OCTOBER 8
314: In his quest to
consolidate his power, Constantine I, the man who will become the first
Christian Roman Emperor defeats his rival Licinius at the Battle of Cibalae.
Constantine will officially transform the Roman Empire into an anti-Semitic
entity.
705: “The reign of the
Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik” during Abi Isa “a self-proclaimed Jewish prophet”
preached his message in Persia, came to an end today.
1075: Dmitar Zvonimir is crowned King of Croatia.
At this point Roman Catholicism was the dominant religion of Croatia. But the King did have Jewish subjects. Some
of them might have been able to trace their ancestry to the 3rd
century when Jews first arrived in the Balkan principality. Others may have part of the legendary Khazars
who lived in the region in the 10th century.
1408: The city of Jassy
(Hungarian) or Yas (Yiddish) is mentioned in business correspondence between
Prince Alexander the Good (Alexandru cel Bun) and merchants from Lviv then a
part of Poland. The Romanian city of Yas would become a center of Jewish
settlement as well as the site of the largest massacre of Jews in Romania in
World War II.
1533(19th of
Tishrei, 5294): Chol HaMoed Sukkoth
1573: In what would
prove to a turning point in the Eighty Years War, the Dutch score their first
victory when the Spanish siege of the Dutch city of Alkmaar comes to an
end. The war would last until 1648. When it was over, the independence of the
Netherlands would be a reality. The
Dutch Republic would provide a haven for European Jews, especially those
fleeing Spain and its inquisition.
1576: The Sultan
ordered 1,000 wealthy Jews to move from Safed to Cyprus. The Jews would be
requested to take with them their possessions and riches. The firman ordering
the moved utilized wording which warned the Turks that they would be severely punished if they accepted bribes
from the Jews to have their names removed from the list. A year later another 500 Jewish families
would be forced to move from Safed to Cyprus.
Population movements like this were not unusual in the Ottoman
Empire. It was the Sultan’s way of
encouraging economic development throughout the empire.
1600: San Marino, a
small patch of land on the Italian peninsula that “claims to be the oldest
surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world” adopted a
written constitution. According to surviving documents, Jews have lived there
since 14th century and Jews were living there when the constitution
was adopted since “measures and resolutions regarding the Jews and their trades
were repeatedly passed by the government in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries.”
1712: The French
privateer Jauques Cassard attacked Suriname” and while the Jews in the
settlement of Jodensavana fought valiantly against the French, they were eventually
overrun, and forced to pay a very heavy tribute. (As reported bywww.jewishhistory.org)
1713: Birthdate of
Yechezkel ben Yehuda Landau who would gain fame as an expert on Halachah,
Jewish ritual law and who was the father of Samuel Landau, the “chief dayyan of
Prague.”
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/111912/jewish/Rabbi-Ezkiel-Landau.htm
https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/landau_yehezkel_ben_yehudah
1753(10th of
Tishrei, 5514): Yom Kippur observed for the first time after the Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753, known as “the
Jews Bill” which allowed Jews to become naturalized citizens of Great Britain
and which was repealed in 1754 following a frenzy of popular anti-Semitism that
included the murder of Jonas Levi.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777655
https://www.jstor.org/stable/30053433
1762: Mordecai Sheftal
married Frances Hart in Charleston, SC today.
1763: Birthdate of
Michael Josephs (Myer Königsberg) the native of Konigsberg who met Moses
Mendelssohn which studying Talmud in Berlin after which he moved to London
where he pursued a business career while writing articles for "Hebrew
Review," the "Voice of Jacob," and the "Jewish
Chronicle."
1764: In Philadelphia,
Rachel Solomon and Ley Marks gave birth to Miriam Marks, the husband of
Benjamin Abraham Nones with whom she had twelve children.
1767(15th of
Tishrei, 5528): Sukkoth
1770(19th of
Tishrei, 5531): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1778(17th of
Tishrei, 5539): Third Day of Sukkoth observed during the American Revolution
when Count Pulaski arrived at Tuckerton, NJ where he found that his force of 50
was confronting 200 British soldiers.
1780(9th of
Tishrei, 5541): A week after Major John Andre is hung as a spy marking the end
to Benedict Arnold’s treason, an event that unfairly implicated his Jewish
aide-de-camp, Colonel Franks, Jews heard Kol Nidre.
1781: Birthdate of
Abraham David, the brother of Jonas Daniel Meijer, the first Jewish lawyer in
the Netherlands.
1784(23rd of
Tishrei, 5545): Simchat Torah observed on the same day that Dutch forces faced
off against those from the Holy Roman Empire in what was known as The Kettle
War, a one day affair during which only one shot was fired.
1786(16th of
Tishrei, 5547): Second Day of Sukkoth observed on the same day that “founding
father” Benjamin Franklin wrote to Thomas Jefferson, whom he had encouraged to
actually write the Declaration of Independence that he has been chosen to be a
member of the “Philosophical Soceity.”
1791(10th of Tishrei,
5552): For the first time in history, Jews in France observe Yom Kippur as
equal citizens having been “emancipated” on September 28 of this year.
1792(22nd of
Tishrei, 5533): Shmini Atzeret observed on the same day that the Marquise de
Lafayette wrote to President Washington describing his desperate situation
during the current phase of the “French Revolution.
1794: “Goody” Cohen,
the daughter of Jacob Raphael Cohen, the “Hazan of Mikveh Israel” who had
walked “arm-in-arm with two Christian ministers on July 4, 1788, in celebration
of Pennsylvania’s ratification of the U.S. Constitution” today married Henry
Phillips.
1796(6th of
Tishrei, 5557): Parashat Vayeilich; Shabbat Shuvah observed for the last time
during the presidency of George Washington.
1798(28th of Tishrei, 5559): New York City merchant
Josiah Ellis passed away today.
1799(9th of
Tishrei, 5560): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre is chanted for the last time in the
18th century.
1800(19th of
Tishrei, 5561): Fifth Day of Sukkoth observed for the last time during the
Presidency of John Adams, the last Federalist to be elected President.
1803(22nd of
Tishrei, 5564): Shabbat and Shmini Atzeret observed on the same day that Lewis
leaves to meet Clark in a meeting that was a first step towards their famous
expedition of exploration.
1805(15th of
Tishrei, 5566): Sukkoth observed as Lewis and Clark continue their westward
trek to what is now the State of Washington
1810(10th of
Tishrei, 5571): Yom Kippur observed on the same day that marked the birth
of James Wilson Marshall an American
carpenter and sawmill operator, who reported the finding of gold at Coloma on
the American River in California on January 24, 1848 which provided the impetus
for the California Gold Rush.
1816(16th of
Tishrei, 5577): Second Day of Sukkoth observed during what was known as the
“Year Without a Summer.”
1820(30th of
Tishrei, 5581): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1820(30th of
Tishrei, 5581: Forty year old Sarah Judah, the wife of Lizer Joseph, mother of
Eleanor Joseph and mother-in-law of Israel Solomons, passed away today in
Georgetown, SC.
1821: In Rawicz,
Germany, Jewish cloth merchant Heimann Strassman and Judith Guhrauer gave birth
to Dr. Wolfgang Strassman
1821: Abraham Isaacs
married Elizabeth Benjamin at the Great Synagogue today.
1822(23rd of
Tishrei, 5583): Simchat Torah
1823: In New York City,
Esther Seixas, the daughter of Zipporah Levy and Benjamin Medes Seixas married
Naphtali Phillips with whom she had four children – Reuben, Rachel, Sarah and
Zipporah.
1824(16th of
Tishrei, 5585): Second Day of Sukkoth observed for the last time during the
Presidency of James Monroe.
1826: At “Klingen, near
Landua, Rhenish Palatine, Samuel Weis and Agatha Levy gave birth to Julius Weis
the husband of Carrie Mayer who moved to New Orleans where he was “director of
the Jewish Widows’ and Orphans’ Home” and “president of the Hebrew Educational
Society, Touro Infirmary and Benevolent Association and Temple Sinai.
1827(17th of
Tishrei, 5588); Third Day of Sukkoth on the same day that “in Navarino Bay
(modern Pylos), on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian
Sea. Allied forces from Britain, France, and Russia decisively defeated Ottoman
and Egyptian forces which were trying to suppress the Greeks, thereby making
Greek independence much more likely.”
1828: George Solomons
married Rosetta Solomon at the Hambro Synagogue today.
1831(1st of
Cheshvan, 5592): Parashat Noach; Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1831(1st of
Cheshvan, 5592): Forty-three year old, the Baltimore born son of Philip M.
Russell and husband of Sarah de Lyon passed away today while living in Savannah
where he had lived since 1803.
1835(15th of
Tishrei, 5596): First Day of Sukkoth observed
as Mexican forces move to put down the rebellion in Texas.
1836: Birthdate of John
Phillips, the native of Birmingham, England, the husband of Leah Mosely and
son-in-law of Lewin Mosley, who represented Ladywood Ward in the City Council
and served as President of the Birmingham Hebrew Congregation.
1837(9th of
Tishrei, 5598): For the first time during the Presidency of Martin Van Buren,
Kol Nidre is chanted.
1838(19th of
Tishrei, 5599): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1838: Birthdate of
Alsace, France native Charles Weill, the husband of Emilie Kahn Weill with whom
he had ten children.
1838:
In Silesia, Prussia, Simon Baruch Schefftel, who was a successful merchant in
Posen and the author of “a large Hebrew commentary on the Targum Onkelos which
was published posthumously by his son-in-law Joseph Perles and who was the son
of Alexander Baruch Schefftel and Roeschen Schefftel, and his wife Henriette (Gitel) Schefftel gave
birth to Julius Schefftel
1838: In Great Britain,
Frederick Goldsmid and his wife Caroline Samuel gave birth to barrister Sir
Julian Goldsmid, MP, Vice-Chancellor of London University and husband of
Virginia Philipson with whom he had five children – Violet, Edith, Margherita,
Beatrice and Mau.
1841(23rd of
Tishrei, 5602): Simchat Torah
1842: Birthdate of
Baton Rouge, LA native and Columbia trained attorney Adolph Lewis Sanger, the
acting Mayor of New York “during the reception of the Statue of Liberty in 1886
and “a leader of B’nai B’rith” who was also “president of the Board of
Delegates of American Israelites, and vice-president of the Union of American
Hebrew Congregations.”
1845: The Sephardic
Synagogue of Kingston, Jamaica celebrated taking possession of a new Sefer
Torah." The service was conducted by the Isaac Lopes, who served as rabbi
for the congregation.
1846(18th of
Tishrei, 5607): Fourth Day of Sukkoth observed as American forces failed to
take San Pedro and were forced to retreat during the Mexican American War.
1848: On the day after
Yom Kippur Joseph Wile, Samuel Marks, Joseph Katz, Gabriel Wile, Meyer
Rothschild, Henry Levi, Jacob Altman, Joseph Altman, A. Adler, Elias Wolff,
Abram Weinberg, and Jacob Gans met in Rochester, NY and formed Congregation
Berith Kodesh.
1849: Isabelle Harris and
Samuel Lyons Moss who were married in 1838 gave birth to New Orleans native May
Moss.
1851: “Europe” published
today told the story of Jewish con artist working in the British Isles. “An old
Jew” had advertised in an English country town,” that among other wondrous
things he would get into a quart bottle. At the appointed time his room was
filled with eager spectators. He came on the stage, and after a deal of preparation,
did nothing he had promised. ‘A swindle! A swindle !’ cried one of the cheated
company, who had paid his shilling to the door-keeper” who by then had
disappeared. “Amid the noise, the Jew
came forward, and with imperturbable gravity said, ‘Ladies and Gentlemen; it is
a svindle and vat then?’”
