar, 5597): Pesach Sheni
1839(6thof Sivan, 5599): As American Jews celebrate Shavuot they are forced to contend with an economic panic that will continue to cause ripples into the next decade.
1858(6thof Sivan, 5618): Less than a month before Abraham Lincoln delivered his “House Divided Speech” American Jews celebrate Shavuot
1860: The New York Times reviewed The Throne of David by Rev. J.H. Ingraham, which “illustrates the grandeur of the Hebrews at the height of their power and splendor.”
1861: In San Francisco, CA, J. P. Davis, the President of the Hebra Bikur Holim, (Society for Visiting the Sick) presented a new Torah Scroll to Congregation of Sherith Israel.
http://www.theoccident.com/WildWest/san_francisco.html
1863(1st of Sivan, 5623): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1863(1st of Sivan, 5623): Jonas Ennery passed away. Born at Nancy, France, in 1801, he worked at the Jewish School of Strasbourg for 26 years. In 1843 he published “Le Sentier d’Israel” and he helped to edit "Prières d'un Cœur Israélite," (Prayers of a Jewish Heart) which was published in 1848. Despite anti-Jewish rioting in Alsace, Ennery was elected representative to the French National Assembly as a representative for the department of the Lower Rhine. After the coup d'état that brought Louis Napoleon to power Ennery was exiled forced into exile. He moved to Brussels, where he lived as a teacher until his death. Ennery's brother, Marchand Ennery, was the chief rabbi of Paris.
1886(5thof Sivan, 5625): Parsashat Bamidbar; erev Shavuot
1866(5th of Sivan, 5626): Seventy-six year old Solomon Ludwig Steinheim the German philosopher passed away. The Salomon Ludwig Steinheim Institute was named in his honor.
1867(14thof Iyar, 5627): Pesach Sheni
1867: Vernon and Herman Ehrenthal gave birth to Karolina Lina Hubsch
1867: According to reports published today, The Hebrew Educational Society of Baltimore has adopted the Christian plan of Sabbath school instruction.
1869: Miss Rebecca Fenster of Charleston, SC was married this evening.
1870: In Kings County, NY, Solomon and Betty Loeb gave birth to Nina Jenny Loeb who became Nina Warburg when she married Paul Mortiz Warburg.
1871(28thof Iyar): Meir Halevi Letteris passed away.
1872: In Greenpoint, LI, Ernestine and Bernard Rosenthal gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained rabbi, Isadore Rosenthal, the husband of Florence Roesentein who served as the Rabbi at Temple Shaari Shomaymim in Lancaster, PA for 28 years before becoming the leadr of Temple B’nai Israel in McKeesport, PA.
1873: Sixty-two year old German psychiatrist Friedrich Karl Steel whose parents had become Lutherans passed away today.
1873: In Cortland, NY, Louis and Rachel (née Ganz) Silverman gave birth to their third child Simon J. “Sime” Silverman, the journalist and publisher “best known as the founder of the weekly Varietyin New York in 1905 and the Hollywood-based Daily Variety in 1933
1873: “The New Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews” published today described the opening of this facility in New York City which was first envisioned by Mrs. Henry Leo in 1870. She enlisted the support of the Bnai Jeshurun Benevolent Society to help her make the home a reality. Unfortunately, Mrs. Leon did not live to see her dream come to fruition.
1876: Edward Elias Samuel was buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1877: Birthdate of London native Montague N. Cohen the graduate of Jews College who while serving as a rabbi in Tacoma, WA, in 1928 supported “the creation of a united Jewish Agency for the rebuilding of Palestine.”
1878: According to todays “Home and Foreign Events” column “at the suggestion of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, the Alliance Israelita Universelle will issue invitations for a conference of representatives of the Jew Jewish organizations of Europe and America. The conference will be held in Paris, and it will be open to the discussion of all subjects affecting the interests of Judaism.”
1873: Sixty two year old German psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Stahl, whose parents had become Lutherans while he a small child, passed away today.
1874: Theodore Pincus and Sarah Hart were married today at the Great Portland Street Synagogue in London.
1879: “The Rothschild Family: The Greatest Financiers of the Age,” published today purports to provide “an authentic history of the Rothschilds in Frankfort, London, Paris and Vienna” including how the founder of the family acquired his wealth and anecdotes about “family peculiarities.
1877(7thof Sivan, 5637): Shabbat; Second Day of Shavuot observed for the first time during the Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes, “the first President to designate an ambassador for the designated purpose of fighting anti-Semitism.”
1878(16thof Iyar, 5638): Seventy-four-year-old Rabbi Samuel Myer Isaacs the Dutch born son of Rebecca and Myer Isaacs who was the rabbi at B’nai Jeshurun and the husband of Jane Symmons passed away today in Manhattan.
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8233-isaacs-samuel-myer
https://archives.cjh.org/repositories/3/resources/6427
1879: Joseph H. De Meza “a young Cuban Jew” was arrested today for stealing clothing from Mrs. Charles A. Lillie in New York City. De Meza came to Mrs. Lillie’s home and asked for “an outfit of her husband’s clothing” claiming that the husband had fallen into the East River at the Fulton Ferry and that he had sent De Meza to get a dry outfit.
1879: An article published today entitled “Sunday Services for Hebrews” described reaction among various Jewish leaders to the recently announced plans by Temple Emanuel to start holding “Sabbath” services on Sunday.
1880: Birthdate of Leopold Einstein who at the age of 62 was deported from Nuremberg to Terezin where he was murdered at the age of 63. (Editor’s note – the next time somebody refers to people who carry Nazi flags or utter Nazi chants as “good” people think of this 62 year old man being loaded into a box car.)
1880: Eighteen year old Matthew Nathan, the son of Jonah Nathan joined the Royal Engineers
1880: It was reported today that Joseph Seligman’s will names his widow, Babet, as executrix of his estate, and his brothers James and Jesse and his son David as executors. The will provides that they may use $25,000 for contributions to the charities of their choice and sets up the terms for the disbursement of his estate so that it will provide for his wife and his children.
1881: In Paris, Adelaide and Baron Edmond de Rothschild gave birth to their second child Maurice de Rothschild, the husband of Noémie de Rothschild and father of Edmond de Rothschild who was noted for his vineyards and who was able to escape the Holocaust thanks to Aristides de Sousa, the Portuguese diplomat who defied his government and risked his career by issuing visas to an untold number of Jews fleeing the Nazis.
1881: In Alsace, France, Charles and Emilie Kahn Weill gave birth to Felix Weill who was buried at “Hebrew Rest Cemetery” in the rural town of Opelousas, LA when he passed away at the age of 18.
1882(1stof Sivan, 5642): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1882: The Leadville, CO Jewish community suffered a financial loss when a building owned by New Yorkers Caesar J. Kaskel and Jacob Michaels burned. The building was the home to a clothing store managed by Julius W. Kaskel.
1882: As part of a blood libel investigation an entourage of mounted policemen arrived in Tisza-Eszlar, a small Hungarian village. The investigation revolved around the disappearance of a fourteen year old Catholic housemaid named Esther Solymossy.
1882: In Tisza-EszlarJoszef Sharf, custodian of the local synagogue and his wife were arrested in connection with the disappearance of Esther Solymosi, a Christian peasant girl fourteen years old whom the locals claim was the victim of a Jewish blood lust.
1883: Yiddish actor Sigmund Mogulesko and his wife actress Amalia “Molly” Finkelstein gave birth Dr. Julius Lawrence “Mortimer” Mogulesko the graduate of Columbia Medical School who specialized in Bacteriology.
1885(5thof Sivan, 5645): Erev Shavuot
1886(14thof Iyar, 5646): Pesach Sheni
1886: The future Sir Mathew Nathan was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Royal Engineers
1887: In New York City Sarah and Henry Friedman gave birth to MIT trained engineer Ferdinand J. Friedman who served as a Captain in the U.S. Army during WW I.
1887: Birthdate of Lemberg native and University of Vienna trained physician Dorian Feigenbam, the psychoanalyst and pupil of Freud, who in 1924 came to the United States where he became an “instructor in neurology” at Columbia and co-founded the Psychoanalytic Quarterly while raising two children – Daniel and Lou Esther – with his wife Yaffa Feigenbaum.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/21674086.1937.11925305
1887: Fifty-five year old Otto Stobbe, the gentile German historian who is best known for “a scholarly work on Jews in Germany during the Middle Ages called Die Juden in Deutschland während des Mittelalters
1889(18th of Iyar, 5649): Lag B'Omer
1889: In Mogileff, Russia, Louis and Rose Rabinoff gave birth Sophie Rabinoff the American “pediatrician and professor of medicine.”
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/rabinoff-sophia
1890: Samuel Hutch, a Jewish peddler was seen alive for the last time near Wurtsborough, NY.
1890: “New Publications” published today includes a review of A Visit of Japheth to Shem and Ham
1891: Barney Greenman, a fourteen year old Jewish boy came to the Barge Office in New York and asked the immigration officials to send him back to Rotterdam.
1891: Three days after she had passed away, 76 year old Julia Myers, the daughter of Hyman Collins and Mary Davis and the wife of Lionel Alman Myers was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1891: The Czar has issued a new proclamation or “ukase” ordering the expulsion of the Jews from the Asiatic provinces of the Russian Empire.
1894: Birthdate of Lothar Mendes, the German born British director whose works included “The Man Who Could Work Miracles” and “International Squadron” which chronicled the role of Americans serving as pilots in the RAF.
