JUNE 23
79: Vespasian, the Roman general who was in the process of conquering Judea when he became Emperor, died.
79: Titus, the Roman general whom the Jews will always remember for the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple succeeded his father Vespasian as tenth Roman Emperor.
1295: The newly chosen head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Boniface VIII, entered Rome and spurned the Torah scrolls offered to him by the Jewish community.
1298: Massacre of the Jews of Wiener-Neustadt , Austria
1608: Samuel Pallache “a Jewish-Moroccan merchant, diplomat and pirate met stadholder Maurice of Nassau and the States-General in The Hague to negotiate an alliance of mutual assistance against Spain.
1696: Jews of Posen, Poland were saved from a mob set to avenge the murder of a soldier when a peasant woman who was seized carrying the victim's clothing, confessed to her son's murder.
1700: Solomon de Medina was dubbed a knight by William III. He was the first Jew to receive this honor. Medina was military contractor who would provide invaluable aid to the Duke of Marlborough during the War of Spanish Succession.
1785(15th of Tammuz, 5545): Ninety year old Arieh Loeb who had served as a rabbi in Frankfort before becoming the Grand Rabbi of Metz passed away today.
1794: With the second partition of Poland Ukraine Kiev Kiev
1807: Birthdate of Ferdinand Hitzig, one of a number of non-Jewish biblical critics who examined the Old Testament in light of the discoveries of archaeology and linguists who wrote commentaries on several books of the Bible starting with Isaiah in the 1830’s and ending with Proverbs in 1858.
1810 John Jacob Astor organized Pacific Fur Company at what is now Astoria , Oregon
1823: Mordecai Manuel Noah, an early American Jewish leader who dabbled in politics and journalism, wrote a twenty page letter to President James Monroe seeking his support for William Crawford’s candidacy for President of the United States. Crawford lost his bid which marked a decline in Noah’s self-appointed role a political king-maker.
1839: Birthdate of Philadelphian Simon Sterne who gained fame as an attorney and economist.
1839: Sixty-three year old Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope whose “archaeological expedition to Ashkelon in 1815 is considered the first modern excavation in the history of Holy Land archeology” passed away today. For more about her and her work see Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope as related by herself in Conversations with her Physician by Dr. Charles Meryon.
1840: “A large Jewish public assembly met at the Great Synagogue of London to map out plans for the journey of Moses Montefiore to Egypt to intercede with Governor Mehmet Ali to release eight Damascene Jews who had been tortured and charged with a blood ritual, following the disappearance of Father Tomaso, head of the Capuchin cloister.”
1842: Birthdate of Simon Wolfe Rosendale, the native of Albany NY who became the first Jew elected to a statewide office in New York when he was elected State Attorney General. While he was active in many American Jewish organizations including the Jewish Publication Society, the American Jewish Historical Society and B’nai B’rith he was among those who signed an anti-Zionist memorandum given to President Wilson before the Versailles Peace Conference.
1846: Birthdate of French Egyptologist and student of the ancient middle east, Gaston Maspero. His works included a report of what may have been the first “discovery of an Egyptian record in which the Hebrews are mentioned.”
1848: In Paris, tens of thousands of French workers took to the streets in what came to be known as “June Days of Uprisings” which would lead to the end of the Second Republic during which Jews had gained full rights including the declaration that the “Oath More Judaico” was unconstitutional in 1846>
1858: An incident, known as the Mortara Affair, began in Bologna Damascus
1868(3rd of Tammuz, 5628): Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall passed away.Born at Stockholm, Sweden, in 1798, “at the age of nine he was taken by his father, who was banker to the King of Sweden, to Copenhagen, where he was educated at the Hebrew grammar-school. Later he went to England, where he devoted himself to the study of languages, for the better acquisition of which he subsequently traveled in France, Germany, and Belgium. After lecturing on Hebrew poetry he began to publish the "Hebrew Review, and Magazine of Rabbinical Literature," which he was forced to discontinue in 1836 owing to ill health. For some time he acted as honorary secretary to Solomon Herschell, chief rabbi of Great Britain. He made translations from Maimonides, Albo, and Herz Wessely; conjointly with the Rev. D. A. de Sola he published a translation of eighteen treatises of the Mishnah; and he also began a translation of the Pentateuch, of which only one volume appeared. In 1840, when the blood accusation was made at Damascus, he published a refutation of it in four languages (Hebrew, English, French, and German) and wrote a defense of Judaism against an anonymous writer in the London "Times." In 1841 he was appointed minister of the Birmingham Synagogue and master of the school. He continued in these capacities for eight years, and then sailed for New York (1849). In that city he was appointed rabbi and preacher of the B'nei Jeshurun congregation, where he continued as pastor till 1866, his duties then being relaxed owing to his infirm health. Raphall was the author of a text-book of the post-Biblical history of the Jews (to the year 70 C.E.). He received the Ph.D. degree from the University of Erlangen (Germany).”
