July 6
1189: Henry II, King of England, passed away. Compared to those who followed him to the throne, Henry’s treatment of his Jewish subjects was comparatively benign. (The emphasis is on “comparatively.”) Henry levied two special taxes on the Jewish community designed to finance the next Crusade to the Holy Land. The tax of 1188 included 60,000 pounds on the Jews of London, one fourth the community’s wealth. All the Christians of England were required to cough up a mere 10,000 pounds. Much to the consternation of some Church leaders, Henry discouraged Jews from converting to Christianity. The wealth of dead Jews became the property of the crown. These Jewish estates could be of such value that when Aaron of Lincoln passed away, “Henry found it necessary to set up a special branch of his Exchequer, named the Scaccarium Aaronis, with no function other than processing his immense estate.”
1189: Richard the Lionheart becomes King of England following the death of his father. His coronation would not take place until September at which time a delegation of Jews bringing gifts for the monarch would be denied access and be beaten by English officials. Richard did take action to protect his Jewish subjects when they were threatened. Unfortunately, Richard spent only the equivalent of one year of his ten year reign in England. During his absence, the Jews would suffer at the hands of English leaders including Richard’s brother and successor Prince, and later King, John
1253: Mindaugas is crowned king of Lithuania, reportedly the first ruler to hold this title. There was a Jewish presence in Lithuania at this time, since small numbers of Jewish merchants probably began arriving in Lithuania during the 12th century. They were followed by others of their co-religionists who were fleeing persecution brought on by the Crusades and the Black Death. Large number of Jews would not begin arriving in Lithuania until the frist decades of the 13th centuries when they were invited to settle there by Gediminas.
1348: Pope Clement VI issued a Papal Bull protecting Jews during the Black Plague. “Clement VI reigned during the Black Death. This pandemic swept through Europe (as well as Asia and the Middle East) between 1347 and 1350. It is believed to have killed between a third and two thirds of Europe's population…Popular opinion blamed the Jews for the plague, and pogroms erupted throughout Europe. Clement issued two papal bulls in 1348 which condemned the violence and said those who blamed the plague on the Jews had been ‘seduced by that liar, the Devil.’ He urged clergy to take action to protect Jews, but the orders appeared to have little effect, and the destruction of whole Jewish communities continued until 1349.” These events are described in A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by the Jewish historian Barbara Tuchman.
1476: Abraham ben Solomon Conat a Jewish printer, Talmudist, and physician, printed Tur Orah Hayyim by Jacob b. Asher at Mantua, Italy. Jacob ben Asher, also known as Ba'al ha-Turim, was born in Cologne, Germany around 1269 and probably died in Toledo, Spain in 1343. He was an influential Medieval rabbinic authority who is often referred to as the Baal ha-Turim' ("Master of the Rows"), after his main work in halachah the Arba'ah Turim ("Four Rows"). The work was divided into 4 sections, each called a "tur," alluding to the rows of jewels on the High Priest's breastplate. He was the third son of Asher ben Jehiel (known as the "Rosh"), a German-born Rabbi who moved to Spain.”
1609: Bohemia is granted freedom of religion in the same year as that in which Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel also known as the Maharal, one of the most famous Jewish scholars and educators from Prague passed away. “Rabbi Loew published more than 50 religious and philosophical books and became the center of legends, as the mystical miracle worker who created the Golem. The Golem is an artificial man made of clay that was brought to life through magic and acted as a guardian over the Jews. The Maharal had positive relations with Rudolph II and was even invited to his castle.
1625: Rabbi Yom-Tov Lipman Heller is placed in prison along with common criminals in a Vienna jail after having been wrongfully convicted of abusing his authority as Chief Rabbi of Prague.
1707(6thof Tammuz, 5467): Rabbi Samuel ben Alexander “a resident of Frankfort-on-the-Oder who wrote Peri Megadim passed away today.
1758: Clement XIII was elected Pope. During his reign, Clement “proclaimed that the Holy See had examined the grounds on which rested the belief in the use of human blood for the feast of Passover and murder of Christians by Jews, and the Jews must be condemned as criminals in respect of the charge, but that in the case of such occurrences legal forms of proof must be used.” (As reported by Graetz)
1796: Birthdate of Nicholas I, Czar of Russia from 1825 until his death in 1855. In the case of the Nicholas there was consistency in his behavior as Czar and his treatment of the Jews. In both instances he was a narrow-minded, reactionary, despot who was so incompetent that he led Russia to disaster in the Crimean War. As a totalitarian dictator, Nicholas was fully responsible for all of his action aimed at his Jewish subjects. These included but were not limited to expulsion from a variety of cities including Kiev; the drafting of under-age Jewish boys for twenty-five years of military service; the banning of beards and a sidelocks for men and banning of women shaving their heads at the time of marriage; the banning of Yiddish; censorship and destruction of Jewish books. And this list does not include the mistreatment of the general populace with such measures as the establishment of a secret police system designed to stamp out any manifestation of democracy or Western values.
