July 14
1086: Toirdelbach Ua Briain passed away. Born in 1009, he was the King of Munster and the High King of Ireland. During his reign, in 1079, Jews reportedly made their first appearance in the Emerald Isle. “The Annals of Inisfallen record ‘Five Jews came from over sea with gifts to Toirdelbach [king of Munster], and they were sent back again over sea’”.
1223:Philip II Augustus, King of France died. Like so many other anti-Semites, King Phillip based his animus towards the Jews on Christian teachings and then used this hate to despoil. Shortly after his coronation, the King ordered the arrest of all the Jews on a Saturday, when they were easy pickings and then demanded a ransom for their release. He canceled the loans Christians owed to the Jews, seized their property and then expelled them. Years later he would readmit the Jews but only after they paid another ransom and submit to a confiscatory scheme of taxation.
1223: Louis VIII becomes King of France upon the death of his father, Philip II of France. After his coronation, Louis reversed the policy of his father and ordered his officials to stop recording the debts Christians owed to Jews. This was part of the on-going struggle that Christians had over the question of usury – charging interest when lending money. For Christians usury was a sin that led to excommunication. Since Jews were not Christians they could not be excommunicated so some Christian leaders felt it was acceptable to borrow from them. The Church frowned on this. Louis’ ban was an attempt to reach a compromise. Jew could lend. Christians could borrow. But Christians did not necessarily end up having to pay back. At least one major French noble became a foe of Louis over this since he had taxed his Jews on the profits from their money-lending activities. This was a fry cry from the days of Louis VI and Louis VII both of whom were protective of Jews to the extent that Jews were a significant part of the populace of Paris.
1391:The jurados of Valencia reported today that Don Samuel Abravalla, “the richest Jew in Valenciea” had been baptized yesterday in the palace of En Gasto. His Christian name is Alfonso Ferrandes de Villaneuva.” (According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, this Samuel Abravalla should not be confused with Don Samuel Abravanel, who was also forcfully baptized in 1391, but took the name Juan de Sevilla. Both men returned to Judaism as soon as they had the chance to recant their respective baptisms.)
1555: Paul IV issued Cum nimis absurdum, a Papal Bull that“placed religious and economic restrictions on Jews in the Papal States. The bull renewed anti-Jewish decrees. It forced Jews to wear special clothing, to live in a ghetto in Rome and forbade them to own real estate or practice medicine among Christians. Jews were forbidden to practice any trade except ragpicking, and were restricted to one synagogue per city. Since all property had to be sold, and was inevitably sold at below market value, the Bull, like most such ordinances was theft as well.”
1614: The Jews of Worms succeeded in repelling an attack on the Jewish quarter today.
1647: A Jew from the city of Alessandra “who had discovered a new process of refining gunpowder” told the city officials of the plans the Duke of Modena to take control of the city by bribing him to destroy the supply of gunpowder.
1663(9thof Tammuz, 5423): According to Leopold Zunz, Nathan ben Moses Hannover the Jewish historian and Talmudist best known for writing Yeven Mezulah that described the Khmelnytsky Uprising in which an unprecedented number of Jews were murdered, passed away today. “Some of them [the Jews] had their skins flayed off them and their flesh was flung to the dogs. The hands and feet of others were cut off and they [their bodies] were flung onto the roadway where carts ran over them and they were trodden underfoot by horse ... And many were buried alive. Children were slaughtered at their mother’s bosoms and many children were torn apart like fish. They ripped up the bellies of pregnant women, took out the unborn children, and flung them in their faces. They tore open the bellies of some of them and placed a living cat within the belly and they left them alive thus, first cutting off their hands so that they should not be able to take the living cat out of the belly ... and there was never an unnatural death in the world that they did not inflict upon them.” (from Yeven Mezulah, pp. 31-32)
1757: During a dispute surrounding titles used by members of the Bet Din in London, Isaac Nieto “was prohibited from exercising the functions of assessor.” The son of David Nieto, Isaac Nieto had served as spiritual leader of Bevis Marx and had started the first synagogue in Gibraltar. He had returned to London in 1751 to serve as one of three judges in the city’s Rabbinical Court. He passed away in 1774.
1785: Birthdate of Mordecai Manuel Noah, the native of Philadelphia, who “was an American playwright, diplomat, journalist, and utopian. Born in a family of Portuguese Sephardic ancestry, he was the most important Jewish lay leader in New York in the pre-Civil War period, and the first Jew born in the United States to reach national prominence.”
1796: As the sun rise over Frankfort, the Jews examined the extensive damage done to the Judengrasse by the French shelling. The damage was so extensive that the Jews were allowed to disperse to other sections of the city leading to the de facto end of the “Jewish Quarter.:
1789: This date marks the fall of the Bastille in France. Although Jews by and large were not allowed to participate in the election of the Estates-General, which became the Constituent National Assembly, they viewed the fall of the Bastille as a triumph. Many of them enlisted in the National Guard. At the same time more than 1000 Jews in Alsace were forced to flee during the Agrarian revolt there.
