January 17
395: Emperor
Theodosius, I passed away in Milan. During his reign he instituted
several laws that directly impacted his Jewish subject. One “dealt with
the obligation of Jews and Samaritans to acts as shipmasters over goods being
transported.” A second law “gave the Jewish patriarchs the right to
judicial autonomy in their communities…” A third law enacted in 393
forbade the destruction of synagogues. (As reported by Daniel O. McClellan)
1287:
King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca, making Minorca a part of Spain, a
status that has survived into the 21st century, despite a brief
period of British rule in 18th century. Judah Bonsenyor,
Notary-general of Aragon, whose language skill enabled him to serve as an
interpreter, was among those who accompanied the king during the
invasion. Minorca has had a large Jewish population The Letter on the
Conversion of the Jews by a fifth century bishop named Severus tells of the
conversion of the island's Jewish community in AD 418. A number of Jews,
including Theodore, a rich representative Jew who stood high in the estimation
of his coreligionists and of Christians alike, underwent baptism. An act of
conversion brought about, in fact, within a previously peaceful coexisting
community by means of the expulsion of the ruling Jewish elite into the bleak
hinterlands, the burning of synagogues, and the gradual reinstatement of
certain Jewish families after the coerced acceptance of Christianity and its supremacy
and rule in order to allow survival for those who had not already perished.
Many Jews remained within the Jewish faith while outwardly professing Christian
faith. Some of these Jews form part of the Xueta community. When Minorca became
an English possession in 1713, the English willingly proffered an asylum to
thousands of Jews from African cities [citation needed]. A synagogue was soon
erected in Mahon.
1328:
Coronation of Louis VI of the Holy Roman empire who in 1249 would authoriszed
the Duke of Guelders to “received Jews in his duchy where they a tax and were
protected by law” took place today in Rome.
1369:
Forty-year-old Peter I of Cyprus who, in a fit of Crusader related chutzpah was
also the “titular King of Jerusalem passed away today.
1377: Pope
Gregory XI, the prelate who had ordered the burning of Jewish books a year
earlier, ended the Avignon Papacy when he moves the Papacy back to Rome from
Avignon.
1449: In
Toledo, Spain, 14 Conversos are put on trial and deprived of their offices
because it is believed that their conversion to Christianity was not sincere
and that they still cling to their Jewish ways. (Editor’s note – This was a
common complaint among Christians who were upset that the Jews who adopted
Catholicism were successful and, in some instances, supplanting them.)
1463: Ernest,
Elector of Saxony and his wife Elisabeth gave birth to Frederick ii, the
Elector of Saxony who protected Luther during that period from approximately
1514 to 1523 during which the Christian Reformer spoke positively of the Jews
as can be seen from condemnation of the doctrine of “Servitude of the Jews and
the essay “That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew.”
1466: King
John of Sicily gave formal permission to Benjamin Romano to establish a Jewish
University in medicine and law at Syracuse. The idea was not acted upon and
1492 the Jews were expelled by order of the Spanish crown including the 5000
Jews of Syracuse which was approximately 40% of the town’s population.
1484:
Birthdate Georg Burkhardt, the German theologian known as George Spalatin to
whom Martin Luther expressed his anti-Semitic views in a letter in which he
says “I have to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme
God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted.”
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1514luther.asp
1504:
Birthdate of Antonio Ghislieri, who as Pope Pius V expelled the Jews from
Imola, Italy including its most famous citizen, Gedaliah ibn Yahya ben Joseph.
Born in 1526, Gedaliah, studied under Jacob Finzi, Israel Rovigo and Abraham
Rovigo, the noted Kabbalist and wandered around Italy after his expulsion until
finally settling in Alexandria where he died in 1587.
1565: “Æquum
reputamus” (We consider it equal) was issued by Pius V, the Pope who restored
all of the anti-Semitic bulls of his predecessors, persecuted the Jews
throughout the Christian world under his influence and eventually banished them
from the dominions under his direct control.
1622:
Fifty-two-year-old Ernst of Schaumburg the German count who “granted the first
permanent residence permits to Ashkenazic Jews so that they could settle in
Altona starting in 1611” passed away today.
1658: In
Worms, Joseph Joel Wertheimer and his wife gave birth to Samson Wertheimer the chief rabbi of Hungary
and Moravia, and rabbi of Eisenstadt who also gained fame as an Austrian
financier, court Jew and Shtadlan to Austrian Emperor Leopold I. He passed away
in Vienna in 1724.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/samson-wertheimer
1670(6th
of Shevat, 5430): Raphael Levy a Jewish inhabitant of the city of Metz was
burned at the stake, accused of having ritually murdered a Christian child,
Didier Le Moyne.
1670 In Metz,
Burghers of the city decided that it was financially beneficial to expel the
Jews, and so concocted a ritual murder libel. Raphael Levy, a respected member
of the community, was arrested, tortured and burned alive. The Royal Council
later called it "Judicial Murder" and the Jews were not expelled.
1706:
Birthdate of Benjamin Franklin who wanted the great seal to of the United
States to depict the Israelites crossing the Red Sea and who responded to a
fundraising request from Mikveh Israel with a contribution of £5. Like
many of his contemporaries Franklin was a Deist who had his doubts about all
organized religions but covered his bases by responding to charitable requests
from various Philadelphia religious organizations.
1711:
Birthdate of Vienna native Blumele Oppenheimer.
1735: “Messrs.
Carvallo and Gutteres, traders in dry good “Madera Wine, Muscovado Sugar and
Lime Juice” announced their intention to leave the “Province” of South Carolina
“eaerly in the Spring.
1747: In
Newport, RI, Isaac Mendes Seixas and his wife gave birth to Benjamin Mendes
Siexas, the brother of Gershom Seixas and the husband of Zipporah Levy with
whom he had twenty-one children who owned both a saddle shop and dry goods
store in New York City where he was a founder of the NYSE while also serving as
a “third lieutenant in the Fusiliers Company of the First Battalion of the New
York Militia and as a chairman of the board of trustees of Congregation
Shearith Israel.
1747:
Birthdate of Marcus Herz, the native of Berlin who was a pupil of philosopher
Emmanuel Kant before becoming a prominent German physician and lecturer who was
appointed physician at the Jewish Hospital shortly after earning his MD in
1774.
1756: In
Spitafields, London, Normandy native Henry Lemoine and Anne I. Cenette gave birth
to “English author and bookseller” Henry Lemoine who supplied David Levi “with materials”
during his rebuttal of Joseph Priestly’s “Letters to the Jews” which called for
the Jews to convert to Christianity.
1763:
Birthdate of John Jacob Astor, fur trader and one of early America’s most
successful businessmen. There is some question as to whether or not Astor
was Jewish or just of "Jewish stock."
1764: At East
Hampton, LI, Aaron Isaacs and his wife gave birth to Isaac Isaacs who was
baptized sometime before his death in 1809
1766:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native Bele Salomon Kalman Asser Shochet,
1769: Birthdate of Peter Wittgenstein who as Count
Wittgenstin employed Karl Friedrich Cerft, the convert to Christianity as his
chief military agent.
1778:
Birthdate of Bordeaux native and first cornet player at the opera in Paris
Isaac-Francis DaCosta the clarinet player and “vice-leader of the Musique des
Gardes du Corps under Louis XVIII.
1789: At
Göttingen, Emmanuel Mendel and his wife gave birth to David Mendel who
converted and gained fame as “German theologian and church historian August
Neander.”
1791:
Birthdate of Paris native Hirsch Weil, the husband of Sophia Loeser, and the
father of Hannah Weil all of whom settled in Kentucky,
1792: In
Lorraine, France, Mayer Lippmann, the son of Raphaël Isaac Lippmann and Jutelé
Lippmann and his wife Madeleine Lipppmann gave birth to Samuel Lippmann
1795: In
Bavaria, Comendal Moses and Aaron Cohen gave birth to Deborah Cohen the wife of
Solomon Stix with whom she had ten children.
1796:
Birthdate of War of 1812 veteran and president of Baltimore’s Congregation Beth
Israel, Samuel Etting, the son of Solomon Etting and the husband of Ellen
Hays.
1797:
Birthdate of “Austrian physician and writer” Gideon Brecher, “the uncle, by
marriage, to Austrian bibliographer and Orientalist Moritz Steinschneider”
known for commentary on the "Cuzari" of Judah ha-Levi.
1807:
Birthdate of Kassel native and convert to Christianity Franz Ferdinand Benary,
the orientalist and University Berlin associate professor of Old Testament
exegis…”
1812: Isaac
Isaac who was born in Amsterdam in the 1740’s took the family name of Pampel
and became Isaac Isaac Pampel.
1813: In Mt.
Pleasant, NY, Charity Hays and Jacob de Silva Solis gave birth to Benveneda
Solist he wife of Leon Maness Ritterband and the mother of Lucia, Jacob,
Joseph, Charity, Sally Moses and David Ritterband.
1815(6th of
Shevat, 5575): Sixty-year-old Isaac Simon passed away in Jamaica was interred a
Jewish cemetery “located at Hunts Bay, across the harbor from Port Royal and
midway between Kingston and Spanish Town.” The cemetery is the oldest
Jewish cemetery on the island. (As reported by Irwin M. Berg)
1816:
Charles Davis married Elizabeth Harris at the Western Synagogue.
1818: Jacob
ben Nathan Breslau married Rachel bat Mordecai bat Samuel at the Western
Synagogue today.
1820(1st
of Shevat, 5580): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1820(1st
of Shevat, 5580): Fifty-one-year-old Esther Marache the Newport RI born daughter of Solomon of Marache and the wife
of Joseph Mordecai whom she married in 1786 passed away today in Charleston, SC
1820: In
England, Patrick Bronte and Maria Branwell gave birth to Anne Bronte, the
youngest of the famous Bronte sisters whose reputation was resuscitated by
English author Samantha Ellis, the daughter of Iraqi-Jews in Take Courage:
Anne Bronte and the Art of Life.
https://www.thejc.com/culture/books/spotlight-on-the-overlooked-little-sibling-1.430823
1829: In
Germany, Deborah Cohen and Solomon Stix gave birth to Caroline Stix, the wife
of Joseph Louis Swarts with whom she had eight children.
1839: In
London, Amelia and Morris Harris gave birth to Julia Harris.
1840: In Germany,
Ella and Aron Jaffa gave birth to Benjamin Jaffa, the husband of Lea Jaffa and
the father of Nathan, Moritz, Joseph, Harry, Dina and Julie Jaffa.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jaffa-2
1841:
Birthdate of German banker and member of the Hamburg Parliament Siegmund
Hinrichsen
1842: In
England, Elizabeth and Jacob Lyons gave birth Isaac Lyons.
1842: West London Synagogue of British Jews, the U.K.’s oldest
Reform congregation, was opened today.
1843:
In New York City, on her 30th birthday, Benveneda Sola and Leon
Maness Ritterband gave birth to Charity Ritterband who passed away one day
after her 14th birthday.
1843:
In Barcelona, Venezuela, Abraham Baiz and Sarah Naar gave birth to Jacob Baiz,
the New Jersey educated businessman and diplomat who was appointed
Consul-General of the Government of Honduras by President Marco Aureilo Soto,
served as “a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Produce Exchange and the
Coffee Exchanged in New York City and was a member of Congregation Shearith
Israel and Vice President of the Hebrew Sheltering and Guardian Society.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43058860
1844: In
Columbus, Illinois, Louisa Block Jonas and Abraham Jonas gave birth to Edward
L. Jonas who rose to the rank of Colonel in the Civil War.
1847:
The board of Congregation Shangarai Chasset met at the Conti Hotel Street in
New Orleans under the Presidency of L. A. Gunst. The board unanimously chose
Dr. Hermann Kohlmeyer to serve as the congregation’s rabbi. Kohlmeyer would
later give up his pulpit for a career in education, becoming professor of
Hebrew and Oriental Literature at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane
University). The congregation was founded in 1827 as an Orthodox
synagogue. In 1881 it merged with Nefutzot Yehudah to form Touro Synagogue,
one of the Crescent City’s leading Reform Congregations.