1806: The Assembly of Jewish Leaders was scheduled to meet in Paris.
1821: Birthdate of Leone Levi, the Italian born British barrister and author whose works included Work and Pay; Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes; and International Law, with Materials for a Code
1840: Jesse Seligman was one of the steerage passages who arrived at Castle Garden
1847(22nd of Tammuz, 5607: Baltimore community leader David Israel Cohen passed away at the age of 48.
1849: Birthdate of Julius Sachs, the native of Baltimore who founded Sachs Collegiate Institute in 1872 (now the Dwight School) which he served until 1902 when he became a Professor of Education at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
1853: Bertha Phillips, a 20 year old German Jewess was tried on charges of having stolen two $20 gold pieces from Mrs. Schufeldt, a co-religionist with whom she had been living before the the theft. An additional testimony as to the defendants guilt was provided by another Jew. Before the case went to the jury, one of the jurors who was Jewish asked if both of the witnesses were Jewish. At first the judge refused to provide the information since he said that the court had no right to pry into their creed or beliefs. At which point another juror, who was also Jewish, said that he would not believe a word the Jewish witnesses had to say unless they were sworn in again using a copy the Hebrew Bible. The judge accepted the request; rewswore the witnesses who testified again. The jury found the defendant of guilty of grand larceny without even having to leave the jury box. Miss Phillips was senteneced to two years in the state penitentiary and was led away in tears.
1854: The Republican Party is officially created in Jackson, Michigan. Several Jews would play an active an active part in the early days of the Republican Party, including the uncle of Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis, who placed Lincoln’s name in nomination for President in 1860. By July of 2009, thanks to the defeat of Senator Norm Coleman and the party switch of Senator Arlen Spector, there are no Jewish Republican U.S. Senators.
1857: The New York Times reported that The House of Commons voted to amend the Oaths Bill so as to prevent from holding any office belonging to the Ecclesiastical Courts or any other office that “wield influence in the affairs of the church.”
1861:English archivist and historian Sir Francis Palgrave passed away. In July, 1788 Jewish stockbroker Meyer Cohen and his wife Rachel Levien Cohen gave birth to Francis Ephraim Cohen who would convert and change his name as a condition of the marriage.
1863: In issuing orders about the status of the recently conquered city of Vicksburg, General Logan states that the city will be a military outpost and not a trading center. He complained that when Memphis had been captured and turned into a trading center “the Jews and the rebel citizens of that pestilent city” had turned into “a grand depot of smugglers.” [Editor’s note – This is not the first or the last derogatory comment that Union generals serving in the West made about Jews. This is strange when one consider the number of Jews who were there comrades in arm including Major General Frederick Knefler and General Edward S. Salomon whom Sherman called “one of the most deserving officers.”
1886: Benjamin Disraeli begins his third term as Chancellor of the Exchequer replacing his nemesis, William Gladstone.
1875: Sir Julius Vogel, the first Jewish Prime Minister of New Zealand completed his first term in office.
1877: James Grady and William Henry were tried today at the Tombs Police Court today on charges that they had assaulted “Jacob Herman, a German Jew who a runs a peanut and fruit stand.” The two were members of the Battle Alley Gang and Herman had testified against them in a case heard three days ago. When the two attacked Herman, they referred to him as that swearing Jew. At the end of the trial, Henry was sentenced to a month in the County Prison while Henry was “acquitted for lack of evidence.”
1879: It was reported today that the Jews of Romania had petitioned the Romanian government for a revisions to the Constitution that would guarantee them their rights as citizens on the same footing as all other Romanians.
1882: The first 14 members of BILU arrived from Russia at the port of Yaffa in what is now the land of Israel. The letters BILU are the initials for the Hebrew expression, "House of Jacob Let Us Rise and Go." BILU was formed by Russian students at the University of Khrakov who called for the active colonization of the land. The students hired themselves out as agricultural laborers at Mikve Yisrael. They believed it was possible to start a worldwide movement to encourage settlement in Eretz Israel.
