JUNE 20
840: Louis the Pious, King of the Franks and the Holy Roman Emperor by virtue of being the son of Charlemagne. When it came to dealing with his Jewish subjects, Louis followed in the footsteps of his father. During his reign charters were issued giving “Jews permission ‘live according to their Law.’ They promised protection of body and property and permitted freedom of movement and trade including…the right to hire Christians to work in their homes. Some Jews were also exempted from the laws of trial by ‘ordeal of fire and water.’”
1214: University of Oxford received its charter. Jews were not always welcome at Oxford
1239: Pope Gregory IX ordered all copies of the Talmud to Dominican and Franciscan friars who would review the text looking for disparaging references to Jesus and Mary. Any copies that were found to contain such references were to be burned. This is the same Pope who in 1234 had “invested the doctrine of perpetua servitus iudaeorum – perpetual servitude of the Jews – with the force of canonical law. According to this, the followers of the Talmud would have to remain in a condition of political servitude until Judgment Day.”
1338:Duke Otto and Duke Albert issued their “Jews’ Decree.”
1391 (17thof Tammuz): “The Christian population of Toledo rose against the largest Jewish community in Spain.” Four thousand Jews were killed.
1567: Jews were expelled from Brazil
1652: During the reign of Mehemed IV, Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa was appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire. During Pasa’s time of service, Mehmemed Jews fleeing the Chmielnitzki Uprising were encouraged to settle on the banks of the Danube in Morea, Kavala, Istanbul and Salonica.
1794: Birthdate of Austrian physician and author Alois Isidor Jeitteles, who founded the Jewish Weekly “Siona” and was the father of suffragette Ottilie Bondy.
1768: The third of the Haidamack uprisings called Koliyivschyna began. During the uprising an estimated 50,000 Ukrainian Jews were murdered by the Cossacks. “The Haidmamaks were gangs of Cossacks, who along with their peasant allies robbed traveling merchants and plundered the towns and villages in the Ukraine. They saw themselves as heirs to Khmelnitski. The Khmelnitski were the Cossacks who slaughtered Jews and Poles in wholesale lots in the middle of the 17th century. Both of these murderous slaughters were part of the drift into degradation that became the lot of increasing numbers of Eastern European Jews. This drift into degradation brought about numerous responses on the part of the Jews ranging from mysticism and messianicism to the Haskalah and immigration to Western Europe and eventually to the New World .
1757: In Kameiek (Podolia), the Frankists, calling themselves Zoharists, decided to wage war against the Talmud. They contacted the local bishop, Dembovsky, and convinced him to arrange a disputation. Naturally, the Talmud was condemned and thousands of copies were burned. The Frankists then became practicing Christians. The Frankists were Jews who were followers of Jacob Frank who had proclaimed himself the Messiah.
1808: Birthdate of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, leading founder of what some call Modern Orthodox Judaism.
1811: In Charleston, SC, Rabbi Emanuel Nunes Carvalho who had been serving as the rabbi for the Jewish community in Bridgetown, Barbados, officiated at the wedding of Mrs. Catherine Jacobs and Solomon Hyams.
1819: In Herxheim am Berg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, Therese Aron and Simon Kuhn gave brith to Abraham Kuhn.
1823: In Germany, the government issued a decree “ordaining that Jewish services should be conducted exclusively in the German language and that the reading in Hebrew of sections of the Bible should be followed by their translation into the vernacular.”
1828: Mordecai M. Noah accused Elijah J. Roberts, “a former business associate” of having “violently assaulted” him on the steps of the Park Theatre. (Noah was one of the pre-eminent American Jews in the years between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars)
1837: With the death of her uncle, King William IV, Queen Victoria Europe were primarily tangential. Her treatment of Jews was a mixed bag. During the Damascus Blood Libel, the Queen put a British ship at the disposal of her friend and neighbor Moses Montefiore. But in 1869, the Queen blocked Lionel Rothschild elevation to the House of Lords. However, later she would agree to the elevation of Lionel’s son and would socialize with the French branch of the Rothschild family when she made trips across the channel. The change was brought about by Jewish financial support for the Suez project and her relationship with Benjamin Disraeli.
1839: Birthdate of Jacob Freudenthal, the native of Hanover and graduate of the rabbinical seminary of Breslau whose visit to the Netherlands to research the life of Spinoza produced Die Lebensgeschichte Spinoza's
1841: Mr. G.M. Loewentritt married Miss Betty Goldberg to at Sheyareeth Israel in Charleston, SC.
1854: Lieutenant Colonel Albert Goldsmid, a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars and the son of Benjamin Goldsmid was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
1856: In Bombay, Hannah Moise and Sir Albert Sassoon gave birth to Sir Edward Albert Sassoon.
1858: Rabbi Bernhard Felsenthal, the German born rabbi who had moved to Chicago “and accepted employment in the banking-house of Greenebaum Brothers” helped to found the Jüdische Reformverein today.