1853(6th of
Tishrei, 5614): Shabbat Shuva observed for the first time during the presidency
of Franklin Pierce.
1854(16th of
Tishrei, 5615): Second Day of Sukkoth observed on the same day that Brigham
Young addressed the LDS (Mormon) General Conference.
1856(9th of
Tishrei, 5617): Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre chanted for the last time during the
presidency of Franklin Pierce.
1857: In the Recorders
Office, Nathan Levins testifies against Israel Steinhardt in a case brought by
Levins claiming that Steinhard robbed him of 940 pounds in English Sterling
notes. Steinhard then has a chance to rebut Levins’ claims. The story is a tale that takes the court
across Europe and involves a variety of convoluted transactions. The story is even harder to understand
because neither party speaks English nor testimony has to be translated. Apparently the 20 Jews attending the hearing
were not affected by the language barrier since, like the plaintiff and
defendant they came from Germany or Hungary.
The case was continued until tomorrow.
1859(10th of
Tishrei, 5620): Yom Kippur
1861: Louis Bach
completed his service with Company D of the 27th Regiment.
1862(14th of
Tishrei, 5623): Erev Sukkoth
1862: During the Civil
War, in Kentucky, Union forces defeat the Confederates at the Battle of
Perryville which means the family of future Supreme Court Justice Louis D.
Brandeis who supported Abraham Lincoln’s candidacy will continue to live under
the Stars and Stripes.
1862: Brooklyn Backs
the President" published today described the support being given Mr.
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The speech by James S. Wadsworth
demonstrates how deeply the story of the Exodus from Egypt inspired the
Abolitionist Movement showing once again the important role that Jewish ideals
and idioms have played in man’s march towards freedom. General Wadsworth told
the crowd that “In ancient times, when the Hebrews, escaping out of the house
of bondage, stood upon the shores of the Red Sea, with the hosts of Pharaoh
hovering on their rear, conservatism shrunk back and feared to wet its sandals
in the angry waves. But the Book of Books tells us that the Lord said unto
Moses, "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward!" They
obeyed, and Pharaoh and his hosts sank like lead in the waters. The age of
miracles is past. In our country, vox populi, vox Dei. Our great cause
confronts a sea of difficulties, before which timid souls stand appalled. But,
the Proclamation reveals to us the land of promise, the Canaan beyond the
floods. Let the people, the vox Dei, say unto the President, ‘Abraham, speak
unto the armies of the Union that they go forward!’”
1865(18th of
Tishrei, 5626): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1865(18th of
Tishrei, 5626): Fifty-three year old Moravian born violinist and composer
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst passed away in Nice.
1865: Fifteen-year-old
Mary Ann Cohen, the Dutch born daughter of a rabbi who settled in London
married Isaac Magnin at the Great Synagogue of London and as Marry Ann Magnin
gained fame the co-founder of San Francisco’s I. Magnin, the high end
department store.
1866: Birthdate of
Kovno native and Boston resident Wolf Berger who in 1884 came to the United
States where he became the “sole owner of the Boston Wrapper Manufacturing
Company” and the husband of Dora Warshawsky with whom he had four children –
Carlton, Jason, Robert and Robert – while serving as a director of the
Sheltering Home and the Hebrew Immigrant Society and President of Congregation
of Beth Israel.
1867(9th of
Tishrei, 5628): Erev Yom Kippur
1868: Oswald Hönigsmann
who “represented the city of Brody in the Galician Diet delivered a speech
today in behalf of the emancipation of the Jews” which helped bring a victory
for Franz Smolka’s effort to gain full civil rights for the Jews.
1869: President Franklin Pierce passed away. Pierce was one of those forgettable
mediocrities who served in the White House in the decade before the Civil War.
His record of dealing with Jews is limited and mixed. Franklin
Pierce was the first and maybe the only President whose name appears on
the charter of a synagogue. Pierce signed the Act of Congress in 1857 that
amended the laws of the District of Columbia to enable the incorporation of the
city's first synagogue, the Washington Hebrew Congregation. Washington Hebrew Congregation is one of the
oldest and largest Reform Congregations in the Washington Metropolitan
Area. But two years before, in November
of 1855, Pierce signed a treaty with Switzerland that had been ratified by the
Senate. The treaty allowed the Swiss
government to discriminated again American citizens who were Jews so that the
treatment of American Jews would be consistent with the treatment of Swiss Jews
by their government.
1870(9th of
Tishrei, 5541): Erev Yom Kippur
1870: In Poitiers,
journalist Henri-Alfred Vierne and Marie Josephine Gervaz gave birth composer
Louis Vierne whose student included Belarusian born Jewish composer Isadore
Freed.
1871(23rd of
Tishrei, 5632): Simchat Torah
1871: The Great Chicago Fire made its impact felt
the area settled by Jews of German origins.
It was referred to by some as The Golden Ghetto. This was in contrast to the area where
eastern European and Russian Jews settled which was known as just The
Ghetto. This area suffered a fair amount
of damage in the less famous Fire of 1874.
1872: in Wołpa, Grodno
Governorate, Russian Empire, Rabbi Yehoshua Falk Kahanovitch and his wife,
Chana Minces (née Goldin) gave birth to Yisrael Yitzchak Hakohen, the husband
of Chiah Rachel Goldin with whom he had eight children, who gained fame as
Israel Isaac Kahanovtich. “the Chief Rabbi of Winnipeg and Western Canada.”
https://www.manitoba.ca/chc/hrb/plaques/plaq0602.html?print
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/kahanovitch-israel-isaac
1873: It was reported
today that the Jews of Cleveland, Ohio have raised $800 which they have sent to
Shreveport, LA and Memphis, TN to help those suffering from the current Yellow
Fever Epidemic.
1875(9th of
Tishrei 5636): Erev Yom Kippur
1876(20th of
Tishrei, 5637): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
1876: In Philadelphia,
Ida Marie Fleisher and Benjamin W. Fleisher, Jr gave birth to “industrialist” Arthur
Adler Fleisher.
1877: It was reported
today that Dr. De Sola Mendez is scheduled to give a lecture on “Young America”
at an upcoming meeting of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association.
1878: In Philadelphia,
Morris Moses Pflazer, the German born son of “Karoline and Marx Mordechai
Pfaelzer and his wife “Sophie Pfalzer” gave birth to “Henrietta (Hettie)
Pfaelzer” who became Henrietta Stern when she married Horace Stern, the
University of Pennsylvania Law School graduate and Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court of Pennsylvania.
1879(21st of
Tishrei, 5640): Hoshana Raba
1879(21st of
Tishrei, 5640): Fifty-three-year-old Henry/Hartog Bernard Hass, the Arnhem born
son of Christina and Benjamin Philip Haas and the husband of Sarah Haas passed
way today in Ridgewood, Queen, New York
1879: Sir George Grey,
who hired Samuel Joseph, an Anglo-Jew from London as his interpreter” completed
a two year term as Prime Minister of New Zealand.
1881(15th of
Tishrei, 5642): Sukkoth
1881: In Baltimore, MD
Moses and Helen Rosenbaum Pels gave birth to Johns Hopkins University trained
dermatologist Dr. Isaac Rosenbaum Pels, the husband of the former Margaret
Riggs Black and the father of H. Patricia Pels and John Marshall Pels.
1882: It was reported
today that sometime in the first two weeks of November, Edward Harrigan’s new
play, “Mordecai Lyons” will premiere at the Theatre Comique. The play tells the story of a Jewish father
who forces her to marry a man not of her choosing. The play is “both humorous and dramatic” and
portrays a father who loves a daughter who has been touched by misfortune.
1882: “Romance of the
Jews” published today provides a detailed review of The Jews of Barnow,
a collection of stories by Karl Emil Franzos.
1882: “Songs of a
Semite” published today provides a detailed review of Songs of a Semite: The
Dance to Death and Other Poems by Emma Lazarus.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9803E6DD1F3EE433A2575BC0A9669D94639FD7CF
1883: Birthdate of
Nobel Prize winner, Otto Heinrich Warburg, the son of Emil Warburg who was
related to the famous family of Jewish financier. However, Warburg’s father had converted to
Christianity as a result of an undisclosed family dispute.
1883: Birthdate of Rock
Island, IL native Irma Julia Kohn who gained fame as painter Irma Rene Koen.
https://irmarenekoen.wordpress.com/
1886: It was reported
today that Kaiser Wilhelm has sent the Sultan of Morocco a gift – 12 volumes of
the Talmud in Hebrew. (I have no idea why the German Emperor would send the
Muslim monarch such a gift.)
1886(9th of Tishrei,
5647): Erev Yom Kippur
1886: “Yom Kippur”
published today opens with the following “From sunset this evening until
tomorrow at sunset there will be observed by some seven or eight million
Israelites scatter all over the globe the…solemn festival of Yom Kippur or Day
of Atonement.” In describing the history and customs of the day, J.S. Moore
contends that “there is no other religion…that has a similar festival. The great object is…that one a year one day
out of the 365 shall be set apart for no other purposed than to commune with
God, confess the errors of life and perchance resolve to amend them.”
1886:
“Veteran Rosenberg’s Death” published today described the life and death of
Joseph Rosenberg, the 102 year old Jewish citizen of New Orleans who was buried
yesterday. A native of Baden, Germany,
he served with Napoleon’s French Army when he captured Moscow. He came to the Crescent City in 1852 where he
raised a family that included 3 daughters.
1886:
“A Suicide in the Tombs” published today described how Solomon Goldberg, a Polish
Jew, being held in the jail was able to hide a knife from authorities which he
then used to kill himself.
1886:
It was reported today that Emperor of Germany has sent the Sultan of Morocco 12
volumes of the Talmud, in Hebrew, as a gift. (I cannot find a reason for this)
1886:
Theatre receipts were considerably less tonight than normal because the Jewish
patrons were observing “the Jewish fast of Yom Kippur.”
1887:
In New York City Josephine Morgenthau and Henry Morgenthau, Sr. gave birth to
Alma Morgenthau.
1887:
In New York City, Bettie Schwab and Sigmund Hochstadter gave birth to School of
Mines trained engineer and Columbia trained chemist Irving Hochstadter, the
husband of Balance Sanders and owner of and director of Hoschstadter
Laboratories.
1888:
“Eating The Old Mare” published today described a dinner hosted by Dr. Rush S.
Huidekeper, Chief of the Veterinary School of the University of Pennsylvania
during which he told his guests that “the only beef that is properly inspected
is that eaten by the” Jews, “which is killed according to their rules.”
1889:
Members of Ahavath Chesed met tonight “and voted to all they could” to help
raise money for the establishment of a “Jewish Cooper Union.” At the same meeting, “a delegation from the
Young Men Hebrew’s Association” pledged their support for this endeavor.
1889(13th
of Tishrei, 5650): Seventy-four year old Georgetown, SC native Lizar Solomons,
the husband of Perla Sheftall Solomons, the father of Cecilia Solomons Abrahams
and father-in-;aw of Edmund H. Abrahams passed away today after which he was
buried in Savannah, GA.
1889:
In Cortland, NY, Abraham H. Jachles of Binghamton, NY marred Emily J. Klein of
Walterboro, SC.
1890:
“An Impossible Shekel” published today described the discovery of coin which
the owner claims to be a shekel from the time of Simon the Macabee which is
impossible because it has markings including a Star of Bethlehem, that were
never used on the genuine coins which made of silver and copper while this one
is make of gold, bronze and platinum.
