OCTOBER 4
610: Heraclius attacks Constantinople, overthrows the Byzantine Emperor Phocas Augustus and proclaims himself Emperor. The Christian Emperor attacked his Persian neighbors to the east with disastrous results. In 614, the advancing Persian Army under General Roizanes seized Jerusalem and gave it to the Jews to govern. Three years later Roizanes would change his mind but the 150,000 Jews of Palestine had enjoyed a brief taste of self-government. In an irony of history, Heraclius entered into an alliance with the Khazars, the people who would convert to Judaism two centuries later, and finally defeated the Persians’ This defeat brought Byzantine rule back to Jerusalem with the attendant negative consequences for the Jewish population.
1209: Otto IV is crowned emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Innocent III who in 1205 announced: "God is not displeased, but, rather, finds it acceptable that the Jewish dispersion shall live under Catholic kings and Christian priests. He maintained that Jews were directly subject to Christians and declared that Jews were guilty of “intolerable sin” i.e. the killing of Christ "The Jews' guilt of the crucifixion of Jesus consigned them to perpetual servitude, and, like Cain, they are to be wanderers and fugitives. The Jews will not dare to raise their necks, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery, against the reverence of the Christian faith." As to Otto IV the only connection with the Jews appears to be artistic. In 1839, the German born Jewish painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim would be commissioned to paint a portrait of Otto IV.Innocent III was no friend of the Jews.
1289: Birthdate Louis X, King of France from 1314 to 1316. Louis’s father, Phillip the Fair, had confiscated the property of his Jewish subjects and banished them from the kingdom in 1306. His son discovered that this was a bad business decision for the government. The confiscated property had less value than the taxes the Jews had been paying. Also, the Christians who had replaced the Jews were charging higher rates of interest when lending money. So, reluctantly, the man known as Louis the Stubborn permitted the Jews to return to the realm.
1379: Birthdate of Henry III of Castile who reduced the persecution of the Jews during his reign.
1533(15thof Tishrei, 5249): First Day of Sukkoth
1535: The first complete English-language Bible (the Coverdale Bible) is printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. Since the printing included “the Old Testament” this maybe the earliest translation of some version of the TaNaCh into English
1582: Pope Gregory XIII proclaims what is now called the Gregorian calendar which goes into effect with a ten day adjustment. The, the day after October 4 was October 15. The new calendar would slowly gained in popularity, but it was not until the twentieth century that such places as Russia finally adopted the “new calendar.” The eleven day wrinkle would present challenges for Jews who would convert their calendar and holiday observances to those of the calendars used in the societies in which they lived.
1669: The great Dutch painter Rembrandt passed away today. For more about Rembrandt and the Jewish people see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewish_Bride
http://www.amazon.com/Rembrandts-Jews-Steven-Nadler/dp/0226567362#_
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/12047/what-s-the-scoop-on-rembrandt-and-the-jews/
1683(24thof Tishrei, 5444): Benjamin Beuno De Mesquita passed away today after which he was buried at the “Fist Cemetery of Congregation Shearith Israel” in “Chinatown, Manhattan.”
1712: Utrecht banishes poor Jews
1768(23rdof Tishrei, 5529): Simchat Torah
1768: In Spanishtown, Jamaica, Abraham Rodrigues De Leon and his wife gave birth to Sarah De Leon, the wife of Aaron Correa and the mother of Rachel Correa.
1769: Birthdate of Aaron Moses Schlesinger, the native of Silesia who gained fame as Adolf Martin Schlesinger a leading music publisher whose sons Heinrich and Maurice followed in his musical footsteps.
1775(10thof Tishrei, 5536): First Yom Kippur during the American Revolution.
1784(19thof Tishrei, 5545): Fifth Day of Sukkoth observed my David Hays, a Bedford merchant and the brother of Michael Hays.
1785: In Baltimore, MD, Esther Mordecai and Philip Moses Russel gave birth to Judith Russell.
1787(22ndof Tishrei, 5548): Shmini Atzeret
1789(14thof Tishrei, 5550): Erev Sukkoth
1789: Twenty-five year old, Jacob de Leon, the son of Abraham de Leon and veteran of the Revolutionary War married Hanna Hendricks today.
1791: As a sign of the support for the Dutch monarchy the Jews in the Netherlands joined in celebrating the marriage of the Prince of Orange (the future King William I) to his first cousin Frederica Louisa Wilhelmina.
1792(18thof Tishrei, 5553): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1794(10thof Tishrei, 5555): Yom Kippur
1795(21stof Tishrei, 5556): Hoshana Rabah
1796(2NDof Tishrei, 5557): Israel Baer Kursheedt observed the second day of the Jewish New Year in religious solitude since he was the only Jew aboard the Simonhoff, an American brig sailing across the Atlantic to Boston, MA.
1797: Eighty year old Johann Christian Georg Boedenschatz the “German Protestant theologian” who “devoted his life to Jewish antiquities” and wrote what are considered accurate accounts of “Jewish ceremonials and customs.”
1799: In South Carolina, Rebecca Moses and Solomon Harby gave birth Henry Jefferson Harby, the husband of Leah Tobias with whom he had seven children.
1800(15thof Tishrei, 5561): As Adams and Jefferson face off in the U.S. Presidential election to be held next month, Jews observe the first Sukkoth of the 19thcentury
1804: In Liverpool, UK, Hannah Woolf and Myer Tobias gave birth to Charles J. Tobias
1806: In Warrenton, NC, Philadelphia native Jacob Mordecai and Norwalk, CT. native Rebecca Mears Myers who had been married on March 21, 1798 gave birth to Augustus Mordecai, the husband of Rosina Young.
1807(2ndof Tishrei, 5568): Second Day of Rosh Hashana
1807: Birthdate of Denmark native Sara Meyer, the wife of Hartvig Meyer.
1809: (25 Tishrei 5570): On the secular calendar Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev - a great Chasidic Rebbe, leader and scholar – passed away. Born in 1740, he studied under Dov Baer the Maggid of Mezhirech, and became one of his close friends. Levi Yitzchak stressed the joy in serving God emphasizing the idea of connecting to God through fervent prayer. He always accentuated the good and the positive that was in people. Levi Yitzchak composed Chasidic music and is immortalized by his vivaciously optimistic parables. One of his sayings was, “Whether a man really loves God can be determined by his love for his fellow men.” Levi Yitzchak had his spiritual side, but he also was very much of this world. When he discovered the terrible working conditions of the young girls who were working in the factories baking matzoth, he declared, “The enemies of the Jews accuse us of baking matzoth with the blood of Christians. They are wrong. We are baking them with the blood of Jews.”
1811(16thof Tishrei, 5572): Second Day of Sukkoth
1813(10thof Tishrei, 5574): As Americans continue their fight with the British in the War of 1812, Yom Kippur is observed.
1822: Birthdate of Rutherford B Hayes, 19th President of the United States. To most Americans, Hayes is the winner the 1876 Hayes-Tilden election; an election in which the Democrat Tilden won the popular vote, but thanks to a twisted compromise was won by Hayes in the electoral college. For Jews the Hayes Presidency marked an even greater acceptance of the role of Jews in politics and American society. As evidence of this we find William Evarts, Secretary of State under Hayes, saying in an 1879 speech, “this government has ever felt a deep interest in the welfare of the Hebrew race in foreign counties” which was a green light for American Jews to urge the American government to use its auspices with governments of Eastern Europe on behalf of their oppressed Jewish citizens.
1823: In Essex, England, Catherine Phillips and Laurence Lazarus gave birth to Esther S. Lazarus.
1825(22nd of Tishrei, 5586): On the same day Jews observed Shemini Atzeret, William Carroll wrote to Secretary of State Henry Clay saying that he did not think that Andrew Jackson would run against President John Quincy Adams in the next Presidential elections (boy was he wrong)
1838(15thof Tishrei, 5599): First Day of Sukkoth
1846: Birthdate of Camillo Roth, “a member of the Stoke Exchange” who was buried four decades later in the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1830: Creation of the state of Belgium. Jews are first reported to have lived in what is now Belgium in the first century when they settled their as part of the Roman Empire. The first phase of the Jewish community ended in the 14th century when the Jews were killed or forced to leave because of their alleged role in the bringing of the Black Plague. Jews returned in the 16th century. When the modern state of Belgium was created “Judaism was recognized immediately. Brussels, with a more French influenced Jewish community, had a higher rate of assimilation, while Antwerp, influenced by Yiddish and Flemish, retained traditional forms of Jewish life.” The independence of Belgium had been guaranteed by the Great Powers. In 1914, when German invaded Belgium as part of its plan to conquer France, the British felt compelled to declare war on the Germans. This was the final act that guaranteed the war would be a World War. Not only did the war bring suffering to the Jews of Europe (especially in the East) but as we know it paved the way for the WWII and the Shoah. So much history flows from one minor event on the calendar.
1832(10th of Tishrei, 5593): Yom Kippur
1836(22nd of Tishrei, 5597): Simchat Torah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Andrew Jackson.
1838(15th of Tishrei, 5599): Sukkoth
1839: (25 Tishrei 5600): Moshe (Moses) Sofer of Pressburg passed away. Born in 1762 in Germany, this famous Rabbi was also known as the Chatam Sofer from a name given to a collection of his writings. His last name, Sofer, means scribe in English, indicating that his family engaged in this time-honored important profession. He was invited to lead the Pressburg (Hungary) community which he did with such success that it its yeshiva became one of the leading places of Jewish learning in Europe. One of the unique characteristics of his yeshiva was its emphasis on physical fitness. His students were required to swim in the Danube on a regular basis. He wrote a voluminous collection of Responsa called Chidushai Teshuvot Moshe Sofer (Novella and Responsa of Moses Sofer). It was divided into four parts containing 1377 Responsa. He was a strong supporter of rigid orthodoxy, especially pertaining to change in synagogue ritual. He stood in opposition to the Reform, Chasidic and embryonic Zionist movements. He did believe in supporting the existing community in Palestine and eventually, the Pressburg Yeshiva would relocate to Jerusalem under the leadership of his great-grandson.
1843(10th of Tishrei, 5604): Yom Kippur
1843: In Charleston, SC, Hetty Maria Gomez and Hyman N. Hart who were married at New York in 1841 gave birth to Eudora H. Hart, the wife of Gratz Nathan whom she married in 1867 and with whom she had two children – Constance and Frank.
1847: The Paris Opera began performing a revised version Fromental Halevy’s “Charles VI,” a grand opera in five acts.
1849(15thof Tishrei, 5610): As people from all over the world flock to California in search of newly discovered gold, Jews observe Sukkoth
1849: In Richmond, Samuel H. Myers “one of the brightest and most upright of Masons” was buried today.
1849:Birthdate of Rebecca Klein the wife of Isaac Alsbacher.
1852(21stof Tishrei, 5613): Hoshana Raba
1852: In “Germany” published today reported that the outbreak of cholera in Pomerania has struck the Jewish community with an even greater fury than the general population. The Jews of Pomerania have written to their co-religionists in Posen asking for assistance in dealing with this crisis.
