January 28
814:
Charlemagne passed away. The grandson of Charles Martel was one of the greatest
European rulers during the Dark Ages. There was nothing Dark about his
treatment of the Jews. For the most part, he ignored canon law and the
wishes of the Pope and treated the Jews of his realm rather decently.
1077: As a
result of an event called the “Walk to Canossa,” Pope Gregory VII lifted he
excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. This was part of the struggle
between the Church and the temporal rulers as to who would be the final voice
of authority in Europe. Jews could not have taken comfort in this apparent
success of Gregory over Henry. Gregory was hostile to Jewish interest.
This can be seen in his letter to King Alfonso forbidding Jews to hold public
office or to “have power over Christians.” Furthermore, he ordered the
King to have the Jews pay special “Jew Taxes” throughout his kingdom.
Henry was protective of his Jewish subjects. He issued charters to the Jews of
Speyer and Worms allowing them to trade in these cities and to practice their
religion according to their laws and practices. Furthermore, during the
Crusades, he defied Christian doctrine and the Pope, by supporting the right of
Jews who had been forced to convert “to disregard their baptism and return to
Judaism.”
1167(4927):Poet and philosopher Abraham Ibn Ezra, hero of
the golden age of Spain, passed away. There is some disagreement about when
this sage actually passed away. Some say he passed away in 1164.
Others say that he passed away on January 23. Although specificity as to
the date of his death may not be possible, there is no doubt about his
greatness. This brief blog cannot do him justice so here are two sites
where you can at least gain a nodding acquaintance with the life and work of
this sage.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/IbnEzra.html http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=11&letter=I
1225:
Birthdate of Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic Saint who expressed his views on Jews
in a “Letter on the Treatment of Jews” written in 1271.
http://thomistica.net/letter-to-margaret-of-flanders/
For more, see Aquinas
and the Jews by John Y.B. Hood and Thomas Aquinas on the Jews Steven
C. Boguslawski
1467:
Consecration of Giovanni Battista Cybo who as Pope Innocent VIII passed away
when his Jewish doctor’s last-ditch attempt to save his life by providing him
with a transfusion of human blood failed.
1547: King
Henry VIII of England passed away. When seeking to divorce his first wife
and marry Anne Boleyn, Henry sought to make use of Biblical law in his fight
with Rome. He thought that Rabbis, learned in the matter, might be of some
help. Since Jews were not supposed to be living in England, Henry was
forced to seek out Rabbis living in Italy. While the Rabbis offered some
help, they were loathe to give too much assistance to a monarch in faraway
England lest they offend and anger the Pope who could make miserable for the
Jews of Italy.
1549(29th
of Shevat, 5309): Eighty-year-old Elia Levita “a Renaissance Hebrew grammarian,
scholar, and poet” who “was the author of the Bovo-Bukh (written in 1507–1508),
the most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish and who lived for a
decade in the house of Cardinal Giles of Viterbo because “he was one of the
foremost teachers of Christian clergy, nobility, and intellectuals in Hebrew
and in Jewish mysticism during the Renaissance” passed away today in Venice.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Elias_Levita
1573: In
Berlin, following the death of elector Joachim II, “his successor Joahnn George
accused the court Jew Lippold of murdering Joachim, today following his
repudiation of a confession that was gained by torture and his refusal to be
baptized, Lippold was drawn and quarted.
https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/lippold
1573: Articles
of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in
Poland. The primary beneficiaries of the document were competing Christian
groups – Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox. Jews continued to enjoy the benefits
of The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz that
had been promulgated at the end of the 13th century.
1594(5354):
Seventy-nine year old Elia Levita who was “also known as Elijah Levita,
Elias Levita, Eliahu Bakhur ("Eliahu the Bachelor") and “was a
Renaissance-period Hebrew grammarian, poet and one of the first writers in the
Yiddish language” passed away today in Venice. He was the author of the Bovo-Bukh
the most popular chivalric romance written in Yiddish, which, according to Sol
Liptzin, is ‘generally regarded as the most outstanding poetic work in Old
Yiddish.’”
1600:
Birthdate of Giulio Rospigliose who as Pope Clemente IX modified the custom of
having the Jews run through the streets of Rome as part of the carnival
festivities by allowing them to pay heavy fines to avoid the race. This ended
two hundred years of humiliation that had been introduced by Pope Paul II in
the 15th century.
1668:
Pope Clement IX canceled the humiliating forced races known as the Palio.
During the Plaio near naked Jews were forced to run through the streets of Rome
during carnival time. In return for the revocation the Jews of Rome had to pay
a special cancellation tax of 200 ducats. This tax was paid for almost 200
years.
1717:
Birthdate of Mustafa III. During his reign, the Ottoman Empire continued to
decline as a world power and became less accepting of non-Moslems. Mustafa
personally helped to enforce the decrees regarding clothing that could be worn
by his subjects. “In 1758, he was walking incognito in Istanbul and ordered the
beheading of a Jew and an Armenian seen dressed in forbidden attire.”
1721: A fire
broke out in the Judengasse at Frankfort which destroyed over a hundred homes.
Christian looters took advantage of the situation and it took the intervention
of Emperor Charles VI for the Jews to be compensated for their losses.
The fire gave Jews a chance to legally live outside of the Ghetto for 8
years. By 1729, they had all been forced back into their narrow confines.
1739: In
Savanah, GA, Esther Nunez and Abraham de Lyon gave birth to Isaac de Lyon the
husband of Rinah Tobias whom he married in Charleston, SC and with whom he had
four children – Abraham, Esther, Judith and Hannah.
1748: In
Newport, RI, Rachel Franks Levy and Lisbon native Isaac Mendes Seixas gave
birth to Benjamin Mendes Seixas, the husband of Zipporah Levy whom he married
in Philadelphia and with whom he had eighteen children.
1764: Today,
Frederick the Great ordered Daniel Itzig and Veitel Heine, “the chairman of the
Jewish congregation in Berlin” who the Mintmaster in Saxony and Prussia as well
as a “Jeweler to the Prussian Court” to “invest the great assets they had
earned in the Prussian economy.”
1771: Judith
and Joseph Tobias, Jr. gave birth to Isaac Tobias and Leah Tobias who was the
husband of Lyon Levy.
1780: One day
after she had passed way, Rebecca Leib was buried today in the “Hoxton Old
Jewish Burial Ground.”
1781: In
Germany, Golies and Loeb Samuel Doerzbacher gave to Samuel Loeb Doerzbacher,
the husband of Riele Rosenthaler and the father of Hindle Doerzbacher.
1783:
Birthdate of Korb, Germany native Judith Jacobs, the wife of Samuel Ottenheimer
and the mother of Jette Ottenheimer.
1788: In
Smyrna, which at that time was part of the Ottoman Empire, Rabbi and kabbalist
Jacob Pallache “and Kali Kaden Hazan” gave birth to Haim Palachi, the author of
works in Hebrew and Ladino and the Chief Rabbi of Smyrna who married Esther
Palacci with whom he had three sons all of whom were Rabbis – Abraham Palacci,
Isaac Palacci and Joseph Palacci.
1789:
Lieutenant Colonel David Salisbury Franks, one of the highest ranking Jewish
officers to serve in the American Army during the revolution was granted four
hundred acres in recognition of his military service. Franks was one of the
founders of the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization of Revolutionary war
veterans.
1790:
The French National Assembly granted full and equal citizenship to the
Portuguese and Avignonese Jews. The Jews of Alsace would have to wait until
1791 to be granted these same rights. France was the first European country to
pass such liberal legislation.
1790: When
Joseph II revoked the decrees protecting the Jews, “the citizens of Pesth,
Hungary, took measures to expel the Jews because they were business
competitors.
1791:
Birthdate of Bavarian native Jesajas Simon Schulein, the husband of Ann
Seuchtwagner with whom he had four children – Nathan, Alexander, Simon and
Benjamin
1793: Lord
George Gordon, the English nobleman who converted to Judaism and took the name
Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon was returned to his prison cell today because would
not accept his character witnesses at the hearing where he should have been
freed because they were Jewish.
1795: Richea
Myers and Joseph Marx gave birth to Louisa Marx, the wife of Samuel Myers and
the mother of Moses, Joseph and Virginia Myers, each of whom was born in the
United States.
1796: In
Lorraine, France, Mayer Lippmann and Madeleine Lippmann gave birth to Isaïe
Lippmann, the “husband of Esther Julie Lippmann.”
1800 (2nd of
Shevat, 5560): Chasidic Master Rabbi Meshulam Zusha of Anipoli passed
away. While there is much to say about this sage, most know him because
of the following story or one of its variants. “Reb Zusha was on his deathbed
surrounded by his disciples. He was crying and no one could comfort him. One
student asked his Rebbe, "Why do you cry? You were almost as wise as Moses
and as kind as Abraham." Reb Zusha answered, "When I pass from
this world and appear before the Heavenly Tribunal, they won't ask me, 'Zusha,
why weren't you as wise as Moses or as kind as Abraham,' rather, they will ask
me, 'Zusha, why weren't you Zusha?'”
1802(25th
of Shevat, 5562): Four days after his 35th birthday, Hyman Abrahams,
the son of Abraham Isaac Abrahams, passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1803: In
Frankfurt am Main Caroline Stern and Freiherr Salomon Mayer von Rothschild gave
birth to Anselm Salomon von Rothschild the founder of the Viennese bank
Creditanstalt.
1805: In
Savannah, GA, Divinah Cohen and Isaac Minis gave birth to Philip Minis the
husband of Sarah A. Livingston who settled in Baltimore, MD.
1807(19th
of Shevat, 5567): Revolutionary War veteran Israel DeLieben, the Bohemian born
resident of Charleston, the husband of Hannah (Levy) Hart, the widow of Hyman
Hart and member of Beth Elohim, passed away today.
https://mappingjewishcharleston.cofc.edu/1788/map.php?id=1008
1809:
Birthdate of Theodor Benfey, “the son of a Jewish trader from Nörten in Lower
Saxony who chose a career as a philologist over being a doctor.
1810:
Birthdate of Aron Mendes Chumaceiro, the native of Amsterdam who became Ḥakam
of Curaçao, Dutch West Indies and who was the father of four prominent sons --
Abraham Mendes Chumaceiro: Attorney at law; Cantor Benjamin Mendes Chumaceiro;
Dayyan Jacob Mendes Chumaceiro and Rabbi Joseph Chayyim Mendes Chumaceiro.
1814(7th of
Shevat, 5574): Rabbi Dovid of Lelov passed away. He was the first Grand Rabbi
of the Lelover Dynasty. The Lelovers moved from Poland to Jerusalem in
the late 1840’s or early 1850’s.
1817(11th
of Shevat, 5577): Israel Isaac Israel, the son of Isaac and Henrietta Chaya
Israel, the husband of Rebecca Pearl Israel and the father of Coleman Israel;
David Israel; Harriet Samuel; Henrietta Samuel; Harry Alexander Israel; Amelia
Israel; Moss Israel and Ann Israel passed away today in London.
1822:
Birthdate of Schwabach, Bavaria native and schoolteacher Abraham Leopold
Bechhoefer who in 1848 came to the United States where he married Rebecca
Goldsmith with whom he had eight children and operated “a mercantile business
in Woodbury” before settling in Altoona, PA.
1838: Birthdate
of Bissersheim,Rhineland-Palantine native Abraham Kuhn, the “Alsatian otolaryngologist”
who “During the Franco-Prussian War served with the Croix-Rouge (French Red
Cross) on the battlefields of Wissembourg and Wörth” and after which became a
lecturer at the renamed Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität in Strassburg, where in 1881
he was appointed associate professor of otolaryngology and director of the
clinic of ear diseases.”
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9543-kuhn-abraham
1842: Today
The Jewish Chronical “carried the letter from Sir Moses Montefiore, President
of the Board of Deputies, to the wardens of all the London synagogues conveying
the resolutions of a meeting of the Board, synagogue wardens and the Chief
Rabbi” that “ordered the reading of the cherem promulgated by the Chief Rabbi…”
1848: In New
York, Benvenida Solis and Leon Ritterband gave birth their sixth child, Moses
Maness Ritterband.