1890:
Birthdate of Lithuanian native Samuel Goodman “Sam” Hoffenstein, an American
newspaperman and husband of Edith Morgan who moved to Los Angeles where pursued
a successful career as a screenwriter.
http://www.filmreference.com/Writers-and-Production-Artists-Ha-Ja/Hoffenstein-Samuel.html
1890:
At today’s annual meeting of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Orphan
Asylum Mrs. Philip J. Joachimsen was elected President.
1890:
Today, twenty-four year old Louis Schlesinger, the Newark born son of Alexander
and Fannie Schlesinger who among things was the managing agent of the Union
Building Company, married Sophie Levy the mother of his two sons, Joel L.
Schlesinger and Princeton University trained attorney Alexander Schlesinger.
1891:
August Belmont received a telegram today in Louisville, KY telling him that the
home he and his family were renting in New York had burned down to which he
replied “that he would come to New York at once.”
1891:
“A dispatch from the St. Petersburg to the New York Daily News says that the
United States Immigration Commissioners who have been visiting Russia” were
impressed the conditions of suffering under which the Jews of Russia were
living.
1891:
At Rochester (NY) University, President Hill addressed the Query Club, “a
literary club composed largely of young people from Temple Bortih Kodesh” on
the subject of “Higher Education.”
1891(6th
of Tishrei, 5652): Seventy-two year old Dr. Jacob Eduard Polak “the pioneer of
modern medicine in Iran” who served as personal physician to the Shah passed
away today.
http://www.ams.ac.ir/AIM/0582/0020.pdf
1892:
A fire that started in the rooms of Moritz Feinman, spread to the rest of the
tenement at 100 Suffolk Street which drove the nearly 100 residents all of whom
were Jewish out into the street.
1892:
In New York, Jewish Americans begin the observance of Columbus Day which marks
the 400th anniversary of the discovery of the New World.
1892:
At Park East Synagogue Rabbi Bernard Drachman delivered a sermon entitled
“Israel’s Debt of Gratitude to Columbus and America.
1893: In the elections
for the Reichstag, “the Anti-Semites” are running against the Conservatives and
National Liberals in seven districts of which they “may capture four.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/25/archives/dr-samuel-brock.html
1893: Birthdate of Ada
Fishman who made aliyah in 1912, played an active role in the development of
pre-State Palestine and as Ada Maimon was a member of the first Knesset.
1894: “The east side
Hebrew Anarchists have completed preparations to burlesque the fast of Yom
Kippur” which begins tomorrow evening, with an evening that will include
dancing, singing and a speech by anarchist Emma Goldman at the Clarendon Hall.
1894: “Dental surgeon
and businessman Dr. Hugo Ascher and Minna Luise Ascher gave birth to Charlotte
Hedwig the younger sister of painter Fritz Ascher a protégé of Max Liebermann.
1895(20th of
Tishrei,5656): Fourth Day of Sukkoth
1895: German born
American-Jewish inventor/businessman, Emil Berliner founded the Berliner
Gramophone Company which was to produce “flat gramophone records” or what would
be called phonograph records. He
designed the disc model which replaced Edison’s cylinders.
1895: Birthdate of
future Laborite MP and death penalty foe, Sydney Silverman.
1895: The Executive
Committee of the Central Conference of American Rabbis is scheduled to meet
this morning in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1896: In Hungary,
Solomon Shlomo Zalman Margaretten and Katherine Nachama Nachumah Kate
Margaretten gave birth to “Dr. Fred Frederick M. Margaretten,” the husband of
Miriam Margaretten
1896: In Oregon, Joseph
Simon was elected to the U.S. Senate, making him the first Jew to represent the
Beaver State in the Upper Chamber of Congress.
1896: It is reported
today that the Sultan is demanding a payment of $220,000 from the Grand Rabbi
following rioting in Hasskeuy.
1897: Birthdate of Kovno
native Oscar Straus Caplan, a “Judge in Chicago’s Municipal Courts for more
than a quarter of century and after retirement “a part-time instructor at the
University of Miami Law School who was the husband of Sarah Caplan and the
father of Mitchell Caplan.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1961/01/21/97650531.pdf
1897: “Care of Russian
Jews” published today includes a denial by prominent Jewish leaders including
Oscar S. Strauss and Jacob Schiff that “the Baroness de Hirsch has given
directions” to end the financing of schemes to send Russian Jews to Argentina
and “has ordered that the balance of the funds…be devoted to the establishment
of technical and industrial schools in Russia.”
1898(22nd of
Tishrei, 5669): Shemini Atzeret
1898: Forty-seven year
old German born, Portland, Oregon attorney Joseph Simon began serving as the
United States Senator from Oregon today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/joseph-simon
1898: In response to
the announcement by Ismail Bey, the Civil Governor of Crete that Turkish troops
are being withdrawn from the island as demanded by Great Britain, Russia,
France and Italy, Jews, Christians and Moslems are crowding aboard steamers
leaving Crete.
1898: “Gladstone”
published today provided a review of The Story of Gladstone’s Life by
Justin McCarthy includes chapters on “the long with duel with Disraeli in the
House of Common” and his “advocacy of the admissions of Jews to Parliament.”
1900(15th of
Tishrei, 5661): Sukkoth
1900:
Birthdate of Serge Ivan Chermayeff, “a Russian born, British architect,
industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies,
including the American Society of Planners and Architects.”
1900: Herzl met with
the Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister, Ernest von Koerber.
1901(25th of
Tishrei): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit Chasidic leader Rabbi Levi Isaac of
Berdichev who passed away in 1809.
1902: Two
days after he had passed away, eighty-three year old Austrian Rabbi Jacob
Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld, the son “Marie and Emanuel Isak Hirschfeld” and
the husband of Pauline Hirschfeld was buried today in Vienna.
1902: Birthdate of
Arthur Harold Babitsky, the native of Omaha, Nebraska who gained fame as award
winning Disney animator Art Babbit who worked on such classics as “Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs” and “Fantasia.
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-03-07/news/mn-3376_1_arthur-babbitt
1903(17th of
Tishrei, 5664): Chol Hamoed Sukkoth
1903: In Cincinnati,
OH, Theodore Mack and Pauline Mack, the Cincinnati born daughter of Joseph and
Hannah Sachs, gave birth to Henry Mack.
1903: In
San Francisco, having gained approval for the building of a new sanctuary the
rabbi and officers of Congregation Sherith Israel gathered this morning for a
groundbreaking ceremony.
1904: Birthdate of
Minsk native Sol Joseph Taishoff, the Washington, DC raised “editor and
cofounder of Broadcasting magazine.
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/16/obituaries/no-headline-086151.html
1904: Edmonton, Alberta
was incorporated as a city today. Jews had been living there for more than a
decade. The first Jews, Abraham and Rebecca Cristall - came to what was then an
unincorporated community in 1893. George
and Rose Cristall were the first Jews born in the town. By the time of
incorporation there were 17 Jews living in what would become Alberta’s capital
city.
1904: Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan was incorporated as a city. By this time two colonies had been
established by Baron Hirsch’s Jewish Colonization Society – the second of which
was called Hirsch, Saskatchewan founded in 1892. Among the Jews who had come to
Saskatchewan and left before the incorporation of Prince Albert were Ekiel and
Mindel Bronfman of Seagram’s Whiskey fame. Two years after the incorporation,
Jewish immigrants from Lithuania would establish The Edinbridge Hebrew Colony,
another of the settlements created by the Jewish Colonization Society
1905: Founding of the
Society for domestic art and industry in Palestine.
1905: Arthur Lehman and
Adele Lewisohn gave birth to NYU trained attorney Helen Lehman Buttenwieser,
the wife of attorney Benjamin Buttenwieser and “Legal Aid’s first women chair”
who “fought to protect children in the foster care system.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/buttenwieser-helen-lehman
https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/23/obituaries/helen-buttenwieser-84-lawyer-and-civic-leader.html
1905(9th of
Tishrei, 5666): Erev Yom Kippur
1905: In London, “The
Fast of the Day of Atonement commences at 5:20 p.m. with synagogue services
commencing at 5:45 p.m”.
1906(19th of
Tishrei, 5667): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1906: It was reported
today that the race for New York’s 9th Congressional District looks
like a case of Jew versus Jew versus Jew as Socialist Morris Hilliquist,
Republican Charles S. Adler and Democrat Henry M. Goldfogle compete against one
another in the district on the Lower East Side.
1907: The Tennessee
Volunteers coached by Izzy Levene defeated the football team from the Tennessee
Military Institute in the school’s first game of the season
1907: Today King Edward
VII’s private secretary wrote to Nathaniel Mayer, known as “Natty” the first
Lord Rothschild who was an Executor of Benjamin Disraeli’s estate concerning
“letters of a very confidential and family nature that may been written by the
late Queen Victoria to Lord Beaconsfield between 1874 and 1880.”
1908: Mr. and Mr.
William E. Dodd gave birth to Martha Dodd who accompanied her father to his
posting as FDR’s first ambassador to Hitler’s Germany. A romantic figure, she finally became aware
of the danger presented by the Nazi regime
1908: In New York Anna
Grossman and Joseph Schlossberg gave birth to cultural anthropologist and
holder of a Ph.D. from Columbia, Ruth Landes a co-founder of the Amalgamated
Clothing Workers of America and a mentee of Franz Boas
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/landes-ruth-schlossberg
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/02/24/obituaries/ruth-landes-is-dead-anthropologist-was-82.html
1909(23rd of
Tishrei, 5670): Simchat Torah
1909(23rd of
Tishrei, 5670): After having been taken to the hospital two weeks ago,
fifty-two year Galicia born poet, author and Zionist Naphtali Herz Imber who had first visited Palestine at the age of
16 and is best known “as the author ‘Hatikvah,’ the Zionist National hymn”
passed away today in New York.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/10/08/101900180.pdf
1910(5th of
Tishrei, 5671) Shabbat Shuva
1911: Birthdate of
Czech jazz musician Karel Vlach who had “a day job as a traveling salesman for
Jewish notions firm until the German occupation made it untenable” and who
played with several Jewish musicians including Fritz Weiss before the war when
Weiss was ultimately shipped to his death at Auschwitz.
1912(27th of Tishrei, 5673): Dr. Morris Loeb, Professor
of Chemistry and Columbia, a noted scientist and philanthropist and the husband
of Eda K. Loeb passed away today in New York City.
1912: In New
Haven, Yale Medical School graduate Dr.
Maxwell Lear, the Russian born son of Fannie Freedman and Samuel Lear married
Ida H. Avrutin, the daughter of Hyman and Rachel Avrutin after which they gave
birth to their daughter Pearl Sylvia in 1913.
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~ctnhvbio/Lear_Maxwell.html
1912: In Elmira, NY, founding of the Hebrew Institute.
1912: The First Balkan War began today which when it
ended would find the 60,000 Jews living in Salonika going from Ottoman rule to
Greek rule – a reality that caused concern among the Jews which would lead to
the Greek government, in 1917 becoming one of the first supporters of the
Balfour Declaration.
1912: In New York, Joseph (Yussel) Lubarsky, the Ukrainian
born so Israel and Devorah (Dora) Lubarsky and his wife Bertha Lubarsky gave
birth to Pearl Greenwald.
1913(7th of Tishrei, 5674): Seventeen year old
Schore Feitelsohn passed away today.
1914(18th of Tishrei, 5675): Fourth Day of
Sukkoth observed as German 9th Army makes it way to the Vistula
River where it will confront four Russian Armes.
1915: It was announced today that “Catholics, Protestants
and Jews have joined at Columbia University’s Teacher College in a co-operative
union to be known as the Students’ Religious Organization.”
