JUNE 9 In History
68: The Emperor Nero died in Rome. Nero had appointed four governors of Judea each of whom was crueler and greedier than his predecessor. The Jewish Revolt in 66 was caused, in part, by this succession of disastrous appointments by Nero. Nero had ordered Vespasian to invade the Galilee and suppress the revolt of the Jews. The political unrest that followed Nero's death as various parties vied for the throne slowed down the final defeat of the Jews. In the end, Vespasian was made Emperor thanks to the support of his legions and he sent his son Titus to conquer Jerusalem.
423:Emperors Honorius and Theodosius II forbid Jews from building any new synagogues
721: At the Battle of Toulouse, Odo of Aquitaine defeated the Moors led by Al-Samh ibn Malik al-Khawlani, the governor of Al-Andalus. Al-Andalus refers to that part of the Iberian Peninsula which was under the control of the Moslems. While the defeat at Toulouse (in modern day France) helped to confine the forces of Islam to territory south of the Pyrenees mountains, it served to reinforce the fact that Spain would not be ruled by Christians. For a limited period of time, this created what some called a Golden Age for the Jews of Spain. The reality is a little more complicated. It would more than seven centuries for the Christians to dislodge the Moslems from the Iberian Peninsula. Depending on the whims and needs of various rulers (both Christian and Moslem), Jewish fortunes waxed and waned. It would all end with the expulsion of 1492.
1171(4th of Tammuz): A few days after decreeing that the 20th of Sivan should henceforth be a day of fasting and mourning in honor of the 51 Jews burned at the stake Blois, Rabbi Jacob Ben MeirTam, the grandson of Rashi passed away
1595: Birthdate of King Wladislaus IV who was King of Poland at the outbreak of The Khmelnitsky Uprising and failed to check it at its inception. This failure contributed to the worst massacre of Jews until the 20th century and the Holocaust.
1672: Birthdate Tsar Peter I of Russia, known as Peter the Great. He may have been “great” to the worst of the world but not so great as far as the Jews were concerned since he banned Jews from his domain even as he sought to modernize it.
1693(5th of Sivan): Rabbi Gershom Ashkenazi author of Avodat ha-Gershuni passed away.
1753(7th of Sivan, 5513): Just a month (July 7) before royal assent is given to the Jewish Naturalization Act in Great Britain, the Second Day of Shavuot is observed
1787: Birthdate of Sarah (nee Dias Fernandes) Aguilar the wife of Emanuel Aguilar and the mother of author Grace Aguilar.
1790(27th of Sivan, 5550): Purim of Florence is celebrated by Florentine Jews because on the 27th of Sivan, 1790 they were saved from a mob by the efforts of the bishop. The festival is preceded by a fast on the 26th of Sivan. The details of the occurrence are related in full by Daniel Terni in a Hebrew pamphlet entitled "Ketab ha-DaṬ," published in Florence in 1791.
1799(6th of Sivan, 5559): Shavuot
1810(7th of Sivan, 5570): Jews observe the Second Day of Shavuot on the birthdate of Otto Nicolai the German born musician who succeeded Felix Mendelssohn (the grandson of Moses Mendelssohn) as Kapellmeister at the Berlin Cathedral
1815: The Congress of Vienna came to an end. Europe enters into a period of political reaction following the defeat of Napoleon. “After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna, the Germans took their revenge on the French and the Jews. The Congress of Vienna had provided for full civil and political rights "to differing parties of the Christian religion," but the "civil betterment" of the Jews was put off for further study. The Congress stated that Jews could retain such rights as they already had, but nearly everywhere in Germany the rights that the Jews had won were disavowed and rescinded. (Prussia was an exception: only some Jewish rights were abolished; most were retained.) A period of reaction set in, in which anti-Semitism was a major component.” Surprisingly enough, Prince Metternich, the reactionary Austrian Foreign Minister played a positive role for Jews living in the German cities of Frankfurt, Lubeck and Bremen while the Congress was in session. When the ruling bodies of those cities attempted to take away rights previously granted to the Jewish communities, the Jews appealed to Metternich for help. Metternich interceded on behalf of the Jews because depriving them of their rights would have been a violation of the guarantees made by the Congress of Vienna. Metternich was not a philo-Semite. Rather he was aware of the economic power of these Jewish leaders and he knew that they would be a force for stability. Also, Metternich based Austria’s foreign policy on the decisions of the Congress and he was opposed to anything that would undermine the agreements reached there. 1843: The Voice of Jacob reported that Mr. Woolfson and Mr. Marks laid the foundation for the new synagogue on St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands
1837(6th of Sivan, 5597) Shavuot
1838(16th of Sivan, 5598): Thirty-eight year old Amalie Friedlander (nee Heine) a cousin of the famous poet Heinrich Heine passed away today in Berlin. Heine fell in love with his cousin but she did not return his affection which he found frustrating.