1798: The Sedition Act, part of the four laws known as the Alien and Sedition Acts become law during the administration of President John Adams. Adams was the leader of the Federalist Party and the opponents of the Democrat Party led by Thomas Jefferson. According to historian Howard M. Sachar, “the Federalist remained plainspoken opponents of political rights for non-Christians.” The Jews “sensed that the underlying animus” expressed against the French and other “foreigners” in this legislation was aimed at Jews (the quintessential foreigners) as much as anybody else. This drove most Jews into the welcoming arms of the Democrat Party which a strange admixture of Southern aristocrats and Northern urban leaders as typified by Aaron Burr.
1816(18th of Tammuz, 5576): Since the 17th of Tammuz fell on Shabbat Tzom Tammuz was observed today.
1827: Birthdate of Wilhelm Rapp, the German native who participated in the Revolutions of 1848 before moving to United States in 1852 where he became a newspaper whose anti-slavery views led to a meeting with President Abraham Lincoln.
1828: Today “Dora Wordsworth and her father William Wordsworth and their friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge…came upon a Jewish family while walking along the Rhine near St. Goar.” Dora recorded the meeting in her journal, while her father, the poet, recorded his feelings in a poem entitled “A Jewish Family” that was published in 1835. According to Judith W. Page, “Dora attempted to humanize the family and to see them as individuals. William…idealized and distanced his subjects, thus denying them their particular identities and historical grounding. What follows is Wordsworth description of the events that led to the creation of “A Jewish Family.”
Coleridge, my daughter, and I, in 1828, passed a fortnight upon the banks of the Rhine, principally under the hospitable roof of Mr. Aders of Gotesburg, but two days of the time we spent at St. Goar in rambles among the neighbouring valleys. It was at St. Goar that I saw the Jewish family here described. Though exceedingly poor, and in rags, they were not less beautiful than I have endeavoured to make them appear. We had taken a little dinner with us in a basket, and invited them to partake of it, which the mother refused to do, both for herself and children, saying it was with them a fast-day; adding diffidently, that whether such observances were right or wrong, she felt it her duty to keep them strictly. The Jews, who are numerous on this part of the Rhine, greatly surpass the German peasantry in the beauty of their features and in the intelligence of their countenances. But the lower classes of the German peasantry have, here at least, the air of people grieviously opprest. Nursing mothers, at the age of seven or eight and twenty often look haggard and far more decayed and withered than women of Cumberland and Westmoreland twice their age. This comes from being underfed and overworked in their vineyards in a hot and glaring sun.
“A Jewish Family”
GENIUS of Raphael! if thy wings
Might bear thee to this glen,
With faithful memory left of things
To pencil dear and pen,
Thou would'st forego the neighbouring Rhine,
And all his majesty--
A studious forehead to incline
O'er this poor family.
The Mother--her thou must have seen,
In spirit, ere she came
To dwell these rifted rocks between,
Or found on earth a name;
An image, too, of that sweet Boy,
Thy inspirations give--
Of playfulness, and love, and joy,
Predestined here to live.
Downcast, or shooting glances far,
How beautiful his eyes,
That blend the nature of the star
With that of summer skies!
I speak as if of sense beguiled;
Uncounted months are gone,
Yet am I with the Jewish Child,
That exquisite Saint John.
I see the dark-brown curls, the brow,
The smooth transparent skin,
Refined, as with intent to show
The holiness within;
The grace of parting Infancy
By blushes yet untamed;
Age faithful to the mother's knee,
Nor of her arms ashamed.
Two lovely Sisters, still and sweet
As flowers, stand side by side;
Their soul-subduing looks might cheat
The Christian of his pride:
Such beauty hath the Eternal poured
Upon them not forlorn,
Though of a lineage once abhorred,
Nor yet redeemed from scorn.
Mysterious safeguard, that, in spite
Of poverty and wrong,
Doth here preserve a living light,
From Hebrew fountains sprung;
That gives this ragged group to cast
Around the dell a gleam
Of Palestine, of glory past,
And proud Jerusalem!
1850: Following a major fire in Philadelphia, the Hebrew ladies of Philadelphia met this morning and afternoon, and made up a large quantity of garments to supply immediate necessities for those who had suffered losses as a result of the blaze.
1850: Sixty-one year old German theologian and historian Johann August Wilhelm Neander who had been born David Mendel, the son of Jewish peddler Emmanuel Mendel, passed away today.
1854: The New York Times published a letter from James Finn, the English Consul at Jerusalem that was critical of a U.S. citizen named Jones who was allegedly selling relics to visitors for 60 pounds sterling. Finn was a philanthropist as well as diplomat who established a farm for training Jewish agriculture workers and employed Jewish workers to build the first house at Kerem Avraham, a piece of land he had purchased that was outside the walls of the Old City.
1858: An article published today entitled "The First Mormon Settlement--Its Temple" described the Mormon settlement in Ohio including a school that has a classroom for the teaching of Hebrew which is overseen by a Jew named Sexias whom the Reverend Stewart also consults on matters relating to "Hebrew authority."
1863: Jews of Holstein, Germany were granted equality.
1870: In Great Britain, the United Synagogue Act which brought into existence the United Synagogue received Royal Assent.
1874: The newly formed Union of American Hebrew Congregations is scheduled to have its second annual meeting today.
