August 11
1492: Alexander VI is elected Pope. Alexander was one of the Borgia popes. He had reputation for “moral depravity” and was more politician than prelate. He defied Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain by allowing large numbers of Marranos who were fleeing the Inquisition to take refuge in Rome. He did reduce the size of the badge worn by the Jews under his rule but raised their taxes by five per cent. He also lengthened the course that the Jews of Rome were forced to run each year so that he could view it from the comfort of his castle. The Jews were forced to run naked much to the amusement of the Christian population of Rome – the home of Catholicism. Everything is relative and for all of his shortcomings, Alexander VI’s treatment of the Jews was a lot better than that of the other Catholic strongman of the day, The Grand Inquisitor – Torquemada.
1634: Seventeen arrests were made by the Inquisition after a man turned another man in for being "unwilling to make a sale on Saturday," and for not wanting to eat bacon.
1667(21st of Av, 5427): Jonah Abravanel, a Dutch Jewish poet and author, passed away today at Amsterdam. “He was the son of the physician Joseph Abravanel, and a nephew of Manasseh ben Israel.”
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=631&letter=A#1475
1762: In Philadelphia, PA, Elizabeth (Esther) Whitlock and Moses Mordecai who were married in England gave birth to Jacob Mordecai, the husband of Rebecca Mears Myers whom he married in 1798, the father of Major Alfred Mordecai and the grandfather of General Alfred Mordecai who served heroically while fighting for the United States during the Civil War.
1770: Moses Mendelssohn and his wife the former Fromet (Frumet) Guggenheim gave birth to Joseph Mendelssohn, their oldest son, founder of the bank Mendelssohn & Co. and along with his sister Recha were the only two of the couple’s six children to remain Jewish.
1772: Following the partition of Poland which gave the Russians a large, unwanted population, Catherine II whom the Boyars call “Great,” issued an order that read, “Jewish communities residing in the towns, cities and territories now incorporated in the Russian Empire shall be left in the enjoyment of all those liberties with regard to their religion and property which they at present possess.”
1778: Birthdate of Prussian native Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, the German nationalist whose statement in 1810 that "Poles, French, priests, aristocrats and Jews are Germany's misfortune” are an example of views that Peter Vierck among others claimed made him “the spiritual founder of Nazism” – a claim challenged by the highly respected Jacques Barzun who “observed that Viereck's portrait of cultural trends supposedly leading to Nazism was "a caricature without resemblance" relying on "misleading shortcuts.”
1786: Captain Francis Light establishes the British colony of Penang in Malaysia. The Penang Jewish Cemetery, established in 1805, is believed to be the oldest single Jewish cemetery in Malaysia. According to legend, the first Jews may have actually come to Malaysia as far back as the 11thcentury.
1793: Thirty-four year old Jacob Aaron who had passed away on Shabbat, was buried today at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery in the UK.
1799(10th of Av, 5559): Tish’a B’Av observed for the last time in the 18thcentury
1800: Today, “Benjamin Nones,” who had come to the United States from Bordeaux in 1777 “published a reply to an anonymous anti-Semitic letter which had been printed on August 5 in the Gazette of the United States.
1804: Francis II assumed the title of first Emperor of Austria. When it came to his Jewish subjects, Francis and his chief minister, Metternich followed in the footsteps Maria Theresa and not the more liberal Joseph II. During his reign ghettos were set up in Austria. Jews were not allowed to settle in the province of Tyrol. Stringent restrictions were placed on where Jews could live in Bohemia and Moravia. In Vienna, a special tax was placed on all Jews who entered the capital. While the Emperor “ennobled a few Jews” he “humiliated” the remainder of the population. Jewish marriages were restricted to the eldest son or those who had enough money to pay large bribes to the appropriate officials.
1810: In Oberdöbling near Vienna, banker Joseph von Henikstein and his wife, the former Elisabeth von Sonnenstein gave birth to Alfred von Henikstein who was baptized as a child making him the highest ranking officer of Jewish parentage in the Austrian army and chief of staff before the battle of Königgrätz in the Austro-Prussian War.
1823(4th of Elul, 5583): Nine days after her 60th birthday, Sarah Hart, the daughter of Rachel de Lyon and Myer Hart Texeirade, the wife of Isaac Nunez Cardozo and the mother of Michael, Rachel, Abigail, Esther and Judith Cardozo passed away today.
1824: Yitzhak ben Sampson married Perla bat Benjamin today.
1827: Birthdate of Jesse Seligman, the German born American banker and philanthropist whose career began in Alabama and ended in San Francisco, CA.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=454&letter=S
1828: Birthdate of Edward Salomon a native of Saxony who served as Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin from 1860 to 1862 at which time he became the state’s 8thGovernor when Louis P Harvey drowned in the Tennessee River.
1828: In Fuerth, Bavaria. Nanette Wexler and Leser Lazarus Ochsenhorn who married in 1803 gave birth to Jette Ochsenhorn who would live for only 13 months.
1830(22nd of Av, 5590): Dr. Philip Moses Russell, a native of England who began serving as a medical officer for various units in the Revolutionary War starting in 1775 passed away today. In addition to his medical work for which he was commended by George Washington, Russell and six other Jews “volunteered as guides to lead the American forces through the woods and swamps in a surprise attempt to recapture British-held Savannah, GA.”
1833: Birthdate of Robert G. Ingersoll, Civil war soldier, orator and defender of agnosticism. He was the author of “Some Mistakes Moses Made” which begins “For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a record of a barbarous people, in which are found a great number of the ceremonies of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and thousands of ideas inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts. To me it seemed almost a crime to teach that this record was written by inspired men; that slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest and extermination were right, and that there was a time when men could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence, Justice, and Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes.” Ingersoll was not an anti-Semite. He had a “low opinion” of other religions as well.
1840: Lord Palmerston the British Foreign Secretary wrote a letter to the ambassador in Constantinople that said, “There exists…among the Jews…a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine…. I instruct you… to strongly recommend that the Turkish Government … encourage the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine.” Palmerston was not philo-Semite or a proto-Zionist. Rather he was an English statesmen looking to bring what he considered Western civilization to the Orient.
1843(15th of Av, 5603): Tu B’Av
1844: Birthdate of Wilhelm Stern the son of a rabbi in Posen who became a German physician.
1844: Just days before his death, Rabbi Aron Chorin sent an address to the conference of Hungarian rabbis meeting at Páks.
1845(8th of Av, 5605): Tish’a B’Av observed for the first time during the Presidency of James K. Polk who “briefly met the father of Reform Judaism in the United States, Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise.” (The Elected and the Chosen)
1848: Establishment of The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to which Amy Totenberg would be appointed in 2011 making her the first Jewish woman to serve in such a capacity.
1851: In Vienna, Eleanor and Josef Pick gave birth to Leopold Pick
1852: In Bielostok, Russia, Noah Brodsky and his wife gave birth to Hyman Brodsky who “was instrumental in establishing Sheltering Homes, Talmud Torah Schools, Free Schools, Free Libraries, Building Associations, Loan Associations, Chevra Kadisha and Zionist Societies in New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Providence, RI, Troy, NY and Newark, NJ where since 1899 he has served as the rabbi of Congregation Anshe Russia.
1852: One day after he had passed away, Simon Simmons, the son of Joseph of Rosa Simmons and the husband of Catherine Davis with whom he had seven children – Rosetta, Esther, Israel, Caroline, Joseph, Mary Ann and Elizabeth – was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1853: It was reported today that an unnamed Jew owns a house at Table Rock adjacent to the Great Horse Shoe Falls where visitors can buy brandy and cigars and seek protection from the spray of the cataract.
1854: Birthdate of old Benno or Beno Straucher, a Bukovina-born Austro-Hungarian lawyer, politician and Jewish community representative, who spent the final part of his career in Romania
1856: Isle Dernière (Last Island), a barrier island southwest of New Orleans which has served as a resort was destroyed today by the Last Island Hurricane whose victims included more than one unnamed Jewish resident.
1857:During a debate on India, Benjamin Disraeli reiterated his conviction that the mutiny in India was more than just a military matter and that the government was not taking the correct measures in the matter. He also repudiated the government's faith in European alliances declaring that could not be depended upon.
1858(1st of Elul, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1859: In Deal, Kent, Amalia Monies, and Charles Kahn gave birth to Jenny Kahn the wife of Arthur Rothenborg
1860: The Jewish Messenger cautions “the public against an impostor, who calls himself Nelton and Abramowitsch, according to circumstances,” who writes his name with Hebrew letters “which may mean saint or sinner, as far as the knowledge of the common crowd goes. He dresses in priestly attire, so the Messenger says, with a white cravat and black cassock. While asking the Editor for charity, he appropriated an article of silver-ware from the mantelpiece”.