1873: The children under the care of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Free School are scheduled to enjoy their first excursion of the summer today. Lewis S. Levy is the chairman of the committee that has organized the event.
1876: It was reported today that an unnamed Moor stabbed eleven Jews with a dagger at Alcassar in the province of Fez, Morocco. Among the victims was Moses Abecasis. The Moor, who has been arrested, insists that “he was not aware of what he was doing when he committed the crimes.” The British and Italian Vice Consuls have insisted that the provincial governor and the leading citizens of Alcasar “have a signed a document guaranteeing the lives and property of foreign Jews” living there.
1877: At Ahaveth Chesed on the corner of Lexington and 55th in New York City, Rabbi Adolph Huesbech delivered a sermon based on Deuteronomy X:12, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” In the course of the sermon he spoke about the recent events surrounding the banning of Jews by Judge Hilton which he referred to as the “grievous occurrences of the past few days.” While he abhors boasting, he believes that “the Jewish name must always be held in honor.” He decried the fact that the Jews “had been placed in a false position” by this member of the nouveau riche who had used his newly “attained social eminence” to arouse enmity aimed at the Jews. In the end, the Rabbi said he would fail. “The Hiltons will die away but the principle of liberty as embodied in the American Constitution will live forever.
1877: Rabbi Samuel Isaacs, the leader of New York’s Gates of Prayer, described the negative impact that Judge Hilton’s behavior would have on English Jewish leaders including the Rothschilds and Sir Moses Montefiore who is “personal and esteemed friend of Queen Victoria.” They have always viewed the United States as a place where Jews were treated with the utmost “consideration and courtesy”; a situation similar to the treatment of Jews in the United Kingdom. If the Queen can count Montifore among her friends, certainly Judge Hilton could treat a person like Mr. Seligman with “common civility.” When asked Judge Hilton’s attempt to draw a distinction between “trade Jews and real “Hebrews, Rabbi Isaacs responded by recalling the “the words of the late Baron James Rothschild of Paris. ‘When we are poor and ignorant we Jews; when we are well to do we become Israelites; when we are rich and influential we are called Hebrews.’” Judge Hilton is trying to create a distinction that does not exist as a face-saving maneuver.
1877: “The Jewish Question” published today reported that both sides in the dispute touched off by Judge Hilton’s banning of Jews from the Grand Union Hotel seemed to hold firm to their previously stated positions. Various Jewish leaders, including Mr. Seligman’s attorney have advised against any further public discussions or meetings on the matter. They are reassured by the public response and the decision by some not to do business with the firm controlled by Hilton. Hilton will not change his policy and still claims that he does not dislike Jews. After all, the messenger to whom he entrusts thousands of dollars each day is Jewish.
1878: “The Jews and Titus,” an article published today, that originally appeared in the English publication, Fraser’s Magazine reviews events surrounding the decision of Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. The article points out that the Jews had a favorable impact on the western world in the era between Antiochus and Nero. Among other things the Jews are industrious and hardworking just like the people living “in the American Union are at Salt Lake.” Even their leaders worked at “mechanical labor or rustic art.” Even the Roman historian Tacitus acknowledged the virtues of the Jews. When Titus conferred with his officers about sparing the Temple, they urged him to destroy it and the rest of the city as well. Jerusalem had been the source of “two detestable religions, the Jewish and the Christian, which best be destroyed by uprooting their original home…” Despite Roman cruelty and oppression which followed by “Christian animosity” “the Jews and their religion” have survived without any deterioration over the centuries. Unfortunately, the article concludes, the Jews “still have to plead for toleration and from justice Slavonic Europe.”
1879: Today's "Literary Notes Column "reported that “Mr. Nutt, the Librarian of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University has edited” a manuscript in the library’s possession that is “a commentary on Isaiah” written “by Rabbi Eleazar of Beaugency.” Nutt has included a preface that provides “a valuable account of Bibilical exegesis among the Spanish and French Jews of the Middle Ages. [Eleazar was a 12th century French Biblical commentary who lived at Beaugency. He was a “pupil of Samuel ben Meïr, the eminent grandson of Rashi.”]
1880: The Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Harlem is sponsoring a strawberry festival this evening which is designed to raise funds for a gymnasium to be used by the members.