1852: In “Sweden: Minutes and Disturbances” published today reported on violent attacks on Jews living in Stockholm. The violence lasted for three nights. They were caused by an article in the Voice of the People that “excited the populace against the Jews.” The editor of the paper was among those arrested by the police.
1853(2ndof Tishrei, 5614): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1853(2ndof Tishrei, 5614): Hannah Lazarus, the Essex born daughter of Esther Davies and Moses Lazarus, the wife of Hiam Hyam with whom she had eight children, passed away today after which she was buried in the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1854: In "Foreign Items of Literary and Personal News" published today reported that a religious book entitled Life from the Dead by Israel Pick, a Jew from Bucharest who had converted to Christianity has been translated from German into English. After leaving Judaism and before becoming a Christian, Pick had spent time as Pantheist and an Atheist.
1854: Birthdate of Joseph Lazarus Kranson the husband of Caroline Kranson with whom he had ten children before passing away in St. Louis, MO.
1854: In Baltimore, MD, John H. Lopez of Charleston, SC married Maria Cohen, “the daughter of the later Benjamin J. Cohen” of Baltimore.
1855(22ndof Tishrei, 5616): Shmini Atzeret
1856(5thof Tishrei, 5617): Shabbat Shuva
1856: Birthdate of Russian born American journalist and anarchist Abraham Isaak.
1857: In Nashville, TN, Joseph Stein and Dorothea Wolf gave birth to their daughter Fannie Stein, who grew up in Cincinnati and became Fannie S. Miller when she married William M. Miller after which she engaged in several philanthropic and socially useful activities including serving as President of the Philadelphia Section of the Council of Jewish Women and of the Industrial Home for Jewish Girls.
1858: In “The President and the Jews” published today reported that President Buchanan had made use of the phrase " all the nations of Christendom," in his answer to Queen Victoria’s message transmitted by the Atlantic Telegraph. This expression gave offence to Dr. Isidor Kalisch, rabbi of the Ben Jeshurun Congregation in the city of Milwaukee, who wrote to the President demanding an explanation. Isidor Kalisch was a German born Reform Rabbi who held a number of pulpits in a wide variety of American Cities, wrote a prayer book tailored to the needs of the American Jewish community and worked on behalf of women’s rights before his death in 1886.
1859: Forty-one year old Swedish businessman and patron of the arts August Abrahamson married 23 year old opera singer Eufrosyne Abrahamson
1861: Philadelphian, Solomon C. Miller began a three year enlistment with Company A of the 57th Regiment.
1862: The Jews of Baden were unconditionally emancipated. In spite of the fact that much of Prussia had removed the anti-Jewish disabilities years earlier, Baden had refused conditioning it on Jewish cession of outward characteristics. The Jews did not yield on this point and the emancipation took place.
1862(10th of Tishrei, 5623): Yom Kippur
1862: In Cleveland, Ohio, Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, the Consul General at Lyons, France and Hannah Straus gave birth to Mark Percy Da Maduro Peixotto, a graduate of the the Lycée et l'École de Commerce,” the “United States Deputy Consul General at Lyon,” the “director general of the Equitable Life Assurance Company” and the husband of Katherine de Sadowski.
1862: During the Civil War Union forces including Jewish soldiers from Indiana fight the second and last day of the Battle of Corinth where they face Southern forces that include Jewish soldiers from Mississippi.
1862: The Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury reported that, “yesterday was the commencement of Yom Kippur, or the Jewish Day of Atonement, one of the three great holy days observed by the sons of the sons of Israel throughout the world. These are the Passover, when the passage of the Israelites over the Red Sea is celebrated in the feast of unleavened bread, typical of the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Christian dispensation; the Feast of Tabernacles, to denote that the sons of Jacob once dwelt in tents in the wilderness; and the Day of the Atonement, when each Jew was enjoined to redeem his soul figuratively by the presentation of a half shekel, and nothing less or more, whether the presentee be rich or poor. The day is celebrated by the modern Jews by a strict fast. Their places of business are all closed, and their synagogues are all opened. On the eve of the great day the Holy Book of the Law is brought from the Ark with great ceremony and read by the hazan, or minister. Prayers are held in all the synagogues from that time till the next night — literally even to even — by the faithful Israelites, who are expected to [cleanse] their souls by abstaining from meat and drink. At the close of the day — that is the evening — a good lookout is kept for the first star, when the previous fast of twenty four hours gives way to a very sensible feast, and happy is he or she who first discovers that same first star.”
1863(21stof Tishrei, 5624): Hoshana Raba
1863: Birthdate of David Hayyim Bacharach the Russian born American Rabbi who served Congregations in Trenton, NJ and Providence, RI.
1864: In Brooklyn,Mr. Michael Jacobs brought charges against Patrolman George W. Osward claiming that “the officer had arrested him without cause, manacled him and been privy to the breaking of his furniture. It appeared that the complainant had beaten one of his fellow Jews and that the officer had pursued Mr. Jacobs into his house and had only handcuffed him after Jacobs had resisted the officer. A witness was introduced to show that the officer had arrested Jacobs for fighting, and it appeared that the combat rose from a dispute concerning religious matters, one of the disputants having characterized the other as an apostate Jew and asserted that he had perjured himself three times in court.” Charges against the officer were dismissed since it was “clear that the officer had been guilty of no offence whatever.” In dismissing the complainant, the presiding officer of the court advised Mr. Jacobs to appeal to Rabbi Morris Raphall. Apparently, the judge felt that Mr. Jacobs’s case was really a religious dispute and apparently Rabbi Raphall was well known in secular as well as Jewish circles.
1865(14th of Tishrei, 5626): Erev Sukkoth
1867: In New York City, Henry and Katherine (Yasnigi) Grossman gave birth to NYU trained attorney William Grossman, the husband of Carrie Basch and a member of West End Synagogue.
1867(5thof Tishrei, 5628): Seventy-eight year old Eduard Israel Kley an early leader of the Reform movement who replaced Bar Mitzvah with Confirmation and led services on Sunday passed away today in Hamburg, Germany.
1871: In Prenzlau, Germany, David Mayer and Clara Devora Mayer (Gottschalk) gave birth to Gustav Jaokoby Mayer.
1871: Sixty-five year old Mary Lyon the wife of Lewis Lyon of Grays Inn Road Holborn was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1872(2ndof Tishrei 5633): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1872: It was reported today that the business places owned by Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey, were closed yesterday because of Rosh Hashanah.
1874(23rdof Tishrei, 5635): Simchat Torah
1875: In Baltimore, MD, Dr. Phillip Moses Russell and Esther (Mordecai) Russell to Judith Russell Nathans.
1875: It was reported today that the Board of Education of Chicago has been dealing with the issue of the Bible in public schools. Catholics, Jews and non-sectarians are opposed to the reading. Baptist and Methodist leaders have been quite outspoken in their opposition to the removal of Bible readings from the opening class ceremonies. The issue has drawn national attention including comments from Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler who thinks that Christianity could benefit from the removal of Scripture from the public schools.
1875: It was reported today that the Governor of Baghdad has sent a telegram to the Porte (Ottoman Empire) denying a report that a Turks living in that city had murder a Jew.
1876(16thof Tishrei, 5637): Second Day of Sukkoth
1876: Texas A&M University opens as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas, becoming the first public institution of higher education in Texas. By 1916, there were enough Jews on campus to justify the formation of an organization dedicated to their needs. It was called the TAMC Menorah Club and it was organized by Dr. Jacob Joseph Taubenhaus, a native of Safed who was chief of the plant pathology and physiology division of the school from 1916 to 1937. In 1920, the club became the TAMC Hillel Club technically making it the oldest Hillel House in the United States; older even than the Hillel at the University of Illinois which was not founded until 1923 and is usually credited with being the first Hillel House.
1877: The Budapest University of Jewish Studies (Landesrabbinerschule) opened today. Rabbi Wilhelm Bacher, a noted Orientalist who had been named to a professorship at the school, delivered the inaugural address. The seminary was funded by the government to promote “Neolog Judaism” a mildly reformist movement. The school taught a mixture of Judaism and Hungarian culture that would help the Jews be ardent Hungarian nationalists.
1877: It was reported today that in the last fortnight, 500 Jews who are fleeing from “the cruelties and persecutions” of the Bulgarians have sought refuge in Wallachia. The Bulgarians had stolen everything from the Jews who owed their lives to detachments of The Russian Army who took them across the border where they could be cared for by their Romanian co-religionists. The Romanian Jews have already shown their generosity by providing funds for the purchase of field ambulances to be used by the army. Their behavior put “to shame the noisy but empty protestations” of “the Christian wearers of the Geneva Cross.” [This is a reference to the Red Cross. The events described took place during the Russo-Turkish War.]
1877: It was reported today that the term Israelite “is being substituted for the insulting expression” of Pharisee “long…in use to designate the chosen people. According to one author “an Israelite was only a Jew who had made a fortune.”
1878: Harry Marks was named editor of “The Jewish Journal,” a weekly publication that had first appeared in 1869.
1878: Birthdate of Selmar Aschheim, the Berlin born gynecologist who developed a pregnancy test that bears his name. He fled Nazi Germany in 1933 but survived the war. He passed away in 1965.
http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/11/2/165.full.pdf
1879: Birthdate of German native Joseph Shinglman, who in 1904 came to the United States where he practiced medicine in Cicero, Illinois while a son and future doctor, Willard Edwin Shinglman with his wife Anna Behrman Shinglman.
1882(21stof Tishrei, 5643): Hoshanah Rabah
1882: Simeon Phillips, the “son of Solomon Phillips and Caroline Solomon” who was an Australian legislator from New South Wales and his wife Rosetta Phillips gave birth to Solomon David Phillips
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/marcus-minnie-lichtenstein
1884(15thof Tishrei): Sukkoth
1884: As of today, the Church Missionary Society has spent $600,000 since 1851 and the London Jews’ Society has spent $150,000 since 1877 on “missions to the Jews of Palestine and neither has a single convert to show for the money spent.
1884: Birthdate of American writer Damon Runyon. Runyon was not Jewish. But he was the writer who brought a certain slice of New York life to America; a slice of life often connected with the Jewish subculture. Runyon was a native of Manhattan, Kansas that is, but he was able to bring to life the ethnic existence of Manhattan, New York, including Mindy’s cheese cake and Nathan Detroit who was modeled after Arnold Rothstein. But Runyon could also be a serious defender of Jews when attacked by anti-Semites. When Jews were vilified as cowards Runyon used the heroics of Sergeant Sam Dreben to express his feelings in a now-famous poem, "The Fighting Jew." In this poem, Runyon wrote that whenever he read about prejudices against the Jews and of racial hatred, he was reminded of the heroic fighting Jew, Sam Dreben. He was also reminded of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Croix de Guerre, the Militare and other medals that were awarded to Sergeant Dreben. Runyon ended his poem with: “THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE A FEW, LIKE DREBEN A JEW. The Broadway musical and movie, “Guys and Dolls” was based on characters created by Runyon
1884: Alexander Edelstein, an English born Jew who had come to the United States about 15 months ago, was arrested on charges of having collected commission from his employer on “bogus orders.”
1885: The sanctuary at Temple Emanu-El in New York City was completely filled with mourners who had come to attend this afternoon’s memorial service in honor of the late Sir Moses Montefiore.
