May 3
1282 BCE: (28
Nissan 2488): Traditional date marking the fall of the walls of Jericho.
443 BCE (7th
of Iyar, 3317): Nehemiah dedicated the newly built walls that had been built
around Jerusalem.
996: Papacy of
Gregory V began today making him a contemporary of Hananel Ben Hushiel, Samuel
Ibn Nagrela and Jacob ben Yakar each of whom was born in 990.
1096 (8th Iyar): On his way to join the Crusade led by
Peter the Hermit, Emico, the Count of Leiningen, attacked the synagogue at
Speyers. The Jews defended themselves but were systematically slain. Until this
time atrocities in Europe were sporadic. From this point on, they became
organized and frequent. Jewish martyrdom began in earnest. It should be
remembered that the atrocities committed by the rampaging crusaders were not
always supported by the local burghers and bishops. Furthermore, in many countries,
especially the Slavic states, the local Christian community suffered from
pillages as well. John Bishop of Spires even called out his army after 11 Jews
were killed in a riot, but he was an exception rather than the rule.
Approximately 5,000 Jews were murdered in Germany in 1096.[Editor’s Note:
Maggie Anton, the author of the acclaimed series about Rashsi’s Daughters,
offers the following view of events. “Actually, the Crusader attacks on Speyer
in 1096 left only 11 Jews dead - those who were still on the streets. Warned of
the danger, the Jews prayed early and left the synagogue before the marauders
arrived, barricading themselves at home. Bishop John's army routed the mob and
cut off the hands of the worst instigators. It was later in the month that the
worst massacres occurred in Worms, Mainz & Cologne.”]
1235: Pope Gregory issued a Bull that repeated and
confirmed the constitution of Pope Innocent III. The Bull was issued in
response to pleas from German Jews that the Church act to stop the marauding
mobs that were attacking them.
1270: King Béla IV of Hungary passed away.Bela had welcomed Jewish immigrants to his kingdom and in
1251 gave them “legal rights.”
1407: Emperor Rupert issued a decree appointing Israel of Krems
“chief rabbi of all the German communities ("Hochmeister über alle
Rabbinen"), giving him a certificate declaring him to be a great Talmudic
scholar and a good man.”
1455: As Christian forces advance, groups of Jews fled Spain, some
of whom ended up in Kosovo others of whom settled in West African Jewish
communities known as Bilad al-Sudan.
1469: Birthdate of Niccolò Machiavelli
http://voices.yahoo.com/literary-analysis-prince-niccolo-machiavelli-6074870.html
1481: Mehmed II,
Ottoman Sultan passed away. Known as “The Conqueror” (Faith), he reigned from
1444 to 1446 until his father took over on account of war. He came again to
throne in 1451. He conquered Constantinople in 1453. The oppressed Jews were
relieved to see him occupy the city. He allowed Jews from today's Greek Islands
and Crete to settle in Istanbul. Fatih's declaration is as follows:
"Listen sons of the Hebrew who live in my country...May all of you who
desire come to Constantinople and may the rest of your people find here a
shelter". The Bavarian King Ludwig the III, under the influence of the
Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano expelled the Jews out and forced them to settle
on the banks of the Danube River, Capistrano helped John Hunyadi in 1456 when
the Ottomans besieged Belgrade. In 1410 Jean Huss was excommunicated and burned
on order of the pope Alexander the V. The pope Nicholas the V, summoned Jean de
Capistrano to go to Slovakia and fight the followers of Jean Huss. Of course
Capistrano did not forget the Jews and as a result, by order of the Sultan, a
regiment called "The sons of Moses" was formed. Since Capistrano also
prepared a crusade against the Ottomans, the same regiment participated in the
war which ensued. The doctors Isak Pasa Galeon and Ribbi Sonsino were also
appointed to that regiment. Before being killed, Ribbi Sonsino chopped away the
head of Jean de Capistrano and the church declared the latter a saint. After
the war Mehmed II invited the Ashkenazi Jews of Transylvania and Slovakia to
the Ottoman Empire. The synagogues Ahrida, Karaferya, Yanbol and Cuhadji which
were damaged due to a fire have been repaired on the Sultan’s order. According
to a votive foundation document dated 1451-1481, the doctors Moses Hamon, Isak
Pas a Galeon, Hekim Yakup, Ephraim Sandji and Hekim Abraham were appointed as
palace doctors.
1488: In Naples, Joseph Günzenhäuser published the first printed
edition of the Pentateuch with a commentary by Abraham ibn Ezra.
1579:
An auto-de-fe at Seville sentenced 38 people, some accused of Judaizing. In
all, only one person was burned.
1583(11th
of Iyar): Rabbi Isaac Mehling passed away in Prague.
1588: Council of Hanover in Germany ordered the severance of all
business connections between Jews and Christians.
1616(16th of Iyar, 5376): Meir Lublin, the son of
Gedaliah, the son-in-law of Isaac ha-Kohen Shapiro and the author of the Talmudic commentary Meir Einai Chachamim passed away today in Lublin.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_12821.html
1655(26th of Nisan, 5415): Abraham Nunez Bernal was
burned at the stake by the Inquisition of Cordova making him yet another
Sephardic martyr.
1655:Jacob Abendana delivered a famous memorial sermon on
the Cordovan martyrs Marranos Nunez and Almeyda Bernal who had been burned at
the stake. Abendana was the older of Isaac Abendana who taught at Magdalen
College and served as hakam of the Spanish Portuguese Synagogue in London..
1667(9th of Iyar, 5427): Many Jews were killed in anti-Jewish riots
in Lemberg. Lemberg is in the Ukraine. These killings took place
during the wars between the Poles and the Cossacks. The fate of the Jews
of Lemberg would grow even worse in 1668 when most of them would perish in a
massacre.
1670: Birthdate of Nicholas Mavrocordatos, the Grand Dragoman whom
Daniel de Fonseca served as a personal physician while actually working as a
secret agent for the French and Turks to provide support for the Ottomans in
their conflict with Austria.
1703(28th of Iyar, 5463): Seventy two year old Samuel
Oppenheimer the Jewish banker who bankrolled Emperor Leopold I during the Great
Turkish War, passed away today.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Oppenheimer
1733(22nd of Iyar,):
Rabbi Zevi of Vilna, author of “Bet Lehem Yehudah” passed away
1758: The Papacy of Benedict XIV, who was so committed to
converting Jews that he issued a bull allowing children as young as seven to be
baptized without their parent’s permissions and added to the list of Jewish
books that should be “seized and confiscated but who also publicly opposed the
Blood Libel, ended today.
1764: The Maryland Gazette
reported "certain" Jews were willing to settle in the American
colonies to conduct agriculture and commerce. This was nothing new, as for
almost 30 years prior the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in London had wanted
to form a large settlement for Jews in Carolina.
1775: David Salisbury Franks, who would become an officer in the
American Revolutionary Army, was arrested for speaking in a disrespectful
manner about King George III.
1778(6th of Iyar, 5538): Eighty-eight year old Hirsch
Auberach who had been serving as rabbi at Worms in 1763, the husband Dobresch
Auberach and the father of Rabbi Abiezri Selig Auerbach, passed away today.
1791: The Constitution of 3 May 1791 under which Poland’s
Jews were granted full emancipation
was adopted by the Great Sejm today
1796(25th of Nisan, 5556): Rosa Bunn, the wife of fur
trader, American Revolution patriot and an early leader of the Lancaster, PA
Jewish community with whom she had two children and who was the grandmother
Rebecca Gratz passed away today.
1802: Washington, D.C. is
incorporated as a city. Isaac Polock was reported to be D.C.’s first Jewish
resident having moved to the area in 1795.
Major Alfred Mordecai came to Washington in 1828 to serve as
superintendent of the District of Columbia Arsenal. He is the second known
Jewish resident of the nation’s capital.
For more about the history of Jewry in the Washington metropolitan area
see the website of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington http://www.jhsgw.org/
1833(14th of Iyar, 5593): Pesach Sheni, is
observed for the first time since Martin Van Buren replaced John C. Calhoun as
Vice President which was part of American political imbroglio that included everything
from “sex to secession.”
1837: Phillip Joseph Salomons married Cecilia Samuels
at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1840: In Polska, R' Israel Baruch Moses and Eve Moses
(Graditz) gave birth to Rabbi Adolph Eliezer Moses who became an M.D. after
graduating from medical school in his 50’s.
1841: One days after he had passed away, Myer Ephraim
Myers was buried today in the “Brady Street Jewish Cemetery.”
1843: Birthdate of Edward Dowden, the Irish author
who claimed that “in the original Persian” version of the Shylock story, “the
Jew is not impelled to cruelty because the money is not returned to him but for
the reason that he in love with his debtor’s wife” and whose daughter Hester
“claimed to communicate via various spirit guides including ‘Johannes,’ an
ancient Jewish Neo-Platonist who lived 200 years before Jesus
1844(14th of Iyar, 5604): Pesach Sheni
1844: Birthdate of Édouard Adolphe Drumont “a French journalist
and writer” who “founded the Anti-Semitic League of France in 1889 and was the
founder and editor of the newspaper La Libre Parole.”
“He was at first in government service, but later became a
contributor to the press and was the author of a number of miscellaneous works,
of which Mon vieux Paris (1879) was crowned by the Academy.
Drumont's 1886 book ‘La France Juive’ (Jewish France) attacked the
role of Jews in France and argued for their exclusion from society. In 1892
Drumont founded the newspaper the La Libre Parole which became a
platform for virulent anti-Semitism…He was sued for accusing a parliamentary
deputy of having taken a bribe from the prominent Jewish banker Édouard
Alphonse de Rothschild to pass a piece of legislation the banker wanted.
Drumont attracted many supporters and was one of the primary sources of
anti-Semitic ideas that would later be embraced by Nazism. He exploited the
Panama Company Scandal and reached the peak of his notoriety during the Dreyfus
Affair, in which he was the most strident of Alfred Dreyfus' accusers.” He died
in 1917.
1847: Premiere of “Don John of Austria,” the first
Australian opera at the Royal Victoria Theatre in Sydney. Isaac Nathan wrote the
opera to a libretto by Jacob Levi Montefiore.
1848:
Today, in Philadelphia, thirty-three year old Canadian businessman Jacob Henry
Joseph m married Sarah Gratz Moses with whom he “two sons and three daughters.
1849: The May Uprising in Dresden begins - the last of the German
revolutions of 1848. These revolutions, in which many Jews played an active
role, failed. This resulted in a major
migration of liberal Germans, including a large number of German Jews, to the
United States. This migration would have
a major impact on the United States and the American Jewish community.
1849: At the tenth meeting of the Independent Order of Free Sons
of Israel, a petition “asking for a charter for a second lodge of the order to
be named Abraham Lodge No. 2” was granted.
1851: The 101 foot schooner America which was the first U.S. boat
to win the America’s Cup for which Baron Arthur de Rothschild would later
supply the prize money, was launched today.
1852(14th of Iyar, 5612): Pesach Sheni observed for the
last time during the Presidency of Millar Fillmore, the only “Know Nothing” to
have made it to the White House.
1853: The New York Times reported that an un-named Jew had
been arrested on a charge of receiving stolen goods. The goods were reportedly $25 dollars’ worth
of women’s shoes that had been stolen by German lad named Herman who was
working as an apprentice in a boot & shoe store.
1857: Birthdate of August Lederer the Austrian industrialist, art
collector and patron of Gustav Klimt.
1859:Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky the Lithuanian Jew
who went through a series of conversions in various Christian churches starting
as a Baptist in 1855 was appointed to serve as a missionary to China by the
Episcopal Church.
1860: In Ancona, Abramo Volterra, a cloth merchant, and Angelica
Almagià gave birth to Samuel Giuseppe Vito Volterra
1860: Thanks to the efforts of the pro-Secessionist forces, the
Democratic Convention which Henry Myer Phillips attended as a delegate, decided
to adjourn today and reconvene at Baltimore in six weeks.
