December 21
69: The Senate acknowledged Vespasian as emperor. This marked the end of the so-called The Year of the Four Emperors during which four individuals - Galba, Otho, Vitellius and Vespasian – held the position of imperial leadership. This period of apparent anarchy was very unsettling for the Romans and part of Vespasian’s acceptance as emperor stemmed from the fact that he would be able to provide an imperial heir and stability for the emperor. In Rome and Jerusalem: The Clash of Ancient Civilizations, Martin Goodman ties the destruction of the Temple to the unsettling events of the Year of the Four Emperors and Vespasian’s determination to prove that he could bring order to the Empire.
640: As the forces of Islam sweep across North Africa in a wave that will end with the conquest of Spain seventy years later, Muslims capture the Babylon Fortress in the Nile Delta after a seven month siege
1140: Conrad III of Germany besieged Weinsberg. Seven years later, Conrad would be one of the leaders of the Second Crusade during which the Jews of Mainz, Cologne and Worms were all attacked.
1361: As Christian forces continued their attempt to drive the Moslem from Iberia, forces from the Kingdom of Castile (Catholic) defeated forces from the Emirate of Granada ((Islam at the Battle of Linuesa, part of the Reconquista that when concluded would result in the expulsion of the Jews from Spain more than a century later
1375: Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio passed away. No, Boccaccio was not Jewish but Jews play an important part in his literary life. Boccaccio wrote about the “corruption and decadence” that were part of the Church in the 14th and 15th centuries. “In his classic work, Decameron, a Jew by the name of Abraham is convinced by a Christian friend to visit Rome in the hope that he will be so impressed that he will convert to Christianity. Abraham returns disgusted and reports: ‘I say this for that, if I was able to observe aright, no piety, no devoutness, no good work or example of life or other what did I see there in any who was Churchman: nay lust, covetise, gluttony and the like and worse ... And as far as I judge, meseemeth your chief pastor and consequently all others endeavor with all diligence and all their wit and every art to bring to naught and to banish from the world the [values of the] Christian religion ...’” Boccaccio and others like him help lay the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century
1693(3rd of Tevet, 5454, OS): “R’Abraham Oppenheim, Zur Kanne,” the Worms bron son of Eidel and Simon Wolf Oppenheim who was the husband of Rechlin and Blume Oppenheimer passed away today in Frankfurt.
1733: Despite the efforts of some Englishmen to overcome Oglethorpe’s decision to allow Jews to settle in his Georgia colony Jews from the Suasso, Salvador and Da Costa families were among those who received conveyance of town lots, garden and farms that were executed today.
1749: Rose Bunn and Joseph Simon gave birth to Miriam Simon, the resident of Philadelphia who married Michael Gratz in 1768 and with whom she had 12 children.
1753(25th of Kislev, 5514): Chanukah
1761(25th of Kislev, 5522): Chanukah is observed for the first time during the reign of King George III of the United Kingdom.
1764(27th of Kislev, 5525): Third Day of Chanukah
1767(30th of Kislev, 5528): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1771: In London, Haham Moses Cohen d'Azevedo and Sara de Abraham Cohen D'Azevedo gave birth to Rachel Cohen d’Azevedo, who became Rachel Cohen Delgado when she married Manasseh de Isaac Delgado.
1772(25th of Kislev, 5533): Chanukah is celebrated for the first time following the first partition of Poland.
1777: Jacob and Abigail Pinto gave birth to Isaac Pinto, the husband of Maria Pinto.
1775(28th of Kislev, 5536): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1778(2nd of Tevet, 5539): Eighth Day of Channukah.
1781: Birthdate of West Indies native Leach Rachel De Leon, the wife of Abraham Quixano Henriques with whom she had had nine children
1782: In the United Kingdom, circumcision of Solomon Jones aka, Reuben ben Jonathon HaCohen
1786: Judith I Solomon and Israel I. Cohen, the parents of Richmond, VA native Benjamin Cohen and the in-laws of Kitty Etting were married today in Bristol England.
1791(25th of Kislev, 5552): Chanukah
1794(29th of Kislev, 5555): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed on the same day that John Q. Adams, the American minister to Holland wrote to his father John Adams, the Vice President of the United Stated.
1795: Birthdate of German historian Leopold von Ranke, author of Universal History: The Oldest Historical Group of Nations and the Greeks in which speaks highly of Moses’ presentation of The Decalogue which makes “no distinction …between religion, moral laws and civil institutions” which means that “under the immediate protection of God individual life enjoys those rights and immunities which are the foundation of all civil order.”
1804: In Bloomsbury, Lodon “Isaac D'Israeli, a literary critic and historian, and Maria (Miriam), née Basevi” gave birth to Benjamin Disreali the most famous Non-Jewish Jew whose baptism resulted from a dispute that the father had had with the local Jewish community. The change in religion opened the doors to a political career for Disraeli that resulted in him serving two terms as Prime Minister. Disraeli was the victim of anti-Semitic remarks and was also quite proud of his Jewish heritage. He passed away in 1881.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-disraeli
1808: “According to a report made to Napoleon I by the Minister of the Interior,” today, “Alsatian Jews employed Christian workers in their cloth factories.”
1810(24th of Kislev, 5571): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1813: Birthdate of Babette Mandelbaum Singer, the native of Bavaria who settled in New York where she raised seven sons and three daughters with her husband Eli Sanger, one of the Sangers who founded Sanger Brothers, the department store in Waco, TX.,
1816(2nd of Tevet, 5577): Parashat Miketz; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1816: Today, as Jews prepared to kindle the eighth Chanukah candle, James Monroe, Bushrod Washington, Andrew Jackson, Francis Scott Key, and Daniel Webster met at the Davis hotel in Washington D.C. to begin the formation of the American Colonization Society whose goal was to free the slaves in America and provide them with the wherewithal to return to Africa
1818: The day after she had passed away, 43 year old Sarah Solomon, the wife of Barnet Solomon whom she had married at the New Synagouge in 1796 was buried today in the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1820: One day after she had passed away, 43 year old Sarah Solomon, the husband of Barnet Solomon, was buried today at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1820: Birthdate of Heungseon Daewongun, the Regent of Korea whom German Jewish businessman Ernst Jakob Oppert attempted to blackmail into removing “Korean trading barriers.”
1828: Birthdate of Albert Cardozo, the Philadelphia native who became a prominent New York State jurist and was the father of Benjamin Cardozo, the second Jew to serve on the U.S Supreme Court.
1827(3rd of Tevet, 5588) Eighth and final day of Chanukah
1829(25th of Kislev, 5590): Chanukah
1831(17th of Tevet, 5592): Sixty-seven year old Rachel Gratz, the daughter of Richea Myers-Cohen and Barnard Gratz, the wife of Solomon Etting with whom she had eight children passed away today.
1831: One day after he had passed away, 86 year old “Eliezer bar Yitzhak” was buried today at the “Ipswich Old Jewish Cemetery” on Salthouse Street.
1832; “Louis Samuel a watchmaker of Liverpool and his wife Henrietta Israel, daughter of Israel Israel of Bury Street, St. Mary Axe, London” gave birth to Montagu Samuel who changed his name to Samuel Montague a British banker who founded the bank of Samuel Montagu & Co and eventually became the first Baron Swaythling.
1834: Birthdate of Adolf von Sonnenthal, the Budapest born actor who was well known for playing “Nathan” in Lessing’s “Nathan der Weise”
1836: Isaac Maurice Bloom married Rebeca Jacobs at the Great Synagogue today.
1841: Samuel Strauss, a merchant and Rosalia Drucker gave birth to Heinrich Alphons Strauss, the brother of MP Arthur Isidor Strauss and Sigmund Ferdinand Strauss.
1846(2nd of Tevet, 5607): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1846: Birthdate of infamous German “Jew baiter” Hermann Ahlwardt, the co-founder of the Anti-Semitic People’s Party.
1848: In Poland, Israel Guranowsky and Gitel Zloto gave birth Abraham Guranowsky who in 1878 began serving as the rabbi of Congregation Emunath Israel in New York City.
1849(6th of Tevet, 5610): Jewelry dealer Mordecai Myers, the husband of Sarah Elizbeth, with whom he had five children – John, Jane, Esther, Marry Ann and Daniel – passed away today after which he was buried at the Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.
1849: In London, Samuel (Isaac) Henry Glucksteinand and Hannah Coenraad Gluckstein gave birth to Bertha "Betsy" Koppenhagen, the wife of Julius Ferdinand Koppenhagen
1851: Birthdate of weightlifter Edward Lawrence Levy, the native of London, the winner of the First British Amateur Weightlifting Championship and the first World Weightlifting Championship and who was “a member of the International Weightlifting Jury at the “first modern Olympics” held at Athens in 1896.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/EdwardLawrenceLevy.htm
1852( 10th of Tevet, 5613): Asara B’Tevet
1852(10th of Tevet, 5613): Eighty-one year old France (Fanny) Gratz, the Philadelphia born daughter of Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz and the wife of Reuben Etting whom she had married in 1794 and with whom she had 9 children passed away today on what was the 103rd anniversary of the birth of her mother.
1853: In Budapest, Moritz Jellinek and his wife gave birth to Heinrich Jellinek de Haraszt who “succeeded his father as president of the Budapest Tramway Company” where “he introduced electric traction, and extended the system to the environs of Budapest, establishing the branches Budapest-Szent-Endre and Budapest-Haraszti.”
1858: Three days after she had passed away Jane (Arrobus) Nordon, the wife of Mark Jacob Nordon and the mother of Joseph Nordon was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road) Jewish Cemetery.”
1859(25th of Kislev, 5620): First Day of Channukah
1859: Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky, the future Anglican Bishop of China whose parents had expected him to be a rabbi before he converted “arrived in Shanghai aboard the SS Golden Rule.
1859: Birthdate of Gustave Kahn. The French Symbolist poet wrote works on a variety of topics including Zionism. This theme was the inspiration for “Terre d'Israël” published in 1933. He passed away in 1936.
1860: Birthdate of Henrietta Szold, American Jewish leader; founded Hadassah. Among other things she was responsible for the Youth Aliyah that brought European Jews to Palestine before the war and saved them from the final solution. She passed away in 1945, three years before her dream of Jewish state came true.
1861: Birthdate of Behrendt Pick, the native of Posen who earned a Ph.D. from the University of Berlin in 1884 and was appointed a lecturer on numismatics at the University of Jena but whose distinguished career did not protect him the consequences of the Nazis rise to power which drove him to suicide in 1940/
1861: The Congressional Medal of Honor was created at the start of the Civil War. Six Jews were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Civil War.
1862(29th of Kislev, 5623): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1862: Today, as Jews in Vicksburg, the “Gibraltar of the West” prepare to kindle the sixth light of Chanukah, Confederate President Jeff Davis visited the city which is the key to controlling the Mississippi River.