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=Lothar%20Mendes&item_type=topic&sr=50
1894: “Literary Notes” published today described the upcoming publication of Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries by Dr. Meyer Kayserling, the German born rabbi and historian.
1895: “Hebrew Home to be Mortgaged” published today described plans by the managers of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York City to build a new facility with funds gained from taking out a mortgage on the property at 106thStreet and Columbus Avenue.
1895: Most of the 4,000 “uptown people” who had been invited to a tea at the Hebrew Institute attended this event which gave them a chance to observe the various activities of the educational organization.
1895: “In A Wide Labor Field” published today provided a detailed description of the work of the Educational Alliance which was formed in 1892 under the direction of the Hebrew Free School Association, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and the Aguillar Free Library Society
1895: In Cincinnati, OH, Carrie and Samuel Auer gave birth to University of Cincinnati graduate James Samuel Auer, a member of the Board of National Federation of Temples and the husband of Goldie E. Auer.
1896(7thof Sivan, 5656): Second Day of Shavuot
1896: Twenty-three-year-old architect David J. Varon, the Serbian born son of Isaac and Rachel Varon married Henriette Behar in Jerusalem today.
1899: Today, David J. Varon, the Siberian born son of Isaac and Rachel (Mevorach Varon,”, the employee of the Edmond de Rothschild colonies in Palestine who came to the United States in 1905 where he was a “Professor of Architectural Design at Syracuse University” and later lived in New York City where he wrote Indication in Architectural Design, lectured on architecture at Cooper Institute and became a member of the Association of Staten Island Architects married Henriette Behar.
1896: The village of Metula was founded with funds supplied by Baron Rothschild. Metula was the northern most town in Palestine and would become the northern most town in Israel. Metula is close to the border with Lebanon.
1896: In Birmingham, England, Jewish immigrants Laura (nee Greenberg) and Louis Balcon gave birth to movie producer Sir Michael Elias Balcan
1896: Herzl is received by Agliardi, the Papal Nuncio in Vienna.
1897: Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol. In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Wilde created a Jewish theatre manager named Isaacs whom he describes as “A hideous Jew, in the most amazing waistcoat I ever beheld in my life, was standing at the entrance, smoking a vile cigar. He had greasy ringlets, and an enormous diamond blazed in the centre of a soiled shirt…He was such a monster.” This does not mean he was an anti-Semite. After all, Ada Leverson, the English Jewess, invited Wilde to her Salon after he had been arrested.
1897: “Shearith Israel congregation consecrated its new edifice at Central Park West and 70th street” today.
1897: Birthdate of Israel Schultz Becker who had held a series of more responsible positions at CBS culminating as the “vice president in charge of business affairs while raising his son Arnold with his wife Celia passed away today.
1898: Birthdate of Langley, SC native Benet Polikoff, the graduate of the University of South Carolina and WW I veteran who was “a partner in the New York law firm of Polikoff and Clareman” and Chairman of the United Palestine Appeal.
1898: During the Spanish American War, Privates Samuel Cowen, Michael G. Greenberg and Arthur S. Loeb were part of Battery A, 1st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Artillery which was mustered into federal service today.
1898: “Gladstone’s Career” published today contained a summary of the late English political leaders life including his rivalry with Disraeli which began with a battle over the budget when Gladstone was made Chancellor of the Exchequer and continued even after Disraeli took his seats in the House of Lords.
1899: The new Hebrew Charities Building that was dedicated yesterday “will provide accommodation for the relief work of the United Hebrew Charities, afford convenient offices and meeting rooms for…various Jewish charitable and philanthropic enterprises” and to provide a meeting place large enough to accommodate gatherings of those supporting various Jewish agencies and institutions.
1899: “At Grenoble, a hostile crowd” followed “notorious Jew baiter Max Regis” as he made his way to the railway station following his acquittal “on the charge of inciting murder and incendiarism.”
1899: At Grenoble “a mob marched to the Officers’ Club cheering for Dreyfus” which touched off a riot.
1899: In Algiers, fifty anti-Semitic rioters were arrested when a mob marched on the Jewish quarter.
1900(20thof Iyar, 5660): Parshat Behar
1900: Lawrence Nadler, a recent arrival from Hungary was swindled for a second time in as many days which will probably hasten his return to his native land since he cannot locate the aunt with whom he was supposed to stay.
1901(1stof Sivan, 5661): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1901: Herzl sends a letter to the Sultan and asks for a final audience before his departure.
1901: Today, Bernard M. Maltz, the Lithuanian born son of “Abraham and Sarah Malz” gave birth to Bernard M. Maltz who in 1890 came to the United States where he worked as a salesman for “National Biscuit Company and Standard Oil” before going into real estate development and the construction in Brooklyn while also serving as a director with numerous organizations including the Federation of Jewish Charities in Brooklyn, the Pride of Judea and Yeshiva College married Lena Sherry.
1902: As violent attacks were taking place, Mrs. Caroline Schitzberg presided over a meeting of the Ladies’ Ant-Beef Trust Association which was attended by approximately six hundred men and women at the little Grand Street Hall.
1902: It was reported that 250 delegates from all across the United States had attended “the Qin-Quintal Convention of the Free Sons of Israel” in Atlantic City.
1903: Menachem Ussishkin arrives in Vienna to prepare for his visit to Palestine to make land purchases for the Geulah Committee and to organize the Yishuv.
1904(5thof Sivan, 5664): Erev Shavuot
1905: The Bagatela Theatre, a Yiddish theatre where Mark Arnstein worked as a director opened today in Warsaw.
1905 Birthdate of Vienna native Paul Phillip Gelles, who “came to the United States in 1920,” graduated from NYU after which he pursued a career in business that led him to serve as Chairman of the Board at “B.V.D.” a company best known for manufacturing men’s underwear and who was the husband “of the former Jeanne Peterzell with whom he had two children – Harry and Leda.
1906: Birthdate of Gerd Bucerius, the German journalist and lawyer whose Jewish wife took refuge in the United Kingdom when the Nazis came to power. He remained behind and defended numerous Jewish clients facing charges from the German authorities.
1906(24thof Iyar, 5666): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1906(24thof Iyar, 5666): Nine days after celebrating his 47th birthday, Isidore Bien, the Washington, DC born son of Amila Technor and Samuel Bien and the husband of Pauline Jacobs Bien, with whom he had two sons – Morris and Walter – passed away after which he was buried in the Adath Jeshurun Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1906: In Providence, R.I., “Adolph and Sophie (Himowitz) Bask” gave birth to Harvard trained physician and WW II veteran Henry Jacob Bakst, the husband of Ruth Elene Miller and father of David Allan Bakst who rose from serving as an instructor of medicine at Boston University to dean of the School of Medicine at Boston University.
1907(6thof Sivan, 5667): Shavuot
1907: It was reported today, that following allegations that the Jews of Odessa have formed a self-defense league and that other Jewish communities were following their example Count Konofonia wants to ask the Czar “authorize the Societies of True Russian Men to disarm these enemies of the autocracy.”
1908(18th of Iyar, 5668): Lag B'Omer
1908: Dr. Jacob Haas who was supposed to marry his niece Fannie Thaller next month, despite the objections of her family and who had “three life insurance policies in Jewish societies aggregating to $3,000” attempted to commit suicide today by slashing his wrists and taking ten grains of cocaine.
1908: Three days after had passed away, 57 year old Hyam Hart, the Australian born son of Ashe Hart and Rachel Joseph was buried today at the “Willesden Jewish Cemetery.”
1908: Birthdate of Sylvan N. Friedman, the native of Natchez, LA, the father of Sam Friedman and the nephew of Leon and J. Isaac Friedman who served in both the Louisiana State House of Representatives and the Louisiana State Senate
1909: Birthdate of composer Shlomo Yoffe or Schlomo Joffe. Born in Warsaw he studied piano theory in Samara, Russia from 1918 until 1921 and, in 1924 in Warsaw joined the Zionist movement Hashomer Hatza'ir, playing the mandolin, tuba, baritone and clarinet in its folk orchestras. He graduated from the Teachers' Seminarium in Poznan (Poland) in 1928, and in 1930, following agricultural studies in Brno (Czechoslovakia), moved to Palestine, helping to establish a kibbutz in 1932. Only after 1940 did he begin to be involved with music again, at first teaching and arranging music at the kibbutz Beit Alpha. After a period of concentrated study (1947-53), with Prof. J. Tal and Prof. O. Partos at the New Jerusalem Academy of Music, and privately with A.A. Boskovich, he devoted himself to composition and teaching at the district conservatory for kibbutzim at Beth-She'an Valley, where he was director until 1973. In the 1950s, under Boskovitch's influence, he used elements of Near Eastern Jewish song, maqam, heterophony and a form of chromatic modality, often in the expression of biblical and Israeli dramas, for example in the cantata "Tales of Mount Gilboa" (953), but also in his Prokofiev-like neo-classical symphonic works. These features remained evident in later works, despite the influence of Schoenbrg in the compositions of the 1960s and the influences that followed a visit to Darmstadt in 1962 and meetings with Lutoslawski and Penderecki. His cantata "Rising Night after Night" (1978), for example, exhibits many contemporary aspects, including extended vocal techniques, clusters and a deformed folk melody, but despite these developments, Joffe always remained, through his teaching, association and biblical roots, a 'kibbutz composer'.