1862: In a letter written today addressed to the Adjutant General of the United States Army, General William Tecumseh Sherman warned that "the country will swarm with dishonest Jews" if continued trade in cotton is encouraged. (In a letter written in 1858, Sherman had described Jews as "…without pity, soul, heart, or bowels of compassion…" During the Civil War Sherman had numerous Jews serving in the various armies under his command with no whiff of anti-Semitism attached to his decisions. This included the 82ndIllinois Regiment that included a large contingent of Chicago Jews and was commanded by Edward S. Salomon. The regiment fought under his command during Sherman’s brilliant Atlanta Campaign and rose to the rank of General as Sherman’s forces bravely marched north from Savannah to help trap the remaining Confederate forces.
1862: During the Civil War, Philadelphian Jacob Benedict a Corporal in Company H of the 122ndRegiment began serving in the Union Army.
1862: During the Civil War, Philadelphians Elias Bear, Lewis Cohen, Isaac Davidson, Henry Myers and David Fellenbaum began their nine month enlistment in the 122ndRegiment.
1862: Sarah Bernhardt made her acting debut at the Comédie Française in the title role of Racine's Iphigénie.
1863: Charles and Larua Levy gave birth to South Carolinian Rosalie Levy Hart, the wife of Israel Hart.
1864(9th of Av,5624): Tish’a B’Av (Did the Jewish soldiers fighting in the Union’s multi-prong offensive against the Rebels fast as they made their way across Northern Virginia and Georgia.
1865(19th of Av, 5625): Fifty year old Abraham Mordka Alter, the son of Yitzchak Alter and Feigele Lipschitz passed away today in Warszawa, Poland.
1866: Ernest Abraham Hart “was appointed editor of the British Medical Journal” today.
1867: In New York, Abraham and Gertrude (Enoch) Weber gave birth to Joseph Maurice Weber, the husband of Lillian Friedman and one half of the vaudeville comedy act of Weber and Fields. Playing Jews was not a key to show biz success when this team started out. Some of their early success came playing Dutch (German characters) and Irishmen, something their audiences really enjoyed.
1872: In Baltimore, MD, “Charles and Caroline (Frank) Adler gave birth to Johns Hopkins alum and University of Maryland trained physician Harry Adler, the husband of Carrie F. Adler who “founded and endowed the dental clinic at the Hebrew Hospital where he was an “attending physician” for ten years.
1873: Philadelphian Jonathan Manly Emanuel, the son of London born physician Manly Emanuel, who had joined the U.S. Navy as an engineer during the Civil War completed a month tour at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia today after which he was assigned to the “Tuscarora.”
1877: Birthdate of Brooklyn native and NYU trained physician Joseph Leben, the “chief of clinic at the Hospital for Joint Diseases” and husband of Addie Lebenstein.
1879: It was reported today that there are parts of Coney Island, New York’s popular resort, where “Jews are not tolerated.”
1879: The New York Times featured a review of Somebody’s Ned by Mrs. A.M. Freeman. This is a work of romantic fiction combined with a murder mystery. In this case the star crossed lovers are a French Catholic named Danton Roland and French Jewess named Rachel Rosenthal as well David Dudley and Jessica-Rachel. The plot thickens when Solomon Rosenthal is found dead. To find “who done it” go to
1879: In White Plains, New York, Justice C.W. Cochrane heard a case in which the Osmond C Lyon had filed a complaint against a Jewish merchant – Adolph D. Pollack – for selling cigars and neckties on Sunday in violation of the “blue laws.” The defendant responded that he had not violated the law because he had not “exposed” his goods “for sale” and had only sold them quietly when requested. He also said that as a Jew, he observed the Sabbath on Saturday and the enforcement of the law in this manner was a violation of the New York Constitution which prohibits interference with his religious views.
1879: “A Cool Day At Coney Island” published today shows that prejudice against Jews is now becoming prevalent at the popular resort. “For Coney Island is miniature New York and has its German quarter, its American quarter and its quarter where Jews are not tolerated.”
1881: It was reported today that the new Home for the Aged and Infirmed being built in Yonkers will cost more than $60,000.
1881: During a period of on-going Pogroms,” a dozen of the wealthiest Jews in Tsarist Russi filed into the palatial St. Petersburg home of Baron Horace de Gunzberg” to discuss their concern that a mass exodus of Jews from Russia would convince the authorities to continue their program of violence as a way of dealing with “the Jewish problem.”
1882: Mr. Lazarus Silverman, a Chicago banker, appeared at the office of the Clerk of Circuit Court with 12 Russians Jews who had arrived in the Windy City with their families. After following all of the legal requirements, the men took the oath and became citizens of the United States. Since their knowledge of English was limited, they signed the documents in Hebrew.
1882: In Silesia, Rabbi Jacob David Kallen and Esther Rebecca Glazier gave birth to Horace M. Kallen, one of seven children all of whom, in 1887, came to the United States where Kallen would graduate from Harvard, become the first Jewish professor at Princeton while maintaining a leadership role in the American Jewish Community.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kallen-horace-meyer
1883((8th of Av, 5643): Parashat Devarim; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1883: Police fired on a mob that had resumed its attacks on the home of Joseph Scharf one of the defendants who had been acquitted of charges of having killed a Christian girl as part of a Jewish ritual murder.
1883: “The Demands on Charity” published today described a change in the assistance that will be rendered to the needy by New York’s charitable organizations. In the future, they will provide assistance to the needy who are trying to establish themselves in gainful occupations and trades. The United Hebrew Charities will help Jewish immigrants establish themselves in almost any occupation with the exception of street peddler, a calling that is now considered to be a public nuisance.
1884: “Persecuted By His Family” published today described the plight of Walter Gerson a young Jew born in 1858 at Bradford England who moved to London, Ontario and then to Chicago where he converted to Christianity and married a non-Jewish woman, a fact which his family first accepted but now seems to be determined to undue.
1884(20th of Av, 5644): Israel Blatchky, a young Jew who has been working in Des Moines, Iowa for the past three years passed away today.
1884: “The remaining members of the ill-fated “Lady Franklin Bay Polar Expedition returned the body of Edward Israel who had died on May 27 to is home in Kalamazoo where he was buried with full honors “in the Jewish Cemetery next to Mountain Home Cemetery.
1885: Dr.law Alois Eisler and Emilie Eisler gave birth to Otto Eisler.
1888(4th of Elul, 5648): Parashat Shoftim
1888: Birthdate of Pottsville, PA native Abraham Benjamin Cohen, the husband of Hattie Rose Cohn with whom he had two children, Floryne and Malcom.
1888: Oliver Hazard Peary married Josephine Diebitsch who would join Angelo Heilprin , the Hungarian born Jewish explorer on the expedition to Greenland in 1891
1888: “Something More About European Pauper Labor” published today included a summary of the testimony of the Director of the Jewish Emigration Protective Society before the Immigration Committee holding hearings at the Westminster Hotel in which he explained the reason for the impoverishment for Jewish workers coming to American and the tendency of them to settle among their co-religionists who provide them with support.
1889: “The Russian Emancipation” published today described the freeing of the serfs, which took place a quarter of a century ago, as a total failure. The peasants are in perpetual debt due to their inability to re-pay the government for their land and the failed agricultural system. This forces them to borrow money from the Jews who seize the land when they are unable to repay the loan. (Yet another reason for treating the Jews badly – they are the moneylenders despoiling the noble serfs)
1890: “Geographical Palestine” published today provides a detailed review of Palestine by Major C.R. Conder. Claude Reignier Conder served in the Corps of Royal Engineers and served two tours with the Palestine Exploration Fund providing him with invaluable first-hand knowledge of the future Jewish homeland.
1890: “Against Jews In Russia” published today provided a summary of the repressive edicts that the Czar has imposed on four million of his subjects which has led to their impoverishment and are intended to force them to leave the country and/or give up being Jewish.
1890: Sixty-four year old philanthropist and social reformer Charles Loring Brace passed away today In his book The Unknown God Or Inspiration Among Pre-Christian Races Brace points out that there is little “evidence of Egyptian found in the Hebrew faith.” According to him “the thinkers and teachers of the Jews were visited by those higher and purer inspirations which have made them the greatest benefactors of mankind in ancient history…The Jews of modern days ought to be forever honored for such progenitors; a race which could such men deserves the lasting respect of mankind.”
1890: Birthdate of Samuel Bischoff, the native of Hartford, CT and graduate of Boston University who produced movies from 1922 to 1964.
1891: “The seventh free excursion” sponsored by “the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children” takes place today with the boat leaving from the foot of East Third Street at nine o’clock this morning.
1891: Three days after she had passed away, 52 year old Frederika Myers, the wife of Morris Myers was buried at the Stockton Jewish Cemetery.
1892: Birthdate of publishing giant Alfred Knopf.