1854: The New York Times reports that “It is said that there is not a single Jew in the United States engaged in agriculture.”
1856: Birthdate of Aaron David (A.D.) Gordon, the founder of Hapoel Hatzair.
1859(7th of Sivan, 5619): Second Day of Shavuot
1863: During the Civil War, Jacob Ezekiel Hyneman, a native of Richmond, VA serving with the Union Army was wounded at the Battle of Brandy Station, the most important clash of cavalry in the east which help to set the stage for the Battle of Gettysburg.
1867(6th of Sivan, 5627): Shavuot
1869(28th of Iyar, 5629): Solomon ben Judah Aaron Kluger, Polish born rabbi and chief dayyan passed away today at Brody, Galicia
1870: Author Charles Dickens passed away. Dickens was considered an anti-Semite by some because of his character Fagin in Oliver Twist. Dickens defended himself against what he considered a false claim. In a later work, Our Mutual Friend, Dickens created the sympathetic Jewish character Mr. Riah who is the victim of a Christian moneylender. "The Jewish people are a people for whom I have a real regard and to whom I would not willingly have given an offense...for any worldly consideration."
1871: It was reported today that French Banker Jules Mires has passed away.
1871: The three-day long Rabbinical Conference, a meeting of leaders of the Reform Movement, came to an end in Cincinnati, Ohio. Twenty-three congregations were represented at the meeting. The Conference agreed to provide “a modern prayer book” which would not contain any references to a return of the Jews to Jerusalem, the offering of sacrifices or a personal messiah. It was also agreed that services would be conducted primarily in English instead of Hebrew. In the field of education, the Conference approved the establishment of seminary to train rabbis and the development of a uniform course of study for congregational Sabbath Schools.
1875(6th of Sivan, 5635): Shavuot
1875: In New York, a large number of Jews met at Adath Israel to memorialize the passing of the James Gordon Bennett., the founder editor and publisher of the New York Herald. Those in attendance adopted a series of memorial resolutions that were to be sent to his widow and son which described Bennett as “an honest supporter and true friend” of the Jewish people who “always gave firm and true support to our creed.”
1876: President U.S. Grant and Thomas Ferry, the President Pro Tempore of the United State attended the consecration services of Adas Israel, the new orthodox synagogue in Washington, DC. The service was bilingual with prayers in Hebrew and an address by Rabbi George Jacobs of Philadelphia in English. Adas Israel has moved twice since this event but still remains located in the District of Columbia. It is one of the leading Conservative Congregations in the United States.
1880: In New York City, the Young Men’s Hebrew Association is scheduled to host a strawberry festival and concert at Lyric Hall tonight to raise funds for its library.
1880(30thof Sivan, 5640): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1881: It was reported today that the government is conducting a census among the Jews living in Kiev with the goal of expelling those from the city who do not have a right to live their under the restrictive residency laws applied to them.
1882: “Death After Fasting Seven Month” published today described the death of a Polish Jew named Adolph Schomger who stopped eating after having been sentenced to the penitentiary in Nebraska after having been convicted of stealing. Schmoger was transferred to “an insane asylum” but his starvation tactics continued causing his weight to fall from 150 to 80 pounds to his death.