1885: Birthdate of Jacob Rainovitz, a native of Mistislav, Russia.
1886(5thof Tishrei, 5647): Sixty-seven year old Mary Anker Bendel, the Bavarian born daughter of “Moses and Sprinz Schmitt Anker” and the wife of Henry Bendel with whom she had nine children and lived for a while in Bethlehem, NY passed away today after which she was “buried in the Jewish section of Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, KY
1886: Police Inspector Wood is to be arrested and arraigned on charges related to the death of Max Aronson who was allegedly beaten by the police who then denied him medical attention.
1887: In Syracuse, NY, Meyer Winkelstein and Ida Marquisee gave birth to Moses Winkelstein, the graduate of Syracuse University and husband of Martha M. Holstein who was President of both the Community Chest and the Jewish Welfare Federation.
1887: Publication of “Jews in Shushan” by Rudyard Kipling
http://www.online-literature.com/kipling/lifes-handicap/7/
http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_jewshushan1.htm
1888(29thof Tishrei, 5649): Sixty-two year old Elizabeth Meyers, the daughter Hester Levy and Daniel Meyers passed away today after which she was buried in the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1889(9thof Tishrei, 5650): Erev Yom Kippur
1889: Insomnia and fear of suffering major loss due to the crackdown on gambling house was the reason given today for the death of Jewish businessman Joseph M. Marchus who shot himself yesterday in front of the Orleans Parish Prison.
1889: “The Fast of Yom Kippur” published today described the rituals of “the Day of Atonement” during which the Orthodox practices a 24 hour fast that “allows neither food nor drink to pays his lips;” an observance of which “has fallen into disuse among the Reform Jews.”
1889: “About five hundred members and guests of the Pioneers of Liberty, an organization recently formed by the United Hebrew Trades” were turned away from Clarendon Hall tonight where they had expected to hear a concert and dance at a ball. The disappointed revelers claimed that the manager of the hall been intimated into closing the venue by a group of Orthodox Jews.
1889: “Gamblers Commit Suicide” published today described the impact of New Orleans May Shakespeare’s closing of the gambling establishments in the Crescent City. Among those who apparently died by their own hand was a young Jew named Joseph Marcus who was “a silent partner” in one such establishment and was driven to this by fear of great economic loss.
1890: Birthdate of Austrian native Morris Jacobovits, who served as a rabbi in Cologne and Strasbourg as well as a chaplain in the French Army and worked with “the French Underground and various American relief organizations” to help adults and children regardless of religion during the occupation before escaping to Switzerland with his family and finally arriving in New York where he served “Congregation K’hall Adath Jeshurun.”
1891(2nd of Tishrei, 5652): On the day the American Association plays its last game of the baseball season, Jews observe Rosh Hashanah
1891: In Alpena, Michigan, Temple Beth El hosted Rosh Hashanah services as part of the compromise between Orthodox and Reform members of the congregation.
1891: “Russia’s Persecuted Jews” published today includes a summary of the sermon given by Dr/ Max Landsberg, the Rochester rabbi who praised the articles written by Harold Frederic and published by the New York Times that provided a first hand of the wretched conditions under which Russian Jews are living.”
1891: Joseph Barondess, the former head of the Cloakmakers’ Union remained in jail today after having been returned from Canada. Barondess had been out on bail while he appealed his conviction on charges of extorting money from the city’s cloak manufacturers for which he was sentenced to 21 months in prison. Barondess claimed that he had only gone to Quebec to seek work since nobody would hire him in New York and that he had every intention of returning once he had earned some money.
1891: A list of courses to be offered by Cornell University published today included an “Introduction to a History of the Jews” taught by Dr. W.F. Wilcox, “Hebrew Poetry” taught by Dr. O.F. Emerson who will apply “sympathetic literary criticism” to a study of Job and Psalms and “The Book of Samuel,” a course open only to women. (Editor’s note – no reason is given for this)
1891: Abraham Langer, a Jew who owns a poultry shop on Ridge Street was robbed while driving his wagon tonight by two knife-wielding men while he was on his way to buy animals to sell to his customers.
1892: Captain Crémieu-Foa, the anti-Semitic French officer who had been transferred to Tunis to avoid any further duels with Jewish officers was part of the French force that attacked the rebels at Poguessa in Dahomey.
1893: Birthdate of St. Charles, MO native Fannie Frank Cook, the husband of Jerome Cook and the winner of the George Washington Carver Memorial Award for her novel, Mrs. Palmer’s Honey.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/fannie-cook/mrs-palmers-honey/
1893: “Dr. A. Stocker, Anti-Semite” published today described the arrival in New York of Adolf Stocker, the former chaplain at the court of the Kaiser who “is known throughout the civilized world as an ardent leader of the anti-Semitic agitation in Germany.”
1894: Max Moskowitz, the first witness to testify before the Lexow Committee, told about a friend of his who was arrested for selling sandwiches on a Sunday but was able to avoid jail time by paying “$2 to the doorman at the police station.”
1895(16thof Tishrei, 5656): Second Day of Sukkoth
1895: “Meeting of Rabbis in Cincinnati” published today described plans for the upcoming meeting of the Executive Committee of the Central Conference of Rabbis.
1895: John Allen’s Modern Judaism, W.H. Rule’s History of the Karaite, Rabbi Grossman’s Judaism and the Science of Religion and T.A. Davis’s Am I a Jew or a Gentile were among the “many books of solid worth offered at the sale of the William Berrian library today by Bangs & Co.
1896: In Philadelphia, Joseph and Clara Zeidman gave birth to Benjamin “Bennie” Zeidman, the Hollywood producer best known as B.F. Zeidman.
1896: It was reported today that Joseph L. Buttenweiser delivered a talk on “The Influence of Machinery and Education on Labor” at the Assembly Hall of the Hebrew Technical Institute in what was supposed to be “the first of a series of lectures” sponsored by institute’s alumni association.
1897(8thof Tishrei, 5658): In England, 20 year old Vivian Ernest Kennard, “the second son of Eva and the late Alred Kennard pass away today.
1897(8thof Tishrei, 5658): In England, the infant Gerald Lindo, who had not reached three months of age, passed away today.
1897(8thof Tishrei, 5658): Fifty-four year old Polish born “master tailor” Louis Harris, the husband of Mena Wingard and the father of Israel Harris passed away today after which he was buried at the West Ham Jewish Cemetery.
1898(18h of Tishrei, 5659): Fourth Day of Sukkot (Chol Hamoed)
1898: Jacob and Bella Pesin gave birth to Samuel Pesin, “an assistant corporation counsel” in Jersey City for the past 11 years, “a member of the John Marshall Law College,” a former President of Congregation Mount Sinai in Jersey City Heights and husband of Libby Pesin with whom he had two children – Edward and Ada.
1898: “Realizing that he was dying Charles Koransky had hotel keeper Abraham Solomon summon his friend Jacob Janowitz to his bedside, who realizing how desperate the situation was called for an ambulance to take him to Gouverneur Hospital.
1899(30thof Tishrei, 5660): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1899(30thof Tishrei, 5660): Seventy-eight year old Rebecca Hyams, the widow of Moses Hyams passed away today after which she buried at the Plashet Jewish Cemetery in London.
1900: On the day after Yom Kippur, Bloomingdale’s which was founded in 1861 by Joseph B, and Lyman G, Bloomingdale, is selling, “for today only” “Women’s Silk Waists” for $2.57
1901(21st of Tishrei, 5662): Hoshanah Rabah observed for the first time during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt
1902(3rdof Tishrei, 5663): Shabbat Shuva
1902: When Secretary of State Hay returned to Washington today, “he found on his desk a large number of letters from prominent Jews in every part of the” United States thanking him “for his efforts on behalf of the Romanian Jews “as exhibited in his note to the powers signatory to the treaty of Berlin.”
1903: Dr. Harry Friedenwald, “representative of the local Zionist at the last Zionist Congress” is scheduled to speak at local theatre in Baltimore, MD.
1903: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Levy Cohen and Lena Berger.
1903 (13th of Tishrei, 5664): Erratic Austrian author Otto Weininger passesd away, apparently by his own hand.
1904: In Newark, NJ, haberdasher Max Joachim and his wife Pauline gave birth to Samuel Joachim, who gained fame as Jimmy Ritz, “the second Ritz Brother.
1904: Twenty-five year old Indiana Law School trained attorney Lawrence Bowen Davis, the Indianapolis, IN born son of Mark and Rebecca Davis who was a member of the law firm of Newberger, Simon and Davis and a member of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation married Isabel Haas today.
1904: It was reported today that “a colony to be composed of Jews from” New York’s East Side, “is soon to be established on the 150 acre Van Norstrand farm in Nassau County, NY.”
1905: Birthdate of Chelsea, MA native and Boston University Law School graduate Ada Feinberg York, “a lawyer for the NLRB,” “Republican candidate of Secretary of State of Massachusetts” and “former vice president of the Women’s Division of the American Jewish Congress” who was the wife realtor and insurance broker Benjamin H. York with who she raised a son and two daughters.
1906 (15th of Tishrei, 5667): Sukkoth
1906 (15th of Tishrei, 5667): Alex Simon passed away. Simon was born in Konin, Poland, arrived in Brenham when Texas was still the Republic of Texas. His arrival marked the beginning of the influential Simon family's involvement in the Brenham Jewish community. Alex Simon was one of the founders and builders of the B'nai Abraham Synagogue. He was also one of the principal investors in the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad, "which brought Jewish immigrants up from Galveston through the Brazos River valley to Bryan and out to San Angelo."
1907(26th of Tishrei, 5668): Forty-eight year Marianna Kahn, the daughter of Juliane Leve and Isaac Kahn passed away today after which she was buried in the Schweich Jewish Cemetery
1908(9th of Tishrei, 5669): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre chanted for the last time during the Presidency of Teddy Roosevelt.
1908 (9th of Tishrei, 5669): In Houston Texas Adath Yshurun Kol Nidre Services begin at 6:30 p.m. and include a sermon entitled “What’s the Use?” which is delivered in English.
1909(19thof Tishrei, 5670): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1909: Birthdate of James B. Prichard the University of Pennsylvania archaeologist who led six expeditions from 1956 to 1962 that excavated the remains of Gibeon which played a prominent role in many of the Biblical stories found in the first part of the second section of the TaNaCh – “Prophets.”
1909:First Enrollment of students for Dropsie College takes place in Philadelphia, Pa.
1909: Israel Effendi was appointed Chief of Police in Turkey.
1909: Birthdate of Pittsburgh native and California trained lawyer Murray Chotiner, the original political mentor of Richard Nixon.
https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKchotiner.htm
1909(19thof Tishrei, 5670): Thirty-four year old Rena L. Phillips passed away today after which she was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.
1910(1stof Tishrei, 5671): As the world was racked with political upheaval in such disparate places as China, Mexico and Portugal, Jews observed Rosh Hashanah
1910: “Tolstoy Opposes the Pale” published today reports that the Count believes “the regulations setting aside a restricted district” which is the only place where Jews can reside legally, “are not only absurd and ineffectual but” violate “the natural right of all beings to live and move upon the earth.”