1877: Leopold Ullstein, a Bavrian Jew, purchased the Neue Berliner Tageblatt newspaper, a subsidiary of the liberal Berliner Tageblatt published by Rudolf Mosse who was a leader of the Berlin Jewish community.
1878: While meeting in Milwaukee, the Jewish Council “formally approved the union of all Hebrew congregations under one organization. The goals of the organization include the creation of institutions “for instruction in Hebrew literature and theology,” the establishment of relations “with other Jewish organizations in different parts of the world” dedicated to improving the conditions of oppressed Jews and the promotion of religious instruction for young people include young Jewish ladies.
1880: A free aquatic excursion for poor Jewish children six years of age and under is scheduled to begin at nine o’clock this morning
1881: In Chicago, Il, the 8th annual meeting of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations came to an end. Moritz Loth of Cincinnati has served as President and Lipman Levy has servered as the Secretary of the Union.
1882: It was reported today that Patrick Auglen has charged a group of Polish Jews living in the same rooming house where he was staying had dragged him into their apartment and beaten him brutally. The Jews did not deny having fought with him but claimed they were acting in self-defense since Auglen had begun the disturbance by kicking down their door. The fight was part of the violence that was surrounding the current Freight Handlers Strike.
1882: “Help For The Russian Jews” published today the Executive Board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations had agreed to issue an appeal to all of its member congregations to solicit aid for Russian refugees and to require every Jewish male over the age of 13 to contribute one dollar to a fund for aiding the poor.
1882: Nearly 300 Russian Jewish refugees arrived in Philadelphia aboard the SS Pennsylvania. They came from Odessa and Kiev and have left for settlement in the West.
1883: It was reported today that “several Jews have been tortured and murdered” in the Russian town of Ostrog.
1884(21st of Tammuz, 5644): Rabbi George Jacobs of Beth El-Emeth in Philadelphia, passed away today in Germantown, PA after an extended illness. A native of Kingston Jamaica, he came to the United States at the age of two and went into business in Richmond Va. In 1857, he joined the rabbinate in that Southern city and served there until 1869 when he moved to Philadelphia. Jacobs was the author of numerous works including “Sketches of Abarbanel’s Commentaries” and “Specimens of Hebrew Literature, from the Redaction of the Mishnah to 1800.”
1884: It was reported today that the courts have ruled that the French artist Gustave Jean Jacquet may not display his portrait showing Alexander Dumas as a Jew of Baghdad. The son of the great novelist apparently felt to be portrayed as member of this ethnic group was an insult. The whole matter was moot, since 18 months ago, the son-in-law of Dumas had struck the head in the painting with his cane thus destroying the offending visage. [Another example of the uneven French view of Jews]
1885: The Union of Hebrew Charities met in St. Louis, MO, this morning and voted unanimously to change the name to the Associated Hebrew Charities of the United States. Delegates from Louisville, Nashville, Baltimore, St. Paul, MN, New Orleans, Wilmington, Delaware and Montgomery, Alabama promised to immediately join the newly re-named organization.
1885: It was reported today that Marcus Bernheimer has been elected of a yet unnamed national union of Hebrew charities. J.L. Isaacs of New York has been elected Vice President and Albert Arstein of St. Louis has been elected to serve as Secretary.
1885: “A Weakness for Pictures” published today reported that Dr. Felton proposed that $500 be appropriated by the Georgia Legislature to buy pictures of Reverend Mercer and Bishop Pierce in what some saw was an attempt to gain votes in his upcoming run for the governorship. Representative Arnheim drew laughter from the attendees when he moved that an additional $25 be appropriated to buy “a cheap picture of Moses. [Note - Louis Arnheim was Jewish and represented Dougherty County in the state legislature. Dr. Felton is a candidate for Governor]
1887: It was reported at Pittsburg, PA, the Committee on Civil Rights recommended that the Board of Delegates should take notice of the recent outbreak of prejudice aimed at the Jews of Louisiana and urged the Jewish delegated to work for legislations that would protect them throughout the United States.
1889: It was reported today from Round Lake, NY, that this season’s Round Lake Assembly will feature a new attraction – a replica of the Tabernacle used by the Israelites in the Wilderness. Built to one third the scale of the original, it will include the a replica of the ark and all of the sacrificial accoutrements used by the priests and Levites. W.H. Groat of Rupert, VT, who furnished the designs and oversaw the actual construction, will deliver lectures about the Tabernacle using the model as a teaching tool.
1890: Birthdate of Russian born sculptor Ossip Zadkine.
1891; Joseph Thoron, the President of the French Hospital Board and the French Benevolent Society prepared the program which is being distributed at today’s celebration of Bastille Day and the centennial of the political emancipation of the Jews of France. The pamphlet includes “a sketch of the emancipation of the Jews of France and an outline of the life of Coroner Ferdinand Levy.” Coroner Levy delivered an address on behalf of the Jews.
1891: The weekly excursion for sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children for underprivileged Jewish children and their mothers is scheduled to take place today.
1892: Agent Rheinherz of the United Hebrew Charities presented Superintendent of Immigration Weber with “a fine crayon port of himself by the Hebrew, German, Irish, Polish and Italian Societies.”