1909: Birthdate of Sir Nicholas George Winton, MBE a Briton who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport. Winton found homes for them and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. The UK press has dubbed him the "British Schindler".
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007780
1910: The Sixth Biennial Session of the National Conference of Jewish Charities in the United States came to a close today in St. Louis, MO.
1911: The Turkish government instructs its Minister at Teheran to protest the Persian government attacks against lives and property of Ottoman Jews at Kermanshah.
1911: The King of Italy confers Knighthood of Order of Crown on Rabbi Abraham Elbgen, Chief Rabbi of Crete.
1911: Jews of Constantinople take a prominent part in the celebrations of the anniversary of the Sultan's accession to the throne.
1911: Plans are made in Cairo to form a Federation of Synagogues.
1912: Alterations in the ritual used at the New West End Synagogue was “agreed to at a meeting of seatholders” today in London.
1913(12thof Iyar, 5673): Fifty-four year old Rabbi and Editor Isaac Suwalsky passed away today in London.
1913: Three days after she had passed away, 78 year old Phoebe (nee Neuberger) Duis, the husband of Levy Duis, was buried today in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1914 “Harry Rapf, an executive and film producer at MGM” and his wife gave birth to Dartmouth alum and second generation movie maker Maurice Rapf, “a founder of the Writers Guild of America”
1914: Birthdate of Max Perutz, Austrian-born British molecular biologist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1962.
1915(6thof Sivan, 5675): Shavuot observed for the first time during WW I.
1915: Birthdate of Irving Gertz, the native of Providence RI and graduate of the Providence College of Music who gained fame for creating the scores for dozens of horror and sci-fi films.
1915: Twenty year old Boston native Henry Landers Bostick the University of Denver student and right-handed infielder played his last major league baseball game with the Philadelphia Athletics (now the Oakland A’s)
1915: “Petitions bearing 50,000 signatures have been obtained” in Buffalo, NY “in the effort to save Leo M. Frank from execution.”
1915: “Mas Meeting to Aid Frank” published today described for a meeting to be held by the League of Foreign Born Citizens that will “appeal for justice for Leo M. Frank” who has been “sentenced to die next month for the murder of Mary Phagan.”
1915: The text of a telegram to J.H. Slaton, the Governor of Georgia signed by several prominent leaders from Paterson, NJ, including Samuel Goldstein, Morris A. Goldstein, Arnold Levy, Nathan Levine, Herman Orbach, David Gordon, Harry Dunn, Benjamin Lowenthal, Solomon D. Stern and Isadore F. Rosenthal begging “to intercede with your Excellency to bestow clemency upon Leo Frank” was published today.
1915: While the State Prison Commission has not set a date for “the hearing of Leo M. Frank’s petition for a commutation of his sentence” today is the first possible date on which the Commission might take such action.
1916: Birthdate of Victor Lucas, the son of a London drapery shop owner who “was appointed inaugural President of the British Property Federation” in 1974 and “was one of the first Jews of Eastern European parentage” to play a major role in “the Anglo-Jewish communal leadership” was can be seen by election to the vice presidency of the Board of Deputies and the presidency of Anglo-Jewish Association.”
1917: The Central Committee of the Jewish Committee for the Care of the Fugitives for the Galilee was elected today.
1917: It was reported today that the Turks have driven the Jews away from the coast forcing them to leave behind their property which is unprotected from looters and to “suffer great destitution” as they tried to make their way to Jerusalem where conditions are not much better.
1917: “Further confirmation that the Turkish military authorities in Palestine” and the civilian Turkish population “are committing terrible atrocities against Jews in Palestine reached Washington today in official reports”
1917(27thof Iyar, 5677): Fifty year old Adolph J. Meyers, the brother of Mrs. Abe Adler and Mrs. H.M. Marks passed away today at North Chicago Hospital.
1917: “The Petrograd correspondent of the Jewish Daily Forward cabled” today that in Russia and Romania, “efforts were being made to provide equal rights for Jews.”
1918: Birthdate of Louis Sachwald, who was among the brave American soldiers who battled the Japanese during the dark days of WW II at Corregidor and survived a brutal imprisonment to become a successful businessman in Maryland
1918: Benjamin Bernstein, the President of the Hebrew Association for the Blind and Leo Woolfson were among the speakers at “a patriotic meeting” sponsored by the association where attendees were urged to contribute to the $25,000 fund be raised to help care for blind Jewish soldiers returning from France who want to be employed even though they have lost their sight in service of their country.
1918: Birthdate of Abraham (Bram) Pais a Dutch-born American physicist and science historian.
1918: Bainbridge Colby, the United States Shipping Commissioner spoke tonight “at the joint memorial service of the Hebrew Union Veteran Association and the Hebrew Veterans of the Spanish War…at Temple Beth El” where he assured attendees that the navy is on the verge of mastering the threat of the German submarines and that at least “fifty ships of major size” would be commissioned in June.
1919: In Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk moves to Samsun from Istanbul with a few followers, to oppose the Ottoman government, which eventually leads to the Turkish War of Independence and the creation of the modern Turkish state. As part of his reform programs Ataturk made religious faith a matter of individual conscience. He created a truly secular system in Turkey, where the vast Moslem majority and the small Christian and Jewish minorities are free to practice their faith. As a result of Atatürk's reforms, Turkey -unlike scores of other countries- has fully secular institutions.
1919: The Sinai Choral Club is scheduled to provide the closing program this evening at the meeting of the Sinai Open Forum in Chicago.
1919: The twenty-sixth biennial council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations begins in Boston.
1919: Today, Russian born and Columbia and NYU trained biochemist William Marias Malisoff, married Sally Juster with she raised three children – Marias, Eda and Vera Malifsoff.
1920: Following Britain’s refusal to allow an American prospector to look for oil in Palestine, U.S. Ambassador Davis “pointed out that the American as not asking for any concession and suggested that the British authorities might well make a distinction between concession-hunters and individuals who were merely conducting investigations.”
1920: It was reported today that “seventy-five delegates and alternates to the All-Russian Zionist Congress, which met here late in April, have been arrested.”
1921: The Emergency Quota Act passes the U.S. Congress establishing national quotas on immigration. Because of the convoluted quota system established by this law, immigration from southern and eastern Europe effectively came to an end. This had the effect of closing the American Door for the Jews of Eastern Europe and Russia. The strict enforcement of this law would also mean that European Jews would have no place to go when Hitler came to power.
1922: A new department of the Keren Hayesod has been established “to mobilize the Jewish workingmen for the Palestine Foundation Fund.”
1923(4thof Sivan, 5683): Parasaht Bamibar
1923: Abraham Cahan, the editor of Jewish Daily Forward addressed the Convention of the Socialist Party of America today denouncing the Soviet regime and describing Lenin and Trotsky as “failures.”
1924: “Research working covering ten years and costing $40,000 was dedicated tonight when “The History of the Jews of Chicago” was presented to the Chicago Historical Society.”
1925: “The Vienna Technical College closed today on account of the unruliness of the students who decided to shut out the Jewish students for one day in order to avenge a German professor” whom they claimed, “was attacked in the Jewish papers.”
1925: The Joint Distribution Committee which announced on May 17 that was planning another nationwide campaign to continue its relief activities abroad said today “that the appeal would be made in the Fall and the amount sought would be $15,000,000.”
1926(6th of Sivan, 5686): Shavuot
1926: “As part of the observance of the Shavuot holiday, appeals will be made today in Jewish temples and synagogues throughout the city on behalf of the United Jewish Campaign for $15,000,000 to aid the needy Jews of Eastern Europe.”
1927:”The fourth of the series of Watson Clair Foundation lectures on "British and American Rivalries in the American Revolution" was delivered by Professor Van Tyne at the Arts School at Cambridge today” during which he said that “in the patriot ranks could be found most Western European Races” including the “Jews.”
1928: In the Bronx, Romanian Jewish immigrants “Tina (née Michel), a homemaker, and Carl Schayes, a truck driver for Consolidated Laundries” gave birth to NBA great Adolph "Dolph" Schayes.
1929: “The Valiant” starring Paul Muni is his film debut and produced by William Fox was released today in the United States.
1930: In Frankfurt am Main, Yerachmiel and Chana Kranzler of Würzburg gave birth to Dr. David H. Kranzler the holder of Ph.D from Yeshiva University and professor of library science at Queensborough Community who authored numerous books on the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust.
https://books.google.com/books?id=s4Cx3yenDCQC
1930: The world executive of the Mizrachi (Orthodox Zionists) sent a telegram to Dr. Chaim Weizmann today calling for an immediate meeting of Zionist congress that would address the announcement by the British High Commissioner to suspend immigration to Palestine. The appeal stated that “the new immigration ban reveals a new British government tendency to disregard the principles of the mandate.” This “tendency endangers the Zionist work.” Protests against the new British policy are already taking place in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the Emek Valley. The Jewish Agency and the Vaad Leumi are meeting in a joint session to deal with this issue.
1931(3rdof Sivan, 5691): Sixty-eight year old Russian born American newspaperwoman and socialist Mrs. Adella Kean Zametkin, the author of A Woman’s Handbook and the wife of Michael Zametkin, the first editor of The Jewish Daily Forward passed away today in NYC.
1931: Birthdate of Jerome Kurtz, the native of Philadelphia who became a successful tax lawyer and Commissioner of the IRS.