1849: Isaac
Noah Mannheimer delivered a speech in the Austrian Reichstag on the abolition
of capital punishment.
1851: Emma and
Philip Salomons gave birth to Sir David Lionel Goldsmid-Stern-Salomons, who
gained fame as an author, scientist and barrister.
1851:
Northwestern University becomes the first chartered university in the state of
Illinois. For our family, the two most famous graduates of Northwestern are Dr.
Jacob Levin of blessed memory who earned his master’s and Ph.D. from the
Evanston institution and Betty Levin.
http://www.jewishstudies.northwestern.edu/
1852:
Birthdate of Landstuhl, Germany native Gideon Wolff.
1853:
Birthdate of Vladimir Solovyov the Russian theologian and philosopher who
“profoundly disagreed with the views of novelist Dostoevsky about the Jews”
because he did not “see Judaism…as the antithesis of Christianity but as a
force that could help reconcile the peoples of Eastern Europe and revitalize Christianity.”
1856:
Birthdate of Russian painter Isaac Lvovich Asknazi whose works included “The
Poet Jehuda Halevi,” “Sabbath Eve,” “The Bridegroom Examined by the Rabbi” and
“Bad News,” “a picture of Jewish life.”
1857(3rd
of Shevat, 5617): Eighty-four-year-old German born Isaiah Moses, who had 12
children with his first wife Rebecca Phillips and 4 children with his second
wife passed away today in Charleston, SC.
1857(3rd
of Shevat, 5617): Fifty-seven-year-old Rachel N. Cardozo, the Easton, PA born
daughter of Sarah Hart and Isaac Nunez Cardozo who married Joseph Phillips
after she had been married to Simon Kaufman passed away today in New York.
1860(4th
of Shevat, 5620): Parashat Bo
1860(4th
of Shevat, 5620): Sixty-three-year-old Isaac Tobias, the son of Rachel Aarons
and Joseph Tobias who were married in 1785, and the husband of Isabell Cowen
whom he married in 1824 after which they had had six children – Augustus,
Vriginius, Colleton, Sarah, Marion and Sophie – passed away today.
1860:
Fifty-year old Joseph Addison Alexander the Princeton University Professor a
Hebraist whose works including The Earlier Prophecies of Isaiah (1846), The
Later Prophecies of Isaiah (1847), and The Psalms Translated and
Explained passed away today.
1860: The
community of Kingston, Jamaica, “which is composed chiefly of Jews” have been
making contributions for the relief of their suffering brethren of Morocco.
They have managed to collect large sums in spite of the prevailing poverty.
1860: “Relief
of the Jews in Austria” published today reported that “from Austria, amid the
echoes of Hungarian dissatisfaction, and Tyrolese boldness, come the reports of
promised reform. It is stated as a certain fact that in a few days the Emperor
will issue a decree, relieving the Jews from many disabilities under which they
now lie. The law which forbade a Jew to have a Christian servant is already
repealed; and the emancipated Israelite can now rejoice in the possession of a
cook who hasn't a conscientious objection to getting up and making a fire, of a
Saturday morning. The expected decree will abolish the old law, by which no one
of the three witnesses required for a Christian's will could be a Jew -- a
blind provision, which has been the source of more trouble to Christians than
Jews. Then the rule, still on the statute-books in Austria, that a Jew's
evidence in a civil case against a Christian should be considered as
"doubtful," will be done away; as also the present prohibition, which
prevents any but a Christian from filling the office of Notary. This last
provision is no older than 1855. Before that year Jews were allowed to be
Notaries, and it is said that there is a Jewish Notary in Prague, who was
appointed under the old law, and holds his office still. It is proper that the
Government should concede these rights to an oppressed class; but one cannot
but notice how, through these reforms, it hopes to escape more pressing and
important demands from its subjects. Hungary demands her constitutional rights,
and the Emperor grants a couple of reforms to Venice. Tyrol desires her ancient
and guaranteed privileges, and he emancipates the Jews at Prague! No matter --
the day is coming.”
1862, Joachim
Kohn and his son from švihov received a permit to build a leather factory
(today this is the establishment Bruml, Bloch & Waldstein).
1862: In New York, Herman S. Bachman and Fanny S.
Obermeyer gave birth to Hannah Bachman who married William Einstein and became
Hannah Bachman Einstein an activist for child welfare in both Jewish and
secular settings. Einstein “was raised in New York City's Temple Emanu-El, a
German Reform congregation. As an adult, she remained active in the Temple, and
in 1897, she became president of the sisterhood, a position she held for
twenty-five years. One of Einstein's activities as sisterhood president was
visiting the homes of recent immigrants. She soon became convinced that the
private relief provided by the Temple would never be sufficient to alleviate
the problems of this group. Only government action, she decided, could address
the myriad social problems that immigrants and other impoverished people faced.
Joining with other activists, Einstein lobbied the New York State legislature
for widowed mothers' pensions, which would enable widowed women to care for
their children without working outside the home. In 1913, she was appointed
chair of the state committee to investigate the issue. Her committee wrote what
became the Child Welfare Law of 1915, which became the national model. By 1920,
nearly all the states had passed similar legislation. In the wake of her
committee's success, Einstein became president of the New York State
Association of Child Welfare Boards, served as the first woman on the board of
the United Hebrew Charities, and helped found the National Union of Public
Child Welfare Officers. Einstein died in New York City in 1929.
1862(27th
of Shevat, 5622): Fifty-eight-year-old London resident and “fancy costumier” John
Simmons, the husband of Sarah Simons and the father of Abraham, Henry and
Gabriel Simmons passed away today after which e was buried at the Brompton
Jewish Center.
1864: Henry
Samuel Joseph, “a preacher in the synagogue at Bedford” who converted to
Christianity and was ordained as a literate in the Church of England” and who
“became a traveling secretary to the London Society for Promoting Christianity
Among the Jews” passed away today in Strasburg.
1865(1st
of Shevat, 5625): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1865:
Birthdate of Emma Eckstein, the native of Vienna who was a patient of Sigmund
Freud and who became the first female psychoanalyst.
http://drvitelli.typepad.com/providentia/2015/11/dr-fliess-patient.html
1867(22nd
of Shevat, 5627): Seventy-year-old Philip Salomons, the eldest son of Levi
Salomons passed away today. A resident of Brighton, he married Emma
Montefiore, the daughter of Jacob Montefiore, one of the leaders of the Sydney
Jewish community.
1867:
Birthdate of Reggio Emilia native Angelo Modena, the decorated Italian officer
rose from the rank of second lieutenant of the Alpine troops in 1887 to the
rank of general in 1927 after having served as a Colonel during WW I.
1868:
Twenty-seven year old Pittsburgh attorney Josiah Cohen the Plymouth, England
born son of Henry and Rose Cohen the Republican Party member who eventually
became a Judge of the Court of Common Appeals and director of the Federation of
Jewish Charities of Pittsburgh, today
married Carrie Naumburg.
1868: In
London, Sara Isaac Monis and Isaac Mozes Pereira Mendoza gave birth to
Elizabeth “Betsy” Mendoza
1868: In
Frankfort on the Main, Germany, Bertha Bendheim and Leopold Stern gave birth to
Frankfort and St. Louis trained medical doctor who served as a Professor of
Diseases of Metabolism at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in St. Louis
and a Professor of Internal Medicine at the New York School of Clinical
Medicine while being married to Selma Hellenberg.
1870: In New
Orleans , Esther W. Scherck, the New Orleans born daughter of Cecilia and
Joseph Hart Marks and her husband Isaac Scherck gave birth Lewis Alcus Scherck.
1871: Leo
Frankel was among those serving as a member of the National Guard when Paris surrendered
to the Prussians today. This marked the end of the Franco-Prussian War.
From the point of view of history, this was the first of a three-act
play. The second act was World War I and the third act was World War II,
including the Holocaust.
1872: Four
days after he had passed away, Abraham Crawcour, the son of “Isaac Crawcour and
his wife Simha” and the husband of Charlotte Florance Levy and then Catherine
Rebecca Hart was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1873: Lewis J.
Cohen and Henry Lehman, the Jewish proprietors of a store on Chatham Street,
were sentenced to a month in the Blackwell’s Island Penitentiary after having
been convicted of verbally abusing a visitor to their shop named Robert J.
Quinlan.
1873: B’nai
B’rith held its annual meeting at Masonic Hall in Manhattan tonight.
According to the treasurer’s report, the society has $58, 961.76 in assets.
Founded 14 years ago, the society has 6,096 members.
1874: Rabbi
S.M. Isaacs officiated at the wedding of Jacob Schnizter and Cordelia Menken,
the daughter of the late Solomon Menken.
1874: In
Chicago, Illinois, The B’nai B’rith adjourned the third day of its national
convention at 7 o’clock this evening.
1874(10th
of Shevat, 5634): Sixty-nine-year-old Joseph Lyons Moss, the Philadelphia born
son of Rebecca Lyons an John Moss, the husband of Julia Levy with whom he had
eight children passed away today in his hometown.
1874: In
Chicago, Illinois, delegates to the national B’nai B’rith convention attended a
banquet at the Sherman House.
1875: Gratz
Nathan, a prominent 30-year-old New York lawyer who had served as the Assistant
Corporation Attorney, attempted to commit suicide in his office tonight.
Nathan gained a certain kind of unwanted notoriety when his uncle, Judge
Cardozo, was impeached.
1876: In
Cincinnati, OH, Solomon and Caroline Fox gave birth to Jessie Fox who became
Jessie Mack when she married San Francisco born jurist Julian William Mack.
1876: In St.
Louis, MO, Anna Loewenstein and Isaac Koperlik gave birth to Washington
University trained attorney Benjamin F. Koperlik, the husband of Hattie Levy,
who practiced in Pueblo, CO where he served as Mayor and president of Temple
Emanu-El.
1876:
Birthdate of Irving Lehman, New York lawyer and jurist.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00617FC3B55177A93C1AB1782D85F418485F9
1877: The
New York Times featured a review of John Peter Lange’s “Commentary of the
Holy Scriptures” which focuses on the period of Persian rule when the exiles
returned from Babylonia. The commentaries are tied to the books of
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.
1878: The
annual convention of the District Grand Lodge No.1 of the Independent Order of
B’nai B’rit came to a close today after a second day of meetings. The delegates
will attend a banquet at Nilsson Hall this evening to mark the end of the
event.
1880(15th
of Shevat, 5640): Tu B’Shevat
1880:
Birthdate of Herbert Max Finlay Freudnlich, the German chemist who served the
director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and
Electrochemistry from 1919 until his forced retirement in 1933. His father was
Jewish. His mother was not. He passed away in 1941 in Minneapolis, MN.
1881:
Birthdate of Berlin born theatre critic and author Siegfried Jacobsohn.
1883: In
Louisiana, Emanuel Mahne Bodenheimer, the only mayor of South Highlands, then
an annex of Shreveport and Bertha Levy Bodenheimer gave birth to LSU grad and
Tulane Medical School trained pediatrician
Dr Jacob Mahne “Jake” Bodenheimer, the grandson of Jacob Bodenheimer who
may have been the first Jewish settler in Shreveport who “was a tireless
advocate for children's health, vaccinations, and free medical care for
indigent families” and who raised two children – Bertha and Elias – with is
wife Lucille Levy.
1883(21st
of Shevat, 5643): Fifty-one-year-old Louisa Solomon, the wife of Mattahia Levy
and the mother of Elizabeth Levy passed away today in London.
1884(1st
of Shevat, 5644): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1886: In
Portland, OR, Berth Wendel and Solomon Rosenfeld gave birth to Stanford
University graduate and Johns Hopkins University trained medical doctor Arthur
Samuel Rosenfeld, the husband of Ruth Goldsmith and 1st lieutenant
in the U.S. Army Medical Corps during WW I who was an assistant professor of
clinical medicine at the University of Oregon, a member of the visiting medical
staff for the Jewish Sheltering home in Portland and a member of the board of
directors of Congregation Beth Israel in Portland.