1886(6th of Sivan, 5646): Shavuot
1886: Final exams are scheduled to be given at Central High School in Philadelphia, PA despite the face that it is Shavuot. The principal has refused to make any accommodation for the Jewish students despite pleas from the city’s Rabbis.
1887: Dr. Sabato Morais, the rabbi at Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, became the first Jew recognized by the University of Pennsylvania with an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.
1887: In New York, Adolph Reich was convicted of murdering his wife and sentenced to death. Court officials said that it was rare for Jews to be charged with murder since they were “as a rule orderly, law-abiding citizen” and they could not remember one ever being executed.
1891: I.S. Isaacs of the United Hebrew Charities was among those who will be attending a special meeting of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment where the United Charities Association will present a proposal to establish a “free lodging house” in New York.
1891(3rd of Sivan, 5651): Eighty-one year oldSamuel Adler “a leading German-American Reform rabbi, Talmudist, and author” passed away. He was also the father of Felix Adler, the well-known founder of the Society for Ethical Culture.” Born at Worms in 1809, he came to the United States to serve as Rabbi at Temple Emanu-El in New York; a position he held for seventeen years before accepting the position as Rabbi Emeritus. He was an outspoken opponent of slavery and a staunch supporter of Abraham Lincoln. One of the happiest moments of his life came when saw Major Anderson, the Union officer who had defended Fort Sumter, in his congregation. After service “he laid his hands on the soldier’s head and pronounced…the anciently priestly blessing…”
1892: “Emin’s Death Confirmed published today described the demise of Emin Pasha, who had been born Isaak Eduard Schnitzer to a Jewish family in Silesia. (The only problem is that Emin Pasha did not die until October of 1892)
1893: Birthdate of Samuel Nathaniel Behrman, the Worcester, Massachusetts native, who gained success writing scripts of stage and screen as well as doing profiles for the New Yorker. Among his subjects were Chaim Weizman, George Gershwin, Max Beernbohm, Joseph Duveen and Eddie Cantor.The Worcester Account is an account of his childhood from 1893 to shortly after he moved to New York City in 1917.
1895: The closing exercises of the Louis Downtown Sabbath and Daily Technical Schools took place this afternoon at Temple Emanu-El.
1895: It was reported today that the “anti-Semitic craze” that “has been making such wild headway lately in Vienna” and the rest of Austria is not only not losing strength “in several other great Continental states” but is growing in Germany. A congress of a newly formed anti-Semitic party that just me in Berlin has adopted a program which regards any family that has one Jewish member during the last three generations is Jewish. Furthermore, all such “Jewish families” must be “excluded from the army, journalism, the legal, medical and educational professons and prohibited from owning land or taking public contracts (Shades of the Nazis)
1895: The Sunday Closing laws were strictly enforced today in New York City as police arrested any Jews or gentiles found in violation of the strictures which included closing all stores by ten in the morning and all barber shops at one in the afternoon.
1895: “Napoleon’s Times Pictured” provided a review George Duval’s The Romance of the Sword a novel whose plot revolves around a mythic blade that the Count d’Artois sold to Samuel the Jew
1896: Birthdate of Nathaniel Lawrence Goldstein whose service as New York State Attorney General paralleled the gubernatorial of Thomas E. Dewey
1896: Just days before his 38thbirthday the Marquis de Morès, a French anti-Semitic politician, was killed as he journeyed to meet the Mahdi, the Muslim leader responsible for the death of General Charles “Chinese” Gordon. De Morès was a member of The Antisemitic League of France who challenged Ferdinand-Camille Dreyfus, a Jewish member of the Chamber of Deputies, to a duel after Dreyfus wrote an article about him with which he disagreed.
1898: A conference of Jews from the United States and Canada meeting at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue adopted a constitution which “provided that the name” of the new organization “should be the Orthodox Jewish Congregational Union of America.
1898: Mr. and Mrs. I. Bierman hosted a garden party for the residence of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews.