1932: “Adolf Hitler told National Socialist members of the new Prussian Diet today that his party would not participate in the formation of a new government.”
1933: “Leaders of American Jewry in a statement tonight, on the eve of the convening here tomorrow of an emergency session of the American Jewish Congress, asserted that efforts to arouse public opinion against Adolf Hitler would be continued until Jews were restored "to complete equality with all other inhabitants of Germany."
1934: In Brooklyn Rabbi Isaac Landman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Two Sets of Commandments” at Congregation Beth Elohim.
1934: Rabbi I. Mortimer Bloom is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “The Reign of Law” at Temple Oheb Shalom.
1934: Rabbi Louis I. Newman is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled, "Goebbels' Speech and the Madison Square Garden Meeting-What Do They Conceal?" at Congregation Rodeph Sholom
1934: Dr. Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon entitled “Who is Who-With Respect to Life's Values" at New York’s Temple Emanu-El.
1934(5th of Sivan, 5694): Erev Shavuot
1934: Rabbi Milton Steinberg is scheduled to lead Shavuot Services at Park Avenue Synagogue at 6 p.m. this evening.
1935: Representative Manny Celler spoke at the annual memorial service of the Jewish War Veterans which was held today at Temple Emanuel
1935: T. E. Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, died from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident. Lawrence is connected in the popular mind with his role in providing British support for the Arab Revolt during World War I. But Lawrence was not one of those British Arabists who were, at best, disdainful of the Jewish people. As can be seen from the following, Lawrence welcomed the settlement of the Jewish community in Palestine. “In 1919 Lawrence drafted a letter for Emir Feisal for a meeting with Felix Frankfurter, a leader of American Zionists. In his letter Feisal wished “the Jews a hearty welcome home” and asserted “our two movements complete one another.” “There is room in Syria for both of us” he concluded. The letter was published in the New York Times on
1936: “Love in Exile” produced by Max Schach, with a script co-authored by Herman J. Mankiewicz and music by Benjamin Frankel was released today in the United Kingdom.
1936: Carl J. Austrian, chairman of the Greater New York campaign of the Joint Distribution Committee is scheduled to act as the toastmaster for the this evening’s testimonial dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria honoring merchant Edwin Goodman, the President of Bergdorf-Goodman who is also chairman of the dress industry division of the Joint’s fundraising campaign.
1936: It was reported today that the “publication of the periodical Judenkenner (Observe of Jews) the organ of the Anti-Jewish World Alliance has been discontinued until after the Olympic Games” but that it is understood that publication will resume “after the Olympic Games are over and competitors and visitors have gone home.”
1936: “Tel Aviv celebrated the inauguration of its new port today. Tens of thousands gathered around a provisional jetty to watch the arrival and unloading of two steamers with cargoes of cement.” Tel Aviv’s aged and ailing Mayor, Meir Dizengoff, left his sick bed to watch the Jewish porters unloading bags of cement. “Now that my eyes have sevenths, I am ready to die.”
1936: Today “The Stuermer, Julius Steicher’s anti-Semitic weekly published a list of thirty two Jews who had been arrested or punished on charge of ‘race defilement’ under the Nuremberg racial laws” including one who had committed suicide after arrest” and nineteen who had been “sentenced to prison terms ranging from six months to two years.”
1937: Premiere of “Room Service” a play featuring Sam Levene as “Gordon Miller” which was “the basis of the Marx Brothers film of the same title.”
1937(9th of Sivan, 5697): Eighty-three year old Emilie Badt, the daughter of Fanny and Rabbi Wolf Landau passed away today in her hometown of Dresden, Germany
1937(9th of Sivan, 5697): Eighty two year old Samuel Sale who had served as the Rabbi for Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis from 1887 to 1919 passed away today.
1938: Simon W. Gerson, an aide to Manhattan Borough President Stanley M. Isaacs spent three hours testifying before the Joint Legislative Committee on Law Administration and Enforcement chaired by state senator John J. McNaboe. The committee spent very little time questioning Gerson about the alteration of his name on Municipal Court records in a rent case which was supposed to be the focus of the hearing and a lot of time questioning Gerson about his political views. Gerson, who was Jewish, was a self-described Communist who, along with his wife, has been very critical of the American political and economic system. His boss, Borough President Isaacs was also Jewish but he was a leading member of the Republican Party.
1939(1st of Sivan, 5699): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1939(1st of Sivan 5699): Fifty-three year old Karl Radek, the Lemberg born Communist who “was sentenced to years of penal labor” after being convicted in a show trial during Stalin’s great purge reportedly was killed today by a fellow inmate/
http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSradek.htm
1939: Services marking the installation of Norman Gerstenfeld as the Rabbi of Washington Hebrew Congregation were held today in the District of Columbia.
1939: In defiance of the White Paper, 309 “illegal Jewish immigrants” landed on the “shores of Southern Palestine.” Before they were discovered by British troops, the group, including 74 women and 14 children were attacked by an armed mob of Arab villagers.
1940: Today is the last day on which Hans Rey would paint his illustrations on French soil.
1941: In New York, “noted playwrights and screenwriters Henry and Phoebe (née Wolkind) Ephrom” gave birth award winning novelist, screenwriter and director Nora Ephron whose second marriage to award winning journalist Carl Bernstein provided the fodder for the novel and movie Heartburn.
https://www.biography.com/writer/nora-ephron
1941: The Palmach ("peluggot mahaz" - "assault companies") commando units were established by Yitzhak Sade as a defense from any Axis (Germany and Italy) attack on Eretz Israel. Later they assisted in planning and executing the dropping of Parachutists in occupied Europe. At its peak (November 1947) it had approximately 5000 members which were mainly responsible for capturing Safed and Tiberias as well helping to open the road to Jerusalem.
1942: In the Bronx, “homemaker Dorothy (Serating) Shopsin” and “Kenneth Henry Shopsin, the owner of a paper manufacturing company” gave birth to Kenneth Henry Shopsin, who with is wife created the restaurant Shopsin’s General Store. (AS reported by Neil Genzlinger)
1943(14thof Iyar, 5703): Pesach Sheni
1943: Liberal Judaism, a new illustrated monthly journal of opinion and letters, has been issued by The Union of Hebrew Congregations, it was announced today. The cover of the first, or May, issue, published last Saturday, is dedicated to the memory of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, founder of Reform Judaism in the United States.
1943: Berlin was declared "Judenrein", Jew Free.
1943: In the House of Commons, the courageous Eleanor Rathbone attacked the British government for the defeatist attitudes expressed at the Bermuda Conference and noted that the Allies are responsible for the deaths of any Jews if they refuse to help.
1943: Ben Hecht’s “We Will Never Die” was performed at the Chicago Stadium, with guest stars John Garfield and Burgess Meredith in the lead roles. An estimated 20,000 people attended as the stadium, “scene of many a hectic convention and gaudy circus, was turned into a house of worship,” as the Chicago Daily Newsput it.[Jewish Virtual Library]
1944(26th of Iyar, 5704): Jews deported from Paris to Kovno, Lithuania, are machine-gunned by guards in a fenced enclosure after some of the prisoners attack SS troops.
1944: George Henry Lane, a Hungarian born English Jew serving with the British commandos was captured on a pre-D-Day raid on the French coast but was able to avoid being executed under Hitler’s Commando Order by hiding his Jewish origins and fooling no less an authority than Field Marshall Rommel that he was Welsh which led to his being imprisoned instead of executed.
1944: The Germans transported Hungarian Jew Joel Brand to Turkey so he could deliver a proposal from Adolf Eichmann that would have required the Western Allies to exchange 10,000 trucks for one million Eastern European Jews. Eichmann called it "blood for trucks." Arrested by the British, Brand was sent to Lord Moyne (resident minister of state in the Middle East), who comments: "What shall I do with those million Jews?"
1944:Mel Mermelstein the man who would defeat the Institute for Historical Review in an American court and had the occurrence of gassings in Auschwitz during the Holocaust declared a legally incontestable fact was deported to Auschwitz along with the rest of the Jewish community of Munkacs, which was part of Czechoslovakia at that time.
1945(7thof Sivan, 5705): For the first time since VE Day, Yizkor is recited on the 2ndday of Shavuot.
1945: It was reported today that French government has forbidden Jews in Algeria to hold “a meeting to discuss the future of Palestine” which was to be addressed by David Ben Gurion because such a meeting “might lead to a clash with the Algerian Arabs”
1946(18thof Iyar, 5706): Lag BaOmer
1946: Seventy-six year old Pulitzer Prize winning author Boot Tarkington, whom some would say engaged socially acceptable genteel anti-Semitism, passed away today.
http://dramatic-insights.org/tarkington/index.php/2012/tarkington-antisemite/
1947: Italy which had been on both sides during the war and at one time emulated the race laws of their German ally, applied for membership in the United Nations today.
1948: Israeli forces abandoned Bet ha-Aravah and the potash works on the northern end of the Dead Sea.
1948: The provisional government of Israel declared a state of emergency.
1948: As the undermanned and outgunned Israeli units sought to keep the Syrians and Iraqis from taking the Jordan Valley, a second raid, by a Yiftach company, crossed the Jordan and struck the Syrian camp at the Customs House, near the main Bnot Yaakov Bridge After a short battle, the Syrian defenders (one or two companies) fled. The Palmachniks destroyed the camp and several vehicles, including two armored cars, without losses.”