1849: Two days
after he had passed away, Henry Levien was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road
Jewish Cemetery.”
1851:
In Cayuga County, NY, where Albert Baham is on trial for the murder of Nathan
Adler, a popular Jewish peddler, the prosecution completed its summation.
The judge delivered the charge to the jury which then adjourned to begin its
deliberation. By six o’clock the jury had found the defendant guilty as
charged.
1852(25th
of Tevet, 5612): Parashat Shemot
1852(25th
of Tevet, 5612): Eighty-four-year-old Jochabed Isaacks, the Massachusetts born
daughter of Judith Rachel Mears and Moses Isaacks and the wife of Michael Marks
whom she married at Newport RI in 1786 and with whom she had ten children,
passed away today in Philadelphia.
1852:
The New York Times reviewed Disraeli's Life of George Bentick.
"It is amusing to see that Disraeli does not forget to do homage to the
Hebrew race in his new book, albeit nobody can tell what it has to do with the
biography...He still affirms...that the greatest men, past and present are and
were Jews. To do him justice, he tries hard to prove it by living
examples --whether they are valid or not let the readers of the book
determine."
1853:
Birthdate of Saxony native Arthur Felix Hirschel, the husband of London native
Amy Charlotte Marsden
1853(8th
of Shevat, 5613): Samuel Jesi, the Milan born engraver whose first work was
“The Abandonment of Hagar” completed in 1821 passed away today in Florence.
1854:
Phoebe Simmons and Abraham Marks gave birth to Mary Marks.
1856:
Two days after she had passed away Amelia Emanuel, the wife of Mendel Samuel
with whom she had had five children, was buried today at the “Lauriston Road
Jewish Cemetery.”
1859:
Birthdate of Minna Luise Ascher the wife of Dr. Hugo Ascher and the mother of
artist Fritz Ascher.
1863(26th
of Tevet, 5623): Parashat Vaera.
1863:
Birthdate of Constantin Stanislavski, the Russian creator of “method acting”
who assisted Nahum Zemach in the creation of Habima Theatre.
1863:
Birthdate of David Lloyd George who was the British Prime Minister from 1916
through 1922. This meant that he led Britain to victory during World War
I and was the leader of the peace negotiations. In this latter role he
signed the Treaty of San Remo that officially ended the war with Turkey.
Under the terms of the treaty “Palestine was declared a mandated territory” to
be administered by Great Britain under the terms of the Balfour
Declaration. Lloyd George agreed to this despite a great deal of
anti-Zionist pressure some of which was generated by American missionary
educators with interests in the Middle East.
1865:
London native Lewis Lazarus Jonas and Sara Levi gave birth to a baby today.
1867:
Birthdate of Minna Luise Ascher (nee Schneider) the wife of dental surgeon Dr.
Hugo Ascher and mother of German artist Fritz Ascher who was a protégé of Max
Lieberman.
1867:
Birthdate of Karl Lämmle, the native of Württemberg who gained fame as Carl
Laemmle one of the creators of the American cinema industry and the founder of
Universal Studios.
1871: A Jewish
peddler named Frank who has been plying his ware throughout Queens County was
shot this evening while driving from Flushing to his home in Columbusville. The
wounded Frank arrived at his home but nothing is known as to who might of shot
him.
1873:
Birthdate of Russian native Samuel Wolf Addleman who in in 1891 came to the
United States where he graduated from the U of Pennsylvania and became a world
class chess champion.
http://www.edochess.ca/players/p4430.html
1874: George
Joseph Emanuel, the London born son of Joseph and Jane Emanuel and his wife
Elizabeth Emanuel gave birth to Leonard Emanuel.
1875(11th
of Shevat, 5635): Henrietta “Jettel” Jaruslawski Berkowitz, the wife of Louis
Berkowitz and the mother of Sarah, Benjamin, Albert, Maurice, William, Rose and
Henry Berkowitz passed away today in Pittsburgh after which she was buried in
Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill Jewish Cemetery.
1876: It was
reported today that the United Hebrew Charities, “an organization which
embraces all the Hebrew charitable associations…and which cares exclusively for
Hebrews” is the fifth leading charity in New York City. The association,
with a central office at 238 East 5th, provides money, medicines, medical
treatment, clothing, shoes and coal to needy Jews.
1879: In
Ukraine, Nathaniel and Beatrice (Malamud) Robin gave birth to University of
Pittsburgh trained physician Luba Robin Goldsmith, the wife of Dr. Milton
Goldsmith who was an assistant professor of physiology in the dental department
at the University of Pittsburgh where also served as a “medical adviser to
women students at the University of Pittsburgh” and who “served as national
chairman of public health for the council of Jewish Women.”
1882: Aletta
Jacobs the first Dutch female physician opened her office. Yes, Jacobs,
who was also a champion for the rights of women, was Jewish.
1882(26th
of Tevet, 5642): Sixty –two-year-old Hungarian born Austrian journalist Simon
Szanto who was the co-founder and editor of the weekly journal "Die
Neuzeit," passed away today.
1883:
John G. M’Kendrick delivered a paper today to the Philosophical Society of
Glasgow in which he described the Lippmann electrometer “a device for detecting
small rushes of electric current and was invented by Gabriel Lippmann in 1873.”
(Lippmann was Jewish; M’Kendrick was not)
1884:
The boring of the Mersey Railway Tunnel was completed today under the direction
of Samuel Isaac, the son of Caroline Solomon and Lewis Isaac and brother of
M.P. Saul Isaac.
1884: In Hungary, Morris and Fannie (Roth) Blum
gave birth to Illinois College of Law trained attorney Henry S. Blum, the
author of “Bulk Sales Law for Illinois” and the member of B’nai B’rith and
Temple Shalom who was the husband of Dorothy Herman.
1884: In Grodno, Yeruchim and Esther Levinstone
gave birth Newark, NJ attorney Aaron Levinstone, the husband of Etta G.
Goldstein and Jewish community leader who was Chairman of the United Palestine
Appeal, a member of the National Executive of the Z.O.A and a member of Temple
B’nai Abraham.
1885: Alphonzo
Taft wrote to Secretary of State Frelinghuysen from the U.S. Legation at St
Petersburg regarding reports that the Russian Minister of the Interior had
ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Odessa and other cities “holding foreign
passports” unless they had “permits of residence” which the government readily
gives to non-Jews but rarely give to Jews.
1887: In
Montgomery, AL, Emily Touro Nathan, the daughter of Adeline Lyon Moses and Levi
Isaiah Moses and her husband Lewis Winthrop Nathan gave birth to Adeline
Mordecai Graber, the wife of Dentist Joseph Jay Graber.
1887: In Paris
archaeologist Joseph Reinach and Henriette-Clemintine Reinach gave birth to Archaeologist
and Egyptologist” Adolphe Joseph Reinach the husband of Marguerite Dreyfus,
daughter of Mathieu Dreyfus and niece of Alfred Dreyfus, with whom he had a
son, Jean-Pierre Reinach who was killed in Fosse in the Ardennes while serving
as a “Lieutenant of Cuirassiers in the French Army during WW I.
1888: Rabbi
Isaac M. Wise, wrote Manchester born U.S. educator Henry M. Leipziger praising
his skills as a public speaker but cautioning him on the need to strengthen his
skills in the field of “Jewish theology.”
http://americanjewisharchives.org/collections/wise/view.php?id=2375
1889(15th
of Shevat, 5649): Tu B’Shevat
1889:
Birthdate of Baltimore, MD native and University of Maryland trained lawyer
Harry Nathan Sandler who settled in Tampa, FL where he lived for 53 years
leaving “an indelible mark on the history of Tampa and the State of Florida.
https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3467&context=flstud_pub
1890: Three
days after he had passed away, Lionel Benjamin Cohen, the son of Benjamin Cohen
and Jestina Montefiore who was the husband of Henrietta Rachel Solomon and
Bertha Solomon and the father of Florence Justina Cohen was buried today at the
“Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1890: In New
York City, Rose Rachel Miller and Joseph Friedlander gave birth to NYU trained
attorney, the husband of Gussie Gold who practiced law in Los Angeles, CA where
he was a member of B’nai B’rith.
1890: (20th of
Tevet, 5650): Salomon Sulzer passed away at the age of 85. While his name
is known to few today, in his time he was a famous cantor and composer.
“Born in 1804 in Hohenems, Austria, to a family of rich manufacturers, he was
appointed cantor at the main synagogue in his hometown when only 16. He studied
music in Vienna where he was chief cantor of the new synagogue from 1825 to
1881. His baritone voice attracted non-Jewish as well as Jewish admirers, among
them Schubert, Schumann, and Liszt. In 1868 he was appointed knight of the
order of Franz Josef. Sulzer's synagogue compositions became the models upon
which congregations based their services throughout the year. His Schir Zion
appeared in two volumes and while his music and innovations won only limited
acceptance in Eastern Europe, they became standard in central Europe.”
1891: In Lithuania,
Rachel and Esau Joseph gave birth to future Philadelphian Jenny Honor, the wife
of Leo Lazarus Honor and the mother of Herzl Honor and Ruth Naomi Robbins and
the mother-in-law of Theodore Lewis Robins.
1891: In
Eichstetten, Leopold and Klara Bock gave birth to Siegfried Bloch.
1892: “Ancient
Beliefs in Immortality” published today provides a summary of Reverend T.K.
Chenye’s Rebuttal to former Prime Minister Gladstone’s contention that the
Psalms which he says were written by David offer proof that the ancient
Israelites believed in an afterlife. Chenye counters that the Psalms were
probably written during the Babylonian exile and that the verses Gladstone
attributes to a promise of heaven are actually a promise of a return to the
homeland. (Editor’s note – This entry is fascinating for many reasons.
First, that a Prime Minister would be engaged in a scholarly debate on such a
topic and second the respect with which both of these Protestant leaders show
for Jewish faith and traditions)
1892: It was
reported today that the police still do not know the whereabouts or fate of
David Blumenthal a wealthy Jewish businessman who disappeared in April,
1891. Before his disappearance, Blumenthal had been an inmate at the
insane asylum at Amityville. At that time, his older son Henry took him from
the asylum, went to the banks where his money was deposited and withdrew it
all. The two men then boarded a steamer bound for Bremen where they
appear to have disappeared.
1892: In San
Francisco, “Isadore Zellerbach and the former Jennie Bauh” gave birth to James
D. Zellerbach, chairman of the board of Crown Zellerbach Corporation and public
servant who was the Ambassador to Italy and the husband of Hannah Zellerbach
with whom he had two sons – Richard and James.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/08/04/357167532.pdf
1893: A.E.
Greenwald and Chapman Raphiel visited President Grover Cleveland at the White
House and invited him to attend the charity that was being hosted by the Jews
of Philadelphia on the last day of January. Cleveland responded that he
would “make a special effort to be present.”
1893:
President Rutherford B. Hayes passed away. Born in 1822,Rutherford
Hays was the first President to designate a Jewish ambassador for the purpose
of fighting anti-Semitism. In 1870, he named Benjamin Peixotto Consul-General
to Rumania. President Hays also was the first Chief Executive to assure a civil
service employee her right to work for the Federal government and yet observe
the Sabbath. (Not working on Friday nights and Saturday?)