1899(1st of Tammuz, 5659): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1899: Prompt action today avoided a clash between those acting on behalf of Congregation Sheavith Israel of New York and Jews living in Newport each of whom are trying to assert control over the famous Rhode Island synagogue.
1899: “Garden Party for Aged Hebrews” published today described the annual social event held at the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews which was attended by 230 residents who ranged in age from 60 to 90. In addition to enjoying refreshment attendees enjoyed the music of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Band.
1899: In Albany, NY, a certificate of consolidation was filed with the Secretary of State which join the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew Free School Association under the name of The Educational Alliance.
1899: The French cruiser Sfax arrived at Devil’s Island. The ship’s mission was to bring Dreyfus home after four years and three months of being imprisoned for a crime he did not commit.
1902(4th of Sivan. 5662): Sixty-seven year old Jacob Herzl, Theodore Herzl's father dies in Vienna. Herzl goes back to Vienna for the funeral.
1903: In New York, Bernard Glick and opera singer gave birth to Marcia Glick who gained fame as author and critic Marcia Davenport.
1905(6th of Sivan, 5665): Shavuot
1905: Pogrom began in Lodz, Poland
1911: The Jewish community of St. Thomas, Danish West Indies, publishes a protest against the appeal of the Anglican Church to raise funds designed to “gather Jews into the fold” i.e. create proselytes
1916: Birthdate of Louis Werfel who gained fame as “The Flying Rabbi” when he served as a chaplain during World War II. Werfel was one of only six Jewish chaplains who died during WW II. He died while returning from conducting Chanukah services at Casablanca in 1943.
1917: In Alexandria, Egypt,Leopold Percy Hobsbaum and Nelly Hobsbaum (née Grün) gave birth to British Marxist historian Eric John Ernest Hobsbaume.
1921: Birthdate of Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg, leading Jewish author, philosopher and fighter for civil rights of all. He passed away in 2006.
1922: Silent film star Beatrice Carpenter and Herman Axelrod gave birth to George Axelrod. Axelrod’s father was a Russian Jew while his mother was not Jewish. His breakout work was “The Seven Year Itch” which was a successful play and film.
1924(7th of Sivan, 5684): On the same day that Mallory and Irvine reportedly died in their quest to reach the top of Mt. Everest, Jews observe the Second Day of Shavuot
1926: Congressman Meyer London’s funeral was held in New York City with tens of thousands filling the streets in his honor.
1928: Delegates representing 400 organizations are expected to attend today’s’ convention The Hebrew Religious Protective Association at the Broadway Central Hotel
1930: Birthdate newscaster, author and educator, Marvin Kalb. Kalb first gained fame as a correspondent with CBS Television News. Kalb has an equally famous brother, Bernard, with whom he sometimes shares the lecture circuit much to the delight and enlightenment of the attendees.
1931: Birthdate of comedian Jackie Mason.
1935(8th of Sivan): Dr. Shermaryahu Levine passed away
1935: Anti-Jewish riots occur in Grodno, Poland.
1936: John F. Kennedy, future President of the United States left Jerusalem for Lebanon and Syria.
1936: Arabs attempted to attack Kfar Yeheskiel, a Jewish workmen’s settlement in the Jezreel Valley. Jospeh Tavory, a Jewish truck driver was wounded during the unsuccessful attack.
1937: The Palestine Post reported that according to French press reports the British government was expected to propose, at the June 18 session of the Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations in Geneva, the establishment of a Jewish republic and a joint Arab Palestinian-Jordanian state under Emir Abdullah.
1937: Chaim Weizmann gave an account of his dinner of the previous night where he had dined with Winston Churchill and other Zionist supporters in Parliament to a number of leading Zionists then visiting London including David Ben-Gurion
1938: The Main Synagogue in Munich was burned down. Two thousand Jews throughout Germany were arrested and were sent to concentration camps to do hard labor.
1939: Birthdate of Letty Cottin Pogrebin, who has become one of the most well-known figures in both the Jewish and secular feminist movements.