1861: The Secretary of War issued a muster call for three year
volunteers that would be responded to by the 26th Pennsylvania volunteers
whose members included Dr. Jacob Da Silva Solis Cohen the graduate of the
University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson Medical College.
1863(14th of Iyar, 5623): Pesach Sheni
1863: At the battle of
Chancellorsville, having marched from the west bank of the Rappahannock River
under fire and crossed at United States Ford, Captain Charles E. Etting reached he front at 1 o'clock A.M., today and
there remained until withdrawn on May 6.
1863: Two days after he had passed away, Gabriel Simmons, the son
of John and Sarah Simmons was buried today at the “Brompton (Fulham Road)
Jewish Cemetery.”
1863(14th of Iyar, 5623): Twenty-five year old Isaac
Seldner of the 6th Virginia Infantry Regiment was killed today at
the Battle of Chancellorsville during the Civil War.
1864(27th of Nisan, 5624):J. J. Benjamin
passed away. Born in 1818 at Fălticeni,
Romania he “was a Romanian-Jewish historian and traveler. His pen name was
"Benjamin II", in allusion to Benjamin of Tudela. Married young, he
engaged in the lumber business, but losing his modest fortune, he gave up
commerce. Being of an adventurous disposition, he adopted the name of Benjamin
of Tudela, the famous Jewish traveler of the twelfth century, and toward the
end of 1844 set out to search for the Lost Ten Tribes. Using the name of
Benjamin of Tudela, the famous twelfth century Jewish traveler, he set out in
1844 on a search for the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. This search took him from
Vienna to Constantinople in 1845, with stops at several cities on the
Mediterranean. He arrived in Alexandria in June, 1847, and proceeded via Cairo
to the Levant. He then traveled through Syria, Babylonia, Kurdistan, Persia,
the Indies, Kabul, and Afghanistan, returning June, 1851, to Constantinople,
and then back to Vienna where he stayed briefly before heading to Italy. There
he embarked for Algeria and Morocco. He made copious notes of his observations
of the societies he visited. On arriving in France, after having traveled for
eight years, he prepared in Hebrew his impressions of travel, and had the book
translated into French. After suffering many tribulations in obtaining
subscriptions for his book, he issued it in 1856, under the title ‘Cinq Années
en Orient (1846-51).’ The same work, revised and enlarged, was subsequently
published in German under the title ‘Acht Jahre in Asien und Afrika’ (Hanover,
1858), with a preface by Meyer Kayserling. An English version has also been
published. As the veracity of his accounts and the genuineness of his travels
were attacked by some critics, he amply defended himself by producing letters
and other tokens proving his journey to the various Oriental countries named.
Benjamin relates only what he has seen; and, although some of his remarks show
insufficient scholarship and lack of scientific method, his truthful and simple
narrative gained the approval of eminent scholars like Humboldt, Petermann, and
Richter. In 1859 Benjamin undertook another journey, this time to America,
where he stayed three years. The result of his observations there he published
on his return, under the title Drei Jahre in Amerika (Hanover, 1863). The kings
of Sweden and of Hanover now conferred distinctions upon him. Encouraged by the
sympathy of several scientists, who drew up a plan and a series of suggestions
for his guidance, he determined to go again to Asia and Africa, and went to
London in order to raise funds for this journey — a journey which was not to be
undertaken. Worn out by fatigues and privations, which had caused him to grow
old before his time and gave him the appearance of age, he died poor in London;
and his friends and admirers had to arrange a public subscription in order to
save his wife and daughter from misery. In addition to the works mentioned
above, Benjamin published Jawan Mezula, Schilderung des Polnisch-Kosakischen
Krieges und der Leiden der Juden in Poland Während der Jahre 1648-53, Bericht
eines Zeitgenossen nach einer von. L. Lelewel Durchgesehenen Französischen
Uebersetzung, Herausgegeben von J. J. Benjamin II., Hanover, 1863, a German
edition of Rabbi Nathan Hanover's work on the insurrection of the Cossacks in
the seventeenth century, with a preface by Kayserling. Upon his return to
London in 1862, he drew another plan to return to Asia and Africa but fell ill
and died early in 1863 before being able to undertake his next journey.
During his travels in Persia J. J. Benjamin wrote down some
observations on the life of the Jews in Persia:
1. Throughout Persia the Jews are obliged to live in a part of the
town separated from the other inhabitants; for they are considered as unclean
creatures, who bring contamination with their intercourse and presence.
2. They have no right to carry on trade in stuff goods.
3. Even in the streets of their own quarter of the town they are
not allowed to keep any open shop. They may only sell there spices and drugs,
or carry on the trade of a jeweller, in which they have attained great
perfection.
4. Under the pretext of their being unclean, they are treated with
the greatest severity, and should they enter a street, inhabited by Mussulmans,
they are pelted by the boys and mobs with stones and dirt.
5. For the same reason they are forbidden to go out when it rains;
for it is said the rain would wash dirt off them, which would sully the feet of
the Mussulmans.
6. If a Jew is recognised as such in the streets, he is subjected
to the greatest insults. The passers-by spit in his face, and sometimes beat
him so unmercifully, that he falls to the ground, and is obliged to be carried
home.
7. If a Persian kills a Jew, and the family of the deceased can
bring forward two Mussulmans as witnesses to the fact, the murderer is punished
by a fine of 12 tumauns (600 piastres); but if two such witnesses cannot be
produced, the crime remains unpunished, even though it has been publicly
committed, and is well known.
8. The flesh of the animals slaughtered according to Hebrew
custom, but declared as Trefe, must not be sold to any Mussulmans. The
slaughterers are compelled to bury the meat, for even the Christians do not
venture to buy it, fearing the mockery and insult of the Persians.
9. If a Jew enters a shop to buy anything, he is forbidden to
inspect the goods, but must stand at a respectful distance and ask the price.
Should his hand incautiously touch the goods, he must take them at any price
the seller chooses to ask for them.
10. Sometimes the Persians intrude into the dwellings of the Jews
and take possession of whatever pleases them. Should the owner make the least
opposition in defence of his property, he incurs the danger of atoning for it
with his life.
11. Upon the least dispute between a Jew and a Persian, the former
is immediately dragged before the Achund [religious authority], and, if the
complainant can bring forward two witnesses, the Jew is condemned to pay a
heavy fine. If he is too poor to pay this penalty in money, he must pay it in his
person. He is stripped to the waist, bound to a stake, and receives forty blows
with a stick. Should the sufferer utter the least cry of pain during this
proceeding, the blows already given are not counted, and the punishment is
begun afresh.
12. In the same manner the Jewish children, when they get into a
quarrel with those of the Mussulmans, are immediately led before the Achund,
and punished with blows. (13. A Jew who travels in Persia is taxed in every inn
and every caravanserai he enters. If he hesitates to satisfy any demands that
may happen to be made on him, they fall upon him, and maltreat him until he
yields to their terms.
14.If, as already mentioned, a Jew shows himself in the street
during the three days of the Katel (feast of mourning for the death of the
Persian founder of the religion of Ali) he is sure to be murdered.
15. Daily and hourly new suspicions are raised against the Jews,
in order to obtain excuses for fresh extortions; the desire of gain is always
the chief incitement to fanaticism.
From “The Jews of Islam” by
Bernard Lewis)
1864: Jacob and Amalia Freud gave birth to Pauline “Pauli” Regine,
the sister of Sigmund Freud.
1866(18th of Iyar, 5626): Lag B’Omer
1868: The New York Times reports that “many English papers
have taken pleasure in describing Mr. Disraeli as an apostate Jew. In simple truth he is neither one nor the
other, in a religious point of view. His
father (Isaac Disraeli) and his mother were Hebrews both of Portuguese
parentage. Benhamin was never instructed
in Judaism, because of some quarrel his father had with his synagogue. When he was about six years old, Rogers, the
banker and poset, came to visit Disraeli, the author and finding a bright boy,
without religious instruction, too him by permission of his father to own
church. He was therefore brought up in
the English Church, and has a least as good a right to the name ‘Christian’ as
most of his fellow M.P’s.”
1871: “Murder Will Out” published today described the events
surrounding the retrial of Antoine Maurer who is accused of killing a German
Jew named Joachim Feurter. Maurer’s
first conviction had been over-turned on appeal. The motive for the murder may have been tied
to money that the killer owed the deceased.
1871(12th of Iyar, 5631): Sixty-eight year old
philologist Eduard Munk, the cousin of Salomon Munk, who was a disciple of
August Böckh passed away today Gross Glogau.
1872: Today, Levy Rheinberg was buried today at the “West Ham
Jewish Cemetery.”
1872: “”A War of Sects” an article published today described a
riot that had taken place in Smyrna between Greeks and Jews. The fighting began after it had been reported
that the Jews “had sacrificed an infant” as part of “their religious
ceremonies.” According to these reports
several people had been killed and wounded.
While the riot had stopped for the time being, troops had been ordered
to the city to prevent a renewal of the violence.
1873(6th of Iyar, 5633): Parashat Tazria-Metzora
1873: Theodor Herzl’s Bar
Mitzvah (No, I do not know who catered the Kiddush)
https://jewishcurrents.org/may-3-bar-mitsve-theodor-herzl
1873: “An Appeal for Hebrew Children” published today sought
contributions from New Yorkers to provide Jewish orphans and students at the
Hebrew free schools with an opportunity “to have a few holidays and enjoy
recreation by the sea-side” during the upcoming summer months.
1874: Isaac S. Isaacs, Adolph L. Singer and Oscar S. Straus were
among those elected to the Board of Directors of the newly formed Young Men’s
Hebrew Association. Lewis May was chosen
as the first president.
1874: YMHA constitution was approved today.
1876: Birthdate of Polish native Adolph Sieroty, the future
Californian who married Bertha F. Brown and after being married to Maye W.
Brown and who was the father of Julian and Perahta G. Sieroty.
1877: This evening, the Right Rev. Charles Perry, D.D. is
scheduled to preach the annual sermon at the meeting of the London Society for
Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews.”
1877: In Bremen, Germany, Ida and Nathan Abraham gave birth to
Karl Abraham, the German psychoanalyst who worked with Sigmund Freud.
1877: “The Hebrews in Romania” described attempts by the Board of
Delegates of American Israelites to have the President intercede on behalf of
Jews of Bucharest and parts of the realm of Prince Charles who have been
subjected to a series of unthinkable “barbarities.”
1878(30th of Nisan, 5638) Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1878(30th of Nisan, 5638): Seventy-four-year-old Shinah
Etting the Maryland born daughter of Rachel Gratz and Solomon Etting who were
married in 1791 passed away today.
1878: In the Ukraine, “Paltiel Nochim and Miriam (Borodinsky)
Edlin gave birth to Stanford University educated journalist William Edlin, the
husband of Pauline Zlotzovsky who worked for such publications as the Jewish
Daily Forward, The Jewish Morning Journal and The Day before becoming the
national executive secretary of Keren Hayesod in 1925.
1882: The Czar gave his approval to series of anti-Semitic
regulations proposed by Count Ignatiev known collectively as the “May Laws.
1884(8th of Iyar, 5644): Parashat Achrei Mot – Kedoshim
1884: In St. Louis, MO Adolph and Henrietta Ungar gave birth to
Arthur Arnold Unger a trustee of the University of Miami (FL) and officer on
the Orange Bowl Committee that oversaw this annual New Year’s football game who
was the husband of Marcella Ungar.
1885(18th of Iyar, 5645): Lag BaOmer
1885: Forty-five year Sally Sanford Mordecai passed away.Sally was the daughter of Brigadier General William Murray
and Sally "Eveleth" Maynadier. She married General Alfred Mordecai,
II. They were the parents of five children. Her father-in-law was a ranking
solider in the U.S. Army prior to the Civil War who resigned rather than take
up arms against his Southern family members or the country that he had sworn to
protect. Her husband had no such qualms
and served with distinction during the Civil War.