1948: In Jerusalem, “the Arabs recaptured the Sheikh Jarrah area”
1948: The Iraqis, who were about to drive west through Nablus toward Tulkarm, “asked the Syrians to make a diversion in the Degania area to protect their right flank. The Syrians complied, their main objective being to seize the bridge across the river north of Degania Alef, thus blocking any Israeli attack from Tiberias against the Iraqi line of communications.”
1948: During the War for Independence two civilian leaders from Kibbutz Deganya arrive at Ben Gurion’s offices begging for help in fighting off the attacking Syrian armored column. Ben Gurion responded candidly “We don’t have enough artillery, enough airplanes. Every front needs reinforcements. The situation is extremely grave in the Negev, in the Jerusalem area and in the Upper Galilee.” And if anything, Ben Gurion was understating the desperate situation. So far the only help he had to send to Deganya was Moshe Dayan who had little more than his eye-patch with which to face the Syrians, Iraqis and Jordanians. Ben Gurion sent the two leaders to Yigal Yadin, his Chief of Staff. Yadin listens to the report and then advises them to let the Syrian tanks breach the kibbutz so that the defenders can disable them with Molotov cocktails. Their angry response shocks Yadin into action. If Daganya is lost the North is lost. With the Egyptians advancing from the Negev and the Arab Legion besieging Jerusalem, Yadin’s position seems more like Custer than King David. Yadin meets with Ben Gurion. In a table-pounding dispute, Yadin attempts to convince the Old Man to send four 65 millimeter artillery pieces that had been intended for Jerusalem north to Deganya. This is the sum total of the Israeli artillery reserve and the weapons lack sights (you know, the things you aim the gun with). Ben Gurion agrees to send two of the canon North with Dayan under the condition that they be returned promptly to help with the fighting around Jerusalem.
1948: The provisional government council of Israel proclaimed a state of emergency.
1948: The Scotsman quoted a report by Thomas Wasson Consul General for the United States in Jerusalem “saying the British Consul had a “narrow escape” when the Consulate came under gunfire.”
1948: "A tiny force of the Palmach took Mount Zion and broke through to the Jewish Quarter." The unit was forced to withdraw several hours later when reinforcements could not come to their aid.
1949: “Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, called on American Jews tonight for greater support of the organization's religious and cultural institutions.”
1950(3rdof Sivan, 5710): Eighty year old “German-born rabbi, Jewish theologian, and philosopher of religion” Julius Guttman, the son of Rabbi Jakob Guttman who was serving Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew University passed away today.
1950(3rd of Sivan, 5710): The Aliyah of Iraqi Jews began. The first deportation of Eretz Yisrael Jews to Babylonia took place in 597 B.C.E. The bulk of Eretz Yisrael Jewry followed them to Babylonia 11 years later, in 568 B.C.E. The first return of some Babylonian Jews to Eretz Yisrael took place in 539 B.C.E. The majority, however, remained in Babylonia, where they were destined eventually to make a major contribution to Judaism through the creation of the “Babylonian Talmud” and the “Geonic Responsa.” It was not until 1951, 2,548 years after the arrival of the first Jewish deportees in Babylonia, that this ancient Jewish community began its own liquidation through an Aliyah to Israel.
1951(13th of Iyar, 5711): David Remez passed away. Born David Drabkin in Russia in May of 1886, he made Aliyah in 191. Trained as a lawyer and teacher, he worked as field hand on several agricultural settlements. A founding member of Mapai and a leader of Histadrut, he was a true founding father as one of the signatories to Israel’s Declaration of Independence. He was the first Minister of Transportation and was serving as Minister of Education at the time of his death.
1951: Menachem Cohen became an MK replacing the deceased David Remez.
1952: Moshe Keren, Israel’s Charge d’affairs in London is scheduled to be one of the Israeli and Jewish observers attending “the conference on Germany’s pre-war external debts which opens today in London
1952: In South Africa, “the Minister of Justice, served two notices on Emil Solomon Sachs in terms of the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950. The first was an order to resign as an official of the GWU within 30 days. It also prohibited him from participating in the activities of various organizations. The second restricted his movements to the Transvaal and prohibited him from attending any meetings other than religious, recreational and social gatherings.”
1953(5th of Sivan, 5713): Erev Shavuot
1953:A call went to 3,750 Jewish communities throughout the country, to assure the successful financing this summer of the most important agricultural development program to be launched in Israel since the establishment of the state, was issued here today by the United Jewish Appeal on the eve of Shavuos, the Festival of Pentecost, which in the ancient days celebrated the appearance of the first fruits of summer.The appeal was made by Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, a national chairman of the UJA. "There can be no greater observance of this ancient festival commemorating Jewish attachment to the soil than support of the United Jewish Appeals current special effort to help Israel achieve agricultural self-sufficiency and maturity." he said.Rabbi Wise called specific attention to a special emergency drive for $25,000,000 in cash launched by the UJA for a five-week period beginning May 1. The cash fund is being sought for establishment in Israel by the end of June of 36 new agricultural settlements, for the immediate channeling to the new colonies of large, recently-discovered water sources, and for speeding a rise in the productivity both of the soil and those newly placed on it as immigrant farmers.
1954: Nicholas Winton, a Briton who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War relinquished his commission of “flying officer” in the RAF while retaining the rank of “flight lieutenant.”
1955(27thof Iyar, 5715): Eighty-one-year-old Max Heller, the chairman of the board of the Dover (NJ) Trust Company and former president of the American Food Company and father four passed away today.
1956: “The Killing,” a crime film directed by Stanley Kubrick who also wrote the screenplay and featuring Jay Adler, the son of Jacob and Sarah Adler, was released today in the United States.
1957(18th of Iyar, 5717): Lag B’Omer1957: Colonel Robert Henriques, the author of 100 Hours to Suez which described and analyzed Israel’s victory in the recent Sinai Campaign is scheduled to the principal speaker at the Israel bond dinner today.
1959: As reported in today’s New York Times, Richard Tucker was among those who appeared at the “Puccini Night” open air concert at Lewisohn Stadium in New York City. The stadium was named in honor of Adolph Lewisohn, the German-Jewish banker who donated the money to pay for its construction.
1962: Birthdate of French journalist and musician Ariel Wizman the Sephardic Jew from Casablanca, Morocco.
1962: In Minneapolis, MN, Jack and Bette Kozlen gave birth to Amy Kozlen who became Amy Barnum when she married her college Joel Barnum with whom she settled in Cedar Rapids, where they raised three wonderful children – Emma, Sasha and Gail – and she became a pillar of the Jewish community which she infused with her own unique brand of kindness, warmth and joy.
1964: In Manhattan, “Beverly and Peter Panken” gave birth to Aaron David Panken, a graduate “from Johns Hopkins University electrical engineering program” who became “Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, the president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.”
1966: It was reported today that 75 year old Lazarus Joseph who served as New York City Comptroller from 1946 to 1953 had fallen ill.
1966: The emblem for the Israeli town of Arad, a square with a hill and a flame, was adopted today.
1969: Palestinian terrorists from Jordan bombard the Musa Alami School near Jericho.
1970: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for seventy-five-year-old psychoanalyst and author, Dr. Hein Hartmann, the Vienna born historian and diplomat Ludo M Hartman and husband psychoanalyst Dr. Dora Karplus with whom he raised to sown, Dr. Ernst Hartmann and Dr. Lawrence Hartmann both of whom work in the field of psychiatry.
1972(6thof Sivan, 5732): Shavuot
1972: The Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York scheduled final exams today. It was the only college in the system to do so. (The exams would be moved to May 30 after a major protest led by Hillel, the ADL and other major Jewish organizations.)
1974(27th of Iyar, 5734): Sandy Sasso was ordained as the first female Reconstructionist rabbi by the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/19/1974/sandy-sasso
1975: The New Yorker published “The New York Review of Gossip” by Marshall Brickman.
1976(19thof Iyar, 5736): Eighty-eight year old Jeanette Wolf, “one of the best-known German Jewish women in post-war Germany” passed away today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wolff-jeanette
1977: Bella Abzug received 5 out of 231 votes for Mayor at the convention of the Liberal Party held today.
1977: A bi-national foundation, designed to promote joint industrial research and development between the United States and Israel was established in Washington today at a formal ceremony between Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs C. Fred Bergsten and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz. (JTA)
1978: Leonard B. Sand began serving as Judge of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
1987: “Thank God It’s Friday,” a musical comedy co-produced by Rob Cohen, co-starring Jeff Goldblum and Debra Winger and featuring Valerie Landsburg was released in the United States today.
1980: Time magazine reported today that “Died: Arthur Levitt, 79, New York State comptroller from 1955 to 1978, whose nonpartisan dedication, thrift with public funds and relentless criticism of fiscal chicanery endeared him to voters, who returned him to office five times with huge majorities; in New York City. A Brooklyn lawyer and nominal Democrat, Levitt served under four Governors, tightening the state's auditing procedures, including "performance audits" of state agencies, and eventually giving his office prestige and power virtually beyond politics.”
1981: Former Finance Minister Yigal Hurvitz joins Moshe Dayan's Telem party.
1983(7thof Sivan, 5743): Second Day of Shavuot, Yizkor
1983: “President Reagan said today that he would notify Congress ''in a day or two'' that he wants to go ahead with the sale to Israel of 75 F-16 fighter jets that he held up after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon last June.”