1863: Simon P. Jacob began serving with Battery E. of the 152nd Regiment of the Third Artillery today.
1863: Mendez Nathan, the son of Seixas Nathan, was one of the signatories of the agreement to form a public stock exchange, to be known as the "Open Board of Stock-Brokers" which was made public today.
1866: In Tongham, Captain Thomas Gonne and Edith Firth Gonne gave birth to Maude Gonne who as Maud Gonne MacBride, the Irish fire-brand who “frequently aired her anti-Semitic views.”
1867: The Austrian constitution abolished discrimination based on religious differences. This did not mean the end of anti-Semitism in Austria.
1867: Passage in Austria of the Land Ownership law today which “brought the Jews the desired equality with the Christian residents including the removing on property ownership and freedom of movement” which led to a “large increase in the Jewish population” as can be seen by the fact that in 1880 14,449 Jews living Czernowitz and that by 1940 there were 50,000 Jews in the city which made them half of the population.
1864: The Mayor of Savannah presented the key to the city to the General commanding the leading column of the Union forces marking the successful conclusion of “Sherman’s March to the Sea” in which Company C of the 82nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, an all Jewish Unit from Chicago participated.
1870: The Hebrew Charity Fair came to a close tonight marking the end of the three week long successful fund raising event. The fair raised almost $155,000 which will divided between Mount Sinai Hospital and the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. The hospital will get 75% of the money and the orphanage will get 25%. The funds will enable Mount Sinai to complete its new hospital and the orphanage to build a new industrial school.
1871(9th of Tevet, 5632): Fifty-five year old Count Salomon Henry d'Avigdor, Duke d'Acquaviva, the Nice born son of Count Isaac Samuel d'Avigdor and Gabrielle Pauline Henriette Avigdor, the husband of Countess Rachel d'Avigdor amd the father of Elim Henry d'Avigdor; Mariam Isabelle Olga Lucas; Sergius Henry d'Avigdor and Boleslas Henry d'Avigdor passed away today in Paris.
1872: In New York, “impresario and composer” Oscar Hammerstein I and his first wife Rosa (Rose) Blau gave birth to bricklayer turned theatre manager and composer Arthur Hammerstein, the brother of Willie Hammerstein, the husband of Dorothy Dalton and the father of actress Elaine Hammerstein.
1872: It was reported today that the human remains found on the shore of Oneida Lake in New York were not those of a farmer named Blodgett but were probably those of Jewish peddler who was known to carry large amount of money when he travelled through this area. It is thought that the peddler was attacked by a local gang and killed during the robbery.
1872: Birthdate of Carlisle, NY native Albany Medical College trained physician Charles Bernstein, the superintendent of the State Custodial Asylum in Rome, NY and the husband of Lillian Stebbins.
1873: Fanny Ottenheimer and Elias Marx gave birth to Simon Marx.
1874: The Two Orphans, with Rose Eytinge in the role of “Marianne” opened today at Union Square Theatre.
1876: Prior to this date Albert Lavergne, alias Abraham Levy, who “confessed to having absconded with $30,000 worth of diamonds from France” “was employed as a salesman by the firm of Les Fils de C Oulman, diamond doing business at No. 2 Rud Drouot, Paris” which also employed his brother-in-law George Oulman.
1876: Birthdate of Anna Wiesen, the native of Manasse who was shipped from to Berlin to Terezin and then to Treblinka in 1942 where she was murdered.
1876: Albert Lavergne, alias Abraham Levy, who had stolen $30,000 worth of diamonds from his employer Les Fils de C Oulman, diamond brokers at No. 2 Rud Durot, left Paris for London from which he planned to board the Anchor Line steamer bound for New York.
1876: The Hebrew Charity Ball took place tonight at the Academy of Music. The ball is a fundraiser for the United Hebrew Charities, an organization devoted to taking care of the poor Jews of New York that has been so successful it is a model for similar non-Jewish organizations. Last year the ball raised more than $13,000.
1877: In Lithuania, “Yehiel Michel and Hinda (Cohen) Goeld gave birth Charles Goell who in 1891 came to the United States where he formed a construction and staring building houses and apartments in Brooklyn and married Ida Armour.
1878(25th of Kislev, 5639): First day of Chanukah
1878: Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa who as Pope Benedict XV denounced anti-Semitism in response to a petition by American Jews and who gave Nahum Sokolov an extended audience where he presented the case for a Jewish state in Palestine to the Pontiff was ordained today.
1879: Birthdate of Joseph Stalin. As head of the Communist Party and Prime Minister of the Soviet Union Stalin gave vent to his anti-Semitic beliefs on more than one occasion. At the same time he was the head of the Soviet nation that fought the Nazis and whose forces liberated several concentration camps. His decision to recognize the state of Israel at the moment of its birth may be been one of the facts that prodded the U.S. to take the lead in the recognition race. Also, Stalin’s support of Israel at its moment of birth, made it possible for Israel to acquire much needed arms in Communist dominated Eastern Europe, including the first combat aircraft of the IDF. This may be one an example of the Rabbinic admonition that Yetzer Ha-Rah (the evil inclination) can produce a positive result.
1880: “The Hebrew fair for the benefit of the Forty-fourth Street Synagogues and the Ladies Lying-in Relief Society’ which is taking place at the Metropolitan Concert Hall is scheduled to come to an end today.
1880: In New York, The Thalia Theatre Company will give a benefit performance at the Terrace Garden as a fundraiser for the Hebrew Ladies’ Benevolent Society of Yorkville.
1881(29th of Kislev, 5642): Fifth Day of Chanukah observed four days before the outbreak of a Pogrom in Warsaw.
1882(10th of Tevet, 5643): Asar B’Tevet
1883(22nd of Kislev, 5644): Isidor Goldsmidt, a native of Bavaria who came to New York where he developed “a prosperous millinery business” passed away today.
1883: The first Permanent Force cavalry and infantry regiments of the Canadian Army were formed. According to the Jewish Canadian Military Museum “members of the Jewish community have participated in every significant conflict that has involved Canada” since 1759 when Jews fought in the forces of General James Wolfe. These conflicts have included the Boer War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and various “peacekeeping activities” since 1953.
1884: Count Tolstoi, the Minister of the Interior has struck “a blow against the Jews” with his announcement that effective with New Year’s 1885, the Russian Imperial Government “will monopolize the business of pawn-broking” an enterprise, at least in the popular mind, dominated by Jews who charge unreasonable rates of interest.
1885: Isaac Sekel Bamberger the son of Rav Yitzchak Dov Halevi Bamberger, The Würzburger Rav and Kela Bamberger and Julie Judith Bamberger gave birth to Selka Ochseman
1885: The Ladies’ Fair, a fund raiser for the Hebrew Free School Association will come to an end tonight with an auction followed by a ball.
1886(24th of Kislev, 5647): Kindle the first Chanukah Candle
1886: Three days after she had passed away, Sara Drucquer, the daughter of Jacob and Adelaide De Meza and the husband of Jonas Drucquer with whom she had had eight children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1886: “Leah: The Forsaken” a five act play by German-Jewish playwright Salomon Hermann Mosenthal opened at the Union Square Theatre in New York City. The play deals with issues of confronting 17th century Jews living in Germany and intermarriage.
1886: One day after she had passed away, 63 year old “Rosine Lion,” the daughter Joseph Bing-Jacob and Colette Brunswick and the wife of “Lion Lion” with whom she had had ten children was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery” on Buckingham Road.
1887: In Worcester, MA, Abraham I. and Mary (Edeleman) Asher gave birth Columbia University trained attorney Jacob Asher, a partner in the firm of Goldstein and Asher, the holder of a lifetime appointment as a special Justice of the Central District Court and the director “of all local campaigns for Jewish War Relief who was the husband of Dorothy Virginia Rogin.
1888: In Buffalo, NY, Marya Nehuma Cohen and Samuel Brumberg gave birth to Columbia University trained dermatologist and the husband of Sabina Grace Medias with whom he had two children.
1889(28th of Kislev, 5650): Parashat Miketz; Fourth Day of Chanukah
1889: In Germany, Samuel and Maichen Weil gave birth to Holocaust victim Ferdinand Weil, the husband of Sitti Weil.
1889: After two weeks the Hebrew Educational Fair, a joint fundraising effort by several NYC Jewish organizations, came to an end
1890: In New York City, Joseph Muller who was Catholic and Frances Lyons who was Jewish gave birth to Hermann Joseph Muller whose method for recognizing spontaneous gene mutation led to his discovery of a technique for artificially inducing mutations by means of X rays that has since had broad theoretical and practical application. For this discovery he was awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1946/
1891:”Aid For Jewish Refugees” published today described the first ever appeal by the Jewish residents of the United States “to the American people, irrespective of creed or religion for assistance in a work of charity” i.e. funds to help with resettlement of Russian Jews in New York City to other places in the United States, a project already funded by Baron de Hirsch.
1891: “Ten thousand copies of the appeal” for funds being raised for the purpose of taking those” Russian-Jewish refugees who come to the United States “to places where they can earn a living instead of allowing to congest the labor markets of the cities” was printed in today’s papers “have been mailed to citizens of means and influence” in the hope that it will result in an increase of contributions that will enable immigrants to work in cities and farms away from the eastern seaboard,
1891: The will of Deacon Josiah W. Cook of Cambridge filed for probate today including a bequest to the Hebrew Academy.
1891(20th of Kislev, 5652): Sixty-four year old Jacob Hecht, one of the leading Jewish citizens in Baltimore, MD, passed away leaving behind seven sons and two daughters.
1892(2nd of Tevet, 5653): Eighth Day of Chanukah
1892: Two fresh outbreaks of Cholera in Hamburg today have given rise to fears that this “will strengthen the movement in America to shut out immigrants” especially among Russian Jews are thought to be carriers of the disease.
1893(12th of Tevet, 5654): Seventy-four year old Charles Dyte, the son of David Moses Dyte and Hannah Lazarus and the husband of Evelina Nathan passed in Ligar St, Bllarat, Victoria, Australia.
1894: Birthdate of David T. Wilentz, the native of Dvinsk who as Attorney General of New Jersey “successfully prosecuted Bruno Hauptmann in the Lindbergh kidnapping trial” and father of Robert Wilentz, Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court and Norma Hess.
1894: In Hungary Jennie Richtzeit and Bernard Roth gave birth NYU educated and JTS ordain rabbi, Dr. Joseph Moses Roth, the husband of Millie Kohn who began serving as the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Zion in El Paso, TX in 1923 while serving as the Director of the El Paso Jewish Relief Society and Secretary of the El Paso Zionist Organization.