1894(10th
of Shevat, 5564): Eighty-four-year-old Frankfort, Germany native and musician Helen
(Wertheim) Lewandowski, the wife of Louis Lewandowski, the mother of Dr. Alfred
Lewandowski and Martha Cohen who died at Terezin and mother-in-law of Herman
Cohen passed away today at Berlin.
1894:
Birthdate of Hugo Chaim Adler the native of Belgium who became a successful
German cantor and composer whose service in the Kaiser’s Army did not save him
from being imprisoned by the Nazis for a year after which he fled to the United
States.
1895: Dreyfus
began his “trip” to French Guiana tonight when he “was taken from the prison of
La Sante and was transferred by rail to La Rochelle where he was then moved to
the military prison on the Island of Re.
1895:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native and University of Pennsylvania trained
attorney Bernard Louis Frankel, a member of the board of the Orchestra Association
and the Federation of Jewish Agencies.
1895: Edward
Lauerbach represented “the Hebrew Charities” at a conference in New York City
prior to the announcement of what payments would be made to various charities
by the city government.
1896: The Jewish Chronicle published Herzl's
first article "A Solution to the Jewish Problem," which appeared a
month before Der Judenstaat, and with its editorial, "A Dream of a Jewish
State" opened the readers' columns to a discussion of Herzl's plan.
1896: The first version of Herzl’s Judenstaat (The
Jewish State)
was published in the Anglo Jewish Newspaper, The Jewish Chronicle.
1896:
Birthdate of Hugo Chaim Adler the Belgian-born American composer, cantor, and
choir conductor who was the father of composer and conductor Samuel Adler.
1897: In the Hague,
Jette Eppenheim, the Brandenburg born
daughter of
Louis Eppenheim and Marianne Steinhardt and her husband Frederik de Jong gave birth
to Salomon de Jong, the husband of Ilse DeJong
1897:
It was reported today that the United Hebrew Charities has had so many
applications for assistance that it will run out of money by the end of the
month if it does not receive additional contributions.
1897:
Rabbi Kaufman Kohler officiated at the funeral of Leon Sternberger, the cantor
emeritus of Temple Beth-El. Following the services which were held at Temple
Beth El, interment took place at Machpelah Cemetery on Long Island.
1898:
At Marseilles, France a crowd paraded through the streets crying “Death to the
Jews” and “Shame upon Zola.
1898:
During an anti-Dreyfus meeting being held at the Tivoli Vauxhall, “the members
of the anti-Semite Committee displayed banners bearing the inscription “Death
to the Jews…”
1898:
As the “Dreyfus Affair” continued to enflame the French, it was reported that
Louise Michel and Sebastian addressed a meeting sponsored by the Socialists
during which they denounced the secrecy surrounding the recent trial of Count
Esterhazy. (He, not Dreyfus, was the French spy who betrayed secrets to the
Germans.)
1898:
It was reported today that during 1897, 699 children ranging in age from 9 to
17 have been admitted to the Sabbath School operated by the Hebrew Technical
School for Girls.
1898:
It was reported today that William Lloyd Garrison has sent a letter to the
President of the Immigration Restriction League criticizing a bill that has
been introduced by Senator Lodge that would sharply limit immigration to the
United States. (This was one of several attempts to put an end to immigration
that would be introduced over the next twenty years. These proposals
struck a sensitive chord among the Jewish community which was split on the
issue.)
1898: Funeral services were
held this morning for Lazarus Straus, a New York merchant and philanthropist at
Temple Beth-El. Dr. Kaufman Kohler delivered
the eulogy, and Dr. Silverman served as the cantor.
1899: After a
ten-day trip from Honolulu aboard the USS Bennington, Commander Edward D.
Taussig arrived at Wake Island where oversaw the formal ceremony transferring
the island from Spanish to U.S. control after he set sail that evening for Guam
aboard the Bennington, a gunboat that had been under his command since August
of 1898.
1899:
Birthdate of Robert Maynard Hutchins no nonsense educator and civil
libertarian. When asked about the role big time athletics on the college
campus, Hutchins is reported to have replied, athletics is to a college
education what bull fighting is to agriculture. Hutchins was not
Jewish. But as a major intellectual figure of his time, he presents an
interesting paradox in understanding Jewish relations with the non-Jewish
world. On the one hand, Hutchins was praised in an article in the Chicago
Jewish Historical Society’s publication “Chicago Jewish History” for his
willingness to sponsor and hire German Jewish intellectuals fleeing Hitler in
the 1930’s. At the same time, he was an active member of the anti-war and
anti-Semitic America First Movement. As a leader of America First, Hutchins was
one of those who dismissed testimony about the savagery of the Germans as lies
and Jewish propaganda.
1900:
Birthdate of Canadian native Hyman Epstein, a sailor who fought with the
anti-Fascists in Spain during the Spanish Civil War.
1900: Today,
the Hebrew Mutual Benevolent Society “purchased a plot of ground at the corner
of Sheepshead Bay Road and West 8th Street which will be used for
synagogue that “will be the first Jewish house of worship in that vicinity.”
1900(17th
of Shevat, 5660): Seventy-year-old Detroit resident Magnus Butzel, the Bavarian
born so of Moses and Hannah Butzel the husband of Henrietta Hess Butzel with
whom he had six children and whom in 1852 came to the United States where he
was in the clothing business, active in the Republican party and was a member
of B’nai B’rith passed away today after which he was buried at the Woodmere
Cemetery in Detroit.
1901:
Birthdate of Frieda Hajekova who was deported from Prague to Ujazdow in 1942
where she was murdered by Nazis.
1901:
According to the will of Samuel Lewis, “the money lender and usuer who died on
January 13” his widow inherits £4,000,000 with the exception of £200,00 which
is divided among relatives” and included a request that she donate £100,000 to
the Jewish Board of Guardians of London.
1901: Prinzessin Victoria Luise “the first
purposed built cruise ship” which part of the fleet of Albert Ballin’s
Hamburg-American Line completed her maiden voyage today when she arrived in New
York, twelve days after having set sail from Hamburg.
1901: Prussian
Anna De Mesquita and London born Samuel De Mesquita gave birth to David Henry
De Mesquita.
1901:
Birthdate of New York City native Ivy Sherman, the President of the Association
of Theatre Benefit Agents, who was known as Ivy Larric after she married
playwright Jack Larric and whose name she kept after he passed away and she
married James C. Kevlin in 1950.
1902: “Uriel
Acosta,” a tragedy in five acts that telsl the tale of “Uriel Acost, a young
philosopher of Amsterdam and a man of Jewish parentage but with a Christian
education who falls in love with his pupil, the fair daughter of a rich Jews”
“was revived tonight at the Irving Place Theatre
1903(18th
of Tevet, 5663) Parashat Shemot
1903: It was
reported today that the latest issue of The Biblical World contains an article
by Dr. E.W.G. Masterman entitled “The Jews In Modern Palestine.”
1904: Two
years after his first wife had passed away clothing manufacturer John
Anisfield, the Austrain born son of Israel and Amelia Anisfield married “Allice
Strauss, the daughter of Adolph Strauss, an influential Jewish leader in New
York City.”
1904:
Nathaniel Myers said today “that pupils from the public schools who applied for
admission to the Hebrew Technical School for Girls were deficient in the
rudimentary branches of learning…”
1904: Herzl
leaves for Italy where his travels will take him to Venice, Florence and Rome.
1905: “James
S. Metcalfe, the dramatic editor of Life wrote
in the issue of publication which appeared today “that his fight with Klaw and
Erlanger has been against the Jews as a race, as had been charged but against
‘unworthy members of the theatrical trust’” who just happen to all be Jews.
1906: In New
Orleans, attorney Edgar M. Cahn and his wife gave birth to Edmond Nathaniel
Cohen, the Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Tulane who lived in New York where he
pursued a career as a legal scholar and author.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_03823.html
http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w6dj5jpj
http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3550&context=uclrev
1906: It was
reported today that as the Senate debates whether or not to send for copies of
the instructions given to the delegates attending what is now known as the
Algeciras Conference, Secretary of State Root is already sharing them with the
pubic including “a special supplementary letter of instructions” concerning the
Jews of Morocco” in which he “calls attention to the numerous and harsh
discriminations imposed in Morocco against the Jews” and instructs the
delegates “to devote their best efforts to obtain the removal of such
discriminations.”
1907: It was
reported today that “the First Baptist Church of the Redeemer has sold the
property at 144 and 146 West 131st Street between Lenox and Seventh
Avenue to Congregation Anshe Emeth of Wester Harlem” and the property will be
altered by its new owners to included facilities for a school.”
1908:
Birthdate of Rozwadow, Poland native and attorney Abraham Roman Ellenbogen, the
son of a produce wholes and a graduate of the University of Cracow who was
involved in smuggling food into the Lvov Ghetto where he last seen in 1942 and
whose fate remains unknown to this day.
1908: A
bulletin of the Bureau of Labor on the conditions of Jews in Russia written by
I.M. Rubinow which said that “the restrictions in the right of domicile have
closed Jewish labor certain industrial fields were work may be done in the
open” was released today in Washington.
1909: Dr.
Stephen S. Wise the Rabbi of the Free Synagogue, delivered a speech this
morning advocating the acceptant of the million-dollar bequest by the late
Louis Heinsheimer. The bequest was conditional on the formation of a
federation of Jewish charities, a move that Wise supported because he thought
that it would improve the quality and quantity of services provided to those in
need.
1909: New York
State Supreme Court Justice Irving Lehman addressed the annual meeting of the
New York Hebrew Infant Asylum at Tuxedo Hall. Lehman called for
additional support of the asylum which is caring for 153 Jewish orphans.
Due to a lack of an adequate facility this means that 450 Jewish orphans under
the age of 5 are being cared for by Catholic and Protestant institutions.
Charles Dittman was re-elected as the President.
1909:
Birthdate of Cornell University and University of
Chicago (Ph.D.) trained economist and WW II Army Air Forces officer Oscar
L. Altman, one of the “first economist to see the importance of the Eurodollar”
and “treasurer of the International Monetary Fund.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1968/12/24/76923387.pdf
1910: The
Widowed Mother’s Fund Association which has received contributions from Adolph
Lewisohn, Louis Stern, Mrs. Jefferson Seligman and Mrs. Daniel Guggenheim
totaling $2,500 and whose “Board of Directors are thirty of the most prominent
Jewish women” in New York City “issued its first public circular today
1911: The
twenty-second council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations continued
meeting for a second day in New York.
1911:
Birthdate of Moshe Carmel, the native Minsk who made Aliyah in 1924, helped to
establish Kibbutz Na’an and commanded the Carmeli Brigade during the War of
Independence before pursuing a political career.
1912: It was
reported today that the Council of Jewish Women was one of the organizations
demanding an investigation of the “prize fight trust” in San Francisco and the
boxing clubs in the Bay City.
1913: Today’s
meeting of the directors of the Baron Hirsch Woman’s Club at the Auditorium was
preceded by luncheon hosted “Mesdames Herman Lesserman, Henry Lewis, Johannah
Loeb, Samuel Lorsch, Edward Levy and Max Mildenberg.”
1914(19th
of Tevet, 5674): Parashat Shemot
1914(19th
of Tevet, 5674): Seventy-four-year-old Seligman Lazarus Cohn the Dusseldorf
born son of Caroline Cohn and the husband of Sophie Cohn with whom he had nine
children passed away today.
1914: In
Berlin, Dr. Paul Nathan “issued a pamphlet today” that “accuses the Zionist
elements in Palestine of stirring up discord among” the Christians and Muslims
which imperils “the entire Jewish cause.”