1886: In
Cincinnati, Ohio, “Louis and Hattie Goodhart Falk gave birth Harry Louis Falk,
the husband of “Miriam Martha Danziger.”
1887: In
Lodoz, Polish city which at that time was part of the Russian empire “Felicja
Blima Fajga (née Heiman) and Izaak Rubinstein,” the owner of a textile factory
gave birth to pianist Arthur Rubinstein.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/arthur-rubinstein-mn0000681511/biography
http://movies2.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0128.html
1888(15th
of Shevat, 5648): Tu B’Shevat
1888:
Birthdate of mathematician and recipient of the Royal Society’s Sylvester Medal
Louis Joel Mordell, the native of Philadelphia who became a naturalized British
citizen after completing his studies at Cambridge.
1889: In
Cincinnati, Ohio, “William S. and Rose Lowenstein” gave birth to Robert S.
Marx, the captain of the University of Cincinnati Football team, the school
where he earned his law degree who served as a Captain in 357th Regiment of the
AEF, was general counsel for Schenley Distillers, a Superior Court Judge and
the co-founder and first commander of the Disabled American Veterans.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1960/09/07/99869403.pdf
https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/ucinlr29&div=23&id=&page
1890: Rabbi
Mendes of Shearith Israel officiated at the wedding of Corinna Friedman, the
daughter of Colonel Max Friedman to Leo Strassburger, the son of the former
Mayor of Montgomery, Alabama.
1890: Rabbi
Gottheil of Temple Emanu-El officiated at the wedding of Belle Strouse, the
daughter of Abraham Stouse and Hugo H. Hahlo which took place this evening at
Delmonico’s.
1890: Several
hundred thousand dollars in deposits, including $180,000 belong to the Delaware
and Hudson Canal Company will be withdrawn from the Albany County Bank today in
response to the Board of Directors decision to choose a local lumber deal over
Davis S. Mann as Cashier of the bank. Mann has worked for the bank and
his supporters attribute his rejection to the fact that he is Jewish.
1890: It was
reported today that David Saltzman, a Jew who converted to Christianity,
refused to A.A. Miller’s demand that he leave his daughter’s wedding. The
enraged father responded by beating him with his fists and his cane.
1891(20th
of Shevat, 5651): Sixty-seven-year-old Hannah (Chana) Benjamin Leonino, the
London born daughter of f Benjamin Barent Cohen and Justina Sebag Cohen and her
husband of Ippolito Leonino passed away today in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.
1891: In New
Jersey, the trial of Joseph Kline, the President of a Jewish cemetery society,
who is charged with larceny and obtaining money under false pretenses entered
into its second day.
1891:
Birthdate of Barney Sedransky, the basketball player who shortened his name to
Barney Sedran and was nicknamed “Mighty Mite.”
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Sedran.html
1892: Three days after he had passed
away, 81-year-old Samson Wertheimer, the Bavarian born husband of Helena Cohen
and father of Charles and Asher Wertheimer was buried at the West Ham Jewish
Cemetery.”
1893: Birthdate of St. Joseph native Rose
S. Goldman, the wife of Samuel Leo Goldman and member of Hadassah who was a
delegate to the American Jewish Congregation.
1893: Birthdate of Abba Hillel Silver,
the native of Lithuania, who became a leading Reform Rabbi, Zionist and
champion of the rights of the American working man.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/abba-hillel-silver
http://www.clevelandjewishhistory.net/silver/
1894: In “Chrzanów, Małopolskie, Poland,”
Hyman and Fannie Gerstner gave birth to Harold Solomon Gerstner, the first
husband of Sarah Blumberg Parnes whom he pre-deceased.
1894: The annual meeting of District
Lodge No.1 of B’nai B’rith was scheduled to end today.
1894: It was reported today that
the new officers for B’nai Brith are: President – Samuel D. Sewards; First Vice
President – Joshua Kantrowitz; Second Vice President – Bernard Metzgar;
Treasurer – Solomon Sulzberger.
1894: A musical competition designed to
raise money for charities including the United Hebrew Society that will include
John Phillips Sousa’s band will take place today at the Madison Square Garden.
1895: Andre Lebon who intervened on of
Dreyfus while he was imprisoned on Devils Island began serving as Minister of
Commerce, Industry, and Posts and Telegraphs.
1896 “Bernhardt as Marguerite” published
today described Sarah Bernhardt’s performance in “La Dame Aux Camelias” as “a
veritable triumph….Bernhardt has rarely given a more careful or more inspired
portrayal in this great role.”
1896: Three days after she had passed
away, Florence Caroline Cantor, the daughter of Simeon and Alice Cantor was
buried today at the Balls Pond Road Jewish Cemetery.
1896: “New Theatrical Bills” published
today described the successful performance of “A Woman’s Reason” produced by
Charles Frohman which is now appearing at the Empire Theatre in New York.
1897: It was reported today that Mindel
Brown, acting on behalf of the Ladies’ Auxiliary Corps, has presented a set of
colors to the Hebrew Union Veteran Association.
1897: It was reported today that the
newly elected officers of the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society are
President – Morris Goodhartz; Vice
President – Maurice A. Herts; Treasurer – Isaac K. Cohn;
1897: “Oldest Benefit Society” published
today provides a brief history of the early Jewish community in New York and
the Hebrew Mutual Benefit Society which was organized in 1826 when there
approximately 300 Jewish families living in the city most of whom “lived below
Canal Street and east of the Bowery.”
1897 The closing session of the Fifth
Annual meeting of the American Jewish Historical Society to place today in
Baltimore, MD.
1897: Using information that first
appeared in The Hebrew Journal, “Too Much Reform” published today described
what is seen as a retreat from “the work of iconoclasm” by the reformers and
turn towards “preaching and teaching what they consider good and praiseworthy
in rabbinical Judaism.”
1897: Two days after she had passed away,
fifty-eight-year-old Pauline Hirschfeld, the daughter of Simon Ausch and Rachel
Ausch and wife of Dr. Jacob Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld with whom she had four
children was laid to rest today in Vienna.
1898: Two days after he had passed away,
58-year-old Joseph Symons was buried today at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1899: Birthdate of Harold W. Carmely, the
native of Poland who came to the United States where he became a Zionist
leader, Superintendent of the Daughters of the Israel Home and the husband of
Esther T. Carmely.
1899: As of today, the entire 6th
Virginia Volunteer Infantry had been mustered out of U.S. Service including
Matthew N. Levy, Jr. of Norfolk who had been mustered into U.S. Service on
August 8, 1898.
1899: Private Ehrenberg, a bandsman with
the 2nd Louisiana Volunteer Infantry from New Orleans was discharged
today.
1899: Governor Theodore Roosevelt
addressed today’s meeting of the University Settlement Society today.
During his speech TR said that “there is nothing better than the way in
which the Jew and Gentile…are striving together to accomplish just such things
as this society set out to accomplish.” Roosevelt’s positive view of Jews
stands in stark contrast with the European experience (anti-Semitic riots in
France and the anti-Jewish policies of the Czar) and are all the more
significant since within the next couple of years he would be Vice President
and then President of the U.S.
1899: It was reported today that in his
recently published Story of France, Thomas Watson includes a description
of the Christian massacre of the Jews in response to “the frightful ravages of
the bubonic plague in 1348.”
1899: It was reported today that Monsieur
Guerin, the President of the Ant-Semite League led a mob that entered the Place
Dauphine at the back of the Palace of Justice where the libel trial brought by
Mme. Henry was being heard. The mob roared with shouts of “Death to the
Jews!” After being dispersed by the police the mob re-formed on the Place du
Chatelet where it howled “Spit on the Jews!” (All of this stemmed from the
attempts to reverse the conviction of Dreyfus)
1899: A proposal was made today in the
Chamber of Deputies “to have the Dreyfus Cased heard by a Supreme Court of
Appeals, with all three chambers sitting jointly.”
1900: Rabbi Joseph Silverman is scheduled
to deliver a talk on “Progress in Religion and Liberalism” this morning at
Temple Emanu-EL
1900: “A Novel ‘Jewish Question’”
published today described the attempts of “Dr. Grankgrug, a young doctor of
Jewish ancestry” to be recognized for bravery for service in the “Russo-Turkish
War of 1877.
1901: Count Ioseif (Joseph) Gurko,
who while serving as the military commander of the region around Warsaw in the
1890’s sought permission to expel the Jews from the western zones of Poland,
passed away.
1902: Herzl authorized Leopold Kessler’s
leadership of the expedition to El Arish where he and others including Dr.
Selig Soskin an agricultural expert, Dr. Hillel Joffee and Colonel Albert
Goldsmid would consider the possibility of this area of the Sinai Peninsula as
a possible site for Jewish colonization
1903: Herzl appoints Leopold Kessler as
leader of the commission "for the exploration of the feasibility of
settling in the northern half of the Sinai Peninsula.
1903: The Eighth Annual Convention of the
Progressive Order of the West whose officers included Grand Master Dr. M.I. De
Vorkin and First Deputy Grand Master Michael Goldwasser came to an end today in
St. Louis.
1904(11th of Shevat, 5664):
Fifty-five-year-old Austrian novelist Karl Emil Franzos, passed away today.
http://www.yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Franzos_Karl_Emil
1905: Birthdate of Barnett Newmann, an
American artist who is seen as one of the major figures in abstract
expressionism and one of the foremost of the color field painters
http://www.philamuseum.org/micro_sites/exhibitions/newman/index.html
1906: The protest letter drawn up at
conferenced held by the New York University Law School Russian Relief
Association which is to be sent to President Roosevelt published today read,
“We the undersigned students of law of the New York University, feeling that it
is our just privilege and sacred duty to do so, do appeal to and petition you,
as the protector of our country, to use your good offices to bring about a
cessation of Russia’s policy of prescription and persecution against her
defenseless Jewish subjects.”
1906: A full report of the speeches
exchanged between the Czar and a deputation of the reactionary League of
Russian Men…published today” quoted one speaker as saying “the league’s
watchword was orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality” which that “Jews, even
converts were rigorously excluded” from the league.
1906(2nd of Shevat, 5666): Sixty-nine-year-old
Rabbi Elias Hilikowitz, the husband of Riva Rebecca Hilikowitz passed away in
Denver.
1907: “Word was received” in New York
City today of the arrest on January 24 “in Vilna of nineteen members of the
Election Committee of the Jewish Committee” who were meeting in home of Dr.
Lewin, “formerly a member of the Duma.”
1907: “Immigration from Russia to the
United States means more than a mere journey of 3,000 miles, according to
statements made by Alexarder Harkavy at the Hebrew Educational Alliance tonight
in a special report to the Hebrew Immigrant Society, which sent him abroad to
investigate conditions in Europe.”
1907: Dr. Judah L. Magnes, the rabbi of
Temple Emanu-El and Secretary of the Federation of American Zionists said
tonight that a meeting would “probably held by New York Jews” who had expressed
their indignation over the “wholesale arrests” of Jewish leaders in Vilna.
1908: “Reports of a sub-committee
presented” today “at a meeting of the Committee of 250 appointed recently by
the council of Jewish Communal Institutions to solicit funds for the United
Hebrew Charites, showed that more than $29,000 has been obtained in new
memberships and donations.”
1909(6th of Shevat, 5669):
Seventy-year-old chess expert Jacob Elson passed away today.
https://www.chessgames.com/player/jacob_elson.html
1910: In New York City, Mayor Gaynor has
reappointed Samuel B. Hamburger, “one of the founders and a director of the
Jewish Protectory, a Vice President of the Educational Alliance and President
of Congregation Ahawath Chesed” as Commissioner of Parole of the City
Reformatory which is an acknowledgement of Hamburger’s interest “in the work of
the reclamation of young offenders.”
1911(28th of Tevet, 5671):
Parashat Vaera
1911: Ten thousand people are expected to
attend the “annual masquerade ball” in Madison Square Garden “under the
auspices of The Forward Association, publishers The Jewish Daily Forward.”
1912: A description of President Taft’s
appearance as guest of honor at The Daughter of Jacobs Ball was published
today. The President was greeted by a throng of between 12,000 and 15,000 who
had come together to raise funds for the Infirmary of the Daughters of Jacob on
East Broadway. In his speech, Taft praised the Jewish people for “their perfect
system of charitable institutions to look after their poor and infirm.”
