JUNE 22
217 BCE : Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III at the Battle of Raphia. The Battle of Raphia, also known as the Battle of Gaza, was part of the ongoing power struggle between the Seleucids and the Ptolomies for the land mass that included Jerusalem and the land mass of Eretz Israel. Ptolemy's victory proved to be of short-term value. Antiochus would defeat the Egyptians at the Battle of Paneas in 198 BCE . This would ensure Seleucid rule over the Jewish population and set the stage for the Revolt of the Maccabees.
168 BCE: The Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured Macedonian King Perseus at the Battle of Pydna ending the Third Macedonian War and further diminishing the role of the Greeks. A year later, Judah Maccabee would start his revolt against the Selucids, another Greek Empire. In the end, it would be the Romans who supplant these fractured remnants of Alexander’s Empire much to the detriment of the Jewish people. Yes, you can draw a line connecting Pydna, the Maccabees and the destruction of the Temple in 70.
816: Papacy of Stephen IV began today. Stephen is the author of the Letter Against Jews Owning Land” which read in part, For this reason We are touched by sorrow, anxious even unto death, since We have known through you that the Jewish people, ever rebellious against God and derogatory of our rites, within the frontiers and territories of the Franks, own hereditary estates in the villages and suburbs, as if they were Christian residents; for they are the Lord's enemies... Christian men cultivate their vines and fields, and Christian men and women, living with those same deceivers both in town and out of town, are day and night strained by expressions of blasphemy... What was sworn to and handed over to those unbelievers by the Lord himself... has been taken away deservedly, in vengeance for the crucified Savior.” (As reported by Alexis Rubin in Scattered Among the Nations)
1425: Francesco di Simone Tornabuoni and Nanna di Niccolo di Luigi Guicciardini gave birth to Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the Italian Renaissance poet who chose the Biblical figure of Queen Esther as a topic for her writings.
1559: Jewish quarter of Prague was burned and looted.
1623: William Leake II or the younger became a full member of the Stationer’s Company today. In 1652 he issued the 4th Quarto of The Merchant of Venice, featuring the evil Jew Shylock. There are those who contend that he printed this as part of an attempt to keep Jews from being readmitted to England as full citizens.
1689: The Jewish quarter of Prague
1691: Suleiman II’s brief reign, during which the Jews continued to live in comparative peace and tranquility in the Ottoman Empire came to an end with his death.
1809: In Hamburg, Germany, Johanna and William Leo Wolf gave birth to Dr. George Wolf.
1840: As Moses Montifiore prepared to go to Egypt to pleade for the release of eight Jews falsely imprisonsed in a blood libel connected to the disappeaerance of Father Tomaso, Lord Palmerston declared in Parliament, “I have already directed the English consul-general Hodges to represent to Mehmet Ali what effect news of such atrocities must produce in Europe…I have also sent instructions to her Majesty’s consul in Damascus to make a thorough investigation…and to send home a report as to the part which European consuls had taken in this matter.
1841: The Jewish community in Mobile, Alabama purchased land to be used as a cemetery.
1843: Birthdate of Mayer Sulzberger, an American judge and communal leader.” A native of Germany, he “went to Philadelphia with his parents in1848, and was educated at the Central High School of Philadelphia, and after graduating he studied law in the office of Moses A. Dropsie. In 1864 he was admitted to the bar, and attained eminence in the practice of his profession. He was elected judge of the Court of Common Pleas on the Republican ticket in 1895, and was reelected as a nominee of both parties in 1904, becoming the presiding judge of the Court of Common Pleas No. 2.Sulzberger has throughout his career shown great interest in Jewish affairs. While studying for the bar he taught at the Hebrew Education Society's school.” For a time he served as the Secretary of Board of Maimonides College. “He was closely associated with Isaac Leeser, and assisted that scholar in editing "The Occident," contributing to it a partial translation of Maimonides'"Morch Nebukim." After Leeser's death Sulzberger edited vol. xxvi. of "The Occident." He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, which he served as president;” He was chosen to serve as vice president of and the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia in 1880 and has been…chairman of the publication committee of the Jewish Publication Society of America.” He was one of the original trustees of the Baron de Hirsch fund and has taken a great deal of interest in the establishment of agricultural colonies at Woodbine, N. J., and in Connecticut” Sulzberger had “one of the best private libraries in America; it contained a very large number of Hebraica and Judaica, together with many other early Hebrew printed books (including no less than forty-five Incunabula), and many manuscripts.” He presented these to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, an institution which helped to reorganize. His younger brother, Jacob, is well known in Philadelphia literary circles both “for his verse and for is unusual knowledge of English literature.”