1882: Several Russian Jews who arrived at Castle Garden aboard the SS Newnham today will apparently not be staying in New York since they have tickets for destinations in the American West.
1882: “Outrages On Jews In Manitoba” published today reported that a group of Jews who had gone to work at Whitemouth were ferociously beaten by a band of men who previously been doing the work.
1883(1stof Tammuz, 5643): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1883: “Murder of a Hebrew Merchant” published today reported that a reward of $1,500 has been offered for the man who killed H. Mias, a Jewish merchant living in Benivides.
1884: It was reported today that the police in Vienna had difficulty restoring after a fight broke out between the Social Democrats and a party of anti-Semites.
1884: It was reported today that the anti-Semitic rioters who were arrested at Nijni Novgorod will have to be tried by court-martial because the civil courts refused to convict due to the anti-Semitic feelings prevalent among the Russian peasants.
1886: In Lyons, France, Gustave Bloch and his wife gave fame to Marc Bloch who gained fame as an historian and educator. He held chairs at both Strasbourg University and the Sorbonne. His works on French rural and feudal society became classics. In 1939, despite the fact that he was “overage” he enlisted in the French Army and fought the invading Germans. After the French surrendered to the Germans, he joined the Resistance where his specialty was in working with secret codes. He was captured by the Nazis and tortured before being shot on June 16, 1944.
1887: The funeral of Jonas Heller, a Trustee of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews is scheduled to be held today.
1887: Albert Weinschenk a young German who his Christian wife had defied her family by marrying him appears to have shot himself this evening after his mother-in-law had accused him of being a bigamist.
1888: A reception committee met at Meyer’s Hotel in Hoboken, NJ, in anticipation of the arrival of Rabbi Jacob Charif whose ship was due to dock on Saturday morning. Charif has been brought from Wilna by members of the United Society to provide leadership based on halachah for the ever growing population of immigrant Jews populating the Lower East Side.
1890: “An Empire’s Young Chief” published today provided a snapshot of conditions in Germany under the new Kaiser, Wilhelm II with a special emphasis on the role of the Jews who “in the New Berlin…occupy a more commanding and dominant position than they ever have had in any other important city the fall of a Jerusalem” – a situation that has given an excuse for the anti-Semites to preach their increasingly popular doctrine.
1891: The fifty doctors assigned by the Board Health “to visit the tenement houses and look after the sick children during the hot weather” met today Sanitary Headquarters where they were given pamphlets written in several languages including Hebrew as tickets “for the free excursions” sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children.
1891: It was reported today that “a sizable tract of land” In Marlborough, Connecticut has been purchased by the Baron de Hirsch Fund. Baron de Hirsch “has established…a very large fund that is to be used…for poor Jews who are being driven out of …Europe.”
1891: “The Jewish Immigrants” published today described the organization of efforts to provide a civic education for the Russians arriving in St. Louis. The effort drew support from non-Jews as well as Jews as can be seen by the fact that Dr. Ingraham of the spiritual leader of Grace Episcopal Church was among those who attended the meeting and contributed the three dollars which the annual dues of the nascent organization.
1892: “The opening session of the third annual Central Conference of American Rabbis was held” tonight at Temple Beth-El in New York City.
1893: Birthdate of John Charles Walker the agricultural scientist who won the Wolf Foundation Prize in Agriculture in 1978.
1893: Clothing contractors Solomon Wallach and Jacob Seidman were accused of today of trying to break the United Garment Workers of American by firing union members and replaced them with apprentices from the United Hebrew Charities.
1895: In New York, on Shabbat, The Empire Life Insurance company obtained an order from Justice Stover directing the officials of Washington Cemetery to permit the exhumation” of the body Annie Silverman, the widow of Wolf Silverman, as part of their legal campaign to avoid paying the death benefit to the beneficiary.
1895: Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary the following entry describing his conversation with Max Nordeau who would become one of the leaders of the Zionist movement. “Yesterday with Nordau, over a glass of beer. Also discussed the Jewish question, of course. Never before I had been in such perfect tune with Nordau. Each took the words right out of the other's mouth. I never had such a strong feeling that we belonged together. This has nothing to do with religion. He even said that there was no such thing as a Jewish dogma. But we are of one race. ...
Nordau said: "What is the tragedy of Jewry?" That this most conservative of peoples, which yearns to be rooted in some soil, has had no home for the last two thousand years.
We agreed on every point, so that I already thought that the same ideas had led him to the same plan. But he comes to a different conclusion: "The Jews", he says, "will be compelled by antisemitism to destroy among all peoples the idea of a fatherland." Or, I secretly thought to myself, to create a fatherland of their own.”
