May 8
336: Emperor Constantine prohibits Jews from negatively interacting with their co-religionists who have converted to Christianity. "Jews are not allowed to disturb any man one has converted from Judaism to Christianity, nor may they assail him with any outrage. Such behavior will punished according to the nature of the act "
336: In a further move to secure the primacy of Christianity over Judaism Constantine decreed "If a Jew should purchase and circumcise a Christian slave or a slave of any other sect, he shall not keep that circumcised person in slavery. The slave who endured such treatment will receive the privilege of freedom."
589: Reccared summoned the Third Council of Toledo. Reccared or Recared I was Visigoth King of Hispania (think modern day Spain). His reign marked a climactic shift in history, with the king's renunciation of traditional Aryanismin favor of Catholic Christianity in 587. He was a favorite of Pope Gregory for submitting to the papal see and for promulgating an edict of intolerance that included limiting the freedom and daily activities of the Jewish community. He zealously followed the promulgations of the Council of Toledo which included“restrictions on Jews, and the conversion of the country to orthodox Christianity led to repeated persecutions of Jews.” Of the 23 cannons adopted by the Council of Toledo, the fourteenth canon “forbade Jews to have Christian wives, concubines, or slaves, ordered the children of such unions to be baptized, and disqualified Jews from any office in which they might have to punish Christians. Christian slaves whom they had circumcised, or made to share in their rites, were ipso facto freed.”
1147: Encouraged by Peter the Hermit, a mob attacked the Jews on the second day of Shavuot in Ramerupt, France. Rabbenu Tam was one of its victims. After being stabbed five times (to match the five wounds of Jesus) he was saved by a passing knight. His house was ransacked, and a Torah scroll was destroyed.
1492: The first printed edition of Mishnayotwith commentary by Maimonides was published in Naples. The term Mishnayot is plural form of the word Mishna, which part of the Oral Law. By appearing in printed form, the commentaries of one of Judaism greatest teachers on one of its core text was available to what today we would be called, "the mass market." This is an event worth nothing since it goes to prove that even in the worst of years, something good can happen.
1612 “Dr. Eliua da Luna Montalto, a Marrano who had” returned “to Judaism wrote…to his wife’s sister, Isabella de Fonseca, and her husband, Dr. Pedro Rodrigues, imploring them to return to” the faith of their fathers. He wrote, in part, “There are so many arguments which prove the truth of biblical prophecy…nobody has an excuse for not understanding it…I protest against your following a road which leads to the brink and the undoing of your soul.” Montalto was a distinguished physician whose patients included Queen Marie de Medicis of France. (As reported by Abraham Bloch)
1705: Birthdate of António José da Silva, a Portuguese-Brazilian dramatist, known as "the Jew" (O Judeu). His parents were descended from Portuguese Jews and they became targets of the Inquisition when it turned its attention to Marranos living in Brazil. Eventually he would be found guilty of “judaizing” and would be strangled deather following which his body was burnt as part of “auto de fe.”
1737: Birthdate of English historian, Edward Gibbon, author of The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon wrote authoritatively about the Jewish origins of Christianity. “The history of the church of Jerusalem Jerusalem
1794: English playwright Richard Cumberland's The Jew; or the Benevolent Hebrew, the first English language play to feature a Jewish moneylender as the benevolent hero of a stage comedy premiered today at the Drury Lane Theatre in London.
1794: “Sheva, the Benevolent” an adaptation of English playwright Richard Cumberland's “The Jew; or the Benevolent Hebrew,” the first English language play to feature a Jewish moneylender as the benevolent hero of a stage comedy premiered at the Drury Lane Theatre in London.
1800(Iyar 13)): Rabbi Joseph of Piltz, author of “Maaseh Choshev” passed away today.
1800: In Hamburg, banker Salomon Heine and his wife gave birth to their third daughter Amalie Friedlander, who was the cousin of poet Heinrich Heine.
1806(20thof Iyar): Rabbi Feibus Cohen passed away.
1808: Financier Carl Friedrich Buderus, a friend of Wilhelm and Rothschild, was arrested as French officials attempted to establish a connection between plots against French rule and the exiled Landgrave and his Jewish financier.
1829: Birthdate of Louis Moreau Gottschalk an American composer and pianist whose father was Jewish and whose mother was Creole from New Orleans.
1841: In New York Rabbi and Mrs. Myer Samuel Isaacs gave birth to Judge Myer S. Isaacs who co-founded the Jewish Messenger and who served as President of the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
1847: Birthdate of Oscar Hammerstein, businessman, theater impresario, composer in New York City and the grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.
1852: The New York Times reported that following the fining of MP David Salomons for his attempt to take his seat in the House of Commons all the work of “emancipation” that has been done on behalf of the Jews will have to be done over again because given the hereditary nature of the House of Lords and the life expectancy of the members nothing will change for at least 20 years.
1864: Major Adolph Proskauer of the 12th Alabama was wounded so severely at Spotsylvania Courthouse that he could no longer serve. A native of Germany, Proskauer "was among the few Jewish immigrants who became a high-ranking Confederate Officer. ("Jews of the Civil War")
1870:The Hebrew Leader, a weekly newspaper; published in New York city by Jonas Bondy, cautioned its readers about the possible success to be enjoyed as a result of the upcoming meeting of the Conference of Evangelical Alliance.
