July 28
450:Theodosius II the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor from 408 to 450 passed away. His reign was not a good period for the Jews people. In 425 “on the death of the Jewish Patriarch Gamaliel II, the patriarchate, and the Jewish council associated with it, is ended.” In 429 the “Roman empire formally abolished the Jewish Patriarchate and diverted the Jewish temple tax to the imperial treasury. In 439 The Theodosian Code was “published which, among others, imposed the death penalty on any Jew who tried to convert a Christian to Judaism” and excluded Jews from holding public office.
532: “Emperor Justinian issues a new law condemning Manichaeans, Samaritans, and heretics. In the process, he categorizes Jews as being heretics” "Since many judges, in deciding cases, have addressed us in need of our decision, asking that they be informed what ought to be done with witnesses who are heretics, whether their testimony ought to be received or rejected. We therefore ordain that no heretic, nor even they who cherish the Jewish superstition, may offer testimony against orthodox Christians who are engaged in litigation, whether one or the other of the parties is an orthodox Christian." (
1232: In a grant issued today, King Henry III gave Peter de Rivel “the office of Treasurer and Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, the king's ports and coast, and ‘the custody of the King's Judaism in Ireland’” which meant that all Jews in Ireland shall be intentive and respondent to Peter as their keeper in all things touching the king".
1294: Adolf of Nassau “issued an order” forbidding Jews in Worms to acquire real estate and banning them from occupying “the commons” i.e. territory belonging to the commonwealth.
1315:Nine years after he had expelled the Jews (1306), King Louis X of France issued an edict that permitted “the Jews to return for a period of twelve years, authorizing them to establish themselves in the cities in which they had lived before their banishment. He issued this edict in answer to the demands of the people. Geoffroy of Paris, the popular poet of the time, says in fact that the Jews were gentle in comparison with the Christians who had taken their place, and who had flayed their debtors alive; if the Jews had remained, the country would have been happier; for there were no longer any moneylenders at all (Bouquet, xxii. 118). The king probably had the interests of his treasury also in view. The profits of the former confiscations had gone into the treasury, and by recalling the Jews for only twelve years he would have an opportunity for ransoming them at the end of this period. It appears that they gave the sum of 122,500 livres for the privilege of returning. It is also probable, as Vuitry states, that a large number of the debts owing to the Jews had not been recovered, and that the holders of the notes had preserved them; the decree of return specified that two-thirds of the old debts recovered by the Jews should go into the treasury. The conditions under which they were allowed to settle in the land are set forth in a number of articles; some of the guaranties which were accorded the Jews had probably been demanded by them and been paid for. They were to live by the work of their hands or to sell merchandise of a good quality; they were to wear the circular badge, and not discuss religion with laymen. They were not to be molested, either with regard to the chattels they had carried away at the time of their banishment, or with regard to the loans which they had made since then, or in general with regard to anything which had happened in the past. Their synagogues and their cemeteries were to be restored to them on condition that they would refund their value; or, if these could not be restored, the king would give them the necessary sites at a reasonable price. The books of the Law that had not yet been returned to them were also to be restored, with the exception of the Talmud. After the period of twelve years granted to them the king might not expel the Jews again without giving them a year's time in which to dispose of their property and carry away their goods. They were not to lend on usury, and no one was to be forced by the king or his officers to repay to them usurious loans. If they engaged in pawn broking, they were not to take more than two deniers in the pound a week; they were to lend only on pledges. Two men with the title "auditors of the Jews" were entrusted with the execution of this ordinance, and were to take cognizance of all claims that might arise in connection with goods belonging to the Jews which had been sold before the expulsion for less than half of what was regarded as a fair price. The king finally declared that he took the Jews under his special protection, and that he desired to have their persons and property protected from all violence, injury, and oppression.”
1586: The first potato arrived in Britain. Since the potato is indigenous to Peru and Bolivia this date means that European Jews could not have enjoyed such delicacies as Latkes and Potato Knishes until at least the 17thcentury.
1609: Bermuda is first settled, by survivors of the English Sea Venture, en route to Virginia. “Historically, few Jews moved to Bermuda because of the harsh policies of the English toward Jews on the island in the 18th century. There is one place on the island, Jews Bay, which proves Jewish origins in Bermuda. The name of the bay dates back to the early 1600s, and is considered to be named after a group of Jews who did business on the island." (Jewish Virtual Library)
1627: Emperor Ferdinand II, “the terror of the Protestants” sent a “threatening letter” to the senate in Hamburg expressing his indignation that “the Lutheran city on the Elbe would not allow Catholics to build a church” but would allow the Jews open a synagogue because of their importance in the trading life of the city. The city relied on the support of Portuguese Jews living in Amsterdam for financial support and had allowed a group of them to settle in the city.