1894: The Dreyfus Court Martial held its penultimate session.
1894: Three days after he had passed away, 44 year old John Chetham, the husband of Maria Benjamin with he had had three children was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1895: An article tracing the use of saffron published today points out that to this day, the cooking of “the Jews of Spanish descent” derives some of its unique character, from the “use of saffron in their dishes.”
1895: The charity fair sponsored by the Jewish community for the benefit of the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Institute came to an end today with an auction of all of the previously unsold items just before midnight.
1896: A laparotomy was performed today on Morris Goodheart, President of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society and the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society “for the removal of an abscess in the peritoneal cavity.
1896: “Santa Maria” an operetta composed by Oscar Hammerstein I opened at the Alvin Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA.
1897(26th of Kislev, 5658): Second Day of Chanukah
1897: In Bedford, England, Benjamin Tisinbom and the former Esther Cohen gave birth to a daughter today.
1898: “Rev. Dr. Baar to Resign” published today described the decision of Dr. Herman Baar, who has been serving as the Superintendent of the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society of the City of New York for the past 22 years to retire next Spring.
1900(29th of Kislev, 5661): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1900: “Lecture at Harvard by Oscar S. Straus” published today described a speech given by “Oscar S. Straus, ex-United States Minister to Turkey, to students of Harvard University in Sanders Theatre on "The United States Doctrine of Citizenship and Expatriation” in which he called for a change in laws pertaining to naturalization of immigrants wishing to become citizens of the United States.
1901(11th of Tevet, 5662): Parashat Vayigash
1901: It was reported today that Oscar Straus had delivered a talk at the last meeting of the Author’s Club in which said “there is no society, club or organization in the land that has made a larger contribution certainly not in proportion to its membership to the patriotic public service than the Author’s Club” and in which he paid “a fine and sympathetic tribute to the late George Waring who was a member of the Author’s Club.”
1902(21st of Kislev, 5663): Forty-six year old Russian painter Isaac Lvovich Asknazi whose award winning works included "Abraham Expelling Hagar with Her Son Ishmael" and "The Publican and the Pharisee" passed away today.
1903(2nd of Tevet, 5664): 8th and final day of Chanukah
1903: In Los Angeles, Tobias and Fannie Yuster gave birth to Samuel Terrill Yuster, the husband of Rose Yuster, the father of Louis and France Yuster and the chairman of the Petroleum Engineering Department at Penn St. before becoming the Professor of Engineering at UCLA.
1904: In “Benjamin Disraeli,” published today, it was noted that this date is the exact centenary of the birth of the English statesman and that despite the fact that he had been named Earl of Beaconsfield, he will always be known to posterity by his given name or by the nickname of “Dizzy.”
1905: Today “a dispatch from Sam Remo announced the death there of Henry Harland” the author who began his career “by writing clever stories of Jewish life” under the name of “Sidney Luska” which led readers and critics to assume that he was Jewish.
1906: It was reported today that Dr. Schmarja Levin, a former member of the Duma which has been dissolved by the Czar, had denounced a recent bill promulgated by the Russian Council of Ministers while visiting the New York home of Dr. J. Leon Manges, the Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists. Levin said that the bill did not give the Jews living in the Pale of Settlement any new rights and actually discriminated against Jews living in or trying to do business in other parts of Russia.
1907: Klara Hitler who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was treat by Dr. Eduard Bloch, the Jewish physician whose patients included her young son Adolf, passed away today.
1908: Today, world premiere of Arnold Schönberg’s Second String Quarter, op.10.
1909(9th of Tevet, 5670): Israel Abbe Schneider passed away today.
1910: Secretary of Commerce and Labor Charles Nagel “ruled that thirteen of the twenty Russian Jewish immigrants being held at Galveston, TX” because they were “likely to become public charge maybe admitted” to enter the United States.
1911(30th of Kislev, 5672): Rosh Chodesh Kislev
1911: Szabadsag a paper founded in Cleveland by “Theodore Kundtz, a Catholic and Joseph Black, “a Jewish leader in Cleveland published a “lavish issue of the paper” today that “had sixteen full pages on the religious history of the Hungarian churches, but not a word on Hungarian synagogues” even though there were “forty-five Jewish congregations in existence at that time.”
1911(9th of Tevet, 5762): Parashat Vayigash
1911(30th of Kislev, 5672): Seventy-seven year old CSA veteran Benjamin F. Jonas, the Kentucky born son of Abraham Jonas and the former Louisa Block whom Lincoln named as the successor to the role of Postmaster after her husband’s death and who was the second Jew to serve as U.S. Senator from Louisiana passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-franklin-jonas
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/benjamin-franklin-jonas
1912: U.K. premiere of “The Miracle” a British silent film based on a play by Max Reinhardt.
1912: In Warsaw, Rabbi Nathan Mileikowsky and his wife gave birth to Israeli mathematician Elisha Netanyahu who was the brother of historian Benzion Netanyahu and the uncle of Benjamin Netanyahu
1913: It was reported today that the Sisterhood of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue will holding their annual Chanukah Ball at the Astor.
1913: “Nathan Straus Plans Big Work for Holy Land” published today described future programs that the retiring head of R.H. Macey & Co. will be working on for the those living in Palestine regardless of their religion including
1914: “A conference held today” in Chicago resulted in the issuance of a call for “men of all creeds and races to join in the movement” “to save Leo Frank from death” by attending a mass meeting as part of the efforts on behalf of this talented and much wronged young man.”
1914: The first feature-length silent film comedy, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" was released. Charlie Chaplin was one of the three stars in this feature film.
1914: “Jews Starving in Jerusalem” published today warned that “there is grave danger of pestilence as well as famine” in the city “unless steps are taken at once to provide a regular supply of food and free medical services” -- an effort for at least $100,000 a month will be need while the present crisis last.
1914: The list of contributors to the American Jewish Relief Committee for War Sufferers published today included The Hebrew Ladies’ Relief Society of Harrison, First Galician Society, Jews of Wilmington, N.C. Jews of Nacogdoches, Texas, the Wide Awake Circle, the society of Peru, Indiana and the First Konstantiner Benevolent Society.
1915: The Board of Directors of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York has named Dr. Cyrus Adler who is currently President of Dropsie College, as acting President of JTS following the death of Dr. Solomon Schechter.
1915: The American Jewish Relief Committee launched its campaign to raise funds in 1916 for the relief of war sufferers in Europe at a mass meeting tonight at Carnegie Hall which will be chaired by Louis Marshall which “persons in the audience spontaneously contributed more than $700,000 in money, jewelry and pledges deposited in baskets and thrown upon the stage in one of the greatest responses to an appeal every recorded.”
1915: The second round of talks between the French and the British concerning the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire after the World War opened today with Sir Mark Sykes representing the British and Francois-Georges Picot representing the French. The final product would be known as the Sykes-Picot Agreement.
1916(26th of Kislev, 5677): Sixty-one year old Harry Hananel Marks, the founder of the Financial News and a leader of the Anglo-Jewish community passed away today.
1916: Twenty=eight year old CCNY graduate and NY Stock Exchange member Edwin Weisl, the son of Jacob and Fredericka (Block) Weisl married Edna Kraus
1916: Jacob H. Schiff presided at a meeting this evening at Carnegie Hall which launched the campaign to raise ten million dollars “for the relief of Jewish war sufferers” and which featured speeches by Louis Marshall, the funds temporary chairman, Rabbi Judah Magnes and New York Mayor Mitchell.
1917: In what has become a daily occurrence, another fifty to seventy-five Jews were to the Jewish hospital today in Warsaw “on the verge of death” as a result of “starvation.”
1917: In Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg): “Jewish communal elections were postponed on account of the chaotic state of affairs.”
1917: As British forces sought to secure a supply from Jaffa, they completed their crossing of the Auju River and were able to hold “a line from Hadrah to Tel el Rekkeit 2 miles north of the river and construct bridges that allowed the artillery to cross the river and join the cavalry and infantry.”
1918: In a cable message made public today. “President Thomas G. Masaryk of the Czechoslovak Republic informed the Zionist Organization of America that he had directed the cancellation of the recently promulgated order regarding the deportation of Jews” and had assigned them place in “domiciles for refugees.
1918: A cablegram was received in New York today from Lithuania saying that arrangements had been made for Jews to participate in the new Lithuanian Government and that Jews held the positions of “Under Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Under Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and State Minister for the Department of Jewish Affairs.”
1919(29th of Kislev, 5680): Fifth Day of Chanukah
1919: In New York, “a tri-city-get-together” proposed by Louis H. Levin is scheduled to meet for a second day in Baltimore where plans will be discussed of the upcoming meeting of the National Conference of Jewish Social Service.
1919: Emma Goldman, along with 248 other radical "aliens," was deported to the Soviet Union on the S.S. Buford under the 1918 Alien Act, which allowed for the expulsion of any alien found to be an anarchist. Emma Goldman, born in Kovno, Lithuania (then Russia) in 1869, came to the United States in 1885 at age 16. By the time of her deportation, she had made a name for herself as a leading anarchist, public speaker, and crusader for free speech, birth control, and workers' rights. Goldman first became interested in radical politics in Russia, where she came into contact with populists and political organizers. In the U.S., she was disappointed to learn that instead of streets paved in gold, workers were subject to gross economic inequality and inhuman working conditions. The defining moment for Goldman came in 1886, when eight anarchist radicals were convicted, on flimsy evidence, of setting off a bomb at Chicago's Haymarket rally causing a riot in which several police officers were killed. Convinced of the defendants' innocence, Goldman resolved to learn all she could about anarchism, and soon became active in the anarchist movement. Unfortunately for Goldman, the decades of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were difficult ones in which to be an anarchist in America. Federal anti-anarchist laws restricted Goldman's ability to give public speeches and subjected her to frequent harassment and arrests. Still, she had a profound influence on American political activism. Mother Earth, the journal she founded in 1906 and ran until 1917, provided an outlet for the writings of radical thinkers. Roger Baldwin, who heard Goldman speak on free speech in 1908, went on to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Margaret Sanger, a prominent birth control activist, looked on Goldman as her mentor. Although Goldman was not a pacifist, she believed that governments had no right to wage war, and actively opposed U.S. involvement in World War I. She argued that the war was an imperialist venture that aided capitalists at the expense of workers. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, her anti-conscription activism was considered a threat to national security, and she spent 18 months in federal prison. On her release, she was immediately re-arrested and sentenced to deportation under the 1918 Alien Act, which authorized the deportation of any alien found to be an anarchist. At first excited by the chance to see the workers' republic of Soviet Russia, Goldman was soon disillusioned by the Bolshevik regime. Barred from returning to the U.S., she spent the last two decades of her life wandering through Europe and Canada, giving speeches on radical politics. When she died in Toronto in May 1940, her body was returned to Chicago, where Goldman was buried near the Haymarket anarchists who had first inspired her.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/dec/21/1919/emma-goldman
1919(29th of Kislev, 5680: Fifth Day of Chanukah
1919: Twenty-nine year old Columbia University educated engineer Max Steinberg, the son of Joseph and Martha Steinberg, who rose to the rank of First Lt. in the Coast Artillery during World War and who began serving as “an civil engineer in the War Department in 1919” married Rose Dicker today in Brooklyn.