1850: Birthdate of Ignác (Yitzhaq Yehuda) Goldziher, the Hungarian born Jew who was the one of the first Europeans who developed an expertise in Islam and the culture of the Muslim world
1853: “Medical News” published today described a lecture delivered by Professor Owen to the Royal College of Surgeons in which he said, “For 1800 years the Jewish race has been dispersed into different latitudes and climates and they have preserved themselves most distinct from any intermixture with other races of mankind.” He went on to say that they though they may have taken on the racial characteristics of those among whom they lived (dark skinned Jews living in Syrian and Lebanon; light skinned blue-eyed Jews in northern Europe) they have still been able to maintain themselves as unique people.
1863: During the Polish uprising, in an attempt to gain the support Rabbis and Jewish religious leaders, The Insurgent National Government issued a proclamation, in which it promised to guarantee the equality of Jews, after gaining independence
1864: During the Civil War, large number of those serving with the 59th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment which had been formed by Philip J. Joachimsen near Petersburg during the Wilderness Campaign.
1865:The Archbishop of York chaired today’s first meeting of The Palestine Exploration Fund, a society that “has been formed under the patronage of Her Majesty the Queen.” The society chose Captain Charles Wilson to go out as the chief director of the explorations in Palestine that are to be made by the new society. [Wilson gained fame as the author of Ordinance Survey of Jerusalem published in 1886.]
1871(3rd of Tammuz, 5631): Bernard (Yissochar Dov) Illowy, the great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Illowy passed away. Born at Kolin, Bohemia in 1814, he moved to the United States after the failed revolutions in the Habsburg Empire where he filled pulpits for several Orthodox synagogues in St. Louis, New Orleans and Cincinnati.
1873: In Chicago, a cyclone destroyed Congregation Beth-El
1873: Members of Beth-El Congregation met this evening and began raising funds to replace their building which had been locate on the corner of May and Huron Streets on Chicago’s northwest side.
1873: In St. Louis, Rabbis Wolfenstein and Sonnenschein officiated at the ceremony where the cornerstone was laid for a chapel at the Mount Sinai Cemetery which was under the control of the Mount Sinai Cemetery Association.
1877: According to many of New York’s prominent Jewish merchants, A.T. Stewart, the company controlled by Judge Hilton, could lose the business of the Jewish clothing merchants throughout the United States as a result of the Seligman Affair. These merchants are offended by Hilton’s attempt to defend his actions by differentiating between Hebrews and Jews. They contend that in the United States there are many variations among Jews just as there are among Christians. They feel that Hilton has used Seligman as a way of attacking all Jews and they find this unacceptable. They feel that Hilton is trying to create a clash between Americans and Jews while the real clash is between Hilton’s view of the Jews and the Jewish people.
1877: According to reports published today, Mr. Seligman, nor any other Jewish leader, has plans to call for a public meeting protesting the recent action of Judge Hilton regarding the banning of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel. Mr. Seligman said that if Christian leaders wish to hold such a meeting they may feel free to so. Several of them have expressed their negative view of Hilton’s behavior but the consensus appears to have developed to let the matter die down. Apparently only the Jews are still upset by this as can be seen from the decision by such firms as Fescheimer, Goodkind & Co., the largest clothing store in New York, Fescheimer, Frankel & Co. of Cincinnati and Bierman, Heidelberg & Co of Pittsburg to end all business dealing with Hilton’s A.T. Stewart and Co.
1878: It was reported today that a young Jew named Louis Hood from Newark, NJ had won the De Forest Medal at an oratorical contest conducted at Yale University. His topic was “The Ancient and Modern Jew.”
1879(1st of Tammuz, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1879: In a review of The Lost Ten Tribes and 1882 published today, the author, Brooklyn minister Reverend Joseph Wild, claims that “Queen Victoria is of ‘David’s Seed’ and the United States fulfills the role of the tribe of Manasseh.” In lampooning these and other such claims the reviewer concludes, “No wonder the Jews are accused of arrogance; they such folly rampant in Christian pulpits that they must feel themselves wise men in comparison.”
1880: Detective Field arrested Ernest Fink, the former Treasurer of the Hebrew Benevolent Society Chebra B’nai Prasko on charges that he had embezzled $600 from the society. He was arrested at his shoe shop on Catherine Street and confined to the Tombs.
1880: The Conference on Morocco resumed today in Madrid. The conference is expected to adopt a proposal on religious freedom which will benefit both Christians and Jews living in the North African kingdom. [Editor’s note – the real issues revolved around colonial control and revenue.]
1881: Rabbi Reuben officiated at the marriage of Louis Lyons of Manning, SC and Rose Levy, the second daughter of Marx Levy at her home in Charleston, SC.