1914:
Birthdate of New York native and Marx Brothers screenwriter Irving S.
Brecher the creator of “the Life of
Riley,” whose credits included the scripts for “At the Circus” and “Go West” and who married Norma Brecher after the death
of his first wife Eve Bennett.
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/movies/19brecher.html
1915: The
National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives which was organized in 1899 with
offices in Denver, CO, held its fifteenth annual meeting in Chicago under the
leadership of President Samuel Grabfelder.
1915(2nd
of Shevat, 5675): Fifty-four-year-old Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Rabbi Adolf
Guttmacher, the husband of Laura Oppenheimer Guttmacher and the father of Dorthy
and Alan Guttmacher passed away today in Huntington County, PA after which he
was buried at the Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery.
1915(2nd of
Shevat, 5675): Seventy-two-year Bavarian born American Jurist Louis Sulzbacher,
“the first continental American appointed as Associate Justice of the newly
created Supreme Court of Puerto Rico by President McKinley” passed away today.
1915: “The
Jewish Race” published today provides Joseph Jacobs’ review of Jewish Life
in Modern Times by Israel Cohen.
1916: “The
American Jewish Relief Committee received a cablegram through the” U.S. State
Department “a cablegram from Ambassador Gerard at Berlin announcing that there
was great distress in the sections of the war zone inhabited by Jewish
communities.”
1916: The
information office at new branch office of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant
Aid Society at the Sackman Street Synagogue which was established to help Jews
send aid to relatives in the war zone as well as helping them connect with
those who have gone “missing” is scheduled to open at 10 A.M. today.
1917: In
Philadelphia, Louis and Esther Pripstein Belsky gave birth to Raymond Jerome
Belsky, the brother of Abraham Belsky,
1917: In
Hoxter, Germany, “Dr. Leo Pins a veterinarian and his wife Ida Lipper” both of
whom would be murdered at the Riga Ghetto in 1944, gave birth to Israeli
woodcut artist and art collector Jacob Pins who was a protégé of Jacob
Steinhardt another German born artist forced to flee from the Nazis.
1917:
“Following an appeal by Adolph S. Ochs, Chairman of the Committee on Ways and
Means” 57 Jews attending the convention of the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations in Baltimore pledged over $140,000 “to meet the expenses of the
Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati” and other “school extension work.
1917: Thirty
year old School of Design for Women and Academy of Fine Arts trained artist
Helen Abrahams Blum, the Philadelphia born daughter of Theresa and Simon
Abrahams who was a water colorist, portrait painter and a member of the Rodolph
Shalom Sister married Alex A. Blum today.
1917:
Birthdate of Czech-born Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz.
1918(4th
of Shevat, 5678): Eighty-one-year-old Isaac Sanger, the German born son of
Elias and Barbetta Sanger who with three of his brothers – Philip, Isaac and
Alexander – established “Sanger Brothers, the largest dry-goods company west of
the Mississippi River passed away today in New York City.
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/sanger-isaac
1918: The
general staff of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic
Societies considered extending the drive for another week even though it had
met its goal of raising funds and enlisting new members which has led to the
democratization of philanthropy in New York.
1919: Dr. J.L.
Magnes told the attendees of the First Jewish Labor Congress “that the first
thing the organized Jewish workers will do is to declare their solidarity with
the hand and head workers of all peoples and of all nationalities” since “the
Jews sympathize with the aspirations of all peoples and nations for freedom.”
1920:
Birthdate of Nora Koreff, the Brooklyn born ballerina known as Nora Kay who
married violinist Isaac Stern in 1948.
1921: This
evening, the New York branch of the United Synagogue of America hosted a
banquet for the out-of-town delegates attending the 9th annual
convention of the United Synagogue of America and the fourth annual convention
of the Women’s League of the United Synagogue.
1921: T.E.
Lawrence (known as Lawrence of Arabia) told Winston Churchill that Emir Feisal
‘agreed to abandon all claims of his father to Palestine’ since the British had
agreed to Arab sovereignty in Baghdad, Amman and Damascus.
1922:
Birthdate of Lillian Schuman who at the age of 19 married Sol Goldman and
became Lillian Goldman, the benefactress of Yale University Law School.
1922(17th of Tevet, 5682): Thirty-five-year-old
Sanford Ullman, the son of Ansel and Magie Ullman and the brother of Sadie and
Abraham Ullman passed away today in Philadelphia after which he was buried at
Hebrew Friendship Cemetery in Baltimore.
1923(29th
of Tevet, 5683): Seventy-one-year-old Carrie Bernheimer, the daughter of Samuel
Bernheimer and Henrietta Cahn passed away today.
1924: In
Greenburgh, NY, Frank Staats, a carpenter, and Jennifer (Yollis) Staats, a
Jewish immigrant from Russia gave birth to “Arthur W. Staats, a psychologist
who made a science of the “timeout,” a disciplinary technique that gave
exasperated parents an alternative to spanking and helped usher in a new era of
child-rearing in the second half of the 20th century.”
https://www.flandershealth.us/personality/biography-of-arthur-staats.html
1925(21st
of Tevet, 5685): Parashat Shemot
1925: Today,
“in order to resolve socio-economic difficulties of the Russian Jews and
promote agricultural labor among them, the CPSU formally created a government
committee, the Komzet, and a complementary public society, the OZET.”
1926:
Birthdate of Yitzhak Moda'I, the native of Tel Aviv who graduated from the
Technicion before starting a long political career.
1926:
Nine-year-old violinist Yehudi Menuhin appeared in a recital in New York
1927(14th of
Shevat, 5687): Seventy-six-year-old Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted the
founder of Shell Transport and Trading Company which later became Royal Dutch
Shell, the husband of Fanny Elizabeth Benjamin Samuel and the father of Nellie
Samuel Ionides passed away today passed away today.
https://www.jta.org/1927/01/20/archive/lord-bearsted-dies-within-24-hours-of-lady-bearsted
https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=79860
1928(24th
of Tevet, 5688): Wolf Kava, passed away today.
1928: In
Hammersmith, London, Sephardi Jews Betty and Jack Sassoon gave birth to Vidal
Sassoon, who to most people was the noted hairdresser and businessman.
But for Jews he is also the 20-year-old who in 1948 went to Palestine, joined
the Haganah and fought during the War for Independence. “He describes the year
he spent training with the Israelis as ‘the best year of my life. When you
think of 2,000 years of being put down and suddenly you are a nation rising, it
was a wonderful feeling. There were only 600,000 people defending the country
against five armies, so everyone had something to do.’ Sassoon's dark brown
eyes are on fire when he talks of his war memories. ‘We took a hill and
attacked at four in the morning, took them by surprise. It was a hill
overlooking a main road where the Egyptian heads of the army were heading. If
they had passed this spot they would have been in Tel Aviv in a few hours but
we took them.’” (As reported by Chirssy Iley)
1929: It was
reported today that yesterday’s fire at a “five-story tenement house” had
started in the basement of building “where Marcus Greenstein and Son, clothing
manufacturers, had a workshop.”
1930:
Judah Bergman, the English born boxer who fought under the name Jackie “Kid”
Berg won “a 10-round decision in a highly publicized non-title bout in New York
City.
1930: “The
Caviar Princess” a silent comedy film directed by Carl Lamac with a script
co-authored by Walter Wassermann was released in Germany today.
1931(28th
of Tevet, 5691): Parashat Vaera
1931: Today’s
New York Times erroneously reported that a concert for the benefit of needy
Jewish cantors would be held on January 18 when in fact it was to be held on
February 1.
1932: In
Brooklyn, celebration of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the
Young Men’s Hebrew Association
1933(19th
of Tevet, 5693): Fifty-eight-year-old Jonas Weil, the son of Isaac and Hannah
Weil, the husband of Caroline Sicher Weil and the father of Charlotte and
Miriam Weil passed away today after which he was buried at Temple Israel
Memorial Park, in Minneapolis, MN.
1933: Media
mogul and right-wing political leader Alfred Hugenberg who thought he could use
the Nazi Party to his own advantage met with Hitler today.
1934(1st of
Shevat, 5694): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1934: Birthdate
of Jack Alster who was transported from Prague to Terezin and then to Auschwitz
in 1944 where he was murdered.
1934: In
Brooklyn New York, “homemaker Fannie (Davidson) Cohen” and
furrier Benjamin Cohen” gave birth to Georgetown University trained attorney
Bernard Sol Cohen, the husband of Rae (Rose) Cohen and father of Bennett and
Karen Cohen, who gained fame as the attorney representing Mildred and Richard
Loving in the landmark case that “struck down laws against interracial
marriages.”
1934:
Birthdate of Shari Lewis who would gain fame as a ventriloquist and puppeteer
who created Lamb Chop.
1934: In
Clinton, MA, grocery store owner Louis Schanberg and the former Freda Feinberg
gave birth to Pulitzer Prize winning Times correspondent Sydney H. Schanberg
whose successful career proves that History Majors can amount to something.
1935: The
American committee responsible for the selection of the United States teams
that will compete in the Second Maccabiah announced the schedule for the trials
which will be held in New York City and Newark, NJ next month. Pincus
Sober chairs the committee selecting the track and field team. Charlotte
Epstein chairs the committee selecting the swimming team. Ernest Koslan
chairs the committee selecting the tennis team. Ben Levine chairs the committee
selecting the boxing team. Nat Osk chairs the committee selecting the
wrestling team.
1936: In a
letter made public today, President Roosevelt expressed his support for the
third annual observance of Brotherhood Day sponsored by the National Conference
of Jews and Christians which is to be held next month.
1936: “Rabbi
Moshe Avigdor Amiel of Antwerp was today formally inducted as chief rabbi of
Tel Aviv and Jaffa in the presence of an assemblage of about 100 rabbis of this
all Jewish city and vicinity.” (JTA)
1936: Dr.
Joseph Goebbels delivered a “fiery address” which was greeted by thunderous
applause in which he “declared uncompromisingly that the time was coming when
Germany must demand colonies” and took issue with “those American who criticize
the Nazi Jewish Policy” especially “the American newspapers that are
continually deploring the fate of the poor Jews in Germany…”
1937: The
second in a series of lectures being given as part of the Jewish Theological
Seminary’s 50th anniversary which “was devoted to a discussion of
the spiritual and cultural aspects of Judaism” was given this evening at the
seminary.
1937: Eugene
B. Strassburger of Pittsburgh presided over today’s session of the joint
convention of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Affiliated
National Temple Sisterhoods and Brotherhoods in New Orleans where Dr. Henry
Barnston of Houston delivered the invocation and Dr. Samuel M. Blumenfield of
Chicago told delegates that the “director ion of the intellectual and spiritual
growth of youth is the most neglected phase of Jewish education.”
1937: In
Germany, loyal Catholics “were warned against marriage with Protestants” which
contravenes the National Socialist contention that the only forbidden marriages
are those between Aryans and Jews.
1938(15th
of Shevat, 5698): Tu B’Shevat
1938: In
Bucharest, Alexander Cuza who along with Premiere Octavian Goga is the
co-leader of the National Christian Party declared that “solution of the Jewish
problem ‘demands complete elimination of Jews.’” (Editor’s note – Because of
the Holocaust we tend to overlook the virulent anti-Semitism which was part of
the landscape in so many parts of Europe.)
1938: “The
Mayor of Bucharest banned kosher slaughtering at municipal slaughterhouses.”
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that a passerby was injured when a missile was
hurled at the Workers' Cooperative restaurant on Jaffa Road, shattering all
windows.
