JUNE 5
70: Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem.
1191 After conquering Cyprus, Richard the Lionheart and his Crusaders set sail for “the Holy Land.” This crusading left England in the control of Prince John who, amongst other things, exploited the Jewish subjects in a way that the King would not have approved of.
1257: Kraków, Poland receives city rights. Jews were probably among the earliest settlers of Krakow which was settled by traders from Germany. Jews had been moving to Poland from Germany since the days of the Crusades. Certainly there was a Jewish population in the town by the middle of the 14th century since the oldest synagogue in the town dates from a visit from Casimir the Great.
1305:Raymond Bertrand de Got is elected Pope under the name Clement V. According to Elizabeth D. Malissa, “Pope Clement V is the first pope to threaten Jews with an economic boycott in an attempt to force them to stop charging Christians interest on loans.”
1443: Ten years before the Jews were expelled from Wroclaw in 1453, the capital city of the province of Lower Silesian in Poland was struck by an earthquake that registered 6 on the Richter Scale.
1705(13th of Sivan): Manuel (Isaac Hayyim) Teixeira de Sampaio, passed away 202
1740(10th of Sivan)” Rabbi Eliezer Rokeah of Amsterdam, author of Maaseh Rokeah passed away
1788: As the newly formed United States groped for a form of government that would be an improvement over the Articles of Confederation, former Harvard President and leading clergyman “Samuel Langdon addressed the New Hampshire state legislature on the subject of “The Republic of the Israelites an Example to the American States.” Langdon was one of those who saw the ancient Israelite society as providing the prototype for an American republic. For example, he saw the Seventy Elders selected by Moses as a “Senate” and proof that the Israelites had a voice in the government, something he desired for the emerging United States of America.
1803(15thof Sivan, 5563): Dr. Abraham Kisch, the native of Prague who tutored Moses Mendelsohn in Latin and was director of the Meisel Hospital passed away today.
1805: Lisa & Kahn one of the oldest banking houses in the Netherlands was founded today by two Polish Jews – Hirschel Eliazer Kahn and Moses Calmus Lissa.
1806: Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, began his reign as King of Holland.Louis was supportive of his Jewish subjects and sought to make them full-fledged citizens of his Dutch kingdom. He “changed the market-day in some cities (Utrecht and Rotterdam) from Saturday to Monday” and abolished the use of the "Oath More Judaico" Henceforth, Jews and Christians would swear to the same oath when testifying. in the courts of justice, and administered the same formula to both Christians and Jews. In an attempt to improve their skills in the art of war, ‘’he formed two battalions of 803 men and 60 officers, all Jews.” Prior to his reign, the Jews had been until then excluded from military service. [Editors Note – It may seem strange to westerners living in the 21stcentury, but at that time, serving in the military was considered a sign of full-citizenship. If you will remember the story of Asser Levy and his fight to serve in the militia in New Amsterdam you will understand the importance of what Louis did.]
1818: “Loeb Baruch went to Rödelheim and was baptized by Pastor Bertuch as a convert to the Lutheran Church; assuming the name of "Karl Ludwig Börne.”
1829: Birthdate of Marcus Jastrow, the Polish born Talmudist who would become the Rabbi at Rodeph Shalom in Philadelphia, PA.
1832: Thanks to the work of the late Ezekiel Hart who had been denied his seat in the legislature in 1809 and his son Samuel Hart, the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, passed the 1832 Emancipation Act that ultimately guaranteed full rights to people practicing the Jewish faith. Canada was a trend setter since it would be 27 years before such a measure was passed any place in the British Empire.
1837: Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas. By 1854, there were enough Jews living in Houston for the establishment of cemetery and by 1859 the Jewish community was large enough to get a charter for what was the first congregation in Texas in 1859. The Congregation, Beth Israel, began as an Orthodox synagogue, but became a Reform congregation some fifteen years later.
1835(8th of Sivan, 5595): Rabbi Mattathias di Moses Zacuto and 47 other people including Rabbi Raphael Amar died today when a building collapsed during a wedding celebration in Alessandra, Italy.
1838: Jacob Kann married Amalie de Jonge.
1843(7th of Sivan, 5603): Second Day of Shavuot
1848: In Breslau, Silesia, Rabbi Abraham Geiger and his wife gave birth to author and historian Ludwig Geiger.
1849: In Denmark, article 84 of the new constitution negated discrimination of "any person on the basis of religious grounds." This removed the last restriction on the Jews making them full citizens
1855: In New York City, “The Jews’ Hospital” opened for patients today. While the hospital may have been intended to serve destitute and newly arrived Jews, its mission soon changed. During the Civil War it treated untold number of Union casualties beginning with those who were wounded during McClellan’s Peninsular Campaign. It was originally located on West 28th Street in Manhattan. It changed its name to Mt. Sinai Hospital in 1866.
1860:Emily Jane Mires, the daughter of Franco-Jewish financier Jules Mires, married Prince Alphonse de Polignac the second son of President of the Council of Ministers. In 1861 the couple had a daughter named Jeanne
1861: During the American Civil War,Frederick Knefler was promoted from the rank of lieutenant to captain in the 11th Indiana Infantry. Knefler would eventually work his way up to the chain of command to become a Brigadier General. His commanding officer in the 11thIndiana was Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur, the 19th century classic set in Judea with a Jewish hero. Wallace and Knefler were friends before the war.
1870: Today's "Foreign Items" column reported that Warsaw, Poland, has a population of 254,561 of which 67,584 are Jews.
1870: Birthdate of German born oncologist Ferdinand Blumenthal.
