January 25
41: Claudius
is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate. “Claudius rescinded Caligula’s
provocative decrees affecting Judean and reaffirmed Jewish rights throughout
the rest of the Roman world.” Claudius supported the cause of the Jews when
they were attacked in separate incidents by the Greeks of Alexandria and the
Samaritans. He maintained a life-long friendship with the Agrippa the
last Jewish king in Eretz Israel.
681: The
Twelfth Council of Toledo which approved several canons aimed at punishing the
Jews including on that prohibited conversos from returning to Judaism and
allowed for the confiscation of Jewish owned goods came to a close.
749: Birthdate
Leo IV (the Khazar), the Byzantine emperor from 775 through 780 who was known
as “the Khazar” because his mother was a Khazar Princess. If the Khazars
were Jewish, does this mean that at least one Byzantine emperor was Jewish?
750: Caliph
Marwan II, whose subjects included “self-proclaimed prophet” and Messianic
figure known variously as Abu Isa or Isaac ibn Jacob al-Isfahani , passed away
today.
1138:
Anacletus II passed away. Known as Pietro Pierleone before his elevation to the
Papacy in 1130, Anacletus II was referred to as the Jewish anti-pope because he
came from a family that had converted from Judaism to Christianity. “One of his
great-great grandparents, Benedictus, maybe Baruch in Hebrew, was a Jew who
converted into Christianity.” The appellation of anti-pope is one that is hung
on several popes who were elected under controversial circumstances.
1279: John Of
Peckham, who in 1281 “ordered all but one of the remaining” Jewish “prayer
houses in London to be closed down” was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
today. Martin 22
1327: Edward
III who would re-apply the Edict of Expulsion of 1290 because there were
reports of “secret Jews” or conversos who had remained in England and were
practicing “the faith of their fathers” became King of England today.
1376(9th
of Shevat, 2385): Nissim ben Reuven, also known as Nissim of Gerona, “one of
the last of the great Spanish medieval Talmudic scholars passed away today.
1494:
Ferdinand I who had provided refuge for the Jews expelled from Spain “in
Apulia, Calabria and Naples” passed away following which Charles VII of France
invaded his realm which led to an outbreak of a disease known as “French fly”
which was blamed on the Jews which led to them being driven from the realm.
1494: Alfonso
II became King of Naples. Alfonso continued to rely on the services of Don
Isaac Abravanal the refugee from the Spanish expulsion who had acted as an
advisor to his predecessor on the throne, King Ferdinand. Alfonso also
continued the policy of his predecessor of allowing Jews fleeing the
Inquisition to settle in his kingdom.
1505: Ercole I
d’Este, the Duke of Ferrara around whose court the life Abraham ben Mordecai
Farissol, “the Jewish-Italian geographer, cosmographer scribe and polemicist”
revolved passed away today.
1515:
Coronation of King Francis I of France who strangely enough for a French
monarch showed an interest in the Hebrew language. After all, no Jew had
legally lived in France for over a century.
But this King invited August Justiniani, the Bishop of Corsica who was
reputed to be a serious student of Hebrew literature to move to France. He also invited Elias Levita, the renowned
Hebrew grammarian and poet, to move to France and accept a professorship in the
Hebrew language. Levita declined the offer for obvious reasons.
1533: Henry
VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn. Henry had failed
in his attempt to enlist the support of Italian rabbis in his futile attempt to
get the Pope to annul his first marriage. His marriage to Anne helped
move England into the Protestant camp which proved to be beneficial in the
Jews’ attempt to return to the British Isles.
1554: Founding
of São Paulo, Brazil. As was the case in so many other parts of Latin
America, the first Jews to inhabit Sao Paulo were New Christians or Conversos.
The first openly Jewish residents of the city arrived from Alsace-Lorraine in
the 19th century. Today São Paulo is home to the largest Jewish
community in Brazil with about 130,000 people,
1569:
Phillip II of Spain issued the order to set up an inquisition in the New World.
Mexico would be the first five years later.
1640: English
author and Oxford University fellow Robert Burton who “in Anatomy of Melancholy
admitted that the Jews were ‘very industrious whilst among Englishmen the badge
of gentry is idleness, to be of no calling, not to labour…to be a mere
spectator, a drone’” passed away today.
1648: The
Khmelnytsky or Chmielnicki Rebellion against the Kingdom of Poland and
Lithuania began in earnest when Bohdan Khmelnytsky brought a contingent of
300-500 Cossacks to the Zaporizhian Sich and quickly dispatched the guards
assigned by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to protect the entrance. His
defeat of the counterattacking Commonwealth forces coupled with is oratorical
skills brought thousands of rebels including the Ruthenians to join his
uprising. Jews, who served as the middle-man and administrators for the
absentee Polish landlords were an easy target for the rebels. The bloody
uprising will mark the long, slow disintegration of the Polish state. The
slaughter of the Jews was so great that it would not be surpassed until the
time of the Nazis.
1764(21st
of Shevat, 5524): Five-month-old Sara Barnet, the New York City born daughter
of Sara Barnet passed away today.
1754: Bordeaux
native Jacob Nones and Rose Fernandez gave birth to Miriam Nones.
1764(2nd
of Adar I, 5524): Sara Barnet, the six-month-old New York born daughter of
Judah Barnet passed away today.
1774: Future
West Point graduate, Simon Magruder Levy, the son of fur trader and land
speculator Levy Andrew Levy and his wife Susanna, underwent the Jewish
circumcision ceremony called a “B’rit”
after which he went on to a career in the U.S. Army that included
distinguished service at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, teaching at the U.S.
Military Academy and as an engineer at Forts Jackson and Wilkinson in Georgia.
1782(10th of
Shevat): Rabbi Shalom Sharabi Kabbalist, author of Emet ve-Shalom passed away
today.
1783:
Philadelphia native Miriam Simon and Michael Gratz who were married in
Lancaster, PA gave birth to Rachel Gratz the wife of Solomon Moses with whom
she had nine children.
1784: Having
passed away on Shabbat. Lezer ben Zelig Rachmonus was buried today at the
Alderney Road (Globe Road) Jewish Cemetery.
1796(15th
of Shevat, 5556): Tu B’Shevat
1800(28th
of Tevet, 5560): Parashat Vaera.
1801: In
London, Julia Asher and Raphael Raphael gave birth to Jane (Shana) Raphael.
1804: Phineas
Moses Samuel married Catherine Jacobs at the Great Synagogue today.
1812(11th
of Shevat, 5572): Parashat Beshalach
1812(11th
of Shevat, 5572): Eighty-year-old Esther Koperlik, the wife of Abraham Koperlik
and
mother of
Philipp Koperlik; Joseph Koperlik; Benjamin Koperlik; Wolf Koperlik and Isak
Koperlik passed away today in the Czech Republic.
1821: In
Philadelphia, Abigail Seixas and Philadelphia native Benjamin Jonas Phillips
gave birth to Hetty Phillips.
1823: Levi
Emanuel Cohen, the husband of the former Hannah Benjamin and the father of
Levy, Rosetta and Abraham Cohen, was buried today in the United Kingdom.
1823: In
Germany, Gela Weil an Isaac Jacob Bamberger gave birth to Elkan Bamberger the
husband of Theresa Hutzler with whom he lived in Baltimore, MD and raised eight
children.
1826:
Thirty-four year old Philip I. Cohen, the Richmond born son of Israel I Cohen
who “served in the War of 1812” and “was postmaster of Norfolk, VA” married
Augusta Myers today.
1826: In
Norfolk, Rabbi Seixas officiated at the wedding of Philip I. Cohen to Augusta
Myers, the daughter of Moses Myers.
1834: In London,
Abigail De Costa Gomes and Josep Abendana gave birth to Hananel Abendana, who
served as a “Steward at the Spanish Portuguese Hospital.
1839:
Birthdate of Amsterdam native Michael Rudelsheim, the husband of Rebecca Hirsch
and father of Samuel Rudelsheim.
1841: In
Germany, Babette True and Isaac Jacob Bamberg gave birth to Bertha Bamberger,
the wife of Baltimore resident Aaron Friedenwald with whom se raised five
children – Harry, Julius, Bernard, Norman and Edgar.
1841: In
Bridgetown, Barbados, the committee governing the Kaal, agreed to place £ 10
sterling “at the disposal of the London Committee led by Sir Moses Montefiore
that is working to alleviate “the suffering of the Jews in the east.”
1844:
Congregation Shaarai Shomayim u-Maskil el Dol was chartered today in Mobile,
Alabama. “Israel I. Jones (1810–1877), a London Jew who arrived early in the
1830s, was president of the congregation for most of his life; one of his
daughters married the well-known New Orleans rabbi, James Koppel Gutheim
(1817–1886). An auctioneer and tobacco merchant, Jones was active in politics,
served as an alderman, was president of the Mobile Musical Association, and
introduced streetcars to Mobile.”
1847: In
Kirvany, Comitat Saros, Hungary, Herman Miller and Rachel Friedman gave birth
to Morris Miller, the husband of Annie Rich, who came to the United States in
1865, lived in Cleveland, Ohio, Meadville, PA and Kalamazoo, Michigan before
moving to Milwaukee in 1881 where he served as the Director of the Milwaukee
Agriculture Association and trustee, treasurer, vice-president and president of
the Hebrew Relief Association.
1849: The West
End Synagogue of British which had been formed by Jews who left Bevis Marks in
1841 dedicated its new facility in Upper Berkeley Street.
1851(22nd
of Shevat, 5611): Sixty-nine-year-old Lewis Wolfe Levy, the son of Martha and
Benjamin Wolfe Levy and the husband of Julia Levy passed away today in
Rockwood, New South Wales, Australia.
http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/levy-lewis-wolfe-4017
1852: Achille
Fould resigned as the French Minister of Finance.
1852: French
political leader Achille Fould was appointed as a Senator and later rejoined
the government as a Minister of State.
1854(25th of
Tevet, 5614): Filosseno Luzzatto passed away. Born at Trieste in 1829; he was
an Italian Jewish scholar; son of Samuel David Luzzatto. His name is the
Italian equivalent of the title of one of his father's principal works,
"Oheb Ger," which was written at the time of Filosseno's birth. “He
showed from childhood linguistic aptitude, and having mastered several European
languages, he devoted himself to the study of Semitic languages and Sanskrit.”
At the age of thirteen he deciphered some old inscriptions on the tombstones of
Padua which had puzzled older scholars. Two years later, happening to read
D'Abbadie's narrative of his travels in Abyssinia, he resolved to write a
history of the Falashas. In addition to writing several original works, he
“translated into Italian eighteen chapters of the Book of Ezekiel,
adding a Hebrew commentary. Luzzatto contributed to many periodicals, mostly on
philological or exegetical subjects.”
1854: “The
Will of Judah Touro,”published today described the terms of the late
philanthropist and businessman’s final testamentary document. The will
was dated January 6, 1854, 7 days before his death. The will
appointed four executors, three of whom were to receive $10,000 and a four,
R.D. Shepperd who is the “residuary legatee. Touro bequeathed
approximately $450,000 to different Jewish and non-Jewish institutions and
charities. Among them were $20,000 left to the Jew’s Hospital
Society of New York; $10,000 left to the New York Relief Society for Indigent
Jews in Palestine; $50,000 left for the agent of “a society dedicated to
ameliorating the condition of the Jews in the Holy Land and the securing the
enjoyment of their religion” as well as bequests left to Jewish
congregations throughout the United States including, but not limited to $5,000
to a Jewish congregation in Boston, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in
Hartford, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in New Haven, $5,000 to a
Jewish congregation in New York, $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Charleston
and $5,000 to a Jewish congregation in Savannah
1854: Sir
Henry Rawlinson wrote to from Baghdad today that “a number of clay cylinders
taken from the ruins of what is ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ of Genesis disclosed the
fact that a few years” prior “to the fall of Babylon, Nabonnedus had associated
his son Bilsharuzur, the ‘Belshazzar’ of Scripture with him in the government”
“thus showing the harmony between the Biblical narrative and secular history.”
