May 14
1141:
As he journeyed towards Jerusalem, Yehuda Halevi set sail for Palestine today
from Alexandria, Egypt. According to legend, Halevi was killed by an Arab
horseman when as he reached his ultimate destination.
1288:
Thirteen Jews in Troyes, France were burned at the stake by the inquisition
1316:
Birthdate of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Charles viewed his Jewish subjects
as “servi camerae” and issued numerous letters ordering that they not be
harmed. The title of Holy Roman Emperor
sounded grand but had very limited power so these letters went unheeded for the
most part. However, when the Jewish
community of Breslau was attacked, Charles ordered the killers to be arrested
and punished for their crimes.
1482:
As the Christians continued their push to take control all of the Iberian
Peninsula King Ferdinand took command at Alhama during the Granada War.
1483:
Coronation of Charles VIII of France ("Charles l'Affable"). In the
second year of his reign, following accusations of usury, the inhabitants of
Marseilles, the port city of the recently acquired territory of Provence,
attacked the Jewish neighborhoods pillaging them and killing numbers of Jews in
1484 and again in the early months of 1485, leading to an exodus of Jews from
the city, especially to Sardinia which became home to about 200 Jewish families
of Marseilles. However, King Charles VIII was not inclined to conform to the
popular demand of expelling the Jews from Provence. He decreed that all Jews
wishing to leave should be allowed to leave Marseilles unharmed on condition
they had fulfilled all their engagements with the Christians. The city authorities,
on the other hand, were not prepared to let the Jews leave Marseilles with
their property and took various measures in order to reduce their emigration,
among others they organized an inventory of the Jewish property in Marseilles
in 1486. The resulting protests of the Jews assured the royal intervention and
a few additional years of protection. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in
1492 brought new Jewish inhabitants to Marseilles. In 1492 the Jewish community
of Marseilles ransomed 118 Jews of Aragon captured by the pirate Bartholemei
Janfredi, having paid the sum of 1,500 écus, which it borrowed
from a Christian. Renewed anti-Jewish attacks in 1493 eventually led to the
general expulsion of the Jews from Marseilles three years after Charles passed
away in 1498.
1507:
Hernando de Talavera, the archbishop of Granada and Confessor of Queen Isabela
who came from a family of “Conversos” passed away today. (Editor’s note – he is
but one example of how those with “Jewish Blood” held positions of power and
responsibility much to the consternation of Old Christians in Spain.)
1572:
Gregory XIII begins his papacy. “Gregory's policy toward the Jews cannot be
distinctly characterized, since it swayed between relative favor and severity.
Soon after his election, he protected the Jews in the ghetto of Rome who were
in danger of being attacked by the soldiers. Further, an order issued by his
notary threatened with hanging any non-Jew found in the ghetto or its vicinity
without a valid reason. Gregory authorized once more moneylending with a
maximum interest rate of 24%. He guaranteed the safe-conduct of Jews coming
into Italy or passing through the country. Although Marranos were also able to
benefit from this concession, Gregory nevertheless allowed the Marrano Joseph
Saralbo, who had returned to Judaism in Ferrara, to be condemned to the stake
in 1583. Gregory was also responsible for organizing regular compulsory
missionary sermons, often with the collaboration of apostate preachers The
Jewish community was compelled to defray the costs of this institution, as well
as the expenses of the House of *Catechumens. The new prohibitions against
Jewish physicians treating Christian patients contributed to the decline of
medical science among Italian Jews. However, shortly before his death, Gregory
intervened with the Knights of Malta to obtain the release of Jewish prisoners
in their hands, even though the ransom he offered was lower than the sum
demanded.” (As reported by Jewish Virtual Library)
1590:
On this date the Sumptuary Laws were enacted aimed at the Jews
of Casale (Italy). These were laws regulating what Jews may wear, how they
may marry, what they may serve at a wedding, and all manner of what might be
called social intercourse. These laws were commonplace in Europe and designed
to humiliate and punish the Jews in the name of Christ
1610:
Nine year old Louis XIII began his reign as king of France with his mother
Marie de Medici, whose Italian family at this time “invited Jewish merchants to
settle in Livorno” and granted them unlimited access to trade, serving as
regent
1726(13th
of Iyar, 5486): Rabbi Moshe Darshan,
author of Torat Ahsam, passes away.
1637:
The Jews of Venice were denied the right to practice law
1643:
Louis XIII, who in 1615 had “signed letters patent renewing the expulsion order
against not only Jews but also those who profess and practice Judaism” and in
1632, while visiting Metz “granted the Jews letters of patent which declared
their presence in the a necessity” passed away today
1643: Four-year-old Louis XIV becomes King of
France upon the death of his father, Louis XIII. Louis reigned until his death
in 1715. His record of dealing with the
Jews was uneven, based primarily on financial needs and attempts by Catholic
French merchants to use religion to oust their Jewish competitors. Five years before his death, he issued a
final ban against Jews living in France, a ban that was not fully enforced.
1756(14th
of Iyar, 5516): Pesach Sheni was observed on the same day that the British
Ambassador to Prussia was reassuring Frederick that France was not gaining
influence with Russia which seems ludicrous when you consider that the Seven
Years War, in which Russia and France would join ranks to fight the Prussians
was only days away from beginning.
1761:
In New York, Moses Benjamin Franks, the son of Rachel and Benjamin Franks, and
his wife Sarah Franks gave birth to an infant daughter who
died at
the age nine months.
1762(20th
of Iyar, 5522): Portuguese born Mrs. Abigail Lopez, “the first wife of Aaron
Lopez” passed away today.
1775(14th
of Iyar, 5535): Pesach Sheini was observed four days after the Second
Continental Congress, which would become the political voice of the American
Revolution began meeting in Philadelphia and four days after the rebels seized
Fort Ticonderoga, whose guns would eventually be used to drive the British from
Boston, was seized by rebel militia.
1785(5th
of Sivan, 5545): Parashat Bamibdar; erev Shavuot
1781:
According to speech given today Edmund Burke said the Loyalists seeking to
leave the United States were “inhumanely fired upon and attacked” at a time
when Jacob Hart and his family were seeking to leave New York for Nova Scotia.
1789(18th
of Iyar, 5549) Lag BaOmer observed for the first time during the Presidency of
George Washington.
1792:
Today,Anglo-Jewish boxer Daniel “Mendoza fought a bout at Smitham Bottom,
Croydon, against Bill Warr (or Ward) his former sparring-partner” which
resulted in a victory for Mendoza in 23 rounds, 116 minutes, after which ‘Mendoza
is believed to have met with King George III at Windsor Castle.’
1794(14th
of Iyar, 5554): Pesach Sheni was observed as the Polish and Lithuanian forces
at Vilnius the home of a large and long-standing Jewish community led by the
Vilna Gaon, prepared for a return of a Russian Army that was determined to put
down the rebellion in this most recently acquired part of the Russian Empire.
1797(18th
of Iyar, 5557): Lag B’Omer is observed for the first time during the Presidency
of John Adams.
1803:
Birthdate of Salomon Munk, the German-born French Orientalist. In his formative
years he was a trained in Torah and Talmud before moving on to Berlin where he
became well versed in the classical languages and cultures. He moved to France, because as a Jew, he
could not be hired to work in his chosen profession. In France, he developed an expertise in the
works of Aristotle and Maimonides.
1807:
The newly created grand duchy of Baden recognizes “Judaism as an officially
tolerated religion” mean they are “emancipated.” At the same time Jews are still exclude from
being employed in the civil service.
1808:
Birthdate of Leon Hyneman, a native of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania who settled in Philadelphia where he was a
leading Mason and the father of eight children including Leona Moss who gained
fame as an actress using the stage name of Leona Moss and Alice Hyneman, a noted author.
1811:
In Georgetown, SC, Abraham Myers, a veteran of the American Revolution and his
wife gave birth to 1833 West Point Graduate and veteran of the Seminole and
Mexican wars Abraham Charles Myers, the husband of Marion Twiggs and
Quartermaster General of the CSA who was the a descendant of Rabbi Moses Cohen,
the father of Lt. General John Twiggs and the namesake for the city of Ft.
Myers, FL.
1813(14th
of Iyar, 5573): Pesach Sheni is observed as American troops regroup and refit
in New York after having defeated the Canadians at York during the War of 1812.
1817:
In Philadelphia, Rebecca Barnett and Hyman Polock, the Amsterdam born son of
Phineas Poock “whose ancestors are believed to have immigrated from Poland
around the 17th century due to war and political unrest gave birth to Moses
Polock “a well-known and somewhat eccentric antiquarian bookseller” who was the
maternal uncle of Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach.
1819:
In Bavaria, Moses and Sprinz Schmitt Anker gave birth to Mary Anker who became
Mary Anker Bendel when she married Henry Bendel with whom she had nine
children.
1820:
Birthdate of Morris Rosenbach, the husband of Isabella H. Polock and father of
Abraham Simon Wolf Rosenbach, his eighth and youngest child who became one of
America’s leading collector of rare books and manuscripts.
1824:
The Justices of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, meeting in Lancaster, a city
that for one day in September, 1777 was capital of the nascent United States of
America, "carefully perused and examined" the Constitution of the
Jewish congregation known as Kaal Kadosh Mickve Israel (The Holy Congregation
Hope of Israel) in Philadelphia which decrees that services in the Philadelphia
synagogue shall always be according to the custom of the Portuguese Jews. The
finding of Justices Tilghman, Gibson and Duncan was that this, and everything
else in their proposed constitution, was lawful. It was a beautiful example of
the novus ordo seclorum "the new order of the times" promised on the
Great Seal of the United States. Let us strive to remember this in our day when
this new order is under constant attack, both at home and abroad.
1828:
Lewis Raphael married Rachel Mocatta today.
1832(14th
of Iyar, 5592): Pesach Sheni
1832:
Birthdate of Rudolf Lipschitz, the German mathematician who gave “his name to
the Lipschitz continuity condition.”
1832:
The premiere of “L'elisir d'amor” which would later be produced by Max Maretzek
took place at the Teatro della Canobbiana, Milan.
1840:Birthdate
of future St. Paul resident Henrietta “Jette Siegal Goldman, the wife of
Bernhard Goldman with whom she had four children – Helen, Caroline, Sara and
Jeannette.
1841:
Birthdate of Sigmund “Sig” Schwabacher one of three Bavarian born brothers who
were pioneering merchants in Washington both before and after statehood
https://jgsws.org/schwabacher2.php
1842(5th
of Sivan, 5602): Parashat Bamidbar and erev Shavuot
1843(14th
of Iyar, 5603): Pesach Sheni
1843(14th
of Iyar, 5603) Forty-two-year-old Amsterdam born and Columbia College educated
physician Daniel Levy Maduro Peixotto, the “son of Moses Levy Maduro Peixotto
who served as “president of the Willoughby Medical College in Cleveland before
returning to New York where he practiced medicine until his death today.
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/person/daniel-levy-maduro-peixotto
1846:
Birthdate of Ernst Herter, the German sculptor who created the Lorelie
Fountain, a memorial to Heinrich Heine that was unveiled in the Bronx because
the city of his birth, Dusseldorf, rejected it due the prevailing anti-Semitic
views in the “Fatherland.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorelei_Fountain#/media/File:Heine_Bronx_1.jpg
1846(18th of Iyar, 5606): Lag B’Omer
1846(18th of Iyar, 5606): Benjamin Jonas, the husband of
Annie Ezekiel and father of Baruch Jonas which made him the father-in-law of
Teresa Barbarin, passed away today in Exeter, England.
1847: Composer Fanny Mendelssohn passed
away. She was the granddaughter of Moses
Mendelssohn. Her grandfather was one of
the founders of what would become Reform Judaism. Unfortunately, Fanny was not Jewish.
1850: Moses and Sophia Neumann Amberg gave
birth to Fanny A. Amberg Hart, the wife of Sidney Hart and mother of Moses and
Walter Hart.
1853: Word reached the United States today, as
reported in the New York Times, that Holy Week had seen outbreaks of
violence in Jerusalem. Greeks and Armenians fought with each in front of the
Church of the Holy Sepulcher while 24 “missionaries of the London Protestant
Association” had “a scuffle with the Jews in the streets of Jerusalem.”
1853: According to reports published today, J.
Lewis Levy Esq., who is Jewish, has been returned as guardian of the Cathedral
City of Rochester (U.K.)
1853:
The New York Times reported that the Earl of Aberdeen has told the House
of Lords that he had changed his mind about the Jewish Disabilities Bill. Two years ago he had voted against the
bill. Now he was prepared to vote for it
because “he regarded the exclusion of the Jews from civil privileges as a
remnant of the spirit of persecution which prevailed in former times throughout
Christendom.”
1854:
The American Society for Meliorating the Conditions of the Jews celebrated its
sixth anniversary with a meeting tonight at the Reformed Dutch Church in New
York City. The organization is dedicated
to converting Jews to Christianity. The
Society is convinced that the Jews of the United States are ripe for
conversion. However, according to its
own figures there are more than 40,000 Jews living in the United States and the
society has successfully converted 79 of them.
1855(26th
of Iyar, 5615): Eighty-eight-year-old French banker Beer Léon Fould the son of
Jacob Bernard Fould and the father of Achille Fould, the French Finance
Minister for Napoleon III passed away today in Paris.