1985(28thof Iyar, 5745): Yom Yerushalayim
1985: Two famous Jewish men of letters are joined together in Harold Bloom’s review of Zuckerman Bound by Philip Roth
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/19/books/his-long-ordeal-by-laughter.html?pagewanted=all
1987: The Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production of “Kiss Me, Kate” with a book by Samuel and Bella Spewack at London's Old Vic Theatre, which opened today.
1988: Shimon Peres is scheduled to address commencement ceremonies at the Jewish Theological Seminary this afternoon.
1989(14thof Iyar, 5749): Pesach Sheni
1989(14th of Iyar, 5749): Dr. Abel J Herzberg passed away. Dr. Abel J. Herzberg was a lawyer in Amsterdam when he was arrested in 1943, along with his wife, and taken to the Dutch transit camp at Westerbork. He was sent to Bergen-Belsen in January 1944 and, as a Zionist, he was put on the list of 1300 Jews who were available to be sent to Palestine in exchange for German citizens held as prisoners by the Allies. He was on the list of 272 Jews who were selected in April 1944 to go to Palestine, but at the last minute 50 names were crossed off the list and Dr. Herzberg had to go back into the Star Camp with the other Dutch Jews. Dr. Herzberg survived and after the war, he went back to being a lawyer in Amsterdam. He published the diary that he kept in Bergen-Belsen. It appeared in English under the title, “Between Two Streams: A Diary From Bergen-Belsen.”
1989: Morton Isaac Abramowitz completed his term as Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research which left him free to accept appointment as U.S. Ambassador to Turkey.
1989: After having first been seen at the Toronto Film Festival, “The Miracle Mile” featuring Alan Rosenburg was released today in the United States.
1991(6thof Sivan, 5751): First Day of Shavuot
1992: Broadcast of the second and final installment the miniseries “Cruel Doubt” co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow
1993: “Fiorile” an Italian drama co-starring Michael Vartan that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival was released in several European countries today
1993(28thof Iyar, 5763): Yom Yerushalayim
1994: NBC broadcast the final episode of season five of “Seinfeld.”
1996(1st of Sivan, 5756): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1996: Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, “the first American sailor to have risen through the enlisted ranks to become the Chief of Naval Operations, the highest-ranking billet in the U.S. Navy” “was interred at Arlington National Cemetery” today “with a tombstone marked with the Star of David.”
1997: David Blaine's first television special, David Blaine: Street Magic aired on NBC
1999: Conductor Yakov Kreizberg made his debut appearance with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.
1999: Members of the of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to attend a “Special Tribute commemorating the 10th anniversary of the passing of Dina Haplern and honoring Danny Newman for his contribution to Yiddish culture today at the Harold Washington Library Centrer.
1999: U.S. premiere of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace starring Natalie Portman as Queen Padmé Amidala and Frank Oz as the voices of “Yoda.”
2000: “One Day in September,” a documentary that examined the murder of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics was released today in the UK
2000: “Shanghai Noon” the first in series of buddy films produced by Roger Birnbaum, Gary Barber and Jonathan Glickman and with music by Randy Edelman was released today in Malaysia.
2001(26thof Iyar 5761): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
2001(26thof Iyar, 5761): It was reported that “a Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 5 Israelis and wounded more than 100” and Israeli army officer was killed on a West Bank Road, which led to Israeli retaliating by sending aircraft to attack “the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the first time since the 1967 war.
2002: In The Observer Michael Sfard the lawyer representing Israeli conscripts who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 ceasefire lines explains why a growing number of soldiers are disobeying orders, in order to protect the basic values on which Israel was founded.
2002(8thof Sivan, 5762): Yosef Haviv, 70, Victor Tatrinov, 63, and Arkady Vieselman, 40, all of Netanya, were killed and 59 people were injured - 10 seriously - when a suicide bomber, disguised as a soldier, blew himself up in the market in Netanya. Both Hamas and the PFLP took responsibility for the attack. “Viselman, a chef at the Park Hotel had survived the Passover bombing” that had taken place in March.
2003: Forensic experts said today that the second terrorist who had participated in the bombing of Mike’s Place had met death by drowning. Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades who had claimed joint responsibility for the murderous attack identified the terrorist and his compatriot as being Muslims from Great Britain.
2003(17th of Iyar, 5763): Avi Zerihan, 36, of Beit Shean, Hassan Ismail Tawatha, 41, of Jisr a-Zarqa[2]
Kiryl Shremko, 22, of Afula were murdered today and seventy others were injured by a Palestinian suicide bomber at a mall in Afula – an act of terror for which at least two Arab organizations took credit.
2003: A Palestinian suicide bomber riding a bike failed to blow up a jeep near Kfar Darom when he detonated his explosives.
2003: Broadcast of the final episode of season five of The King of Queens” co-starring Jerry Stillar
2004(28th of Iyar, 5764): Yom Yerushalyim
2004: In response to a request from the online science magazine “Seed,” psychologist Steven Pinker “engaged in a four dialogue with novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.”
2004(28th of Iyar, 5764): Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day - is the anniversary of the liberation and unification of Jerusalem under Jewish sovereignty that occurred during the Six Day War. Yom Yerushalayim is celebrated on the 28th of the month of Iyar (one week before Shavuot). In 2004 Iyar 28 corresponds to May 19 on the secular calendar.
2004: Broadcast of the final episode of season 6 of The King of Queens co-starring Jerry Stillar.
2005(10th of Iyar, 5765): Steven Budeysky, a member of the U.S. Army’s 105th Military Intelligence Battalion was killed today while serving in Iraq. “Budeysky was born in Moldova in the former Soviet Union and went on to learn English as part of a singing group that toured Europe. When Budeysky was 12 years old, he and his family immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicago, where he attended Ida Crown Jewish Academy. He was also known as Baruch or Boris to his friends. A 2001 graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in economics and history, Budeysky was pursuing a graduate degree in political science from Troy University when he enlisted in the Army in 2002.”
2005: “Free Zone,” a film about relations between Arabs and Jews directed by Amos Gitai and co-starring Natalie Portman “made its debut today at the 200t Cannes Film Festival.”
2005: North American premiere of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith starring Natalie Portman as Padmé Amidala and Frank Oz as the voice of Yoda.
2006: The Jewish Chronicle revealed that the Claims Conference highest-paid official, executive vice-president Gideon Taylor was awarded $437,811 (£240,000) in salary and pension (2004 numbers). An advisor to British survivors in compensation claims in the 1990s, Dr Pinto-Duschinsky, commented: "It is wrong for the executive vice-president to earn annually the same as the compensation for several hundred former slave laborers. The moral authority of the leading Jewish organizations is gravely weakened by excessively high salaries for top officials."
2006: In “Long, long ago, when basketball was kosher” published today Haaretz reported on a gathering of about 125 Yeshiva University (YU) alumni and friends at the school's Jerusalem campus for a nostalgic evening with "The YU Dream Team of the 1950s" - six former basketball players from New York City who later immigrated to Israel.
2006: Two days after being shown at Cannes, The Davinci Code with a script by Akiva Goldsman was released today in the United States.
2006(21st of Iyar, 5766): Yitzhak Ben-Aharon, the last founding giant of Israel’s left wing, died two months short of his 100th birthday. A controversial figure on the Israeli political scene, he was one of the first to call for the return of all territories occupied by Israel in the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and reached the peak of his career as secretary-general of the Histadrut, Israel’s trade union federation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/19/world/middleeast/19aharon.html?_r=0
2007: After a two-month tryout at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England, a London revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” opened today at the Savoy Theatre starring Henry Goodman as Tevye, Beverley Klein as Golde, Alexandra Silber as Hodel, Damian Humbley as Perchik and Victor McGuire as Lazar Wolf. The production was directed by Lindsay Posner. Robbins' choreography was recreated by Sammy Dallas Bayes (who did the same for the 1990 Broadway revival), with additional choreography by Kate Flatt.
2007: After 13 performances at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival comes to a close.
2008: At the Israel Museum opening of an exhibition entitled “Swords into Plowshares the Isaiah Scroll and Its Message of Peace.”
2008: At the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, an evening of Israeli music entitled “The Sharett Sisters in Concert.”
2008 (5768): Pesach Sheini
2008: Today “it was reported that Haim Saban had "offered $1 million to the Young Democrats of America during a phone conversation in which he also pressed for the organization's two uncommitted superdelegates to endorse Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president.”
2008: Laura Weisberger’s 3rd novel, Chasing Harry Winston, was released today in the United Kingdom.
2009: Time magazine reports on the recent passing of “Jewish boxer Salamo Arouch” at the age of 86. Arouch survived the Holocaust by winning boxing matches staged by the guards at Auschwitz. “He was the subject of the film ‘Triumph of the Spirit’ starring Willem Dafoe.”
2009: At Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., children's author Amy Krouse Rosenthal reads from and discusses her new picture book, “Duck! Rabbit!”
2009:Rivka Galchen discusses her debut novel, “Atmospheric Disturbances,” in conversation with Ron Charles, Book World's deputy editor, as part of the Nextbook series at the D.C. Jewish Community Center.
2009:Today the Edinburgh International Film Festival returned a 300-pound grant from the Israeli embassy, after bowing to pressure from director Ken Loach. The grant was intended to enable Tel Aviv University graduate Tali Shalom Ezer to travel to Scotland for a screening of her film, Surrogate. Ezer's film is a romance set in a sex-therapy clinic and makes no reference to war or politics. It recently won the award for best film at an international women's film festival in Israel
2009:This evening, Israel Air Force (IAF) jets attacked targets throughout Gaza after a woman was lightly injured from a rocket explosion in Sderot..
