July 27
1192: As Richard the Lionheart and Saladin continued their conflict during the Third Crusade, Saladin laid siege to Jaffa.
1214: French King Phillip II defeats the forces headed by Otto IV, the Holy Roman Emperor and King John of England at the Battle of Bouvines. For the Jews, this is a lose-lose proposition. King John and King Phillip were both notorious for the mistreatment of their Jewish subjects. Four years before the battle, King John had locked a group of Jews at Bristol Castle and said he would only free them if a 66,000-mark ransom were paid. King Phillip began exploiting and expelling Jews from the start of his reign in 1180. At the time of the battle, the king had actually allowed Jews back in his realm so he could take further financial advantage of them. Otto gets a pass because his relations with Jews are a “blank slate.”
1245: At the First Council of Lyons Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor is deposed by Pope Innocent IV, the pope who will condemn the Blood Libel in 1249 but who will authorize the use of torture against Jews by Spanish inquisitors in 1252. The First Council of Lyons would follow in the footsteps of the Fourth Lateran Council and adopt decrees compelling Jewish creditors to renounce all claims to interest on debts or similar ordinances which supposedly would encourage men to “take up the Cross” and become Crusaders.
1290: Following his edict expelling the Jews from England, King Edward issued the following concerning how they were to be treated as they left the country. “The King to all his wardens, officers and sailors of the Cirque ports, greeting…You should ensure that their passage is safe and speedy…free from danger.” According to Elliot Rosenberg, “the king meant what he said. When a ship’s captain took passage money from a group of Jews, then left them stranded on asandbank to drown at high tide, Edward ordered him hanged.”
1400: King Ladislas offered the Jews of Naples a charter which would give them economic equality.
1420: Sigismund of Luxemburg, who “drained the Jews of their wealth whenever he could” celebrated his official coronation as King of Bohemia in Prague today.
1588: After having been driven back across “the Channel” the Spanish Armada anchored at Calais where its leaders found out that the greatly reduced Spanish Army of invasion was not ready to attack England which meant that the Inquisition was still not a fact of life for the Netherlands and the British Isles.
1655: Jews in New Amsterdam request a place to bury their dead. "Abraham de Lucena, Salvador d'Andrade and Jacob Cohen, Jews in the name of the others, petition the Honorable Director General this day to be permitted to purchase a burying place for their nation…." Less than a year after arriving, the Jews of New Amsterdam requested permission to open a cemetery in 1655. Permission was initially denied and was finally granted a year later. Very often, the formation of a burial society and the start of a cemetery preceded the organization of the Synagogue or Temple. In fact these community organizations were often the progenitors of the house of worship which would follow as the community grew.
1656: Spinoza was excommunicated in Amsterdam. . Spinoza had been accused together with Juan de Prado of denying the being of Angels, the immortality of the soul and that the Torah was given by God. De Prado apologized but Spinoza refused. The council forbade anyone to communicate with him in any fashion or to read any of his books.
1671(20thof Av, 5431)Abraham de Fonseca ḥakam of the Portuguese community at Glückstadt, and later at Hamburg and author of Ene Abraham” passed away today.
1754(8thof Av, 5514): Parashat Devarim; erev Tish’a B’Av; Shabbat Chazon observed for the first time during the French and Indian War.
1772: In Barbados, Daniel Baruch Louzado was discharged as the Chazan of Congregation Kaal Kadosh Nidhi Israel
1782(16th of Av): Rabbi Jacob Raphael Hezekiah Hazak (Forti) author of Meginnei Erez passed away
1789: Sir Sampson Gideon, the “son of another Sampson Gideon, a Jewish Banker in the “City of London” and advisor to the British government, “legally changed his surname to that of Eardly” which lead to him be known as Sampson Eardly, 1stBaron Eardley who was able to keep his seat in the Commons because his title was Irish, not English.
1789: The United States Congress creates the Department of Foreign Affairs which later be renamed the United States Department of State. A Jew would not get the top job at State until 1973 when Richard Nixon appointed Henry Kissinger to position of Secretary of State.
1800: Ephraim Levy Green and Eva Piepa gave birth to Sarah Green the wife of Isaac Vallentine.
1822(9thof Av, 5582): Parashat; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av observed on the same day that Simon Bolivar and Jose de San Martin, two of the leaders who freed South America from Spanish Colonial rule me today in Guayquil, Ecuador.
1825: Forty-six year old Jakob Salomon Bartholdy the Jewish born German diplomat who converted to Christianity and was the brother-in-law of Abraham Mendelssohn passed away today.
1827: Birthdate of Stockbridge, VT, native and Rush Medical College graduate Solomon Marks who during the Civil War rose from being a surgeon with the Tenth Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry to being the Chief Surgeon of the First Division of the Fourteenth Army Corps and who after the war served as the “Chief Surgeon of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway and the Chief Surgeon of St. Mary’s Hospital for over thirty years.
1830: One day after he had passed away, Benjamin Wolfe was buried today at “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1831: Abraham Abrahams married Julia Jacobs at the Great Synagogue today.
1836 (13th of Av): Rabbi Abele Poswoler a leading Lithuanian Talmudist, “head of the Vilna rabbinic court who had also supported the publications of works by maskilim” including Mosdei Hokhmah by Hayyim Zelig Slonimski passed away.
1839(16thof Av, 5599): Parasaht Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
1839: Birthdate of David Kahn Hermann, who was buried at the Freudenburg Cemetery in Germany when he passed away.
1842: Joseph Latto married Rachel Solomon at the Great Synagogue today.
1843: In Somos, Hungary, Emanuel Rich and Sara Gladstone gave birth to Adolphus W. Rich the husband of Rosa Sidenberg, whose success in Wisconsin led to his being named President of Congregation Emanu-El and to the founding of a “settlement for Jewish farmers at Arpin, Wood County, Wisconsin.
1846: Joseph B. Montefiore, his wife, nine daughters and two sons accompanied by two servants arrived in Adelaide where he went into “business with his nephew Eliezer Levi Montefiore as importers and shipping agents.
1849: In Philadelphia, Adeline and Isaac Hyneman gave birth to Herman Naphtali Hyneman, painter whose works included “It Might Have Been” and “Marguerite in Prison."
1851: In Great Britain, Mayer de Rothschild and his wife Juliana, née Cohen gave birth to their only child, Hannah de Rothschild who would marry the 5th Earl of Rosebery and become Hannah Primrose, Countess of Rosebery.
1852: In Manchester, England, Rebecca and Horatio Lucas Micholls gave birth to Edward Montefiore Micholls, the husband of Ada Rachael Micholls.
1853: Birthdate of Vladimir Korolenko, “one of the few Russian writers who created positive Jewish images in his works, condemned the Kishinev pogrom” and the trial of Menachem Belis.
1853: Jewish architect Leopold Eidlitz and Lazelle Warner, his non-Jewish wife gave birth to Cyrus L.W. Eidlitz who designed One Times Square and the New York Times Building on Times Square.
1855: Today’s issue of The Israelite was published by Edward Bloch. Bloch replaced Charles F. Schmidt who had been publishing The Israelite since it was founded by Rabbi Isaac Meyer Wise in 1854. Bloch would also publish another publication founded by Rabbi Wise, Die Deborah.
1855: On the day before the death of Solomon Rothschild, the French poet Joseph Mery "said in his weekly article: If I owned the Hotel of the Rue Lafitte (Rothschild's) where ennui and lassitude reign undisputedly, I would do so and so and it would the first time in which a million was ever of benefit to mankind."
1857: The “Foreign Correspondence” column reported today on the status of the “Jewish Oaths Bill” now before Parliament, specifically, the House of Lords.
1859: Birthdate of Hugo Ascher, the Neugard, Germany born “dental surgeon and businessman” who was the husband of Minna Luise Ascher and father of expressionist painter and Holocaust survivor Fritz Ascher.
1860: “Remarkable Archaeological Discovery in Ohio” published today reported that “several New-York Archaeologists have, within the past week, received various communications concerning the discovery of a very curious stone relic, covered with Hebrew inscriptions, said to have been found by Mr. Wyrick of Newark, Ohio, in one of those artificial earthworks so numerous in that vicinity.” The inscription on the stone, which may easily be rendered by any Hebrew scholar, reads as follows
1. Kedosh Kedoskim -- The Holy of Holies.
2. Torath, Jehovah -- The Law of God.
3. Melec Erets -- The King of the Earth.
4. Devar Jehovah -- The Word of the Lord.
“Some have suggested that the stone might be a Masonic emblem -- the keystone which Master Masons anciently deposited in the corner-stone of their temples. (But, unfortunately for this hypothesis, the shape is not the same.) Others have supposed it furnished evidence of the presence of the lost tribes of Israel. Copies of the inscription have been submitted to some of our learned Rabbis, who generally agree that the above is a fair rendering of the text. But a difference of opinion has been expressed with regard to the antiquity of the characters, some carrying them back to the rime of Ezra, whilst others think them more modern.” To date, there has been no agreement on the antiquity or sources of the stone.
1860: “A Jewish Republican Candidate” published today reported that “an expression having been made in a Republican meeting, at St. Louis, that ‘even the Jews’ were represented on the Republican legislative ticket of Missouri, Mr. Isidor V. Bush takes the remark as the text of a communication to the Democrat. Mr. Bush is a Jew and a Republican candidate for the Legislature. He contends that neither he nor his people have any personal or selfish ends to serve in politics, but that the Jews unite their interests with those of the State. He adds the following suggestive observations: ‘At the same time you will find the Jews, with few exceptions, in favor of our party, and naturally so -- first, from the impression's received in early youth by the teachings of the Bible, (Exodus xxi., Deuteronomy xv., Leviticus xxv.) "And ye shall proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof;" secondly, from his own historic recollections. His daily prayers remind him that his forefathers were slaves in the land of Egypt, freed and brought forth by the Lord; and almost like slaves, worse than free negroes here, burdened with exceptional laws, disfranchised, were our fathers -- are to this very day millions of Jews in some other countries. From sympathy, therefore, the Jew cannot and will not vote for those who enact such cruel, inhuman laws as the selling of free Negroes into Slavery again.’"