1892: The Third Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Robert Cecil, who as Prime Minister has reassured the House of Lords that regardless of the Czar’s policies “there were no grounds for dreading a wholesale invasion of Great Britain by pauper Jews from Russia” left office today and became the leader of “the loyal opposition.”
1893: In Brooklyn, Justice Walsh sentence William Davison to ten days in jail for his part in robbing a Jewish peddler named Burns.
1894: Birthdate of Ernst Angel the Viennese born man of letters who wrote the script for “Love on Wheels, a British musical comedy before morphing into an American psychologist
1895: Five Jews were arrested by the police from the Elizabeth Street Station for violating the Sunday Closing Laws. One of those arrested, Morris Cohn “pleaded that he was a strict observer of the Hebrew Sabbath” and he was released by the Magistrate.
1895: “Sympathy For Hat And Cap Makers” published today described a mass meeting held at Union Square by several Jewish organizations in support of the workers who have been locked out by the manufacturers.
1895: Based on instructions provided by Meyer Schoenfeld and Herman Robinson the striking tailors, most of whom were Jewish and who were returning to work were not worried that they were being locked out today by the contractors since it was Sunday and the bosses observed the Sunday closing laws.
1895: During July, it was reported today, the United Hebrew Charities “responded to the applications for relief from 3,304” people on behalf of 11,013 individuals.
1896: Populist leader Mary Elizabeth Lease was quoted today as saying "Redemption money and interest-bearing bonds are the curse of civilization. We are paying tribute to the Rothchilds of England, who are but the agent of the Jews."
1898: “Nevada Colonists Despoiled” published today described how a group of Russian Jews who had been building a new life in Lyon County, Nevada, were swindled by two of their co-religionists Daniel Schwartz who mortgaged the groups crop to get $1,500 from a bank in Carson City and then ran off with money. The penniless Jews are now faced with the prospect of losing their newly built homes.
1898: L’Anti-Juif,“a weekly organ of the Anti-Semitic League” was published today for the first time in Paris.
1899: “Joseph Haworth’s New Role” published today described Jacob Litt’s decision to cast Joseph Haworth in the role of Raphael, the leading character in Israel Zangwill’s “The Ghetto.”
1899: The officers presiding over the court marital of Captain Dreyfus announced that the next four sittings of the court would be held behind closed doors.
1899: In Mitau, Latvia, merchant Lazar Hirshhorn and his wife Amelia gave birth to their 12thchild, Joseph Herman Hirshhorn, the self-made financier and prospector best known for his role in establishing the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.
1899: The great Jewish actor Jacob Adler fell and seriously injured himself today while riding his bicycle at Long Branch, NJ.
1900: Today, Rabbi Alexander S. Kleinfeld, the Hungarian born sone of Rabbi Jacob Kleinfeld and Esther Freud, the niece of Dr. Sigmund Freud who eventually became the spiritual leader of Temple Emanuel of Patterson, NJ married Clara Gordon.
1900: Mass meeting of the English Zionist Federation was held in East End.
1902: “The hearing before Inspector Brooks at police headquarters on the conduction of certain policeman at the riot on July 30 between employees of Hoe and Company and Jews attending the funeral of Rabbi Joseph” continued today.
1903: Birthdate of Polish born American Yiddish theatre actor and Union leader Herman Yablokoff, the husband of Bella Yablokoff and the father of Jack Yablokoff.
http://www.yivoarchives.org/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=33552
https://www.milkenarchive.org/artists/view/herman-yablokoff/
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/04/obituaries/herman-yablokoff-yiddish-actor.html
1903: Herzl meets Jews from all circles in St. Petersburg and a banquet is arranged by the Russian Zionists.
1904(30th of Av, 5664): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1904: In New York City, Adolf Berkelhammer and Friedel Berkelhammer gave birth to NYU trained attorney Irving Berkelhammer, the husband of Phyllis Berkelhammer, who was involved in various Jewish organizations including the UJA and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies.
1904(30th of Av, 5664): The month of Av, which “Zionist Societies have been observing as a “period of mourning” for Theodor Herzl came to an end today.
1904: In Pennsylvania, Rebecca and Morris Lazarus gave birth to Samuel Lazarus, who had four siblings – Louis, Clara, Celia and Sarah.
1905: Birthdate of Erwin Chargaff, the Austrian born American biochemist who discovered two rules that led to the discovery of double helical structure of
1905: The British Aliens Act, which reflected anti-Jewish bias, became a law. The anti-Jewish bias was aimed at the Jews fleeing Rumania and Russia who were seeking a safe haven in England. This was manifestation of lingering anti-Jewish sentiment in an English society that was increasingly accepting of its Jewish population.
1906(20th of Av, 5666) Parashat Ekev
1906: It was reported today that “M. Friedlander of Jews’ College England has translated into English the original Arabic text of Guide to the Perplexed which appears in volume printed by E.P. Dutton and Company that contains a brief biography of Maimonides and a full explanation of his Guide.”
1907: Birthdate of Max Abrams, the native of Glasgow who played drums for several bands in the 1930’s and 1940’s who wrote “50 jazz tutor books.”
1908: Rabbi and medical doctor Mendel Silber the Lithuanian born son of Rabbi Jacob and Esther Silber who was a graduate of HUC and Physicians and Surgeons College in St. Louis married Ida Deinard after which he eventually became the rabbi of Gates of Prayer in New Orleans.
1908: Nathan Solity married Miriam Mendie today at the New Briggate Synagogue in Leeds, UK
1909: The Chief Rabbi of Adrianople was forced to resign by Jews of Demotica for failing to take action and not protesting against the change in market day at Demotica, from Thursday to Saturday.
1910: In Philadelphia, PA, Max Leopold Margolis and his wife, the former Evelyn Kate Aronson gave birth to Catherine A. Margolis.
1911(17th of Av, 5671): One hundred seventeen year old Rabbi Isaac Reich passed away at Szamos Hungary.
1911: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for “Mrs. Alice Stoll, the sister of Hattie Summerfield.
1911: Birthdate of Giorgio Cavagliere, an American Jewish architect who fled Mussolini’s Italy and became a leader of the urban preservation movement.
1911: Jews suffer the impoverishing effect of fires in Russian communities including Tulishkoff, Mlava and Konskavola.
1911: As the Turks recover from the effects of the fires at Constantinople, the Chief Rabbi forms a Relief Committee and Grand Vizier Hakki Bey sent a telegram to the 10thZionist Congress meeting at Basle, Switzerland thanking the Jewish organization for the contributins to relieve the suffering of fire victims.
1911: In Copenhagen, Denmark, attacks are made on Shechitah at the Animal Protection Congress.
1912: In Westfield, MA, founding of Ahavas Achim synagogue.
1912: In Providence, Rhode, Island, found of Beth Israel synagogue.
1912: In Kenosha, Wisconsin founding of B’nai Zedek synagogue.
1913: The London ambassadors conference, of Europe's six "Great Powers" (Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the United Kingdom), settled on the boundaries of the new Principality of Albania, created from former Turkish territory that had been the scene nationalist revolts during the Turks had accused the small Jewish population “of colluding with the Albanian rebels.”
1914: Jews are expelled from Mitchenick, Poland
1914: In a move that showed the British navy did not understand the strategic consequences of its mission, two German warships entered the Dardenlles – a move that would push the Ottoman Empire into the arms of the Central Powers. (Editor’s note – one can only wonder what would have happened to the Middle East, including Palestine if the Ottomans had remained neutral or joined the Allies.)
1915: As the Cossack and Dragoons continued their attack on the Jews of Lokachi in the Province of Volinski a gendarme found the blood covered coat of Gershon Pfeffer, a Jew who had been dragged off into the woods three days earlier when he resisted being lined up with the other Jews who were then robbed “of all their money and valuables.”
1915: Today in San Francisco., Attorney Edwin R.A. Seligman delivered “The Next Step in Tax Reform,” the Presidential Address at the “Ninth Annual Conference of the National Tax Association”
1916(12th of Av, 5676): Eighty-eight-year-old Rabb Abraham Levy passed away today in London.
1916: It was reported today that Oscar Straus, the former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, “assailed Jews who sought to forget their ancestors and their Jewish inheritance” saying “that if the present fashion in Jewish families of giving their children names as remote as possible from those with a Jewish sound continued, within a short time only Americans of Puritan ancestry would have names of Abraham and Jacob, Ruth and Esther.”
1917: It was reported today that the British Labour Party has adopted a memorandum on issues that will be part of a peace settlement that stated “in behalf of the Jews equal citizenship rights with other inhabitants is demanded from all countries and it is hoped that Palestine will be free from Turkish domination and become a free state under international guarantees to which such Jews as desire my return to work out their own salivation free from interference from nations and religions.”