1915: It was reported today that “Djemal Pasha is
especially annoyed because of the Zion Mule Corps which consists of volunteers
from among the Jewish refugees from Palestine who are engaged in transport work
at Gallipoli.
1915: It was reported today that “Djemal Pasha has
announced he will extirpate Zionism root and branch and that not a single Jew
will be allowed to re-enter Palestine.”
1915: It was reported today “about five hundred Jewish
women are confined at the Bella Vista Hotel at Jaffa” where they are suffering
“much privation.”
1916(11th of Tishrei, 5677): In New York,
retired realtor Samuel Hirsch, the husband of Eugenia Hirsch, whose estate was
appraised at $774, 928 passed away today.
1916: It was reported today that an exhaustive report
“purports to show that the (Russian) military censor was in definite alliance
with the anti-Semitic press and took every” opportunity “to fan the flames of
racial antagonism and hatred by having the Jew proclaimed as an enemy of
Russia, more to be feared even than the German invader…so that every attempt to
reveal the truth about the Jewish solider, his bravery, his fortitude, his
unselfishness, the suffering of his helpless wife and children was
systematically suppressed.”
1917(22nd of Tishrei, 5678): Shemini Atzeret
1917: In Frankfurt an der Oder, Siegfried and Frieda
Nuemann gave birth to Gerhard Neumann, who served with the fabled “Flying
Tigers” during WW II, became a leading aviation designer and General Electric
executive and earned the Daniel Guggenheim Medal in 1979
1917: In making public plans for an antiPacifist campaign
in New York this week, the American Alliance for Labor and Democracy announced
today that on the East Side the fight would be led by the Jewish Socialist
League and issued a proclamation by the League to all Jews in America.
1917: It was reported today that there are more than
50,000 Jewish soldiers serving in the U.S. Army, “a percentage far in excess of
the ratio of Jews to the general population.
1918: Birthdate of Arthur Mendelowitz, the native of
Sighetu Marmației who survived Auschwitz, joined Mosad and gained fame as Amos
Manor the Director of Shin Bet.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3433999,00.html
http://www.shabak.gov.il/English/History/heads/Pages/AmosManor.aspx
1918: During World War I, in France, on the Western Front
U.S. Army Corporal Samuel Sampler charged an enemy bunker that was inflicting
severe causalities and using hand-grenades neutralized the enemy position
allowing the unit to continue his advance.
He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his action.
1919(14th of Tishrei, 5680): Erev Sukkoth
1919: In New York, Hyman and Sophie Shemin Davis gave
birth to Sadie Davis who married Morris (Murray) Altman and as Sadie Altman was
the mother of Robert and Nathaniel Altman.
1920: Today’s Issue of the American Hebrew is scheduled to be devoted to the “various phases
of” the late Jacob “Schiff’s life and activities.”
1920: Harry H. Schlact was “appointed special assistant
commissioner of immigration” today.
1920: Rabbi Wise and Judge Elkus are scheduled to speak
at the exercises marking the installation of Hebrew Union College graduate
Maxwell Silver as the Rabbi of the Flushing Division of the Free Synagogue.
1921(6th of Tishrei, 5682): Shabbat Shuva
1921(6th of Tishrei,5682): Rabbi Joseph
Wasserman, who came to New York City in 1890 and was “active in the Hebrew
Sheltering Guardian Society” passed away today.
1922: “Colonel J.C. Wedgewood, MP who is in the United
States to take part in the campaign for the Palestine Foundation Fund received
an official welcome tonight from the 1,000 men and women and officials
interested in the Zionist cause who accorded him an enthusiastic greeting in
the grand ballroom of the Hotel Astor.
1923: In Notting Hill, London, “merchant banker Ellis
Arthur Franklin” and the former Muriel Francis Waley, gave birth to Oxford
educated, decorated WW II veteran Collin Ellis Franklin the bibliographer and
collector of rare books who was the brother of biophysicist Rosalind Franklin
and the grand-nephew of Viscount, Sir Herbert Sameul.
1923: Following a summer marked by economic setbacks in
the Soviet Union, the uncovering of secret groups within the Communist Party
and failure of a Communist revolution in German, Leon Trotsky “sent a letter to
the Central Committee and Control Commission which “attributed these” setbacks
“to a lack of Intra-Party Democracy. (Editor’s note – This was part of what
would become a fight between Trotsky and Stalin for control of the Party and
the Soviet Union; a fight that would end with Stalin having Trotsky murdered in
1940.)
1924(10th of Tishrei, 5685): Yom Kippur
1924: While speaking in the lower house of the Hungarian
Parliament, Dr. Bela Fabian, a Jewish deputy described the power of the
anti-Semitic Association of Awakening Magyars, some of whose members had just
been acquitted in case where they had been charged “in the bombing a charity of
a charity ball organized by the Jewish Women of Csongrad in which several
people were killed.”
1924: In Cape Town, Albert Kramer, the South African born
son of Karel Lodewyk Kramer and Anna Maria Elizabeth Kramer and his wife Elizabeth
Francis Kramer gave birth to Stanley Albert Louis Kramer
1925: At Forbes Field, The Washington Senators, with
Buddy Myer at 2nd base lost the second game of the World Series to
the Pirates.
1925: Birthdate of NYU basketball star Sidney Tanenbaum
who “won the 1947 Bar Kochba Award, which honored him as the best Jewish
American athlete.”
1926: The New York
Times reported that Jews in Palestine have called upon the British
government not to let Arabs be the ones to repair Rachel’s Tomb.
1927: With Jewish
editor Herman Bermstein acting as interpreter Mordachai Golinkin, conductor of
the Palestine Opera and former director of the Petrograd Opera, told reporters
at the Ansonia Hotel how he, his wife, Lea, lyric soprano, and G. Giorini,
dramatic tenor, had been detained on Ellis Island for three days. Golinkin had
nothing but praise for the way in which he was treated during the internment
and expressed a desire to return to the Island to give a concert. Golinkin is in this country to raise $200,000
to build an opera house in Palestine.
Nathan Struas and Herman Bernstein “were greatly impressed by the
artistic merits” of Golinikin’s productions in Israel which have included
performances of Fause and Aida in Hebrew.
1927(12th of
Tishrei, 5688): Judith Solis-Cohen passed away.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/solis-cohen-judith
1927: In Bahía Blanca,
Argentina, were Máxima (Vapniarsky) and Lázaro Milstein, a Jewish Ukrainian
immigrant gave birth to biochemist César Milstein who “shared the Nobel Prize
in Physiology or Medicine in 1984”
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1984/milstein-bio.html
1927: In Omaha,
Nebraska, Jacob Lipsey, a Jewish immigrant from Russia who “own a wholesaled
poultry and meat market” and “the former Molly Brick” gave birth to Stanford
Lipsey, the Pulitzer Prize winning publisher and friend of Warren Buffet.
1927: “Shootin’ Irons,”
an “oater” produced by B.P. Schulberg with a script co-authored by Sam Mintz
was released today in the United States.
1928: Joseph Szigeti, the Jewish Hungarian
violinist, gives the first performance of Alfredo Casella's Violin Concerto.
1928(24th of Tishrei,
5689): Silent screen comedian Larry Semon reportedly passed away. Semon
directed, wrote and starred in the silent screen version the Wizard of Oz.
There are those who contend that this is not the date of Semon’s death.
According to them, Semon was in financial trouble and he faked his death to get
away from his creditors. However, they
have not been able to come up with alternative date for his death.
1928: Hungarian born
Joseph Szigeti performed in the début of Alfredo Casella's Violin Concerto.
Szigeti is one more in a long line of Jewish virtuoso violinists.
1928: Several people
were injured today and three were arrested in “a clash between Hebraist and
partisans of the Yiddish language” at Tel Aviv.
“The occasion for the clash was a celebration by the Poale Zion Club
commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Czernowitz Conference, where Yiddish
was proclaimed as ‘a national language’ of the Jewish people.” G’dud Magginei
Ha’saf-fah “a youth organization ‘for the protection of the Hebrew language’
was responsible for the attack. Among
the injured was M. Wescher, a Poale Zion leader and member of the Tel Aviv
Municipal Council.
1929: “The Jewish
population of the United States is placed at 4,228,029 in the Jewish Year Book
of 1929, the 31st number of the annual published by JPS issued
today.
1929 Birthdate of Bronx
High School of Science, Arthur Bernard Bisguier who became an International
Grandmaster in 1957, the same year in which he played Bobby Fischer at the U.S.
Open in Cleveland
1930: In Pittsfield,
MA, Harry and Ruth Klein Kaufman gave birth to Donald Kaufman, the Vice
President of KB Toys who was responsible for creating “one of the largest and
most valuable collections of antique toy cars and trucks in the world.”
1930(16th of
Tishrei, 5691): Second Day of Sukkoth
1930: This evening, the
NYU medical school is scheduled to sponsor this evening’s concert by opera star
Sophie Breslau at Carnegie Hall which is “for the benefit of the NYU gymnasium
fund” and dedicated to the memory of Miss Breslau’s father, the late Dr. Abel
Brasulau, an alumnus of the NYU medical college.”
1931: Berlin Alexanderplatz: die Geschichte
Franz Biberkopfs (Berlin Alexanderplatz: the story of Franz
Biberkopfs) with a script co-authored by Bruno Alfred Döblin premiered
today.
1931: The Habima Theater opened in Tel
Aviv. Founded by Nahum Zemach in 1917 in Moscow, Habima (Hebrew word
meaning “the stage”) was one of the first Hebrew language theatre groups. The group left the Soviet Union in 1926 and
went on tour before finally settling in Tel Aviv. Habima was designated as the national theatre
in 1958.
1931: Birthdate of Tel
Aviv native and Julliard School graduate Sara Lipovitz who gained fame as Sara
Kishon the wife of Ephraim Kishon whom she married in 1959 and with she founded
the Kishon Gallery while raising two children Amir and Renana Kishon
1931(27th of Tishrei,
5692): General Sir John Monash, who was the highest ranking Jewish officer to
serve in the Australian Army during the
World War I and who served with distinction at Gallipoli and on the Western
Front passed away.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F60B10FE3F54157A93CAA9178BD95F458385F9
1932(8th of
Tishrei, 5693): Shabbat Shuva
1932: In Brooklyn,
electrical engineer Irwin Appel and the former Lillian Sender gave birth to
Kenneth Ira Appel, a “mathematician who harnessed computer” (As reported by
Dennis Overbye)
1933(18th of
Tishrei, 5694): Fourth Day of Sukkoth observed for the first time during the
presidency of FDR.
1933(18th of
Tishrei, 5694): Sixty-four year old Morris Hillquit, the Riga born son of
Benjamin Hillquit who in 1884 came to the United States where he became a
leading labor leader and co-founded the Socialist Party of America passed away
just after midnight.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Morris-Hillquit
https://spartacus-educational.com/USAhillquit.htm
1934: “The honorary
degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, was conferred on Dr. Albert
Einstein this afternoon at the formal opening exercises of Yeshiva College for
the academic year 1934-1935, in the presence of a distinguished audience,
including Governor Herbert H. Lehman.”
1935: At a time when
anti-Semitism was exploding across Europe America showed another face as
“fifty-five judges including Protestants and Jews accepted the invitation of
former Mayor John P. O’Brien to attend the 8th annual ‘Red Mass” to
be held this morning at St. Andrew’s under the auspices of the Guild of
Catholic Lawyers.
1936: Birthdate of Rona
Burstein, who gained fame as Hollywood gossip columnist Rona Barrett
1936: Abraham Kaiser, a
Jew living in Duisburg, Germany was sentenced by a National Socialist tribunal
to one and a half years imprisonment “for writing to a friend in America a
letter that contained uncomplimentary remarks about Chancellor Hitler and the
National Socialist party.”