1648: Three thousand Jewish children were killed by Chmeilnicki's hordes in Konstantnow.
1764: Birthdate of Solomon Etting, the Baltimore businessman and politician who led the successful fight to end Maryland’s laws that banned non-Christians from holding public office and practicing law.
1776: Jonas Phillips “sent a letter to a relative and business correspondent of his in Holland, Gumpel Samson by way of the Dutch Island of St. Eustatius. The letter begins by discussing his last letter and other business matters. He moves on to discuss the conflict with England and laconically mentions that the Americans have 100,000 soldiers to the British 25,000. He finishes the letter with an appendix of items he want sent to America so he may sell them. There are two important things about this letter. First, Jonas enclosed within the letter a newly-minted copy of the Declaration of Independence. And secondly, Jonas wrote the letter in Yiddish. Since at war with Britain Jonas would have expected the letter to be intercepted, but by writing in Yiddish they would not be able to read it. The British did intercept the letter and not knowing in language it was written concluded it was in code.” Phillips was born in Germany in 1736 and came to America in 1756. After working as an indentured servant in Charleston SC, he moved North, eventually settling in New York City where he became a successful merchant who was active in the Jewish community of both NYC and Philadelphia and supporter of the American Revolution. He was the grandfather of Uriah Phillips Levy, the first Jewish Commodore in the United States Navy.
1789(5th of Av, 5549): Meir ben Saul Barby the scholar who escaped poverty and served as rabbi at congregations at Halberstadt and Halle-on-the-Salle.
1794: French political leader and revolutionary, Maximilien Robespierre meets his fate with the guillotine. Whatever his other shortcomings, Robespierre took the unpopular stance of advocating full rights for the Jews of France when the subject first was debated in 1789. In part he stated, “How can you blame the Jews for the persecution they have suffered in certain countries? These are, on the contrary, national crimes that we must expiate by restoring to them the imprescribable rights of man of which no human authority can deprive them…Let us give them back their happiness, their country and their virtue by restoring them their dignity as men and citizens…The vices of the Jews are born of the abasement in which you [Christians] have plunged them. Raise their condition and they will speedily rise to it!”
1789 (5th of Av): Rabbi Meir ben Saul Barby of Pressburg, author of Sefer Hiddushei Halakhot, passed away
1808: Birthdate of Salomon (Solomon) Formstecher, “a German rabbi and student of Jewish theology.”
1814: Birthdate of Betty Berta Warburg.
1821: Jose de San Martin declares Peru’s independence from Spain. San Martin was one of the great leaders in the fight to free South America from Spanish rule. At the time of Peru’s liberation from Spanish rule, whatever Jewish population existed in “the land of the Incas” was made of conversos or secret Jews. The Jewish Peruvians slowly made their presence known but it was not until the middle of the 19th century that they would become an open, functioning community.
1834(21stof Tammuz, 5594):Abraham Hirsh Lwow passed away today.
1836(14thof Av, 5596): Nathan Mayer Rothschild, the founder of the London branch of the House of Rothschild passed away. The Jewish Virtual Library provides an interesting synopsis of his life. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/RothschildN.html
1836: Herman and Johanna Diamant gave birth to Jeanette Johanna Herzl, who married Jacob Herzl and became the mother of Theodor Herzl.
1849: The First National Assembly of Hungary led by the revolutionary leader Kossuth, granted complete political and civil rights to the Jews in recognition of their loyalty.
1851: Birthdate of Samuel Sachs, the Maryland native who gained fame as part of Goldman-Sachs.
1852: Rabbi Lyon officiated at the wedding of P.S. Jacobs from Columbia, SC and Mary Ann Adler of Charleston, SC.
1855(13th of Av, 5615):Eighty-year old Salomon Mayer von Rothschild the second son of Mayer Amschel Rothschild and the founder of the Viennese branch of the House of Rothschild whose children were Anselm Salomon von Rothschild and Betty Salomon passed away today. A measure of his accomplishments can be seen by the fact that in 1822 Emperor Francis I awarded him the hereditary title of “Baron” making the Jewish financier a part of the Austrian nobility.
1855: Today’s “Foreign Extracts” column reported that John Abrams, a Polish Jew, has been charged with trying to induce members of the Foreign Legion stationed at Shorncliffe to desert. Based on the questioning of officers and enlisted men, it is believed that Abrams is an agent of the Russian government. [This episode took place during the Crimean War when Britain and France were fighting Russia.]
1861:A review of History of Civilization by Thomas Buckle reports that "Jews and heretics were persecuted with unrelenting vigor" in pre-711 Spain when Arian Visigoths and the orthodox Franks were contesting for power.