1911: Much to the relief of some Jewish merchants, Home Secretary Winston Churchill expressed a willingness “to omit Sunday-closings from the Shop Hours Bill.”
1911: As opposition to the admittance of Eastern European Jews into the United Kingdom, the “Stepney Borough Council in London adopted a “resolution urging the Government to pass further measures regulating alien immigration.
1912(23rdof Tishrei, 5673): Simchat Torah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of William Howard Taft.
1912: In New Castle, PA, Ina and Rabinowitz and Benjamin Otto Shulman gave birth to Bernard Schulman who gained famed as University of Virginia graduate and Democratic party member turned savings and loan mogul Bart Lytton, the husband of the former Beth Golden.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1969/06/30/78384908.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1913(3rdof Tishrei, 5674): Shabbat Shuva observed for the first time during the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson.
1913(3rdof Tishrei, 5674): Nine year old Schlome Ruwen Munitz passed away today.
1914: The funeral for Rabbi Daniel Lowenthal is scheduled to take place today with interment in Mount Hope Cemetery, Cypress. Among the mourners are his widow, the former Miss Theresa Lichtenstein and his four children – Justice of the Peace Samson Lowenthal, Monroe Lowenthal, Leo B. Lowenthal and Mrs. Carl Levi.
1914: “Three months after the outbreak of WW I,” in “response to urgent pleas for help from Jews in in Eastern Europe and Palestine,” “the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering through the War or Central Relief Committee (CRC) was formed today
1915: “The Day, the Jewish daily, today received a wireless message from its editor Herman Bernstein who is traveling in the belligerent countries sayings that “Russian outrages against the Jewish population are continuing despite rumors circulated that their condition has improved.”
1915: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue was quoted today as favoring the creation of a Jewish Congress to work for the rights of Jews living in the belligerent countries contending that the opponents, however “admirable” they may be, are acting as if their “personal domains were being invaded” by usurpers seeking to intrude on their power in the American Jewish community.
1915: In London, “W.A. Appleton, Secretary of the General Federation of Trade issued a statement giving the results of representations made by him on behalf of the Workers; League for Jewish Emancipation to the Russian Finance Minister in the course of the latter’s recent visit to London” in which thousands of Jews expressed their concerns for their co-religionists in Russia and looked for a sign that “they would receive the rights of citizens.”
1915: It was reported today that “Rabbi Nathan Krass of Temple Israel of Brooklyn has written to the Board of Education to protest against the Writ system which is being introduced in some of the Bronx schools as an experiment in which the pupils are to go to different religious beliefs” saying he is “opposed to any system which connect religious education with public schools” because “it will break up the Democratic Sprit.
1916: “Harmony among Jews in the United States was restored” tonight “by the adoption of a new plan” approved “by representatives of the Conference of National Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Congress Organization” that will lead to the creation of the American Jewish Congress which will “demand equal rights Jews in European countries.”
1916: “Chief Rabbi Jaffee of 205 East Broadway has enlisted the services of former Secretary of State Samuel S. Koenig to head a deputation of rabbis and prominent east side Jews to call on Mayor Mitchell today and ask” that Health Commissioner Haven Emerson’s ban “on the ancient custom followed by Orthodox Jews of sacrificing a fowl in connection with the Day of Atonement “be removed until the Jewish celebrations are over.”
1916: Assemblyman A.J. Shiplacoff presided over a mass meeting tonight at Cooper Union held under the auspices of the National Workmen’s Committee on Jewish Rights where speakers including Representative Meyer London, Dr. Henry Moskowitz and Morris Hillquit gave voice to the protest “against the proposed plan of Great Britain to deport all Russian and Rumanian refuges unless they immediately joined the British Army.”
1916: Birthdate of Long Island City native director and producer George Sidney
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/07/arts/george-sidney-85-director-of-many-movie-musicals.html
1916: In Zurich, Paul Gluck-Friedman and Henia Shipper gave birth to Rose Gluck who as Rose Warfman survived Auschwitz and became “a heroine of the French Resistance.
1916: Birthdate of Vitaly Ginzburg, the Jewish born Soviet Physicist and Nobel Prize winner who was an avowed atheist.
1916: Birthdate of Murray Janofsky, the Bronx native who gained fame as comedian Jan Murray.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/03/nyregion/03murray.html
1917: At a meeting of the British Cabinet, Edwin Montagu, the one Jew in the Lloyd George government, continued to express his opposition to what would become the Balfour Declaration. Under pressure from Montagu and his supporters Prime Minister Lloyd George and Lord Balfour watered down the original draft, modifying, among other things the strong statement “that Palestine should be reconstituted as the National Home of the Jewish People.”
1917: Samuel Untermyer, the prominent Jewish lawyer and civic leader issued a statement today “replying to an attack made on him by Mayor Mitchell” denying the claim that he had met with Konstantin Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to the United States who had been expelled on charges of espionage and stating that he would have no further comment on other false charges for the time being because he is leaving New York “on a two week’s speaking” at the request of Secretary McAdoo “in aid of the Liberty Loan.”
1917: It was reported today that Judge McIntyre in General Sessions said that “thousands of Jews have enlisted all over the country” and that “to call a man a dirty Jews might well lead to a breach of the peace.”
1918: During World War I, U.S. Army Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman charged a German machine gun in the Argonne Forest that had pinned down his unit. He singlehandedly captured the gun and the crew despite the fact that his right arm had been shattered and by the time he reached his objective he was armed with a pistol that had no more bullets. For this he earned the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1918: Max Seltzer of New York was cited for bravery today which would lead to him receiving the Distinguished Service Cross in October of 1920
1918: In New York City, Rose Kantrowitz wife of general practitioner Bernard Abraham gave birth to U.S. heart surgeon and medical investigator Adrian Kantrowitz. Adrian Kantrowitz was responsible for pioneering developments in circulatory assist devices, artificial organs, medical electronics, heart transplantation, and research motion pictures.
1918(28thof Tishrei, 5679): Twenty-eighty year old Abraham Kranson passed away after which he was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Natchitoches, LA.
1918: On the edge of the Argonne Forest, after having been separated from his patrol and having his right arm shattered by a machine gun bullet, Sergeant Benjamin Kaufman of Company K, 308th Infantry, Seventy-seventh Regiment, began tossing grenades with left arm, “charged the enemy position with an empty pistol, scattered the crew and brought the gun and one prisoner back to the a dressing-station.
1918: The 165th Regiment, including Sergeant Abraham Blaustein hiked from Mondrecourt to Jubecourt where it was reunited with “the old 12thNew York regiment.”
1918: “The Vokstimme of Chemnitz of Germany, published a protest against the ill-treatment of Jews in the occupied Russian territory, declaring that ‘unheard of cruelties’ have been visited upon them”
1918: In the wake of the successful Allied Offense on the Western Front, German Chancellor Max von Baden whom he Kaiser had appointed three days before sent a telegram to President Wilson asking for an Armistice.
1919(10thof Tishrei, 5680): Yom Kippur
1919: Eighty-seven year old Bavarian born David Weil, the husband of Rosina Simon Weil, passed away today in Montgomery, Alabama.
1919: Birthdate of Baruch Spiegel, the son of a Warsaw leather maker who, would become one of the approximately 750 Jewish fighters who actually took part in the armed resistance known as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and who escaped through the sewers to fight as partisan for the rest of WW II. (As reported by Joseph Berger)
1920(22ndof Tishrei, 5681): Shmini Atzeret
1920: In Brooklyn Temple Beth Elohim held holiday services today.
1920: In New York City, Jacob H. Schiff bequeathed $1,350,000 “to various charities and philanthropic institutions.”
1921(2ndof Tishrei, 5682): As President Harding enjoys his seventh month in the White House, Jews observe a second day of Rosh Hashanah
1921: It was reported today that during Rosh Hashanah rabbis “preached on the limitation of armaments, criticism of the prohibition law, the Ku Klux Klan, the new immigration law and the ‘movies’.”
1922: In St. Paul, MN, an address was delivered today “at the 46th annual convention of the American Humane Association on “The Jewish Method of Slaying Animals.” (See page 52 for the text)
1923: In Washington, “Frank and Phoebe Lazarus” who one time “ran a bicycle shop” gave birth to Charles Phillip Lazarus, the founder of Toys R Us. (As reported by Michael Corkery)
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/22/obituaries/charles-p-lazarus-toys-r-us-founder-dies-at-94.html/
1924: Birthdate of Donald J. Sobol, the Bronx native who created “Encyclopedia Brown, the clever boy detective.” (As reported by Denise Grady)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/books/donald-j-sobol-creator-of-encyclopedia-brown-dies-at-87.html
1925(16thof Tishrei, 5686): Second Day of Sukkoth
1925(16thof Tishrei, 5686): Rose Flora Eisendrath, the German born daughter of Bertha and Moses Eisendrath, and the “wife of Emanuel Raphael Weil with whom she had three children – Leon, Florence and Mildred – passed away today in Chicago.
1925: Sir Harry Gloster Armstrong, the British Consul General at New York, addressed a meeting of the Palestine Chamber of Commerce at the Hotel Pennsylvania. He “extolled the aspirations behind the movement to develop the ancient hol land as national centre of the Jewish race.” Sir Harry reviewed the improving economic conditions in the country siting the “growth of industry and increase in imports.”
1925: Opening day of the Palestine-Near East Exhibition and Fair at Tel Aviv.
1926: “The Queen of Moulin Rouge” directed by Robert Wiene was released today in Berlin.
1927: Birthdate of Minneapolis native Daniel Dworsky, the four year starter at the University Michigan under the legendary Fritz Crisler, including 1947 and 1948 when team went undefeated and won the National Championship twice and then after playing pro-ball for a year returned to school, graduated with a degree in architecture and then went on to a decades long career that included designing everything from the Crisler Arena, to the Jerry Lewis Neuromuscular Researach Center to the Federal Reserve Bank building in Los Angeles.
1928(20thof Tishrei, 5689): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1928: In New York, Sam and Rose Toffler gave birth to Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock.