1875: Congregation B'Nai Israel of Galveston voted to become one of the charter members of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
1877: Meyer Freeman who owns a butcher shop at 38 Ludlow Street was awakened by two men –later identified as David Milstein and Isaac Goldstein – who had broken into his bedroom and were trying to steal the contents of a bureau that contained jewelry and box with $35 in cash. Freeman, clad only in his bed clothes, chased the robbers through the streets and captured Milstein whom he turned over to the policy. Milstein is a well-known criminal having spent 21 of the last 28 years in jail
1877: It was reported today that several other Jews who have been guests for several seasons at the Grand Union Hotel besides Joseph Seligman have been refused service at the Saratoga Springs Hotel. These include Mr. Marcus Goldman, the broker, Mrs. Louis Josephthal, the wholesale manufacturer and Mr. Max Landman, “the well known tobacconist.” Each of them lives in Manhattan. Each of them wrote asking for rooms as they have done in the past. And each was refused without any explanation. The strangest case of rejection centered around Judge Joseph Koch, the distinguished jurist who had sat on the bench of the Fifth District Court. Judge Koch met with Mr. Calire, one of the managers of the hotel, at A.T. Stewart’s store in Manhattan. At that time Mr. Claire assured the Koch that he could have the same accommodations as he had in previous years. When Koch asked if he could have “a more desirable suite of apartments” Claire said that he would see to it as soon as he arrived at the hotel. However, Judge Koch has heard nothing more from Mr. Claire and assumes that he is as unwelcome as his coreligionists.
1877: It was reported today that the Jews of New York have had a mixed reaction to Mr. Seligman’s being banned from the Grand Union because he was Jewish. Some view this as part of a conflict between Judge Hilton and Mr. Seligman which has more to do with business than with religion. Others say that there is nothing new about such a ban. Other hotel owners have tried it, suffered financially and rescinded the ban. Yet others are bothered by the fact that Jews as a group were banned. They could understand not renting to people who do not pay their bills or who present other problems, but singling out Jews as a group does not make any sense. There seems to be a general consensus that it is best to avoid making this a matter for public demonstrations.
1877: It was reported today that many hotel owners in Boston were surprised to hear about the Judge Hilton’s decision to ban Jews from the Grand Union. Some of them know Mr. Seligman and hold him in the highest esteem. From a business point of view, times are so hard that turning away any guests who can afford to stay at their hotels does not make any sense to these owners. And if there is some grand plan afoot to ban Jews from hotels, they do not want to be a part of it.
1877: “The Position of New York Hotels” published today described the attitude of various hostelries in the Big Apple regarding Jewish guests. The St. James and the Albemarle follow the same exclusionary policies as those practiced by the Grand Union in Saratoga. The Windsor does not have the slightest possible objection to having Jews as guest finding them “as a class the promptest paying customers.” The Grand Central management thought that the Grand Union had made a “great mistake.” The Grand Union in Manhattan, the Hotel Brunswick, the Rossmore Hotel, the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Sturtevant House all said they had no policy against Jewish guests and several of the hotels reported having some staying there at this very time.
1879: In New York City, The Jewish Messengerreports that "A new congregation has been started on East 57th Street, called Orach Chaim.” Some of the members of the new congregation were disaffected members of Adas Israel, another congregation located on the same street.
1880: “Puritan Christian Names” published today described how the printing of the Geneva Bible, an affordable English translation of the sacred text led to the adoption of many Old Testament (Jewish) names by English Puritans. Apparently, having finally been able to read the text, the “Puritan spirit led those whom it animated to a strong and very marked preference for the Jewish part of the Bible over the Christian.”
1881: The Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society took two hundred children on an outing aboard the steam boat Bellevue. The boat stopped at Hart’s Island so the children could enjoy themselves. [These outings were part of a program to get slum children out of the city and into the fresh air of the country.]
1882: An assignment for the benefit of creditors by Abraham Samuels to Lester Cohn was filed in the county clerk’s office today.
1883: Anglican Bishop and Biblical scholar John William Colenso the author of The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined which he wrote in response to being questioned about the historical accuracy of these books and whether or not they should be taken literally passed away today. (Colenso was one of a series of Jewish and Christian theologians and authors who re-examined the traditional view of these texts as being literal truth or the modernist view that they were just a series of manufactured myths)
1884: It was reported today that a serious outbreak of anti-Semitic violence has broken out in Krivoroge, Russia.
1886: “Clubs Without Number” published today described the variety of New York social clubs that cater to various segments of the city’s population including the Jews some of whom frequent the Harmonie Club on 42nd Street while a greater number are found at the Hebrew Association at 317 Third Avenue. Actually Jews can be found at most of the popular clubs except for the Union and Knickerbocker clubs.
1887: Two Jewish peddlers, Simon Kleber and Judah Waser, were abused and driven out of a liquor store by the bartender when they tried to sell him their wares. The two men sought protection from Policeman Frederick Timme who responded by clubbing them and driving them away.