1886: The National Rabbinical Convention, an organization of
Reform clergyman, is scheduled to meet today in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1891: “Russian Jews” published today opened with the statement
that “Every American will be glad to see the announcement of a scheme to
colonize the Jews who are expelled from the Czar’s dominions on an immense
tract” of land in Argentina. The project
is being underwritten by Baron Hirsch.
According to the article, the United States already has too many Jewish
immigrants from Russia. The Russian Jews
are described as impoverished, ignorant, a burden on society and a mass who
will never assimilate into American life. The article ends by stating that “it
is noteworthy that all other civilized countries share our dislike to
entertaining the victims of the Czar’s cruelty…”
1891: It was reported today that Russian Jewish immigrants are
arriving in the United Kingdom at the rate of nearly 18.000 per year.
1892: Birthdate of Montreal native Dr. Jacob Viner the graduate of
McGill University and Harvard who was a long-time Professor Economics at the
University of Chicago.
1892: The cornerstone for a new facility to house the youngsters
in the care of Hebrew Brooklyn Orphan asylum was laid today
1893: In Minsk, Chaim Joseph and Zive Lebe (Mandel) Levovitz gave
birth to Rabbi Rueben Levovitz, the husband of Zlate Kustonowitz who “during
World War acted as the representative of the Wilnar Barnch of the American
Relief Association and who was a member of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the
U.S. and Canada and the Rabbinical Board of New York City.
1894: Council No.5 of the National Council Jewish Women was formed
in Newark, NJ, with a membership of 91 led by President Gratta and Secretary
Maybaum.
1894: “Mourners’ Prayers will be delivered” tonight at the home of
the family of Jesse Seligman, the banker, philanthropist and lead of the Jewish
community who died unexpectedly and whose funeral was which was attended by
over 2,000 people was held yesterday at Temple Emanuel where Cantor Sparger and Rabbis Silberman and
Gottheil officiated at the service.
1895: In New York, Governor Morton gave executive approval to a
proposal by Assemblyman Steinberg “authorizing the sale of certain lands to the
Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York City which the city of New York has heretofore
conditionally transferred to that institution.”
1895: In Vienna, Lili Mueller and Dr. Herman Carl Mark who
converted to Lutheranism when he got married gave birth to Herman Francis Mark
“the American chemist known for his contributions to the development of polymer
science.
1895: In Posen, Joseph and Clara Kantorowicz gave birth to
Professor Ernst Hartwig Kantorowicz whose service in the German Army during
World War I led him to give up running the family’s distillery business and
pursue and a career in academia.
https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/2656/a-dashing-medievalist/
1895: “The Holy Land Illustrated” published today
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00915F73A5416738DDDAA0894DD405B8585F0D3
1897: Two days after she had passed away, 64 year old August
Glensnick, the wife of Jacob Glensnick and the mother of Philip and Mordecai
Glesnick was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery” in London.
1897: In Germany, Samuel Weil and Maichen Weil gave birth to Ida
Sara Krebs
1898(11th of Iyar, 5658): In Kiev, Blume Neiditch and Moshe
Mabovitch gave birth to Golda Mabovitch, the sister of Sheyna and Tzipke
Mabovitch, who gained fame Golda Mier whose life reads like one of those grand
literary sagas of which television mini-series are made. Born in Kiev,
Ukraine, she experienced Pogroms before coming to America with her
family. As an act of teenage rebellion she fled from her home in
Milwaukee to join her sister in Denver. She moved back to Milwaukee to
become a school teacher. After hearing the recruiting pitch for the
Jewish Legion, Ms. Meirson (she Hebraized her name to Meir after the creation
of the state of Israel in response to pressure from David Ben Gurion) decided
to join the settlers in Palestine. She was an ardent Zionist as well as
socialist which, from an ideological point of view, made her an ideal candidate
for life on a kibbutz. Mrs. Meir, whose name was Meyerson at the time,
became increasingly active in the leadership of the Yishuv. She had a leading
role in raising funds from American Jews to buy arms for the underground Jewish
military units before 1948. Disguised as Bedouin, she met with the King
of Jordan in an attempt to avert hostilities in 1948. Her story of
Simchat Torah in Moscow after the creation of the state of Israel is an
inspirational classic. She was Foreign Minister and finally became
the “fourth Prime Minister of
Israel. She served from 1969 through 1974, a period that included the Yom
Kippur War. She passed away in 1978, having lived to see Sadat's historic
trip to Jerusalem. They met, not as former adversaries, but as
grandparents. Golda, as she was known to all, had a gift for Sadat's
grandchild.
1898: Following the start of the Spanish-American War, The Cleveland (Ohio) Leader reported
that “the Jews of the United States through the active efforts of those in Ohio
may contribute a sum sufficient to purchase a warship for the United States
Government.
1898: “Russian Jews to the Front” published today described
efforts to have at least 5,000 mostly recent immigrants enlist in the U.S. Army
led by Nathan Straus who “said that heroism and devotion to duty marked the
course of Jewish history.”
1899: Governor Theodore Roosevelt signed into law a bill
“providing for the consolidation of the Educational Alliance and the Hebrew
Free School Association of New York City.
1900: Herzl has a meeting with Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von
Koerber. At the request of the Prime Minister, Herzl drafts Koerber's
"Language Bill" speech. Herzl agreed to draft the speech as part of
his campaign to get the Austrian Prime Minister to help arrange an audience
with the Sultan of Turkey.
1900: The week-long convention of the Independent Order of B’nai
B’rith which had been meeting at the Auditorium Hotel in Chicago came to a
close tonight. The convention voted to
create a new position of Chancellor which “will have supervision of lodges” in
Europe and Asia. The President and the
Board of Directors will continue to control the lodges in Canada and the United
States. Leon Levy of New York was
elected President and Julius Bien of New York was elected Chancellor. The next
convention will take place in New Orleans in 1905.
1901(14th of Iyar, 5661): Pesach Sheni
1901: “One thousand bakers belonging to the Hebrew Bakers’ Union
were ordered” to go on strike today “at a mass meeting” six months after their
last strike as they demand an agreement for “a ten-hour workday and a six-day
working week.”
1902(26th of Nisan, 5662): Parashat Achrei Mot
1902: It was reported today that J.F. Taylor and Company will be
publishing In the Gates of Israel by Herman Bernstein.
1902: It was reported today that “a second revised edition of
Nahida Remy’s “The Jewish Woman,” translated by Mrs. Louise Mannheimer, with a
preface by Professor Dr. Lazarus is announced by Jennings and Pye of
Cincinnati, OH.
1902: Herzl wrote to the Sultan of
Turkey appealing for the establishment of a Jewish university in
Palestine. “The idea of a Jewish
university, and all that such a university implied, quickly became an integral
part of Zionist thinking.
1902: It was reported that Russian
Jews make up “quarter of a million” of the population of New York City.
1903; Birthdate of Irish Louis
Nathan Cohen, the husband of “Edith Greenlee Saunders Cohen” and he father of
Joyce and Philip Nathan Cohen”
1903: “First Mission to Colony of
Chinese Orthodox Jews” published today described “preparations for the first
ever mission to the Chinese Jews.”
1903: Twenty-three-year-old NYU trained attorney, the New York born son
of Philip and Rebecca (Falk) Davidson who during WW I would serve as a “Major
command the 2nd Battalion, 10th Regiment of the New York
Police Reserve and as a Captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Reserve
married Balance Reinheimer today in New York City.
1903: Birthdate of “French
philosopher and Marxist theoretician” Georges Politzer.
1904(18th of Iyar,
5664): Lag B’Omer
1904: A cable dispatch to the Times of London from Vienna dated today
says, “According to Jewish journal published in Lemberg, Galicia, anti-Jewish
excesses took place” on Saturday, April 30 “at Bender, in Bessarabia while the
most of the Jews were attending Shabbat Services. Five people were killed and many were wounded
as the mobs attacked shops and homes because they believed the war with Japan
was somehow part of an Anglo-American and Jewish act to avenge the pogrom at
Kishinev.
1904: One day after he had passed
away, Samuel Bernstein, the son of Elias and Sarah Bernstein was buried today
in the UK.
1904: Chicago College of Medicine
Surgery and University of Vienna trained otolaryngologist William Maurice Smit,
the
St. Louis, born son of Ella Lewellen and Horris H. Smit who
specialized in “diseases of the ear nose of throat” while practicing medicine
in St Louis where he was a member of Congregation Shaare Emeth married Sylvia
Lucille Goldberg today.
1905: As violence rocked the Czar’s
empire, “there were practically no disturbance yesterday in the Jewish cities
of Soutwestern Russia, dispatches today that the people are in a state of
panic.
1906: Approximately, “$35,000 was
received today for the joint fund of the Mayor’s committee and the Red Cross
organization at the office of Jacob H. Schiff who is Treasurer of both.”
1907: In San Francisco, Mortimer
and Florence Isabelle Fleishhacker gave birth to banker and WW II veteran
Mortimer Fleishhacker, Jr, the husband of Janet Fleishhacker
https://nobhillgazette.com/how-green-are-your-gables/
1908: “Joseph Cowen of London, one
of the leaders of the Zionist movement…told a large audience at Clinton Hall”
tonight “of the progress that the movement is making” word of which was greeted
with “enthusiastic applause.”
1909: Fire destroys part of the Haskoy, the Constantinople Jewish
quarter. Five hundred Jews are left homeless.
1909(12th of Iyar, 5669): Ninety-seven year old David Woolf Marks,
the first Rabbi of London’s Reform Synagogue passed away.
https://www.oztorah.com/2008/10/professor-marks-the-oral-law-controversy/#.WupazkxFx9A
1910: In Boston, MA, Sam Corwin and his wife gave birth to Norman
Lewis Corwin
1911:Dr. Solomon Schechter, the President of the Jewish
Theological Institute, who has just returned from an eleven months' vacation,
said tonight that he had been spending most of the time resting. His mind has
been active, however, if his pen has not, and he has already thought of a
subject for another book which is to deal with the Jew in Northern Africa.
1912: Vittoli Effendi Fradji of Constantinople, Ezekiel Effendi
Sassoon of Baghdad, Nissim Effendi Mazliach of Smyrna and Emanuel Effendi
Karasa of Salonica are all re-elected to the Turkish parliament.
1913(26th of Nisan, 5673): Parashat Kedoshim
1913: Today twenty-four year old Columbia University alum Samuel Blitz,
the Lemberg born son of Hirsch and Yetta Blitz and the Secretary of the Zionist
Council of Greater New York and who, as an organizer for the ZOA “traveled
throughout the U.S. and Canada, visiting nearly every Jewish community in both
countries” married Amelia Hirsch.
1913: Rabbi Felix Levy conducted services at Temple Emanuel in
Chicago.
1913: Rabbi Julius Rapport conducted services at Temple Beth El in
Chicago.
1913: In Vienna, Felix and Else Kohut gave birth to Heinz Kohut an
Austrian-born American psychoanalyst best known for his development of Self
psychology, an influential school of thought within
psychodynamic/psychoanalytic theory which helped transform the modern practice
of analytic and dynamic treatment approaches. (For more see, Heinz Kohut:
The Making of a Psychoanalyst by Charles Strozier)
1913: It was reported today that “A.L. Tribourg a Sioux City, Iowa
attorney has been elected President of the Board of Public Libraries.
1913: It was reported today that Rabbi Emanuel Sternheim of
Greenville, Mississippi, has been elected a member of the International Society
of the Apocrypha in England.
1913: In what might be viewed as an early celebration of his 70th
birthday, Dr.
Kaufmann Kohler who served as Rabbi of Temple Beth-El for 24 years and is now
Rabbi Emeritus was honored by more than 500 friends and congregants at this
morning’s Shabbat services.
1913:
This evening, the Eastern Council of Reform Rabbis hosted a banquet honoring
Dr. Kaufmann Kohler, the President of the Hebrew Union College.
1913:
In New York, the Jewish Forum at Columbia University is scheduled to host a
reception in honor of Professor Richard Gottheil.