1928: Birthdate of Michael Steinberg. According to his obituary, Steinberg was an influential classical music critic, teacher, lecturer and author, and the pre-eminent program annotator of his day. Born in Breslau, Germany, Steinberg’s mother had him sent to safety in England through Kindertransport, the rescue mission that saved nearly 10,000 refugee Jewish children in the months before World War II. After the war, he, his mother and his elder brother lived in St. Louis. After Princeton, while studying in Italy on a Fulbright scholarship, Mr. Steinberg met his first wife, Jane Bonacker. They divorced in 1977, having had two sons, Sebastian and Adam. Later he married, Jorja Fleezanis, the concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra since 1989. Trained as a musicologist, with a degree from Princeton University, Mr. Steinberg spent his early career teaching music history at the Manhattan School of Music. He came to wide attention as the music critic for The Boston Globe for nearly 12 years, until 1976. While a critic he continued to teach at the New England Conservatory, Brandeis University and other colleges. His reviews were erudite and readable, his interests wide-ranging. He stood up for intellectually formidable composers at a time when a postmodernist backlash was taking root and also encouraged the early-music movement, which thrived in Boston during this period. He was a regular critic of the conductor Seiji Ozawa’s work at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Orchestra officials openly expressed their dismay with Mr. Steinberg’s critiques. So the Boston musical community was stunned when, in 1976, Mr. Steinberg accepted a position as program annotator for the Boston Symphony. It seemed as if he had switched camps. But according to Kathryn King, a public relations agent and friend, Mr. Steinberg had grown tired of reviewing. “For years,” she added, “he harbored a secret desire to write program notes for a major symphony and to serve as an artistic adviser or administrator.” His work as an annotator was immediately popular. Suddenly, reading Mr. Steinberg’s long, analytic program notes, rich with anecdotal information and historical context, became an essential part of attending a Boston Symphony concert. Yet it was not until 1979, when he became the publications director and artistic adviser of the San Francisco Symphony, a position he held for 10 years, that Mr. Steinberg had the opportunity to affect repertory and artistic policy. Mr. Steinberg’s program notes, full of vivid descriptions of pieces, were collected in a series of listeners’ guides: “The Symphony,” “The Concerto” and “Choral Masterworks,” published by Oxford University Press. His account of the “alien and terrifying” opening pages of the finale of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is typical. “From the thud of a low C,” Mr. Steinberg wrote, “there arises an encompassing swirl of strangely luminous dust: harp glissandos, a woodwind chord, and chains of trills on muted strings.” He died of colon cancer at the age of 80 at his home in Edina, Minnesota, outside of Minneapolis.
1929 (29thof Elul, 5689): Unbeknownst to the Jews as they gather on Erev Rosh Hashanah the nation’s economy is on the verge of collapse.
1929: “Eight hours before Jews held services this evening at the Wailing Wall, ushering in the Jewish new year, 5690, the British authorities took extraordinary precautions to prevent any recurrence of disturbances.”
1930(12thof Tishrei, 5691): Parashat Ha’Azinu
1930: Northwestern University led by Guard Hyman “Hy” Crizevsky defeated Tulane University in its first game of the season.
1931(23rdof Tishrei, 5692): Simchat Torah
1931(23rdof Tishrei, 5692: Seventy-nine year old Daniel Henry Cardozo, Sr the New York born son of Sarah and Abraham Hart Cardozo and husband of Clara Cardozo with whom he had three son, Dan, Benjamin and Clifford, passed away today.
1932: Anti-Semite Julius Gombos forms new a government in Hungary.
1932: “With a goal of 10,000,000 members and the announced intention of "combating legislation for prepayment of the bonus," an organization to be incorporated as the National Committee Against Prepayment of the Bonus held its first meeting at the Hotel Commodore this afternoon and elected S. Stanwood Menken national chairman.”
1933: In a bid to control the media and drive the Jews from German cultural life, the newly empowered Nazi government promulgated the Newspaper Editors' Law. It made Aryan origin a prerequisite for anyone editing a German newspaper.
1934: Twenty-four year old Harry Blitman fought his seventy-fifth bout which turned out to be his last pugilistic victory.
1934(25thof Tishrei, 5695): Seventy-year old Arnhem native Benjamin Prins, whose second wife was Rosa Benari, the niece of painter Moritz Oppenheimer and whose “brother-in-law Jacob Eisenman founded the Eisenmann Synagogue in Antwerp” passed away today in Amsterdam.”
http://www.artnet.com/artists/benjamin-liepman-prins/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Prins#/media/File:Prins1.JPG
1935:“The gradual building up of an underground mass-movement against the Hitler regime, which is gaining a momentum that may lead to its overthrow in the not too distant future, was reported today by B. Charney Vladeck, president of the American ORT and general manager of The Jewish Daily Forward, who returned on the French liner Lafayette, after an extended tour of European countries.”
1936(18th of Tishrei, 5697): Fourth Day of Sukkoth – Chol Hamoed
1936(18th of Tishrei, 5697): Sixty-four year old Jesse Isidor Straus, a member of the Straus family best known for its ownership of R.H. Macy & Co passed away. Born in 1872, he was the son of Isidor Strauss who died on the Titanic and the nephew of Nathan Straus for whom Netanya is named. He was an early supporter of Franklin Roosevelt who appointed named him U.S. Ambassador to France in 1933, a post he held until just before his death.
1936: In London, formation of Jewish People’s Council
1936:“The Battle of Cable Street took place on Sunday in Cable Street in the East End of London. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police Service, overseeing a legal march by the British Union of Fascists, led by Oswald Mosley, and anti-fascists, including local Jewish, groups. The majority of both marchers and counter-protesters travelled into the area for this purpose. Mosley planned to send thousands of marchers dressed in uniforms styled on those of Blackshirts through the East End of London, which had a large Jewish population. “It was a defining moment in British and Anglo-Judaic history, not least for making the government bring in legislation that crippled right wing activity, including a ban on political uniforms, pre-World War II.” This watershed moment in Anglo-Jewish history would be the subject of a film made seventy years after the event and has been memorialized by the Jews of London’s East End.
1936: “More than 3,000 members of Greater New York units of Junior Hadassah” gathered “in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor...to open its fall program and membership drive. “Shulamith Schwartz who had served as head of the organization and has been teaching in Tel Aviv for the last two years was the principal speaker for the evening.
1936: “An attack on the persecution of Jews in the world today an appeal for love and sympathy between Gentile and Jew, were voiced by Reverend Francis K. Shepherd in his sermon this morning at the North Baptist Church” in which he “declared that this was a ‘Jew-baiting age,’ and that the persecution of Jews existed not only in Germany but in in Palestine and even” in the United States of America.
1937: The Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service is scheduled o begin a drive today designed to raise $250,000. John M. Schiff of Kuhn, Loeb & Co and the grandson of Jacob Schiff, is chairman of the fund raising effort.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that the Mandatory Government applied emergency regulations to appoint press censors. Editors were specifically ordered to refrain from any comment on the recent banning of the Arab Higher Committee and on the deportation of the top Arab leaders. The cruiser Sussex carried the Arab deportees out to the sea, where they were transshipped to a British destroyer and moved to an unknown destination.
1937(29thof Tishrei, 5698): Seventy-eight year old “Miss Emily M. Opper, who for thirty-five years was associated with the Hebrew Technical School for Girls before her retirement several years ago” passed away today.
1937: “Varsity Show,” the musical with a screenplay by Jerry Wald and Sig Herzig was released today in the United States.
1938(9thof Tishrei, 5699): Just two days after Arabs massacre Jews in Tiberias, the mournful sounds of Kol Nidre are heard Erev Yom Kippur.
1938: In his sermon this evening Rabbi David de Sola Pool told congregants at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue that “the Jewish people is today under attack by an envenomed international propaganda of scurrility and obscene abuse cynically organized and emanating from the land of the Fuehrer.”
1938: At Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Samuel H. Goldenson delivered a sermon on “Torah and the Jewish Way of Life” in which he “said the reason for the survival of the Jewish people is to found in the difference between a moral contribution and a contribution in any other field.”
1939: It was reported today that the government of Hungary has issued an order which put into effect anti-Jews laws that will result in the lost of jobs for tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews “employed in factories and wholesale and retail businesses.”
1939: An analysis given in the House of Commons today by Colonial Secretary showed that more than half of the illegal entrants Palestine were without passports and claimed to be stateless” and of those with passports a majority were Czechs…”
1940(2ndof Tishrei, 5701): Second Day of Rosh Hashanah
1940: It was reported today that “concrete action in defense of our liberties and warnings against greed, dependence on material comforts and fall optimism were emphasized in Rosh Hashanah sermons yesterday morning.”
1940: Forty-nine-year old mortgage broker Herbert Moss Unger, the son of Judge Henry W. Unger and the brother of former New York Country assistant district attorney Albert Boggs Unger Imgpassed away today at Mt. Sinai Hospital.
1940: The Hebrew Sheltering Immigrant Aid Society has arranged for Rosh Hashanah Services at Ellis Island and its synagogue at 425 Lafayette Street.
1940: The Jewish Community Centers, Y.M.H.A.’s and Y.W.H.A.’s affiliated with the National Jewish Welfare Board are scheduled to host Rosh Hashanah services.
1940: Hitler and Mussolini met at the Brenner Press, an opening in the Alps between Austria and Italy to celebrate the success of the Axis powers.
1940: German law gives Vichy France the power to imprison Jews even inside the Unoccupied Zone.
1940: “Vichy answered the prayers of the most zealous anti-Dreyfusards” today by adopting a measure that “made the government of Francejudenrein.”
1941: The Bulgarians enforced an extraordinary measure that prohibited the Jews of Macedonia from engaging in any type of industry or commerce. All existing Jewish businesses had three months to transfer ownership to non-Jews or sell their assets and close down.
1941(13th of Tishrei, 5702): Fifteen hundred Jews from Kovno, Lithuania, are transported to the Ninth Fort and murdered. In Kovno proper, Nazis lock the Jewish hospital and set it ablaze, incinerating all inside.
1941: Birthdate of author Jackie Collins, sister of Joan Collins.
1942: Berlin orders that all Jews in concentration camps within Germany be deported to Auschwitz.
1943(5th of Tishrei, 5704): Fifty-seven-year old Sylvan Kronheim the Brooklyn born daughter of Jacob Kronheim and Judith Bensinger and the mother of Judith Kronheim passed away today in Manhattan.
1943: At Poznan; Himmler addressed his senior SS staff re-stating the goals of the Final Solution. "I mean the evacuation of the Jews, the extermination of the Jewish race.” Within the year, as Soviet troops advanced across Eastern Europe, the SS would work to destroy the evidence of their evil deeds.
1943: During World War II, a tanker christened the SS Oscar S. Straus, one of a fleet of “liberty ships” that helped the US win the war of logistics was launched today.
1943: Approximately 200 Danish Jews were not able to escape to Sweden were heading toward Danzig after having been loaded into two cattle cars without food or water by the Nazis.
1944(17thof Tishrei, 5705): Third Day of Sukkoth – Choel Hamoed
1944(17thof Tishrei, 5705): Sixty-one year old Berlin born screenwriter and actor Walter Wassermann passed away today in Salzburg.
1944: All the women and children sent from Theresienstadt to Birkenau on this day would eventually be killed.
1944: Rabbi Yehuda Amital was liberated from a Nazi labor camp by the Soviet Army.
1944: Al Smith passed away. Smith began life as a genuine reformer. In the aftermath of the Triangle Shirt factory, he supported an array of measures designed to improve the lot of the workers, many of whom were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. At least one of his campaign managers during his successful bid for the governorship of New York was Jewish. Smith was the first Catholic candidate Presidential candidate in 1928. His 1928 bid for the Presidency presaged the collation that would lead to the election of Roosevelt in 1932. Smith’s defeat and FDR’s victory seem to sour Smith politically and he swung to the right, joining the Liberty League and becoming a staunch critic of the New Deal and the Jews who helped to create it.
1944: Johnny Mercier recorded Harold Arlen’s “Ac-Cent-Tchuate the Positive” with the Pied Pipers and Paul Weston’s orchestra today.
1945: “Week-End At The Waldorf” based on Vicki Baum’s novel Grand Hotel with a script co-written by Bella Spewack was released in the United States by MGM.