1882: During the Samuel Obright’s sanitary hearing, relatives told the Judge that “he had procured” ten dollars from his mother “by threatening to kill” her. His attorney denied that charge as well as one that he had threatened to kill her if she did not give him $500 today.
1882: Seventy Russian refugees arrived in New York from London by way of Boston and applied for assistance at the office of the Hebrew Emigrant Society. The group has been given permission to stay at Castle Garden until their permanent quarters are ready.
1882: The six orations given during today’s graduation ceremonies of the University of the City of New York included Charles Harris Gelston Jones speaking on the “Persecution of the Jews in Russia” as one of the anomalies of the 19th century and Alden A. Freeman on “Benjamin Disraeli.”
1883: It was reported today that several political leaders and office holders will attend the upcoming cornerstone laying ceremony for the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of Brooklyn.
1883: A number of Jewish were pillaged during anti-Jewish riots at St. Gall, Switzerland. After police the police were stoned when they tried to stop the violence, authorizes summoned soldiers to bring things under control
1884: “From Across the Water” published today described how the “barbarity of Hungarian Jew-baiting has been brought to the attention of Londoners” with the arrival of Joseph Scharf, the emaciated sexton of the synagogue at Tisza-Ezler who was forced to flee for his life following accusations that the Jews kidnapped a Christian peasant girl to use in their religious rites. While the charges were eventually disproved, Scharf’s health was “shattered, his business ruined and his property looted.” “Literally in danger of starvation he fled to London where his co-religionists are raising funds on his behalf.
1886: The Hebrew Technical Institute, under the leadership of its President, James H. Hoffman, hosted a reception and exhibition highlighting the accomplishment of its 68 pupils. The visitors, including noted journalist and political leader Carl Schurz, were told that the only limit on the size of the student body is the size of the facility since there are plenty of Jewish students who want to take vocational training courses.
1887(30th of Sivan, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1890: “First Introduction to A Russian Border Town” described a visitors first experience when he crossed into the Czars kingdom where “We were just in time to see the sentinel half playfully clubbing and kicking an old Polish Jew in his long gown and fur cap and to hear his piteous cries for mercy.”
1890: “New Publications” included a review of The Burnt Million, a novel by James Payn that revolves around. The “burnt million” refers to money burned by a Jewish money lender who then ships his brother off to America. From that point on the novel takes a rather convoluted turn where a Jewish millionaire has plans to marry off his three daughters but they can only inherit if they marry a Jew. (And the plot thickens)
1890: Dr. Alexander Kohut is scheduled to deliver a lecture at the Jewish Theological Seminary Association meeting this morning at Cooper Union entitled “Entertainment Books in the Time of the Talmud.”
1890(4th of Tammuz, 5650): Thirty-five year old Hyman Harrowitz, a Russian-Jewish immigrant died today a Gouverneur Hospital from ammonia poisoning.
1893(8th of Tammuz, 5653): Forty-two year old Benaimino Luzzatto, passed away a Padua. Born in 1850 at Padua, this son of Samuel David Luzzatto received his medical degree in 1872 and served as an assistant professor at Padua University while pursuing his medical career.
1894: In Budapest, Prime Minister Sándor Wekerle announced that Government would introduce a bill next week “providing for equal religious rights for Jews and Christians.
1894: Harry Houdini married Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner who became known as Bess Houdini who was his stage assistant as well as his wife.
1895: Georges Picquart who “became a Dreyfusard after having identified Estherhazy as the author of the incriminating bordeau, was appoint head of the French military’s Intelligence Office today.
1896(11th of Tammuz, 5656): Forty-four year old actor and dramatist Sir Augustus Harries passed away at Folkstone. He also found time pursue a political career which included serving as one of the Sheriffs of London starting in 1891. “He was of a Hebrew family, and properly proud of his race.”
1897: The Board of Trustees of Williams College met today and announced faculty appointments including S.T. Livingston to serve as the instructor for Hebrew.
1898: (19th of Sivan 5658): Rabbi Samuel Mohilever passed away. Born in 1824 in Russia Eastern Europe . A graduate from the famous Voloshin Yeshiva, he was conversant in math, engineering and a number of languages. Mohilever encouraged Baron Edmond de Rothschild to support the resettling of Russian families in Eretz-Israel and was a mediator between the settlers and Rothschild in various disagreements that arose. He was the founder of Mizrachi, a religious Zionist organization. In 1881, he was one of the founders of the Hovevei Zion, Lovers of Zion.
1898: Those attending today’s exhibition of work done by the students at the Hebrew Technical Institute saw electrical appliances made by the boys including a birchromate battery, a galvanometer and models of an Edison dynamo.
1898: The Board of Trustees of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews held a special meeting day to adopt a memorial marking the passing Getta Scholle who was serving as Vice President at the time of her death.