1863:As the United States implemented a draft during the Civil War that resulted in a major riot in July of 1863, The New York Times reported that “a Jew broker, from New-York, reached West Chester with a dozen men to hire out as substitutes. The men boasted that they were from New-York, and were engaged in the late riots.”
1868: The 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is certified, establishing African-American citizenship and guaranteeing due process of law. The“Due Process Clause” prohibits state and local governments from depriving persons of life, liberty, or property without certain steps being taken to ensure fairness. This clause has been used to make most of the Bill of Rights applicable to the individual states, which was a boon for Jewish interests because of the language in the First Amendment that guarantees freedom of religion.
1868: Birthdate of French poet and Zionist André Spire
1870: On what would turn out to be the last night of his life, prominent New Yorker Benjamin Nathan went to sleep on mattresses on the second floor reception room of his mansion. Nathans’ house was being renovated so he could not spend the night in his bedroom. His son Frederick returned to the house to before midnight. His other son, Washington, returned after midnight when his father was already asleep.
1875: Sir Moses Montefiore visited the large Ashkenazi synagogue in Jerusalem where he was greeted by Haham Bashi who later entertained the British nobleman at his home. A crowd of 20,000 that included Jews, Muslims and Christians, greeted the Baronet as he walked the streets of the City of David.
1876: The German parliament passed the Austrittsgesetz, which allowed Jews to secede from their religious community which led “Samson Raphael Hirsch of Frankfurt, who had campaigned for the law to be passed, to declare that Orthodox Jews in Frankfurt had the duty to officially secede from the non-Orthodox Grossgemeinde.”
1879(8th of Av, 5639): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1881: “The Troubles In Russia” published today described “the disinclination” of the United States to join European governments in a proposed communique being sent to the Czar to protest Russia’s treatment of her Jews since it has “already instructed its Minister to Russia on the subject.”
1882: The Polish Jews traveling in steerage got the fright of their life today when the SS. Gellert caught fire as it sailed from New York to Hamburg. The fire which was caused by smoldering tobacco melted part of the iron deck before it was extinguished
1883: At Nyireghyhaza, Hungary, where a group of Jews has been charged with murdering a Christian girl the prosecution and defense gave their summations today. The prosecution contended that for the Jews, “ritual murder was common and frequent.” The defense “derided the charge” that Jews shed Christian blood as part of their rituals and said the charge was a lie used to “excite Christians against Jews.”
1884: James R. Osgood & Company has published Stray Leaves from Strange Literature, a collection of myths and legends including some from the Jewish people, by Lafacdio Hearn.
1884:A court circular from Marlborough House dated today noted that Walter Goodman had submitted the portrait of The Duke of Albany to the Prince and Princess of Wales, from where it was currently displayed at The Guildhall. Goodman was the second generation of Jewish painters in his family since his mother was Julia Salaman.
1885(16th of Av, 5645): Sir Moses Montefiore, one of the most famous and influential Jew of the 19th century passed away in the 101st year of his long and fruitful life. Ironically, while many Jews living in the 21stcentury have heard the name Montefiore in connection with a particular institution or building, including the famous Windmill in Jerusalem, few know much about his lifetime of accomplishments. There is no way that this Blog can do him justice. These websites should help fill in some of the gaps.
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/770671/jewish/Sir-Moses-Montefiore.htm
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/montefiore.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD4ERPVUGHM
1886: “Europeans in Persia” published today described the impact that westerners were having on Tehran including the local Jewish population which has benefited from the arrival of a Jewish dentist, doctor and “chemist” (pharmacist).
1886: The Castle Garden Committee of the Commissioners of Emigration is scheduled to meet today to consider the offer of several New York rabbis to provide financial guarantees for recently arrived Jewish immigrants from Russia so that they would not be deported as paupers.
1887: Lipman Emanuel "Lip" Pike, reportedly one of the first professional Jewish players played his last game today as a member of the New York Metropolitans. (This 19th century team should not be confused the modern day NY Mets)
1890: “Manning and the Jews” published today described the plans of several prominent English Jews including “Dr. Adler, the acting chief rabbi, Sir Julian Goldsmid, Mr. Frederick D. Mocatta, Sir John Simon Mr. Claude G. Montefiore and others” to present Cardinanl Manning “with an illuminated address of congrational on the occasion of his silver jubilee” on “behalf of the Jews of Great Britain.” The gift shows the high esteem in which the Cardinal is held by the Jewish community who greatly appreciated his efforts on behalf of the Jews of Russia.
1889: Dr. Cyrus Adler of John Hopkins University will deliver a lecture on “The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser” at Cooper Union in New York. The lecture is part of the Summer Course sponsored by JTS.
1891: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children is scheduled to sponsor an excursion that will sail up the Hudson River.