1870: According to today's Religious Items column " The Hebrew Leader referring to the coming Conference of the Evangelical Alliance says: 'No fear; what these gentlemen achieved in London, Paris, Berlin, Geneva and Amsterdam they will achieve in New York: Nihil.'"
1871: The Omaha Bee was a pioneer newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska founded today, by Edward Rosewater, a Bohemian Jewish immigrant who supported abolition and fought in the Union Army.
1873: British philosopher John Stuart Mill whose views on the Jewish people were explored by Professor Edward Alexander in an article entitled “John Stuart Mill and the Jews” passed away.
1874: Special letter of administration were granted with the consent of the Earl of Beaconsfield who is the executor of the of the estate of Mary Anne Disraeli, Viscountess of Beaconsfield, that would allow stocks belonging her to be passed on to the Reverend William Lewis Price when she passed away.
1876: It was reported today that a part of the French Mediterranean fleet has received orders to set sail for Salonica, formerly known as Thessalonica. The fleet is being sent to in response to fighting in the city between Christians and Moslems. The city’s population includes approximately 20,000 Jews who have lived there for centuries. Unfortunately, attacks based on the religious differences between Moslems and Christians have a way of spilling over to harm the Jewish population. (The ancient Jewish community of Salonica would be a casualty of the Shoah).
1877: “The Jews in Roumania” published today reported that the Turkish Legation in Washington, DC has been told by its government that there are no Turkish troops or inhabitants on the west bank of the Danube River, where the Jews living in Giurgevo (have been attacked. According to the Turks, this area is controlled by the government at Bucharest. Furthermore, “Israelites” have “equal rights in Turkey with all other Ottoman subjects of whatever religion” and the government is determined to protect them. As “new proof of the …impartiality of his Majesty the Sultan” and Israelite named “David-chon Effendi” has been nominated as a Senator of the Empire. [Today all of this sounds like meaningless gibberish. The treatment of the Jews of Romania was a grave matter in the second half of the 19th century. Sometimes it got caught up in the on-going Balkan crises and the slow demise of the Ottoman Empire. On top of that newspaper reports of the time were not always accurate when it came to names leaving us to guess. Giurgevo probably refers to Giurgiu which was an ancient fortress town on the Danube. Effendi may refer to a prominent Turkish Jew of the time who was an admiral in the Sultan’s navy.]
1878(5th of Iyar): Rabbi Meir ben Isaac Auerbach, author of Imre Binah, passed away.
1879: An article published today entitled “Revolutionary Papers In Russia” describes discoveries made by government officials regarding “an anonymous revolutionary organ called “Semla i Schwaboda” (Land and Liberty.” Three days after the police successfully found the printing presses that produced the paper, a Polish Jews was found murdered in a Moscow tavern “with a paper on his breast containing the words ‘Death to Traitors.’” The Polish Jew was reported to be the informer who guided the authorities to the presses. [Once again Jews are bad guys on both sides of the street. They were portrayed as anti-Czarist revolutionaries and as betrayers of the revolutionaries. Ah, anti-Semitism!]
1882: Edward J. King’s Will which was dated today includes bequests to Mount Sinai Hospital, the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum, Congregation B’Nai Jeshrun, the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews of New York and the United Hebrew Charities.
1884: Birthdate of Harry S. Truman, the 33rd President of the United States Israel Israel 6:00 p.m. , Washington D.C. Israel 6:11 p.m. , the United States Israel
1886: Dr. John S. Pemberton sells the first Coca-Cola at Jacob’s Pharmacy in Atlanta , Georgia Georgia Athens Atlanta
1890(18th of Iyar, 5650): Lag B’Omer
1891: “The Karlsbrucke” published today described the history of Prague’s historic bridge including the fact that the oldest of the figures on its buttresses was “a large stone crucifix..which was built with money wrung from the Jews.”
1891: Rabbi Levy officiated at the wedding of Selig Behrman and Sarah Saundinsky at the Hasell Street Synagogue.
1892: Dr. G. Stockston Burroughs, the Samuel Green Professor of Biblical History and Interpretation will conduct classes in the Semitic and Hebrew languages at Amherst College.
1892: “Johns Hopkins University” published today described activities at the Baltimore school including the decisions of Dr. Cyrus Adler to lead a group that “are organizing an America-Jewish historical association to collect and preserve records and memorials of the Jews of America.”
1892: Most of the 3,000 people attending tonight’s lecture at Cooper Union which had been called by various Socialist groups were young Jews from Russian and Poland.
1893: An article entitled “Jews Might Be Kept Afloat: Expelled by Russian and Excluded by this Country” describes the plight of the millions of Russian and Polish Jews who are being expelled by the Czar’s government. The new situation is even more catastrophic than the Passover Edicts of 1891 that resulted in the expulsion of 400,000 Jews. The changes in American immigration laws and the attitude of various European governments limit the options of where these Jews might settle. The article goes to describe the efforts – financial, political, and communal – to provide havens for their coreligionists.