1858:
The last edition of The Asmonean, published by Robert Lyon, “an English Jew who
arrived in the United States in 1844” and began publishing in 1849 bore today’s
day – May 14, 1858.
1858:
In Andover, CT, Susan and Joel Foote Bingham gave birth to Theodore Alfred
Bingham who while serving as “Police Commissioner of New York published an article in North American Review
on "Foreign Criminals" in which he asserted that half the criminals
in the city were Jews” – an assertion he retracted after creating this
controversy.
1859:
Isaias W. Hellman and his brother Herman W. Hellman arrived in Los Angles from
Bavaria and went subsequently went to work in a dry goods store owned by their
cousins.
1859:
Mr. R. J. de Cordova, a well-known humorist, is scheduled to give a lecture
this morning at Temple Emanu-El in New York City. Mr. de Cordova is scheduled to give a lecture
every third Saturday for the rest of the year.
1861(5th
of Sivan, 5621): Erev Shavout
1861:
In Birmingham, England, Edward and Rose Cohen gave birth to Alfred J. Cohen who
moved to the United States and gained famed as Alan Dale, the
“playwright, dramatic critic and author who moved from the NYT to New York
Evening World to the New York Evening while being married to Cadrrie
Livingstone France and writing fourteen books
1861: A copy of the War Department order announcing Major
Mordecai's resignation reached the arsenal at Watervliet, NY which forced
Mordecai to relinquish command to his subordinate before his unnamed
replacement had arrived.
1862(14th of Iyar, 5622): Pesach Sheini
celebrated for the second time during the Civil War.
1864(8th of Iyar, 5624):Baron Salomon de
Rothschild died in Paris today at the age of 29, only two years after his
marriage and less than a year after the birth of his daughter, Helene. He was
buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in the family vault. Of his death, the
Goncourt brothers wrote "Cabarrus, the Rothschild's doctor, told
Saint-Victor that the young Rothschild who died the other day really died of
the excitement of gambling on the stock exchange."
1864:
Emma Mordecai had a dispute with her sister-in-law Rosina over reports of a
victory by the Confederates under General Lee.
Rosina, who was not Jewish, doubted the report. Emma, who was Jewish and was an ardent
Southern patriot, insisted that the report must be true. Mordecai's outburst was intemperate since she
was a refugee staying at her sister-in-law's Virginia farm
1865(18th
of Iyar, 5625): Lag B’Omer
1865:
In Galicia, Marcus Langbank and Rachel Langbank gave birth to Dr. Lucian Mayer
Langbank.
1867:
In Berlin Hedwig Levenstein and Emanuel Eistner gave birth to author and critic
turned politician Kurt Eisner the husband of Elise Belli, an editor whom he
married after divorcing painter Elisabeth Hendrick and opponent of the Kaiser during
WW I which led to him becoming “the
first democratically elected leader of post-war Bavaria and the victim of a political
assassination in 1919.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Kurt-Eisner
1869(4th
of Sivan, 5629): Sixty-five-year-old “Talmudist and bibliographer” Gabriel
Jacob Polak, whose works include “Dibre Kodesh, a Dutch-Hebrew dictionary
passed away in Amsterdam today.
1872:
In response to a U.S. Senate resolution of March 28, today, President Grant
sent to the Senate copies of all correspondence regarding “the persecution and
oppression of the Israelites of Romania.” The correspondence consisted of a
series of letters from Benjamin F. Peixotto, the American Consul at Bucharest
and Hamilton Fish, the U.S. Secretary of State.
In the correspondence, Peixotto described the attacks on the Jews and
the failure of the government to punish the attackers. He also described the efforts made by the
representatives of several European governments, except for the Russians, who
attempted to intercede with the government of Prince Michael on behalf of the
Jews. For his part, Secretary Fish wrote
to Peixotto expressing his support for any action that might “avert or mitigate
further harshness toward” toward the Jews living in Romania. [Editor Note – The
Grant Administration’s support of the Jews of Romania is but one of several
actions that would tend to show that Grant was not an anti-Semite and that the
order of expulsion he issued during the Civil War was an aberration and a
mistake he regretted rather than a sign of deep character flaw.]
1873(17th
of Iyar, 5633): Seventy-six-year-old Gideon Brach the Austrian physician and
surgeon who was the nephew of Moritz Steinschneider passed away today.
1873:
The New York Times reviewed Sketches of Jewish Life and History
by Henry Gersoni which was published by the Hebrew Orphan Asylum Printing
Establishment.
1875(9th
of Iyar, 5635): Seventy-five-year-old linguist and literary historian Gottfried
Bernhardy passed away today.
1876:
Birthdate of Etta Karesh Levin, the wife of Julius Levin and the mother of
Sidney Levin who after her death in 1952 was buried in KKBI Cemetery in
Charleston
1877:
One day after he had passed away, Solomon George Collins the son of “Isaac Van
Kollem and Maria Mozes,” the husband of Catherine Isaacs and the father of
Adelaide and William Collins was buried today at the “Balls Pond Road Jewish
Cemetery.”
1879:
An article subtitled “Frenchmen of Foreign Origin: Distinguished Instances of
Aliens Attaining Position in France” published today provides background
information on several non-native Frenchmen who rose to prominence in France
and who played key role in the life of the country. Of the Jews who fit into this category, the
article mentions “the ancestor of the bankers Pereire [who] was a Portuguese
Jew who introduced into France the teaching of the deaf and dumb;
Bisschoffsheim, another banker is a self-made Jew…Bauer a Hungarian convert
from Judaism [who] was court preacher to Napoleon III…Salomon Munk, another
orientalist was a German Jew. So too was Jules Oppert, whose religion obliged
him to seek a professorship in France.” [Editor’s Note – The references to Munk
and Oppert are self-explanatory, although the column makes one mistake. It was Munk, not Oppert, who came to France
because his religion precluded him from being hired in his native Germany. Bauer probably refers to Abbe Bauer who
reportedly trained as a Rabbi before converting to Roman Catholicism. Bisschoffsheim is probably Raphael Louis
Bischoffsheim, the banker whose philanthropy included the founding of the Nice
Observatory. Pierre probably refers to Emile and Isaac Pierre the 19th
century bankers of Sephardic origin, who were the sons of Jacob Rodrigues
Pereira, who was “one of the inventors of a manual language for the deaf.”
1879:
Mary Nolhes swore out a complaint in the Essex Market Police Court today
“charging her husband, Joseph, a Polish Jew with abandonment.” The complaint was dismissed after the court
determined that Joseph was “a henpecked husband” who had been abandoned by his
wife. Gustav Diner, a “young and
muscular man” who was the complainant’s brother, left the court with the
couple. Once outside of the building,
Diner, who apparently thought he could not be seen by anybody from the court
“began to pound his brother-in-law unmercifully.” A police officer named Ryan
“collared Ryan” and took him back to Court where he was jailed on charges of
assault and battery.
1882: In Essen, Germany, Isaac Hirschland, son of Simon
Hirschland and Marianne Hirschland and his wife Henriette Hirschland gave birth
to future New Yorker Kurt Martin Hirschland, the husband
of Henriette Hildegard Hirschland and father of August Simon Hirschland;
Marianne Aufhauser; Paul Michael Hirschland and Ruth Else Schlesinger
1882:
In Bloomington, Illinois several members of the Jewish community met at the B’nai
B’rith Hall to discuss the organization of congregation which would be founded
later in the year as Moses Montefiore Congregation with Aaron Livingston as
President.
1884(19th
of Iyar, 5644): Seventy-two-year-old Montague M. Hendricks, the son of Frances
Isaacs, the Lancaster, PA born daughter of Joshua Isaacs and Harmon Hendricks
the “prominent manufacturer of copper and grandson of Uriah Hendricks one of
the founders of Congregation Shearith Israel, passed away today.
1884(19th
of Iyar, 5644): Forty-year-old Karel Abraham Wertheim, the son of Johannes
Jonas Wertheim and Marie Rosenick and the husband of Henriette van Heukelom
passed away today in the Netherlands.
1884:
Max Shloss and Rosa Shnerman were married today in Des Moines Iowa.
1885:
Birthdate of conductor and composer Otto Klemperer. Born in Breslau,
Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) Klemperer was a child prodigy taking his first
music lessons at the age of four. Like so many of his generation,
Klemperer had two lives. The first was in Germany, the second in the
United States. His musical contributions to his native land were
recognized by President Hindenburg who gave him the Goethe Medal "for
his contributions to the advancement of German Culture." A few years
later, in 1933, the Nazis confiscated his property and issued a warrant
for his arrest. Klemperer came to the Klemperer came to the United States
in 1934 with the reputation as a world-famous conductor. Over the years
he led orchestras in New York, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh and was director of
the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra for six years. He also continued
his distinguished career as a composer. He died in 1973 at the age of 88.
1886:
Birthdate of Polish born Dutch businessman Abraham Icek Tuschinski who built
several movie theatres in the Netherlands and was murdered at Auschwitz in
1942.
1887:
In Warsaw, Abraham A. and Roaslia (Cherniakow) Ostrolenk gave birth Boston
University and University of Pennsylvania Bernhard Ostrolenk, the director of
the National Farm School in Pennsylvania and the husband of Esther A.
Weinstein.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ostrolenk-bernhard
1888:
In Rumania, Samuel and Rachel Barasch gave birth to Nathan Emanuel Barasch to
University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC ordained, Nathan Emanuel Barash, the
holder of a law degree who served as a chaplain during WW I.
1888:
Two days after he had passed away, Jamaica native Charles Emanuel Morrice, the
“fifth son of Phoebe and Samuel Morrice” was buried today at the “Balls Pond
Road Jewish Cemetery.”
1889:
The U.S.S. Brooklyn on which Adolph Marix, the first Jewish graduate of the
U.S. Naval Academy, serve on starting in 1882, was de-commissioned today.
1889(13th
of Iyar, 5649): Thirty-five-year-old Sophie Walter, the wife of Mortiz Walter
and the daughter of Joseph and Babette Seligman passed away today.
1889(13th
of Iyar, 5649): Samuel Hirsch, a major Reform religious philosopher and rabbi,
passed away in Chicago, Illinois. Born in 1815 at “Thalfang,
(Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (formerly part of Prussia), he received his
training at Metz. He attended the University of Bonn, the University of Berlin,
and the University of Leipzig. He first became rabbi at Dessau in 1838 but was
forced to resign in 1841 because he promoted a radically liberal form of
Judaism, later to become known as classic German Reform Judaism. In 1843 he
published his "Die Messias-Lehre der Juden in Kanzelvorträgen" and
"Religionsphilosophie der Juden." In 1843 he was appointed chief
rabbi of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg by King William II of the Netherlands.
During this period he published his "Die Humanität als Religion." He
took an active part in the annual rabbinical conferences held at Brunswick
(1844), Frankfurt am Main (1845), and Breslau (1846). In 1844 he published his
"Reform im Judenthum." Having received a call from the Reform
Congregation Keneseth Israel, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1866, he resigned
his post in Europe and moved to the United States. There he succeeded Dr. David
Einhorn. From his arrival onward he became closely identified with, and an open
advocate of, radical Reform. In 1869 he was elected president of the rabbinical
conference held in Philadelphia, at which the principles of Reform Judaism were
formulated. In that year he engaged also in numerous ritual and doctrinal
controversies. Hirsch remained officiating rabbi of the Philadelphia
congregation for twenty-two years, resigning in 1888, after having spent fifty
years of his life in the ministry. Moving to Chicago, he took up his abode
there with his son, Emil G. Hirsch. During his rabbinate in Philadelphia Hirsch
organized the Orphans' Guardian Society, and was the founder of the first
branch in the United States of the Alliance Israélite Universelle. Hirsch is
best known as the author of the "Religionsphilosophie," a work
written from the Hegelian point of view, but for the purpose of vindicating the
claim of Judaism to the rank denied it by Hegel, the rank of an "absolute
religion." In this book he proved himself to be an original thinker (see
"Allg. Zeit. des Jud." 1895, pp. 126 et seq.). His "Katechismus
der Israelitischen Religion" was also constructed on original lines; he
considered the Biblical legends to be psychological and typical allegories, and
the ceremonies of Judaism to be symbols of underlying ideas. From this attitude
his Reform principles are derived. He denied that Judaism is a law; it is Lehre
("teaching" or "lore") but is expressed in symbolic
ceremonies that may be changed in accordance with historic development. He was
the first to propose holding Jewish services on Sunday instead of the
traditional Jewish Sabbath Shabbat. He contributed to the early volumes of The Jewish Times (1869-1878). His
principal works were first issued in Germany, among them What is Judaism?
(1838), sermons (1841), and Religious Philosophy of the Jews (1843).”
1891:
Claims have were filed by many of the unsecured creditors of Levy Brothers
& Co with the Sheriff today
1891:
In Iassy, Rumania, Morris and Marie Kauffman gave birth to University of Berlin
trained economist and health educator Savel Simand who in 1913 came to the
United States where he wrote for the New York Times, lectured at Yale, Harvard
and Columbia while serving as the “administrative director of the
Bellevue-Yorkville Health Demonstration and director of public education for
the New York City Health Deaprtment.