1896: In a speech at "The Maccabaeans," Herzl formulates the program of the "Society of Jews": According to Herzl, “The task of the Society of Jews is the acquisition according to international law of a territory for those Jews who cannot assimilate."
1896: The funeral of Jules s. Abecasis will begin at 11 o’clock at Shearith Israel in New York.
1898: It was reported today that Dr. Richard J.H. Gottheil, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Dr. William Cowen, K.H. Sarsohn, Leon Zolollkoff and Dr. I.J. Bluestone have been named to serve as delegates at the upcoming Zionist Congress in Basel.
1898: Birthdate of German born composer Hanns Eisler. Eisler moved to Berlin after World War I where his art flourished as did his involvement in left-wing politics. He left Germany for the United States in 1933 where he became a leader of anti-Nazi artists and where he pursued his composing career which included two Oscar nominations. After World War II he was placed on the Black List and ended up returning to East Germany. Eisler fell afoul of the commissars in Germany. Five year after being deported from the United States because of his leftist political views, he was hauled before a German Communist tribunal where he was accused of not being loyal to Socialism, a charge from which his career and health did not recover.
1898(16thof Tammuz, 5658): Fifty-two year old Cornelius Herz who was involved in the infamous Panama Scandal passed away today.
1899: As the dispute grew over how to honor the French officer who had been a cruel victim of anti-Semitism, a group of Jews sent a cable to Emile Zola looking for advice: “American Jewish wish to present Captain Drefyus with a golden sword. [Send] answer [to[ Jewish Forward whether it will not help anti-Semitism.”
1899: Benjamin Blumental, the President of Rodoph Sholem and the father of Assistant District Attodrney Maruice B. Blumental was sworn in today as a school inspector in the 24th District after having served as School Inspector in the Fourth District for fifteen years.
1899(28th of Tammuz, 5659):David Kaufmann a Jewish-Austrian scholar born at Kojetín, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) in 1852 passed away.A university professor and librarian, he was a prolific author whose works included studies in Jewish history, studies of synagogue art and polemics in defense of Judaism.
1900(9th of Tammuz, 5660): Gustav Born, the father of Max Born passed away today.
1901: The annual Conference of American Rabbis was scheduled to end today in Philadelphia. Rabbi Harry H. Mayer had presented a paper to the meeting on “Sabbath School Problem.” The conference will reconvene at New Orleans in April of 1902
1904: Samuel Untermeyer was among the delegates attending the Democratic Party National Convention which opened today in St. Louis, MO.
1905: Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the second time. As can be seen from his relationship with the Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs Deakin had no problem with working with Jews
1905: In Australia, Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs was appointed attorney-general. The son of Russian-Polish immigrants, Isaacs’ successful political and legal career would eventually lead to him being named Governor-General
1907: Birthdate of Mexican painter, feminist and social rebel, Frida Kahlo.
http://www.fridakahlo.com/
1907: At the 18th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis services are led by Rabbis Leo Mannheimer and Mayer Messing, with a sermon delivered by Rabbi Marcus Salzman followed by the Rabbi Martin Zielonka’s closing prayer and benediction.
1909(17th of Tammuz, 5669): Tzom Tammuz
1909: The Trenton Evening Times reported that Rabbi Morris Goldberg of Camden New Jersey was chosen to succeed Rabbi Elitzer as head of the Brothers of Israel Congregation.
1913(1stof Tammuz, 5673): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1913: After attending services at Beth Israel Temple which were led by Rabbi William Lowenburg as part of yesterday’s observance of Shabbat, the Conference of American Rabbis was scheduled to resume its regular meetings this morning at Atlantic City, NJ.
1917: Birthdate of Albert Abramson, the Bronx born Washingtonian who became a successful real estate promoter and “a principal force in the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.” (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1918: Thirty-eight year old John P. Mitchell passed away today. At age 34, the Roman Catholic Mitchell was elected Mayor. He was part of a Fusion Ticket made up of reformers fighting the Tammany Machine. The reformers were an amalgam of Protestants, Republicans and uptown Republicans.
1921(30th of Sivan, 5681): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1921: Dr. Joseph H. Hertz, the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire arrived in Vancouver where he would have visited Schara Tzedeck and the Hadassah chapter founded in 1920.