The President left the ball as the band played Boola-Boola.
1912: Birthdate of comedian “Professor”
Irwin Corey
1912: “Dr. Herbert Friedenwald, Secretary
of the American Jewish Committee” returned to New York tonight from Washington
“and reported to his organization the present status of the Dillingham
immigration bill which would exclude “all immigrants except those who could
read and write the English language.”
1913: In Chicago, “the K.A.M. Auxiliary”
is scheduled to “observe ‘photography studio day’ this afternoon at the William
Koehne Studio under the leadership of Mrs. Samuel Flitz.
1914(1st of Shevat, 5674): Rosh Chodesh
Shevat
1915: Jacob Schiff of New York wrote a
letter to Max Warburg today in which he mentioned Bernhard Dernburg, the
liberal German politician and banker whose father Friedrich Dernburg had become
a Lutheran and who had married Luise Stahl, the daughter of a Lutheran minsters
and Bernhard’s mother
https://keydocuments.net/source/jgo:source-84
1915: In New York, Florence Worms married
Abraham Sachs.
1915: “The Reverend C.B. Ragsdale
testified today that he signed a false affidavit in which he swore he overheard
the negro “Jim” Conley confess to killing Mary Phagan; that after signing this
affidavit $200 was paid to hum through Arthur Thurman and C.C. Tedder and that
a voice over the telephone, ‘like the voice’ of Dan S. Lehon promised him
$10,000 more ‘if the thing went through.’”
1915: An act of Congress merged the
Revenue Cutter Service with the Life-Saving Service creating the United States
Coast Guard. Some of the Jews were members of, or associated with this valiant
force were: musician and vocalist, Mel Torme,; Arthur Fiedler who “volunteered
during the early days of World War II for the Temporary Reserve of the U.S.
Coast Guard and was later a member of the Coast Guard Auxiliary” and comedian
and television star Sid Caear who joined the Coast Guard in 1939. This proved
to be a boon to his carrer. Assigned to play in military shows, he caught the
attention of producer Max Liebman, who was impressed by his ability to make
other musicians laugh. Liebman took him out of the orchestra and cast him
as a comedian, jump-starting his career upon release from the Coast Guard in
1945. And the rest is show biz history. When Sid Caesar was celebrating
his 80th birthday, The Coast Guard presented him with a public
service award that read as follows:
"The
Commandant of the United Stated Coast Guard takes great pleasure in wishing a
joyous 80th birthday to Coast Guard veteran Sid Caesar and presenting to him
this Coast Guard Certificate of Appreciation, in recognition of his public
support of the Coast Guard, most notably in the early days of his career as an
actor, musician and comedian and more recently as public spokesperson for the
U.S. Coast Guard. Mr. Caesar joined the Coast Guard in 1939, after studying
saxophone at the Julliard School of Music and playing in a number of prominent
big bands. In the Coast Guard, he was assigned to play in military revues and
shows, such as "Tars and Spars," but he showed a natural penchant for
comedy by entertaining other band members with his improvised routines,
prompting show producer Max Liebman to move him from the orchestra and cast him
as a stand-up comedian to entertain troops, jump-starting his career upon his
release from the Coast Guard in 1945. After leaving the Coast Guard, Mr. Caesar
went on to perform his "war routine" in both the stage and movie
versions of the revue, and continued under Liebman's guidance after the war, in
theatrical performances in the Catskills and Florida, but he never forgot the
service that launched his career. Mr. Caesar's performance distinguished the
Coast Guard as an honorable and valuable service. Friends and acquaintances say
he always kept the Coast Guard close to his heart, especially its hardworking
enlisted members. Each and every time the Coast Guard asked Mr. Caesar for a
favor, he came through for us, whether it was speaking before the Coast Guard
Chief Petty Officers Association or recording audio public service
announcements for Coast Guard recruiting campaigns. His respect, admiration and
fondness for our service shines bright. Mr. Caesar's years of generosity,
concern and dedication to the Coast Guard family are deeply appreciated and are
in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Coast Guard and
public service."
1915: The
total contributions received by the American Jewish Relief Committee as of
today totaled $412,658.66.
1916:
President Woodrow Wilson appointed Louis D. Brandeis to the Supreme
Court. Brandeis was the first Jewish member of the court. Although
there was opposition to a Jewish justice in some quarters, Brandeis was
followed by two more distinguished Jewish Supremes - Benjamin Cardozo and Felix
Frankfurter. Brandeis was an active member of the American Jewish
Community. He was an early an ardent Zionist. Unfortunately he did
not live to see the creation of the modern state of Israel.
1916: Workers
using adding and coin counting machines under the direction Treasurer Harry
Fischel, Albert Lucas, Mrs. Samuel Elkeles and Mrs. Harry Kraft are busy
tabulating the contributions that were received yesterday, Jewish Relief Day,
include $200,000 from San Francisco, $65,000 from Cincinnati and $10,000 from
Richmond, VA.
1916: A check
was received in the mail today at the headquarters for Jewish Relief Day for $100
from Douglas Robinson, the brother-in-law of Former President Teddy Roosevelt.
1916: During
the trial of a Jews in Galicia, the Polish Assistant Public Prosecutor alleged
“that the Jewish religion teaches that revenge on non-Jews is justified” which
will lead the Zionist organiations protesting to the government against this
libel and demanding a inquiry into the matter.
1917: Among
the gifts acknowledged by the American Jewish Relief Committee were $10,000
from the Chicago Committee and $1,000 each from committees in Louisville, KY,
Indianapolis, Indiana, Des Moines, Iowa and Corsicana, TX. (Editor’s note: the list of Committees
outside of the Northeastern United States should serve as a reminder that there
were thriving Jewish communities in a wide variety of locations.)
1917: James
Malcom, an Armenian businessman and advocate for an independent Armenian state,
introduced Chaim Weitzman to Sir Mark Sykes. Sykes was a protégé of Lord
Kichner and a dominant, if not the dominant, force in forming British policy in
the Middle East. Weitzman was seeking Sykes’ support for the creation of
a Jewish national home in Palestine after World War I
1917: Dr.
Schmarya Levin is scheduled to “address the Harlem Forum in the Wadleigh High
School” this morning.
1917: The
Commissioner of Foods and Markets is scheduled to “speak at the Evening Forum
of the Free Synagogue” this evening.
1917(5th
of Shevat, 5677): Rabbi Avraham Eliezer Alperstein the native of Belarus who
was of the teachers at REITS and was one of the founders of Agudath Harabbonim
passed away today in New York.
http://www.crcweb.org/rabbis/Alperstein%20Avraham%20Eliezer%201853-1917.pdf
1918(15th of
Shevat, 5678): Tu B'Shvat
1918(15th
of Shevat, 5678): Seventy-five-year-old Mrs. Jacob Panken, the mother Jacob
Panken, the Socialist-pacifist Judge of the Municipal Court, passed away
suddenly tonight after suffering a heart attack which was thought to have been
“brought on by the excitement” stemming from upcoming appearance before a draft
board in the Bronx where she was going to plead for a military exemption for
her 25-year-old son Novie.
1918 In
Jerusalem, the cornerstone is laid for Hebrew University.
1918:
Birthdate of New York native Hilliard Goldsmith who gained fame as lyricist Bob
Hillard who gave us the words to such well-known hits as “Our Day Will Come,”
“My Little Corner of the World” and “Dear Hearts and Gentle People.”
https://www.songhall.org/profile/Bob_Hilliard
1918: In the
United Kingdom, a special conference of the labor movement is scheduled to
consider a special memorandum recommending “that Jews in all countries enjoy
the common elementary rights of tolerance, freedom of residence and trade and
equal citizenship and that Palestine be set free from the oppressive government
of the Turk and formed into a free State, under international guarantee, to
which such of the Jewish people as desire to do so may return.”
1918: Leon
Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein) became leader of “the Reds.”
1919(27th
of Shevat, 5679): Fifty-nine year old Walter Meyer Steppacher, the Philadelphia
born son of Wolf and Caroline Meyer Steppacher, the husband of Leah Gans
Steppacher and the father of Walter, Lester and George Steppacher passed away
in New York after which he was buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in Philadelphia.
1919: Beatty
v. Guggenheim Exploration Co., a US trusts law case, concerning the test for
the imposition of a constructive trust best known for a quote from the leading
opinion by Justice Cardozo -“The constructive trust is the formula through
which the conscience of equity finds expression. When property has been
acquired in such circumstances that the holder of the legal title may not in
good conscience retain the beneficial interest, equity converts him into a
trustee” was decided today.
1920: A mass
meeting of Socialists including Louis Waldman is scheduled to take place this
evening in Madison Square Garden to show support for those who were suspended
from the New York State Assembly.
1921(29th
of Shevat, 5681): Parashat Yitro
1921(29th
of Shevat, 5681): Seventy-three-year-old decorated Rear Admiral Edward David
Taussig, the son of a wool broker, Charles Taussig and his
wife, Anna Abeles, Jews who had emigrated from Austria in 1840 but who was
brought up in the Unitarian Church and who was the first of four generations to
graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy passed away today in Newport, RI.
1922: It was
reported to that the directors of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association adopted a
resolution praising the late Moses Crystal for “his years of valuable work for
the Jewish youth of” Baltimore, MD.
1922: The
Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Govan in Glasgow launched the
SS Athenia, the first British passenger vessel sunk by a German U-boat in World
War II which counted among the survivors was Kalmen Kaplansky.
http://www.historyofrights.com/bios/kaplansky.html
1923: The
First "Reich’s Party" (NSDAP) forms in Munich. These are the
Nazis.
1923: In the
Bronx, Russian-Jewish immigrants Harry and Gussie (Stuchevsky) Chayefsky gave
birth to Sidney Aaron Chayefsky who gained fame as three-time Oscar
winning playwright, novelist and
screenwriter “Paddy” Chayefsky who was an opponent of McCarthyism, a worker in
the cause of allowing Jews to leave the Soviet and a supporter of Israel who
early on said that the term “Anti-Zionism” was a polite code for being
anti-Semitic.
1924: In the
Bronx, Charles Ledner, “a furniture salesman” and “the former Beulah Levy gave
birth to
Albert Charles
Ledner, the WW II veteran and graduate of the Tulane School of Architecture.
1924: Charley
Phil Rosenberg, who had spent part of his childhood in the Hebrew Orphan
Asylum, suffered a rare defeat on his way to winning the Bantamweight World
Championship in 1925.
1925(3rd
of Shevat, 5685): Fifty-six-year-old Jewish philanthropist Joseph Smolensky,
the founder of the Jewish Court of Arbitration and the builder of the Salanter
Hebrew Free School passed away today.
1925:
Birthdate of Russian born Australian trained physician who became a leading
cancer researcher and professor of Medicine at Oxford University in England.
1926(13th of
Shevat, 5686): Kaufman Kohler, the German born American leader who was one of
the great leaders of Reform Judaism, passed away today in New York at the age
of 83.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F70913FB395D13738DDDA00A94D9405B868EF1D3
1927: “A
conference celebrating Brooklyn Jewish Women’s Day” is scheduled to be “held
today at the Union Temple at Eastern Parkway and Plaza Street in Brooklyn
1928:
Birthdate of Hal Prince, American stage producer and director.
1929: The
British government is reportedly planning on building a road to the Megiddo
Excavation which is being funded by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
1929: Today
mobster Bugsy “Siegel married his childhood sweetheart Esta Krakower, the
mother of his two children – Millicent and Barbara.”
1930: Today,
Albert Einstein sent a letter to Issa El-Issa, the editor of Falastin, “a
Palestinian newspaper based in Jaffa founded in 1911” in which he said, in
part, “I am convinced that the devotion of the Jewish people to Palestine will
benefit all the inhabitants of the country, not only materially, but also
culturally and nationally” and “I believe that the Arab renaissance in the vast
expanse of territory now occupied by the Arabs stands only to gain from Jewish
sympathy.”