1881: Seventy-seven year old German botanist Matthias Jakob Schleiden, a co-founder of the “cell theory” whose writings on Judaism “contrast with the academic anti-Semitism of his time” but “also break with the anti-Judaism of Kant and Fries.” “Schleiden's apology for Judaism is shown to be deeply rooted in his ideas about scientific progress, especially his methodology of microscopic botany.” (As presented by Ulrich Charpa)
1882: Rabbi Levy arrived at the New York office of the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society from South Carolina. He told those in charge that the European Jewish refugees “were unfit” for the work “on Southern Plantations.” He brought 11 of the 30 refugees who had been placed in his care with him to New York. He thinks that they could be successful working on small vegetable farms. [This was part of the move to create agrarian opportunities for the horde of Jewish refugees fleeing Eastern Europe.]
1882: “Is He Sane Or Insane” published today described the travails of Samuel Obright who has been committed to Middletown Lunatic Asylum. His wife, whom he married only a few days ago, contends that his family and friends had him committed because Obright who is Jewish chose to marry a Christian. The judge has ordered him held in the custody of the Sheriff until the matter can be decided.
1882: It was reported today that Dr. Julius Goldman had delivered a report to the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society entitled “Colonizing the Russian Refugees” and not Dr. Julius Goodman as stated in an earlier article.
1883: As anti-Jewish riots resumed today in St. Gall, Switzerland, dismounted dragoons were called out to disperse the mob.
1883: It was reported today that those wishing to make contributions to support the upcoming summer excursions sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children can be sent to John Davis.
1883: “Blood in Passover” published today described a trial at Nyreghhaza, Hungary, where “a number of Jews are accused of having murdered a Christian girl at Tisza-Ezlar for the sake of using her blood to mix with their Passover bread.” The article conclude with “a Catholic priest admitted that he was the author of an anonymous attack on the Jews accusing them of the murder of the girl.”
1884(30thof Sivan, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1884: In Southern Russia, fighting broke out between Jews and Armenians at Titlis.
1884: Birthdate of the pro-Nazi German actor who “simultaneously played the roles of several stereotypical Jewish characters – among them Rabbi Loew and Sekretar Levy – in Veit Harlan's antisemitic propaganda film Jud Süß (1940), implementing Harlan's concept of a common Jewish root and Shylock in Lothar Müthel's extreme production of The Merchant of Venice staged at the Burgtheater in 1943 which made him a person favorite of Hitler.
1885: Mr. Julius Bien of New York, President of the B’nai B’rith opened a meeting of the Jewish organization in Berlin. He was assisted in his efforts by Isaac Hamburger of New York and Henry Gruenbaum of Chicago.
1886: It was reported today that Harris Cohen had been awarded the Lewis May Award at a reception sponsored by the Hebrew Technical Institute. Samuel Sass won the Carl Schurz Prize for the best essay on technical education.
1887: Birthdate of Hugo Hermann the Moravian born author, publisher and Zionist leader who died in Jerusalem in 1940.
1887(1stof Tammuz, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1887(1stof Tammuz, 5647): Joseph Freedman, a Russian-Jew who was a tin peddler died this evening at P.J. Kelly’s furniture store in New Haven, Conn.
1888: The Eldridge Street Synagogue was filled with congregants for today’s memorial service held in honor of the late German Emperor. Rabbi Zinsler of the Henry Street Synagogue delivered a eulogy in German followed by Coroner Ferdinand Levy who delivered a eulogy in English. [This was just one of many such services held by the Jews to honor the late Kaiser.]
1888: Emile Hirsch, who serves as the Rabbi at Temple Sinai in Chicago returned to the Windy City after a brief visit to New Orleans.
1888: This evening Rabbi Emile Hirsch addressed his congregation in Chicago outlined his view on inter-marriage, declaring that “Judaism was more than a religion or a creed…Judaism is a mission and a message of loved and righteousness.”
1889: “In the Catskill Mountains” published today described the opening of the various hostelries in this New York vacation venue including the fact that “the anti-Hebrew crusade is practically a matter of the past.” Generally speaking this movement was confined to the cottages at Pine Hill where Gentiles and Jews are equally welcome provided they can afford to pay the fee for entertainment which can be as much as one hundred dollars a week. [For those who connect the Catskills with the Borscht Belt, the idea of Jews being banned must seem a little strange.]
1890: The reviewer of The Origin of the Aryans by Isaac Taylor longs “for the old days when it was comfortably agreed that Hebrew was the ‘oldest language’ and all the rest made their appearance on a certain occasion when the descendants of Noah were rebuked for their impiety and pride by the destruction of the Tower of Babel.”