1861(20th of Av, 5621): Parashat Eikev
1861: As Jews in the North and the South observed Shabbat six days after the Rebel victory at Bull Run, President Lincoln replaced General McDowell, the Commander of the Department of the Potomac with George B. McClellan, known as Little Mac by his fans and the Little Napoleon by others.
1862: The Richmond Enquirer printed in full what it terms "an eloquent invocation for the success of the Confederate Army," which was pronounced in the synagogue on Mayo-street ( Bayeth Ahabah) by Rabbi J.M. Michelbacher.
"We give Thee thanks, O God of Israel for Thou hast brought the vaunting and insulting army of our enemy to naught -- they boasted of strength and valiant deeds, and Thou hast made them weak and caused them to flee. Their wisdom and their cunning arts of war they exalted and enthroned as the minor of might, to be reflected upon the numerous hosts that believed their standards to anticipated triumphs; but Thou, O Eternal God of Israel; hast debased their proud exaltation, and brought it down in its pride, its vanity and its foolishness. Their vain and forward words were like the sound of threatening thunder from an approaching and lowering cloud -- as to meet David, Thy servant, so they come forth to the army of people who trust in Thee; and Thou hast caused their threatenings and their vain is to be heard me more! For all these manifestations of Thy divine care and goodness we desire, with of hearts, to other the cure of our worship of thanks to Thee with dispositions of joy and gladness in the presence of the country unity shining light of Thy visible and emitting protection."
The following is its conclusion:
"O, God, continue Thy protecting care of our army -- and our soldiers to deeds of self-sacrifice and value in the battles for the liberty and independence of our country. Be with them, O Lord! in the lights and push them with Thy right hand against the enemy, and give them a firm foot-hold upon the trend, and let them think of Thee, and call upon Thy name, that they may be always led to victory -- let one of them be as ten thousand in the sight of the toe; and giant that in all engagements our soldiers may win the victory by the presence of Thy countenance. O, God! the perpetuity of a patriotic and just government, with counsellors and refers of wisdom, is a great blessing from Thee to the people; therefore, we pray Thee, that the Government of the Confederate States of America may be firmly established, and that Thou be unto it the rock upon which it shall be founded. Let the nations of the earth respect and revere it, and [???] its just resentment; let the dispensation of its laws be equal and just, and let its exaltation consist in the righteousness of the people. Protect and defend it from enemies abroad and foes within; and grant that the hearts of the people may be ever turned toward Thee, both in the public and private affairs of life. Grant that the Ministers of Government may have a constant fear of Thee, and a continual desire to subserve the best interests of the common welfare. We earnestly pray Thee to inspire the President of the Confederate States of America with true piety, courage, wisdom, prudence and foresight. Give unto him a just fear of disobeying Thy divine laws, and let his heart do reverence at the mention of Thy great and glorious name, that our people may be blessed in the Chief of their choice. Keep him in the path of patriotism and rectitude, that he may be a model the people of an upright citizen that [???] the Lord. Endow our Governor with all the attributes meet and proper for his station; and let his private and official conduct redound to the honor had best interests of the State of Virginia, and the happiness and prosperity of the people.
1862: The Knoxville Register reported that it has been informed that certain parties in Huntsville, who were unpatriotic enough to sell their cotton to the Jews who swarmed there from the North, were paid by them in bogus gold. “The galvanized coating has worn off the pewter, and these gentlemen have lost their cotton as effectually as if they had burned it like other true Southerners.”
1862: Philadelphian Lazarus Belsinger began a three year enlistment with Company D of the 28th Regiment.
1862: Birthdate of Bialystok native Leo Wiener, the graduate of the University of Warsaw and the Polytechnic of Berlin, who after coming to the United States worked in New Orleans and Kansas City as “a day laborer and fruit peddler” before becoming a Professor at the University of Kansas and then an Assistant Professor in Slavic Languages at Harvard after which he wrote The History of Yiddish Literature in the Nineteenth Century.
1863: As the United States implemented a draft during the Civil War that resulted in a major riot in July of 1863, today a man, said to be a “Jew broker, made his appearance in Westchester, Penn., accompanied by a dozen others, whom he represented as anxious to serve as substitutes, for a consideration. Although some of the men, it is said, boasted of having taken part in the New-York riots, yet they were eagerly caught up by drafted men, and engaged at various prices as substitutes. Two of the number were sharp enough to get their money before being mustered in, and they immediately skedaddled. Four others were accepted by the Enrollment Board, and sent to the barracks, but three out of the number turned up missing the next morning. They were pursued by the Deputy Provost-Marshall and by dint of threats, and the more powerful argument of a loaded revolver, were induced to return, when they were lodged in jail for safe keeping. Three others escaped, and have not yet been caught.
1863: Sgt. Maj. Simon J. Arnold of Company K, 151st Regiment who was wounded on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg was mustered out of the Union Army today.
1863: Jonas H. Kauffman who had been serving as the assistant surgeon with the 151stRegiment since November of 1862 was mustered out of the Union Army today.
1865: Philadelphian Philip A. Barnet, who had been serving since January, 1864 completed his service as a Corporal with Company B of the Fifty-First Regiment in the Union Army.
1865: Philadelphian Henry Jacobs who had risen from the rank of Sergeant to Second Lieutenant of Company F in the Fifty-First Regiment completed his service which had begun in October of 1861.
1866(15thof Av, 5626): Tu B’Av observed on the same day that the Trans-Atlantic Cable successfully, connected “the Old World with the New.”
1868(8th of Av, 5628): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1868:(8thof Av, 5628): “Russian Hebraist and poet Aaron Jonathanson, the father of poet Zebi Jonathanson and Jonathan Jonathanson, who writes “under the nom de plume ‘Kal wa-Homer’” passed away today in Kovno.
1868: Birthdate of Milton S. Florsheim, the native of Chicago, Illinois who founded the Florsheim Shoe Company in 1892.
1868: Birthdate of Michael Adler, the native of Spitalfields and son of a tailor who was the rabbi at Hammersmith Synagogue and then Central Synagogue in London while also serving as the “Senior Jewish Chaplain in France during WW I and authoring several works in Jews of Medieval England.
https://sarahfairhurstjmm.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/a-chaplain-in-the-trenches/
1870: Playwright and poet Hermann Hersch passed away today in Berlin.
1871(9th of Av, 5631): Tish’a B’Av
1874(13th of Av, 5634): Baron Anselm Salomon von Rothschild, the second generation leader of the Austrian branch of the House of Rothschild passed away. Born in 1803 in Frankfurt am Main he was the son of Baron Salomon Mayer von Rothschild and his wife Caroline. In 1826 he married his cousin Charlotte Nathan Rothschild, daughter of Nathan Mayer Rothschild from the London branch of the family; they had eight children.
1875: Nathan and Bertha Speer gave birth to Baltimore resident Moritz “Moshe” Speier the husband of Jeanette Speirer.
1876: Two days after she had passed away, Julia Solomon, the wife of Samuel Lawrence with she had four children – “Jessie, Harriet, Solomon and Michael” – was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1877(17thof Av. 5637): Seventy-eight year old Morris Abrahams passed away today in London.
1879: In the wake of Austin Corbin’s announcement banning Jews from Manhattan Beach, it was reported that “they are not prohibited on account of their religious principles from buying Humphrey’s Parisian Diamonds” which are on sale at Humphrey’s Jewelry Store at the corner of Broadway and 12th Street.
1879: “In Galtati, Romania, Isadore Blank and the former Marian Greenberg gave birth Iowa philanthropist Abraham Harry Blank, the founder of the Central States Theatre corporation, the founder of the Raymond Blank Memorial Hospital for Children and the father of Myron Blank.
1880: Theodore Herzl passes his first legal exam.
1881: Forty-eight year old Michael Meyer, a Jewish immigrant from Germany, lies in a hospital bed in Jersey City fighting for his life. Meyer, a popular cattle driver, was attacked by a bull this morning leaving him with crushed ribs and a mangled right leg. Meyer, who lives in Brooklyn with his wife, had begun working in the cattle business in Germany before coming to the United States.
1881: “The Affairs of Russia” published today described the outbreak of new violence aimed at the Jews of Pultava in the Ukraine.
1882: In San Francisco, CA, nobody has seen Samuel L. Sachs since he shot his wife yesterday. Sachs is the son of Louis Sachs and a partner in Sachs, Heller & Co, a firm that specializes in importing dry goods.
1883: Birthdate of Arkansas native Harry “Klondike” Kane, the southpaw who pitched for the St Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Phillies.
1884: “Lessing” published today provided a summary of the writings and philosophy of Gotthold Ephriam Lessing best known for “Nathan the Wise” that portrays religious toleration in mythical meeting of a Jewish merchant, Saladin and a nameless Templar during the Crusade.
1884: Birthdate of Vilna native Max Perlman, the NYU Law School grad who practiced law in Astoria while serving on the board of the Jewish Home for Convalescents and being active in Republican Party Politics while being the husband of Gertrude Hyams Perlman with whom he had one son, Franklin Perlman.
1885(15thof Av, 5645): Tu B’Av
1885: “The Russian Idea of Cowboys” published today described the offer of a Polish born Jew living in Dallas, TX to supply to supply the Czar with 106 cowboys if he should go to war with England. (Considering the oppressive treatment of Jews in Russia, this is a bizarre offer to say the least.)