1920: “Sally” a Jerome Kern musical opened on Broadway today at the New Amsterdam Theatre
1920(10th of Tevet, 5681): Asara B’ Tevet
1921: In Milwaukee “Esther (née Ottenstein) Lubotsky who was a childhood friend of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, and Meyer Lubotsky, a retail tire business owner” gave birth to Miriam Lubotsky the older sister of Charlotte Rae Lubotsky who was better known as actress Charlotte Rae,
1921: “The Senate Committee on Immigration met today take up the proposed temporary exclusion act” which most Jews opposed because it was seen as another attempt to limit, if not completely end, the immigration of Jews to the United States.
1922: In New York City, Solomon Wilchinsky, a tailor and the former Clara Fuchs gave birth to Paul Wilchinsky who gained fame as Paul Winchell, an accomplished ventriloquist who, during the 1950’s starred on television with his two “wooden friends” - Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smith.
1922(2nd of Tevet, 5683): Seventh Day of Chanukah
1922(2nd of Tevet, 5683): The former Winifred Lichtenauer, the daughter of banker Joseph Lichtenauer who had married Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler in 1906 passed away today.
1922: In the Soviet Union, the first edition of Bezbozhnik an anti-religious newspaper that “alleged that some rabbis in the tsarist government's pay had helped organize anti-Jewish pogroms,” and “criticized the Jewish holiday of Passover as encouraging excessive drinking, because of the requirement of drinking four glasses of wine, while Prophet Elijah was accused of being an alcoholic who got "drunk as a swine” was published today.
1923: In Montgomery, AL, Merton Nachman and “the former Maxine Mayer, were proprietors of Nachman & Mertief, a prominent department store” gave birth to Merton Roland Nachman, Jr. the Harvard trained attorney and WW II veteran “who opposed The New York Times in a libel case that resulted in a landmark Supreme Court decision establishing greater leeway for newspapers and individuals to criticize government officials and other public figures…” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1923: In Baltimore, MD, Fannie Hirsch Flom and Itak Flom gave birth to Joseph Harold Flom, pioneering corporate lawyer who helped build Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom into one of the nation’s leading law firms. (As reported by Jonathan D. Glater)
1924: “More than 250 delegates, representing virtually every section of the country, including many of the leading Jews of America, attended the second biennial convention of the Jewish Welfare Board today in the new Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association Building.”
1924: “The advice offered recently to Jews, "Be loyal, be not assimilated," by Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President-emeritus of Harvard University, was discussed today by Rabbi Samuel Schulman in Temple Beth-El, Fifth Avenue and Seventy-sixth Street, and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise before the Central and Free Synagogues in Carnegie Hall.”
1924: It was reported today that Lord Balfour, the British leader who produced the Balfour Declaration, is experimenting with mental telepathy.
1925: In Newark, NJ, Sara Lasser and Martin Kurtz gave birth to Paul Winter Kurtz “a philosopher whose advocacy of reason ahead of faith helped define contemporary secular humanism.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1925: Premiere of Eisenstein's movie “Potemkin” in Moscow.
1925: Twenty-five year old Hebrew Union College trained Rabbi, Samuel Henry Gordon, the Vilna born son of Reuben and Sarah (Fisher) Gordon married Iren Olive Phillipe in Saginaw, Michigan in the same year that he began serving Temple B’nai Israel in Salt Lake City, Utah.
1925: “The Girl With a Patron,” a silent comedy directed by Max Mack was released today in Germany.
1926: Birthdate of Arnost Lustig, an acclaimed Jewish Czech author who drew on his own harrowing experiences as a teenager in World War II to produce novels and short stories laced with tales of young people who survive the Holocaust. (As reported by Dennis Hevesi)
1927: Nine Hungarian students went on trial today for their role in riots where “several Jews were beaten and large property damage was to synagogues throughout Transylvania.”
1928: The New York Philharmonic Symphony performs Gershwin’s “An American in Paris” and Bloch’s “America.”
1929(19th of Kislev, 5690): Parashat Vayishlach
1929: Today, Bernard S. Deutsch, president of the American Jewish Congress announced the appointment of a commission to investigate the suppression of Judaism in Russia which will be chaired by Carl Sherman.
1930(1st of Tevet, 5691): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1930: “The Princess and the Plumber” a comedy directed by Alexander Korda was released in the United States today by Fox Film Corporation.
1931: Birthdate of Ysrael Abraham Seinuk, the native of Havana, Cuba, “a structural engineer who made it possible for many of New York City’s tallest new buildings to withstand wind, gravity and even earthquakes.”
1932: Birthdate of New Yorker and Harvard alum Edward Hoagland who in a 1968 essay “On Not Being a Jew” complained that he was “being told in print and occasionally in person that I and my heritage lacked vitality because I could field no ancestry who had hawked copper pots in a Polish shtetl.”
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/on-not-being-a-jew/
1933: It was reported today that “all Jews, with the possible exception of front-line war veterans, and all "Marxists" without exception will be barred from editorial or illustrative work for any German newspaper or magazine, beginning Jan. 1, according to the rules of procedure” that were announced for the recently decreed press law.
1933(3rd of Tevet, 5694): Sixty-eight-year-old Dr. Alexis Victor Moschwotitz, the son of Morris and Rosa Rezi Moschowitz and the husband of Amalia “Milly” Moschwotiz who served as Lt. Col. in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army and was a professor of clinical surgery at Columbia passed away today in New York.
1934: Churchill wrote the High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Wauchope, expressing his support for the practice of collective punishment – in the form of fines – aimed at terrorists who burned groves of fruit trees “in a thirsty land.” The fruit trees had been planted by Jewish pioneers; those burning them were Arabs taking part in the armed revolt organized by the Grand Mufti.
1935(25th of Kislev, 5696): Chanukah
1935(25th of Kislev, 5696): Forty five year old journalist, author and WW I veteran of the German Army Kurt Tucholsky passed away today in Sweden.
http://www.dw.com/en/kurt-tucholsky-enigmatic-author-and-satirist/a-16179470
1935: The 75th birthday of the pioneering Zionist Henrietta Szold was celebrated with a radio address broadcast across the United States. It included addresses by the President of Hadassah, Rose Jacobs and by the President of the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Weizmann. Hadassah chapters hosted local celebrations and numerous Shabbat sermons across the United States were reportedly devoted to Szold's life story and achievements.
1935: The British High Commissioner announces to Arabs and Jews the British intention of setting up a Legislative Council in Palestine.
1935: Sir Grenfell Wauchope, High Commissioner of Palestine, summoned Arab leaders today and presented to them a memorandum outlining the features of the proposed Legislative Council of Palestine. The preface to the memorandum states that in view of the fact that municipalities are now functioning smoothly the time is ripe for the establishment of the Council.
1936: Helmut Hirsch, the German Jew who actively worked to carry out a plan to murder Hitler was arrested by Gestapo agents in Stuttgart.
1936: “Well informed Italian circles expressed rather naïve surprise this evening at what they term the ‘unnecessary fuss made by the world’s Jewish press’ over the flogging of two Jews in Tripoli and the imprisonment of another for three months for refusing to keep their open Saturdays” which in reality was part of a plan to force the Jews of that city to leave the new city and return to the older, less commercially attractive old part of the city.
1936: Dr. Charles M. Sheldon, a Congressional minister from Topeka, Kansas and author of In His Steps tonight proposed “a merger of all Protestant, Catholic and Jewish churches” as a way of averting war.
1936: Rabbi J.Z. Dushinsky, representing Audath Israel, told the Peel Commission, "The holy Torah has promised the Holy Land to the people of Israel, but is by the very Torah that we are commanded not to occupy the country by force...but we are confident that to the extent that the returning exiles to Zion will fulfill the will of god, as revealed in the torah, and will make the national home the abode of the torah in all branches of economic and cultural endeavor...
Sir Horace Rumbold questioned him:
Q. There should be a proportion of members of Audath Israel employed in the posts and in the railways, but you also object to their working on Saturdays?
A. Yes
Q. do you not see what that leads to?...The railways certainly are an important element in the economic life of the country...do you not thinking that is going to make it rather difficult?
A. They will be run by Arabs on Saturday, by non-Jews. On Saturdays the work can be done by non Jews
1936: “Vicious Circle” published today provided a review of Some of My Best Friends Are Jews by Robert Gessner.
1937: In a debate over the visit of Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, to Berlin, Churchill spoke out against the Nazi treatment of the Jews. “It is a horrible thing that a race of people should be attempted to be blotted out of the society in which they have been born.” He further expressed his fear that the British were negotiating from a point of weakness and that the Halifax meeting would result in German acquiring the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
1937: Birthdate of New York native, Cornell University wrestler and Columbia Law School graduate Stephen Friedman, the partner in Goldman Sachs, husband of Barbara Benioff, the father-in-law of actress Amanda Peet and the father of David Friedman a/k/a David Benioff who is a Republican and has held several appointed positions including Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.
1937: Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” which animator David Hilberman helped to create premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
1938: As British, Zionist and Arab leaders prepared to meet at a conference in London designed to bring the 2 year long Arab uprising end, Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, stress “that the forthcoming conference…must be co conducted to ensure that the Arab States would be friendly to us.” In other words, the British government was poised to turn its back on the promises of the Balfour Declaration and close Palestine to the Jews.
1939: Hitler named Adolf Eichmann leader of "Referat IV B"
1939: Premiere of “Tevye” a Yiddish language film based on the Sholem Aleichem character, directed, produced and starring Maurice Schwartz, who also wrote the script.
1940: Birthdate of Frank Zappa, composer of the controversial, satirical song “Jewish American Princess.”
1940: Birthdate of Baghdad native and “Israeli yachting world champion” Zaphania Carmel who “drowned during training in 1980.”
1941(1st of Tevet, 5702): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1941(1st of Tevet, 5702): Fifty-three year former Postmaster and secretary of the Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce Harvey E Harris, the Bloomfield born son of Mr. and Mrs. Eli Harris and brother of Jerome Irving Harris and Mrs. Hazel L. Steinhart, passed away.
1941: Rabbi Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Jews View Christmas, Christians Vie Hanukkah” at the “Free Synagogue Congregation worshipping in Carnegie Hall.”