1893: Russian Jews made up the majority of the 800 refugees aboard the Red Sea, a tramp steamship that arrived today at Ellis Island. The immigrants were not allowed to land due to concern about their financial situation.
1893(1st of Av, 5653): Rosh Chodesh Av
1893(1st of Av, 5653): While sailing from New York to Liverpool aboard the Cunard Line steamship Umbria, New York realtor Ascher Weinstein who was connected with several Jewish charitable institutions fell overboard today in a tragic accident.
1894: Fifteen hundred members of the United Hebrew Trades Unions led by the International Cloakmakers Union marched up with Bowery behind an array of Red Flags on their way to mass meeting at Union Square where supporters of the Pullman strikers were gathered.
1895: The attendees at the annual Central Conference of American Rabbis including begin leaving Rochester, NY for the homes in Cincinnati, Louisville, and New York City to name but a few of the cities from which the delegates came.
1895: “The Brightside Day Nursery” published today described the function of this institution which, for the payment of 5 cents a day, provides care for children under the age of six whose mother must work during the day. The organization is led by its President, Mrs. S.R. Guggenheim and a Board of Managers that includes Rabbi Gustav Gottheil, Rabbi Joseph Silverman, Jacob Schiff and Solomon Guggenheim.
1899: According to Andrew Sarris, In New York City Victor and Helen Cukor, immigrant Jews from Hungary gave birth to director George Dewey Cukor
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/books/the-man-in-the-glass-closet.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
1899: “Knights of Zion Incorporated” published today described the function of the new Jewish organization that was “formed to promote good fellowship and social intercourse…as well as to inculcate a love for the Jewish faith in the hearts and minds of Jewish children. Directors include Samuel W. Greenbaum, Nathan Greenbaum, Jacob Hamburger and Herman Schapp.” (This should not be confused with the Knights of Zion, a Zionist organization formed in Chicago in 1895)
1899(7th of Av, 5659): Forty six year old pioneer German social worker Jeanette Schwerin passed away.
1899: During proceedings at the County Court House in which Reverend Herman Faust was contesting the judgment obtained by the Sun Printing and Publishing against him, Faust claimed that he was a converted Jew and this litigation was a manifestation of the persecution he was suffering at the hands of Orthodox Jews. He offered no evidence to support his contention.
1901: Birthdate of George Tobias, one of those marvelous “character actors” whose name you don’t know but whose visage in quickly recognized as when he played “Pusher” in “Sergeant York.”
1902(9th of Tammuz, 5662): Russian sculptor Mark Antokolsky passed away. In an unusual turn of events, this Litvak (Lithuanian Jew) ended ups studying at the Imperial Academy of Art where his impoverished circumstances forced him to do some of his initial work in wood instead of marble. Some of his early works - "Jewish Tailor", "Nathan The Wise", "Inquisition's Attack against Jews", "The Talmudic Debate"– were based on Jewish on themes
1903: Birthdate of author Irving Stone. Born Irving Tenenbaum in San Francisco, one of Stone’s most famous works was Lust For Life, a fictionalized biography of Vincent Van Gogh. The film version provided employment for another Jew, Kirk Douglas who played the starring role.
1904: Birthdate of Yiddish novelist, Isaac Bashevis Singer. Singer, author of many volumes including Enemies and Yentel won the Nobel Prize in 1978. He passed away in 1991.
1904: Birthdate of Rudolf Julius Arnheim, the Berlin native, “a distinguished psychologist, philosopher and critic whose work explored the cognitive basis of art — how we interpret it and, by extension, the world.” (As reported by Maraglit Fox)
1911: Birthdate of Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber, the renowned physicist who fled Germany after she earned her Ph.D in 1935. She eventually came to the United States where she married Maurice Goldhaber.
1912: Birthdate of Woody Guthrie, famed American folk singer who gave a musical voice to downtrodden masses suffering during the Great Depression and the fight against fascism as can be heard in the famed tune describing the sinking of the Rubin James. Guthrie was not Jewish but his Brooklyn born mother-in-law, with whom he collaborated was. For more about Woody’s Jewish connection see http://www.woodyguthrie.org/merchandise/klezmatics.htm.
1914: Leon Zalatkoff, editor of The Jew Daily News will preside over a memorial service marking the 10 anniversary of the death of Theodore Herzl being held in the Bronx at the London Casino. Rabbi Bernard Wolf will lead a religious service after which Dr. Schmarja Levin of Berlin who was a member of the first Russian Duma will deliver an address. His remarks will include a response to Jacob Schiff’s criticism of Levin’s role in the debate over the use of Hebrew or German at the Technion in Haifa.
1914: Louis Lipsky, Chairman of The American Federation of Zionists will preside over a memorial service marking the 10 anniversary of the death of Theodore Herzl being held at the National Theatre on Houston Street in New York City. Rabbi Joseph Rosenblatt will lead a religious service after which Dr. Schmarja Levin of Berlin who was a member of the first Russian Duma will deliver an address. His remarks will include a response to Jacob Schiff’s criticism of Levin’s role in the debate over the use of Hebrew or German at the Technion in Haifa. Bernard Rosenblatt, the Secretary of the American Federation of Zionists will also speak at the memorial service.