1870(6th of Sivan, 5630): First Day of Shavuot
1870: During Shavuot Services, seven young ladies and four young men took part in Temple Israel’s first ever Confirmation Ceremony. Services were led by Rabbi Raphael D.C Lewis of Brooklyn, NY. The service began at ten in the morning with the hymn Adon Olom which was sung to the accompaniment of organist Morris Abrahams.
1870: Members of the Temple Israel confirmation class and their parents visited the home of Rabbi D.C. Lewin this evening where they presented him with a pair of engraved silver goblets as a token of their appreciation for his work with them.
1870: In New York City, a meeting is scheduled to be held at Temple Israel, which is led by Rabbi Raphael D.C. Lewin, to discuss the outbreak of anti-Semitism in Romania.
1870: According to reports published today, Temple Emanuel located on New York’s Fifth Avenue had a total income of $97, 627.70 this past fiscal year with expenses of $38,179.52 that included such items as salary for the staff (21,500); choir and organ (5,425.76); school (1,708.44) and insurance (2,301.39). The income included payments for pews in the amount of 34,425.92 and 17,344.70 from “the charity collection for the year. As to membership, the Temple “has 3059 pew owners and 61 seat holders.”
1870:“The New Persecution of the Jews” published today described the persecution of Jews at the hand of Romanian Christians as being “so savage and so causeless, the civilized world can be one sentiment – that of immeasurable indignation.” After providing a succinct, sympathetic picture of Jewish history while drawing a picture of Jewish suffering at the hands of Christians the article describes the positive nature of the American Jew. “Not one of all the multitude of nationalities which we have received among us can boast of so large a proportion of peaceful and law-abiding members. A Jew in prison is a thing almost unheard of; a Jew soliciting public charity has yet to be found; a Jew who boast of his caste, grows noisy over his religion or reviles that of his neighbors, if he exist at all, has become known to the general community…It is only bigotry which represents a Jew as an object of hatred or aversion. To that race we owe much of our civilizations, and all the religion we possess. It has endured persecution through generation after generation and has never evinced any disposition to retaliate….It is to be hoped that the United States Government will do all in its power to check the hideous massacre lately begun in Rumania.”
1876: “A Moor stabbed eleven Jews” today at Alcassar, a Moroccan city in the Province of Fez. Among the wounded are Moses Abecasis.
1877: Reports reaching Bucharest that American Jews have petitioned Secretary of State W.M. Evarts on behalf of their co-religionists in Romania and Turkey “has created considerable ”amount of“ astonishment” among Jews and non-Jews alike.
1877: Jacob and Therese Schiff gave birth to Mortimer Leo Schiff, banker, philanthropist and early support of the Boy Scouts of America.
1881: A group of Polish Jews fought back today on Hester Street when two members of the “border gang” –John Reilly and Thomas Sinclair – began torment them. Reilly responded to the Jewish resistance by drawing his revolver and shooting indiscriminately at the Jews. Louis Wolf was wounded by one of the shots which was heard by two 7th Precinct Detectives who chased down the fleeing thugs and arrested them.
1881: In “An Eastern Story,” a reviewer examines the recently published Rabbi Jeshua, a book that is described as “peculiar” because of the “parallelism which exists between the history of Rabbi Jeshua and the founder of Christianity.
1882: It was reported today that an Austrian physician had seen more than 125 “mutilated Jews” at a hospital in Odessa. He described the wounds as being “of a very dangerous character.” The attackers showed a spirit of cruelty by pouring spirits and petroleum into the wounds. One woman had her breast cut off while her one year old child had its eyes put out with a red hot iron. At this time there are 3,000 homeless orphans wondering the area. (Editor’s note – You can draw a straight line from these reports to the meetings being held in the United States on how to cope with the rising tide of Jews fleeing Russia)
1882: It was reported today that “a colonization society” with a capitalization of a million dollar is to be formed to implement plans to settle Russian Jews in homesteads and other agricultural settlements in the American West.
1882 (18th of Sivan, 5642): Alexander Abraham de Sola passed away. Born in 1825, he was a Canadian Rabbi, author, Orientalist, and scientist. Originating from a large renowned family of Rabbis and scholars, De Sola was recognized there as one of the most powerful leaders of Orthodox Judaism in the United States during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Born in London, England, the sixth child of David Aaron de Sola and Rebecca Meldola, his maternal grandfather was Haham Raphael Meldola, a prominent English Rabbi. His sister Eliza, married Rabbi Abraham Pereira Mendes, and was the mother of Dr. Frederick de Sola Mendes.In 1873, by invitation of President Ulysses S. Grant's administration, De Sola opened the United States Congress with prayer. This invitation might have had a double significance at the time. By asking a rabbi to provide the opening prayer, Grant was once against providing evidence that he was not an anti-Semite. By asking a British rabbi to provide an opening prayer, the administration might have been signaling its desire to improve relations with Great Britain.
1882: The Musée Grévin, opened today in Paris. Arthur Meyer was the co-founder of what has become a very popular waxwork museum. The grandson of a Rabbi, he was born in Le Harve in 1844 and became a major publisher in the French newspaper business. His role as “press baron” reminds one of that played by Jews in other countries. Like other Jewish moguls of journalism, he converted, in his case to Catholicism and he was a member of the anti-Dreyfus forces.
1883: Birthdate of English economist John Maynard Keynes, whom most people know as the father of Keynesian Economics but do not know as “a venomous anti-Semite who could have given Richard Wagner a run for his money” who said the Jews “have in them deep-rooted instincts that are antagonistic and therefore repulsive to the European, and their presence among us is a living example of the insurmountable difficulties that exist in merging race characteristics, in making cats love dogs ...It is not agreeable to see civilization so under the ugly thumbs of its impure Jews who have all the money and the power and brains.”