1914:
“Oscar S. Strauss, the former Secretary of Commerce and Labor and former
Ambassador to Turkey, delivered a speech tonight at the Brooklyn Young Men’s
Hebrew Association where he “declared that the origin of republican
institutions in American must sought in the Puritan ideals of the Old Testament
commonwealth” and continued they took their spirit “from the history of the
children of Israel from Joshua to Saul.”
1915:
It was reported today that Louis D. Brandeis has publicly declared that
“Disabilities are imposed upon the Jews in Russia where they are denied the
freedom to move about, the right to own land the rights fundamental to the
pursuit of life, liberty and happiness” and that “to win these rights is the
only solution for the Jewish problem for any other solution involves suicide
and death to Jewish aspirations.”
1915:
It was reported today that under the auspices of Baron de Hirsch Fund, “Jews
have been sent to 1,700 different communities in the United States and Canada
where working conditions were more suited to them than was the case in the
congregated districts like New York City” and that “in 15 years 70,000 Jews
have been sent West.”
1915: Solomon Rabinowitz, who writes under the name
of Sholom Aleichem, was the guest of honor at tonight’s annual meeting of the
Educational Alliance where the keynote addressed was given by Jacob H. Schiff.
1915:
In Chicago, following the formation of a Leo M. Frank Committee it was
announced that a mass meeting will be held at the Powers Theatre to protest
against the execution of Leo M. Frank.
1915:
Acting on behalf of the state of Georgia, “Solicitor General Dorsey applied
today to Judge Hill for a writ of habeas corpus directing the immediate
presence of Leo M. Frank in court for resentence to death as the slayer of Mary
Phagan” and Judge Hill announced, in response, “that he would take no action on
the petition before the mandate of the United States Supreme Court is handed
down.”
1915:
President Ralph A. Newman was the toastmaster at the seventh annual dinner of
the Harvard Menorah Society which was attended by approximately 200 men at the
Hotel Lenox in Boston, MA.
1916(30th
of Nisan, 5676): Rosh Chodesh Iyar
1916(30th
of Nisan, 5676): Sixty-eight year old Chamber of Commerce member Isaac Barron
passed away today in Shreveport, LA.
1916:
In Hot Springs, AR, dedication of the Leo N. Levi Memorial Hospital
1916: In a marriage of two labor activists in the garment industry,
Bessie Abramowitz married Sidney Hillman. She became Bessie Abramowitz Hillman.
1916: In the conflict between the owners of the renovated Rialto
Theatre which included Felix Kahn of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., and Oscar
Hammerstein, “the theatre said that the rooms desired by Mr. Hammerstein were
to be used by the press department and that the agreement that Hammerstein was
to occupy the rooms was drawn by himself and was unsigned.”
1916: In responding to a proposal made by the Reform Rabbis to
remove “The Merchant of Venice” from the New York City Sir Hebert Tree was
reported to have said today that “The Jews today are perhaps the most potent
race on the earth. Surely they can
afford not to be too sensitive of criticism.”
“To banish Shylock from the stage would be to banish one of the most
important characters of Shakespeare’s Genius” especially since “he gave Shylock
the domestic virtues and vices of his race, those vices which had been called
forth by the oppression of the Middle Ages.”
1917(11th of Iyar, 5677): Twenty-eight year old Captain of
Artillery Maxime Charles Gustave Berr, the son of Louis Lehmann Berr and
Henriette Alice Berr and the husband of Claire Andrée Clarisse Sara Berr died
while serving in the French Army during WW I.
1917: In Russia, “the Jews of Constanigrad have signed $5,000,000
rubles for the liberty loan.
1917: Abraham Isaac "Abe" Shiplacoff’s resolution
requesting “Woodrow Wilson to reconsider his appointment of Elihu Root as head
of the United States Commission to Russia” was “hooted down by the members of
the” the New York State Assembly.
1917: “Samuel Untermyer, speaking tonight at Cooper Union to 3,000
member of the Jewish League of American Patriots deplored he selection of Elihu
Root as the head of the proposed American commission to Russia on the ground
that Mr. Root was not in sympathy with and no understanding of Jewish
aspirations and problems” and that while “he did not advocate his removal…he
suggested that the President might was to appoint some representative Jew to
its membership.
1917: Birthdate of Patricia M. Brodkin, the wife of producer and
director Herbert Brodkin.
1918: In Vienna, “The Christian Socialist deputies in the
Reichsrath introduced an interpellation demand the establishment of a
percentage limitation for Jewish students in all higher educational
institutions” while other deputies are calling for limiting the number of
Jewish students to three per cent.
1918: In Camden, NJ, the ten teams working to add additional
members to the Young Women’s Hebrew Association and the Young Men’s Hebrew
Association showed renewed vigor tonight when they found out that work will
soon be starting on the construction of a new home for the two organizations.
1918:
In Greece, a newly enacted law which had a negative impact on the owners of
property that had been destroyed led to many Jews leaving for the United
States, France, Italy and Egypt. Many of
these Jews had lost their property in the great fire of August 17, 1917
1919(3rd
of Iyar, 5679): Parashat Kedoshim
1919(3rd
of Iyar, 5679): Sixty-eight-year-old Alexander Weinberg, the Westphalia born son
of Abraham Bendix Weinberg and Fiekchen Sophia Weinberg and husband of Elise
Weinberg passed away today in Hanover, Germany.
1919:
In Chicago, Rabbi Abram Hirschberg conducted services at Temple Sholom.
1919:
In Chicago Rabbi Joseph Hevesh conducted services at Temple Anshe Emes.
1919:
In Chicago, Rabbi Julius Rapport conducted services at Temple Beth El.
1919:
As the German government sought to bring down the Bavarian Soviet Republic, the
army “assisted by the Freikorps” retook Munich where they killed and arrested
many of the revolutionaries including Eugen Leviné
1919:
Birthdate of Irish gynecologist and family planning pioneer Dr. Michael
Solomons.
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/pioneer-of-family-planning-1.987726
1919:
After attending the final meeting of the American Academy of Political and
Social Scientists in today in Philadelphia, Mrs. Nathaniel E. Harris, the
President of the Council of Jewish Women went to Cincinnati to attend the 25th
anniversary celebration of the Cincinnati Section of the Council of Jewish
Women.
1919:
In Manhattan, musicologist Charles Seeger and concert violinist Constance de
Clyver Edson Seeger gave birth to folk singer and social activist Peter “Pete”
Seeger.
1920:
In Vienna, the university remained closed “owing to anti-Semitic demonstrations
by German Nationalist students” who drove “the Jewish students from the lecture
halls and classrooms.”
1921:
It was reported today that the Jewish newspapers in Poland estimate that there
were five hundred casualties among the Jewish Socialists who clashed with
police on May Day, while “Polish newspapers” estimate that about twenty persons
were hurt during May Day “when Polish and Jewish Socialists held
demonstrations” and according to the police they occurred only “where Jews attempted
to scatter anti-Government propaganda.”
1922(5th
of Iyar, 5682): Seventy-four year old Alice Charlotte von Rothschild, the
“eighth and youngest child of Anselm von Rothschild passed away today.
1923:
In Palestine, filming of “Palestine Awakening” written by American Zionist
William Topkis (As reported by David Geffen)
1924:
Aleph Zadik Aleph, popularly known as AZA is formed in Omaha, Nebraska by Sam
Beber.
1924:
In Detroit, Simon and Freda Singer, immigrants from Russia who spoke only Yiddish”
gave birth to Isadore Manuel Singer “who unified large areas of mathematics and
physics in becoming one of the most important mathematicians of his era,” and
the winner of “the National Medal of Science in 1983 and the Abel Prize in
2004, often considered the Nobel of mathematics.”
1924:
Birthdate of Ludewig Pfeuffer, the native of Wurzberg whose family moved to
Petah Tivkva when he was eleven and who gained fame as prize winning poet
Yehuda Amichai.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/yehuda-amichai
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/01/04/like-a-prayer#
1925:
President Calvin Coolidge helped dedicate the cornerstone of the Washington,
D.C. Jewish Community center.
1926: Birthdate of dramatist Herbert Blau
1926:
In the same year it was released in the United States, “She” a fantasy film
directed and produced by G.B. Samuelson with music by Louis Levy was released
in Finland today.
1926(13th
of Iyar, 5686): Seventy five year old Oscar Solomon Straus who became the first
Jewish Cabinet Secretary when he served as Secretary of Commerce and Labor
under Teddy Roosevelt, passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Oscar_Straus.html
1927:
“A Night in Spain” a review with music by Side Silvers opened at the 44th
Street Theatre today.
1927:
In Brooklyn, Sidney Lazarus and the former Frances “Frankie” Mushkin gave birth
to cartoonist Melvin Lazarus.
1927:
In Germany, Michael and Toni Lehmann gave birth to Horst Lazard Lehman who came
to the United States with his family in 1938 where he graduated from high school,
served in the Army and pursued a career as Rabbi in the Reform movement.
1928:
“Show Boat,” the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical based on the novel by
Edna Ferber premiered for the first time in London at the Theatre Royal, Drury
Lane.
1928:
According to reports published today, the employment picture is improving after
an 18 month slowdown. Among the causes
for the improvement are the growth of the orange industry, improving conditions
in businesses located in Tel Aviv including textiles, chocolate and box making
and the construction work on the Rutenberg hydroelectric concession on the
Jordan River near the Sea of Galilee.
1928(13th
of Iyar, 5688): Isabel Caroline Steinfeld, the daughter of Martha Levy and
Maurice Steinfeld passed away today in Madison, Wisconsin.
1929:
“Inherited Passions” “a silent drama film” starring Maria Matray was released
in Germany today.
1929:Jews praying at the
Western Wall are attacked by Arabs.
1930: “The Big
Pond,” featuring music by Irving Kahal, Al Sherman and Sammy Fain was released
today in the United States.
1931: The
Baltimore drive of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee which began on
April 26 came to an end today.
1931:
Birthdate of Joseph LIchtman, the native of Brooklyn who gained fame as dancer,
choreographer and director Joe Layton.
http://archives.nypl.org/the/18398’
1932(27th
of Nisan, 5692): Sixty-five year old Lee Kamioner, the native of Germany,
Colorado silver miner and Denver clothing merchant and Democratic Alderman who
at the age of thirty came to New York where he founded the Hub Clothing
Company, became a real estate owner and a philanthropist supporting the
Convalescent Homer for Hebrew Children.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1932/05/05/100731196.pdf
1933: In New
York City court stenographer Frederick Weinberg and the former Eva Israel gave
birth to Steve Weinberg, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979,
supporter of Israel who expressed his views in “an essay title ‘Zionism and
Cultural Adversaries’” and husband of U.T. law professor Louise Weinberg.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1979/weinberg-bio.html
1934: In
Alexandria, Egypt Sarah and Nessim Mustacchi gave birth to singer/songwriter
Georges Moustaki
1934(18th
of Iyar, 5694): Lag B’Omer
1934(18th
of Iyar, 5694): Fifty-nine year old Samuel Elfenbein, “the son of Rosa and
Moses Elfenbein” passed away today in Brunswick, GA.
1934: “A three-day celebration of the 25th
anniversary of the founding of Tel-Aviv…culminated today with a tribute to the
veteran 72 year old founder and present Mayor, Meyer Dizengoff. More than 10,000 school children marched
through the streets to the municipal building carrying baskets of flowers,
where were presented to the Mayor. Two
new streets were named for him and his late wife, despite his protests that he
was unworthy of such an honor.”
1934: The
trial of Abba Ahimeir, Abraham Stavsky and Ze'evi Rosenblatt the three men
accused of murdering Dr. Chaim Arlosoroff, Jewish Labor party leader, at
Tel-Aviv last June, reopened today with the court ruling against the request of
Horace Samuel, counsel for the defense, to strike out evidence resulting from
police line-ups in which the three accused were identified. Samuel contended
that the police had “guided Mrs. Arlosoroff” in identifying the accused.