1893: The Hartford (CT) Courant provided an account of “documentary evidence that the Russian government has begun a wholesale expulsion of the Jews from Poland” where 1,500,000 of them live.
1894:”Anti-Jew Riot In Poland” published today described how troops fired on a mob that was attacking Jews in Grajewo
1895: The third East Side Free Art Exhibition sponsored by the University Settlement Society and the Hebrew Educational Alliance will open today at the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street.
1899: “Jews True Patriots” published today described a speech given by Dr. Madison C. Peters which says that “history does not tell of braver men. After describing the leading role of European Jews in the military including Napoleon’s Marshal Massena and Albert Goldsmid, Sir Jacob Adolphus and Sir David Ximines of the British Army, he described the leading role of the Jews in the American military including Isaac Franks and Benjamin Moses in the Revolutionary War, Moses Albert Levy, Leon Dyer and Henry Seligson in the Mexican War, and a long list in the Civil War including Edward S. Soloon, Leopold Blumberg and Simon Levy and his three sons to name but a few. According to Dr. Peters, four thousand Jews served in the military during the just completed war with Spain including Sergeant Maurice Justh of the First California Jews, a regiment that included 100 Jews and seven Jewish Rough Riders whom Theodore Roosevelt praised for their “most astonishing courage.”
1899: According to a list published today the leadership of the Hebrew Infant Asylum includes President Ester Wallenstein, Solomon Japha, Maurice Untermyer, S.F. Bleyer, Robert J. Gerstler and A.N. Steinhart.
1901: The Order of Ancient Maccabeans (also Maccabaeans), an Anglo-Jewish charity which was established in 1894 was registered today under the ‘Friendly Societies’ Act.”
1902: In Ainay-le-Château, Allier Marie (Siminovitch), an artist, and Solomon Lwoff, a psychiatrist gave birth to Andre Michael Lwoff, French microbiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He passed away in 1994.
1912: Founding of The Paramount Company. This giant of the motion picture industry began
1913:Dr. Moses Hyamson, Senior Dayan, or Chief Judge, of the Ecclesiastical Court of the United Synagogue of London, has been elected rabbi of the Congregation Orach Chaim, at Lexington Avenue and Ninety-Fifth Street. The new rabbi will receive a salary of $5,000. Hyamson succeeds Dr. Joseph Hertz who was chosen over Dr. Hyamson as the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain.
1914: Birthdate of author Romain Gary
1915: At their convention in Memphis, Tennessee, the National Conference on Jewish Charities adopted a resolution creating a committee to conduct a survey of Oriental Jews in the United States.
1918:Vilmos Vázsonyi, who championed the recognition of the Jewish religion by the state completed his second and final term in office as Minister of Justice for Hungardy.
1919: Birthdate of Aharon Remez, the Tel Aviv native who flew combat missions with the RAF in World War II before becoming the second commander of Israel’s fledgling Air Force serving from 1948 through 1950. He went on to a successful career as a “civil servant, politician and diplomat.
1921(30th of Nisan, 5681): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1921: High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel agrees to the appointment of Haj Amin al Husseini, a leading Arab nationalist, as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and head of the Supreme Muslim Council. Samuel rejects protests by the Jewish leadership.
1922: Louis Stern, President of Stern Brothers, which became the largest retail store in the United States in 1910, underwent a major operation at Mt. Sinai Hospital just prior to leaving for Paris.
1922: In Blackpool, England, Cyril and Ann Constant Levy gave birth to Reginald Levy, the Sabena pilot who would play a key role in thwarting an Arab attempt to hijack his aircraft.
1926: Birthdate of Don Rickles. Rickles was born in
1928: Birthdate of Theodore “Ted” Sorensen, speech writer for John F. Kennedy who “helped” to write Profiles In Courage. Sorensen’s mother was a Russian Jew. His was father was Christian.
1933: Birthdate of Alfred “Al” Lerner the New York born son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who became Chairman of the Board of MBNA and the owner of the Cleveland (football) Browns.
1934: Eleanor Neyens was born in Dubuque County, Iowa. As Eleanor Schueller she became the mother of Deb Schueller who as Deb Levin is responsible for the technology and patience that makes these daily offerings possible.
1934: Birthdate of Leonard Hubert “Lennie” Hoffman, the South African born British barrister who became a leading Jurist.
1935: “The plight of thousands of young women refugees arriving in Palestine from Germany and other countries was outlined today at luncheon of the Women’s League for Palestine” held at the Hotel Astor. The speakers appealed for additional funds to provide homes for these refugees. Mrs. Albert Einstein and Mrs. Elisheeva Kaplan, Chairman of the Working Women’s Council of Palestine were guests of honor.
1936: Emperor Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia, who has been forced to flee his native land because Italy has conquered it, arrived in Haifa aboard the British cruiser Enterprise. The Emperor whose official title includes the appellation“Lion of Judah” and his royal household then took the train to Jerusalem where they were greeted by a cheering crowd. When he heard the crowds chanting “Long Live Ethiopia” and “Long Live Haile Selassie” the exiled monarch broke into tears. [Editor’s Note: Ethiopia and the Jewish people each shared the dubious honor of being early victims of the Axis and the world turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to both of them. Also, the British officer Orde Wingate played a role in the lives of the Jews and the Ethiopians. Wingate served a tourn in Palestine where he helped the Zionists self-defense forces in their fight against the rioting Arabs. During World War II, Wingate played a leading role in liberating Ethiopia from its Axis occupiers.]