1938: The
Palestine Post reported that the Soviet government ordered the immediate
closing of the Meyerhold State Theater in Moscow as being an institution
"alien to Soviet art." Vsevolod Meyerhold, the director, was accused
of showing "alien mentality." Meyerhold’s family origins were German
Jewish although Meyerhold himself was a Lutheran. In the world of Stalin,
Meyerhold could have fallen out of favor because he was “German,” “Jewish” or
“both.”
1939(26th
of Tevet, 5699): Seventy-seven-year-old Cornelia C. Sampson Ehrich, the
daughter of Joseph and Esther Cohen Sampson and the wife of Louis Seigman
Ehrcih with whom she had eight children passed away today after she was buried
in Beth Elohim Cemetery in Georgetown, SC.
1939: Felix
Frankfurter was confirmed as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court by a
voice vote of the U.S. Senate today.
1939: In
Boston, Ely Chayet, “a judge in Norfolk County, MA” and “the former Blanche
Poretsky” gave birth to Harvard Law School graduate Neil Lewis Chayet, the
creator of WBZ’s “Looking at the Law” who was the husband of Susan Chayet with
whom he had three children, and Martha M. Chayet
1939: The Nazi
government issued a decree regarding the expiration of permits for Jewish
dentists, veterinarians and pharmacists.
1940: “A
strong desire for economic cooperation between the Arabs and Jews of Palestine
to overcome common difficulties was demonstrated today when Arab and Jewish
citrus farmers and traders met in Petach Tikvaah. The meeting was the first of
its kind since the start of the Arab uprising in 1936. The Jewish Farmers
Federation sponsored the meeting which was attended by 700 Jews and over 100
Arabs “who represented orange-growing belt of Palestine.” The Arabs
included a wide range of political views who were united in a willingness to
work with the Jews in “presenting the citrus growers’ grievances to the”
British government. “The conference elected a delegation of nine Jews and
nine Arabs to meet the High Commissioner. The delegation will go to London if
the local government meetings do not bring about meaningful improvement.
1941(18th
of Tevet, 5701): Sixty-five-year-old Portland, ME resident Eldar Markson, the
Polish born so of Rachel Machikonsky and Abram Markson and the husband of
Jennie I. Ginsburg and founder the chain store known as Markson Brothers who
was chairman of the United Palestine Appeal for the State of Maine and a member
of B’nai B’rith passed away today.
1941: “Members
of all faiths are asked to go into their respective houses of worship on Monday
when President Roosevelt will be inaugurated and pray for divine guidance for a
world at war, the suggestion being made today by the National Conference of
Christians and Jews, the headquarters of which are at 300 Fourth Avenue.: 1941:
Konrad von Preysing, Bishop of Berlin “wrote to Pius XII, noting that
"Your Holiness is certainly informed about the situation of the Jews in
Germany and the neighboring countries. I wish to mention that I have been asked
both from the Catholic and Protestant side if the Holy See could not do
something on this subject, issue an appeal in favor of these unfortunates.”
1941: When
German planes were bombing Tel Aviv tonight, they dropped “a large projectile
in an orange grove behind Tel Aviv where it caused a deep crater and other
damage.”
1942(28th
of Tevet, 5702): Parashat Vaera
1942: Today,
in Cleveland, “at the opening of the National Conference for Palestine” Rabbi
Abba H. Silver said that American Jews are required aid Palestine because “it
as an important ally of the Free Nationals fighting Hitler.”
1943: Berlin
Bishop Konrad Graf von Preysing, the only top German Catholic prelate who
consistently opposes the German government's Jewish policies, threatens Pope
Pius XII, saying he will resign unless the collaborative behavior of the other
German bishops comes to an end.
1943: In
Italy, the Battle of Monte Cassino, which was filmed by a Polish military unit
that included Michał Waszyński, began today.
1944: The
Battle of Monte Casino in which Perec Rachman fought with the Allied Forces as
a member of the Polish military in the attack against the Nazi position in
Italy, began today.
1944:
Fifty-six-year-old anti-Nazi Max Sievers who had been forced to leave the
United States because he was not granted visa in 1939 was be-headed today at
Brandenburg Prison.
1945: The Red
Army entered Budapest and the remaining 120,000 of the original 470,000 Jews
would now be safe from any further disaster.
1945: Final
roll call is taken at Auschwitz: 11,102 Jews remain at Birkenau; 10,381 women
in the Birkenau women's camp; 10,030 at the Auschwitz main camp; 10,233 at the
Monowitz satellite camp; and about 22,800 in the remaining factories in the
surrounding region.
1945: The
Soviets arrest Raoul Wallenberg, whom they cynically suspect is using his
humanitarian efforts for the Jews to cover his collaboration with the Germans
or the Western Allies (the War Refugee Board was sponsoring him)
1945:
The SS Dornau which became known as the "slave ship" after the
SS and Gestapo transported 540 Jews from Norway to Stettin, from where they
were taken by train to Auschwitz, set sail from Oslo today bound for Drøbak – a
journey that she did not complete because she was blown up by explosives
planted on the ship by saboteurs.
1945: SS
guards at the Chelmno, Poland, death camp play "William Tell" by
shooting at bottles placed on the heads of Jewish inmates who have been engaged
in demolishing the camp's crematoria. In the evening, the remaining Jews are
led from their barracks in groups of five and shot. One of the prisoners,
Mordechai Zurawski, stabs an SS guard and escapes despite suffering a gunshot
wound to the foot. A second inmate, Shimon Srebnik, also survives after being
shot through the neck and mouth and left for dead. Forty-seven other Jewish
prisoners at Chelmno, aware that the SS will shoot them before fleeing west
ahead of the Soviets, take refuge in a building that is then set afire by the
SS. Jews who run from the blaze are machine-gunned; only one of the original 47
survives. The SS abandons the Chelmno camp later in the day.
1945: The
Soviet Army entered Warsaw. Only 200 Jews of more than a half a million had
survived
1945: SS
began killing the special Commando group of Jews at Chelmno that was used to
help dismantle the camp over the past three months. Forcing them to wear
bottles on their heads, the SS took target practice.
1945:
Birthdate of David Pleat “an English football player turned manager and sports
commentator.”
1945: The
Nazis began the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces
approached. Elie Weisel describes this event in his first book Night.
1946(15th
of Shevat, 5706): Tu B’Shevat
1946:
The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee
composed of six Americans and six Englishmen that was charged with examining
the “political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine as they
bear upon the problem of Jewish immigration and settlement therein and the
well-being of the peoples now living therein” completed its deliberations in
Washington, DC today which had begun on January 4.
1947(25th
of Tevet, 5707): Seventy-year-old Wilhelm Levison, the “German medievalist” who
moved to England after the Nuremberg Laws ended his career passed away today at
Durham where had been teaching since 1939.
1948(6th
of Shevat, 5708): Parashat Bo
1948(6th
of Shevat, 5708): Seventy-five-year-old Polish born “Dr. Dr. Ludwick
Silberstein, the internationally known physicist and an authority on the theory
of relativity” who was the husband of Rose Silberstein and the father of George
and Hannah Silberstein passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1948/01/18/96584849.html?pageNumber=60
1948: At a
time when the Jewish sector of Jerusalem was being strangled by Arab ambushes
of supply convoys coming up from the coastal plain, today “men from the Jewish
Irgun militia rolled a drum packed with dynamite in a crowd of Arab commuters
waiting at a bus stop, killing seventeen.
1948: The
British brought the mutilated bodies of the 35 Jews to the Etzion bloc where
they were to be buried in a common grave. The dead were the members
of a platoon of volunteers that had been sent from Jerusalem to reinforce the
beleaguered Etzion fighters.
1949: The
Goldbergs, starring Gertrude Beg as Molly Goldberg, moves from radio to
television as it premiers on the CBS television network.
1949:
Birthdate of Halifax native and lawyer whose political career began with his
election to the Halifax City Council in 1994 after which he “was elected to the
Nova Scotia House of Assembly for the New Democratic Party representing the
provincial riding of Halifax Chebucto”
1949:
Birthdate of Andy Kaufman, actor and comedian, many would come to know him as
Latka Gravas in the sitcom Taxi.
1950(28th
of Tevet, 5710): Seventy-three-year-old Russian born historian and “leader of
the Jewish Labor Bund, Shmuel Cohen, passed away today in New York,
1950(28th of
Tevet, 5710): Mrs. Aaron (Annie) Goldberg, the paternal grandmother of Sir
Martin Gilbert passed away at the age of 78. Born in Poland when it was
part of the Russian Empire, she arrived in Great Britain in the last decade of
the 19th century.
1951 (10th of
Shevat, 5711): At a gathering of Chassidim marking the first anniversary of the
passing of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe, the late Rebbe's son-in-law, Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, delivered a Chassidic discourse (maamar)
entitled Basi L'Gani ("I Came into My Garden"), signifying his
formal acceptance of the leadership of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
1951:
“Storm Warning” a thriller produced by Jerry Wald and written by Richard Brooks
and Daniel Fuchs was released today in Miami Beach.
1952: While
serving his second term as Prime Minister, Winston Churchill addresses a joint
session of the U.S. Congress during which he proudly reminds those in
attendance of his long support of the Zionist cause and the creation of a
Jewish state.
1953(1st
of Shevat, 5713): Rosh Chodesh Shevat; Parashat Vaera
1955:
Submarine USS Nautilus began the first nuclear-powered test
voyage. This marked a major milestone in Admiral Hyman Rickover’s vision
of a nuclear-powered Navy.
1955: Chicago
born author Frederick Raphael married Sylvia Glatt today after which they had
three children -- Paul Simon, a film producer, Sarah Natasha, a painter, and
Stephen Matthew Joshua, a screenwriter.
1956: The
funeral for Rabbi Jacob L. Andron, the husband of Yetta Andron with whom he had
five children – Esther, Judith, David Philip and Elihu – is scheduled to take
place the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School which he and his father had founded.
1957(15th
of Shevat, 5717): Tu B’Shevat
1959:
Birthdate of Susanna Hoffs lead singer with “The Bangles.”
1960: Two days
after he had passed away funeral services are schooled to be held for eighty-seven-year-old
Bohemian born and Prague trained medical doctor Ernest Peter Pick who fled
Austria after the Anschluss and settled in the United States in 1939 “where he
joined the medical staffs of Columbia University and Mount Sinai Hospital and
who was the husband of “the former Margaret Janssen”
1962: Dancer
Melissa Hayden premiered the role of Titania in Balanchine's A Midsummer
Night's Dream, a part created especially for her.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/17/1962/melissa-hayden
1963(14th of
Shevat, 5725): Esta Henry, the Jewish antique shop owner “sometimes called
‘Mrs.Scotland” died today in plane crash with her husband Paul (Pinchas
Haimovici).
1963: It was
reported today that “a Soviet newspaper has confirmed that Solomon Mikhoels,
noted Yiddish actor and director was murdered by Soviet Secret Police. At
the time of his death, it the Communist regime claimed that he had been killed
in an automobile accident. In fact, his death was the precursor to a
Stalinist ant-Jewish purge that claimed the life of several hundred Jewish
writers including David Bergelson. At the time of his murder, Mikhoels was
working on a production of “Prince Reubeini” a play by Bergelson that depicted
the expulsion of the Jews by the Ferdinand and Isabella.
1965: His
Eminence Pierre-Marie Paul Gerlier, Cardinal Archbishop of Lyon who was named a
Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1981 passed away today.
1965:
Fifty-year-old University of Pennsylvania trained lawyer and Army Air Force
veteran Myer “Mike” Feldman completed his service as White House Counsel, a
position had been previously been held by Ted Sorenson whose “mother was of
Russian Jewish descent.
1966:
Simon and Garfunkel release their second album, Sounds of Silence, on
Columbia Records.