1935:
Birthdate of businessman Ron Popeil who gained fame and fortune with Ginsu
knives and “Mr. Microphone.”
1935:
Arguments before the Supreme Justices including Louis Brandeis and Benjamin
Cardozo in the case of “A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States,”
continued for a second and final day.
1935:
In Chicago, Sadelle and Sid Siegel, a grocer, who moved the family and grocery
business to Miami in 1945, gave birth to David Siegel, the founder of Westgate
Resorts, Ltd.
1935:
For the second day in a row, temperatures in Palestine reach 104 degrees “in
the shade.” The coastal settlements and
cities, including Tel Aviv were most affected by the unusual heat wave. Temperatures in Palestine average 65 in May
and 74 during July and August. In modern
times, the temperature record belongs to a day in August 1881 when the
thermometer reached 112.
1936:
This morning “junior member of the religious school of Congregation Emanu-El”
in New York, presented a pageant “The Ten Commandments” in commemoration of the
upcoming celebration of the festival of Shavuot which “marks the giving of the
commandments to Moses.”
1936:
Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr. made his first appearance at
public dinner in New York in three years when he joined 750 other people in
paying tribute to Judge Lehman at dinner tonight at the Hotel Astor where his
sixtieth birthday celebration was combing with honoring his 15 years of service
as President of the Jewish Welfare Board.
1936:
Today, as the Arab strike enters into its 12th day, the stoppage is
holding firm everywhere except in Haifa “and the Jews who are most pessimistic
over the outcome of this unrest” “are keeping out of the Arab quarters” while
“going about their normal business.”
1936:
While speaking at a meeting of the B’nai B’rith at Atlantic City, NJ,
“Representative Samuel Dickstein of New York, the chairman of the House
Immigration, Naturalization and Deportation Committee declared that while the
Hitler government refused to meet its obligations to American bondholder, it
spent almost $32,000,000 to spread propaganda against the Jews in the United
States.”
1936:
The New York Times described the work
that has gone into building the soon-to-be opened modern water system that will
finally give Jerusalem a reliable supply of water. This is the culmination of a ten year effort,
the last two of which have resulted in the construction of four pumping
stations at Ra-el Ain, Latrun, Bab El Wad and Romna. Each of the pumping stations is at a
successively higher elevation. The work
was made all the more difficult by the topography of the Judean Hills and the
layers of hard work through which the workers had to dig.
1936:
Joseph C. Hyman Secretary of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
was reported to have issued a reassurance that although the Joint will continue
providing financial assistance and travel funds for those seeking to leave
Europe for Palestine, it will not be able to allocate additional funds because
of other demands with which it is dealing.
1937:
Rabbi Joseph Konvitz of Newark, president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in
the United States and Canada, said tonight, at opening the annual convention of
the Union of Orthodox Rabbis in the United States and Canada that “the present
Federal administration has set an example for believers in democracy
everywhere,
1938: The Flossenburg Concentration Camp became operational.
The camp was located in Germany and would be liberated by the Americans in
April, 1945. Several of the conspirators who sought to kill Hitler in
June, 1944, were executed at Flossenburg. These included the famous
Admiral Canaris whose diary has provided a treasure trove about German
activities during this period.
1939(14th
of Iyar, 5699): Pesach Sheni
1939:
Hoping to establish rapprochement with Nazi Germany, Soviet leader Joseph
Stalin replaces his Jewish commissar for foreign affairs, Maksim Litvinov, with
the less British-oriented Viacheslav Molotov.
The result of all this would be a non-aggression pact between the two
dictators in August of 1939 that would shock the world. At the same time it would give Hitler the
green light to invade Poland from the east.
The Soviets later invaded from the west and the two totalitarian butchers
shared in the spoils of Poland.
1939:
Just months before Hitler and Stalin signed the non-aggression pact that made
possible the start of WW II in Europe Stalin removed his Jewish Commissar for
Foreign Affairs, Maxim Litvinov, which facilitated the negotiations with the
Nazis.
1939: Ravensbruck, a concentration camp for women, was
established.
1939: The Budapest "Jewish Law" prohibits any
Hungarian Jew from becoming a judge, a lawyer a schoolteacher or a member of
the Hungarian parliament.
1940: At noon today, Illinois Congressman Adolph J. Sabath met
with President Roosevelt in the White House.
1940: Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter had lunch with President
Roosevelt in the White House this afternoon.
1941: Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring came to the Jeu de Paume
Museum in Paris1941: Time magazine published an article titled “Germany:
Problem in Subtraction” reported that The arithmetic that Hitler has taught to
Jews in the Third Reich has been the misery of subtraction. From all of them he
has taken something: privileges, property, homes, life. Simplest subtraction
has been the decrease of the Reich's Jewish population by emigration,
deportation and death.
Currently:
In
Germany—500,000 Jews minus 310,000 equals 190,000.
In
Austria—180,000 Jews minus 135,000 equals 45,000.
In
Czecho-Slovakia—185,000 Jews minus 25,000 equals 160,000.
Within
the last fortnight two sardine-packed trains left Vienna, as the Nazis applied
themselves again to this problem. Aboard each were more than 1,000 Jews bound
for limbo—the new barbed-wire ghetto near Lublin in Poland. Elsewhere sealed
trains crossed the border with more Jews (mostly very old and very young) for
the starved concentration camps of unoccupied France. From Vienna alone the
Nazis promised to dump five to twelve more trainloads a month. Hitler's final
solution to his problem in subtraction is zero—to be reached, according to the
most sanguine reports from Germany, in just six more weeks.http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851072,00.html#ixzz1L8yfn3rT
1942: Nazis required Dutch Jews to wear a Jewish star
1942(16th of Iyar, 5702): Sixty-two year old Posen
native Felix Pinner, the “economist and editor-in-chief of the Berliner
Tageblatt who came to the United States in 1939 died in Queens, New York City.
1943(28th
of Nisan, 5703): German troops in the "Aryan" section of Warsaw
arrest and kill 21 women who are Jewish or suspected of being Jewish.
1943(28th
of Nisan, 5703): A Jewish man named Rakowski, an underground leader at the
Treblinka death camp, is shot when currency intended to bribe Ukrainians to
help him and a few others escape is discovered in his barrack.
1944:
Today, less than two months after the Germans had invaded Hungary “the
ghettoization of Kolozsvár Jews began and was completed within one week.”
1944: The first of a number of new factories at Auschwitz opened
up in preparation to receive laborers from the deportation of Hungarian Jews.
New labor camps opened in Myslowice, Bobrek, and Sosnoweic in preparation for
the same action.
1944:
At Gleiwitz, Poland, near Auschwitz, Germans open a slave-labor plant for
production of "black smoke" for use in smoke screens.
1944(10th
of Iyar, 5704): Eighty-two year old Sadie American, the Chicago born daughter
of Amelia (Smith) American and German born businessman Oscar American, a
leading woman’s activist who was best known for co-founding and leading the
National Council of Jewish Women passed away today.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/american-sadie
https://jwa.org/people/american-sadie
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sadie-american
1944(10th
of Iyar): Poet Isaac Katzenelson murdered at Auschwitz
1944:
Mass inter-faither conferences held at Fort Monmouth and Camp Wood in near-by
Eatontown, NJ which were attended by 6,000 soldiers who heard “three speakers
representing the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish faiths” tell them “that groups
were at work in this nation today to place groups against group and religion
against religion and unless there was religious tolerance in the post-war world
there would be no lasting peace.”
1945:
Birthdate of Jeffrey Connor Hall, the Professor Emeritus of Biology at Brandeis
who “was awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.”
1945:
Fifty-eight year old Herbert Farjeon, a major figure in the world of British
theatre who was the son of Benjamin Leopold Farjeon passed away today.
1945(20th
of Iyar, 5705): Eighty year old Bernard Flexner, “the founder and first
president of the Palestine Economic Corporation” passed away today in New York
https://rbsc.princeton.edu/collections/bernard-flexner-papers
1945:
In the U.S. premiere of “The Valley of Decision” based on a novel by Marcia
Davenport who co-authored the script with Sonya Levien and filmed by
cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg.
1945:
At Mauthausan Concentration Camp, the task of guarding the camp was handed to a
police unit from Vienna.
1945:
Sam Pivnik and other former Fürstengrube prisoners, who had been marched to the
port of Neustadt were loaded today aboard the former German cruise ship Cap
Arcona which was being used as a prison ship for concentration camp inmates
along with the Thielbek, Athen and Deutschland
1945(20th
of Iyar, 5705): Sixty-seven year old Chicago native Elias Mayer the
Northwestern University trained lawyer who served as “secretary of the Council
of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds in the United States and a director of the
Jewish Charities of Chicago passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/05/06/313702492.pdf
1945(20th of Iyar, 5705): Approximately 9400 Jewish prisoners who had
been evacuated from Neuengamme and marched to Lübeck, Germany, are loaded by
their overseers onto two ships, the Thielbeck
and the Cap Arcona, apparently
for no other purpose but a Nazi hope that the Jews would die while on board.
British planes, unaware that the ships are not hostile, attack. Both ships sink
in the Lübeck harbor within 15 minutes. Survivors who attempt to swim to shore
are fired upon by waiting members of the Hitler Youth, Volkstrum, and the SS. Of the 9400 prisoners, only about 2400
survive
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Features/Death-on-the-Baltic
OR
1945(20th of Iyar, 5705): In the worst friendly-fire incident in
history - Britain's Royal Air Force killed more than 7,000 survivors of Nazi
concentration camps who were crowded onto ships in Lubeck harbor, Germany. The
ragged masses that had survived the Holocaust stood no chance against the guns
of their liberators. This tragic mistake occurred one day before the British
accepted the surrender of all German forces in the region. Reports of the
incident were quickly hushed up - as a jubilant world prepared to celebrate the
Allied victory in Europe. Despite the bitter irony of dying in hellish fires on
sinking ships just hours before liberation, the tragedy was quickly forgotten
or resolutely ignored. The anniversary of this dark day will soon pass by again
- largely unnoticed or unmentioned. By early May 1945, the rumors of Hitler's
suicide had rekindled hope for beleaguered prisoners in Nazi concentration
camps. The Red Army had just conquered Berlin; the British held Hamburg and
Americans were in Munich and Vienna. After surviving unspeakable horrors and
deprivations for years, the battered prisoners could finally dare to hope that
their day of deliverance was at hand. In the closing weeks of World War II,
thousands of prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg, the
Mittelbau-Dora camp at Nordhausen and the Stutthof camp near Danzig were
marched to the German Baltic coast. Most of the inmates were Jews and Russian
POWs, but they also included communist sympathizers, pacifists, Jehovah's Witnesses,
homosexuals, prostitutes, Gypsies and other perceived enemies of the Third
Reich. At the port of L beck almost 10,000 camp survivors were crowded onto
three ships: Cap Arcona, Thielbeck
and Athen. No one knew what the Nazis
were planning to do, or what plans the Allies had already set into motion.