1941: “Dr. Shlomo Bardin of the American Zionist Youth Commission” is scheduled to deliver an address on “American Jewish Youth and the War” at Temple B’nai Jeshurun’s youth service.
1941: Henri Torres of France, the “defender of Schwartzbard and Grynzpan” is scheduled to deliver an address on “Petain, Darlan and Laval, Will France Join Germany in War Against the United State?” today at Rodeph Sholom.
1941: Rabbi Hyman J. Schachtel is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “A Rabbi’s View of Jesus” this morning at the West End Synagogue.
1941: Mrs. Tehilla Lichtenstein is scheduled to deliver a lecture on “What Not to Worry About These Days” at the Jewish Science Society.
1941: Immediately after the arrival of the first group of Eretz-Israeli residents who were trapped in Nazi occupied Europe at the outbreak of WW II and who have been exchanged for Germans living in Palestine, Haaretz published a story about a woman who had left Palestine with her daughter before the war to visit her hometown and family in Poland. "Our little town did not even have a cemetery in ordinary times," the unnamed woman was quoted as saying, "but now the Germans have established one, and it contains hundreds of graves of local Jews and of others deported there from the big cities."
1942: Today, Hitler revered the sentence of forty-year old Mildred Fish-Harnack, the Milwaukee born daughter of William Cooke Fish and wife “German Rockefeller scholar Arid Harnack” who had been sentenced to six years in prison for her role in the “Red Orchestra” ordered that she should be re-sentenced.
1942(13th Tevet, 5703): Eighty-four year old Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Columbia University Franz Uri Boas the Minden, Westphalia born son Sophie Meyer Boas and husband of “the former Marie A.E. Korckowizer” who held a Ph.D. from Kiel University who is known as the “Father of American Anthropology” passed away today in New York City.
1943(24th of Kislev, 5704): In the evening, kindle the first light of Chanukah
1943: Hersz Kurcweig, a Jew, and Stanislaw Dorosiewicz, a non-Jew, escape from Auschwitz after killing an SS guard.
1943: U.S. premiere of “The Song of Bernadette” a cinematic treatment of the life of St. Bernadette based on a novel by Franz Wefel, produced by William Perlberg and music by Alfred Newman.
1944(5th of Tevet, 5705): Eighty-three year old Alfred Leopold Delgado, who is buried in the Falmouth Jewish Cemetery in Jamaica passed away today.
1944: Bandleader Kay Kyser (who was not Jewish) recorded "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive" a popular song with music by Harold Arlen
1945: The United States and Great Britain announced that the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Palestine will open hearings January 7, 1946.
1945: The original Broadway production of “Billion Dollar Baby,” a Betty Comden and Adolph musical with a score by Morton Gould opened at the Alvin Theatre where it “ran for 220 performances.”
1946: Arabs in Palestine refuse to pay taxes if money is used for Jewish immigration.
1946: Birthdate of Josh Mostel. Mostel followed in the thespian footsteps of his famous father, Zero Mostel.
1946: Morton Gould's "Minstrel Show" premieres in Indianapolis
1946: Today, The New Yorker published J.D. Salinger’s “Slight Rebellion Off Madison” featuring “Holden Caulfield” who gained fame in Cather in the Rye
1946: Rabbi Jonah B. Wise declared at the centennial celebration of Central Synagogue that "Reform Judaism looks forward to the union of all Jewish religious groups in a great synthesis with freedom for all."
1947: Arabs plan to win full control of Palestine and set up an all-Arab state
1947(8th of Tevet, 5708): Sixty-five year old Simon Lazarus, Sr., the oldest son of Rose Eichberg and Fred Lazarus and the older brother of Fred Lazarus, J. the founder of Federated Department Stores, passed away today.
1947: Estelle Scher, the actress known as Estelle Getty, married Arthur Gettlemen with whom she had two children – Carl and Barry Gettlemen.
1947(8th of Tevet, 5708): Forty-four year old journalist and producer Mark Hellinger passed away in Los Angeles.
http://web.sbu.edu/friedsam/archives/jimbishop/Hellinger/Hellinger%20Biography.htm
1948: Birthdate of Barry Gordon the American performer who served as President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1988 to 1995 making him “the longest-serving president.”
1948: “Act of Violence” a cinema noir directed by Fred Zinnemann was released today in the United States
1948: Birthdate of Zev Yaroslavsky a Los Angeles County politician who served on the Los Angeles City Council from 1975 until 1994, when he was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. He was preceded in both offices by Edmund D. Edelman.
1949: New York premiere of Samson and Delilah, “Biblical Epic” starring Hedy Lamer, with a screenplay co-authored by Jesse Lasky, Jr. based on a “film treatment” by Vladimir Jabotinsky, the late Zionist leader.
1950(12th of Tevet, 5711): Eighty-six year old Elgin, Illinois native Harriet Wile, the daughter of Leopold and Rose Adler and he wife of David Jacob Wile passed away today in Chicago.
1950: In New York, stockbroker Walter Katzenberg and his wife Anne, an artist, gave birth to Walt Disney Studios Chairman and Democratic party kingmaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, the husband of the former Marilyn Siegel with whom he had twins – Laura and David.
1951: Larry Blyden played Hector and Howard Da Silva played Dupont-Dufour Sr. in “Thieves’ Carnival” this week’s offering on “The Play of the Week.”
1951: Yitzhak Gormezano Goren, aged ten and accompanied by his parents, left his home on Rue Delta in Alexandria to rejoin his two brothers who had already moved to Israel.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/books/190825/aciman-alexandrian-summer
1951: “Decision Before Dawn” a WW II espionage movie directed and produced by Anatole Litvak with music by Franz Waxman released in the United States today by 20th Century Fox.
1952: Paul Celan married graphic artist Gisèle Lestrange over the opposition of her parents.
1952(3rd of Tevet, 5713): Eliyahu Hacarmeli an early Zionist leader, who served in the first Knesset, passed away.
1952: Shlomo Hillel entered the Knesset today as a replacement for the deceased Eliyahu Hacarmeli.
1952: Near tragedy struck the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America when fire destroyed the headquarters at 1380 Jerome Avenue, Bronx, New York. Fortunately, complete tragedy was averted because of the diligence of some members of the brotherhood residing in the area and who were nearby at the time of the fire. They prevailed upon the firefighters to saturate the office area with water, thus averting any major destruction of the records.
1952: Thirty-one year old Rabbi Randall Falk, the Little Rock born son of Randall Morris Falk and the former Lucile Kronberg and holder of a DD from Vanderbilt in Nashville, where he led “Congregation Ohab ai Sholom” married the former Edna Unger with whom he raised Heidi, Randall and Jonathan Falk.
1953: Birthdate of András Schiff, the native of Budapest and the child of two Holocaust survivors who gained fame as a “British classical pianist and conductor.
1953: As claims resurfaced that Dr. Robert Oppenheimer was a Communist, Lewis Strauss told “Oppie” that “his security clearance had been suspended.” Oppenheimer refused Strauss’ suggestion that he resign and demanded a hearing on the charges.
1954: Composer Morton Gould and his wife gave birth to this fourth and youngest child, Deborah, today.
1954: Congregation B’nai Jeshurun marked it 130th anniversary as the second oldest Jewish congregation in New York by staging a Chanukah celebration in its Community Center on West 88th Street. B’nai Jeshurun is the oldest Conservative Congregation in the United States. Rabbi Israel Goldestein opened the festivities by lighting the “torch of freedom” which had been flown to New York from Israel last week
1956, the Metropolitan Opera premiered a new version of La Périchole an opéra bouffe in three acts by Jacques Offenbach with a libretto co-authored by Ludovic Halévy that included interpolations from other scores and turned the speaking role of the Old Prisoner into a singing role for a comic tenor.
1957(28th of Kislev, 5718): Shabbat Shel Chanukah; Parashat Miketz
1957(28th of Kislev, 5718): Cologne native Elisabeth Moses, the author of Jewish Cult and Art Monuments in the Rhinelands passed away today in San Francisco.
1957: A terrorist attack to place in a field near Kibbutz Gadot.
1958(10th of Tevet, 5719): Asara B'Tevet
1958(10th of Tevet, 5719): Seventy-four year old German born American author Lion Feuchtwanger, passed away while living in his Los Angeles. Born in 1884, and writing under the pseudonym, J.L. Wetcheek, Feuchtwanger’s life reads like something out of suspense thriller as he fled Nazi Germany, took refuge in the Soviet Union and France before escaping to the United States under a secret program run by Varian Fry. Of course, he was a significant author in his own right to boot. At the same time, there is something depressingly repetitive about his life – one more European Jew forced to take it on the lamb before finding a final refuge in the United States, England or Israel where he or she then enriches the culture, science or business communities of their place of refuge.
http://www.josephus.org/Feuchtwanger.htm
1959: Shimon Peres, a member of Mapai, began serving as Deputy Defense Minister.
1961: “Take Her, She’s Mine” a “Broadway comedy written by Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron opened at the Biltmore Theatre.
1961: In Patterson, NJ, Isaac Weiner and his wife gave birth to Michael Weiner, the executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association. (As reported by Richard Goldstein)
1961: In New York City, Elain Terner Cooper and Robert E. Mnuchin “a partner at Goldman Sachs in charge of equity trading, a member of the management committee and the founder of the Mnuchin Art Gallery gave birth to Steven Terner Mnuchin, the Yale University graduate, former Goldman Sachs partner and hedge fund investor who has been named by President-elect Trump to serve as Secretary of the Treasury.
1962: U.S. premiere of “In Search of the Castaways” with songs by Richard and Robert Sherman – The Sherman Brothers.
1962: “The Trial,” a movie version of the novel by Franz Kafka was released today in the United States.
1963(5th of Tevet, 5724): Parashat Vayigash
1963(5th of Tevet, 5724): At the Fifty Avenue Synagogue Rabbis Immanuel Jakobovits, Theodroe Stampfer, Mordecai Lewittes and Samuel Schiel and Cantor Max Wohlberg officed at the wedding Brooklyn College honor graduate Deborah Lewittes and Dr. Morris Stampfer, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine trained physician.
1964: Despite supportive testimony from a bevy of performers and authors, Lenny Bruce was sentenced to four months in jail for using “obscene” language in his nightclub act.
1965(27th of Kislev, 5726): Third Day of Chanukah
1965(27th of Kislev, 5726): Fifty-three year old Dr. Bernard Brass, the son of Samuel and Edith Shinan Brass and the husband of Pearl (Hochman) Brass passed away today after which he was buried in the Mt. Carmel Section of Sharon Memorial Park in Sharon, MA.
1965: After premiering in Tokyo, “Thunderball,” four film in the James Bond series featuring Leonard Sachs was released today in the United States.