1891:
Solomon Crizar, a Polish Jew was still in custody today facing charges for
setting fired to a tenement on Johnson Avenue in Brooklyn, NY
1891:
A detachment of troops has been sent from Athens to Corfu to restore order
after an outbreak of violence that has resulted in the death of 2 Jews and all
businesses owned by the Jews closed. At the same time the Prefect of Corfu has
been summoned to Athens to explain the outbreak of violence
1892:
In Germany, the liberal newspapers express the hope that the libel action
brought by Loewe & Co against Rector Ahlwardt, the well-known Jew-baiter
will put an end to his false claim that this Jewish firm supplied defective
rifles to the army.
1892:
Mrs. Schloss purchased a picture embroidered by a little girl from the Hebrew
Orphan Asylum on the last night Actors’ Fund Fair.
1892(17th
of Iyar, 5652): Fifty-two-year Asher Simchah
Weissmann, who in 1889 founded a
German periodical, "Monatsschrift für die Litteratur und Wissenschaft des
Judenthum," which was issued with a Hebrew supplement passed away today in
Vienna.
1892:
“Columbia Likely to Get More Books” published today described the successful
efforts of Professor Richard Gottheil and E.R.A. Seligman to secure the books
in the library of Temple Emnau-El for Columbia College. The school already has a Professor of Hebrew
and Semitic Languages.
1893:
Harold Frederic sent a cable from London “announcing that the exodus of Jews
from Poland had actually begun and that the refugees were already arriving in
America.”
1893:
It was learned today that many of the Jews arriving at Ellis Island from
Hamburg were not German Jews, but Polish Jews who had spent the winter the
German port.
1893:
“New Jersey Religious Bodies” published today provides a picture of
denominational membership in the Garden State. There are 19 Orthodox
congregations with 2,521 members and 5 Reform congregations with 1,755 members
scattered through the state. The total
number of Jews in the state is thought to be closer to 15,000 than the
published 4,276. The discrepancy is created by the fact that most congregations
tend to just count the head of the family instead of all family members.
1893:
It was reported today that in Germany “the ultimate result of the elections
will be a Reichstag considerably more reactionary than the last which will vote
for the army bill in return for legislation” advancing the cause of
anti-Semitism.
1893: It was reported today form London that “it turns out
that the expulsion of Jews from Poland has been going on longer and on a far
large than scale that “previously suspected and that while “Sir Julian
Goldsmith and one other official of the Jewish Board of Guardians” knew about
it “nothing has been published” in the local press about the matter.
1894:
In Denver, CO, Council No. 6 of the National Council of Jewish Women was
organized today with a membership of 98 led by Mrs. C.S. Benjamin as President
1894:
Two days after she had passed away, 60-year-old Hannah Levy, “the daughter of
Hart and Julia Levy” was buried today at the “West Ham Jewish Cemetery.”
1894:
Birthdate of Jacob Meyer Levy, the native of the Ukraine who immigrated to
Palestine at the age of 19, the Israeli educator and author whose works
included five volumes of history textbooks “and the translation of four of
French-Jewish philosopher Henri Bergson's books into Hebrew.”
1894:
The London correspondent of the New York
Times reported today that the Jewish immigrants being forced to leave
Russia face an additional challenge – an outbreak of Cholera which has spread
from southwestern Russia to areas near Hamburg and Riga which are the ports of
embarkation used by these emigrants
1894: A summary of the statistics that first
appeared in the “new journal, the Rundschau” published by “the Jew-baiter”
Herman Ahlwardt that the Jewish population in Berlin has gone from 6,500 in
1840, to 30,000 in 1870 to 75,000 in 1890 and that “46 per cent of all the
houses in Berlin belong to Jews.” (This compares to a total population of
322,626 in 1840, 826,341 in 1871 and 1,578, 794 in 1890).
1895:
Based on a review published today, “Oliver Twist” is no longer popular with New
York theatre goers. Among other things, “the audience refused to take Fagin
seriously” even though H. G. Carleton played the part with great skill. Apparently, a play featuring an evil Jew no
longer has the allure it did when Dickens wrote the novel on which the play is
based.
1895:
In Paris, Gaston Michel Calmann-Lévy married Hélène Calmann-Lévy
1895:
Two days after he had passed away, 47 year old Nathan Isaacs, the husband of
Louisa Lyons with whom he had had five children was buried today in the United
Kingdom/
1895:
Birthdate of Lew Lehr, the native of Philadelphia, PA comedian and writer in
the pioneering days of film and radio whose works included Stop Me If You’ve
Heard This One
1896:
Birthdate of Martin Riesenburger, the Berlin born dentist who survived the
Shoah to help rebuild the Jewish community in post-war Germany.
1897:
In Lithuania, Ida and Meyer Sklar gave birth University of Minnesota and MIT
trained chemist and engineer Samuel Barton Sklar who had come to the United
States in 1912 and served with the National Guard during WWI.
1897(12th
of Iyar, 5657): Seventy-five-year-old opera impresario Max Maretzek passed away
at Pleasant Plains, New York
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10401-maretzek-max
1898:
“Stories of the Ghetto” published today provides a review of The Imported
Bridegroom and Other Stories of the New York Ghetto by Abraham Cahan.
1898:
The Rabbi of Temple Israel in Harlem Dr. M. H. Harris presided over today’s
events marking “the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the
founding of Temple Israel of Harlem and the 10th anniversary of the
dedication of the present edifice” which included an address by Dr. Emil G.
Hirsh, the Chairman of the Semitic Literature Department at the University of
Chicago on “Eternal Judaism.”
1898:
At Jefferson Barracks, MO, during the Spanish-American War, among those who
were mustered into the 3rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry Privates
Morris Franklin, Samuel P. Bachar, Hugh L. Herzberg, Mark Bidez, Robert
Samuels, Max Cohen, Joseph D. Meyers, William Levin, Harry Heller and Corporal
David A. Goodman, all from Kansas City, MO was as Privates Clarence Leftwich
and Edgar W. Marks of Independence, MO.
1898:
During the Spanish-American War, the United States acquired the USS Celtic, “a
stores ship” on which Lt. Jr. Grade Stanford Moses served during the
Philippine-American War.
1899:
Three days after she had passed away, Esther Blashka, the wife of Isaac Blashka
was buried to in London at the “Plashet Jewish Cemetery.”
1899:
Reverend Madison C. Peters of the Bloomingdale Reformed Church gave the second
lecture in his series “Justice to the Jew” in which he is trying to correct
many of the inaccurate conceptions about this “race that has been maligned.”
1899:
In Krefeld, chemist Friedrich Auerbach, the son of Leopold Auerbach and his
wife gave birth to zoologist and geneticist Charlotte “Lottie” Auerbach.
1899:
“Russian Plans Against Jews” published today described various anti-Semitic
policies being pursued by the Czar’s government, the first of which was the
prohibition of Jews being in St. Petersburg, the nation’s capital. The ban applies to foreign Jews including
those from France, Russia’s primary military ally.
1899:
“Opposed to Zionism” published today provided a summary of the views on Rabbi
Samuel Schulman that first appeared in the Menorah in which the Reform cleric “the movement as an outgrowth of
Jewish despair” which is an “interruption of the work of education and
Americanization of the Russian Jews” in the New York City.
1900:
The 16th annual report of the Hebrew Technical Institute showed
“that the past year was an unusually successful for the institute and James H.
Hoffman, the schools president was reported to have said that one of those most
gratifying facts was that “not one of the graduates of the institute is
unemployed” and that “the wages received by the graduates average from $5.25
per week for beginners to $25 and upward for the more experienced ones.”
1901:
As a financial crisis threatens a “serious smash” in the London Stock Exchange
Jacob Schiff was among the Directors of the National City Bank who met to
discuss the matter which centers around the Northern Pacific Railway.
1901:
Author, journalist and Notre Dame trained attorney Frederick William Wile, the
La Ports, Indiana born son of Jacob Wile and Henrietta Guggenheim who covered
the Boer War of the Chicago Record and Chicago Daily News married Ada Shakman
today.
1902:
Italian General Giuesppe Ottolenghi, a native of Lombardy was appointed
Minister of War today.
1903:
As “funds for the aid of the sufferers in Kishineff, Russia, continue to come
to the committees having the matter in hand, and increase not only in number,
but in amount,” Arnold Kohn, Chairman of the Central Relief Committee, said
today that $2,000 had been contributed from the east side alone during the day,
and that the checks coming from places outside New York City indicated that the
sum total would be far beyond expectation.
1903:
In Krugloye which is now in Belarus, Simon Shulman and Tillie Klebanoff gave
birth to Harvard Law School graduate and Yale Law School professor Harry A.
Shulman who served as dean starting in 1954 until his death a year later.
1904:
Birthdate of Jeanne Lepler who married Abraham Gellinoff a justice of the New York Supreme Court in
1927.
1904:
In Bern, Switzerland Albert Einstein and Mileva Marić gave birth to their
second child and first son Hans Albert Einstein.
1904:
Herzl writes to the Austrian Foreign Ministry. He reports on this audience with
Agenor Goluchowsky, the Austrian Foreign Minister.
1905(9th
of Iyar, 5665): Chicago attorney Julius Lessing, the husband of Jette Wolfe and
father of attorney Lessing Rosenthal and a partner in the law firm of Julius
and Lessing Rosenthal passed away today.
1905:
“Some soldiers belonging to the Fifty-third Battalion of the infantry reserved
pillaged several Jewish houses on Nichols Street” in Kishineff.
1905:
It was reported today that the Kaiser, on learning that “Goldschmidt
Rothschild, a grandson of the late Baron Rothschild of Frankfort, after having
served for a year in a guard regiment was turned down for a commission
(presumably because he was Jewish) appointed Rothschild a Court Chamberlain
which to the officer’s staff of the regiment taking the hint and offering him a
commission.
1906:
Based on the recently issued annual report of the Sanitarium for Hebrew
Children whose goal is “to give free trips on land and water to poor destitute
and sick children of the Jewish faith and to supply them with medical and
advice” 2,023 were admitted in 1905 as compared to 1,513 being admitted in
1904.
1907:
Julia Richman, the District Superintended of Public Schools wrote to the New
York Times “that our schools must provide *as a substitute for the adademic
branches, valuable to those children who continue their schooling to or through
high school and college but valuable to such children only) a course in
elementary industrial trailing for those children who are forced to become
wage-earners before thye enter the seventh year of school.”
1907:
In Chicago, Penny F. Wallace gave birth to Cyrilla Wallace Carmel who moved to
Cincinnati in 1925 where she worked for Lady Esther Cosmetics before marrying
Dr. A Gerson Carmel who was her soul mate for fifty-eight years.
1908(13th
of Iyar, 5668): Max "Kid Twist" Zwerbach, a New York gangster was
gunned down.
1909:
Samuel Elfenbein, the son of “Moses and Rosa Elfenbein and his wife Celia
Elfenbein gave birth to Phillip P Elfenbein, the husband of Sarah Elain
Elfenbein.
1910: A pogrom was perpetrated by a nationalist
organization against the cultural institutions of the Russian Jews in
Buenos Aires.
1910: Twenty-five-year-old author and Zionist leader
Simon Bernstein, the Latvian born of Zadok and Frieda (Heyman) Bernstein who
spent much of his life in Copenhagen married Lea Dinson today
1911: Eighteen-year-old Morris Kolsky who gained fame as
cinematographer Richard Freyer arrived in New York “on board the steamship
Majestic.”
1911: One day after he had passed away, 40-year-old Nery
Leuria, the husband of Bertha Leuria with whom he had had six children was
buried today at the “Belfast Jewish Cemetery” in Northern Ireland.
1912:
The Tomb of Samuel Manasseh Ben Israel was restored at the Middleburg
Portuguese Cemetery in Holland.
1912:
Christian X of Denmark who in 1933 attended the ceremonies marking the 100th
anniversary of the founding of the Grand Synagogue and who according to a
popular myth donned the Yellow Star of David during the Nazi occupation
(something he wrote about in his diaries”) began his reign today.
1912:
In London, an exhibition of the work of pupils from the Bezalel School of Arts
and Crafts and Jerusalem’s Evelina de Rothschild School came to a close today
1913:
New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller
Foundation, which begins operations with a $100 million donation from John D.
Rockefeller. Governor Sulzer enjoyed support among the Jewish community of New
York City and signed The 1913 New York State Civil Rights Act into law.
1913:
Mrs. B.M. Engelhard is scheduled to be installed as President of the Baron
Hirsch Woman’s Club this afternoon in the Banquet Hall of the Auditorium Hotel
in Chicago.
1913:
Birthdate of Chelsea, Massachusetts native Ben “Red” Kramer, the standout guard
and forward for Long Island University the 1930’s who went on to play
professional ball from 1938 to 1945.
1914(18th
of Iyar, 5674): Lag B’Omer
1914:
In an example of how Jewish culture was an integral part of Western
civilization “Josephslegende (The Legend of Joseph) a ballet based on the
Biblical story of “Potiphar’s Wife” premiered today at the Paris Opera.
1915:
During WWI, the Alliance Israelite Universelle announced that it would continue
all activities in its institutions in the Ottoman Empire.