1890: In New York, the Coroner is investigating the death of 35 year old Hyman Harrowitz, a Russian Jew who died from ammonia poisoning. At first, it was thought he died at his own hand, but based on statements by his brother and friends, he may have been given the wrong medicine by the local druggist which led to his death.
1890: Famed English archeologist Flinders Pitre has complained that the authors of Art in Sardinia, Syria, Judaea and Asia , Georges Perrot and Charles Chipiez “have omitted several Jewish antiquities in their profusely-illustrated volumes. The omissions are important because of the great scarity of objects of art or architecture which can be assigned to the Jews.”
1892: During the Dreyfus Affair, the Marquis de Mores mortally wounded Captain Armand Mayer in a duel that the anti-Semitic noble had forced on the Jewish officer. Mayer would die a couple of days later from his wounds.
1892: The military band of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum played the opening march at the annual reception and commencement exercises of Grammar School Number 43 on Amsterdam Avenue in NYC.
1893: “Swears Back What He Swore” published today provides a snapshot of the controversy surrounding the efforts of those aggressively trying to convert Jews living on the Lower East Side which are being resisted by the United Hebrew Charities which feels these people are the victims of coercion and deception.
1894: The Jesse Seligman Literary Circle, a new Hebrew social and literary society has been organized in Orange, NJ
1895: “An East Side Charity” published today traced the history of the Hebrew Sheltering House where “the homeless and hungry are cared for without inquiring in their religious faith…” The charity located on New York’s lower east side is a creation of the Russian Jews who provide all of the funds for its operation with the exception of $7000 given by Jacob Schiff.
1896:Herzl is received as a journalist of the Neue Freie Presse. Herzl offers that the Jews would undertake the regulation of the Turkish finances if they were given Palestine
1897: The will of the late Moritz Cohn was filed for probate in the Surrogate’s office today.
1898: The funeral for Getta Schole, is scheduled to be held at the Crematory, Fresh Pond, Long Island. Mrs. Scholle is the widow of Jacob Scholle and was the Vice President of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and a Directress of The Ladies’ Auxiliary Society for the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids.
1898: President James H. Hoffman delivered the opening address at the commencement exercises of the Hebrew Technical Institute which were held at Cooper Union.
1899: Joseph I. Leiner was the salutatorian and valedictorian of this year’s graduating class of the Hebrew Technical Institute for which he earned the Fred M. Stein Prize, the Carl Schurz Prize and a special prize for his accomplishments.
1899: “New De Hirsch Fund” published today reported that“a part of the income…of the Baron de Hirsch Fund allotted to America” will be used to improve conditions in Brownsville, a section of Brooklyn with a large Jewish population. The project is being spearheaded by Abraham Abraham, a Brooklyn merchant and A.S. Solomon, the general agent of the Baron de Hirsch Fund in New York.
1901(6thof Tammuz, 5661): Eighty-seven year old British composer and pianist Charles Salaman passed away. In addition to his purely secular successes, Salaman created a musical version of Psalm 93 which is “ sung on most Friday nights in the Sabbath eve service of the London Spanish & Portuguese Jewish community”.
1907: In Chicago members of Emanuel Congregation a reform temple founded in 1880, dedicated the cornerstone for their new facility on Buckingham Street near Halsted.
1909: Helen Rosenfield of Portland, Oregon married Rabbi Jonah Bondi Wise. At the time he was the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Israel She passed away in 1950. He passed away in 1959
1914(23rdof Sivan, 5674): Forty-six year old Isidor Wormser, the son of the late Simon Wormser and the Uncle of the late Isidor Wormser passed away at his home in France today. He had retired from the banking business several years ago and moved abroad because of his ill health.
1914(23rdof Sivan, 5674): Isaac L. Mintz who moved from Russia to Charleston, SC before settling in New York in 1899 where he “engaged in the manufacture of clothing” passed away today.
1917: As part of the Allied drive to dislodge the Turks from Palestine, a move supported by the Zionists, British aircraft bombed the railway station at Tulkarm, the airfield at Ramleh and the German military headquarters in Jerusalem, located in the August Victoria church and sanatorium on the summit of the Mount of Olives
1918: “Jew Has High Rank In British Army” published today traces the career of Sir John Monash, the Australian Jew who has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and given command of a British Army Corps.
1919: “A pogrom took place today at Skvria in which 45 Jews were massacred, many were severely wounded, and 35 Jewish women were raped by army insurgents. As Whites, Reds and Cossacks battled for control of Russia during the Russian Civil War a series of pogroms took place in and around Kiev known as the Kiev Pogroms.