1941: Abraham Pais obtained his doctoral degree in theoretical physics today, just five days before the deadline. His was the last Ph.D. issued to a Dutch Jew until after the war. Abraham Pais
1942: Lord Wedgwood opened the debate in the British House of Lords by urging that the mandate over Palestine be transferred to the United States, since Britain had reneged on its commitments. He stated with bitterness: "I hope yet to live to see those who sent the Struma cargo back to the Nazis hung as high as Haman cheek by jowl with their prototype and Führer, Adolf Hitler
1942(23rd of Sivan, 5702): When a Jewish mother at Pabianice, Poland, fights fiercely for her baby during a deportation, the baby is taken from her and thrown out a window.
1942: A gassing van is sent to Riga, Latvia, for the execution of Jews.
1942: German criminal police in the Lodz Ghetto reported that 95 Jews ‘have been hung publicly here.
1943(6th of Sivan, 5703): First Day of Shavuot
1944: Jewish-Hungarian poet and Jewish-Palestinian paratrooper Hannah Szenes is arrested in Hungary after completing her mission for the British in Yugoslavia. She was attempting to help the Hungarian Jews who were being transported to Auschwitz. Born in Hungary in 1921, Szenes witnessed the rise of anti-Semitism in pre-World War II Hungary. She became a Zionist and moved to Palestine in 1938. By 1941 she had joined a kibbutz and the Haganah. She was one of many European born Jews living in Palestine who joined the British Army and agreed to be dropped behind enemy lines. There purpose was two-fold - to add anti-Nazi partisan forces and to help the Jews facing extermination. Just before her death at the hands of her Hungarian captors Szenes wrote the following poem: “One-two-three... eight feet long, Two strides across, the rest is dark... Life hangs over me like a question mark. One-two-three... maybe another week, Or next month may still find me here, But death, I feel, is very near. I could have been twenty-three next July; I gambled on what mattered most; The dice were cast. I lost." Most Israelis can recite the following lines, "Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame. Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart." Her most famous work is one that is often sung in Hebrew and English.
"Lord, my God,
I pray that these things never end:
The sand and the sea,
The rush of the waters,
The crash of the heavens,
The human prayer
1944: During the trucks for Jews negotiations, Adolf Eichmann (who probably was never serious about saving the Hungarians) said: “If I do not receive a positive reply within three days, I shall operate the mill at Auschwitz.”
1945: Prime Minister Winston Churchill rejects a written request by Chaim Weizmann for an end to all restrictions on Jewish entry into Palestine now that the war with Germany is over saying “”There can I fear be no possibility of the question being effectively considered until the victorious Allies are definitely seated at the Peace table.” This statement effectively ended Weizmann’s leadership role. Many Zionists viewed this as a betrayal by the British in general and by the supposedly pro-Zionist Churchill in particular.
1946: In “Wholesale Rescue” published today Julian Meltzer described how “nearly twenty thousand children were spirited away from Hitler’s Europe.”
1947(21st of Sivan, 5707): Jacob Shapiro, one of the organizers of Murder, Inc. died of a heart attack at Sing Sing.
1948: The INS Wedgewood was commissioned today. A Flower class corvette, it was named after Josiah Wedgewood.
1948:INS HaTikvah (K-22) was commissioned today.
1949(12th of Sivan, 5709): Eighty-six year old Dr. Moses Hyamon, the native of Russia and distinguished scholar who served as Chief Rabbi of the British Empire before World War I and who had been Rabbi of New York’s Orach Chaim passed away
1949: Mira (Miriam) Shefer left Cyprus on the SS Sha’ar Yishuv. After having survived the Holocaust, she traveled from Poalnd, crossed the Alps into Austria before arriving in Italy where she boarded the SS Kadima. Although the ship was equipped for 400 passengers, this desperate voyage took 800 Jews through the British blockade to Haifa. Unfortunately for Mira and the rest of the passengers, the British sent them all to Cyprus where she endured life in an internment camp until the creation of the Jewish state.