1915:
In expressing his support for President Wilson, “A.L. Shiplikoff, Secretary of
the United Hebrew Trades said…’The 300,000 Jews represented by the United
Hebrew Trades in this city are in favor of he abolition of war and the
permanent establishment of international peace.”
1915:
Plans were announced today for a public mass meeting in Minneapolis “to ask the
Governor of Georgia to commute Leo M. Frank’s death sentence to life
imprisonment.
1915:
“The Zionist Association and its affiliated organizations in America and
England” are appeals “to obtain the State Department…to obtain the release from
the detention camp at Ruhbleben near Berlin of Israel Cohen, Secretary of the
International of Zionist Organization” who is the author ofJewish Life in
Modern Times and was interned at the beginning of the war” because he was a
British subject.
1916:
As of today, the American Jewish Relief Committee of which Felix M. Warburg is
the treasurer had received additional contributions including $24 from the
Menorah Society of Penn State University, $25 from the Cairo Thread Works and
$100 from Zeta Beta Tau.
1916:
“After Henry Morgenthau” who had just resigned as the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
“told of the pitiable plight of the outlawed Armenians at a mass meeting in
Carnegie Hall this afternoon” those in the audience “started a $5,000,000
relief fund, with contributions of more than $30,000.”
1916:
“At a meeting of the members of the American Jewish Committee held today at the
Hotel Astor…a resolution was adopted to authorize the committee to unite with
other Jewish societies for the calling of a congress of Jewish societies in
June for he purposed of obtaining full rights for the Jews of all lands and the
abrogation of all laws discriminating against them.”
1916:
In Philadelphia, PA, the Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering
Through the War held a national conference where it was reported that the
organization had raised $1, 074, 386.
1917:
The Columbia Menorah Society sponsored a concert of Jewish music this evening
at the Horace Mann Auditorium at Columbia University with the proceeds going to
Jewish War Relief.
1917:
The Cantor’s Association of American which had been founded in 1908 held its 8th
annual meeting under the leadership of President Solomon Baum.
1917:
Dr. J.L. Magnus is scheduled to attend today’s meeting of the Chicago
Rabbinical Association at the Stratford Hotel.
1918:
“To Pray for Victory” published today described the call sent out by the Union
the Orthodox Rabbis signed by Rabbis Moses S. Margolies, Solomon E. Jaffe and
Israel Rosenberg among announcing that in accord with President Wilson request
for a day of prayer and fasting on May 30 all synagogues would remain open for
worship on that day and the fast would be treated in the same manner as
official fast days on the Jewish Calendar.
1919(14th
of Iyar, 5679) Pesach Sheni
1919:
University of Michigan trained attorney, David Emil Heineman, the Detroit born
son of Fanny Butzel and Emil S. Heineman, a director of the Detroit Fire and
Marine Insurance Company, “a one time sabbath school teacher at Temple Bethel in Detroit” and the founder of
the first Y.M.H.A. in Detroit married Tessa Demmon today in Ann Arbor.
1919:
Today, “The University College of Wales established the world’s first Chair in
International Politics with Alfred Eckhard Zimmern, a Christian who became an
avid Zionist as its first professor
1920(26th
of Iyar, 5680): Sixty-year-old “David Kessler, one of the leading Yiddish
actors in the United States and the manager of Kessler’s Second Avenue Theatre”
passed away this afternoon at Beth Israel Hospital.
1920:
Today,1910 CCNY graduate Leo Cooper, the Mir,Russia born son of Samuel and Anna
Lubetsky and president of Cooper Safety
Razor Corporation in Brooklyn married Lucy Price Cooper with whom he had two
children.
1921(6th
of Iyar, 5681): Parashat Kedoshim
1921:
A dispatch from Trieste today said that “the Italian government has taken steps
to prevent the further accumulation in Trieste of Jews desiring to emigrate to
Palestine.”
1922:
“Characterizing the group that tried to block the Congressional resolution
favoring the Jewish homeland in Palestine as "noisy notoriety
seekers," Samuel Untermyer Untermyer in an address tonight at the opening
of the intensive camping in New York City for the Palestine Foundation Fund,
declared that the attacks had brought Jews and Gentiles who had had no previous
interest in Zionism into the ranks of the supporters of the Keren Hayesod.”
1923:
A check for $10,000 was handed by Mr. Felix Warburg to Dr. Chaim Weizmann just
before the former sailed for Europe.
1923:
“Until its reorganization today, the Oberat” the supreme council that directed
the affairs of the Jewish community “was under state control
1923:
It was reported today that The Committee on Higher Degrees of Columbia
University has accepted the dissertation of Dr. Mordecai Saltes entitled “The
Yiddish Press As A Force in America.” (JTA)
1923:
A radical change in money raising methods for National Jewish philanthropies
was proposed at the National Conference of the Jewish Social Service which
began its sessions this afternoon here at the Hotel Washington. The proposal,
made by Mr. Samuel A. Goldsmith of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, New
York, on behalf of the Committee of Nine appointed last year was that instead
of these institutions obtaining their maintenance and other funds by direct,
personal solicitation, a national budget be established based on the
requirements of these institutions. (As reported by JTA)
1924:
In Berlin, Alfred Schuman, a German Christian who converted to Judaism and his
wife Hedwig née Rothholz Schuman gave birth to jazz musician Hein Jakob “Coco”
Schumann who at 19 was shipped to Theresienstadt “where he became a member of
the Ghetto Swingers” before being shipped to Auschwitz where he beat death a
lived until liberation despite having contracted the deadly spotted fever.
1924:
The first conference of the General Zionist movement concluded its meeting in
Jerusalem. It decided to establish a General Zionist Federation to amalgamate
all centrist factions in Palestine.
1924: Establishment of the city of Bnei Brak. Bnei Brak is mentioned in the Bible as one of
the cities of the tribe Dan. Later it
was famous as the site of Rabbi Akiva’s academy. The city is mentioned in the Haggadah as the
place where the all-night Seder of the Rabbinic sages took place. The modern city was founded by charedi Jews
from Poland and is famous for its yeshivot and Chassidic communities. Bnei Brak
is northwest of Tel Aviv.
1925(10th
of Iyar, 5685): Sixty-seven year old investment banker Abraham G. Becker, the
Warsaw born son of Nathan and Henrietta Schaffner Backer, the husband of
Katherine Friedman Becker and father of Margaret, Helen, Louise and James
Becker who in 1865 came to Chicago where he rose from being “an errand for the
German National” to heading A.G. Becker while serving as “a trustee of the
Hebrew Union College and Sinai Temple and director of the Jewish Charities of
Chicago passed away today.
1925:
In Chicago, Etta and Samuel Handmaker gave birth to Herman Handmaker
1925:
Birthdate of Hungarian born historian Tibor Szamuely who served with the Red
Army during World War II, served 18 months in a labor camp on espionage charges
and produced a “major study of Soviet history, The Russian Tradition.
http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/tibor_szamuely_(historian)
1925: In New
York City, Max Lowenthal and Eleanor Mack, the niece of Judge Julian Mack gave birth
to Columbia Law School trained attorney John Lowenthal, the WW II Navy veteran
who was the defense attorney for Alger Hiss.
1925: Birthdate of Yuval Ne’eman founder of
Israel’s space program and a key figure in Israel’s nuclear program. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/may/15/obituaries.guardianobituaries
1926:
Birthdate of Allen Mandelbaum, whose fluid, sensitive English version of
Dante’s “Divine Comedy” stamped his reputation as one of the world’s premier
translators of Italian and classical poetry (As reported by William Grimes)
1927: In
Brussels, Max Stuckgold, an engineer, and his wife Marsha who “were Jewish
immigrants from Poland” gave birth to Julien Joseph Stuckgold who became a
major New York real estate developer.
1927: “The
Climbers,” a movies version of the 1901 play “of the same name” directed by Paul
L. Stein who was working for Warner Brothers was released today in the United States.
1927:
Birthdate of Detroit native Seymour Austen Lipkin, the grandson of a
professional violinist and the son of a doctor who played with the Doctors’
Symphony Orchestra who became a leading conductor and pianist.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12008392/Seymour-Lipkin-pianist-obituary.html
1928(24th of
Iyar): Novelist Mordecai David Brandstaetter passed away today
1929: In
Winnipeg, Canada, Rebecca and John Weidman gave birth to Barbara Weideman, who
as Barbara Branden, the wife of Larry Branden “helped popularize Ayn Rand’s
philosophy” but then upset her acolytes with an unauthorized biography of the
“queen of self-interest.”
1929:
Birthdate of William Jay Adler, Brooklyn born author and editor whose works
included What to Name Your Jewish Baby. (As reported by Douglas Martin)
1930: In
Norwalk, CT, Henry Abrahams and “the former Minnie Koffman” gave birth to
Elizabeth Abrahams who gained fame as “ceramic artist Elizabeth Woodman” and
the husband of artist George Woodman.
1930: In New
York, Ruth and Sol Peterman gave birth to famed opera singer Roberta Peters http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/peters-roberta
1930:
Dr. Leon Pazi, who has just returned from
Palestine, cheered delegates to the Argentine Zionist Congress which opened
here today, with an optimistic report of the work of the Jewish colonies in
Palestine. Zionists from all parts of Argentine are in attendance. Assurance of
the support and sympathy of the people of Argentine for Zionism was given the
congress by Senator Molinari while reports on the work of the Buenos Aires
Zionist Federation during the riots in Palestine last Summer and on the aid
being given Zionism by Zionists in Argentine were read to the delegates by the
president of the Buenos Aires Zionist Federation. (As reported by JTA)
1931: In New York City,Eugene Picker, “a
film pioneer and movie theatre executive of Loew’s Theaters” and his wife gave
birth to David Picker, the Dartmouth graduate who “served as President and
Chief Executive Officer for United Artists, Paramount, Lorimar and Columbia
Pictures.”
1931: A meeting of those who will be working in he campaign to
one million dollars for the relief of Jews in Eastern and Central Europe is
scheduled to be held this afternoon at the National Broadcasting Company on
Fifth Avenue “when addresses will be broadcast over WJZ by Felix Warburg and
Albert Ottinger” the New York chairman of the American Joint Distribution
Committee.
1931(27th of
Iyar, 5691): Playwright and stage producer David Belasco passed away.
http://www.broadway.tv/broadway-features-reviews/haunting-broadway-the-ghost-of-david-belasco
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Belasco.html
1932: The 32nd
annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of the Jewish Theological Seminary
of America is scheduled to come to a closed today.
1933(18th of
Iyar, 5693): Lag B’Omer
1933: Indignation against the Hitler regime in Germany is not
confined to British Jewry but is shared by the British public of all classes
and opinions, Leonard Montefiore, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association,
told members of the Board of Jewish Deputies today
"We also enjoy the sympathy of the British Government, but
the Government has other problems like disarmament and the World Economic
Conference," he pointed out. "Nevertheless, Dr. Alfred Rosenberg
realized the universal condemnation of British opinion."
The Archbishop of Canterbury has promised to speak at a public
meeting in London if it is arranged as really representative of the country,
Mr. Montefiore announced.
He declared the statement that Jewish soldiers in the war and
Jews whose sons were killed in battle were exempt from dismissal from their
positions in Germany was "pure camouflage. I met men possessing the Iron
Cross debarred from the courts by administrative chicanery," he said.
The Joint Foreign Committee, which was organized by the Board of
Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association to conduct foreign affairs, was urged
by Simon Marks, who has been prominent in Zionist fund-raising activities, to
ask the aid of Dr. Chaim Weizmann, former president of the World Zionist
Organization, "in conducting the wider political work ahead." In
reply, Nathan Laski declared that the Joint Foreign Committee had consulted Dr.
Weizmann several times but that the organization cannot hand him the leadership,
which, he said, would be abdication. He said the committee has also been in
contact with Lord Reading and Sir Herbert Samuel (As reported by JTA)
1933: Boxer
(and future mob boss) Mickey Cohen fought his last bout today in Tijuana.
1934: A
natural disaster occurs in Tiberius when cloudbursts cause flooding and
rockfalls. Homes are swept into Lake Kinneret.
1935: “Ghetto
Law obligating the Jewish population to wear speech clothes with red flags
across their breasts and with a rope around their hips have been enacted by the
government of Afghanistan according to a report which Palestine today.”
1935:
A court in Bern, Switzerland, pronounced the German edition of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion a
forgery.
1936: Viscount Edmund Allenby passed away. As General Allenby, he led the Allied forces
that liberated Eretz Israel, including Jerusalem, from the Ottoman Turks. Allenby’s victory gave practical meaning to
the Balfour Declaration by creating facts on the ground. Furthermore, a Jewish Legion fought under
Allenby’s command and played a central role in some of the fighting with the
Turks.
1936:
A large Jewish delegation met with the British High Commissioner and discussed
the worsening conditions in the country brought on by continued Arab attacks
and violence. The Mayor of Tel Aviv questioned the ability of the British to
deal with the situations and leaders from Hederah said they could mobilize
150,000 men to protect the Jews and their interests. The High Commissioner praised the “exemplary
Jewish behavior and self-control…He requested the Jews to fortify themselves
with more patience.”
1937:
Today’s March of Time included an “episode” describing pressure being brought
by the Worker’s Alliance led by David Lesser on U.S. legislators to combat
unemployment.”