1858: The Wedding
March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it
is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria,
and Friedrich of Prussia. Felix Mendelssohn is the grandson of Moses
Mendelssohn. Felix Mendelssohn was born to Jewish parents in 1809,
Felix’s father, Abraham, had the famous composer baptized as a Lutheran in
1816.
1860: In New
York City, Gershom Nathan and Rosalie Gomez gave birth to Columbia University
trained attorney Edgar J. Nathan, the scion of several the city’s oldest
Sephardic families, and partner of Justice Benjamin N. Cardoza who was the
husband of Sara N. Solis and the father of Edgar J. Nathan, Jr the Manhattan
Borough President.
https://www.jta.org/1929/06/20/archive/funeral-services-today-for-edgar-j-nathan
1861: Charles
Dyte laid the foundation stone for the historic Ballarat Synagogue, the oldest
surviving synagogue on the Australian mainland.
1861: In a
letter that an unidentified resident of New Orleans, LA, wrote to a friend in
Boston, he described the voting patterns of various groups in the recent
election. If you believe his description, most groups voted for one of the
Unionist or Compromise candidates. Only "The Jews voted for
secession."
1863: In Columbus,
GA, Frank Rothschild, the German born son of Isack Rothschild and Henriette
Rothschild and his wife Amanda Anna Rothschild gave birth to Elias Rothschild.
1864:
Philadelphian Samuel Rothschild began serving with Company I, Seventy-fourth
1865: Dr.
William H. Thomson read a paper entitled "What we have to learn in the
East" at tonight’s
meeting of the
American Ethnological Society. A longtime resident of Syria, who traveled
extensively in throughout the Middle East, Dr. Thomson reported on “the
importance of extensive investigations among the innumerable mounds” found in
the area. Examination of similar mounds has provided information about
early inhabitants including the Hebrews, Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans.
[Ed. Note – What the doctor was describing are the innumerable “tels” that
would become the focal point of archaeological interest in modern day
Israel.]
1865: In
Whitechapel London Ignac and Cecilia Pick gave birth to Flora Pick who became
Flora Jacobs after marrying Montague Daniel Jacobs with whom she had had five
children – Albert, Ella, Gladys, Vera and Victor Jacobs.
1868(1st of
Shevat, 5628): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1870: The New York Times published an
editorial defending itself against charges by “a Jewish newspaper” that the
paper is paying too much attention to the “Reform party within the ancient
sect.” The editorial cites the creation of Temple Israel in Brooklyn as proof
of that there is a significant segment of the Jews that “are anxious to make
great and fundamental changes in their doctrines and faith.” The
editorial finished by saying that it would publish information about any sect
within Judaism that are based on “facts.” [Editor’s note: It is significant
that a leading metropolitan daily was publishing stories about Jewish culture
and religion that were generally informative at a time when the Jewish
population was a rather infinitesimal part of the general population.
1870: In
Chicago, Cecilie and Alexander Pam gave birth to Hugo Pam who earned his law
degree at the University of Michigan in 1892 who served as member of the
Superior court “for more than eighteen years” who served as Vice President of
the Zionist Organization of American and “headed the Platine Restoration Fund
in Chicago.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15367.html
1872: In Rossein,
Russia, David Mendel Deinard and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Samuel N.
Deinard, the hold of degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, De Pauw
University and Universit of Chicago who led Congregation Shaarei Tov in
Minneapolis and served as Head of the Semitic Department at the University of
Minnesota.
1872: The
United States confirmed M.A. Shaffenburg as U.S. Marshall for the Territory of
Colorado.
1873: In
Lithuania, David Menachem and Taube Leah gave birth Samuel Nathan Deinard who
became “a professor of Semitic languages and literature” at his alma mater the
University of Minnesota and the rabbi at Temple Israel the oldest synagogue in
the Twin Cities and who raised three children – Amos, Benedict and Miriam –
with his wife Rose.
http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/43/v43i06p213-221.pdf
1874: “The
second constitutional convention of the Independent Order of B’nai B’rith”
opened today in Chicago, Illinois at the Kingsbury Music Hall. Simon Wolf of
Washington, D.C. was elected President. During the afternoon session, a
massive gold medal was presented in memory of A.E. Frankland, the Memphis, TN,
Jew who worked to ameliorate the suffering in that city’s Yellow Fever
Epidemic.
1874:
Birthdate of San Francisco landscape artist Lionel Louis Edwards who passed
away in 1954.
https://earlycal.com/products/lionel-edwards-1874-1954-california-plein-air-canvas
1874: Reverend
Samuel Alman was installed today as the pastor of the Second Mission Baptist
Church. Before converting, Alman had been a member of the Stanton Street Jewish
Congregation
1877: In San
Francisco, “Eugene and Josefine Mandelbaum Arnstein” gave birth to Leo
Arnstein, the Yale educated Attorney, U.S. Army Lt. Col during WWI and civic
leader closely connected with Mayor La Guardia who was the husband of the
former Elsie Nathan with whom he had four children – William, Robert, Margaret
and Elizabeth.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1944/08/15/87463870.pdf
1879(1st
of Shevat, 5639): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1879(1st
of Shevat, 5639): In Berlin, Harry and Caroline Bresslau gave birth to Hélène
Mariane Schweitzer
1879: In New
York City, “Julius Sachs, an educator” and “Rosa Goldman, the daughter of
Goldman Sachs’s founder Marcus Goldman gave birth to Harvard undergraduate and
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine trained neurosurgeon Ernest Sachs, the husband
of playwright and poet Mary Parmly Koues with he had two son and one daughter.
https://www.societyns.org/society/bio.aspx?MemberID=7660
1879: The
Pioneers, a St. Louis literary club for Jewish women, meet for the first time
today.
1880: In New
York City Bertha Nelson and Joseph Jacobstein gave birth to Columbia University
graduate Meyer Jacobstein, the husband of Lena Lipsky who taught economics at
the University of North Dakota and the University of Rochester before serving
as member of the House of Representatives for three terms.
http://www.irwincollier.com/columbia-economics-phd-alumnus-meyer-jacobstein-1907/
https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/15741
1881:
Birthdate of Emil Cohn the native of Breslau who gained fame as journalist and
author Emil Ludwig who specialized in writing biographies and who re-identified
as a Jew when Walther Rathenau was murdered in 1922.
1882: In
Baltimore, MD, Emma Leerburger and Henry Guggenheimer gave birth to attorney
and John Hopkins graduate Frederick L. Guggenheimer, the husband of Rose M.
Blatner who practiced law in New York while serving as the Executive Secretary
of the Free Synagogue, Chairman of the Board of Synagogue and School Extension
of the Union of American Hebrew Congregation and on the board of the Society of
Welfare of Jewish Deaf.
1882 (5th of
Shevat): Bilu was founded at Kharkov.
1882: The
Hearts of Oak Company featuring David Belasco as “Mr. Ellingham” performed for
the last time at Leubrie’s Theatre in St. Paul, MN.
1883:
Birthdate of Kaharkov, Russia native and University of St. Petersburg graduate
Dr. Naum Jasny, “the agricultural economist and statistician who was a
specialist in the study of the Soviet Economy.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jasny-naum#google_vignette
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/jasny-naum
1885: Five
days after he had passed away at Frankfurt, fifty-one-year-old Abraham
Seligman, the husband of Elenore Seligman with whom he had had five children
was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1885: Herman
Ahlwardt wrote a letter today in he said, "Antisemitism is illogical; I
have always condemned it and shall continue to condemn religious intolerance
until my last breath." (Ahlwardt would change his views when he failed to
find political success among the Conservatives and become notorious
anti-Semitic pamphleteer, agitator and member of the Reichstag.
1885: In
Odessa, Julius and Henrietta (Katz) Melkiner gave birth to Columbia trained
attorney Aaron Melniker, the resident of Bayonne, NJ, combat veteran of the
A.E.F and Republican Party Leader who was the husband of Gladys Witt.
1886: In
Schoneberg, Germany German archaeologist, teacher, art historian and museum
director Johann Michael Adolf Furtwängle and painter Adelheid Wendt gave birth
to composer Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler who spoke out
against anti-Semitism and the Nazi regime but who for some unexplainable reason
escaped punishment and was allowed to continue his career throughout World War
II.
1886(19th
of Shevat, 5646): Ninety–one year old Elias Mayer, the French born husband of
Abby Mayer with whom he had 13 children passed away today in Philadelphia.
1887:
Birthdate of Chicago native and producer whose Broadway productions included
“The Glass Menagerie,” and “Three Men on a Horse.”
1887: Karl
Low, the Czech born son of Helene and Daniel Low and his wife gave birth to
Rosa Low gave birth to Berta Zucker, the wife of Leopold Zucker.
1887:
Birthdate of Berl Katznelson the Russian native who “was one the intellectual
founders of Labor Zionism, instrumental to the establishment of the modern
State of Israel, and the editor of Davar, the first daily newspaper of
the workers' movement.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/katznelson.html
1888:
Birthdate of Philadelphia native and Cambridge educated American-Jewish
mathematician Louis Joel Mordell “known for his pioneering research in number
theory.”
1889: En route
from Russia, Louis A, and Katherine (Golman) Gitlow gave birth to Columbia
trained physician and biochemist Samuel Gitlow, the husband of Judith Leonora
Rosenblum who among other things taught biochemistry at his alma mater, “worked
on alum baking powders in bread” and was the director of the laboratory at the
Bronx Hospital starting in 1926.
1890: In
Louisville, KY, “David and Frieda (Weiss) Mann gave birth to Louis Leopold
Mann, the holder of a BA and MA from the University of Cincinnati, a B.H.L.
from Hebrew Union College and Ph.D. from Yale University and the Rabbi of Sinai
Congregation in Chicago who was active in numerous cultural and educational
organizations including the National League of Woman Voters and the Jewish
Chautauqua Society and was the husband of Ruth Cohen with whom he had two
children – Mary Louise and Arthur Horace.
https://www.jta.org/1966/02/03/archive/dr-louis-mann-leading-reform-rabbi-dies-in-chicago-was-76
1890:
Birthdate of Latvia native Milton Kahn, who in 1904 came to Boston where he
earned a B.S. from M.I.T. and became a successful paper company executive while
rising to serve as the National Chairman of the Brandeis University Associates.
1891: Rabbi
Gustav Gustav Gottheil delivered an address entitled “An Earnest Word To
Christians” at Temple Emanu-El in New York.
1891: Based on
information that first appeared in the London Daily Telegraph it was
reported today that Baron Hirsch has donated £500,000 for education of
“indigent Jews” in various parts of Austria, including Lemberg and
Czernowitz. Although intended to provide education for Jewish children,
“the Hirsch school will...be open to Christian children” as well.
1891:
Birthdate of Lazarus Joseph, the native of the Lower East Side and grandson of
Rabbi Jacob Joseph, who served as State Senator and New York City Comptroller.
1891: In
Berlin, Albert Mosse, the of Dr. Marcus Mosse and Ulrike Mosse and Caroline
(Lina) Mosse gave birth to Eric Peter Mosse
1892:
Birthdate of Romanian native and NYU trained physician Dr. George Ornstein, the
former director of medicine at Sea View Hospital where he “directed a research
program on the new anti-tuberculosis drugs and former “former professor of
medicine at New York Medical College and Columbia’s Post-Graduate School of
Medicine” who was the husband of “the former Claire Rosenstein” with whom he
raised two children, Betty Ann and George, Jr.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1963/10/11/89968448.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1892: It was
reported today that the delegates from the Hebrew Trades Union would join with
others in calling for all labor organizations in the United States “to send
delegates to an international labor congress” scheduled “to be held in Chicago
in 1893.”
1893: In
Arras (Pas-de-Calais) Protestant mining engineer Paul-Louis Weiss and Jeanne
Javal a member of an Alsatian Jewish family gave birth to “Louise Weiss was an
influential voice in French and international affairs from the 1920s until her
death in 1983.”