1950: Jefferson Caffery, the United States Ambassador to Egypt, said that “last month’s declaration by the United States, Britain and France on the Middle East was not intended to picture the present frontiers between Israel and her Arab neighbors as permanent borders.”
1950: Israel responded to charges of mistreatment of infiltrators from Jordan by telling the Arabs to “keep on your own side of the border.” The Israelis claim that there only responsibility is to “escort the infiltrators to a point near the border and send them on their way.” According to the agreement signed at Rhodes in 1949 that ended hostilities between Israel and Jordan, “neither troops nor civilians could pass into each other’s territory.”
1951: The last group of Nazis convicted of war crimes during World War II is hanged in Nuremberg.
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that banknotes issued in 1948 by the Anglo-Palestine bank as Israel’s legal tender had to be exchanged for new notes, in different colors, issued by Bank Leumi L’Israel. A 10 percent compulsory deduction for a 15-year loan, at 4%, was to accompany each exchange of the old notes for the new, and a similar deduction was to be carried out automatically on all bank deposits. The loan was expected to bring IL 25 million for the Treasury. Three hundred new immigrants marched in Tel Aviv demanding better housing.
1952: Birthdate of Uzi Hitman, Israeli singer, songwriter, composer and television personality who died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 52
1961: Birthdate of Aaron Sorkin producer and writer for television hit, “The West Wing
1962(7th of Sivan, 5722): Second Day of Shavuot
1962: In Tel Aviv, Yossi and Ilana Banai gave birth to Israel pop rock start Yuval Banay.
1962(7th of Sivan, 5722): Madame and bordello owner, Polly Adler, passed away.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/adler-polly1963: Barbra Streisand appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show."
1964(29th of Sivan, 5724): Just weeks before his 80th birthday, Russian born American pianist and composer Louis Gruenberg passed away
1963: Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz of Adas Israel attended the ground breaking ceremonies for the Abraham S. Kay Spiritual Life Center, the American University in Washington, D.C.,
1967: In a change of mind and policy, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan told Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin that the IDF would take the Golan Heights after all. Rabin began moving forces from the Central Command to the North. The fighting was tough as the IDF advanced against the well-fortified Syrian positions. By nightfall, the IDF seemed to be taking control of the battlefield and there was already talk about advancing on the Syrian capital of Damascus. The Israelis were concerned about the fate of the 15,000 Jews living in Syria. For years the Syrian government had held them under virtual arrest, denying any of them the right to leave the country.
1968: In an article entitled “This Piece of Earth,” Chaim Potok reviewed “Light on Israel” by Maurice Samuel, “The Road to Jerusalem: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1967” by Walter Laqueur, “Under Fire: Israel’s 20 Year Struggle for Survival”, edited by Donald Robinson, “The Resurrection of Israel” by Ann Latour; translated by Maragaret S. Summers and “The Hand of Mordechai” by Margaret Larkin.
1975: Malcolm Toon is appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1977: President Gerald Ford received the first annual Yonatan Netanyahu Memorial Award.
1977: The Jerusalem Post reported that, according to US Assistant Secretary of State Alfred Atherton, it would be "perfectly reasonable" for Israel to seek compensation from the Arab states for the property left behind by Jewish refugees who came to Israel after 1948. The Prime Minister designate, Menachem Begin, assured the press that his election wouldn't affect Israeli relations with Germany
1981(7th of Sivan, 5741): Two days after the IAF destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor Jews celebrate the Second Day of Shavuot
1981: Birthdate of actress Natalie Portman. Born Natalie Hershberg, in Jerusalem, Portman took her grandmother’s maiden name for her stage name. A 2003 graduate of Harvard she has Queen Amidala in “Star Wars” and appeared in other major productions including “Cold Mountain” and “Garden State.”