1887: “Jews and Gentiles In London” published today provided a snapshot of Jewish economic conditions in the capital of the UK picturing them as being wealthier than the non-Jewish population. For example, the average annual Jewish income is 82 pounds as compared with 35 ponds for the non-Jews. Jews with an income over 10,000 pounds are 20 times as numerous as the number found in the non-Jewish population. [Editor’s note – This report is totally misleading since it fails to capture the wealth of the gentry which would have reported in the counties and boroughs where there estates were located.]
1888: It was reported today that the executors of the Bernhard Stern’s will have paid out over $25,000 in bequests to variety of Jewish and secular institutions in New York City. The largest bequest was $5,000 given to the United Hebrew Charities.
1890: The Executive Committee of the United Hebrew Charities reported today that during the month it had found employment for 364 applicants during the month of May. The committee had spent $8,756.08 during the month to aid needy Jews including the 1,987 immigrants who had arrived at Castle Garden.
1890: As of today, the managers of the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children have received $4,091.50 which will be used to provide free summer excursions for Jewish children and their mothers.
1890: Police officers arrested Marcus Goldstein, a Polish Jew, when came to the Gill Engraving Company this morning to collect what he thought were the blank plates that would enable him to print (and sell) counterfeit tickets for the Hamburg Lottery.
1891: Birthdate of Zionist leader and native of Prague, Robert Weltsch, who died in Jerusalem a century later.
1892: In Kaunas Count (modern day Lithuania) Joseph and Gertrude Janner gave birth to Ango-Jewish political and civic leader Barnett Janner who would serve as an MP first from the Liberal Party and then from the Labour Party
1893: Philadelphia lawyer Charles Isaiah Hoffman married Fanny Binswanger in the City of Brotherly love. Seven years later he would enter the JTS, graduated and was ordained in 1904 and spent most of the rest of his life as the spiritual leader of Oheb Shalom in Newark, NJ. [Sort of a modern day version of “Rachel, the wife of Akiva”]
1893: After having viewed the body of Jewish cigar manufacturer Adolph S. Jaeger, Deputy Coroner O’Hare said that the deceased had taken his own life and turned his remains over to the undertaker.
1894: Today’s meeting of the Constitutional Convention looking at charitable contributions made by the State of New York, first heard from Myer Sterne, the “former Commissioner of Charities and Correction who appeared in behalf of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of which the late Jesse Seligman was President.”
1895: “Governor William McKinley delivered an address at Ottawa, Kansas in which he referred to an American flag with a biblical inscription on it” which Chicago Republic Abraham Kohn had presented to Abraham Lincoln “one month prior to his assumption of the Presidency.” Kohn was President of Chicago’s KAM Congregation. Actually two biblical verses had been painted on to the flag both of which were from from the first chapter of the book of Joshua verses 5 and 9.including the famous charge “Be strong and of great courage. Be not afraid, neither be dismayed.” After several attempts, McKinley would finally be elected President in 1896 and re-elected in 1900. He would die at the hands of an assassin bringing Teddy Roosevelt to the White House.
1897: Mrs. Jennie Cohen, formerly of New Haven, CN, and her four children ranging in ages from six years to four months were being cared for at Police Headquarters after having spent the night in rooms provided for by the Hebrew Sheltering House Association on Madison Street.
1897: The Baron Hirsch Free Hebrew School of Chicago was formally incorporated at Springfield, Illinois, the state capital.
1897: “Biblical Titles” published today described the refusal of the Lord Chamberlain’s office to grant a license to a biblical drama entitled “Joseph of Canaan” by George Walters, an Australian clergyman and Rubinstein’s opera “Judas Maccabaeus” Apparently it is Biblical titles that upset the English official and not religion per se since a license, which is necessary for public performance, was granted to “The Sign of the Cross.”
1898(30thof Sivan, 5658): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1898(30thof Sivan, 5658): Fifty year old Moses Stein “a well-known resident of Bath Beach” passed away at Mount Sinai Hospital. A retired Manhattan wholesale butcher; he was one of the founders of the Hebrew Congregational Society in Bath Beach.
1899: Chicago Jews are among those contributing funds to the purchase of memorial items to be presented to Captain Dreyfus, Colonel Picquart and author Emile Zola. The latter two played key roles in exonerating the former when he was falsely convicted of treason and subject to a barrage of anti-Semitism.
1899: In Chicago, 50 boys half of whom were Christians and half of whom were Jewish fought it on Stewart Avenue until the police arrived from the Maxwell Street Station and put an end to the violence.
1899: Jews living on the Lower East Side learned that “Winslow W. Dunlap, the self-appointed missionary” seeking to convert the Jews also makes loans to anybody with a salary between $20 to $200. “It is the custom of Dunlap to advance a man, say $80 and deduct $5 for the expenses of the loan. Besides this $5 he charges $40.80 interest making the borrower pay $70.80 for $25 in “easy” payments of from $2.50 to $5 per week.
1899: “Law and Order” published today decried the attack on a Christian missionary earlier this week who was preaching on the streets of the Lower East Side by a mob and the failure of the police to intervene because in civil society people have a right to express their opinions no matter how distasteful they may be to the public that is forced to hear them.