1930: It was
reported today that the Order of Merit has been awarded to Oscar Straus by the
Austrian Government “as a writer of light opera” on “the occasion” of “the 25th
anniversary of the composer as a writer of music scores.”
1931:
According to a report made public today “by Morris Rothenberg, chairman of the
American Palestine Campaign, which is conducting a campaign to raise $2,500,000
before next July for Jewish colonization activities in Palestine, in the last
nine years the Jews of the United States contributed $11,258,630 to the
Palestine Foundation Fund or 53 per cent of the total from all parts of the
world…”
1932: In
Chicago, Jackie Fields won a ten round decision “to regain the world
welterweight title he had lost last year.” (As reported by Bob Wechsler).
1933(1st
of Shevat, 5693): Parashat Vaera; Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1933: “The
annual convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of the United
States opened tonight in the Ohab Zedek Synagogue, 118 West Ninety-fifth
Street, with about 1,000 delegates from throughout the nation, at the Hotel
Edison.”
1933(1st
of Shevat, 5693): Parashat Vaera; Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1933: “The
annual convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of the United
States opened tonight in the Ohab Zedek Synagogue, 118 West Ninety-fifth
Street, and will continue today and tomorrow, with about 1,000 delegates from
throughout the nation, at the Hotel Edison.”
1934 (12th of
Shevat, 5694): German Chemist Fritz Haber passed away
at the age of 65. Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1918.
1934:
Morris Margolies and Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein are scheduled to speak at a
“symposium on ‘Zionist Policies in Palestine’ at the Jewish Fellowship” today.
1934:
In St. Louis Joseph and Zelma Bosse Feldman gave birth to Tulane grad Martin
Feldman who began serving as a Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court in 2010.
1935(24th
of Shevat, 5695): Seventy-two-year-old Baltimore native and CCNY grad Richard Aaron
Guinzburg, the President of Gem Paper Bag Company and active member of the
Federation of Jewish Philanthropies in New York passed away today.
1935:
Barney Ross won a ten-round decision in Miami today “to retain his world junior
welterweight title.” (A reported by Bob Wechsler)
1936(4th
of Shevat, 5696): Thirty-year-old Richard Loeb, of Leopold and Loeb infamy, was
murdered today by fellow convict James E. Day at Stateville Penitentiary after
having spent the day with fellow killer and prison pal Nathan Leopold.
1936:
“British Jewry joined today in paying tribute to King George V at services held
on the occasion of his funeral, including one led by Dr. J. H. Hertz, chief
rabbi of the British Empire in the Great Synagogue in Aldgate where “he
eulogized the late monarch as a simple, since, straightforward gentleman, a
great king and a good man and a typical Briton who to stood for fair play in
international relations.”
1936:
German mathematician Issai Schur, who had been dismissed from his position
because he was Jewish accepted an invitation to lecture in Switzerland.
1936:
Fearing an outbreak of rioting the authorities in Prsytyk, Poland, “suspended
the holding of market days for four weeks” as a result of the anti-Semitic Enek
party’s campaign to boycott Jews.
1936:
A reception was held tonight at Temple Emanu-El by the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee in honor of Sir Herbert Samuel and Simon Marks where the
attendees had pledged “to supply its share of fifteen million dollar fund to be
raised throughout the world” as long there are no plans to “aid or facilitate
the export of German goods” which some had been pushing as a quid pro quo for
improving the conditions for Jews living under the Nazis.
1936:
As Poland continues in the grip of a wave of anti-Semitism, almost 100 Jews in
Truskolaz were beaten today “following rumors that a Jew had committed a
sacrilege in a church.
1937:
In Chicago, “Sam Sotonoff, a machinist, and Jessie Berger, a homemaker” gave
birth to Bette Lee Sotonoff who gained fame as author Bette Howland whose works
included Blue in Chicago
1937(16th
of Shevat, 5697): Agnes Foreman, the Chicago born daughter of Mary Hoffman and
Joseph Foreman, a leader in the social, civic and business and youngest sister
of the Chicago political leader and National Guard Major General Milton J.
Foreman who “was chairman of the woman’s division of the war savings
organization and vice chairman o the women’s division of the State Council of
National Defense
during WW I passed away today.
1937:
In an open letter to Dr. Stephen S. Wise and Dr. Samuel Margoles, editor of The
Jewish Day, Felix Poplawski, president and Thomas Jachimiak, secretary of the
New York District of the Guild of Polish Newspapermen in America took the two
Jewish leaders to task today for their recent criticisms of Poland’s policy
toward her Jewish citizens saying that “they considered it unjust to hold the
Polish Government responsible for anti-Jewish acts and sentiment.”
1937:
“For the first time an Austrian court adopted the Third Reich’s anti-Semitic
‘race’ principles today when Judge Mifka decreed a divorce between two German
nationals – a Protestant and a Jewess – both Austrian residents on the
husband’s plea that the difference in ‘race’ between a German Protestant and a
German Jewess was itself grounds for divorce.”
1937:
Jewish students attempting to enter Warsaw University grounds today were turned
back Fascist pickets and those “who insisted on entering were pushed out and
beaten.”
1938:
Collier’s magazine published “The Fall in America 1937” H.G. Wells’ laudatory
article about “I’d Rather Be Right “a musical with a book by Moss Hart and
George S. Kaufman, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers.
1938:
In Geneva, Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden and Viscount Cranborne, the
Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs brought pressure to bear on Rumania’s
Foreign Minister, Istrate Micescu to improve the condition of the country’s
Jews by reminding him of the clauses of the Treaty of 1919 that guaranteed that
Jews would be treated as full-fledged citizens.
1938: The
Palestine Post published a major study on the extent of the 'Octopus of
Nazi Propaganda in Syria.' There were two major German propaganda centers in
the Middle East: one in Cairo for Egypt, Sudan, Palestine and Transjordan, and
the second in Baghdad, for Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The Germans proved to be
masters in the art of propaganda and anti-Semitic incitement spread by their
well-trained agents and maintained a number of exclusive, influential clubs in
major cities. Large bribes were handed over for the 'Arab victims of the Jewish
aggression in Palestine.
1939(8th
of Shevat, 5699): Parashat Bo
1939: Rabbi
Samuel H. Goldenson is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “What Our Synagogue
Should Be Today” at Temple Emanu-El.
1939: Rabbi
Jonah B. Wise is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “Jesus ben Sirah” at the
Central Synagogue.
1939: Rabbi
Nathan Stern is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “The Vision of the Beautiful”
this morning at the West End Synagogue.
1939: Rabbi
Alexander Segel is scheduled to deliver a sermon “Does God Harden Human
Hearts?” this morning at the Fort Washington Synagogue.
1939: Rabbi
Harold H. Mashioff is scheduled to deliver a sermon on “We Have Not constituted
Ourselves the Messiahs” this morning at the Temple of the Covenant.
1939(8th of
Shevat, 5699): Louis Cohen a New York mobster who murdered labor racketeer
"Kid Dropper" Nathan Kaplan and was an associate of labor racketeer
Louis "Lepke" Buchalter was killed today shortly before he was to
testify against Buchalter.
1939: U.S.
premiere of “They Made Me A Criminal” starring John Garfield, with music by Max
Steiner and produced by Benjamin Glazer and Hal Wallis
1939(8th
of Shevat, 5699): Irving Friedman, alias Danny Field, a New York mobster, was
murdered shortly before he was to testify against Louis “Lepke” Buchalter as
part of deal with D.A. Thomas Dewey.
1940:
“Likening modern dictators to Julius Caesar, an inveterate hater of Jews, the
Rabbi M.L. Perlzweig of London, England, “the head of the Northwestern London
Reform Synagogue, “declared in a sermon this morning at the Free Synagogue in
Carnegie Hall that the increasing dominance of totalitarianism throughout the
presents a definite threat to Jews and Christians alike.”
1940:
Publication of a review As A Driven Leaf, “an historical novel
describing the clash between the Greek and Hebrew Cultures” by Milton
Steinberg.
1940:
According to a dispatch from Kaunas today. “Lithuania is…understood to be
discussing the matter of the final disposal of” ten thousand refugees from
Poland “four thousand of whom are Jews with Germany.
1941: Harvey
J. Schwamm, the new Republican leader of the Seventh Assembly District urged
Wendell Willkie to run for the House of Representatives for which Frederick F.
Greenman is his second choice.
1941: Edward
L. Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud and one of the “fathers of modern
public relations,” writes a letter to the New York Times opposing a
proposal by Dr. Harwood L. Childs of Princeton University that the U.S. should
create a national propaganda ministry.
1941: “Quiet
City” a “composition for trumpet, cor anglais, and string orchestra by Aaron
Copland” which had its root in “the incidental music” for Irwin Shaw’s “Quiet
City” which premiered in 1939, “was premiered” today by “the Saidenberger
Little Symphony in New York City.
1942: 1942,
Gussie Schwebel appeared on the front page of the Forverts the day after she
had delivered “three dozen knishes” to Eleanor Roosevelt ‘at her house, 49 East
65th Street.”
1942: Today,
“Nathaniel Phillips, president of the National League of American Citizenship
amplified his statement that an enemy alien may become naturalized if at the
time of declaration of war he held a declaration of intention issued at least
two years previously or if, as the spouse of an American citizen he was exempt
from obtaining a declaration of intention or if on December 11, 1941 his
petition for final papers was pending.”
1942: In a
sign of its increasingly closer ties with the Allies, Brazil severed diplomatic
relations with all three Axis powers – a move that would eventually lead to a
declaration of war that in turn would result in Lt. Col. Waldemar Levy Cardoza
commanding a battalion of Brazilian artillery in the Italian campaign.
1943(22nd
of Shevat, 5703): Sixty-six-year-old Vincennes, Indiana native and Vincennes
University graduate Jacob Gimbel who in 1910 “financed an expedition which
explored rivers of British Guiana and studied the life habits of the symnotide,
cell-like fish” passed away today in Santa Monica, CA.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1943/01/30/87410740.pdf
1943: Over the
next 3 days, ten thousand Jews from Pruzhany, Belorussia, are deported to
Auschwitz.
1944: Leonard
Bernstein's "Jeremiah" premiered in Pittsburg.
1945: The
weekly internal report of the War Refugee Board, states that the United States
would permanently close its War Refugee office in Turkey. The outgoing
representative stated, "Inadequate sources of information and
communication channels render impossible the orderly organization or direction
from Turkey of any rescue activities...."
1945: “After a
nine-day rail journey in which the prisoners” from the camp at Furstengrube”
were given no rations, Sam Pivnik’s group arrived at KL Dora-Mittelbau today.
1945: The USS
Everglades, a destroyer tender, on which Paul L. Krinsky, the future
superintendent of the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, served as navigator when he
went on active duty with the U.S Navy, was launched today.
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. began its second week of meetings today in London.
1947(7th
of Shevat, 5707): Sixty-six-year-old to CCNY, Columbia, Harvard and NYU Law
School trained philosophy professor Morris Raphael Cohen, the Minsk born so of
Abraham Mordecai and Bessie (Farfel) Cohen and the husband of Mary Ryshpan with
whom he raised two children Leonora and Felix S. Cohen, passed away today.
1947: Arlene
Francis and Martin Gabel gave birth to Dr. Peter Gabel the associate editor of Tikkun.
1948:
Birthdate of Shimon Ullman the Jerusalem born professor of computer science and
co-founder of Orbotech
1948:
Birthdate of Laurence Moody, the Cambridge graduate who became an English
television director.
1949: Israel
was recognized (diplomatically) by Australia, Belgium, Chile, Great Britain,
Holland, Luxembourg, and New Zealand.
1949: “Admiral
Broadway Revue” “an American live television variety show” created and directed
by Max Liebman who wrote for the show along with Mel Brooks and Mel Tolkin and
starring Sid Caesar was broadcast for the first time
1950:
Birthdate of Barbara Klein who gain fame as Barbi Benton, friend of Hugh
Hefner, Playboy Bunny and regular on the television country comedy hit, “Hee
Haw.”