1925: Werner “Heisenberg gave Max Born a paper entitled Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen ("Quantum-Theoretical Re-interpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations") to review, and submit for publication. In the paper, Heisenberg formulated quantum theory, avoiding the concrete, but unobservable, representations of electron orbits by using parameters such as transition probabilities for quantum jumps, which necessitated using two indexes corresponding to the initial and final states´ (I have no idea what this means)
1934: The Turkish government stated the expulsion of the Jews from the Dardanelles had been due to a misinterpretation of a law. The government declared it would punish the officials found to be responsible, and that the Jews would be given redress.
1936: The Palestine Post reported that there were 314 cases of ptomaine poisoning in numerous bomb-throwing and shooting incidents throughout the country. Three Jewish laborers were wounded near Nablus, and a watchman was hurt near Kiryat Anavim. An Arab was killed and three wounded in an encounter with British troops in Hebron.
1937: Birthdate of pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy.
1938: President Roosevelt called for an international conference to consider the "displaced persons" problem. The negligible results highlight the passive role the Western world in the face of the Nazis. . Roosevelt's aims, some say, are to deflect American Jewish appeals to help the German Jews. Aside from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, which want enormous sums of money to allow a small number of Jews to immigrate, the 32 nations attending the conference decide that they will not permit large numbers of Jews to enter their countries.
1938(7th of Tammuz, 5698): Tuvia Dounia, the brother-in-law of Chaim Weizmann is one of the victims of today’s outbreak of Arab violence in Haifa. Police found him slumped over the wheel of the car he was driving with a bullet through his heart. Of the four passengers in the vehicle three escaped harm but one was seriously wounded.
1939: The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany were closed.
1941(11th of Tammuz, 5701): Seventy-one year old German born oncologist Ferdinand Blumenthal died in an air raid. After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933 Blumenthal went from Austria to Yugoslavia to a variety of other locations before ending up in the Soviet Union where he taught before be interred by the Communists.
1941(11th of Tammuz, 5701): Lithuanian militiamen murdered 2,514 Jews in Kovno.
1941(11th of Tammuz, 5701):Elchonon Wasserman “a prominent rabbi and rosh yeshiva in pre-World War II Europe was murdered today by Lithuanians who were collaborators of the Nazis. Born in 1874, he was one of the Chofetz Chaim's closest disciples and a noted Torah scholar.“Before he was taken” by his Lithuanian killers, “ he gave this statement: ‘In Heaven it appears that they deem us to be righteous because our bodies have been chosen to atone for the Jewish people. Therefore, we must repent now, immediately. There is not much time. We must keep in mind that we will be better offerings if we repent. In this way we will save the lives of our brethren overseas. Let no thought enter our minds, God forbid, which is abominable and which renders an offering unfit. We are now fulfilling the greatest mitzvah. With fire she (Jerusalem) was destroyed and with fire she will be rebuilt. The very fire which consumes our bodies will one day rebuild the Jewish people.’”
1942: The first issue of Eynikeyt (Unity), a Yiddish-language journal of the Soviet Jewish Antifascist Committee, is published.
1942: One day after her sister Margot received her orders to report to a labor camp, Anne Frank and her families go into hiding in Amsterdam
1942: Bendin (Poland) ghetto uprising, 1942. "The warning cry issued from Jews in Vilna spurred initial thoughts of ghetto revolts for thousands of young Jews, particularly members of the clandestine Zionist-pioneer youth movements. In ghettos such as Bialystok, Krakow, Bendin, Czestochowa, and Tarnow, rebellions and confrontations broke out during the final deportations. These desperate acts of resistance testified to the triumph of the Jewish and human spirit and constituted both a cry for life and a banner of hope for future generations."
1945: Adolf Cardinal Bertram, the archbishop of Breslau whose refusal to speak out against the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, whose issuance of statement calling the war with Poland “a holy war and whose sending of birthday greetings to Adolf Hitler while the Germans were winning hardly squares with Time magazine’s description of him as an anti-Nazi, passed away today.
1948: A convoy arrives at Zion Square in Jerusalem carrying food for the starving city. The arrival seems to validate reports that a new road has been completed by the Jews fighting there from the coastal plain to the Judean hills.
1946: Jews fled Kiecle, Poland after being the victim of a pogrom
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/15.asp
1948: Lucy Mandelstam, who had been born in Vienna in 1926 and survived Theresienstadt and Auschwitz, makes Aliyah arriving in Haifa.
1950: Just after the North attacked the South, Yaacov Shimoni, deputy director of Far Eastern affairs in the Foreign Ministry, wrote a letter to Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett asserting that the South Korean government was corrupt and oppressive whereas the North Korean one seemed cleaner and was more efficient and popular. In August 1960, however, the Foreign Ministry decided to make every effort to establish full diplomatic ties with South Korea. This was after the fall of the dictatorial regime of Syngman Rhee, who resigned his post and went into exile in April 1961.
