February 14
842:
Charles the Bald and Louis the German swear the Oaths of Strasbourg in the
French and German languages. The two monarchs were grandsons of Charlemagne,
making them cousins. Charles, like the other Carolingian monarchs he refused to
enforce the anti-Jewish decrees promulgated by the Church. This was a matter of
economic reality; not an example of philo-Jewishness.
1014:
Henry II who was already King of Germany and King of Italy was crowned as
Emperor of the Holy Roman Emperor. The first serious persecution of the
Jew in Germany began at the start of the 11th century under the
reign of Henry. Among other things, Henry issued a decree expelling the
Jews from Mayence because they refused to be baptized. Some of Henry’s
enmity towards the Jews may be traced back to the conversion of Wecelinus, the
chaplain to Duke Conrad to Judaism. Conrad was a relative of Henry’s and
Christian nobility did not take kindly to such changes. The poet Simon
ben Isaac and Gershom ben Judah both composed dirges to mark this sad turn of
events.
1076:
Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. This
dispute between Pope and Royal Ruler was one of many struggles that ranged
between Princes of the Church and Temporal Princes for political power.
This one did not involve the Jews but it did affect them. For his time,
Henry treated his Jewish subjects well. He challenged the anti-Semitism
of the many church officials by claiming his Jewish subjects as “belonging to
our Chamber.” In other words they came under his jurisdiction and
protection. Seeing the economic benefit of allowing the Jews to play an
active role in his realm, Henry exempted the Jews from “custom duties in
imperial towns and they enjoyed trade and travel privileges throughout his
empire.” History may remember the penitent Henry shivering in the snows
outside the Papal Palace. For the Jews, he was a bright beacon in world
growing ever darker under the menace of crusader mobs.
1130:
“The Jewish Cardinal” Pietro Pierleone was elected Pope under the name of
Anacletus II. The Church counts him as one of the anti-popes. According
to at least one source, Anacletus II was a member of one of the most powerful
and wealthiest senatorial families in Rome. At the same time, the family
was reported to have Jewish roots and had supposedly amassed its fortune
through money lending. Apparently, the Church’s difficulty in knowing how to
deal with Jewish converts was not just a 20th century phenomenon.
1349(25th
of Adar I, 5109): In Strasbourg, a riot ensued in the town after corn prices
fell. The Jews were accused (despite the protests of the city council) of a
conspiracy. The entire Jewish population (2000) were dragged to the cemetery
and burned to death. Only those who accepted Christianity were allowed to live.
A new council was elected which voted that Jews could not return for 100 years
and their property and possessions were divided among the burghers. Twenty
years later, the Jews were readmitted.
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/48892792.html?s=mpw
1546:
Three days before his death, Martin Luther preached his final sermon. “The
subject of his final sermon…is ‘obdurate Jews’ and the urgency of expelling
them all from German lands. According to Martin Luther, ‘we want to practice
Christian love toward them and pray that they convert, [but they are] our
public enemies ... and if they could kill us all, they would gladly do so. And
so often they do.’ Thus the expulsion or even killing of Jews can be viewed by
Christians as form of self-defense. This is exactly the excuse given by
anti-Semites in Europe for centuries to come…”
1556:
Thomas Cranmer who named Archbishop of Canterbury by Henry VIII was condemned
as a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church. Whatever his difference with
Rome, Cranmer took a pretty traditional view of things when it came to Jews.
Citing St. Augustine, Cranmer declared that even if “Jews…do good works” like
clothing the naked, feeding the poor and performing “other good works of mercy”
they will be lost because they do not believe in Jesus.
1623:
Moshe Zacut who is buried in the Portuguese cemetery in Altona and who may have
been the father of Rabbi Moshe Zacut known as the “Remez” passed away today.
1667:
The end of the practice known as “Black Monday.” Prior to this date, the Jews
of Rome had been subjected to a humiliating medieval practice of running a race
in the Roman carnivals, scantily clad, amid insults and blows. This practice of
"Black Monday" named for the day of the week during the Carnival
Season on which it took place was not practiced after 1667.
1670:
Leopold I ordered Jews to be expelled from Vienna within a few months. Although
Leopold was reluctant to lose the large amount of taxes (50,000 Florins) paid
by the Jews, he was persuaded to do so by his wife Margaret, the daughter of
the Phillip IV Spanish Regent, and a strong follower of the Jesuits Margaret
blamed the death of her firstborn on the tolerance shown to the Jews.
1674:
Barbados passed a law granting the Jewish community the permission they
requested. In the 1660's the Jewish community of Barbados became established
and of considerable importance. The Jewish community, however, had a decided
disadvantage in that their testimony was not admissible in court cases due to
their refusal to take an oath on a Christian Bible. In October 1669 the Jewish
community presented the king a petition requesting permission to take be able
to take oaths on the Five Books of Moses, the Jewish Bible’
1685(10th
of Adar): Rabbi Joseph Chajes of Lemberg, author Ben Porot Yosef passed away
today.
1722:
Fifty-eight year old Frankfurt am Main native Johann Jakob Schudt a gentile who
wrote ‘a preface to Grünhut's edition of David Ḳimḥi's Commentary on the Psalms
in 1712 and published the Purim play of the Frankfurt and Prague Jews with a
High German translation 1716” but who also published Judæus Christicida, in
which he attempted “to prove that Jews deserved corporal as well as spiritual
punishment for the crucifixion” and Jüdische Merkwürdigkeiten which “is full of prejudice, and repeats many
of the fables and ridiculous items published by Johann Andreas Eisenmenger;
but also contains details of
contemporary Jewish life, a source for the history of the Jews, particularly
those of Frankfurt” passed away today.
1727:
Benedict XIII issued Emanavit nuper, a Papal Bull, dealing with “the
necessary conditions for imposing Baptism on a Jew.”
1743:
Henry Pelham, a member of the Whigs, became British Prime Minister. In 1753
Pelham “brought in the Jew Bill of 1753, which allowed Jews to become
naturalized by application to Parliament.” The House of Lords approved the
bill. But the Tories in the House of Commons tried to defeat it claiming
it was “an abandonment of Christianity.” However, Pelham and the Whigs
prevailed and the bill passed and then was approved by the crown.
1766:
Birthdate of economist Thomas Malthus whose theories were examined by Gertrude
Himmelfarb in The Idea of Poverty. (She was Jewish, he was not)
1767(15th
of Adar I, 5527): Parashat Ki Tisa; Shushan Purim Katan
1772:
A day after he passed away on Shabbat, Isaac Isaac ben Moshe Shneour was buried
today at the Alderney Road Jewish Cemetery in the United Kingdom.
1784:
In London Benvenida de Isaac Solis, the daughter of Isaac Henriques Henriques
Valentine and Simha Mandil and her husband Solomon da Silva Solis gave birth to
Daniel da Silva Solis, the husband of Sarah Norris with whom he had five
children.
1805(15th
of Adar I, 5565): Shushan Purim Katan
1807:
In Wankheim, Germany, Lea and Simon Seev Hirsch gave birth to Leopold Hirsch,
the husband of Therese Tolzele Hirsch.
1808:
In Germany, Sara Aub and Alexander Mack gave birth to Wolfgang Mack, the
husband of Louise Geldersheimer and father of Adolph Mack.
1816:
Nathan Emanuel, the son of Michael Nathan Emanuel married Sarah Gomez today.
1827:
Bluma Jacobs and Joseph Levy gave birth to Israel Levy, the husband of
Elizabeth Harris, Adelaide Levy, Sara Ellis and Esther Levy.
1827:
Abraham Levy married Louisa Judah today at the Great Synagogue.
1833:
In Middlesex, Hannah Levy and Michael Emanuel gave birth to Lionel Emanuel.
1833:
Birthdate of Warsaw native Henry (Hayyim Gershon) Vidaver, the prominent rabbi,
publisher, Hebraist and orator who passed away in San Francisco, CA in 1882. “In 1859, Vidaver
immigrated to the United States, and became the rabbi of Congregation Rodeph
Shalom in Philadelphia. In 1861 he resigned his position and moved to Germany
then returned to the U.S. in 1865 to become rabbi of United Hebrew Congregation
in St. Louis, Missouri where he withdrew his support for the Confederacy and
wrote in praise of Abraham Lincoln. In 1867, he assumed the pulpit of the B'nai
Jeshurun in New York and from 1874 until his death in 1882 served as rabbi of
Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco. Vidaver and Jacob Levinski
co-authored the first abridged Hebrew Bible, which was published in 1869. He
also commonly published poems in Hebrew about Jerusalem and other Jewish issues
in Hebrew newspapers, such as Havatzelet.
http://www.jmaw.org/vidaver-jewish-san-francisco/
1835(15th
of Shevat, 5595): Parashat Beshalach; Shabbat Shirah; Tu B’Sheavat
1836:
In London, Isabella and Simcha Cohen gave birth to Catherine Cohen.
1838:
Birthdate of New Orleans resident Abraham Kory, the husband of Carrie Lichtenstadter
Kory and the father of Edward, Eugene and Rabbi Sol Kory.
1843(14th
of Adar I, 5603): Purim Katan observed on the same day that “a broadside poster
advertising Pablo Fanque's Circus Royal show in Rochdale, which inspired, and
provided many of the lyrics for, the Beatles' song, "Being for the Benefit
of Mr. Kite!" appeared for the first time.
1844:
Birthdate of Galician novelist Mordecai David Brandstadter.
1846:
Today, Irish nationalist put forth his views that the government did not
understand millions of people in Ireland would not have anything because of the
“Potato Famine” to the victims of which
Baron Lionel de Rothschild and his family gave so much aid a newspaper in
Dublin wrote that he had “...contributed during the Irish famine of 1847 ... a
sum far beyond the joint contributions of the Devonshires, and Herefords,
Lansdownes, Fitzwilliams and Herberts, who annually drew so many times that
amount from their Irish estates.”
1849:
George Judah Cohen, the English born son of Sierlah Levy and Barnett Cohen
Married Rosetta “Rose” Solomon in Maitland, NSW, Australia
1853:
In Camden Town, London, Adam Speilmann the son of Michelle and Lewin (Judah)
Spielmann and his wife Marian Spielmann gave birth to Annie Jessie Speilmann
who became Annie Jessie Wiener when she married Edouard Samson Wiener with whom
she had four children – Marian, Lionel, Ernest and Dora.
1854(16th
of Shevat, 5614): Fifty-four-year-old Mathilde Verveer, the Hague born daughter of Leonardus Levy Abraham Verveer and
Caroline Elkan passed away today in the Netherlands.
1858(30th
of Shevat, 5618): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1858(30th
of Shevat, 5618): Fifty-seven-year-old Julia Levy, the Amsterdam born daughter
of Rachel Cornelia Bernard and Abraham Levy who were married in Holland and the
wife Henry Solomon with whom she had four children – Rachel, Simo, Louis and
Isaac – passed away today in Atlanta, GA.
1858:
Four days after he had passed away, John Hart, the son of Naphtali and Sarah
Cohen and father of Miriam Hart was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1859:
Oregon admitted as the 33rd U.S. state. By the time Oregon joined the Union,
Portland already boasted an active Jewish community which “launched its first
congregation” in 1858. Despite their comparatively small numbers, several
Jews have held public office in Oregon including Senators Joseph Simon and Richard L. Neuberger and Governors Julius L. Meier and Neil Goldschmidt.
(Senator Neuberger’s wife who was also a Senator from Oregon was not Jewish;
hence she is not listed.)
1860:
In Breslau, Mathilde (née Kassel) Schiffer and Bernhard Schiffer gave birth to
Eugen Schiffer, the lawyer and political leader whose career in public service
ran from the days of the Kaiser to the Weimar Republic.
1860(21st
of Shevat, 5620): Sixty-four-year-old Rachel Nunez Cardozo, the daughter of
Isaac Nunez Cardozo, the London born New York merchant who was part of a
company of Jews who fought to defend Charleston during the American Revolution
who married Joseph Phillips in 1839 after having been married to Simon Caufman
passed away today in New York City.