1966: Zvi
Dinstein begins serving as Deputy Minister of Defense.
1966: After a
B-52 crashed off the coast of Spain, U.S.Navy scientists used information
gained from a lecture by mathematician Howard Raiffa in their attempt to
recover four missing hydrogen bombs.
1970 (9th of
Shevat, 5730): The writing of the "Sefer Torah for the Greeting of
Moshiach," initiated at the behest of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi
Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, in 1942, was concluded 28 years later at a special
gathering convened by the Lubavitcher Rebbe on Friday afternoon, the 9th of
Shevat, on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak's passing.
1970: Seventy-eight-year-old
Nazi Party activist and “personal adjutant Adolf Hitler” Fritz Wiedemann “who
secretly repudiated his Nazi beliefs’ and actively intervened to help the
Jewish-born widow of Willi Schmid, a wrongful victim of the Night of the Long
Knives, escape Germany” passed away today.
1971: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this morning for seventy-three-year-old Minsk
native Abraham Gribetz, the executive vice president of the Hebrew Free Loan
Society, the husband of “the former Ida Holler and the father of “three sons,
Dr. Donald Gribetz, clinical professor of pediatrics at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine; Judah Gribetz, a lawyer, impartial chairman of the conciliation and
appeals board of the Rent Stabilization Law of 1969…
1974(23rd
of Tevet, 5734): Eighty-year operatic soprano Hulda Lashanska, the Manhattan
born daughter of Henry and Barbetter Lashanska who was also known as Hulda
Rosenblum after she married Harold Rosenblum with she “had two daughters –
Lenore and Peggy” passed away today.
http://archives.nypl.org/mus/20211
1974(23rd
of Tevet, 5734): Retired department store executive Ernest E. Ellman, the wife
of Adele Heiman a leader of the Arkansas Jewish community and the widow of
Jesse Heiman, passed away today.
1975:
Thanks to the leadership of Minister of Health Simone Viel legislation was
enacted today that “legalized abortion in France.”
1976(15th
of Shevat, 5736): Parashat Beshalach; Tu B’Shevat observed for the last
time during the Presidency of Gerald Ford.
1978: “The
offices of the Federation of Jewish Societies, an association of small social
and cultural organizations, were damaged by an explosion” today in Paris.
1978: Janet
Maslin reviewed “Operation Thunderbolt” a film about the Entebbe Raid.
1978: The
Jerusalem Post reported that US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance, who arrived
in Jerusalem to participate in the deliberations of the Egyptian-Israeli
political committee, had brought with him a jointly agreed agenda which
included the declaration of principles which would govern the negotiations for
a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East. The agenda was to provide
a guide for negotiations relating to the issues of the West Bank and Gaza (the
Hebrew version read "Judea, Samaria and Gaza") and included the
elements of peace treaties arrived at by Israel and its neighbors, in
accordance with Security Council Resolution 242. Vance had also proposed a plan
for a transitional period which would eventually lead to something closer to
the "self-determination" of the Arabs in Palestine.
1979:
“Nosferatu the Vampyre” a horror film produced by Michael Gruskoff who began
his career in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, was released in France
today.
1979: After
ten years, Marvin Mandel completed his service as the 56th Governor
of Maryland.
1980: “Suite
of Dances” (from Dybbuk Variations), a b
allet made by
New York City Ballet balletmaster Jerome Robbins from his 1974 Dybbuk '
premiered at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center.
1980:
The Olympic Committee of the Presidium of the Second Brussels Conference on
Soviet Jewry met in London today.
1981(12th
of Shevat, 5741): Parashat Beshalach
1981(12th
of Shevat, 5741): Eighty-seven-year-old Rabbi Solomon Levy, “the former Grand
Rabbi of Hust, Czechoslovakia died today while conducting Shabbat services in
Boro Park.”
https://archive.jta.org/1981/01/21/archive/solomon-levy-dead-at-87
1982(22nd
of Tevet, 5742): Ninety-three-year-old “Yetta Zwerling, an actress and comedian
of the Yiddish theater” passed away today.
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/Z/zwerling-yetta.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd2vPwv8Hps
1982: Today “Leningrad
refusenik Grigory Vasserman, a 32 year old radio engineer, was beaten by three
men on the way home from a private Hebrew lesson.:
1985: Canada
made Raoul Wallenberg its first Honorary Citizen today.
1986: In
Queens, NY, Lisa (nėe Kobrin) and Doug Adler gave birth to the Arizona raised
actor Max Adler, the brother of Jake Adler and husband of Jennifer Bronstein
who may be best known for his performance in the television show “Glee/:
1985: Canada
designated this date as Raoul Wallenberg Day.
1986: After a
limited release in December, “Runaway Train” produced by Menahem and Yoram
Globus was released in the rest of the United States today.
1986: Samuel
Hadas was named as Israel’s Ambassador to Spain as Israel and Spain establish
diplomatic relations today.
1987: Two
Israeli helicopter gunships strafed Lebanese guerrillas today who had just
overrun a position of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, the police said.
Israeli gunners then showered the newly occupied post with about 70 mortar
bombs, they said. A South Lebanon Army source in Tel Aviv said the army had
repelled an attack by dozens of Party of God fighters near Taibe, which is
close to Alman. But it was unclear if the militia source was referring to the
same fighting. The reported capture of the post was the latest in a series of
attacks by Shiite guerrillas against Israeli and Lebanese troops in Lebanon.
1988:
Birthdate of actress Nikki Reed.
1988(27th
of Tevet, 5748): Ninety-two-year-old Ukrainian born American biochemist Zacharias
Dische, the University of Lemberg Medical School graduate and WWI veteran of
the Austro-Hungarian Army who developed “the Dische test, which is used to
distinguish DNA from RNA” and who in 1941 came to the United States where e
became a full professor at Columbia passed away to in Englewood, NJ.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33285219/
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/dische-zacharias
1988: “Retracing
Jewish History In Austria,” by Paul Hoffman was published on the 330th anniversary
of the birth of Samson Wertheimer.
1990:
Simon and Garfunkel were inducted into Cleveland's Rock & Roll Hall of
Fame
1990:
The United States criticized Yitzchak Shamir today for his call for a ''big
Israel'' to absorb a flood of immigrants from the Soviet Union.
1991:
Israel declared a state of emergency early this morning, minutes after word
reached here of the American attack on Iraq. The authorities advised all
Israelis to stay in their homes, open their chemical warfare kits and make
their gas masks ready for immediate use. Iraq has said that it would retaliate
against Israel for any allied attack on Iraq.
1991:
Iraq fired 8 SCUD missiles on Israel. Israel had agreed that it would not
respond and leave the destruction of the SCUD launchers to the Coalition Forces
fighting Iraq. This marked the first time in Israel’s history that it
relied on others for its defense.
1992: In a
“Festival of New Voices From A Changing Israel,” published today, Jennifer
Dunning waxes poetic over “Israel: The Next Generation” which she describes as
“a festival with a difference.”
1993: FOX
broadcast the last episode of the “Ben Stiller Show.”
1993: The
Dance Library of Israel will present its annual Documents of Dance Award to
Dame Alicia Markova, the English prima ballerina, today at Tavern on the Green.
The late Gower Champion will also be honored, with his son Gregg accepting the
award. The event, including a reception, followed by a dinner and
entertainment, will benefit archival and educational projects of the library in
Tel Aviv.
1997: Israel
handed over its military headquarters in Hebron to the Palestinians as part of
the peace process that began with the Oslo Accords. The entire Jewish
population had been forced to abandon its homes in Hebron in 1936 because of
Arab violence. In 1968, the Jews returned to this ancestral city.
While the Israeli government may have surrendered sovereignty, the Jewish
settlers remained.
1998(19th
of Tevet, 5758): Parashat Shemot
1998(19th
of Tevet, 5758): Eighty-four-year-old Berlin native Peter Jacobi, the husband
of Barbara Levine Jacobi passed away today after which he was buried in the
B’nai Zion Jewish Cemetery in La Porte, Indiana.
1999: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Language and Solitude:
Wittgenstein, Malinowski and the Habsburg Dilemma by Ernest Gellner, Ben
Shan: An Artist's Lifeby Howard Greenfeld, The Way of the World:
From the Dawn of Civilizations to the Eve of the Twenty-first Centuryby
David Fromkin and Snow written and illustrated by Uri Shulevitz.
2000:
Syrian-Israeli negotiations that had been scheduled to resume on Wednesday,
January 19, in the United States were canceled today. Apparently, the
cancellation was the result of conflict between Syrian President Asad and PLO
leader Yassar Arafat.
2001(22nd of
Tevet, 5761): After being “seduced” by a 24-year-old Palestinian female who
lured him to a remote area, terrorists murdered 16-year-old Israeli high school
student Ofir Rahum.
2001: In
“Forced to Leave Homes, Cuban Jews Thrive in Miami” published today Betty
Heisler-Samuels described the growth of the Cuban Jewish community in Florida
following the rise of Castro.
2002(4th
of Shevat, 5762): A Palestinian gunman burst into a bat mitzvah celebration in
a banquet hall in Hadera, opening fire on the 180 guests with an M-16 assault
rifle, killing 6 people and injuring 35 people following which the Fatah
Al-Aqsa Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.
2003:
According to reports published today the Toronto Raptors terminated the
contract of the rookie center Nate Huffman, saying he had failed to inform the
team of a history of knee problems. The 7-foot-1 Huffman signed a three-year,
$5.1 million contract with the Raptors over the summer after playing for the
Israeli League champion Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv last season.
2003: Two
Palestinian gunmen attacked an isolated Jewish settlement near the embattled
city of Hebron tonight, killing one Israeli and wounding three others.
2004:
“Employee of the Month” a comedy co-produced by Iranian born Bob Yari premiered
at the Sundance Film Festival.
2004:
“This Day In Jewish History” which was started as a supplement to the Jewish
History Class at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, first appeared on this date with
this single, solitary, entry. “1945: Swedish diplomat Raoul
Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in
Hungary while in Soviet custody on January 17, 1945. As we will learn
when we study about the Jews and World War II, nobody really knows what the
Soviets did with Wallenberg or why they did it. What we do know that he
was a Righteous Gentile. We know that he was a Swedish diplomat who went
to Hungary during the closing months of World War II who used everything from
bribes, to threats, to old fashioned Chutzpah to keep boxcar after boxcar
filled with Jews from reaching Auschwitz. It is ironic that he should
have survived the Nazis and their Hungarian allies only to perish at the hands
of the Soviets who were part of the Anti-Nazi coalition. Regardless of
why he did what he did and the fate he suffered, he is living that people could
have at least slowed down the German killing machine. He is also living
proof that one person can make a difference. Because of what he did for
the Jews, we must do as he did and stand up for those whom known one else will
stand up for. As we will see, studying Jewish history is not just about
the dead past, it can be call to action for present and future generations”
2005: In
London, survivors of the Lodz Ghetto gathered in London to view the unpublished
photographs that Henry Ross had taken of the ghetto. Ross was the
official of the photographer of the Jewish Council. Ross hid over three
thousand negatives when the Germans liquidated the ghetto and shipped the
survivors to Auschwitz. Ross survived the war and moved to Israel where
he died in 1991. His son gave the collection of photos to the Archive of
Modern conflict in London in 1997. One hundred of the images were
published in 2004 in the Lodz Ghetto Album.
2005(7th
of Shevat, 5765): Eighty-four-year-old microbiologist Albert Schatz passed away
today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/02/obituaries/albert-schatz-microbiologist-dies-at-84.html
2005: Today
“thirteen cantors in conjunction with the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association
of America (the Chazzanim Farband), performed in a cantorial concert for the
first time in the history” of the Great Synagogue of Rome.