1945:Two months after being released in the United Kingdom “True Glory” -- “a documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen” – directed by Garson Kanin with a script created by Paddy Chayefsky and Eric Maschwitz among others which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature was released today in the United States.
1945: The Ampal American Palestine Trading Corporation of New York, an organization designed “to develop trade relations between the United States and Palestine and to assist in the development of the economic resources of Palestine” registered a stock offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The sale of the stock is intended to provide working capital to Ampal American to meet its goals.
1946: Final plans were announced today for the construction of Givat (Mount) Washington, settlement designed to provide a home and training for more than 100 Jewish orphans who survived the Holocaust. Givat Washington will be located outside of Tel Aviv near the ancient town of Yavneh. The program has been spearheaded by Rabbi Zemach Green of Washington, D.C. Givat Washington is named in honor of the first President of the United States and fragments of stone from Mt. Vernon, the U.S. Capitol building and the White House are to be set in the foundation stone of the first edifice built on this site.
1946 (9th of Tishrei, 5707): Erev of Shabbat and Erev Yom Kippur
1946: In the United Kingdom, Harry Louis Nathan began serving as Minister of Civil Aviation.
1946: On the eve of Yom Kippur, “President Truman issued the customary presidential statement of greeting to American Jewry, but then went on to urge that ‘substantial’ refugee immigration into Palestine commence immediately, for the plight of the Displace Persons ‘cannot await a solution to the Palestine problem.’”
1947: The University of Michigan Wolverines led by Fullback and Linebacker Dan Dworsky defeated Stanford today in what was their second victory in what would become a perfect season.
1947: In Collegeville, PA, “attorney Raymond Pearlstine” and the former Gladys Cohen, “the chairman of the Montgomery County Community College” gave birth University of Pennsylvania trained lawyer Norman Pearlstine who turned to a career in journalism that included serving in “senior positions at Time, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal” before become “executive editor of the Los Angeles Times.”
1947: After having opened at the National Theatre in 1946 and then transferred to the Majestic Theatre , the curtain came down on “Call Me Mister,” a revue with words and music by Harold Rome and a cast that included Jules Munshin but which would continue its Broadway run at the Plymouth theatre,
1947: German physicist Max Plank passed away. Planck was not Jewish. He did try and use his influence to save Jewish scientists from Hitler’s fury. His son was executed for taking part in the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler.
1948 (1st of Tishrei, 5709): Rosh Hashanah
1948 (1st of Tishrei, 5709): If Jewish history were a soap opera this episode would be called “Golda goes to the Synagogue”. Golda Meir was the newly appointed Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union. Israel had just won its independence in May of 1948 (and the fighting was still going on). The Soviet Union was in the throes of anti-Semitism. Mrs. Meir went to the Grand Synagogue in Moscow. At best, they expected the usual 2,000 Jews to attend Rosh Hashanah services. Instead, she was greeted by a crowd of 50,000 who pressed in upon in Joyous disbelief. And this was at a time when such behavior could get you to a trip to the Gulag. The fact that the so many people were still Jewish and willing to risk so much to identify was living proof that despite the adversity of the Holocaust and the Stalinists Am Yisroel Chai - the Jewish people live.
1948(1stof Tishrei, 5709): Seventy-four year old Austrian born David Alter, a partner in “the Alter Notion House” and the husband of Ethel Alter with whom he had five sons and four daughters passed away today in Lakewood, NJ.
1949(11thof Tishrei, 5710): Seventy-five year old Edmund Samuel Eysler the Austrian composer who avoided the suffering of the Holocaust despite his “Jewish origins” died today when he fell from a stage.
1950(23rdof Tishrei, 5711): Simchat Torah
1950: Birthdate of actor Alan Rosenberg, the native of Passaic, NJ, who was President of the Screen Actors Guild from 2005 to 2009.
1950(23rdof Tishrei, 5711): Seventy-one year old Harvard graduate Mortimer Adler, a vice president and co-founder of Levy brother, a leading clothing manufacturer and a present of Congregation B’rith Kodesh who was the husband of “the former Ida Lichtenstein” and the father of Robert, Ruth and Frances Adler passed away today.
1950: After being broadcast by ABC and CBS, “You Bet Your Life” a comedy quiz show starring Groucho Marx was broadcast on NBC for the first time today.
1950(23rdof Tishrei, 5711): Seventy-eight-year old Captain Stanford Elwood Moses, the Georgia born son of William Moultrie Moses and Penina Septima Moses Robison and the husband of Agnes Spencer Moses with whom he had two children passed away today after which he was buried in Arlington Cemetery.
1950: In Passaic, NJ, Martha Rosenberg Wald and her husband gave birth to American actor Alan Rosenberg, the brother of Mark Rosenberg.
1951: “The Dybbuk,” an opera in three acts composed by David Tamkin in 1933 that uses an English libretto by Alex Tamkin, the composer's brother, which is based on S. Ansky’s Yiddish play of the same name premiered today with a performance by the New York City Opera.
1952(15th of Tishrei, 5713): Sukkoth.
1952: After 350 performances, the curtain came down the original Broadway production of “Top Banana” a musical with a book by Hy Kraft and starring Tony Award winner Phil Silvers.
1953: As of today, the fate of ‘Kismet,” the lavish musical rests in the hands of Charles Lederer, the son of George Washington Lederer
1955: Mitchell Levin is overjoyed as the Brooklyn Dodgers won game seven of the World Series giving the Brooklyn team their first, and only World Series championship.
1956: NBC broadcast the episode of The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show written by Norman Lear and directed by Bud Yorkin.
1956(29th of Tishrei, 5717): Gabriel Benjamin Dahan (born 1931), Ephraim Waldman (born 1907), Arie Lahav (born 1921) and Jacob Lustig (born 1916), all of whom worked for Solel Boneh, were murdered today when 10 Palestinian terrorists who infiltrated from Jordan machine gunned their jeeps “on the Sodom-Beer Sheva Road also known as Highway 25’.”
1956(29thof Tishrei, 5717): Two Israelis laborers were killed by Palestinian terrorists “in an orchard near Even Yehuda” following which Moshe Dayan expressed a desire to mount a reprisal raids.
1957(9thof Tishrei, 5718): Erev Shabbat and Erev Yom Kippur
1957: The modern space age began today when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, a satellite whose launching changed the face of the educational and political landscape of the United States.
1958: After only five performances on Broadway the curtain came down on “Handful of Fire” a two-act play by N. Richard Nash.
1958: Two days after he passed away 64 year old motion picture operator Nathan Schulman, the Manhattan born son of Abraham and Molka Schulman was buried at the Hollywood Cemetery in Houston, TX.
1959(2ndof Tishrei, 5720): Second day of Rosh Hashanah but the first time that the shofar is blown because the first of Tishrei fell on Shabbat
1959: Birthdate of Shelley Levitan Adler, the native of Chicago and Harvard Law School graduate who was the wife of former Congressman John Adler who converted to Judaism when her married and who unsuccessfully ran to fill her husband’s old seat in the House of Representatives from New Jersey’s Third Congressional District.
1959: ABC broadcast the first episode of episode of “The Rebel” an off-beat western television series “developed and created by” Irvin Kershner which featured appearances by Ned Glass and Soupy Sales.
1959: On NBC Sunday Showcase, Larry Blyden starred as Sammy Glick in the second part of the two-part television broadcast of “What Makes Sammy Run” based on the novel by Budd Schulberg.
1961: Funeral services are scheduled to be held this morning at the Central Synagogue in Manhattan “for St. Lawrence University trained attorney and C.P.A. Mrs. Harriet Lowenstein, the wife of retired Justice Jonah Goldstein and the daughter of Sigmund and Fanny Thalinger Lowenstein who helped organize the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and who in 1919 went abroad where she worked to alleviate the suffering of the Jews of Eastern Europe in the aftermath of WW I and the Russian Revolution.
1962: “The Longest Day” an epic about D-Day with a script co-authored by Romain Gary and featuring George Segal was released in Canada today.
1963: Tonight, the audience attending the opening night of the Lyric Opera of Chicago season found a rose pinned to every theatre seat” because the performance “was dedicated Rosa Risa” the city’s “great Jewish Soprano” who had died on September 28.
1963: On opening night, the Lyric Opera of Chicago performed Verdi’s “Nabucco” or Nebuchadnezzar which is based on the story of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its Jewish inhabitants.
1965: Pope Paul VI arrived in New York City, making him the first pope in history to visit the United States. While speaking at the UN, Paul published a document exonerating the Jews of all blame in the death of Jesus Christ.
1965: William McKenzie Wood completed his term as Canadian ambassador to Israel.
1965(8th of Tishrei, 5726): Fifty four year old former Congressman Ludwig Teller Passed away.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Lteller.html
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/ludwig_teller/410700
1966(20th of Tishrei, 5727): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1966: “Crash,” the award winning film directed and produced by David Croenberg who also wrote the script, filmed by cinematographer Peter Suschitzky and with music by Howard Shore was released today in Canada.
1967(29thof Elul, 5727: Erev Rosh Hashanah
1967(29thof Elul, 5727): Six years after his wife Margalit died in automobile accident Ariel Sharon suffers another loss when his eleven year old son Gur is mortally wounded while he and a friend are playing with an old shotgun
1967: Birthdate of American actor Leiv Schreiber.
1969(22ndof Tishrei, 5730) Shmini Atzeret falls on Shabbat
1969(22ndof Tishrei, 5730): Seventy-eight year old Edwin Posner “a senior partner of Andrews, Posner & Rothschild” and former chairman of the American Stock Exchange (Amex) passed away today.
1969: “Hail, Hero!” a movie version of the novel by the same name co-starring Peter Strauss with music by Jerome Moss was released in the United States today.
1970: Birthdate of Abraham Benrubi, the American actor playing on ER and in the movie Open Range.
1971(15th of Tishrei, 5732): Sukkoth
1971(15th of Tishrei, 5732): Seventy-three year old Kathryn Clifford Kallet, the wife Aaron Harry Kallet , the All American End at Syracuse University, passed away today after which she was buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, NY.
https://library.syr.edu/digital/guides_sua/html/sua_kallet_ah.htm
1973: Ashraf Marwan telephoned Dubi, his Mossad contact, from Paris and told him about a Libyan plan to shoot down an El Al plane in the French capital using a shoulder-held missile.
1973: Israeli newspapers reported that Colonel Kaddafi of Libya was sending terrorist squads to stage acts of terrorism in both Israel and Jordan.
1973: The Israeli cabinet met to discuss the Austrian government’s decision to close down the refugee camp at Schoenau where many Soviet Jews were waiting to continue their escape to Israel. The Austrian decision was the result of an Arab terrorist attack on a train carrying Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union to Austria.
1973: At lunch with General Ze’evi Moshe Dayan said, “There’s not going to be a war. Not this summer and not this fall.” [Yom Kippur was two days away.]
1974: “Jewish activist Vitali Rubin, specialist in ancient Chinese philosophy, suffered a heart attack when arrested by police for “parasitism”.