1899: “Conference of Zionists” published today included a description of a proposal submitted by the English Zionist Federation “proposing the re-establishment of Judea as an independent state, suggesting the purchase of the Maccabean sites in Palestine and the beginning of the work by the establishment of a Jewish colony and a Jewish Agricultural College there.”
1899: “The Jew-Hater in France” published today provided the views of Gustav Gottheil, a leading American Reform Rabbi on the condition of the Jews in France as that nation is convulsed by the Dreyfus affair. As to Dreyfus, he said, “the fact that he was a Jew was the strongest accusation against him.” “Even though “no race has been more patriotic than the French Jews” “the real spirit of malice and persecution will never change and they will never be friendly to the Jewish people.” And in a view that may have been the result of his attendance at the Zionist Congress at Basel “The effect of the triumph in the Zionistic movement stands out in clear and unmistakable character.”
1902: Herzl learns that Turkey accepted the Rouvier Project. Maruice Rouvier was one of those permanent political animals created by the revolving door governments in the days of France Third Republic Mediterranean .
1903: Maurice Arnold de Forest, one of the two adopted sons of Baroness Clara de Hirsch and Baron Maurice de Hirsch de Gereuth resigned his commission in the Prince of Wales's Own Norfolk Artillery
1905: Birthdate of playwright Lillian Hellman.
1910: Fanny Brice debuted at the Ziegfield Follies (As reported by the Jewish Women’s Archive)
1916: Birthdate of Zelda Berkowitz who as Zelda Kaplan became as an inimitable fixture on fashion’s front lines and an inveterate clubgoer in Manhattan. (As reported by Ruth La Ferla)
1917: Birthdate of Franklin Littell, a pioneer in the field of Holocaust scholarship, who was also president of Iowa Wesleyan College and a founding board member of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington. His best-known book, The Crucifixion of the Jews, pressed his view that Christianity is essentially Jewish and that Jesus, Paul and Peter would have been executed at Auschwitz. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1918: Birthdate of Lillian Sylvia Lukashefsky, the Brooklyn native who gained famed as Yiddish actress, author and singer Lillian Lux who was the wife of Pesach Burnstein and the mother of actor Mike Burstyn.
1918: United States President Wilson sent Henry Morgenthau and Felix Frankfurter to Egypt to investigate how to best aid Jews in Palestine.
1921: Shortstop Reuben Ewing made his major league debut with the St. Louis Cardinals.
1922: Dr. Lee K. Frankel, Vice President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, is scheduled to sail for Europe today aboard the SS Beregaria. He is head of a committee appointed by the American Jewish Relief Commission that is visiting Jewish population centers in Austria, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Russia in an effort to determine how best to spend th $18,000,000 that has been collected by American Jews for their coreligionists living in Eastern Europe.
1923: At meeting of the Board of Directors of the National Farm School held today, a memorial was adopted praising the work of the late Rabbi Joseph Krauskopf, the founder and President of the National Farm School.
1925(28thof Sivan, 5685):Dr. Josef Bruer, the Austrian physician who worked with Freud to develop the modern field of psychoanalysis passed away in Vienna.
1928: In the Bronx, Florence and Louis Slobodkin gave birth to “Lawrence B. Slobodkin, a central figure in the development of ecology as a modern science and a co-author of one of its most inspiring inquiries, a paper known informally as “The World Is Green” (As reported by Carol Kaesuk Yoon)
1928: A court in Tel Aviv “imposed short jail terms and sentences of deportation” on three Jews who resisted the police efforts to break up a demonstration protesting the flogging of prisoners in Palestine jails.” The three were additionally accused of being “Communists.” The demonstration was part of a larger protest by Jews against the propensity of the British immigration authorities for deporting Jews on the slightest pretext with little or no evidence of serious wrongdoing.
1929: In Montreal, Samuel and Saidye Rosner Bronfman gave birth to Edgar Miles Bronfman.
1931: A newspaper in Salonica called the Macedonia
1931: Birthdate of actor Martin Landau.
1936:The Palestine Post reported that according to the new Palestine Emergency Regulations a life sentence could be imposed on any person carrying arms, bombs or incendiary material. Arab attacks on Jewish settlements continued unabated. Police patrols were stoned in Arab villages and three British soldiers were injured in various shooting incidents throughout the country.
1939: In commenting on wave of violence gripping Palestine including yesterday’s bombing in Haifa, Davar wrote, “”Who throws bombs? Is it the same hand that is sowing blood and ruin in the Arab market in the Jewish suburb? These are not the ways of the Jewish population in Palestine in their struggle…Ruin and paralysis of economic life will only hurt the Jews in Palestine. Sacrifices may be necessary for our political struggle but every act paralyzing our life unnecessarily weakens the Jews here more than its sabotages the Palestine Government’s new policy and it only causes failure of Palestine Jewry’s struggle against the policy.” In a separate column, David Ben Gurion condemned the violence saying “The Jews must sacrifice everything for immigration, colonization, self-defense and independence but we must not sully our struggle with despicable acts of madness such as have been recently committed at Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa. The murder of innocent Arabs and Jews and stupid sabotage are act that are only helping our most bitter enemies. Such criminal acts soil our just struggle, undermine the efficiency of our work and play the game of our foes.”