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/weiss-louise
1894: Isaac
Bergman, a 30-year-old homeless tailor was arrested and imprisoned after he
attempted to commit suicide today at the offices of the United Hebrew Charities
because he had been told “that there was no work” available for tailors.
1894: In
Safed, Zeev Wolf Heller and Tziporah Feiga Heller gave birth to Rabbi Avraham
Zeida Heller, the husband of Frieda Heller
1895: The
Young Ladies and Gentlemen's League of the Montefiore Home hosted a ball at the
Carnegie Music Hall to raise funds for the Montefiore Home for Chronic
Invalids.
1895: The
Monte Relief Society, a charitable and social organization founded by a small
group of Jewish women under the leadership of Mrs. Sofia Monte-Loebinger two
years ago, is scheduled to host a party at the Terrace Garden designed to raise
funds to relieve “distress among the Hebrew poor.”
1895:
Birthdate of Worcester native and Harvard trained attorney Wilfred Beeber Feiga
who served as an officer for the Jewish Home for Aged and Orphans.
1896: In New
York City, Hyman and Lena Wallerstein gave birth to actress Rose Wallerstein
who began performing at the age of 5 whose most famous film was “The Cantor’s
Son.” (Some sources show her birthdate at January 24)
1896: A
sub-committee of Board of Alderman in New York met today to discuss whether or
not to accept a fountain dedicated to the memory of Heinrich Heine.
1897:
Birthdate of Chicago native Fannie Adelman who became Fannie Abbell after she
married Maxwell Abbell and who was the moterh of Nahami and Sammy Abbell.
1897: Aloe
Alfred began his military today as a Private in the United States Army.
1897: Starting
today and lasting for the rest of the week Civil Service examinations were
administered in New York for the position of Court Interpreter. Hebrew
was one of the six languages in which applicants could be tested. (The test for
Hebrew would seem to have been a misguided attempt to cope with the large surge
of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. In reality, most of these
immigrants spoke Yiddish, not Hebrew.)
1898:
Birthdate of Polish native Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski, the Chicago mobster
whose moniker of Earl “Hymie’ Weiss led people to think that this Catholic
whose burial site is topped by a large cross was Jewish.
https://www.law.gwu.edu/frank-h-marks-intellectual-property-fellowship
1898:
Cleveland, Ohio, liquor dealer Saul Jacobs was convicted of larceny in the
first degree for his part in a scheme to swindle Max Bernstein.
1898: It was
reported today that troops were called out to help the police respond to
anti-Jewish riots in St. Malo. (This was part of the on-going anti-Dreyfus
violence sweeping France)
1898: It was
reported today that in Algiers, “the Governor General narrowly escaped a chair
which was thrown at him” as he tried to disperse anti-Jewish mobs. The
mob now included “a number of natives” whose only interest was looting and
pillaging.
1898: At least
one hundred people went on trial today for their part in the anti-Jewish riots
in Algiers, the capital of Algeria which was a French colony. “Eighty of the
rioters were condemned to terms of imprisonment varying from three months to
year…One who was caught in the act of pillaging was sentenced to five years in
prison.”
1899(14th
of Shevat, 5659): Eighty-seven-year-old Adolphe d'Ennery the French dramatist
who converted some of his plays into successful novels passed away today in
Paris.
1899:
Birthdate of Worcester native Carl Pack, the Brooklyn Law School trained
attorney and the Bronx Democratic State Senator from the 22nd
District who was “vice president of Temple Beth Elhoim and the husband of “the
former Henrietta Langbert” with whom he had two children.
1899:
Birthdate of Goodman Ace. Born Goodman Aiskowitz, Kansas City, Missouri, he was
a writer and comedian who created Easy Aces. The scripts for this long-running
radio hit would be the source for television shows in the 1970’s. He also
created “You Are There,” the pseudo-news show that helped to launch the career
of Walter Cronkite.
1900:
Twenty-two-year-old Etta Amolsky, the Lulling, TX born daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
Isaac Amolsky became Etta Schtazkey today when she married Albert Schatzkey
with whom he she lived in Houston TX before moving to Jefferson City, MO where
she spent the last 15 years of her life.
1900(24th
of Shevat, 5660): Seventy-year-old Piedmont native, patriot and financer
Senator Isaac Artom who took part in the battles of Curtatone and Montanara and
served as secretary to Italian leader Count Camillo Cavour, passed away today
in Rome.
1900: Rabbi
Nison Yablonsky, the Stavisky, Poland born son of Ezriel and Annie Dvorah
Yablonsky who came to the United States in 1922 where he became “Professor of
Talmud and Codes at the Hebrew Theological Seminary of Chicago” married Celia
Klebansky today in Kovno.
1901(5th
of Shevat, 5661): Seventy-two-year-old Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild the
son of Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild of Naples and the husband of Mathilde
Hannah von Rothschild, the second oldest daughter of Anselm von Rothschild, a
chief of the Vienna House of Rothschilds passed away today in Frankfurt where
he was head of the Frankfurt House of Rothschild.
1901(5th
of Shevat, 5661): Sixty-eight-year-old
violinist Simon Hassler, the Bavarian born son
of musician Henry Hessler, who 1842 came to the United States where he
performed with an orchestra his father established in Philadelphia before going
to lead orchestras at the Walnut Street Theater and the Chestnut
Street before being to chosen to direct t the Walnut Street Theater in the same
city, and subsequently of the Chestnut Street Theater and of the Chestnut
Street Opera-House before being chosen to direct the orchestra at the
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, passed away today.
http://famousamericans.net/simonhassler/
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7323-hassler-simon
1902: Birthdate
of Jersey City, NJ native and Brooklyn Law School of St. Lawence gradate Edwin
J. Lukas, “a director of national affairs for the American Jewish Committee and
an early exponent of the involvement of Jews …”
1902: Herzl
proposes to Franz Oppenheimer the creation of a model cooperative colony in El
Arish.
1903: The
Eighth Annual Convention of the Progressive Order of the West opened today in
St. Louis, MO.
1903: Today,
in Ashtabula, OH, Hamilton, Canada native David Loeb was married to “a charming
woman, well known in Ashtabula and Cleveland for her untiring activities in
behalf of charities” and with whom he had one son and two daughters.
1904: Herzl
met Pope Pius X and tried to convince him to support the vision of Zionism
without any success. The pope totally rejected the idea that Jerusalem would be
in Jewish hands. (The papacy still clings to this notion.) Herzl is
received by Pope Pius X, who declares, he cannot support the return of the
infidel Jews to the Holy Land. ("If you come to Palestine and settle your
people there, we want to have churches and priests ready to baptize all of
you.")
1904:
Birthdate of Morris Ploscowe, the native of Libachin, Russia, who came to the
United States in 1907 after which he earned a law degree from Harvard and
pursued a career that included serving as executive director of the American
Bar Association Commission on Organized Crime and an “active member of the
American Jewish Community.”
1905: “To
Teach Jews to Farm” published today described plans by The Jewish Argicultural
Society which is supported by the Barron Hirsch Fund to erect model buildings
on the recently purchased Jeffery Smith farm near Kings Park, L.I. which will
be “used to give practical instructions to Hebrews in farming” which will help
“lead” the Jews from such crowded areas as the East Side and Brownsville.
1906: Jews in
the United States were absorbing reports coming from Bucharest through Berlin
that “massacres of Jews have taken place in Kishinev and various parts of
Bessarabia” for which “details are lacking.”
1907: Eduard
Bernstein, a leading German social democrat whose “Jewish parents, who were
active in the Reform Temple on the Johannistrasse where services were performed
on Sunday” competed his first terms of service as a “Member of the Imperial
Reichstag from Silesia.”
1908: “Because
of imitators, Houdini put his "handcuff act" behind him” today, and
“began escaping from a locked, water-filled milk can.”
1909(3rd
of Shevat, 5669): Idudowitz Schore-Riewe drowned today.
1909: In Sioux
City, IA, Kate Sandwina and her husband gave birth to heavyweight boxer
Theodore “Teddy” Sandwina.
1909: German
composer Richard Strauss' opera “Elektra” receives its debut performance at the
Dresden State Opera. Strauss was born in 1864 and passed away in 1949 which
means that his last years as an active composer coincided with the rise and
fall of Hitler and the Nazis. Many have been critical of his close
association with the Third Reich. His defenders claim that Strauss’
behavior was determined by his need to protect his son and daughter-in-law who
was Jewish, In fact, the couple was arrested in Vienna during the war and it
took all of Strauss’ best efforts to save them.
1910(15th
of Shevat, 5670): Tu B’Shevat
1910: In New
York, Dora Mandel and attorney Maurice Felt gave birth to Wharton graduate
Irving Mitchell Felt, who was best known for leading the drive to build “a new
Madison Square Garden.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/24/obituaries/irving-m-felt-84-sports-impresario-is-dead.html
1910(15th
of Shevat, 5670): Sixty-seven-year-old Sarah Lazarus, the daughter of Moses and
Esther Lazarus passed away today in New York City.
1911:
Birthdate of Vienna native Fritz Berger who gained fame as “dancer, educator
and author Fred Berker who in 1941 came to the United States where among other
things he formed the Fred Berk Repertory Dance Company and oversaw the Jewish
Dance Division of the 92nd Street Y.
1912: The
Savannah Section withdraws from the Council of Jewish Women.
1912: At the
Louis XIV Room in the Claypool Hotel, Rabbi Morris Feuerlicht officiated at the
marriage of Fannie Rose Traugott and David Lurvey who plan to honeymoon in New
York City.
1913: It was
reported today that, “in a dispatch from Jerusalem” The London Daily has said
“that the Palestine Exploration Fund workers, Mckenzie and McAllister have
unearthed Bethe Sehmesh” the town mentioned in the Sixth Chapter of the First
Book of Samuel “in the ruins thirty miles from Jerusalem.
1913(17th
of Shevat, 5673): Parashat Yitro
1913(17th
of Shevat, 5673): Wilhelm Bacher, a Hungarian rabbi and scholar passed away in
Budapest. Born in 1850, he was “a major contributor” to the “Jewish
Encyclopedia” as well as close friend of many Jewish intellectuals notably
Chaim Nachman Bialik
1913:
Birthdate of Chicago native Armand Deutsch, the son Adele Deutsch Levy, the
grandson of Sears CEO Julius Rosenwald and the stepson of Dr. David M. Levy
whose friendship with the Reagans led to
his appointment as a member of the “Presidential Task Force on the Arts and
Humanities.”
1913: “Yiddish
star Boris Thomashefsky and his all-star company” are scheduled give two
performances one of which will be a matinee of the new play “Breach of Promise”
at the Haymarket Theatre.
1913: In
Camden, NJ, J.F. Kantor, the head of the of Young Men’s Hebrew Association
presided over a meeting attended by more than a thousand at the Broadway
Theatre where he delivered a speech designed to impress the audience with ‘the
importance and necessity of a Jewish communal building.”
1913:
Birthdate of Harlem native Moe Frankel who played basketball for the Harlem
Hebrew Institute, DeWitt Clinton High School and New York University before
playing professional for ABL teams from 1936 through 1947.
http://probasketballencyclopedia.com/coach/moe-frankel/
1914: “More
than a thousand persons crowded into the Broadway Theatre” in Camden, NJ, this
afternoon and heard Isaac Hassler of Philadelphia tell them of the importance
of constructing the “Jewish communal building” which was being championed by
the Young Men’s Hebrew Association of Camden.
1915: A list
of contributors to the Hebrew Free Loan Society provide President Julius J.
Dukas published today included Jacob Schiff, $1,000; Mortimer L. Schiff,
$1,000; Felix M. Warburg, $1,500; Adolph Lewisohn, $500 and Maxwell Guggenheim
$100.
1915: Al
McCoy, the son of a kosher butcher, defeated the talented Joe Borrell by the
decision of newspapers in a six-round bout in Philadelphia.