1861:
During the session of the New York State Legislature, Mr. Woodruff introduced a
bill today to appropriate $35,000 out of the State Treasury to the Hebrew
Orphan Asylum of New-York City, for a building, as soon as $20,000 has been
expended by the Trustees.
1861:
In Maryland, Leopold Luchs, the Bavarian born son of Judith Marx Luchs and
Seligman Pinchas Luchs and his wife Hannah Luchs gave birth to Augusta Luchs
Spear, the wife of Abraham Spear.
1862(14th
of Adar I, 5622): Purim Katan
1862:
Philadelphian Abraham Hart was promoted to the rank of Captain in Company I of
the Seventy-Third Regiment.
1864:
Birthdate of Israel Zangwill. Zangwill is a name known to few today, but in his
time he was an intellectual power. Zangwill was born in London and
achieved fame by writing a number of novels many on Jewish themes including Children
of the Ghetto, Ghetto Tragedies and The King of Schnorrers.
Zangwill first met with Herzl in 1896 and attended the First (and all
successive) Zionist Congress. He supported Herzl's Uganda plan and following
its rejection, led the Territorialists out of the Zionist organization in 1905.
He established the Jewish Territorialists Organization (ITO) whose object was
to acquire a Jewish homeland wherever possible. Following the securing of the
Balfour declaration, the ITO fell into decline and by 1925 it was officially
dissolved. Zangwill supported Zionist efforts in Eretz Israel calling for a
radical approach both as regards the demand for the early establishment of a
Jewish State and the solution of the Arab question. He passed away in 1926
1864:
In Kalwarya, Russia, Tanhum and Rachel Deborah (Alterman) Schulman gave birth
to Samuel Schulman who served as the spiritual leader of Montana’s first
synagogue, Temple Emanuel before eventually moving to New York where he
succeeded Kaufman Kohler as head of Temple Beth-El and then served as the rabbi
for Temple Emanu-El when it absorbed his former congregation.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0090/ms0090.html
1865:
Twenty-two-year-old Bavarian immigrant Abraham Abraham and Joseph Wechlser “opened a 25-foot-wide dry goods store” known
s Wechlser and Abraham today which would become Abraham and Strauss, a
commercial enterprise that would “pass into mercantile history” 130 years later
in April of 1995.
1865:
Birthdate of Russian native and CCNY graduate Samuel Schulman who was ordained
by the Higher Institute for Jewish Studies in Berlin and whose career stretched
from rural Helena, Montanan to Temple Emanu-El in New York City.
http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0090/ms0090.html
1869: Members of the Tunis Alliance Israelite
Universelle Committee wrote to Adolphe Cremieux, President of the AIU in Paris
describing the desperate condition of Jews in Tunisia where “The Tunisian Jews,
simply as Jews, are constantly exposed to stringent measures on the part of the
local authorities; they have no legal rights and are treated by the population
with utmost hostility.”
1869: In
Augsburg, Bavaria, Pauline Hirschfeld, the daughter of Simon and Rachel Ausch
and her husband Dr. Jacob Jacques Heinrich Hirschfeld, the son of Marie and
Emanuel Isak Hirschfeld gave birth to Leo Hirschfeld who became known as Leo
Feld, whose second wife was Maria Magdalena Feld.
1869:
Birthdate of Boston native Rebecca Kantorowicz Aronson, the husband of Max H.
Aronson and mother of Henry, Miriam, Leopold, Sidney, Dorothy, Ruth, Juliette,
Lillian and Alberta Aronson
1871:
During the Franco-Prussian Adolphe Crémieux, a leading member of the French Jewish
community, along with several of his parliamentary colleagues, resigned their
positions in the government France
1872: In
Bucharest, members of the diplomatic corps, united in demanding that Prince
Charles von Hohenzollern who is King Carol I of Romania, provide protection for
his Jewish subjects. [The issue of Romania’s Jews would plague European
affairs up to WW I.]
1877:
University of Northwick College graduate Rabbi Frederick de sola Mendes, the
Jamaica, West Indies born of Rabbi Abraham Pereira and Eliz (de Sola) Mendes,
who had been serving as the leader of Shaaray Tefillah Congregation in New York
since 1874 married Isabel Frances Cohen.
1877:
In Berlin, gynecologist Leopold Landau and Johanna Jacoby, a member of the
famous Jewish banking Jacoby family gave birth to Edmund Georg Hermann Landau
the famed mathematician.
1878:
Mrs. Hyam Benjamin hosted a musical evening in a Mayfair (London) drawing room.
1879(21st
of Shevat, 5639): Seventy-seven year old French journalist Samuel Ustazade
Silvestre de Sacy and member of the Académie française passed away today.
1880:
After having been hospitalized in Odeass during a concert tour of Russia,
Lublin born Jewish violinist Henryk Wieniawski was taken into the home Nadezhda
von Meck who “provided him with medical attention” which was not enough to
prevent his untimely death a month later in Moscow.
1881(15th
of Adar I, 5461): Shushan Purim Katan
1881:
Birthdate of German psychologist Otto Selz. Selz’s works were suppressed
by the Nazis. According to some, Selz was a major influence on his
students including Sir Karl Raimund Popper who was one of the major figures in
the world of 20th century philosophy.
1881:
The New York Times features a review of “Hours with the Bible: From
Creation to the Patriarchs by Dr. Cunningham Geikie.
1881:
It was reported today that an altercation had taken place during a Paris
musical between Gaetan de Monticlin, a socially prominent Frenchman, and Arthur
Meyer owner of Le Gaulois. According to de Monticlin, he had been mocked
in an article published in Meyer’s newspaper. Meyer was a Catholic who
was the grandson of a rabbi and who would support those who did not believe in
the innocence of Alfred Dreyfus.
1882:
In Moscow, Moses and Bertha (Abramovitz) Macht gave birth to Johns Hopkins
trained physician, Hamilton College trained attorney and University of Maryland
trained pharmacologist David Israel Macht who in addition to performing his
professional duties served as President of Congregation Mishkon Israel.
https://medicalarchives.jhmi.edu:8443/papers/macht.html
1882:
In New York City, Morris Spiegel and Justine Spiegel, the daughter of Rosina
and Arnold Blum, Jr. gave birth to Flora Spiegel.
1882:
In Krakow Nachman Freudman and Salomea Eisenbach gave birth to Solomon Isaac
Freudman who gained fame as pianist and composer Ignaz Friedman who spent much
of his career in Copenhagen before escaping to Australia where a concert tour
provided with a refuge in which he remained until his death in 1948.
https://www.naxos.com/person/Ignaz_Friedman_2338/2338.htm
1882:
Dr. John Lord delivered a lecture on “Moses” this morning at Chickering Hall to
a “fashionable and cultured” audience. Lord told his audience that the moral
code of Moses “is of the most importance, and rests on the fundamental
principles of morality, and has been generally accepted as the basis of moral
obligation. The primary principle of this code is the sin of idolatry and
the recognition of the one God who created and rules the world.”
1887:
Alexander Kohut, the rabbi of Congregation Ahawath Chesed married Rebekah
Bettleheim in Baltimore, MD. She was the daughter of Rabbi Albert
Bettelheim. Her marriage not only made her a wife it made her an instant
wife since Kohut was a widower who had 8 children, six of whom were under the
age of 13.
1889:
Birthdate of Brest native William Auberbach-Levy, the graphic artist and
caricaturist who in 1894 came to the United States where he taught at the at
the Educational Alliance Art School, provided artwork for magazines including
The New Yorker and collaborated with his wife Florence Von Wien.
https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/30/william-auerbach-levy-dead.html
1889: Twenty-seven-year-old
Milton Goldsmith, the Philadelphia born son of Cecilia Adler and Abraham
Goldsmith who was the President of Goldsmith – Tobias Advertising Agency and
the author of Rabbi and Priest and A Victim of Conscience married Sophie
Hyman today.
1891: It was
reported today that the late Ellen M. Phillips has bequeathed $113,000 to
various charities most of which were Jewish. The bequests ranged from
$1,000 to $15,000 “including $5,000 to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New
York. Ms. Phillips lived in Philadelphia, PA
1891(6th
of Adar I, 5651): Parashat Terumah
1891(6th
of Adar I, 5651): Thirty-two-year-old Arthur Lewis Raphael, the son of
Henrietta and Henry Lewis Raphael and the husband of Marianna Floretta Raphael
passed away today.
1892: It was
reported today that a Conference of the Russian-American Hebrew Agricultural
Fund Association will take place this week in New York City.
1892: As New
York City deals with its latest outbreak of typhus the President of the Board
of health said that to have all of the Russian-Jewish passengers who arrived on
the SS Masilia placed in quarantine on North Brother Island. An
undetermined number of the passengers have shown symptoms, and this is a way of
preventing the spread. (Please note – the Jewish passengers were not
singled out. The source was thought to lie in Russia, and it so happened
that all of the Russian passengers were Jewish)
1893: The
committee formed by the Central Conference of American Rabbis “to arrange the
seconding part of the Union Prayer book containing the services for Rosh
Hashanah and Yom Kippur” met for the last time today in Chicago.
1894:
Birthdate of Bethlehem, PA native and University of Pennsylvania trained
physician, Benjamin Borow the WW I veteran and resident of New Jersey.
1894:
In Chicago, Jewish immigrants Naomi Emma Sachs Kubelsky and saloon owner and haberdasher
Meyer Kubelsky gave birth to Benjamin Kubelsky, better known as Jack Benny. The
cry of Rochester saying, "Mr. Benny, Mr. Benny" in that gravely
desperate tone was a signature of Jack Benny's humor in movies, radio and
television. Benny loved to clown around with the violin, and he created
the self-portrait of a "miser." In one of his most
routines, Benny is being held up at gunpoint. When the robber says,
"Your money or life" Benny pauses and using his great sense of
comedic timing ponders his response. When the frustrated thief repeats
his demand, Benny responds, "Wait a minute, I am trying to make up my
mind." (It is a lot funnier when you hear it or see it.) I
must confess I am a fan of Jack Benny’s, but I do not think I have been too
lavish in my praise. Benny passed away at the age of eighty in 1974.
1895:
In what is now Stuttgart, Germany, Babetta
Horkheimer and textile manufacturer Moritz Horkheimer gave birth to Max Horkheimer
“a German philosopher and sociologist who was famous for his work in critical
theory as a member of the Frankfurt School of social research.” (Editor’s note:
I make no pretense at understanding his work but I have left links where you
can find out more about this amazing mind,)
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/horkheimer/index.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F50E12FB385C1A7A93CBA9178CD85F478785F9
1895:
In New York City, Isaac Newton and Greta (Loeb) Seligman gave birth to Margaret
Seligman who gained fame as Margaret Lewisohn after she married Sam A. Lewisohn
in 1918.
1895:
It was reported today that lawyer and economist Simon Sterne expressed his
opposition to the Single Tax Plan and in favor of tenement improvement programs
in New York City.
1895:
Three days after she had passed away Isabella Lawrence, the wife of John
Lawrence with whom she had had six children was buried today at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetry.”
1896
Theodor Herzl published "Der Judenstaat" which outlined his vision
for a Jewish State. For a complete copy of the text in English
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Zionism/herzl2.html
1897:
Grand Master M. L. Sexias presided over the opening of the annual convention of
District Grand Lodge, No.1, Independent Order Free Sons of Israel which is
being held at the Lexington Opera House.
1898:
“Hebrew Charities Building Bill” published today described that the purposes of
legislation that would incorporate The Hebrew Charities Building in New York to
allow for the erection, establishment and maintenance of a building in which
Jewish charitable organizations could have their headquarters. It would also
allow for the building to house a public library “with a special department in
Judaica.”
1899:
Samuel I. Hyman the founder of S.I. Hyman and Brothers and a founder of the
Central Jewish Institute today married Tillie Endel who had been serving as the
secretary of the Madison Avenue Synagogue Sisterhood but who would now assume
the role of mother to their daughter Norma and son George.
1899:
Twenty-nine-year-old New York merchant and Jewish communal leader Samuel I.