1939: Final broadcast of Song School
1940: Jewish prisoners began arriving at Ferramonti, one of the 15 concentration camps established by Mussolini during the summer of 1940. In the next three years, 3,800 Jews would be imprisoned in all of the camps.
1940: On the day when France surrendered to Germany Propper de Callejón was First Secretary of the Spanish Embassy in Paris. In order to prevent the German army from plundering the art collection that his wife's family kept at the Chateau de Royaumont, he declared this castle to be his main residence, so it would be treated in the same privileged way as the accommodation of any other diplomat. Among the art works thus saved are a triptych of Van Eyck (one of Adolf Hitler´s favorite painters). In July 1940, , in co-operation with the Portuguese Consul Arístedes de Sousa Menendes, he would issue from the Spanish Consulate in Bordeaux more than thirty thousand transit visas to Jews, so that they could cross Spain to reach Portugal. When Spain's Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer learned that Propper de Callejón was issuing visas without the previous authorization of his Ministry, he had him transferred to the Consulate of Larache in the Spanish protectorate in Morocco. Afterwards, he would be posted to Rabat, Zurich Washington, Ottawa and Oslo.Propper de Callejón's father, Max Propper, was a Bohemian Jew, and his mother, Juana Callejón, was a Spanish Catholic; they raised Eduardo and his brothers in the Catholic faith His wife, Hélène Fould-Springer was a socialite and painter. She was from a notable Jewish Austrian-French banking family, though she converted to Catholicism upon their marriage and is a sister of prominent Paris art patron and philanthropist Liliane de Rothschild (Baroness Élie de Rothschild,) 1916—2003). He never gained public recognition for his heroic acts before his death in 1972 in London.
1940: As they continued their dangerous trek to avoid capture by the Nazis, Hans and Margaret Reys arrived in Bayonne, France where they received visas that had been signed by Portuguese Vice-Consul Manuel Vierira Braga which enabled them to cross the border into Spain, the next step on an odyssey that took them to Lisbon, Rio and finally New York. Hans Reys is the creator of Curious George. Like so many others, he owes his life to the Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes.
1942: Grace Goodside married cinematographer Jess Paley meaning that she would gain fame as Grace Paley.
1942: Mass killings of Jews by the Nazis began at Auschwitz .
1942: After breaking into a warehouse at Auschwitz, Ukrainian Eugeniusz Bendera and three Poles, Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanisław Gustaw Jaster, and Józef Lempart dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände (the SS units responsible for concentration camps), armed themselves, and stole an SS staff car, which they then drove unchallenged through the main gate
1942: From now until October 9th, 13,776 Jews would be deported from Vienna to Theresienstadt
1943: Five thousand Jews from Amsterdam Auschwitz .
1943: The Ternopol Ukraine
1943: Himmler sent 100 Jews to a concentration camp in Alsace Anatomical Museum Strasbourg
1943: Five thousand, five hundred Jews were rounded up in Amsterdam
1944: Max and Frieda Löwy Sipser applied to be sent to the refugee shelter that had just been established at Fort Ontario, NY on the same day that the Displaced Persons Sub-Commission of the Allied Control Commission posted the notice for applicants.
1945(9th of Tamuz, 5705): German born author and playwright Bruno Frank passed away. Frank left Germany United States
1945: Aware that “British hostility to the Zionist enterprise was often a mask for anti-Semitism,” Churchill cautioned his colleague Lord Croft to “not be drawn into any campaign that might be represented as anti-Semitism.”
1946: In Moscow, Alexander Kazhdan and his wife gave birth to Dmitry Aleksandrovich Kazhdan who emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1975 at which time he changed his name David Kazhdan, became an Orthodox Jew who made Aliyah in 2002 where he became a professor of Mathematics at Hebrew University.
1947: Following his announcement that he was leaving Beth El in Camden for a new position At Beth Abraham in Oakland, CA, Camden Mayor Brunner wrote a letter published in today’s “Voice” expression his admiration for Rabbi Philip Lipis saying “that Camden was privileged to enjoy his presence and leadership for twelve years.”
1947(2nd of Tammuz, 5707): Ben "Bugsy" Siegel was gunned down by fellow mobsters over financial irregularities surrounding the building of the Flamingo in Las Vegas.