1917: Turkish representative at The Hague, Netherlands denies that negotiations took place between Turkey and former United States ambassador, Henry Morgenthau regarding the sale of Palestine to the Jews
1917: Birthdate of Algerian born, French-Israeli writer Andre Chouraqui, known for his French-language translation of the Bible and his work for the government in Israel. A poet, Chouraqui was best known for translating religious texts, including La Bible hebraique et le Nouveau Testament (The Hebrew Bible and New Testament), published in 26 volumes between 1974 and 1977. Chouraqui studied law in Paris. During World War II, he joined the French Resistance and hid out in the Haute-Loire region of central France. After moving to Israel in 1958, he became an adviser to Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, from 1959 to 1963. He also served as deputy mayor of Jerusalem. He passed away at the age of 89 at his home in Jerusalem in 2007.
1918: It was reported today that in a recent speech given by Dr. von Seidler, the Austrian Premier to the Lower House of the Austrian Reichstag, he said that “most of the Jews” in Austria “are counted as Germans unlike all of the other groups like the Poles, Czechs and Italians who are counted separately. (Editor’s note – considering what would happen twenty years later, this method might have come as a shock to those caught up in the Anschluss)
1919: The Weimar Republic's first Reichspräsident ("Reich President"), Friedrich Ebert of the SPD, signed the new German constitution into law. The Weimar Republic marked Germany’s first experience with a truly democratic government. It failed for lack of popular support and would give way to Hitler’s Third Reich. One of the excuses offered for German support the Holocaust was that Jews were associated with the founding of the Weimar Republic and the Weimar Republic was viewed as a humiliation saddled on the Germans by the Allies at the end of World War I. The logic is tortured, but it is neither the first time that people would rationalize and justify their anti-Semitism.
1920: Samuel Gompers is one of several labor leaders who attend a dinner honoring T.J. Healy before he departs for Europe where he will represent the American Federation of Labor at an international labor conference.
1920: The Joint Distribution Committee in New York has sent 150,000 to Danzig in response to a request from that community which is being overwhelmed with war refugees from Poland and which has been cut off from the Joint Distribution in Warsaw.
1921: In Haifa, “agronomist Yechiel Weizman and his wife gave birth to Yael Weizman, who as Yael Allingham, the wife of Conal Wolsey Allingham, invented “polymeric mulch sheets and mulch films for use in agriculture.”
1922: “A financial re-organization of R.H. Mercy Co., merchants in New York since 1858, is under way, to make possible the program of expansion which will go into effect with the completion of the firm's proposed new nineteen story annex to the present structure, at Thirty-fourth street and Broadway. Common but will not change the management led by Jesse Straus, President, Percy Straus, Vice President and Herbert N. Straus, the Secretary and Treasurer.
1923: In the Bronx, Benjamin Meschess and the former Anna Grosse gave birth to Arnold Mesches,, a scenic designer who was tracked by the F.B.I. for a quarter of a century. (As reported by William Grimes)
1923: At a session of the World Zionist Congress meeting in in Carslbad, Czechoslovakia, that continued until
1924: Julius R. Jarcho, the New York born son of Naum and Bertha Jaraco and Ohio State and Syracuse alum married Dorothy E. Rambar after which he became the editor and publisher of the Brooklyn Jewish Chronicle.
1925: Birthdate of Philadelphia native Arnold Schulman the University of North Carolina trained screenwriter whose work on such films as “Love With A Proper Stranger” and “A Hole in the Head” have earned him Writers Guild and Oscar nominations.
1926(1st of Elul, 5686): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1926: In “Zelva, Lithuania, “Lazar, a cattleman, and Bella (née Silin) Klug gave birth to Dr. Aaron Klug, the South African trained winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1982.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07702-5
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/26/sir-aaron-klug-obituary
1926: Birthdate of Brooklyn native Saul Fredericks Rabiner, the Tulane trained doctor and WW II veteran who served on the faculty at the Prtzker Medical School.
1927: Birthdate of Gustav Bermel a member of the Ehrenfield anti-Nazi resistance Group who was murdered at the age of 17.
1927: In Brooklyn, of Sara (née Kaminsky) and David Rosenberg gave birth to Stuart Rosenberg, director of Cool Hand Luke.
1928: “Four Walls” a silent film co-starring Carmel Myers, the San Francisco born daughter of “daughter of an Australian rabbi and Austrian Jewish mother” was released in the United States today by MGM.
1929: Birthdate of Frankfurt, Germany native Geoffrey H. Hartmann one of “the Jewish children evacuated from Nazi Germany as part of a Kindertransport” who became a Professor of English and comparative literature at Yale, co-founder of the Judaic studies program at Yale and the “first director of what is now the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale.”
1929: The Jewish Agency was created at the 16th Zionist Congress in Zurich. It was intended to include non-Zionists such as Louis Marshall, Leon Blum and Felix Warburg to take a leading role among those working to create a Jewish state.
1929: Florence Wolfson Howlett turned 14 and made her first entry in the diary she received as a birthday present. The diary would provide the basis for The Red Leather Diary by Lily Koppel
1930: In New York City Yiddish poet Ber Lapin and his wife gave birth CCNY and Columbia alum Shmuel Lapin, the director of “the youth department of the Farband,” and “excutive director of the Canadian Labor Zionist Movement” who hit his stride as the executive secretary of YIVO while raising three children – Dov, Avrum and Hayim – with his wife Khave.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shmuel-lapin-on-yivo-1968/id724785918?i=1000385571654
1930: At the second session of the fourth world congress of the Zionist Revisionist, Dr. Robert Lichtheim delivered a speech in which he said that the organization “would conduct its own political activities, particularly in pleading the Zionist cause before governments and statesmen, independently of the Zionist executive and the Jewish agency.
1930(17th of Av, 5690): Sixty-five year old Hungarian native, Rudolph Farbert, the father of Lillie, Bertrum, Leona, Arnold and Nettye who served as Rabbi at Congregation Gates of Heaven from 1885 to 1887 and Mt. Saini in Texarkana, TX passed away today in Chicago after which he was buried at Waldehim Jewish Cemetery.
1930: In New York City, an announcement was made at the headquarters of the Allied Jewish Campaign that more than $1,214,000 was spent in the development of the economic and cultural program of the Jewish Agency in Palestine during the half year” that ended on May 1.
1931: Today, “the War Department authorized the granting of furloughs in the army to members of the Jewish faith to permit to participate in the celebration of the high holy days” which take place in September.
1932(9th of Av, 5692): Tisha B’Av
1932: Birthdate of American architect Peter Eisenman whose creations included the Wexner Center for the Arts at Ohio State University which was “named in honor of the father of Limited Brands founder, and friend of Jeffery Epstein, Leslie Wexner, who was a major donor to the Center” and “The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe” in Berlin.
1932: Birthdate of Israel Harold “Izzy” Asper, Canadian tax attorney and media magnate. A native of Minnedosa, Manitoba, Asper “was the founder of CanWest Global Communications Corp and father to Leonard, Gail and David Asper, each of whom served as officers of CanWest.
1933: The Supreme Representative Committee of German Jews established a farm near Rathenow, in Prussia, to train unemployed Jews as agricultural workers.
1933: Judah Bergman, the World Light Welterweight Champion, who boxed under the name of Jack kid Berg, “married Bunty Pain, a dancer at the Trocadero, today at Prince's Row register office in London.”
1933: Nineteen year old actress Heddy Lamar, the daughter of Viennese Jewish parents married Austrian arms dealer and fascist Friedrich Mandl.
1933: In response to what is described as an “epidemic of suicides among German Jews of the Rhineland,” the Jewish community of Cologne has issued an appeal signed by the lay leaders and the Rabbinate, urging Jews not to despair.
1933: The Hamburg Federation of Grain Merchants, which had a large Jewish membership, was dissolved. Its funds and property were turned over to the "Aryanized" All-German Federation of Commerce.
1933: In Warsaw, an edict was issued forbidding Jewish bakers, who observe the Sabbath, to bake bread on Sundays. The edict affected over 50,000 Jewish bakers.
1933: In Cracow, Thirty-one of the forty-two arrested persons, charged with organizing riots against Jews in a nearby town received sentences of imprisonment of from four months to three years.
1934(30th of Av, 5694): Parashat Re’eh and Rosh Chodesh Elul
1934: “An appeal to Jewish athletes to refrain from participating in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin was issued today by Samuel Untermyer as president of the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.”