1915: “Fulton
Brylawski, of counsel of Leo M. Frank, under sentence of death for murder in
Atlanta, today moved in the Supreme Court of the United States for the
advancement of argument in Frank’s appeal for a writ of habeas corpus.”
1915: In New
York City, Samuel L. Lubell, the founder of Bell Oil and Gas Company and Lubell
Brothers, shirt manufacturers gave birth to American art deal Grace Lubell,
whose three husbands included Jack Borgenicht, Norman Sachs, Jr. and Warren
Brandt.
https://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/21/arts/grace-borgenicht-brandt-86-new-york-art-dealer-dies.html
1915: The
trial of Dan H. Leon, the southern representative of the W.J. Burns Detective
Agency, C.C. Tedder and Arthur Thurman who have been indicted for subordination
of perjury that resulted in false testimony being given in the case of Leo
Franks is scheduled to begin in Atlanta, GA.
1916: “The
various committees having a hand in the collections of money for the relief of
the Jews perfected arrangements” today for the upcoming “observance of he days
especially set apart by the Presidential Proclamation when all may assist Jews
in distress in war-stricken countries”
1916: Mayor
Mitchel did not last night attend last night’s meeting of the American Jewish
Congress but was reported today to have a sent a message of regret “in which he
said: ‘The Christian peoples of Europe and America ought to be as one in
demanding for Jews equality for the law, no more, no less.”
1916: In
Boston, Massachusetts Governor McCall issued a proclamation “asking the people
of the State to contribute on January 27 to the aid of Jews stricken by the
European war in accordance with the recent proclamation by President Wilson?
1917: As
Americans debate the wisdom of entering the war (with all that will come to
mean for the Jewish people) conflicting reports were published today about the
deportation of Belgian civilians by the Germans who have been occupying the
country since 1914.
1918: As the
day turns into evening and Jews begin to observe Shabbat Bo, ‘in synagogue
throughout” the United States” rabbis are scheduled to “devote their sermons to
the impending re-establishment of the Jewish State in Palestine to donate the
offering to the Palestine Restoration Fund, the first one million dollars of
which is now being raised in the United States.
1918:
Birthdate of Ensley, AL, Tulane alum and Stanford trained attorney Abe Louis
Shugerman, who taught at Duke, Western Reserve and the University of Miami.
https://archives.lib.duke.edu/catalog/uahoover_aspace_ref368_22r
1918: In New
London, Annie Rifkin and Barnett Lubow gave birth to Sylvia Lubow who became
Sylvia Lubow Rindskopf when she married future Admiral and decorated war hero
Maurice Rindskopf.
1918: Vilmos
Vázsonyi, the Hungarian leader who fought to gain “official recognition for the
Jewish religion” began serving his second term as Minister of Justice.
1918: In
Bendery, Bessarabia, the municipality intervened “in favor Jewish students
enrolled by the heads of local Railway Institute where refused admittance by
the other students.
1918: In
Warsaw, the Jewish Socialist Labor Party (Paole-Zion) held its fifth conference
adopted “resolutions respecting Jewish municipal life.”
1919(24th
of Shevat, 5679): Parashat Yitro
1919: In New
York City, Myron Newman, a credit manager and Rose (née Parker) Newman gave
birth to NBC newsman Edwin Harold “Ed” Newman, the brother of reporter M.W.
Newman and the husband of Rigel Grell.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/business/media/16newman.html
1919: Awni
Abdul Hadi and Ahmad Qadri met with an unnamed Zionist representative at the
Hotel Meurice.
1919: The
League of Nations was founded. British control over Palestine would take
its legal form from a Mandate by the League of Nations. The failure of
the League to halt the aggression of Japan in China, Italy in Abyssinia and the
fascist in Spain is listed as one of the causes of World War II and therefore
the Shoah. The League failed as a peacekeeper, in part, because the
United States refused to join, a mistake it would not repeat at the end of WW
II when it joined the United Nations.
1920: In
Brooklyn, produce merchant Milton Mollen and Esther Mollen gave birth to Milton
Mollen, the WW II veteran and head of the Mollen Commission which investigated
charges of police corruption in the 1990’s.
1920:
“Asserting that the suspension of the Socialist Assemblymen is an attack on
liberty by political action which has been well prepared through the passage of
the Eighteenth Amendment, Rabbi Samuel Schulman, preaching at the Temple
Beth-El” this “morning on ‘The Dangers to American Liberty,’ said that the
present tendency toward paternalism in Government is on which the framers of
the Constitution could dream of as possible for free men.”
1921: In
Brooklyn, Lazarus and Jenny Cohen gave birth to Samuel Theodore Cohen, the
Father of the Neutron Bomb.
1922: A
committee chaired by Rabbi Louis Feinberg of Cincinnati, Ohio, will deliver a
report to Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) on the
acceptability of using unfermented grape juice for sacramental purposes.
1922: Temple
Beth El held its 10th Annual Ball at the Elmwood Music Hall in Buffalo, New
York.
1923: The New
York Times published “President Warren Harding’s letter to a Jewish Jubilee
Convention.
https://www.amazon.com/JUBILEE-Convention-Harding-Newspaper-January/dp/B06Y5WC77H
1924: The
Hebrew Standard Review of Israel reported that “the combined sports meeting
held at the Love Cove” on January 20th was a “success” which
established “the new spirit and ideal of Sydney’s Jewish youth…”
1925: The
former Hahambashi of Turkey, Rabbi Haim Nahoum was elected Chief Rabbi of
Cairo, Egypt.
1925:
Birthdate of John Livingston Weinberg, American banker and businessman.
1926:
“Tartuff” a film version of the French play photographed by Karl Freund with a
script by Carl Mayer was released in Germany today.
1926: “Jews,
Protestants and Roman Catholics” are scheduled to appear today “at a meeting in
the ooms of the Board of Education of New York City, to urge amendment of the
by-laws of the board to permit reading of the Ten Commandments every week in
public school” because the believe that “numerous crimes committed by youths is
due to ignorance of the Ten Commandments.”
1927(22nd
of Shevat, 5687): Forty-three-year-old, Dr. Julius Lawrence “Mortimer”
Mogulesko, a graduate of Columbia University School of Medicine and specialized
in the field of Bacteriology passed away today.
1927:
Birthdate of Yitzhak Hofi, the native of Tel Aviv who began his career as a
member of the Palmach, reached the rank of General in the IDF before serving as
the head of Mossad.
1927:
Birthdate of New York native and NYU graduate Jay Smolens Harrison, the music
editor of the New York Herald Tribune
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/13/archives/jay-s-harrison-47-music-editor-dead.html
1928:
Birthdate of Rabbi Sherwin Wine, founder the Birmingham Temple in suburban
Detroit in 1963. He also was the driving force behind the creation of the
Society for Humanistic Judaism in 1969. He died in auto accident at the
age of 79 in 2007.
1929: In
Chicago, Yetta Meisel and Dr. Harry A. Gussin gave birth to Vivian Roslyn
Gussin, the holder of a doctorate from Tulane University, the wife of Irving
Paley who gained fame as Vivian Gussin Paley, a pioneering teacher and widely
acclaimed author who emphasized the importance of storytelling in early
childhood development…” (As reported by Katherine Q. Seelye)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/01/education/vivian-paley-dead.html
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/aug/23/vivian-gussin-paley-obituary
1929: In
Surrey, England, Jessica Hay Aitken and Robert Faurisson gave birth to Robert
Faurisson who denies the suffering of Elie Weisel, the Diary of Anne Frank and
the reality of the Final Solution. (As reported by Adam Nossiter)
1930(25th
of Tevet, 5690): Parashat Shemot
1930:"We are
endeavoring to raise up a generation of God-fearing, law-abiding, idealistic
men and women who will be a credit to Judaism and faithful servants to
mankind," Ludwig Vogelstein of New York, chairman of the executive board
of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, declared as its guiding purpose
at the semi-annual meeting of the board today.”
1930: Pinky
Silverberg lost a non-title bout to the reigning NBA World Bantamweight
Champion in Havana, Cuba.
1931: In
Brooklyn, attorney and some-times Broadway producer Emil Katzka and his wife
gave birth to Gabriel Katzka whose production included the anti-war and very
humorous “Kelly’s Heroes” and the original version of “The Taking of Pelham One
Two Three.”
1931: Jewish
leaders are scheduled to meet “at the Hotel Astor to plan the first independent
campaign in America of the Jewish Agency for Plaestine”
1932: “Warburg
a Leader in Banking Reform” published today provided a detailed account of the
financier’s life and accomplishment including his criticism of “the present
orgies of unrestrained speculation” months before the Crash of 1929 and his
role as trustee of Tuskegee College, the “all black college” which was an
educational beacon of hope to African-Americans in the days of Segregation.
http://www.minnesotalegalhistoryproject.org/assets/Bechhoefer,%20Charles-MM.pdf
1932: Degrees
were awarded to 13 graduates at the first commencement exercises of Hebrew
University which was opened in 1925.
1933(27th
of Tevet, 5693): Seventy-one-year-old Samuel Edgard, the Liverpool born son of
Harriet and Walter Samuel and the husband of Ethel Julia Edgard passed away
today in London.
1934: In
Tarnow, Galicia, Israel Mendel Keller and his wife gave birth to Naphtali
Keller the short-lived author who wrote in Hebrew.
1935: “The
Palestine labor movement was endorsed today by 241 Reform rabbis of the Central
Conference of American Rabbis in a statement made public here by Rabbi Edward
L. Israel of Baltimore, chairman of a committee under whose auspices support
was solicited.”
1936(1st
of Shevat, 5696): Parashat Vaera and Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1936(1st
of Shevat, 5696): Sixty-five-year-old gynecologist Dr. George Gellhorn, the
husband suffragette and social reformer Edna Gehllhorn and the father of famed
correspondent Martha Gellhorn passed away today in St. Louis.
1936: “New
anti-Jewish rioting broke out today in Krakow, Wilno and Warsaw universities…”
1936: “A plan
to get as many Jews out of Germany as possible was outlined publicly” tonight
in St. Louis “by Sir Herbert Samuel, the first British High Commissioner for
Palestine and Felix M. Warburg, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb and Co.”
1936: Twenty-five-year-old
Ben Kramer, lead LIU to victory today over St. John’s.
1937: In
another attack on the economic well-being Jews, “the Reich University of
Agriculture issued a decree tonight enable it to revoke the licenses of horse
or cattle dealers who are to be ‘personally unfitted’ for their business.
1937: Today
Songwriter Howard Dietz married Tanis Guinness Montagu with whom he had one
daughter and who he divorced 14 years later.
1937: As of
today, “no evidence has been discovered of any incident or development to
account for the suspension” by the secret police of a majority of Jewish organizations in Germany including
“the Jewish League of World War Veterans, Jewish sport groups, Jewish cultural
groups and various occupational schools organized to help Jews prepare for
emigration.”
1938: Conde Nast, the published of Vogue,
“announced today that he had accepted the resignation of of Cecil Beaton,
British photographer and artist from the staff of the magazine” because he had
submitted a drawing for the February 1 issue that Nast said appeared to contain
“comments that were critical of the Jews race” and that he “was particularly
distressed that these slurring comments should have been printed in Vogue,
especially during these days of cruel, vicious and unreasoning persecution of
Jews.
1938: In
“Miami’s Anti-Semitic Jews” published today Robert Gessner describes a resort
where “eighty percent of all its hotels are owned and operated by Jews” and
where “it’s almost impossible for a Jewish boy to get a job.”
http://www.unz.org/Pub/NewMasses-1938jan25-00015?View=PDFPages
1939: “Roberto
Farinacci and Julius Streicher, the leading Jew-baiters, respectively, of Italy
and Germany, made speeches tonight in the Sportspalast” in Berlin on "the
Jewish problem."
1939: George
Rublee, the chairman of the Inter-governmental Committee on Refugees met with
Helmuth Wohlthat, “the specialist for Aryanization problems” to discuss “ways
and means for the evacuation of Jew from Germany.”