1919: Birthdate of Nathan Cohen, the Brooklyn born son of a New York publicist who would gain fame as Lee Solters, “a foxy, flamboyant press agent who cranked up his raspy Brooklyn-accented voice to hyperbolize about Broadway, Hollywood and a raft of clients including Frank Sintra, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney and Wings, Led Zeppelin, Gregory Peck, Cary Grant, the Muppets, Mae West and Michael Jackson. When he passed away in 2009, the New York Times would describe him as, “One of the last surviving links to a Runyonesque era when publicists would slip items to columnists at 1am over drinks at the landmark Manhattan bar Toots Shor's, Solters was a prominent press agent – or "flack", as the Americans call them – during the years when it was routine to "plant" items about stars in showbusiness columns by such gossip writers as Hedda Hopper and Walter Winchell. Over more than 40 years the gravel-voiced Solters handled more than 300 shows, including the Broadway musicals Annie, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady andCamelot, “major motion pictures including The Graduate and the hit television series, “Dallas.”
1922: Prominent New York attorney, Republican political leader and civic benefactor Edward Lauterbach paid tribute to the late Louis Stern, the longtime President of Stern Brothers who passed away while vacationing in Europe. He described his friend of 40 years as “Genial, kind hearted, good humored and never making an enemy in all his life…” While Stern was active in numerous civic and Jewish charities Lauterbach thinks “that the greatest achievement of Louis Stern was what he did for the benefit of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum” which he served as President for twenty years.
1923: In Dallas, TX, grocery store owners Harry and Chaya Ruchel Andres gave birth to “Dr. Reubin Andres, a gerontologist who advanced the study of diabetes but gained his widest attention for arguing controversially that weight gain in older people increases longevity.” (As reported by Leslie Kaufman)
1925(1stof Tammuz, 5685): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1925: In Brooklyn George L. and Kitty Maizman Modell gave birth to Arthur Bertam Modell whom the world will remember as Art Modell, the owner of the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Ravens.
1926: The College Board administered the first SAT exam. “In 1926, Harvard and other Ivy League schools began using the SAT test to replace the admissions test on which urban Jews had performed well.” This was part of an overall attempt to limit Jewish attendance at these elite schools. “The SAT was grounded in the earlier Ellis Island and U.S. Army World War I tests in which Jews, among others, had performed poorly. That the poor performance was largely based on the lower literacy of the foreigners and their unfamiliarity with English and American terminology was not perceived to be the principal cause for the poor test performance. Here was a test that had provided evidence Jews did not perform well; its use might help bring about the desired results. Moreover, the fact that some of the SAT questions were developed and tested on Princeton freshman and Cooper Union students (all scholarship recipients), demonstrated that smart Gentiles did well on the tests. Ironically, as time passed and Jews became literate, absorbed American terminology, and learned how to take such tests, the outcomes completely reversed. But that was in the future and not anticipated when SAT testing began in 1926”.
1929: Birthdate of Simcha Dinitz “an Israeli statesman and politician” who “served as Director General of the Prime Minister's office and political advisor to Prime Minister Golda Meir from 1969–1973, before becoming the Israeli Ambassador to the United States from 1973 to 1979.
1930:Birthdate of Harvey Slom Ginsberg, the Bangor, Maine native “a New York book editor who served long tenures at G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Harper & Row and William Morrow & Company, and whose most loyal writers included John Irving and Saul Bellow… His relationship with Mr. Bellow began at Harper & Row with Mr. Bellow’s book “The Dean’s December,” published in 1981. Mr. Ginsberg subsequently left Harper for Morrow, and for his next novel, “More Die of Heartbreak,” Mr. Bellow followed him. Mr. Ginsberg began his long partnership with Mr. Irving on the novel “The Cider House Rules,” published by Morrow in 1985, and he edited five other novels by Mr. Irving as well; they continued to work together through 2005 on a freelance basis even after Mr. Irving moved to another publishing house. His taste was high-minded, but he enjoyed a well-executed popular novel as well. In 1975 he edited “Black Sunday,” a first novel about a terror attack at the Super Bowl whose author, Thomas Harris, went on to write novels featuring the man/monster Hannibal Lecter”
1930(27th of Sivan, 5690): Seventy year old Maurice Harris, who served as the Rabbi at Temple Israel for 48 years passed away today at Mt. Sinai Hospital (JTA)
1936: Samuel Untermeyer was among the delegates who attended the opening of the National Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA.
1937: George Gershwin was admitted to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital In Los Angeles for observation after a series of health problems including headaches and mood swings.
1937: Birthdate of real estate developer John E. Zucotti, the husband Susan Sessions Zucotti the American historians whose studies and books about the Holocaust won her a National Jewish Book Award for Holocuast Studies whose works included Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy and Pere Marie-Benoit and Jewish Rescue.