Although the final surrender was imminent, British Operational Order No. 73 for
May 3 was to "destroy the concentration of enemy shipping in L beck
Bay." While thousands of camp prisoners were being ferried out to the
once-elegant Hamburg-Sud Amerika liner Cap
Arcona, the RAF's 263rd, 197th, 198th and 184th squadrons were arming their
Hawker Typhoon fighter-bombers with ammunition, bombs and rockets. At 2:30 p.m.
on May 3, at least 4,500 prisoners were aboard the Cap Arcona as the first attack began. Sixty-four rockets and 15
bombs hit the liner in two separate attacks. As the British strafed the
stricken ship from the air, Nazi guards on shore fired on those who made it
into the water. Only 350 prisoners survived. The Thielbeck - which had been flying a white flag - and the poorly
marked hospital ship Deutschland were
attacked next. Although Thielbeck was
just a freighter in need of repairs, it was packed with 2,800 prisoners. The
overcrowded freighter sank in just 20 minutes, killing all but 50 of the
prisoners. In less than two hours, more than 7,000 concentration camp refugees
were dead from the friendly fire. Two thousand more would have died if the
captain of the Athen had not refused
to take on additional prisoners in the morning before the attack. Most who were
familiar with the Cap Arcona disaster
believed that the Nazis intended to sink the ships at sea to kill everyone on
board. Hundreds of prisoners had already been killed on the forced marches from
the camps. In this case, however, RAF Fighter Command did their killing for
them. In the Cap Arcona/Thielbeck/Athen
disaster, the tragic deaths of so many who had suffered so much for so long
were quickly forgotten. After years of unprecedented bloodletting and
destruction, the nations involved were in shambles, their populations numbed by
suffering and death. The unfortunate victims who perished at the close of
history's worst conflagration were quickly lost in the fleeting euphoria of
peace. In 1945, at the close of the war in Europe, the victorious British and
their American allies did not want a media disaster overshadowing their V-E Day
celebrations. When the extent of the friendly-fire incident became known at
Westminster, the British government and Allied Command effectively prevented
most news of the disaster from spreading from Germany. Beyond war-weariness and
postwar jubilation, other factors conspired to ensure that the valiant
prisoners who died at the threshold of freedom would not be given much
attention in the world press. In a war in which the British had paid so high a
price to defeat the Nazis, to even criticize their forces was tantamount to
siding with the devil. Then postwar Germany quickly became one of the
"good guys" as an important frontline ally in the Cold War against
communism. As such, most Germans preferred not to draw attention to their own
war atrocities. Millions of Jews, Russians, Serbs, Poles and others had already
been killed by the Nazis. Tens of millions more were homeless refugees, with
many near starvation. The memory of 7,000 or 8,000 concentration camp survivors
killed by mistake would soon wash away in the tide of history in a violent age.
Britain has never officially apologized for its tragic mistake at L beck Bay,
nor has it honored the innocent victims with a proper memorial. The RAF records
of the disaster are sealed until 2045, one century after the attack. No British
government document has referred to the estimated 7,500 victims of its mistake.
In May 1990, Germany opened a two-room museum dedicated to the memory of the
victims of the Cap Arcona tragedy in
the small port city of Neustadt-in-Holstein. A memorial monument was erected on
the beach nearby at Pelzerhaken, where many of the bodies washed ashore and were
buried. Other monuments were erected along L beck Bay and at the Neuengamme
Camp Memorial southeast of Hamburg. Much has been written in German about the
tragedy, but surprisingly little about the Cap
Arcona has made it to the English press. On a recent visit to the memorial,
a helpful resident of Neustadt said to me: "So your family is
German?" I said, "No.""Oh, then you are Jewish?"
Again I said, "No." My new acquaintance looked puzzled. Eventually he
asked: "Well how could you possibly know about this?" I asked myself:
"Why did it take me a half century to find out?" A Jewish dental
student, Benjamin Jacobs, gives a firsthand account of the friendly fire attack
in The Dentist of Auschwitz (University of Kentucky Press, 1995). Along
with Eugene Pool, the Boston dentist also wrote The 100 Year Secret:
Britain's Hidden World War II Massacre (Lyons Press, 2004). Documentaries
on the subject, such as Lawrence Bond's Typhoons'
Last Storm, have had only limited publicity. According to legend,
Pheidippides was an Athenian herald who ran from the battlefield at Marathon to
Athens 2,500 years ago. After announcing the Greek victory over the Persians,
he allegedly died on the spot. The tale has been widely propagated by
organizers of modern athletic events. Surviving the horrors of concentration
camps - one day at a time - is in many respects like a marathon run. Mere
survival under such brutal conditions surely tested the endurance of both body
and spirit. And like the mythical runner, thousands of inmates made it all the
way to the end of their agonizing journeys only to perish at the finish line. A
half-century after the ill-fated air raid, we still know very little about the
Jews, the Russians and other prisoners who survived so much before dying on the
finish line in May 1945. By the time British records are unsealed in 2045, all
children and most grandchildren of the victims will be gone. Historians will
pore over the tragic details of the Cap
Arcona disaster with the same level of detachment that we now feel for
events such as the Franco-Prussian War or the siege of Sevastopol. There is no
question that the friendly-fire fiasco was a tragic error made during a routine
military operation. Despite the terrible consequences, few reasonable people
would condemn the British for their ill-fated raid. Some Hitler apologists have
even attempted to use such mistakes to blame the Allies for monstrous crimes
committed by the Nazis. Yet the continued avoidance of criticizing friends does
not justify shunning all mention of the innocent victims of the attack. Whether
embarrassing or not, the 7,500 Cap Arcona
victims deserve to be remembered.
1945: The Inspector General began an investigation in charges of
“alleged mistreatment” of German Guards at Dachau by U.S. soldiers.
1946: Today, Dr. Umberto Nahon a leader of the Italian Zionist
Organization said that the 1, 014 Jewish refugees who have been stranded at La
Spezia for the past month have agreed that none of them will leave for
Palestine until all of them have received visas so they can immigrate together.
1947(13th of Iyar, 5707): Parashat Achrei Mot-Kedoshm
1947: Since today has been designated as “United Jewish Appeal
Sabbath by the Synagogue Council of America” rabbis delivered sermons that
“stressed the needs of Europe’s 1,500,000 Jewish survivors and offered prayers
for the success of the $170,000,000 United Jewish Appeal campaign” designed to
alleviate their suffereing.
1948: The U.S. Supreme Court decided that deed covenants
prohibiting the sale of real estate based on race or religion are legally
unenforceable. This opened the doorway for Jews to move into many of what
had been “restricted” neighborhoods. In some places, effectively whole towns had
been off-limits to Jews. Realtors and
bigots would not go gently into the night and they found other creative ways to
try and excluded Jews. One of the most
elegant areas in Washington, D.C. was called Spring Valley, a restricted
subdivision that was home to Vice President Richard M. Nixon.
1948: The Supreme Court issued a decision in United States v.
Paramount Pictures, Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Paramount_Pictures,_Inc
1948(24th of Nisan, 5708): Sixty-three year old Hebron
native and JTS ordained rabbi, Raphael Melamed, the holder of a doctorate from
Dropsie College who had led Temple B’nai Israel in Elizabeth, NJ where he
worked “to foster better understanding between religious groups” passed away
today after suffering fatal heart attack.
1949: In New York, film executive David Raphel, the grandson of
Baron David de Gunzburg and his wife gave birth to American author Monique
Raphel High.
1949: Herbert Lehman, the former Governor of New York “who is on
an inspection tour for the American Joint Distribution Committee” will entrain
for Marseille today “where he will visit refugee camps and watch the
embarkation” of the first of the ten thousand displaced person going to Israel
during the month of May.
1950: The Indian League organized a meeting in memory of the late
Harold Laski during which Indian Prime Minister Nehru said: “It is difficult to
realize that Professor Harold Laski is no more. Lovers of freedom all over the
world pay tribute to the magnificent work that he did. We in India are
particularly grateful for his staunch advocacy of India's freedom, and the
great part he played in bringing it about. At no time did he falter or
compromise on the principles he held dear, and a large number of persons drew
splendid inspiration from him. Those who knew him personally counted that
association as a rare privilege, and his passing away has come as a great
sorrow and a shock.”
1951: Birthdate of Pierre Lellouche, the Tunisian born Jew who has
been active in French and European politics including serving as President of
the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
1951: A Treasury of Jewish Humor edited by Nathan Ausubel,
containing “in England stories, satires and witticisms from Jewish literature
is scheduled to be published today by Doubleday.
1952(8th of Iyar, 5712): Parashat Achrei Mot - Kedoshim
1952: The third event of the 15th annual Three Choir
Festival was presented” this “morning at Temple Emanu-El where the “motif of
the morning service which opened with organ preludes by Mark Silver and Ben
Haim” was “Song of American Israel and the Land of Israel.”
1953(18th of Iyar, 5713): Lag B’Omer
1953:
Today, the City College Library was dedicated to and named for CCNY, Columbia, Harvard
and NYU Law School trained philosophy professor Morris Raphael Cohen the
husband of Mary Ryshpan with whom he raised two children Leonora and
Felix S. Cohen.
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.MRCOHEN
1953: In Westbury, NY, Seymour and Joan Blecker gave birth to
Irene Blecker the holder of multiple degrees from Cornell gained fame as Dr.
Irene Blecker Rosenfeld, the CEO of Kraft Food and number 6 on “The Wall Street
Journal’s 50 Women to Watch list.”
1954: In Oakland, CA, Walter S. and Jean Scheib gave birth to
Walter Scheib III who grew up in Bethesda, MD to become the White House Chef
for Presidents Clinton and Bush.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/04/86569004.html?pageNumber=25
1955: “Major General Lucas V. Beau, national commander of the
Civil Air Patrol of the United States was feted today in Israel by the Israeli
air scouts.
1955: Funeral services are scheduled to be held today at “Park
West” for Bertha Adler, the wife of the late Isaac Adler.
1956(22nd of Iyar, 5716): Eighty-six year old Bohemian
born and Chicago College of Law trained attorney Joseph Sabath the long time
serving Superior Court Justice and husband of Regina Sabath with whom he raised
two children and who was the brother Congressman Adoph J. Sabath, “the dean of
the House of Representative when he died in 1952” passed away today.
1957: Walter O'Malley, the
owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agrees to move the team from Brooklyn, New York,
to Los Angeles, California. Because of Brooklyn’s large Jewish population, the
team had “tons” of Jewish fans. O’Malley was vilified for moving the team. Decades later, we found out that the O’Malley
wanted to keep the team in Brooklyn. He
was thwarted by Robert Moses who had his priorities for New York that included
a baseball park outside of Brooklyn that would become known as Shea
Stadium.
1957: The Anne Frank Foundation was established today in
cooperation with Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, with the primary aim of
collecting enough funds to purchase and restore the building. In October of
that year, the company who owned it donated the building to the Foundation as a
goodwill gesture.
1958: “Stakeout on Dope Street’ which marked the directorial debut
of Irvin Kershner was released in the United States today.
1958: Sofia Cosma, the Jewish pianist who ended being imprisoned
in Siberia when she was trying to escape the Nazis at the start of WW II,
performed for the first time in Lasi.
1958: In Copenhagen, Claus Toksvig and his wife gave birth to
Sandi Toksvig author of Hitler’s Canary, a novel set in Denmark during the
German occupation which tells the story of a family involved in the resistance
movement that helped to save the Danish Jews during WW II.
1959: Birthdate of Ben Elton, a London born comedian, author,
playwright and television director whose father was “of German-Jewish descent”
and whose mother was not.
1960: The Anne Frank House, a museum dedicated to Jewish wartime
diarist Anne Frank, opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1960(6th of Iyar, 5720): Seventy-nine year old Alfred Whital Stern
retired clothing executive and avid collector of Lincoln memorabilia passed
away in Chicago.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=FA0D11FF3D5C1A728DDDAC0894DD405B808AF1D3
1962(28th of Nisan, 5722): Eighty year old Russian
born, Morris Asofsky long time director of “the United Hias Service Morris
Asofsky, known as “The Voice of HIAS”
due to his long running program on WEVD and the husband of Flora Asofsky with
whom he had raised one daughter, passed away today in Tel Aviv.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/05/05/80389314.pdf
1969(15th of Iyar, 5729): Parashat Emor
1969(15th of Iyar. 5729): Seventy-nine year old
cinematographer Karl W. Freund whose work included the 1927 classic Metropolis
to the I Love Lucy television series.
1972: The Jane Collective which “began informally when Jewish
activist Heather Booth helped a friend find a safe abortion provided,” was
raided by Chicago police today.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/may/03/1972/jane-collective-raided-chicago-police
1973: “Touch Me in the Morning” one of the top singles of 1973
conceived of by songwriter and producer by Michael Masser was released today.
1973: Birthdate of Portland, OR native movie producer and
sportswriter Max Handled the University of Pennsylvania grad and AEPi brother
who wrote Why Fantasy Football Matters (And Our Lives Do Not) while raising a
family with his wife, actress Elizabeth Banks.