1966: “Grand Prix,” a movie about international road racing directed by John Frankenheimer whose father was Jewish but who was raised as a Catholic and filmed by cinematographer Saul Bass, who used his skill to created unique racing footage, was released today in the United States by MGM.
1967(19th of Kislev, 5728): Chabad celebrates
1967: “Half a Sixpence,” a British musical directed by George Sidney was released today in the United Kingdom.
1967(19th of Kislev, 5728): Louis Washkansky, a Lithuanian born Jew and the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, after living for 18 days after the transplant.
1967: Release date for “The Graduate,” a film classic directed by Mike Nichols, co-produced by Joseph E. Levine and co-starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role. (Oh yes, the music is courtesy of Paul Simon)
1968(30th of Kislev, 5729): Parashat Miketz; Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Sixth Day of Chanukah
1968: “Once Upon a Time in the West” featuring Lionel Stander was released in Italy today.
1969: Former Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin, who was serving was ambassador to the United States, was summoned from Washington to Jerusalem to give his views on an American response to a change in Israeli policy that would include in-depth bombings of Egyptian positions beyond the Nile in response to Nasser’s policy of bombarding Israeli positions.
1969: Three Lebanese nationals were detained when an attempt to hijack a TWA plane was thwarted at the airport in Athens.
1970: “They Call Me Trinity,” a spaghetti western produced by Joseph E. Levine was released in the Italy today.
1970: Six days after opening in the United States “There’s a Girl in My Soup” a comedy co-starring Goldie Hawn and Peter Sellers premiered in London today.
1971: UN Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim as 4th Secretary General. Naming a former Nazi officer did nothing to engender Israeli or Jewish confidence in the world organization.
1971: “Such Good Friends” a comedy by on a novel by Lois Gould, directed and produced by Otto Preminger, with a screenplay by Esther Dale (pseudonym for Elain May and starring Diane Cannon (Samille Diane Friesen) was released in the United States today.
1972: “Up the Sandbox” the movie version of Anne Roiphe’s novel directed by Irvin Kershner, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and starring Barbra Streisand was released today in the United States.
1973(27th of Kislev, 5734): Parashat Miketz and the Third Day of Chanukah
1973(27th of Kislev, 5734): Eighty year old Golda Bam “Goldie” Richmond Reid, the daughter of John Marshall Richmond and Clara France Richmond and the wife of Stalie Cecil Reid passed away today.
1973: Representatives of Israel, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, US and USSR met in Geneva.
1975: A Broadway revival of the Jerome Kern musical “Very Good Eddie” opened at the Booth Theatre where it ran for 304 performances.
1976: A scheduled “unofficial symposium on Jewish culture in the USSR was banned by authorities” today.
1976: Richard F. Shephard described “the third network raid-on-Entebbe production” which will be aired on NBC next month following the telecast of the Super Bowl.
1976: “Voyage of the Damned” a film based on a story “inspired by true events concerning the fate of the MS St. Louis Ocean Liner carrying Jewish refugees from Germany to Cuba in 1939” directed by Stuart Rosenberg, with music by Lalo Schifrin and co-starring Lee Grant was released in the United States today.
1976(28th of Kislev, 5737): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1976: “Mikey and Nicky” a gangster film directed and written by Elaine May, co-starring Peter Falk and featuring Carol Grace, the wife of Walter Matheau, and Sanford Meisner was released today in the United States.
1976(28th of Kislev, 5737): Pinchas Kehati, an Israeli bank teller and the author of Mishnayot Mevuarot (literally "Clarified Mishnayos"), popularly known as "the Kehati Mishnayot") which is a commentary and elucidation on the entire Mishnah which was “written in Modern Hebrew” and translated into English in 1994, passed away today.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported from Cairo that the Israeli and Egyptian peace negotiating teams were near an agreement on Israel's continued presence along the Jordan River.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that 3,700 government employees in the Tel Aviv area would be transferred to Jerusalem.
1978: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” a sci-fi horror film directed by Philip Kaufman and starring Jeff Goldblum and Leonard Nimoy was released today in the United States.
1979(1st of Tevet, 5740): Rosh Chodesh Tevet; Seventh Day of Chanukah
1979(1st of Tevet, 5740: Seventy-seven-year old Russian born artist Louis Leon Ribak who in 1912 came to the United States where he married Beatrice Mandelman and served as direct of the Taox Valley Art School passed away today in Taos, NM.
1979: It was reported today that “12 case of latkes – a donation from Empire Kosher Poultry of Miflin, PA – were delivered earlier this week to Manhattan’s Town Hall, where audiences were offered the potato pancakes and kosher wine after matinees this week of ‘”Rebecca – the Rabbi’s Daughter.’ They were also invited to join in a Chanukah blessing by a leading lady, Mary Soreanu, who is starring in the production at the concert hall – which leads to another reason for the celebration at the hall. The production marks the return to Broadway of Yiddish theatre after a 10-year absence.”
1979: “The London Connection” featuring David Kossoff and Wolfe Morris was released in the United States today.
1980(14TH of Tevet, 5741): Ninety-two year old Leon Leo Solomon Hexter, the son of Max and Sara Hexter and the husband of Rachel Schwartz passed away today in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio.
1980: “The Tide is Turning in Israel” published today reported that “Israel's Labor Party has taken a giant step toward compromise with the West Bank Palestinians and thus challenged the Arab world to reciprocate with acts of restraint and conciliation.”
1981(25th of Kislev, 5742): Chanukah observed for the first time during the Presidency of Ronald Reagan.
1983: Sixty-four year old Paul de Man the “Belgian born literary critic” whose anti-Semitic views expressed during WW II did not become known until after his death, passed away today.
1984: “Protocol” a comedy directed by Herbert Ross with a script by Buck Henry based pm a story by Nancy Myers and starring Goldie Hawn was released in the United States today by Warner Bros.
1984: “Johnny Dangerously” a parody directed by Amy Heckerling was released today in the United States.
1987(30th of Kislev, 5748): Rosh Chodesh Tevet
1988(13th of Tevet, 5749): Eighty-two year old British historian, author and WW II veteran Philip Montefiore Magnus-Allcroft, the son of Laurie and Dora Marian Magnus and the husband of Jewell Allcroft passed away today.
1988: Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir's agreement on a new coalition government with the Labor Party barely survived a challenge early today from hard-line members of his own Likud party led by Ariel Sharon.
1988: “Beaches” co-produced by Bette Midler who co-starred in the film along with Barbara Hershey and featuring Marc Shaiman was released today in the United States.
1988: Sixteen crew members 243 passengers and 11 bystanders on the ground were murdered today when Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Lockerbie when a bomb planted by terrorists exploded. At the time Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was blamed for the attack although several other terrorist groups claimed credit for the attack.
1988: An Israeli court today postponed a lawsuit by the Bankers Trust Company of New York to break up troubled Koor Industries, Israel's largest industrial concern, over a $20 million debt.
1989: In “Deserted Synagogue of 1919 Sets Off Boston Tug-of-War” published today, Constance L. Hays described the struggle over the fate of the Hub City’s Vilna Shul.
1989: A Congress of Jewish Organizations and Communities in the USSR that had begun on December 18 met for the last time today in the Moscow Cinema Center having established the Vaad, “an umbrella organization of Jewish Cultural bodies chaired by Mikhail Chlenov from Moscow, Yosif Zissels from Chernovtsy and Shmuel Zilberg from Riga.”
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/21/us/deserted-synagogue-of-1919-sets-off-boston-tug-of-war.html
The Vilna Shul is tucked on a side street along the north slope of Beacon Hill, where generations of immigrants clung to life in a cold new world. Now the synagogue itself stands deserted in what has become a fashionable neighborhood of expensive town houses. Nearly all its former members have fled to a more comfortable life in the suburbs, and its congregation has been dissolved. What is left is a battle over what to do with the 70-year-old synagogue, one of a handful remaining in a city that once had more than 50. In 1919 the immigrants from Vilna in Lithuania completed the synagogue, a small brick building with a stained-glass Star of David over the door and an eagle, the symbol of America, topping the hand-carved ark that held the Torah. There are those who wish to preserve the building as a monument to the faithful of the past. And there are others who want the building sold and the proceeds shared between the Charles River Park Synagogue, the only other Orthodox synagogue in Boston, and charities in Israel. Under state law, proceeds from charities that are dissolved typically go to a similar charity. A neighborhood group has proposed converting the building to a cultural center with commercial offices on the first floor and keeping the sanctuary on the second floor. Last week the group won local landmark status for the building, although the group is not sure it will be able to buy it. The building has been valued at $750,000 or more. The president of the Charles River Park Synagogue, Allan Green, objected to the action on landmark status. ''This is an unconstitutional procedure that they've gone through,'' he said, citing freedom of religion. ''We feel that designating this shell of a building is really to no fruitful purpose.'' Mr. Green said the building should be sold without landmark status, which devalues it significantly, with most of the proceeds going to his synagogue. ''We have need of funds,'' he said. 'It's Not High Style' Thomas W. Porter, the lawyer for Charles River Park. said, ''The proceeds should go to the living faith.'' Others are equally emphatic about the need to preserve the Vilna Shul. ''What you see is a clear expression of religious impulses at a specific period of time,'' said Stanley Smith, the executive director of Historic Boston Inc., a nonprofit group that has recommended preserving it. ''It's not high style, not one of the great monuments of architecture that you would travel miles to see. It's like many of the early meetinghouses and churches that are highly representative of the immigrants who built them.'' Cynthia Wall, who lives across the street from the synagogue, has petitioned the city to grant landmark status to the building's interior. Another neighbor, Estelle Shohet Brettman, said she distributed fliers urging residents to support landmark status. ''There is a very understandable emotional attachment to this building,'' said Bernard Wax, director of the American Jewish Historical Society in nearby Waltham. which has no official position on the dispute. But he added, ''We have no record of any important event ever taking place at that congregation,'' and he said the synagogue was not the magnet for the community some say it was. Most of the historic houses of worship preserved in Boston are Protestant, like the Old South Church and the Old North Church. About 125 years ago neighbors banded together to save the Old South Church from a developer, Mr. Smith said. ''What we're proposing is a repetition of history, but this time for another religious group,'' he added. A receiver has been appointed to oversee what happens to the building, said Richard C. Allen, chief of the Division of Public Charities in the State Attorney General's Office. ''It's up to the court receiver to handle the sale,'' he said. As the debate continues, the building's expenses, mostly legal fees and maintenance, keep mounting. ''Last year a gentleman proposed demolishing it and putting up a parking garage,'' Ms. Wall said. ''We felt it was so important in the cultural and social history of the city that it should be preserved.''
1990: “Kindergarten Cop” produced and directed by Ivan Reitman, the son of Holocaust survivors was released today in the United States
1990 “Bonfires of the Vanities,” cinematic treatment of the novel by the same name featuring Alan King, F. Murray Abraham and Saul Rubinek was released today in the United States.