1938: Four persons were killed and at least a dozen seriously wounded in a series of shootings in Jaffa today. With heavy police reinforcements, scores were beaten by police clubs. Many bystanders were roughly handled by crowds. Residents of Jaffa’s Jewish quarter fled out of fear most of them heading for near-by Tel Aviv.
1938: In explaining her motivation to become a rabbi, Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained said today. ““If I confess what motivated me, a woman, to become a rabbi, two things come to mind. My belief in God’s calling and my love of humans. God planted in our heart skills and a vocation without asking about gender. Therefore, it is the duty of men and women alike to work and create according to the skills given by God.” (She would perform her duties in Theresienstadt before being murdered at Auschwitz Jewish Women’s Archive)
1938: “Three Jewish farmers from the Zichron Jacob mysteriously disappeared this afternoon. It is believed they were kidnapped by armed Arabs and carried off to the hills.
1939: Dutch Jewish diarist Esther "Etty" Hillesum took the first of her master’s exams in Dutch Law.
1939: Herman Goering, Hitler’s number 2, led a meeting of Reich Defense Council in which he told them to prepare for total war. Hitler planned to conscript seven million soldiers. This means production work is to be given to prisoners and inmates of prisons and concentration camps.
1940: Today, Sunday, at 1:30 pm Margret and Hans Rey arrived in Lisbon.
1941: In the evening, German forces enter the village of Jedwabne, Poland
1941: The great yeshivot of Slobodka and Telz closed their doors the day after Germany Lithuania
1941: One day after the German invasion of Latvia, the Holocaust begins in the Baltic Republic when Sonderkommando 1a members murdered six Jews in the church cemetery in the town of Grobina, near Liepāja
1942: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz take place on a trainload of Jews from Paris.
1942: A German convoy deported Jews from Morocco Europe .
1943: Ukrainian police surround a Jewish school at Czortków , Ukraine
1943: In Czortkow; Ukrainian police began an "action" that would destroy the remaining Jewish population of about 600 people.
1943: By this date 50,000 Jews had been deported from France
1943: Birthdate of James Levine, conductor of the Metropolitan Opera. Levine was born into a musical family; his maternal grandfather was a cantor and his father was a violinist.
1944: Chaim Barlas, an agent of the Jewish Agency working in Istanbul received a copy of a 30 page report known as the ‘Auschwitz Protocols’ complied by two Jews who escaped from the camp that April. The report made it clear that the camp was a killing ground for the Jews of Europe.
1944: Operations resume at the Chelmno death camp.
1944: The Allies learn that more than 430,000 Hungarian Jews have been deported to Auschwitz and murdered since May. There are about 300,000 Jews left alive in Hungary
1944: A Red Cross delegation visits the camp/ghetto at Theresienstadt , Czechoslovakia Hungary
1944: After intensive search through the Lodz Ghetto for Jews, deportation began and did not end until July 14. Jews were shipped out at the rate of 3,000 a week for three weeks. They were told that they on their way to work as laborers in Berlin Leipzig
1944: The Red Cross visited the Theresienstadt ghetto during which a picture was taken of the children.
1952(30th of Sivan, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1952: In New York Philip Alexander Kaplan and Phyllis Quasha gave birth to American journalist Robert David Kaplan.
1952: In a letter to the New York Times, Lessing J. Rosenwald, President of the American Council of Judaism, an anti-Zionist organization reiterated the group’s disagreement with the Israeli government’s new policy concerning citizenships, declaring that nationality and religion are two different issues.
1954: Tax lawyer Martin D. Ginsburg married Ruth Bader, who gained fame as Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
1956: Gamal Abdel Nasser is elected President of the Republic of Egypt in a landslide in which 99.95 percent of the voters mark their ballots for him. A secular pan-Arabist who was the ringleader of the “Colonel’s Revolution” Nasser reportedly claimed that he did not hate the West because of Israel but hated Israel because it was of the West.
1960: Premiere of “Bells Are Ringing,” a musical comedy co-starring Judy Holiday, produced by Arthur Freed, written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green with a score by Jule Styne.
1961: Birthdate of author David Leavitt, a professor at the University of Florida whose works include the short-story collection Family Dancing which was the finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award.
1967: Five thousand Muslims prayed on the Haram, including a thousand Israeli Muslims who had been denied access during the nineteen years of Jordanian rule.
1972: Birthdate of Actress Selma
1981: Robert Badinter began serving as French Minister of Justice.