1982: Units of the Golani Brigade and the Barak Armored Brigade began their attack on Doha and Kafr Sil, two villages on the outskirts of Beirut
1987:The trial of Klaus Barbie took a new turn today as historians, led by the niece of Charles de Gaulle, began testifying over the objections of Mr. Barbie's attorney. Genevieve de Gaulle, 66 years old, a survivor of the Nazi Ravensbruck camp, told how gypsy girls were sterilized by X-ray and Polish girls were mutilated in experiments. A historian, Leon Poliakov, 76, said the killing of Jews, gypsies and mentally ill Germans was the cornerstone of Hitler's drive to conquer the world. Countering claims that SS officers such as Mr. Barbie were unaware of the fate awaiting Jews in the camps, Mr. Poliakov quoted Heinrich Himmler, the SS leader, as telling officers in 1943: ''The Jews will be exterminated. It is clear. It is part of our program.'' (As reported by Reuters)
1992: On the 25 anniversary of the 1967 Middle East War, an article, entitled “Voices of Israel: To Many, the Fruits of the '67 War Taste Bitter,” The New York Times reported on how some Israelis view the road their country has traveled since that June.
1993(20th of Sivan, 5753): Seventy-seven year old Anglo-Jewish political scientist Samuel Edward Finer passed away today. (As reported by Dennis Kavanagh
1994(30th of Sivan, 5754): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1999: Haaretz reported that Israel and the U.S. are both demanding the immediate release of 13 Jews arrested in Iran on charges of espionage, saying the charges are trumped-up and may be motivated by anti-Semitism. The 13 Jews, from Shiran and Isfahan in southern Iran, were arrested on the eve of Passover and accused of spying for the "Zionist regime" and "world arrogance" - references to Israel and the United States respectively. However, the arrests only became public knowledge on Monday. Those arrested include a rabbi, a ritual slaughterer and teachers.
2000(6th of Sivan, 5760): First Day of Shavuot
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Back Then” by Anne Bernays and Justin Kaplan and “Nuremberg: The Real Trial of the Century” by William F. Buckley Jr.
2005: Yisrael Meir Lau reinstalled as Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv
2007: In Cedar Rapids, Jonathan Chadick becomes a Bar Mitzvah at Temple Judah.
2007: In an effort to encourage people to get out of their cars and start riding bikes instead, municipal authority packed Tel Aviv's Rabin Square with bicycles for riders who wish to spend part of their day on an urban bicycle trek. A total of 600 street bicycles and 100 bikesfor children above age 6, are offered free of charge to those who want to get to know Tel Aviv on two wheels and use this opportunity to learn about bike-riding as an alternate means of transportation. Dr. Moshe Tiomkin, head of the Tel Aviv Authority for Traffic, Transportation and Parking, explained that the municipality plans to create a web of paths connecting the entire city, so residents may ride bicycles from one point to another, "to work and class, and to run errands on bicycles."
2007(23rd of Sivan, 5767): Centenarian plus two Rudolf Arnheim, a refugee from Nazi German whose knowledge of psychology, philosophy and critical skills were the mark of what used to be called an “educated man” and also made him an outstanding professor of the psychology of art at Harvard, passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/obituaries/14arnheim.html?_r=1&oref=slogin2008(6th of Sivan, 5768): First Day Shavuot
2008: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates nominated General Norton Schwartz a Jewish 35-year-old veteran with a background in Air Force special operations, as the new Air Force chief of staff. When the Jewish Community Centers Armed Forces and Veteran's Committee presented its Military Leadership Award to Schwartz in 2004, he said he was "Proud to be identified as Jewish as well as an American military leader."
2009: The Foundation for Jewish Studies Northern Virginia Lunch & Learn presents Paul Forbes, teaching “Traditional Biblical Stories: Fact or Fiction?” (The archeological evidence available about the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Ark and Sodom & Gomorrah) at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia
2009: U.S. special Mideast envoy George Mitchell assured Israel today that Washington would remain its close ally despite differences over West Bank settlements and peacemaking with the Palestinians.
2009: Jody Wagner won the Democratic nomination for Lt. Governor in Virginia.