1936: It was reported
today that “a nationwide unofficial army was being formed by a WPA group to
‘fight reds’ and quoted” “Wilbert Eldred, a middle-aged employee in the
Procurement Division of the Unite States Treasury Department” “as saying that
the ‘growing influence of Reds and Jews was menacing the country.’”
1937: Broadcast of the
first episode of “Grand Central Station,” a dramatic radio anthology produced
by Himan Brown.
1937:The Palestine Post reported that the Franco-Luxembourg-German borders
were closed to Jews. All trains arriving at the border were searched and Jews
were turned back. Jews seeking to return to Germany were also turned back. In
Germany Jews were called to police stations and asked point-blank when they
were going to emigrate, or they would face serious consequences.
1937: “Lance Spy”
directed by Gregory Ratoff, co-starring Peter Lorre and featuring Luther Adler,
Fritz Feld, Joseph Schildkraut and Maurice Moscovith was released in the United
States today.
1938: The Slovak Peoples' Party establishes Hlinkova Garda
(Hlinka Guard), an anti-Semitic militia that will collaborate with the Germans.
1938: “The Fabulous Invalid” a play with
a script by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart and for which Oscar Levant served
“replacement conductor premiered on Broadway at the Broadhurst Theatre.
1938: Jewish composer David Rose marries
Martha Raye
1939: A new Nazi–Soviet agreement was
reached by an exchange of letters between Vyacheslav Molotov and the German
Ambassador
1939: Birthdate of Harvey Pekar, the son
of Jewish immigrants from Poland, whose autobiographical comic book “American
Splendor” would “a cult following for its unvarnished stories of a depressed,
aggrieved Everyman negotiating daily life in Cleveland” and would become “ the
basis for a critically acclaimed 2003 film.”
1939:
The Nazis ordered to the establishment of a Ghetto in Piotrkow, Poland. This
was the first of a series of ghettos and camps planned by Heydrich.
1939: “The reported
plan of Chancellor Hitler to establish a Jewish State in Polish territory was
condemned” today “by the annual conference of the Order of the Sons of Zion.”
1939: The Nazis
orchestrated a pogrom against the Jews of Lodz.
1939: “Writer Sees Nazis
Leaving No Choice” provided a summary of the views of Anne O’Hare McCormick of
the editorial staff of The New York Times
on Hitler’s peace proposals most of which she dismissed except for his proposal
of “setting up some sort of a Jewish state in Poland – a Hitler homeland for
the Jews” which she said “is at least interesting.
1939: Hitler declared
that Będzin would be among the Polish territories annexed by Germany which
marked the start of the resettlement of 30,000 Jews from other communities in
the Polish city.
1939: Germany
annexed Western Poland marking the next level of the downward spiral that would
come to be known as the Final Solution.
1939: At the annual
conference of the Order of the Sons Of Zion a resolution was adopting terming
Hitler’s reported plan to establish a Jewish State in Polish territory “a
hypocritical scheme fraught with the gravest of dangers to European Jewry.”
1939: Pastor John Hayes
Holmes of the Community Church delivered a sermon giving reasons for the United
States to remain neutral based in part on the unworthiness of the government of
Poland “a place where Jews were a little more miserable than in Germany.”
1939: The NBC Blue
radio network broadcast the first episode of “The Colgate Sports Newsreel,” starring
Bill Stern.
1940: Dr. Louis L.
Mann, the rabbi of Temple Sinai, is scheduled to officiate at the funeral of
Henry Horner, the Governor of Illinois. Follow the funeral, the Governor will
be interred at Mount Mayriv Cemetery in a grave next to his mother.
1941(17th of Tishrei, 5702: Third Day of Sukkoth
1941(17th of
Tishrei, 5702): Fifty-four year old Koblenz born, Chicago raised Gustav Gerson
Kahn, known as “Gus Kahn” the lyricist for such “standards” as “Yes Sir, That’s
My Baby,” “It Had to Be You” and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” who went on to
create musicals in Hollywood while being married to Grace Kahn with whom he had
one son, Donald, passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1941/10/09/105163577.pdf
1941: “The Auschwitz II
extermination camp, better known as Auschwitz-Birkenau” was founded today.
1941(17th of
Tishrei, 5702): Fifty-four year old lyricist Gus Kahn who wrote an untold
number of hit songs during the 1920’s and 1930’s and was the father of
songwriter Donald Kahn passed away today.
1941(17th of
Tishrei, 5702: The Vitebsk (Belorussia) Ghetto is
liquidated; more than 16,000 Jews are killed.
1941: “The prosecutor, Gaston Cassagneau,
handed Leon Blum an “additional indictment” that included a lengthy critique of
the Popular Front and ended with these words: “Because the unjustifiable
weakness of M. Léon Blum’s government compromised both production in the short
run and the moral state of the producers, he betrayed the duties of his
office.”
1941: “49th Parallel,” a
British war movie based on an original story by Emeric Pressburger who wrote
the screenplay and starring Leslie Howard premiered in London today.
1942: The USS Drum, the ship on which
Maruice Rindskopf spent all of World War II, contacted a convoy of four
freighters, and defying the air cover guarding the ships, sank one of the cargo
ships before bombs forced her deep.
1943(9th of Tishrei, 5704):Erev Yom
Kippur
1943: This morning, one day after he had
passed funeral services are scheduled to be held for sixty-four year old
Lithuanian native Ephraim Caplan, the “religious editor of the Jewish Morning
Journal,” long-time director of the Jewish National Fund of America and
President of the Council for Orthodox Jewish Education who was the husband of
Eva Caplan with whom he had one daughter, Martha and “three sons, Dr. Leon
Caplan, Dr. Joseph Caplan” and Saul Caplan who served with the U.S. Army in WW
II, followed by burial in Mount Judah Cemetery.
1943(9th of Tishrei, 5704):: Three thousand Italian
prisoners of war are murdered by the SS and Ukrainian guards at La Risiera di
San Sabba, Italy, south of Trieste. Of 1,920 Jews in Trieste, 620 are murdered
by the SS.
1943(9th of Tishrei,
5704): On the eve of the Jewish Day of Atonement, several thousand ill or weak
Jewish men are gassed at Auschwitz.
1943:
Sixty-four year old Lithuanian native Ephraim Caplan, the “religious editor of
the Jewish Morning Journal,” long-time director of the Jewish National Fund of
America and President of the Council for Orthodox Jewish Education who was the
husband of Eva Caplan with whom he had one daughter, Martha and “three sons,
Dr. Leon Caplan, Dr. Joseph Caplan” and Saul Caplan who served with the U.S.
Army in WW II, was buried today at the Mt. Judah Cemetery in Queens .”
1943:
Today, “the Jewish Welfare Board published a pamphlet ‘for Jews in the Armed
Forces of the United States,’ recounting the stories of scores of individual
fighting men of the Jewish faith – from Pearl to the beginning of the campaign
in Sicily.” (JTA)
1943: Birthdate of R.L.
Stine. Born Robert Lewis Stine, the
author is known for his science fiction works.
1944(21st of Tishrei,
5705): Hoshana Rabbah
1944: The Gestapo began
arresting members of the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld Group.
1945(1st of Cheshvan,
5706): Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan
1945(1st of Cheshvan,
5706): Seventy-six year old author, Felix Salten, born Siegmund Salzmann at Pest (what would be Budapest), best known as the
creator of Bambi who fled the Nazis which meant spent the last years of his
life in Switzerland and who in 1901 married
Ottilie Metzl with whom he had two children – Paul and Anna -- passed
away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1945/10/09/88304117.pdf
1945: As part of the protest against British treatment of the Jews in
Palestine and those trying to reach Palestine Rabbis throughout Palestine are
scheduled to add Psalm XX which beings “Let the King hear us when we call” to
the daily prayer service.
1945: As part of the protest against British policy in Palestine, 50,000
Jews attended a rally in Tel Aviv and tens of thousands more attended a rally
at Edison Hall in Jerusalem where they demanded an end to the White Paper.
1945: In an attempt to spare European Jewish refugees another winter in
displaced person camps, Zionist leaders spent two and half hours with the new
Colonial Secretary, Arthur Creech Jones, discussing ways to improve
British-Jewish relations” in Palestine.
1945: In a sign of Jewish frustration with the continued British
enforcement of the White Paper, the Stern Gang reportedly resorted to a new
wave of violence tonight with attacks that resulted in the death of two British
soldiers and the wounding of scores of others.
1945: “The Seventh Veil” a melodrama with a score by Benjamin Frankel was
released today in the UK.
1946(15th of Tishrei, 5710): Shabbat and Sukkoth
1946: “Fortified by President Truman's statement on Palestine, Zionist
leaders will go to the Colonial Office today with specific proposals, including
a request for increased Jewish immigration, for restoring calm in the Holy
Land.”
1947: “A fund-raising campaign drive for $50,000 to aid the first medical
school in Palestine was started” today “ by the New York Sephardic Community”
which help “build a pathology museum at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical
School on Mt. Scopus.”
1948(5th of Tishrei, 5709): Eighty-seven year old New York
native and CCNY grad Albert Ulmann, an author and member of the New York Stock
Exchange passed away today.
1948: In Egypt, “the issuance of export and import licenses to Jewish
merchants was forbidden.”
1948: Birthdate of Dublin, Ireland, native Jacqueline Acer, the wife of
Rabbi Larry Tabick whom she married in 1975 and who gained fame as Jackquline
Hazel “Jackie” Tabick, “Britain’s first female rabbi and first woman to serve
as “covenor of the Movement for Reform Judaism’s Beit Din.
1948: A group of settlers from Hungary founded Kibbutz Ga’aton in the
hill country east of Nahariya. According to some it is named for the Ga’aton
River which flows nearby. According to
others, it is named for a town thought to have existed in the area before the
Babylonian exile. Regardless, the
kibbutz fell under immediate attack from Arabs shooting from the surrounding
hills.
1949: The curtain came down temporarily on “Lend an Ear” a musical revue
featuring sketches by Joseph Stein ending its run at the Broadhurst Theatre so
it could move to the Schubert Theatre.
1950: The Third Maccabiah, the first one to be held in the state of
Israel, came to an end today.
1951: “The third government of Israel was formed by David Ben-Gurion.
1952(19th of Tishrei, 5713): Fifth Day of Sukkoth
1952: “The Four Poster” the film version of the play produced by Stanley
Kramer, directed by Irving Reis with music by Dimitri Tiomkin and co-starring
Lili Palmer was released today in the United States.
1952: In Chicago, Ruth Ellen (née Reich) and Allen Zwick gave birth to
Harvard graduate and director/screenwriter/producer Edward Zwick who directed
such gems as Glory and Legends of the Fall but shared in the Oscar for the
fluffy “Shakespeare in Love.”
1952: The Jerusalem Post reported that Dov
Shilansky, Gavriel Lichtman, a taxi driver, and Ya'acov Lotan, a regular
contributor to the Herut newspaper, were remanded by police in connection with
the attempt to sabotage the Israel-German reparations agreement by bombing one
of the Foreign Ministry buildings in Jerusalem's Hakirya.
1953(29th
of Tishrei, 5714): Seventy-nine year old Junction City, Kansas native Saul
Henry Ganz, the “president and Treasurer of D. Lisner and Company, wholesalers
and importers of jewelry,” the husband of Ruth Ganza and the father of Paul and
Victor Ganz passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/10/10/110067724.pdf
1953: ABC broadcast the
first episode of “Where’s Raymond” a sitcom produced by Stanley Shapiro.