1986(16th of Sivan, 5746): Seventy-four year old classical scholar Sir Moses I. Finley, author of The Ancient Economy, passed away. Born Moses Israel Finkelstein in New York City he graduated from Syracuse and Columbia before taking the name of Finley in 1936. After teaching at Columbia and City College he was fired by Rutgers when he “took the 5th” when called by Senator McCarthy’s red hunting committee. He and his wife Mary moved to Great Britain where he pursued his career, another casualty of the Right Wing Red Witch Hunt. (As reported by Edwin McDowell)
1989: “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” starring Rick Moranis, a product of the Canadian Jewish community, premiered today.
1991: Tony Randall and Jack Klugman starred in a Broadway Performance of "The Odd Couple." Two Jewish actors took their television roles of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison back to the New York
1992:Maxine Frank Singer, a leading biochemistry researcher and advocate of science education, was awarded the National Medal of Science
1992: Yitzhak Rabin wins the Israeli parliamentary elections and becomes Prime Minister for the second time. A sabra, Rabin had begun his military career in the Palmach. He rose to be Chief of Staff during the Israel’s smashing victory in 1967. Rabin signed off on the Oslo Accords in a bold attempt to bring peace to the Middle East. Rabin won the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. Unfortunately Rabin was murdered by a right wing zealot in 1995. This heinous crime robbed the Israelis of the one leader who might have been able to move the process forward. Would things have been different if Rabin had lived? We will never know. Obviously the assassin and his supporters felt that by killing Rabin they could kill the peace process.
1992: Retired IDF General Avigdor Kahalani began serving as Labour Party MK.
1994(14th of Tammuz, 5754): Sixty year old Irish journalist Stanley Gebler Davis passed away today.
1995(27th of Sivan, 5755): Eighty-year old Dr. Jonas Salk, inventor of the first Polio Vaccine passed away. Another Jew, Dr. Sabine, invented the second Polio Vaccine. This is but one of the many contributions that the American Jewish Community should be celebrating and sharing with our countrymen during the 350th Anniversary of the Jewish Community in the United States.(As reported by Harold M. Schmeck, Jr.)
1997: Anna Halprin received the Samuel H. Scripps/American Dance Festival Award for lifetime achievement in modern dance.
2002: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph E. Stiglitz
2002(13rd Tammuz, 5762); Eighty-two year old South-African architect and opponent of apartheid Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein passed away.
2005(16th of Sivan, 5765): Prof. Nahum M. Sarna, z"l passed away.
2006: Shlomo Mola becomes the first Ethiopian to be chosen as a top executive of World Zionist Organization. Mola who now serves as the Jewish Agency's senior consultant for Ethiopian immigrants, will head the department for Zionist institutions.
2006: According to a report published in a scientific journal, ancient beads that may represent the oldest attempt by people at self-decoration have been identified from sites in Israel and Algeria,
2006(27th of Sivan, 5766: Eighty-three year old Television producer Aaron Spelling passes away. (As reported by Bill Carter)
2006: Donald Lewis Kohn “began serving his four year term as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
2007: In Cedar Rapids Temple Judah
2007: The Jewish Culture Festival in Krakow opens. The city's historic Jewish quarter (called Kazimierz) fills with music, art, dance, lectures and exhibits - all celebrating the 900-year history of Jews in Poland
2007:“Pangs of The Messiah” has its English Language World Premiere at Theatre J in Washington, D.C.
2008: In Washington , D.C.
2008: In Cedar Rapids , Iowa Temple Judah
2008: Overnight, Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip fired a mortar shell into Israel – the first breach of the cease fire since it went into effect five days ago.
2008: Time magazine reviews “Apples and Oranges” by Marie Brenner
2009: Rosh Chodesh Tammuz, 1st day of Tammuz, 5769
2009:Israel released the speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council from prison today, ending his three-year incarceration. Aziz al-Dweik, considered a moderate Hamas leader in the West Bank, was one of several Palestinian leaders arrested after the June 2006 abduction of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
2009:A bankruptcy trustee recommended today that SHF Industries be allowed to buy most of the assets of Agriprocessors for $8.5 million, in addition to funds already committed to buy up about $21 million in debt owed two of Agriprocessors’ largest creditors. SHF is led by Heshey Friedman, the president of Montreal-based Polystar Plastics, which manufactures packaging for poultry and other meats. Friedman has two other partners in the venture, Daniel Hirsch and Mitch Kirschner.
2010:The Yellow Submarine is scheduled to present Hatsai Tzvaim Hatsai Kolot: Israeli poet Rachel's poetry set to music, and The Naomi Ensemble: a tribute to Naomi Shemer - a tribute to two of Israel's finest poets.