1948: During the Israeli War for Independence Tel Aviv carrying 800 new immigrants and weapons. The Etzel claimed they had an agreement that 20% of the arms on board would be used by its members in defending Jerusalem Israel West Bank and Gaza Israel
Because of the controversy that still revolves around this event I have published a second version
1948: Just over a month after the State of Israel was established and shortly after the first cease fire in the War of Independence, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, gave one of the country's most controversial orders ever - to take the Altalena by force.Prior to the establishment of the state, several armed Jewish militias protected early Jewish settlers and fought against the British and hostile Arab forces. The largest of these groups were the Hagana and the Irgun Zva’I Leumi (Irgun or IZL). The Hagana, led by Ben-Gurion, became the Israeli Defense Forces once the state was declared in May 1948 and the Irgun was under the command of Menahem Begin.In mid-May 1948, during the War of Independence, Ben-Gurion ordered the various militias disbanded and integrated into the IDF in order to create one army under a unified command. While some of the militias willingly sent their fighters and weaponry to the IDF, others were unwilling to relinquish the established paramilitary organizations they had built. Notably, the Irgun, for both ideological and political reasons, was unwilling to put itself under Ben-Gurion’s command.Begin and other Irgun commanders were still attempting to ship significant amounts of weaponry and fresh immigrant fighters into Israel in the last days of the British Mandate. The Irgun organized a large ship carrying weaponry and fighters from France, scheduled to arrive on Israel’s shores in mid-May. Due to logistical and operational factors, however, the departure of the Altalena was delayed.By the time the ship was ready to sail, loaded with nearly 1,000 immigrant fighters and thousands of tons of materiel, the first ceasefire in the War of Independence had already been reached and importing weaponry would have constituted a violation of it. The Jewish state, however, was in need of weaponry and ammunition, so when Begin approached Ben-Gurion to inform him of the shipment, the two attempted to negotiate a deal that would see the ship’s cargo safely unloaded.In order to evade detection by United Nations observers overseeing the ceasefire, the Irgun and the newly anointed leaders of the state and its army decided that the Altalena should be offloaded at Kfar Vitkin, near Netanya.Negotiations between the Irgun and Ben-Gurion were complicated by Begin’s insistence on transferring most of the ship’s cargo to Irgun units operating within the newly established IDF, a condition to which Ben-Gurion could not agree. The new leader of Israel was already wary of having non-state controlled armed forces operating independently of the army and believed that directing the weaponry to IDF units from the Irgun would lead to an “army within an army.”As the ship began its final approach to Kfar Vitkin, IDF forces were ordered to surround the area in order to seize the payload. Following failed negotiations, the government decided to issue an ultimatum. The military commander on scene sent Begin a clear message: “I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order and to requisition the weapons which have reached shore and transfer them from private possession into the possession of the Israel government… You have ten minutes to give me your answer.” Small-scale fighting between the two sides broke out at Kfar Vitkin, but Begin and the Irgun, aware of their numerical and tactical disadvantage, decided to send the Altalena south to Tel Aviv where more fighters could be assembled and the army was not yet situated to intercept the ship. Irgun fighters who had already joined the IDF began defecting from their commands and headed to Tel Aviv to fight for their weaponry. As the two forces descended on Tel Aviv, fighting erupted along the shore and throughout the city, “mainly in the center and the south,” The Palestine Post reported in the aftermath of the clashes. The Israeli navy and artillery pieces on shore fired warning shots at the ship in a last-ditched attempt to force a surrender, but eventually hit the ship, setting it ablaze. Ultimately, over 20 Irgun fighters and more than a handful of IDF soldiers were killed in the fighting between the two Jewish forces. The Altalena was eventually brought out to sea and sunk.Ben-Gurion has been both praised and disdained for his decision to take the Altalena by force. Fearing a civil war and a lack of government legitimacy based on the concept of a monopoly of force, Ben-Gurion ultimately decided that he could not tolerate Begin’s brazen refusal to put himself, his fighters and weaponry under the state’s command. Following the Altalena incident, however, Irgun and other militia forces were integrated into the IDF and the non-democratic challenges to the state’s legitimacy came to an end. Nonetheless, the decision to order Jewish soldiers to act against fellow Jews – who too were fighting for the infant state’s survival – has never been forgiven by some who view it as a betrayal of the very purpose of a Jewish army. Until this day, the Altalena is invoked at times when state security forces are pitted against Jews, albeit not with the deadly consequences of June 1948.
1948(13th of Sivan, 5708): Twenty Jews were killed in a bombing in the Jewish Quarter of Cairo.
1948: In Cincinnati, Ohio, Carl and Edith Henry gave birth to photojournalist Diana Mara Henry whose subjects have included Elizabeth Holtzman and Bella Abzug, “her most enduring friend and client who since 1985 “has been writing, translating from the French, publishing and speaking] about the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and its Nacht und Nebel political prisoners, including the Jewish spy Andre Scheinmann.”
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that legislation empowered the minister of finance to underwrite up to 50 percent of mortgage loans for the construction of low-cost housing.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that Britain had promised to press Egypt to open the Suez Canal for oil tankers bound for the Haifa refineries. Contrary to earlier news, General William Riley, chief UN representative in the Middle East , reported to the UN Security Council on June 13 that Egyptian interference with Israel-bound shipping in the Suez Canal was an "aggressive, hostile action, undertaken in the spirit of blockade and having partial effects of a blockade."
1952: In address to the Commercial and Industrial Club, Schmuel Elyashiv, Israel’s Ambassador in Moscow “said there were prospects of expanding Israel’s trade relations with Russia. This year Israel shipped oranges and bananas to Russia.” The Soviets would have bought more if the Israelis had produced a larger crop.