1939: Rabbi
J.K. Cohen the associate rabbi of the Free Synagogue was elected president of
the Board of the Jewish Ministers of Greater New York.
1939: Funeral
services are scheduled to be held this afternoon in the Gramercy Park Memorial
Chapel for Iassy, Rumania born, retired insurance executive Herman Speier who
came to the United States in 1904 and has served as executive secretary of the
United Rumanian Jews of America since 1923 while raising two sons and four
daughters.
1940:
Birthdate of Lt. Col. Avraham "Avi" Lanir one of the most
accomplished and bravest pilots in the IAF. On the first day of the Yom
Kippur War, Lanir joined with Colonel Oded Marom flew their Mirage jets to the
Golan where they engaged four MiGs, shooting down one a piece.
Tragically, Colonel Lanir would be shot down by the Syrians who tortured him to
death.
1940: The Nazi
decreed the establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland.
1941(26th
of Tevet, 5701): Parashat Vaera
1941: “The
Lady Esther Serenade,” “the first national radio program sponsored by Lady
Ester, the cosmetic company founded by Syma Cohen in 1913, was broadcast for
the last time today.
1941: Warsaw
diarist Chaim Kaplan wrote today “Will we be able to survive? This question is on everyone’s tongue.”
1942:
Birthdate of Holocaust survivor Danny Wilzig
1942:
Hungarian military units under the command of General Feketehalmi-Zeisler,
General Bajor-Bayer and Captain Zoldi completed “cleaning up the southern
region captured from the Yugoslavs” which included the murder of 1,500 Jews in
Novisad.
1943: Hans
Frank, the Governor-General of occupied Poland delivered a “speech on the need
to exterminate Poles.” (Eugene Davidson)
1944: Hans
Frank, governor-general of Occupied Poland, notes in his diary that
approximately 100,000 Jews remain in the region under his control, down by
3,400,000 from the end of 1941.
1945: U.S.
premiere of “The Thin Man Goes Home” with a story by Harry Kurnitz and Robert
Ruskin who also co-authored the screenplay.
1945: U.S.
premiere of “I Love A Mystery” directed by Henry Levin.
1945(11th
of Shevat, 5705): Eighty-five-year-old Bert H. Prinz, who came to the United
States in 1864 with is parents Abraham and Rose Wohlgemuth Prinz where he owned
several clothing stores the most successful of which was Printz Company Men’s
Clothing and Furnishing with headquarters in Youngstown Ohio, passed away
today.
1945: Today,
two separate recordings of Harold Arlen’s "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the
Positive" reached the Billboard magazine charts today.
1945: Labor
camp prisoners from Blechhammer began their five-day march to Bergen-Belsen
during which about 20% of them died.
1945: The
Nazis begin the evacuation of the Stutthof concentration camp. In yet another
Death March prisoners were sent westward in the middle of driving snow storm.
Many would die from freezing. Others were shot or thrown into the icy Baltic
Sea.
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” which had been meeting in
Washington, D.C. met for a third day in London.
1946: “My
Reputation” a love story directed by Curtis Bernhardt, co-produced by Jack L.
Warner and with music by Max Steiner was released in the United States today.
1946: “Whistle
Stop” a crime film directed by Léonide Moguy, with a script by Philip Yordan
was released in the United States today
1947: Today
“Tel Aviv was placed out of bounds to British offduty troops today as part of
precautions to meet expected new outbreaks on behalf of Dov Gruner, Irgun Zvai
Leumi member sentenced to be hanged for complicity in an attack on a police
station last April.”
1948: Mishmar,
a paper first published by Hashomer Hatzair in 1943, changed its named to Al
HaMishmar (On Guard) today.
1948: Rabbi
Joachim Prinz officiated at the wedding of Terese Grossman and Max Rogel which
took place in the Starlight Terrace Room of Essex House in Newark, NJ>
1948: In
Vancouver, British Columbia, Congregation Schara Tzedeck which had been founded
in 1907 as “Benei Yehuda” dedicated its new facility which had been completed
in September of 1947.
1949: Nathan
Yellin-Mor and Matityahu Shmuelevitch both of whom were members of Lehi were
found guilty of having been leaders of a terrorist organization today.
1949: On the
same day that he was found guilty Lehi leader Nathan Yellin-Mor, the founder of
the Fighters List, was elected to the first Knesset
1949:
Ben-Gurion's Mapai party was the top vote getter in Israel’s first election
after the creation of the Jewish state. However, the party only gained 35.7% of
the vote which translated into 46 seats in the Knesset leaving Ben-Gurion 15
seats short of the majority he would need in the parliament that has 120
seats. This would necessitate the formation of a coalition. This would
set the stage for a joining of strange bedfellows which some see as detrimental
to the long term stability of the Jewish state.
1951: Charles
Shulman, the Ohio of Northern University trained attorney who traded in his
shingle to become a Reform rabbi in 1927 and who was “the first Jewish
cha;oaind and the only rabbi among 225 chaplains in the Seventh Fleet in the
last year of WW II was honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy today
1951: “The
Enforcer” co-starring Zero Mostel premiered in New York City.
1952: “The
Sellout” with a story by Matthew Rapf who also co-produced the film was
released today in the United States.
1954: In
Jerusalem, Michaella and Yitzhak Grossman gave birth to Israeli author David
Grossman whose work included Her Body Knows, a collection of two
novellas.
1955: In
Paris, filmmaker Jacques Remy gave birth to rench film director, screenwriter
and film critic Olivier Assayas whose breakthrough film was “Cold Water.”
1956: The West
End production of “Plain and Fancy” a musical comedy with a book by Joseph
Stein opened at the Theatre Royal in London.
1958: In New
York City, actress, director, and writer, Lee Grant (née Lyova Rosenthal), and
screenwriter Arnold Manoff gave birth to actress Dinah Manoff
1959:
Pope John XXIII proclaims Second Vatican Council. This would lead to the
greatest improvement in relations between the Church and the Jewish People
since the days of Constantine.
1959:
Contributions of $132 were received by the annual appeal of the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund from
the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.
1960: Yitzhak
Rabin flew to IDF Southern Headquarters to ascertain the military situation as
Egyptian forces stood on the border with Israel. The crisis would pass
since neither side was prepared for war. But the crisis of 1960 did help
to set the stage for Israel’s response to Egypt’s next foray into the Sinai in
1967.
1960(25th
of Tevet, 5720): Seventy-four-year-old Hungarian born, and Rush Medical College
trained surgeon Max Thorek passed away today in Chicago.
https://www.bmj.com/content/1/5170/431.3
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/11/07/85131581.pdf
1960: David
Susskind produced, and Henry Kaplan directed two plays by August Strindberg –
“Miss Julie” and “The Stronger” – as part of the Play of the Week.
1961 (8th
of Shevat 5721): Bar Mitzvah of Yissachar Dov Rokeach. Born in 1948 he is
the fifth and present Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz. He has led Belz
since 1966.
1962: In
London, June Flewett and Sir Clement Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud gave
birth to UK broadcaster and social commentator Emma Vallency Freud.
1963: The
recording sessions that would eventually produce “The Barbra Streisand Album”
next month came to an end today.
1965: Sheldon
Cohen began serving as Commissioner of Internal Revenue.
1965(22nd
of Shevat, 5725): Ninety-one-year-old Frankfurt born economist Moritz Julius
Born, the descendant of a family started in the sixteenth century by Aaron
Jacob Bonn, who was distinguished academic as well as an advisor to the Weimar
government passed away today.
http://ieg-ego.eu/en/mediainfo/moritz-julius-bonn-187320131965
1966(4th
of Shevat, 5726): Seventy-seven-year-old Dr. Saul Adler, the expert on
parasites who translated Darwin’s The Origin of Species into Hebrew,
passed away today in Jerusalem.
http://english.israelphilately.org.il/articles/content/en/000462
http://www.boeliem.com/content/1994/492.html
1966(4th
of Shevat, 5726): Sixty-three-year-old University of California Professor of
Physiology Dr. Israel Lyon Chaikoff passed away today in Berkeley, CA.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9D01E7DC113CEF34BC4F51DFB766838D679EDE
1967: it was
reported today that the 41st Valentine’s Day dinner dance of the
Physicians Wives League of Greater New York will held at the Waldorf-Astoria
under the chairmanship of Mrs. Seymour Grossman.
1967: After
having premiered in the United Kingdom, “Prehistoric Women” co-starring Steven
Berkoff was released in the United States today.
1967: “The
Reluctant Astronaut,” a comedy written by Everett Greenbaum premiered in
Houston, TX today.
1968: Last
transmission is received from the Israeli submarine, Dakar
1969(6th
of Shevat, 5729): Parashat Bo
1969: Israel’s
Musicians’ Festival is scheduled to end in New York with a dinner-dance
sponsored by the American-Israel Culture Foundation.
1970:
Birthdate of Israeli high jumper Itay Margalit.
https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/israel/itay-margalit-8330
1971(28th
of Tevet, 5731): Sixty-six-year-old Cleveland native and Western Reserve
University alum Julia Stuhlberg Klineman, the wife of Emory Klineman, the
retired chairman of Majestic Specialists and mother of Robert and William
Klineman who “was an officer of the National Council of Jewish Women and the
American Jewish Committee” suffered a fatal heart attack in St. Lucia.
https://www.nytimes.com/1971/01/27/archives/mrs-emory-klineman.html?searchResultPosition=1
1971: Idi Amin
led a coup deposing Milton Obote and became Uganda's president. In his younger
days, Amin was favorably disposed towards the Israelis who trained him as a
paratrooper. However, in 1976, he would prove himself to be a strong
supporter of the PLO as he gave refuge to the terrorists who landed their high
jacked aircraft at Entebbe.
1974: “KGB
stopped Moscow UPI correspondent G.P. Joseloff on a Moscow street after his
interview with a group of Jewish activists and seized written replies to
questions he posed to them. “
1975:
Birthdate of Canadian actress Mia Kirshner, granddaughter of Holocaust
survivors and the daughter of a Canadian Jewish journalist.
1975(13th
of Shevat, 5735): Parashat Beshalach
1975(13th
of Shevat, 5735): Eighty-year old Dr. Aaron Solomon, the husband of Ruth
Solomon with whom he raised two daughters and a son and who was “a specialist
in internal medicine and cardiology passed away today at his Fifth Avenue home.
1976(23rd
of Shevat, 5736): Eighty-four-year-old German-born English historian Victor
Ehrenberg, the brother of Hans Ehrenberg and the nephew of Victor Ehrenberg
passed away in London.
1977(6th
of Shevat, 5737): Eighty-five-year-old motion picture actor, agent and producer
Edward Small passed away today.
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9376685
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0806448/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
1978: As part
of its “Great Performances series,” PBS broadcast “Verna: USO Girl” co-starring
Howard Da Silva and featuring theme music by Jerome Kern and George Gershwin.
1978:
In Kryvyi Rih, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Oleksandr
Zelenskyy, a professor and computer scientist and the head of the Department of
Cybernetics and Computing Hardware at the Kryvyi Rih State University of
Economics and Technology and computer engineer Rymma Zelenska, gave birth to Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy a
Ukrainian politician and former comedian and actor and since 2019 the sixth and
current president of Ukraine whose grandfather, Semyon (Simon) Ivanovych
Zelenskyy, served as an infantryman, reaching the rank of colonel in the Red
Army (in the 57th Guards Motor Rifle Division) during World War II and whose
great-grandfather and other family members were killed during the Holocaust.
1978: Thirty-three-year-old
David Pleat began managing Luton Town.
1981: In New
Orleans, LA, Al Davis’ Oakland Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in
Super Bowl XV.
1981: In
“Words of a Fallen Soldier,” Hillel Halkin reviewed Self-Portrait of a Hero:
The Letters of Jonathan Netanyahu (1963-1976).
1983: Nazi war
criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
1985: Release
date for “The Falco and the Snowman” directed by John Schlesinger, the product
of a middle-class Anglo-Jewish family.