1899: The Hebrew Technical Institute hosted its commencement exercises tonight at Cooper Union.
1899: The City College of New York held its 47th annual commencement exercises at Carnegie Hall. Among those honor students giving “senior orations” were Menahem Eichler, Henry Moskowitz and A.W. Levy. This, along with a list of graduating seniors with names like Pinchas Israel, Henry Mendelsohn, Leon Schwartz, and Louis Jacob Cohen, attest to the extent to which Jewish youngsters availed themselves of this country’s educational opportunities which were their passport into mainstream America.
1903: Justice Scott is scheduled to deliver an oral opinion in the case of Isidor Wormser, Jr. versus Metropolitan Street Railway Company and Interurban Street Railway Company
1906: The Jewish Chronicle reported that Mrs. Herman Cramer, a native of Jersey whose maiden name was Rebecca Amelia Lawton, gave a concert at Steinway Hall.
1906: In Sucha Beskidzka, Austria-Hungary Max and Eugenia (née Dittler) Wilder gave birth to Samuel Wilder who became famous a movie director Billy Wilder whose hits included Some Like It Hot, Apartment, and Stalag 17.
1909: Birthdate of producer Michael Todd. In addition to his other accomplishment, Todd was the husband of Elizabeth Taylor. He died in accident at the age of 48.
1911: Birthdate of Ludwig Teller who served who represented New York’s 20th Congressional District from 1957 until 1961.
1911: Birthdate of classical cellist Harvey Shapiro.
1911: George V is crowned King of the United Kingdom, succeeding his father, Edward VII .Lord Balfour and his king, George V, are proudly commemorated all over Israel
1913: Dedication of the Rachel Jackson Memorial Addition to Rest Haven
1917:In Wilmington, Delaware, Rabbi Samuel Rabinowitz delivered a sermon about thoughts that should be in people's minds during the coming summer months.
1920: General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud was published for the first time in the United States.
1920: Opening of the Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 featuring Eddie Cantor and songs written by the Banjo Eyed performer.
1921(16th of Sivan, 5681): “Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr.,” one of the world’s foremost authorities on Semitic languages and a “Professor of Semitic Languages at the University of Pennsylvania since 1893 died suddenly today of heart disease at the home of his brother-in-law, F.H. Bachman, in Jenkintown, a suburb” of Philadelphia. The sixty year old academic had not shown any signs of illness. A native of Warsaw, Jastow graduated from Penn in 1881 and earned a Ph.D. from Leipzig University in 1884. Besides his work with Semitic languages, Jastrow had written extensively about “religion, education and Near Eastern politics. He edited the Semitic department of the International Encyclopedia…and was a delegate to the last three European Congresses of Orientalists. Among “his more important works were ‘Religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians,’ ‘The Study of Religion,’ ‘Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions,’ and ‘Zionism and the Future of Palestine.’”
1921: Birthdate of producer/director Joseph Papp. Born JosephPapirofskyin Brooklyn , Papp is best known for his Shakespeare in the Park.“Aside from his incredible creative talents which forever revolutionized the Broadway theatre, he immersed himself in doing acts of good deeds especially when the care and welfare of children were concerned. During his trips to Russia he saw firsthand the desperate conditions facing the handicapped, orphaned and neglected children in the Ukraine, which numbers in the thousands. It was then that he dedicated himself to do whatever he could to enhance the lives of these children caught in the midst of economic and political turmoil. His untimely passing came before he was able to fulfill his dream. Tzivos Hashem, with Gail Papp's blessing, has vowed to continue Joe's dream. Thanks to the successful Tzivos Hashem sponsored "Joseph Papp Children's Humanitarian Fund" Dinners, thousands of Ukrainian homeless, deprived and starving children are being given a second chance at life.”
1922: In Paris, the body of Louis Stern, the President of Stern Brothers, was taken from Claridge’s Hotel to the mortuary where it will remain until a decision is made up where the burial will take place. The seventy-five year old Stern had gone abroad with his daughter Beatrice and her husband to recuperate following surgery that had taken place in May. He was also planning on visiting his daughter Baroness Leo de Grafferies and his grandchildren during the trip.
1924: In, Makó, Hungary,Terezia (Riesz) and liberal journalist Emo Vermes, gave birth to Geza Vermes “a religious scholar who argued that Jesus as a historical figure could be understood only through the Jewish tradition from which he emerged, and who helped expand that understanding through his widely read English translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls” (As reported by William Yardley). All three converted to Catholicism when Geza was seven years old which did not save his parents from dying in the Holocuast.