1950
(10th of Shevat, 5710): On the secular calendar the date on which Joseph Isaac
Schneersohn (Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn or Friyerdikker Rebbe ("Previous
Rebbe" in Yiddish) or Rayatz) passed away. There is no way that this
blog can do justice to his life of accomplishments.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/425/jewish/The-Rebbe-Rayatz.htm
http://www.whoislog.info/profile/joseph-isaac-schneersohn.html
1951(22nd
of Shevat, 511): Fifty-five-year-old Russian born realtor and number one fan of
the Brooklyn Dodgers Edward “Eddie” Bettan, the husband of Rose Kerber Bettan
and the brother of “Dr. Israel Bettan, president of the Central Conference of
American Rabbis and an authority on Jewish preaching” who “never lived more
than five blocks form Ebbets Field, the home of the Dodgers” and who honored
with “a day” in 1948 during which he presented a television, a silverware set
and a trophy” for his fan loyalty passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1951/01/29/88430709.html?pageNumber=19
1952(1st
of Shevat, 5712): Rosh Chodesh Shevat
1952:
Birthdate of writer and director Richard Glatzer. (As reported by Ashley
Southall)
1953: The
Jerusalem Post reported that the Soviet-controlled Hungarian regime was
deporting Jews to work camps in a Soviet-inspired anti-Semitic campaign,
resembling that of the Nazi era. In a similar manner Czechoslovakia started
purging Jewish doctors in order 'to prevent the threat of a repetition of the
murder of Soviet leaders.' The Knesset approved vastly increased customs duties
on a series of commodities, including the food parcels sent to Israelis by
their relatives from abroad. This increase was expected to cover at least a
part of the budget deficit, which stood at IL 5.6 million, as claimed by the
government, or IL 25m. as claimed by the opposition.
1956: “What Is
A Producer?” published today examined the life Sir Alexander Korda whose death
“in London early last week has removed from the field of motion pictures a
remarkable and personality whose astute and able creative functioning
contributed greatly to the purposes of film.”
1956(15th
of Shevat, 5716) Shabbat Shirah; Tu B’Shevat
1956: “Ghost
Goes West Re-Materializes” published today described plans to make the “Ghost
Goes West, a film produced by the late Sir Alexander Korda into a Broadway
musical.
1958:Dore
Schary's "Sunrise at Campobello" premieres in New York City.
1958(7th
of Shevat, 5718): Seventy-year-old author Elma Ehrlich Levinger passed away
today.
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/levinger-elma-erlich
1959:
Ambassador Abba Eban is scheduled to meet with U.N. Secretary General Dag
Hammarskjold following the killing of shepherd by the Syrian forces in the
Huleh valley.
1959:
Sixty-two-year-old Johannes Kleiman, “one of the Dutch citizens who helped hide
Anne Frank and her family during the Nazi occupation of the Nethrlands” passed
away today in Amsterdam.
1959 (19th of
Shevat, 5719): Joseph Sprinzak,
Speaker of Israel Knesset from 1949 until 1959, passed away. A dedicated Labor Zionist
Sprinzak was one of the unsung founders of the early Zionist movement who
dedicated their lives to creation of the Jewish homeland.
1960(28th
of Tevet, 5720): Eighty-eight year old Orientalist Lionel David Barnett, the
son of Baron Barnett and Adelaide Barnett and husband of Blanche Esther Barnett
with whom he had two children passed away today.
1961(11th
of Shevat, 5721): Parashat Bo
1961(11th
of Shevat, 5721): Seventy-two-year-old Hadassah leader and founder of the
National Council Loula Lasker, the Galveston born daughter of Nettie
Heidenheimer Davis and Morris and the sister of philanthropist Albert Lasker
and sister of former Hadassah president Etta Lasker Rosensohn passed away today
1962: David
Morgenstern, prominent Hebrew scholar and president of the Herzliah Hebrew
Teachers Training Institute, was honored tonight at a dinner in the Pierre
Hotel in recognition of his 25 years of “dedicated service to the furtherance
of Hebrew education.” (JTA)
1964(14th
of Shevat, 5724): Sixty-four-year-old Kiev trained cantor and Zionist who lived
in the United States before settling in Israel in 1954 where he continued his
literary career passed away today.
http://yleksikon.blogspot.com/2015/08/leyb-glants-leib-glantz.html
1965: Three
days after the death of Winston Churchill, “Halina Neuman, a survivor of the
Warsaw Ghetto, wrote to The New York Times” expressing her feelings
about Britain’s war time leader. To Neuman, for those trapped in the
darkness of Nazi Europe, Churchill’s speeches and the sound of his voice were a
light, a beacon of hope and proof “that the world was not coming to an end.”
1967(17th
of Shevat, 5727): Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, the native of Tiberias who was the
only Sabra to sign the Israeli declaration of independence and who has served
as the Minister of Police since 1948 passed away today.
1967(17th
of Shevat, 5727): Forty-five-year-old virologist Alick Issacs passed way today
1967: The
dedication of the nave windows created by Marc Chagall which were described as
“the most successful and beautiful exhibition of his genius in this country”
took place today at “Union Church, in the Hudson Valley hamlet of Pocantico
Hills.”
http://forward.com/culture/353658/rediscovering-marc-chagalls-least-known-american-windows/
1968:
Following yesterday’s Shabbat services, the new chapel at Shaar Hasomayim was
formally dedicated today.
1968: Ya’acov
Ra’anan, commander of the INS Dakar, had wanted to enter his home port today
but was told to stick to the original schedule and dock the boat on January 29
as planned.
1969: In the
ever shifting sands of Israeli party politics, the Labor Party and Mapam
created a political alliance called the Alignment.
1970: “The
Molly Maguires” directed by Martin Ritt who co-produced the film with the
scriptwriter Walater Bernstein was released today in the United States.
1972: Clifford
Irving and his wife Edith confessed that the “biography of Howard Hughes” was a
fraud.
1976(26th
of Shevat, 5736): Seventy-one-year-old Shreveport native and Harvard School
trained attorney, Joseph Harrison, the former lecturer at Rutgers University
Law School and Republican political leader who served as a “judge of the Essex
County Court” and who married “former Francis Boehm Ginsberg” after the death
of his first wife “the former Amy Harvey” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1976/01/30/75570470.pdf
1977: “Cross
of Iron” a WW II movie set on the Eastern Front with a screenplay by Julius
Epstein was released in Germany today.
1983(14th
of Shevat, 5743): Forty-eight-year-old Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan passed away today.http://bible.ort.org/books/help.asp?action=displaytext&type=1&id=2
1984: A
month-long show featuring 43 paintings by expressionist Chaim Soutine is
scheduled to come to an end at the Galleri Bellman in New York City.
1985: “Crazy
from the Heat,” the “debut solo recording by David Lee Roth, the Bloomington, IN, born son of ophthalmologist
Nathan Lee Roth and teacher Sibyl Roth, was released today.
1986 (18th of
Shevat, 5746): The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff
from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members: flight commander Francis
R. "Dick" Scobee; pilot Michael J. Smith; Ronald E. McNair; Ellison
S. Onizuka; Judith A. Resnik; Gregory B. Jarvis; and schoolteacher Christa
McAuliffe. “Among the seven crewmembers killed was Judith Resnik, the first
American Jewish astronaut in space. Resnik joined the space program in 1978
after graduating from Carnegie-Mellon with a B.S. in electrical engineering and
the University of Maryland with a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Prior to the
1986 Challenger tragedy, Resnik served as the mission specialist on Discovery's
maiden voyage in 1984, logging 144 hours 57 minutes in space. Resnik was the
second American woman in space (after Sally Ride) and the fourth worldwide.
Before joining the space program, Resnik worked in the radar division of RCA,
as a biomedical engineer in neurophysics at the National Institute of Health,
and finally for the Xerox corporation. She was accepted into the NASA program,
along with five other women, in 1978. An Akron, Ohio, native, Resnik was a
classical pianist and a gourmet cook, and also enjoyed running and bicycling.
She was active in the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the
IEEE Committee on Professional Opportunities for Women, the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Association of
University Women.”
1979(29th
of Tevet, 5739): Two were killed and thirty-four more were injured when
terrorists set off a bomb in a Netanya market.
1982: “Six
leaders of major Jewish organizations attending the meeting of the Presidium of
the World Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry met U.S. Vice President Bush to
seek assurances that the Reagan Administration will strengthen its efforts in
negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning the emigration of Soviet Jews.”
1983(14th
of Shevat, 5743): Forty-eight-year-old year-old New York native Aryeh Kaplan,
the physics researchers who changed his life when he became “a practicing
rabbi” in 1965 passed away today.
1984: Today “in
the Beth-El Chapel at Temple Emanuel in New York, Carlen Ellen Cohen was
married to Guy Leeser by Rabbi Ronald B. Sobel. The bride is the daughter of
Lawrence M. Cohen of New York and Greensboro, N.C., and Mrs. Donald L.
Kreindler of New York and Bridgehampton, L.I. The bridegroom's parents are Rolf
Leeser of Amsterdam and Judge Anita B. Leeser-Gassan of Amstelveen, the
Netherlands.”
1986(18th
of Shevat, 5746): Ninety-year-old Yetta A. Wirtschafter Salzman, the daughter
of Frank and Rose Klein Wirtschafter and the wife of Samuel Salzman passed away
today after which she was buried in the Glenville Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio.
1986(18th
of Shevat, 5746): The first Jew and second woman to travel to space, Judith
Resnik lost her life in the tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in
1986, in which six other astronauts were killed.
https://jwa.org/thisweek/jan/28/1986/judith-resnik
1987: Valerian
Trifa, the Iron Guard leader who later served as archbishop
of the Romanian Orthodox Church in America and Canada died today. Trifa was
exposed and brought to justice thanks to the efforts of Zev Gola
1988:
The BBC broadcast the final episode of “Yes Minster” a satirical political
sitcom co-created and written by Jonathan Lynn.
1991: Iraq
fired another missile with a conventional warhead at Tel Aviv tonight, the
seventh attack in 12 days. But this time the army said the Scud was defective
and disintegrated as it fell back to earth. No one was hurt, and there was no
property damage. The missile had fallen apart even before any Patriot
air-defense missiles could be fired at it.
1992: As part
of “Israel: The Next Generation,” a performance is given of “‘Jabar’s Head,
a cabaret show presented in Arabic, Hebrew, and English by the Beit Hagefen
Theatre”
1992(23rd of
Shevat, 5752): Eighty-six year old Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad who led
the team that found the Cardo in the Jewish Quarter passed away today.
1992: In New
York, Laurie Simmons and Carroll Dunham gave birth to actress and poet Grace
Dunham.
1993: At New
York’s Plaza Hotel, Senator Daniel K. Inouye, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin 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,
receive the 10th annual Defender of Jerusalem Awards from the Jabotinsky
Foundation.
1993(6th
of Shevat, 5753): Seventy-six-year-old New York native, Yale trained banker and
WW II veteran Richard M. Lederer, Jr. “a former national treasurer of the ADL
and author of two highly regarded tomes – The Place Names of Westchester
County and Colonial American English.
https://www.nytimes.com/1993/02/03/obituaries/richard-lederer-76-scarsdale-s-historian.html
1993(6th
of Shevat, 5753): Fifty-two-year-old Hannah Wilke an American painter,
sculptor, photographer, video artist and performance artist passed away today
in New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/30/arts/art-view-an-artist-s-chronicle-of-a-death-foretold.html
1996 (7th of
Shevat, 5756): Jerry Siegel noted cartoonist and creator of Superman passed
away at the age of 81. Whether it is highbrow (see next entry) or lowbrow,
there always seems to be a Jew somewhere creating American Culture.
1996(7th of
Shevat, 5756): Joseph Brodsky passes away at the age of 55. Born in
Russia in 1940, the famed poet would survive persecution in his native and
exile to the United States to win the 1987 Nobel Prize for Literature and
become Poet Laureate of the United States in 1991.
1996: A
revival of David Merrick’s “Hello Dolly” closed at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
after 116 performances.
2000: “The
Three Faces of Eva” published today described the challenge Eva Moskowitz, a
member of the City Council is having to do with a check from “her mother Anne,
who fled Europe during the Holocaust.”
http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/the-three-faces-of-eva/
2000: “Isn’t
She Great” a biopic directed by Andrew Bergman, “with a screenplay by Paul
Rudnick based on a 1995 New Yorker profile by Michael Korda” starring Bette
Midler, with music by Burt Bacharach was released today in the United States.