2006:
Haaretz reported that this year will mark the first time in history that
there will be as many Jews living in Israel as in the United States, according
to statistics presented at a Jewish Policy Planning Institute conference.
2007: Actor
Evan Handler, “the son of New York City secular Jews” and his wife Elisa Attia
gave birth to their daughter Sofia Clementina Handler.
2007: Dan
Halutz announced his resignation as IDF Chief of Staff.
2007: New
Jersey native, Yale lacrosse player and University of Virginia Law School
graduate Douglas F. “Doug” Gansler began his services as the 45th
Attorney General for the State of Maryland.
2007: As part
of its “Jewish Season” The Theater for a New Audience in New York City presents
The Jew of Malta.
2008(10th of
Shevat, 5768): One hundred- and five-year-old actress, director and producer
Madeleine Milhaud, the wife of Jewish composer Darious Milhaud, passed away
today in her native Paris.
2008:In Jerusalem at Sergey`s Courtyard in the Metunah Auditorium,The Society for the Protection of Nature in
Israel (SPNI) presents a World Music concert, a combination of original
elements with the traditions of different cultures.
2008: Today,
the mayor of Berlin and the head of Germany's Jewish Council denounced an
attack on five Jewish teenagers by a group of punks.
2008: Today,
terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired more than 40 Qassam rockets and two mortar
shells at southern Israel, wounding four people.
2008:
“November” a play about a sitting president by Jewish playwright David Mamet
opened at the Barrymore Theater in Manhattan.
2009: “500
Days of Summer,” a comedy written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber and
starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival.
2009: Initial
screening of “Zion and His Brother,” a family drama set in Tel Aviv, at the
Sundance Film Festival.
2009:
“Victoria Day,” a Canadian film directed and written by David Bezmozgis and
starring Mark Rendell premiered today at the Sundance Film Festival.
2009(21st
of Tevet, 5769): Jews all over the world begin reading Shemot, the
second book of the Torah.
2009: Fifth
Anniversary of what would become known as “This Day In…Jewish History.”
2010: A
memorial service is held for Sylvia Kalnitsky, of blessed memory, at Agudas
Achim in Iowa, City. Sylvia Kalnitsky, of blessed memory, is the mother Kathe
Goldstein a pillar the Cedar Rapids Jewish Community.
2010: Robert
M. Edsel discusses "The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and
the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History" (written with Bret Witter) at the
National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
2010: The
Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities and the Department of Scandinavian Studies
at Augustana College is scheduled to host a screening of “Good Evening, Herr
Wallenberg” in Rock Island, Il. January 17th marks the 65th anniversary of the
arrest and disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with saving as
many as 100,000 Jews during a remarkable mission to Budapest near the end of
World War II.
2010: Sixth
Anniversary of what would become known as “This Day In…Jewish History.”
2010(2nd
of Shevat, 5770): Elementary school teacher Beatrice “Bea” Kaplan Nasaw, the
wife of attorney Joshua J. Nasaw and the
mother of biographer and historian David Nasaw, mystery writer Jonathan Lewis
Nasaw and poet Elizabeth Perl Nasaw passed away today.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?n=beatrice-nasaw&pid=138662101
2010: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Game Change: Obama and the
Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime co-authored by Mark
Halperin.
2010: The
Los Angeles Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including '36 Arguments for the Existence
of God: A Work of Fiction' by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein.
2010: The
Washington Post featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Game Change: Obama and the
Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime co-authored by Mark
Halperin.
2010: The 10th
annual Atlanta Jewish Festival is scheduled to present a screening of “The
Wedding Song,” a film about “two teenage girlfriends, a Muslim and a Jew, who
bond intensely during the Nazi occupation of the North African nation of
Tunis.”
2010: The 139h
annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York
premiere of “The Axe of Wandsbek,” a film that was “adapted from the 1947 novel
by Arnold Zweig.”
2010: Pope
Benedict XVI said church authorities played an active role in saving Jews
during the Holocaust, though "often hidden and discreet." Today,
Italian Jewish leaders welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to Rome's main synagogue for
a visit they said would help strengthen relations between Jews and Catholics
2011: Limmud
NY which has been meeting at Hudson Valley Resort, Kerhonkson, NY is scheduled
to come to a close.
2011:
“Strangers No More”, a documentary about students at an “exceptional school” in
Tel Aviv is scheduled to have its New York Premiere at the New York Jewish Film
Festival.
2011:
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak abruptly announced today that he was
leaving the Labor Party — dividing the movement that dominated Israeli politics
for decades and setting off a chain reaction that cast new doubts over already
troubled peace efforts with the Palestinians
2011:
Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, Welfare and Social
Services Minister Isaac Herzog and Minorities Affairs Minister Avishay
Braverman all submitted their resignation letters to Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu today, ending speculation about whether any of the eight remaining
Labor MKs would remain in the coalition.
2011(12th
of Shevat, 5771) Seventy-six year old “Don Kirshner, the music publisher of
Brill Building hits like “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” and “You’ve Lost That
Lovin’ Feelin,’ ” who later served as a deadpan Ed Sullivan for Kiss, the
Ramones and others with his 1970s television show, “Don Kirshner’s Rock
Concert,” died today in Boca Raton, Fla., where he lived. (As reported by Ben
Sisario)
2011: András
Schiff joined 7 other Hungarian intellectuals and artists “
2011: Primary
Stages, an Off-Broadway theatre company announced today that its 2011-2012
season will open with “Olive and the Bitter Herbs,” a work by Charles Busch in
which “the title character, Olive, finds herself reluctantly hosting a seder
for the neighbors in her apartment building while contending with what she
thinks is a ghost that she sees in her mirror.”
2011: Seventh
anniversary of what is now known as This Day…In Jewish History
2012: Martin
Menelsohn, the former counsel to Simon Wiesenthal and the Counsel to Holocaust
Survivors in the Trial of John Demjanjuk is scheduled to deliver a noon-time
address entitled “Prosecuting Nazi War Criminals in 21st Century Germany” in
Washington, D.C.
2012: “Three
Promises,” a documentary that uses the family photographs of sisters Breda and
Matilda Kalef take viewers into the world of Sephardic pre-World War II Serbia
and the dramatic story of their flight to safety is scheduled to have its world
premiere at the New York Jewish Film Festival.
2012:
Frank Lautenberg & Thane Rosenbaum as scheduled to appear “In
Conversation” at the 92nd St Y in Manhattan
2012: Eighth
Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began
with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945.
2012: A recent
string of cyber-attacks against Israeli credit card companies, banks, and
government websites was aided by thousands of Israeli computers operated by
remote assailants, a top Israeli software security expert said today.
2012: A
nuclear-armed Iran could deter Israel from going to war against Tehran's
guerrilla allies in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli general said
today.
2013:
“Killing Them Softly” is scheduled to be shown at the Jerusalem Jewish Film
Festival.
2013: The
Chicago Bears introduced Marc Trestman as their new head coach, making him the
only Jew to hold such a position in the NFL.
2013: Southern
Jewish Historian Janice Rothschild Blumberg is scheduled to deliver an address
entitled “Prophet in a Time of Priests: Rabbi ‘Alphabet’ Browne”
2013: The Red
Sea Jazz Festival is scheduled to open at Eilat.
2013: Canada
is scheduled to release a postage stamp today honoring Raoul Wallenberg. (As
reported by JTA)
2013: The
JCCNV is scheduled to host “The Insider’s Briefing” which will prepare
attendees for the trip to the state legislature in Virginia known as Jewish
Advocacy Day. Currently the most powerful politician in Virginia is Eric
Cantor, the lone Republican Jewish member of the House of Representatives who
is House Majority Leader and a driving force in the Tea Party.
2013:
“Skokie Invaded, But Not Conquered,” a film that “examines the personalities
and issues connected to the attempted neo-Nazi March in Skokie in the late
1970s” is scheduled to be shown for the first time at the Illinois Holocaust
Museum.
2013: Ninth
Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began
with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945 and has
continued to grow on a daily basis year in and year out. It originally
was created to meet the needs of an Adult Education Program at Temple Judah in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The current format is the creation of Deb Levin who
is a one-woman tech support group for this endeavor. I really do appreciate all
of the comments, questions and suggestions that you have sent over the years.
And now it is time to get to work on the start of year ten.
2013: “A rare
journal written by an unknown Jew in the Warsaw Ghetto during the uprising
there was unveiled this morning at a ceremony at the Ghetto Fighters’ House
Museum in the presence of President Shimon Peres. In the diary, the writer, a
37-year-old Jewish lawyer, describes life in the ghetto, the Jewish underground
fighters who were active there and his march to deportation.”
2013(6th
of Shevat, 5773): Ethel Dimont, the wife
of historian Max Dimont who edited the second edition of her husband’s book Jews,
God and History passed away today.
2013(6th
of Shevat, 5773): Ninety-four-year-old Pauline Phillips, known as the creator
of the advice column “Dear Abby” passed away today. (As reported my Margarlit
Fox)
2014:
The Cedar Rapids/Iowa City Hadassah is scheduled to sponsor their annual Tu
B’Shevat Seder prior to Shabbat Evening Services at Temple Judah.
2014: “White
Panther,” a film about the rebellion of Russian immigrant boys when their
father dies while serving in the Israeli Arm, is scheduled to be shown in
Jerusalem today.
2014(16th
of Shevat): Yarhrzeit of century Hebrew novelist Perez Smolenskin and century
Reform leader Aaron Bernstein two 19th century intellectuals with
diametrically opposite views on how to solve “the Jewish problem.”
2014: Students
in the southern city of Ashdod whose schools are unprotected from rockets will
stay home today, in light of fears of continued rocket fire out of Gaza. The
decision was made following a second straight night of rocket attacks. The
closure will affect approximately 3,500 students. (As reported by Joshua
Davidovich)
2014: Tenth
Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History” which began
with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945 and has
continued to grow on a daily basis year in and year out. It originally
was created to meet the needs of an Adult Education Program at Temple Judah in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The current format is the creation of Deb Levin who
is a one-woman tech support group for this endeavor. I really do appreciate all
of the comments, questions and suggestions that you have sent over the years.
And now it is time to get to work on the start the second decade.
2014:
Professor and scientist Daniel Schectman, who teaches at The Israel Institute
of Technology, announced that he is running for president of Israel today on
Channel 1 news.
http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=338551
2015: The
Moroccan-Israeli superstar Emil Zrihan is scheduled to perform at Symphony
Space.
2015: “The
Mystery of Happiness” and “Paris is Burning” are scheduled to be shown at the
New York Jewish Film Festival.
2015: “Nearly
200 people gathered in Stockholm today to light candles and mark the 70th
anniversary of the disappearance of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who
saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.” (As reported by Justin
Jalil)
2015: The
Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia is scheduled to host a performance
of “Rabbi Sam” about a cleric “who wants to reinvent American Judaism.
2015: In “Why
Hitchcock’s Film on the Holocaust Was Never Shown” published today Abigail
Jones described the fate of the documentary that the great director made at the
end of the Holocaust.
2015:
Eleventh Anniversary of what is now known as “This Day…In Jewish History”
which began with one item about the Soviets arresting Raoul Wallenberg in 1945
and has continued to grow on a daily basis year in and year out. It
originally was created to meet the needs of an Adult Education Program at
Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The current format is the creation of
Deb Levin who is a one-woman tech support group for this endeavor. I really do
appreciate all of the comments, questions and suggestions that you have sent
over the years as well as all of the sites that carry this blog and the editors
at SEGULA who have provided a monthly format for highlights from the daily
publication.