1915: During World War I, the New York Times published reports from “the semi-official Wolff Telegraph Bureau” that the French had been the first to used gas in February of 1915 two months before the Germans used at the Second Battle of Yypres. (In one of those many ironies of German history, the Wolff Telegraphy Bureau, which was seen a spokesman for the Kaiser was the creation of Bernhard Wolff, a German-Jewish businessman.)
1915: In Cleveland, Ohio, Sarah and Samuel Schwartz gave birth to Jerome Lawrence Schwartz who gained fame as Jerome Lawrence the co-author of “Inherit the Wind.”
1916: Birthdate of Italian novelist, essayist, translator and playwright Natalia Ginzburg. Born Natalie Levi, her father was Jewish and her mother was Catholic. During the 1930’s her parent’s home was bastion of anti-Mussolini sentiment. She married Leon Ginzburg, a brilliant intellectual of that time. The Ginzburgs endured exile and house arrest for their anti-fascist views. During the war Leon Ginzburg was arrested and murdered for his anti-fascism. Ginzburg returned to Rome after the war where she resumed her career. She died in 1991.
1917: Birthdate of Arthur Laurents, “the playwright, screenwriter and director who wrote and ultimately transformed two of Broadway’s landmark shows, “Gypsy” and “West Side Story,” and created one of Hollywood’s most well-known romances, “The Way We Were.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/arts/arthur-laurents-playwright-and-director-dies-at-93.html?pagewanted=all
1920: In Halifax, Nova Scotia, the cornerstone was laid for the Robie Street Shul.
1921: Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted in Dedham Mass, of killing their shoe company's paymaster. The case of the two Italian immigrants would become a cause célèbre among civil libertarians and their reactionary opponents. Felix Frankfurter, who would become the third Jewish member of the Supreme Court, was part of the legal team that sought, unsuccessfully, to save their lives.
1928: In, Timisoara, Transylvania Judah Loeb Fleisher and his wife gave birth to Ezra Fleischer the Romanian born Israeli Hebrew-language poet and philologist who served as the director of the Geniza Research Institute for Hebrew Poetry of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
1930: Outfielder Harry Rosenberg made his major league debut with the New York Giants.
1931:In Basle, Switzerland, Nahum Sokolow was elected president of the World Zionist Organization today by a vote of 118 to 48, succeeding Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who had been president for ten years.
1933: In Germany, all political parties were outlawed except for the Nazi Party.
1833: Hitler’s cabinet formally approved the Concordat between the Vatican and Germany. The Concordat was one of the earliest expression of “approval” of the new Nazi regime.
1933: In Poland, “Dr. Jacob Wigodsky wrote in a Vilna newspaper: ‘We must continue to fight against the Hitler pogroms…We are fighting for the equal rights of all, everywhere in the world, but first and foremost, equal rights for us.’”
1933: Germany adopts The Law Regarding Revocation of Naturalization and the Annulment of German Citizenship that stripped German citizenship from Eastern European Jews. This will eventually lead to the forced repatriation of Polish Jews living in German – an act of great misery since the Poles did not want to admit the Jews.
1933:It was reported today that Czechoslovak and German Governments have reached agreement under which Czech citizens residing in Germany, who wish to return to Czechoslovakia, will be permitted to take with them all their possessions. The reports do not say if this includes Czech Jews who have been living in Germany.
1934: A Jewish delegation from Adrianople spoke with the Turkish government in an attempt to ensure that police would continue to present to prevent looting.
1934: Birthdate of Lee Friedlander, one of those Jews who used a Leica 35 mm camera and rolls of black and white film to create unforgettable art.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/2.234/defining-the-jewish-photographer-1.417981
http://www.cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2009/03/lee_friedlander_exhibit_at_cle.html
1938(15thof Tammuz, 5698):Isaac Goldberg passed away. Born in 1887, he was an American journalist, author, critic, translator, editor, publisher, and lecturer. Born in Boston he studied at Harvard University and received a BA degree in 1910, a MA degree in 1911 and a PhD in 1912. While he actively covered European culture for the Boston Evening Transcript during World War I, Goldberg never actually traveled abroad. In fact, he turned down a 1932 Guggenheim Fellowship awarded to Goldberg for travel to South America. He wrote biographies of H. L. Mencken, Havelock Ellis, W. S. Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, and George Gershwin, books on theatrical and musical appreciation, and contributed articles for many magazines. He also founded, published, and edited a monthly news magazine called Panorama. He was fluent in Yiddish, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese and translated a variety of literary works into English. He received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 1932 to write a history of Spanish and Portuguese literature in America. He was also a lecturer on Hispanic literature at Harvard University from 1931 to 1932.
1938: Recognizing the intent of the Evian Conference nations in regard to the Jews, a Nazi newspaper headlines: "JEWS FOR SALE AT A BARGAIN PRICE--WHO WANTS THEM? NO ONE."
1938: Birthdate of self-proclaimed political activist Jerry Rubin. He passed away in 1994
1939: On Bastille Day, the 17,000 internees at Gurs Concentration Camp of Spanish origin arranged themselves in military formation in the sports field and sang La Marseillaise, followed by sports presentations and choral and instrumental concerts.