1991(14th of Tevet, 5752): Parashat Vayehi
1991(14th of Tevet, 5752): Ninety-five year old “painter and printmaker” Minna Citron passed away today. (As reported by Roberta Smith)
https://www.annexgalleries.com/artists/biography/417/Citron/Minna
1991: El Sayid Nosair was acquitted of killing Meir Kahane.
1992(26th of Kislev, 5753): Ukrainian born violinist Nathan Milstein passed away.
1992(26th of Kislev, 5753): Ninety-two year old actress, famed acting teacher and member of one of the most distinguished families of the Yiddish theatre, Stella Adler, the New York born daughter of Sara and Jacob P. Adler, sister of Luther and Jay Adler and half-sister of Charles and Celia Adler passed away today.
1993: A family tour of Israel that include the opportunity to celebrate a bar or bat mitzvah at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and at the Zealot's Synagogue in Masada sponsored by the American Jewish Congress is scheduled to begin today.
1994: Federated Department Stores announced the acquisition of R H. Macy & Co the mercantile establishment made famous by the owners Nathan and Isidor Straus.
1994: Limited release of “Little Woman” starring Winona Ryder as “Josephine ‘Jo’ March.”
1994: U.S. premiere of “Mixed Nuts” directed by Nora Ephron who wrote the script along with her sister Delia featuring Kahn as “Mrs. Blanche Munchnik”, Robert Klein as “Mr. Lobel”, Rob Reiner as “Dr. Kinsky”, Adam Sandler as “Louis Capshaw”, Liev Schreiber as “Chris” and Garry Shandling as “Stanley.”
1995(28th of Kislev, 5756): Fourth Day of Chanukah
1995: Israel barred entry today to seven American Jews, including a New York rabbi whom the Government considers to be a security risk in light of the assassination last month of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The Interior Ministry said Rabbi Abraham Hecht, 73, of New York, had given a religious justification for the killing of Mr. Rabin only months before it occurred -- though he later apologized in a letter to Mr. Rabin days before the assassination. The ministry said today that the six other American Jews had been linked to illegal activities in Israel, had backed groups outlawed in Israel or had been active in the Jewish Defense League, which was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, an anti-Arab activist who was assassinated in New York
1995: The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control as part of the peace process begun at Oslo. Unfortunately, there was no peace to go with the process.
1996: Baltimore native Stephen Glick, the senior executive at “Rose Shanis, the personal loan business his mother founded in 1932” and his wife celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary.
1996(11th of Tevet, 5757): Margaret Rey passed away at Cambridge
http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-03540.html,
1997(22nd of Kislev, 5768): Sholom Schwadron, “the Haredi rabbi and orator known as the ‘Maggid Jerusalem’” passed away today.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Bible As It Was by James L. Kugel and Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler.
1998: NBC broadcast the final episode of “Conrad Bloom” a sitcom starring Mark Feuerstein, Steve Landesberg and Lina Lavin
1998(2nd of Tevet, 5759) Eighth Day of Chanukah
1998(2nd of Tevet, 5759): Sixty-three year old Hofstra graduate Merwin F. Kaminstein the former Presiden of Filene’s and Rich’s department stores, the husband of Janet Kaminstein and father of Susan, Ann, Steve and Greg Kaminstein lost his battle with cancer today.
1999: Shortly before the end of his term as Mayor of Philadelphia, Ed Rendell resigned to take up the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee (DNC
2000: Four Israeli soldiers were injured when a Palestinian rammed a truck into a West Bank checkpoint.
2001(6th of Tevet, 5762): Sport’s journalist Dick Schaap passed away.
http://www.jewishsports.net/PillarAchievementBios/DickSchaap.htm
2001: Following a Hollywood premiere a week ago, “A Beautiful Mind” the academy award winning film co-produced by Brian Grazer, with a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman and featuring Judd Hirsch was released in the United States
2002(16th of Tevet, 5763): Parashat Vayechi
2002: In a statement that “seemed aimed at inoculating the Palestinians from both the surge of Qaeda attacks around the world and the increasing allegations by Israel that the terrorist group’s operatives are active in the Gaza strip,” Yassar Arafat “demanded that Al Qaeda stop using the Palestinian cause to justify terror attacks.”
2003: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or about subjects of Jewish interest including There Are Jews In My House by Lara Vapnyar, Sephard by Antonio Muñoz Molina; translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, Wise Men and Their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters by Elie Wiesel and The Roaring Twenties: A New History
of the World's Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz.
2003: In “Rabbi Finds Antimaterialism A Tough Pitch in Hollywood” published today, Amy Wallace
2004: Today, during his visit to Jerusalem, British Prime Minister Tony Blair “said that it was an opportune moment to restart Mideast peace efforts, but he warned that the Palestinians needed to act against terrorism.”
2005: It was reported today that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been released from the hospital after having suffered a “mild stroke” while saying that he will immediately return to his job despite the advice of doctors to “cut his workload.”
2006: The annual report put out by Israel's intelligence agencies was presented to the prime minister prior to discussion of it by the security cabinet. Olmert heard the assessments of representatives of the Shin Bet security service, Military Intelligence and the Mossad concerning the Palestinian Authority, the Iranian threat and the situation along the northern border. Defense Minister Amir Peretz also attended the meeting with the intelligence officials.
2006: U.S. premiere of “The Good Shepherd produced by Jane Rosenthal with a script by Eric Roth.
2006: In Boston, JDub records and Heeb magazine cohost a "Jewltide Hanukkah Bash" at T.T. the Bear's. Headliners are the LeeVees, a duo featuring Adam Gardner (of Guster) and Dave Schneider (of the Zambonis), whose songs include "How Do You Spell Channukkahh" and "Goyim Friends," a tune about gentile pals. The show also features Golem, SoCalled, and Shtreiml
2007: Release date for “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story,” a music comedy written b Judd Apatow and Jake Kasdan.
2007: U.S. premiere of “Charlie Wilson’s War” directed by Mike Nichols with a screenplay by Aaron Sorkin.
2007: It was reported today that Rite Aid founded by Alex Grass had suffered record-breaking losses in despite the acquisition of the Brooks and Eckerd chains
2007: Today Shari Ellin Redstone, president of National Amusements, vice-chairman of CBS Corporation and Viacom, became chairman of Midway Games (a position she would subsequently relinquish in December 2008 when her father Sumner Redstone sold all his stock in the company).
2007: President Shimon Peres apologized for the Kafr Kasim massacre of 1956, in which Border Police officers killed 48 of the village's residents
2007: “A feature film adaption of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Sweeney Todd’ was released today with Sacha Baron Cohen as ‘Signor Pirelli.’”
2008: Opening session of the AJS (Association for Jewish Studies) 40th Annual Conference in Washington, D.C.
2008: Dr. Rafael Medoff, director of the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies will present research at the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies in Washington, demonstrating that while some American Jewish leaders such as Rabbi Stephen Wise were firmly pro-British and opposed aliya on the eve of the Holocaust, others including Louis Brandeis recognized the need for emergency measures to rescue Jews from Europe and were willing to take a more hard-line position,
2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Therapy: The Rise of Psychotherapy in the United States by Jonathan Engel and The Hanukah Mice by Steven Kroll; Illustrated by Michelle Shapiro.
2008(24th of Kislev, 5769): In the evening, kindle the first Chanukah Candle
2008(24th of Kislev, 5769): Ninety-four year old Tony Award winning playwright Dale Wasserman whose works included “One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest” and “The Man of La Mancha” passed away toda.
2008: A British tourist working in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem today unearthed a treasure of 264 gold coins from 1,300 years ago.
2008: “Shaul Ladany: The long walk through horrors of 20th century” published today
2009: Theatre Company Jerusalem presents "The King and the Magician," a tale of a soothsayer king, Balak ben Zippor, and a great magician, Bilam ben Beor. This is unique adaptation of the Biblical story, for children - story about curses and their disadvantages and blessings and their advantages.
2009: Habima Theatre presents "His Whole Life Ahead of Him," a new adaptation of Roman Gary's novel Emil Ajar.
2009: Today archaeologists unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus’ childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood. Archaeologist Stephen Pfann, president of the University of The Holy Land, noted: “It’s the only witness that we have from that area that shows us what the walls and floors were like inside Nazareth in the first century.” Pfann was not involved in the dig.
2009: Polish police detained five men today for stealing the metal sign that hung over Auschwitz, the former Nazi death, and said they were common thieves not neo-Nazis.
2009: In article published in Sports Illustrated entitled “Welcome the King of Israel,” Lee Jenkins describes the life of “Sacramento rookie Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the NBA” who is “a modern extension of the league’s Jewish roots.”
2010: Rabbi Yosef Edelstein of MesorahDC is scheduled to lead “Food for Thought: Digesting Ethics, Mysticism, and Philosophy” at the Historic 6th & I Synagogue in Washington, DC.
2010: Dulce Pontes, the famous Fado singer from Portugal, is scheduled to appear in Tel Aviv.
2010: A Qassam rocket struck the Ashkelon beach early today exploding in an open field near a kindergarten and lightly wounded a a teenage girl in a nearby building.
2010: A high-level priest on the morning show of the largest television station in Greece blamed world Jewry for Greece's financial problems on today..
2010(14th of Tevet, 5771): Seventy-two year old “Marcia Lewis, an actress and singer known for bringing a comic brassiness to Broadway revivals of “Grease” and “Chicago,” died today in Nashville.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2010: Today, the Queen created Fiona Sara Shackleton the daughter of “Jonathan Charkham, an adviser to The Bank of England and economist, and Moira Elizabeth Frances Salmon, daughter of Barnett Alfred and Molly Salmona “ “a life peer as Baroness Shackleton of Belgravia, of Belgravia in the City of Westminster.
2011(25th of Kislev, 5772): First Day of Chanukah
2011(25th of Kislev, 5572) :Eighty-five year old WW II veteran and Penn St grad David N. Pincus, a co-owner of Pincus Bros., the highly successful Philadelphia clothing manufacturers and husband of Geraldine Pincus with whom he established one of the major collection of expressionist art work passed a way today.
https://www.jewishexponent.com/2013/01/31/remembering-the-flame-of-david-pincus/
2011: The band Girls in Trouble led by Alicia Jo Rabin is scheduled to perform this evening at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York.
2011: Dan & Aviva and Drory Yehoushua are scheduled to perform at The Spanish Portuguese Synagogue as part of the Sephardic Music Festival.