1937: Mrs. Edward Jacobs who had returned from a fact finding tour in Palestine last week said today that Jewish settlers felt that British should be doing a better job of protecting them from Arab attackers since they had entered the country under the terms of the Mandate which included the terms of the Balfour Declaration. She said that the vast majority of the 400,000 Jewish settlers were neither discouraged nor willing to abandon their efforts. Finally, she said that it might be necessary to divide the country into Jewish and Arab “zones of influence to minimize friction.”
1937: Several Jews were beaten today during riots at Grabow.
1938: The Jerusalem Postreported that one of the top Arab terrorist leaders in the Hebron area, Issa Battat, was shot and killed by police near Beit Govrin.
1939: Admiral Sir Barry Edward Domville the famous British naval officer who was among those who expressed pro-German and anti-Semitic views during the 1930’s wrote an endorsement for The Case For Germany by Dr. Arthur Pillans which praises Hitler and National Socialist while attacking the Jewish people. (Editor’s Note – Seven decades after WW II, many are unaware of the pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic views held among many in the upper-echelon of British society)
1940: Birthdate of Canadian political leader Irwin Cotler who has proven to be a proponent of human rights and a staunch foe of “the new anti-Semitism.”
1942: Muriel Rukeyser was among the recipients of awards presented by The National Institute of Arts and Letters http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/08/1942/muriel-Rukeyser
1943 (3rd of Iyar, 5703): On Shabbat, The Leaders of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising meet death as the flame of resistance flickers out. The massive German forces that had been brought into the former Warsaw Ghetto to fight the Jewish rebels burned the ghetto street by street. Only by torching the buildings could the fighters be flushed out and forced to seek another place to hide and fight. Terror and inferno raged in the improvised underground bunkers as the Germans made the fighters come out in the only way possible-by hurling grenades into the bunkers or by pumping in tear gas. The ZOB command bunker, staffed by Mordechai Anielewicz and other leaders of the resistance, fell on May 8. Mordecai Anielewiczhad been born in 1919. He had accomplished the seemingly impossible twice. First, he united the various factions in the ghetto and then conducted an armed resistance against what had been the world's greatest killing machine. Anielewicz was an ardent Zionist and his memory lives on at a Kibbutz established by survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. With the destruction of the Great Synagogue on Tlomackie Street, outside the confines of the ghetto the German commander General Juergen Stroop bragged that "there is no longer a Jewish quarter in Warsaw." On May 19, Warsaw Europe .
1944: An internal memo of this week from the United States Government War Refugee Board states that it would not be wise to transport Jewish refugees to Afghanistan, as it is a "fanatically Moslem country" with a "primitive economy and low standard of living." Though Jews live in Afghanistan
1945: Birthdate of Bruce Mark Cohen one of three children of Emil Cohen a New York State Supreme Court Justice. Cohen became a rabbi serving Mishkan Israel in New Haven, Connecticut. He worked to promote peace through better understanding of ordinary Jews and Arabs. Along with Farhat Agbaria he found Interns for Peace.
1945: V.E. (Victory in Europe) Day; The surrender Germany signed on May 7,1945, goes into effect. Unfortunately, this did mean an immediate end to the fighting. Units of the SS continued to resist and German U-Boats, once they got the order to surface, were often scuttled by their crews instead of making for the ports designated by the victorious allies.
1945: “In a pastoral letter” Conrad Gröber, the archbishop of the Archdiocese of Freiburg “declared that no one should succumb to any extreme anti-Semitism. In his eyes the Holocaust was wrong because it forced the Jews into a defensive position from which they could cause the State greater harm than many a powerful enemy army.”
1945: The U.S. Army competed an investigation into allegations that soldiers under the Command of Colonel Felix L Sparks had killed Nazi guards at Dachau after they had surrendered came to an end.
1945: With the end of World War II, the question of what do with the refugees at Fort Ontario most of whom were Jewish – repatriation or settlement in the United States – became a pressing matter that had to be resolved.
1946: The Dov Hoz, carrying 675 Ma’apilim and the Eliahu Golomb carrying 339 Ma’apillim left La Spezia bound for Palestine.”
1946: U.N. Assistant Secretary General Benjamin Cohen of Chile was among the speakers who participated at Hunter College’s World Friendship exercises which were designed to mark the first anniversary of the end of WW II in Europe.
1947(18th of Iyar, 5707): Lag B’Omer
1947: Birthdate of H. Robert Horvitz, American biologist on the faculty of M.I.T. who won the 2002 Nobel Prize in in Physiology or Medicine.
1947: Leonard Bernstein has been invited to conduct the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra at the second International Music Festival which is scheduled to begin today in Prague.