1941(19th of Tammuz, 5701): Six thousand Lithuanian Jews were killed.
1942: Thousands of Dutch Jews are arrested in Amsterdam and deported to Auschwitz, where many are gassed.
1942: The Przemysl, Poland, ghetto is sealed by the Nazis.
1944(23rd of Tammuz, 5704): Hungarian Jews held at the Reval, Estonia, slave-labor camp are shot in a nearby forest.
1944(23rd of Tammuz, 5704): Germans murder hundreds of POWs and Jewish partisans at Vercors, France.
1944(23rd of Tammuz, 5704): Forty-two Jews laboring in workshops at the Pawiak prison in Warsaw are executed by Germans anticipating a Red Army assault.
1944: Approximately 200 Jews were alive today in Grodno when it was liberated by Soviet troops.
1945: A train left Los Alamos carrying several "bomb units" for Little Boy (the major non-nuclear parts of a gun-type bomb) together with a single completed uranium projectile; the uranium target was still incomplete.” Little Boy was the name given to the first atomic boy which was developed by the Manhattan Project under the command of Robert Oppenheimer.
1945: "Lest We Forget," an exhibition of death-camp photography organized by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Washington Evening Star comes to an end. By the end of the tour nearly 90,000 Americans have viewed this testament to the Holocaust.
1947: Birthdate of pitcher and sportscaster Steve Stone. “He was one of the best Jewish pitchers in major league history, 3rd career-wise in wins (107) and strikeout (1,065), behind Ken Holtzman and Sandy Koufax, and 9th in games (320).“
1948: During Operation Dekiel, the Irgun occupied the Arab village of Malha after a fierce battle. Several hours later, the Arabs launched a counterattack, but Israeli reinforcements arrived, and the village was retaken at a cost of 17 dead.
1948: After failing to capture the northern Negev town of Negba, the Egyptians attacked the settlement of Gal-On. Gal-On was 15 miles east of Negba and another impediment to the Egyptian advance towards Tel Aviv. The defenders beat off the Egyptian attackers forcing them to seek another route to the Jewish metropolis.
1948: The Israelis launched their third attack on the Arab fortress of Latrun. Latrun was held by the crack Arab Legion and blocked the normal road to Jerusalem. The Arabs, who had modern armored vehicles, beat off the attacking Israelis who had not anti-tank weapons.
1948: As part of “Operation Dekel,” an offensive designed to take the city of Nazareth, Israeli forces move southeast from the coast and take the town of Shefaram.
1948: Forces of the Arab Liberation Army which had been staying in the village began their retreat from Ein Kerem.
1948: The Irgun lost 17 men in the battle for the village of Mahla.
1948: Israeli planes bombed the airport at Cairo.
1950: Today, Erev of Shabbat, Moscow radio broadcast charges that “Israel ‘openly sided with the American aggressors’ in approving United Nations intervention in Korea.” The broadcast repeated published charges “that Prime Minister David Ben Gurion’s speech before the Israeli Parliament was a repetition of recent statements by President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
1956(6th of Av, 5716):Isaac Rosenfeld passed away. Born in Chicago in 1918, he was a Jewish-American writer who became a prominent member of the New York literary elite. Rosenfeld wrote one novel Passage from Home which, according to literary critic Marck Shechner, "helped fashion a uniquely American voice by marrying the incisiveness of Mark Twain to the Russian melancholy of Dostoevsky," and many articles for The Nation, Partisan Review, and The New Republic. Some of those articles were posthumously published in a volume titled An Age of Enormity, and his short stories were later published as Alpha and Omega.
1958: In Iraq, Arab nationalists overthrew the monarchy, which had been installed by the British, in a violent, gruesome revolt. As with so much turmoil in the Middle East, this had nothing to do with Israel. The revolt was anti-Western. As the Arab leader Nasser said, the Arabs were not anti-Western because of Israel. They were anti-Israel because Israel was Western.
1958: Birthdate of producer Scott Rudin who is “one of the few people who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony”
1960: Congress authorized a one-time Chaplain’s Medal for Heroism today. The medal was created to honor The Four Dorchester Chaplains and had to be created because of the strict definition of heroism under fire used for awarding the Congressional Medal of Honor. Rabbi Alexander Goode, of blessed memory, was one of the four recipients of the medal.
1967: Chile voted against the reunification of Jerusalem after the *Six-Day War
1967: As artillery exchanges and aerial duels erupt near the Suez Canal. Israeli forces shot down 7 Egyptian fighter aircraft.
1976: After 4 days of debate, the Security Council of the United Nations failed to adopt a resolution supported by most African states condemning Israel’s raid on Entebbe as violation of Uganda’s sovereignty. At the same time, a majority could not be mustered to support the Anglo-American resolution condemning the hijacking of airplanes and calling on “all governments to prevent and punish all such terrorist acts.” (Note – Is today’s news nothing more than a recycling of yesterday’s events?) As reported by Kathleen Teltsch
1976: In light of Mexico’s denunciation of the raid on Entebbe, Zionist in the United States l are calling on American Jews to boycott Mexican goods and to avoid travel to Mexici.
1978: Anatoly Sharansky was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation.