1925(30thof Sivan, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1933: The Jewish world continues to reel from the shock of the murder Hayim Arlosoff, a Zionist leader who was killed just outside of Tel Aviv. The Labor Zionist leaders contended that the killer was Abraham Stavsky, a member or the Revisionists. The victim’s widow who was walking with him on the beach at the time of his murder identified Stavsky. Stavsky was found guilty but his conviction was overturned on appeal because of a lack of corroborating testimony. The facts surrounding the case are murky to this day. But the episode help to further poison the relationship between the Labor Zionists and the Revisionists. Ironically, Stavsky was killed aboard the Altalena in 1948. The issue stills looms large in the memory of the early Zionists. Leah Rabin made reference to this episode when she talked about the causes of her husband’s death in 1995.
1933: The Social Democratic party was officially banned as Hitler consolidated his power.
1933: Birthdate of Dianne Feinstein. Feinstein was Mayor of San Francisco and is now a United States Senator from California
1936:The Palestine Postreported a seven-hour battle fought near Tulkarm between Arab terrorists who ambushed a convoy and British troops. British infantry and police rounded another Arab gang near Nablus
1937: Leon Blum resigned as Prime Minister of France after losing support due to remain neutral during the Spanish Civil War.
1938: Father John LaFarge, American Jesuit, met with Pope Pius XI about the drafting of an encyclical to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. LaFarge is told: "Simply say what you would say if you were Pope!" Impressed with Father LaFarge's antiracist writings and activism in America, Pope Pius XI goes outside the usual Vatican personnel to assign LaFarge the job of secretly writing Humani Generis Unitas ("The Unity of Humankind") to condemn racism and anti-Semitism. Father John LaFarge's draft of this encyclical is completed in September but it delayed by the Vatican bureaucracy. It won't reach the pope's desk until he suffers a heart attack in February 1939. His successor, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, takes the name Pope Pius XII and shelves the encyclical. No one hears about it again until well after the Holocaust. (As reported by Austin Cline)
1939: Birthdate of Ada E. Yonath “an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of the ribosome. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular Structure and Assembly of the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 2009, she received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Venkatraman Ramakrishnan and Thomas A. Steitz for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome, becoming the first Israeli woman to win the Nobel Prize out of nine Israeli Nobel laureates, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences,[citation needed] and the first woman in 45 years to win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. However, she said herself that there was nothing special about a woman winning the Prize.”
1940: The French Government led by 84 year-old Marshal Henri-Philippe Petain and Pierre Laval signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany. This would mark the start of one of the most shameful periods in French history. The fascists at Vichy would not only do the bidding of the Germans when it came to the Jews, they would actually move more quickly than expected in round up after round up of Jewish refugees and native born French Jews.
1940(16th of Sivan, 5700): Three days before his 75thbirthday, Rabbi Julius “Hesselson” Hess who served several congregations in the Middle West passed a way today after suffering perforated stomach ulcer.
1940: In Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England, Katherine Flora (née Leverson) and Henry Barnato Rantzen gave birth to British journalist and television personality Esther Louise Rantzen
1940: General Charles de Gaulle, the self-appointed leader of the so-called “Free French” broadcast an appeal to the French people to continue the fight against the Nazis. He assured them that the Americans and the British would support them in the effort. Winston Churchill gave permission for the French brigadier to give the address over the BBC. At a secular level, there is real irony in this since de Gaulle would become “the cross of Lorraine” that Churchill would have to carry throughout the war. Several Jews would rally to de Gaulle, the Resistance and the Free French. As to Frenchmen in general, to put it politely, Drancy and Vichy were exemplars of their true feelings for an extended period of time.
1941: Operation Barbarossa begins.Germany Soviet Union , despite the fact that the two nations had signed a non-aggression pact in 1939. Stalin had ignored a myriad of warnings that the attack was coming. For days after the attack, Stalin still refused to believe that Hitler had struck since the Russians had been supplying the Nazis with vital material. This day would see the start of systematic destruction of Jewish towns and communities. German killing squads, the Einsatgruppen would begin to organize local collaborators in Lithuania Latvia Soviet Union would fall under Nazi rule.
1941: While many refer to Operation Barbarossa that began today as a “surprise attack” such was not really the case since the Soviets received warnings from several sources including Krystyna Skarbek better known as British intelligence agent Christine Granville.
1941: Special mobile killing squads--Einsatzgruppen--each assigned to a particular area of the Occupied Soviet Union began killing Jews on the spot wherever they are found; often with the help of local anti-Semites recruited to help.
1941: Birthdate of David P. Landau, the winner of the the Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics and Director of the Center for Simulational Physics at the University of Georgia
1941: Twenty-six year old American author and historian Milton Meltzer married Hilda "Hildy" Balinky
1941(27th of Sivan, 5701): In the Soviet village of Virbalis, Einsatzgruppen machine-gunned all adult Jews and cover the corpses with lime. Local children are seized by the ankles, and their heads are smashed against walls and roads. Many of these children are buried alive.