1893:“The Philadelphia Jewish Exponent announced that Henrietta Szold would be moving to Philadelphia from her home in Baltimore to serve as the secretary and first paid employee of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS). Szold had been elected as the only female member of the JPS publication committee when the organization was founded in 1888 in order to provide a steady series of substantive works of Jewish culture to an American audience. Despite the initial apathy and opposition that the JPS encountered, Szold committed herself to the society, at one point "personally addressing eleven hundred circulars and membership blanks" although in the end they only yielded 75 responses. She had already served the organization as an author, translator, and editor, but now she would be a paid employee. While Henrietta Szold's most significant impact on Jewish life would come after she founded Hadassah, the Zionist women's organization in 1912, her work at JPS constituted a major contribution to the creation of an American Jewish culture. The Jewish Exponentarticle about her move to JPS suggests that, even before the formal commencement of this work, Szold was recognized as a woman who had and would continue to play an important role in the American Jewish community. Szold had already established herself as an educator and, through newspaper columns, as an astute observer of Jewish life. According to the Exponent article, "no one better equipped could be found than Miss Szold." Upon being offered the job of secretary in 1893, Szold withdrew from her positions in Baltimore, including her role as superintendent of the Russian night-school of the Hebrew Literary Society. As the school's founder, superintendent, fundraiser and one of its teachers, she had, according to the article, surrounded herself with teachers "whom she has made thoroughly conversant with her masterful manner of teaching English to Russo-Jewish immigrants and in the sympathetic manner of engaging their undivided attention so as to develop in them an appreciation of American ideals." Szold's work for JPS was monumental. Although she worked under the title and salary of secretary, she served as translator, indexer, fact checker, proofreader, statistician, administrator, and editor, overseeing the publication of 87 books during her tenure. Szold's clear mind, exhaustive dedication, and meticulous attention to detail enabled the Society to offer a remarkable literary and scholarly array. Many of the translations and original works published by JPS during this time still inform contemporary American Jewish culture and scholarship. A new Bible translation and the series of American Jewish Year Books that commenced publication in 1900 began to define the contours of a distinctive American Jewish intellectual world. After twenty-two years, Szold withdrew from JPS work in 1916 when a group of Zionists offered to provide her with an annuity in order to support her growing work for Hadassah.”
1893: “Driven From Home By Fire” published today described the aftermath of the tenement on Clinton Street which included Morris Lewenthal’s loss of his butter and provision store which cost the Russian Jewish immigrant $500 in losses that were not insured.
1895: “Jordan Ceased To Flow” published today includes a summary of an article by Lt. Col C.M. Watson of the Royal Engineers that had appeared in the last quarterly of the Palestine Exploration of London which described “a stoppage in the flow of the River Jordan” that had occurred in the 14th century which bore “a likeness to the miraculous” stoppage “of the river at the time of the…Israelites.”
1895: Founding of the Young Men’s Hebrew Association in Springfield, MA.
1896: Twenty year old George H. Webb will appear in court today to face charges of abduction after having failed to agree to divorce Dora Webb, a sixteen year old Jewess whom he secretly married but never lived with.
1896: The City of Miami is incorporated. According to one source Samuel Singer was reportedly the first Jew to move to Miami, arriving there in 1895. Others report that Isidor Cohen who signed the city’s charter in 1896 deserves the honor. There were enough Jews in the city when it was founded to hold regular religious services. But the population dwindled in the first decade of the 20th century. The anti-Semitic practices of early developers hampered the growth of what today is one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States.
1899: John Ireland, the Roman Catholic archbishop of St. Paul, MN told friends in New York that while in France he did not see as much “turmoil over the Dreyfus” as reported in the press and “that the decision of the court-martial, whatever it may be, will be accepted as final since the matter is no longer seen as involving the honor of the army.”
1899: Messrs. Heinemann announces the publication of two books of interest because of the Dreyfus case. One is by Lionel Decle, an Anglicized Frenchman. The other is The Modern Jew, by Arnold White.
1901: The fifth annual session of the summer assembly of the Jewish Chautauqua Society came to an end.
1901: After more than a month of effort, Arnold Schönberg completes his work “on the opera-fragment "Die Schildbürger" (dramatic setting of Gustav Schwab's short story of the same name).”
1902(23rd of Tammuz, 5662): Rabbi Jacob Joseph passed away.Born in Krozhe, a province of Kovno, in 1840, he studied in the Volozhin yeshiva under the Netziv, where he was known as "Rav Yaakov Charif" because of his sharp mind. He was one of the foremost students of Rabbi Yisrael Salanter. He became successively rabbi of Vilon in 1868, Yurburg in 1870, Zhagory and then Kovno. His fame as a preacher spread, so that in 1883 the community of Vilna selected him as its maggid. He came to the United States in 1888 where he served as chief rabbi of New York City's Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, a federation of Eastern European Jewish synagogues. The Rabbi Jacob Joseph School is named after him, and a playground is named after and honors the memory of a great-grandson of Rabbi Jacob Joseph who carried his name.