1956: In Game 5 of the
1956, Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched the fall classics first
perfect game while playing against the Brooklyn Dodgers which meant that a lot
of Jews were either sad or happy since each of these team had a
disproportionally large Jewish fan base.
(Editor’s note – Although living in Washington I was an ardent Dodger
fan while my older sister and younger brother rooted for the Bronx Bombers)
1956: Today sports
broadcaster Bob Wolff provided the radio play by play of Game 5 of the 1956
World Series in which Yankee Don Larsen pitched a perfect game against the
Brooklyn Dodgers.
1959: LA
Dodgers beat Chicago White Sox, 4 games to 2 in 56th World Series. The Dodgers team featured two Jewish players
who were brothers – the pitcher Larry Sherry and the catcher Norm Sherry. Larry Sherry was a rookie who appeared as a
relief pitcher in all four of the Dodgers’ victories.
1961: “Actors Joyce and
Byrne Piven gave birth to movie director Shira Piven, the sister of actor
Jeremey Piven.
1962(10th of
Tishrei, 5723): Yom Kippur
1964(2nd of Cheshvan,
5725): Seventy-one year old Viennese born film producer Isadore Goldsmith who
continued his career in Great Britain after the Nazis came to power and was the
husband of novelist Vera Caspary passed away today in Putney, VT.
1964: “Outrage,” a western
film directed by Martin Ritt, with a script by Michael Kanin and starring Paul
Newman, Laurence Harvey, Edward G. Robinson, William Shatner and Howard Da
Silva (so many Jews) was released today in the United States by MGM.
1966: Birthdate of
Memphis native David Frank Kustoff, the University of Memphis alum and
Republican political leader who served as a United States Attorney before
taking office as “the member of the United States House of Representatives for
Tennessee’s 8th congressional district” in 2017 and is the husband
of fellow attorney Roberta Kustoff with whom he “has two children.
1966(24th of
Tishrei, 5727): One day after Simchat Torah, the cycle begins again – Parashat
Bereshit
1966(24th of
Tishrei, 5727): Seventy-eight year old Ukrainian born cellist and composer Gdal
Saleski passed away today in Los Angeles.
1967: Joseph Brodsky, a
victim of anti-Semitism who was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 and won
the Nobel Prize for leadership and painter Marina Basmanova gave birth to their
son Andrei whom Brodsky registered under Marina’s name to spare him attacks by
the authorities.
1969: In New York City
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy, the son of pianist David Ashkenazi and his wife Þórunn Jóhannsdóttir, gave
birth to Icelandic clarinetist Dimitri Thor Ashkenazy
1969: “The Monitors” a
sci-fi comedy starring Avery Schreiber and Larry Storch and featuring Adam
Arkin, Alan Arkin and Stubby Kaye was released in the United States today.
1969(27th of
Tishrei, 5730): Sixty-seven year old Dr. Joseph Quincy Jonas, the New York born
son of Goldie and John J. Jonas the husband of Irene Jonas passed away today.
1970: Funeral services
are scheduled to be held today at the Riverside for sixty-five-year old Harvard
graduate Alan D. Gruskin, the husband Mary Gruskin with whom he had two sons –
Richard and Robert – who was founder and director, since 1932, of Midtown
Galleries.
1972(30th of Tishrei, 5733): Rosh Chodesh
Cheshvan
1972(30th of Tishrei, 5733):
Sixty-seven year old Margaret G. Arnstein, the dean of the Yale University
School of Nursing and the former chief of nursing for the United States Public
Health Service” passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/margaret-arnstein
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, two
Israeli attempts to reach the east bank of the Suez were beaten back by
Egyptian soldiers equipped with Soviet supplied anti-tank weapons. IDF forces facing Syria were more
successful. Although outnumbered, the
IDF forces halted the advance of the Syrians into Israel and by the end of the
day have driven them back to the 1967 Armistice Lines and beyond.
1973: During the Yom Kippur War, Gabi
Amir's armored brigade attacks Egyptian occupied positions on the Israeli side
of the Suez Canal, in hope of driving them away. The attack fails, and over 150
Israeli tanks are destroyed.
1973: Buoyed by initial Egyptian and
Syrian military success, numerous Moslem and Arab states offered aid and
support to the aggressors. The Algerians
sent squadrons of planes. The King of
Morocco called on soldiers in his army to volunteer to fight with the
Egyptians. Idi Amin ordered all Ugandan
officers in Egypt to join in the fight.
And the Prime Minister of Bangladesh sent telegrams stating the his 75
million countrymen supported the Egyptians and the Syrians “in your just
cause”
1973: Israelis were alarmed by news from
the front, which was fragmentary and not good.
Their fears were heightened when a civil defense spokesperson urged
Israelis who did not have a shelter to start digging one and that those who had
small shelter should enlarge them. The
only good news was Australian volunteers were arriving to perform the work of
civilians who had been mobilized and that American Jews had already raised $100
million for the Israeli war effort.
1973: After touring both battle fronts, Maj.
Gen. Haim Bar-Lev and Minister Yigal Allon reported to Prime Minister Meir this
evening that the Israeli forces' situation is beginning to improve, while the
enemy forces are beginning to suffer serious damage."What they achieved
today as compared to yesterday is enormous," Allon said. "The front
was breached yesterday. If the Syrians had been more daring, they'd have made
significant gains."Bar-Lev explained the Egyptian and Syrian successes as
being partly due to technological superiority. "Both have the new Soviet
tank plus infrared," he said. "They have an advantage there. On the
first night we were surprised; we only knew they had it in theory ... Today we
know about it and take it into account."
1973: The 17th Battalion of
the Golani Brigade moved up the slopes of Mt. Hermon in the opening round of
the Second Battle of Mount Hermon.
1973: Tonight, the Israeli missile boats
repeated their success of last night off the Egyptian coast, with three
Egyptian missile boats sunk and no Israeli vessel hit. For the remainder of the
war, neither the Syrian nor Egyptian fleets would venture out again, enabling
more than 100 freighters carrying vital supplies to safely reach Israel, which
was in the throes of a brutal, two-front ground war.
1973: Kobi Hayun, Micahel Dvir, Shabtai
Ben-Shua, Yoram Peled and Boaz Lerner all made it safely back to Israeli lines
when their F-4E Phantom Jets were shot down Syrian SAM’s or Egyptian Anti-
Aircraft fire.
1973: Yoram Shachar was taken prisoner
after his F-4E Phantom Jet was shot down by a Syrian Surface to Air Missile.
1973: As the Vale of Tears Battle entered
its third day the outmanned and outgunned 7th Brigade fought off
attacks by the 7th Infantry Division, the 3rd Armored
Division and the Assad Republican Guards which by the end of the day left the
Israelis with at least fifty dead, untold more wounded and less than 45 working
tanks but the IDF continued to blunt the Syrian advance.
1974(22nd of Tishrei, 5735):
Shmini Atzert
1974(22nd of Tishrei, 5735):
Seventy-seven year old New York City native and Columbia Journalism School
graduate Alexander Herman who worked as a reporter for the New York Tribune and
as Sunday editor of The Newark Ledger before joining the National Container
where he became a vice president while raising two children – Pat and John –
with his wife, the former Florence Rogatz Herman passed away today.
1974: NBC broadcast “Where Have All the
People Gone?” a sci-fi thriller written
by Sandor Stern and co-starring Verna Bloom.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/gilbert-susan-brandeis
1975: “Hearts of the West” a comedy
directed by Howard Zieff and co-starring Alan Arkin was released in the United
States today.
1976: Paramount releases “Marathon Man,”
the movie version of the book by William Goldman starring Dustin Hoffman.
1977: White supremacist Joseph P. Franklin
shot and killed three people outside of a suburban St. Louis synagogue
including Gerald Gordon.
1978(7th of Tishrei, 5739):
Seventy-six year old Eliyahu Sasson, the native of Damascus who made Aliyah in
1927 who filled several ambassadorial positions, served as an MK and cabinet
minister passed away today.
1979(17th of Tishrei, 5740)
Third Day of Sukkoth
1979(17th of Tishrei, 5740):
Seventy-three-year-old DePaul Music School trained violinist and concert master Sol Turner, the
Russian born son of Lena Roseman and Charles Turner and husband of Evelyn
Turner with whom he had three children – Richard, Carole and Lynne – passed away
today.
1979: In a case of “poetic justice” “two
Palestinian terrorists were injured attempting to plant a bomb near the Tomb of
the Patriarchs.”
1980(28th of Tishrei, 5741):
Seventy-three year old David I. Arkin, an innocent victim of the McCarthy Red
witch hunt and the father of actor Alan Arkin whose most famous musical effort
was the song “Black and White” which celebrated the 1954 Supreme Court Decision
that put an end to the legal prop for racially segregated schools passed away
today.
1981(10th of Tishrei, 5742): Yom Kippur
1981(10th of Tishrei, 5742): 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 passed away.
1981 ABC broadcast the first episode of
Taxi’s Fourth Season directed by James Burrows.
1983: “My
Favorite Year,” a comedy directed by Richard Benjamin, produced by Michael
Gruskoff and featuring Bill Macy, Lainie Kazan, Selma Diamond, Adolph Green and
Lou Jacobi was released in the United States today.
1984: “The
Burning Bed,” a made for television of the novel of the same name directed by
Robert Greenwald and produced by Jon Avnet and Steve Tisch was released today
by NBC.
1985(23rd
of Tishrei, 5746): Simchat Torah
1985: Today, on
the island of Djerba, a Tunisian police officer who had” allegedly “lost a
brother” in the attack on the PLO headquarters at Hammam Chott, Tunisia, “fired
into a synagogue during Simchat Torah services, killing three people
1985: “An
English-language production of Les
Misérables” which was a product of a collaboration of Alain Boublil and
Claude-Michel Schönberg premiered in London at The Royal Shakespeare Company’s
Barbican Theatre.
1985: The hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner surrendered
after the ship arrived in Port Said, Egypt. Before surrendering, the hijackers
threw Leon Klinghoffer, a wheel-chair
bound passenger, over the side of the boat.
1986: The
Providence Journal "Navy Rabbi To Join Iceland Team: Russian immigrant's
grandson picked to lead staff services,” a story about the role of Rabbi Arnold
E. Resnicoff, the U.S. Navy Chaplain sent to Iceland to lead services during
the meetings laying the groundwork for the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit.
1987(15th
of Tishrei, 5748): Sukkoth
1988: “Jamie
Sue Gangel, a network television correspondent for NBC News, and Daniel Silva,
a writer and producer for CNN, both in Washington, were married today at the
Mayflower Hotel.”
1988: NBC
broadcast the first episode of season four of Golden Girls, a sitcom starring
Beatrice Arthur and Estelle Getty with theme music by Andrew Gold.
1988: NBC
broadcast the first episode of the sitcom created by “Empty Nest” created by Susan Harris (née Spivak).
1990: Israeli
police kill 17 Palestinian rioters. The riots occurred at the Temple Mount and
were part of the orchestrated violence against Israelis now known as the First
Intifada. For those of you who like
symmetry or have a sense of irony, the Second version of this organized terror
would begin in the same place at the same time of the year when Arafat rejected
Barak’s peace offer.
1991: Birthdate of
singer and actor Kobi Marimi, the Mizrachi native of Ramat Gan who “studied in
the Nissan Nativ Acting Studio” after serving in the IDF.