1885: Birthdate of French journalist and political leader Geroges Mandel who served in the Chamber of Deputies where he warned of the danger presented by the Nazis and Fascists. He joined the Resistance and was cruelly murdered by the Vichy paramilitary forces.
1886: On Shabbat most of the Rabbis in Philadelphia spoke to their congregations about the unwillingness of the school superintendent to allow the Jewish students to make-up the final exams which are scheduled to be given on Shavuot. The superintendent has refused to make any accommodation and failure to take the exams could result in failing for the school year. The Rabbis “cautioned the young of their congregations against attending school on the upcoming festival.”
1886:William Eugene Blackstone, the author of the Blackstone Memorial, married Sarah Lee Smith. The Blackstone Memorial was a petition signed by many prominent Americans calling for the return of the Jews to Palestine which was sent to President Benjamin Harrison.
1887: It was reported today that rumors are circulating concerning a proposal to make Pope Leo XIII King of Palestine under a protection of all the Catholic powers. Some see this is a way to compensate the Pope for having lost his temporal powers in Italy at the time of the reunification. The proposal does not take into consideration the fact that the Russians, who are Orthodox, feel they have a special role to play in the Holy Land as do the Anglican British. The report concedes that nobody has taken into consideration how the Jews and Moslems would feel about governance under a Papal monarch.
1889(6thof Sivan, 5649): Shavuot
1892: Founding of the Jewish community of Oslo, Norway.
1892: Professor Edward North of Hamilton College is scheduled to deliver a lecture “The Inter-Correspondences of Hebrew and Greek.”
1892: Congregation B’nai Jeshurun hosted its annual reception for its religious school this afternoon.
1893: The Jewish shirtmakers expect that five hundred of them will be “locked out” by the Shirt Contractors’ Association today as the association moves to “break” the union.
1895: Samuel Castin is being held by authorities on charges that he sold $4,500 worth of jewelry that did not belong to him and kept the money for himself. Castin is known as “Jew Sam.” (Everybody was not a Talmud student)
1897: “Books on Many Themes” published today provides a series of brief reviews including one on The Prophets of Israel by Professor C. H. Cornhill who “having studied the history of Assyria, Babylon and Egypt shows the true origins of the religion.”
1898: Approximately “sixty young girls arrayed in white and a quarter of as many boys” from the Hebrew Free Schools took part in the Confirmation ceremonies at the Educational Alliance Building
1898: “Society Notes” published today described plans for an upcoming “patriotic tea in commemoration of Alexander Hamilton” sponsored by St. Luke’s Church which include a performance by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band. (Ed. Note – You have to wonder if the people at St. Luke’s Church appreciated the irony of a band made up of Jewish orphans playing in honor of Alexander Hamilton)
1899(27th of Sivan, 5659): German printer, publisher and bookseller, Hirsch Fishl passed away in Berlin. Sometime after 1860, while living in Halberstadt, Hirsch developed a specialty of buying and selling Hebrew books and manuscripts. Hirsch provided Joseph Zender with many of the incunabula and rare books that were part of the first collection of Hebrew Books created for the British Museum. He also provided assistance for The Bodleian Library and the Rosenthal Library at Amsterdam when they sought to acquire Jewish and Hebrew Books. (As reported by Singer and Van Straalen)
1899: In New York City, the Health Board “established a quarantine in the grammar department of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society” following the discovery of three cases of diathermia.
1899: “A meeting of the members of the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Free School Association of the City of New York was held” tonight at Temple Emanu-El “to ratify the agreement for the consolidation of the two institutions as provided for by a recent act of the Legislature.”
1900: Birthdate of Victor Kluger who worked with Miep Gies and others to hide eight people including Anne Frank for two years.
1908(6th of Sivan, 5668) Shavuot
1908: In White Plains, NY, Felix and Frieda Warburg give birth to their fifth and youngest child Edward Mortimer Morris Warburg
1909: Birthdate of actor and director Henry Levin.
1912: Birthdate of Arnold Forster, an American Jewish leader, lawyer and writer who became a longtime executive of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith.
1916: Sixty-five year old Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, simply known as Lord Kitchener, the Secretary of State for War (the top military post in the UK) died today when the HMS Hampshire which was taking him to Russia was sunk by a German U-boat. The first major event in his storied career was his participation at the age of 24 in came to known as the Survey of Western Palestine a major mapping expedition that covered what is today Israel, Gaza and Judea/Samaria. The survey had provided the basis for many later archaeological and geographic expeditions and even provided the coordinates that would set the modern border between Lebanon and Israel.
1916: After a bruising confirmation process laced with anti-Semitism that lasted for more than four Louis Brandeis became the first Jewish Justice of the United States Supreme Court when he took the oath of office in the courtroom of the United States Supreme Court. The chamber was filled to capacity with family members, well-wishers and government officials including Secretary of War Baker, Attorney General Gregory, Senator Nelson of Colorado and Senator Martin of Virginia. “The oath was administered to Mr. Brandeis today by virtue of the action of the Senate in waiving its three-day notification rule providing that a person confirmed by the Senate shall not assume office until three days after he is notified of his appointment.”