1950: In Israel, hospital nurses went on strike demanding a 42-hour work week during the summer months at government run hospitals. Private hospitals and those administered by trade unions have already agreed to the demand and are not affected by the strike. Skeleton staffs had been left on duty to ensure the health of patients
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that after all final registration demands were met, 16 political parties became entitled to compete in the Second Knesset elections. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion was cheered wildly on his pre-election tour by more than 5,000 Migdal Ashkelon residents. He advised all persons between 20 and 40 years of age to learn to bear arms and assured the gathered crowds that their town would become the second port city in the south of the country, after Eilat. Following the discovery of major irregularities in the shoe industry, the authorities froze all stocks held by shoe manufacturers and ordered a strict shoe sales control throughout the country. Three persons were wounded in the Musrara Quarter of Jerusalem by Arab snipers, aiming at Israeli passersby from the walls of the Old City.
1957: Birthdate of Detroit native Dr. Charlie Pruchno, a pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community
1958: Birthdate of Lena Gilbert, the go-to gal when you want something done professionally or in the Jewish Community at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19620706,00.html
1962: Orville Prescott’s review of The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer was published today.
1969: Pitcher Dave Roberts, whose father is Jewish, made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres.
1973(6th of Tammuz, 5733): Conductor and composer Otto Klemperer passed away
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that under a new bill presented to the Knesset by Transport Minister Gad Ya'acobi Israel could take "unspecified sanctions" against any airline found negligent in security precautions which could endanger its citizens. The Ministry of Labor announced that universal sick-pay benefits for every worker in Israel would become the law of the land on October 1, 1976.
1976: In Israel, the President, Prime Minister, and most of the cabinet ministers were among the thousands of mourners who attending the funeral of Lt. Col. Yoni Natanyahu, the 30 year old military officer who gave his life to insure the successful rescue at Entebbe.
1976: By order of President Idi Amin, Uganda today marks the first of two days of mourning for the seven Palestinian terrorists killed during the Israeli raid on Entebbe as well the Ugandan soldiers reported to have lost their lives.
1976: While French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac have not made any comment on the raid on Entebbe, Mordechai Ghazith, Israel’s ambassador to France congratulated the French for their “role in the ordeal.”
1977(20th of Tammuz, 5737): One person was killed and twenty-two were wounded when terrorists bombed a market in Petah Tikvah.
1986: Eighty-seven year old Lotah Kreyssig, whose efforts to stop the Nazi euthanasia program almost earned him a trip to the concentration camps but did cost him his job, passed away today.
1987:'World of Yesterday: Jews in England 1870-1920'' which opens today at St. Paul's Cathedral Crypt, is among the many exhibitions included in this summer's Jewish East End Celebration.
1988(21st of Tammuz, 5748): In Israel 14 bus passengers were killed as an Arab terrorist assaulted the bus driver as the bus was driving by the edge of a cliff.
1988(21st of Tammuz, 5748): Ninety-three year old David Theodore Wilentz, the Attorney General of the state of New Jersey from 1934 to 1944 who prosecuted Bruno Hauptmann for kidnapping the Lindbergh Baby passed away today.
1989(3rd of Tammuz, 5749: A terrorist seized a bus traveling between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. He forced the bus to crash into a ravine where it burst into flames killing sixteen passengers many of whom burned in their seats. The attack took place at Telshe Stone, the place where Mickey Marcus was shot during the War for Independence.
1989: At a concert in Jerusalem, the conductor Zubin Metah asked the audience to stand for two minutes of silence in memory of those killed that day in Telshe Stone. Metah also asked the audience to refrain from any applause.
1995: Pitcher Brian Bark made his major league debut with the Boston Red Sox.
1997(1st of Tammuz, 5757): Rosh Chodesh Tammuz
1997: The New York Times book section features a review of Passion and Reason Edited by E. Joshua Rosenkranz, a former honoree of the Cornell University Jewish Life Fund and Bernard Schwartz and Ben-Gurion and the Holocaustby Shabtai Teveth in which the historian contradicts contentions that Ben-Gurion was insensitive to the plight of the Jews of Europe and/or that he uncaringly exploited their situation for the benefit of the Yishuv
1999(22ndof Tammuz, 5959): Ninety-three year old singer and composer Benny Bell passed away today.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/165717#.UdYOi50o6po
1999: Natan Sharansky succeeds Eli Suissa as Minister of Internal Affairs.