2011: Yad Vashem is scheduled to posthumously honor a Polish man who saved the lives of Jews during World War II by hiding them in his attic. The Holocaust Museum will bestow the title of righteous gentile upon Wojciech Wołoszczuk, a farmer who let Frances Schaff, nee Feiga Bader; her brother, his family and two other Jews secretly stay in his house to avoid persecution by the Nazis and their allies.
2011: Today, the Knesset Finance Committee allocated an additional NIS 780 million to Israel's defense budget, which came at the expense of other government offices such as welfare and housing.
2011: The situation in Syria is unstable and the IDF needs to keep a watchful eye on daily developments along its northern front, Commander of the Israel Air Force Maj.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan said today.
2011: The US Senate approved $211 million for Iron Dome in new $633 billion defense bill
2012: Three solid days of rainfall across the country has water authority officials calling the the winter of 2012-13 the wettest since 2004
2012: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear today that he has no intention of losing any more ground to his right wing challenger Naftali Bennett, giving a TV interview in which he slammed the Jewish Home party’s chairman for his apparent justification of insubordination
2012: Ensemble Dmama is scheduled to perform at the Eden-Tamir Music Center in Jerusalem.
2012: “The Shortest Day” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Talia's Steakhouse & Bar, the only full dine-in Glatt Kosher (under OU Supervision) steakhouse on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, offers a pre-paid Friday night dinner where diners can enjoy their challah and have wine for Kiddush.
http://taliassteakhouse.com/shabbatmenu.html
2013: The Eden Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host “The Best of Chamber Music – The Romantic Clarinet.”
2013: “Dancing in the Rain” (Ples v dezju) is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2013: Today the Arab League rejected the US proposal, by which IDF soldiers would remain in the Jordan Valley for a 10 year period as part of peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA). (As reported by Ari Yashar)
2013: “IDF forces foiled a terror attempt from Gaza on Saturday, shooting and wounding a 22 year old terrorist who was trying to place an explosive on the border.” (As reported by Ari Yashar)
2013(18th of Tevet, 5774): Eighty-four year old Edgar M. Bronfman passed away today. (As reported by Jonathan Kandell)
2013: On the 25th anniversary of the Lockerbie Bombing Israeli sources provided evidence the Ahmed Jibril’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command was responsible for downing Pan Am Flight 103.(As reported by David Horovitz) [Editor’s note: After you read about enough of these groups you almost feel like these guys are good at two things – murder and coming up with unbelievable names for their organizations]
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish author/and or of special interest to Jewish readers including Isabel’s War by Lila Perl, The Brotherhood of Book Hunters by Raphaël Jerusalmy, The Norton Anthology of World Religions Volume II: Judaism, Christianity, Islam edited by Jack Miles, David Biale, Lawrence S. Cunningham and Jane Dammen McAuliffe, The Wall by H.G. Adler and Living The Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions by Phil Zuckerman
2014: “The Prime Ministers: Soldiers & Peacemakers” and “Felix and Meira” are scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival.
2014: Chabad is scheduled to host the “Chanukah Bowl” at Colonial Bowling Lanes.
2014: Final performance of “On the Other Side of the River” is scheduled to take place today.
2014: Shaare Tefila is scheduled to hold its annual Chanukah Party, Dinner and Talent Show.”
2014: “Four anti-assimilation activists affiliated with the Lehava organization were arrested on suspicion of incitement to violence today, and four others were brought in for questioning”
2014: “The Syrian army said today that it shot down an Israeli unmanned aerial vehicle over Quneitra, media in Syria and Lebanon reported.
2014: “IDF paratroopers' hearts went out to two Palestinian children who approached their post today asking for food.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4606213,00.html
2015(9th of Tevet, 5776): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Ezra.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_9.html
2015: The Historic 6th and I Synagogue is scheduled to host a fun run sponsored by the Running Club this evening.
2015: Israeli and U.S. officials declared a new medium-range missile interceptor fully operational today, ending years of development and testing for the key component of Israel’s defense array.
2016: Prof. Isaiah Gafni, The Sol Rosenbloom Professor Emeritus of Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is scheduled to deliver a special Chanukah lecture’ “The Hasmonean Episode: From Rebellion to Kingdom” in which he will examine the two chapters of the holiday story – “The rebellion under Mattathias and his sons, followed by the emergence of an independent state and kingdom.”
2016: “Jewish worshipers in Ukraine were teargassed and the grave of Hasidic Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav was defiled with fake blood and a pig’s head in an attack tonight at the popular pilgrimage site visited by tens of thousands of Jews every year.”
2016: “Former president and convicted rapist Moshe Katsav was released from Ma’asiyahu Prison today after the State Prosecution said it would not appeal Sunday’s parole board decision to free him. He had served five years of a seven-year jail sentence.”
2016: Rabbi Berel Lazar was the keynote speaker when approximately 6,000 people arrived at a government compound in Moscow to celebrate Chanukah, “twenty-five years after the Kremlin hosted its first-ever Jewish event.”
2016: On the occasion of his 70th birthday, violinist and champion of Jewish music Yuval Waldman is scheduled to play a recital-lecture of works by Jewish composers which he commissioned or gave the premiere performance of including “Thoughts and Feelings, a never before heard work by Joachim Stutschewsky which Stutschewsky wrote in 1981 at the age of 90, Variations on "Hatikvah" by Yehiel Goyzman, Waltz from an Unknown Country by Paul Alan Levi (U.S. Premiere), the world premiere of a new work by Alex Weiser, and Fantasy on "Jerusalem of Gold" by Yuval Waldman himself.”
2017: As part of its Historic Jewish Atlanta Tours, The Breman Museum is scheduled to host a trip to the Fox Theatre.
2017: A memorial service was held today in Toronto for philanthropist Barry and Honey Sherman whose murderer still remains at large.
https://www.cjnews.com/perspectives/opinions/barry-honey-shermans-spirit-generosity-touched-us
2017: “The SEC is suing Robert Shaprio, the former head of the Woodbridge Group of Companies for allegedly running a $1 billion Ponzi scheme.”
2017: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host Peter Weintraub presenting an “Introduction to Judaism.
2017(3rd of Tevet, 5778): Ninety-three year old USAAF veteran Jerome “Jerry” Yellin, the P-51 Mustang pilot who is credited with flying the last mission in WWII passed away today.
http://captainjerryyellin.com/
2017: Today, “The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution rejecting any recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in the wake of the pronouncement by President Donald Trump two weeks ago.” (Anybody who knows the history of the UN and Jerusalem knows that the international body abdicated its responsibility regarding the city 70 years ago when it failed to enforce its own resolution to make the Jerusalem an international city to be governed by body established by the UN)
2017(3rd of Tevet, 5778): On the Jewish calendar, third of Tevet is the Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Tevet_3.html
2018: In what some say is a sign that in Jerusalem, public transport is on its way to experiencing a revolution “Kol Ha’lr reports that today, the Ministry of Transport is scheduled to issued tenders for the operation of dozens of municipal service line in the city.”
2018: In New Orleans, the JCC is scheduled to host “Bring A Friend Friday” at its Metairie and Uptown Locations.
2018: As Israeli forces begin “neutralizing” the terror tunnels Hezbollah has constructed from Syria, Israeli officials begin to prepare for a dealing with a Syria under the Assad regime, with Russians and Iranians but, according to President Trump’s latest Tweet, without American forces.
2018: Israeli born guitarist Gilad Hekselman is scheduled to perform at the Cornelia Street Cafe
2018: In response to those asking for activities that “enhance and deepen” services, in Memphis, Temple Israel is scheduled to host a “Preneg” before Friday evening services.
2018: In New Orleans, the JCC Membership Appreciation Week is scheduled to come to an end today.
2018: The Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston is scheduled to host Tot Shabbat.
2019: In Hingham, MA, Congregation Sha’aray Shalom is scheduled to host the Noah Aronson Band in a “Pre-Chanukah Concert.”
2019: “Yiddish New York,” the “largest festival of Yiddish Culture, Arts and Language” in the United States is scheduled to open at the 14th Street Y.
2019(23rd of Kislev, 5780): Parashat Vayayshev;
2019(23rd of Kislev, 5780): Eighty-eight year old Joseph Myron Segel, the Philadelphia born son of realtor Albert Segal and Fannie Segal and graduate of Wharton, the entrepreneur who gave us the “Franklin Mint” and QVC Shopping Network passed away today. (As reported by Katharine Q. Seelye)
2020: The Lappin Foundation is scheduled to host online “a presentation about Jewish medical ethics by Dr. Michael Szycher.
2020: Lost Tribe Esports, “a global, year-round engagement initiative, connecting the next generation to Jewish life and identity through esports and the community of gaming” is scheduled to present online a “Valorant Game Night.”
2020: In Pepper Pike, OH, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation is scheduled to present “What’s Nu?” a “topical text studay and discussion on the relevant Jewish topics” with Rabbi Hal Rudin-Luira, followed by a discussion of the weekly Torah portion “from a liberal point of view led by Professor Doron Kalir.”
2020: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host online Dr. Noam Sienna lecturing "On the Altar of the Press”: Jewish Print Culture in 19th Century North Africa.”
2020: On the winter solstice, Aquarian Minyan in Berkeley is scheduled to present a conference of academics, scholars and mystics discussing topics that include this year’s extremely rare Jupiter-Saturn conjunction
2020: As the United States copes with the worst cybersecurity breach in its history, based on reports published yesterday, Israel may be dealing with an Iranian “infiltration of servers belong to the state-owned IAI (Israel Aerospace Industries)
2021: The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston is scheduled to present online a conversation between JCRC executive director Jeremy Burton and Dalit Ballen Horn, the executive director of The Vilna Shul.
2021: The Emerson Colonial Theatre is scheduled to host a new production of “Fiddler on the Roof” in Boston.
2021: The National Library of Israel is scheduled to present via Zoom “From Budapest to Jerusalem during which Samuel Thropem the Curator of the Islam and Middle East Collection at the National Library of Israel discusses “Ignaz Goldziher’s Library and the founding of Islamic Studies in Israel.”
2022(27th of Kislev, 5783): Third Day of Chanukah https://jeopardylabs.com/play/chanukah10
2022: The 3rdAnnual Hanukkah Lighting Across Iowa is scheduled to take place this evening via zoom.
2022: Rabbi Daniel Isaacson, director of JFCS Spiritual Care Services, and chaplain Bruce Feldstein, director of JFCS Jewish Chaplaincy Services serving Stanford Medicine, are scheduled to explore Hanukkah themes of hope and healing through stories, song and ritual.
2022: In Wayland, MA, Congregation Or Atid is scheduled to present, “Brighter Ignited, an illuminated and travelling art exhibit designed by artist Tova Speter.
2022: In Arlington, MA, “The center for Jewish Life and the Arlington Station” are scheduled to host “the Chocolate Gelt Drop” celebration of Chanukah