1986(15th
of Shevat, 5746): Parashat Beshalach and Tu B’Shevat
1986(15th
of Shevat, 5756): The curtain came down on the fifty-year acting career of
Lilli Palmer who passed away today at the age of 71.
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/palmer-lilli
1987: Neil
Diamond sang the national anthem at Super Bowl XXI.
1987: Seventy-four-year-old
composer and conductor Henry Krips whose “father was a Jewish convert to
Catholicism” which made him Jewish under Nazi racial laws and thus gave him
reason to flee his native Austria after the Anschluss, passed away in Australia
his haven from the Holocaust.
1987: It was
announced today that Allison Pines, the daughter of Isidore Pines, the
“president of National Foods, Inc.” a company whose divisions include Hebrew
National Kosher Foods” which “was founded by the late Isidore Pinckowitz,
great-grandfather of the future bride” is engaged to second year med school
student Kenneth Klein, the son of Dr. and Mrs. Alan Klein of Chicago.
1988: As the
latest round of Arab terrorism escalates, Yehuda Genyan, a tailor, seems to be
expressing the frustration of many Israelis when he said today of the
terrorists, “They walk around here like kings, but a Jew goes to pray at the
wall and he gets stabbed.'' In the wake of international criticism over
Israel’s response to Palestine protesters, Prime Minister Shamir seems to
echoing Genyan when he states, ''We are not allowed to kill, we are not allowed
to expel, we are not allowed to beat,'' Prime Minister Shamir said. What are
Jews allowed to do - Only to be killed, only to be wounded, only to be
defeated.''
1991(10th
of Shevat, 5751): Seventy-two-year-old David Hirsh Panitz the rabbi emeritus at
Temple Emanuel in Paterson who had previously served as rabbi at Adas Israel in
Washington, DC where, among other things he officiated at the Shabbat morning
service where Avraham Elimelch ben Yosef Dov was called to the Torah as a Bar
Mitzvah passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/27/obituaries/rabbi-david-h-panitz-educator-is-dead-at-72.html
1992: Singer
Ofra Haza and the Amka Oshrat Yeminite Dance Troupe appear in concert as part
of “Israel: The Next Generation.”
1993: Robert
Rubin began serving as the 1st Director of the National Economic
Council under President Clinton.
1993: The
New York Times reported that a United States Senator from Hawaii, the
Brooklyn-born chief rabbi of an Israeli West Bank community, and an
organization of disabled Israeli war veterans will receive the 10th annual
Defender of Jerusalem Awards. The $100,000 prize that will be divided among the
recipients will be presented by the Jabotinsky Foundation Thursday at the Plaza
Hotel. The foundation is named for Vladimir Jabotinsky, a Zionist, philosopher
and mentor of many Israeli leaders. Being honored this year are Senator Daniel
K. Inouye, Democrat of Hawaii, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, founder of the settlement
of Efrat on the West Bank, where he is described as a peace-keeper and
arbitrator between Jews and Palestinians, and the Zahal Disabled Veterans Organization,
which operates two sports, rehabilitation and social centers in Tel Aviv and
Haifa and is building a facility in Jerusalem. The purpose of the prize, said
Eryk Spektor, founder and chairman of the Jabotinsky Foundation, "is to
honor people who have stood up in the defense of Jewish rights."
1995: “The
Usual Suspects” a dark crime movie directed by Bryan Singer and filmed by
cinematographer Newton Thomas Sigel premiered at Sundance today.
1998: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
interest to Jewish readers including Hitler’s Banker: Hjalmar Horace Greeley
Schacht by John Weitz and Shadows on the Hudson by Isaac Bashevis
Singer; translated by Joseph Sherman.
1999: Yitzhak
Mordechai completed his service as Minister of Defense
2000: U.S.
premiere of “The Songcatcher” a fascinating movie about the Hill people of
North Carolina and their music co-starring Emmy Rossum as “Deladis Slocumb.”
2001: Israel's
state-owned power utility said today that it planned to buy more than half of
its $3 billion supply of natural gas over the next decade from Egypt, after
receiving an offer that was 20 to 30 percent lower than domestic prices.
2001: In
Toronto, the Al Waxman Fan Club, which had over a thousand members, held a wake
for their hero complete with “a New Orleans-style funeral march including a
jazz band.
2001: After a
48-hour hiatus, Israelis and Palestinians resumed their peace talks today still
hoping for a diplomatic breakthrough, though increasingly dubious about a
full-fledged agreement before the Feb. 6 election in Israel.
2002: A
Palestinian suicide bomber wounded more than two dozen people when he blew
himself up today in a pedestrian mall in a Tel Aviv neighborhood of populated
largely by immigrant workers.
2002: In
response to today’s terrorist attack in Tel Aviv, “an Israeli F-16 attacked the
Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza located near Yasser Arafat's
compound.”
2003: On the
first day of his trial, an Israeli Arab student denied that he had tried to
hijack an El Al jetliner and force it to slam into a skyscraper in Tel Aviv.
Tawfiq Foqara, 23, told the court that during the November 17 flight from Tel
Aviv to Istanbul he had a dispute with a flight attendant who yelled at him.
2003: The
Guardian published an article entitled “Solzhenitsyn breaks last taboo of
the revolution; Nobel laureate under fire for new book on the role of Jews in
Soviet-era,” in which Nick Paton reviews Two Hundred Years Together by
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jan/25/russia.books
[Ed.
Note: The article is reproduced in its entirety to provide a sense of what one
of the most acclaimed writers of the 20th century had to say about
Jews. He seemed to comprehend the fact that Communists like Trotsky had
rejected Judaism and to remind us that for Jews, Russia is a good place “to be
from” regardless of who is in charge]
“Alexander
Solzhenitsyn, who first exposed the horrors of the Stalinist gulag, is now
attempting to tackle one of the most sensitive topics of his writing career -
the role of the Jews in the Bolshevik revolution and Soviet purges. In his
latest book Solzhenitsyn, 84, deals with one of the last taboos of the
communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the repression as
its victims. Two Hundred Years Together -a reference to the 1772 partial
annexation of Poland and Russia which greatly increased the Russian Jewish
population - contains three chapters discussing the Jewish role in the
revolutionary genocide and secret police purges of Soviet Russia. But Jewish
leaders and some historians have reacted furiously to the book, and questioned
Solzhenitsyn's motives in writing it, accusing him of factual inaccuracies and
of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism in Russia. Solzhenitsyn argues that some
Jewish satire of the revolutionary period” consciously or unconsciously
descends on the Russians" as being behind the genocide. But he states that
all the nation's ethnic groups must share the blame, and that people shy away
from speaking the truth about the Jewish experience. In one remark which
infuriated Russian Jews, he wrote: "If I would care to generalize, and to
say that the life of the Jews in the camps was especially hard, I could, and
would not face reproach for an unjust national generalization. But in the camps
where I was kept, it was different. The Jews whose experience I saw - their
life was softer than that of others.” Yet he added: "But it is impossible
to find the answer to the eternal question: who is to be blamed, who led us to
our death? To explain the actions of the Kiev cheka [secret police] only by the
fact that two thirds were Jews, is certainly incorrect.” Solzhenitsyn, awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, spent much of his life in Soviet prison
camps, enduring persecution when he wrote about is experiences. He is currently
in frail health, but in an interview given last month he said that Russia must
come to terms with the Stalinist and evolutionary genocides - and that its
Jewish population should be as offended at their own role in the purges as they
are at the Soviet power that also persecuted them.” My book was directed to
empathize with the thoughts, feelings and the psychology of the Jews - their
spiritual component," he said. "I have never made general conclusions
about a people. I will always differentiate between layers of Jews. One layer
rushed headfirst to the revolution. Another, to the contrary, was trying to
stand back. The Jewish subject for a long time was considered prohibited.
Zhabotinsky [a Jewish writer] once said that the best service our Russian
friends give to us is never to speak aloud about us.” But Solzhenitsyn's book
has caused controversy in Russia, where one Jewish leader said it was "not
of any merit". "This is a mistake, but even geniuses make
mistakes," said Yevgeny Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish
Congress. "Richard Wagner did not like the Jews, but was a great composer.
Dostoyevsky was a great Russian writer but had a very skeptical attitude
towards the Jews. "This is not a book about how the Jews and Russians
lived together for 200 years, but one about how they lived apart after finding
themselves on the same territory. This book is a weak one professionally.
Factually, it is so bad as to be beyond criticism. As literature, it is not of
any merit." But DM Thomas, one of Solzhenitsyn's biographers, said that he
did not think the book was fuelled by anti-Semitism. "I would not doubt
his sincerity. He says that he firmly supports the state of Israel. In his
fiction and factual writing there are Jewish characters that he writes about
who are bright, decent, anti-Stalinist people." Professor Robert Service
of Oxford University, an expert on 20th century Russian history, said that from
what he had read about the book, Solzhenitsyn was "absolutely right”.
Researching a book on Lenin, Prof Service came across details of how Trotsky,
who was of Jewish origin, asked the politburo in 1919 to ensure that Jews were
enrolled in the Red army. Trotsky said that Jews were disproportionately
represented in the Soviet civil bureaucracy, including the cheka."Trotsky's idea was that the spread of anti-Semitism was [partly down to]
objections about their entrance into the civil service. There is something in
this; that they were not just passive spectators of the revolution. They were
part-victims and part-perpetrators.
"It is
not a question that anyone can write about without a huge amount of bravery,
and [it] needs doing in Russia because the Jews are quite often written about
by fanatics. Mr Solzhenitsyn's book seems much more measured than that."
Yet others failed to see the need for Solzhenitsyn's pursuit of this particular
subject at present. Vassili Berezhkov, a retired KGB colonel and historian of
the secret services and the NKVD (the precursor of the KGB), said: "The
question of ethnicity did not have any importance either in the revolution or
the story of the NKVD. This was a social revolution and those who served in the
NKVD and cheka were serving ideas of social change "If Solzhenitsyn writes
that there were many Jews in the NKVD, it will increase the passions of
anti-Semitism, which has deep roots in Russian history.”
2004: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Bubble of American
Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power by George Soros,
Rape: A Love Story by Joyce Carol Oates, Collect Poems by Paul
Auster and a newly released paperback edition of A Saint, More or Less
by Henry Grunwald.
2004: Today
Israel's high court suspended for 30 days the state's efforts to expel the
Palestinian father of an Israeli soldier, pending a hearing on granting him the
right to remain in Israel.
2004: Elyakim
Rubinstein completed his service as Israel’s Attorney General.
2005(15th of
Shevat, 5765): Tu B'Shevat
2015: A year
after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival “Metallica” a documentary
co-directed and co-produced by Bruce Sniofsky was re-released in the United
States.
2005: As plans
are made for a Broadway revival of Neil Simon’s “Sweet Charity” today, “the
show went into production at the Historic Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis.”
2005: In the
U.S. of Representatives Congressman Pete Session rose today “to pay tribute to
Mr. Joel David Brooks” who is retiring as the Executive Director of the
Southwest Region for the American Jewish Congress after forty years of service.
2005: French
debut of “To Take a Wife” (VeLakahta Lekha Isha) co-directed by Ronit
and Shlomi Elkabetz who also co-authored the script
2006:The Tenafly Jewish community has won a six-year
battle with local officials over the right to place symbolic plastic strips on
utility poles to create an enclosure that would allow them to perform certain
restricted activities on the Sabbath.
2007(6th of Shevat,
5767): Sydney Simon Shulemson, DFC, died today in Florida. Born in 1915, he
“was a Canadian fighter pilot, and Canada's highest decorated Jewish soldier,
during World War II .Growing up in Montreal, Shulemson attended McGill
University. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on September 10, 1939,
and graduated from flight school in 1942. He joined RCAF 404 Squadron in Wick
in Scotland, flying a Bristol Beaufighter. Shulemson downed a German flying
boat on his first sortie. He pioneered techniques for rocket attacks on Axis
ships in the North Atlantic. After the war, Shulemson located aircraft and
recruited pilots for Israel's growing Israeli Air Force.”