2009(15th of Iyar, 5769): Shlomo Shamir whose life reads like something out a James Bond novel, passed away. Born Shlomo Rabinowitch in Russia in 1915, he made aliyah ten years later. He was an active member of the Haganah from 1929 until 1940 when he joined the RAF and rose to the rank of major before his discharge in 1946. During the War of Independence he played a key role in the fighting around Latrun and the creation of the Burma Road. After the war, he served as the 3rd commander of the Israeli Navy and the 3rd commander of the Israeli Air Force. After leaving the military he graduated from Tel Aviv University and Harvard. He was an entrepreneur who developed several successful businesses.
2009(15th of Iyar, 5769): Ninety-two year old Noble Prize winning bio-chemist Robert Francis Furchgott passed away today.
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1998/furchgott-bio.html
2009: Ninety year old Sheikh Jabr Muadi, a Druze Israeli politician who served in the Knesset from 1951 to 1981 passed away today.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770): First day of Shavuot
2010: Tulane alum Martin Leach-Cross Feldman assumed the position of Judige of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770):At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Melanie Abzug, Miriam Maikon and Sam Sarasin are scheduled to Confirmed during Evening Shavuot Services.
2010(6th of Sivan, 5770): Martin Cohan, 77, who co-created the ABC sitcom "Who's the Boss?" and was a prolific TV writer and producer, died today at his home in Pacific Palisades after a two-year battle with large-cell lymphoma, his family announced. Cohan and his business partner, Blake Hunter, created the sitcom starring Tony Danza and Judith Light, which ran from 1984 to 1992. The two men also served as creative consultants for a British version of the TV show called "The Upper Hand," which debuted in 1990 and ran for seven seasons. Besides his work as executive producer and writer for "Boss," Cohan wrote hundreds of scripts for such popular TV series as "The Bob Newhart Show,""Diff'rent Strokes,"" Mary Tyler Moore" and "Silver Spoons." Born July 4, 1932, in San Francisco, Cohan graduated from Stanford University in 1955 after studying theater arts. He found work as a stage manager and assistant director at ABC Television, his family said. He got his break on "Mary Tyler Moore" as an assistant director in 1971 and won a Writers Guild of America award in 1972 for best comedy episode. He went on to write, direct and produce for "The Bob Newhart Show."
2010: The Washington Postreviewed Jules Feiffer's account of his multifaceted career which will delight that generation of readers for whom his whimsical, sardonic and often politically barbed Village Voice cartoons were a cultural touchstone. Those whose understanding of Feiffer's achievements is not enhanced by the warm glow of nostalgia, however, may have less patience with this shambling, highly episodic book. “Backing Into Forward” starts with the author's account of growing up urban and Jewish, complete with a domineering mother and raging adolescent hormones. This back story has the ill fortune of sounding remarkably similar to that of Feiffer's friend Philip Roth: not a face-off that Feiffer -- or anyone else -- is likely to win. Feiffer is an energetic storyteller, but structurally the book is so haphazard that it's often hard to keep track of where we are in the arc of the artist's career. Feiffer wins points, though, for the acuity of his insights on the craft of cartooning. He's also remarkably modest. He repeatedly speaks of encounters with Marlene Dietrich, Lauren Bacall, George Plimpton and many others with a fan's sense of awe and good fortune
2010: “The Frozen Rabbi” by Steve Stern is among the books briefly reviewed in today’s “Newly Released” Column.
2011: The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington is scheduled to honor Dennis Berman, The Kramer Family and Esther B. Newman at tonight’s annual fundraising dinner in Potomac, MD.
2011: Ed Goldberg and the Odessa Klezmer Band are scheduled to perform at the Marlboro branch of the Monmouth County (NJ) Library.
2011: The Second Annual Atlanta Jewish Music Festival is scheduled to take place at Eddie’s Attic in Decatur, GA.
2011: “A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs, 1910-65” a “colorful new exhibition that celebrates the many Jewish composers of the American Songbook and their great contribution to American popular culture including Jerome Kern, Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Richard Rogers and Oscar Hammerstein is scheduled to open today at The Bainbridge Library in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.
2011: The Center for Jewish History and Leo Baeck Institute are scheduled to present “Follow the Fugue” a concert featuring the Phoenix Chamber Ensemble.
2011: Prosecutors announced today that a grand jury had indicted Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn on charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a hotel housekeeper at the Sofitel New York.
2011: A judge granted Dominique Strauss-Kahn bail today, allowing the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund to be freed from Rikers Island to stay in a Manhattan apartment while his sexual assault case is pending.
2011: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today Israel would object to any withdrawal to "indefensible" borders, adding he expected Washington to allow it to keep major settlement blocs in any peace deal. In a statement after President Barack Obama's speech outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said before heading to Washington that "the viability of a Palestinian state cannot come at the expense of Israel's existence".
2011: Lars von Trier was expelled from the Cannes Film Festival today, a day after joking at a news conference that he was a Nazi and expressing sympathy for Hitler. The Danish director’s film “Melancholia” is in competition at the festival and seen as a contender for the top prize. (As reported by Melena Ryzik)
2011: Swiss producer Arthur Cohn, a six-time Oscar winner, was honored for his body of work by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Cohn’s grandfather the chief rabbi of Basel. He invited Theodor Herzl to hold the first Zionist Congress there after rabbis elsewhere objected.
2012: Mendy Cahan is scheduled to at the Baruch Performing Arts Center in New York City.
2012: In Springfield, VA, Congregation Ada Reyim is scheduled to present “A Night of Magic and More.”
2012: As part of the Ahavat Yisrael Weekend, Moshav is scheduled to perform at Adas Israel in Washington, DC.
2012: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the family and many friends of Amy Barnum have a chance to celebrate her birthday. An ayshish chayil she has raised three marvelous daughters, provided leadership for Temple Judah and Hadassah and is the glue for the annual traditional High Holiday services. “Her children (and everybody else) call her blessed.”
2012: In Little Rock, AR, the friends and family of Rabbi PInchus and Estie Ciment are scheduled to gather to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of their daughter Zissie. The Ciments are the quintessential “lamplighters” who have brought the light of Chabad Lubavtich to the Arkansas Jewish Community
2012: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg updated his status to "married" today.
2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker and the recently released paperback edition of The Price of Inequality by Joseph Stiglitz
2013: The Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform for the Jewish Community Association at Riderwood Village in Silver Spring, MD.
2013: David Senesh, the nephew Hannah Senesh is scheduled to Dr. Louis D. Levine in a talk about the brave young Jewish poet and paratrooper and whose life and work are being honored at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie with an exhibition “Fire In My Heart.”
http://www.mjhnyc.org/hannah/poetry.html
2013: The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to sponsor a walking tour of Downtown Jewish Washington which will give participants a chance to experience the neighborhood along Seventh Street, NW as it was from 1850 to 1950.
2013: Israel will go ahead with its candidacy for an unprecedented seat on the UN Security Council in 2019 despite Germany’s determination to run against it, diplomatic officials told The Jerusalem Post today
2013: Iran’s state radio says authorities have executed two men convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad and the American CIA spy agency. Today’s report says Mohammad Heidari, who was accused of providing Mossad with classified information in return of money, and Kourosh Ahmadi, who allegedly gave the CIA intelligence on Iran, were hanged.
2013: “With Wheelchair and Lively Baton, Levine Commands Carnegie Hall” published today described the return of the famous conductor.
2013: Tamara Cohn Eskenazi, “The Effie Wise Ochs Professor of Biblical Literature and History at the Reform Jewish seminary Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles” “was ordained as a rabbi by the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion” toda.
2013: Damascus has put a number of advanced weapons on standby to strike Israel, should Jerusalem hit targets inside Syria again, the UK’s Sunday Times reported. According to the report, satellite images show Syria has readied its stock of Tishreen missiles for use against Tel Aviv
http://www.timesofisrael.com/syria-training-advanced-missiles-on-tel-aviv-report/
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to “host a special preview screening of Watchers of the Sky, the Sundance Film Festival award-winning documentary that uncovers the forgotten life of Raphael Lemkin who coined the term “genocide” and campaigned for international laws that would prevent and punish this crime against humanity.”
2014: On the second day of the Jerusalem International Writers Festival Ayelet Waldman and Lihi Lapid are scheduled to participant in discussion entitled “Bad Mother-Good Mother.” (As reported by David B. Green)
2014: On Nicholas Winton's 105th birthday, it was announced he was to receive the Czech Republic’s highest honour, for giving Czech children "the greatest possible gift: the chance to live and to be free
2014: “In Honor of Jewish American History Month,” Marvin Kalb is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion with Martin Goldsmith and Dr. Diane Afoumado “Voyage of the St. Louis” marking the 75th anniversary of “of the sailing of the SS St. Louis, ‘the saddest ship afloat.’”
2014: A survey released today by the Paris based Siona organization of Sephardic French Jews showed that 75% of the participants are considering making Aliyah. (As reported by JTA and Times of Israel.)
2014: “Warning that the army was operating under unprecedented financial constraints, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said today that he had cancelled reserve training for the rest of the year because of cuts to the defense budget.” (As reported by Times of Israel)
2014: At the Library of Congress, Sanford Sternlicht, Emeritus English Professor at Syracuse University, is scheduled to discuss his book, The Tenement Saga: The Lower East Side and Early Jewish-American Writers.