1935(12th of Av, 5695): Sixty-five year old portrait artist Leo Mielziner passed away today.
http://www.askart.com/askart/m/leo_mielziner/leo_mielziner.aspx
1936: Condemning British proposals to partition Palestine as "outrageous," Senator Royal S. Copeland (Dem., NY) introduced in the Senate today a resolution asking the Senate's "forthright indication of unwillingness to accept modification in the mandate without Senate consent." Senator Copeland declared that the territory allotted the Jews in the proposed partition was insufficient to maintain even a small number of Jews and that establishment of a small Jewish state might result in a war between the Jews and the Arabs. The Jews are having a "terrible time" in Germany, Poland and Rumania.... At the same time he noted a "distinct animosity" on the part of American consuls abroad in granting visas to Jews, which, he said, showed discrimination. (As reported by JTA)
1936: “The Polish delegation to the World Jewish Congress charged early today…that Poland’s 3,500,000 Jews were being terrorized and made paupers” and that “anti-Semitic agitation is making the Jews the scapegoats for” Poland’s “ills” which “has led to the loss of Jewish life and property.”
1936: In Geneva,tonight, at the meeting of the World Jewish Congress, Rabbi M.L. Perlsweig, head of the World Zionist Organization's political information department, accused the British authorities in Palestine of "political ineptitude so gross as to be almost unbelievable” while “Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of New York paid tribute to the self-restraint of the Palestine Jews…”
1937: By a vote of 304 to 158, the 20th Zionist Congress, held in Zurich, endorsed Chaim Weizmann¹s proposal and empowered the Zionist Executive to negotiate with the British government the terms of the Royal (Peel) Report, according to which the partition of Palestine would be implemented and the Jewish state was to be established. Dr. Weizmann¹s proposal was denounced by Dr. Stephen Wise, on behalf of American Jewry and many other delegates, including Menachem Ussishkin. A revised version of the partition plan was also supported by David Ben-Gurion.
1937: In Santa Monica, CA, Harry Herschel and Shirley (née Weissman) Cohen gave birth to Iris Margo Cohen who gained fame as ballet dancer and actress Allegra Kent.
1937: In Zurich roving bands of Nazis assaulted and molested a number of Zionist delegates.
1937(4th of Elul, 5697): Detective Isidore Astel, the patrolman who shot a killed a hold-up man during a gun battle last December in Manhattan for which he was decorated with “the gold Police Combat Cross” died today “in the Hospital for Joint Diseases.
1937: New York Mayor La Guardia is scheduled to attend today’s outing sponsored by the Brooklyn Division of the American Jewish Congress which consisted of “a boat rid up the Hudson River on the steamship Delaware.”
1938: “The Osservatore Romano, the authoritative Vatican organ, today protested strongly against the Italian press boycott of the speeches in which Pope Pius has denounced the new racial theories” in words that included “Where Hebrewism means suffering, pain and a target for persecution, it cannot hope for a better defender than the Catholic Church.”
1938: After returning from a trip to Palestine, “Malcolm MacDonald, Dominions Secretary” delivered a radio talk today in which he said the “pacification of Palestine will not be accomplished quickly” but that in the meantime “the British Government will administer its trust on the basis of justice between the Jews…and Arabs. (Editor’s note – in less than a year, the infamous White Paper would make a lie of this as far as the Jews were concerned.)
1939: “When Tomorrow Comes,” a “romantic comedy” directed and produced by John M. Stahl was released today in the United States.
1939: Laurence Steinhardt begins serving as U.S. Ambassador to the U.S.S.R.
1939(26th of Av, 5699): Having received a summons from the Gestapo and fearing that he would be tortured like others who had received such a summons, 68 year old mathematicians Paul Epstein “took a lethal dose of Veronal.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Epstein.html
1941: As of today, Stanley M. Isaacs is “unchanged…in his determination seek both the Republican and Labor party nominations in the primaries” which will pit him against Edgar J. Nathan who “was recently chosen by the New York County Republican organization as its candidate for Borough President of Manhattan…”
1941: Birthdate of Brooklyn political figure, Elizabeth Holtzman. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Holtzman began serving in Congress in 1973 just in time to be part of the Watergate investigation. After leaving the House, she held various political positions but missed out on her biggest prize, a seat in the U.S. Senate.
1941: Vichy adopted an ordinance excluding Jews from working as doctors.
1941: Het Parool, “an Amsterdam-based daily newspaper” was published for the first time “as a resistance paper during the Nazi occupation” by a staff that included Jaap Nunes Vaz who would be sent to Sobibor in 1942.
1942: Today “Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr (called “the most beautiful woman in Hollywood”) received a patent with composer George Antheil for a “frequency hopping, spread-spectrum communication system” designed to make radio-guided torpedoes harder to detect or jam.”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/aug/11/1942/actress-hedy-lamarr-patents-basis-for-wifi
1942(28th of Av, 5702): The Nazis murdered 13,000 Jews at Rostov-On-Don, a deadly total that would be added to a few days later when another two to five thousand Jews were murdered.
1943: “Herman Hoffman, Grand Master of the Independent Order of B’rith Abraham announced today that he had proclaimed a thirty-day mourning period among the members in protest of the ruthless murder of Jews in Nazi-dominated Europe” and that he had sent a telegram to President Roosevelt “urging him to make a special broadcast to the world if these ruthless murders do not cease.”
1944: Joop Westerweel, Dutch poet and educator was executed by the Nazis, for helping Jews escape. In late February 1944 Joop Westerweel traveled to the foot of the Pyrenees to say farewell to the group about to cross into Spain, which included Joseph Heinrich and thirteen other young people Joop and his underground group had helped to escape from Holland. His memorable speech was later vividly recalled by many who were present. He wished them well and that they should build Palestine into a place where there would be no war, only food and work for everyone. As the young pioneers left for Spain, Joop turned back to Holland. On March 11, he was arrested by border police while helping two young Jewish girls cross illegally from Holland to France. Five months later he was executed in prison in Vught Concentration Camp. The sacrifice of Joop Westerweel and those like him must never be forgotten. The challenge for the living is to be worthy of the proof of such virtue.
1945: A ‘small pogrom’ took place in Krakow, Poland, three months after the end of World War II in Europe.
1945: Collier’s magazine published “Terror in Palestine” by Frank Gervasi which provides a contemporary look at events following the death of Lord Moyne.
1948(8th of Av, 5708): Elaine Hammerstein, the daughter of opera producer Arthur Hammerstein, who gained fame as an American silent film and stage actress, passed away.
1949: Birthdate of David Rubenstein, the son of a Baltimore postal worker, who co-founded the Carlyle Group and whose philanthropies included serving as Chairman of both Kennedy Center and the Duke University board of Trustees.
1950: In Riga, Frieda and Zalman Baskin gave birth to Ilya Zalmanovich Baskin who came to the United States in 1976 where he gained fame as actor Elya Baskin whose first film appearance was in “The World’s Greatest Lover”
1950: Ethel Rosenberg was arrested today.
1950: In Chicago, Gustave Barshefsky, “a Polish immigrant and chemical engineer” and his wife Miriam gave birth to University of Wisconsin graduate and Catholic University of America trained attorney Charlene Barshefsky who served as the 12thUnited States Trade Representative from 1996 to 2001.
1951(9th of Av, 5711): Parashat Devarim; Shabbat Chazon; Erev Tish’a B’Av
1951(9th of Av): Yiddish playwright and journalist David Pinsky passed away.
1951(9th of Av, 5711): Rebekah Bettelheim Kohut passed away
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/kohut-rebecca
1951: Today thirty-nine year old actress Sara Berner married theatrical agent Milton Rosner with whom she had a daughter Eugenie before divorcing in 1958.
1952: The ailing Talal¹s son, Hussein II, was proclaimed the King of Jordan, but a Regency Council was appointed to rule the country, since he was a minor. In 1952 three Middle Eastern monarchs’ Hussein II of Jordan, Ahmed Fuad of Egypt and Faisal of Iraq were minors. King Hussein had seen his grandfather assassinated by an Arab fanatic who thought he was too friendly with the Jews. Hussein’s goal was to stay alive and remain king. He wisely did not take part in the Sinai Campaign of 1956. He foolishly attacked Israel in 1967 and lost the West Bank and east Jerusalem. In the end, he signed a peace treaty with Israel but without gaining any territory west of the Jordan River. Fuad would be ousted by a revolt masterminded by Colonel Nasser, the Pan-Arabist who had a secular version of Osama’s vision. Faisal would die in a revolt in 1958 that would eventually bring Hussein (the dictator not the king) to power in Iraq.
1953: Birthdate of Stephen M. Katz, the native of Jericho, NY and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine who worked at several overseas locations including the Yotvata Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel before pursuing a political career as a Republican member of the New York States Assembly.
1953: CBS broadcast the last episode of “Steve Randall” “a television series starring Melvyn Douglas.”
1955: “More than one third of a $50,000 fund to restore historic Touro Synagogue here has been raised, it was reported today at the eighth annual meeting of the synagogue's Society of Friends.”
1955: Leonard Bernstein led premiere of Symphonic Suite from "On the Waterfront", BSO, Tanglewood
1955: After premiering in the United Kingdom last year, “The Divided Heart” featuring Theodore Bikel and John Schlesinger was released in the United States today by Ealing Studios.