1980(1st of Av, 5740): Rosh Chodesh Av
1985: Today, the New York Times described David Cantor’s performance of “Che” in the musical “Evita” as “marvelous…never lapsing into excessive snideness, singing gorgeously and, at times, sailing into the stratosphere with his crystalline 'high-flying, adored' pianissimi."
1989: An Israeli F-16 shot down a Syrian MIG-21. This marks the first time that an Israeli piloted F-16 has shot down an enemy aircraft.
1992: Shimon Peres begins serving as Israel’s Foreign Minister.
1992: Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s new Prime Minister awaited a response to his offer made the day before to travel to the capitals of any Arab country to further the cause of peace in the Middle East.
1997: The opening of the 15th Maccabiah Games in Tel Aviv was marred by disaster. As the Australian team walked across a bridge, the bridge collapsed plunging the team into the Yarkon River. Greg Small Elizabeth Sawicki, Yetty Bennett and Warren Zines lost their lives and 60 others were injured.
2002: In an article entitled “The Shadow of Circumstance,” Daphne Merkin describes her visit to Israel with her daughter to attend a nephew’s wedding; a visit of unbelievable normality except for the fact it was bracketed by two bombings and included a “red alert” in Jerusalem.
2002: A three-week workshop on Jewish History and Culture opens at Nanjing University, Nanjing, China,
2003: Jerry Springer filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate from Ohio.
2006: While Jews across the world offer recite the lines Sim Shalom at the conclusion with a renewed fervor they also offer up prayers for the safety of the IDF and the citizens of Israel as they deal with attacks from terrorists operating from Gaza and Lebanon.
2006: This morning, “one of the branch heads of naval intelligence, Lieutenant-Colonel Y. briefed the head of naval intelligence, Colonel Ram Rothberg, telling him that "ships enforcing Israel's naval blockade on Hezbollah should take into account the possibility of a C-802 missile being fired on them." The assessment, however, did not result in a warning.”
2006: The INS Hanit, Sa'ar 5-class corvette, was damaged today when it was struck by a C-802 anti-ship missile fired by Hezbollah.
2006: The following were among a total of 43 Israeli civilians (including four who died of heart attacks during rocket barrages) and 116 IDF soldiers were killed in the Israel-Hizbullah war:St.-Sgt. Tal Amgar, 21, of Ashdod; Cpl. Shai Atias, 19, of Rishon Lezion; Sgt. Yaniv Hershkovitz, 21, of Haifa; and St.-Sgt. Dov Shtierenshos, 37, of Karmiel. Yehudit Itzkovich, 58, of Meron, and her grandson Omer Pesahov, seven, of Nahariya.
2007: In Jerusalem, Off the Wall Comedy Empire presents "The Jerusalem Comedy Show," starring David Kilimnick, Boris Melamed and Anat Hoffman, a comedy show about life in Jerusalem.
2007: The Cedars Rapids Gazette featured an article entitled “N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg’s Jewish faith a non-issue” describes Bloomberg’s upbringing as a Conservative Jew in Medford, Mass. and his philanthropic support of Jewish institutions. The article states that “there’s no evidence Jews will support Bloomberg because of their shared faith.” But the article says nothing about how non-Jews would respond to a serious Jewish candidate for President.
2008: Eli Aflalo succeeded Yaakov Edri was Minister of Immigrant Absorption. Edri continued to serve as Minister of Negev and Galilee Development.
2008: In Washington, D.C. Ethan Caninreads from and signs his new novel, America America, at Politics and Prose Bookstore.
2008: Barring any rebellion before votes are tallied,Randi Weingarten is expected to be elected to the top position of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers at its Chicago convention. Weingarten has served for the past decade as head of the 200,000-member New York teachers group, known as the UFT.As the AFT's president, Weingarten will be the only woman leading a major U.S. union—one that has been growing, unlike much of organized labor. Weingarten is not the first Jew to serve as President of AFT. That distinction goes to the late Albert Shanker.
2009: Arthur Laurents “Broadway’s Last Ferocious Man” celebrates his 92ndbirthday.
2009: At the 18th Maccabiah Games the following basketball games are played: Germany v Canada, Greece v Brazil, Russia v Argentina and Mexico v the United States.
2009:Israel accused Lebanon of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 today after a Hizbullah arms cache hidden inside a southern Lebanese town accidentally exploded. The blast occurred inside the village of Hirbet Selm, some 20 kilometers north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, south of the Litani River and within the area which falls under the mandate of the UNIFIL multi-national force.
2009:The softball tournament at the Maccabiah Games was brought to an abrupt close on this afternoon when police stormed the field at the Baptist Village without any prior warning. Although the tournament had already been underway for two-and-a-half days, 400 softball players have now been left unsure of the status of their games, seemingly because the Maccabiah coordinators failed to secure a business license for the event's venue at the Yarkon Sports Complex at the Baptist Village in Petah Tikva.
2009:In a new signal to Iran, two Sa'ar 5-class Israeli Navy ships crossed through the Suez Canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea today to beef up Israel's naval presence near Eilat. The passage of the ships comes several weeks after a Dolphin-class submarine passed through the international waterway for the first time.
2009:In a move that threatens to strain diplomatic ties, Britain has blocked the sale of spare parts for Israel’s fleet of missile gunships because they were used in the recent campaign in Gaza.