1903: The High Commissioner delivered an address at the opening meeting of the Jewish Board of Deputies for the Transvaal and Natal
1904: Birthdate of Austrian born, British philosopher, Sir Karl Raimund Popper. In an all too common pattern, Popper left Austria in 1937 to avoid the pending Nazi takeover. He made his was to New Zealand where he continued his academic work. In 1946 he moved to England where he gained further fame as a member of the faculty of the London School of Economics.
1904: Vyacheslav von Plehve, the director the Czar’s Secret Police and Interior Minister was killed by a bomb thrown by a revolutionary. Plehve was the Interior Minister during the Kishinev Pogrom of 1903. He reportedly gave orders for government forces not to interfere with the rioters during the three days of carnage.
1905:The New York Timesreported that Max Nordau gave an “eloquent eulogy” in memory of Dr. Theodor Herzl, founder of the Zionist movement at the opening session of the Seventh Annual Zionist Congress. Herzl passed away in 1904.
1909: The cornerstone for Gymnasia Herzliya’s new build on Herzl Street in the Ahuzat Bayit neighborhood of Tel Ave took place. Founded at Jaffa in 1905, it was the first Hebrew high school in what would become the state of Israel.
1909: British Ambassador Sir Gerald Lowther visited the Hahambashi (Chief Rabbi) in Constantinople.
1909: Birthdate of Harry "Pittsburgh Phil" Strauss, a contract killer for Murder, Inc.
1910: In Zurich, Albert Einstein and his first wife Mileva Maric gave birth to their second Eduard Einstein.
1911: The King of Spain, who exercises sovereignty in Mellila, Morocco, replies favorably to the petition of these Moroccan Jews for equal rights since they pay taxes and serve in the army.. The liberal press commends the Spanish Monarch's attitude, and hopes for annulment of discriminatory laws still in force against the Jews.
1913: In what turn out to be the worst single act of anti-Semitism in the United States, Leo Frank went on trial charged with the murder of Mary Phagan.
1914: According to an appraisal filed today by the State Tax Assessor, the estate of the late Dr. Morris Loeb has a gross value of $2, 474, 585. The largest beneficiary of the estate was his widow, Mrs. Eda K. Loeb and Harvard College. He left several bequests to numerous Jewish and non-Jewish charities the Hebrew Technical Institute and the Solomon and Betty Loeb Memorial Home for Convalescents. "Mrs. Loeb, Felix M. Warburg, Paul Warburg and Julius Goldman are the executors of the estate."
1914: The Austro-Hungarian Empire declares war on Serbia thus starting World War I. The war will prove devastating for the Jews of Eastern Europe. Even worse, it will sow the seeds for the Second World War. There is a straight line between the decisions reached in the heat of the summer of 1914 and the ashes of Auschwitz.
1915: The infamous Leo Frank trial began today in Georgia.
1916: Birthdate of Gerhart Friedlander, “a veteran of the Manhattan Project…and a pioneer of nuclear chemistry who later exploited the first particle accelerators to do major research as head of the chemistry department at Brookhaven National Laboratory.”
1918: Gavrilo Princip, “the assassin who started WW I” by killing the Archduke Ferdinand died of tuberculosis in Theresienstadt, the same Theresienstadt that would the show ghetto during World War II.
1922: Birthdate of William Coblentz, one of California’s most influential lawyers who battled Govenor Ronald Reagan, represented hostage/fugitive Patti Hearst and was “a donor both to the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund.”
1922: On being released from prison after serving a four week long sentence, Hitler declares, “The Jewish people stands against us as our deadly foe and will so stand against us always, and for all time.”
1922: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Randall Davidson, writes Churchill expresses his (and other un-named supporters) opposition to Zionist activity in Palestine.
1923: In Moscow, Victoria and Isaac Raeff gave birth to Marc Raeff who became one of America’s “scholars of Russian history.” (As reported by Bruce Weber)
1923: Opera life began in pre-statehood Israel today with the performance of Verdi’s “La Traviata. The performance brought to life the vision of Mordechai Golinkin described in his thesis “The Vision of the Hebrew Art Temple of Opera Work in Palestine.” Since there were opera houses in the new Jewish city, the performance took place in a movie theatre.
1925: Birthdate of Baruch “Barry” Samuel Blumberg, “the Nobel Prize-winning biochemist and medical anthropologist who discovered the hepatitis B virus, showed that it could cause liver cancer and then helped develop a powerful vaccine to fight it, saving millions of lives.”
1929: Charles M. Bender is the delegate from Texas attending the 16th World Zionist Congress in Zurich.