Hyman, the Polish born so of Talmudist Gerson Hyman who among other things
founded the 85th Street Synagouge, the Averne Congregation and the
Far Rockway Synagogue and who believes “that in the synagogue in the home and
in private life a Jewish should live the life of a Jew…while in his daily contact
with the outside world he should add to that the highest ideals of American
citizenship” today married Tillie Enfeld who became the secretary of the Madison
Avenue Synagogue Sisterhood while raising two children, Norma and George.
1899:
One after she had passed a way, forty-seven-year-old Sarah Florence Sheftall
Creamer, the daughter of Emanuel and Jane L. Theiss Sheftall, part of the famed
Sheftall clan that traced its roots back to colonial America and the wife of
James Evan Creamer was buried today in the Laurel Grove Cemetery North in
Savannah, GA.
1900(15th
of Adar I, 5660): Shushan Purim Katan
1900:
Maurice Untermyer, the younger brother of Samuel Untermeyer sold the four lots,
100,11 by 100, at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and One Hundred and
Ninth Street near the northeast corner of Central Park.
1901(25th
of Shevat, 5661): Grodno native Heinrich Schapiro who served “as a military
surgeon during the Turko-Russia War and whose career was so distinguished that
“he was appointed private-docent of medicine in the imperial clinical
institution for physicians in St. Petersburg, passed away today.
1902:
Herzl and Joseph Cowen arrive in Constantinople with hopes of starting
negotiations to further the project of creating a Jewish homeland in Ottoman
controlled in Palestine.
1902(7th
of Adar, 5662): Twenty-five-year-old Daniela Guttenberg, the first wife of
Cleveland “clothing manufacturer, real estate executive and civic leader John
Anisfield and mother of Edith Karolyn passed away today.
1902:
Birthdate of Alexander Abusch, the German journalist and communist politician
who survived the Holocaust and returned to work in the government of East
(Communist) Germany.
1903:
US Department of Commerce & Labor established. Oscar Straus was
appointed Secretary of Commerce and Labor in 1906 by President Theodore
Roosevelt and he served in the position until 1909. Straus was the first
Jew to serve as a cabinet secretary.
1904:
In South Carolina, Rabbi J. J. Simenhoff officiated at the wedding of Morris
Finger to Sarah Plesskin.
1904(28th
of Shevat, 5664): Seventy-five-year-old George Lewis Lyon, the founder and the
editor of The Jewish World, passed away today.
1905:
New York City cigar manufacturer Theodore Werner, the Bavarian born, Cincinnati
Ohio educated son of Dr. Hartwig and Fannie (Buchman) Werner married Anna Mayer
today.
1905:
It was reported today in his speech on “The Needs of Harlem Jewry” Daniel P.
Hays of the Mount Sinai Lodge of the B’nai B’rith said that “what we need is
schools where instruction in Judaism can be given, where children can be made
acquainted with the noble lives of the men and women in Israel” because “a good
Jew is necessarily a good citizen because the teachings of Judaism are founded
upon morality and righteousness.”
1906:
Israel Ziony, the Political Editor of the Jewish
American wrote a that criticized Louis Nixon, the Tammany Hall leader, for
trusting the promises of the Russians and Czar Nicholas II citing the orders
that “were given to massacre Jews all over South Russia and the failure to
honor the commitments to open up Manchuria which led to traders from the United
States being driven out of the area.
1907(30th
of Shevat 5667): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1907:
Twenty-nine-year-old NYU trained attorney turned author, Montague Marsden
Glass, the Manchester, England born son of Amelia Marsden and James David Glass
who in 1890 came to the United States where his biggest literary triumph was
the creation the fictional characters “Abe Potash and Mawrus Perlmutter”
married Caroline Patterson today.
1907:
New York State Supreme Court Justice Samuel Greenbaum signed an order today”
directing the officers of the American Ice Company to permit the Attorney
General or his representative to examine the company’s books, contracts, stock
lists, correspondence files and other papers or show cause why they should not
do so.”
1908:
“Martha Morton, the playwright, told the Council of Jewish Women at their
annual breakfast today at the Hotel Astor that Myra Kelly, an Irish women, had
tried to give expression to the spirit of the Jewish people on the east side
but had not succeeded because she was not” Jewish and she urged them to take up
writing because “it is only a Jewish woman with the tragedy of the race in her
blood and in her bones who can truly express the spirit of the people.”
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/02/15/104717680.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1908:
It was reported today that ‘the Czar’s sympathy with the Russian pogrom leaders
was recently set forth by one of the Russians correspondents of the London
Times in a dispatch summing up the anti-Jewish outrages in southern Russia”
that included the Czar’s positive reaction to the Black Hundreds.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/02/14/104848799.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1909: “Rabbi
Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue spoke” tonight “in the Calvary Methodist
Church, Seventh Avenue and 129th Street, under the auspices of the Peace
Society, of which Andrew Carnegie is President” and said that the United States
“should have no time or inclination for war, and that it had no enemy other
than one she might herself create.”
1910:
Herbert Samuel completed his first term of service as Chancellor of the Duchy
of Lancaster in the cabinet of Prime Minister Asquith. (Samuel was Jewish;
Asquith wasn’t)
1910:
Herbert Samuel succeeded Sydney Buxton as Postmaster General in H.H. Asquith’s
cabinet. This would be the first of two times that Samuel would serve in
this position.
1911(16th
of Shevat): Rabbi Shalom Mordecai, author of Da’at ha-Torah, passed away
1911:
In Czernowitz, Ukraine, Rabbi Avraham Mamrostein, the son of Rivka and Yehuda
Leib Marmorstein and his wife Antonia Toba Marmosrstein gave birth to Bruno
Marmorstein three years before his
sister Ruth Joseph was born in Chicago in February of 1914.
1912:
Arizona is admitted to the Union becoming the 48th and last
contiguous state to become on the United States. Jews had been a part of the
Arizona landscape from its earliest territorial days. According to Pioneer
Jews, Nathan Benjamin Appel, a native of Hochstadt Germany, was an early
pioneer of the Arizona Territory serving as a delegated to the First Arizona
Territorial Legislature in 1863 as well as the Tucson chief of Police from 1883
to 1884. According to the 1880 census, there were approximately 316 Jews
living in such places as Tucson, Phoenix and Tombstone. William Zeckendorf and
Zadock Staab opened a Tucson based mercantile operation in May of 1878.
The business had its ups and downs, finally failing in 1883 as a result
of market fluctuations and competition from less expensive goods being brought
in by the railroads. As can be seen from the successful career of Michael
Wormser, a native of Lorraine who settled in Arizona, Jews engaged in
agriculture as well as mercantile pursuits. By the time he died in 1898,
his “agricultural kingdom” was worth $250,000, a considerable sum in those
days. Samuel Barth was another of the colorful Jews who helped to settle
Arizona. He worked as a miner, pony express rider and sutler. While
trading with the Indians, he claims to have signed a treaty that “granted him
title to nearly all of the northern Arizona Territory, including the Grand
Canyon.” Barth, and his brothers Nathan and Morris, founded St. Johns
where they damned parts of the Little Colorado River so that they could farm
and raise livestock. Jews were not averse to risk when it came to gunfighting
as can be seen by the career of Louis Ezekiels who served as the Deputy Sheriff
of Pima County and Jim Levy, the Irish born gambler and gunfighter, who
ironically was shot by an angry gang who caught him when he “was not packing.”
These early Jews worked hard to mainitain their Jewish identity. “Anna
and I.E. Solomon, who found Solomonville in Arizona’s southeastern corner,
refused to let their daughter Lillie marry a non-Jewish lawyer with whom she
had fallen in love. Mother Solomon stepped in, put an end to the relationship
and arranged for Lillian to marry a “Hebrew haberdasher from Globe. Anna
Solomon is prime example of the Jewish matriarchs he stood shoulder to shoulder
with their husbands in establishing successful business enterprises while
striving to maintain Jewish heritage and identity in the inhospitable desert of
the Southwest. Two of early Arizona’s most famous Jewish citizens were Josephine
Sarah Marcus who was the paramour of Wyatt Earp (because of Earp, is buried in
a Jewish cemetery) and Mike Goldwater, the merchant king whose family, in later
generations would give up the faith of their fathers as can be seen by the
career of Barry Goldwater.
1913:
Birthdate of Melvin Allen Israel, the native of Birmingham, Alabama who gained
fame as Mel Allen, the mellow-toned sportscaster who was the voice of the New
York Yankees
http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/17/sports/mel-allen-is-dead-at-83-golden-voice-of-yankees.html
1913(7th
of Adar I, 5673): Twenty-seven Rabbi David Carlebach passed away at
Halberstadt.
1913(7th
of Adar I, 5673): Financier F.L. Siegel passed away today in Denver, Colorado.
1914(18th
of Shevat, 5674): Parashat Yitro for the last time before the start of WW I, an
event from which a raft of calamities for the Jewish people too numerous to
mention.
1914(18th
of Shevat, 5674:
Fifty-three-year-old Gerson Rosenzweig, the native of Bialystok who 1888 came
to the United States where he “published and edited the Hebrew weekly Halbii,”
translated the “Star-Spangled Banner into Hebrew” and developed a reputation as
a humorist that earned him the sobriquet the “Hebrew Mark Twain” passed away
today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/02/15/100082650.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1915(30th
of Shevat, 5675): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1915:
While speaking today at Temple Bethel on “The Danger of Nationalism to the
Jewish Religion Dr. Samuel Shulman said that his nationality is American, his
religion is Jewish and he takes issue with those that the only “remedy for the
process of disintegration” among the Jewish people is by returning to Palestine
in an act of “re-nationalization.”
1915:
“A mass meeting will be held at Congregation Shearith Bnai Israel this
afternoon under the auspices of the Young Israel of Harlem to help raise funds
for Jews suffering because of the war.”
1915:
“Dr. J.L. Magnes, Chairman of the Jewish National Fund Bureau of the America
and Louis D. Brandeis, Chairman of the Provisional Executive Committee for the
General Zionist Affairs issued a statement today explaining the situation
brought about by the proposed forced auctioning off at this trime of the Jewish
Institute of Technology at Haifa.”
1915:
According to figures compiled by the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ
in America there are officially 143,000 Jewish communicants in the United
States but that number, in keeping with Jewish custom is really only the number
of heads of households and “that the total number connected with Jewish
congregations is 700,000.” (Editor’s note: This figure is strange since it is
estimated by some that by the start of WW I, two million Jews had come to the
United States from Eastern Europe.)
1915:
The correspondent for The London Daily Mail who was traveling from the
front lines to Warsaw had to “bump” his “way through an endless convoy of Jews
where huddled in wagons with all their furniture and worldly belongings” which
“was the result of a stern order which had been issued requiring the Jews to
move to a distance fifty miles from the front” because of doubts about their
loyalty.
1915:
It was reported today that “the Bund, the Committee of Lithuanian, Polish and
Russian Jews living abroad has published an appeal to the civilized world in
regard to the treatment of the Jews by the Russian government” which “begins by
saying that, in spite of statements made to the contrary, the legal situation
of the Jews in Russia is unchanged; they are still confined to the Ghetto and
subject to all the same disabilities as before the war.”
1915:
“Outlook Good For Jews” published today provided the views of banker and
philanthropist Adolph Lewisohn on a post war peace conference for which “all
the great Jewish organizations of American need to get together now and work
out a plan for Jewish representation at the time of peace negotiations” because
he believes that the United States government “will take a special interest in
the question of equal rights for all Jews” regardless of where they live.
1915:
Herman Bernstein, editor of The Day,
announced today that a limited amount of space will be made available aboard
the Vulcan to carry supplies to the suffering people living in the Holy Land.
1915:
“To Take Aid To Palestine” published today described plans approved by
Secretary of the Navy Daniels to ship supplies from the Jewish Relief Society
for the starving residents of that region aboard the United States collier
Vulcan which will be sailing to the eastern Mediterranean with coal for armored
cruisers North Carolina and Tennessee.
1915
Congregation Shearith Israel abolishes family pews from its synagogue.
1915:
Jules Hurert, who authored Sarah Bernhardt, a biography of the famous
Jewish performer passed away.
1916:
A telegram sent today from American Embassy at London to the U.S. State
Department stated that the British had turned down the request to allow the
shipment of whole wheat to be used for the making of unleavened bread for the
upcoming holiday of Passover by Jewish agencies in the United States through
neutral Holland to Jews in Germany and Austria and countries occupied by their
armies because “it appears that the supply of flour at present in German is
amply sufficient to furnish pure flour when required for special purposes.”
1916:
In Beloit, WI, grocer Samuel Wolf Kapitanoff and Minnie Balaban gave birth to
Arthur Wolf Kapitanoff.
1916:
It was reported today that 150,000 Jews were fighting in the British Army,
175,000 Jews were fighting in the German Army and 350,000 Jews were fighting in
the Russian Army which led Republican Congressman Julius Kahn to express his
belief that American Jews would rally to serve in the U.S. military as training
ramped up in anticipation of possible entry into the World War.
1917:
Julius Kahn, the Republican Congressman from California and a member of the
House Committee on Military Affairs has expressed his confidence in his
co-religionists
1917(22nd
of Shevat, 5677): Lt. Henry Bloom, a solicitor who had attended Liverpool
University and was the son of Isadore Bloom was killed today while serving with
the Yorkshire Regiment.
1917:
After Germany and the United States broke diplomatic relations German economist
Moritz Julius Bonn who had been lecturing at various U.S. universities
including the University of California, the University of Wisconsin and Cornell
University today boarded a Danish passenger bound for Copenhagen from whence he
take a ferry to Germany.
1917:
Birthdate of Herbert A Hauptman, a mathematician who shared the 1985 Nobel
Prize in Chemistry with the chemist Jerome Karle for their development of
revolutionary methods for determining the structure of molecules vital to life.
(As reported by William Grimes)
1918:
Birthdate of Yosef A.A. (Alfredo Antonio) Ben-Jochannan an Ethiopian born
American historian. “According to his own biographical sketches, Ben-Jochannan
was born to a black Puerto Rican Jewish mother and an Ethiopian Jewish father
who were both black.” “Ben-Jochannan, also known as ‘Dr. Ben’, is the
author of numerous books, primarily on ancient Nile Valley civilizations and
their impact on Western cultures. Dr. Ben-Jochannan claims to be fluent in
‘over a half dozen languages.’ In his writings, he states that the original
Jews were Black Africans from Ethiopia, while the ‘white Jews’ later adopted
the Jewish faith and its customs.
1918:
It was reported today that Herbert Samuel, a Jewish leader of the Liberal Party
criticized the current government’s policies on a number of issues ranging from
finance where there has been a forty percent increase in expenditures to the
production of beer which missed the production goal by over five and half
million barrels or one third of the amount promised.
1919(14th
of Adar I, 5679): Purim Katan
1919:
Over three hundred delegates from ten mid-western states are expected to attend
the Zionist Convention that is scheduled to begin today.
1920(25th
of Shevat, 5680): Parashat Mishpatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1920:
It was learned today when the trials of radicals” most of whom were represented
by attorney Rose Weiss, were resumed today that “red population” which had
reached 515 had “dwindled to about 100.”
1921:
In New York City, the American Jewish Relief Committee met and decided to raise
fourteen million dollars this year to provide relief for “Jewish war
sufferers.”
1922:
Birthdate of Jerome “Jerry” Fleishman who played college ball for NYU before
turning pro and playing for several teams including the Philadelphia Warriors.
1922:
Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent“abruptly” ended publication of
article on the “Jewish Problem” that included portions of “The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion.”
1922:
Birthdate of New York native Jerome “Jerry” Fleishman the Erasmus Hall graduate
who played guard and forward for NYU before turning pro and continuing his
career with Philadelphia Sphas and the Philadelphia Warriors.
1923:
According to a reported in an Arab language newspaper published in Jerusalem,
“Henry Ford will visit Palestine in the near future.”
1923:
Sir Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner told a delegation of Jews who
had called on him “and filed a protest against the ‘profanation of Sabbath’”
that “there will be no ‘Blue Saturday’ laws in Palestine.”
1923:
Sir Herbert Samuel, the British High Commissioner told a delegation of Jews who
protesting against “the profanation of the Sabbath, that in Palestine, “there
would be no Blue Laws.”
1924:
In the Bronx, Dr. Benjamin Pressman, a dentist and his wife “Lena Rifkin
Pressman gave birth to Gabriel Pressman who gained fame as journalist Gabe
Pressman who went from print to television.” (As reported by Robert D.
McFadden)
1924:
The first part of “Die Nielungen” a two-part silent film directed by Fritz
Lang, the son of Jewish mother who converted to Catholicism and raised her son
in that religion was released in Germany today.
1925(20th
of Shevat, 5685): Parashat Yitro
1925:
According to a report made public today, “in the last four years $7,204,439 has
been spent by the Palestine Foundation Fund of constructive enterprises in
rebuilding the Jewish homeland in Palestine” and “of this amount, 60 per cent.,
or over $4,320,000, was subscribed by American Jews.”
1926:
Rabbi Nathan Krass is scheduled to speak this morning on “The Jewish Conception
of Heaven and Hell” at Temple Emanu-El.
1926: Arshag
Mahdesian, an expert on Armenia wrote today challenging William E. “Pussyfoot”
Johnson’s description of Turkey in which he described “the Jews” as “aliens who
live on the bounty of the Turks
1926:
Movie mogul William Fox today “gave $250,000 to the United Jewish Campaign”
today “and accepted its New York Chairmanship.
1926:
This evening at the Hotel Astor, a banquet was held in honor of Chaim Nachman
Bialik, “the poet laureate of the Jewish people who arrived from Palestine last
week” where it was announced that Harlem-Yorkville Section has contributed
$75,000 to the Unite Palestine Appeal which has a goal of raising five million
dollars.
1926:
Dr. Nathan Krass officiated at the debate today between the Emanu-El League of
Temple Emanu-El and the Junior League of Temple Beth-El.
1926:
Dr. Stephen S. Wise is scheduled to speak this morning on “Are Jews United or
Divided” at the Free Synagogue meeting in Carnegie Hall.
1926:
English-born American Rabbi “Lewis Browne’s history of the Jews, which the
Macmillan company brought last Spring under the title Stranger than Fiction
is to be published in England by Jonathan Cape Ltd under the title of The
Story of the Jews
1927:
Birthdate of Jerry Wolman, the native of Shenandoah, PA who owned both the
Philadelphia Eagles and the Philadelphia Flyers.
http://www.jewishexponent.com/jerry-wolman-86-former-eagles-owner
1927:
Mortimer L. Schiff appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. Schiff, the
only son of Jacob Schiff, was a partner in Kuhn, Loeb and active leader of the
Boy Scouts of America.
1927:
Two shorts, “The Williams Sisters” and “Night Club,” produced by Roger Wolfe
Kahn were filmed at the Manhattan Opera House today.
1928: In his
comparison of the national aspirations of the Poles, Irish and Jews published
today former New York State Senator Nathan Starust noted that “For several
hundred years, a comparatively short time as compared with the annals of Jewry,
the Poles dreamed of the re-establishment of a united Poland” – a dream which
has now been realized. “For an even shorter time, the Irish people have been
pleading for a government and political entity of their own” and today Ireland
is an Irish State.” Only the Jews, the
people who have been waiting the longest, still have had not had their dream
realized.
1929:
“Nathan Straus received a cablegram today from Meir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel
Aviv and Chaim Nachmann Bialik, the famous Hebrew poet both of whom had
participated in the dedication of the Nathan and Lina Straus Health and Welfare
Center in Jerusalem at which John Hyanes Holmes of the Community Church of New
York was one of the principal speakers. “Following elated words regarding
your high aspirations and great enterprise for the benefit of your national and
the land of your forefathers in the presence of your envoy, Mr. Holmes and
representatives of all creeds, the assembly expresses feeling of veneration and
great love to the great man and Jew, Nathan Straus, and sends you and your wife
blessings and wishes for a long and happy life.”
1929:
In the Bronx, Jean (née Kress) and Harry Morozoff, an electrical engineer, gave
birth to Victor Morozoff who gained fame as actor Victor “Vic” Morrow whom many
remember for his portrayal of Sgt. Sanders in the WW II based television series
“Combat!”
1929:
It was alleged, but never proven, that the trigger men at today’s St.
Valentine’s Day Massacre were supplied by the Jewish dominated “Purple Gang.”
1930:
In NYC, Maurice Finkelstein, the Syracuse, NY born son of Simon and Hannah
Finkelstein and his wife Naomi Finkelstein gave birth to James Finkelstein.
1930:
In Moscow, Reforel Nachman and Rivkah (Davidson) Kahn, members of “an
underground network of Hasidim” gave birth to Yoel Kahn, the husband of Leah
Butman “a descendant of the Schneerson clan” who was “a leading disciple of
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson” and “who had an ability to memorize virtually
verbatim the grand rabbi’s speeches and discourses” which was a vital skill
since many of these were delivered on Shabbat when writing was forbidden. (As
reported by Joseph Berger)
1931(27th
of Shevat, 5691): Parashat Misphatim; Shabbat Shekalim
1931:
“Fifty Million Frenchmen,” the film version of the Broadway musical produced
and released by Warner Brothers with a script co-written by Al Boasberg was
released in the United States todayl
1934:
Sixty-nine-year-old “French poet, writer” and convert to Catholicism, Marc-André
Raffalovich and the brother of financier and economist Arthur Raffalovich,
passed away today.
1934:
Birthdate of Harriet Gasway Z”L
1935(11th
of Adar I, 5695): Eighty-four-year-old Joseph Simon, the first Jewish U.S.
Senator elected from Oregon, passed away.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000422
1936(21st
of Shevat, 5696): Seventy-three-year-old Nathan Pinanski, the Vilna born son of
Moses Pananski and the Boston philanthropist who was the founder and president
of both “Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Roxbury” and “the People’s Free Loan
Society, a non-sectarian charitable organization” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1936/02/16/294268392.pdf
1936:
According to figures published today there 216 Jewish farm families in 1900 and
now there are “about 100,000” while in the same period of time “total acreage
owned by Jewish farmers” has from 12,019 acres to “more than 1,500,000 acres.”
1936:
In Richmond, VA, “celebration of the 95th anniversary of the
founding of Congregation Beth Ahaba which was founded at time when “there were
100 Jews in Richmond’s Population of 3,900.
1936:
It was reported today “the American Jewish physicians’ committee has just
contributed $25,000 toward fulfillment of a pledge of $65,000” which will go to
“a fund that will build a medical center in Palestine sponsored by Hadassah.
1937(3rd
of Adar, 5697): Fifty-four-year-old Russian born Brooklynite Louis Singer the
Jewish philanthropist who was, among other things, “founder and president of
the Home of Old Israel” in Manhattan, a director of the Israel Zion Hospital
and President of the Mount Lebanon Cemetery” and the father of four children –
Ruth, Jack, Abraham, and Bernard -- passed away today in Miami.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1937/02/16/94338047.pdf
1937:
The New York Times featured a review of Palestine at the Crossroads
by Ladislas Farago based on the journalist visit to Palestine in 1936.
1937:
Today’s “Latest Books Received” list published today included Major Noah:
American-Jewish Pioneer by Isaac Goldberg and a pamphlet entitled “Judah
Philip Benjamin” which is part of a biographical study of Confederate leaders.
1937:
“The economic and cultural distress of Jews in Poland and Germany was
described” this “afternoon at a conference of representatives of 530 orthodox,
conservative and reform synagogues and congregations at the Hotel Astor” where
“those present pledged themselves to support the 1937 campaign of the United
Palestine Appeal for $4,500,000 for the settle in Palestine of Jews from
Germany, Poland and other European countries.”
1937:
“Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Bavaria delivers a sermon in Munich in which
he explains how the signing of the Concordat between the Vatican and Nazi
Germany substantially increased Hitler's prestige around the world.”