1937:
The Government today rushed police reinforcements into the Polesia province as
anti-Semitic rioting in the town of Brzesc (formerly known as Brest-Litovsk),
which caused injuries to 50 Jews and an estimated $400,000 damage, gave signs
of spreading to neighboring villages.
Windows
were broken, shops looted and Jews attacked in the streets in the rioting which
occurred after a policeman had been fatally wounded, according to an official
statement, by a Jewish butcher who resisted arrest for operating an unlicensed
slaughterhouse. The butcher was wounded in the foot by a bullet.
The
excesses raged all day and into the evening before the police, aided by
reinforcements from Warsaw, got control. Three Jews were seriously injured.
Most of the Jewish shops in the town were demolished and others closed their
doors.
Many
peasants attending market day in Brzesc participated in the rioting, dragging
Jews from hansoms and beating them in the streets. Main trading streets
suffered most from vandalism and looting. Market, May, Dluga and Dombrowska
streets were thickly carpeted with glass from broken windows and destroyed
merchandise.
Gazeta
Polska and other Government newspapers said the anti-Semitic mob did not
pillage the Jewish shops but only "threw Jewish goods out into the street
where they were destroyed, while meat and bread taken from Jews were
distributed gratis to poor Christians."
Polish
newspapers said the pillaging began after a Jewish mob attacked police who
arrived to confiscate illegally-slaughtered kosher meat (outside the strict
Government quota for kosher meat) of the Jewish butcher Isaac Szczerbowski.
The
policeman, Stefan Kedziora, was stabbed and later died in the hospital. The
Union of Christian Tradesmen of Brzesc announced that shops of its members
would be closed during his funeral.
Panic
was still great today among the 25,000 Jews of the city. Deputy Emil
Sommerstein left for Brzesc this morning while Senator Moses Schorr obtained
assurances from the Interior Ministry that a special police force had been sent
to prevent further outbreaks. The city known to Jews as Brisk, has a population
of over 50,000.
Stringent
restrictions on kosher slaughtering which went into effect Jan. 1 under a law
enacted by Parliament, empowering the authorities to set monthly quotas of
cattle to be slaughtered for Jewish consumption, have, in some cases, resulted
in "bootleg" slaughterhouses being established.
Meanwhile,
peasants in Zaista, near Malkin, attacked a group of anti-Semitic National
Radicals who had rioted against Jews. The terrorists, known as Naras, called on
the peasants to join in breaking windows of Jewish shops, but the peasants
drove the rioters from the village.
The
peasants later rebuked the Jews for closing their shops during the
disturbances, declaring "the action is likely to incite further
attacks." The peasants asked the Jews to reopen their shops, promising
them protection. (As reported by JTA)
1937:
Jews were forbidden today to give performances of Beethoven, Mozart and Goethe
on the ostensible grounds that they must be allowed "to develop their own
spiritual and creative genius."
Explanation
of the ban was offered by Hans Hinkel, Nazi Commissar for Jewish Cultural
Affairs, who said:
"Jews
must be allowed to develop their own spiritual and creative genius. If they are
unable to or show themselves so poor in spiritual endowments that they cannot
develop their own culture, it is all the more necessary to show the world that
we cannot allow them to become the masters of our cultural life." (As
reported by JTA)
1938:
Jean Martin Freud, Sigmund Freud’s son who was known as “Martin” left Austria
for London today.
1938:
Classic swashbuckler adventure film “The Adventures of Robin Hood” co-directed
by Michael Crutiz (Manó Kaminer), co-produced by Hal B. Wallis and with music
by Erich Wolfgang Korngold was released today in the United States.
1939(25th
of Iyar, 5669): Fifty-nine-year-old “Solomon/Samuel Max Handelman, the husband
of Mollie Handelman and father of Seymour and Fred Handelman passed in the
Bronx after which he was buried in Queens.
1940(4th
of Iyar, 5700): Anarchist and feminist, Emma Goldman passed away. Born in
Russia in 1869, she fled Russia in 1885 during a period of intense
anti-Semitism. Over the years she became active in anarchist
causes. Her anti-war political activities cost her U.S.
citizenship and deportation back to Russia to experience the Communist takeover
in that country. Goldman was anti-Communist and ended up escaping
to Britain. For the rest of her life she devoted herself
to trying to save the world through anarchy and feminism. She died
in Toronto but the American government allowed her body to be buried
in Chicago, the city that had so influenced her life.
1940:
Three hours after the German’s delivered an ultimate “ordering the Dutch
commander of Rotterdam” to begin a cease fire, German bombers killed over
30,000 of the city’s inhabitants when they fire bombed Rotterdam.
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/military/ww2/photos/images/ww2-184.jpg
1940:
As the Blitzkreig replaced the “Phony War” the Nazis crossed the Meuse at Sedan
and began chasing a French Army that “was running for its life” – a run that
would end in Nazi victory, Vichy collaboration and the slaughter of French
Jews.
1940:
“Shortly before Brussels was occupied,” Hugo Gutman who served in the same
regiment as Hitler during World War I and his family “escaped only with small
suitcases taking the last train to France.”
1940:
As of today, the Kindertransport which had started in December, 1938, had
brought 7,500 Jewish children to Britain.
1940:
At 12:30 pm, New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman met with President Roosevelt
in the White House.
1940:
One very last transport left on the freighter Bodegraven from Ymuiden on May
14, 1940 – the day Rotterdam was bombed, one day before Holland surrendered –
raked by gunfire from German warplanes. The eighty children on deck had been
brought by earlier transports to imagined safety in Holland. Altogether, though
exact figures are unknown, the Kindertransports saved around 10,000 children,
most of them Jewish, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland. None
were accompanied by their parents; a few were babies carried by children.
1940:
Abraham Icek Tuschinski lost all of his movie houses in Rotterdam today “when
the city was bombed by the Germans.”
1941:
The Nazis arrested more than 3,600 Parisian Jews and sent to them concentration
camps. This marked the start of the roundup of Jews in the Occupied Zone of
France (the area directly controlled by the Nazis as opposed to Vichy
France. The roundup began with Polish Jews who had become naturalized
French citizens but it did not stop here.
or
1941:
Approximately 4000 Jews are deported from Paris, most to a camp at Pithiviers,
France. “Pithiviers, near Orleans, was one of the infamous concentration camps
where children were separated from their parents and imprisoned, while the
adults were processed and departed to camps further away, usually
Auschwitz.” This camp, like the one at
Drancy, was operated by the Vichy French and their collaborators. Contrary to the image that the French have
concocted about their behavior during World War II, French fascists, led by
Petain and Laval, were active participants in the Nazi New World Order. As to the Jews, the French were already
handing them over even before the Germans asked for them.
http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/may/07.asp
1941:
The decision was made in Tel Aviv to establish the Palmach (Plugot Mahatz or
‘striking companies’ of the Haganah.
“The Palmach had two primary aims: the defense of the Yishuv against the
Arab bands which would inevitably harass the Jewish towns and settlements and
engage in local rioting as soon as the British retreated from Palestine; and
the defense of the country against the Axis invaders.” Yitshaq Sadeh, a Jew born in Russia in 1890,
was the found and first commander of the Palmach. He passed away in 1952.
1941:
Today, Nathan Nathanson who had attempted “to create a theatre chain with Fox
Film” and failed resigned from Famous Players aft which he “worked on creating
a new theatre chain while serving as president.”
1941:
The Nazis interned 3,600 naturalized Jews of Russian origin.
1941:
Today, Jan Peerce “made his stage debut as the Duke in ''Rigoletto'' in
Philadelphia.”
1941:
“East River Bank Sells Vacant City Realty” published today described the
purchase of 24 lots by Elias A. Cohen’s Omnibus Reality Corporation” which also
provides a mini-history course on the development of the East Side.
1942(27th
of Iyar, 5702): Noted Jewish Viennese pianist Leopold Birkenfeld is murdered at
the Chelmno death camp.
1943(9th
of Iyar, 5703): Seventy-four year old Dutch citizen Johanna v. Engel-Gruenewald
was murdered today at Sobibor.
1944:
In Hungary, all hospital patients “newly-born babies, blind and deaf, all
mental cases and prison inmates of Jewish origin were transferred to the
ghettos.”
1944:
In Long Branch, NJ, Howard Martin Lawn, “the president of Parkmobile Inc., and
the Equity and Capital Company and Pearl H. Bergman a chemist and homemaker
both of whom were staunch Democrats” gave birth to journalist Constance Ellen
“Connie” Lawn who “at the time of her death was the longest-serving White House
correspondent.”
1945:
The HMS Springer a British submarine that would be sold to the Israeli in 1958
and be renamed the “Tanin” was launched today
1945:
Representatives Andrew W. Somers and August W. Bennet presented a joint
resolution in the House of Representative “asking for United States recognition
of ‘the Hebrew Nation’ as an intergovernmental agency to repatriate Jews
surviving in Europe to Palestine and for an administration to facilitate the
establishment of a free state there guaranteeing civil, political and religious
rights of all its inhabitants.”
1945(2nd
of Sivan, 5705): Sixty-nine-year-old University of Cincinnati graduate and HUC
ordained rabbi, Edmund Alderman Landau, the Hamilton, Ontario born son of Wolf
and Emma (Alderman) Landau who “in !898
accepted his first pulpit at Temple B'nai Israel (Albany Hebrew
Congregation) in Albany, Georgia passed away today.
https://archivesspace.thebreman.org/repositories/2/resources/217
1946: Martin Gabel, the
Philadelphia born son of Ruth and Israel Gabriel married Arlene Francis in what
would prove to be that rarity, a successful celebrity marriage, which produce
scintillating repartee and a son, Peter Gabel, the Harvard trained attorney and
association editor of Tikun.
1946: It was announced
today at Tammany headquarters that attorney Joseph Zaretski has been chosen
“for the Democratic nomination of Sate Senator
in the 23rd Senatorial District.
1946;
Today Mischa Mischakoff “performed the Tchaikovsky concerto with the New York
Philharmonic (which had by then merged with the New York Symphony) at Carnegie
Hall.”
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/03/obituaries/mischa-mischakoff.html
https://pronetoviolins.blogspot.com/2012/08/mischa-mischakoff.html
1946:
The SS Max Nordau, a Haganah ship containing 1,750 men women and
children (300 of whom were orphans) was intercepted by the British off the
coast of Palestine. The refugees were
shipped off for detention at Atlit while the crew was arrested and the ship
confiscated by the British. The vessel
joined other such ships, including the Enzo Sereni, the Tel Hai and the Orde
Wingate at a dock in Haifa. The Palmach
responded by simultaneously, blowing up eleven bridges that connected Palestine
with surrounding countries. This
spectacular event came at the cost of 14 Palmach lives.
1947:
“A funeral service was held today in Town Hall for “Dr. Louis K. Anspacher,
lecturer dramatist
and poet who was the husband of “the former
Florence Sutro Esberg” and the brother of Harry Anspacher.
1947:
Birthdate of Brandies graduate and music critic Jon Landau.
1947:
Much to everyone’s surprise Andrei Gromyko, the permanent representative of the
Soviet Union to the United Nations gave a speech before the General Assembly in
which he said that “the Soviet Union would still prefer a ‘single Arab-Jewish
state with equal rights for the Jews and the Arabs,’ but if the UN commission
found the this ‘impossible to implement’ there was a ‘justifiable alternative:
the partition of Palestine into two independent single states, one Jewish and
one Arab.’” (Editor’s note – ironically, while the world including the United
States dithered on the issues, the Soviet Union, for whatever reasons shifted
the balance by declaring support for a Jewish state in Palestine now.)
1948:
Today, after nearly 28 years, the British Mandate over Palestine ended with the
founding of the State of Israel.
https://www.ynetnews.com/magazine/article/B1Q3WU4Uu
1948(5th
of Iyar, 5708): In one of the most stirring moments in Jewish history David
Ben-Gurion led the ceremony establishing the State of Israel. The British
Mandate actually ended on
1948: Today, the Hatikvah was played at the
conclusion of the Israeli Declaration of Independence ceremony.
1948:
Rebecca Affachiner “the Betsy Ross Of Israel” unfurled her homemade flag which
she had made from a cut-up bed sheet on which she had sewn a six-pointed blue
star and two stripes colored with a blue crayon.” (As reported by the Jewish
Women’s Archive)
https://cahjp.huji.ac.il/webfm_send/660
1948:
Three resolutions were defeated at the United Nations by the Arabs and their
allies to ensure that Jerusalem would be an international city governed by the
U.N. The Arabs insisted that Jerusalem
must be an “Arab city” even though it had a Jewish majority. This lack of will on the part of the U.N. and
Arab intransigence are the animating force by the refusal of Israeli
governments to ever give up the city.
1948:
Egyptian planes bomb Tel Aviv, the first time the city had been bombed since
the Italians flew over in 1940
1948:
The first broadcasts by Kol Yisrael, Israel's radio station. Kol Yisrael
is Hebrew for the Voice of Israel.
1948:
‘River Lady” a western film photographed by cinematographer Irving Glassberg
was released today in the United States.