1947:As the international community began its deliberations that Jews hoped would lead to the creation of their state,Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, a Reform Rabbi from Cleveland Ohio, “appeared before the United Nations as a spokesman for the Jewish Agency and formally voiced the demands of his people for national recognition and for the right to reestablish a national state in the ancestral home.” Silver had worked “closely with David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Shertok in preparing the presentation of the Jewish Agency.” Silver , who was head of the American section of the Jewish agency “spoke first because the plane bringing Ben-Gurion from Palestine was delayed. According to David Geffen, Silver concluded his speech with these words. “The Jewish people places great hope upon the outcome of the deliberations of this great body. It has faith in its collective sense of justice and fairness; and in the high ideals which inspire it.“We are an ancient people, and though we have often, on the long, hard road which we have travelled, been disillusioned, we have never been disheartened... The Jewish people belongs in this society of nations. The representatives of the Jewish people of Palestine should sit in your midst – the representatives of the people and of the land which gave to mankind spiritual and ethical values, inspiring human personalities, and sacred texts which are your treasured possessions.”“Twenty-five years ago a similar international organization [League of Nations] recognized the historic claims of the Jewish people, sanctioned our program and set us firmly on the road of realization... The Jewish people was confirmed in its right to rebuild its national life in its historic home. It eagerly seized the long-hoped-for opportunity and proceeded to rebuild that ancient land of Israel in a manner which evoked the admiration of the whole world. It has made the wilderness blossom as a rose.”
1947(18th of Iyar, 5707): “A Jewish settler named Joel Drubin, 21 years old, was shot dead today” when he and two other settlers were attacked by 8 Arabs in an area between Kfar Uriah and Hulda “two Jewish settlements southeast of Tel Aviv. The Arabs got away and the British were unable to find them.
1950: An announcement was made today at Geneva that “Israel has accepted the proposal of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine to proceed with direct negotiations with the Arab states while the commission acts as mediator for the settlement of all outstanding issues.” However, this announcement by Israel may not immediately lead to negotiations since the Arabs have pre-conditioned their participation on the demand that Jewish state must recognize the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that, the Histadrut Executive unanimously to accept Arab workers into its Trade Unions starting on May 15, 1953.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that jobs for 40,000 workers were envisaged following the approval, by the Knesset Finance Committee, of a special IL70m “Development Budget.”
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that, approximately 800 persons were killed in traffic accidents during the past four years.
1953: The Jerusalem Post reported that, Syria had appealed to all Arab States to tighten the economic blockade of Israel as "the best way to kill Israel peacefully."
1956: Aaron Albert “Al” Silvera played his last game as an outfielder with the Cincinnati Reds.
1959(30th of Nisan, 5719): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1960: While exploring caves in the Judean desert an archaeological expedition led Yigael Yadin discovers fourteen letters writtenby Simon Bar-Kokhba, leader of the Jewish revolt against the Romans in 132 - 135 CE. One letter is written on wood and the rest are written on papyrus. Bar Kokhba is called Shimon Ben Kossiba in the letters. Once again, archeology helps to establish another of what some had called the “myths of Jewish history.”
1960: Gideon Hausner is appointed attorney general in Israel.
1960(11thof Iyar, 5720): Sixty-two year old Sir Hersch Lauterpacht passed away.
http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/ajil55&div=12&id=&page=
1962(4th of Iyar, 5722): Yom HaZikaron
1964: Birthdate of Melissa Gilbert, child star on “Little House on the Prairie.”
1967(28thof Nisan, 5727): Yom HaShoah
1970: Birthdate of Naomi Klein Canadian journalist, author and activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalization.
1972 Four Palestinian terrorists from Black September boarded Sabena Flight 571 from Vienna to Tel Aviv. Twenty minutes after taking off from a scheduled stop, the hijackers took control of the flight and instructed the captain to continue as planned to Israel’s Lod Airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport). Less than 24 hours later, Israeli commandos, among them today’s most prominent Israeli leaders launched a daring operation to rescue the flight’s passengers and retake the plane.
1972: Fiftieth birthday of airline pilot Reginald Levy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/world/europe/05levy.html
1978(1st of Iyar, 5738):Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that in New York, the Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, appealed to the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, to "renew the spirit of our talks in Jerusalem"
1978: The Jerusalem Post reported that the New York police estimated that a crowd of 750,000, gathered in and around the Central Park, at an event which marked Israel's 30th anniversary, and listened to a 20 minute address by the Prime Minister.
1978:
1981(4th of Iyar, 5741): Eighty-three year old Uri Zvi Greenberg, a Hebrew and Yiddish poet, fighter for the independence of Israel and a member of the Knesset passed away today. “A representative of the new wave of 20th-century Jewish poetry, Mr. Greenberg drew on the tradition of biblical prophecy to write poems combining personal experience with an impersonal Jewish messianic destiny. Born in 1898 in Galicia, he served in the Austro-Hungarian Army in World War I and later emigrated to Palestine. He published his first volume of poetry in Yiddish in 1912. Mr. Greenberg served in the Irgun Zvai Leumi, a and as a member of Israel’s parliament for one term.
1981: In “Efforts To Rehabilitate Crown Heights Apartment Houses,” Alan Oser described efforts to dealing with the challenge of providing affordable housing in a neighborhood so closely connected with the Chabad movement.