1930: Birthdate of singer Firoza Begum
1936(9th of Av, 5696): Tisha B’Av
1936:The New Masses publishes “The Travels of Lester Cohen,” Robert Gessner’s review of Two Worlds by Lester Cohen.
1936: It was reported today that this September, Henry Holt will publish Spring Up Oh Well by Dorothy Ruth Kahn. The book describes the growth of the Jewish community in Palestine, including the development of Tel Aviv and surrounding “hamlets.”
1937: Kfar Menahem, a moshav that had been abandoned in 1936 during the Arab Revolt “was re-established as part of the tower and stockade program.
1937:In Neuilly-sur- Seine Pierre-Gilles Veber, who was Jewish and his wife who was Armenian gave birth to Paul Veber. He escaped the fate of his grand-uncle Tristan Barnard who was sent to Drancy since he was baptized.
1939: On the Mediterranean Sea north of Tel Aviv, “authorities detained 373 Jews today as unauthorized immigrants after the British destroyer Imperial halted the Colorado, a vessel flying” the Panamanian flag.
1940: Hitler called for an intensification of anti-Jewish actions in Slovakia.
1940: Hugo Gutman and his family arrived in Vichy after escaping from Brussels and received the emigration permit today that would let them enter Portugal.
1941:David Rose marries Judy Garland. It is the second of Rose’s three trips to the altar. The third visit will be the one that lasts.
1941: In Scranton, PA, Rabbi Melech Schachter and his wife gave birth to Rabbi Herschel Schachter who followed in his father’s footsteps to serve as a rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University.
1941: In Lithuania, the Nazis killed the Jews living in Aniksht and Vilkovishk.
1941: As German troops over run Russian territory, the killings of Jews increased in frequency and numbers.
1941: Local police and militiamen, acting with the acquiescence of SS troops at the prison at Drogobych, Ukraine, use guns, clubs, and fists to slaughter hundreds of Jews. The streets are choked with badly injured fleeing Jews and mangled corpses.
1941(4th of Av, 5701): German occupation troops in and around Belgrade, Yugoslavia, execute 122 Communists and Jews for resistance.
1941(4thof Av, 5701): Sixty-seven year old Ben Zion Halberstram the Second Bobover Rebbe was murdered today.
1941(4th of Av, 5701): Forty mental patients from Lódz, Poland, are taken from a hospital and executed in a nearby forest.
1942(14th of Av, 5702): The Nazis killed 10,000 Jews in Minsk.
1942: SS chief Heinrich Himmler writes to a senior SS official that the Occupied Eastern Territories "are to become free of Jews."
1942(14th of Av, 5702): Jewish parents in Tarnów, Poland, are forced to watch as their children are shot by Gestapo agents. The parents and other adults are subsequently deported to the camp at Belzec for extermination.
1942: In the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto, two male Jews, one just 16 years old, are hanged after escaping a work gang.
1942: Young members of the Warsaw Ghetto establish Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB; Jewish Fighting Organization). At this time, the only weapon in the ghetto is a single pistol.
1942: Over the next three days 30,000 Jews are killed in Minsk, Belorussia.
1942: As Operation Reinhard entered its sixth day, a Jewish resistance group was set up. Their arsenal consisted of two pistols. Operation Reinhard was the name given to the German plan to wipe out the Jewish population of occupied Poland.
1942(14th of Av, 5702): In Tarnow, Poland, the Jewish children were taken to the edge of town and shot. The rest of the town's Jews were taken to Belzec
1942: Eighty-nine year old Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie passed away. The famed archaeologist made his first of many trips to Palestine in 1890 when led a dig at Tell el-Hesi. His most famous discovery came in 1896 when he identified the ‘Israel’ or Merneptah stele.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/article_index/s/sir_william_matthew_flinders_p.aspx
1943: Using the information they found on the dead bodies of the members of the Leon Group, the Nazis entered the ghetto at Vilna and arrested 32 friends and family members of the murdered partisans. The 32 were taken to the killing grounds of Ponar where they were executed. The Germans published an announcement warning the family and friends of anybody else who planned to escape the ghetto that a one-way ticket to Ponar would be their reward as well.
1943: Jan Karski, the Polish officer who risked his life to bring first reports of the conditions facing the Jews of Europe, including the mass murders and concentration camps met with President Roosevelt for an hour in the Oval Office. British Foreign Minister had not shown any interest in his report and Prime Minister Churchill was “too busy” to see him. Before meeting with Roosevelt, Karski had met with Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter who said, “I am unable to believe you.´Karski began by describing the activities of the Polish underground. The president listened with fascination, asked questions and offered unsolicited advice, some of it a bit eccentric -- such as his idea of putting skis on small airplanes to fly underground messengers between England and Poland during the winter. But when Karski related details of the mass killings of the Jews, Roosevelt had nothing to say. The president was, as Karski politely put it, "rather noncommittal." (Editor’s note – The British were too busy, FDR was not. As to being “noncommittal” the reality was that the war was not going well and that is a gross understatement. At this point the Allies had just landed in Sicily, were still trying to win the Battle of the Atlantic and had only scratched the surface of the Island Hopping Campaign against Japan
1943: During World War II the British bomb Hamburg causing a firestorm that kills 42,000 German civilians. In a twist of irony, the mission is named Operation Gomorrah. (There is no record of an air mission called Operation Sodom.)
1943: Birthdate of guitar playing composer Mike Bloomfield.
1948” Leon Blum began serving as Vice Premier of France in the government of Prime Minister Andre Marie.
1948: “United Nations peace envoy, Folke Bernadotte, issued a statement which said that there was ‘no evidence to support claims of massacre’” at al-Tira, a village near Haifa, that had been made by Azzam Pasha, the Secretary General of the Arab League.
1949: Today’s proposal by the Ben-Gurion to the UN that would allow 100,000 Arabs to return to Israel touched off a wave of opposition that would later lead to its withdrawal.
1956(20th of Av, 5716):Abraham Telvi “a Jewish-American mobster and hitman for New York labor racketeer Johnny Dio, known most notably for blinding crusading New York journalist Victor Riesel with acid” was gunned down today.
1959: Premiere of “North by Northwest” the suspense thriller with a script by Ernest Lehman, music by Bernard Hermann and featuring Martin Landau in one of his early roles.
1964: Birthdate of Ian Paul Livingston, Baron Livingston of Parkhead the Scottish businessman who is “The fourth generation son of Polish-Lithuanian Jews who arrived in Scotland 120 years ago.”
1969: Operation Boxer came to an end with a dogfight between IAF Mirages and Egyptian MIG-21s during which neither side was able to score a victory.
1969: Opening of the Eighth Maccabiah
1971: Marvin Israel discovered the body of photographer Diane Arbus two days after she had taken her own life.
1982(8th of Av, 5742): Erev Tish'a B'Av
1984: The 1984 Summer Olympics opened in Los Angeles where Bernard Rajzman earned a Silver Medal as a player with the Brazilian Volleyball Team
1988: Jordan canceled a $1.3 billion development plan in the West Bank.
1988:Israeli diplomats arrived in Moscow for their first visit in 21 years.
1988: Jack Lang completed his first term in office as Member of the French National Assembly for Loir-et-Cher
1989: Units of the IDF crossed into Lebanon and seized Sheik Abd al-Karim Obeid a Hizballah cleric and military commander of Islamic Jihad. This took place during what is now called the First Infitada.
1993: Catcher Brad Ausmus made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres.
1995(1st of Av, 5755): Rosh Chodesh Av
1995(1st of Av, 5755): Ninety-three year old Harry Zimmerman, the physician who helped found Albert Einstein College of Medicine and made major contributions in dealing with diseases of the nervous system, passed away today. (As reported by Robert Thomas, Jr.http://www.nytimes.com/1995/07/31/obituaries/dr-harry-zimmerman-93-dies-founded-albert-einstein-college.htm
1996: The newly opened William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum is the site of a reception for the Israeli Olympic team and a commemoration of the 1972 massacre at the Games in Munich when terrorists killed 11 of the country's athletes and officials.
1998: Monica Lewinsky receives transactional immunity so that she can testify against President Clinton.
2000(25th of Tammuz, 5760): Abraham Pais, Dutch-born American physicist and science historian passed away. Pais was the son of a father from the old Dutch Sephardic community while his mother was Ashkenazik. His trials and tribulation during World War II are the kind of harrowing tale that would make a great adventure novel. Yet they were true. His academic achievements were equally amazing.
2002: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including American Sonnets by Jewish poet Gerald Stern and Man Walks Into A Room, the first novel by Jewish poet Nicole Krauss
2002: David Levy and his breakaway Gesher faction left the government due to their opposition to the budget.
2003: “Monitoring Calls in New World of Quality Assurance” described the role that software is playing in fulfilling Shlomo Shamir’s vision of changing call centers from being “cost centers” to being “strategic centers.” Shamir is the President of the American arm of Nice, an Israeli company that is the leader in this software field. (As reported by Claudia H. Deutsch)
2005: As reported in the Oakland (CA) Tribune, Pacifica resident Lillian Greenwald is praised for having volunteered at the Jewish Home for nearly 25 years. Although this is a significant achievement by itself, it is the quality of her service that is exceptional. Lillian Greenwald is an exemplary role model for any volunteer program, and the Jewish Home is fortunate to have her.”