1975(22nd of Iyar, 5735): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1975(22nd of Iyar, 5735): Seventy Six year old Columbia grad and JTS
ordained Rabbi Elliot Burstein, the New
Haven, CT, born son of “Dr. S.P. and
Pauline (Berman) Burstein and the husband
of Charlotte Greenfield, who served Congregation Beth Israel for 42 years
passed away today.
1976: Thirty-three passers-by were injured when a booby-trapped
motor scooter exploded at the corner of Ben Yehuda and Ben Hillel Streets.
Among those injured were the Greek consul in Jerusalem and his wife. The
following day, on the eve of Independence Day, the municipality organized an
event at the site of the attack, under the slogan: "Nevertheless."
1976:
Paul “Simon put together a benefit show at Madison Square Garden to raise money
for the New York Public Library.”
1976: Pulitzer Prize awarded to Saul Bellow for Humboldt's Gift.
Born in Canada in 1915, Bellow moved to Chicago as a child in the 1920's.
A graduate of Northwestern University, where he was told to forget about
writing since no Jew could appreciate the English language. Before
becoming a successful writer, Bellow taught college, worked for the board of
the Encyclopedia Britannica and served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World
War II. His first novel was the Dangling Man. Humboldt's
Gift, which appeared in 1975, "was narrated in the first person. The
protagonist, Charlie Citrine, is a writer, rich and successful. But in his
heart he knows that he is a failure - he is under the thumb of a small-time
Chicago gangster, ruined by a divorce and finally abandoned by his mistress. He
admires his dead friend, Von Humboldt Fleischer, modeled on the poet Delmore
Schwartz (1913-1966). Humboldt, a talent wasted, represents for him all that is
important in culture. Citrine continues the series of Bellow's losers, from
Herzog to Sammler, but like his other novels, it is not gloomy, and finds a
comic side even in its protagonist's tragedy."
1978: Birthdate of Herzliya native and award winning actress and
singer Miri Mesika.
1978(26th of Nisan, 5738): Ninety-one year old Pinchas
Rosen, Israel’s first Minister of Justice passed away today.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70812FC395413728DDDAD0894DD405B888BF1D3
1979: Premiere of “Bent” a play by Martin Sherman that “revolves
around the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany.”
1980(17th of Iyar, 5740): Parashat Emor
1981: The New York Times
reported that The Israel Festival has been canceled for this summer. The
decision was made in order ''to spread festival events out over a greater
period of time, rather than concentrating them within a span of six weeks,''
according to a government spokesman. Instead there will be two smaller
festivals, the Spring in Jerusalem Festival and the Proms '81, both of which
will take place in Jerusalem.
1981: In
New York, light from hundreds of candles flickered on polished mosaic tile as
the sounds of the ghetto songs of decades ago echoed in Temple Emanu-El. As
they have for 10 years, thousands of Jews and non-Jews gathered to recall the
spirit of the Warsaw ghetto uprising of 1943
1981:
Beginning of Jewish Heritage Week in the United States as proclaimed by President
Ronald Reagan.
1981(29th
of Nisan, 5741): Seventy-nine year old tennis champion and winner of the bronze
medal in the shot-put passed away today in New York.
1985:
“Private Resort,” a comedy that marked the film debut of Rob Morrow was released
today in the United States.
1987: Saul
P. Steinberg and Barbara Steinberg, both of New York, have announced the
engagement of their daughter, Laura S. Steinberg, to Jonathan M. Tisch,
president of Loews Hotels who is a son
of Postmaster General Preston Robert Tisch and Mrs. Tisch of Washington and New
York.
1987:
Cardinal John O’Conner, Archbishop of New York “watched thousands march down
Fifth Avenue protesting the oppression of Soviet Jews” later joining the
protesters at a rally near the United Nations where told them, “As I stood on
the steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral this morning and watched you stream by, I
could only be proud of those who streamed out of Egypt several thousand years
ago, winning freedom for themselves and for all of us. They are your ancestors,
and they are mine… I am proud to be this day, with you, a Jew.” (What nobody
knew that day, including O’Connor was that his mother Dorothy Gumple O’Connor,
was born Jewish” and converted to Catholicism before she met and married his
father.)
1987:
Her Majesty Queen Beatrix officiated at the opening ceremony of the restored
synagogues which house the Jewish Historical Museum
1989:
Two Hamas terrorists disguised as Orthodox Jews kidnapped Pvt. Ilan Saadon on a
highway leading to Ashkelon, his hometown, and then on some unknown date
murdered him after which they tried to use his corpse as a bargaining chip.
1990:
NBC broadcast the final episode of season six of “The Cosby Show,” co-created
by Ed Weinberger.
1991(19th
of Iyar, 5751): Fifty-seven Jerzy Kosinksi author of Being There passed
away today
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/04/arts/jerzy-kosinski-the-writer-57-is-found-dead.html
1992:
In The Los Angeles Times, Charles
Solomon reviewed Blood and Banquets: A Berlin Diary 1930-1938 by Bella Fromm, the”daughter of a
prominent Jewish family, who was forced to begin working when her fortune
disappeared in the runaway inflation that wracked Germany after World War I. As
‘Frau Bella,’ the society columnist for the highbrow Berlin newspaper Vossische
Zeitung, she frequented the most exclusive circles” and it was this work that
provided the information for her book which has appeared in a paperback
edition.
1995(3rd of Iyar, 5755): Yom HaZikaron
1996: “The Pallbearer” a comedy produced by J.J.
Abrams and co-starring David Schwimmer, Michael Rapaport and Barbara Hershey
was released in the United States today.
1998:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Gertrude Stein: Writings 1903-1932 and Gertrude Stein:
Writings 1932-1946.
1998:
In “Garment District: Sheets, Towels and Prayers In One Stop”, published today Edward
Levine describes life in and around the Millinery Center Synagogue
2000:
When Lillie Steinhorn retired from the Social Security Administration today she
was the longest-serving federal employee on record.
2001:
President Bush meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in the Oval
Office.
2001:
In address to the American Jewish Committee, President Bush said “We will speak
up for our principles and we will stand up for our friends in the world. And
one of our most important friends is the State of Israel… [Israel] is a small
country that has lived under threat throughout its existence. At the first
meeting of my National Security Council, I told them a top foreign policy
priority is the safety and security of Israel. My Administration will be
steadfast in supporting Israel against terrorism and violence, and in seeking
the peace for which all Israelis pray.”
2002(21st
of Iyar, 5762): Sixty-five year old American lighting designer Martin Aronstein
whose works included such Broadway hits as “Cactus Flower and ‘How Now, Dow
Jones” passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/15/arts/martin-aronstein-65-designer-who-lighted-broadway-shows.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2002/jun/08/local/me-aronstein8
2002:
“Rebuilding a Community” published today described relations between the Jews
of Atlanta and those living in Cuba.
http://www.jewishcuba.org/atlantajt.html
2003(1st
of Iyar, 5763): Parashat Kedoshim; Rosh Chodesh Iyar
2003:
Jewish Jazz flautist Herbie Mann performed for the last the time at the New
Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
2003:
“Letters from the Dead” premiered at the Brooklyn International Film Festival
where the movie’s creator, Jewish-American filmmaker Ari Taub, was named Best
New Director.
2004:
Twenty year old Marine Corporal Dustin Schrage disappeared today with his team
May 3 while swimming across the Euphrates River in the Al Anbar province with
his team in Iraq.
2005:
Two days after she had passed away funeral service are scheduled to be held
today for Renee Wallach who served as the cantor at North Shore Synagogue in
Syoseet, NY for fourteen years.
2006(5th
of Iyar, 5766): Yom Ha’Atzmaut – Israel
Independence Day. In Israel, the
celebration of the 58th birthday began in the evening of May 2 with
a state torch-lighting ceremony on Jerusalem's Mount Herzl The ceremony also
marked the end of Memorial Day.
2006(5th
of Iyar, 5766): Eighty-two year old economist Mark Perlman passed away today.
https://www.utimes.pitt.edu/archives/?p=3169
2006:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
Israeli Independence Day has become a worldwide celebration. “From Los Angeles
to Budapest, Jews all over the world will be celebrating Israel's 58th
anniversary.
2006:
Final episode of “The Perfect Home” starring Alain de Botton, a descendant of
Abraham de Boton, was shown today
2007: The Center for Jewish History presents “TheMystery of the Kaddish” in which
Presidential advisor and television personality Leon Charney discusses how the
Kaddish became the most famous and familiar prayer in Jewish liturgy. He
discusses his new book which charts the origins and development of the
Mourner's Prayer against the full backdrop of Jewish history.
2007:
The Central Committee of the National Religious Party votes on a proposal to
open up the modern Orthodox party to Israeli’s who do not necessarily adhere to
religious strictures. This represents an attempt to increase the party’s
political power by tapping “into the large traditional, but not religious
sector, which is described as primarily Sephardim…”
2008(28th
of Nisan, 5768): Fifty-seven year old Hanon Reznikov, the co-founder of the
Living Theatre passed away today.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/theater/09reznikov.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&_r=0
2008:
A screening of “Sonderkommando” \ זונדרקומנדו takes place at
the Jerusalem Cinematheque.
2008:
London's new mayor, Boris Johnson, a pro-Israel Conservative lawmaker, was
sworn in after ousting the left-wing incumbent in a vote that capped the worst
local election results for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's party in four decades.
2009:
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts presents “Jerusalem City of Heavenly and
Earthly Peace” as part of the Jordi Savill Jerusalem series.
2009:
Annual AIPAC Policy Conference opens in Washington, D.C.
2009:
The Washington Post featured books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including “A
Failure of Capitalism: The Crisis of '08 and the Descent into Depression” by
Richard A. Posner.
2009:
The Excavations in the Roman Theater in Tiberias are being carried out In
Memory of Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Drori ז"ל, Founder of the Israel
Antiquities Authority
http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_eng.aspx?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1507&module_id=#as
2009:
The New York Times featured books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including the
recently released paperback editor of The German Bride by Joanna Hershon’s novel which “is set among the
German-born Jewish merchants and traders who settled in the American West in
the 19th century” featuring as the protagonist, the daughter of a Berlin banker
who travels to Santa Fe to marry a man who owns a dry goods business.
2009:Daniel Mark Epstein discusses and signs
Lincoln's Men: The President and His Private Secretaries at the Enoch Pratt
Free Library, in Baltimore, Maryland.
2010:
Gloria Mound, Director of the Casa Shalom-Institute for Anusim Studies in
Israel is scheduled to present a lecture entitled “A Certain Identity:
Crypto-Jews around the World” sponsored by the American Sephardi Federation.
2010:
In Washington, D.C Liaison Specialist Jason Steinhauer of the Library of
Congress Veterans History Project is scheduled to present a lecture and
discussion on the contributions, impact and legacy of the more than 550, 000
American Jewish military personnel who served during World War II during which
they received 52,000 decorations for gallantry
2010:
President Obama renewed the Syrian sanctions.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/obama050310.html
2011:
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington is scheduled to present
“Search for Survivors” during which Scott Miller, Director of Curatorial
Affairs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will describe “how two
researchers meticulously traced what happened to the passengers of the St.
Louis, a refugee-filled ship denied entry to the United States on the eve of
the Holocaust.”
2011:
Sixty-seven year old Fred Goldsmith who won Coach of the Year honors for his
work at Rice and Duke retired from the profession today.
2011:
Douglas Feith is scheduled to a lecture entitled “Jabotinsky: Enduring Insights
at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, MD.
2011:
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “In Her Hands: The
Education of Jewish Girls in Tsarist Russia.”
2011: Second and final episode of “Case Sensitive”
based on Sophie Hannah’s novel The Point of Rescue was broadcast on ITV.
2011:
The Consultation on Conscience, Reform Judaism's flagship social justice
conference is scheduled to hold its closing session today.