1956(4th of Elul, 5716): Parashat Shoftim
1959(6th of Av, 5719): Eighty-seven year old Yiddish author and playwright David Pinski passed away today, five months are his wife Adele had passed away.
1959(6th of Av, 5719): Eighty-three year old Bertram Joseph Cahn, the son of “Joseph and Miriam Cahn,” the “husband of Irma Cahn” with whom he had three children and the Northwestern educated lawyer who served on the Crime Commission and belonged to the Urban League, passed away today in his native Chicago
1961: Birthdate of Toronto native David Brooks, the award winning New York Times columnist and author whose “oldest son” reportedly served in the IDF
https://www.nytimes.com/by/david-brooks
1961: In Palo Alto, CA, Tola Fay Minkoff (née Stebel) and Jack Robert Minkoff gave birth to Academy Award winning director Robert Ralph Minkoff, whose most famous work to date is “The Lion King.”
1962: "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do"“a song recorded by Neil Sedaka, and co-written by Sedaka and Howard Greenfield” “hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100” today.
1964(3rd of Elul, 5724): Sixty-four year old Leopold Mannes, the creator of Kodachrome, passed away today.
http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/223.html
1964: The Avnet Electronics Corporation announced today the election of Lester Avenet, to the post of Chairman, succeeding his last brother Robert H. Avnet.
1965:Rolf Friedemann Pauls, the man chosen to be Bonn’s first Ambassador to Israel arrived today at a “heavily guarded Lydda Airport.”
1968: In London, Nigerian native Henry Okonedo and his wife Joan Allman the Jewish Pilates teacher gave birth to Tony Award winning actress Sophia Okonedo who was raised in the faith of her mother.
1969(27th of Av, 5769): Bea Adelman who is memorialized at B’Nai Israel in Spartanburg, SC, passed away today.
1970(9th of Av, 5730): Tish’a B’Av
1970(9th of Av, 5730): Portsmouth, VA native Moses Abraham Jacobson, the 1916 graduate of Virginian Polytechnic Institute, the holder of an M.S. in Agriculture from Purdue University and a medical degree from the University of Chicago where he pursued a career as a bacteriologist passed away today.
1972(1st of Elul, 5732): Rose Schneiderman passed away. Born in Poland in 1884, Miss Schneiderman was brought to the United States by her father who worked as a tailor on the lower East Side. She gained first-hand experience on life in the garment industry when she went to work as a cap maker. She earned eight dollars a week. But she had to buy her own sewing machine with a cash $25 cash down payment and an additional $45 paid in installments. In addition to this, she had to pay for power and thread. Miss Schneiderman helped to organize the Women’s Trade Union League, an organization that she served as President for several terms. In 1909 she took part in a strike of waistmakers that began the unionization of the garment industry. In New York, she served as Secretary of the State Labor Department from 1937 to 1944. During the Great Depression, she served as an official of the National Recovery Administration and was considered to be a member of F.D.R.’s “brain trust.”
http://www.amazingwomeninhistory.com/rose-schneiderman-labour-union-pioneer/
https://www.biography.com/people/rose-schneiderman-9475012
1975: Birthdate of Edina, MN native Alex Bernstein the 6’3”, 325 pound guard who played three years of college ball at Amherst before pursuing a brief NFL career with the Raven, Jets and Browns.
1975: “Prisoner of Zion David Chernoglaz received an exit visa to Israel.”
1976(15th of Av, 5736): Tu B’Av
1976(15th of Av, 5736): Twenty-nine year old Harold W. Rosenthal of Philadelphia was an aide to Senator Jacob Javits, Japanese tourist guide, Yutako Hirano and two Israelis – Solomon Weisbeck and Ernest Elias – were murdered and thirty others were by two Palestinian terrorists who unsuccessfully attempted to hijack an El Al plane at the Istanbul airport.
1977: West Bank mayors and notables submitted separate views to US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. The mayors acknowledged that the PLO was the ³sole² representative of the Palestine Arabs and claimed that no settlement was possible without PLO participation. But other West Bank notables had different ideas. They advocated an immediate mutual recognition of the national rights of Palestinians and Israelis in the area. They claimed that their two homelands must be mutually exclusive and advocated the establishment of a ³peace-promoting force² acceptable to both nations. These West Bank notables advocated the holding of a plebiscite during the interim period so that Palestinians could decide freely whether to join Jordan or establish an independent, democratic state. Unfortunately, these talks led to the same place as those that had come before and after – nowhere.
1977: Jordan and Egypt informed the US that they were prepared to sign formal peace treaties with Israel, but at the conclusion of the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.
1980: Entertainment lawyer turned movie producer Jack Schwartzman and Judith Deborah Feldman, the parents of John and Stephanie were divorced today.
1982(22nd of Av, 5742): Worcester native and “publisher” James Kahn passed away today in Brookline, MA.
1982: A picture dated August 11, 1982 shows people standing in front of the Chez Jo Goldenberg restaurant in Paris, two days after it was devastated in an attack by Palestinian gunmen (AFP/ JOEL ROBINE)
1983: Today,Joseph Hochstein wrote an Op-Ed titled "Not goodbye, but l'hitraot," in which he said, "I love newspapering, and I have a special love for this paper, since I helped start it in 1965 with my father. ... What happens each week at The Jewish Week is achieved with greater difficulty than the work done in the newsrooms of great metropolitan dailies, and it is more profoundly needed. Knowing that I played a central role in making this happen helps offset the regret of leaving, as does the joy of realizing a long-held dream of living in Israel." He wrote this just before making Aliyah.
1983: “Phar Lap” a biopic about a racehorse co-starring Ron Leibman was released in Australia today by 20th Century Fox.
1983: Birthdate of Rochester, NY, native Adam Podlesh the outstanding punter for University of Maryland Terrapins who has played for the Jacksonville, Chicago and Pittsburgh NFL teams.
1984(13th of Av, 5744): Ninety-one year old American published Alfred Abraham Knopf, Sr. founder of Alfred A Knopf, Inc passed away today. (As reported by Herbert Mitgang)
1987(16th of Av, 5747): Eighty-six year old Clara Peller who gained fame as the “Where’s the beef” lady passed away today in Chicago.
http://articles.latimes.com/1987-08-12/news/mn-440_1_clara-peller
1987: Alan Greenspan becomes Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Another Jewish economist hits the top spot.
1988: Meir Kahane renounced his US citizenship to stay in the Israeli Parliament. Kahane and his virulent anti-Arab views have been rejected by the Israeli mainstream. Kahane himself was gunned down by Arab terrorists.
1991:In “The Felix Warburg Mansion; A Window to the Past in the Present,” published today Christopher Gray describes the past, present and future of the building that was home to one of New York’s most influential and famous Jewish families.
1991(1st of Elul, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1992: “MY Sam Simon the fourth vessel of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society fleet, named after American television producer and writer Sam Simon, who donated the money to purchase the vessel” was launched today.
1993: “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” a movie version of the book by Fred Waitzkin the father of Jewish chess prodigy Josh Waitzkin co-starring Max Pomeranc was released in the United States today.
1995: “A Walk in the Clouds” produced by David and Jerry Zucker, co-starring Debra Messing and filmed by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki was released in the United States today 20th Century Fox.
1995: “A Kid in King Arthur's Court” a film based on a Mark Twain novel co-starring Ron Moody as “Merlin” was released in the United States today.
1997: Baltimore born Washington lawyer Alfred H. Moses completed his service as U.S. Ambassador to Romania. Five years later the President of Romania awarded him the Marc Cruce Medal.
1997(8thof Av, 5757): Erev Tish’a B’Av
1997(8thof Av, 5757): Forty-nine year old Eli Adourian of Kfar Adumim died of the wounds he sustained when a Hamas suicide bomber struck at the Mahane Yehuda Market on July 30th where the death toll would reach sixteen with an additional 178 injured.
1997: Eighty-six year old Monument’s Man Walter Farmer passed away today. (Editor’s note – some but not all of the Monument’s Men were Jewish. Regardless of their origins, this unit played an invaluable role in trying to return looted art to the Jews who owned it and of course, played an invaluable role in trying to preserve the treasures of Western Civilization)
https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/farmer-capt.-walter-i.
1999:Sheila Finestone began serving as Senator for Montarville, Quebec.
1999: Max Kampelman was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1999: Janet Jagan, the Chicago born Jewess completed her service as President of Guyana when Bharrat Jagdeo was sworn as President
1999: Michael Dougall Bell began serving as Canada’s Ambassador to Israel.