1976: Barbara Walters became the first woman co-anchor of a major network evening news program. Joining Harry Reasoner, on the
1976(10th of Tishrei, 5737): Yom Kippur
1976(10thof Tishrei, 5737): Ninety-five year old U.C. Berkley undergraduate Leo Eloesser, the thoracic surgeon with a conscious who provided medical services to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and the Chinese Army during WW II passed away today.
http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/leo-eloesser
1976: In San Francisco, Deirdre "Didi" (née Radford), a Scottish former Pan Am flight attendant who converted to Judaism before her wedding and Monty Silverstone, an English real estate agent, gave birth to award winning actress Alicia Silverstone.
1977(22nd of Tishrei, 5738): Shemini Atzeret
1980(24thof Tishrei, 5741): Parashat Bereshit
1980(24thof Tishrei, 5741): Eight-nine year old Adolph Bolster Veit, the Adrian, MN born son of Frank and Caroline Veit and the husband Clementine Veit passed away today in St. Paul after which he was buried at Fort Snelling.
1982(17th of Tishrei, 5743): Third Day of Sukkoth
1982: Birthdate of Omer Goland, who “who plays as a striker for Maccabi Petah Tikva”
1982(17th of Tishrei, 5743): Lefty Rosenthal, the talented professional gambler and gangster-when-necessary who had brought sports betting to casinos in Las Vegas and illicitly run an empire of four hotel casinos, walked out of Tony Roma’s on East Sahara Avenue with an order of takeout ribs. He had just finished dinner with some fellow handicappers, and he was bringing the food home for his two children. When he got into his car, it blew up. Mr. Rosenthal survived the explosion — later he could not remember whether he had turned the ignition key — but the attempt on his life, for which no one was ever prosecuted, ended his career as one of the most powerful men in Las Vegas. He left the city early the next year and on Monday, at home in Miami Beach, he died. He was 79 and had lived in Florida since the late 1980s. Rosenthal was a born to a Jewish family in Chicago.
1983: As the Israel Bank Stock Crisis enters its third day went on television saying that the behavior of the pubic “would not bring about a devaluation” of the currency “or any change in policy.”
1983: Martin Fledman was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge by the United States today.
1985(16th of Tishrei, 5746): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1985: U.S. premiere of “Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters” with music by Philip Glass.
1986(1st of Tishrei, 5747): Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat
1990(15th of Tishrei, 5751): Sukkoth
1991: “Ricochet” a crime movie produced by Joel Silver and co-starring Kevin Pollack was released in the United States today.
1992(7th of Tishrei, 5753): An El Al Boeing 747-200F crashed into 2 apartment buildings in Amsterdam, killing 43 including 38 on the ground.
1992: Yad Vashem recognized Destan Balla and his wife, Lime Balla, as Righteous Among the Nations.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/besa/balla.asp
1993: Hamas was responsible for a car bombing near Beit El that injured 29 people.
1995(10thof Tishrei, 5756): Yom Kippur
1995: “Kicking and Screaming” directed by Noah Baumbach and co-starring Eliot Gould premiered at the New York Film Festival.
1996: Five weeks after premiering at the Venice Film Festival, “Bound” a crime thriller co-starring Gina Gershon was released in the United States today.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of Kaddishby Leon Wieseltier and With Roots In Heaven: One Woman's Passionate Journey Into the Heart of Her Faithby Tirzah Firestone. Six years ago, Tirzah Firestone was ordained as a rabbi. With Roots in Heaven, her relentlessly earnest autobiography, details her forays into Eastern, mystical and New Age religions as she forges an identity as a Jew prepared to teach and judge in matters of Jewish life and law. Beginning with the years of permissiveness following her ''middle-class Jewish ghetto'' of an Orthodox upbringing, Firestone recounts her spiritual and physical flirtations; they are frequently intertwined. With Ron in Istanbul, she eschews bourgeois materialism and explores ''The Autobiography of a Yogi.'' In Denver, Firestone falls for the ''dark charisma and exotic religion'' of a Hindu known as Everlasting. Firestone is soon primed for Fredrick, a gentle Christian minister with a mystical bent, who slowly redirects her to Jewish mysticism. In 1985, the minister marries the future rabbi. The two ''love warriors, holding high the standard of our universal beliefs,'' mean to serve as an ecumenical example. A Jungian, Firestone judges her every experience to hold not only symbolism for her, but also a key to the spiritual destiny of mankind. Typical of her preachy efforts to uncover this universality is her interpretation of dreams. While the lessons Firestone draws from her life are heartfelt, she may misjudge the scope of her experience. Meanwhile, Kaddish is one of the best books written on this topic and the Theodore Bikel recording is a classic that nobody should miss hearing.
1999: “What’s Wrong With the SAT and Its Elite Progeny” published today provided a review of The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracyby Nicholas Lemann, a former Sunday School student of Mitchell Levin.
2000: Following his rejection the Bill Clinton brokered peace plan, Yasser Arafat arrived in Paris and went to meet with the President of France who is viewed as pro-Palestinian.
2000: Broadcast of the first show of season three of the drama series “Felicity” created by J.J. Abrams and co-starring Greg Grunberg.
2001: As of tonight, signatures were still being collected for a letter to be delivered to President Bush tomorrow expressing support for the administration's war on terrorism and policy efforts in the Middle East. Among those who had already signed the letter are Marvin Lender, the former chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Jacob Stein, another former chairman of the Conference of Presidents; Judith Stern Peck, former chairwoman of UJA-Federation of New York; and Joel Tauber, the departing chairman of United Jewish Communities. A number of corporate executives also signed the letter, including Stanley Gold, the president of Shamrock Investments; and 2003 (8th of Tishrei, 5764): During the continuing wave of Arab terrorism there was a suicide bombing at Maxim restaurant, a popular eatery for Israeli Jews and Arabs. It was a symbol of the multiculturalism of this seaside city. A Palestinian suicide bomber, exploded inside the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. Among the dead were 21 Israeli, Jews and Arabs. Another 51 were wounded
2001: Following the issuance of a report by the Comptroller, Ariel Sharon returned 1.5 million NIS to his donors.
2001(17thof Tishrei, 5762): Third Day of Sukkoth
2001(17thof Tishrei, 5762): Nineteen year old Tali Ben-Armon, 20 year old Sergei Freidin and 76 year old Haim Ben-Ezra were murdered when Fatah terrorist “opened fire on civilians at the central bus station”
in Afula.
2002(28thof Tishrei, 5763): Seventy-eight year old Romanian born Holocaust survivor, violinist and composer “Sandor (Shony) Alex Braun, the author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated “Symphony on the Holocaust” passed away today.
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/09/local/me-passings9.2
2002: In “From Vengeance to Mercy: Tale of Jewish Brigade” published today, Ron Grossman tells the tale of a Jews fighting in an all-Jewish unit in the British Army during WW II.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-10-04-0210040122-story.html
2003 (8th of Tishrei, 5764): Shabbat Shuvah
2003: Islamic Jihad claimed credit for todays’ suicide bombing at the Maxim Restaurant in Haifa that killed 21 and injured 51 including a two-month old baby.
2004(19thof Tishrei, 5765): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
2004: “Should Anne Frank be granted Dutch citizenship? That was the issue at the heart of a debate in and out of government in the Netherlands today after a television channel listed her among 202 candidates in a popular vote to determine history's greatest Dutch person…” (As reported by Lawrence Van Gelder)
2005(1st of Tishrei, 5766): First Day Rosh Hashanah
2005(1stof Tishrei, 5766): Eighty-six year old folk music producer Harold Leventhal passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2005: Haaretz reported that thousands of Israelis had canceled trips to the Sinai in light of previous terrorist attacks and threats of renewed violence.
2006(12thof Tishrei, 5767): Selma Judith Levy Toback, the widow of Irwin Lionel Toback and the daughter of Joseph Crawford Levy and Helen Yeamans Levy passed away today.
2006: Former Jewish Agency chairman Sallai Meridor was appointed as the next ambassador to Washington, replacing Danny Ayalon who has completed four years of service in the US capital.
2006:Yiftah Ron-Tal, the general in charge of the IDF Ground Forces Command “said publicly that IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz should accept responsibility for malfunctions in the Israel-Hezbollah War and accept the consequences” while also hinting “that Israeli PM Ehud Olmert should do the same.”
2006:Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz discharged Major General Iftach Ron-Tal the head of the IDF's ground forces over remarks he made calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
2007(22nd of Tishrei, 5768): Shemini Atzeret,
2007: In Budapest, the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies celebrated its 130th anniversary today.
2007: Today, PVH, or Phillips-Van Huesen “a men’s clothing come that traces its origins to 1881…Moses Phillips sold work shirts sewn by his wife Endel, to coal miners in Pottsville, PA” “took over the naming rights to the Meadowlands Sports Complex Arena in East Rutherford, NJ.” (As reported by William Grimes)
2008(5th of Tishrei, 5769): Shabbat Shuvah,
2008: Ninety-year old Saul Laskin, the former mayor of Thunder Bay passed away today.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/saul-laskin-90/article1063405/
http://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Saul-Laskin-fonds.pdf
2008: The musically gifted Eric Carson, son of Bill and Laura Carson, is called to the Torah as a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids,
2009:St. John's Church at Lafayette Square winds up its three-part forum, "The Middle East: Moving Towards Peace?," with a lecture by David Ignatius, an associate editor at The Washington Post.
2009(16th of Tishrei, 5770): 2nd Day of Sukkoth
2009: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Hardball by Sara Paretsky
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including We’ll Be Here For The Rest of Our Lives:A Swingin’ Show-Biz Saga by Paul Shaffer with David Ritz
2009: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Notes on Sontag by Phillip Lopate, and Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon
2009: The Times of London features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present by Yevgeny Primakov
2009:Vandals destroyed or damaged hundreds of archaeological artifacts at Uvdat National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Negev tonight
2010:YIVO Institute for Jewish research is scheduled to present a program entitled Chaim Grade Memorial on the 100th Anniversary of his Birth” that will include a screening of the film The Quarrel. The Quarrel is an English Language film based on Grade's story "My Quarrel with Hersh Rasseyner."
2010:Today, the state archives released hitherto unseen copies of minutes of Prime Minister Golda Meir's meeting with her war cabinet on the second day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
2010(26thof Tishrei, 5771):Eighty-seven year old Sidney J. Weinberg Jr.,” a senior director of Goldman Sachs and a member of the family dynasty that had played a central role at the investment banking firm since 1907” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2010: Dr. Janet Yellen completed her terms as President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
2010: Dr. Janet Yellen began serving as the Vice Chairperson of the Federal Reserve System
2010: Israel and the United States are holding behind-the-scenes talks geared at resolving a recent deadlock in Mideast peace talks with the Palestinians, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today, adding that peace was Israel's vital interest. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that Israel was "in the midst of sensitive diplomatic contacts with the U.S. administration in order to find a solution that will allow the continuation of the talks."
2011: Based on vacate notices signed by Rabbi Avraham Shemtov, chairman of Agudas Chasidei Chabad of the United States, and Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch today is the deadline for a group of gabbaim who have been promoting the idea that Menachem Mendel Schneerson (of blessed memory) is the messiah to vacate the synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway. “A New York court ruled in 2006 that the groups led by Krinsky and Shemtov are the synagogue’s rightful owners.”