1917: During World War I, in the United States registration began under the Selective Draft Act covering all men between the ages of twenty one and thirty. According to historian Martin Gilbert, the New York Times declared that this act gave “’gave a long and sorely needed means of disciplining a certain insolent foreign element in this nation.’ The reference was to America’s Jews, whose pacifist elements were no greater, by proportion than those of other Americans. Universal military service, one American rabbi insisted, was an institution deriving from the time of Moses. In support of this pro-war view there was also a verse in the Psalms which British Jews had cited two years earlier as a religious justification for to war: ‘Blessed be the Lord, my Rock, Who teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight.’ Within two months of the passage of the Selective Draft Act, Jews made up 6 per cent of the American armed forces, though they were only 2 per cent of the population.” The most of those Jews in uniform would be Irving Berlin.
1919(7th of Sivan 5679) Second Day of Shavuot
1921: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for Dr. Simon Baruch, father of Bernard Baruch, at the West End Synagogue in New York City.
1926: In Budapest, “Tivadar Schwartz, a well-connected Jewish lawyer, publisher, investor and former officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army, and the former Erzebet Szucz, the daughter of a well-to-do fabric store owner” gave birth to Paul Schwartz who gained fame as Paul Soros. (As reported by Robert D. Hershey, Jr.)
1930:Birthdate of Jerome Howard Abrams who, as Jerry Ames, became a major force in the field of American Tap Dance. The 2006 recipient of the Flo Bert Award for his lifetime contribution to tap dance changed his name, like many other performers of his era, because his “Jewishness” could hinder his career.
1931: Eighty-one year old John Lawson Stoddard, the American author whose support for “the restoration of the Jews in Israel” was encapsulated in his statement “You are a people without a country; there is a country without a people. Be united. Fulfill the dreams of your old poets and patriarchs. Go back, go back to the land of Abraham.”
1932: Dr. Cyrus Adler announced that Dr. Morris D. Levine has been appointed to a full professorship at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
1932: Dr. Cyrus Adler was honored today during the commencement exercises at the Jewish Theological Seminary for his thirty years of service to this flagship institution of the Jewish community.
1932: Ten new rabbis will be ordained today at the 7th annual commencement exercises of the Jewish Institute of Religion. The chairman of the board of Trustees, Judge Julian W. Mack will preside at the event being held today at Carnegie Hall and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, President of the Institute will confer the degrees on the newly minted clergyman.
1933: Arturo Toscaninii boycotts a German music festival to protest Nazi repression of what the regime classified as “degenerate artists.”
1934: Tensions began to rise today in Eastern Thrace that would lead to full blown violence during June and July known as the Thrace Pogroms which was the name given to a series of violent attacks on the Jews by Moslem Turks in the “cities of Tekirdağ, Edirne, Kırklareli, and Çanakkale.” The violence began with boycotts of Jewish shops and products which “was followed by vandalizing of Jewish houses and shops.” There is a dispute as to who caused the violence. Some attribute it to leaders who were pro-Nazi while others attribute it to members of Atatürk's Republican People's Party. Who started the violence may be a matter of dispute but the effects are a matter of record. “Over 15,000 Jews had to flee from the region.”
1935: The Metropolitan League of Jewish Community Associations honored The American Jewish Olympic team which recently competed in the Maccabiah games held in Tel Aviv at a reception held at the 92nd Street Y.M.H.A. The three hundred attendees included E.J. Londow, the chairman, Judge Jonah Goldstein and Rabbi Louis I. Newman. Among the honorees were Jance Lifson, Dores Kelm, William Steiner and Martin Weintraub.
1937: Birthdate of Benjamin Jerry Cohen the native of Ossining, New York who I”s the Louis G. Lancaster Professor of International Political Economy at the University of California, Santa Barbara.… where he has been a member of the faculty since 1991” and “teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on international political economy.”
1937: In Oran, Algeria, Eve(nee Klein) and George Cixous gave birth to Hélène Cixous “a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician.”
1938(6th of Sivan, 5698) Shavuot
1938: Sigmund Freud, his wife Martha and daughter Anna arrived in Paris from Vienna on their way to seek refuge in London.
1940: “With the ever-increasing threat of war in the Eastern Mediterranean” the New York Times described preparations being made to defend Palestine from attacks by Axis forces. Palestine is an attractive target because Haifa is the terminus of the oil pipeline from Iraq and has become one of the busiest ports in this part of the world. Additionally, Palestine has become “one of the largest manufacturing centers in the Near East” thanks in large part to the influx of Jewish settlers from Germany and other parts of Europe over the last seven years. The Jews of Palestine are committed to the defense of area and are determined to stay put and deal with any invasion.
1940: Birthdate of David Brudnoy, Boston talk radio host
1940: “Deputy Chief Gertrude D.T. Schimmel, the second highest ranking woman ever in the New York City Police Department began her career as a policewoman” today.
1941: Rabbi Zerach Warhaftig and his familyleft Yokohama on the Japanese ocean liner Hikawa Maru bound for Canada having escaped from Lithuania thanks to the super-human efforts of Japanese Vice-Consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, Chiune Sugihara,
1942: In Cracow; Poland, thousands of Jews were rounded up for deportation.
1942: Eisengruppen report stating efficiency of Gas vans; "Since 1941, 97,000 have been processed in the three vehicles in operation without any malfunctions in the vehicles."
1942: The SS reports that 97,000 persons have been "processed" in mobile gas vans.
1942: During a roundup of Jews in Kraków, Poland, SS men brutally torment two men--one who has just one leg and another who had lost his eyesight while fighting for Germany in World War I.
1943: The Nazis deported 1266 Jewish children under the age of 16 from Vught, Holland to the Sobibór death camp where they are gassed upon arrival.