2006: Five Katyushas struck Peki'in and one directly hit a home next the yard where a family was preparing for an afternoon wedding. Ten people were lightly wounded and treated for shock.Peki'in is an agricultural settlement in the Upper Galilee.
2007 In Jerusalem, a classical music concert entitled"Music in All the Shades" took place at the Sisters of Zion convent presented "Songs, Trombone, and Piano," featuring Galina Chipper Blat, mezzo-soprano, Natalia Jadanov on piano, and Olga Melchovski and Yuri Prokofchok on the oboe.
2007(13th of Av, 5767: Shabbat Nachamu
2007: In Calgary Sharon Fichman was the runner-up in today’s professional tennis match.
2008:In Washington, D.C., veteran Jewish photography editor Leora Kahn discusses and signs Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan
2008: In Washington, D.C., Michaele Weissman discusses and signs her new book, God in a Cup: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Coffee
2009: Father Patrick Desbois, secretary to the French Conference of Bishops for relations with Judaism as well as an adviser to the Vatican on the Jewish religion, discusses The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews, an investigation of German atrocities in the Ukraine in World War II, at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
2009:Police dismantled the West Bank outpost of Mitzpe Avihai near the town of Hebron
2010: Hadassah 95th annual convention is scheduled to come to a close today.
2010:"Surviving Hitler: A Love Story,” is scheduled to be shown today at The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010:Ninety-year old Samuel Kunz, a former Nazi death camp guard has been charged with participating in the murder of 430,000 Jews and other crimes during the Third Reich, German prosecutors said today.
2010: The New York Times featured a review of 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman
2010:Terra Olivio, the first Mediterranean international olive oil competition and conference, which attracted over 120 people from Israel and abroad was held today at Jerusalem’s Inbal Hotel.
2011:“LIVE FROM JERUSALEM: An Evening with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra,” conducted by Zubin Mehta With Renee Fleming and Joseph Calleja is scheduled to be shown at more than 480 select movie theaters nationwide this evening.
2011: The 92nd St Y is scheduled to present “Always: Irving Berlin,” an evening filled with the music of one of America’s great composers and lyricists.
2011: The Foreign Ministry announced today that Israel has established full diplomatic relations with the government of the newly UN-recognized South Sudan.
2011:Histadrut Labor Federation Chairman Ofer Eini told Army Radio today that he does not intend on "bringing down the government" by joining the housing protests, but stressed that it must take action to lower housing prices and cost of living.
2012(8th of Av, 5772): Ninety-three year old pioneer in children’s theatre Judith Martin passed away. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2012: The California premiere of “Six Million and One” is scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Thousands of people attended a Tisha B’Av prayer service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem tonight
2012:Four rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel today landing in unpopulated areas and causing no direct damage. Two of the rockets landed in an open field near Sderot and two more in an open field in the Eshkol region.
2012: Rabbi Yossi Nemes service of The Gerson Katz Chabad Center in Metairie, LA is scheduled to officiate at tonight’s memorial service in honor of the athletes murdered in Munich including wrestler David Berger a graduate of Tulane University who made Aliyah shortly before the Olympics
2013: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral — Plus Plenty of Valet Parking! — in America’s Gilded Capital by Mark Leibovich, The Love-Charm of Bombs Restless Lives in the Second World War by Lara Feigel, Fools by Joan Silber and Rendezvous With Destiny: How Franklin D. Roosevelt and Five Extraordinary Men Took America Into the War and Into the World by Michael Fullilove
2013: The Washington, DC is scheduled to sponsor an outing to the ballpark featuring the Nats against the Mets in “Hadassah Plays Ball!”
2013: “Hannah Arendt” is scheduled to shown this evening at the Castro Theatre as part of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: “A brand new festival called Machaol Olam – World Dance” that began in Israel on July 11 is scheduled to come to a close.
2013: 99th anniversary of the start of World War I, a conflict about which so many know so little while its effects continue to reverberate into our lives in the 21st century.
2013: The cabinet voted 13 to 7 today to approve talks with the Palestinians and to allow a ministerial committee to release 104 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists over the next 9 months. (As reported by Herb Keinon)
2013: Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Yitzhak Molcho left for Washington to take part in peace talks under the aegis of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
2013:A robber carrying an automatic pistol stole jewellery and watches belonging to Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev worth millions of euros from the luxury Carlton Hotel in Cannes today, police and judicial sources said.
2014: "Brave Miss World & Hunting Elephants" are scheduled to be shown at the Berkshire Jewish Film Festival.
2014:The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and The Wiener Library host a workshop "The Holocaust in Eastern Europe in the Records of the International Tracing Service Digital Archive," which is scheduled to open today at the USHMM in Washington, DC.
2014: One hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I – “the war to end all wars.”
2014(1stof Av, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Av
2014(1stof Av, 5774): Rosh Chodesh Av