1982: Shimon Peres meets with a dozen leaders of the Labor Party to report on a plan conceived by Defense Minister Arik Sharon for a massive military operation in Lebanon aimed eliminating the PLO presence and influence from that country.
1983:Mr. and Mrs. Harry M. Rosenfeld of Albany have announced the engagement of their daughter, Susan Margot Rosenfeld, to Dr. Stuart Wachter, son of Mr. and Mrs. Irving Wachter of Flushing, Queens
1991(25th of Iyar, 5751):Rudolf Serkin, one of the world's great concert pianists passed away at the age of 88. The cause of death was cancer. A lanky man once described as looking "like a benign and slightly befuddled chemistry professor," Mr. Serkin performed for much of the 20th century. He made his concert debut in 1915, at age 12, and had his last major concert in 1988.
1993(17th of Iyar, 5753): Avram Davidson passed away. Born in 1923, Avram Davidson is considered by some to be "one of the most original, charming, neglected and undervalued writers of our time.” A self-taught, bearded Orthodox Jewish, Davidson's work started with science fiction and then moved into more extreme areas of fantasy. Readers who like him compare his works to Rudyard Kipling, Isaac B Singer and S.J. Perelman.
1995: According to reports published today stamps portraying the comic strips “Lil’l Abner” and Rube Goldberg Inventions” were two of the twenty classic strips being issued by the U.S. Postal Service “in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the American comic strip.”
1996(19th of Iyar, 5756): Ninety-five year old Serge Chermayeff, the only Jew to chair the architecture departments at both Yale and Harvard passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/arts/serge-chermayeff-95-architect-taught-at-harvard-and-yale.html
2001: Chandra Levy’s aunt, Linda Zamsky calls D.C. police Detective Durant and tells him that her niece had been having an affair with Congressman Gary Condit.
2001: Thirteen year old Yaakov “Koby” Mandell and fourteen year old Yosef Ishran were kidnapped while hike near their village.
2002: In a column entitled “The Politics of Victimhood,” Todd Gitlin makes the argument that “victimhood has become a default position for Jews and Palestinians alike – with bloody consequences for both peoples.”
2002(26th of Iyar, 5762):A Palestinian terrorist detonated a suitcase packed with explosives in a crowded gambling and billiards club near Tel Aviv, killing at least 15 people and wounding 58. The attack apparently was timed to coincide with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's visit to the United States, where he met with President George W. Bush and other administration officials to discuss a new proposal for ending the conflict.
2003: The 19thIsrael Film Festival opens in
2005: The New York Times included reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Salonica, City of Ghosts: Christians, Muslims and Jews, 1430-1950” by Mark Mazower and a 75th anniversary edition of “Civilization and its Discontents by Sigmund Freud.
2006, Pulitzer prize winning author David Remnick gave an interview on The Daily Show to promote his book “Reporting: Writings from The New Yorker.”
2006: “The Communists Who Saved The Jewish State” published today describes a little known aspect (at least in the West) of the “miracle” that made it possible for the Jewish David to defeat the Arab Goliath.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/the-communists-who-saved-the-jewish-state-1.187221
2006: Germany's national Holocaust memorial has drawn an estimated 3.5 million visitors in the year since it was inaugurated according to figures made public today. The memorial - a vast field of more than 2,700 gray slabs situated close to the Brandenburg Gate in the heart of
2007: Dr. Tamara Levitz presents "Kurt Weill's Kol Nidre and Jewish Memory" at
2007: “The J.A.P. Show, Jewish American princesses of Comedy” is performed at Actors Temple Theatre in
2007: Belgian Prime Minster Guy Verhofstadt publicly apologized for Belgian authorities’ involvement in the deportation of Jews to Nazi extermination camps during World War II. The apology came on the day that the government-backed report “Submissive Beligium was published. It lays bare the responsibility of high-ranking officials and municipalities in collaborating with the the Nazi persecution of the Jews.
2007: The Associated Press reported today that researchers claim they’ve found Herod’s tomb, a find that could provide insights into one of the Bible's most reviled figures.