1942: The Jewish Brigade was formed was formed as part of the British military. The Jewish Brigade fought in Italy Palestine
1943: Release date for “So Proudly We Hail!” with directed by Mark Sandrich with music by Edward Heyman.
1944: The SS closes the concentration camp at Riga-Kaiserwald , Latvia
1944: FDR signs the GI Bill of Rights. Viewed as part of the war effort, this modestly named law was one of the most far-reaching pieces social legislation ever enacted. It gave a whole group of Americans a chance at homeownership and college education that would not have otherwise occurred. Among Jews, it sent people as disparate in temperament as Art Buchwald and Henry Kissinger on to the college campus. Along with the automobile, the G.I. Bill of Rights created suburbia which destroyed many old Jewish neighborhoods and provided new challenges for Jews seeking to maintain their ethnic identity and religious customs in what would become a culture of rootlessness.
1944: One thousand Jews were transferred from the death camp of Birkenau to work in the factories of Dachau Dachau
1944: Sir Nicholas George Winton the Englishman “who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport” “was commissioned as an acting pilot officer on probation” today.
1944: In Lyon Janine Sochaczewska and Alter Mojze Goldman, who were not married, gave birth to Pierre Goldman, “a French left-wing intellectual who was convicted of several robberies.”
1945: Birthdate of Alexander Pines, the native of Tel Aviv who became “Glenn T. Seaborg Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Senior Scientist in the Materials Sciences Division of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and a member of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) and the Department of Bioengineering.”
1947: Albert Einstein withdraws his support for theAlbert Einstein Foundation for Higher Learning, Inc
1948:Szapsel (Shabtai ) Rotholc, the boxer who had been expelled from the Jewish community for two years because he worked as a member of the Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto, “was reinstated as a member of the Jewish Sports Federation.
1950:A Government spokesman disclosed today that Israel had asked the United Nations to take all necessary steps to insure implementation of the armistice agreement between her and Jordan.
1951:The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel
1951: In a statement made to the Sephardic Community of Salisbury in Rhodesia Haham Solomon Gaon said, "The lack of spiritual leadership is unfortunately evident today even in the highest places. A Sephardic institution for the provision of teachers, ministers and rabbinic authorities is one of the most pressing needs of the present age…We, Sephardim, if properly organized, could give a lead to the Jewish world generally."
1952: A small home-made bomb exploded at 1:30 A.M. today on the doorstep of the apartment of Minister of Communications David Z. Pinkas. The bombing was seen as part of protest against restrictions on driving which are to go into effect next week. Israelis will not be allowed to drive their car for two days of each week. One of the days that on which one cannot drive is Shabbat. Opponents of the ban claim that the action has more to with attempts by Orthodox Jews to ban driving on the Sabbath than it does with gasoline conservation. Pinkas is a leader of the Mizrachi Party and thought to be a leader of those supporting the Shabbat driving ban.
1952: Journalist Ames Keinan and Shaltiel Ben Yair a reserve army officer who has no civilian occupation were arrested today for their alleged role in the bombing of the apartment building housing David Z. Pinkas.
1952: In Israel, Scott George, the United States Vice Consul, said that because of upcoming changes in Israeli laws regarding citizenship, immigrants from the United States arriving in Israel after July 14 would lose their American citizenship unless they “opt out” of receiving Israeli citizenship.
1957: In Los Angeles, Art Ginsburg opened Art’s Deli – “where every sandwich is a work of Art.”
1960: Birthdate of Representative Adam Schiff, Congressman for California’s 29thDistrict.
1962(20th of Sivan, 5722): Eighty-one year old Hugo Gutmann Hitler’s Jewish commanding officer who recommended him for the Iron Cross First Class and was known as Henry G. Grant in the United States passed away today in San Diego, CA.
1965(22nd of Sivan, 5725): Movie producer David O Selznick passed away. His most famous film was “Gone With the Wind.”
1965: Dr. Milton D. Glick who would eventually serve as the 15th president of the University of Nevada Reno, married Peggy Porter today.
1966: Release date for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” the cinematic version of Edward Albee’s play directed by Mike Nichols, produced by Ernest Lehman, with a script by Ernest Lehman costarring Elizabeth Taylor and George Segal.
1970: Birthdate of rock star Steven Page the lead singer for “Barenaked Ladies.”
1973: Release date for “A Touch of Class” starring George Segal
1973: Former U.S. New York Senator Kenneth B. Keating was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the prices of foodstuffs (bread, milk, cooking oil, sugar etc.) would increase by about 30 percent due to another IL150m. subsidy cut.