2000: Today, Daniel Singer “Dan” Bricklin the co-creator of “the VisiCalc spreadsheet program known also as “The Father of the Spreadsheet” introduced the term "friend-to-friend networking"
http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/BRICKLIN.Fleming.HTML
2001(22ndof Av, 5761): Parashat Ekev
2001(22ndof Av, 5761): Ninety-year old Canadian journalist, dedicated Zionist and founder of The Canadian Jewish News passed away today.
https://web.archive.org/web/20041226103905/http://www.cjnews.com/pastissues/01/aug23-01/front5.asp
2002: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including 'F E G: Ridiculous Poems for Intelligent Children by Robin Hirsch Fireweed: A Political Autobiographyby Gerda Lerner, the Austrian born Jewish American political activist.
2004: Seventy-three year old German historian Wolfgang Mommsen who fought attempts to whitewash the Holocaust made by some other German historians passed away today.
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/aug/17/guardianobituaries.obituaries
2005: A memorial service was held today at Temple Beth David in Temple, CA for Nathan “Fred” Asher a graduate of the Naval Academy who took command U.S.S. Blue since the skipper was ashore and in a harrowing trip lasting one and half hours guided the ship out to open waters and safety while Ensign Milton Moldane, a graduate of Washington University Law School “took charge of the forward machine guns” fighting off the attacking Japanese aircraft.
2005: While the front pages of the paper carried news of Sharon’s attempts to bring peace to the Middle East with the withdrawal from Gaza, the back pages of Haaretzcarried a reminder of Sharon’s warrior past. According to a story in Haaretz,“The bloodstained bandage that wrapped Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's head after he was injured in fighting during the 1973 Yom Kippur War has been offered for sale on e-Bay with the bidding starting at $10,000.” Sharon sustained the head wound when he was leading Israeli forces across the Suez Canal.
2006: First day of the New York International Fringe Festival which will include a performance of “The Cheerleader and the Rabbi” featuring Sandy Wolshin. “A former cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders shelater immersed herself in a mikveh as part of an orthodox conversion.”
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Maj. Nimrod Hallel, 42, from Rosh Ha'ayin, was killed in the town of Leboneh in the western sector of southern Lebanon when an anti-tank missile was fired at his vehicle.
2006: A reported 120 rockets rained down on northern Israel striking Haifa, Safed and Kiryat Shimona.
2006: “Jules Feiffer: If You Really Loved Me, You’d Find Me, The Strips 1960 - 2000” a collection of over 60 cartoon strips by the Pulitzer Prize winning author, cartoonist and playwright which has been on display at the Adam Baumgold Gallery is scheduled to come to an end today.
http://adambaumgoldgallery.com/feiffer_jules/feiffer.htm
2006: Conflicting reports abound concerning the terms of a proposed cease fire intended to stop the fighting in Lebanon. Some of the major points of contention include the robustness of the mandate of the international force and the willingness of the Lebanese army to confront and disarm Hezbollah fighters.
2007: On the “Jewish Jock Front,” The San Diego Union-Tribunereported that San Diego ChargerIgor Olshanskymay not get to play in an upcoming exhibition game with the Seattle SeaHawks whileJohn Grabow of the Pittsburgh Pirates won a game on just 13 pitches, which was all he needed to complete a one inning relief stint against the San Francisco Giants.
2008: YuliTamir announced plans to remove Ze'ev Jabotinsky's work from the national education curriculum
2008Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On decidedto implement all of the recommendations of the State Commission of Inquiry into the government's handling of Holocaust survivors.
2008: Palestinian terrorists in Gaza violated a truce agreement with Israel, firing a Kassam rocket at the western Negev town of Sderot.
2008: Iowa native, James Hoyt passed away at the age of 83. As one of the first four American soldiers to discover the Buchenwald labor camp in 1945, James Hoyt rarely slept well. “He’s finally getting the rest he’s never had all these years,” his daughter, Theresa Stewart, 51, of Oxford said. When he closed his eyes, he’d see images of the Nazi concentration camp, which he thought was a mannequin factory when he first saw it before its liberation April 11, 1945, Stewart said. His daughters remembered him as a reserved man who put others first and loved reading, rebuilding cars and solving crossword puzzles.“He had time to listen to anyone and would hear everybody’s story,” Stewart said. For years, Hoyt did not share his own story. He later learned from doctors at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Hoyt of Oxford, Iowa graduated from high school in 1943 and became a private first class after he was drafted in early 1944 to serve in World War II. He was a member of the 6th Armored Division’s 9th Infantry Battalion and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. On April 11, 1945, Hoyt was the radio operator and driver for a four-man reconnaissance team when two Buchenwald escapees flagged them down. The team went to the camp, which was hidden in a forested area. “When the people saw our vehicle with the American markings on it, they really went wild. They tore a part of the fence down. They threw us up in the air,” Hoyt told The Gazette 10 years ago. “It was a very sorry sight all the way. They were skin and bones, the living ones. Of course, there were all kinds of dead ones there.” In all, about 238,500 prisoners were held at the camp. As the years passed, Hoyt became more willing to talk about his experience, helping him to heal, his daughter, Pat Hatcher, said. “We didn’t know what he was fighting,” Hatcher said of the emotional memories. “It helps us understand him better.” After the war in 1949, Hoyt married Doris Hipp. He worked with his brothers in construction before joining the United States Postal Service in Oxford, where he served more than 30 years.
2009(21st of Av, 5769): Robert William LeVine passed away to at the age of 71.(As reported by Emma Stickgold)
2009: Three books about Bernie Madoff – Too Good to Be True: The Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff, Madoff with the Money, Betrayal: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff– all hit the bookstores today.
2009: The National Jewish Retreat opens at Greenwich, Connecticut
2009: Barnes & Noble announces that Rashi by Elie Weisel and Blindman’s Bluff by Faye Kellerman are available at their stores and on-line.
2009: Releases of “Saints & Tzadiks” a CD on which Irish chanteuse Susan McKeown and Lexatics bandleader Lorin Skalmerg sing Yiddish, Irish and blends of Yiddish and Irish songs that highlight “the traditions and similarities as well as the different ways each tradition tells a musical tale.”
2010(1st of Elul, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Elul:
2010: Anat Hoffman leader of the Women of the Wall Prayer group is scheduled to blow the shofar on behalf of the group as she has done for the past 21 years.
2010: US envoy George Mitchell met with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to discuss advancing direct talks with the Palestinians.
2010: IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi told the Turkel Committee today that the IDF made a crucial mistake when it did not resort to accurate fire against those blocking entry to the Mavi Marmara Turkish aid ship as IDF Shayetet 13 commandos rappelled onto the ship from helicopters.
2011: Another session of “Hebrew Literacy: Aleph, Bet, and Beyond” is scheduled to take place at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue.
2011: The Eleventh Memorial for Yiddish Poets is scheduled to take place tonight at the amphitheater in Tekoa. The event memorializes “the victims of the ‘Night of the Murdered Poets’ who were thirteen prominent Jewish figures in the USSR who were secretly executed at Stalin's order on the night between August 12th and August 13th 1952. These were the most outstanding and renowned Jewish writers, intellectuals, poets, musicians and actors of their time.”
2011: At the Off the Wall Comedy Club, Jerusalem funny man David Kilimnick whose funny bone was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, is scheduled to performTu BAv Comedy Special 'Jewish Singles' from The ‘Find Me A Wife’ Show.
2011: Israel's interior minister gave final authorization to build 1,600 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem and will approve 2,700 more in days, officials said today.
2011: Eighty-two year old Juergen Corleis passed away.
2011: Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas) said today during a meeting with that the “time is ripe for an upheaval in the coalition” in order to solve the ongoing social crisis that has rocked the country over the past month. Yishai has repeatedly stated that his party will leave the government coalition if no solution is to be found. As opposed to Yishai, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Yisrael Beiteinu) threw his support behind the government’s policies, calling Israel an “island of stability” in comparison to the ongoing riots occurring across Britain.
2011(11thof Av, 5771): Noach Flug,a Holocaust survivor who dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of other survivors is remembered as "a towering figure" passed away today in Jerusalem at the age of 86.
http://sdjewishjournal.com/site/2516/holocaust-survivor-noach-flug-dies-at-age-86/
2012: Ben Sarasin in scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2012: “Avenue Q,” the musical creation of Jeff Marx is scheduled to have its final performance at the Barter Theatre.
2012: The International Arts and Crafts Fair also known as Hutzot Hayozer is scheduled to open one after the end of Shabbat in Jerusalem.
2012: A fire broke out near the town of Kiryat Tivon, near Haifa, this morning, a few days after firefighters battled repeated blazes in the area believed to have been set by arsonists. Eight firefighting crews supported by two aircraft brought the fire under control. No injuries were reported.
2012: Israeli rhythmic gymnast Neta Rivkin performed well in all four routines at the London Games today, to secure a best-ever Israeli finish in the event.