1948:
Jordan’s Arab Legion captured the Jewish settlement of Atarot
1948:
In violation of the U.N. resolutions, Jordan's Arab Legion captured Atarot,
north of Jerusalem. This was part of the Arab plan to cut off Jerusalem
from the rest of the state of Israel.
1948:
The United States became the first country to recognize the state of Israel.
1948: "The Egyptian Prime Minister,
al-Nukrashi Pasha, decided to proclaim a state of emergency and arrest all
Communists declaring that all Jews were potential Zionists and that all
Zionists were in fact Communists." (In Ishmael's House by Martin Gilbert)
1948: Sir Alan Cunningham drove out of Jerusalem,
bordered a plane and flew to Haifa.
1948:
When the Israeli flag was unfurled outside the Jewish Agency building in New
York City, “throngs of Jewish youngster danced the hora outside and traffic on
East 68th Street came to a halt.”
1948:
The bitter battle to keep the road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem took a
positive turn for Jewish forces as they occupied Beit Dagan the British police
fortress. At the same time, the Arabs
were poised to seize the vital airport at Lydda.
1948:
Bechor-Shalom Sheetrit, was appointed Minister of Police, a position he held
until a month before his death in January 1967. He served in fourteen
governments and making him the country's longest continually serving minister.
1948:
David Ben-Gurion begins serving as Israel’s first Minister of Defense.
1948:
As the battle for Kfar Darom that pitted the Palmach against the Egyptian Army
and the units of the Muslim brotherhood went into its second night Jewish units
began an attack on the “Bedouin locality of Khirbat Ma’in.
1948:
David Remez was appointed Minister of Transportation in David Ben-Gurion's
provisional government.
1948:
Yehuda Leib Maimon was appointed at Israel’s first Minister of Religious
Services.
1948:
Maury Atkin, who had been employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
opened the first Israeli embassy in the United States at 2210 Massachusetts,
Avenue. Atkin served as executive
officer and agricultural consultant to the new Israeli Embassy until April 1950
1948:
Following yesterday’s massacre of the Jews at Kfar Etzion, the rest of villages
at Gush Etzion surrendered following which the Jews were taken prisoner and
their homes “plunder and burned.”
1948:
As of today, Milt Rubenfeld, Modi Alon, Ezer Weizman, Lou Lenart, and Eddie
Cohen and four S-199's “constituted the entire Israeli Air Force.
1949(15th
of Iyar, 5709): Parashat Emor
1949:
The Committee or the Celebration of the First Anniversary of the Creation of
State of Israel is scheduled to hold “a gigantic birthday party celebration at Madison
Square Garden today
1949:
After 252 performances the curtain came down on the last Broadway performance
of “Love Life,” “a musical written by Kurt Weill (music) and Alan Jay Lerner
(book and lyrics).”
1951:
Edmund Zayenda and Irving Jacobson formed a partnership to produce a series of
American-Yiddish musicals at the Second Avenue Theatre.
1951:
The Broadway production of “Flahooley” with lyrics and book by E.Y. Harburg and
a score by Sammy Fain opened today at the Broadhurst Theatre,
1951:
Today, in Israel the Shabak arrested Mordechai Eliyahu and other members of the Brit Hakanim “a
radical religious Jewish underground organization which operated against the
widespread tread of secularization” by torching cars of people who on drove on
Shabbat and butcher shops where non-kosher meet was sold.”
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported on the
first visit to Israel of the U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. John Foster Dulles,
who arrived, accompanied by a large entourage "for a frank exchange of
views." Israeli leaders asked U.S. for a loan to meet their foreign
currency debts which reached $70m., while another $40m. were due shortly.
Dulles "was happy to be in Israel" and was certain that the talks
will be "mutually beneficial."
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that
Israel received from West Germany $75m. on account of reparations.
1953:
The Jerusalem Post reported that 102
new immigrants arrived from Iran.
1953:
“The first railway line built by the State of Israel – 28 and a half miles of
track running parallel to the coast between Hadera and Tel Aviv – was dedicated
by Mrs. David Remez, widow of Israel’s first Minister of Communications who
conceived the line in 1948.” The opening
of the rail connection will shorten the time it takes to travel between Haifa,
Israel’s major port and Tel Aviv.
1954:
It was reported today that by the president of City College that Dr. Samuel
Winograd’s resignation as faculty manager of athletics was submitted on the
advice of his doctor and that “no charges have been brought against Professor
Winograd by the college or the Board of Education.
1955:
On the seventh anniversary of Israel’s independence, a public memorial service
is held at Carnegie Hall in honor of the late Albert Einstein.
1957(13th
of Iyar, 5715): Seventy-six-year Eva Mazer, the widow of Abraham Mazer who was
leader of Hadassah “and a founder of “a founder of the Albert Einstein College
of Medicine of Yeshiva University” passed away today.
1957(13th
of Iyar, 5717): Seventy-two-year-old Sir Sidney Solomon Abrahams (Sidney
“Solly” Abrahams) the older brother of Harold Abrahams of “Chariots of Fire
fame” who competed in the Olympics in the long-jump before pursuing a career
that including “serving as Chief Justice of Ceylon and President of the London
Athletic Club” passed away today.
1957(13th
of Iyar, 5717: Sixty-six-year-old Yiddish actor and comedian Julius Nathanson,
the Kiev born son of grain dealer and husband of actress Anna Nathanson who in
1905 settled in Chicago where he worked as a tailor for two years before
starting a theatrical career that included joining the Boris Thomashefsky’s
Peoples Theater and acting “at the Second Avenue Theatre before “becoming a
member of the executive committee of the Hebrew Actors' Union and the editorial
board of the Lexicon of the Yiddish Theatre.”
https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/yt/lex/N/nathanson-julius.htm
https://www.jta.org/archive/julius-nathanson-yiddish-actor-dies-in-california-at-66
1958(24th
of Iyar, 5718): Sixty-seven-year-old New York native Barnett Robert Brickner
who served as the rabbi at Anshe Chesed for 33 years passed away today.
https://case.edu/ech/articles/b/brickner-barnett-robert/
1958:
“I Married A Woman” directed by Hal Kanter and written by Goodman Ace premiered
in Los Angeles.
1961(28th
of Iyar, 5721): Sixty-five year old Max Perlman, the City Deputy Commissioner
of Markets who was a member of the Masons, B’Nai Brith and the Ancient Order of
Hiberians and the husband of Rose Perlman and father of Joel and Gail Perlman
passed away at his home in Brooklyn
1962(10th
of Iyar, 5722): Prize winning architect Dov Karmi, the son of Hannah and Sholom
Weingarten who designed the Culture Palace and Max—Liebling House in Tel Aviv
passed away today.
1963:
NBC broadcast “The Convention,” the final episode the television series “Empire”
directed by Abner Biberman, the Milwaukee born son of Fannie and Jack Maurice
Biberman, the husband of Tolbie Sache and the father of Toby Sacher.
1963(20th
of Iyar, 5723): Eighty-two-year-old Ukraine born Columbia University trained “obstetrician
and gynecologist” Dr. Julius Jarcho the father of one daughter and two sons Dr.
Saul and Dr. Lonard Jarcho and “one of the founders of Sydenham Hospital who “was
a member of the Hebrew University’s board of governors and a member of the
board of the American Friends of the Hebrew University passed away today in New
York City.
1963:
The sequel to “It’s My Party”, “Judy’s Turn to Cry” was recorded today by
Lelsely Gore.
1964(3rd
of Sivan, 5724): Seventy-four-year-old Heinz Werner, the Viennese born son of
Leopold Emile Klauber Werner, the engineering student, turned composer, turned
psychologist who, after being forced to leave his position at the University of
Hamburg by the Nazis, came to the United states where he taught at Brooklyn
College and Clark University,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27849450
1964:
“What a Way to Go,” a comedy produced by Arthur P. Jacobs with a screenplay by
Betty Comden and Adolph Green and filmed by cinematographer Leon Shamroy was
released today in the United States.
1966(24th
of Iyar, 5726): Parashat Behar-Bechukotai
1966(24th
of Iyar, 5726): Fifty-nine year old C. Irving “Irv” Constantine the Syracuse
running back played one season in the NFL in 1931.
http://www.profootballarchives.com/playerc/cons00200.html
1967(4th
of Iyar, 5727): Yom HaZikaron
1967:
Alfred Kazan and Nissim Ezekiel of Bombay University were among the speakers at
the six-day celebration of Henry David Thoreau sponsored by the Nassau
Community College that came to an end today.
1967:
According to statements made by Nasser in justifying the blockade of the
Straits of Tiran, this is the day on which he discussed the Soviet report of
the Israel’s planned invasion of Syria with the government in Damascus and
formulated their military response.
1967:
Israeli newspapers carried interviews with General Rabin, IDF chief of staff
warning “Damascus” of the consequences that would arise from continued
terrorist attacks.
1968:
Birthdate of Lyon, France native Eric Vuillard, the author of the award winning
Order of the Day which traces the rise of Hitler “from a meeting in
February 1933 of the captains of German industry gathered to fiancé Hitler’s
rise to absolute power, through March 12, 1938, the date of Anschluss, a
prelude to the Final Solution that drove hundreds, perhaps thousands of
Viennese Jews to suicide, all the way to the Nuremberg Trials and the vileness
of German industry’s complicity in Hitler’s death camps.
https://www.amazon.com/Order-Day-Eric-Vuillard/dp/1590519698
1968(16th
of Iyar, 5728): Seventy-year-old Dr. Theodore Werner, the Viennese born English
Zionist was the godson of Theodor Herzl passed away today. (As reported by
JTA)?
1969:
Today marked the end of Abe Fortas’ tenure as an Associate Justice of the
United States Supreme Court.
1970:
Birthdate of mathematician and founder of Akamai Technologies Daniel “Danny”
Mark Levin the native of Denver and raised in Israel who was stabbed to death
on American Airline Flight 11 reportedly making him the first person to die on
“9/11.”
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/09/tech/innovation/danny-lewin-9-11-akamai/
1970: After 13 preview performances, a revival of
George S. Kaufman’s “Beggar on Horseback” opened at the Vivian Beaumont
Theatre.
1970:
The Court of Appeals of the State of New York decided the “Matter of Palitz”
today.
http://leagle.com/decision/197056727NY2d540_1475.xml/MATTER%20OF%20PALITZ
1971(19th
of Iyar, 5731): Eighty-two-year-old Hungarian born psychiatrist Dr. Sandor
Rado, an original disciple of Freud who founded the first school of
psychoanalysis at an American university and who for many years was a leader in
the psychoanalytic movement passed away today.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/rado-sandor
1972(1st
of Sivan, 5732): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
1972(1st
of Sivan, 5732): Eighty-two-year-old Hungarian physician Sandor Rado who became
a psychoanalyst after meeting Sigmund Freud and settled in the United States where
he initially was involved with the Columbia University Center for
Psychoanalytic Training and Research who should not be confuse the Hungarian Jewish
actor who died under the rule of the Arrow Cross or Hungarian Jewish cartographer
who worked for Soviet Militar intelligence in WW II.
1973:
Frontiero v. Richardson, in which Ruth Bader Ginsburg represented
Frontiero was decided by the Supreme
Court today.
1974: Seventy-one-year-old
Brooklyn Law School graduate Lillian Rock, the New York City born daughter of
Joel Rock and the former Ida Libby Gross who was the founder and senior partner
of Rock and Rock and “who as vice president of the National Association of
Women Lawyers and as national chairman of Women in Public Service, Inc.,
suggested in the nineteen‐thirties that women fill high public office
passed away today.
1974(22nd
of Iyar, 5734): First Lieutenant Rami Zusman and Sergeant Reuven Brinenberg
were killed just two weeks before Henry Kissinger negotiated a separation of
forces agreement between the Syrians and Israelis.
1976(14th
of Iyar, 5736): Pesach Sheni
1977:
The first official images of the Merkava were released to the American
periodical Armed Forces Journal
1978:
The Jerusalem Post reported on the
changed mood in the Cairo media which claimed that the deadlock in the
Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations moved the whole Middle East to the
situation which preceded the 1973 Yom Kippur war. The Egyptian press warned
that President Sadat's pledge of "no more war" would not be
fulfilled, unless Israel dropped its refusal to relinquish all the territories
it captured in the 1967 war.
1979(
17th of Iyar, 5739): Eighty-four-year-old August “Augie” Ratner, the
middleweight boxer who knocked out Jack Delaney “in the first round of prize
fight in New York City in 1922” passed away today.
https://www.nytimes.com/1979/05/18/archives/obituary-1-no-title.html
1979:
“The Rebels” a television mini-series featuring Tom Bosley as “Ben Franklin”
was broadcast for the first time tonight.
1980(28th
of Iyar, 5740): Yom Yerushalayim
1980:
The full orchestral version of “Variations for Winds, Strings and
Keyboards” an orchestral piece composed
in 1979 by Steve Reich was premiered by the San Francisco
Symphony at the War Memorial Auditorium in San Francisco
1981(10th of Iyar, 5741): Fifty-four-year-old journalist,
ant-fascist and founder of Searchlight Maurice Julian Ludmer, whose mother was a
Hebrew teacher and whose life was transformed when while serving in the British
Army during WW II he visited Belsen Concentration camp
1982: U.S. premiere of “Wrong is Right” a “thriller”
directed and produced by Richard Brooks who also wrote the script.