2010: The Uri Gurvich Quartet is scheduled to perform at the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2010: Gilad Hekselman Quartet is scheduled to perform at the Jazz Standard in New York City.
2011(7th of Sivan, 5771): Second Day of Shavuot
2011: The Ivri Lider Electronic Trio, featuring Ivri Lider – “one of Israel’s biggest selling artists of all time” – is scheduled to perform at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City.
2011: Carolyn Fine, the valedictorian at a northern California high school is planning to deliver her graduation address via a pre-recorded audio message in order to observe Shavuot.
2011: Today was the 135th anniversary of the dedication of the oldest synagogue in the national capital city. On June 9, 1876, less than the month before the nation's centennial, Adas Israel Congregation dedicated its first synagogue. Flowers and "festoons of evergreens" decorated the sanctuary and American flags "drooped gracefully" over the Ark. The room was filled to capacity and several latecomers were turned away. President Ulysses S. Grant, the first U.S. president to attend synagogue services, sat at the front of the sanctuary on a sofa rented especially for the occasion. He donated $10 to the synagogue's building fund, the equivalent of $200 today.Grant's attendance reflects the unique relationship between the Washington, D.C, Jewish community and national leaders. His presence also held special meaning because, as a Union Army general during the Civil War, Grant issued General Orders No. 11, expelling Jews "as a class" from the areas under his command. Grant dodged charges of anti-Semitism throughout his political career and perhaps attending this dedication was an overture to the Jewish community.The three-hour dedication ceremony was covered in several local and national newspapers, including The National Republican, The Jewish Messenger, and the Washington Chronicle. In fine detail, the articles described the decorations, prayers, and sermon given by visiting Rabbi George Jacobs of Philadephia's Congregation Beth El Emeth. [As reported by The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington]
2012: Ufruf of Jacob Kline and Alice Baker is scheduled to take place at Aguas Achim in Iowa City, IA.
2012: Ambassador Princeton N. Lyman is scheduled to deliver a talk entitled “Sudan Twenty Seven Years after Operation Moses” which will begin with a reminder of the “evacuation of 9,000 Jewish Ethiopian refugees from Sudan in 1984.”
2012(19th of Sivan, 5772): Eighty-two year old “Israel Shenker, a scholar trapped in a newsman’s body who was known to readers of The New York Times for his vast erudition and sly, subversive wit,” passed away today at Kibbutz Shoval in southern Israel (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2012: Today, Shabbat, approximately 200 people rode buses commissioned by the Meretz Party as part of a campaign calling for public transportation on the Shabbat.
2012: Speaking in Tel Aviv, Israeli political leader Shelly Yechimovich called on the international community impose a complete embargo on Assad’s Syria.
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Slippage by Ben Greenman
2013: The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington is scheduled to host “Israel@65”
2013: The Maccabeats are scheduled to perform at Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, MD
2013: This year’s Dan Prize Awards Ceremony is scheduled to take place at Tel Aviv University. Among the winners is Leon Wieseltier the literary editor of The New Republic who wrote the must readKaddish
2013: The Hillel Milwaukee is scheduled to receive “a Torah scroll owned by the former Beth El Ner Tamid Synagogue before it combined with Congregation Beth Israel to form Congregation Beth Israel Ner Tamid.
2013: When Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, holds its congregational meeting this evening, Laurie Silber will complete her tenure as President of the Congregation which will mark the end of an era. For decades, Laurie has served the Cedar Rapids Jewish community in ways too numerous to count. These include Sunday School Teacher (second and third grade for 26 years), Sisterhood President and two terms as President of the Congregation. She was the driving force behind several initiatives that enriched the community including the quarterly Musical Shabbats and the Shabbat Alive appearances by Rick Recht. Laurie joins a group of unique Jewish women that includes Jochebed, Tzipporah and the daughters of Zelophehad all of whom were more concerned about getting things done right instead of getting to stand in the limelight. We will miss her steady hand, her iron-willed determination, her passion for her people and the joy she brought to Judaism. Others may follow in her footsteps, but none will be able to fill her shoes.