2000(21st
of Shevat, 5760): Seventy-seven-year-old London born actress Joy Shelton who
converted to Judaism after she married actor Sydney Tafler passed away today in
Richmond upon Thames.
2001: In
Chicago, “Roman Vishniac: Children of a Vanished World” featuring 50 pictures
taken by the photographer “during the years 1935 through 1938” in which he
“turned his camera lens on Jewish life in Eastern Europe, in the hope of
focusing worldwide attention on its declining condition at the brink of
destruction” opened at the Spertus Museum.
2001: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Newest Place in the World by
Suzanne Ruta, Rethinking the Holocaust by Yehuda Bauer and the Jewish
Confederates by Robert N. Rosen.
2002(15th of
Shevat, 5762) Tu B'Shevat
2002(15th
of Shevat, 5762): Today Mark Sokolow, who escaped without injury from the
second tower of the World Trade Center during the attack on September 11, was
walking with his family in the scarred central shopping district here when a
Palestinian bomber set off an explosion that resounded throughout Jerusalem,
killing herself and an 81-year-old man and wounding 113, most of them slightly.
''I was a lot luckier last time,'' Mr. Sokolow, a 43-year-old lawyer from
Woodmere, N.Y., said as he recovered in a hospital here from shrapnel wounds to
his face and leg. ''This one involved my whole family.'' After a frantic search
for his wife and two of his daughters, he learned at the hospital that most of
their wounds were also slight, though one girl, Jamie, 12, had shrapnel in her
right eye. She was likely to retain her sight, doctors said. The blast
scattered burning body parts across Jaffa Road and sent a cloud of swirling
dust and circling pigeons into the air, witnesses said. The attack was steps
from where a Palestinian gunman raked the area with semiautomatic gunfire last
week, killing two and wounding 20 before being shot dead by the police. If the
bomber in the attack today intended to die, she would be the first female
suicide bomber to strike in Israel since such attacks began here in 1994, the
police said.
2003: Ariel
Sharon emerges victorious in Israeli elections today which included the defeat
of Amram Mitzna, the leader of the Labor Party. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and
his rightist party, Likud, crushed Israel's Labor Party in parliamentary
elections, as voters vented their doubts about any prompt, secure end to the
bitter conflict with the Palestinians.
2004: Soviet
dissident Alexander Podrabinek was summoned by the FSB to come for
interrogation today, but refused to answer the questions
2004: In
northern Greece, in the presence of US Ambassador to Athens Thomas Miller,
Nobel peace prize winner Elie Wiesel and representatives of the city's
political and cultural sectors, the memory day for Greek Jews who lost their
lives in the Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau was honored by
the Jewish community in Thessalonica.
2005:
“Barenboim Comments Sparks Anger As Controversy at Columbia” published today
described the behavior of Argentine-Israeli conductor Barenboim and the
environment which some Jewish students have to deal with at Columbia
University.
2006(28th of
Tevet, 5766): Kabbalah sage Rabbi Yitzhak Kedouri passed away at the Bikur
Holim hospital in Jerusalem. His precise age was unknown but estimated to be
somewhere between 106 and 113 years old. Rabbi Kedouri was born in Iraq at the
turn of the 20th century. He began his studies in Jewish mysticism in his
youth, before coming to Israel in 1923. Kaduri, known as "the senior
Kabbalist," is the last of a generation of Sephardic Jewish mystics. His
close circle of friends and family say he was one of the few known living
Kabbalist who used "practical Kabbalah," a type of Jewish magic aimed
at affecting a change in the world. More rational schools of Judaism are
skeptical about Kaduri's powers. Nevertheless, few doubted Kaduri's
righteousness and vast knowledge of both conventional and more esoteric Jewish
thought and law. For most of his life Kaduri was unknown to the general public.
He led a modest life of study and prayer and worked as a bookbinder. During the
past decade and a half he served as the head of Nahalat Yitzhak Yeshiva in
Jerusalem's Bukharan quarter.
2006: The
Hallmark Channel broadcast “Hidden Places” featuring Tom Bosley and co-produced
by Larry Levinson.
2006: “Nothing
Lasts Forever” a comedy produced by Lorne Michaels in 1984 that was not
released to the public, co-starring Mort Sahl, Sam Jaffe and Eddie Fisher with
music by Howard Shore was screened today at the Eastman House's Dryden Theatre
in Rochester, New York.
2007:
Maccabiah U.S.A. (MUSA) held its annual meeting in Newark, New Jersey.
2007: The New York Times featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the
Present by Michael B. Oren.
2007: The Washington Post featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the
Search for Godby the late Carl Sagan.
2007: Raleb Majadele was appointed
Minister without Portfolio making him Israel’s first Muslim cabinet officer.
2007: The Los Angeles Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including The Little Book of Plagiarism
byJudge Richard A. Posner.
2007: The Times of London featured
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including of Imposture by Benjamin Markovits.
2008:An American adaptation of
the Israeli television series “BeTipul” or “In Therapy” entitled In Treatment
premiered today on the American cable network HBO
2008: In
Seattle, Washington, the final performance of “The Westerbork Serenade a
one-person play which tells the true story of Jewish cabaret performers held by
the Nazis in the Dutch transit camp of Westerbork.
2008: U.S.
News & World Report features an article entitled “New Taste for Kosher
Food” that begins “Not only Jews look for the kosher symbol on food these days.
In a surprising turn of events, "kosher" has become the most popular
claim on new food products, trouncing "organic" and "no
additives or preservatives," according to a recent report. A noteworthy
4,719 new kosher items were launched in the United States last year—nearly
double the number of new "all natural" products, which placed second
in the report, issued last month by Mintel, a Chicago-based market research
firm. In fact, sales of kosher foods have risen an
estimated 15 percent a year for the past decade. Yet Jews, whose religious
doctrine mandates the observance of kosher dietary laws, make up only 20
percent of those buying kosher products. What gives? "It's the belief
among all consumers that kosher food is safer, a critical thing right now with
worries about the integrity of the food supply," says Marcia Mogelonsky, a
senior analyst at Mintel a Chicago based market research firm.
2008:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama saidPalestinian
refugees belong in their own state and do not have a "literal" right
of return to Israel. "The outlines of any agreement would involve ensuring
that Israel remains a Jewish state.” His statements of support for the Israeli
position on refugees came on the heels of scurrilous charges that Obama is
secretly a Muslim who received a radical Wahabi education.
2008: Israeli
officials said today that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak held talks in
Paris last week with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf even though their
countries have no diplomatic relations. The two men first met by chance in the
hotel where Barak was staying and spoke briefly, a spokeswoman from his
ministry told AFP.
2008 (21 Shevat, 5768): In Iowa City Dr. Michael Balch,
Associate Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Iowa and a
longtime member of the Jewish community passed away. Michael earned a BS in Engineering Science from Pratt Institute in 1960 an MS
from New York University in 1962 and a PhD in Mathematics from New York
University in1965. His areas of expertise were Economic behavior under
uncertainty and Theories of deterrence, arms control, and war.
2009:
Jack Lew began serving as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and
Resources.
2009:The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
presents a lecture by Yedid Kanfter entitled: “The Lodz Towers of Babel:
Industry and Religious Politics in Lodz Before the First World War” in which
the Yale University professor explores the link between Lodz and
religious infrastructure, between industry and Orthodox politics.
2009: The
Jerusalem Conference “the unique annual forum co-sponsored by Arutz Sheva for
the discussion of Israel's national priorities, social values, and aspirations”
hosts its concluding session.
2009:
“Stumbling Stone,” a documentary study of the artist Gunter Demnig and his
continuing Holocaust memorial project is shown at the New York Jewish Film
Festival.
2009: James
Steinberg began serving as the 16th United States Deputy Secretary
of State.
2009:
“Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh” opens today in
Manhattan.
2009:
It was announced today that Cherry Hills, NJ native and George Washington
University graduate Deborah Neeleman, the wife of Jacob Weisberg had left domino
magazine which had been owned by Conde Nast.
2009:Israel's chief rabbinate severed ties with the Vatican
today to protest a papal decision to reinstate. Bishop Richard Williamson, who
told Swedish TV in an interview broadcast last week that evidence "is
hugely against 6 million Jews being deliberately gassed." He said 300,000
Jews were killed at most, "but not one of them by gassing in a gas
chamber."
2010:
In New York City, closing day of "Laba’s Guests" at Laba Gallery, New
York
2010:
Walter Isaacson is scheduled to discuss and sign his new book, American
Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane, at
Barnes & Noble in Bethesda, Md.
2010:
Novelist Myla Goldberg, author of Bee Season and Wickett's
Remedy, is scheduled to “chat” about "The Story Behind the
Stories" at the D.C. Jewish Community Center. This event, co-sponsored
with George Washington University, is the launch of the JCC's new series,
"Authors Out Loud."
2010:
Elisa New is scheduled to discuss and sign her new memoir, "Jacob's Cane:
A Jewish Family's Journey from the Four Lands of Lithuania to the Ports of
London and Baltimore," at Barnes & Noble in Rockville, Md.
2010:
“Thunder Out of China” published today examines the importance of work of
Theodore White, who was a reporter in China who was a victim of the “Red Scare”
long before he gained fame as the author of “The Making of a President” series.
https://ucsdmodernchinesehistory.wordpress.com/2010/01/28/112/
2010:Israeli drip irrigation giant Netafim opened a new factory
in Turkey today despite recent diplomatic tensions between the two countries.
2010(13th
of Shevat, 5770)Seymour Bernard Sarason, professor emeritus of
psychology at Yale University passed away in New Haven, Connecticut, at the age
of 91. (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/education/08sarason.html
2011:
The 92nd St Y is scheduled to host its Shababa Bakery where children
of all ages can “squish, roll and braid” their own challah to take home and
bake for Shabbat.
2011:
Ezra Rosenfeld is scheduled to lead a guided tour of “the amazing mountain
palace and fortress of Herodion” that many consider King Herod's "Piece de
Resistance."
2011:
Rabbi Edward Feld, the senior editor of the new Rabbinical Assembly
(Conservative) High Holy Day Mahzor was not able to deliver his lecutre about
“Why Words?”—a discussion of how we relate to words in a prayer book at
Congregation Olam Tikvah in Fairfax, VA because of a snow storm and power
outage.
2011:Paraguay joined a string of South American nations in
recognizing an independent Palestinian state.
2011(22nd
of Shevat, 5771):Gerry Faier, a longtime gay activist in New York who
returned to Jewish practice in her later years, passed away today at 102. http://jwa.org/weremember/faier-gerry
2012: “Ahead of Time: The Extraordinary Journey of Ruth Gruber”
is scheduled to be shown at the Brotherhood Film Festival sponsored by
Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York and the Virginia Peninsula Jewish Film
Festival in Williamsburg, Va.
2012:Rachel Feinstein is scheduled perform on the final
night of the Minneapolis Jewish Humor Festival.
2012: In Iowa City, IA, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host
“Support Mitzvah Day 2012” a fund raiser sponsored by the Tikkun Olam
Committee.
2012:Opposition leader and Kadima party head Tzipi Livni
called for tougher sanctions against Iran today, saying that it is the
responsibility of the entire world to stop Tehran’s quest for the bomb.
2012:Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said today
that “Israeli intransigence” was behind the failure of the January
Israeli-Palestinian talks in Jordan.
2012(4th
of Shevat, 5772): Fifty-four-year-old Steven Leiber, a San Francisco art dealer
and collector who became an expert in artists’ ephemera and built an archive
that became an important resource for scholars and curators” passed away today.
(As reported by Roberta Smith)
2013:
The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is scheduled to present “Laughing All
the Way to Freedom” featuring Professor Emil Draitser, author of Taking
Penguins to the Movies.
2013:
This evening “a suspicious object” was found on the road leading to Erfat,
which turned out to be “a fake bomb” that “had been planted on the road.