1943(2nd of Sivan, 5703): In Minsk Mazowiecki, Poland, more than 100 Jewish workers at the Rudzki factory are shot.
1943: When the National Headliners' Club included women in its ranks of prizewinning journalists for the first time in 1943, Sylvia Porter was one of just two women to receive a Headliners' award. Today she was honored for "outstanding" work in financial and business reporting. By then, Porter had been working in journalism for a decade, but the award was only the first of many Porter would earn over a career that spanned half a century.
1943: Etty Hillesum voluntarily returned to Westerbork where she “continued to provide a bit of support for the people as they were preparing themselves for transport. It was for this reason that Etty Hillesum consistently turned down offers to go into hiding. She said that she wished to "share her people's fate".
1944: Joel Brand was arrested by the British as he tried to get to Palestine during negotiations which he thought would help save the Jews of Hungary from the Final Solution.
1944: The Allies marched into Rome, 1944. Jews emerged from their hiding places and the gate of the great synagogue was opened. There has been a great deal written about the Pope's failure to come to the aid of the Jews during the war. But we must not lose sight of the heroic efforts on the part of many individual Italians many of whom were priests and nuns who risked their lives to hide the Jews of Italy. The stories of people being hidden in monasteries, nunneries and in Catholic cemeteries are tales of courage and daring do that even Tom Clancy or Ian Fleming could not have invented.
1944: In the weekly internal report of the War Refugee Board, it states that notice was recently sent to Algeria about the evacuation of 1,000 refugees now in southern Italy to be accepted by the United States. Among the countries which refugees originated from were Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Yugoslavia.
1945: Birthdate of Nechama Rivlin, wife of former Speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin
1945:Binem Wrzonsk “joined a group of boys and young teenagers, known as the "The Buchenwald Boys" who were brought to France in a special convey under the sponsorship of the O.S.E” Among the boys were Elie Wiesel and Kalman Kaliksztajn.
1945: The Four Allied Powers – US, USSR, UK and France signed the Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers
1946: Jews from Palestine visited the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto
1948: Israeli armed forces captured Yavneh.
1950: European diamond manger, Jacques Torczyner, warns that unfair labor practices by the West German diamond industry will have a negative impact on other diamond cutting centers including the one at Tel Aviv.
1950: Eliahu Elath flies to London to begin serving as Israel’s first ambassador to Great Britain “which has recently accorded Israel full recognition…”
1951(1st of Sivan, 5711): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1954: The last new episode of the hit comic variety program, Your Show of Shows, airs. The show co-starred Sid Caesar and included Carl Reiner and Howie Morris as “second bananas.” Writers for the show included Mel Brooks, Woody Allen and Neil Simon.
1956: It was reported today that the Mizrachi Women’s Organization of American has $1,165,000 in the past year to support projects in Israel including “several children’s villages, vocational high schools, nurseries and settlement houses.”
1957(6th of Sivan, 5717): First Day of Shavuot
1959: Dr. Bernard Mandelbaum was appointed provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.
1959: Ogden Rogers Reid was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1963: Release date for Billy Wilder’s “Irma la Douce.”
1965(5thof Sivan, 5725) Erev Shavuot
1965(5thof Sivan, 5725): Eighty four year old English author Eleanor Farjeon, the daughter of author Benjamin Farjeon passed away today.
1967: Moshe Dayan replaced Prime Minister Levi Eshkol as Minister of defense.
1967: Zvi Dinstein completed his term as Deputy Minister of Defense
1967: Operation Focus (Mivtza Moked) began at 07:45
1967: Mordechai “Hod took a calculated risk by committing all but 12 of his combat aircraft to the pre-emptive strike. At 7.10 am, he dispatched a first wave of 183 aircraft and, soon after, a second wave of 164. Flying out to sea, they descended to avoid detection by radar, and made for the Egyptian coast. It took 45 minutes for the first wave to reach its targets. "These were," Hod later recalled, "the longest 45 minutes of my life." At exactly 7.55 am, Hod's pilots struck. The Defense Minister, Moshe Dayan, recalled: "Mottie [Hod] and his senior staff officers sat in the front row facing a glass partition, and I sat just behind them . . . I was watching Mottie drink jugful after jugful of water, as he followed his pilots with deep anxiety."After two hours and 50 minutes the Egyptian Air Force was in ruins, and Hod needed only another hour to finish off the Jordanian and Syrian Air Forces. By midday of June 5, he had total control of the skies. (As reported by the Telegraraph – We have included this detailed description to remind those revisionist historians that in war, the only sure victories are the ones viewed in hindsignt)
1967: War broke out between Israel and the Arab nations. This day marks the first of six of the most momentous days in Jewish history. In May of 1967, Egypt ordered the U.N. peacekeeping force out of the Sinai and sent Egyptian forces into the Sinai Peninsula. Both of these acts were violations of the agreements that had ended the Suez Crisis of 1956-57. Egypt also closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping effectively blockading the port of Elath. Such a blockade is an act of war under international law. The Egyptians also formed a joint military command with the Syrians and the Jordanians. For a month, Israel heeded the voices of caution from the international community. However, nothing was done to relieve the desperate situation. So on the morning of June 5, 1967, the Israeli Air Force struck the Egyptian Air Force, destroying much of it on the ground. This was an act of real daring since the Israelis had left only 12 fighters to cover the rest of the country in case of air attack. Following the successful air action, Israeli troops entered the Sinai and engaged the larger Egyptian forces. The world waited and held its breath. At the same time, the Israelis used three different channels to try and convince the Jordanians not to enter the fight. The Jordanian response was to begin shelling the western section of Jerusalem and to begin to move troops forward. Reluctantly, Israeli forces moved into the eastern section of Jerusalem. Two days later, the city would be united as the capital of the Jewish state and the Western Wall would once again be open to the Jews from throughout the world. (For more details on the war you might want to read Six Days of Warby Oren, Israel’s Fight for Survival by Donovan, or Israel by Martin Gilbert. As these accounts, all written in different eras after the war confirm, Israel had no grand strategy to conquer the Sinai, the West Bank and the Golan. The attacks aimed at the Egyptians were part of a grand design, but the fight against the other states was in response to unfolding events on the ground. For example, the destruction of the Egyptian Air Force was a strategic move. The destruction of the Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi air forces was a tactical move that took place when the planes from these three Arab nations crossed into Israeli air space in mid-morning of June 5.)