1976:The Jerusalem Post reported that the US State Department had announced that a public expression of thanks by President Gerald Ford to the Palestine Liberation Organization for its assistance in evacuating Americans from Beirut did not represent any change of policy towards this terrorist organization.
1978: Neo-Nazis called off plans to march in the Jewish community of Skokie , Illinois
1980: The New York Times featured a review of Joshua Then and Now by Mordecai Richler.
1986: Sir Moses I Finley, the American expatriate professor suffered a stroke today upon hearing that his wife had passed away.
1989(19th of Sivan, 5749): In Jerusalem Professor Menachem Stern, a Hebrew University Scholar and member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities was stabbed to death by two teenage Arabs as he walked home.
1990: Release date for “Robocop 2” directed by Irvin Kershner
1992: Gil Stein was announced as the new president of the National Hockey League and formally took the position, succeeding John Ziegler
1996: Pitcher Al Levine made his major league debut with the Chicago White Sox.
1997: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “Look, Listen, Read” by Claude Levi-Strauss, “Nazi Gold:The Full Story of the Fifty-Year Swiss-Nazi Conspiracy to Steal Billions From Europe's Jews and Holocaust Survivors” by Tom Bower
2001(21st of Tammuz, 5761): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
2001(21st of Tammuz, 5761):Sgt. Aviv Iszak, 19, of Kfar Saba, and Sgt. Ofir Kit, 19, of Jerusalem, were killed in a suicide bombing near Dugit in the Gaza Strip as a jeep with yellow Israeli license plates, supposedly stuck in the sand, blew up as they approached. Hamas took credit for the attack.
2001:Daniel Charles Kurtzer left his post as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt. [Yes, an American Jew represented the U.S. in Cairo.] Born in 1949, he earned a Ph.D. from Columbia and served as dean of his alma mater Yeshiva University. President Clinton had appointed him to the position in Egypt. President Bush would appoint him as Ambassador to Israel in 2001; a post he would hold until 2005.
2002(12th of Tammuz, 5762):Seventy-eight year oldFred Rochlin, architect, artist, photographer and collector of Western Jewish Americana passed away.
2002(12th of Tammuz, 5762): Ann Landers passed away. Esther Pauline Friedman was born in Iowa July 4, 19 18
2002: Actress Embeth Davidtz married entertainment attorney Jason Sloane in a Jewish wedding in Los Angeles
2003:Jonathan Andrew Kaye won the Buick Classic, a major PGA tournament.
2005: Opening session of Security Israel - The 19thannual International Homeland Security Exhibition .
2006: The Red Cross humanitarian movement overcame Muslim objections and cleared away the last obstacle to full Israeli membership setting up formal admission after nearly six decades of exclusion, Israel Geneva Israel
2006: In “Brooklyn’s Oldest Synagogue Celebrates Its 150thAnniversary, Evan Barton traces the history of the Kane Street Synagogue.
2007: In Jerusalem
2008: A new government strategy to redefine ties with the Diaspora designed to be less patronizing and more humble which was developed jointly by Cabinet Secretary Ovad Yehezkel and Alan Hoffman, director-general of the Jewish Agency’s Education Department is unveiled.
2008: In New York City
2008: In New York City
2008: In an election to select France’s next Chief Rabbi three hundred rabbis and communal leaders choose between the incumbent, Joseph Sitruk, a 63-year-old Sephardic rabbi known for his common touch, and the challenger, Gilles Bernheim, a 56-year-old Ashkenazic philosopher who is the rabbi of Paris’s largest synagogue.
2008: The general assembly of the Central Consistory elected Giles Bernheim Chief Rabbi of France.
2008: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics With an 18th-Century Brain” by Jewish linguist George Lakoff.
2008: The Washington Postfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Darin Smith’s “More Than It Hurts You” “a polarizing novel in which a black doctor accuses a Jewish mother of child abuse” and “My Five Years in Iraq”byRichard Engel, the Middle East correspondent who when he was interviewing the President was asked by Mr. Bush if he was Jewish; a question which he answered in the affirmative.
2008: The New York Timesreported on the downbeat emotional and political attitudes of Israelis as the “truce” with Hamas begins in an article entitled “Israel
2009: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 5769 (first day of a two day Rosh Chodesh)
2009: In “Dead Sea Peril” published today Joseph Marks described the growing impact and causes of sinkholes on this unique Middle Eastern body of water.
2009: In the United Kingdom, John Simon Bercow is elected Speaker of the House of Commons making him the first Jew to hold that position.