1999: Ehud Barak succeeds Silvan Shaom as Minister of Science, Culture and Sport
1999: Shlomo Ben-Ami succeeds Avigdor Kahalani was Minister of Public Security.
1999:Eli Suissa succeeds Ariel Sharon as Minister of National Infrastructure.
1999: David Levy succeeds Ariel Sharon as Israel’s Foreign Minister
1999: Binyamin Ben-Eliezer succeeds Limor Livant as Minister of Communications.
2000(3rd of Tammuz, 5760):Eighty-eight year old Władysław "Wladek" Szpilman a pianist and classical composer, who is widely known as the protagonist of the 2002 Roman Polanski film The Pianist, which is based on the book "The Pianist" recounting his survival of the German occupation of Warsaw and the Holocaust passed away today.
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Szpilman-Wladyslaw.htm
http://www.ushmm.org/information/exhibitions/online-features/special-focus/szpilman-warsaw-pianist
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/01/wladyslaw-szpilman-pianist-collaboration-claims
2002(26th of Tammuz, 5762): Kenneth Koch, Ameircan poet and winner of the 1994 Bollingen Prize, passed away at the age of 77.
2003(6th of Tammuz, 5763): Spc. Jeffrey M. Wershow was killed today when he was shot in Baghdad during military operations. He was 22 years old. “Attending law school and running for president of the United States were Jeffrey Wershow’s plans after finishing his time in the National Guard. He consumed history books, particularly those about the Vietnam War, and developed an interest in politics, even working in the election offices of local politicians in Gainesville, Fla. After spending three years in the Army Reserve, Wershow attended Santa Fe Community College, in New Mexico, prior to enlisting in the National Guard. His father, Jonathan Wershow, said that before being deployed to Iraq, his son attended Sabbath services near Fort Stewart in Georgia and would later celebrate Passover in the desert in Iraq. His father maintains that “the military was very good for Jeffrey. He really grew up; [the military] really helped him a lot. If my son had to die, he felt that he was giving his life for a cause worth dying for.” (As reported by The Forwards)
2003: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson, After Jihad by Noah Feldman and the recently released paperback edition of Beyond the Last Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia's Forbidden Wilderness by Alan Rabinowitz
2004(17th of Tammuz, 5764): Tzom Tammuz
2004(17th of Tammuz, 5764): Captain Moran Vardi, 25, was killed by terrorists in Israel.
2006(10th of Tammuz, 5766): First Lieutenant Yehuda Bassel, 21, was killed this afternoon during an IDF operation in the northern Gaza Strip designed to destroy the launching sites for Kassam missiles. The 21 year old from Moshav Yinon was scheduled to be laid to rest tomorrow afternoon in the Kfar Warburg military cemetery in southern Israel.
2006: Judith Kaye, the Chief Judge of the New York Court of appeals “authored a dissent in an omnibus appeal of four same-sex marriage disputes (including Hernandez v. Robles) in which the majority ruled that the state constitution "does not compel recognition of marriages between members of the same sex". Kaye's dissent admonished that while New York State has a tradition of upholding equal rights, "the court today retreats from that proud tradition".
2007: In Jerusalem, "Performances in Nature" presents famous Israeli singer, David Broza, in an acoustic performance at Ein Chemed.
2007(20th of Tammuz, 5767): Advertising executive, author and columnist Lois Wayse, who coined the memorable catchphrase “With a name like Smucker’s it has to be good” passed away at the age of 80.
2007: The Israeli premiere of "We Are Together" (Thina Simunye) will take place at the Jerusalem Film Festival at 10:15 P.M.
2008: An international conference on Dead Sea Scrolls research opens in Israel.
2008 (3rd of Tammuz, 5768): On the Hebrew calendar, the fourteenth anniversary of the passing of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.
2008: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including America America by Ethan Canin and City of Thieves by David Benioff, a novel “which follows a character named Lev Beniov, the son of a revered Soviet Jewish poet who was “disappeared” in the Stalinist purges, as Lev and an accomplice carry out an impossible assignment during the Nazi blockade of Leningrad.”
2008: The Washington Post features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including A Choice of Enemies:America Confronts the Middle East by Lawrence Freedman
2008: The San Francisco Giants shipped Brian Horowitz down to Fresno for more playing time.