1967(26th of Iyar, 5727): Arthur Yitzhak Biram, Israeli philosopher, philologist, and educator, passed away in Haifa. Born in Bischofswerda in Saxony in 1878, the son of a modest, but successful businessman Biram attended school in Hirschberg, Silesia. His sister Else Bodenheimer became a well known art sociologist. He studied languages, including Arabic, at University of Berlin and at University of Leipzig and earned a doctorate Dr. phil. at the University of Leipzig in 1902, discussing the philosophy of Abu-Rasid al-Nisaburi.[1] In 1904 he concluded the rabbi seminar at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums. Afterwards he taught languages and literature at the Berlinisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster. Biram was one of the founders of the Bar-Kochba club, and a member of the German liberal religious stream 'Ezra', which recognized the importance of high school education. In 1913, he emigrated to Ottoman Palestine. Dr. Arthur Biram was appointed the first principal of the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa but a few months later, World War I broke out, and Dr. Biram was drafted by the German army and stationed in Afula. In 1919, he returned to school. He married Hannah Tomeshevsky, and they had two sons. Both sons were killed: Aharon died in an accident while on reserve duty, and Binyamin, an engineer at the Dead Sea Works, was killed by a mine. As part of Dr. Biram's philosophy of education, in 1937, he implemented compulsory Hagam training for girls in the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, laying the foundation for recruitment of women in the Haganah, and later the Israel Defence Forces. In 1948, he resigned his post as principal, and on his 75th birthday, he authored a collection of essays on the Bible. Altogether, he wrote about 50 publications in Hebrew, German, English, and Arabic.
1967: The Israeli army captured the city of Gaza. Gaza had been occupied by the Egyptians since 1948 and was a base for terrorists.
1967: The town of Latrun, overlooking the old road to Jerusalem was captured. Latrun dominated the road to Jerusalem and had been the cite of great deal of hard fighting during the War For Independence in 1948. The city of Qalqilya was also captured on the same day.
1967: The U.N. Security Council unanimously ordered a cease-fire in the Middle East War. This was the same U.N. that had betrayed the Israelis by removing its forces from the Sinai and had sat silently while the Arab states tightened the noose around Israel's neck.
1967: In Cairo, Dr. Fraouk Shabtai and two of his brothers were taken to Abu Zaabal prison and later transferred to an internment camp at Tourah where they would spend the next two years. They were part of at least “425 Jewish males – the vast majority of the Jewish community’s men – who were detained in Egypt during the Six Day War.”
1967:Avraham "Avi" Lanir flew his plane the “Black Mirage” in attack on the Egyptian air base at Fayid. The plane earned its nickname when it was scorched during Lanir’s dogfight with the Syrians in April of 1967.
1967: Mob violence broke out in Tunis. One hundred shops were systematically looted and burnt; cars belonging to Jews were overturned and set ablaze; forty scrolls of the Law were taken out of the main synagogue by the pillagers and were desacrated before they were burnt; the main synagogue was itself set on fire until it lay a smouldering ruin, the police having stood by and watched. President Bourguiba made an impassioned plea on radio and television to stop the rioting, apologising to the Jewish community and promising to punish the perpetrators. The Jews had little confidence in the government’s ability to protect them. The population went from 105,000 to 23,000 by the end of 1967 and 9,000 by 1900. In the 21st century, terrorists would burn an ancient Tunisian synagogue.
1967:Today, on the first day of war,Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu’s battalion fought the battle of Um Katef in Sinai, then reinforced the Golan Heights. During the battle, Yonatan received a wound to his elbow while helping rescue a fellow soldier who lay wounded deep behind enemy lines.
1968: Sirhan Sirhan shot Bobby Kennedy, who died the next day. Kennedy was the Senator from New York and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President. At one point, this Arab assassin claimed that he shot Kennedy because he supported Israel. Regardless of the reason (mental health problems were also given as a defense), long before 9/11 Arabs violently intruded their way into the American political scene and had a defining affect on altering history.
1969: Dr. Shabtai and his wife Laila were married in Paris two years to the day after Dr. Shabtai had been seized by Egyptian authorities at the start of the Six Days War.
1969: The University of Texas at San Antonio was founded. Today there are approximately 150 Jewish students UTSA. The Hillel House serves students at UTSA as well those at other colleges and universities in San Antonio.
1975: The Suez Canal opened for the first time since the Six Day War of 1967.
1975: Terrorist attacked a bus in Jerusalem using grenades.
1975: Terrorist fired rockets at Qiryat Shemona.
1982: Israel launched Operation Peace for Galilee against the PLO and other hostile forces after the assassination attempt on the life of Shlomo Argov, Israel’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
1983: The funeral for Charles Zimmerman a “former chairman of the civil-rights committee of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. and president of the Jewish Labor Committee” is scheduled to take placed at Riverside Chapel on Amsterdam Avenue.
1984: In Cairo, Egypt, the “security officer of the Israeli Embassy, Zvi Kedar, was wounded in the hand by a shot fired from a moving vehicle” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1987: Ted Koppel hosts a "National Town Meeting on AIDS" on a special four-hour long live broadcast of Nightline.
1988:An exhibition at the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna that presents a large private collection illustrating Jewish life in that city is scheduled to come to an end. The exhibition includes “historic objects from Jewish homes and houses of worship in Vienna, as well as books, parchments, charts, artworks and handicrafts, all assembled over the last three decades by the collector Max Berger.”
1995(7th of Nisan, 5755) Second Day of Shavuot
1995: Bose-Einstein condensate is first created for the first time. The collapse of the atoms into a single quantum state is known as Bose condensation or Bose-Einstein condensation. This phenomenon was predicted in the 1920s by Satyendra Nath Bose and Albert Einstein, based on Bose's work on the statistical mechanics of photons, which was then formalized and generalized by Einstein. (And you thought he stopped with the E= MC squared.)
1998: Author and commentator Alfred Kazin passed away on his 83rdbirthday. His last published work was God and the American Writer which appeared in 1997.
1999(21st of Sivan, 5759):Melvin Howard “Mel” Tormé nicknamed The Velvet Fog, “an American musician, known for his jazz singing” passed away. “He was also a jazz composer and arranger, a drummer, an actor in radio, film, and television, and the author of five books. He co-wrote the classic holiday song "The Christmas Song" (also known as "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire") with Bob Wells. [And you thought that Irving Berlin was the only Jew writing Christmas songs.]
1999: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Aufruf for Deb and Mitchell Levin.
2002(25th of Sivan, 5762):Of the 17 Israelis who were killed this morning when a stolen car packed with explosives pulled alongside a public bus and exploded near the northern town of Megiddo, 13 were soldiers, most of them conscripts. Seven were buried today at the Hadera military cemetery.At least five of the victims were immigrants from the former Soviet Union, young people whose parents had brought them out of Dagestan and Moldova and Ukraine.One of the victims, Violetta Hizgayev, a shy, 19-year-old sergeant in the ordinance corps, had struggled more than most.Gennadi Issakov, 20, who also was killed in the attack, had been a sergeant in Jenin for the District Civil Liaison office, a military unit set up under Oslo peace accords to staff checkpoints, supervise the delivery of international relief aid and issue the rare permits for West Bank Palestinians to travel inside Israel.
2003(5th of Sivan, 5763): Erev Shavuot
2003 - The bodies of David Shambik, 26, and Moran Menachem, 17, both of Jerusalem, were found near Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem, brutally beaten and stabbed to death.
2003(5th of Sivan, 5763):Meir Vilner “an Israeli communist politician and Jewish leader of the Communist Party of Israel (Maki), which consisted primarily of Israeli Arabs” passed away. “He was the youngest and longest surviving signatory of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948.” He was the cousin of Abba Kovner who certainly did not share his views.
2005(25thof Sivan, 5762):Cpl. Dennis Bleuman was one of 17 Israeli soldiers murdered today by an Arab terrorist.
2005:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Luckiest Man:The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig by Jonathan Eig.
2005:Acclaimed historian Gerda Lerner received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. In granting the degree, the president and rector of the Hebrew University Europe , provides a model of what may be accomplished in the face of adversity." The following day, as part of a conference in her honor, she gave a keynote address titled, "What Is Women's History and Why Should We Study It?" Lerner is widely regarded as uniquely positioned to answer that question, having shaped the field of women's history from its earliest beginnings.
2006: In “Daniel Handler Interview” published today Caroline Westrbook looks at the author who “has found famed as the man behind Lemony Snickect.”
2007: Michael Oren appeared on “Worldview, a daily global affairs program produced by Chicago Public Radio station WBEZ (91.5).”
2007: In London Israel Jerusalem
2007: In a court case tied to the Bush Administration’s behavior that led to the war in Iraq CIA officer named Valery Plame. Both Libby and Plame are Jewish.
2008: Pinchas Zukerman returns as a soloist playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin.
2008(2nd of Sivan, 5768):Amnon Rosenberg a 51 year oldfather of three from Nirim lost his life during a noontime mortar attack on the Kibbutz Nir Oz factory where he was working. Two others were seriously wounded and a fourth suffered light wounds in the noontime attack.
2009: The Tenth Annual Washington Jewish Music Festival presents “ShirLaLa: Family Shabbat Service and Dinner” featuring Shira Kline whose “creative songs delight children, parents and grandparents alike, making Shabbat a fun, interactive experience.”
2009: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Sophie Shiffman and her family begin her Bat Mitzvah Shabbat by participating in Friday evening services.
2009: President Obama toured Buchenwald concentration camp today with Chancellor Merkel, Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and survivor Bertrand Herz. At 3:10 p.m. local time, the group placed white, long-stemmed roses on a memorial site. Following remarks by Merkel, Obama commented on his visit: "I will not forget what I have seen here today." Thanking "my friend Elie Wiesel," Obama told the story of President Eisenhower's instruction that soldiers, townspeople, congressmen tour the camps. Obama lauded Merkel and the German people: "It's not easy to look into the past in this way and acknowledge it and make something of it...a determination that they will stand guard against acts like this happening again.
2010: During Shabbat services at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, IA, Jonathan Kerbis, son of Esther and Sergio Kerbis, is scheduled to be called to the Torah for his last Aliyah before making Aliyah and beginning his training with the IDF.