2013: “The Last White Knight” Paul Saltzman’s documentary about his personal encounter with Mississippi Racism is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The San Diego Jewish Film Festival, PJ Library, Shalom Baby, and Jewish Family Service are scheduled to sponsor “Learn About the Jewish New Year with Elmo” an event designed to prepare youngsters for the upcoming holidays.
2013: “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” an exhibit co-presented by the American Historical Society and Yeshiva University is scheduled to come to an end today.
2013: Harriet Rochlin, the leading expert on Western Jewish History recommends that those who can attend this evening’s opening of “American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco” a film that tells the epic story of pioneer Jews in San Francisco, a number of whom played a significant role in the transformation of a tiny village to California’s first metropolis.
2013: In Cedar Rapids, friends and family are scheduled to celebrate the graduation from Nursing School and Pinning of Rebbitzin Sabrina Thalblum.
2013: “Passages through the Fire: Jews and the Civil War,” a new exhibition presented by the American Jewish Historical Society and Yeshiva University Museum is scheduled to come to an end today.
http://yumuseum.tumblr.com/CivilWar
http://yumuseum.tumblr.com/post/53439310935/kaddish-for-lincoln-in-the-days-following
2013: Just three days before Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are set to resume in Jerusalem. “Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish Home) announced today that 793 new apartments would be built in Jerusalem, and 394 in large settlement blocs in the West Bank.” (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2013: Finance Minister Yair Lapid lashed out today at the decision to build more than one thousand new homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, calling it "a double mistake." Lapid's comments came on the heels of similar condemnation by Meretz leader, Zahava Gal-On, who accused the government of trying to stymie the nascent peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. (As reported by JPost Staff)
2014:”Marvin Hamlisch, What He Did for Love” and “The Jewish Cardinal” are scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Israel will send its team of negotiators back to Cairo today if Hamas honors the 72-hour cease-fire that went into effect at midnight, diplomatic officials said yesterday evening. (As reported by Herb Keinon)
2014: “Former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren denied today that he was fired as a CNN analyst, saying that he asked to suspend his contract, which obligates him to interview exclusively to that network, so he could accept more requests from other media as well.” (As reported by Raphael Ahren)
2014(15th of Av, 5774): “Three Israelis were killed when a train collided with their minibus at a level crossing in the canton of Nidwalden in Switzerland this morning.” (As reported by Stuart Winer)
2014(15th of Av, 5774): Celebration of Tu B’Av, a day devoted to love with no particular ritual but with a long tradition dating back, according to some, to the days when Shiloh was the site of religious observance for the 12 tribes
http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/The-love-festival-Tu-Beav-370593
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3756891,00.html
2015: The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to present “The Car in Contemporary Israeli Cinema”featuring “excerpts from Metallic Blues, Broken Wings and Lost Islands (all of which are Israeli movies from the 2000s) followed by informal discussion with Dr. Moshe Rachmuth, who teaches Modern Hebrew and Israeli cinema at Portland State University.
2015: At a time when “an estimated 47,000 African migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, have managed to illegally enter Israel via Egypt, seeking jobs or asylum” “Residents of south Tel Aviv demonstrated tonight against a High Court of Justice ruling that would limit to 12 months the detention time for migrants in holding facilities” because they feel that their neighborhood has “the State of Israel’s warehouse” for these individuals. (As reported by the Times of Israel)
2015: Julie Azous is scheduled to provide Maj-Johngg training for players at all levels at the 92nd Street Y.
2015: “Inside Out/ Outside In” an exhibition of three women artists including Isa Lousie Levy opened today.
2015: “Hours after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned that Palestinian terror group were seeking to carry out attacks” “members of the IDF, Border Police and Israel Police arrested 15 wanted Palestinians in a series of operations” tonight.(As reported by Stuart Winer)
2016: Comedian Gary Gulman is scheduled to appear at the summer benefit fund raiser sponsored by the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center.
2016: “In a world awash in religious and sectarian tensions, the three Olympic victors in the women’s all-around gymnastics competition delivered a multi-faith mosaic on the medals podium today in Rio, with a Christian, a Jew and a Muslim taking gold, silver and bronze respectively.”
2016: In New Orleans, Congregation Gates of Prayer is scheduled to host the first meeting of PFLAG which “promotes the health and well-being of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, their families and friends through: support, to cope with an adverse society; education, to enlighten an ill-informed public; and advocacy, to end discrimination and to secure equal civil rights.”
2016: Madeline Isenberg is scheduled to lecture on “Different Traditions Even In Death: Ashkenazi vs. Sephardi Tombstones” and Brooke Ganz is scheduled to lecture on “Using the Gesher Galicia Website and All Galicia Database to Research Towns and Families” at the 36thIAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Seattle, Washington.
2017(19th of Av, 5777): “Yisrael Kristal, a Holocaust survivor who was recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s oldest man and one of the ten oldest men who ever lived, passed away today in his home in Haifa. He was one month shy of his 114th birthday.” (As reported by Liel Leibovitz)
2017: Israeli born Canadian tennis player Denis Shapovalob defeated Adrian Mannarion of France today “in day eight of the Rogers Cup.”
2017(19th of Av, 5777): Seventy-eight year old attorney and radio personality Neil Chayet passed away today. (As reported by Richard Sandomir)
2017: “Menashe” a film that “marks the feature debut of documentary-trained director Joshua Z. Weinstein, who shot his movie, partially under wraps across a two-year period, in the Hasidim community of Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Borough Park district” opened in Chicago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-mov-menashe-rev-0811-2017-story.html#
2017: In Weimar, the YSW is scheduled to host “a Shabes-inspired, audience participation evening of song, stories and dance, directed by Alan Bern and Yiddish Summer Weimar artists.”
2017: The Jerusalem Arts and Crafts Fair which started on August 7 and runs until August 19 is closed today because of Shabbat.
2018(30th of Av, 5778): First Day Rosh Chodesh Elul
2018(30th of Av, 5778): Parsashat Re’ay;
2018: “Classical Bridge, an international musical festival, academy and conference designed to build bridges through music” featuring “Israeli musicians Pinchas Zuckerman and Alexander Fiterstein” is scheduled to come to an end today.
2018: As a sign of the vitality of small community Judaism, in Coralville, IA, Pam Hills is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at Congregation Agudas Achim.
2019: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the recently released paperback editions of The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage, and Fear in the Cyber Age by David E. Sager and Conan Doyle for the Defense: How Sherlock Holmes’s Creator Turned Real-Life Detective and Freed a Man Wrongly Imprisoned for Murder by Margalit Fox, the “queen of the obituary writers.”
2019: The American Sephardi Federation and the Sousa Mendes Foundation are scheduled to host “Eleanor Roosevelt and the Jewish Refugees She Save: The Story of the S.S. Quanza which will include a screening the documentary “Nobody Wants Us” followed by a panel discussion “featuring Blanche Wiesen Cook, the leading world expert on Eleanor Roosevelt and the author of her three-volume biography; Michael Dobbs of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and author of The Unwanted (2019), and other experts and eyewitnesses, including a passenger who was on the ship in 1940.”
2019: At the Breman Museum in Atlanta, final showing of the exhibition “Inescapable: The Life and Legacy of Harry Houdini.”
2019(10 of Av, 5779): Fast of Tish’a B’Av observed;
2020: For the first time since its creation, there is no posting for This Day…In Jewish History due to the Derecho that struck Cedar Rapids leaving the author without internet, a hole in the roof filled with a fallen tree, broken windows and other assorted damage.
2021: The Jewish Studio Project is scheduled to facilitate a “discussion of the week’s Torah portion and a creative writing session.”
2021: Israel is scheduled to place “the U.S. and 17 other countries under severe travel restrictions” starting today which means that “all travelers from these specified destinations will be required to quarantine for a minimum of seven days, regardless of whether they had been vaccinated for or recovered from coronavirus.”
2021: Value Culture is scheduled to present Gili Yalo the Ethiopian Israeli musician who blends traditional Ethiopian music with funk, jazz, R&B in an even co-sponsored by the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco.
2022: S.F.-based JCRC is scheduled to host a talk by state Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan and Xochitl Lopez-Ayala of ACCESS Reproductive Justice on various issues and California’s role as a sanctuary state.
2022: The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is scheduled to hold a virtual discussion on Facebook to mark five years since the infamous Unite the Right rally by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 11, 2017
2022: The Indiana Jewish Historical Society, in association with the Delaware County Historical Society and Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, are scheduled to unveil an Indiana historical marker for James G. McDonald to recognize his tremendous contribution to the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust. McDonald later served as America’s first Ambassador to Israel.
2022: JWA is scheduled to host a book talk with “Sam Cohen, author of Sarahland, which brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us, both demanding and providing new origin stories for its cast of Sarahs, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new possibilities for life itself.
2022: The results of Likud primary are expected to be made pubic this morning. (As reported by Amy Spiro)