1885: In Frankfurt am Main, Ida Flesch and Karl Ferdinand Moritz Flesch, a Doctor of Jurisprudence, gave birth to Jacob Flesch
1887: It was reported today in New York that Joseph Levy will act as business agent for Booth-Barrett.
1887: It was reported today that John Howson has been chosen to play the part of “the Jew” in “Pawn Ticket No. 1,525) a play by Clay M. Green which is an adaptation of the novel Court Royal
1887(6th of Av, 5647): Long-time Brooklyn resident, Hirsch Harris who was known as “Rabbi Hirsch” passed away today at the age of 109. A native of a small town near Warsaw, Harris made his fortune making and selling kimmel a liqueur made from cumin, fennel and caraway seeds. He came to the United States in 1850 where he continued to enjoy success manufacturing kimmel. His nickname came from his scrupulous observance of Jewish laws and customs.
1888: Birthdate of Harry Pepper, the native of Austria who came to the United States in 1896 and became a successful realtor in Daytona Beach, FL where he was also a leader of the Jewish community serving as the “President of the Hebrew Charity Society” and a member of B’nai B’rith (While this date is from the American Jewish Archives other sources give his birthdate a July 7, 1855)
1888: The managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children have collected $179 to pay for next week’s excursion. Since the children are poor and the excursions are free, the public can send additional donations to Nathan Lewis, Hezekiah Kohn and Joseph Davis.
1889: The general public is invited to attend the upcoming lecture by Cyrus Adler of Johns Hopkins University that will be delivered at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City.
1889: It was reported today that the 5th free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium For Hebrew Children will take place next week. The cruise will be limited to children six years and younger.
1890(10thof Av, 5650): Tish’a B’Av
1890: In St. Petersburg, Russia, the Minister of the Interior “has ordered the local authorities to prevent foreign missionaries from” proselytizing among the Jews since it infringes on the Orthodox Church’s “exclusive right of conversion “
1890: “A Queer Sort of Victory” published today described the victory of the workers led by Joseph Barondees over the Cloak Manufacturers Association during a season of strikes that spread throughout the New York area.
1891: Members of the United States Immigration are scheduled to leave Great Britain for the European continent where they will continue their investigation into abuses of the system including the practice of buying cut-rate tickets for Russian Jews to sail for America so they will not remain in France and England.
1891: The U.S. Secretary of the Treasury received a communication from Simon Wolf and Lewis Abraham written on behalf of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations objecting to Russian Jewish immigrants being classified as “paupers or assisted immigrants” “when hands of help to elevated them to the exalted position of American citizenship without demanding any contributions from national or local taxes.”
1892: The New York Times reported that Washington Nathan had died in France. Nathan was the son of Benjamin Nathan, the prominent New Yorker who was murdered in 1870. The murder has never been solved. There are those who think that the son was involved in his father’s murder.
1892: Police continue to scour the area around Pittsburg looking for other anarchist who may have been part of the plot in which the Jewish-born anarchist Alexander Berkman shot Henry Clay Frick during the Homestead Steel Strike.
1893: The funeral of Priscilla J. Joachimsen, President of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and the widow of Judge Joachimsen is scheduled to take place this morning.
1893: Fire broke out this afternoon at 123 Clinton Street, a double tenement occupied by sixteen Russian-Jewish families when the stove of Mrs. Morris Lewenthal exploded. Her husband operates a butter and provision store on the ground floor next Meyer Norman’s poultry and meat store.
1894: In Minneapolis, MN formation of Council No. 9 of the National Council of Jewish Women with Nina M. Cohen serving as President and Mrs. Mamie Lehmaler serving as Secretary. (Council No 10 would be formed at Duluth in September and Council No. 11 would be formed at St. Paul in October giving the state three chapters of this major national Jewish women’s organization.
1895: Birthdate of Victor George Paradise, the native of St. Louis who became an investment broker with Kuhn, Loeb in NYC.
1895: Herzl leaves Paris and will never return as a resident. He will become an editor for the Neue Freie Presse at a reduced salary.
1895(6th of Av, 5655): Austrian physician Karl Bettelheim passed away.
1895: The resolution adopted by the Council of the University Settlement Society of New York published today expressed the members’ sense of loss at the death of Abram C. Bernheim and acknowledged his contributions including the organization of the first free art exhibition on the Lower East Side which has become an annual event.
1896: In Baltimore, MD, Ida and Perez Tarshish gave birth to Allan Tarshish, the husband of Mildred Weiss Tarshish.
1897: “National Jewish Chautauqua” published today described events at the second assembly which is meeting at Atlantic City including Dr. Henry Berkowitz’s report on the work of the society and a talk by Dr. M.H. Harris on Ezra the Scribe.
1898: Twenty-three year old Tobias Geffen, the Kovno born son of Joseph and Kune (Strauss) Geffen, who began serving Congregation Shearith Israel in Atlanta, GA in 1910, married Hannah Rabinowitz today.
1900(1stof Av, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Av
1900: Birthday of Károly Vidor, the WW I veteran of the Austro-Hungarian Army who gained fame as director Charles Vidor whose works included a remake of “A Farewell to Arms” and who was married to Doris Warner, the daughter of Harry Warner (one of the Warner Bros.) at the time of his death.
1900: Karl Low, the Czech born son of Helene and Daniel Low and his wife Rosa Low gave birth to Paul Low.
1901(11thof Av, 5661): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
1901: “Zionist Was Rebuked” published today described an episode at a meeting of the Jewish Chautauqua Assembly when “Clarence I. De Sola, President of the Federation of Zionist Societies of America and Canada took exception to a remark by Dr. Kohler” who said that “the Zionist movement tended to disunited the Jews…”
1902: As the debate over whether or not Yiddish is a jargon which was triggered by the New York School Board’s decision to offer a series of lectures in Yiddish, “Whether Yiddish is a ‘Jargon’” published today takes issue with the contention that Yiddish is a language because six “great daily newspapers in New York use Yiddish and contends that Yiddish is jargon as defined by the Century Dictionary which defines jargon as being a mixture of two or more discordant languages” which in this case would be German and Hebrew.
1903: It was reported today that Dr. Reginald John Campbell, the past of the City Temple in London, had praised Nathan Strauss for his “philanthropy in providing sterilized milk free of cost to the poor in New York.”
1904(15thof 5664): Tu B’Av
1904: It was reported today that the New York Festival Chorus and the Ocean Grove Festival Chorus are scheduled to sing “Elijah” by Felix Mendelsohn tomorrow at Ocean Grove, NJ.
1904: Birthdate of author Isaac Bashevis Singer. Singer won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978. He passed away in 1991.
1905: The seventh annual Zionist Congress opened today in Basle, Switzerland. Dr. Max Nordau was elected President at the afternoon session and Rabbi Judah L. Magnes was elected as Secretary of the English-speaking section.
1906: Today, the Jewish Chronical reported that Yiddish has been “recognized as European language in the education immigrant in the Cape Colony, S.A.
1907(16thof Av, 5667): Parsashat Vaetchanan: Shabbat Nachamu
1907: Eighty-six year old Confederate veteran and KKK grand dragon Edmund Pettus, the name sake for the bridge over which Rabbi Joshua Heschel and “dozens of Rabbis from Reform to Orthodox” marched in a line led by Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis to protest against racism in demonstration that played a direct role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, passed away today.
1907: In Vienna, Dr. Armand Ahron Noach Kaminka, the Ukraine born son “of Wolf and Sura Beile Kaminka” and his wife Klara gave birth to Irene Nekhama Kaminka who gained fame as Dr. Irene Nekhama Fischer, the wife of Dr. Eric Fisher.
1907: Police Recorder Hyman Lazarus of Bayonne, NJ ordered that 38 year old milkman Harry Smith who has been accused of attacking a nine year old girl be held without bail until the Grand Jury had convened adding at the end the proceedings that “if such as you were lynched this assaulting of children would stop”
1908: Today great typhoon struck Hong Kong one year almost to the day that Sir Mathew Nathan ended his service as Governor of the Colony marking him as the only Jew to hold that position.
1909(9th of Av, 5669): Tish'a B'Av
1909: In Cologne, Eugen Löwenstein, a German Jewish lawyer and his wife gave birth to Hilde Palm (née Löwenstein) who wrote under the pseudonym Hilde Domin.
1909: In Dunedin attorney Henry Brash (born Hyam Brasch) and Helene Mary Fels gave birth to Charles Orwell Brasch New Zealand poet and patron of the arts.
1909: Turkish Parliament passed a law allowing Jewish societies to have the privilege of purchasing land in their own names.
1910: Today Saks and Company, which was founded by Andrew Sakes and incorporated in 1902, advertised the sale of The Mendel Wardrobe Trunk for Men and Women ranging in price from $45 to $100.
1911: In London, the First Universal Races Congress, an anti-racist organization which discussed the “Jewish Question” continued to meet for a second day.
1911: Birthdate of New York City native Edward Ralph Schlesinger, the holder of an M.D. from Columbia and “Maser of Health degree from Johns Hopkins” whose career peaked when he was named “head of the maternal and child-health programs at the University of Pittsburgh” and who was married to Sylvia Schlesinger with whom he had two children – Stephen and Anne Louise.
1912(13thof Av, 5672): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu was observed for the last time during the Presidency of William Howard Taft whose administration was caught up in the issue of the treatment of American Jews trying to do business in Russia.
1912: Godman Korff and Jacob Israel Korff, gave birth to Rabbi Samuel Isaac Korf, the husband of Anna Twersky and the son-in-law of Rabbi Nachum and Malcha Twersky, who was the spiritual leader of Congregation Kehillath Jacob in Newton” and “a founder of the Associated Synagogues of New England”
1913(22ndof Tammuz, 5673): In Waterloo, Iowa, Lena Jones, the mother of Mrs. Sidney Simon and Mr. James Jonas, passed away today.