2010: The Jewish Community Research Council is scheduled to hold its final session of the season by hosting a luncheon meeting with Virginia House Speaker William Howell and Virginia State Senate Chairman of Education & Health Committee Ed Houck.
2010: Publication of Feeling “Phil Spector’s Pain.”
2011: The Art Show that began on June 13 is scheduled to come a close at the Skirball Center for Adult Jewish Learning.
2011: The Sixth Street Community Synagogue and John Zorn's Tzadik Records are scheduled to present “Masada Guitars Revisited + Edom,” one of six concerts by some of the best and brightest musicians on New York's Downtown Jewish Music scene.
2011:Today Israel’s Ambassador to the US Michael Oren defended the blockade of Gaza as a “matter of life and death” and said that it fully comports with international law, as a flotilla prepares to attempt to reach Gaza.
2011: The number of millionaires in Israel rose in 2010 by more than 20.6 percent to 10,153, according to the latest annual Merrill Lynch-Capgemini World Wealth Report released today. The report found that the gross amount of capital of Israeli millionaires in 2010 came to $ 52 billion, relative to $ 43 billion from the previous year. The climb was in line with the global trend, which rose by 8.3 percent, hitting an all-time high of 10.9 million people in the world who are considered to be millionaires by the report's standards. A millionaire according to Merrill Lynch-Capgemini is one who owns at least one million dollars in liquid funds, excluding their primary residence. The firm considers a multi-millionaire one who owns capital of at least $ 30 million.
2011:Israel Defense Forces made history history when a woman was officially promoted to the rank of Major General for the first time. Major General Orna Barbivay, 49, replaced Major General Avi Zamir as commander of the IDF's Manpower Branch in an official ceremony today, which was attended by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, IDF chief Benny Gantz, and other senior army officials. The rank of major general is the second-highest in the IDF, and is the highest a soldier can reach unless appointed chief-of-staff, who is always the only serving officer with the rank of lieutenant-general.
2011:Judy Shalom Nir-Mozes, an Israeli socialite, investor and talk show host twitted about a rumor regarding the departure of journalist Yair Lapid to the world of politics
2011(20thof Sivan, 5771): Eighty-seven year old screenwriter David Rayfiel whose work included “Three Days of the Condor,” “Out of Africa” and “The Way We Were” passed away. (As reported by William Grimes)
2012:Congregation Adat Reyim is scheduled to celebrate “Shabbat Under the Stars” in Springfield, VA.
2012: Cantor Larry Paul and musician Robyn Helzner are scheduled to a lead a Carlebach-inspired service at the Historic 6th& I Syngagogue.
2012: The Go North & Northern Communities of Nefesh B’Nefesh are scheduled to offer a guided tour at Tzippori Park so Olim can see “amazing mosaics, a crusader fortress, an ancient reconstructed synagogue and the first century underground water system.
2012:Two Kassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in open areas in the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel today. (As reported by Yoel Goodman)
2012:Israeli Air Force strikes carried out today against terrorists operating in the Gaza Strip killed two and injured at least four others. .
2012: The findings of the 2011 census, released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, revealed the Jewish population to be 97,335. This means that Australia’s official Jewish population has risen by about 10 percent in the last five years (As reported by JTA)
2012: Daphni Leef, one of the leaders of last summer’s mass social protest movement, was arrested, along with seven other activists, in Tel Aviv today after attempting to pitch tents on Rothschild Boulevard.
2013: The Edin-Tamar Music is scheduled to host “Romantic Violin” program II featuring violinist Saida Bar Lev and pianist Yonatan Zak.
2013(14th of Tammuz, 5773): Sixty-eight year old writer producer Gary David Goldberg, creator of “Family Ties” passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2013: Barbara Streisand is scheduled to perform at Bloomfield Stadium as part of the Israeli Presidential Conference.
2013:Traffic Police over the weekend caught about 140 drunk drivers, the majority of which were subject to suspended licenses, Israel Radio today. (As reported by Jerusalem Post staff)
2013: Today, Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich (Yisrael Beytenu) called this week’s “price tag” incident in Abu Ghosh a terror attack, and vowed the police would continue to combat racially motivated violence
2014: Masses are scheduled to take place at churches in Newark, NJ, Mineola, NY and Yonkers, NY honoring the memory of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese diplomat who defied his government and issued thousands of life saving visas to Jews trying to escape Hitler’s Europe.
2014: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host a presentation by genealogist Miriam Weinter and Avrum who will ”reveal important—but relatively unknown—resources for family-history research.”
2014: The New York Times reviewed books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers inducing The Train to Warsaw by Gwen Edelman, Suddenly, Love by Aharon Appelfeld and Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill.
2014: The funeral for ‘the former director of the Shin Bet internal security organization Avraham Shalom” is scheduled to be held today.