“Under a baking sun, pieces of limestone carved with borders of rosettes and geometrical designs lay in three excavated pits Tuesday — a desert site Israeli archaeologists say is the tomb of King Herod, who ruled the Holy Land when Christ was born.The find, which could provide insights into one of the Bible's most reviled yet influential figures, includes hundreds of pieces of an ornate sarcophagus, but no bones and no inscription that would seal the identification.Although the tomb was shattered and empty, leaders of the Israeli team that unearthed it said Tuesday they will dig on in the hope of finding jewelry, other artifacts or even the biblical monarch's remains. Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said he has been leading the search for Herod's tomb at the king's winter palace in the Judean desert, in an Israeli-controlled part of the West Bank south of Jerusalem, for 35 years.Last month, his team started unearthing limestone fragments, from which emerged the picture of an ornately carved sarcophagus with decorative urns of a type never before found in the Holy Land."It's a sarcophagus we don't just see anywhere," Netzer told reporters at the university. "It is something very special."The complete sarcophagus would have been about nine feet long, the university said. Herod was the Jewish proxy ruler of the Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation from 37 B.C. His most famous construction project was expanding the Jewish Second Temple in Jerusalem. Remnants of his extensive building work in Jerusalem are still visible in Jerusalem's Old City, and he undertook major construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Masada and elsewhere. At the excavation site, on the steep, rocky slopes of a cone-shaped hill 2,230 feet high, Netzer's assistant, Yaakov Kalmar, said that an account of Herod's funeral by the first-century historian Josephus Flavius left little doubt that it took place at Herodium. The newly discovered tomb was regal in its opulence. "We have here all the attributes of a royal funeral," Kalmar said. "We didn't find inscriptions so far... The work is not finished." The site sits halfway up the hill, atop a warren of tunnels and water cisterns built to serve the palace at the summit. Stephen Pfann, an American expert in the Second Temple period at the University of the Holy Land, called the find a "major discovery by all means," but said the lack of an inscription hindered full verification. "We're moving in the right direction. It will be clinched once we have an inscription that bears his name," said Pfann, who did not participate in Netzer's dig. Eric Myers of Duke University, who has excavated in the Holy Land, said initial descriptions of the tomb pointed to its authenticity as belonging to Herod. "We know he was buried at Herodium," he said by telephone. "It's a significant find after a long search. "Myers said that among key clues were that the sarcophagus was placed on a raised platform rather than in the underground tombs used for those of lesser rank, and that in accordance with Jewish religious law, it was not decorated with any human image. "It sounds as if Herod was respectful of his Jewish tradition right up to the end," he said. David Owen, a biblical historian and archaeologist at Cornell University who has done extensive field work in Israel, was not surprised by the find."That's where Josephus says he was buried," said Owen. "He built that entire palatial complex and there are few doubts that his tomb would be there." The Herod of the Bible and of Christian tradition was a bloodthirsty megalomaniac, who flew into a paranoid frenzy when he encountered the three wise men on their way to Bethlehem with gifts for the baby Jesus, and telling of the birth of a new king of Israel. "Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceedingly wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under..." (Matthew 2:16). The biblical massacre figures in paintings such as Peter Paul Rubens' 17th-century "Massacre of the Innocents." However the account, does not appear in other Gospels, and experts are not convinced of its accuracy, especially the implications of mass infanticide. Some believe the decree applied only to Bethlehem, a small town at the time, where there may have been as few as 15 toddlers. Historians do agree that toward the end of his reign Herod slaughtered many political rivals and perceived plotters against him, among them one of his 10 wives and three of his sons. Josephus says that as the elderly Herod lay riddled with disease, he ordered the cream of the local Jewish aristocracy to be executed on his demise, so that his passing would bring widespread and genuine mourning. After Herod's death, Herodium became a stronghold for Jewish rebels fighting Roman occupation, and the site suffered significant battle damage before it was conquered and finally destroyed by Roman forces in A.D. 71, a year after they destroyed the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. Kalmar said the sarcophagus could have been destroyed during Roman attacks or smashed by the rebels, who reviled the memory of Herod as a Roman puppet. "We know that Herod had a lot of enemies," he said. Roi Porat, another of Netzer's assistants on the digs, said it was possible that the Jews removed Herod's remains after his tomb was reduced to rubble.
2007: Tight-end Michael Andrew "Mike" Seidman signed with Indianapolis Colts after having been cut by the Carolina Panthers.
2008: In an ongoing program designed to share Jewish culinary traditions Hillel offers another cooking class taught by Cordell Braverman of Cooking Cottage
2008:In 2008(3rd of Iyar, 5768): Yom Ha”Atzmaut – Israeli Independence Day
2008: On Israel
2008: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano opened the prestigious Turin book fair in the northern Italian city, despite international Muslim anger over the choice of Israel as the event's guest of honor. "No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognizeIsrael Israel Israel Israel Turin Israel Turin Israel
2008: Italian President Giorgio Napolitano opened the prestigious Turin book fair in the northern Italian city, despite international Muslim anger over the choice of Israel as the event's guest of honor. "No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognize
2009:Pope Benedict XVI began his eight day pilgrimage which will take him to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories.
2010: The Yom HaAtzmaut Spring Marathon 2010, an evening of dancing, ushering in the delights of spring in celebration of Israel’s independence is scheduled to begin tonight at 8:45 this evening at the 92nd St Y.
2010: “Giants of Jazz on Film - Benny Goodman and the Kings of Swing” is scheduled to begin at 8 pm at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco.
2010:Hamas or another group fired a rocket, which landed in open ground near Ashkelon today. Approximately 50 rockets have landed in Israeli territory since the beginning of 2010.
2010:The fans of a Polish professional soccer team displayed an anti-Semitic banner during a match. Fans of Resovia Rzeszow at a May 8 match put up a large banner showing a caricatured hook-nosed Jew with a blue and white yarmulke -- the colors of the opposing team -- and the phrase “Death to the Crooked Noses.”