1914: On the same day that Great Britain told the Central Powers that she would be forced to side with Allies if broke out, the Kaiser returned from his yachting vacation to meet with his war council where for the first time according to some, the German leader realized the enormity of the situation.
1914: Birthdate of “Auguste “Gusti” Huber, who according to her second husband “an officer in the U.S Army was "the first Austrian actress to be cleared by the American military government" which made it possible for to come to the United States where she “was critically acclaimed as Edith Frank in the 1956 production of The Diary of Anne Frank, a role she reprised in the 1959 film of the same name. (Editor’s note - some were upset by this since in American Heritage Magazine article we find “In Vienna before the war she [Huber] had refused to work with a Jewish actor and director, and in Germany during the war she had continued to make movies under the Third Reich. ... At the very same time Anne was murdered in Bergen-Belsen, Gusti was busy shooting a screen comedy. ... But Huber was a Broadway star and [the charges against her] never ... gained traction.”
1915: “A training school for Jewish communal workers” which has enabled “those engaged in Jewish charitable labors to exchange views” and has featured such speakers Dr. Ludwig B. Bernstein, Miss Lillian D. Wald and Professor Mordecai Kaplan” is scheduled to come to an end today
1915: During WW I, in Berlin, Albert Einstein was among a group of 91 prominent German intellectuals who signed a declaration opposing all territorial annexations and calling for a compromise peace
1915: Thirty-four year old Columbia University trained educator, Dr. Isaac Leon Kandel, the Romanian born son of Abraham and Fanny Kandel married Jessie S. Davis today in Manchester, England.
1916: It was announced today that many of the philanthropic organizations working in New York City had come together to form The Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. The new organization should increase efficiency both in the soliciting and distribution of funds. Based on the experience of other cities, there should be a 30% increase in the amount of money raised. Abram I. Elkus, whom President Wilson recently named to serve as Ambassador to Turkey is the Chairman of the new federation. Alfred M. Heinsheimer kicked off the donation process with a contribution of $25,000.
1916 Ed Wynn the Jewish comedian whose career ran from Vaudeville to Television and Hilda Keenan gave birth to actor Keenan Wynn.
1917: In Nikolaev (also known as Mykolaiv), authorities denied the demand of workmen under the control of the Black Hundreds to dismiss Jewish laborers employed by the Admiralty Committee and “dismissed the ringleaders from government employ.”
1917: “After deliberating for more than six hours” last night a jury found Joseph Cohen “guilty of instigating the murder of poultry dealer Barnet Baff, found Abraham Graff guilty “of manslaughter in the first degree” in connection with the death of Baff and acquitted Jacob Cohen, Joseph Cohen’s brother and David Jacobs.
1917: In London, the War Office announced “the formation of a special Jewish regiment of infantry with experience officers in the higher commands” that will be open to Jewish soldiers already serving with British regiments who speak Russian or Yiddish.
1917: Although they had been residents for decades, Austrian Jews were expelled by Oppeln and Breslau.
1917: In the United Kingdom, the police raided the offices of the Foreign Jews’ Protection Society and arrested “two leaders of the movement on charges of conspiring to defeat the Military Service Act as applied to aliens”
1917: It was reported today that “the reactionaries who strongly oppose the Bolsheviks but who agree with them in their anti-Semitic propaganda are working together in this matter. (Anti-Semitism – the glue that holds Western Civilization together.)
1918: Birthdate of Washington, D.C. native Leonard Rose, the concert cellist with the New York Philharmonic from 1943 to 1951.
http://www.cello.org/cnc/rose.htm
1918: “Near Croix Rouge Farm, northeast of Chateau Thierry, in an action at Hill 212” Private Abe Levinson, while serving as a lookout observed the Germans setting up a machine gun position and then after “waiting until they were within close range, exposed himself to heavy machine gun and artillery fire and succeeded in killing or disabling the crew of two machine guns” which saved “his company from suffering heavy causalities.”
1919: The 21stAnnual Convention of the Progressive Order of the West opened in Chicago under the leadership of Grand Master Samuel Epstein.
1920: Keren Hayesod (Eretz-Israel Foundation Fund) was created in London at the London Zionist Conference. It was intended for education, absorption and the development of rural settlements in Eretz-Israel.
1920: In New York, Russian immigrants Sasha (Sam) Cherry and Ida (Agranovitch) Cherry, a dentist turned homemaker gave birth to “Vivian Cherry, a photographer whose gritty black-and-white images of street scenes recall a bygone era in New York City…” (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
1920: Chaim Weizmann was elected president of the World Zionist Organization.
1920: After Faisal had been defeated and deposed by the French he left Damascus which would eventually lead him to Haifa, the port city that would provide him with a safe refuge.
1921: Jewish members of the Assembly have petitioned the government in Vienna to overrule an edict issued by the communal authorities in Efferding in Upper Austria say that “no Jew shall remain longer than 24 hours in Efferding” “saying that the edict is contrary to the law and also to the minority clause of the Peace Treaty” that ended WW I.
1921: Lord Northcliffe, the owner of the London Times who is scheduled to spend today golfing in Westchester County, NY, has told four leading Zionists that Palestine “is a very poor country” and that he does not think that “it would be wise to send too many Jewish immigrants there until the conditions have been improved” so that they can earn a living.
1922: In New Haven, CT, “Jeanette (née Seicol) and Hyman "Herman" Lear, a traveling salesman” gave birth to Norman Milton Lear, the man who made Archie Bunker a national institution, who created the “Jeffersons” which provided a acting vehicle for numerous Afro-American performers and who got Americans to look at their own prejudices.
1923: “A new kind of balance of power, more likely to keep the world in a ferment of trouble than to preserve peace was described today by Henry Morgenthau, former Ambassador to Turkey in address today at the opening session of the Institute of Politics in Williams College.
1924: In “Long Lost Jews of China to be Sought and Aided” published today, it was reported that “if a movement now on foot among wealthy Jews in Shanghai, China, backed by influential support in the United States, is successful. Jewish colonies in China that have been virtually cut off from the Western World for more than a thousand years will again be brought in touch with the main body of their race.”
1924: The Eighth Olympic Games close in Paris. The 1924 Olympics were the focal point of the movie hit “Chariots of Fire” which featured the struggle of Harold Abraham to gain social acceptance and athletic success. The real Abraham had lost in his attempt to win a medal in the 1920 Olympics. In 1924, he surprised everybody by winning the Gold Medal in the 100 meter race, making him the first European to win in one of the sprint competitions.
1925: Birthdate of Marion “Meg” Dulin, a native of Vinton, Iowa, who served with the 423rd Medical Collecting Company during World War II and “was among the young Americans who entered Buchenwald Concentration Camp to free prisoners” an event that must have been of some significance in his life since it was specifically mentioned in his obituary when he passed away in July, 2009 at the age of 83. While there are those who have been quick to criticize America for its lack of effort to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust, Dulin is an example of the American G.I.’s who literally liberated the remnant of our co-religioinst from “the Night.”
1926: Birthdate of Bernard Harper Friedman, known as Bob to his friends, “a real estate executive who gave up his business career to write well-received novels and art criticism and whose books include an early biography of Jackson Pollock.”
1926: In Neve Tzedek, Tel Aviv, Miriam Rokach and Joseph Katzenelbogen-Katz gave birth to a fifth generation Israeli Dahlia Greidinger, a pioneer in Israel’s Chemistry Industry and the wife of Coleman Greidinger.
http://wertheimer.info/family/GRAMPS/Haapalah/ppl/6/7/aff72bf8660312a4976.html
1927(29thof Av, 5687): Less than two months before his 67th birthday, Solomon Joseph Solomon the acclaimed artist who was the brother of Lily Delissa Joseph, who was also an artist, passed away today.
http://underpaintings.blogspot.com/2011/09/color-palettes-solomon-j-solomon-1860.html
1928: For the second time Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ On the Ritz” was “registered as an unpublished song.”
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/single/fred_astaire/puttin_on_the_ritz___crazy_feet/
1929(19thof Tammuz, 5689): Parashat Chukat-Balak
1929(19thof Tammuz, 5689): Fifty-six year old Buffalo, NY native David Abram Ellis the Harvard trained lawyer who was a trustee of the Jewish Theological Seminary passed away today in Boston.
1929: Birthdate of Alan Lloyd Haberman, the native of Worcester, MA, who led the industry committee that chose the bar code over other contenders in 1973.and then spent years afterward cajoling manufacturers, retailers and the public to accept the strange new symbol, which resembles a highly if irregularly compacted zebra. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
1930: U.S. premiere of Le Miracle des Loups, a French silent film directed by Raymond Bernard where it was known by its English subtitle “The Miracle of the Wolves.”
1930: Birthdate of Anthony Janoff Weiner, the New Jersey native who became a noted futurist after he co-authored The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-three Years (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1931: In what would be the first step down the long road of appeasement, Ramsay MacDonald, the first Prime Minister to visit Berlin since WWI, expressed his admiration for the country and its “intellectual, moral and economic powers.
1931: Dr. Morris Levine, the Associate Professor of Otology at Columbia University, who has been selected to make “an extensive study of the effect of the Near Eastern climate on eye, ear and nose diseases” is enjoying is second day on board the S.S. Exeter which is taking him to Palestine for a six month visit to Palestine and other near eastern countries.
1932: In today’s diary entry, 18 year old Hermann Pressman described his visit to Strent Bart Mittlesi, an Atlantic City-like resort.