1992: Willy Brandt, former Chancellor of Germany,
passed away. The winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize had opposed the Nazis when he was a youth living in Germany. In 1970, Brandt made a highly emotional visit
to Warsaw where he fell to his knees in front of the Memorial to the Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising. This silent act of contrition spoke volumes to the world about
the new Germany and the willingness take responsibility for its past. In
writing about the trip Brandt said, “An unusual burden accompanied me on my way
to Warsaw. Nowhere else had a people suffered as in Poland. The machine-like annihilation of Polish Jewry
represented a heightening of bloodthirstiness that no one had held
possible. On my way to Warsaw [I carried
with me] the memory of the fight to the death of the Warsaw ghetto.” As moving as these words were then, they are
even more so now as another generation of leaders has risen filled with
inclination to minimize their personal pasts and the Jewish element that made
the Holocaust unique.
1993: Edward Rothstein
gives a less than an enthusiastic review of Ezra Laderman’s “Marilyn” which was
“a City Opera commission” that “opened a world-premiere festival in honor of
the company’s 50th anniversary.”
1993:
Seventy-five year old Robert Constant Moses, a native of Phillip, SD, a
graduate of Beloit High School who was a WW II veteran, a draftsman at Barber
Coleman and the father of Nancy Margulis, who became a pillar of the Cedar
Rapids Jewish community, was laid to rest today at the Mt. Tabor Cemetery.
1993: “Mr. Jones,” a
romantic drama written by Eric Roth was released in the United States today by
TriStar Pictures.
1993: “Gettysburg” a
massive Civil War epic co-produced by Robert Katz, featuring John Rothman and
with a memorable score by Randy Edelman was released today in the United
States.
1994: In a letter
written today to Sir Martin Gilbert, fourteen and half year old Hirsch Dorbian
wrote that he had been “among the thousands of prisoners liberated by the
British in the camp at Neustadt earlier that month and that on VE Day, May 8,
1945, “was spent by him in a clean and white bed for the first time three
years.
1997(7th of Tishrei, 5758): American architect Bertrand Goldberg best known for the
Marina City complex in Chicago, Illinois, the tallest residential concrete
buildings in the world at the time of completion passed away.
1998(17th of
Tishrei, 5759): Fourth of Sukkot
1998(17th of
Tishrei, 5759): Eighty-five-year-old German born rabbi Curtis E. Cassel (born
Kurth Kassell) who was rabbi at the synagogue in Frankfurt an der Oder in
succession to Ignaz Maybaum and, after coming to Britain and serving in the
Royal Pioneer Corps, became minister at Glasgow Reform Synagogue from 1944 to
1948[1] and second minister at West London Synagogue from 1948 to 1957 and from
1957 to 1977 was rabbi of the
Progressive Jewish Congregation in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) passed
today after which he was buried at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery.
1999: “The Last Day” an
Oscar winning documentary that ‘tell the story of five Hungarian Jews during
the Holocaust” was released today in the United Kingdom.
2000(9th of
Tishrei, 5671): Erev Yom Kippur
2000:The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors
and/or on topics related to Judaism including Quarrel & Quandry: Essays
by Cynthia Ozick,Einstein In
Love: A Scientific Romance by Dennis Overbye, Dream Catcher: A Memoir by Margaret A. Salinger and The Second Coming of Steve Jobs
by Alan Deutschman
2000: In “Flash Point:
Temple Mount is Holy Ground; Muslims Must Recognize Shrine’s Importance to
Judaism” published today Aron U Raskas of the Baltimore Sun wrote “Ten
days ago, former defense minister had the good fortune to be able to do that
which Jews dispersed for centuries in the diaspora could only hope, dream and
pray for: On the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year - the liturgy of
which is replete with recollections of [Abraham]'s selfless act on the Temple
Mount and with prayers for a restoration of the divine presence to this site -
Sharon dared to peacefully tread upon this hallowed Jewish ground. The second
lesson is that, even after seven years of delusional thinking by Pollyannaish
Israelis, the Palestinian people and their leaders are completely unwilling to
recognize the Jewish legacy of the Temple Mount, the historic connection of
Jews to that place and their inalienable right to worship on that holy ground.”
2001: Forbes published
an article entitled “Riklis Driving” that described how Meshulam Riklis drained
assets from Dylex Limited, one of Canada’s largest retailers and funneled them
into other companies he controlled.
2001(21st of
Tishrei, 5762): Hoshana Rabah
2001(21st of
Tishrei, 5762): Isidore A. Becker, the husband of Adele Becker, who was an
active member of the UJA Federation of New York and the Fifth Avenue Synagogue,
passed away today.
2002: “Fighting between
the Palestinian Authority and Hamas increased fears of a civil war” between the
Arab factions.
2003: “Faced with
dozens of warnings of possible new Palestinian attacks, Israel ordered
additional troops to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip today and maintained
tough restrictions on Palestinian movements in those areas.:
2004(23rd of Tishrei,
5765): Simchat Torah
2004: Haaretz reported that at least
thirty-five people were killed and over 100 injured in three separate attacks
on holiday resorts in the Sinai Desert that were packed with Israelis
celebrating the holiday of Sukkoth. Among the hotels attacked on Thursday
was the Taba Hilton. According to reports that appeared in the October 8th
edition of the paper, Israeli officials believe the blast at Taba was
caused by an explosive laden truck. There were reports of two more
explosions at other locations within two hours of the Taba
attack. Late reports in the Jerusalem Post raised the toll to 37 dead and
150 wounded. A terror group that nobody had heard of up until now
claimed credit for the attack. It said the attacks were in response
to the killings of Palestinians and Iraqis. If these attacks are the work
of terrorists, it would be consistent with a pattern of attacking on Jewish
holidays going back to the original outbreaks of the latest wave of
Arab terror that began on Rosh Hashanah.
2004: Fiamma Nirenstein
was an official speaker at the Boston Conference of on 'Anti-Semitism, the
Press and Europe'.
2004: “Friday Night
Lights” the movie version of Friday
Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger, ,directed by
Peter Berg who wrote the screenplay along with David Aaron Cohen and produced
by Brian Grazer was released in the United States today.
2005(5th of Tishrei,
5766): Shabbat Shauvah is observed by Jews all over the world.
2005: Award winning
singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist Leonard Cohen sued Kelley
Lynch, alleging that she had misappropriated over US $5 million from Cohen's
retirement fund leaving only $150,000.”
2005: Hundreds of Jews
lit candles and prayed near the Babi Yar ravine, where the Nazis killed tens of
thousands of Ukrainian Jews during World War II, as Jewish leaders expressed
concern over recent anti-Semitic acts in the former Soviet republic.
2005: Jonathan Mandell
of Chicago took a photograph of a Hebrew inscription in the Cathedral of
Monreale which is a testimony to the 1400 years of Jewish settlements in
Sicily.
http://dieli.net/SicilyPage/JewishSicily/JewishTraces.html#inscription
2005: Thanks to Katrina, Rita, OPEC, et
al, Americans are confronted with paying record high prices of gasoline and
natural gas. Now, American Jews face an
additional financial threat. According
to The Jerusalem Post, people will be
paying record high prices for their lulavs this year. Following Egyptian moves
to limit the export of Lulavs, one Israeli importer has “cornered the market”
by surreptitiously importing 250,000 Lulavs.
Because of his almost complete control of the limited supply, Avi Belali
is charging wholesalers five dollars for an item that usually costs one
dollar. Retailers claim they will have
to charge as much as twenty dollars to break even and that does not include the
cost of the Etrog. Unbeknownst to most
Americans, the lulav industry is “a pretty shady business” where various tricks
are tried each year by dealers looking for a way to make a fast buck. Some Israeli Rabbis are so concerned about
profiteering that they have issued a special Halachahic dispensation allowing
for the use of branches from the more numerous canary dates may be used for
Lulavs. Apparently, the sages don’t just
know about the Law of Moses, they also know about the law of supply and demand.
2006(16th of Tishrei, 5767):
Second Day of Sukkoth
2006: The
Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Primo Levi’s Auschwitz Report
and Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost: A
Search for Six of Six Million and an essay written by Elie Wiesel under the
title “Why Memory?”
2006: The Sunday New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or on topics related to
Judaism including The Shakespeare
Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups by Ron Rosenbaum and Five Germanys I Have Known by Fritz Stern.
2006: The
Israeli Interior Ministry ruled that Valery Dubinin, who had made Aliyah from
the Ukraine seven and half years ago, is not a Jew.
2006(16th of
Tishrei, 5767): Second Day Sukkoth; since the first of Sukkoth fell on Shabbat
this is the first time, blessings are recited over the Lulav and Etrog.
2006: Services
will be held today at the Society for the Advancement of Judaism to honor the
memory of Selma Judith Levy Toback.
2007:Shelley Cohn, the former
Executive Director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, is the recipient of
the Actor Equity Association's 2007
Arizona Theatre Service Award. The award was presented to Ms. Cohn at the
Union's membership meeting at the Phoenix Theatre
2007: Time
Magazine features an article about Jerry Seinfeld entitled “Jerry Seinfeld
Goes Back to Work” and reviews of The Coldest Winter by David Halberstam
and Exit Ghosts by Phillip Roth.
2008(9th of
Tishrei, 5769: Erev Yom Kippur; Kol Nidre is chanted.
2008:A riot in Acre shattered the Yom Kippur calm on Wednesday night as
hundreds of the city's Arab residents vandalized Jewish-owned property.
2009: In New Haven, Yale University presents a
double-header with an address byTzipi Livni, former Foreign Minister, Member of Knesset and head of the
Kadima party, will speak as a Chubb Fellow and a talk by Brandon Friedman,
Research Fellow at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University,
entitled "Iran: Ideology and Foreign Policy."
2009: In New Britain, CT,Ethan Bronner, the New York Times' Israel Bureau Chief delivers a talk entitled "Israel &
Palestine: What Happens in 2009?" at Central Connecticut State University,
during which he examines what has happened, and what to expect.
2009:As tensions flare once again over a Jerusalem holy site claimed by
Israel and Palestinians as their own, one of the most influential leaders of
Israel's religious community told the president today that Jews should not make
pilgrimages to the Temple Mount so as not to evoke global outrage.
"According to halacha (Jewish religious law), it is forbidden to ascend to
Temple Mount," Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv is quoted by Israel Radio as
telling President Shimon Peres. "I've said this in the past, and I am once
again repeating this statement that Jews are forbidden to go up to the
site."
2009:Romania unveiled a monument in memory of 300,000 Jews and Gypsies
killed during the Holocaust in the country, which at times in the past had
denied that the extermination even occurred.
2009: In San Francisco, “Torah scribe Julie Seltzer
began work on a Sefer Torah.”
http://jwa.org/thisweek/oct/08/2009/julie-seltzer
2010(30th of Tishrei, 5771): Rosh
Chodesh Cheshvan
2010(30th of Tishrei, 5771): Eighty-two
Chicago born, Yale educated James Emanuel “Jim” Fuchs the winner of bronze
medals in shot put at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics passed away today in
New York.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/18/sports/18fuchs.html
2010:The 92Y Resource Center for Jewish Diversity and the Ethiopian Jewish
community in New York are scheduled to co-host a festive and authentic
Ethiopian Shabbat dinner.
2010: The Telegraph (UK) reported that Professor
Mary Beard of Cambridge University has condemned the appointment of historian
and presenter Simon Schama as the Coalition Government's new history tsar.
2011(10th of Tishrei, 5772): Yom Kippur
2011(10th of Tishrei): In a tribute to
diversity and inclusion, congregants at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids will be
able to attend either a Reform or Traditional Yom Kippur Service. The Traditional Service is rooted in Beth Jacob
- a synagogue founded 105 years ago.
Temple Judah is preparing to celebrate its 90th anniversary.
When one considers the fate of Jewry in many of America’s small cities and
towns, this is quite an accomplishment.