2010:Tovah Feldshuh, star of stage and big and small screen, is scheduled to make a special appearance at the screening of the indie comedy hit Goyband today where she will receive the Jersey Shore Film Festival Award for Artistic Achievement
2010:The Knesset voted today, in a preliminary reading, in favor of a bill that would prevent the transfer of funds to the Palestinian Authority if it continues to encourage and enforce a boycott of goods manufactured in Jewish communities.
2011: Nirvana, a dance show from Korea, which is based on ancient ritual Buddhist dances, is scheduled to appear at TAPAC in Tel Aviv.
2011:Violinist Vadim Gluzman is scheduled to return to Israel to perform Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Jerusalem Symphony under the baton of Dmitry Sitkovetsky at the Jerusalem Theater.
2011: A memorial service for Suzanne Rosenbaum Katz, wife of Bert Katz and a long time member of Hadassah, Temple Judah and its Sisterhood, is scheduled to be held at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2011:Israeli Air Force planes bombed two smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza in retaliation for rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities. A tunnel used to assist in terrorist activity in northern Gaza was also hit in an attack early this morning, according to the IDF. The attack came after a rocket was fired at a community in southern Israel. Yesterday, Israeli airstrikes hit two weapons manufacturing sites in northern Gaza after rocket launchings toward Israel the previous night. At least two Kassam rockets from those strikes damaged homes in a Negev community, the IDF said. Following the air attack, a rocket fired from Gaza struck southern Israel early yesterday afternoon. At least 11 rockets have been fired at southern Israel since the beginning of the month.
2012: French filmmaker Claude Lanzman received the French Legion of Honor.
2011: The mayor of San Antonio, Texas, Julián Castro, signed agreements with Israel to share knowledge and economic cooperation today as he was wrapping up a five-day trip to Israel focused on economic cooperation.
2012: Jerusalem’s Vertigo Dance Company is scheduled to perform for the last time at the Durham Performing Arts Center in North Carolina.
2012: A man set himself on fire on Tel Aviv’s Kaplan Street during a social justice rally tonight, police said. The Haifa man identified as Moshe Silman, 46 years old, came out of an apartment building, poured flammable material over his clothes and body and lit himself with a burning object (As reported by Yaakov Lappin, Michael Omer-Man and Gil Shefler)
2012: Israeli organizers expect tens of thousands to take part in nationwide demonstrations tonight to mark the first anniversary of last summer’s social justice protests
2012(24th of Tammuz): Yarhrzeit for the Jews of Jerusalem who were murdered by the crusaders on this date in 1099 (5772)
2012(24th of Tammuz, 5772): Sixty five year old “Gustin L. Reichbach who went from the carefree fraternity life to leading student protests at Columbia University in 1968 and then to a career as a fiercely independent lawyer and judge” passed away today. (As reported by Jim Dwyer)
2013: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. by Adelle Waldman.
2013: Final day of the 30th annual Jerusalem Film Festival.
2013: Pianist Sagy Segal and Vocalist Gal Klein are scheduled to perform at a special Bastille Day Concert at the Eden-Tamir Music Center.
2013: Observance of Bastille Day which provides an excellent opportunity to consider the uneven history of the Jews of France which, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia dates to the first decades of the common era when Jews were found at Vienna and Lyon.
The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present by Esther Benbassa http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-jews-of-france-a-history-from-antiquity-to-the-present-esther-benbassa/1104161920?ean=9781400823147
2013: This morning Economy Minister Naftali Bennett against what he called “incitement” by one of the most senior religious figures of Shas. In a video posted on the Haredi website Kikar Hashabbat, Rabbi Shalom Cohen, a member of Shas’s Council of Torah Sages and the head of the influential Porat Yosef Yeshiva, is seen calling national religious Israelis “Amalek” and suggesting that they aren’t Jews. (As reported by Haviv Rettig Gur)
2013: The police reported that another haredi attack on a religious soldier took place this afternoon in the ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Yisrael, close to Mea Shearim. According to police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby, two haredi men attacked a uniformed soldier with a knitted yarmulke who was passing by on Sha’arei Shamayim Street. (As rerpoted by Jeremy Sharon)
2013: Today “Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu telephoned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and said he hoped the two sides could resume peace talks, stalled for three years, Israeli officials said. Netanyahu offered greetings for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, his office said, adding that he told Abbas: "I hope we will have the opportunity to speak with one another not only during festivals, and will start negotiating. It's important."
2014: In New Orleans, final shivah minyan for Dietician, artist Bettie Florence Stovall Rosenbaum who passed away at the age of 87 is scheduled to take place at the home of Linda and Scott Hart in Lakeview. (As reported by the Crescent City Jewish News)
2014: “The Places You’ll Go” by Israeli playwright Hila Ben Gera, a graduate of Yoram Lowenstein’s Performing Arts Studio in Tel Avi is scheduled to open at @Dixon Place in New York.
2014: “Sukkah City USA” and “Under the Same Sun” are scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
2014: “A delegation from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is scheduled to arrive today, and meet government and military officials and tour areas susceptible to rocket fire by Hamas.” (As reported by JTA)