2010: Donald Kohn completed his four year term as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve Syste,
2010:Beit Avi Chai is scheduled to present "Tel Aviv-New York -- Authentic jazz with a touch of the Mediterranean"
2010: A conference organized by the Humphrey Institute for Social Research at Ben- Gurion University meeting today dealt with “the political, social and cultural role of diasporas and their links with their countries of origin or, in the case of second and third generation diaspora children, the home countries of their parents and grandparents.”
2011:Sheriff David Clarke will speak on "Security and Spirituality: Reflections on My Mission to Israel" at meeting sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
2011: A lively presentation featuring Naama Shefi of the Consulate General of Israel entitled A Food Lover's Tour of Israel” scheduled to be held at the 92nd St Y will give attendees a chance to “discover what cutting-edge Israeli chefs are creating in Israel and learn the history of dozens of the country's most famous dishes.”
2011:There are widening gaps between poor and middle class citizens in Israel in the rate of incidences of chronic disease, a report published today revealed. The report, which was based on information from four HMOs in Israel, was prepared by the Israel National Institute for Health Policy and Health Services. The report characterizes poor citizens as those who receive a full or partial exemption from paying the national health tax, which is 10.1 percent of people living in Israel.
2011: The failure of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to retaliate in the Gaza Strip for rocket fire after disengagement – as he promised – was one of the major mistakes made after the 2005 pullout, Dan Kurtzer, who was the US envoy to Israel at the time, suggested today. Kurtzer, in an interview with The Jerusalem Post, said that immediately after Israel left the Gaza Strip he told Washington “to expect a very serious Israeli response to the first act of violence coming out of Gaza.”
2011: The Israeli Presidential Conference came to an end.
2011(21stof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-three year old Peter Falk, who became synonymous with Colombo, the rumpled raincoat wearing detective who always had one more question, passed away today. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2011(21stof Sivan, 5772): Eighty-four year old Gene Colan one of the leading comic-book artists of the 20th century passed away. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2012(3rdof Tammuz, 5772): 18th Yahrtzeit of Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory simply known as The Rebbe. This blog cannot do justice to his impact on Judaism or the lives of individual Jews. One does not have to be a Lubavitcher to have been impacted by the Rebbe or his corps of “Lamplighters” such as Rabbi PInchas Ciment, who brought the light of Chassidus and Judaism to some very dark places.
2012: “Hungry Kite,” the creation of Choreographer Deganit Shemy is scheduled to perform for the last time at the Chocolate Factory at Long Island City.
2012:Kulanu Toronto and Congregation Shir Libeynu are scheduled hold a pre-Pride Karaoke Night after Shabbat.
2012:Rabbi Meir Soloveichik is scheduled to discuss “Serving Man and God in the Twilight Zone: Reflections on Judaism and Western Thought,”
2012:Social activist Daphni Leef was treated today for injuries sustained during clashes with police that took place during a demonstration on Tel Aviv’s Rothschild Boulevard yesterday. Her arm was placed in a cast. Leef and 11 others were arrested in what was widely described as a violent sweep of crowd control.(As reported by Yoel Goldman)
2012: Gaza-based terrorists fired 25 rockets into southern Israel today, causing damage to a school and factory. The latest attacks bring the total number of rockets and other projectiles fired from the Strip to approximately 150 over the past six days.
2013: The Israeli Squad is schedule to compete in the Cosmos Copa for the first time ever when it plays a double header against Italy and the Netherlands at Randalls Island.
2013: The New York Timesfeatured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Bad Boy: My Life On and Off the Canvas by Eric Fischl and Michael Stone and Debtor’s Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Possibility by Robert Kuttner
2013: The Spertus Institute is scheduled to host a lecture by Daniel Belasco entitled “Jewish Graphic Design from the Talmud to Today.”
2013:The Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, Yona Metzger, currently under house arrest on suspicion of financial crimes, announced today that he was suspending himself from his official duties.
2013:A Jerusalem court today ordered the release of a Jewish youth who had been arrested on charges of praying on the Temple Mount. The youth was also cleared of charges that he attacked an Arab during his visit to the Mount. (As reported by David Lev)
2013: Terrorists from Hamas-controlled Gaza fired three rockets into southern Israel tonight.The rockets landed in open areas in the Bnei Shimon Regional Council and near the city of Netivot. There were no physical injuries or damages. (As reported by Elad Benari)
2014:The UK Jewish Film is scheduled to host its Celebration of Film Dinner.
2014: “The Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at Portland, Oregon, Jewish Film Festival.
2014: An Evening with Paul Robeson: A Recital in Homage to the Great Singer and Humanitarian” is scheduled to be presented this evening in the Rubenstein Pavilion of the Jewish Home and Care Center, in Milwaukee, WI.