1933: Isaac Babel, the Soviet writer who had become disillusioned with the Stalinist regime and gone to visit his estranged wife and daughter in Paris in 1932 wrote a letter to a friend today saying that “he had been summoned to Moscow and was leaving immediately” a decision that would eventually lead to his being shot as a traitor and spy in 1940.
1934(15thof Av, 5694): Tu B’Av
1934: A dispatch to The Timesfrom Palestine calls the attention of the British Government and people to the fact that the Jewish national home is turning out to be something very different from what they expected and even from what the first Zionists expected. The Anti-Jewish Campaign in Germany has sent a flood of immigrants to Palestine. In the meantime the Revisionists appear to be gaining recruits and support.
1934: Two days after he had passed away, funeral service were held to for 68 year old Louis Ziv, the Russian born American attorney and the husband of Mary Ziv with whom he had five children – Sylvia, Lawrence, Royal, Seymour and John – at Beth El Temple in Chicago where he had been president of the congregation followed “burial in Waldheim Cemetery.”
1935(26thof Tammuz, 5695): Parashet Matot-Masei
1935: Producer, director and writer Ernst Lubitsch, who was working as the production manager for Paramount Pictures married “British actress Vivian Gaye” with whom he had a daughter Nicola 3 years later.
1935: After 184 performances at the Belasco Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Awake and Sing” written by Clifford Odettes and directed by Howard Clurman with a cast that included “Luther Adler (Moe Axelrod), Stella Adler (Bessie Berger), Morris Carnovsky (Jacob), John Garfield (Ralph Berger) and Sanford Meisner (Sam Feinschreiber).
1935: As the condition of German Jews continues to deteriorate an “article entitled ‘Finish Up with the Jews’ urges German girls to wake up and not go with Jews any longer.” Equating social interaction with economic activity, the article continues, ‘German woman, if you buy from, and German girl if you carry on with Jews, then both of your betray your German Volk and its Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, and commit a sin against your German volk and its future.’”
1936: The Palestine Post reported that 12 Arabs were known to have been killed in a battle with British troops in the hills, off the Jerusalem-Jaffa highway. Barbed-wire barricades and other police precautions were evident in Jaffa as Arabs observed the 100th day of their national strike and uprising. The Iraq Petroleum Co. pipeline and railway lines were damaged and the government imposed heavy collective fines on villages suspected of sabotage. Arabs attacked Ramat Hakovesh and other settlements near Kfar Saba but were beaten off.
1936: It was reported today the “chief obstacle to large scale emigration” of the threatened Jews of Europe “was the rigid immigration laws of those countries offering the best prospect for permanent settlement” of which South Africa is the sole exception since it “did not offer grave obstacles.”
1936(8thof Av, 5696): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1936: It was reported today that “Jews throughout the world beginning at sunset” will observe Tisha B’Av the fast day commemorating the destruction of the Jerusalem 1,867 years ago.
1936: Governor Alf Landon, the Republican candidate for President met with Chicago businessman Max Epstein, Lewis L. Strauss of New York and J.A. Harzfeld of Kansas City after which they signed a statement for public distribution exonerating the Governor of all charges of intolerance and describing as a man who has always “had a deep hatred for all bigotry and injustice toward minority races and religions.”
1937 A ritual-murder trial of five Jews opened today in Bamberg, Germany.
1937: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services for “Dr. Jacob Diner, founder and first dean of the Fordham University College of Pharmacy,” the husband of Hilda Diner and father of Milton Diner and Mrs. Irene Koenigsberger are scheduled to be held this morning at Riverside Memorial Chapel.
1937: It was reported today that “the American Jewish Historical Society” in New York “has received as a gift from its President Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach, a collection of about 600 volumes of Yiddish periodices and books in memory of his mother, Mrs. Isabella H. Rosenbach” who had help found the society in 1892.
1937: “Rustler’s Valley” a western featuring Lee J. Cobb as “Cal Howard” was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States today.
1938(28thof Tammuz, 5698): Arthur Benjamin Cohn, the Arkansas born son of Theresa and Mathias Abraham Cohn and husband of Pauline Fox Cohn passed away today.
1938: The Federation of Polish Jews in America sent a telegram to the Italian Ambassador protesting his government’s order expelling Dr. I. David Kleinlere, a Polish citizen and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s correspondent in Rome from Italy, stating that he “has proven himself for a period of fifteen years a fair, accurate and objective publicist.”
1938: This afternoon, Eleanor Roosevelt, the President’s wife, “visited a thrift shop maintained by the women’s division of the Greater New York Campaign of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee” which had opened to raise money for the Jews in Germany and Austria, (FDR frequently used his wife to show support for activities that would have been politically toxic for him.)
1939: Birthdate of Eldad Davidovics who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.
1939: David Wetheim, the executive secretary of the Poale Zionist Labor Organization addressed a dinner tonight “attended by five hundred people at the Palestine Pavillion at the World’s Fair” which was “a farewell party for thirty-four Zionist labor delegates who will be” attending the meeting of the World Zionist Congress in Geneva.
1940: “They Drive by Night” a pre-war film noire produced by Mark Hellinger, with a screenplay by Jerry Wald and was featuring George Tobias as “George Rondolos” was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.
1940: With Mel Blanc providing the voice Bugs Bunny makes his official debut in the animated cartoon A Wild Hare. The Bunny had the voice of the Jew without a Yiddish accent.
1941: German and Rumanian troops entered Kishinev, Soviet Union. Five thousand Kishinev Jews would be executed within a week.
1941(3rdof Av, 5701): Jews were taken from the Kovno and executed by Lithuanian militia at the Seventh Fort.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/06.asp
1941(3rd of Av, 5701): In retaliation for Jewish resistance, 1,200 Jews were taken from Belgrade to the labor camp at Tasmajdan. One hundred twenty of them were taken to Jajinci and shot. In other words, one out of every ten captives is shot. The reality is that they would all have been killed at some point in time as part of the Final Solution.
1941: A second pogrom known as the "Petliura Days”, which had been named for Symon Petliura came to an end. “For three straight days, Ukrainian militants went on a murderous rampage through the Jewish districts of Lwów. Groups of Jews were herded out to the Jewish cemetery and to the prison on Łąckiego Street where they were shot. More than 2,000 Jews were killed and thousands more were injured.”
1941: The clothing of Jews murdered in Ponas, Ukraine, is sold by the Ukrainian and Nazi killers
1941: In Holland, a collaborationist military force with ties to the SS, Freiwillingen Legion Niederlander (Dutch Volunteer Legion), is established.
1942: The Nazis take Rostov for a second time, touching off another wave of slaughter for the Jews that would take the life of Sabina Spielrein, the first female psychoanalysts.
1942: The Germans distributed a proclamation stating that any Pole or Ukrainian who tried to help a Jew would be shot.
1942(13thof Av, 5702): Thirty-three year old Russian-born French philosopher Valentin Feldman who was a member of the French Resistance “called out to his firing squad ‘Imbecile, it is for you that I die’ just before he was murdered by the Nazis today.
1942(13thof Av, 5702): Eighty-one year old Seraphine Eppstein Pisko who played an active leadership role at the National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives in Denver from 1911 until her retirement in 1938 passed away today.
http://digital.library.du.edu/findingaids/view?docId=ead/b242.xml
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/pisko-seraphine-eppstein
1942: The first Belgian Jews arrived at Mechelen. The ancient fortress in this small town between Brussels and Antwerp was actually the first stop for the Jews being transported to Auschwitz. The Jews thought they were going to work in factories in the East. Mechelen would serve as the collection point. Each time a thousand Jews were brought together, a train would leave for the death camp in Poland.
1943: While combing the ruin of the Warsaw Ghetto for loot, the Germans uncovered hidden Jews, most of who are shot on the spot.
1943: “Undercover” a British made movie about guerrilla’s fighting Nazis in Yugoslavia produced by Sir Michael Balcon was released in the United Kingdom today.
1943: The Leon Group escaped from the ghetto in Vilna. The Leon Group was made up of 21 Jewish partisans under the command of Joseph Glassman. Michael Kovner, brother of Abba Kovner was a member of the group. The Leon Group was the first group of what were intended to be many groups of partisans that Abba Kovner would send into the woods beyond Vilna to take part in guerilla warfare against the Nazis and their allies. As the group of 21 made the fifty mile trek to the forests they were ambushed. Nine of the Jews died in the brief, uneven fight. A search of the corpses produced the names and addresses of the victims.
1943: A Nazi operation to liberate deposed Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, led by Otto Skorzeny, a favorite of Adolph Hitler who later became a “hitman for Mossad” was foiled today.
1944: Siauliai, Lithuania, is liberated by the Red Army, 12 days after German deportations of 7000 local Jews and the murder of 100 left behind.
1944: Dvinsk, Latvia, is liberated by the Soviet Union two years too late to save the Jewish community. When the Germans occupied Dvinsk at the end of June 1941, the Nazis organized a Pogrom. Synagogues were burned down or taken over by the army. A ghetto was set up in July 1941 including Jews from the surrounding localities. In October, 1941, most of the Jews in the Ghetto were murdered and the Ghetto was liquidated in May, 1942
1944: The Wehrmachtretreats from Lvov, Ukraine. Only a few of the city's Jews, many of them hiding in sewers, have lived through the German occupation
1945(17thof Av, 5705): Shakne Epshtein, the “Jewish-Russian journalist and the secretary and editor of the Eynikayt (Unity) the newspaper published by the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee who championed the creation of a Jewish republic in the Crimea passed away today.
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/E/epstein-shakhne.htm
1946(28th of Tammuz, 5706): Seventy-two year old Gertrude Stein passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0203.html
1946: Theodore Levin received his commission to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan He served as chief judge of that court from 1959 to 1967, and thereafter served until his death.