1982: The Moscow refusenik and Hebrew teacher Pavel
Abramovich was summoned to the KGB for the first of what would be four times in
the next thirty days.
1982:
Richard F. Shepard reviewed Max and Helen by Simon Wiesenthal
1983:
It was reported today that Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger delivered
a speech to the American Jewish Committee in which he said the Soviet
government was “making a profound and dangerous mistake if it thought it could
force the United States to abandon its commitment to Israel’s security.”
1983:
A new advertising campaign created by Needham, Harper & Steers/Issues and
Images, which will promote a friendliness and warmth of the Israeli people
toward travelers with the new theme line: ''Come to Israel, come stay with
friends'' premieres today with two new 30-second television and radio
commercials.
1984:
Birthdate of Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame.
1986(5th
of Iyar, 5746): Yom HaAtzma'ut
1986:
The Institute for War documents published Anne Frank’s complete diary.
1987:
As the IPO celebrates its 50th anniversary, Leonard Bernstein
conducts the symphony for a second night.
1989:
NBC broadcast the final episode of “War and Remembrance, an American miniseries
based on the novel of the same name written by Herman Wouk” co-starring Jane
Seymour, Polly Bergen, Sami Frey, Steven Berkoff and Topol.
1989:
“Chu Chem,” billed as “the 1st Chinese-Jewish Musical” with Molly
Picon comes to a close today after 68 performances on Broadway.
1989:
NBC broadcast the final episode of “Family Ties” the sitcom created by Gary
David Goldberg.
1990:
In Los Angeles, director Steven Spielberg and actress Kate Capshaw gave birth
to American actress Sasha Rebecca Spielberg.
1993:
In the U.K. premiere of Cup final an Israeli film written by Eyal Halfon and
directed by Eran Riklis.
1993:
CBS broadcast the final episode of “The Golden Palace” a sitcom co-starrubg
Estelle Getty featuring theme music by Andrew Gold.
1996(25th
of Iyar, 5756): Seventeen year old Yeshiva student David Bum was murdered by a
terrorist who fired on students “as a hitchhiking post at Beit El.”
1998(18th
of Iyar, 5758): Lag B’Omer
1998:
The Sixth Annual Toronto Jewish Film Festival came to an end today.
1998:
Performance of the last episode of Seinfeld on NBC with
commercials selling at $2 million for a 30 second slot.
2000:
“Yiddishkayt Los Angeles,” the largest festival in the United States honoring
Yiddish opened today.
2000(9th of Iyar, 5760): Eighty-six-year-old
Pulitzer Prize winning poet Karl Shapiro, the Baltimore born son of the former
Sarah Omansky and Joseph Shapiro, who drew his greatest inspiration from his
experiences in WW II passed away today.(As reported by Richard Severo.)
2000: The
New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of
special interest to Jewish readers including “Working Class New York: Life and
Labor Since World War II”
by Joshua B. Freeman and the recently released paperback edition of “The Lexus
and the Olive Tree” by Thomas L. Friedman The New York Times columnist deploys
a torrent of anecdotes and vignettes to probe the causes and effects of
globalization and the transforming power of technology.
2000: “Requiem for a Dream,” an American
psychological drama film directed by Darren Aronofsky premiered at Cannes
today.
2000:
Karl Jay Shapiro, a native of Baltimore who was appointed the fifth Poet
Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946 passed away in
New York.
http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/stadler_center/shapiro/
2001: The 54th Cannes Film Festival
where Dover Kosashvili’s “Late Marriage was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Section” opened today
2002: “The vote by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
political party against the establishment of any independent Palestinian state
may limit his room for maneuver but will not tie his hands, Israeli politicians
and political analysts said today.”
2003: Allan Kornblum was appointed as a federal
magistrate for the northern district of Florida.
2003: Dorrit Moussaieff an Israeli-born British
jewelry designer, editor and businesswoman married the President of Iceland,
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson,
2004:
Peace Now led the 'Mate ha-Rov' ("majority camp") demonstration today
in Tel Aviv, in order to pressure the Israeli government to adopt the
Disengagement Plan
2004:
Mayyim Hayyim, a community mikveh [ritual bath] and education center in Newton,
Massachusetts, opened its doors.
http://jwa.org/thisweek/may/14/2004/mayyim-hayyim
2005(5th
of Iyar, 5765): Parashat Emor
2005(5th
of Iyar, 5765): “Vice president of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's
international directors council, and director of the Byrd Hoffman Foundation
Elaine Terner Cooper, the first wife of art dealer and banker Robert E. Mnuchin
and the mother of Goldman Sachs bankers Alan and Steven Mnuchin the latter of
whom became Trump’s Secretary of the Treasury.
2005:
U.S. premiere of “The Fallen Ones” featuring Tom Bosley
2006(16th
of Iyar, 5766): One hundred-year-old
American poet and two time Poet Laureate Stanley Kunitz passed away.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/stanley-kunitz
2006:
The New York Times featured reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including “Becoming Eichmann: Rethinking the Life, Crimes, and Trial of a
"Desk Murderer" by David Cesarani and the recently released paperback
edition of “Omaha Blues: A Memory Loop” by Joseph Lelyveld which is a memoir of
his “often painful Midwestern childhood” featuring his “warring parents: a
literary mother and a political father, who was a Reform rabbi and a committed
civil-rights activist.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/14/books/review/14gewen.html
2006:
On NPR's Weekend Edition, Daniel Schorr mentioned a meeting at the White House
that took place with colleague A. M. Rosenthal and president Gerald Ford. Ford
mentioned that the Rockefeller Commission had access to various CIA documents,
including those referring to political assassinations. [Editor’s Note – Schorr
and Rosenthal were Jewish. Ford and
Helms were not.]
2006:
The following tours were scheduled as part of the 15th annual Historic Site
Preservation Week, an initiative of the Society for Preservation of Israel
Heritage Sites (SPIHS: "Bauhaus on Bialik Street" - a tour of this
street will mark the designation of "the White City" as a World
Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO); Free guided tours of the old city of Be'er Sheva and
other historic sites in the capital of the Negev; a free guided tour of The
National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa which was formerly
the site of the historic Technion Israel Institute of Technology Building.
2007:
The
2008:
“The World Stamp Championship Israel 2008” opens under F.I.P patronage in Tel
Aviv. “
2008:
As US President George W. Bush lands in Israel for a three-day visit the IDF
starts reducing its operations throughout the West Bank. The orders were
delivered earlier this week to the IDF's Central Command by the political
echelon.
2008:
A shopping mall in Ashkelon was hit this afternoon by a long-range rocket fired
from the Gaza Strip injuring around 90 people, four of them seriously. Two
militant groups, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed
responsibility. Among those seriously hurt are a 24-year-old mother and her
infant daughter, both of whom were flown to Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer,
for treatment. They suffered head injuries. Two others sustaining serious
injuries were rushed to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon for emergency
surgery. Most other injuries were light.
2008(9th
of Iyar, 5768): Eighty-six-year-old cartoonist and satirist Will Elder passed
away today (As reported by William Grimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/arts/design/18elder.html
2009:The Foundation for Jewish Studies presents a free lecture with Dr. Robert
Alter speaking on “The Challenge of Translating the Bible” at the Washington DC
Jewish Community Center.
2009:
The 92nd Street Y presents a lecture by Susanne Vromen entitled
“Sanctuary from Hell: Belgian Nuns Who Saved Holocaust Children” in which this
Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Bard College author of “Hidden Children
of the Holocaust: Belgian Nuns and Their Daring Rescue of Young Jews from the
Nazis” shares the “riveting stories” of the Belgian Jewish children who
were hidden in Roman Catholic convicts and orphanages starting in 1942. Vromen is in a unique position to tell the
story since she “was living in Belgium when the Germans invaded the country in
1940 and lived under the Nazi occupation before she and her family were able to
escape and find refuge in the Belgian Congo.
2009:
Today Jordan's king pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to immediately
commit to the establishment of a Palestinian state, as the monarch pursued a
sweeping resolution of the Muslim world's conflicts with Israel.
2009(20th
of Iyar, 5769): Beatrice Israel Muhlendorf, passed away today at the age 93 in
Sheffield, Alabama. Mrs. Muhlendorf was a native of Worcester, Mass., and a
member of Temple B'Nai Israel. She attended Florence State Teachers College and
graduated from the University of Alabama in 1936.She was the co-founder of the
Rho chapter of Sigma Delta Tau sorority at the University of Alabama and served
as president in 1935. a lifelong sustaining member of the Muscle Shoals
District Service League, past board member of the YMCA of the Shoals and
Northwest Alabama Easter Seals Rehabilitation Center, Turtle Point Yacht and
Country Club and was past president of the Temple B'Nai Israel Sisterhood. She
worked for the Navy department during World War II, where she met her husband,
Jack, and married in 1942. She, along with her father and husband, co-founded
Paper and Chemical Supply Co. in 1949, where she served as a chairman of the
board until her passing. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack
Muhlendorf
2009:
Sholom Rubashkin, the man who ran Agriprocessors, has been named in a new 142
count indictment that adds 70 new charges that
include criminal acts related to bank fraud, money laundering and
document fraud.
2010(1
Sivan, 5770): Rosh Chodesh Sivan
2010:
“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” a sequel to “Wall Street” in which Eli Wallach
played the part of “Julius Steinhardt” in what was the last film in his long
and storied career premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
2010:
Garrett Reisman was a member of the STS-132 mission that traveled to the
International Space Station aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis” starting today.
2010:
Forty-six year old Jennifer Gorvotiz was named CEO of the San Francisco based
Jewish Community Federation today making her “the first woman to head on the
North American’s 20 largest Jewish Federations.” (As reported by Jweekly.com)
2010:
Rabbi Shira Stutman and musician Sheldon Low are scheduled to lead a musical
and interactive Shabbat at the Historic 6th& I Synagogue in
Washington, D.C.
2011:
Liliana Schulder is scheduled to be called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah at The
Temple, Atlanta’s oldest synagogue which was founded in 1867.
2011:
The Cincinnati Art Museum is scheduled to present “A Jewish View of Cincinnati”
will “explore art from ancient times that relates to Jewish history; paintings
of biblical stories and themes, and works by Jewish artists.
2011:
Pianist Menahem Pressler is scheduled to appear with the Jupiter Quartet as
part of the Peoples’ Symphony Concerts in New York City.
2011:
“Footnote” a film about the mistaken award of the Israel Prize premiered at the
Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for best screenplay.
2011:
The managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique
Strauss-Kahn, was taken off an Air France plane at Kennedy International
Airport minutes before it was to depart for Paris on today, in connection with
the sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the authorities said
2011(10th
of Iyar, 5771): Ninety-year-old Joseph Wershaba, the colleague of Edward R.
Murrow who helped to expose Senator McCarthy, passed away today. (As reported
by Dennis Hevesi)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/business/media/18wershba.html?_r=0
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=seeitnow
2011(10th
of Iyar, 5771): Eighty-nine-year-old Murray Handwerker, the man who turned
Brooklyn based Nathan’s hot dog stand into a nationally known institution
passed away today. (As reported by Reed Abelsson)
2012:
At the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC, Dr. Pamela
S. Nadell, Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Jewish
Studies Program at American University is scheduled to survey 350 years of the
American Jewish experience through the prism of National Museum of American
Jewish located on Philadelphia's Independence Mall.
2012:
The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music is scheduled to present an
evening of performances celebrating its Israeli alumni, students, and
international collaborators
2012:
Todd Hasak-Lowy author of Here and Now: History, Nationalism, and Realism in
Modern Hebrew Fiction is scheduled to participate in A Dalkey Archive
Translators Night as the McNally Jackson Bookstore in New York City.
2012:
Roberto Rodriguez and the Cuban Jewish All Stars are scheduled to perform at
the Washington DCJCC.
2012:
Center for Jewish History and Center for Traditional Music and Dance are
scheduled to present “Bay mayn mames shtibele: The Women's Art of Yiddish
Folksong.”
2012:
In London, The Wiener Library is scheduled to hold a workshop for new recruits
and experienced veterans of the Wiener Library’s Volunteer Translation
Program. The program began with one
translator in 2009.
2012:
Offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz, a second-round draft pick of the Cleveland
Browns, signed a four-year, $5.17 million contract with the team. Schwartz, a
tackle from the University of California, Berkeley, was selected 37th overall
in April’s draft. The Jewish player was among eight draft picks signed by the
team today. His older brother Geoff is in his fourth season as an NFL player (
As reported by Mary Oster)
2012(22nd
of Iyar, 5772): Nine-four-year-old “David M. Helpern, the business side of the
husband-and-wife apparel design team known as Joan & David, who popularized
elegant, comfortable — and non-high-heeled — shoes for working women in the
1960s before expanding their line internationally to include clothing,” passed
away today. (As reported by Paul
Vitello)
2012:
Jill Abramson, the executive editor of the New York Times did not address the
graduating class at Barnard College because she was pre-empted by President
Obama.
2013:
The refurbished Jerusalem Train Station is scheduled to host its first major
event today.