2007: In
Derby, UK, Holocaust Memorial Day Service
2007: Speaker
of the Knesset Dalia Itzik became acting President of Israel when President
Moshe Katzav took a three month long leave of absence.
2008: In Iowa
City the funeral is held for orthopedic surgeon Dr. Webster B. Gelman,
recipient of the 1985 University of Iowa Alumnae Association’s Distinguished
Alumni Award who passed away at the age of 89.
2008: First
Musical Shabbat Service at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
2008: Rami
Zuari, a 20-year-old Border Police officer killed during a terrorist attack at
an East Jerusalem checkpoint was buried in the military cemetery at Be’er
Sheva, his home town.
2008: In Great
Britain at Friday Prayers the community of Ahmadi Muslims in the UK say the
following prayer in commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day. "Sunday 27
January is Holocaust Memorial Day in UK. We pray that people learn to
recognize, accept and respect their differences. People of all races and faiths
are God’s people. May everyone accept this truth so that the world can look
forward to a peaceful future. May God enable people to remain close to their
Creator, follow His teachings of peace, and avoid repeating the mistakes of the
past. Amen.
2009: Politics
and Prose Bookstore hosts a reading from Words that Burn Within Me: Faith,
Values, Survival, a collection of notebooks by Hilda Stern Cohen containing
poetry and recollections of life in 1930s Germany, which was discovered by her
husband, Werner Cohen, after her death in 1997.
2009: Canadian
Sharon Fichman defeated her American opponent in a clay court match at Lutz,
Florida
2009: The 5th annual Brooklyn Israel Film Festival closes this
evening with a showing of “Children of the Sun,” written and directed by Ran
Tal and the winner of Israel's Academy Award for Best Documentary.
2009:
The New York Times includes reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including Benjamin Disraeli by Adam
Kirsch and Ballet’s Magic: Selected Writings on Dance in Russia, 1911-1925by Akim Volynsky; edited and translated by Stanley J. Rabinowitz. Akim
Volynsky was the pen name of Chaim Leib Flekser who was born in 1861 into an
Orthodox Jewish family of booksellers in Ukraine.
2009:
The New York Times reports that the kosher symbol, intended to show
consumers that the contents adhere to Jewish dietary laws, was mistakenly left
off 14 million boxes of Thin Mints, the variety that accounts for roughly 25
percent of Girl Scout cookie sales, said Raymond Baxter, president and chief
executive of Interbake Foods, the parent company of ABC Bakers of Richmond,
Va., one of two approved manufacturers of the cookies. Proofreaders missed the
mistake. But a customer noticed in November that the symbol — a circled U
accompanied by a D for dairy — was missing, said Brian Crawford, an executive
at the Scouts’ New York headquarters. (Some troops sell cookies in the fall,
though most sales are held January through March.) ABC Bakers quickly sent letters
explaining the oversight (and showing proof of kosher certification from the
Orthodox Union) to Scout councils. Rabbi Yisroel Bendelstein of the Orthodox
Union, who has fielded perhaps a half-dozen calls about the cookies, said he
hoped the letters would “obviate any concerns.” Thin Mints, the rabbi said, are
his favorite Girl Scout cookie.
2009
(29 Tevet 5769):Rabbi Leon Klenicki, a pioneer in interfaith
relations passed away today according to an announcement from the
Anti-Defamation League, where he served as director emeritus of interfaith
affairs. A leading figure in efforts to promote Jewish-Christian understanding,
Klenicki was made a Papal Knight by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 in recognition of
his historic contributions to improving relations between Catholics and Jews.
He worked for the ADL for 28 years before his retirement in 2001. Klenicki, a
renowned scholar and theologian, wrote numerous books and articles on
Catholic-Jewish issues. A native of Argentina, Klenicki was ordained at Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati and earned a
bachelor's degree from the University of Cincinnati. He was a member of an
Argentine government commission to investigate Nazi activities in Argentina
from 1933 to 1945.
2010: The 19th
annual New York Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to present the New York
premiere “Leap of Faith,” a documentary about the difficulties that four
families face when they abandons their traditions and embrace Judaism.
2010: The
Brooklyn Israel Film Festival is scheduled to close this evening with a
screening of the 2008 Israel Academy Award for Best Documentary, ‘Children of
the Sun.”
2010
(10th of Tevet): Yahrzeit of Rabbi Yoseph Yitzchok Schneersohn,
sixth Rebbe of the Chabad Lubavitch movement who was also known as the
Friediker Rebbe or "Previous Rebbe."
One
year later, to the day, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Rebbe assumed the
leadership position of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
2010:
At the Sundance Festival the first screening of “A Film Unfinished.”
2010:
The week after Miep Gies passed away, Elie Wiesel wrote the following about her
in Time magazine.
Miep Gies entered history without wanting to. She did what
many others were too afraid to do: she risked her freedom, her life, in her
determination to save Jews from deportation and death.From 1942 to '44, Gies,
who died Jan. 11 at 100, helped shelter and feed Anne Frank and her family in
an attic in Amsterdam, where at that time Jews were being branded, humiliated
and condemned just because they were Jews. Her life remains a moral example for
millions to follow. I met Gies much later and was impressed by her sincerity,
the simplicity of her comments and the moving quality of her smile. Calm, soft
and reserved, she radiated nobility and strength of character. She talked
little and quietly, reflecting on the significance of every word. When speaking
of the past, she seemed to relive it. Naturally, I knew much about her life.
Anne's immortal diary, which Gies found and gave to Otto Frank after the war,
was filled with praise for her devotion and sacrifice.I asked her where she had
found the courage to defy the Gestapo during the dark days of the occupation,
and she protested. "I did nothing heroic or extraordinary," she said.
"Human beings were in peril, and I had to care for them." But for the
Franks, she represented all that is good and generous. She was the incarnation
of hope.
2011:
The New York Premiere of Black Bus, which “tells story of two young
women who chose to leave their close-knit Haredi communities in Israel and are,
as a consequence, estranged from their families” is scheduled to take place at
The New York Jewish Film Festival.
2011:David Makovsky and Ghaith al-Omari with Jane Eisner are
scheduled to lead a discussion entitled “Israelis and Palestinians: Poised
Between Crisis and Opportunity” at the 92nd Street Y.
2011:To mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2011, the Wiener Library is
scheduled to hold a special lecture by Prof Clare Ungerson on The Kitchener
Camp, a largely forgotten camp established in 1939 for 4000 male Jewish
refugees situated near Sandwich in East Kent.
2011:
Police Commissioner David Cohen said today that he was concerned by the
possibility of ideology-based murders against public officials in Israel.
2011:
The international department of the prosecution services failed to obtain the
extradition from Peru of former judge Dan Cohen, wanted in Israel on charges of
bribery, fraud, breach of trust and obstruction of justice, the government
informed the department today.
2011:
After a preliminary hearing today determined that the issue should be handled
in the courts, the Jerusalem Labor Court will be deciding over the next few
months whether rabbinic ordination should be recognized as equivalent to a
bachelor’s degree, vis-à-vis the Civil Service Commission’s prerequisites for
the position of a supervisor in the haredi educational system.
2011:
Nominations for the 83rd annual Academy Awards, announced this morning, were
good for the Jews. Shoo-ins Natalie Portman (“Black Swan”) and Jesse Eisenberg
(“The Social Network”) got Best Actress and Actor nods, respectively. James
Franco, whose mother is Jewish, also scored a Best Actor nod for his role in
“127 Hours.” “Black Swan” director Darren Aronofsky earned a Best Director
nomination, along with “True Grit” helmers Joel and Ethan Coen. “The Fighter”
director David O. Russell, son of a Jewish father and Italian-American mother,
also got a Best Director nomination. Jews also ruled the screenwriting
categories. Debra Granik scored a nod in the Best Adapted Screenplay category
for the brutal “Winter’s Bone,” while Hollywood vet Aaron Sorkin earned his for
Facebook docudrama “The Social Network,” as did fellow A-lister Scott Silver
for scrappy Boston epic “The Fighter.” In the same category, the Coen Brothers
won the Academy’s attention for their highly acclaimed adaptation of Charles
Portis’ 1968 novel “True Grit.” British improv-drama icon Mike Leigh was
nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category for “Another Year,” his
sobering look at happiness — and the lack thereof — among the British
chattering classes. And British-born, Long Island-raised David Seidler got his
first Oscar nomination — in the Original Screenplay slot — for “The King’s
Speech”. Semites didn’t fare as well in the Best Supporting Actor or Actress
categories, though 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld — reportedly the daughter of a
Jewish dad and black/Filipino mom — got a nod for her widely lauded turn as
vengeful tween Mattie Ross in “True Grit.”
2011:
Misaskim reported that Nazi-era RIF soap was handed over to the organization
for burial.
2011:
Twenty-three-year-old Jason Bailey, a Jewish hockey player, has sued the
National Hockey League's Anaheim Ducks for religious discrimination and
harassment based on religion. Jason Bailey, 23, in a lawsuit filed today in
California's Orange County Superior Court, accused the coaches of one of the
Ducks' affiliate teams of making anti-Semitic remarks and harassment. Bailey
said he was subjected to "a barrage of anti-Semitic, offensive and
degrading verbal attacks regarding his Jewish faith" by Martin Raymond,
head coach of the Bakersfield Condors. The suit says assistant head coach Mark
Pederson also made anti-Semitic remarks about Bailey.The suit claims that
Bailey was the victim of religious discrimination, harassment based on
religion, intentional infliction of emotional distress and retaliation. It
asserts that he lost income, benefits and suffered humiliation, according to
CNN. Bailey was drafted by the Ducks in 2005, but has not played in the NHL. He
was traded last year and now plays right wing for the Binghamton Senators, a
farm team for the Ottawa Senators. (As reported by JTA)
2011(20th
of Shevat, 5771): Ninety-one-year-old Daniel Bell, the writer, editor,
sociologist and teacher who over seven decades came to epitomize the engaged
intellectual as he struggled to reveal the past, comprehend the present and
anticipate the future, died today at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 91.
(As reported by Michael T. Kaufman)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/arts/26bell.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Daniel%20Bell&st=cse
2012:
The David Harris & David Harris Comedy and Variety Show with Special
Guests, The Chosen Few are scheduled to appear at the Minneapolis Jewish Humor
Festival.
2012:
At the New York Jewish Film Festival “The Silent Historian” is scheduled to
have its U.S. Premiere and “Joann Sfar Draws From Memory” is scheduled to have
its World Premiere.
2012(1st
of Shevat, 5772): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
2012:
Palestinian Authority officials said today that a fifth meeting between Israeli
and Palestinian negotiators in Amman scheduled for later in the day would be
the final meeting
2012: Hackers
attacked the websites of two Israeli hospitals today, managing to bring down
the sites for several hours in the latest round of the ongoing cyber war
between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian hackers
2012:
Representative “Gabby” Giffords officially resigned from the House of
Representatives.
2013: The Walt
Disney Studios and Lucasfilm officially announced that Jeffrey Jacob
“J.J.”Abrams would be the director and producer of Star Wars Episode VII, the
latest entry in the Star Wars film saga
2013: “Yossi,”
a sequel to Eytan Fox’s “Yossi and Jagger” is scheduled to open in New York
City.
2013: The
Alexandria Kleztet is scheduled to perform at Old Town Hall in Fairfax, VA.
2013: As an
indication of the vitality of Yiddishkeit in the Heartland, the Cedar
Rapids/Iowa City Hadassah Chapter is scheduled to sponsor a Tu B’Shevat Seder
and Soup Supper preceding Shabbat Services at Temple Judah
2013(14th
of Shevat, 5573): Ninety-two-year-old American diplomat Max Kampelman passed
away today. (As reported by William Yardley)
2013: Austrian
parliamentarians and invited guests gathered today to watch the premiere of an
opera depicting how Nazis methodically killed mentally or physically deficient
children at a Vienna hospital during World War II.