1946: In Metuchen, New Jersey, Helen and Stanley Cowen gave birth to Scott Cowen who served as President of Tulane during the challenging times brought on by Hurricane Katrina.
1947(10th of Av, 5707): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9thof Av fell on Shabbat
1947: “Fecund Musical Century” published today provided a review of Music in the Romantic Era by Alfred Einstein.
1947: Jews who had tried to enter Palestine aboard the Exodus, observed the fast of Tish’a B’Av as the Empire Rivaltransported them back to France.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/16.asp
1948(20th of Tammuz, 5708): Forty-four year old S.J. “Skid” Simon the native of Harbin who gained fame as a bridge player and author of comic works including Don't, Mr. Disraeli passed away today.
http://www.ebu.co.uk/biographies/sj-simon
1948: “Hatikvah” which had served as an icebreaker and cutter for the U.S. Coast Guard and had carried “illegal” Jewish refugees to Palestine in 1947 completed its service as part of the Israeli Navy today after which it was sold for scrap.
1948(20th of Tammuz, 5708): Fifty-two year old Joel Woolf Barnato, the British financier, racing driver and RAF veteran passed away today.
1949: In Brooklyn, Irving and Clarice Chaykin gave birth to Maury Alan Chaykin, Canadian character best known to many for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1949: In a move that surely would not have set well with Henry Ford, “The Ford Motor Company and the Israeli Government ended two months of negotiation today with an agreement that will bring an initial consignment of $4,000,000 worth of cars, trucks and parts to” Israel;
1950: New Zealand recognized Israel.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had asked the UN Security Council to instruct Egypt to open the Suez Canal for Israeli cargoes and shipping "permanently and unconditionally." Final plans were made for the new Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, including a 430-bed hospital, a nursing training school and nurses' home and a medical school.
1952: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning for Rebecca “Becky” Potofsky the mother of Sylvia, Hyman and Julius Potofsky and a ‘descendant of Rabbi Joseph Shapiro” followed by interment at Mount Judah Cemetery.
1952(3rdof Av, 5712): Fifty-eight-year-old Russian born American author Yehuda Guz Rifkin, the resident of New York who “a contributor to several Jewish daily newspapers in New York” passed away today.
1953(15thof Av, 5713): Tu B’Av
1953: King Hussein of Jordan declared that east Jerusalem was the ‘alternative capital of the Hashemite Kingdom.’ In fact, the Jordanians would do all they could to discourage development of the portion of Jerusalem they had occupied since 1948.
1953: “Colonel Jonathan de Sola Mendes, an exemplary member of Congregation Shearith Israel's Spanish & Portuguese community and veteran combat pilot who served in WWII (100 missions; two Air Medals) and Korea (70 missions; 8 Air Medals, including the Distinguished Flying Cross), where he flew the last US Marine Corps Mission today.”
1955(8thof Av, 5715): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1955(8thof Av, 5715): A plane bound for Israel was shot down by Bulgaria. Fifty one passengers and seven crew members were killed. This episode took place at the height of the Cold War when such incidents were not that uncommon. The plane was flying from Vienna to Tel Aviv when Bulgarian fighters forced the El Al plane to land at Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. As the plane was circling to land, it was shot out of the sky by the Bulgarians. The Israeli government claimed the bodies and buried them in Israel. The episode provided opponents of El Al with an argument for doing away with a national airline as a luxury the infant state could not afford. But the government stuck to its guns. There were no other such incidents and El Al continued to fly.
1955: Forty year old Pinchas Porat who was one of Israel’s pilots who flew with 101 Squadron died today while serving as the co-pilot aboard El Al Flight 402 which was shot down by Bulgaria.
1956: Birthdate of Carol Leifer, an American comedian, writer, producer and actress who describes herself as a Jewish lesbian vegan.
1956(19thof Av, 5716): Sixty-nine year old Rabbi Samuel Plutzik the native of Minsk who came to the United States in 1905 and has served as “head of the teaching staff of the Talmud Torah of East New York in Brooklyn for twenty years” passed away tonight after suffering a heart attack.
1959(21stof Tammuz, 5719): Seventy-three year old Colonel Max Robert Wainer, a native of Zitomir, Russia who came to the United States in 1887 and answered his country’s call in two world wars earning the French Legion of Honor “for his service on General John Pershing’s General Staff” in WW I and serving as “Chairman of the U.S. Army Quartermaster Board at Fort Lee” during WW II passed away today in Havertown, PA after which he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
1960: “Pay or Die,” a biopic featuring Zohra Lampert and with music by David Raskin was released today in the United States.
1961: Birthdate of Israeli performer Erez Tal whose “first hit program was "Ma Yesh" ("What's Up"), broadcast on Galatz, Israel's Army radio.”
1962: Two days after he had passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning in New York for Eugen Meyers, the husband of Edna Meyers.
1966: Birthdate of Judah Benjamin Pushkin, whose life would be cut short at the age of 19,
1967(19th of Tammuz, 5727): Sixty year old Lillian Klein Pollack, the native of Pittsburgh who moved to New York when she married Milton Pollack passed away today.
http://www.jewishfamilieshistory.org/entry/klein-family/
http://www.jewishfamilieshistory.org/photo/the-lillian-and-milton-pollack-family/
1968(2ndof Av, 5728): Seventy-five year old Czech architect Otto Eisler passed away today
1969(12th of Av, 5729): Seventy-three year old Vivian de Sola Pinto the British poet who served at Gallipoli in World War and who “appeared for the defense in the obscenity trial regarding Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960 passed away. (For the ultimate literary experience consider the during WW I he served in a company in which he was second in command to Siefgried Sasson – were the orders in prose or poetry)
1969: As Operation Boxer continues “several 109 Squadron Skyhawks carried out a nighttime attack.”
1970(23rdof Tammuz, 5730): Eighty-four year old poet Jean Starr Untermeyer, “the former wife of poet Louis Untermeyer” passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/untermeyer-jean-starr
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/part2/untermeyer02.html
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jean-starr-untermeyer
1972: After 896 performances at the Palace Theatre, the curtain came down on the original Broadway production of “Applause” “a musical with a book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green” and a cast that included Lauren Bacall and Bonnie Franklin.
1973: Two days after he had passed away, sixty-one year old South Africa native and Zionist pioneer Louis A. PIncus the first managing director of El Al Israel Airlines and the “chairman of the executive of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency for Palestine” is scheduled to be “interred with state honors this morning on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, near the graves of earlier leaders of the Zionist movement
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aryeh-louis-pincus
1975(19thof Av, 5735): Less than a month after celebrating his 82nd birthday, WW I veteran David Berton Eisenberg, the Seboygan, WI, born son of Max and Natalie Eistenberg who attended Marquette and the Armour Institute of Technology, served for almost thirty years as President of the Graphic Arts Publishing Company and was the husband of the late Natalie Marcus, passed away today.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US State Department sought to downplay the significance of its contacts with the PLO, stressing that they were only "technical" and designed to assure a safe departure of American citizens from Lebanon. The management of the Koor Industries decided to close the Steel City until further notice, after one of the workers, unhappy with his job, locked the gates and accompanied by his wife stopped 900 workers from entering the factory.
1977: “Dire Straits” featuring David Knopfler as rhythm guitarist “recorded the now famous demo tapes of five songs: "Wild West End", "Sultans of Swing", "Down to the Waterline", "Sacred Loving" (a David Knopfler song), and "Water of Love".
1978(22ndof Tammuz, 5738): Ruth Apfelbaum, the “daughter of Lena Geller” passed away.
1979: Zuheir Mohsen, head of PLO military operations was killed by unknown parties as he exited a casino in the fames French resort of Cannes.
1980(14th of Av, 5740): A Jewish boy from France was killed and others were injured when terrorists threw grenades at a group of children in Antwerp, Belgium.
1981(25th of Tammuz, 5741): Award winning movie director William Wyler passed away. There is no way that this blog can do justice to his career.
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/alt.obituaries/Wx2KzqNjebo
1982: Two months after opening “Off-Off-Broadway” Little Shop of Horrors is a horror comedy rock musical, by composer Alan Menken opened “Off-Broadway at the Orpheum Theatre in Manhattan’s East Village” today.
1982(7th of Av, 5742): Sixty-six year old Dr. Albert Dorfman, the holder of a PhD in Chemistry and an MD from the University of Chicago and a WW II Army Veteran who “discovered the cause of Hurler’s Syndrome and who was the husband of the former Ethel Steinman and the father of Abby and Julie Dorfman passed away today.
http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/dorfman-albert.pdf
1985(9th of Av, 5745): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1987(1st of Av, 5747): Rosh Chodesh Av
1987(1st of Av, 5747): Eighty-year old painter Alma Binion Schapiro, the wife of investment banker and chess master Morris A. Schapiro and the mother of Daniel and Linda Schapiro who was the Brooklyn born daughter of Edward and Martha Esther Cahn passed away today in London, England.
1990: U.S. premiere of “Flatliners” a “sci-fi horror thriller” directed by Joel Schumacher.
1991: “The Pit and the Pendulum” a horror film starring Frances Bay as “Esmeralda” and Mark Margolis as “Mendoza” was released in the United States today.
1991:TV Guide publishes its 2000th edition. This icon of American culture was created by Jewish millionaire publishing magnate Walter Annenberg.
1993(9thof Av, 5753): Tish’a B’Av
1993: “The Senate today confirmed the nomination of Arthur Levitt Jr., President Clinton's selection as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.”
1993: The Senate confirmed the nomination of Joseph Stiglitz to serve on President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers.
1993: Alan Blinder began serving “on President Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers” today.
1995: In “Dead Birdie” published today, Gerald Thomson pans the Davis Production of Charles Strouse’s musical “Bye Bye Birdie.”