2008: The chief Nazi hunter of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dr. Efraim Zuroff, headed to South America in a final public campaign to locate the most wanted Nazi in,the world and bring him to justice. The search for Dr. Aribert Heim, 94, the former Austrian doctor also known as "Dr. Death" who tops the Wiesenthal Center's list of "most wanted Nazis," has spanned nearly half a century since his 1962 disappearance in Germany ahead of a planned prosecution for his war crimes.
2009:A newly formed Iranian Jewish Federation made up of emigrants from the Iranian city of Mashad is scheduled to meet today in Jerusalem in an effort to promote and preserve their heritage.
2009: Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Horowitz was hospitalized in the Sharei Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem after suffering a cardiac arrest.
2009: Capt. Ben Sklaver shipped out for Afghanistan after setting a wedding date with his fiancée Beth Segaloff
2009: Ben Horowitz and his partner launched Andreessen Horowitz, “to invest in and advise both early-stage startups and more established growth companies in high technology.”
2010: The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to present “First Person With Al Moritz” which is part of the First Person program which is designed provide the general public to hold conversations with Holocaust survivors.
2010:Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama met in the White House today and discussed direct talks, Gaza, Iran and other issues
2010: Simon Wolfson, who was created Baron Wolfson of Aspley Guise, of Aspley Guise in the County of Bedfordshire was introduced in the House of Lords today. Wolfson is the founder of the £250,000 Wolfson Economic Prize.
2010: Sir Malcolm Rifkind became Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee.
2011(4th of Tammuz): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yaakov ben Meir of Romereau known as "Rabbeinu Tam
2011: “Israeli Culture through Hebrew Conversation” an eight week course offered at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue is scheduled to have its opening session this evening.
2011: Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with his Romanian counterpart Emil Boc in Bucharest, who said that he opposes a Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood. .
2011: President Shimon Peres and Sephardi Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar have issued a call to the public to desist from all forms of extremism and incitement.
2011: The Schalit family traversed the Knesset's hallways today to request that MKs sign a letter calling on the government to release Hamas terrorists in exchange for captive soldier Gilad Schalit.
2011: As a sign of social and cultural change in Israel Ethan Bronner describes the debate in Israel over a two day weekend.
2012: “Israel: A Home Movie” is scheduled to be shown today the Jerusalem Film Festival
2012: Indonesia is to open a consulate in Ramallah, headed by a diplomat with the rank of ambassador, who will also unofficially serve as his country’s point man for contacts with Israel, The Times of Israel learned on today.
2012:U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Palestinian President Mahmoud toiday that the Israel-Palestinian conflict should not be forgotten amid wider upheaval in the Middle East.
2012:Israel reiterated today that it would refuse cooperation with a a UN Human Rights Council fact finding mission to probe Israeli West Bank settlement activity and Jewish building in east Jerusalem.
2013: Due to lack of a repayment, there will be no “free” bus from the Kotel on Motzei Shabbat; a service that Egged has been operating on the honor system to accommodate the needs of “observant” riders.
2013: In Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the traditional minyan celebrates Independence Shabbat, honoring Jewish American heroes of the revolution, followed by a beat the summer heat Kiddush featuring Sundaes on Saturday.
2013: “Caught In The Web” is among the films scheduled to be screened at the 30th International Jerusalem Film Festival.
2013(28th of Tammuz, 5773): Ninety-three year old publisher Arthur Rosenthal passed away toay. (As reported by Paul Vitello)
2013(28th of Tammuz, 5773): Eighty-nine year old Nixon adviser Leonard Garment passed away today.(As reported by Eric Lichtblau)
2013: US Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan to resume peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority calls for a cessation of settlement construction outside settlement blocs in the West Bank and the release of 103 Palestinian prisoners, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported today (As reported by Khaled Abu Tomeh and Tovah Lazaroff)
2013: Omri Casspi, the only Israeli hoopster to ever play in the NBA, will sign a two-year, $2 million (NIS 7.3 million) deal with the Houston Rockets, Yahoo! Sports reported today (As reported by Raphael Gellar)
2014: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors -- A Most Imperfect Union: A Contrarian History of the United States by Ilan Stavans -- and of special interest to Jewish readers – The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War by A.J. Baime which tells of the role played by infamous ant-Semite Henry Ford in the creation of the Arsenal of Democracy that defeated the Nazis.
2014: Jerusalem-born conductor Asher Fisch is scheduled to lead “a Romantic program fitting for a mid-summer Berkshires' evening.”
2014: Lynn Chaney, the wife of the former Vice President tells the New York Times that “the last book to make her cry was Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree (“I have to steel myself before I read it to my grandchildren.”)