2011: John Rybicki is scheduled to give the final lecture in a series styled “In Search of Jewish Spirituality” co-sponsored by the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia.
2011: Saul Perlmutter and Adam Riess were two of the three U.S.-born scientists who won the Nobel Prize in physics today.
2011:The Oakland Hebrew Day School in California has raised $1 million in 10 months to match a grant from an anonymous donor
2011:Israel continued to maintain a silence today over a US Congressional decision – despite US Administration opposition - to withhold some $200 million in financial assistance to the PA.
2011: In an apparent effort to keep the most recent Quartet initiative alive, the US embassy circulated a statement today giving the impression both Israel and the Palestinians have equally accepted a Quartet framework for returning to direct talks, though the Palestinians have not yet formally endorsed the idea. Under the proposal, Israel and the Palestinians are supposed to sit down for a preparatory meeting by October 23, or two weeks from Sunday.
2011(6thof Tishrei, 5772): Eighty-five year old actress Doris Belack passed away months after the death of her husband, Philip Rose best known for producing “A Raisin in the Sun.” (As reported by Paul Vitello)
2011(6thof Tishrei, 5772): Ninety-five year old St. Louis businessman, artist and philanthropist Ernest W. Stix, whose grandfather William Stix “founded the old Rice-Stix Company…which by the time of the 1904 World’s Fair…was described as the largest business in St. Louis, passed away today.
2011(6thof Tishrei, 5772):Sixty-seven year old Hanan Porat, leader of the “settler movement” in Judea and Samaria, passed away today. (As reported by Ethan Bronner)
2012: In New York City, final scheduled screening at the Lincoln Plaza of “Six Million and One” a documentary by David Fisher, the son of a Holocaust survivor.
2012: The Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation is scheduled to open its Fall Speakers Series which is now in its tenth year with a lecture by Michael O’Hanlon on “Scoring President Obama’s Foreign Policy: Successes and Failures.”
2012: In the UK, The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide is scheduled to present “The Future of the Past - The Importance of School History Teaching,” featuring Dr Nicholas Tate, Chairman of International Education Systems
2012: Klezmer Clarinetist, Mandolinist, Composer and Baal Teshuva Andy Statman performed with the other National Heritage Fellowship Recipients today.
http://arts.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/andy-statman
2012:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has already made a final decision to seek a February 12 election rather than try to pass the 2013 state budget, politicians who spoke to Netanyahu said today.
2012: An Israeli-Arab man, 26, was charged today with spying for the Lebanon-based terror organization Hezbollah. The defendant was accused of scouting IDF locations and tracking the movements of President Shimon Peres for the Islamic militant group.
2013: Marvin Bash who serves as the Rabbi at the Pentagon and his son Jeremy are scheduled to talk about their perspectives on Jewish life in the military at the Benefactor Luncheon hosted by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington
2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at Congregation Beth Tefillah in Paramus, NJ.
2013: At noon “Kol Israel” is scheduled to broadcast “Excellence – The Future Generation” featuring a piano recital by Adi Neuhaus.
2013(30thof Tishrei, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan I
2013: Over 100 women in prayer shawls and tefillin prayed in “relative peace” at the Western Wall today on Rosh Chodesh “despite some jeering and spitting from Orthodox female protesters” who apparently have their own way of obeying the commandment about loving your neighbor.
2013: A haredi man was arrested at the Western Wall in Jerusalem this morning for spitting and throwing items at members of the Women of the Wall prayer activist group as ultra-Orthodox protesters shouted insults at the WoW members, Israel Radio reported. Dozens of members of WoW gathered at the wall this morning for their monthly prayer service marking the new month on the Jewish calendar.
2014(10thof Tishrei, 5775): Yom Kippur
G'mar Chasima Tova Have an easy fast.
2014 All radio and television stations in Israel go off the air for the Day of Atonement.
2014: In “The Exotic History of British Fish and Chips” published today Paul Levy traces the history of this English food that traces its origins to Joseph Malin, “a 13 year old Jewish boy living in the East End” who “had the idea of combining fried fish with chips” which he “probably first sold from a tray hung around his neck” before opening “a shop in Cleveland Street.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11140147/The-exotic-history-of-British-fish-and-chips.html
2014: “As the fast of Yom Kippur ended this evening, Israelis were slowly returning to their regular lives, with cars once again occupying the roads and public transportation resuming service around 8:30 p.m.”
2014: Tonight, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Swedish Priminster Stefan Lofvens announcement that his government intends to recognize Palestine “was unfortunate.”
2014: Today Lewis Eisenberg “assumed the office” of United States Ambassador to Italy and United States Ambassador to San Marino.
2014: Tonight, Lewis Black is scheduled to perform at the Mirage in Las Vegas, NV.
2014(10thof Tishrei, 5775): Ninety-one architect Judith Edelman passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2015: The final performance of “Just Between Us – A Piano, a Mic and a Memory, that portrays the “life long journey of a Jewish girl from Brooklyn is scheduled to take place at the Source Theatre.
2015: The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to co-sponsor the “6th Annual Northern Virginia Cycle Fest” today.
2015: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readings including Kissinger Volume I 1923-1968: The Idealist by Niall Ferguson and Kissinger’s Shadow: The Long Reach of America’s Most Controversial Statesman by Greg Grandin and the recently released paperback edition of Honeydew: Storiesby Edith Pearlman
2015(21stof Tishrei, 5776): Hoshanah Rabah
2015: In the evening the chaplains of the Oxford University Jewish Society to a host dinner after Mincha/Ma’ariv Shemini Atzeret Services.
2015: Twenty-one year old Aharon Bennett who was stabbed death last night in Jerusalem in an attack where the terrorists wounded his wife and daughter is scheduled to be buried early this morning on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
2015: On the Tuscan coast in Livorno.“fierce weather damaged the synagogue” which had opened in 1962 “on the site of the city’s 17th century old synagogue which was destroyed in a bombing raid” during WW II.
2015: Forty-one year old Rabbi Nehemia Lavi, a father of seven, who was stabbed to death when he went to the aid of a family being attacked in Jerusalem is scheduled to be buried at noon today ”at the Har Hamenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem.”
2016: “David Blatt, the Israeli American who was fired as head coach of the NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers during the season” said today that he “will accept a championship ring from the team.”
2016: Conditions in the Middle East continue to deteriorate as Americans suspend talks with the Russians on Syria and the Russians effectively abrogate the treaty on the disposal of weapons grade plutonium.
2016: “A hit man who confessed to killing Jewish law professor Dan Markel implicated Markel’s ex-wife” Wendi Adelson “in the crime” today during a please interview in which he added “that she supervised his work a day before the killing.”
2016: In a sign of true communal spirit Rabbi Jeff Portman of Congregation Agudas Achim is scheduled to lead an afternoon Rosh Hashanah service at the Oaknoll Retirement Community.
2016: Eighty-eight year old Roslyn Litman, the civil liberties advocate who had to overcome gross sexism to pursue her legal career passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016(2nd of Tishrei, 5777): Rosh Hashanah Second Day
שנה טובה, כתיבה וחתימה טובה.
2016: In “How Do You Say ‘Email’ in Yiddish?” published today Joseph Berger provides a review of the new “826-page Comprehensive English-Yiddish Dictionary, with almost 50,000 entries and 33,000 subentries, which is the work of Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, a Yiddish editor and poet, and Paul Glasser, a former dean at YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the major repository of Yiddish language, literature and folklore.:
2016(2ndof Tishrei, 5777): Eighty-six year old medical trainee advocate Dr. Bertrand M. Bell passed away today. (As reported by Sam Roberts)
2016(2nd of Tishrei, 5777): Eight-nine year old graphic designer Elaine Lustig Cohen passed away today. (As reported by Anita Gates)
2017(14thof Tishrei, 5778): Erev Sukkoth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Pilichowski#/media/File:Leopold_Pilichowski_Sukkot.jpg
2017: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “In Between” a film about “three young Arab-Israeli women” sharing a flat in Tel Aviv.
2017: In Budapest, the Jewish Theological Seminary – University of Jewish Studies is scheduled to celebrate its 140th anniversary today.
2017: “The body of Rueven Schmerling a Jewish man from Elkana was discovered with stab wounds” today “in a storage space near…Kafr Quassem.”
2018: The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to co-host “In Dialogue: Polish Jewish Relations in the Pre-Modern Period” – a discussion led by Magda Teter (Fordham University) and Brian Porter-Szűcs (University of Michigan).
2018: Renan Koen is scheduled to perform at the American Sephardi Music Festival
2018: “Rifts Break Open at Facebook Over Kavanaugh Hearing” published today described the role Vice President Joel Kaplan’s role in the hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh.
2018: The University of Haifa is scheduled to confer an honorary degree on German Chancellor Angela Merkel “in recognition of her leadership grounded in the principles of equality, freedom, and human rights; for serving as a model to women around the world; in appreciation of her warm friendship and robust ties between the Federal Republic of German and the State of Israel’ at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
2018: The Breman Museum, Beit Hatfutsot, JumpSpark, and the Jewish Grandparents Network are scheduled to co-host a screening of “The Samuel Project,” co-starring Hal Linden in the title role of a “Jewish grandfather and San Diego dry cleaner” who had been save from capture by the Nazis.
2018: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz” followed by a discussion with lawyer who as a 25 year old prosecuted 22 member of the Einsatzgruppen and Barry Avrich who directed and produced the film.
2019: In Jerusalem, the Tower of Davis is scheduled to host an English language tour of “both the Citadel moat and the Kishle, building which was built in 1834 by Ibrahim Pasha, the Egyptian ruler, and continued to serve as a military compound even after it was returned to Ottoman control in 1841.”
2019: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Shabbat Shuvah Preneg,” the first of these popular events to be held in 5780.
2019: Netflix is scheduled to broadcast “Fish Gotta Swim,” the fifth episode in the limited television series “The Spy,” a biopic based on the life of Eli Cohen
2019: As the week comes to an end, Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to continue trying to form a government under the cloud of a possible indictment “on multiple corruption charges.”
2020(16thof Tishrei, 5781): Second Day of Sukkoth
2020: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host a combined grounds clean-up day and a Sukkah Decoration “party” which is its last “live in person event with social distancing observed” for 2020.
2020: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including the Memory Monster by Yishai Sarid, El Jefe: The Stalking of Chapo Guzman by Alan Feuer and the recently published paperback edition of The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman.
2021: The Jewish Heritage Museum of Monmouth County’s second annual online auction is scheduled to begin today.
2021: The final online screening of “Outside” by Etgar Keret and Inbal Pinto which is supported by the Israel Office of Culture Affairs is scheduled to take place this evening.
2022(9thof Tishrei, 5783): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre
2022:Kanisse: A Modern Sephardic and Mizrahi Community is scheduled to present a Multicultural High Holiday Service at the Conservative Synagogue of Fifth Avenue.
2022: Continue a tradition dating back to the founding of Beth Jacob in 1906, the “Downstairs Minyan” at Temple Judah is scheduled to begin the observance of Yom Kippur in “the traditional manner.”