1995(1stof Elul, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1995(1stof Elul, 5755): Seventy-nine year old Hungarian born Holocaust survivor and lawyer Stephen Jeffrey Roth, the “head of the Institute of Jewish Affairs in London” and the husband of Eva Gondos passed away today.
https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-stephen-roth-1596303.html
1996(11thof Av, 5756): Parashat Vaetchanan; Shabbat Nachamu
1996(11thof Av. 5756): Eighty-four year old Columbus born Yale graduate and WW II veteran Fred Lazarus 3rd, the son of the founder of the Federated Department Stores and descendant of Simon Lazarus who married Diane Zins Lazarus after the death of his first wife Irma, passed away today.
1997: The Sunday New York Times features a review of Bloomberg by Bloombergby Michael Bloomberg
1998:G. Oliver Koppell, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, attacked two of his rivals on of which was Elliot Spitzer, today for accepting campaign contributions from members of the Tisch family, which controls the Lorillard Tobacco Company.
1998(4thof Av, 5758): Ninety-five year old English actress Binnie Barnes whose father George Barnes was a Jewish policeman in London passed away today.
1999: Detroit Tigers manager Brad Ausmus and his wife Liz gave birth to their second daughter, Abigail
2000: Medieval Hebrew Poetry in its Religious and Secular Context, a colloquium sponsored by The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) came to an end.
2001: “Planet of the Apes” part of a series of science fiction films with a music by Danny Elfman was released today in the United States by 20th Century Fox.
2002: John Phillip Key “assumed office as a Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Helensville.”
2003: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including History of Britain by Simon Schama, Support Any Friend by Warren Bass and My Anecdotal Life: A Memoir by Carl Reiner.
2004(9th of Av, 5746): Tish’a B’Av
2004: A revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” opened today at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury, England
2006(2nd of Av, 5766): Ninety-five year old Alexander Safran the former chief Rabbi of Romania and chief Rabbi of Geneva passed away today after which he was buried in Israel next to his wife Sarah.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/29/world/29safran.html?pagewanted=print&_r=0
2005: “Attorney General Menachem Mazuz announced that he would indict Omri Sharon, a member of Parliament and the son of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, today on allegations of violating campaign finance laws, forging corporate documents, breaching trust and lying under oath, according to an online report by the newspaper Haaretz”
2005: In “Personal Complexity Amid Global Anxiety” published today Richard Eder provides a complete review of The Task of This Translatorby Todd Hasak-Lowy who “teaches modern Hebrew Literature at the University of Florida.”
2006: The Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack on 59 year old Dr. Daniel Yaakobi whose burned body was found today in the trunk of his car.
2006: Shemi Zarhin’s “Aviva, My Love” was released today in Israel.
2006: Police interrogated Haim Ramon for seven hours today, the same day on which, in an unrelated matter he said "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah”
2006: During the first round of what would become his 15th tour title, Jewish golfer Corey Pavin broke the record for the fewest number of strokes needed to complete nine holes at a PGA Tour event, with an 8-under par score of 26.
2006: Yaakov Edri “was named Minister without Portfolio responsible for Jerusalem Affairs.”
2007: Brad Ausmus “recorded his 100th career stolen base today, becoming the 21st catcher all time to record that many steals.”
2007: “Bravo network” broadcast the final episode of “Hey Paula” starring Paula Abdual.
2007: Toby Press publishes the thirtieth anniversary edition of Brothers by Chayym Zeldish.
2007: In Jerusalem, Zubin Mehta leads the Israel Philharmonic in a concert to celebrate the birthday of philanthropist Edmund Safra and the 40th anniversary of united Jerusalem.
2007: Ralph A. Alpher awarded the National Medal of Science, the highest such honor in the United States, which was presented to his son Dr. Victor S. Alpher because he could not travel to receive the award due to failing health.
2007: The U.S. Post Office released a full-sheet pane of Marvel Super Heroes. Ten of the stamps are portraits of individual Marvel characters and the other 10 stamps depict individual Marvel Comic book covers. According to the credits printed on the back of the pane, Jack Kirby's artwork is featured on: Captain America, The Thing, Silver Surfer, Amazing Spider-Man #1, The Incredible Hulk #1, Captain America #100, X-Men #1, and Fantastic Four #3
2008: The Saul Steinberg: Illuminations travelling exhibition, which displays original Steinberg works at various museum and galleries around the world has its final showing the Fondation Cartier-Bresson, in Paris.
2008: In “A Modest Proposal: Eco-Friendly Stimulus” published today Alan S. Blinder described the “Cash for Clunkers” program.
2008: The Sunday New York Times book section featured a review of Moral Clarity A Guide for Grown-Up Idealistsby Jewish author Susan Neiman.
2008: The musical “A Catered Affair” with a book by Harvey Fierstein who also starred in the production which “won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Production a Musical was performed for the last time today.
2008(27th of Tammuz, 5768): Eighty-four year old Mexican multi-millionaire Isaac Saba Raffoul, the son of an immigrant from Aleppo, passed away today.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/M12Y.html
http://www.respectance.com/Isaac_Saba_Raffoul/
2008: The Washington Post book section featured reviews of a children’s book entitled Little Brother by Canadian born Jewish author Cory Doctorow and The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State by Noah Feldman.
2008: In TheWashington Post, “The Poet’s Choice” column features reviews of the work of Jewish poet Allen Grossman including "A Pastoral,""The Piano Player Explains Himself"and"The Work" from The Ether Dome and Other Poems: New and Selected
2009: In Jerusalem, it is Open Mic Night In English at the Off the Wall Comedy Basement on Ben Yehuda Street.
2009: In Jerusalem, Agite Drive plays Balkan music at the Biblical Zoo aka, The Tisch Family Zoological Gardens (Biblical Zoo)
2009: Newsweek magazine reads like a copy of the Forwards with a spate of articles about Jews and/or of special interest to Jews including “Israel Fights Wire With Wire,” “Hit Squad vs. Mossad,” “The Israel Trail,” about a 600-mile footpath “that ambles from the country’s…border with Egypt…to the edge of Lebanon”, a profile on the views of economist Joseph Stiglitz and the semi-positive quote from “the normally pessimistic economist Nouriel Roubini” that “the light at the of the tunnel, for once, is not an incoming train.”
2010:Random House is scheduled to publish Gary Shteyngart’s third novel, Super Sad True Love Story today.
https://www.thejc.com/news/obituaries/dr-lionel-kopelowitz-jp-mbe-1.495410
2010: As part of WJFF Year-Round, a creening of Eli & Ben is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C.
2010: After a 29-year hiatus, the Annual National Bible Quiz for Adults is once again underway with 2,078 contestants taking part in the first round in Jerusalem today.
2010: “Junk food junkies” were saddened today at the passing of 90 year old Morrie Yohai, the “developer of Cheez Doodles. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/business/03yohai.html
2010(16th of Av, 5770): Sixty-one year old character actor Maury Chaykin, passed away today in Toronto. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2011: Rabbi Mordechai Becher is scheduled to deliver a lecture entitled “Two Great Jewish Mystics – The Ramcal and the Maharal of Prague at the Philadelphia Ethical Society on Rittenhouse Square.
2011: YJAM-Young Jewish Adults of Milwaukee is scheduled to provide a free nosh for those attending the Battle of the Bands at River Rhythms.
2011: Planet Money reporters Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson are scheduled to offer a practical and humorous field guide to America's economic future at Washington’s Sixth and I Historic Synagogue.
2011: Today, the French Foreign Ministry circulated comments made by its minister Alain Juppe last week saying that any solution to the Middle East will need to recognize Israel as the nation-state for the Jewish people.
2011: Histadrut chairman Ofer Eini pledged support today for demonstrators protesting across the country for affordable housing, saying the Histadrut would join protests "at all levels" if the government did not invite the labor organization to discuss real solutions to the issues facing the middle and lower classes, Israel Radio reported
2011(24th of Tammuz, 5771)): Ninety-three year old Admiral Maurice “Mike” Rindskopf, a hero of the Silent Service during WW II passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi and Emily Langer)
2012: Donald Sanford, the 400 meter runner, is scheduled to be part of the Israeli team representing the Jewish state at the Olympics which open today in London.
2012: The Tel Aviv International Children’s Festival which features 30 films for children between the ages of 3 and 13 is scheduled to come to an end today.
2012: The public is scheduled to join Leket Israel’s gleaning initiative where participants can pick vegetables for distribution to Israel’s needy at Moshav Nahal. (For more pre-Shabbat fun see www.janglo.net )
2012: Since the IOC has sided with the killers and decided against “a moment of silence” to honor the memory of those slaughtered at 40 years ago at Munich the following prayer composed by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks is scheduled to be offered by many Jews throughout the world
2012: The faces of the 11 murdered Munich Olympians, flashed on the screen in Israel as the Israeli delegation marched into the stadium.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/2012-olympics-opening-ceremony-live-from-an-israeli-point-of-view/
2012: Terrorists fired two Kassam rockets from Gaza into southern Israel this evening.The rockets landed in an open field. No injuries or damage to property has been reported.Security forces are scanning the area looking for the fallen rockets.
2012: “The Watch” the second film directed by Akiva Schaffer, produced by Shawn Levy with a script by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg was released in the United States today.
2012: Ninety-eight year old Tony Martin, the son of Polish immigrants, whose singing career spanned eight decades passed away today. (As reported by Frank J. Prial)
2013: The Arab-Hebrew Theatre is scheduled to present “Eyes based on the works of Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwish in New York City.
2013: “Joe Papp in Five Acts” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Avital Raz is scheduled to debut her newest album in Jerusalem.