2016: Twelfth
Anniversary of “This Day…In Jewish History”
2016(7th
of Shevat, 5776): Thirty-eight-year-old Dfana Meir “a nurse in the neurosurgery
department of Soroka Medical Center in Beesheba and the mother of four was
stabbed to death today by a terrorist while she was trying to protect her
family when he invaded their home.
2016: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest toe Jewish readers including
Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War by Ian Buruma.
2016: The
Koresh Dance Company, led by Israeli choreographer Ronen Koresh is scheduled to
perform at City Center Studios in New York.
2016: The
Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia Performing Arts Series is
scheduled to host “the Washington Balalaika Society which “will perform a
concert of Russian, Ukrainian and Eastern European Jewish music” today.
2016: Pope
Francis is scheduled to “make his first pontifical visit to Rome’s Great
Synagogue” today making him the third pontiff, after Benedict and John Paul II,
to go to the Jewish house of worship on the banks of the Tiber River.
2016: “Esther
Bubley Up Front” is scheduled to come to an end at the National Museum of Women
in the Arts.
2017: American
businessman Fred Philip Hochberg, a son of Lillian Vernon whose corporation he
served for two decades competed his as Chairman of the Export-Import Bank
today.
2017: Joshua
David “Josh” Shapiro completed his service as a member of the Montgomery
Country Board of Commissioners and began serving as the “50th
Attorney General” for the state of Pennsylvania.
2017:
Registration is scheduled to open for “Demons and the Evil Eye: Folklore of
Ashkenaz” a four week course taught by Professor Itizik Gottesman.
https://yivo.org/Folklore-of-Ashkenaz
2017:
“The Patriarch’s Room” and “Hummus! The Movie” are scheduled to be shown at the
New York Jewish Film Festival.
2017:
“This Day In…Jewish History” starts its fourteenth year.
2018:
The American Sephardi Federation is scheduled to host “The AMIA Bombing and the
Murder of Alberto Nisman: Is Justice in Sight?”
https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=9870a7a862&u=9ee686c09238e3a1fb7447ee7&id=fb4347448b
2018:
In London, the JW3 is scheduled to host a workshop on “How to Conquer Age
Barriers in the Search for Work.”
2018:
David Fishman is scheduled to teach the final session of “The Book Smugglers of
the Vilna Ghetto: Jewish Cultural Resistance to Nazi and Soviet Oppression” at
the YIVO Institute.
2018:
The Breman is scheduled to host another event in its “Historic Jewish Atlanta
Tours” with a visit to Congregation Shearith Israel which was founded in 1904
and was led by Rabbi Tobias Geffen who “Koshered Coca-Cola.”
2018(1st
Day of Shevat, 5778): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2018(1st
Day of Shevat, 5778: Ninety-four-year-old Dr. Arno G. Motulsky, “a founder of
medical genetics” who had been one of the passengers aboard the ill-fated St.
Louis in 1939 passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)
2018:
Today thirty-one years after the end of the First Lebanon War, fifty year old
the last fallen soldier from the war fifty year old Sgt. Abraham Ajami who was
just 19 years old in 1987 when he suffered a critical head injury due to a
shell exploding near him, which placed him in a vegetative state, was laid to rest.
(Jewish Virtual Library.
2018:
“This Day In Jewish History” which was started as a supplement to the Jewish
History Class at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, with one single entry begins its
15th year. (Editor’s Note – the author had no idea what he was
getting into and owes whatever success he might have enjoyed to Deb Levin who
created the architecture that took it from history handout to an inter-net
creation found at multiple sources.)
2019(11th
of Tevet, 5779): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Rabbi Noah Weinberg
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_11.html
2019:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host Princeton Historian Yair
Mintzker as he discusses The Many Deaths of Jew Suss, his “innovative
new book on Joseph Süss Oppenheimer’s notorious trial and execution in 1738
draws on the accounts of four contemporaries, who paint a lurid tale of greed,
sex, violence and disgrace.”
2019:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with
Senator Joseph Liebrman and Jacob Lew as they discuss the “state of the
nation.”
2019:
The Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of
Michigan is scheduled to host the “Wieseneck Symposium on Hebrew Literature.”
https://lsa.umich.edu/judaic/news-events/all-events.detail.html/57436-14193506.html
2019:
The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with
Senator Joseph Liebrman and Jacob Lew as they discuss the “state of the
nation.”
2019:
In Atlanta, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host “a one-of-a-kind behind the
scenes tour of the Fox Theatre and learn about his founder, William Fox, born
Wilhelm Fuchs, and his imprint in the entertainment business as we know it
today.”
2019:
Today marks the 15th anniversary of the first entry in what has
become This Day…In Jewish History which means, just like with Simcha Torah, we
get to start over again with year 16.
For those of you who have stuck with this through the years, I hope it
has been worth your time. We would be
remiss if we did not pay homage to Deb Levin, who created the architecture that
moved this from a study guide to a blog and who has been patient enough over
the years to allow the time to do this as well as never collection to the
clutter of books and other materials that have built up over the years.
2020:
The Ariel Quartet, which was “formed in Israel nearly twenty years ago” is
scheduled to “perform the complete Beethoven Cycle to celebrate Beethoven’s
sestercentennial.
https://artpower.ucsd.edu/event/ariel-quartet-beethoven-cycle-part-2/
2020:
Today is a bitter sweet anniversary since it marks the 16th
anniversary of the first entry in what has become This Day…In Jewish History
which is starting its 17th year Deb Levin Z”L whose technical
expertise and unstinting, patient, and loving support made this possible.
2021:
The JCC in Youngstown, OH is scheduled to host a “virtual walk on the Temple
Mount Palza and the Pilgrimage” while attendees will “learn important
traditions and the universal message of Jerusalem and Israel.
2021:
Urban Adamah is scheduled to presents a talk by Rabbi David Rosenn, president
of Hebrew Free Loan “about the Torah concept that debt must be forgiven every
seven years, and how that relates to the Covid-era issues.”
2021:
In Australia, Shalom, “a member of the JCA family of Communal Organizations” is
scheduled to host a Sunday Working Session at Adamama Farm.
2021:
Palo Alto’s Meg Waite is scheduled to talk virtually about The Last Train to
London, “her 2019 novel that focuses on the Kindertransports and three
characters in Europe as the Nazis are rising to power”
2021:
The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Pee Wees: Confession of a
Hockey Parent by Tulane graduate Rich Cohen.
2021:
As part of the Book Fest in Your Living Room,The Marcus JCC of Atlanta is
scheduled to present Lisa Lillien,
author of Hungry Girl Fast & Easy
2021
Jewish News, SERET and JW3 are scheduled to present the final on-line screening
of Shtisel 3.
2021:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host a virtual tour of the
“Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth and Bader Ginsburg.”
2021:
Based on statements made by authorities on January 14, police are scheduled “to
step up enforcement of lockdown restrictions” today.
2021:
This Day…In Jewish History marks its 17th anniversary and begins its
18th year today.
2022:
The New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host two screenings of “A
Kaddish for Bernie Madoff.”
2022:
The Skirball Academy is scheduled to the first session of the virtual course “Rest,
Restore, Reimagine: The Shmita Year 5782” with Tobi Kahn and Rabbanit Leah
Sarna
2022:
The National Library of Israel is scheduled to host “Tu B’Shvat and a Jewish
Approach to Climate Change” during which “Rabbi Yonatan Neril will explore
Jewish teachings that relate to climate change and why it is so critical that
Jewish communities mobilize to address the climate crisis.”
2022:
The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled host the Florida premier of “Live
At Mister Kelly’s.”
2022:
Agudas Achim is scheduled to host “Tu Bishvat Iowa Style” a celebration of the trees with cocoa and
cookies as well as snow pants, masks and winter gear.
2022(15th
of Shevat, 5782): Tu B’Shevat
2022:
In an official FBI statement made today, it said the hostage taking episode at Congregation
Beth El I Colleyville, TX, was "a terrorism-related matter, in which the
Jewish community was targeted."
2022(15th
of Shevat, 5782): On the Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Sir Martin Gilbert, the
official biographer of Sir Winston Churchill – a marvelous historian who had
the writing skills of novelist – but who always had time to answer the
questions of the most inconsequential of his readers. If you have never
had the pleasure of reading his work, you might want to start with Israel: A
History or Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century or In Ishmael’s House or… well
the list is almost endless
https://www.martingilbert.com/blatt/in-honour-of-martin/
and
or connect to the Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Center https://sirmartingilbertlearningcentre.org/
2022: Despite the loss of Deb, the Pandemic and the
Derecho and with the support of the numerous people who supported the editor
through major knee replacement surgery. This Day…In Jewish History marks its 18th
anniversary and begins its 19th year today.
2023:
The Jewish Climate Action Network is scheduled to present a webinar on “Jewish
Climate Advocacy in the 118th Congress.
2023:
In New Orleans, Spill the Honey Foundation is scheduled to provide a forum for discussion
and a space to showcase Black-Jewish relations through Shared Legacies: The
African American-Jewish Civil Rights Alliance. Crucial historical lessons of
Black-Jewish cooperation are revisited and revived in this utterly fascinating,
urgent call to action.
2023:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre is scheduled to host an online lecture
by Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers on the “American Shtetl..”
2023:
BBYO New England Region is schedule to present online “a conversation with Dr. Samantha
Vinokor-Meinrath, educator and author of the book “#antisemitism: Coming of Age
During the Resurgence of Hate,” to learn how we can support teens—and seek
support ourselves—as we navigate these deep waters.”
2023:
Based on previously published information as of today “the political unrest in
Israel and the impending changes to the legal system are beginning to worry
investors and companies abroad and until the picture becomes clearer, some of
them are already holding back investments.” (As reported by Sophie Shulman and
Meir Orbach)
2023:
19th anniversary of This Day…In Jewish History; for more see https://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
2024:Washington Post reporter Laura
Meckler, who wrote “Dream Town,” about racial integration surrounding Shaker
Heights is scheduled to speak today at the Mandel Center as part of the
Cleveland Jewish Book Festival.
2024: ANU, the Museum of the Jewish Museum is scheduled to
host a webinar on “Why is Codex Sassoon - The oldest most complete Hebrew Bible
- one of the most valuable books in the world?”
2024: JWI is scheduled to present “(S)heroes on the
Ground” during with Israeli leaders of Gender-based Violence Programs speak out
on their work since October 7.
2024: The Young Israel Synagogue of North Natanya is
scheduled to host “The Original Culinary Movers and Shakers: Jews as
Transporters of Food” which will reveal “the surprising stories of the
wandering Jew’s gastronomic impact, and the reasons that underlie our role in
culinary history.”
2024: Another lecture in the "Emmanuel Levinas with
Beloved Poets and Writers" lecture series, is scheduled to take place at
Yedidya Synagogue in Jerusalem, Rabbi Daniel Epstein will discuss the works
that influenced Emanuel Levinas' ethical teachings and Talmudic interpretation.
2024: The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center is scheduled to
host a lecture by chef Lior Lev Sercarz author of A
Middle Eastern Pantry: Essential Ingredients for Classic and Contemporary
Recipes,
2024: “Templeton Rye Whiskey” is
scheduled to share its birthday with National Bootlegger’s Day which calls the o
mind Jewish bootleggers as Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, Abner Zwillman and
Charles Birger.
2024: As January 17th begins in Israel,
the Hamas held hostages begin day 103 in captivity. (Editor’s note: this
situation is too fluid for this blog to cover so we are just providing a
snapshot as of the posting at midnight Israeli time.)
2024: Twentieth anniversary of what became This Day…In Jewish History https://thisdayinjewishhistory.blogspot.com/
which began with a single entry about Raoul Wallenberg for a study
guide to be used in an Adult Education Class at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids