July 22
1099: During the First Crusade Godfrey of Bouillon elected first Defender of the Holy Sepulcher of The Kingdom of Jerusalem. Having driven out the Muslims and Jews (including the slaughter of innocent) the Soldiers of the Cross settle in for what they think is an eternity.
1209: Forces that included the fanatical monk, Arnold of Citeaux, stormed the city of Beziers as part of the war aimed at destroying the Albigensians. The destruction of the Jewish community, including the murder of two hundred Jews, was "collateral damage
1306 (10thof Av): Philip the Fair of France arrested all the Jews, confiscated their property, and expelled them from his lands. Most Jews left to the next Duchy. Gradually they were allowed to drift back.
1320: King James II of France – in reaction to the excesses in southern France, proscribed support for the Jewish survivors, including an exemption on taxes. At the same time he refused to allow forcibly baptized children to be returned to their parents
1456: During the Ottoman attempts to expand its power in Europe John Hunyadi, Regent of Kingdom of Hungary defeats Mehmet II of Ottoman Empire during the Siege of Belgrade. Mehmet’s reign was friendly to the Jewish people including opening his empire to refugees from Christian Europe. On the other hand, John Hunyadi enjoyed the support of the Italian Monk Jean de Capistrano who had previously convinced King Ludwig of Bavaria to expel his Jewish subjects.
1489: In Soncino, printer Joshua Solomon Soncino produced the first copy Talmud Bavil, Tractate “Niddah.”
1570: During the war with Venice, Ottoman forces lay siege to Nicosia, Cyprus. The Jews had been living on Cyprus since Roman times. Following the conquest by the Ottomans, Cyprus would become a haven for Jews fleeing from the Spanish Inquisition.
1588: After one of action, the English fleet prepares to take on the Spanish Armada off the coast of Plymouth.
1598; The Merchant of Venice is licensed for printing. However, it would be two years before the play featuring Shylock would be printed for the first time.
1604: King James I sent a letter to Archbishop Bancroft that effectively permitted the English translation of the Bible. For most people, Jews included, the poetic tones of the King James Bible are the sounds of the TaNaCh that they readily know.
1648: Ten thousand Jews of Polannoe were killed in the Chmielnicki massacres.
1686: Albany, New York is formally chartered as a municipality by Governor Thomas Dongan. Public records indicate the presence of Jews as early as 1658. Asser Levy owned property, obtained burgher's rights, and lived in Albany in the 1650s. Other early Jewish merchants and traders who resided in Albany included Jacob Lucena, Hayman Levy, Jonas Phillips, Asher Levy, Levi Solomons and Levi Solomons Albany’s most famous Jewish resident was Isaac Mayer Wise who began what would become the Reform Movement while serving as a Rabbi in New York’s capital city.
1676: Clement X, the Pope who prohibited the custom of chasing Jews through the streets during the carnival, passed away.
1706: By the time the details of the Treaty of Union which joined Scotland and England were worked out, at least one Jew, David Brown was living in Edinburgh
1787: In Kuttenplan, Bohemia, Benedikt Baruch Veith and Bräumel Veith gave birth to Johann Emanuel Veith who became “a Bohemian Roman Catholic Priest
1817: Birthdate of Lazare Eliezer Wogue the French rabbi from Fontainebleau who was director and editor-in-chief of the "Univers Israélite,"
1823: Birthdate of Louis Raphael Bischoffsheim the Dutch born French banker who founded the Nice Observatory.
1823: Birthdate of Ludwig Bamberger “political economist” and confidant of Otto von Bismarck
1833: the House of Commons passed a bill for the emancipation of the Jews of England. The House of Lords would reject the bill.
1849: Birthdate of the poet Emma Lazarus. She became famous as the author of "The New Colossus" written in 1883, four years before her death. This poem appears at the base of the Statue of Liberty and is a celebration of America as the land of the immigrant. To give one a sense of the times in which she lived the New York Times described her not as a Jew, but as who belonged "to one of the best known and oldest Hebrewfamilies of the city..."
1850: In New Olreans, the cornerstone is laid for a new Synagogue, Shangaray Chassed.
1853: In a sign of how quickly Jews were accepted into pre-Civl War American society an article published today describing events surrounding Columbia College’s upcoming commencement exercises reported that while most of the college’s trustees have been Episcopalians, members of other religious denominations have served in that capacity including one or more Jews.
1864: During the Civil War Union forces under General Sherman defeat the Confederates at the Battle of Atlanta which was actually one of series of clashes that would lead to the fall of the South’s major transportation and manufacturing center. Among those serving with Sherman was Edward S. Salomon whose distinguished service at the Battle of Gettysburg earned him the rank of Brevet Brigadier General.
1870: The St. Louis Democrat reported that a property dispute between two Jewish congregations in St. Louis that stretches back to the 1840’s has resulted in civil litigation. B’nai El Congregation is suing the trustees of Emanuel Congregation over the transfer of property that the plaintiffs contend the Respondents have never completed
1872: The New York Herald published an editorial “that deplored the widely held opinion ‘that American Jews would remain forever content to study Hebrew and German for the sake of Worshipping God in those languages…Give them religious as well as secular instruction in their vernacular and there will not be much cause to complain of empty pews and neglected synagogues..’” The editorial was written in response to a “report that the English speaking rabbis of Temple Emanu-El and Congregation B’nai Jeshurun had resigned their pulpits and that the congregations were having great difficulty in finding replacements.” The Herald had previously published an editorial praising plans for the creation of a seminary at Cincinnati to train rabbis for the American Jewish community. The Herald believed that if services were conducted in English, Jewish throngs would fill their congregations. What is amazing is the fact that a leading secular paper would involve itself in this issue.
1874(8th of Av, 5634): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1877:“Heine’s Love, Apostasy and Agony” published today described the two most painful events in the German poet’s life. The first was his star-crossed love affair with Amalie Heine. The second was his decision to convert to Christianity so that he could gain favor with his Prussian patrons. The conversion failed to bring the acceptance he sought. These frustrations led him to write “I often get up in the night, and stand before the glass and curse myself.”
1877: “The Hebrew Controversy” published today presented a fulsome account of the controversy created by Judge Hilton’s ban on Jewish guests at his hotel in Saratoga Springs that includes correspondence that reveals much about the attitude and values of those involved in the matter.
1878: Birthdate of Janusz Korczak, Polish born Jewish pediatrician who used the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit as an author of children’s book. He died in August, 1942
1879: Mr. Austin Corbin, President of of the Manhattan Beach Railway Company, says that Jews, as a class, have made themselves offensive to those who patronize his railroad and hotel on Coney Island.” He said “that they are vulgar and unclean…and that he will leave nothing undone to get ride of them in order to save his business from ruin. While no official action has been taken by the Board of Directors to support Corbin’s position, “many stockholders agree with him.
1879: Prominent Jews have condemned Austin Corbin’s derogatory comments, calling him “a narrow-minded bigot whose proper country is Romania.” Abram Dittenhoefer, the former judge and leader of the Jewish community, said Corbin “has not insulted the Jews, but all Americans who are opposed to intolerance.
1880: Michael Gernsheim, a partner in Kuhn, Loeb & Co is scheduled to leave for Europe today aboard the SS Scythia. He plans to be gone for four months.
1881: I.A. Engelhardt was elected President of the Society for Improving the Sanitary Conditions of Poor Israelites in New York at its meeting today. The society seeks to improve “the sanitary conditions” of the city’s poor Jews “by providing them with the necessary information” regarding housing, including the enforcement of sanitary regulations and the means of eradicating the causes and sources of disease from their homes.
1881: Based on information supplied by the Daily News, an English paper, it was reported today that England, Austria, Holland, and possibly some other European powers are planning on sending a joint communique to Russia express their concern over that nation’s “harsh laws against the Jews.”
1882:”The Vicar of Bray,” a comic opera by Anglo-Jewish composer and conductor Edward Solomon opened at the Globe Theatre in London.
1883: It was reported today that Julius Hallgarten, a Jewish Philanthropist has established a trust in the amount of $5,000 to support the Art Schools of the National Academy of Design. Dr. Felix Adler is among those who have been appointed to serve as trustees to manage the gift.
1883: “Not Fond of Israelites” published today described a lawsuit Louis Batist has filed a suit against the Manhattan Railway Company seeking $5,000 in damages after a conductor pushed him back so that he could not board the elevated train after saying “You are a Jew! We don’t permit Jews on this train.”
1884: Rabbis Wise and Huebsch are scheduled to officiate at the funeral retired merchant Mayer Schutz who passed away in his 80th year while vacationing at Coney Island.
1884: Miss Florence Schloss married Daniel Guggenheim today.
1886: It was reported today that 40 Russian Jews who had arrived in the United States yesterday will be sent back to Europe on the next State Line Steamer because they are destitute and “had no definite ideas as to how they were to earn a living.”
1887(1stof Av, 5647): Rosh Chodesh Av
1887: Birthdate of Gustav Hertz. This German-born quantum physicist won the Nobel Prize in 1925.
1888: “Hearing the New Rabbi” published today described the first sermon of Rabbi Jacob Joseph as being delivered in “a language which is a mixture of Hebrew, German and Polish.” The younger members of the audience complained that they “had difficulty in understanding…the language” he used. [It would appear that the sermon was delivered in Yiddish which would have had a strange sound to those used to hearing such talk in German.]
1888: Approximately 1,500 Jews living on the Lower East Side, including a large number of children took an excursion boat to Raritan Beach. The trip was sponsored by a liquor dealer named Ehrlich. According to eyewitness accounts, Ehrlich, who had the drink concession, salted the drinking water, forcing mothers to buy beer and soda to slake the thirst of their children.
1888: Rabbi De Sola Mendes, of New York’s 44th Street Synagogue officiated at ceremonies dedicating The House of Miriam, the new synagogue in Long Branch, NJ. S.T. Meyer of New York contributed the land and several wealthy New York Jews who spend their summers at the New Jersey resort defrayed the cost of Construction. [The congregation exists today as Beth Miriam, a Reform Temple.]
1889: “Pilgrims by the Sea” published today described the thriving ocean resort scene in New York and New Jersey including the presence of Jewish guests at Brighton Beach Hotel. Mr. Breen, one of the new managers of the hotel said that reports that Jewish guests were unwelcomed and had been excluded were false. They had been circulated by a disgruntled former employee. The hotel admitted guests strictly on the basis of their behavior and not ethnicity.
1889: In Boston, MA, Rabbi Raphael Lasker officiated at the funeral of Count L.B. Schwab. Burial took place at the cemetery of the Union Park Street temple. Among the pallbearers were Nathan Waxman and George Adams of the Hebrew Benevolent Society; Alexander Simons and James H. Cohen of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association; and Isaac Young and Usher Hyman of Adath Israel.
1890: Plans for the next free excursion sponsored by the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children were published today.
1890: As the Cloakmakers Strike continued “a Russian Jew named Germain Oxehandler” was arrested for attacking a clerk and labor leader Joseph Barondees went around “repeating vague remarks about ‘streets flowing in gore.’”
1890: “A Jewish Settlement” published today described the growth of Alliance over the last eight years fo acres of wild brush in Salem County, NJ to a flourishing village of 612 Jewish immigrants from Russia. The Hebrew Aid Society helped them by the land which at the time sold for $12 per acre but is now valued at more than $100 per acre thanks to the efforts of the Jews.
1891: It was reported today that Jesse Seligman and A.S. Solomons, Trustees of the Baron de Hirsh Fund have told authorities that the apparently impoverished Jewish Immigrants they are holding are in fact honest hard workers who were “robbed of all of their money’ at the Russian border.
1892: “The Vicar of Bray, “a comic opera by Edward Solomon…opened at the Globe Theatre in London…for a run of only 69 performances.” “An 1892 revival at the Savoy Theatre” last for 143 performances.
1893: A reporter for the New York Timesvisited the home of 32 year old Adolf Bruckman, whose grandfather had been the chief rabbi at a city in Russian Poland and his family at a tenement on Ludlow Street. The destitute family had been forced to leave Russia because of imperial decrees that denied Bruckman of a chance to earn a living.
1894: Josephine and Henry Morgenthau, Sr. gave birth to Ruth Naumburg Knight
1894: “Jews at Buckingham Palace” published today described a visit by the Austrian Archduke to England where he was greeted by fifty of his subjects the royal home, forty of here were Jewish. This should have come as no so surprise since it is believe “that in Vienna there are no fewer than 2,500 persons bearing the Jewish name of Kohn.”
1895: Wolf Silverman was accompanied by is counsel Abraham Joseph when he was arraigned on charges of having attempted to swindle the Empire Life Insurance Company.
1895:Seventy-eight year old Rudolf von Geist, the Protestant leader of the Berlin society fighting anti-Semitism passed away today.
1896: Fourteen year old Julius Henry had a fight with his 16 year old sister Dora following which he told their parents of her secret marriage to George Webb, a twenty year old non-Jew. Dora’s mother asked Webb to give her a divorce and when he refused, her husband Isaac had him arrested on charges of abduction.
1896(12thof Av, 5656): Julia Frank-Zeckendorf the native of Hanover whose marriage to William Zeckndorf spawned a multi-generational real estate empire passed away today.
http://swja.arizona.edu/content/julia-frank-zeckendorf-1840-july-22-1896
1896: Herzl visits Karlsbad, where he obtains an audience with Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria. The prince is a well-connected “royal” who will actually sit on the Bulgarian throne. This appears to be one more attempt on Herzl’s part to use influence and connection to create the Jewish homeland.
1897(22ndof Tammuz, 5657): Seventy-five year old Lewis May, President of Temple Emanu-El passed away this morning at Dobbs Ferry.
1897: In a very emotional manner, Vice President James Seligman announced at special meeting of the Board of Trustees of Temple Emanu-El that their President, Lewis May had passed away following which resolutions of expressing condolence to the family were adopted by the Board.
1899: It was reported today that Oscar S. Straus, the Minister to Turkey, is a member of the United States Section of The International Congress of History.
1899: Joseph Reinach writes from Paris to explain that while the story of Captain Dreyfus appears to be complicated, it is really quite simple because “it confines itself to the manner in which the bordereau the work of Esterhazy has been attributed to Dreyfus.”
1902:Herzl and Wolffsohn leave for Constantinople with hopes that the Sultan will support a Jewish Homeland in the Ottoman Empire. The trip did not go well as can be seen when Herzl writes his conclusions when the visit ends on August 5.
1903: Francis Lewis Cardozo, the first African American to hold statewide office in South Carolina passed away today. The son Isaac Cardozo, a Sephardic Jew working in the customhouse in Charleston and Lydia Weston, a free black woman, Cardozo’s life reads more like a novel than anything else. He was raised as Christian and is the “Cardozo” in Washington, DC’s Cardozo Senior High School.
1907(11th of Av): Rabbi Isaac Blaser, leader of the Musar movement and the author of Peri Yizhak, passed away
1913(17th of Tammuz, 5673): Tzom Tammuz
1914: Before the visit of his daughter Anna to Britain which was to be chaperoned by Ernest Jones, Sigmund Freud wrote, “She does not claim to be treated as a woman, being still far away from sexual longings and rather refusing man. There is an outspoken understanding between me and her that she should not consider marriage or the preliminaries before she gets two or three years older". “A tentative romance between Anna” and Jones who became Freud’s official biographer, “did not survive” Freud’s “disapproval.”
1917: In Russia, Kerensky, the Jewish former Minister of War became the premier. After the Czar abdicated, he took over the Russian government and formed a liberal provisional government, which lasted four months. Although well intentioned, he was not a strong leader and couldn't negotiate between the subversive forces between right and left. His government would be ousted by Lenin, ending Russia’s brief flirtation with Western style democracy.
1918: British General Allenby approves a town-planning scheme for Jerusalem complete with an expanded road network, new parks and municipal and residential buildings.
1920: Establishment of Keren Hayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund)
1921: Winston Churchill, Lloyd George and Lord Balfour met with Chaim Wiezmann at Balfour’s House in London in an attempt “to reassure Wiezmann that British policy in support of the Balfour Declaration and the Jewish home in Palestine had not changed.”
1921: Birthdate of Phillip Burgher, a native of Niles, Illinois who served in World War II.
1922: The League of Nations Council confirmed the British Palestine Mandate. The Balfour Declaration is part of the terms of the mandate.
1923: Tisha B’Av, 9th of Av, 5683
1926: Jacob Fishman, managing editor of the “Jewish Morning Journal,” is supposed to be one of the attendees at the Zionist Action Committee Meeting scheduled to start today in London.
1927: The convention of Palestine Jewish Labor Federation which had been meeting in Tel Aviv for the past fortnight comes to an end. The convention adopted several resolutions including ones calling for greater freedom for Jews to immigrate to Palestine and more aggressive government action to deal with the problems of unemployment.
1927: Birthdate of Israeli Mathematician Michael Bahir Maschler known for his contributions to the field of game theory.
1934(10th of Av, 5694):Tish'a B'Av observed
1934: Dr. Solomon Deutsch, a Bronx Dentist and a leader of the JNF, and his family are scheduled to set sail today for Palestine where they plan on settling at Netanya. (As reported by JTA)
1936: The Palestine Post reported that the insurrection of Monarchists and Fascists in Spain was gaining momentum and was seriously threatening the democratic regime. Arabs killed Abraham Donagi, a watchman at Even Yehuda, and severely wounded Abraham Bauer in Jerusalem. Bombs exploded in Jaffa and the Iraqi Petroleum Co. pipeline was severely damaged. All this was part of the on-going Arab Riots aimed at destroying the Jewish community in Palestine.
1936: A British soldier was killed in an Arab ambush near Tulkarm. Arab attacks were reported from Ein Harod and Kfar Yehezkel. Arabs celebrated the 100th day of their insurrection with demonstrations, calls for prayer and donations. But the Arab Nashashibi Party proposed that the Arab Higher Committee should resign as a protest against the non-fulfillment of their promises and leave the people to decide the fate of their prolonged general strike by themselves
1939: Eichmann’s Central Office for Emigration, (of Jews) in Prague, officially opened
1941 France's Vichy government begins expropriation of Jewish businesses.
1942: On the day before Tisha B’Av German authorities and Ukrainian and Latvian guards in SS uniforms surround the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto. Six thousand Warsaw Jews were told to gather for deportation. Over the next seven weeks as many as 300,000 Jews would be sent by train to the three gas chambers of Treblinka. The railway master at Treblinka was notified of a shuttle line being set up between Warsaw and its railroad station for "Settlers.” THIS WAS THE LARGEST SLAUGHTER OF ANY SINGLE COMMUNITY DURING THE HOLOCAUST. From July 22 through September 12, 1942: 4,000 Warsaw Jews per day would be gassed in Treblinka. Only those with special cards stamped with ‘Operation Reihnard', an eagle and the swastika were saved from deportation. Resisters or those taking flight would be shot on the spot by Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians and German SS officers. Orphanages, children homes, hospitals, were all emptied. Each train was comprised of sixty cars. Each car was packed with human cargo.
1942: “When (Gerhard) Richter obtained Mihai Antonescu's assent to the deportation of the Jews to the extermination camps in Poland, the clandestine Jewish Council immediately learned of the details of the deportation program and used personal contacts to achieve the repeal of the agreement.” (Jewish Virtual Library)
1943: Because the U.S. State Department continues to delay any action on the Riegner Plan to save 70,000 Jews, American Rabbi Stephen Wise pleads with President Franklin Roosevelt to support the plan. Roosevelt allows the plan to be killed because of "strenuous British objections."
1944: German troops withdraw from Parczew Forest, Poland, the site of numerous Nazi searches for Jewish fugitives and partisans.
1944: Survivors of a July 13 mass execution of Jewish slave laborers at Bialystok, Poland, reach Red Army lines after crawling for nine nights.
1944: The Red Army occupied Chelm. The 68,000 Jews left in Vilna hope the Soviets will arrive before the Nazis can finish them off.
1944: During the so-called “Blood for Goods” negotiations Edmund Veesenmayer a member of the SS sent a cable to the German Foreign Office stating that Joel Brand and Andor Grosz had been sent to Turkey on the orders of Himmler
1945: Birthdate of award winning British biochemist Sir Philip Cohen.
1946: The Irgun bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. The King David was the headquarters of the British civil and military administration. Ninety people, including Jews, lost their lives. The Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, claimed that they had called ahead to warn of the bombing. The British denied receiving any such call. The Jewish Agency, the de facto government of the Jews in Palestine and other Jewish leaders, denounced the attack. There was a "moment of mourning" on July 23 as the Jewish community paused to honor the dead. The attack marked a split between the recently agreed to alliance between the Haganah and the Irgun. What is amazing about the response of the Jewish community was that in the weeks prior to the bombing the British had imprisoned all a couple of the leaders of the Jewish Agency and seized its records in an attempt to squelch the Zionist movement. However terrible the British occupation was, the terrorism of the Irgun was not to be the Jewish answer.
1947: “In Beverly Hills, California, Thelma Leeds (née Goodman), a singer and actress, and Harry Einstein, a radio comedian who performed on Eddie Cantor's radio program and was known as Parkyakarkus gave birth to Albert Lawrence Einstein who changed his name to Albert “Al” Brooks after leaving college in the late 1960’s to become a comedian, director and actor who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the “nebbish newsman” in Broadcast News.
1948: The Israelis opened the refineries at Haifa. They had been closed since the British shut them down on April 26 in the waning days of the Mandate.
1949:U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas today revealed here that he was “converted to Zionism” by the late Justice Louis D. Brandeis saying in Haifa that “I pledge to continue my sympathies for Israel and to do whatever I can for its welfare.” (As reported by JTA)
1949: In New York dentist Norman Menkin and his wife Judith gave birth to composer Alan Irwin Menken who won Academy Awards for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahantis.
1950: Captain Moshe Idelovitch, Assistant Superintendent of Police in Israel said that “Arab infiltration of Israeli territory could be stopped within twenty-four hours if Jordan cooperated.” Captain Idelovitch is commander of the Petah Tigva area, where most of the border marauders and murderers penetrate
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported that 69-year-old King Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was assassinated inside al-Aksa Mosque in the Jordanian-held Old City of Jerusalem. Emir Naif, his second son, was declared regent. King Abdullah was known for his efforts to reach an Arab-Israeli peace settlement. In his memoirs he wrote: "I have been astonished at what I saw of the Jewish settlements: They have colonized sand dunes, drawn water from them, and transformed them into paradise..."
1951: As ceremonies were being planned for the burial of King Abdullah of Jordan in Amman, the Arab Legion turned the Jordanian-occupied Old City of Jerusalem into an armed camp in pursuit of the suspected Palestinian assassins.
1951: Israel observed the 47th anniversary of Theodore Herzl's death with a solemn ceremony held on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
1951: White Sox pitcher Marv Rotblatt appeared in his last major league game.
1952: In Washington, DC David Brinkley and his wife gave birth to Joel Graham Brinkley, the Jerusalem bureau chief for the New York Times from 1988 to 1991.
1954: Premiere of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers’ directed by Stanley Donen with music co-authored by Saul Chaplin.
1967: Poet Carl Sandburg passes away. Sandburg was not Jewish. In 1999 a group of previously unknown Sandburg poems was published. The collection included a poem entitled “To Jacob M. Loeb” that contains the same raw power of such poems as “Chicago” – the one that begins:
“Hog Butcher for the World
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat...”
“To Jacob M. Loeb” has that same kind of elemental power, but takes on the form of a letter challenging Loeb. Before reading it, a little background is in order courtesy of the Chicago Jewish Historical Society. Loeb was a real person. He was born in Chicago to German-Jewish parents who had enjoyed economic success. Loeb himself went into the insurance business where he too was quite successful. The Loeb’s were active in the community giving both of their time and their money. Loeb’s mother worked a B’nai Brith type organization that provided educational and recreational opportunities for the children of Chicago’s immigrant (largely eastern European) population. Along with the famous Julius Rosenwald, Loeb helped to found the Jewish Institute and followed Rosenwald in the presidency. Loeb was a major fund raiser in the fight to aid the Jews of Europe during and after World War I. Loeb was also active in the civic affairs of the city of Chicago. In 1914 he was appointed to School Board and later became President of that body. And that is the source of the conflict described in the poem. During Loeb’s time on the board, the school teachers went on strike for the right to unionize. Loeb led the successful fight to give the board the right to fire any teacher who joined the union. Sandburg could not understand how a Jew, whose people had a history of being part of the downtrodden, could turn on the working class once they had money and power. He saw Loeb’s behavior as a betrayal of his Jewish origins. The poem is not anti-Semitic. There were plenty of Jews among the ranks of the teachers and the poem sites by name several Jewish labor leaders. The conflict between the teachers and the school district highlighted an anomaly of Jewish history that was seen most often in the garment industry. The owners were Jewish (usually Germans who arrived earlier) and the workers were also Jewish (eastern Europeans.) The strike at Hart, Shaftner and Marx had pitted Jewish owners against Jewish garment workers. The poem highlights this dichotomy. Sandburg wanted to believe that Jews, of all people, would, once they had power and influence, support the less fortunate and not, in his view “sell out.” He was expressing the same kind of outrage that other generations of Jews have expressed over southern Jews owning slaves. How could the descendants of Pharaoh’s chattel take other human beings as chattel. Since the purpose of these little daily exercises is to provide some context as well as raw information about Jewish history, you will find the poem quoted in its entirety below. Those who know me, know that I am a fan of Sandburg’s so this poem took on special meaning for me.
“To Jacob M. Loeb:
You are one of the Jews sore at Georgia for the way
they hanged Leo Frank and called him a damned Jew
there in Atlanta.
And you’re talking a lot about liberty and the rights
of school children.
You came from Kovno in Russia and you ought to
know something about liberty;
And how school boards, police boards, military
boards and czars have gone on year after year
To choke the Jews from having societies,
organizations, labor unions,
Shoving bayonets into the faces of the Jews and
driving them to the ghettoes.
You know what I mean. You know these European
cities where they call the Jews a despised race;
And anybody who spits in a Jew’s face is not
touched by the police.
D’ye get me? I’m reminding you what you already
know.
You’re the man who is leading the school board
fight on the Teachers’ Federation.
And you forget, your memory slips, your heart
doesn’t picture
How you and your fathers were spit upon in the
face.
And how the soldiers and police misused your
women––
Just because they were Jews, and in Kovno
Anybody could get away with what they did to a
Jew woman or a Jew girl;
And now you, a Jew stand up here in Chicago and
act proud
Because you have in effect spit in the faces of
Chicago women, accused them, belittled them.
First you tried to cut their wages, back here in May,
a seven-and-a-half per cent cut,
And now you’re going to make it a law that teachers
can’t have a labor union;
And they got to take what you and Rothmann and
Myer Stein hand ‘em.
I don’t think you’ll get away with it.
Sam Gompers, an English Jew, will speak tonight at
the Auditorium,
And Jacob LeBosky and Sam Alschuler and other
Jews in this town
Are against the game of shackling the teachers and
repeating Kovno and Kiev and Odessa here in Chicago.
In fact, five hundred Jews are already in revolt at
your Kovno trick
Of slamming the door on the free speech at the
Hebrew Institute.
These five hundred are the real blood of the Jew
race
That give it a clean flame of heroism.
You belong with the trash of history, the oppressors
and the killjoys.
1972:Follies, a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman, opened at the Shubert Theatre in Century City, CA.
1976: The visiting governor of the Bank of Spain, Luis Coronel del Palma, expressed hope of "a considerable improvement of relations between Spain and Israel."
1976: According to American experts the recent events in Lebanon and the Syrian intervention there threatened the total dismemberment of the PLO and the demise of Yasser Arafat who had lost control of all his forces.
1976: Mossad hit teams were reported to have been waging a concerted assassination program against all Palestinian terrorists who murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympiad. For those who consider the Israeli behavior "cold blooded" remember what happened. The Munich Olympics went on almost as if the terrorists had not struck. The response of the world community was to invite Yassar Arafat, complete with is pistols, to address the UN General Assembly. And for good measure the UN passed the Zionism is Racism Resolution.
1976: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Ministry of Agriculture had decided to enforce the law against squatting to counter the widespread increase in the illegal Arab settlement on state lands. The popular TV show Kolbotek was suspended following the discovery of irregularities in connection with one of its programs. The Mossad was reported to have informed Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan of Arab plans to attack Israel two days before the outbreak of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, but this information was disregarded.
1979(27thof Tammuz, 5739): Ninety-one year old immunologist Reuben Leon Kahn who developed a test for syphilis passed away in Miami.
1980(9th of Av, 5740): Tish'a B'Av
1980: The Knesset voted by ninety-nine votes to fifty-one to annex east Jerusalem declaring that ‘Jerusalem, complete and undivided, is the capital of Israel.’
1981:Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth “was created a life peer in 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, of Regent's Park in Greater London, becoming the first rabbi to receive this honor.”
1982: Marigold Merlyn Baillieu Myer, the daughter of Merlyn and Sidney Myer married Sir Robert Southey.
1984: The second convention of The European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS) opened today at Hertford College under the presidency of Geza Vermes.
1993: Israeli Supreme court Justice, Aharon Barak, was present at Yad Vashem to watch seventy-six-year-old Ceslovas Rakevicius plant a tree. Rakevicius had saved the eight year old Barak, his brother and his parents and more than twenty other Jewish families by smuggling them out of the Kovno Ghetto in 1944.
1997(17th of Tammuz, 5757): Tzom Tammuz
1999(9th of Av, 5759): Tish'a B'Av
1999(9th of Av, 5759): David N. Myers of Cleveland, OH who died at the age of 99. He was a dedicated leader and benefactor of the Jewish and secular communities. As a long-time supporter of American Friends of the Hebrew University, he supported numerous programs and established the David Meyers Skin Laboratory and David and Inez Meyers Scholarship Endowment at The Hebrew University.
1999: Major league baseball player Bruce Ausmus and his wife Liz gave birth to their second child Abigail.
2001: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including ''Regarding Film'' by Stanely Kauffmann and “Walking the Bible” by Bruce Feiler.
2002: Israel assassinates Salah Shahade, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas’s military arm, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
2005: In the evening, with the start of Shabbat, Rabbi Aaron Sherman officiates at his first service as the new spiritual leader of the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Jewish Community.
2006: Israel ousted Hezbollah guerrillas from a stronghold just inside Lebanon after several days of fierce fighting, the army said, as it bombarded targets across the south of the country. Israel Defense Forces ground forces commander Major-General Benny Gantz said troops took the hilltop village of Maroun Ras, where four soldiers were killed last Thursday, inflicting dozens of casualties on Hezbollah. IDF troops took positions in the vicinity of Maroun Ras, in southern Lebanon, on Saturday and carried out operations to detect rocket launchers and underground bunkers where Hezbollah militants are holed up.
2006: At least 100 Katyusha Rockets fired by Hezbollah forces in Lebanon land in northern Israel. At least nineteen Israeli civilians are reported injured. In his weekly radio address, President Bush blames Hezbollah and its supporters – Iran and Syria – for the latest round of violence in the Middle East. In the meantime Israeli forces continue operations in Gaza in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier and the launching of rockets by Hamas.
2007: Sharon Fichman was the runner-up in today’s tennis tournament in Hamilton, Canada.
2007: The Sunday New York Times book section featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and or of special interest to Jewish readers including The House that George Built With a Little Help From Irving, Cole, and a Crew of About Fifty by Wilfrid Sheed describing a musical era dominated by George Gershwin “and a few of his friends” and POP! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy by Daniel Gross whose earlier writings included “Can the Jews Save Christmas: Chanukah is Late this Year. Will this help retailers?”
2007: Brad Ausmus “recorded his 100th career stolen base today, becoming the 21st catcher all time to record that many steals
2008: The Karmiel Dance Festival opens. This year, this most Israeli of festivals celebrates the country's 60th birthday via a retrospective of Israeli dance from 1948 to the present day, yet the central event - Let Us Grow in Peace - is a poignant reminder that for most of those 60 years, our land has known conflict.
2008. Senator Barack Obama begins his visit to Israel where he is expected to meet the country's top leaders: President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu. The publicity of this trip is a far cry from the comparatively anonymous trip the Senator made to Israel in 2006 when he visited the town of Fassouta,
2008:For the second time in three weeks, an Arab bulldozer driver from east Jerusalem rammed his construction vehicle into a city bus and several cars on a central thoroughfare in the capital wounding 15 people before being shot dead by a Druse border police officer and a civilian passerby. The early afternoon attack on King David Street was seen as a failed copy of July 2's lethal bulldozer rampage on Jaffa Road in which Husam Taysir Dwayat killed three people and wounded dozens before he was killed.
2009(1st of Av, 5769): Rosh Chodesh Av
2009(1st of Av, 5769:Lynn Pressman Raymond, a leading toy manufacturing executive , passed away today at the age of 97. (As reported by William Grimes
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/02pressman.html
2009:U.S. congressman Henry Waxman discusses his new book, “The Waxman Report: How Congress Really Works,” at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue,
2009:The Randi & Bruce Pergament Jewish Film Festival features a screening of “Holyland Hardball,” which describes what happens “when a Boston baker with no sports management experience wanted to form the Israel Baseball League”
2009: Gen. Norton Schwartz, the chief of staff of the Air Force and the first Jewish commander of the U.S. Air Force completed a four-day visit to Israel.
2010:In Metro-Detroit, MI, The Jean and Theodore Weiss Partners in Torah Program is scheduled to sponsor a program entitled "Life After Death," which will cover such topics as:The journey of the soul, a study of scriptural passages referencing the World to Come, the eternal nature of the soul, a look at testimonials of near death experiences, the relevance of the soul.
2010:The Israel Navy went on high alert today amid forecasts that a flotilla of two vessels from Lebanon was preparing to depart for the Gaza Strip in an effort to break the blockade by the end of the week.
2011(20th of Tammuz, 5771): Yahrzeit of “Rabbi Na'eh best known for his halachic works Ketzot ha-Shulchan and Shiurei Torah ("measurements of the Torah"), in which he converted archaic halachic measurements into modern terms.” He passed away on the 20thof Tammuz (July 21) 1954.
2011: The 92nd Street Y is scheduled to sponsor its Shabba bakery which will give children a chance roll and braid their own challah which they can take home and bake.
2011:Jailed Jewish-American aid contractor Alan Gross told Cuba's Supreme Court today he had no intentions of hurting the Cuban government or its people.
2011:At least 200 medical students from all departments staged a protest outside of Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv today, demanding improvements in Israel's healthcare system and pledging support for the months long battle being waged by doctors and residents across the country.
2012: In Sandy Springs, GA, Rabbi Rachel M. Bregman is scheduled to officiate at the graveside service for Laura Lynn Becker, a very accomplished Atlanta defense attorney for the past 30 years. A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Ms. Becker was the daughter of Harold Becker and Arlene Gabert Becker of blessed memory.
2012: The Center for Jewish History and American Jewish Historical Society are scheduled to present screenings of “Radio Days,” “Broadway Danny Rose” and “Annie Hall.”
2012: The 12th Annual Summer Institute for Synagogue Musicians, Mifgash Musicale is scheduled to begin today on the HUC-JIR campus in Cincinnati, OH.
2012: In Columbus, Ohio, Tifereth Israel is scheduled to sponsor a HAZAK lox and bagel brunch that will included a tour of Motts Military Museum
2012: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The New Religious Intolerance:Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age by Martha C. Nussbaum
2012: Complaining that the Olympic movement is still ignoring their pain, Israelis marked the 40th anniversary of the Munich massacre today with a modest service in the atrium of a London apartment block.
2012(3rd of Av, 5772): Ninety-year old “Dr. Warren Winkelstein Jr., a physician and researcher whose groundbreaking studies connected unprotected sex between men to AIDS, smoking to cervical cancer and air pollution to chronic lung disease” passed away today. (As reported by Denise Grady)
2012(3rd of Av, 5772): Eighty-nine year old urban legend and art collector Herbert Vogel passed away today. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012: The world’s intelligence community is on the alert for terror attacks at the London Olympics, and Israel knows only too well that it can be targeted at such events, Defense Ministry Ehud Barak said this morning (As reported by Gabe Fisher)
2012: Gunmen opened fire on today at a bus of Israeli soldiers that was traveling near the Israel-Egypt border. The bus was hit when it was on Route 10 near Har Sagi, southwest of Mitzpe Ramon. No casualties were reported but damage was done to the bus.
2013: The annual Madridanza festival at the Suzanne Dellal Center in Tel Aviv is scheduled to come to a close.
2013: Amos Phinhasi is scheduled to perform “Mediterraneo” at the Between the Seas Festival.
2013: The second of two billboards sponsored by the pro-Israel group StandWithUs is scheduled to go up today at Helena, the capital of Montana. “The StandWithUs billboards read, “The U.S.-Israel Relationship Creates Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs in America” and “Israel Celebrates Diversity.”
2013(15thof Av): Tu B’Av – Jewish Valentine’s Day
2013: “A new report from the Anti-Defamation League has found a 14 percent decline in recorded anti-Semitic incidents across the United States, the organization said today.The audit of 2012 records identified 17 physical assaults, 470 cases of harassment or threat, and 440 cases of vandalism in which the target was Jewish and the motive allegedly hatred.” (As reported by Michael Wilner)
2013: Former MVP Ryan Braun, the left field for the Milwaukee Brewers known as “the Hebrew Hammer” was “suspended by MLB commissioner Bud Selig for the remainder of the 2013 season for violating the league's drug policy.;”
2014: Israeli-American violinist Gil Shaham is scheduled to join the National Youth Orchestra of America when it makes it Carnegie Hall debut with a program that begins with Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”
2014: Sun Kil Moon is scheduled to perform at the Historic 6th&I Synagogue.
2014: In Las Vegas, Hadassah is scheduled to hold the second day of its 97thannual convention.
2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to open with a “Coen Brothers” double feature.