2013: Rabbis
in Winnipeg have criticized a decision by the Jewish community center in the
Canadian city to open earlier on Shabbat.
2013: “Jobs” a
biopic co-starring Jose Gad as “Steve Wozniak” and featuring Brett Gelman and
Lesley Ann Warren premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
2014: The
Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center of Houston is scheduled to host the
Houston Choreographers X6 Concert.
2014: In
Rockville, MD, Congregation Tikvat Israel is scheduled to show “Hunting
Elephants” as part of its Israeli Film Festival.
2014: Dozens
of residents of the city of Lod protested today against the slashing of some 15
car tires in a religious neighborhood in the city over the weekend.
2014: Boxes
containing pigs’ heads were sent to the Israeli embassy in Rome and the city’s
synagogue, Italian media reported today
2014:
“According to two Israeli researchers” – Dr. Eran Elhaik and Professor Dan
Grauer – “the first human walked on earth 209,000 years ago; 9,000 years
earlier than what scientists previously thought.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4480857,00.html
2015: The New
York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including Ben-Gurion: Father of Modern Israel
by Anita Shapira and Mr. Mac and Me by Esther Freud.
2015: Bud
Selig completed his served as 9th Commissioner of MLB began serving
as Commissioner Emeritus of Baseball
2015: “Judy G.
Russell, well-known as The Legal Genealogist, is scheduled to speak about the
ethical considerations underlying genealogy, from privacy issues-how to handle
family secrets, what to say about living people - to the courtesies we should
extend to other researchers.”
2015: “The
Green Prince” is scheduled to be shown at Brooklyn Israel Film Festival.
2015: “Cry of
the City” and “Forbidden Films” are scheduled to be shown at the New York
Jewish Film Festival.
2015: “To
commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps and
Holocaust Memorial Day, the Jewish Museum of London” is scheduled to host
Zdenka Fantlova who will speak about her experiences after the Nazis invaded
her native Czechoslovakia in 1939.
2015: In
Atlanta, GA, the Breman Museum is scheduled to host a workshop that explores
“the work and techniques of Maurice Sendak.”
2016: At Tempe
Solel, in Cardiff, CA, Dr. Claudia Tornsäufer is scheduled to lecture on
“Mendelssohn, Music and the Jews.”
2016: The
family and friends of Sir Martin Gilbert, led by Lady Esther Gilbert are
scheduled to attend the stone setting at Eretz Hachaim Cemetery, Beit Shemesh
which is part of the memorialization of Sir Martin Gilbert, of blessed memory.
2016: Weather
permitting Matan Porat is scheduled to perform “Variations on a Theme by
Scharlatti” at Butenwieser Hall.
2016(15th
of Shevat, 5776): Tu B’Shevat
2016(15th
of Shevat, 5776): Ninety-one-year-old “Howard Kaslow, apainter and illustrator
who for more than four decades designed many of the most recognizable stamps
issued by the United States Postal Service, including a 1994 series depicting
famous blues and jazz musicians and 30 stamps depicting coastal lighthouses”
passed away today. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/uploads/files/dhannum@sbcglobal.net/HLStampSet.pdfa
2016: Today,
“US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro responded to criticism of his charge last
week that Israel appears to institute “two standards of adherence to the rule
of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians” in the West Bank.”
2017: Today
“German authorities carried out dawn raids against far-right suspects accused
of plotting attacks on Jews, refugees and police, federal prosecutors said.”
2017(27th
of Shevat, 5777): On the Jewish calendar Yahrtzeit of 19th century
German Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch.
2017(27th
of Shevat, 5777): Seventy-one-year-old Canadian born professor Stephen P. Cohen
“who secretly brokered peace talks between Arab and Israeli officials for three
decades” passed away today.
2017: “Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that the 2,500 new West Bank settlement
homes approved a day earlier were just a “taste” of things to come now that
Barack Obama is no longer in the White House, and said he would discuss the
issue with US President Donald Trump.”
2017:
Following a screening of “Cloudy Sunday” today “film critic Bergson is
scheduled to join JKJF Film Programmer Ni Cohen” in a discussion of the film.
2017:
“Experience History at its Source” a tour exploring the permanent collection of
the High Museum ranging from biblical themes to featured Jewish artists” is
scheduled to take place in Atlanta, GA.
2018: The
Young Professional Committee of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education
Center is scheduled to a “live performance by singer/songwriter and actor Tyler
Hilton.”
2018: Peter G.
Weintraub is scheduled to present another session of “Introduction to Judaism
at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center.
2018: “Despite
the fact that Labour MPs were asked not to support by their leadership,” “both
Labour and Conservative parliamentarians led calls” “to designate all of
Hezbollah as a terrorist group.”
2018: Comedian
Judy Gold, best known for “The Judy Gold Show: My Life as a Sitcom” is
scheduled to appear at the Buckhill Brewery in Blairstown, NJ.
2018: Research
was published today “in the prestigious Science magazine” which described the
discovery of a “Jawbone fossil in an Israeli cave that resets the clock for
modern human evolution.” (As reported by Amanda Borschel-Dan)
2018: “The
leading European human rights assembly today endorsed a resolution that called
on Ramallah to stop paying salaries to the families of Palestinian terrorists”
while also condemning the American decision to recognize Jerusalem as the
capital of Israel and calling for an increased European role in the
Israeli-Palestinian peace process.” (As reported by Dov Lieber)
2018: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “the Gemara shiur which
will be on mesechet Megillah.”
2018: Today
“President Donald Trump said Palestinians disrespected Vice President Mike
Pence when they snubbed him this week and threatened to cut off assistance to
the Palestinians unless they returned to the negotiating table.”
2018: In
Davos, Switzerland, “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed” today “that
Israel would retains control over Jerusalem’s holy sites in any peace deal
while ensuring ‘complete religious rights for those of all faiths.’” (As
reported by Jacob Magid)
2018:
Stephanie Halpern is scheduled to teach the final class of “The American Jewish
Family Drama” at the YIVO Institute.
2019 (19th
of Shevat, 5779): Ninety-five year old financier and Ohio State University
trained mathematician Meshulam Riklis, the Istanbul born son of Pinahs and
Batya Riklis and WW II veteran of the British Army passed away today. (As
reported by Richard Sandomir)
2019(19th
of Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of the Jews of Basle,
Switzerland “who were burned alive today in a wooden house erected for that
purpose” in what was purported to be the Christian community’s way of
responding to the Black Plague.
2019: In
Memphis, TN, Rick Recht is scheduled to lead a Friday night “Shabbat Alive”
service.
2019: In Cedar
Rapids, IA, Shir Yehudah is scheduled to lead the Musical Shabbat service.
2019: Parent’s
Shabbat weekend is scheduled to begin at Oxford University.
2019 The
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is scheduled to host it “2019
International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration” in Washington, DC and
on-line.
2020: “God of
the Piano” and “An Impossible Love” are scheduled to be show at the New York
Jewish Film Festival.
2020: Today
the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) “released a 94-page document detailing it case
against” the Beth Oloth Charitable Organization whose charitable it had
stripped because of “its support Israel’s armed forces, the funding of projects
in the Palestinian territories and sloppy administration.”
2020: As part
of its “survivor series” the Illinois Holocaust Museum is scheduled to host
Felix Weil as he talks about how he “escaped Germany on the second to the last
kindertransport.”
2020(28th
of Tevet, 5780): Parashat Va-ayrah;
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host the third session in which artist
Tobi Kahn and Rabba Wendy Amsellem as they “explore Rabbi Yehuda haNasi’s story
in both the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds” which is part of “The Barbara C.
Freedman Artists’ Beit Midrash” lectures
2021:
In London, the Jewish Museum is to host “Race in Religion: A Black Virtual
History” led by Learning Officer Shereen Hunte.
2021:
The Jewish Family and Children’s Service is scheduled to present online a
performance by Tremble Clefs, “therapeutic signing group for people with
Parkinson’s disease and their care partners.”
2021:
J-Loft is scheduled to host an online “Tu B’shevat Celebration” that will
include a brief teaching and discussion with the rabbis “followed by a creative
workshop led by Sasha Kopp.
2021:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Bryan Cranston the
star of Showtime’s series “Your Honor,” based on the Israeli television show
“Kvodo.”
2021:
Based on yesterday’s report by the Health Ministry, Israelis now have to worry
the spread of “a coronavirus variant originally detected in the state of
California.
2022:
The Jewish Arts Collaborative is scheduled to present “Taste of Israel 2022,”
“Boston’s first and only Israeli Restaurant Week.”
2022:
The Taube Center for Jewish Studies is scheduled to present
filmmaker
James Gray discussing two of his works, “Little Odessa” (1994) and “Two Lovers”
(2009), within the theme of “house and home” in Jewish film.
2022:
Today “, two additional men were taken into custody in Manchester (UK) as part
of the investigation” into the hostage taking that occurred at Congregation
Beth El in Texas.
2022:
JCC of Greater Boston is scheduled to present online “School Boards Under
Fire.”
2022:
Ohio University Chabad is scheduled to host the third session in the Sinai
Scholars program which will examine “Reason and Ritual: On the Signifcance and
Meaning Of Jewish Obserances.”
2022:
First in the weekly scheduled Tikvah series of live broadcasts from Jerusalem
that will include a panel discussion of the most pressing issues of the day
including “How Will the Israeli Supreme Court change in the years ahead.”
2022:
The Sir Martin Gilbert Learning Centre and the British Association for
Holocaust Studies are scheduled to present Professor Shirli Gilbert and Dr.
Andy Pearce as they discuss “The Holocaust in Public.”
2022:
The Miami Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host the Miami premier of
“Bernstein’s Wall,” a look at one of the major figures in American music during
the twentieth century.
2023:
The Hadassah Brandeis Institute is scheduled to present online, a conversation
with Joy Ladin, author Shekhinah Speaks.
2023:
“New Lehrhaus and JIMENA are scheduled to present an online talk by professor
Sarah Abrevaya Stein about how Yiddish-speaking and Sephardic Jews from the
1880s through World War I led the global craze for ostrich and exotic bird
feathers, filling various roles in the trade from Russia to South Africa to the
Sahara to New York City.”
2023:
Chabad is scheduled to present the first class in Book Smart, a six-part course that explores
the history, the nature, and the contents of these different areas of Torah
literature.
2023:
The Iowa Jewish Historical Society and Beit Sefer Shaalom are scheduled to
present a special Readers Theater production of “The Boy n the Grave,” the
story of how Dr. Harold Kasimow and his family survived the Holocaust.
2023:
The YIVO Institute is scheduled to host a presentation live and on zoom about
the “700 Years of Vilnius, A City of Translation.
2023:
President Isaac Herzog is scheduled to begin a two-day trip to Belgium today during
which he will meet NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission
President Ursula von der Leyen, European
Parliament head Roberta Metsola and Belgium’s King Philipe and address the
European Parliament in Brussels on the day before International Holocaust
Remembrance Day. (As reported by Lazar Berman)
2023:
The Chabad Center of Sudbury, MA is schedule to present a lecture by Rabbi Dr.
Liabl Wolf on “Developing Drive, Motivation and Joie de Vivre.
2023:
The Streicker Center is scheduled to host an evening with Haifa born mentalist
Lior Suchard
2024:
At Temple Judea, it is a family affair as the Straus family – Rabbie Feivel and
Canto Abbie – are scheduled to lead the morning minyan.
2024:
In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Atlanta orthopedic
physician Dr. Reuben Sloan and his patient Gail Cohnwill bring their program,
“Corresponding Angles” to the Museum of Southern Jewish Experience in New
Orleans.
2024:
In Partnership with the Lond Borough of Tower Hamlets, UK Jewish Films is
scheduled to host a screening of “My Father’s Secrets” at the Rich Mix.
2024(15th
of Shevat, 5784): With the American heartland in the grips of an icy winter,
Jews show their optimism by celebrating Tu B’Shevat – The New Year of the
Trees.
2024:
As January 25th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 111 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.)