1954: Birthdate of Ilan Ramon, Israel
1960: Birthdate of Shachiv Shnaan the Druze Israeli who served in the Herev Battalion before starting a career in politics that included two stints as an MK.
1965(20th of Sivan, 5725): Ninety-four yea old financier and presidential advisor Bernard Baruch passed away.
1972: Birthdate of Yuval Semo, the Haifa native who a popular Israeli actor and comedian.
1973: At Yale University in New Haven, CT, Bessie Margolin was awarded her Doctor of Science of Law degree today.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the US Israel
1977: Time magazine “revealed” the marriage of 58 year old Alan Jay Lerner to 27 year old Nina Bushkin, the daughter of jazz pianist Joey Bushkin. It is her first marriage and his sixth.
1977:Yitzhak Moda'I began serving as Minster of Energy and Water.
1977: Ezer Weizman succeeds Shimon Peres as Defense Minister.
1977:Gideon Patt succeeds Shlomo Rosen as Minister of Housing and Construction
1977:Aharon Abuhatzira succeeds Haim Yosef Zadok as Minister of Religious Services
1977: Meir Amit succeeds Aharon Uzan as Communications Minister.
1977:Yosef Burg succeeds Shlomo Hillel as Interior Minister
1977: Shlomo Hillel completed his service as Minister of Public Security after which the ministry was abolished Prime Minister Menachem Begin a situation that would change in 1984 when the position was resurrected.
1979(25th of Sivan, 5739):Yisrael Yeshayahu Sharabi passed away. Born in Yemen in 1908, he made Aliyah in 1929. He served as an MK, cabinet minister and fifth Speaker of the Knesset
1980(6th of Tammuz, 5740): David Feuerwerker, French born Canadian Rabbi and Historian, passed away.
1982: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin arrived in Washington
1985: In Dublin Ireland
1989: Birthdate of Christopher Charles Mintz-Plasse “an American actor known for starring in films such as Superbad, Role Models, Year One, and Kick-Ass.”
1990: Actress Ina Balin died at the age of 52 from pulmonary hypertension.
1990: “Rabbi With Tefillin” by Jan Styka goes on sale at Christie’s Auction House. The painting completed in 1892 was the product of a Polish artist. Can such a painting be described as Jewish Art? Look at the canvas and you decide.
1991(8th of Tammuz, 5751): Ninety-three year old British philanthropist and businessman Sir Isaac Wolfson passed away today. (As reported by Eric Pace)
1993: The first of four scheduled tours sponsored by the American Jewish Congress which include an opportunity to be a bar or bat Mitzvah at the Kotel or the in Masada begins today.
1996(3rd of Tammuz, 5756): Ninety-one year old Louis J. Lefkowitz, the longest serving state attorney general passed away today. (As reported by Nick Ravo)
1999: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Noah's Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries About the Event That Changed Historyby William Ryan and Walter Pitman.
2001(29th of Sivan, 5761): Ilya Krivitz, 62, of Homesh in Samaria was shot and killed at close range in an ambush late this afternoon in the nearby Palestinian town of Silat a-Dahar.
2002: Jean-François Copé completed his first term as Mayor Meaux.
2002(10th of Tammuz, 5762): Rachel Shabo, 40, and three of her sons - Neria, 16, Zvika, 12, and Avishai, 5 - as well as a neighbor, Yosef Twito, 31, who came to their aid, were murdered when a terrorist entered their home in Itamar, south of Nablus, and opened fire. Two other children were injured, as well as two soldiers. The terrorist was killed by IDF forces. The PFLP and the Fatah Al Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
2003(20th of Sivan, 5763):Zvi Goldstein, 47, of Eli, was killed when his car was fired upon in an ambush by Palestinian terrorists near Ofra, north of Ramallah. His parents, Eugene and Lorraine Goldstein, from New York, were seriously wounded and his wife lightly injured. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack. (Jewish Virtual Library)
2004(1st of Tammuz, 5764): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2004: In an article styled “Remembering Anne Frank, now 75,” The Cedar Rapids Gazette notes events around the world intended to celebrate the life and writings of one of the most famous victims of the Shoah.
2004:The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including War, Evil, and the End of History by Bernard-Henri Lévy; translated by Charlotte Mandell.
2006: Haaretz reported thatIsrael's ambassador to Germany presented medals of honor to relatives of five members of the first "European Union" - an anti-Nazi resistance group whose members hid and fed Jews during World War Two. This European Union, which had the same name but nothing to do with the modern 25-nation bloc of European countries, was an underground, Marxist-oriented group with around 50 to 60 German members, according to a protocol prepared by Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.
2007: In Jerusalem
2007: The Jerusalem Post carried a page one report stating that Shin Bet had foiled a bombing of the synagogue in Modin known as the “pizza shul” or Zichron L’Avraham.
2008: Australian businessman Richard J. Pratt was charged with lying about his knowledge of a price-fixing scandal.
2008: In Washington, D.C. Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, the former president of George Washington University, discusses and signs Big Man on Campus: A University President Speaks Out on Higher Education at Politics and Prose Bookstore.