2010(24thof Iyar, 5770): Andor Lilienthal, the last of the original 27 chess grandmasters, who played 10 world champions and beat 6 of them, passed away today at his home in Budapest at the age of 99 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/crosswords/chess/12lilienthal.html2011: Rabbi Kenneth Ehrlich, Dean, Cincinnati campus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is scheduled to facilitate “The People of the Book” a lecture/discussion designed to review the rich and varied experience of the Jewish people in America in words and images created by American Jewish literary artists
2011:Roman Arkadyevich Baranovichi was ranked # 3 on the Sunday Times Rich List 2011 which was published today. Shlomo Moussaieff and his wife and business partner, Alisa, were ranked #315
2011: The Jewish Historical Society of Delaware is scheduled to hold its Annual Meeting, featuring a presentation by the Delaware Art Museum’s Executive Director and noted art historian Dr. Danielle Rice. In her lecture, “The Jewish Contribution to Art in Delaware,” Dr. Rice will highlight the Delaware Art Museum’s holdings by Jewish artists and the worlds from which they come.
2011:In honor of Yom Hazikaron (Israeli Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha'atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) Yeshiva University Museum and Center for Jewish History with American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research are scheduled to present: “Remembering 1948 - In Color” featuring “I Was There In Color,” Avishai Kfir’s documentary that uses recently discovered footage, shot by Fred Monosson, a Jewish-American businessman to show the birth of the Jewish state in living color.
2011: The Los Angeles Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag” by Sigrid Nunez
2011(4th of Iyar, 5771): On Mother’s Day, 97 year-old Holocaust survivor Rose Linder passed away. As a young woman she had clerked for Raphael Lemkin, the Polish born attorney credited with coning the term “genocide.” After fleeing Poland, Mrs. Linder worked as a teacher and employment counselor in the Chicago metropolitan area.
2012: Mr. David McKenzie, Interpretive Programs Manager of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington will discuss, the award winning exhibit “Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community” an “exhibit created by the Jewish Historical society of Greater Washington that tells stories about the Jewish community in Washington from 1795 to the present.”2012(16th of Iyar, 5772): Eighty-nine year old “Louis H. Pollak, a federal judge and former dean of two prestigious law schools who played a significant role in major civil rights cases before the Supreme Court, including the landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012: The 18th annual World of Hope Charity Golf Classic for the benefit of The Rabbi Itzhaq M. Klirs Adult Education Fund & Caring Capital is scheduled to take place at the Twin Lakes Golf Course in Centerville, VA
2012(16th of Iyar, 5772): Eighty-three year old “Maurice Sendak, widely considered the most important children’s book artist of the 20th century, who wrenched the picture book out of the safe, sanitized world of the nursery and plunged it into the dark, terrifying and hauntingly beautiful recesses of the human psyche” passed away today (As reported by Margalit Fox
2012: Alon Yavnai Big Band with special guest Dave Liebman is scheduled to perform at Joe’s Pub in New York City.
2013(28th of Iyar, 5773): Yom Yerushalayim – Jerusalem Reunification Day
2013: “Settling In,” an exhibition that “examines the experience and acculturation of immigrants to Oregon through the lens of Jewish experience” is scheduled to open at the Oregon Jewish Museum.
2013: University of Iowa Professor Dr. Robert Cargill, biblical studies scholar, classicist, archeologist, author and digital humanist is scheduled to a lecture entitled "The Five Defenders of Jerusalem: A Study of Cities (not people) that defended Jerusalem from attacks including Hazor, Meggido, Gezer, Lachish and Azekah."
2013(28th of Iyar, 5773): One hundred one year old violin virtuoso Roman Totenberg passed away today.
2013: American Society for Jewish Music and American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to present “A Living Connection: The Musical Lives and Legacies of Morris Hollender, Sonia Victor, and Marty Levitt.”
2013: Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to present “It’s a Thin Line: The Eruv and the Jewish Community in New York and Beyond”
2013: Stephen Hawking, the noted British physicist, has reportedly opted to endorse the academic boycott of Israel and withdraw from the fifth annual Presidential Conference in Jerusalem in June, where he was slated to give a talk, the British daily Guardian reported today.
2013: Today the Jordanian Parliament voted unanimously in favor of petitioning the government to expel Israel’s ambassador in Amman and recall Jordan’s ambassador in Tel Aviv in protest of alleged Israeli desecration of holy sites in Jerusalem
2013: Eighty-eight year old “Geza Vermes, a religious scholar who argued that Jesus as a historical figure could be understood only through the Jewish tradition from which he emerged, and who helped expand that understanding through his widely read English translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls” passed away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2013: President Shimon Peres delivered remarks at the state memorial ceremony for the Jews of Ethiopia who died on their journey to Israel
2014: Observance of “Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust” a memorial day championed by director Steven Spielberg.
2014: “Circus Palestina” is scheduled to be shown at the Israel Film Festival hosted by Agudas Achim under the leadership of Rabbi Jeff Portman.
2014: “Closer to the Moon” is scheduled to be shown at the National Center for Jewish Films 17th annual film festival.
2014: As part of Jewish American Heritage Month, in Philadelphia, PA, the National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by the official Historian of the Major League Baseball, John Thorn on “Jackie Robinson: Outside Hero.”
2014: Closing night of The Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival.