DECEMBER 14
1243: “King Henry III turned a confiscated synagogue into the chapel of St. Mary. Many other synagogues were also confiscated and turned into churches, including one which became St. Thomas' Hospital.”
1293: The reign of Al-Ashraf Khalil, the eighth Mamluk Sultan best known for driving the Crusaders from Palestine when he captured Acre came to an end today when he was attacked and murdered while “walking with his friend Emir Shihab ad-Din Ahmad.”
1503: Birthdate of Michel de Nostradame, the native of St. Remy de Provence better known as Nostradmus who, according to some sources was born Jewish but later baptized as part of forced conversion commanded by the King of France or who was not born Jewish because his grandfather had converted under duress
https://www.age-of-the-sage.org/historical/biography/nostradamus_prediction.html
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/nostradamus
https://www.amazon.com/Nostradamus-Revealer-Lost-History-Prophecy-ebook/dp/B004OA6L3M
1546: Birthdate of Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe who spent time with Jewish astronomer David Gans while visiting in Prague and who wrote Path to God which Franz Rosenzweig said “should be considered a ‘Jewish book’” but which said should be called a “Jewishlike book.”
1584: According to a document with this day’s date, “Isaac (Isaiko) Shachovich, a Jew of Brest, visited Moscow on business in 1581, notwithstanding the prohibition of Ivan the Terrible, and en route stopped in Mohilev at the house of his friend, the tax-collector Isaac Jacobovich.”
1655: “Some must have changed concerning the re-admission the Jews to England because today, “John Evelyn wrote in his diary, ‘Now were the Jews admitted.”
1670: In Denmark, “The privilege of 1657,” under which “the Portuguese professing the Hebrew religion" were permitted to travel everywhere within the kingdom, and to trade and traffic within the limit of the law “was specially ratified in an open letter today, at the instance of Gabriel Gomez, who was in the service of the king.”
1735: In Livorno, Italy, Judah Montefiore and his wife gave birth to Esther Hannah Magood Montefiore, the wife of Moses Vita-Haim Montefiore Medina.
1754: Mahmud I, Sultan of Turkey, passed away at the age of 58. Under the reign of Mahmud I, the treaty of Belgrade was signed (September 18th, 1739). This gave rights to the Ottoman Jews. Their situation was so good that Austrian Jews applied for Ottoman citizenship.
1755: In New York City, Benjamin Myers and his wife gave birth to Benjamin Myers, who married Hannah Hays, the mother of Sarah and Abigail Myers, after having first been married to Rachel Hays.
1760: The Board of Deputies of British Jews which was composed of elected Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews was founded today.
1762(28th of Kislev, 5523): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that Free Ilocos, a state in Northern Luzon (Philippines) was declared independent from Spain “by revolutionary Diego Silang.”
1763: In New York, Jessie Jonas and Samuel Judah gave birth to Sarah Judah, the wife of Samuel Myers.
1765(2nd of Tevet, 5526): Parashat Miketz; Seventh day of Chanukah observed for the first time after the Marquess of Rockingham had replaced Lord North as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
1765: In New York City, Abraham Isaac Abrahams and his wife gave birth to Leah Abrahams.
1773(29th of Kislev, 5534): Fifth Day of Chanukah on the same day that “thousands of people from Boston and towns across Massachusetts gathered at the Old South Meeting” as part of the protest against the Tea Tax which would result in the Boston Tea Party.
1778(25th of Kislev, 5539): Chanukah
1780: Birthdate of Count Karl Robert Nesselrode, the Russian foreign minister who successfuly thwarted the plan of Jacques Isaac Altaras to settle 40,000 Russian-Jewish families in Algeria.
1790: Two days after he had passed away, Abraham ben Nathan was buried at the “Alderney Road (Globe Rd) Jewish Cemetery” today.
1792: In New York, Zipporah Levy and Benjamin Mendes Seixas gave birth to Hayman Levy Seixas, the husband of Abigail Nunez Cardozo with whom he had nine children.
1795(2nd of Tevet, 5556): Eighth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day The Committee on Energy and Commerce which was originally known as the Committee on Commerce and Manufactures to regulate interstate and foreign commerce was established
1798: Abraham bar Samuel was buried today at the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1798: “Hancah (Hannah) Weil and Hirsch Weil gave birth Sophia Loeser who was married in Kentucky where her parents had moved to from their respective homes in Germany and France.
1799: In Westphalia, Germany, Sara Moses Weinberg and Bendix Aron Weinberg gave birth to Abraham Bendix Weinberg the husband of Fiekchen Sophia Weinberg and Hannchen Leffmann Weinberg
1799: Alexander Hamilton, the native of Nevis who according to some was the son a Jewess Rachel Levine and who attended the island’s Jewish school before leaving for North America, began service “as the inspector general of the United States Army” during which he “was the de factor head of the army.”
1799: President George Washington whose letters of acceptance to Jewish communities in the early days of the United States set the tone for acceptance that has made it possible for the Jewish community to flourish passed away today.
1800(27thof Kislev, 5561): Third Day of Chanukah observed for the last time during the Presidency of John Adams.
1803(29thof Kislev, 5564): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1803: In Georgetown, SC, Savanah, GA merchant Isaac Minis married the “eldest daughter of Solomon Cohen.”
1807: In Hamburg, Israel Abraham Meyer and his wife gave birth to Meyer Isler who wrote a these on the Greek poet to earn his doctorate and who was a follower “of the new science of Judaism” as presented by Leopold Zunz and Isaak Markus Jost.
1808(25thof Kislev, 5569): Chanukah celebrated for the last time during the Presidency of Thomas Jefferson
1808(25thof Kislev, 5569):Abraham ben Elijah of Vilna the son of Elijah, the Vilna Gaon passed away today in Vilna.
http://thesaurus.babylon.com/Abraham%20ben%20Elijah%20of%20Vilna#!!ARV6FUJ2JP
1812: In Bavaria, Nanette Wexler and Leser Lazarus Ochsenhorn who were married in 1803 gave birth to Maier Ochs, the husband of Agatha Ochs and the father of Mathilda, Nannie, Flora and Louis Ochs.
1812: With Napoleon having “abandoned his army on December 5 to deal with the aftermath of an attempted coup d'état in France” the shrunken “the Grande Armée” left Russia – a move that would lead to the downfall of the French Emperor and an to many of the reforms made possible in the aftermath of the French Revolution that were beneficial to the Jews of Europe.
1814(1stof Tevet, 5575): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1814: Alexander Solomon married Esther Lyons today at the Great Synagogue.
1816(24thof Kislev, 5577): Parashat Vayeshev; Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1816: Birthdate of Ban, Hungary, native Abraham Hochmuth, the “principal of the newly founded Jewish school at Miskolcz who served as the rabbi in Kula and Veszprim while playing a prominent role in the Hungarian Jewish Congress.
1819(26thof Kislev, 5580) Second Day of Chanukah
1819: Alabama becomes the 22nd state to join the Union. For those of you who think that Jews only made a contribution on the eastern seaboard, please take note. Abram Mordecai came to Alabama in 1785 and is credited by some with the founding of Montgomery, the state capital. He was described as “’an intelligent Jew who lived fifty years in the Creek nation.’” (The Creeks were an Indian tribe made famous by their battles with Andrew Jackson and Davey Crockett.) He traded with the Creeks, married a Creek woman and found what he considered proof positive that the Creeks were descendants of the ten lost tribes. The first congregation in Alabama was formed in Mobile in 1844 and a second congregation was founded in Montgomery in 1852.
1825: A group of disgruntled Russian Army officers begin what is now known as the Decembrist Revolt, an uprising against the newly installed Czar, Nicholas I. The Jews had nothing to do with the revolt. The officers were animated by the tainted road to throne followed by Nicholas and their desire for a more liberal regime. The unsuccessful revolt reinforced the despot’s drive to follow in the reactionary footsteps of his father. Among other things he increased the drive to remove the Jews from Russian society by forcing growing numbers into the Pale of Settlement and by enforcing draft laws that forced young Jewish boys to serve 25 years in the Russian Army.
1827(25th of Kislev, 5588): First Day of Chanukah.
1827: Three days after she had passed away “Rosetta Cowan,” the wife of George Cowan was buried today at the “Lauriston Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1828(8thof Tevet, 5589): Forty year old Charleston native Isaac Harby, the son of Solomon and Rebecca Moses Harby and the husband of Rachel Harby, the editor of the Charleston Mercury and playwright whose “Alberti” premiered with President Monroe in the audience passed away today while living in New York.
1829: One day after he had passed away, 29 year old Mark Benjamin was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1831(10thof Tevet, 5592): Asara B’Tevet
1831: Birthdate of Zevi Hirsch Dainow, the native of Russia and magid (teacher) who settled in London.
1834: Two days after she had passed away, 66 year old Maria Isaacs, the wife of Samuel Isaacs was buried at “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1841: John and Janette Ries Mayer gave birth to Caroline Mayer who became Caroline Mayer Weis when she married Julius Weiss,the businessman who in 1901 was “fined $25 for violating the Wilson separate car law because he sat in the section reserved for negroes and declined the conductor's request to get up because there were no empty seats in the white section” and with whom she had six children – Henrietta. Simon, Samuel, Joseph, Marion and Frederick.
1842: David Woolf Marks married Cecilia Sarah Woolf in London today.
1844: In Hungary, Hannah Heller Steiner gave birth to Rosalie Steiner Schonberger, the future New Yorker who was the wife of Herman Schonberger.
1846(25thof Kislev, 5607): Chanukah is observed for the first time during the Mexican-American War.
1846: Birthdate of Isidor Abisdid, the resident of London and husband of Flora Henriette Raphael.
1849: Following the revolution in Hungary during which he had been arrested Rabbi Judah Leib "Leopold" Löw was pardoned by General Julius Jacob von Haynau
1850: Birthdate of Jean (Jan) Taubenhaus, the native of Warsaw who became a “French chess master.” He was the brother of Godfrey Taubenhaus and Joseph Taubenhaus both of whom would become rabbis in the United States.
1851: Rabbi Isaac Leeser of Philadelphia gave a speech “to more than a hundred people at United Hebrew temple on Fifth Street in St. Louis” in which “he pointed out the absurdity of” the St. Louis Jewish community “maintaining three separate congregations” which led to the merger of B’nai B’rith Congregation, Congregation Emanu-El and United Hebrew in 1852.
1852(3rdof Tevet, 5613): Seventy-one year old Rebecca Hayms the daughter of Sarah Sarzedas and Colonel David Maysor and the wife of David Hayms with whom she had three children passed away today.
1852: In Curaçao, Sarah Jesurun De Leon and Daniel de Leon, the descendant of Spanish-Dutch Jews gave birth to Daniel De Leon the future lead of the Socialist Labor Party of America.
1853: Three days after she had passed away, Hanna Schloss, a native of Bamberg, Bavaria, and wife of Joseph Schloss was buried today at “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1854(23rdof Kislev, 5615): Just 12 days before his 71st birthday Emanuel Baruh Lousada a West Indies merchant and member of prominent Sephardi family that had settled in England in the 17th century who developed Sidmouth, in Devon, as a popular resort passed away today leaving an estate valued at one hundred thousand pounds.
1856: In Syracuse, NY, Zilli Strauss and Jacob Marshall gave birth to Louis Marshall, prominent lawyer and leader of the United States Jewish community.
http://www.jrbooksonline.com/intl_jew_full_version/ij76.htm
http://syracuseuniversitypress.syr.edu/fall-2012/louis-marshall.html
1857(27thof Kislev, 5618): Third Day of Chanukah observed for the first time during the Presidency of James Buchanan.
1858: At Lomzha, Poland, “Boruch Meyer Brown and Sarah Brzoza gave birth to Wolf Brown who began serving as the Cantor at Congregation Mount Zion in 1888.
1860(1stof Tevet, 5621): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah observed as South Carolinians prepare to secede from the Union because they did not like the outcome of the Presidential election.
1861(11thof Tevet, 5622): Parashat Vayechi
1861: Today Abraham Lincoln wrote a letter to Rabbi Arnold Fischel who “was instrumental in getting the United States military chaplaincy law changed to allow for inclusion of Jewish chaplains” that “I find that there are several particulars in which the present law in regard to Chaplains is supposed to be deficient, all of which I now design present to the appropriate Committee of Congress” and “I shall try to have a new law broad enough to cover what is desired by you in behalf of the Israelites.”
1862: Following the crushing Union defeat at Fredericksburg caused by the ineptness of General Burnside, Lieut. G.L. Snyder, Company B, of the 104thN.Y. was among the group of Jewish members of the Army of the Potomac who were buried near the hospital that had been set up across the river from the battlefield.
1865(26thof Kislev, 5626): Second Day of Chanukah observed for the first time during the Presidency of Andrew Johnson.
1868: A Hungarian Jewish Congress was convened today which created Neolog Judaism a “mild reform movement” that was concentrated in the “Hungarian speaking regions of Europe”
1869: In Pittsburgh, PA, Mina and Louis Israel Aaron gave birth to Marcus the Aaron, the husband of Stella Aaron, the brother of Charles Aaron and the father of Marcus Lester Aaron and Fanny Friedman.
1870: Birthdate of South Carolinian Julius Levin, the husband of Etta Karesh Levin and the father of Sidney L. Levin
1870: A large number of Jews and Christians including several governmental dignitaries attended today’s cornerstone laying ceremony for Ahavath Chesed on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan In his introductory remarks, Ignatz Stein traced the history of the congregation which began with a few Jews from Bohemia holding High Holiday services at house on Ludlow Street. The congregation’s real growth began in 1848 when large number of Jews fled Europe following the failure of the liberal revolutions.
1871(2ndof Tevet, 5632): Seventh day of Chanukah observed for the first time under the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm, the first ruler of Unified German State.
1873: In Egeln, Germany Selig and Juliane Blumenthal gave birth to Oskar Michael Blumentahal the husband of Dora Blumenthal with whom he had two children – Margot and Ilse – who died at Theresienstadt.
1874: One day after he had passed away, Prussian born Lewis Haines, the wife of Catherine Haines, was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1876(28thof Kislev, 5637): Fourth Day of Chanukah observed as the United States deals with the disputed outcome of the Presidential Election that would like to the Compromise of 1877
1877: Cesare Porec helped to engineer today’s resignation of the Interior Minister in Italy.
1877: It was reported that the few Jewish families who had fled last summer as the Russian Army crossed into the Balkans last summer have been proven right in fearing the treatment they could expect from the Czar.
1879: Four days after he had passed away, 67 year old French born Lambert Samuel was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1879: Birthdate of Lomza native Abraham Joseph Cohen who in 1888 came to the United States where he graduated from Jefferson Medical College after which he specialized in tuberculosis and served on the faculty of Temple Univsersity.
1879: Mr. Isaac Rosenwald chaired the annual meeting of the Society of the Home for Aged and Infirmed Hebrews in New York City today. The home is providing shelter for 44 women and 32 men. The election of officers was held which included the re-election of Mr. Rosenwald as President
1880: Mrs. Lizzie Wenke appeared in Essex Market Police Court today to answer charges that she had horse-whipped Isaac Stern, a Jewish tenant living in the same tenement.
1881: Birthdate of Nicholas M. Schenck, the Russian born American movie mogul who headed MGM.
1882: In Bradford, PA, f Jacob Olshofsky and Louise Olshofsky gave birth to Richmond resident Stella O. Bowman the wife of Louis Bowman and mother of Louis O. Bowman who was an active member of the National Council of Jewish Women.
1882: Julius W. Kaskel, an early Jewish settler of Leadville, was an active member of the Reception Committee for the charity ball held today in the Colorado boomtown
1883(15th of Kislev, 5644): Ignatz Fischl, a 23 year old German Jewish immigrant was found dead in his room at the Great Northern Hotel, in the Bowery.
1883(15thof Kislev, 5644): Naphtali Mendel Schoor, the “Galician Hebrew writer” who in 1861 founded a Hebrew weekly who wrote a three part history of the Medieval Jews.
1883: In Rochester, NY, for the first time in the history of Berith Kodesh, Rabbi Max Landsberg led the Friday night service using the newly printed English language order of service. (They prayed in \English and not Hebrew. One of the tenants of Reform Judaism was that people should pray in the vernacular – Germans in German, French in French, Americans in English)
1884: The Hebrew Free School Association held its annual meeting today at their building on East Broadway.
1884: Professor Felix Adler delivered an address at Chickering Hall where he condemned the conditions of those living in tenements on the Lower East Side, blamed them on the landlords and called for the establishment of inspection committees as the first step in improving conditions.
1886: Rabbi Francis Lyon Cohen who would serve as “the first Jewish chaplain in the British Army” and serve as the “Chief Minister of the Great Synagogue in Sydney Australia” married Rose Hast at he Great Synagogue in London where her father Rabbi Marcus Hast served as “Reader.”
1887(28thof Kislev, 5648): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1887: It was reported today that of the twenty-eight hospitals in New York represented by The Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, two of them have “a Jewish connection,” “are of distinctively Jewish origin and depend for their maintenance almost exclusively upon Jewish support.”
1888(10th of Tevet, 5649): Asara B’Tevet
1888: In Chicago, Sol and Emma (Luca) Levinsohn gave birth to Bennett Medical College trained physician Edmund David Levinsohn the husband of Melanie M. Poll who served as the chief surgeon for the Illinois Malleable Iron Company and associate professor of minor surgery at the Chicago Medical School starting in 1924.
1888: Rabbi Gustave Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El was among the clergymen appointed by Elbridge T. Gerry to organize the church services to be held on April 30, 1889, as part of the Centennial Celebration of the Inauguration of George Washing as President of the United States.
1888: In New York, Justice Patterson is scheduled to hear evidence on the charges that Telemaque T. Timayneis “doctored” the books of Minerva Publishing Company. The complaining witness in this case of grand larceny is his partner, Emma Dickinson. Timayenis is the author of three very popular books aimed at discrediting the Jewish people - The Original Mr. Jacobs: A Startling Exposé, The American Jew: An Expose of His Career, and Judas Iscariot: An Old Type in a New Form.
1889: Birthdate of Leopold Philipp who was buried at Adath Jeshurun Cemetery in Philadelphia when he passed away in 1982.
1889: “New Departures” published today summarized the views of newspaper editor Moritz Ellinger which included the advocacy of “a departure from many of old forms and ceremonies used by Hebrews for centuries, some of which characterized as superstitions. Mr. Ellinger felt that such reforms were the only to attract the “new blood” needed to strengthen Jewish congregations.
1890: “The Jews In Russia” published today described “the mass meeting recently held in London to protest against the persecution of the Jews in Russia” which was attended by many prominent Christian Englishman who “made speeches denouncing the obnoxious laws” aimed at the Jews which American Jews hope will emulated in this country including outspoken support by prominent Christian Americans.
1890: The residents of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews will be able to attend an afternoon of music starting at 3 p.m.
1890: In Poland, “Abraham Solomon Taxon and Gruna (Hailperin) Taxon gave birth to Morris Nathan Taxon the REIT trained rabbi who got his secular education at CCNY, Ohio State and Omaha University and who held several pulpits starting with Augudas Achim in Columbus, OH, before settling in at Shaareth Israel in Dallas where he also served President of the Texas State Zionist Association and as amember of the directorate of the Jewish Federation for Social Service in Dallas while raising a family with the former Edyth Irene Schotenstein.
1890: In Berlin, the stock marked “closed weak” today due to many chaotic situations in Europe included the “stringent measures” taken against the Jews.
1891: “An Indictment of Russia” described the abusive treatment of the Jews in the Czar’s empire including their recent expulsion from St. Petersburg that came without warning. Among those affected were “Moses Mordechai Feinberg, a gold and silversmith whose right of residence” in St. Petersburg “dated from 1871 and Eidel Solomon Gissing, whose permit extended back to 1868” reducing them and there co-religionist “to beggary.”
1891: Birthdate of Jozef Hecht, the native of Cracow who gained fame as “painter and printmaker” Joseph Hecht.
https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/984/Hecht/Joseph
1892(25thof Kislev, 5653): Chanukah observed for the last time during the Presidency of Benjamin Harrison.
1892: Birthdate of Kiev native Samuel Umansky who in 1912 came to the United States where he eventually settled in Meriden, CT while raising three daughters with his wife Elizabeth Umanksy while serving for “15 years on the National Administrative Council of the ZOA” and attending 20 National Zionist conventions.”
1892: In Decatur, GA, Henry and Mathilda Hamburger Bachrach gave birth to Louis Bachrach, a graduate of Decatur High School who had gone to work in a department store in Philadelphia where died tragically at the age of twenty.
1893: Sarah Polskie, whose three children were turned over to the Hebrew Children’s Guardian Society by order of the court, said that she had been unable to provide for the youngsters since her husband had been sent to the penitentiary and she had been out of work for five weeks.
1894: Birthdate of New York native Barney Pressman, the founder of the famous Barney’s clothing store.
1895: The Allen Memorial Church on Rivington Street played host an overflow crowd that come to protest the visit to American by Hermann Ahlwardt the German anti-Semite who has been delivering speeches in New York.
1895: “Against Cuba’s Rebels” published today described a pamphlet that has been circulated among members of Congress that demonizes their leaders including Carlos Roloff “the most inhuman and ferocious of them all” a Polish born Jew who is “a Nihilist and dynamiter.” (According to Ben Frank, Roloff was “a Ukrainian Jewish adventurer” and “became the first finance minister of Cuba after she gained her independence who supported the revolt against For more see “Carlos Roloff:A Cuban Jewish Patriot” by Isidoro Aizenberg in the Judaica Philatelic Journal
1895: After Shabbat, the charity fair sponsored by leading Jewish New York families reopened this evening at 8 p.m.
1895: At the charity fair sponsored by the leading Jewish New York families, the Aguilar Library book was given one of the first copies of The American in Paris by Eugene Coleman Savidge which it would be able to sell to raise funds.
1895: At the Hebrew Charity Fair, Mrs. Joseph L. Buttenweiser has raised $5,650 at the Candy Booth.
1895: Birthdate of King George VI of the United Kingdom, whose reign covered the dark days leading up to World War II and the war itself. According to documents published in the Guardian in 2002, in the spring of 1939 George VI instructed his private secretary to write to Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax: “Having learnt that ‘a number of Jewish refugees from different countries were surreptitiously getting into Palestine’, the King was ‘glad to think that steps are being taken to prevent these people leaving their country of origin.’” Halifax’s office telegraphed Britain’s ambassador in Berlin asking him to encourage the German government ‘to check the unauthorized emigration’ of Jews.” Halifax’s telegraph in 1939 initiating the request that Hitler not allow “unauthorized” Jews to leave Germany was thus a direct result of George VI’s letter to him. “When it came to anti-Semitism, King George VI did not stutter at all!” King George Street in Israel is named for George V not George VI.
1895: A copy of the Hebrew Scriptures is among the items placed in the bronze box which is in a cavity of the cornerstone of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science which the mayor will lay this afternoon at 3 p.m.
1897: In Riva del Garda, Tyrol, Austria-Hungary, Austrian General Artur von Schuschnigg and his wife gave birth to Kurt Schuschnigg, the last Chancellor of an independent Austria whose opposition to the Anschluss earned him imprisonment at Dachau until the end of the war.
1898(1stof Tevet, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; 6th day of Chanukah
1898: Two days after he had passed away, 65 year old Emanuel Thierman was buried at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1898(1stof Tevet, 5659): David Marks, the benefactor of many Jewish charities, passed away today in New York City.
1900(22ndof Kislev, 5661): Baruch Jonas passed away today.
1900: In Romania, the issue of Lazăr Șăineanu's naturalization was also revisited by the lower chamber, and the proposal defeated with 44 votes to 31 (from an insufficient quorum of 75) despite the fact that he had converted to Christianity to facilitate the process.
1900: Six days after she had passed away, the former Sophia Goldsmed, the “widow of David Viscount de Stern” with whom she had had five children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1900: Max Plank publishes his study on quantum theory. His greatness as a scientist is transcended as his greatness as man. He protested Hitler’s treatment of Jewish scientists. At great personal risk he resigned in protest but stayed in Germany.
1901(4thof Tevet, 5662): Parashat Miketz
1901: Birthdate of Cincinnati, OH native and Harvard Ph.D Charles Louis Kuhn, the expert on German art who served with Naval Intelligence during WW II before becoming one of “The Monuments Men.”
https://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org/the-heroes/the-monuments-men/kuhn-lt.-cdr.-charles-l.
1902: Julie Dent Grant, the widow of Ulysses S. Grant, whose general officers during the Civil War included several Jews and who was the first President to attend the dedication of a synagogue (Adas Israel) passed a way today.
1902: In the aftermath of a major snowfall, many New Yorkers gave up their fancy automobiles for horse drawn transportation including Nathan Straus who was “driving his old trotting favorite Cobwebs” in what was his “first appearance on the road since his return from Europe” and then later “drove the pacer Quadriga.”
1903(25th of Kislev, 5664): First Day of Chanukah
1903: Herzl explains his position on Uganda in a letter to Sir Francis Montefiore, President of the English Zionist Federation.
1903: “The Girl from Kays” an English musical with “additional songs by Paul Ruben” today moved from the Apollo Theatre to the Comedy Theatre where it finished “its run of 432 peformances.”
1903: The United Zionists of Greater New York continued its semi-annual meeting today. The 250 delegates representing 74 Zionist societies were scheduled to deal with “routine business.”
1903: Belle Mandel, the daughter of Simon Mandel who with his brothers Solomon, Leon and Emanuel formed Chicago’s Mandel Brother’s department store married Ben Altheimer, the Arkansas born lawyer and philanthropist who was the driving force behind the creation of Flag Day. (Carolyn Gray LeMaster)
1904: It was reported today that the Carnegie Institution had made a minor grant “for archeological investigations in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Nubia
1904: It was reported today drove “the old Speedway favorite, Cobwebs to a hooked featherweight cutter” today.
1905: In Lodz, this afternoon “a band of roughs attacked Jewish shops and residences in Zielczna Street.”
1905: Thirty-two year old NYU trained attorney, John L. Bernstein, the Russian born son of “Leib-Ber and Dina Schurr) Bernstein married Celene J. Richter today in New York.
1905: During a session of the Reichstag, Adolf Stocker called “the Jews a revolutionary element which is responsible for socialism.
1906(27thof Kislev, 5667): Third Day of Chanukah
1906(27thof Kislev, 5667): Sixty-five year old Ancona native Federico Consolo, the “Italian violinist and composer who created “the national anthem of San Marino” passed away today.
1907(9thof Tevet, 5668): Parashat Vayigash
1907: According to a dispatch from London today, “a special commemoration will be made next July of the fiftieth anniversary of the admission of Jews to the British Parliament.
1908: In Chicago, “Max and Jennie (Finder) Amsterdam, Jewish immigrants from Austria-Hungary” gave birth to Moritz Amsterdam who gained fame as comedian Morey Amsterdam.
1909: Marcus M. Marks, President of the Tuberculosis’ Prevenotrium at Lakewood, NJ met with Samuel Untermeyer, counsel for Max Nathan in an attempt to reach an agreement on the disposition of Mr. Nathan's share of the Lakewood Hotel Property which is valued at $300,000.
1910(13thof Kislev, 5671): Sixty-six year old Aaron E. Greenewald the husband of Sallie Gimbel passed away today after which he was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1911: Roald Amundsen, of whom Apsley Cherry-Garrard, the author who described the ill-fated trip of his rival Robert Scott wrote “The truth was that Amundsen was an explorer of the markedly intellectual type, rather Jewish than Scandinavian . . .” reached the South Pole today.
1912(4thof Tevet, 5673): Parashat Vayigash
1912: Dr. Hirsch “spoke at the annual meeting of the Education Alliance of New York” today.
1912: It was reported today, that plans are being made to move the Jews’ College from London to either Oxford or Cambridge so that students may combine university courses with their “rabbinical studies.”
1912: Birthdate of “rubber technologist” and “Labour MP for Bolton and Bolton West” John Lewis.
1912: It was reported today that “synagogue of the Bikur Cholim Congregation in Seattle Washington, on which construction work was stopped two years ago due to lack of funds will soon be completed now that the necessary moneys have been raised.
1913: A very pregnant Myra Lyons Rukeyser was one day away from giving birth to her daughter Muriel.
1913: Rene Cohen, a descendant of Eliahu Hadar Cattaui was married today.
1914(26thof Kislev, 5675): Second Day of Chanukah
1914: Dr. Nathan Blaustein was unable to save Mrs. Sadie Mager a widow who was brought to the Flower Hospital after having suffered a heart attack, but thanks to his quick thinking was able to save her unborn child by performing a Caesarian operation and then alternately immersing her in basins of hot and cold water for 30 seconds at a time until she was able to breath on her own.
1914: Birthdate of Jack Donald Foner and Philip S. Foner two brothers who were both academics and activists in the labor and social movements.
http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/foner-obit.html
1914: In an address given this afternoon to students of the Atlanta Law, Hooper Alexander, the United States District Attorney and “an authority on constitutional law” said “that Leo M. Franks still has a ground of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States on a writ error.”
1914: Solomon Rabinowitz who writes under the name of Shalom Aleichim and is known as the “Jewish Mark Twain” is scheduled to lecture at Cooper Union where last spoke in 1908 when he his family had come to the United States to escape the anti-Semitic violence in his native Kiev.
1914: Birthdate of Solomon Spiegelman, an American microbiologist and geneticist who discovered that only one of two strands of molecules that make up
1915: The Allies were making preparations to evacuate from Gallipoli, where the Zion Mule Corps had served with distinction.
1915: Having prepared to launch the first gas attack of WW I, the Germans spent today waiting for favorable weather. (Editor’s note – the effect of gas was so horrible that nobody used it in combat during WW II but it was not horrible enough for Hitler, who had suffered from a gas attack, to use it on the Jews)
1916: The Senate voted 64 to 7 in favor of the highly restrictive Burnett Immigration Bill that had sparked a debate on whether Jewish immigrants could be exempted from the literacy requirement.
1917(29thof Kislev, 5678): Fifth day of Chanukah
1917: Abram I. Elkus, the former Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, “issued a special plea for aid for sufferers everywhere, especially in Turkey” in which he said he wished he could find the words to make the plight of the sufferers more “vivid” for those living in New York.
1917: Congregation Temple Rodeph Sholom is scheduled to begin the celebration of its 75th anniversary today.
1917: After Montrose Strassburger spoke at the Palace Theatre “he was showered with silver” to donated to the fund trying to raise five million dollars for Jewish relief.
1917: Today, the Palace Theatre, the Bushwick Theatre in Brooklyn and the Morris Theatre in Harlem gave their total receipts to the Jewish relief fund.
1917: Harry H. Rosenfeld, the assistant executive director of the American Jewish War Relief Committee which is raising ten million dollars across the United States reported that in Tulsa, OK, where oil man Marion Travis has led the campaign, $150,000 has been raised including contributions from Travis himself.
1917: A Reuters’ telegram to Amsterdam reported that the population of Palestine is suffering terribly; and that the population has been reduced to one third because of hunger, sickness and distress. Only 23,000 of the 60,000 Jews are left in Jerusalem.
1917: In Warsaw, “municipal authorities took control of all bakeries and declined to allow Jewish bakeries to close on Saturdays and work on Sundays.”
1917: In Kharkov, “in response to appeals from rabbis,” the local military commander posted guards at Jewish burial grounds “to prevent Bolsheviki and deserters from molesting funerals ton the pretext that Jews bury hidden stores” in their graves.
1917: In Moghilev, peasants who are dividing “pasture ground” allotted “land to Jews possessing cattle with the proviso that Jews work on the land themselves and do not hire” laborers.
1917: Today in Russia, “Jewish communal leaders in many towns appealed to educational authorities to excuse Jewish pupils from writing on Saturday when secondary schools are open.”
1917: the Franfurter Zeitung reported today about preparations “by ant-Semitic organizations for a strong anti-Jewish campaign after the war.”
1917: In Germany hundreds of thousands of copies of “a work entitled A Knife for the Jews are being distributed”
1918: “Rabbi Samuel Schulman preached a sermon” today at Temple Beth-El “in which he pointed out the American Jewish Congress” which begins its meetings tomorrow “has of uniting the Jews in the United States on behalf of the great work of complete emancipation of their co-religionists in the world by presenting a perfect solidarity of opinion before the” Peace Conference which is going to convene to settle the issues of the World War.
1918: Today, “the Federation of Russian Societies ended the second day of its three day convention” in New York where “the Jews were both reviled and defended.”
1919: Tonight, “at a meeting of the Judeans in the Hotel Pennsylvania,” “Henry Morgenthau, who head President Wilson’s special to Poland to investigate” reports of Pogroms described “the horrors which had been revealed to the commission and also some of the constructive proposals which he had made to the Polish Government in order to save the people, thousands of whom he predicted will die of starvation this Winter.”
1920: In San Antonio, TX, Morris Stern was elected President of the Chamber of Commerce.
1920: In “Bryan on the Protocols” published today, the failed Democratic Presidential candidate and former of Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan wrote “The libel that is being circulated against the Jews, based on the so-called ‘protocols’ is absurd as well as cruel” and that “it is astonishing that anyone would build upon an anonymous publication an indictment against one of the greatest races in history.”
1921: Members of Gdud HaAvoda, “a socialist Zionist work group” went to work at Tel Yosef to help develop the fledgling Kibbuz.
1922(24th of Kislev, 5683): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1922: In New York City, “Frieda (née Pike) and Ely S. Hewitt” gave birth to Donald Shepard “Don” Hewitt, the creator of Sixty Minutes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/business/media/20hewitt.html
1922: The Anshe Emes Sisterhood is scheduled to host a theatre party this afternoon at the DeLuxe Theatre in Chicago with all proceeds going to the Building Fund.
1922: In Berlin, Leo and Lotte Jachmann gave birth to their first son Isadore Seigfried Jachman the Baltimore raised U.S. Army Staff Sergeant who killed in 1945 after “defending the town of Flamierge in Belgium” – an action for which received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
1923: Sir William Graham Greene wrote Churchill congratulating him on finally being cleared of charges that he issued misleading reports about the Battle of Jutland that benefited Jewish financiers to whom Churchill owed a greater allegiance than he did to the British people.
1924:Dedication of the Beth El’s new synagogue took place today in Camden, NJ. Participating in the ceremonies were Mayor Victor King of Camden, Dr. A. A. Neuman of Philadelphia's Adath Jeshurun, Judge William M. Lewis of Philadelphia and Rabbi Samuel Freedman of Beth EI in Philadelphia. Rabbi Grayzel and Cantor Mickleman officiated at the service. The Cantor was accompanied by a choir under the direction of Gedalia Rabinowitz.
1924: Martin Henry Glynn, the first Irish American Roman Catholic governor of New York and a staunch defender of the rights of Jewish immigrants living in his state, passed away.
1925: At Atlantic City, in a case of Jew versus Jew Benny Shwartz defeated featherweight Wilbur Cohen
1925: “Wozzeck,” an opera which Alban Berg had completed in 1922, was performed for the first time today in Berlin.
1926: Louis Marshall is honored on his seventieth birthday for his success as a lawyer, a philanthropist who raised millions, supporter of forest conservation and immigration reform, statesman and champion of Jewish causes.
1926: Birthdate of German native Arnulf M. Pins, the “director for the Middle East Region of the Joint Distribution Committee, and associate director of JDC-Israel…”
https://www.jta.org/1978/02/10/archive/arnulf-m-pins-dead-at-51
1927: President Coolidge his express “sympathy with the Zionist movement” in its attempts “to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine” when he met with “Rabbi Uzziel, a patriarch of the Jewish synagogue in Palestine.”
1927: In St. Louis, Isadore Lavin and Jenny Shuff gave birth to Washington University trained art historian Irving Lavin.
https://www.ias.edu/news/press-releases/2019/irving-lavin-obit
1928: “Nathan Chanin, the Secretary of the Jewish Socialist Ferband of America who has just returned from Russia where he visited the Jewish agricultural colonies said in an address at the Rand School” tonight “that the Jews in Russia were on the verge of starvation.”
1929: After 519 performances the curtain came down at the Casino Theatre on the original Broadway production of “The New Moon,” “an operetta with music by Sigmund Roberg and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II…”
1930(24th of Kislev, 5691): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1930: 74thanniversary of the birth of Louis Marshall.
1930: Dr. Nathan Krass delivered a sermon at Temple Emanu-El “on the significance of the festival of Chanukah and on the problem of human suffering.”
1930: Murray Seasongood, the Jewish former Mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio and Rabbi Samuel S. Cohen of Hebrew Union College are two of the speakers scheduled to address tonight’s fourth annual dinner of the metropolitan conference of Temple Men’s Club at the Emanu-El Community House in New York City
1931: In New York, Fay and Rita Gelman gave birth award winning chemist Charles Gelman the holder of a BS from Syracuse and MS from the University of Michigan, who after serving in the United States Army founded Gelman Instrument Company led to being a “recipient of the Michigan Science and Technology Trailblazer Award.”
1932: “The possibility of Palestine becoming a source for supply of oil for the British Navy was raised today in the House of Commons in a question by Sir Alfred Knox.” (JTA)
1932: Two days after she passed away, funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 78 eight year old Mrs. Ida Wise Bernheim, the widow of Henry Bernheim with whom she had five children and the graduate of the Ohio Female College in Cincinnati who was the daughter or Rabbi Isaac M. Wise and Theresa Bloch Wise.
1932(15th of Kislev, 5693): Dr. Angel Pulido y Fernandez, Spanish researcher of the Sephardim passed away. In 1904 he wrote Espanoles sin Patria (Spaniards Without A Home) which sparked the idea of the Sephardim returning to Spain. He became a member of the Spanish Parliament, and later the King made him a Senator. He spent the latter part of his life writing, holding meetings and passionately advocating for the return of the Sephardim.
1933: Forty-five year old composer Max Steiner and Audree Van Lieu whom had married in 1927 were divorced today
1934: In Nuremberg, Julius Streicher, “the Franconian Nazis leader” “demanded new anti-Semitic legislation” tonight saying that “sexual intercourse between a Jew and a non-Jewish woman must be punched with death.”
1935(18th of Kislev, 5696): Science fiction writer Stanley G Weinbaum passed away.
1935:Lillian Hellman's "The Children's Hour" is banned in Boston. Calling it "indecent," Mayor Frederick Mansfield issued a decree banning Lillian Hellman's first play, The Children's Hour, from being staged in Boston. Showcasing the destructive power of lies, the play depicts the experiences of the headmistresses of a girls' boarding school, who are ruined by a malicious rumor that they are lovers. Although the play was also banned in London, The Children's Hourhad opened on Broadway in 1934 to critical and popular success. One reviewer called it both "a venomously tragic play" and "one of the most straightforward, driving dramas of the season." The scandal associated with the play's lesbian theme was reflected in a 1936 film remake, These Three, for which a screenplay written by Hellman transformed the play's rumor of lesbianism into a rumored love triangle centered around a man. Another film version, starring Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine in 1961, restored both the lesbian-rumor theme and the original title. The play remains a significant milestone in the representation of gay themes in American letters and an important piece of the contemporary American theater repertoire. Hellman, whom the New York Times has called "one of the most important playwrights of the American theater," was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 20, 1905. Her parents both came from wealthy German-American Jewish families. After her high school graduation and three years at New York University, Hellman took a job reading manuscripts at a Greenwich Village publishing house. After a year, she left to marry writer Arthur Kober and move to Hollywood. Although their marriage ended in 1932, the move proved a good one for Hellman. She worked reading scripts and was soon writing them herself. Other significant Hellman plays include The Little Foxes (1939), Another Part of the Forest (1947), and The Autumn Garden (1951), all loosely based on her mother's family, and the two anti-fascist plays Watch on the Rhine (1941) and The Searching Wind (1944). Watch on the Rhineand Toys in the Attic (1960) each won a New York Drama Critics Circle Award. If her later plays were less controversial than The Children's Hour,Hellman's offstage life was even more so. From 1930 to 1961, she lived off and on with writer Dashiell Hammett, with whom she was active in left-wing literary circles. Hellman became known as a pro-Stalinist, and in 1948, she was blacklisted from Hollywood as Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist witch hunt began. Called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, she offered to speak about her own activities but refused to name names or speak about the activities of others. In a line perhaps more famous than those from any of her plays, she wrote to the committee that "I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions." It was considered a brave statement at the time, but Hellman was later criticized for never explicitly condemning Stalinism. During a decade on the blacklist, Hellman wrote stage adaptations of four plays, including the book for the operetta "Candide," with music by Leonard Bernstein. She wrote no new plays after 1960, but did publish three volumes of memoirs. The first of these, An Unfinished Woman, won the National Book Award for 1969. Hellman died on June 30, 1984.
1936(30th of Kislev, 5697): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1936: “Crack-Up” a dramatic film written by Sam Minz, with music by Samuel Kaylin and starring Peter Lorre was released in the United States today.
1936: “You Can’t Take It with You” a comedy written by those two Jewish giants of the stage, George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, opened at the Booth Theatre for the first of what would prove to be 837 performance. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1936:The original production of “You Can't Take It with You” a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart opened at the Booth Theater tonight and played for 837 performances. The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
1936: Twenty-seven year old Jewish medical student David Frankfurter began serving an 18 year prison sentence tonight after having been found guilty of murdering Wilhelm Gustloff the Nazi leader in Switzerland.
1936: Tonight, “the German press announced” that now that the verdict has been handed down at Chur, Switzerland in which David Frankfurter was convicted of leading the Swiss Nazi leader, “Germany will now undertake an its own investigation of the case” with the aim of doing “something” about “the hidden men behind Frankfurter who are alleged to have been responsible for the murder.”
1936: Dr. Maurice B Hexter “summed up Jewish grievances when testified before the Royal Commission. These include a complaint that survey and settlement of titles to land take too long to be completed are required and a demand to accelerate the pace of the work.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that despite official assurances further instances of violence and arson were carried out by various Arab armed bands throughout the country. There was arson in Tel Aviv port, bus passengers were robbed on roads, and trees in Jewish settlements were uprooted. Moslem youth boycotted the Christian-owned National Bus Company, claiming that it had offered assistance to the British army and police during the Arab strike. But both the Jerusalem Mufti, Haj Amin el-Husseini, and the Arab Higher Committee appealed to both Jerusalem's Moslems and Christians to settle their differences.
1937: It was reported today, that the “American Joint Distribution Committee has said that as of January 1, 1937, there was 39,000 Jewish school children still in Germany” and that “of this total, 23, 670 were attending special Jewish Schools.
1938: “The Novel of Werther” a film based on a 1774 French novel directed by Max Ophuls, with music by Paul Dessau was released in French today.
1939: Raymond Samuel married Lucie Bernard today “after he warned her that it might be dangerous for her to marry a Jew.” He would take the nom de guerre of Raymond Aubrac. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1939: Heydrich issued a modified directive ordering all rural and small-townJews in the General Government (occupied Poland) to be transported to the larger Polish cities where they would be quarantined from the rest of the Polish population and kept under tight SS surveillance.
1939: The League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for its attack on Finland in what is known as the Winter War which would result in Jewish soldiers fighting on the same side as the Wermacht.
1940: British military intelligence confirmed that the effect of the Patria decision on the Arabs had been “remarkably small.”
1940: Final performance at the Mansfield Theatre of “Horse Fever” produced by Alexander Yokel
1941: The German military commander of Kharkiv, Ukraine ordered the Jewish population to move to the city periphery within 2 days and to occupy the barracks of the works of a machine factory. In the next days, 15.000 Jews were shot at Drobitsky Yar.
1941:Jews by the hundreds are dying from hunger and the cold in the Warsaw Ghetto. Two Jews were shot dead at a funeral for a friend
1941: A Jewish ghetto at Kharkov, Ukraine, is established.
1942: In a letter made public today, “Representative Hamilton Fish told Secretary of State Cordell Hull that he was ‘profoundly shocked’ by statements of the ‘alleged slaughter of 7,000 Jews daily by the Nazis in conquered territories’ and asked ‘Is there not some action that may be taken by the United States Congress and the Administration that will these pogroms of Jews in Poland and Eastern Europe?’”
1943(17thof Kislev, 5704): Fifty-eight year old New York born, and Columbia trained gynecologist Samuel H. Geist, the husband of Juliet Beecher Geister and father of Joyce B. Jacobson passed away today.
1943(17thof Kislev, 5704): Forty-year old tobacco dealer Ford Meyer Bayuk the Philadelphia born son of Meir and Julia Bayuk and the husband of Mabel J Bayuk suffered a heart attack and passed away today.
1944(28thof Kislev, 5707): Fourth day of Chanukah
1944(28thof Kislev, 5707): 1st Lt. Joseph Levine, a bombardier with the 20thAir Force was killed today.
1944(28thof Kislev, 5707): 1st Lt. Chester E. Paul, a co-pilot was killed today while flying with the 20th Air Force.
1944: A funeral service is scheduled to be held this morning for sixty-seven year old Columbia trained lawyer and life-long music aficionado Lewis Montefiore Isaacs, the son of Meyer and Maria Solomon Isaacs and the husband Edith J. Rich “the editor of Theatre Art Monthly, who found time to serve as the Borough President of Manhattan and to write guides to “Koenigskinder” and “Hansel and Gretel”
1944: Birthdate of Mitchel Jay Feigenbaum, a mathematical physicist whose pioneering studies in chaos theory led to the discovery of the Feigenbaum constants. In 1983 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1986, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics "for his pioneering theoretical studies demonstrating the universal character of non-linear systems, which has made possible the systematic study of chaos".
1945: Josef Kramer known as "beast of Belsen", and 10 others were hanged for crimes committed at the Belsen and Oswiecim Nazi concentration camps.
1945(10th of Tevet, 5706): Asara B'Tevet
1945: “Fallen Angel,” “a film noire directed by Otto Preminger” was released today in the United States.
1945(10th of Tevet, 5706): Ten years after her husband passed away, Lucie Hadamard Dreyfus passed away. She had remained in France at the behest of her granddaughter who worked with the Resistance. Ultimately she took refuge in a convent in Valence where her benefactors did not know her identity. Her death so close to the end of the Shoah served as a reminder that the road to Vichy and Drancy had begun a half century before when her husband was convicted because he was Le Juif, the Jew
1945: The Broadway production of “Dream Girl” by Elmer Rice opened at the Coronet Theatre
1945: Ruth (Pincus) Koch and Howard Winchel “Hawk” Koch, Sr. gave birth to movie producer Howard Winchel “Hawk” Koch, Jr.
1946: Birthdate of Michael S. Ovitz, the Chicago native who began as a talent agent and rose to serve as President of the Walt Disney Company.
1946: After almost a month, the curtain comes down on the final performance of “A Flag Is Born” at the Broadway Theatre.
1947(1st of Tevet, 5708): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1947: Oswald Rothuag, the Nazi jurist who sought to provide over the trial of Leo Katzenberg whom he gladly sentenced to death, was sentenced to life imprisonment today after being found guilty of “crimes against humanity.”
1947: Birthdate of entertainment mogul, Michael Ovitz.
1948: At a meeting today with Jordanian commander Abdullah el-Tell, Elias Sasson “recorded el-Tell saying ‘strike the Egyptians as much as you like. Our attitude will be totally neutral.’
1949: In keeping with a resolution adopted by the Knesset, the Israeli government moves from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
1951: Birthdate of Norton A. Schwartz, a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, the 19th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force and the first Jew to hold this position.
http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7077
1951: The Jerusalem Post announced that for the third successive year the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Palestine Archaeological Museum refused to admit the participation of Prof. E.L. Sukenik of the Hebrew University, the board's sole Jewish representative, to its deliberations. Since the museum was located in the Jordanian-occupied part of Jerusalem, Prof. Sukenik suggested that meetings should be held at the Mandelbaum Gate, on the border, but his offer was turned down.
1951: David Montagu, 4thBaron of Swaythling married Christiane Francois Dreyfus today after which they had had three children – Fiona, Charles and Nicole.
1952: In Little Rock, Arkansas, on the third day of Chanukah, Agudas Achim dedicated its new synagogue.
1952: "Makin' Whoopee!" a jazz/blues song, first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical Whoopee!” with lyrics by Gush Kahn was re-released today.
1952:“Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl” a radio drama written Jewish journalist Meyer Levin who had visited the concentration camps after the war and had contacted Anne's father Otto Frank to request the rights to create a play based on the diary of Anne Frank, appeared on The Eternal Light series, produced by the Jewish Theological Seminary on the NBC network.
1952: In Manhattan, Hugo Levy, who had been a textile merchant before fleeing the Nazis after which owned a hardware store in New York and his wife Alice gave birth to Harold Oscar Levy, the Citicorp executive who served as “chancellor of New York City’s public school system. (As reported by Robert D. McFadden)
1953: The Brooklyn Dodgers signed pitcher Sandy Koufax.
1954: Governor Stratton is scheduled to speak at a dinner meeting of the Jewish Federation of Chicago in the Morrison Hotel where 600 people are expected to be in attendance.
1954(19thof Kislev, 5715): Seventy-three year old Rochester born, and Columbia trained attorney Arthur Garfield, a champion of the underdog as can be seen by his role in the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union and participation in the Scopes Trial, The trial of the Scottsboro Boys and the trial of Sacco and Venzetti passed away today.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arthur-Garfield-Hays
1955:Arthur M. Loew, the son of Marcus Loew, succeeded Nicholas Schenck as the President of MGM, although Schenck remained Chairman of the Board
1957: U.S. premiere of a remake of “Farewell To Arms” the cinematic version of the novel of the same name directed by Charles Vidor produced by David O. Selznick with a screenplay by Ben Hecht.
1957: At Adas Israel in Washington, DC, Bar Mitzvah of Avraham Elimelech ben Yosef Dov
1957: The City of Paris awarded the Gold Medal of the City of Paris to David Feuerwerker the French Rabbi and Jewish historian who fought against the Nazis as a member of the French Army at the start of WW II and then joined the Resistance after Petain and Vichy came to power.
1957: “Bridge On The River Kwai” a WW II epic produced by Sam Spiegel with a script co-authored by Carl Foreman was released in the United States, two months after first being shown in the United Kingdom.
1959: “The World of Sholom Aleichem” produced by Henry T. Weinstein was broadcast as “The Play of the Week.”
1960: U.S. premiere of “Esther and the King” an Italian made movie based on the Book of Esther starring Joan Collins whose father was Jewish in the title role.
1960(25th of Kislev, 5721): Chanukah is observed for the last time during the Presidency of Dwight David Eisenhower.
1960(25th of Kislev, 5721): Sixty-three year old Gregory Ratoff, the Russian born American actor and director best known for his role as “Max Fabian” in “All About Eve” and as director for the film “Oscar Wilde” passed away.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gregory-Ratoff
1961: “Judgement at Nuremberg” a film classic produced and directed by Stanley Karmer and written by Abby Mann was released today in Berlin.
1961: Louis Jacobs who had been named the rabbi at the New West End Synagogue in London in 1953 was forced to resign from the staff of Jews’ College.
1961: “El Cid” an epic film produced by Bessarabian born American Jew Samuel Bronston who was a nephew of Leon Trotsky, directed by Anthony Mann and with a script by Yordan was released in the United States today.
1962(17th of Kislev, 5723): Fifty-one year old Robert Clyde “Bob” Katz whose “entire major league career consists of 6 appearances for the 1944 Reds” in a season which he was 0-1 passed away today.
1963: Gustav Machatý, the movie director who gave Hedy Lamar her big break in “Ecstasy” passed away today. He was not Jewish but she was.
1965: Simon and Garfunkel recorded “Homeward Bound” which appeared on the album “Sounds of Silence” in the UK and “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” in the U.S.
1965: Simon and Garfunkel re-recorded Paul Simon’s “I Am a Rock” which had originally been “recorded and released” the previous August.
1966: “A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Forum” based on the play co-authored by Larry Gelbart, produced by Melvin Frank who also co-authored the screenplay, with music by Stephen Sondheim and starring Zero Mostel, Jack Gilford and Phil Silvers was released today in the United Kingdom.
1967(12th of Kislev, 5728): Fifty year old University of Michigan basketball and baseball player Herman Fishman, the co-founder of Camp Michigama and Director of the Detroit Pistons passed away today.
1967: U.S. premiere of “In Cold Blood” the movie version of the novel of the same name directed and produced by Richard Brooks who also wrote the screenplay and edited by Holocaust survivor Peter Zinner.
1967: The first synthesis of biologically active
1968: Birthdate of Franklin High (New Orleans) and Brandeis graduate Theodore H. “Ted” Frank the University of Chicago trained lawyer who is “a nephew of author Hurwitz” and who helped launched the national career of Sarah Palin when he wrote the vetting report on her for Senator John McCaian.
1969: “John and Mary” the movie version of a novel by Mervyn Jones starring Dustin Hoffman was released in the United States today.
1969: “La Strada,” “a musical with lyrics and music by Lionel Bart, with additional lyrics by Martin Charnin” and featuring Larry Kert as “Mario” opened today on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatres.
1970: Joseph B. Levin represented the National Assn. of Securities Dealers, Inc. when arguments opened before the Supreme Court in INVESTMENT COMPANY INSTITUTE et al., Petitioners, v. William B. CAMP, Comptroller of the Currency, et al. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SECURITIES DEALERS, INC., Petitioner, v. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION et al.
1971: “Diamonds Are Forever” one of the James Bond movies co-produced by Harry Saltzman with a screenplay by Richard Maibaum and Tom Mankiewicz was released in Germany today.
1971: “The Hospital” directed by Arthur Hiller, a Canadian born Jew for which Paddy Chayefsky won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and featuring Stephen Elliot was released in the United States today.
1973(19th of Kislev, 5734): Composer Yitzhak Edel passed away.
http://www.jewish-music.huji.ac.il/thesaurus6fe4.html?cat=9&in=9&id=649&act=view
1974(30th of Kislev, 5735): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1974(30th of Kislev, 5735): Eighty-five year old American journalist and political philosopher Walter Lippmann passed away. (As reported by Alden Whitman)
1974: In New York, WNYC is scheduled to broadcast “The Story of Chanukah” adopted by Pearl Klein
1975: “The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother” a musical comedy film with Marty Feldman, Madeline Kahn and Gene Wilder who also wrote the script and directed the film was released in the United States and the United Kingdom today.
1975: “A National Council on Soviet Jewry was established at the conclusion of the first National Conference on Soviet Jewry held in Great Britain.”
1976: “Sly Fox” a comedic play by Larry Gelbart premiered on Broadway today at the Broadhurst Theatre with a cast that included Jack Gillford.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported from Washington that the US State Department, Pentagon and industry were becoming concerned over Israeli use of foreign military sales credits (from the US) not only to obtain US weapons for its inventory, but also to import technical data packages that eventually could be exported in competition with American products. Syrian troops moved into East Beirut where two Christian militias continued to fight each other.
1976: “A new wave of searches and interrogations of members of the organizing committee of the symposium on Jewish culture in Moscow, Kiev, Leningrad, Gorky, Minsk, Tbilisi and other cities” which would last until December 20 began today.
1977: U.S. premiere of “Saturday Night Fever” based on “Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” a New York Magazine article by Nik Cohm with a screenplay by Norman Wexler with Donna Pescow as “Annette” and Fran Drescher as “Connie.”
1977: Representatives of Egypt and Israel gathered in Cairo for their first formal peace conference.
1978: “Superman” the movie that brought to the big screen the comic hero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster and directed by Richard Donner (born Richard Donald Schwartzberg) opened in the United Kingdom today.
1978: After having been first premiered in the United States, “Force 10 from Navarone,” the movie version of the novel by the same name with a story created by Carl Foreman was released today in the United Kingdom.
1979(24thof Kislev, 5740): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah light
1979(24thof Kislev, 5740): Seventy-five year old Milton Harold Bren, the St. Louis born son of Sadie Simon and Henry Simon the movie producer whose most famous work was the screw-ball comedy “Topper” who was married to actress Claire Trevor passed away today.
1980(17thof Tevet, 5741): Seventy-seven year old Isadore Efron, the son of Morris Efron passed away today after which he was buried in the Sons of Israel Cemetery in Aiken, SC.
1981: Israel annexed the Golan Heights which had been captured from Syria in 1967. The Syrians had shelled Israeli farmers from the Golan Heights for almost twenty years. The IDF took the heights in an amazing exercise of physical courage at the end of the Six Days War.
1981: “Silkwood,” a biopic directed and co-produced by Mike Nichols with a script co-authored by Nora Ephron was released in the United States today.
1984(20thof Kislev, 5745): Sixty-nine-year-old New York born Cornell University graduate Charles Jay Oppenheim 3d, a former broadcasting executive who was director of information services for CBS Television in the 1950's, and who raised two daughters – Barbara and Jan – with his wife, the former Elaine Kent passed away today.
1984:Howard Cosell retired from Monday Night Football. The Carolina Israelite via Brooklyn was no longer the third man in the booth.
1986: It was reported today that “whatever the fate of day schools among the non-Orthodox” attendance at the afternoon Hebrew schools in the New York City which had reached a high of 96,000 in the 1960’s “ was no steadily declincing.”
1988: “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” a comedy directed by Frank Oz, with music by Miles Goodman was released in the United States today.
1988: U.S. premiere of “Torch Song Trilogy” written and co-starring Harvey Fierstein, produced by Ronald K. Fierstein with music by Peter Matz.
1989:Joel Brinkley, writing in the New York Times, reported that Soviet Jews are leaving at a record pace, with many of them opting to settle in Israel. “The number of Jews streaming out of the Soviet Union has reached a record. Not counting people departing this month, more than 62,500 Jews have left this year, surpassing by more than 20 percent the high of 51,320 set in 1979. In recent years most Soviet Jews have gone to the United States. But because of immigration limits imposed by Washington recently, the number of Jews going to Israel has increased dramatically in recent months. As a result, Israel is bracing for its greatest flow of immigrants since its early days of independence four decades ago. #750,000 Over 6 Years Possible More than 11,000 Soviet Jews left in November - the first time the figure exceeded 10,000 in a month - and almost 2,000 of them arrived here, 10 times the number who came to Israel in January. The number of émigrés is monitored closely by Israeli officials and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, a nonprofit American group. Early this week the Government projected that Israel might absorb as many as 750,000 Soviet Jews in the next six years, an addition of 20 percent to the nation's Jewish population. Although the projection may be exaggerated, several hundred thousand Soviet Jews have in fact requested Israeli visas, largely because they fear increasing nationalist turmoil in the Soviet Union and because of the American decision to admit fewer Soviet refugees. An influx even close to the projection would enhance Israel's sense of national identity after years in which more Jews have emigrated from the country than arrived, but it would also pose major problems for the country. It is accepted wisdom here that Israel is simply unequipped to handle immigrants in those numbers, and many Israelis resent such a migration at a time when unemployment is already high and housing already scarce. But for Israel, the numbers are only half the problem. The people in this wave are different from other large groups of Jews to come to Israel or Palestine since the ''first Aliyah'' from czarist Russia 100 years ago. Most of the Soviet citizens coming now are not Zionists. In fact, they have little if any Jewish identity. And many people worry that their lack of Jewish zeal might make it more difficult for them to weather hard times in their new homeland. Tugging sleepy children and overstuffed carry-on bags, about 65 of these immigrants arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Lod just before dawn Monday. Like many other Soviet citizens stepping off planes that are landing here almost every day, these people looked startled, even a bit disturbed, as two dozen yeshiva students greeted them, chanting, clapping and singing traditional Jewish songs the Russians had never heard. ''This Aliyah is different from the Soviet Aliyah of the 70's,'' said Lizy Zlotnik, an Absorption Ministry official who handled paperwork on the new immigrants at the airport. ''Most of these people are very educated. These are Russians. They don't know anything about Judaism, and they don't really care about it.'' As part of the liberalization under President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the Soviet Union has made leaving the country much easier for the nation's 287 million citizens, including its estimated two million Jews. A new emigration law is expected to be enacted early next year, removing most restrictions on travel abroad. Some Soviet officials estimate that four million Soviet citizens will emigrate in the next few years. President Bush has already promised trade concessions to Moscow once the law is enacted. Many of the new Jewish immigrants are leaving the Soviet Union ''because Russia is in turmoil, and they are afraid of what will be left for them when it ends,'' said Simcha Dinitz, chairman of the Jewish Agency, the quasi-Government organization largely responsible for settling immigrants. Fear of Nationalist Movements With all the assertive nationalist movements now spreading across the country, ''we are scared,'' said Leon Kostavitch, a 26-year-old engineer who had just arrived. ''It's dangerous to be there. The country is in revolution, and we don't know what's going to happen for us.''''When the dust settles from all this turmoil,'' Mr. Dinitz said, ''it will be the minorities who suffer.'' In addition, there are unconfirmed reports from some immigrants arriving here of spreading anti-Semitism, particularly in Uzbekistan, the largely Muslim Soviet republic that is also home to about 250,000 Jews. Israel and the Soviet Union do not have diplomatic relations, and for now the emigrants are flying to Bucharest, Vienna or other cities before flying on to Tel Aviv. But Israeli officials say the national airline, El Al, has signed an agreement with Aeroflot, the Soviet airline, to begin direct flights between Moscow and Tel Aviv early next year. The commercial agreement has not yet been approved by the Soviet Foreign Ministry, the Israelis say. But if and when it is, the number of Jews coming here is likely to grow even faster. Even with direct flights, it is not likely that all of the several hundred thousand people who have applied for Israeli visas will move here. But whatever the final number, the lack of awareness of Judaism among these immigrants creates ''some real challenges for absorption,'' said Natan Sharansky, a leader among Soviet Jews here. Faith and Zionist zeal, most people here agree, help carry many of today's new immigrants through the difficult challenges and hard times that Israel almost invariably presents. As he waited in line at the airport to register with immigration authorities, one of the arrivals, Oleg Finkelstein, a 24-year-old from Leningrad, said, ''I've never practiced Judaism, but I guess I'm interested in learning about it because it's what keeps the people of this country together.'' The Music Is Strange For now, Mr. Finkelstein, like the others, had to be prompted to stand when the yeshiva students began singing ''Hatikva,'' the national anthem. When the yeshiva boys held hands and danced in a circle, singing ''Havenu Shalom Aleichem,'' one of the best-known Jewish folk songs and dances, hardly anyone in the group of new arrivals seemed to recognize it. In most cases those people came to Israel because this is the country that invited them and for no other reason. They are simply looking for a better life and hope they can find it here. ''These are people who want to come and succeed in their work,'' Mr. Sharansky said. Many might just as well have gone to the United States. But in September the Bush Administration, citing humanitarian, financial, political and bureaucratic concerns, set a ceiling of 50,000 on the number of Soviet refugees in each of the coming years. Israeli officials warmly welcomed the American changes, knowing that the Soviet Jews who could not get into the United States would most likely come here. But as the numbers swell, Mr. Sharansky and others are openly complaining that Israel simply cannot handle the flood. The nation is hard pressed to find housing and jobs, partly because of the economic troubles that the Palestinian uprising has helped to spawn. ''We don't like the fact that our Government isn't ready despite all our warnings,'' Mr. Sharansky said. While Israel desperately wants Jews to move here to fulfill the tenet of Zionism that Israel be home for all the world's Jews, immigration from all sources has been at relatively low levels for years. Slightly more than 20,000 people moved here in 1980, but in most years since, the number has fluctuated between 11,000 and 14,000. In recent typical years, far more citizens have left than have arrived, a fact that deeply wounds many Israelis. Though the number of emigrants is not known - most of them move to the United States illegally - the coming wave of Soviet Jews may tip the balance back at last. The Soviet Jewish émigrés counted so far this year give 1989 the highest total for any year since the National Conference on Soviet Jewry began tabulating emigration statistics in 1968. The previous peak, in 1979, occurred during the Carter Administration, when Washington and Moscow completed a strategic arms treaty before relations soured over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. An earlier period of relatively high emigration came in the early 1970's, during the Nixon Administration, in the so-called era of detente. Better to Smile Now As Israelis warmly welcomed the new arrivals at the airport on Monday morning, the yeshiva boys' organizer summed up the situation when he told his charges: ''The most important thing is to smile at them because you know they are coming and are going to have a lot of trouble. So smile now.'' But despite the smiles at the airport, Israel is involved in an angry internal argument over the resentment many people feel about the Government's efforts to find jobs for all the Soviet newcomers while thousands of longtime residents remain unemployed. The nation's unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent. Early this month, the Government started a classic Israeli political quarrel when it issued statistics showing that nearly half a million of the country's 4.5 million citizens are now living below the poverty line, $390 a month for a family of two. With that news, the daily newspaper Yediot Aharonot wrote: ''Things that were whispered under the surface are beginning to burst through. A surge of Russian immigrants is about to arrive, and at least a few residents of the Jewish state, it is now clear, don't want them.'' Mr. Dinitz and others suggest that the arrival of well-trained Soviet immigrants will help the Israeli economy. But that could take years. And in the short term, at the airport, the newcomers have little idea what awaits them. Mr. Finkelstein said he may not know much about Judaism, ''but I know how to work. ''I know if people want to work, then this country will find us jobs.
1990(27thof Kislev, 5751): Third Day of Chanukah
1990: U.S. premiere of “Look Who’s Talking Too” directed by Amy Heckerling
1990: “Captain America” a film based on the Marvel comic super-hero created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby produced by Menahem Golam and Stan Lee and with music by Barry Goldberg was released in the United Kingdom today.
1991(7thof Tevet, 5752): Parashat Vayigash
1991(7thof Tevet, 5752): Eighty-nine year old Hartford, CT native Edward Allen “Ed” Suisman who played as a guard and forward for Yale from 1923 to 1925 passed away today.
1993:As a closely watched target date came and went with no change in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin suggested today that there could be still further delays in withdrawing Israel's soldiers and introducing Palestinian self-rule.
1993: In Pittsburgh, PA, Miron Bisnowaty a Sabra raised in Rishon Lezion “who came to the U.S. at the age of 27” and his wife Randi gave birth Adam Bisnowaty who played tackle for the University of Pittsburgh before going to the NFL with the New York Giants.
1994: Alfred Moses presented his credentials today as the U.S. Ambassador to Romania.
1995: “After a private audience with Pope John Paul II,” Leah Rabin, the widow of Yitzhak Rabin said today that the Pope “had acknowledged Jerusalem's "double role" as capital of Israel and a holy city to Jews, Christians and Muslims”
1997(15th of Kislev, 5758): Seventy-nine year old musical comedy “second banana” Stubby Kaye, passed away. Two of his more famous film credits were “Guys and Dolls” and “Cat Baliou.” (As reported by Myrna Oliver)
http://articles.latimes.com/1997/dec/16/news/mn-64593
1997: The New York Times book section included a review of Gloria Steinem by Sydney Ladensohn Stern
1998: President Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel. Based on what has happened since then, the deeds did not match the word.
1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): First Day of Chanukah
1998: A Chanukah celebration was held this evening “at the Chaar Hachamayim Synaogugoe on Cairo’s Adly Pasha Street.”
1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): Actor Norman Fell passed away.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-norman-fell-1191859.html
1998(25th of Kislev, 5759): Seventy-four year old Annette Strauss, the former Mayor of Dallas, passed away.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/12/21/us/annette-strauss-74-former-mayor-of-dallas.html
1999: U.S. and German negotiators agreed to establish a $5.2 billion fund for Nazi-era slaves and forced laborers.
2000: Marty Glickman underwent heart bypass surgery.
2000: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today for 89 year-old Alexander Kahn, the husband of the late Eva Kahn after which interment will take place at the New Montefiore Cemetery.
2000: “The Family Man” a comedy directed by Brett Ratner, with a script by David Diamond and David Weissman and music by Danny Elfman was released in the United States by Universal Pictures.
2000: The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation presented the Raoul Wallenberg 2000 Award to Oscar Vicente,
2001:In what some considered an unusual turn of events, the men who gathered for the funeral of a local boy killed by a Palestinian attack spoke little about revenge or military reprisals. Instead, the talk was about God's mysterious ways and about what many saw as a divine signal that Jews had strayed from their faith in their own land.
2002(9thof Tevet, 5763): Ninety-one year old Columbia trained professor of economics Eli Ginzberg the son of Adele Ginzberg and JTS Professor of Talmud Louis Ginzberg passed away today.
2002(9thof Tevet, 5763): Seventy-eight year old multi-talented actress and native of Des Moines, IA, Ruth Kobart passed away today in San Francisco.
2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jewsby Melvin Konner and The Conspiracy Club by Jonathan Kellerman.
2004(2ndof Tevet, 5765): Seventh Day of Chanukah
2004: “I, Robot” a sci-fi thriller based on the work by Isaac Asimov, with a screenplay co-authored by Akiva Goldsman and featuring Shia LaBeouf was released today on VHS and DVD.
2004: Molly Tambor gave birth to Mason Jay Moore Jeffrey Michael Tambor’s first grandchild.
2004: Gary Shaprio reviews Ron Rubin’s book on the New York City Marathon's co-founder, Anything for a T-Shirt: Fred Lebow and the New York City Marathon, the World's Greatest Footrace .The book - the first biography of Lebow - has been published on the 10th anniversary of his death.
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Israeli archaeologist Ruth Amiran passed away. Born in 1914 she was the author of Ancient Pottery of the Holy Land: From Its Beginnings in the Neolithic Period to the End of the Iron Age and a 1982 recipient of the Israel Prize.
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766): Eighty-one year old“Dr. Herman Roiphe, a psychoanalyst who explored the notion of sexual identity in early childhood development, passed away today.(As reported by Jeremy Pearce)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/obituaries/26roiphe.html
2005(13th of Kislev, 5766):Nathalie Babel Brown, a daughter of Isaac Babel, the illustrious Russian-Jewish storyteller of the Soviet era, whose literary work she edited, died in Washington at the age of 76. (As reported by Wolfgang Saxon)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13/arts/13babel.html
2006: The Jerusalem Post reported that Ha’eda, , characterized those Jews attending the Teheran Holocaust denial conference as a ‘tiny group of insane people, who are liable to incited hatred against hareidi Jews.’ The paper’s editor lambasted them for having ignored the ‘opinion of Torah Sages’ in pursuit of their distorted anti-Zionist zealotry.
2006: In Boston, The Improv Asylum presents its new production, "Andy Warhol's Christmas Special, or, How Hanukkah Stole Christmas."It's a story narrated by Andy Warhol about a sick, young Jewish woman who makes a wish for Hanukkah to replace Christmas. Sadly, it comes true.
2006: The Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of “The Apple Tree” a Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick musical of began today.
2007(5th of Tevet, 5768): Eighty-eight year old Hank Kaplan, an American boxing historian and writer who was the founder and editor of Boxing Digest, passed away today, at his home in Florida. (As reported by Matt Schudel)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/15/AR2007121501821.html
2007: In New York City The 92nd Street Y School of Music presents a recital by pianist Laura Barg as part of its series of one-hour faculty concerts in the Weill Art Gallery.
2007: The Washington (D.C.) Jewish Community Center continues “Theater J,” its successful series of informal play readings, with a presentation from “Forgiveness”by David Schulner, directed by Daniella Topol, featuring Tim Getman, Conrad Feininger, Helen Hedman, Kimberly Gilbert and Julia Proctor.
2008: Final performance of The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theater production of “The Very Sad Story of Ethel & Julius, Lovers and Spies, and About Their Untimely End While Sitting in a Small Room at the Correctional Facility in Ossining New York.”
2008: In Washington, D.C., the 3rd Shalshelet International Festival continues for its second and final day when the composers and performers will provide a day of free creative workshops beginning at 10:00 am, also at the Sixth & I historic Synagogue.
2008: At the Chabad House in Little Rock, AR, Rabbi Pinchas Ciment facilitates the beginning of the writing of a Sefer Torah as part of this special year of Hakhel. . This momentous occasion will take place as Mrs. Ruth Itzkowitz will be celebrating her 90th birthday and is being partially underwritten by the Itzkowitz family in loving memory of Bob Itzkowitz (obm).
2008: The Washington Post book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics uniquely related to the Jewish people including The Alchemy of Air:A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean byEdward Kritzler and American Priestess: The Extraordinary Story of Anna Spafford and the American Colony in Jerusalem by Jane Fletcher Geniesse.
2008: Funeral services are held for Holocaust Survivor and long time resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ann Gilbert (Chana Zylberstajn) at Tempe Judah with burial at Eben Israel Cemetary.
2008: Avraham Infeld, President of the Chais foundation confirmed today that the California-based foundation that doles out about $12 million per year was forced to close as a result of the securities scheme orchestrated by Bernard Madoff.
2008: Jack Black hosted the Spike Video Games.
2009(27thof Kislev, 5770): Third Day of Chanukah
2009(27thof Kislev, 5770): Ninety-three year old Sol Price who as the founder of PriceSmart is considered the pioneer of stripped down bargain warehouse store passed away today.
2009(27 Kislev, 5770): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Harvey David Luber. He will always be missed and never be forgotten.
2009: The Center for Jewish History, American Sephardi Federation and Center for Traditional Music and Dance present: “Ilyas Malayev: Remembering the Poet Laureate of the Bukharian Jews.”
2009: Gary Schmitt and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius take part in a discussion of "The Essential Herman Kahn: In Defense of Thinking" with one of the book's editors, Kenneth Weinstein, at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C.
2009: Israel's top-ranked player won the 2009 Chess World Cup. Boris Gelfand, a grand master from Rishon LeZion, defeated former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in a playoff today in the Russian town of Khanty-Mansiysk to take the $120,000 top prize
2009: Kinky Friedman announced “that he was leaving the gubernatorial race and would the Democratic nominated for Texas Agriculture Commissioner.”
2010: The Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to present “Food for Thought: Digesting Ethics, Mysticism, and Philosophy” with Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of MesorahDC
2010: In New York, the YIVO is scheduled to present a program entitled “Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in the Aftermath of the Schwarzbard Trial.”
2010: In Hawaii, The Kahului Union Church is scheduled to host a program entitled “A Voice for Israel” featuring Nora Finberg the wife of Pastor Robb Finberg of Grace Church in Pukalani.
2010: Today Israeli officials canceled a ceremony planned to honor the Palestinian firemen who assisted in battling the Carmel fire last week, after a number of crew members were refused permits to cross the border.
2010: It was reported today that Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is off to an early lead in the race for Chicago mayor, but there is plenty of room for other contenders in the crowded field as the fluid contest takes shape, a new Tribune/WGN poll found.
2011: Opening session the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial is scheduled to take place today at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Session in suburban Maryland.
2011: “Yiddle with His Fiddle” is scheduled to be shown today at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, Ohi
2011: Arsonists set fire to a deserted mosque in central Jerusalem during the night
2011: Dozens of right-wing activists clashed with police officers in Jerusalem today, amid attempts to arrest suspects linked to recent so-called price tag attacks.
2012: Ninety-eight year old “Joe Simon, a writer, editor and illustrator of comic books who was a co-creator of the superhero Captain America, conceived out of a patriotic impulse as war was roiling Europe,” passed away today (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2011(14thof Kislev): Ninety-eight year old “Norman Krim, an electronics visionary who played a pivotal role in the industry’s transition from the bulky electron vacuum tube, which once lined the innards of radios and televisions, to the tiny, far more powerful transistor” passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
2012(1stof Tevet, 5773): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth day of Chanukah; Kindle the 7 candles.
2012(1stof Tevet, 5773): Six year old Adam Posner was the youngest of the victims murdered today at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT.
2012(1stof Tevet, 5773): Seventy-two year old China scholar and UCLA professor Richard Baum passed away today. (As reported by Meg Sullivan)
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/prominent-china-scholar-richard-241975.aspx
2012: “Call me a Jew,” a documentary about Austrian treatment of Jews during World War II is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis is scheduled to bring her unique message to members and guests of Park East Synagogue.
2012: In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to host its second Musical Shabbat in the 5773 season.
2012: Report of ’80s Sexual Abuse Rattles Yeshiva Campus
2012: Avigdor Liberman announced today he would resign from his position as foreign minister and vice premier in the current government in light of a pending indictment against him for fraud and breach of public trust
2012: Bob “Benmosche announced that the U.S. government and American taxpayers received their full investment in AIG, plus a $22 billion positive return.”
2013: Two days before his 90th birthday, Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler is scheduled to perform on the Tully stage of the Lincoln Center
2013: Weather permitting, “Francis Ha” and “Life Sentences” will be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: The Union of Reform Judaism Biennial Convention is scheduled to host a centennial celebration “Extraordinary Women Shaping Reform Judaism: A celebration of the 100th anniversary of Women of Reform Judaism” followed by a concert featuring Neshama Carlebach and Josh Nelson.
2013: As thousands of Gazans suffer from record flooding, Israel relaxes restrictions at the border crossing to allow the shipment of water pumps and gas for heating to relieve the human misery.
2013: Israel faced another freezing night, with fears of icy roads nationwide, but the worst storm in decades was winding down.
2014: Musician David Broza is scheduled to perform in the Mintz Auditorium of the Uptown Jewish Community Center as part of the Community Chanukah Celebration in New Orleans.
2014: The Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center is scheduled to host a program with Ruth W. Messinger, President of the American Jewish World Service
2014: At the Berman Museum, Emory Professor and WW II veteran Dr. Mort Waitzman is scheduled to speak in third installment of the Bearing Witness series.
2014: After today’s performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” Miriam Isaacs who taught Yiddish at the University of Maryland for 15 years is scheduled to speak on the literary antecedents to the show based on Sholom Aleichem's "Tevye" short stories.
2014: Ambassador Mal Berisha is scheduled to deliver “a talk on the role of U.S. Ambassador Herman Bernstein (1930-1933) in championing positive Albanian Jewish relations and how this set the stage for Albania sheltering its Jews during the war.
2014: “State Aid Formula Said to Hurt in a District Where Most Go to Yeshivas” published today described the behavior of an Orthodox Jewish community in Rockland County.
2014: “The Labor Party voted unanimously in favor of merging with Tzipi Livni’s Hatnua party this evening, sealing the deal for a rotation premiership in a bid to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a large center-left bloc.” (As reported by Marissa Newman)
2014: In a statement issued today, the Women of the Wall said that Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbinic authority of the Western Wall and holy places, denied its request to hold a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in the women’s section of the holy. (As reported by JTA)
Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/12/14/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/women-of-the-wall-
2014: The New York Times featured books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Jby Howard Jacobson and Gangsterland by Tod Goldberg.
2014(22ndof Kislev, 5775): Eighty-year old Rabbi Dr. Yitzchok Meyer Abramson, the Chicago native who was the husband of Ruth Abramson passed away today in St. Louis, MO.
2014(22ndof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-one year old Sy Berger, “the father of the modern-day baseball trading card” passed away today.
2014(22ndof Kislev, 5775): Ninety-year old Bess Myerson, the first Jewish “Miss America” passed away today.
2014: Today’s New York Times list of the 10 Best Books of 2014 included Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright.
2015(2ndof Tevet, 5776): Eighth Day of Chanukah
2015(2ndof Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar, Yahrzeit of Rabbi Aharon Kotler.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Kislev_2.html
2015(2nd of Tevet, 5776): Eighty-eight year old Lillian Vernon, the refugee from Nazi Europe who made her name into a women’s fashion brand passed away today. (As reported by Lynn Povich)
2015: Today, “just after the new government voided the Argentine pact with Iran to jointly investigate the AMIA attack,” prosecutor Paul Plee “filed a request today to reopen the case with the Federal Criminal Cassation Court” in which “the late special prosecutor Alberto Nisman had charged that former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the 1994 AMIA Jewish center bombing.” (JTA)
2015: The American Sephardi Association is scheduled to host “The Silk Road Experience: A Night of Food, Fashion and Music.”
2015: Juilliard faculty member and alumnus Itzhak Perlman is scheduled to lead “the Juilliard Orchestra in a brilliant program of iconic Tchaikovsky masterworks for their only Geffen Hall appearance of the season.”
2015: At the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Susan Barocas, Founding Director of the Jewish Food Experience is scheduled to “share stories of several immigrant families from diverse backgrounds who all lived in the same tenement building — 97 Orchard Street — on the Lower East Side of New York, between 1863 and 1935. Their stories will be told through the foods they ate.”
2015: “The Dove Flyer” and “The Guardians of Remembrance” are scheduled to be shown this evening at the AJS 47th Annual Conference in Boston, MA
2016: In Memphis, TN, Temple Israel, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to enlighten attendees with the teachings of Reb Meir.
2016(14thof Kislev, 5777): Ninety-seven year old “Edwin Goldwasser, a physicist who co-founded the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., and helped build one of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator” passed away today.
2016: In “Klezmer: Music, History and Memory” Walter Zev Feldman is scheduled to discuss the emergence in 16th century Prague of klezmer which “became a central cultural feature of the largest transnational Jewish community of modern times.”
2016 Alon Oleartchik who “is considered among Israel's most important and inspiring musicians, with an exciting and creative career spanning more than 40 years” is scheduled to “perform his greatest hits from all time including, "Ba La Schuna Bahur Hadash" , "Hi Holechet Badrachim", "Eretz Melach" and many, many more” at the Highline Ballroom.
2017: In Omaha, the Chanukah Art and Soul Festival The Annual Menorah Parade at Boys Town.
2017: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Educational Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Summer of Love” followed by discussion “led by Michael J. Kramer, Professor of history and American Studies at Northwestern University.”
2017: “Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said today it plans to cut 14,000 positions globally – over 25 percent of its total workforce – over the next two years.”
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host another session of Peter G. Weintraub’s “Introduction to Judaism.”
2017: Omri Tubi, “a PhD candidate in the Sociology Department at Northwestern University and the recipient of the 2017 Martin and Rhoda Safer/JDC Archives Fellowship” is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “What Can Malaria Eradication Teach Us about the History of Israel?” at the Center for Jewish History in New York.
2017: The professional conference “The Book and the Desert” at which the import of recently discovered Hasmonean era coins, pottery and ritual baths was to be discussed was held today at the Susya Tour and Study Center.”
2017(26thof Kislev, 5778): 2nd day of Chanukah
2018: In Georgia, Or VeShalom, a congregation “established by refugees primarily from Turkey and the Isle of Rhodes, is scheduled to host its Congregational Shabbat Dinner.
2018: In Columbus, OH, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host a “conversation between two feminist theologians, Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, as they debate the nature of divinity in the world, beginning from the premise that the transcendent, omnipotent, male God of traditional theologies must be re-understood.”
2018: And in one final example showing the ways American congregations make erev Shabbat special, in Chevy Chase, MD Ohr Kodesh Congregation is scheduled to host “USY Friday Night Lights.”
2019(16thof Kislev, 5780): Parashat Vayishlach;
2019: In Boston, today’s session of the URJ Biennial includes a full schedule of Shabbat related activities beginning with a Sabbat Breakfast and end with “Havdalah and a Song Session.”
2019: In San Jose, CA, Addison-Penzak JCC and Silicon Valley Federation are scheduled to co-host “Legacy Project Shabbat,” “a service for a program that aims to strengthen local synagogues, Jewish agencies and the community.
2019: The Boston Synagogue is scheduled to host its “Family Chanukah Party” complete with “latkes, dreidels, donuts, singing, live music and more.” (Editor’s note – never sure what “more” consists of)
2019: In Walnut Creek, CA, Congregation B’nai Shalom is scheduled to host a screening of “Defiant Requiem,” a 2012 documentary that “uses archival footage and animation to tell the story of Terezin inmates learning and performing Verdi’s “Requiem” during the Holocaust.”
2019: In Los Gatos, CA, the Addison-Penzak is scheduled to host “Vodka and Latkes,” a Chanukah party featuring a “7-piece band, dreidel spinning, libations, sufganiyot and latke bar with toppings.
2019: “The Grant Monument Association is scheduled to commemorate the 117thanniversary of the date of Julia Dent Grant today. For more about her husband and the Jewish people see When Grant Expelled the Jews by Jonathan Sarna
2020(28thof Kislev, 7801): Fourth Day of Chanukah
2020: “Robin Mencher is scheduled to replace Avi Rose as executive director of Jewish Family & Community Services East Bay starting today.
2020: As part of its “8 digital nights of Chanukah,” in London, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to Karen Pollock, the CEO of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
2020: The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action is scheduled to present online “Chanukah Celebrations: Hearts, Minds and Stomachs.”
2020: In Cleveland, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to host online a “Chanukah NIte Live and Congregation Candle Lighting” which is a celebration of the 5th night of the holiday featuring songs, stories, teachings and “a few surprise guests.”
2020: Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Bay Area philanthropist Tad Taube, in his capacity as honorary consul of Poland, are scheduled to be honored today at the American Jewish Committee’s virtual Hanukkah gala, “Diplomacy at 75: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Founding of the United Nations and AJC San Francisco.”
2021(10thof Tevet, 5782): Yahrzeit of Judy Rosenstein (nee Levin) the wife of Larry Rosenstein of blessed memory, the mother of Danny, David Asher and Joel Rosenstein and the sister of David and Mitchell Levin all of whom miss her and remember her with love and affection.
2021(10thof Tevet, 5782): The Fast of the 10th of Tevet; Asarah b’Tevet, is a minor fast day that commemorates the date “when, according to the Tanach (II Kings 25:1-4), the Babylonians laid siege to Jerusalem.”
2021: Touro College and University System is scheduled to sponsor “Who Was Judah Touro?” with Professor Jonathan Sarna, University Professor and Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University in conversation with Touro President, Dr. Alan Kadish
2021: Lockdown University is scheduled to host online a lecture by Trudy Gold on “Hollywood and Leon Uris Film Exodus.”
2021: The Park Synagogue Sisterhood is scheduled to host a talk by Lori Potash, a co-founder of OverDrive, a leading a digital reading platform followed by Debbie Scolnick talking about “A Touch of Yiddish.
2021: Via Zoom, the Jewish Museum is scheduled to present “The Hare with Amber Eyes,” the third in a three-session coursed that “focuses on current and past Jewish Museum exhibitions centered around the art produced or lotted during World War II.”
2021: The Jewish Climate Action Network is scheduled to present, online, “Setting Climate Goals for Your Synagogue” featuring Robert Cooper, a long-time member of the Green Team at Temple Beth Elohim in Wellesley, which endeavors to make the temple more sustainable, encourage congregants to practice sustainability in their lives and raise awareness about climate change.”
2021: The Taube Center for Jewish People is scheduled to present “Reimaging the Coalition: Israel After Netanyahu: during which “Masua Sagiv, visiting assistant professor at UC Berkeley and scholar-in-residence at Shalom Hartman Institute, will discuss the consequences of the first Jewish-Arab partnership in the Israeli government, both from political and sociocultural perspectives.”
2022: Caryn Tamber-Rosenau Instructional Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, University of Houston is scheduled to deliver a virtual lecture on “How To Get A Head in Ancient Israel: Exploring the Book of Judith” sponsored by Case Western Reserve University.
2022: YIVO is scheduled to present a virtual lecture by Hanna Abakunova on “Ukrainian-Jewish Relations on the Eve and During the Holocaust.”
2022: The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host “Art History Through a Jewish Lens: Chanukah in a New Light” a virtual program during which “guest lecturer Ellaine Rosen will dispel popular Chanukah myths and misconceptions by exposing the true origins of gelt, latkes, dreidels, and the miraculous cruse of oil” while investigating “the evolution of the Chanukiah, the Chanukah lamp, and the varied styles which reflect the architecture of the countries in which they were crafted.
2022: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “Everlasting Light,” a Chanukah classical musical performance ‘featuring GRAMMY winners Anthony Roth Costanzo and Angel Blue; The Knights and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.”