2011: Kenny G. (Kenneth Bruce Gorelick) appeared
tonight on “Saturday Night Live with his soprano sax.”
2011(10th of Tishrei, 5772): Eighty-two
year old Allen “Al” Davis who played a major role in re-shaping the National
Football League as the owner and general manager of the Oakland Raiders and as
the commissioner of the AFL passed away today.
http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-al-davis-20111009-story.html
2011:Hours after far-right-wing graffiti was reported to police in Muslim
and Christian cemeteries in Jaffa, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a synagogue
in the area today.
2012(22nd of Tishrei, 5753): Shemini
Atzeret
2012(22nd of Tishrei, 5763): One hundred
year old Eda Mirsky Mann, the mother of Erica Jong passed away today.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/erica-jongs-mother-eda-mirsky-mann-dead-at-100/
2012: In the United States, observance of Columbus
Day which means, for once, the Jewish and Gentile worlds will be celebrating
holidays on the same day, even though they are of a completely different
nature.
2012: The Alexandria Kletztet is scheduled to play
at the Simchat Torah service for Congregation Etz Hayim in Arlington, VA.
2012:Palestinian
terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired more than 30 rockets and mortars — with some
Israeli media outlets reporting over 50 rockets — into southern Israel early
this morning, causing damage to a residential building
2013: The Charles E. Smith Life Communities which
seeks “to fulfill Jewish values by providing a continuum of quality services
for elders and their families” is scheduled to sponsor “An Evening with Tony
Kornheiser” at Woodmont Country Club.
2013: Under the leadership of Ed Miliband, Labor MP
Luciana Berger began serving as “Shadow Minister for Public Health” today.
2013: The Consulate General of Israel in New York
co-hosts this evening’s scheduled screening of “Blues by the beach.”
http://bluesbythebeachfilm.com/
2013: A staged reading of the new play “Stealing
Home: The Mystery of Moe Berg” is scheduled to be performed today by member of
the Actors Studio in New York.
2013: Howard Epstein completed his service as a
member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly “representing the provincial riding
of Halifax Chedbucto.”
2013: In Washington, DC, Mark Cohen, author of
Overweight Sensation: The Life and Comedy of Allen Sherman is scheduled to
speak at The Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival
2013: Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences “announced the full list of nations that had submitted a movie for
consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film including
“Yuval Adler’s “Bethlehem,” which explores a difficult relationship between a
Shin Bet agent and a Palestinian teenager and “Transit,” a Philippine film
about foreign workers in Israel. (As reported by Debra Kamin)
2013: Eighty-year old Holocaust survivor François
Englert, a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment in the School of Physics
and Astronomy at Tel Aviv University won the 2013 Nobel Prize
2014(14th of Tishrei,
5775): Erev Sukkoth
2014: The Center for Judaic
Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut is
scheduled to sponsor a noontime “Yiddish Tish”.
2014: Friends and family
celebrate the birthday of author Noam Friedlander the daughter of Evelyn
Friedlander and Rabbi Albert Friedlander
2014:SukkahPDX,
an annual juried outdoor design competition held in Portland, OR, at the Oregon
Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in partnership with Mittleman
Jewish Community Center is scheduled to begin today.
2014: The Lunar Eclipse featuring
a Blood Moon will be visible throughout much of the United States today. (As
reported by Edmond J. Rodman)
http://www.timesofisrael.com/sukkot-lunar-eclipse-is-an-omen-some-say/
2014:“Argentinian
anti-terror police today arrested a man suspected of planning to attack a
Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.”
2015:
The Jewish Museum of London is scheduled to host “Books at Lunchtime” where a
Waterstones Camden bookseller “will share what's new, what's hot, and read
extracts from recommended books and bestsellers.
2015:
The Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Fresh Jews and Fresh
Juice.”
2015:
JCC Manhattan is scheduled to host an evening with “Vertigo, Israel’s top dance
company” where “choreographer Noa Wertheim will talk about her artistic
process, including the creation of the group's eco art village outside of
Jerusalem.”
2015: Eva Moskowitz will not be running for Mayor
of New York saying today “that she wanted to redouble her focus on her charter
school network…and the task of creating ‘transformation change’ in education.”
2015:
During an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, “Republican presidential hopeful
Ben Carson…said fewer people would have been killed by the Nazis had been
armed” in an apparent attempt to blame “gun control for the extent of the
Holocaust.”
2015:
“Junun” a film that “dcouments the making of the album of the same name by the
Israeli composer Shye Ben” was released today at the New York Film Festival
2015:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “A Special Evening
Commemorating the 30th Anniversary of the Murder of Leon Klinghoffer Aboard the
Achille Lauro.”
2015(25th
of Tishrei, 5776): Ninety year old Henry Krystal who survived the Holocaust to
become a Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University passed away
today.
2016(6th
of Tishrei, 5777): Shabbat Shuva
2016(6th
of Tishrei, 5777): Eighty-six year old “Emmy Award-winning documentarian”
Morton Silverstein passed away today.
2016(6th
of Tishrei, 5777): Ninety-six year old Peter Allen, who introduced the Saturday
afternoon broadcasts from the Met passed away today.
2016(6th
of Tishrei, 5777): Eight-four year old Professor Jacob Neusner, the prolific
and ground-breaking Biblical scholar passed away today in Rhinebeck, NY.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jacob-neusner-renowned-jewish-scholar-dies-at-84/
2016: SERET DC. “a celebration of contemporary
Israeli cinema is scheduled to host a screening of
“Abulele.”
2016:
Today’s session of “German Iowa and the Global Midwest” is scheduled to
present: Tobias Brinkmann speaking on "Small Town Stopover: Jewish
Immigrants from Central Europe in the Rural Midwest 1850-80"; Kit Belgum:
speaking on “German and Jewish: Civic Connections in Nineteenth-Century
Iowa" and Jeannette Gabriel speaking on "We Were German Too: Finding
Jewish Women's Voices in Iowa's German Past"
2016:
“Exposed” a “six week contemporary dance and physical theatre featuring Israeli
and local artists” is scheduled to open in the Metro Atlanta, GA Area today.
2016:
“Keeping Up with the Jones,” a spy-spoof featuring Gal Gadot premiered in Los
Angeles today.
2016:
The 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, named in honor of
Lublin born violinist and composer Henryk Wieniawski is scheduled to begin
today.
2016:
As those living on the southeast coast of the United States deal with Hurricane
Mathew “many synagogues are shuttering for Shabbat” including “Temple Emanuel
located on the barrier islands of Palm Beach which has cancelled Shabbat
morning services.”
2017:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt and
the recently published paperback edition of The Gustav Sonata by Rose
Tremain.
2017(18th of Tishrei, 5778): Sukkoth Chol Ha’moed
2017:
Edith Schumer, a native of Stockstadt, Germany, who “was one of the “1,000
children,” a group of approximately 1,400 German Jewish children who were
allowed to come unaccompanied to the United States via an organized rescue
effort that occurred nine months prior to the start of World War II” is
scheduled to speak at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center.
2017:
Author and architectural historian Clare Lise Kelly is scheduled conduct a tour
that will explore the Montgomery County work of Cohen, Haft & Associates, a
leading modernist architecture firm in the D.C. area whose projects have included
several Jewish-owned buildings, such as B'nai Israel Congregation and the
Charles E. Smith Life Communities campus
2018:
Yemen Blues and Lara Bello are scheduled to perform this evening at the
American Sephardi Music Festival at the Center for Jewish History.
2018:
In Jerusalem, Mercaz Hatarbuyot is scheduled to host an evening Klezmer, Jazz
and Classical Music featuring “virtuoso clarinetist Ira Goyfeld” and “concert
pianist Eliah Zabaly,” the winner of the “1st Prize of the Paris
National Conservatory of Music.”
2018:
Today is the deadline for submitting applications for a fellowship “at the
Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan.”
2019
(9th of Tishrei, 5780): Erev Yom Kippur; for more see http://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/
2019:
“According to the regulations in force among Orthodox Jews, marriages may not
be solemnized today because it is “the day preceding the Fast of Atonement.”
2019:
The Wilderness Torah is scheduled to host the first of a “Two-day Yom Kippur
Retreat” beginning with a trip to the mikveh and a pre-fast meal.
2020:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host “Against All Odds’: Armed
Resistance in Auschwitz”
2020(20th
of Tishrei, 5781): Sixth Day of Sukkoth
2020:
Professor Marc Dollinger, Assistant Professor Gabriel Winant and activist
Carlyn Cowen are scheduled to discuss “1960s: Leftist Professionals” as part of
the Webinar Series: Jews, Class and History.
2020:
The Israeli Film Festival is scheduled to host a virtual screening of
“Ma’abarot,” that presents “a stark and direct examination of the transit camps
that were used to handle the surge of immigrants in post-World War II Israel.”
2020:
Temple Judea in Palms Beach Gardens, FL is scheduled to host a livestream
morning minTyan with Cantorial Soloist Abbie Strauss.
2020:
The Peninsula JCC is scheduled to present Political scientist Steven Windmueller
giving “a nonpartisan analysis of the role Jews play and continue to play in
U.S. politics.”
2020”
The National Museum of American Jewish History is scheduled to host “Critical
Conversation Starters: Charlottesville and the Case Against White Supremacy.”
2020:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host “The Spells She Casts – Alice
Hoffman.”
2020:
Israelis and Jews around the world are among those mourning the death Eitan
Haber who passed away yesterday.
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/Syu9TvsIw
2021:
Kan Kol Hamuiska is scheduled to broads “Early Music from Ein Kerem” featuring
an ensemble that includes Noam Schuss, Tali Goldberg, baroque violins; Amos
Boasson, baroque viola; Marina Minkin, harpsichord and Myrna Herzog, viola da
gamba.
2021:
In Columbus, OH, at Tifereth Israel, Rabbi Hillel Skolnik is scheduled to lead
a special “Blessing of the Pets” in the congregations parking lot.
2021:
The Jewish Film Festival at the Jacob Burns Film Center is scheduled to host
the final screening of “The Auschwitz Report” and “The Starry Sky Above the
Roman Ghetto.”
2022:
New York’s IFC Center is scheduled to host a screening of “Last Flight Home”
which premiered yesterday and is a documentary that chronicles the final weeks
of Eli Timoner the “former airline executive and public fundraiser for Miami’s
Jewish Federation” and stroke victim whose rabbi is his daughter Rachel and
whose chronicler is her sister, director Ondi Timoner.
2022:
The Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to open its 54th concert
season with “A Celebration of Strings.”
2022(13th
of Tishrei,5783): Ha’azinu (Give Ear)
2023:
The Museum of the Jewish People and IGRA are scheduled host “the Israeli premier
of the new film Fioretta.”
2023:
In Cedar Rapids, Temple Judah is scheduled to resume Religious School today.
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is schooled to host the first session of
“Eldridge Arts and Learning: Stain Glass.”
2023:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host an on-site performance of “A
Recovered Voice – The Clarinet Music of Hans Gal.
2023:
Agnon House is scheduled to host the first of four online lectures by Professor
Adamiel Kosman on “Human Encounters: Stories about the ‘Other’ and the ‘Stranger.’”
2023: As the day begins Israel remains in a state of lockdown following yesterday’s murderous attack by
Palestinian terrorists who have massacred hundreds of civilians while wounding thousands
more and holding Israeli soldiers as hostages and the Prime Minister announces that Israel is in a "state of war."
2023: Israel has reportedly launched "Iron Swords."
2023(23rd Tishrei, 5754): Simchat Torah; for more see https://downhomedavartorah.blogspot.com/