2011:
In Philadelphia, The Young Friends of the National Museum of American Jewish
History is scheduled to present “U.S.-Israel Relations: Truman to Obama,” a
program in recognition of Israel's Independence Day and Jewish American
Heritage Month.
2012:
In “Violin legend Zvi Zeitlin has died” published today Norman Lebrecht
described what him “the great violinist and teacher.
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/05/a-violin-legend-has-died.html
2012:
In London, the Wiener Library is scheduled to host “Death in Prague: Philip on
Prague Fatale” part of a series of events tied to the 70th
anniversary of the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.
2012:
Dr. Jonathan Sarna is scheduled to discuss his marvelous new book, When
General Grant Expelled the Jews, at the William G. McGowan Theater in
Washington, DC
2012:
Miriam Ungar organized a protest on behalf of her husband Jacob Ostreicher
opposite Bolivia’s United Nations mission. (As reported by Ben Sales)
2013:
“No Place on Earth” is scheduled to open in several cities including Austin,
Texas, Columbus, Ohio and Seattle, Washington.
2013:
Rabbi Sunny Schnitzer on guitar, noted Kabbalist Jay McCrensky on accordion,
and Karen Cole on bass are scheduled to lead a “gemach Carlebach” service at
Bethesda Jewish Congregation as part of
the Washington Jewish Music Festival.
2013:
“In an interview with Entertainment Tonight ‘Judge Judy’ Sheindlin stated,
"I have my walls full of Daytime Emmy Award nominations."
2013:
Noam Schey, Sam Stalkfleet, Elise Goodvin, Molly Lipman and Cameron Braverman
are scheduled to lead Confirmation Services which will be held for the first
time in the new sanctuary of Agudas Achim located in Coralville, Iowa
2013(23rd
of Iyar, 5773): Eighty-seven year old Herbert Blau the engineer turned
dramatist passed away today on his birthday. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/theater/herbert-blau-iconoclastic-theater-director-dies-at-87.html
2013:
IDF Gaza Division commander Brig.-Gen. Micky Edelstein said today that there
was "some degree of dialogue" between Israel and parties in Gaza to
prevent rocket fire from the coastal territory into southern Israel.
2013:
The Chinese government says it is willing to set up a meeting between the
Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president when the two leaders visit
Beijing next week, if the sides expressed interest in doing so. Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said today at a regular briefing that China would
be happy to facilitate a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas if they were willing to meet.
2014:
“Cupcakes” is scheduled to be shown at the Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival.
2014:
“Quality Balls: The David Steinberg Story” is scheduled to be shown at the
Lenore Marwil Jewish Film Festival.
2014(3rd
of Iyar, 5774): Ninety-one year old radio executive Ben Hoberman passed away
today.
2014(3rd
of Iyar, 5774): Eighty-three year old Nobel winning economist Gary Becker
passed away today.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/becker.html
2014:
Phoebe Chapnick-Sorkin is scheduled to Bat Mitzvahed at Agudas Achim in
Coralville, Iowa.
2014:
“Sturgeon Queens” is scheduled to be shown at the National Center for Jewish
Film Festival.
2014:
“The IDF deployed a Patriot missile battery in Eilat today and stationed it
alongside the Iron Dome anti-missile battery in the southern city, ahead of the
Memorial Day and Independence Day holidays.
2014:
“Former Mossad chief Shabtai Shavit criticized the Israeli government’s
handling of “price tag” attacks by Jewish extremists on Saturday, saying
“Israel is a lawful country that does not enforce its laws.”
2015:
YIVO Institute for Jewish History Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to
celebrate its 90th anniversary with a daylong celebration.
2015:
Final performance of “Do This One Thing For Me” is scheduled to take place
today in NYC.
http://www.dothisonethingforme.com/
2015:
Two Palestinians “overpowered and detained for questioning” after they
attempted to stab IDF soldiers “near the settlement of Yakir.”
2015:
“At least 41 people were injured during a rally in support of the Ethiopian
community “that turned violent in Tel Aviv.”
2015:
Dr. Neil Gillman, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at JTS is scheduled to talk
based on his most book Believe and Its Tensions: A Personal Conversation
about God, Torah, Suffering and Death in Jewish Thought.
2015:
The New York Times reviews books by
Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The
Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964 by Zachary Leader and
Einstein’s Dice and Schrodinger’s Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum
Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics by Paul Halpern
2016:
Dr. Stephen J. Gaies is scheduled to employ a multi-media approach to
discussing the Jewish Holocaust on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day at the
Des Moines, Iowa, public Library.
2016:
Todd Kaminsky completed his service as a member of the New York State Assembly
from the 20th District and began serving as a member of the New York
State Senate from the 9th District.
2016:
The Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education is scheduled to
host “Breaking the Silence – Stories of Courage from our Edlers.”
2016:
The Jewish Children’s Regional Service, an organization that truly helps those
in need” is scheduled to host its “GiveNOLA Day.”
2016:
The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to a presentation by Gili
Getz entitled “A Forbidden Conversation: Speaking, the Unspoken, and the
Conversations on Israel in America.”
2017(7th
of Iyar, 5777): Seventy-four year old Haifa born actress Daliah Lavi passed
away today. (As reported by Daniel E. Slotnik)
2017:
The Jewish Book Council is scheduled to celebrate the 11th year of
the Sami Rohr Prize where the 2017 Fellows - Paul Goldberg, author of The Yid:
A Novel; Adam Ehrlich Sachs, author of Inherited Disorders: Stories, Parables
& Problems; Rebecca Schiff, author of The Bed Moved: Stories; Daniel
Torday, author of The Last Flight of Poxl West: A Novel – will be introduced
and the three top prizes worth respectively $100,000, $18,000 and $5,000 will
be awarded.
2017:
A presentation on “Jewish Women in Iowa” is scheduled to take place today of
the Iowa Jewish History Symposium in Iowa City.
2017:
Aaron Wolf’s “Restoring Tomorrow” premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
2017:
The Center for Jewish History and YIVO are scheduled to host a talk by Dr.
Laura Almagor on “Crackpot or Visionary: Israel Zangwill, Isaac Steinberg and
the Jewish Territorialist Movement.”
2018(18th
of Iyar, 5778): Lag B’Omer
2018(
18th of Iyar, 5578): Ninety-three year old, one of the most
influential physicist not to win a Nobel and the husband of Suzy Pines with
whom he raised two children – Catherine and Jonathan – passed away today. (As
reported by Kenneth Chang)
2018:
Rabbi Yossi Jacobson is scheduled to host a “glatt kosher bbq” this evening as
part of the Lag B’Omer observance in Des Moines, IA.
2018:
In Memphis, TN, Rabbi Feivel Strauss is scheduled to “lead a conversation on
From Skepticism to Mysticism” as part of the Lag B’Omer observance.
2018:
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host a lecture by Holocaust
survivor by Julie Keefer as part of the First Person 2018 Series.
2018:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to cost an interfaith
activity “Exploring the Bridges between Islam and Judaism.”
2018:
The Cleveland Jewish News is schedule to host “An Evening with Regina Brett” at
Temple Tifereth Israel.
2018:
Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow, author of a recent biography on U.S. Grant
is scheduled to participate in a colloquy following a dinner commemorating the
196th anniversary of Grant’s birth.
2018:
Today as President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu continue to express
suspicions that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, “an Israeli satellite
imaging company released images showing what it described as “unusual” movement
around the Iranian Fordo nuclear facility, a one-time uranium enrichment plant
buried deep underground that was converted to a research center as part of the
2015 nuclear deal.” (As reported by Judah Ari Gross
2019:
In New York, the Addis Fine Art Gallery is scheduled to host the opening of an
exhibition featuring the work of Ethiopian born artist Niriti Takele who came
to Israel in 1991 as part of “Operation Solomon.”
2019:
As part of the Gideon Sorokin Memorial Lecture in Judaic Studies, Rabbi Henry
Shreibman is scheduled to lecture on “The Face of Religion in America: The Next
50 Years” at the Dominican University of California.
2019:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host Kabbalat Shabbat
services followed by Friday night dinner.
2019:
Scottish born Torah scholar and author Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, author of
Moses: A Human Life is scheduled to begin her latest American lecture tour.
2020:
The Breman Museum and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Georgia are scheduled
to “present via a Live ZOOM webinar Garri Regev, past president of the Israel
Genealogy Research Association (IGRA), as she discusses the IGRA database and
demonstrates how to use this genealogical research tool.”
2020:
“Saving Lives Sunday,” “a streaming even honoring first responder and welcoming
home Eli Beer is scheduled to begin at 6 pm UK Time”
2020:
For the last time a streaming presentation of “Orchestra of Exiles” which tells
“the story of Bronislaw Huberman, the founder of the Israel Philharmonic.”
2020:
On 88.9 WERS, Chagigah Radio host Hal Slifer is scheduled to welcome the music
of internationally acclaimed Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band as this week’s mini
concert performers.
2020:
“Clarinetist Ben Goldberg is scheduled to lead a virtual KlezCalifornia
workshop on melodic construction and development for intermediate-advanced
players of any instrument.
2020:
The American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host a Virtual visit
with Emma Lazarus where “children
have the opportunity to engage with the famous poetess about her life and the
issues of her time.”
2020: As the spread of COVID-19 appears to be
halted, “The Israeli cabinet is scheduled to meet today to discuss further
easing coronavirus restrictions, including opening malls and markets, amid
figures suggesting the country has largely managed to curb the spread of the
coronavirus.
2021: The first ever Jewish Psychedelic
Summit is scheduled to come to an end.
2021:
Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture is scheduled to present “A Field
Guide to Jewish Comedy Writers: An Evening With Dave Barry, Adam Mansbach &
Alan Zweibel.”
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled host Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson,
author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents as she “dives deep into
the pillars that underlie such systems, from divine will to heredity, putting
human faces on the power of human rankings.”
2021:
Based on previously published reports, in the wake of the Meron disaster, there
are those in Israel including Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau who think “the
state is obligated to take responsibility for” the holy site.
20022:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host Mike Levy, the author of Getting
The Children Out: Forgotten Rescuers of the Kindertransport“for an
exploration of the mostly forgotten role of Kindertransport rescuers and the
quickly established landscapes of care in host countries.
2022:
Lockdown University is scheduled to host a lecture by Trudy Gold on “Eastern
European Jews: The Beginnings.”
2022:
At Tifereth Israel in Cleveland, In commemoration of Yom HaZikaron, Dr. Ori
Yehudai is the Saul and Sonia Schottenstein Chair in Israel Studies and
Assistant Professor of History at OSU, is scheduled to give a presentation on "A Day of Blood
and Valor: Terrorism and Social Tensions in 1970's Israel." Dr. Yehudai is
the Saul and Sonia Schottenstein Chair in Israel Studies and Assistant
Professor of History at OSU.
2022:
The Consulate General of Israel and Temple Emanu-El are scheduled to host a Yom Hazikaron –
Memorial Day Service honoring the soldiers who gave their lives in defense of
the State of Israel and the victims or terrorist attack
2022:
The Iowa City Council is scheduled to proclaim the month of May as Jewish
Heritage Month in a meeting this evening at City Hall.
2022:
This evening, in Israel, start of Yom Hazikaron observances.
2022(1st
of Iyar, 5782): Rosh Chodesh Iyar;
2023:
The JDC is scheduled to host a webinar “We Are Working for a Healthy
Generation” which is a lecture by Dr. Jonathan Sarna “Marking a Century Since
the Reorganization of the JDC and its Transformation into a Permanent
Organization to Meet the Needs of World Jewry.”
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to a host a virtual program, which will
explore what defines a Jewish, or “Jew-ish”, approach to health care from
earliest times to the present
2023:
In Columbus, OH, Congregation Tifereth Israel is scheduled to host the Rabbi’s
Study Circle for a discussion of “The Biblical Roots of Prayer.”
2023:
Christie’s is scheduled to host an auction that include jewels from the estate
of a woman whose husband bought businesses from Jews pressured to sell because
of Nazi persecution.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/27/arts/design/heidi-horten-jewelry-christies-nazi-era.html