2008: The Spertus Museum Chicago
2008: In Sarajevo Bosnia
2009: At Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Sarah Maikon, daughter of Renee Maikon and Marc Maikon, and granddaughter of Sandy and Sol Maikon, is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah.
2009:G'day Shalom Salaam Israel, presented by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange opens in Israel. As part of the G'day Shalom Salaam Israel event Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard will participate in the first Australian Israel Leadership Forum organized by the Australia Israel Cultural Exchange (AICE).
2010:The Los Angeles Times features a “Sunday Conversation With Daniel Handler” who is perhaps better known for his pen name, Lemony Snicket, and his bestselling volumes of children's books, A Series of Unfortunate Events and The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story.
2010:Memorabilia and Memory: Hitler's Hat and other shorts by local filmmaker Jeff Krulik is scheduled to be shown as part of the Jewish Study Center Film Festival in Washington, D.C.
2010:Bowing to worldwide pressure and condemnation, Israel formally announced an eased blockade of Gaza that could significantly expand the flow of goods overland into the impoverished coastal Palestinian enclave, isolated by the Israelis for three years. The White House said it “welcomes the new policy towards Gaza announced by the government of Israel, which responds to the calls of many in the international community.”
2010: In “General Franco Gave List of Spanish Jews to Nazis” Giles Tremlett described this little known tale of how the Spanish dictator provided “fodder” for the German Murder Machine.
2011: Bob Dylan performed at Ramat Gan Stadium tonight.
2011: The Hillel Annual Milwaukee Meeting is scheduled to take place this evening in Wisconsin’s largest city.
2011: The funeral for Morris Pollard, 95, a prominent U.S. researcher on viral diseases who died June 18 of complications from a bladder infection was held today.
2011: Israel has returned nuclear waste from its Sorek nuclear reactor to the U.S., the head of Israel's Nuclear Energy Commission Dr Shaul Horev revealed today.
2012: Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) Employment and Career Services is scheduled to present “Smart is Not Enough! Hidden Key to Career Success” featuring JSSA Life and Career Coach Phyllis Levinson.
2012: Mandolin virtuoso Avi Avital is scheduled to perform Le Poisson Rouge in NYC
2012: In a novel attempt to bring Judaism to the people, Rabbi Dan Ain is scheduled to be available to answering about God or whatever at Tribeca Café in NYC.
2012:A Gaza rocket has directly hit a home in the Sdot Negev Regional council today, as more than 30 rockets were fired into southern Israel since the morning. Meanwhile, the Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepted a rocket fired at Netivot for the first time on today. Another rocket, which was fired during the same barrage, directly hit a home in Sdot Negev, and several people suffered from shock. Four more rockets landed in open areas and no casualties or damage was reported. (As reported by Yanir Yagna, Gili Cohen and Avi Issacharoff)
2012:The military wing of Hamas published a report today morning on its website, in which it states that “the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades continues to attack the enemy with rockets for the second straight day, and has launched 9 rockets at the Sofa military base.”
2012(30thof Sivan, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2012:Ultra-Orthodox residents of Beit Shemesh attacked a woman driving through the city on today. Police were investigating the incident. Police said the attackers threw stones at the car because they believed the driver was dressed in an inappropriate and immodest manner. (As reported by Aaron Kalman)
2012: The body of Aaron Joseph Zindani, who was stabbed to death outside the US Embassy in Sana’a, Yemen, in May, was transported to Israel today. The arrival of the body marked the end of a long and complex operation by the Jewish Agency and the Foreign Ministry that also saw Zindani’s family, including his widow and the couple’s five children, brought to Israel. Zindani was a Jewish community leader in Yemen. He was 48 years old at the time of his murder.
2012: Israeli Air Force jets bombed terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip for a second time Wednesday evening, following an unremitting rocket and mortar barrage on southern Israeli towns throughout the day. (As reported by Gabe Fisher)
2013: The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide is scheduled to co-host a Refugee Week writing workshop entitled “I’m Not Going Back.”
2013: Barbra Streisand is scheduled to sing at Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa.
2013: A rebel group that operates on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights stated today that it would not fight Israel if Israel sends forces into Syria. A spokesman for the rebel group, which is based in Quneitra, made the comments to Al-Jazeera. (As reported by Yoel Goldman)
2013: "Italian Praised for Saving Jews Is Now Seen as Nazi Collaborator" (As reported by Patricia Cohen) tells the story of Giovanni Palatuccie, “the Italian Schindler” credited with saving 5,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
2014: Masses will be said in Luxemburg and Portugal today in remembrance of the June 17th“Day of Conscience” which honors the member of Aristides de Sousa, the Portuguese diplomat who defied Dictator Salazar and issued life-saving visas to thousands of refugees enough of whom were Jewish to earn him recognition by Yad Vashem.
2014: At the 92nd Street Y, A.J. Baime is scheduled to sign copies of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War after his presentation on how the American automobile industry re-tooled itself in response to President Roosevelt’s call to make America “the Arsenal of Democracy."