2014: A poll of 3,833 French Jews reveals 74 percent have considered emigrating. (Tablet)
2015: Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, Davis Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Georgia, and Rabbi David S. Sperling, Professor of Bible, Hebrew Union College are schedule to discuss “Exodus: What Really Happened” at the Skirball Center.
2015: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Sara Levy’s World” Music, Gender and Judaism in Enlightenment Berlin.”
2015: At Beth Shalom in Columbia, MD, Rabbi Susan Grossman is scheduled to discuss Heroines and Harlots: Women in the Book with Rabbi Susan Grossman
2015: Philadelphia’s PBS station, WHYY, is scheduled to host a free screening of “A Wing and A Prayer” open to the public at 6:30 p.m.
2015(1stof Sivan, 5775): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2015(1stof Sivan, 5775): Seventy year old Robert S. Wistrich, the Hebrew University Professor whose expertise in the field of anti-Semitism can be seen the 29 volumes he wrote on the topic passed away today. (A reported by Sam Roberts)
2016(11thof Iyar, 5776): Eighty-four year old Morley Safer, the Toronto born son of Austrian Jewish immigrants Anna (nee Cohn) and Max Safer, the award winning CBS journalist passed away today in Manhattan.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/19/business/media/morley-safer-dies.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-morley-safer-dies-at-84/
2016: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a session of the First Person 2016 Series featuring a “conversation with Holocaust survivor Irene Weiss.”
2017: For the second day in a row, “farmers, vintners and cheesemakers from the Modiin region are scheduled to bring their crops, goods and crafts to the Tel Aviv port at Hangar 2.”
2017: “Open House Tel Aviv, or Batim Mibifnim, an urban festival of architecture and design…showcasing the city’s chic style” is scheduled to continue for a second day.
2017: “A food and literature festival at The Banquet as Jerusalem’s Mishkenot Sha’ananim” where visitors can “hear chef Eyal Shani and musician Asaf Roth debate the poetics of food and recipes, or listen to author Meir Shalev and chef Haim Cohen discuss food motifs in Shalev’s books” is scheduled to come to a close today.
2017: The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a Shabbat dinner during “Interfaith Week.”
2017(23rdof Iyar, 5777): Seventy-seven year old poet and Hebrew translator Chana Bloch passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
2017: In announcing that “Jesse Eisenberg will play Marcel Marceau in ‘Resistance,’ a film…that focuses on the legendary mime’s involvement in the French resistance during World War II,” writer and director Jonathan Jakubowicz today “told the Associated Press” that “the story of Marceau and the resistance is one of the most striking secrets of World War II.”
2018: Stacy Hart offered a cheesecake recipe fit for today’s Royal Wedding and this evening erev Shavuot celebrations.
http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/bake-off-star-stacey-harts-cheesecake-fit-for-the-royal-wedding/
2018: Forty-ninth Day of the Omer
2018: Bernard Lewis, the historian and prolific author who specialized in the world of Islam, long before there was any real interest in the subject passed away today at the age of 101. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/21/obituaries/bernard-lewis-islam-scholar-dies.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/06/bernard-lewis-obituary
https://www.amazon.com/Bernard-Lewis/e/B000AP9JRK
2018(5thof Sivan, 5778): Parasahat Bamidbar – begin the Book of Numbers;
2018(5thof Sivan, 5778: Seventy-nine year old music publicist turn newspaper publisher Michael Goldstein, the husband of Nancy (Arnold) Goldstein and father of Jocelyn, Marissa and Gillian Goldstein passed away today. (As reported by Vincent M. Mallozzi)
2018: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Shavuot Celebration and Havdalah Concert with Dan Nichols.
2019(14thof Iyar, 5779): Pesach Sheni
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/pesach-sheni
2019: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Rabbits For Food by Binnie Kirshenbaum and the recently released paperback edition of Robin by Dave Kitzkoff.
2019: The Loft at City Winery is scheduled to host a performance by award winning Jerusalem born singer and musician Tamar Eisenman.
2019: Starting this morning, the Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “Legacies of Violence: The Pogroms of the Russian Civil War at 100.”
https://programs.cjh.org/event/legacies-of-violence-2019-05-19
2019: The Jewish Genealogical Society and American Sephardi Federation are scheduled to host “What's in a Name? A Case Study of (Re)Discovering Jewish Identity on (and off) an Unlikely African Archipelag”
2019: The Jewish Review of Books is scheduled to host a presentation by Professor Jack Wertheimer, author of The New American Judaism at its 4thannual conference
2019: The Guy Mintus Trio, led by Israeli pianist and composer Guy Mintus is scheduled to perform tonight at a “New York release party.”
2019: Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum is scheduled to host the “fifth annual Greek Jewish Festival.”
2020: The Breman museum is scheduled to host “a live virtual show from local musician and Executive Director of the Atlanta Jewish Music Festival, Joe Alterman.”
2020: Via Zoom, the Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Judith Viorst, author of the New York Times bestseller Necessary Losses, who “will talk about her new book, Nearing 90, which tackles the complicated joys and everyday tribulations of becoming a nonagenarian with signature savvy and humor.”
2020: The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is scheduled to host “Livestream: The Global Resurgence of Anti-Semitism.”
2020: In San Rafael, CA, Congregation Rodef Shlom is scheduled to host, via Facebook, “Chasidic Tales and Melodies with Rabbi Elana Rosen-Brown,:
2020: Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to host a “discussion via Zoom with Dr. Jordan Kassalow, founder of VisionSpring.”
2020: Via Zoom The London School of Jewish Studies is scheduled to host Debbie Meyer as she lectures on “The Trials of King David: Hands of Blood.”
2020: “The inaugural Great Big Jewish Food Fest featuring Jewish culinary talents like Michael Solomonov, Joan Nathan and Michael Twitty” is scheduled to begin today. (As reported by Joe Bauer)
2021: Hebrew College is scheduled to present online “Faith – Here and Now: An Interreligious Exploration.
2021: As part of GTU’s Madrassa-Midrasha program, U. of Toronto professor Naomi Seidman, formerly of GTU, is scheduled to talk about Jewish languages in Freud’s dreams and UC Davis professor Omnia El Shakry's is scheduled to explore psychoanalysis’ intersections with Islamic mysticism.
2021: Congregation Beth Elohim is scheduled to present online “Modern-Day Refugees with Emma Tobin” talking about the impact of the Refugee Act of 1980 that created the Federal Refugee Program.
2021: S.F.-based JIMENA and U.K.-based Hari are scheduled to present Diplomat Efrat Sopher as she talks “about her late grandfather, Meir Ezri, who, as Israel’s ambassador to Iran (1958-1973) assisted fleeing Jews and marshaling aid for earthquake survivors.”
2021: The Silicon Valley Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open tonight “with two documentaries: “Aulcie” (with English subtitles), plus taped Q&A with former Israel basketball star Aulcie Perry and director Dani Menkin; and “Ruth: Justice Ginsberg in Her Own Words,” plus Q&A with daughter Jane Ginsberg and judge Abe Sofaer.”
2021: Live on Zoom, the YIVO Institute is scheduled to present “Embodying Liberty: American Jewish Attorneys and the Case for Humanizing Public Charge.”
2021: Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York, in partnership with the National Arts Club in New York is scheduled to host a performance of the Vertigo Dance Company.
2021: Based on reports published yesterday, while Hamas has allegedly agreed to cease fire for tomorrow, as of today Israel may be facing a multi-pronged conflict that includes assaults from Jordan, Lebanon and the various terrorist groups operating in Gaza.
2022(18th of Iyar, 5782) Traditional date on the Hebrew calendar for ending the annual pilgrimages to the tomb of Joseph Saragossi which had begun on the 22nd of Nisan.
2022: The Streicker Center Israel Culinary Trip is scheduled to begin today.
2022: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a gala evening honoring Professor Saul Friedlander and Sid Lapidus.
2022: The Weiner Holocaust Library, Yale University and Institute of Historical Research are scheduled to present “a hybrid event” which examines “the future of Holocaust History and celebrates the 100th anniversary of the IHR.
2022: The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a virtual discussion with Philippe Sands, Baillie Gifford Prize-winning author of The Ratline: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive which is based on Sands’ successful BBC Radio Podcast and delves into the life and mysterious death of Otto von Wächter – a devoted Nazi turned man on the run.
2022: The JWA book club is scheduled to host Cindy Rizzo, author of The Papercutter (The Split, #1), a blend of fantasy, romance, and Jewish imagination that imagines a world where a deeply polarized and ungovernable United States of America has separated into two nations—the God Fearing States and the United Progressive Regions.
2022: Chabad of Iowa City is scheduled to host a Lag BaOmer BBQ this evening at City Park.
2022: In Akron, OH, Rabbi Moshe Sasonkin is scheduled to lead a drum band through the streets as Anshe Safard-Revere Synagogue holds “A Day of Jewish Unity” in celebration of Lag b’Omer.
2022: In Postville, IA, Chabad in honor of Lab BaOmer is scheduled to host a Jewish Pride Parade followed by a BBQ.
2022: In response to violent attacks on medics such as the one that occurred at a Jerusalem hospital when members of the family of a patient who had died attacked the medical staff “and caused significant damage to the ICU, “staff at public hospitals and clinics” are scheduled to go on strike today.
2022(18th of Iyar, 5782): Lag BaOmer