1938:
“Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’s newspaper, the Angriff today urged the
Nazi regime to speed up the temp of ‘liquidating’ Jews in Germany’s economic
life,” saying “that it is about time for a further decisive step to force
Jewish businessmen to sell out.”
1938:
The Palestine Post quoted the text of Colonel R. Meinertzhagen's letter
to The Times of London in which he wrote that both the former British Prime
Minister Lloyd George and Mr. Balfour envisaged the whole of Palestine as a
future Jewish sovereign state. In Meinertzhagen's view the partition
recommended by the Lord Peel Committee only complicated the issue, insofar as
it had crystallized Arab opposition. The colonel called for continued Jewish
determination to achieve this goal, not only for the Jews, but also in a direct
British interest.
1939:
It was reported today that “I.J. Singer’s new novel East of Eden” which
“like its predecessor The Brothers Ashkenazi deals with the teeming
world of Polish Jews” will be published by Knopf next month.
1940:
National Commander Edgar Burman and Judge Mark Sullivan gave the main addresses
this evening at the installation ceremonies for Hoboken Post No. 55 of the
Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
1940(5th
of Adar I, 5700): Seventy-four-year-old Budingen, Germany born “banker and
expert on
railroad finance” Frederick J Lisman, the husband of Leonora Cohen Lisman and
the father of Robert G. Lisman who “made his reputation for railroad wisdom by
an article entitle ‘Millions in Deficits—Dividends Just the Same’” which
challenged “a current bond issue of the Richmond and West Point Terminal
Railway,” a member of the New York Stock Exchange for 35 years and “chairman of
the board of directors of the Lisman Corporation” passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1940/02/15/92877360.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1941:
It was announced today that “Lieutenant Raphael de Sola, one of the yachtsmen
who participated in the Dunkirk rescue operations, has been appointed Commander
of Ship of the Royal Navy.” (JTA)
1941:
Birthdate of Tomas Abraham who was transported from Prague to Terezin in 1941
and then to Auschwitz in 1944 where the three-year-old was murdered.
1941:
In Amsterdam Hendrik Koot a member of the pro-Nazi NSB movement died of the
wounds he sustained when and he his fellow thugs in the WA attacked the Jews
who, much to their surprise, fought back. (The Jewish “victory” would be
short-lived and in the next few days over four hundred Jews would die)
1942(27th
Shevat, 5702): Parashat Mishpatim
1942:
Birthdate of millionaire businessman and Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg.
1942(27th
of Shevat): Yiddish poet Menachem Bareisha passed away
1943:
In “Visitor from Shangri-La” published today Theodore Strauss described the
visit of veteran British actor H.B. Warner to New York where, among other
things he his promoting “Hitler’s Children” an anti-Nazi film that has broken
all records at the theatres in which it has been shown. Warner said that
he is using the personal appearance tour to promote his own anti-fascist views.
1943:
The Soviets drove the Nazis out of Rostov-on-Don. While the city was under
German control thousands of Jews were murdered including 13,000 on August 11,
1942. Immediately after the liberation, the Jews were allowed to use the former
Soldier’s Synagogue with Shaia-Meier Aronovich serving as rabbi starting in
1944. In the postwar years, the community suffered as Stalin adopted
increasingly anti-Semitic policies.
1943:
Birthdate of Aaron Russo, the Brooklyn native who went from working in the
family undergarment business, to nightclub operator, to movie producer and
director before becoming a political activist who ran for Governor of Nevada
and became active in “libertarian” groups.
1944:The national board of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist
Organization of America, yesterday cabled $100,000 to Hadassah's founder, Miss
Henrietta Szold, head of the youth immigration bureau of the Jewish Agency for
Palestine in Jerusalem, as its part of an international celebration of the
tenth anniversary of the Youth Aliyah (immigration) movement.
1944:
Birthdate of Carl Bernstein, one of the two journalists who broke the Watergate
Scandal.
1945:
In Detroit, former Michigan State University and Canadian Football League wide
receiver and running back Abe Eliowitz married Sarah Lachman today.
1945:
Birthdate of Stuart Sorrell, the London born son an electronics salesman, the
Cambridge and Harvard trained advertising mogul who married Christina Falcone
after divorcing Sandra Finestone with whom he had three children.
1945:
Henrietta Szold, of blessed memory, was buried today at 3 pm on the Mount of
Olives in Jerusalem. Among the attendees were representatives of the
12,000 Jewish refugees whom she helped to rescue through Youth Aliyah. As
a sign of mourning all Jewish institutions flew their flags at half-mast and
all of the Jewish newspapers were published with black borders on their front
page. (As reported by JTA)
1945:
President Franklin Roosevelt met with Ibn Saud where they discussed the future
of the Jews and settlement in Palestine. Churchill received a full report
of the meeting, but the report was kept secret from the rest of the
world. Among other things Ibn Saud expressed his total opposition to
Jewish settlement in Palestine and said that Holocaust survivors should be
returned to their countries of origin. FDR expressed his essential
agreement with the King’s position.
1946:
“Gilda,” a film noir directed by Charles Vidor with script doctored by Ben
Hecht and featuring Ludwig Donath was released in the United States today
1947:
Foreign Minster Bevin “announced that he was referring the entire Palestine
imbroglio to the United Nations.”
1947:
In Philadelphia, Arline and Joseph Schwarzman, the owner of a dry-goods store
in Philadelphia gave birth to Stephen Allen Schwarzman, the chairman and CEO of
Blackstone Group, the global private equity firm.
1948:
Birthdate of Slovakia native and Israeli trained “autoimmunity researcher”
Yehuda Shoenfeld.
http://www.waidid.org/uploads/board/cv/CV-Shoenfeld_884023.pdf
1948:
“The young Oxford philosopher Isaiah Berlin who was among those Churchill asked
to scrutinize the text of volume one of his memoirs” sent the former Prime
Minister a proposal about changes in content with a reminder that “You did, I
recollect, order me to quite candid.” Berlin praised Churchill’s handling of
the “tremendous story of the Rise of Hitler.”
1948:
Archbishop Conrad Gröber who opposed the Nazis passed away.
1949:
Russian-born English chemist and Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, 74, was elected
first president of the newly restored modern state of Israel.
1949:
“The Clay Pigeon” directed by Richard Fleischer, with a screenplay by Carl
Foreman was released in the United States today.
1949:
The Pan York which had been renamed the Wooster Victory left Shanghai on
December 25 with 852 passenger and then stopped in
Singapore, Cape Town, Dakar and then to Marseilles where the passengers were
transferred to the Israeli ship, Negba which took on some immigrants before
arriving at Haifa today.
http://www.jewsofchina.org/the-chronology-of-the-jews-of-shanghai-from-1832-to-the-present-day
1949:
In Lakewood, NJ, the former Joan Hyman and “Preston Robert Tisch, a film and
television executive who also served as the United States Postmaster General”
gave birth Steven Elliot Tisch who is most famous for serving as a senior
executive with the Super Bowl winning New York Giants who beat the Patriots
owned by co-religionist Bob Kraft.
1949
(Tu B’Shevat, 5709): The Knesset opened its first session. Political
democracy has been part of the Jewish state since before its official
founding. The Knesset is a unicameral legislature that many critics agree
is quite unwieldy. The political party system is based on proportional
representation which leads to coalition governments. Israel's critics
like to forget that about ten percent of the members of the Knesset are
Arabs. During the days of the Cold War, Israel's detractors liked to
point out that members of the Communist Party were elected to the
Knesset. What they forget to mention that Israel, unlike the Arab states,
held free elections so of course it was the only country in the Middle
East to have elected Communist officials. It was the only country in the
Middle East to have democratically elected officials of any kind. Also,
with approximately ten per cent of its members being Arabs, the Knesset also
boasts the largest number of democratically elected Arab legislators in the
Middle East.
1950:
Birthdate of Berkley native Joel Selvin the San Francisco music critic and
journalist who wrote a biography about Bert Berns, the Bronx born son of
Russian Orthodox Jews.
1951:
The door was opened for the elections for the second knesset when the
government resigned today after the Knesset had rejected the Minister of
Education and Culture's proposals on the registration of schoolchildren.
1951:
Birthdate of Cairo native and rock guitarist Sylvain Sylvain who settled in the
United States where he played for the New York Dolls.
1951:
In Dublin, Elaine and Reuben Shatter gave birth to Irish political leader Alan
Joseph Shatter
1952:
Premiere of Le Plaisir, also known by its English title House of
Pleasure, a French comedy-drama anthology film directed by Max Ophüls
1952: The
Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America established the Lena and Henry J
Perahia Scholarship Foundation Award as a permanent endowment
1952(18th
of Shevat, 5712): Eighty-five-year-old Indianapolis, Indiana native Louis Paul
Dessar, the CCNY and National Academy of Designed trained internationally
acclaimed artist passed away today.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/02/16/93560540.pdf
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/louis-paul-dessar-1233
1952: Comedian
Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller
1953: In New
York, Lillian and Harry Rifkin gave birth to Boston University graduate Howard
Glen Rifkin, the husband of Deborah Falc and the father of Benjamin Rifkin.
1954: In
“Sharp Eyes for the Multiple Things” published today, William Barrett reviews The
Hedgehog and The Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History by Isaiah
Berlin.
1955: The
cover of Time features Carl Jung, the one-time follower of Freud who
split with his master and reportedly enjoyed an “unconventional” relationship
with one of his Jewish patients.
1956(2nd
of Adar, 5716): Sixty-five-year-old Ernest M. Ach, the son of hat maker Samuel
Ach and Esther Kahn Ach, the husband Pauline W. Ach and the father of David,
Roger and S. Laurence Ach passed away today.
1956: “Israeli
Task Repeats Solomon's In Copper Mining in the South” published today described
how “Israel has begun to follow an example of King Solomon 2,900 year's ago by
setting up a copper mining town fifteen miles north of this Red Sea port.
Israeli Copper Mines Similar to Those Worked 2,900 Years Ago.”
1957(13th
of Adar I, 5717): Seventy-two-year-old Nadya Staller, the widow of Isador
Staller and the treasurer of Histadrut for 30 years who “was a colleague of
Golda Meir…in the early days of the Zionist movement” and who helped “to
organize twenty-nine chapters…of the Pioneer Women” which had a total of 18,000
members passed away today in Philadelphia.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/02/16/102274390.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1958: In a
move to counter the newly created UAR which joined Egypt and Syria, Jordan and
Iraq formed a union which created “a unified military command.” (Editor’s note
– any move that created unified military commands among the Arab states posed
an additional threat to Israel. At the same time, it should be noted that
much of jockeying and hostility in the Arab world came from Arab fears of the
fellows and had nothing to do with Israel.)
1959(6th
of Adar I, 5719): Parashat Teruman
1959(6th
of Adar I, 5719): Eighty-year-old Simon Ackerman the tailor born in Lithuania
and the founder of Chester Barrie, Ltd who was the husband of May Ackerman and
the father of Estelle, Dorothy, Helen, Raymond and Myron Ackerman passed away
today
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/02/15/83669598.pdf
1961:
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, accused the government
of Morocco of bias against Jews and appealed to the Human Rights Commission of
the United States to urge the Moroccan Government to stop what it termed
“repressive action” including police brutality.
1962:
Philanthropist Nehemiah M. Cohn, founder of the Giant Grocery Chain in
Washington, D.C. stated that “Giving to those less fortunate than we
are...brings us contentment and true happiness. The Talmud says that a man’s
greatness is measured not by how much money he can acquire, but rather how much
he can part with. Cohen’s view of philanthropy is carried on through the Naomi
and Nehemiah Cohen Foundation. http://www.nncf.net/
1964(29th
of Tevet, 5724): Fifty-three-year-old Soviet photographer Semyon Fridlyand
passed away today.
https://www.moma.org/interactives/objectphoto/artists/24450.html
1967(4th of
Adar I, 5727): Francis Benedict Hyam Goldsmith, a British Conservative Member
of Parliament and luxury hotel tycoon in France and the United Kingdom, passed
away. “Born Franck Adolphe Benedict Goldschmidt in 1878 in Frankfurt, Germany,
he was the son of Adolphe Benedict Hayum Goldschmidt, who permanently moved to
London in 1895, already a multi-millionaire, and Alice Emma Moses Merton
(1835-98), daughter of Joseph Benjamin Moses aka Moses Merton. Benedict Hyum
Goldshmidt who was a millionaire in his own right, moved to London in 1895.
Goldsmith’s “grandfather was Benedict Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt, a banker and
consul to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, founder of the B.H. Goldschmidt Bank.” He
grew up on his family's 2,500 acre country estate in Suffolk. Educated at
Magdalen College, Oxford, he gained an honours degree in law and was called to
Bar by the Inner Temple in 1902. In 1903 he was elected to Westminster City
Council, remaining a member for four years. In 1904 he was elected a member of
London County Council representing St Pancras South with W.H.H. Gastrell as
municipal reformers, having defeated both George Bernard Shaw and Sir William
Geary, who were standing as Progressives. From 1904 to 1910 Goldsmith was
active on many committees showing great interest in education and special
schooling, becoming whip of the Municipal Reform Party. He was also involved in
many Jewish charities, assisting in the organizations involved in the
emigration of Jews from the Russian Empire and became a member of the
emigration committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians. In 1910 Goldsmith was
elected Conservative M.P. for Stowmarket, close to his family home of Cavenham
Park. Although remaining an M.P. until 1918, his political career was ended by
anti-German hysteria during World War I. During the war he served in Gallipoli
and Palestine with the Suffolk Yeomanry. After the war Goldsmith moved to
France where he set up a hotel business. He married Marcelle Moullier in June
1929. Goldsmith eventually built up a portfolio of 48 hotels including the
Hôtel de Paris in Monte Carlo, the Carlton in Cannes and the Lotti in Paris. He
was director of the Savoy Hotel company for many years and one of the founders
of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. He was Chevalier of the Légion
d'honneur.”
1968(15th
of Shevat, 5728): Tu B’Shevat
1968:
Footballer Mordechai "Motaleh" Spiegler led Israel to victory over
Switzerland today at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv.
1969(26th
of Shevat, 5729): Eighty-year-old Russian born Joseph “Joe” Magidsohnn, the
All-American halfback for the University of Michigan who “was the first Jewish
athlete to letter at the Ann Arbor school passed away today.
http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/JoeMagidsohn.htm
1970(8th
of Adar I, 5730): Seventy-three-year-old Dora Polsky Antin, the widow of former
State Senator Benjamin Antin and “a borough chairman of the United Palestine
Appeal” passed away today.
1971: After
1,597 performances the original New York production of “You’re A Good Man,
Charlie Brown” co-starring Bob Balaban as “Linus” closed today.
1971(19th
of Shevat, 5731): Eighty-two-year-old Berlin born, American architect and city
planner Dr. Paul Zucker passed away today.
1972(29th
of Shevat, 5732): Eighty-two-year-old Israel Moses Sieff who “was created a
life peer as Baron Seif” the British Zionist and Chairman of the Board of Marks
and Spencer passed away today.
http://thepeerage.com/p19183.htm#i191830
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/sieff-israel-moses-baron
1973: U.S.
premiere of “The World’s Greatest Athlete” with music by Marvin Hamlisch.
1973: Per the
request of the deceased, memorial services are scheduled to be held today at
the Washington Hebrew Congregation for David Lawrence, a syndicated columnist
and founder and editor of U.S. News & World Report, who died in Sarasota,
Fla. yesterday at the age of 84 who is a long-time member of Washington’s
oldest reform congregation.
https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1973/02/12/90917039.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
1974: Vitaly
Rubin, Vladimir Galatzky. David Azbel and Ida Nudel continued their hunger
strike today,
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that hundreds of Lebanese men, women and
children in southern Lebanon demonstrated in an open space at the "Good
Fence," an open Israeli-Lebanese crossing point, demanding that Syrian
army leave the Lebanese territory.
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli officials in Washington noted
that US Secretary of State Cyrus Vance's hardening stance and his assertion
that the settlements in the occupied areas "should not exist" was a
deliberate shift of US policy, arrived at only after Egyptian President Anwar
Sadat visited Washington and influenced US President Jimmy Carter in this
direction.
1979: A
revival of the musical “Whoopee!” which had starred Eddie Cantor in the
original production and with lyrics by Gus Kahn opened at the ANTA playhouse.
1980: Marcus Sieff
the Chairman of Marks and Spencer who was knighted in 197 was created a life
peer today as Baron Sieff of Brimpton, of Brimpton in the Royal County of
Berkshire
1980(27th of
Shevat, 5740): Seventy-six-year-old Austria born, American architect Victor
David Gruen passed away today.
http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/person/136/
https://qz.com/454214/the-father-of-the-american-shopping-mall-hated-cars-and-suburban-sprawl/
1982(21st
of Shevat, 5742): Seventy-seven-year-old William Lee Wilder “the Austrian-born
American screenwriter, film producer and director who was the older brother of
Oscar winner William “Billy” Wilder.
1983: Manchem
Begin replaced Ariel Sharon as Minister of Defense.
1983: Soviet
anti-Zionist trials continue today with Simon Shnirman as the defendant.
1985:
The U.S. Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism announced their decision
to begin accepting women as rabbis.
1986:
Six people were wounded during the bombing of a bus in Jerusalem.
1988(26th
of Shevat, 5748): Composer Frederick Lowe passed away. The Austrian
native teamed with Alan Jay Lerner to create a number of hit musicals including
“Brigadoon,” “Paint Your Wagon” and most famous of all, “My Fair Lady.” (As
reported by Stephen Holden)
1989
( 9th of Adar I): Ninety-one year Rabbi Sheldon Haas Blank, a
professor of Bible who was a faculty member at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for more than 60 years, passed away
at Jewish Hospital in Cincinnatihttp://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/16/obituaries/sheldon-h-blank-91-a-professor-of-bible.html?_r=0
1989:In “Fossil Findings Fan Debate on Human Origins” published
today, John Noble Wilford reported that “new fossil discoveries” in caves in
Israel “and genetic evidence have fueled a resounding debate among
anthropologists over the timing and circumstances of the last major event in
human physical evolution, the emergence of the anatomically modern Homo
sapiens.
1991(30th
of Shevat, 5751): Rosh Chodesh Adar
1991:Today, a victim of last Saturday's missile attack on a Tel
Aviv suburb -- military censors do not permit publication of his name -- held a
prayer service in the yard of his damaged house. He and several friends prayed
and danced with Torah scrolls as a bulldozer sat poised to push the building
down. As soon as they finished singing Hatikvah, the national anthem, the
bulldozer driver raised his shovel, pushed forward and leveled the remains of
the house.
1992:The McCrory Corporation, the financially troubled parent of
a chain of five-and-dime variety stores, said today that it would miss a debt
payment and hinted that it might file for bankruptcy court protection.McCrory is part of the Riklis Family Corporation, a
privately held concern headed by Meshulam Riklis, an Istanbul native who came
to America from Tel Aviv in 1947. Other Riklis holdings have included the
Samsonite Corporation, Elizabeth Arden, the Culligan International Company,
Martha White Foods Inc. and Botany 500.
1993(23rd
of Shevat, 5753): Eighty-one-year-old Eleazar Lipskiy, the middles son of Charlotte
Schacht and Louis Lipsky and the Columbia Law School trained attorney, author,
journalist and Zionist who was the husband of Hannah Kohn and he son-in-law of
Rabbi Jacob Kohn, “a dean of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles passed
away today.
1993:
Paul Rudnick’s “Jeffrey” which no major New York Theatre would touch because
“it was a comedy about AIDS” completed a successful two month run at “the tiny
WPA Theatre” after which it would moved to the Minetta Lane Theater.
1995(14th
of Adar I, 5755): Purim Katan
1996(24th
of Shevat, 5756): Judith Kaplan Eisenstein, daughter of Mordechai Kaplan and
the first bat mitzvah ever, passed away at the age of 86.
1997:
“British singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer and film score composer
Mark Knopfler, the son of a Hungarian Jewish immigrant father married British
actress and writer Kitty Aldridge with whom he had two daughters.
1997:
Eve Ensler, the daughter of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother, who
“identifies as a Nichiren Buddhist” established the first V-Day that demands
“that violence against women and girls must end.”
1999:
Bruce Fleisher won the American Express Invitational with a three round score
of 203.
1999:
The New York Times book section featured a review Why Not Me? The
Inside Story of the Making and Unmaking of the Franken Presidency by Al
Franken.
2000:
“A target date for a framework agreement on a permanent peace between Israelis
and Palestinians slipped by here today as contacts between the two sides
remained frozen, with no signs that the impasse might be broken.”
2001(21st
of Shevat, 5761): Eighty-four-year-old Maurice Levitas (Moishe ben Hillel) the
Dublin born academic and activist who served with the International Brigade
during the Spanish Civil War passed away today. His daughter Ruth Levitas is
the author of The Concept of Utopia and his brother Max was took part in the
“Battle of Cable Street.”
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/07/guardianobituaries1
2002:
Palestinian terrorists destroyed an Israeli tank tonight, by “planting a mine
that punched through the tank's belly, killing at least three soldiers and
lightly wounding a fourth”
2003:
University of California outfielder Brian Horowitz was responsible for a
record-breaking RBI’s in today’s game. (Editor’s note – Brian Horowitz, the
Golden Bear’s outfielder is not to be confused with Professor Brian Horowitz,
the distinguished author and member of the Tulane University faculty)
2003:
“Daredevil” a film based on characters created by Stan Lee and co-produced by
Avi Arad was released in the United States today.
2003:
“The Hours” a movie version of the novel of the same name produced by Scott
Rudin with music Philip Glass was released in the United Kingdom today.
2004:
On his 61st birthday, Aaron “Russo gave his full endorsement to the
Free State Project, saying in his letter, ‘I encourage my fellow Libertarians
and all freedom-loving Americans to consider joining the Free State Project.’”
2005:Effi Eitam was suspended from the party chairmanship by the
National Religious Party's internal court, after he left the government against
the center decision. The suspension caused Eitiam and Yitzhak Levi to leave the
party.
2005(5th
of Adar I, 5765): Seventy-nine-year-old Henry Wolf passed away. (As reported by
Steven Heller – note that the Times originally and incorrectly reported that he
was 80)
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/16/business/media/16wolf.html
2005:
The Taipei Times features an article in which Taiwan’s only rabbi,
Ephraim Einhorn, recounts the history of Taiwan’s small Jewish community that
has existed since the 1950’s and its links to the Holocaust.
2006:
Indian Jewish cricketer Bensiyon Sonavkar played for Saurashtra in the match
again Maharashtra .
2006(16th of
Shevat, 5766): Eighty-three-year-old Shoshana Damari, whose unique throaty
voice and larger-than-life performances embodied the Hebrew revival myth,
passed away today after a short bout with pneumonia. (As reported by Steven
Erlanger)
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C05E7DF133EF936A25751C0A9609C8B63
2007:
Haaretz featured an article on the state of the Jewish community
entitled “Las Vegas: Lots of Jews, not much Judaism.” According to a
comprehensive study released recently by Dr. Ira Sheskin, of the University of
Miami, Las Vegas is now home to the country's 23rd-largest Jewish community.
His research found that the Jews of Las Vegas are less observant and less
connected to Judaism than the vast majority of U.S. Jews. Only 50 percent
report attending a Passover Seder, only 14 percent report belonging to a
synagogue and only a minority light Shabbat or Hanukkah candles or keep kosher.The one category where the Jews of Las Vegas do excel is
intermarriage, with 48 percent of all currently married Jewish
respondent/spouse couples being mixed. On the positive side, La Vegas
does not lack for wealthy Jews willing to support Jewish causes. After
all, Sheldon Adelson of Las Vegas, one of the richest men in the country,
underwrote Sheskin's study and is a major philanthropist in the Jewish arena.
2007:Gabi Ashkenazi received the rank of Lieutenant General and was appointed
Chief of the General Staff.
2008: The 12th
New York Sephardic Jewish Festival comes to an end with a showing of “Nuba of
Gold and Light.”
2008: In The
Financial Express, an article entitled “Guitar in Tow, Rabbi Set to Spread
Jewish Traditions in Poland,” describes the work of Rabbi Tanya Segal.
2009:
Ninety-year-old publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Jr. the only child of Alfred A.
Knopf Sr. and Blanche Wolf passed away today. (As reported by Christopher
Lehmann-Haupt)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/books/16knopf.html?_r=0
2009: In Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, a one-of-a-kind, award-winning exhibit of hundreds of pieces of
World War II era mail and documents related to the Nazi’s attempted
extermination of Jews and others will be publicly displayed at Coe College in
the Perrine Gallery of Stewart Memorial Library. The collection is owned
by the Deerfield, Illinois-based Florence and Laurence Spungen Family
Foundation, which acquired the extraordinary items to preserve and offer them
for public use at Holocaust and genocide educational venues around the
world. According to a press release, “The insured value of the collection
is $1 million, but the educational value to future generations is
incalculable,” said Daniel Spungen, a member of the board of the Spungen Family
Foundation. “One of the most heartbreaking artifacts and historical evidence of
Nazi desecration is a torn fragment of a hand-written Hebrew parchment from a
Bible scroll (Tanakh). A German soldier used the holy scripture to wrap a
parcel he mailed from Russia to Austria in 1942,” explained Spungen. “The
sacred parchment was pillaged from a Russian synagogue. Ironically, the
portion that was used as wrapping paper has passages from the first book of
Samuel about the story of David and Goliath.” George J. Kramer, chairman of the
New York-based Philatelic Foundation, described the scroll fragment as “one of
the most important items of Judaic postal history.” This is only the third
public exhibition since the acquisition of the historic items from a private collector
was formally announced by the Spungen charitable foundation last
September. Steve Feller, past President of Temple Judah, a Coe professor
of physics and co-author of the book, “Silent Witness: Civilian Camp Money of
World War II,” will present an educational program about Holocaust-related
money in conjunction with the exhibit of the collection. The postal artifacts
in the collection are evidence of the torments, ravages and terror of war and
genocide in Europe from 1933 to 1945. They also show that many prisoners
never lost hope, and the human spirit survived. “We will be giving
educational institutions and museums around the world the opportunity to use
the exhibit materials for displays, lectures and research,” said Florence
Spungen, Founder of the Foundation. “This is a permanent educational tool
for all generations to document this important period of time that cannot be
forgotten.” The Holocaust exhibit was acquired intact from noted researcher,
writer and collector, Ken Lawrence, of Bellefonte, Pa., a former vice president
of the American Philatelic Society, who began assembling the material in 1978.
Including items contributed by Spungen, the foundation now will be the guardian
of the more than 250 envelopes, post cards, letters, and specially designated
postage stamps used exclusively by concentration camp inmates, Jewish ghetto
residents and prisoners of war. In addition, the collection includes
counterfeit Bank of England paper money created by slave laborers during
“Operation Bernhard,” the Nazis’ failed plot to undermine England’s economy and
the subject of the recent motion picture, "The
Counterfeiters."Frequently exhibited by Lawrence, the display won awards
and medals at stamp shows including an international exhibition in Washington,
D.C. in 2006. “The scroll page that was used for mailing a parcel is the most
viscerally disturbing item. Some scholars have told me it is among the
most important surviving evidence of Nazi desecration,” said Lawrence.
“Chronic, flagrant desecration exemplified by violating that sacred scripture
imbued the cultured German nation and historically honor-bound German army with
an inhuman attitude toward Jews that made the Holocaust both possible, and
given the opportunity, inevitable.” Some of the ghetto and concentration camp
letters have coded or hidden messages about the plight of the senders.
Research about the postal materials has led to discovery of a previously
unreported undercover address in Lisbon, Portugal, used by Jewish resistance
fighters, and the location of two camps in Romania for slave laborers and
political detainees. In addition to the Bible scroll fragment used to wrapping
a package, the collection includes:
·
Rare examples of mail sent to prisoners and mail sent between inmates at
different camps;
·
A card sent by an inmate at Dachau soon after it opened in 1933 is the earliest
known prisoner mail from any Nazi concentration camp;
·
An October 3, 1943 letter to his parents in Rzeszów, Poland from Eduard Pys, a
21-year-old who arrived on the first transport at the Auschwitz concentration
camp in May of 1940.
·
The only known surviving piece of mail sent by Rabbi Leo Baeck, the leader of
German Jewry (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden), while he was confined to
the Theresienstadt ghetto.
·
A postal checking account receipt imprinted with a crude anti-Semitic
caricature denoting payment for a subscription to a Nazi propaganda newspaper,
Der Stűrmer;
·
Mail secretly carried by children through the sewers of Warsaw during the 1944
uprising;
·
Mail clandestinely carried from Nazi-occupied Poland to the exhibit Polish Navy
headquarters in London and to a Jewish resistance leader in Switzerland; and,
·
A December 1945 postal card addressed to Dr. Eugen von Haagen, a Nazi war
criminal on trial after the war at Nuremberg, that is the only recorded example
of the censor mark of the International Military Tribunal.
Arrangements
are being worked out for the entire collection to be housed at the new
facilities of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center that will open
in April in Skokie, Ill. “We are genuinely excited about the prospect of being
the central repository for this remarkable collection,” said Richard
Hirschhaut, Executive Director of the museum. The Florence and Laurence
Spungen Family Foundation was established in 2006 to support charitable and
educational causes. Many of the historic artifacts now can be viewed
online at the foundation’s Web site, www.SpungenFoundation.org.
2009: In
Baltimore, Theatre Hopkins’ production of Lisa Kron’s innovative comedy
“Well”,appears at JHU’s Swirnow Theatre on the Homewood campus.
2010(30
Shevat, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Adar
2010: The New
York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special
interest to Jewish readers including Capitalism and the Jews byJerry Z.
Muller and the recently released paperback edition of We Can Have Peace In
the Holy Land: A Plan That Will Work by Jimmy Carter.
2010: Indian
Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said todat that the Chabad house in Pune
had been under surveillance by David Headley, an American of Pakistani descent
in prison in Chicago for allegedly scouting out targets for the Mumbai attack.
Pune was the sight of a bombing on Saturday night..
2010: A third
of the children in Israel live below the poverty line, according to data
published by the National Insurance Institute today.
2010: Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Military, Admiral Michael G.
Mullen, is scheduled to arrive in Israel today as part of a tour of the region.
Admiral Mullen will be hosted by IDF Chief of the General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi
Ashkenazi, who will hold a festive dinner in his honor later tonight.
2010: The
Counter-Terrorism Bureau of the National Security Council published a travel
warning advising Israeli citizens against visiting Sinai during Pessah.
2011: “Hidden
Children,” a movie “based on true events” that tells “the gripping story of two
young Jewish brothers sheltered by a devout Catholic woman in Nazi occupied
France, setting the stage for a political and legal battle that made headlines
across the country” is scheduled to be shown at the Atlanta Jewish Film
Festival.
2011: A
documentary entitled “Over 90 and Loving It” is scheduled to be shown at the 21st
Annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2011: The
official transition ceremony between 19th General
Gabi Ashkenazi the Israel Defense Forces' 19th chief of staff and Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Israel Defense Forces' 20th
chief of staff is scheduled to be held this morning at the prime
minister's office in Jerusalem. The farewell ceremony for Ashkenazi is
scheduled to be held at Tel Aviv University.
2011:
A former Hungarian military officer has been charged with war crimes in the
1942 slaughter of 1,200 civilians in Serbia, prosecutors said today. The
charges against Sandor Kepiro, 96, stem from his alleged participation in a
raid by Hungarian forces on the northern Serbian town of Novi Sad in January
1942 that left more than 1,200 civilians dead, the Budapest Investigating
Prosecutor's Office said.
2012: “Mahler
on the Couch” is scheduled to be shown at the Palm Beach Jewish Film Festival
in Palm Beach, FL.
2012: Shachiv
Shnaan, an Israeli-Druze political leader “returned to the Knesset today as a
replacement for Matan Vilani.
2012:
“Restoration” is scheduled to be shown at The Yeshiva University Ring Family
Israel Film Festival in NYC.
2012: Likud
Party officials said today that it expects to hold its first party convention
in over a decade on March 22nd.
2012: Congress
is set to significantly increase funding for Israeli missile defense to more
than make up for White House cuts to the program, Capitol Hill sources told The
Jerusalem Post today.
2013: In
London, The Wiener Library is scheduled to host a presentation entitled “A
Personal Story of the Holocaust” by Agnes Grunwald Spier who “was a baby when
she and her mother were saved from deportation to Auschwitz by an unknown
official.” She is the author of The Other Schindlers’
2013: In honor
of Valentine’s Day, UK Jewish Film is scheduled to sponsor a screening of
“Paris Manhattan.”
2013:
Businessman and former Ambassador to Finland Earl “Mack testified in front of
the House Committee on Ways and Means Hearing on Tax Reform and Charitable
Deductions in support of charitable deductions.”
2013: “It was
announced that Martin Mann had been developing an untitled thriller film with
another screenwriter for over a year, for Legendary Pictures.”
2013(4th
of Adar, 5773): Eighty-one-year-old legal scholar Ronald Dworkin passed away
today (As reported by Adam Liptak)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/us/ronald-dworkin-legal-philosopher-dies-at-81.html?hp
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/law-obituaries/9873847/Professor-Ronald-Dworkin.html
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/ronald-dworkin-dies-at-81-1.503643
2013:
Eighty-nine-year-old Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey announced today
that he will not seek a sixth term.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/nyregion/lautenberg-says-he-will-step-down.html?hp
2014: “Focus
on the Family Weekend” sponsored by Frum Divorce is scheduled to open at White
Plains, NY.
2014: “Commie
Camp” is scheduled to be shown at the Jewish Film Festival in San Diego, CA.
2014: The
Jewish Museum is scheduled to offer guided tours of “Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix: A
Retrospective” which celebrates the career of one of the most influential
living comic artists, best known for Maus, his Pulitzer prize-winning
graphic novel about his parents' survival of the Holocaust
2014: Friends
and family prepare to celebrate the 80th birthday of Harriet Gasway,
wife of Bill Gasway, and a pillar of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community.
2014: In
today’s edition of Yedioth Ahronoth, Cameron Kerry, Secretary of State John
Kerry’s Jewish brother recalled relatives who died in the Holocaust and labeled
as “vile” recent personal attacks on the US secretary of state.
2014: Alexei
Bychenko made took part in the final round of competition in the men’s figure
skating at Sochi. (As reported by Yoel Goldman)
2014: After an
Israeli passenger found a grenade safety catch aboard his plane at Ben Gurion
Airport, all of the passengers aboard a Ukrainian International Airlines plane
were evacuated along with their own baggage. (As reported by Tova Dvorin)
2014:
Residents of southern Israel were subject to two separate rocket attacks this
evening.
2014: As the
world prepares to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day, consider the following for the
Jewish twist on a holiday connected with the three “c’s” – Cupid, Chocolate and
Carats (as in diamonds)
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-life-and-religion/162315/aphrodisiacs-valentines-day
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/About_Holidays/Non-Jewish_Holidays/Valentines_Day.shtml
http://www.aish.com/ci/s/A_Jewish_Valentines_Day.html
2015: The
Eden-Tamir Music Center is scheduled to host a piano recital by Ran Zemach.
2015: As of
today, a total of at least thirty homes in Madison, Wisconsin have been
spray-painted with “anti-Semitic and racial slurs and swastikas” including a
property that belonged “to Jim Stein, the president of the Jewish Federation of
Madison, Wisconsin.”
2015(25th
of Shevat, 5775): Shabbat Shekalim
2015:
Following Shabbat, three people were shot tonight at a Copenhagen Synagogue.
2015(25th
of Shevat, 5775): Eighty-seven-year-old poet Philip Levine passed away today.
(As reported by Margalit Fox)
2016: Benjamin
Taylor author of Proust is scheduled to lecture on this topic at the
91nd St. Y.
2016: Today,
the Boston Globe reported that “Eric Silverman and Gail Dines” “two Jewish
professors at Wheelock College” have filed complaints with the USEEOC alleging
discrimination based on religion.
2016:Masterpieces &
Curiosities: Alfred Stieglitz’s The Steerage is scheduled to close at the
Jewish Museum.
http://thejewishmuseum.org/exhibitions/masterpieces-curiosities-alfred-stieglitzs-the-steerage
2016:
“Remember” and “Sabena Hijacking: My Version” are scheduled to shown on the
last day of the 26th annual San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2016: The New York Times features books by
Jewish author and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Man
Without a Shadow by Joyce Carol Oates and Jakob’s Colors by Lindsay
Hawdon
2016:
Valentine’s Day – Yes, with all of the problems in the world there are those
who seriously debate whether Jews are violating their religion if they
participate in this debate!
http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/11/20-inspiring-jewish-valentines-day-quotes/#
http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/valentines-day-and-judaism/2/#
2016: The
funeral for General Avigdor Ben-Gal whose bravery and leadership in facing the
Syrians during the Yom Kippur was a key to victory is scheduled to take place
this afternoon at the Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv.
2016: In the
United Kingdom, The Guardian reported
today that ‘Warsaw’s nationalist has moved to strip” “Jan Tomasz Gross, a
Polish-born Princeton University History” and “a leading Jewish Holocaust
scholar” of the Order of the Merit of the Republic Poland “for asserting Poland
was in part responsible for Nazi war crimes against its Jewish population
during World War II.”
2017(18th
of Shevat, 5777): Yahrzeit of 36-year-old Judith Resnik, who died along with
her six fellow crew members when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated.
2017: “Fanny’s
Journey” and “Fever at Dawn are scheduled to be shown at the San Diego Jewish
Film Festival.
2017: Rabbi
Barry Schwartz is scheduled to “present an in-depth profile” of the story of
“Adam and Eve” as part of the “The Bible: The Greatest Stories Ever Told” at
the Streicker Center.
2017: The
world premiere of “pieces by Israeli composers Dina Pruzhansky and Moshe Kroll
is scheduled to take place as Symphony Space in NYC.
2017: David
Shulkin began serving as the 9th United States Secretary of Veterans
Affairs.
2018: In
Charlottesville, the Brody Center at the University of Virginia is scheduled to
host “Bagels On the Lawn.”
2018: “White
House officials insisted today that the recommendation of bribery and fraud
charges against Prime Minister Netanyahu would have ‘no impact on the time or
content’ of a peace plan,” but President Trump has not rallied publicly to the
Israeli leader’s defense and veterans of Middle East diplomacy said his
troubles could pose an unpredictable new obstacle to Mr. Trump’s peacemaking
efforts.” (As reported by Mark Landler)
2018: Dr.
Avivah Zornberg is scheduled to lead “Miriam and Moses: Sing now! To God” in
which she examines how “the tale of Moses’ sister offers an intimate glimpse in
the tension” that exists between siblings.
2018: “Future
38” and “Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait” are scheduled to be shown at the
San Diego Jewish Film Festival.
2018: “Romance
and Reason” in which “The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in
partnership with the National Library of Israel will explore these shared ideas
and transmutations of imagery as expressed through Islamic manuscripts from the
11th through 18th centuries, a particularly rich and fertile period for these
works” is scheduled to open today.
2019: The
American Jewish Historical Society is scheduled to host “Music in our Time 2019
during which “the combined choirs of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of
Religion and the Jewish Theological Seminary present an array of exciting
Jewish choral music from noted composers of the 20th century (including some
important birthday anniversaries) and their 21st-century colleagues.”
2019: The
Oxford University Jewish Society is scheduled to host a “Diane and Discuss
Valentine’s Day special…. with Gila Fine” who will discuss “Talmudic Heroines:
The Tragedy of Heturta, the Madonna who Became a Whore.”
2019: “Archivist
for YIVO and a klezmer musician, French violonist Eleonore Biezunski who has
been exploring Yiddish traditions of old and new for quite some time now” is
scheduled to perform “Yiddish Love Songs from the Ruth Rubin Collection” at The
Town and Village Synagogue in Social Hall.
2019: As we
observe the first anniversary of the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School
in Parkland, FL, we remember the seventeen victims including the five Jewish
victims, Alyssa Alhadeff, 14, Jaime Guttenberg, 14, Meadow Pollock, 18, and
Alex Schachter, 14, as well as geography teacher Scott Beigel, 35.” (Editor’s note: Unlike when they talk about things like Nobel
Prize winners or Supreme Court Justices, nobody is talking about the
disproportionate number Jews whose lives were cut short by the blast of bullets
from a gun.)
https://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/5-of-17-killed-in-parkland-were-jewish/
2019:
Observance of Valentine’s Day which some might say is the non-Jewish version of
Tu B’Av which this year is observed on August 15.
2019: The
observance of Valentine’s Day is a special day of love for Sue and Ronald
Reider, pillars of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community as they celebrate the
birthday of their granddaughter Maya Rose.
2019: The
friends and family, including many in the Cedar Rapids Jewish community are
posed to celebrate today the 85th anniversary of the birth of
Harriet Gasway.
2020: As
people prepare to share flowers and candy on St. Valentine’s Day, Jews also
remember the massacre on St. Valentine’s Day, 1439.
https://www.aish.com/jw/s/Horrific-Valentines-Day-Massacre-of-Jews.html
2020: In
Cambridge, MA, Club Passim is scheduled to host a “special Valentine’s Day
concert” featuring Cambridge-based folk music duo Sophie Michaux and Adam Jacob
Simon (Sophie et Adam)” as they “share folk tunes from England, Romania,
Argentina and the U.S., as well as Yiddish songs and originals by Adam Simon.”
2020: In
Israel, The Jerusalem Theatre is offering a special “couple’s coupon” in honor
of Valentine’s Day for the shows “Rega, Rega – the songs of Sasha Argov” and “Mania
– A legend in her lifetime”.
2020: In Cedar
Rapids, members of the Jewish community are scheduled to celebrate birthdays
and/or the anniversary of birthdate including Maya Rose, the granddaughter of
Sue and Ron Reider and Harriet Gasway.
2020: On the second anniversary of the tragedy, we would like to remember all 17 victims of the tragic
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, including the four Jewish
students and one Jewish teacher.
May their memories be a blessing.
Jamie Guttenberg
Alyssa Alhadeff
Meadow Pollack
Alex Schachter
Scott Biegel, Geography teacher
2021: The New York Times features
reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Send For Me, a novel by Lauren Fox, City Of A Thousand
Gates by Rebecca Sacks and the recently published paperback edition of Boys
and Sex: Young Men on Hookups, Love, Porn, Consent and Navigating the New
Masculinity by Peggy Orenstein.
2021: In London, at Highgate Synagogue Rabbi
Liss is scheduled to continue the Sunday Morning Discussion with a concluding
session on the current topic “Following Lord Sumption’s Comments – are some
lives less valuable than others?”
2021: At the London School of Jewish Studies Rabbi
Dr Raphael Zarum is scheduled to be giving a Persia & Purim tour of the
British Museum today in which attendees will meet Achashverosh and see his
palaces.”
2021: Jewish musical sensations - Cantor
Magda Fishman of B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton and Cantor Randy Herman
of Chizuk Amuno in Baltimore – are scheduled to come together for an incredible
evening featuring the most popular love songs of our time as part of “Jew,
Blues and Love Songs.”
2021: As it gets ready for Purim today marks
the deadline for making arrangements to send a mishloach manot with Tifereth
Israel in Columbus, OH.
2021: Temple Emanu-El (Haverhill) is
scheduled to host online “A Conversation with Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy” the
authors of Never Alone: Prison, Politics and My People.
2021: On the third anniversary of the tragic Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, an event which some political leaders
deny happened we would like to remember all 17
victims of the tragedy including the four Jewish students and one Jewish
teacher.
May their memories be a blessing.
Jamie Guttenberg
Alyssa Alhadeff
Meadow Pollack
Alex Schachter
Scott Biegel, Geography teacher
2022: The Asiyah Jewish Community is
scheduled to present online today “Eliecha: Psalms as a Spiritual Practice.”
2022: Barbara Feller, a pillar of the Cedar
Rapids Jewish community is scheduled to be a presenter at Session 4 of the
Grant Wood Country Online Writers Forum: Friendships through Words and Art.
2022: LSJS is
scheduled to host a lecture today with Dr Helena Miller presenting 'Jewish
Lives Interrupted - The impact of Covid-19 on Jewish teens.'
2023: The Jewish
Museum of London is scheduled to host a Valentine Baking during which each
person will learn to make their own plaited chocolate challah loaf which will then
be joined together to make a challah heart.
2023: The JCC
Manhattan is scheduled to host the final screening of Cinema Sabaya.
2023: “The Americans and
the Holocaust traveling exhibition” is scheduled to close today at Metropolitan
Library System in Oklahoma City, OK, the Library of Hattiesburg Petal
& Forrest County in Hattiesburg, MS and the Petoskey District Library in
Petoskey, MI.
2023: On the fifth anniversary of the tragedy, we would like to remember all 17 victims of the tragic
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, including the four Jewish
students and one Jewish teacher.
May their memories be a blessing.
Jamie Guttenberg
Alyssa Alhadeff
Meadow Pollack
Alex Schachter
Scott Biegel, Geography teacher
2023: The
Yeshiva University Museum are scheduled to present “Collections Curator
Bonni-Dara Michaels” is scheduled to “explore the character of Israeli art and
the personal relationships between artists, collectors, and donors on this
special tour of the exhibition.”
2023: In honor
of David Hartman’s 10th yahrzeit, Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem is
scheduled to host Donniel Hartman, Tova Hartman, Renana Ravitsky Pilzer, and
Rani Jaeger as they reflect on David Hartman's significant ideas and Avital
Hochstein leads a discussion inspired by his teaching on the place of feminists
in the beit midrash
2023:
Valentine’s Day
https://jewishla.org/whats-the-deal-with-jews-and-valentines-day/
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/valentines-day-and-judaism/
2024:Pathway to the Inner
Life: An in-person Mussar class offered by The Mussar Institute and facilitated
by Lea Haravon Collins is scheduled to begin today at Congregation Agudas Achim
in Coralville, IA
2024: Lockdown
University is scheduled to host a lecture by Jeremy Rosen on “Making Sense of
the Bible: Can its Ancient Text be Relevant Today? Leviticus 25:24, Real Estate.”
2024: Julie
Salamon (author and journalist) is scheduled to sit down with film historian
and author Annette Insdorf, the Professor of Film at Columbia University’s
School of the Arts, and Moderator of the popular “Reel Pieces” series at
Manhattan’s 92Y, where she has interviewed 300 film celebrities in an event
presented by The American Jewish Historical Society.
2024: Lockdown
University is scheduled to host a lecture by Patrick Bade on “Jewish Singers at
the Met: Alma Gluck, Alexander Kipnis, Rose Pauly, Richard Tucker, Jan Peerce
and Leonard Warren.”
2024: “The
Center for Jewish History and Yeshiva University Museum are scheduled to host a
special seminar and discussion with Sally Berkovic, author of Death Duties:
The Chevra Kadisha Jewish Burial Society.”
2024:
Valentine’s Day
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/valentines-day-and-judaism/
https://www.jewishexponent.com/differing-jewish-views-on-valentines-day/
2024: As the
world celebrates Valentine’s Day, we would like to
remember all 17 victims of the tragic Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
shooting who met their tragic fate on
Valentine’s Day including the four Jewish students and one Jewish teacher.
May their memories be a blessing.
Jamie Guttenberg
Alyssa Alhadeff
Meadow Pollack
Alex Schachter
Scott Biegel, Geography teacher
2024: At
Temple Judea, Rabbi Feivel Strauss, the font of knowledge, is scheduled to talk
about the “Apocryphal” at the Noon Lunch and Learn.
2024: As
February 14th, begins in Israel, the Hamas held
hostages begin day 131 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.)