2013:
The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code by
Margalit Fox, the doyenne of New York Times obituary writers goes on sale
today.
http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-06-222883-3
2013:
“Fire In My Heart: The Story of Hannah Senesh” is scheduled to open at the
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
2013(5th
of Sivan, 5773): Erev Shavuot
2013:
The DVD of “The Round Up” a French movie “based on the true story of a young
Jewish boy that depicts the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv) -- the
mass arrest of Jews by French police who were Nazi accomplices in Paris in July
1942—“was released on the American iTunes Store” today.
2013:
As part of the observance of Shavuot, Bentlee Birchansky and Noah Thalblum will
celebrate their Confirmation at Temple Judah in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Editor’s
Note – I had the pleasure of teaching both of these youngsters. They are two of the brightest, nicest, most
diligent students I ever worked with in the last fifty years. They have much to
be proud of and even more to look forward to.)
2013:
On the secular calendar, 65th anniversary of the establishment of
the State of Israel!
2013:
The Jerusalem Post ranks Yair Lapid, the founder of Yesh Atid at the top of its
list of most influential Jews followed by U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Jack
Lew in second place.
2014(14th
of Iyar, 5774): Pesach Sheini
2014(14th
of Iyar, 5774):
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112312/jewish/Rabbi-Meir.htm
http://www.rabbimeirbaalhaneis.com/history_rmbh.asp
2014:
Nick Kotz, whose recent book, The Harness Maker's Dream, tells the story
of his Jewish Ukrainian grandfather's journey to the United States and ensuing
life in Texas is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion “A Nation of
Immigrants: How They Have Shaped America.”
2014:
In Danville, CA, the Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living is scheduled to
host a special screening “American Jerusalem,” a “documentary that tells the
story of San Francisco Jews became Jews.”
2014:
The New York Times fires Jill
Abramson as Executive Editor.
2014:
A senior FSA official said that the Free Syrian Army (FAS) “could tactically
collaborate with Israel in toppling the Assad regieme as long as such
cooperation is carried out in utter secrecy.”
2014:
US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Amos Gilad of the Defense Ministry met
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the airport this evening as he prepared
to begin a two day visit to Israel.
2015:
Dr. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg is scheduled to lecture on “Letter from an Unknown
Woman: Joseph’s Dream” at the Skirball Center
2015:
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition was formally sworn in tonight
after a raucous Knesset session that saw constant heckling, along with
accusations by opposition leader Isaac Herzog that the freshly inaugurated
government was “a circus.”
2015:
Violinist and composer Ittai Shapira is scheduled to premiere his newest
composition, “Ethics” at a the Concert Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of
the Liberation of Theresienstadt Concentration Camp
2015:
“Raise the Roof” is scheduled to be shown at the 18th Annual Film
Festival sponsored by the National Center for Jewish Films.
2015:
Steve Richards is scheduled to his book Sitting on Top of the World at
Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center.
2016(6th
of Iyar, 5776): Shabbat Kedoshim
2016:
In Baltimore, the JCCs of North America continue their Biennial Convention for
a second day.
2016:
Rabbi David Golinkin, the President of the Schechter Institutes, Inc. and a
Professor of Jewish Law is scheduled to lecture on “What can do about the state
of Judaism in the Jewish State?” as part of Shaary Tefillah’s Scholar in
Residence program.
2016:
“As an extension of Yom Hashoah 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance
Day, the New Orleans Opera, in a special collaboration with The National WWII
Museum and assisted by Temple Sinai are the Jewish Endowment Foundation of
Louisiana, are scheduled present the
celebrated children's opera, Brundibar”
2017(18th
of Iyar, 5777): Lag B’Omer
2017:
The New York Times features reviews
of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers
including Dorre Shafrir’s debut novel Startup, A Man and His Presidents: the Political
Odyssey of William F. Buckley, Jr. by Alvin S. Felzenberg, Option B:
Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy co-authored by Sheryl
Sandberg and Down the Up Staircase: Three Generations of a Harlem Family
by Syma Solovitch and Bruce D. Haynes who is currently “contracted with New
York University Press for a book entitled Hear O' Israel: Voices of African American Jews about Black
Jews in America and Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline
From Obama to Trump and Beyond by Gideon Rachman
2017:
The exhibition “500 Years of Treasures from Oxford” that “will showcase in
America for the first time an extraordinary array of ancient manuscripts,
books, and silver, including what has been called “the most important
collection of Anglo-Jewish manuscripts in the world” is scheduled to open at
Yeshiva University Museum today.
2017:
LIMMUDFSU NY is scheduled to come to an end today
2017:
Oxford students are scheduled to check “out JSoc's and Chaplaincy's stalls at
the Lag B'Omer fair on Broad Street this afternoon!
2017:
Today, Tunisia’s culture minister said that this North African country “plans
to seek UNESCO World Heritage status for the island of Djerba, site of Africa’s
oldest synagogue and an annual Jewish pilgrimage”
https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2017/05/000_OE164-1.jpg
2017:
Today “US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said
President Trump was deliberating whether relocating the U.S. embassy to
Jerusalem would help or harm peace prospects, prompting Prime Minister
Netanyahu to release a statement saying it will boost efforts, in that it will
“shatter Palestinian fantasies” of Jerusalem as the capital of a future
Palestinian state.”
2017:
Mother’s Day - all women are considered to be mothers in the House of Israel,
and we honor them all for their contributions without which we would not have
survived for the last four thousand years – from the Matriarchs to Deborah to
Golda Meir and all of the women of valor in between.
2017:
Continuing a tradition begun in the 1990’s when lamplighter Rabbi Ciment first
settled in Little Rock, Chabad is scheduled to host an elaborate Lag B’Omer
Celebration that has, like so much of his efforts gone from strength to
strength.
2017(18th
of Iyar, 5777): In Los Angeles, ordination ceremonies are scheduled to take
place at the Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion,
2018:
More than 100,000 people from Gaza are scheduled to take part in the “March of
Return” an attempt to breach the anti-terrorist fence on the border with the
Israel which in reality is an attempt by those committed to destroying Israel
to invade the country.
2018:
President Trump’s daughter Ivanka, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Treasury
Secretary Steve Mnuchin are among the dignitaries expected to attend events
marking today’s move of the United States embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
2018:
Gov. Eric Greitens of Missouri is scheduled to go on trial in St. Louis on a
charge of invasion-of-privacy stemming from an affair he had “with his former
hairdresser.”
2018:
In New Orleans, “Sabena Hijacking: My Version” is scheduled to shown at the JCC
as part of the Cathy and Morris Bart Jewish Cultural Arts Series.
2019:
A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism a
non-fiction book authored by Adam Gopnik was published by Basic Books today.
https://www.amazon.in/Thousand-Small-Sanities-Adam-Gopnik/dp/154169936X
2019:
“The Palestinian Islamic Jihad has said it will disrupt the Eurovision Song
Contest due to begin today in Tel Aviv.
2019:
Today, Esther Hayut, “the chief justice of Israel’s Supreme Court made a speech
in Nuremberg, Germany that expressed implied criticism of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned judicial reforms and invoked that Nazi takeover of
Germany in the 1930’s.” (As reported by Michael Bachner)
2019:
In New Orleans, author Judith Viorst whose works include Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible No Good, Very Bad is scheduled to talk about latest book Nearing Ninety
at the Jewish Community Center.
2019: In London, JW3 is scheduled to host a screening of “The
Keeper.”
2020: On line, JIMENA and Harif are scheduled to host “author
Lyn Julius as she talks about her book, Uprooted: How 3,000 Years of Jewish
Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight which “examines the
post-1948 displacement of 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Middle East.”
2020: The ADL is scheduled to host it latest “Fighting Hate from
Home webinar” which “is an important dive into the results of ADL’s latest
Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents, and its far-ranging implications.
2020: Einat Admony, author of Shuk and owner of Balaboosta, Taim
and Kish-Kash, who adds the Yemenite and Persian influences of her childhood to
create an innovative take on Israeli cuisine is scheduled to be the last
present in the on-line series,The Pop-Up Israeli Restaurant
2020: Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Boston is
scheduled to celebrate 100 years of community service by honoring Karen and
Steven Sisselman and raising the glasses with ‘Virtual Toasts.”
2020: Stanford’s Taube Center for Jewish Studies is scheduled to
present on-line Penn State professor Lior Sternfeld talking “about how Jews in
Iran went from politically and economically marginalized in the early 20th
century to wealthy and politically central by the 1979 revolution.”
2020: The Streicker Center is scheduled to host on line Dr.
Diane M. Sharon as she presents “Canaanite 101 – The Gods of Ugarit.”
2020: The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center is
scheduled to host, virtually, Lawrence Douglas as he discusses The Right
Wrong Man which “presents the incredible story of the last major Holocaust
trial to galvanize world attention.”
2020: The Oxford
University Jewish Society is scheduled to host “Jami for an interactive online
webinar on students managing uncertainty and prioritizing self-care to enhance
our wellbeing during COVID-19.”
2020: On Facebook, “The Civil War, JAHM Scholar series” is
scheduled to present the Museum's lead historical advisor, Jonathan D. Sarna,
Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis
University.
2020: It was reported today that Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu informed President Reuven Rivlin and outgoing Knesset Speaker Benny
Gantz yesterday evening that he has managed to form a government within the two
weeks allocated to him.” (As reported by Moran Azulay)
2021: In a session examining UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection,
curators Francesco Spagnolo and Shir Kochavi are scheduled to talk about an
exhibit of very old coins, ritual objects and artworks that reflected Jewish
revolts against Hellenism and Roman occupation
2021:
As part of the Rekindle Shabbat Dinners program, the Lappin Foundation is
scheduled to supply participants with everything they need to celebrate Shabbat
at their home: a kosher catered meal and fully stocked Shabbat kit, including a
box of Shabbat candles, kiddush cup, candlesticks, challah cover, tzedakah box
and more!
2021:
Isaac Herzog, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Rabbi Elaine Zecher,
senior rabbi at Temple Israel of Boston, Ambassador Meron Reuben, consul
general of Israel to New England,
Nahma
Nadich, deputy director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater
Boston and
Lital
Carmel, regional director of the Israeli American Council are among those
scheduled to speak at “Boston Stands With Israel” sponsored by the Combined
Jewish Philanthropies.
2021:
Kan Kol Hamusika is scheduled to broadcast the Young Artists in Concerts wit
Itamar Carmeli, Jonathan Leibovitz, Marta Sikora, Noam Yaffe, Simon Lambersky
and May Endy.
2021:
In one of those calendar coincidences, as Israelis prepare to face another day
of rockets fired by terrorist in Gaza and Lebanon, they take note of the fact
that it was on another Friday, May 14, which was in 1948 that David Ben Gurion
oversaw the ceremonies marking the birth of the modern state of Israel.
2022:
Congregation Beth Am’s Jewish Film Series is scheduled to continue with a
screening of “The Automat,” “Lisa Hurwitz’s 79-minute documentary about the
beloved New York City and Philadelphia vending-machine eateries, featuring a
healthy dose of Mel Brooks and cameos by other famous Jews.”
2022:
The Eden Tamir Center is scheduled to host a performance of its Toscanini
Quartet.
2022:
In San Francisco, a part of its 100-year anniversary, Congregation Beth Sholom
is scheduled to hold a special Shabbat service and kiddush luncheon, followed
by “a big gala later in the day.”
2022(13th
of Iyar, 5782)Parashat Emor and Chapter 3 Pirke Avot
2023:
As part of its annual film festive, the National Center for Jewish Film is
scheduled to present a screening of “Where Life Begins.”
2023:
Israelis brace for another day of terrorist rocket bombardment from Gaza.
2023:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is scheduled to host “Mamas with Chutzpah Walking
Tour” during which participants “follow in the footsteps of activists such as
Emma Goldman and Clara Lemlich as they pushed for radical reforms at the height
of the Progressive Era.”
2023:
Berkeley-based Jewish Studio Project and Lilith magazine are scheduled to present
an online program that explores the emotions that Mother’s Day can elicit.
2023:
The New England Conservatory of Music is scheduled to present vocalist and
accordionist Matthew Shifrin performing “My Grandma’s Mind Is Like an Ocean: A
One-Man Musical in English and Yiddish.”
2024:
In celebration of Independence Day, Beit S.Y. Agnon in Jerusalem is scheduled
to host several events including dramatized tours with characters from the
books, a conversation with Roy Chen about his new translation of the classic
"Winnie the Pooh" and Yaara Schory about her first book for children
"Twin Needed" followed by a performance of the children's play "Why did the fish
cry?": A performance from Oded Burla's stories.
2024:
The 2024 Biennial Scholars Conference on American Jewish History is scheduled
to end today at the Center for Jewish History.
2024:
YIVO is scheduled host a performance of Jacob Weinberg’s Ten Jewish Songs a
collection of Jewish folksongs, holiday songs, dances, and Hasidic nigunim in
piano arrangements and published by the Bloch Publishing Company.
2014:
Yom HaAtzma'ut (Independence Day)
https://www.masaisrael.org/yom-haatzmaut-israel-independence-day/
https://www.itraveljerusalem.com/article/independence-day-in-jerusalem
2024:
As May 14th begins in Israel, an unprecedented wave of anti-Semitism sweeps the
United States and the Hamas held hostages begin day
221 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.)