2013(20th of Av, 5773): Seventy-seven year old Rabbi Jacob Immanuel Schochet passed away today.
http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/2285972/jewish/Rabbi-Jacob-Immanuel-Schochet-77.htm
2013(20th of Av, 5773): Eight-six year old pioneering television newsman Herbert Kaplow passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2014: In a sign of that summer is ending, Temple Judah is scheduled to hold its Religious School In-Service.
2014: “A Serious Man” and “The Big Lebowski” are scheduled to be shown at the Washington Jewish Film Festival.
2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center and the ADL are scheduled to host “Family Day” where attendees can explore identity through art.
2014: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird, Good Hunting: An American Spymaster’s Story by Jack Devine and Vernon Loeb, Lucian Freud: Eyes Wide Open by Phoebe Hoban, The Golden Age Shtetl: A New History of Jewish Life in East Europe by Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern and The Essential Ellen Willis edited by Nona Willis Aronowitz.
2014(29th of Tammuz, 5774): Twenty-seven year old Sergeant First Class (Res.) Barak Fefael Degorker fomr Gan Yavne died today from wounds he suffered last night during a mortar attack.(“In life they were loved and admired; they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.”)
2014: “Vic Alhadeff, the chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, stood down today as the part-time chair of the NSW Community Relations Commission just two weeks after an email he sent accusing Hamas of “war crimes” triggered outrage among Arab and Muslim organizations.” (As reported by JTA)
2015: In Tel Aviv, at Midnight the “6th Annual Tisha B'Av by Candle light on the Beach - Eicha, Story & Songs of Jerusalem” is scheduled to come to an end.
2015: The U.S. Coast Guard said today that it had extended the search for two missing boys, one of whom was Perry Cohen, the son of Pamela Cohen, whose “empty boat was found adrift” off the coast of Florida two days ago.
2015: The European Maccabi Games are scheduled to open today in Berlin “at a site constructed by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics.” (As reported by David Rising)
2015: Forty-six year old Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg the head of Orot HaAri Yeshiva who “was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport on July 1 while waiting to catch a flight to Brazil” was charged today in the Nazareth District Court, with “rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment, fraud and obstructing an investigation.” (As reported by JTA)
2015(11th of Av, 5775): Eighty-six year old Samuel Pisar, the native of Bialystok, who survived Majdanek, Auschwitz and Dachau to graduate from Harvard, advise American and French presidents and create the text for Leonard Bernstein’s symphony ‘Kaddish’” passed away today. (As reported by Steven Erlanger)
2015: Forty-six year old Rabbi Ezra Sheinberg, “a Safed rabbi was indicted on 13 counts of grave sexual crimes against women who had turned to him with religious questions.”The charges include rape, indecent assault, sexual harassment, fraud and obstructing an investigation, Ynet reported.
2016: Today, the State Department announced that Secretary of State John Kerry would visit the Middle East, including Egypt and Qatar, to discuss” the Iran nuclear deal “but would not visit Israel.”
2015: This year’s winners of the MoCCA Arts Festival Awards of Excellence included Israeli Keren Katz whose work will be on display at an exhibition scheduled to open today.
https://kerenkatz.carbonmade.com/projects/5475597#1
2016: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Institute of Judaic Studies are scheduled to cosponsor “Free Voice of Labor—The Jewish Anarchist,” a documentary film about “the Jewish anarchists of the early 20th century in the New York garment industry and their Yiddish newspaper Freie Arbeiter Stimme.”
2016: The Center for Jewish History and Brooklyn Institute for Social Research are scheduled to host the final session of “Primo Levi: Memory, Meaning, and the Holocaust” in which Dr. Suzanne Schneider examines the transformation of Primo Levi from an Italian chemist to an internationally renowned author who wrote movingly about his experiences at Auschwitz and the aftermath of the Holocaust.
2016(23rd of Av, 5776): Parashat Ekev
2016(23rd of Av, 5776): Ninety year old Elena Doria (born Elsie Marie Goldberg), the Director of the Metropolitan Opera’s Children’s Chorus” passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2016: President Obama who according to press reports was the one who told Debbie Wasserman Schultz she had to resign as chair of the DNC and who kept the money flowing to Israel for its defense during the second worst economic downturn in American history and Vice President Biden are scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention this evening.
2017: “The Nate D. Sanders auction house” announced this evening that “a famous photo of Albert Einstein, sticking out his tongue at a photographer and signed by the renowned scientist, has been sold for £95,000 ($125,000).”
https://static.timesofisrael.com/jewishndev/uploads/2016/06/Albert_Einstein_Head.jpg
2017: In London JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “The Graduate” marking the 50th anniversary of Mike Nichols’ classic film starring Dustin Hoffman with music by Simon and Garfunkle.
2017: Documentary filmmaker Joe Berlinger, whose latest work is “Intent to Destroy” is scheduled to receive the Freedom of Express Award at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival today.
2017: “Letters from Baghdad” a documentary about the “true story of Gertrude Bell and Iraq” is scheduled to be premiere at The Screen in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Landmark River Oaks Theatre in Houston, TX.
2017: The Carmelite Order is scheduled the feast day in honor Titus Brandsma, the Dutch Carmelite friar and outspoken critic of the Nazis who was murdered at Auschwitz on July 26, 1942.
2018: “Pitch Point Jerusalem” and “The Wild Pear Tree” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Film Festival.
2018: “Sheldon Silver, a former New York Assembly speaker who brokered legislative deals for two decades before criminal charges abruptly ended his career, was sentenced today to seven years in prison by a judge who said political corruption in the state must end.”
2018: At noon today, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “Tracking Edith” in London.
2018: As RAGBRAI reaches Iowa City/Coralville, Agudas Achim and Chabad are each scheduled to host a Shabbat Eve Dinner for “riders, families, friends and team mates.”
2018(15th of Av, 5778): Tu B’Av or in English simply the 15th Day of Av which was “originally a post-biblical day of joy, that served as a matchmaking day for unmarried women in the second Temple period which went virtually unnoticed for almost 2,000 years before being “rejuvenated in recent decades, especially in Israel as Jewish Day of Love which at least one sabra likened to Valentine’s Day but which has “no formal legal status.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tubav.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/53680/jewish/15th-of-Av.htm
http://www.israeldailypicture.com/
2019(24th of Tammuz, 5779): Parashat Pinchas;
2019: Deb Levin wakes up in her own home for the last time and, unbeknownst to her and all of us who loved her, takes what would be last trip to the hospital in Iowa City.
2019: The Museum of Jewish Heritage is scheduled to host a preview performance of “Hanna Senesh,” “a one-women show that tells the true story of this heroic Jewish woman.”
2019: The Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage of is scheduled to host the Katz Family Re-Union.
2019: The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the “West Coast Premiere” of “Standing Up, Falling Down.”
2019: Observance “within the Carmelite Order of the feast day Father Titus Brandasma” the Dutch Carmelite who died at Dachau because of his outspoken opposition to the Nazis and who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1958. (Editor’s note – Since this coincides with Shabbat you would hope that a rabbi somewhere would find this as a useful topic for a sermon.)
2020: “Singer-songwriter Itai Gal s scheduled to perform music that blends ecstatic singing, folk, funk and klezmer to raise money for the Louisville NAACP.”
2020: The Jewish Community Center of Greater Columbus (OH) is scheduled to host, virtually, the first day of the John Diebler Basketball Camp.
2020: The Center of Natick is scheduled to present “Jewish-Themed Socially Distant Outdoor Activities” for youngsters from ages six to twelve.
2020: POV is scheduled to host a screening of Rachel Lea Jones and Philllipe Bellacihe’s film “The Advocate,”
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Countdown to Catastrophe” a conversation with Jay Winik and Chris Wallace, the FOX newsman and author of Countdown 1945.
2020: Case Western Reserve University is scheduled to host online the first session of “Jews and Revolutions” with Josh Meyers, the Harry Starr Fellow in Judaica at Harvard University.
2020: As Israelis prepare to face a new day, they are confronted with the realty that when it comes to the coronavirus, the contagion rate is 9.8% which indicates “that every tenth person who tests for the virus turns out to be infected.
2021: Trudy Gold is scheduled to present a webinar by Trudy Gold on “Napoleon, the Jews and Jewish Identity.”
2021: The Marin Summer Yeshiva during during which “six Chabad rabbis lead three days of study on myriad topics such as mindfulness, Torah calligraphy, the significance of Tefillin and Mezuzot, Torah parchment making and Chassidic texts and teaching” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2021: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Close Encounters” with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Love.
2021: The Breman Museum is scheduled to present “Jewish Influence on Flamenco in Music, Dance, and Song featuring Live Flamenco Music, Dance, Song and Stories.”
2021: The YIVO Institute is scheduled to host Anna Szyba delivering a lecture in Yiddish on “The New Jewish School and Its Role in Educating a New Generation of Jews in Poland.”
2021:The JFCS Holocaust Center is scheduled to present a special look into the Stanley Steyer collection at the Tauber Holocaust Library & Archives with Stanley's daughter, Helen.
2022: S.F. Jewish Film Festival is scheduled present a screening of “Perfect Strangers,” a 2021 Israeli drama about seven longtime friends whose innocent game evolves into a “conflagration of earth-shattering revelations.”
2022: Lockdown University is scheduled to host David Makovsky presenting a webinar on “The Biden Middle Visit: An Assessment and a Look Ahead.”
2022: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County is to host online or in person, “Coming to America,” multimedia program will shake up the “from shtetl to America” story and enrich it with history about the fantastic global traders of La Nación, Portuguese Jewish world explorers, and others such as Moses Cohen Henriques present by Marc Diament.
2022: The Combined Jewish Philanthropies is scheduled to present a virtual information session about CJP’s $100,000 Arts and Culture Community Impact Grant Fund.