2013:
Jerusalem expressed "surprise and astonishment" today at a decision
by Iran and Argentina to set up a "truth committee" to investigate
the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center that killed 85
people.
2014: “When
You Listen to a Witness, You Become a Witness,” an exhibition that “documents
the experiences of students while visiting the former Nazi concentration camps
established in Poland during WW II, is scheduled to open at the Dag
Hammarskjöld Library
2014: “Yitzhak
Bergel, the 47-year-old Jerusalem resident who allegedly spied for Iran on
behalf of extreme anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect, was sentenced by the
Jerusalem District Court today to 4.5 years in prison.” (As reported by Tova
Dvorin)
2014:
Twenty-three-year-old Abur Sara and 30 year old Abu Nagma were indicted today
on charges that they “were planning a terror attack on Binyanei Hauma in
Jerusalem and the American Embassy in Tel Aviv.” (As reported by Aris Yashar)
2015: Showtime
broadcast the last episode of “Web Therapy” starring Lisa Kudrow.
2015: Pears
Institute for the study of Antisemitism in collaboration with the Institute for
Historical Research, supported by the Department of History, Classics and
Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London are scheduled to present “Remapping
Survival: Jewish Refugees and Rescue in Soviet Central Asia, Iran and India.”
2015: The
United Nations commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day which
had been postponed due to predictions of an unprecedented snow storm which had
caused the Mayor to “close down” New York is scheduled to take place today.
2015: A
celebration of the release of “Toyznt tamen: A Thousand Flavors, a new
recording by Yiddish singer and songwriter Miryem-Khaye Seigel” is scheduled to
take place the Museum at Eldridge Street.
2015: A
verdict is expected to be rendered today in the case of three defendants who
are trial for an arson attack on the Wuppertal Synagogue last July. (As
reported by JTA)
2016: In Tel
Aviv the five day long “360 degrees music festival” is scheduled to come to an
end.
2016: The 92nd
Street Y is scheduled to host an evening with former CBS News anchor Michelle
Gielan, the author of Broadcasting Happiness.
January 28,
2017(1st of Shevat, 5777): Rosh Chodesh Shevat; Parashat Va-ayrah;
2017: “Stormy
weather washed several dozen explosive fuses up onto beaches in Tel Aviv and
Herzliya today, police said warning the public to exercise caution.”
2017: An
exhibition “WOMEN: New Portraits Annie Leibovit” is scheduled to continue its
ten city tour with an opening in Zurich.
2017: Russ and
Daughter’s is scheduled to host its first “Lox Without the Lines” a pre-paid
Shabbat brunch at the Jewish Museum that is both kosher and in keeping with
Jewish Sabbatical laws.
2017: After
years of service to the Jewish Community of Iowa City and the University of
Iowa, Agudas Achim is scheduled to host a farewell Kiddush for Jerry Sorkin.
2017: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host the Seudah Shlishit
featuring a talk by Chaplain Michael Rosenfeld-Schueler
2018:
The Center for Jewish History is scheduled to host “International Ladino Day: A
Celebration of Story and Song.”
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3132932
2018: Sara
Aharaon is scheduled to lecture on The Jews of Afghanistan: History, Culture
and Muslim-Jewish Relations at the Hudson Yards Synagogue.
2018:
The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is
scheduled to co-host a presentation by Murry Sidlin, President and Creative
Director of the Defiant Requiem Foundation that provides an overview of about
twenty composers who created many works at Terezin, the "model"
ghetto/concentration camp established by the Nazis outside of Prague.
2018: This
“evening, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Polish counterpart, Mateusz
Morawiecki, held talks and “agreed to immediately open a dialogue between
staffs of the two countries, in order to try and reach an understanding over
the legislation…”
2018: The
final screening “An Act of Defiance,” the winner of the Dorfman Best Film Award
in 2017 is scheduled to take place today at Reel Borehamwood
2018: The
curtain is scheduled to come down “A Sick Day for Morris McGee” which Yedioth
Ahronoth described as “a work full of charm and ingenuity” at the New Victory
Theatre.
2018: The New York Times features reviews of
books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Trumpocracy:
The Corruption of the American Republic by David Frum, Fire and Fury:
Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff and The Last Man Who Knew
Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age
by David N. Schwartz
2018: Final
day for registering for Tablet’s January Book Giveaway.
http://www.tabletmag.com/giveaways/january-2018-book-giveaway?lucky=22230
2019: The American
Sephardi Federation and Associate are scheduled to present the second day of
“The Jewish Africa Conference: Past, Present and Future.”
2019: The Yeshiva
University Museum is scheduled to host “curator Jacob Wisse as he leads a tour
of ‘Lost and Found,’ exploring the remarkable story of a pre-war family photo
album that was owned by a woman who was deported from the Kovno Ghetto in
1943.”
2019: Following
yesterday’s approval by Israel’s cabinet of “a law to allow exports of medical
cannabis” supporters such as Shai Babad, the director-general of the finance
ministry, will have their chance to that “the new law would ‘lead to the
development of the economy, agriculture, industry and medicine in Israel.’”
2019:
“Houston-Tiillotson University in Austin, TX” is scheduled to host “a screening
of ‘Rosenwald’” today followed by “a panel discussion with Aviva Kempner” and
two historians from the school.
2019(22nd
of Shevat, 5779): On the Jewish calendar, yahrzeit of Rabbi Meanchem Mendel of
Kotzk.
http://www.aish.com/dijh/Shevat_22.html
2020: Prime Minister
Netanyahu, who is under indictment for criminal activity, and President Trump
whose impeachment is being tried in the United States, are scheduled to meet
today in Washington, along with “four major settler leaders” to discuss the administration’s
new peace plan which is being made public today in what some might say is a
“wag the dog moment.”
2020: In San
Francisco, Congregation Ner Tamid is scheduled to host “Gandhi, Buber and
Krstallnacht” during which Howard Simon, the board president of HAMAQOM talks
about the overlapping philosophies of Ghandi and Buber.”
2020: YIVO is
scheduled to host “Ten Years Without Avrom Sutkever,” a remembrance of “the
greatest poet of the Holocaust,” Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkevrer who was also “a
partisan fighter and book smuggler.”
2020: In Cambridge,
MA, Mamaleh’s Delicatessen is scheduled to host:” a live, interactive podcast
recording about the history and evolution of Israeli food.”
2020: “Crescendo” is
scheduled to the last film shown at this year’s New York Jewish Film Festival.
2021(15th
of Shevat, 5781): Tu B’Shevat
2021: In Cedar
Rapids, despite the lingering effects of the derecho and the on-going Pandemic,
thanks to the efforts of the Ritual and Tikkun Olam committees the Jewish
community is enjoying the home delivered Tu B’Shevat “goody bags” and looking
forward to a Tu B’Shevat Seder.
2021: TheNatan Fund, Jewish Book Council, and three Natan Book
honorees—Susie Linfield, Nancy Sinkoff, and James Loeffler are scheduled to
host a discussion of how Hannah Arendt and Lucy Dawidowicz wrestled with the
meaning of the Holocaust, Jewish political vulnerability, and Zionism.
2021: The ASF
Institute of Jewish Experience is scheduled to present: Seder Tu BiShevat, “a
wonderful gathering of Sephardi communities around the world in honor of Tu
BiShevat.”
2021: Yiddishkayt is
scheduled to host a screening of “I Walked with a Zombie” online via Facebook
and YouTube.
2021: The Breman
Museum's Atlanta Jewish History Talks, a six parts series, is scheduled to
begin today.
2021: Today, “A
Knesset panel approved the breakup of
the predominantly Arab Joint List party, whose four factions are now set to run
in the March elections as three separate parties, increasing the odds that at
least one of them will fail to pass the electoral threshold.”
2021: The Hebrew
College is scheduled to present online “Rabbinical Training and Jewish
Leadership in an Era of Climate Crisis.”
2021: As part of a
virtual “All-Star Tu B’Shevat Celebration” the “PJ Library, JCC East Bay, Edah
Studio 70 and Urban Adamah are scheduled to present a family concert featuring
no fewer than seven musicians and song leaders.”
2021: The Jewish Bar
Association of San Francisco is scheduled to co-present “ADL regional director
Seth Brysk, Stan Levy of the Western Center on Law and Poverty and
author-lawyer Marlene Trestman talking about the history of Jewish lawyers in
social-justice movements.”
2021: In Palm Beach
Gardens, FL, Temple Judea is scheduled to host a Tu B’Shevat Seder this
afternoon followed this evening by a service honoring “Debbie Friedman on her
10th Yahrzeit with an evening of song and memory – Sing Unto God.”
2021: The Jewish
Climate Action Network is scheduled to present online “Climate Goals Now: What
Will Your Synagogue’s Carbon Impact Be in Seven Years?”
2021(15th of Shevat, 5779): On the
Jewish calendar Yahrzeit of Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Sir
Winston Churchill – a marvelous historian who had the writing skills of
novelist – but who always had time to answer the questions of the most inconsequential
of his readers. If you have never had the pleasure of reading his work
you might want to start with Israel: A History or Jerusalem in the Twentieth
Century or In Ishmael’s House or… well the list is almost endless.
https://www.martingilbert.com/blatt/in-honour-of-martin/
2022: The Cleveland Jewish News is scheduled to
publish a special section “Local-Lawyers-Super Attorneys” which “will include
information about Jewish attorneys, profile some unique lawyers and include a
list of award winners within the legal community.”
2022: Kan Kol Hamusika is scheduled to broadcast live a Young Artists Concert featuring the winners
of the 2020 “Kan Voice Of Music” Young Artists Competition.
2022: Temple Sinai of Marblehead is scheduled to present
online “From Germany to America: A Family’s Legacy Preserved in Porcelain.”
2022: In the wake of the report that“since the beginning of
January, 1,256,077 Israelis have tested for coronavirus, accounting for 47.5%
of the country's total caseload since the beginning of the pandemic two years
ago and yesterday’s violent Palestinian riots in Jerusalem, Israelis are that
they are confronted with deadly COVID virus and the virus of violence.
2023: The Edin Tamir Center is scheduled to “A
Moring in C” featuring Daniel Aizenshtadt, violin;
Haran Meltzer, cello and Shir Semmel, piano
2023: Violins of Hope, a project of concerts
based on a private collection of violins, violas, and cellos all collected
since the end of World War II, many of which belonged to Jews before and during
the war is scheduled to come an today at the National WW II Museum in New
Orleans.
2023: In Palo Alto, CA, the Oshman Family JCC is
scheduled to host Rabbi Warshawsky as he performs a Shabbat-ending concert with
violinist Coleen Dieker, bassist Brock Pollock, percussionist Lior Shragg and
singer Rabbi Amanda Russell.
2023: The Kosciuszko Foundation on Manhattan’s
Upper East is scheduled to host Jennifer Montone, Principal Horn of the mighty
Philadelphia Orchestra for an evening of “music of the Schumanns (Clara &
Robert) and Johannes Brahms, whose tangled relationships comprised everything
from admirer to confidant and unrequited joy.”
2023: All decent people mourn the death of the
seven people killed in a Jerusalem synagogue and pray for “a perfect healing”
for those wounded by the Palestinian terrorist who performed his evil deed on
International Holocaust Memorial Day.
2023(6th of Shevat, 5783): Parashat Bo
2024: The Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines
is scheduled to present a telling of "A Lucky Lie," the story of
David Wolnerman's survival during the Holocaust at the Melva and Martin Bucksbaum
Auditorium.
2024: The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including The Showman:Inside the
Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky by Simon Shuster.
2024: At Agnon House, Dr. Yahil Zaban is
scheduled to deliver a lecture on “Neighborliness and Malchut: Reading the
Works of Nathan Alterman.”
2024: The Alliance for Jewish Theatre is
scheduled to host “Meet the Machers” where attendees can AJT’s Theatremacers
who are the next generation of Jewish Theatre Artists.
2024: The Center for Jewish History is scheduled
to present “Addressing Antisemitism: Contemporary Challenges” which seeks to
explain the recent upsurge of Jew hatred in the contemporary world.
https://cjh.org/addressing-antisemitism/
2024:
As January 28th begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 114 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.)