2010:Scott Ballan, the son of the lead bond lawyer for the financing of the $1.5 billion new Yankee stadium is scheduled to celebrate his Bart Mitzvah today.
2010: After Shabbat had ended, Orthodox boxer Yuri Foreman'sd defended his title in a bout with former welterweight champion Miguel Cotto (34-2). Foreman lost the fight for the WBA junior middleweight crown at Yankee Stadium in a TKO in the 9th round ending a streak of 29 undefeated fights..
2010:An Egyptian appeals court today upheld a ruling that orders the country's Interior Ministry to strip the citizenship from Egyptians married to Israeli women.
2011: The Annual Cantor’s Concert is scheduled to take place at Tikvat Israel featuring Cantor Rochelle Helzner and Rabbi Joshua Maroof
2011: “Uzi Landau spoke at the inauguration of Ketura Sun, Israel's first commercial solar field built by Arava Power Company, located at Kibbutz Ketura.”
2011: The Gold Coast Film Festival is scheduled to present “Homecoming” a documentary about “three teenagers who were born in Israel to foreign workers who came to Israel in search of a better life.”
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Ballad of Bob Dylan: A Portrait” by Daniel Mark Epstein and “Hank Greenberg:The Hero Who Didn’t Want to Be One” by Mark Kurlansky
2011: The Los Angeles Times features reviews of books by Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture” by David Mamet.
2011:An estimated 30,000 people marched up New York's Fifth Avenue in the annual Celebrate Israel Parade amid a sea of blue-and-white flags. Tens of thousands lined the streets to view the parade. The marchers were led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg accompanied by Israel's minister of information and Diaspora, Yuli Edelstein; Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren; and Israel’s consul general in New York, Ido Aharoni. Elected officials and politicians from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were in attendance, as were congressmen who made the trip from Washington. The Israel parade, which started in 1964, is held to mark the founding of the State of Israel. It is regarded as the world's largest celebration of Israel Independence Day; the event was formerly called the Salute to Israel Parade.
2011:Two Palestinian teenagers were indicted in the murder of five members of the Fogel family from the West Bank settlement of Itamar. Amjad Awad, 19, who worked as a laborer in Israel, and Hakim Awad 18, a high school student, were indicted today in a West Bank military court for the murders of Udi Fogel, 36, Ruth Fogel, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, 3 months. The men reportedly confessed to the March 11 murder, and military prosecuters say there is forensic evidence linking them to the scene of the crime, including DNA samples and fingerprints, Haaretz reported. The men were also charged with stealing weapons, breaking and entering, and conspiracy to commit a crime, according reports. They are residents of the West Bank town of Hawarta, located near Itamar, and have been connected to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. "I'm proud of what I did," Ynet quoted Amjad Awad as saying just minutes before the hearing. "I don't regret what I did, even if it means I'm sentenced to death." Israel does not have the death penalty expect for convictions for genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, and treason in wartime, though some politicians have called for the men to be sentenced to death if found guilty. Three of the Fogel children survived the attack; two were sleeping in a side bedroom and were not discovered, and a daughter was out of the house at the time of the killings.
2012: “Mary Lou”, a cinematic creation of Israeli director Eytan Fox, is scheduled to be shown at the JCC in Manhattan
2012: The opening reception for "Equus Ambiguity -The Emergence of Maturity,” Moshe Givati’s solo exhibition is scheduled to take place at the Jadite Galleries in New York.
2012: The Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning is scheduled to present the “He & She” the 10th Annual Exhibition of Works of The Artists’ Beit Midrash
2012: “With his bill to legalize West Bank outposts facing defeat in the Knesset, National Union MK Ya'acov Katz … slammed a government plan to carry out the Supreme Court's orders to evacuate houses in the Ulpana outpost outside of the Beit El settlement, dubbing it "destruction for the sake of destruction." (As reported by Lahav Harkov)
2012(15thof Sivan, 5772): Ninety-one year old “Eugene Ferkauf the founder of the E. J. Korvette chain of discount department stores, whose 1950s strategy of low prices, quick turnover and high volume helped shape today’s retail landscape” passed away today.(As reported by Douglas Martin)
2013: Dr. Sanjay Subrahmayan is scheduled to present a lecture styled Jews And "New Christians" In Portuguese Asia, 1500-1500 at the Library of Congress
2013: Zemer Chai, “DC’s Premier Jewish Choir” is scheduled to present ‘Sing Halleluyah’ at Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD.
2013: The Tenement Museum celebrated its 25th anniversary, and the 150th anniversary of the restored building at 97 Orchard Street, which housed over 7,000 people from more than 20 countries from 1863 to 1935. (As reported by Anne Cohen)
2013: In Wisconsin, Tikkun Ha-Ir’s Glean Machine, which collects clothing, household items toiletries, books toys, art supplies and nonperishable food, ends its spring and summer supply drive.
2013: A judge in Tel Aviv sparked outrage today after he reportedly remarked, during an appeals hearing on a rape case several days ago, that some women enjoy rape.
2013: Park Avenue Synagogue in Manhattan was the site of the funeral for New Jersey U.S. Seantor Frank Lautenberg.
2014(7thof Sivan, 5774): 2nd day of Shavuot/ Yizkor
2014: National Hebrew Book Week is scheduled to being at Liberty Bell Park in Jerusalem.
2014: “Paradise Cruise,” a film about a woman who photographs Israeli military funerals and her lover Yossi is scheduled to be shown in Manhattan.
2014: In the UK, the Wiener Library is scheduled to host “Through a Child's Eyes: Holocaust Literature for Young People.”