July 31
904: Thessaloniki, which is also known as Salonica, is sacked and looted by Saracens (an Arab group). The Jewish population of Thessaloniki dates back at least to the first century of the Common Era. By the time Benjamin of Tudela visited the city in the 11th century the Jewish population numbered a significant “hundred souls.” Salonica’s Jewish population would grow when the Ottomans made it a refuge for Sephardic Jews following their expulsion in 1492.
1009: Pope Sergius IV becomes the 142nd pope, succeeding Pope John XVIII. During the Papacy of Sergius, the Fatimid caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. There was a two-fold response in the West. Sergius issued a papal bull calling for Islam to be driven from the Holy Land and the Jews were attacked because rumors were circulated blaming them for inciting the Caliph to destroy the church.
1255: An English boy who would become known as Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln disappeared setting the stage for the one of the more notorious blood libels in English history.
1305: In Barcelona it is decreed that anybody who reads works of science and metaphysics before the age of 25 or who adheres to allegorical interpretations which rject the notion of revelation will be excommunicated.
1390: Solomon Halevi converts and takes the name of Pablo de Santa Maria. He became the Bishop of Burgos and Chancellor to the King of Castille.
1391: Joshua Loki wrote to Pablo de Santa Maria, known as Solomon Halevi before he converted, rejecting Pablo’s interpretation of the messianic role of Jesus. Lorki would convert ten years later and become a leading tormentor of the Jewish people.
1492: The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect.
1527: Birthdate of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor. “In his diary entries, Maximilien described the Jews as a quarrelsome and deceitful people who denounced one another, gave usurious loans to miners and artisans and traded in inferior medals. Between 1567 and 1573 the emperor repeatedly issued mandates to expel Jews” from Lower Austria.
1556: Ignatius Loyola, Spanish priest and founder of the Jesuits passed away. When accused of being crypto-Jew or having Jewish ancestry he replied If only I did! What could be more glorious than to be of the same blood as the Apostles, the Blessed Virgin, and our Lord Himself?" Robert Maryks, “an expert on the history of early Jesuits details the significant role of “conversos’’ — Jews and their descendants who were pressured to convert to Catholicism before and during the Spanish Inquisition in his recently published book, The Jesuit Order as a Synagogue of Jews: Jesuits of Jewish Ancestry and Purity-of-Blood Laws in the Early Society of Jesus
1571: The ghetto in Florence, Italy was established.
1610: Paul V issued “Apostolicae Servitutis ,” a papal bull concerning the need for monks to learn Hebrew.
1725: During the reign of Charles VI, an imperial order fixed the number of registered Jewish families in Moravia at 5,106 and threatened any locality which accepted Jews where they had not been previously settled with a fine of 1,000 ducats. (As reported by the Jewish Virtual Library)
1743(10thof Av, 5503: In Jerusalem, Chaim ben Moses ibn Attar,Talmudist and Kabbalist passed away. He was buried on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem. Born at Mequenez, Morocco in 1696 he was one of the most prominent rabbis in Morocco. In 1733 he decided to leave his native country and settle in the Land of Israel, then under the Ottoman Empire. En route he was detained in Livorno by the rich members of the Jewish community who established a yeshiva for him. Many of his pupils later became prominent and furnished him with funds to print his “Ohr ha-Chaim” or “The Light of Life,” a commentary on the Pentateuch. He was received with great honor wherever he traveled. This was due to his extensive knowledge, keen intellect and extraordinary piety. In the middle of 1742 he arrived in Jerusalem where he presided at the Beit Midrash Knesset Yisrael. One of his disciples there was Rabbi Chaim Joseph David Azulai, who wrote of his master's greatness: "Attar's heart pulsated with Talmud; he uprooted mountains like a resistless torrent; his holiness was that of an angel of the Lord ... having severed all connection with the affairs of this world. A prolific author, two of his other published works were “Hefetz Hashem or “God’s Desire,” consisting of dissertations on four Talmudic treatises and “Peri Toar” or “Beautiful Fruit,” a novella based on the Shulchan Aruch.
1776(15th of Av, 5536): Francis Salvador, one of the most prominent Jews of the American Revolutionary period, , was shot and scalped by Indians after riding 28 miles to raise a militia after attacks occurred on settlers. His father (also named Francis Salvador) was a wealthy London Jew who financed the earliest Jewish settlers of Savannah, Georgia
1806: In Baltimore, MD, Jacob Myers of Georgetown, SC, married Miriam Etting the daughter of prominent Jewish merchant Solomon Etting.
1821: Lazarus Magnus, the son of Simon Magnus and the husband of Sarah Moses, passed away today in Chatham, Kent, England.
1840(1st of Av, 5600): Rosh Chodesh Av
1840(1st of Av, 5600): Nachman Kohen Krochmal, one of “the first Jewish historians to treat Jewish history as an integral part of all human history” passed away. A native of Brody, Galicia, one of his most famous works was Moreh Nebuke ha-Zeman (Guide for the Perplexed of the Time).
http://books.google.com/books?id=-A-yZagiSqYC&pg=PP1&ots=sNK7qYM9fG&dq=nachman+krochmal&sig=fEDP9b-1dRs04anda7uXFHiPzrE#v=onepage&q=nachman%20krochmal&f=false
1841; The Ouse Valley Viaduct which had been designed in part by David Mocatta, was opened and in use.
1845: In Great Britain, Parliament passes the Act for the relief of Persons of the Jewish Religion elected to Municipal Offices.
1854: Birthdate of Fritz Hommel author of Ancient Hebrew Tradition in which “he attacked the Graf Wellhausen hypothesis” and “controverts the method deployed by the higher critics of the Old Testament.”
1856: Christchurch New Zealand is chartered as a city. According to Robert Case, the first Jews settled in Christchurch during the 1850’s. By 1860, there were fewer than four hundred Jews living in all of New Zealand. Although the Jewish Community of Christchurch has always been a small one, it built a synagogue in 1890. Today the Christchurch’s Canterburgy Hebrew Congregation consists of a synagogue, Temple Beth-El that offers regular Shabbat services as well as cheder classes, Bar and Bat Mitzvah training, conversion support, holiday services and a variety of social activities. It is also home to the South Island chapter of Habonim Dror and the Christchurch Council of Jewish Women. The community also has a Chevra Kedisha and Chabad House.
1870:In the wake of the reported massacre of Jews in Romania, letters have been received in Washington, DC that states that Article 21 of the new constitution guarantees freedom of conscience to all. These letters claim that the 400,000 Jews in Romania have 176 synagogues in which they “worship in the manner prescribed by their religion.” The letters conclude by asking if religious persecution really existed why would the Jews be allowed to have so many synagogues which they are free to use
1878(1st of Av): Rosh Chodesh Av
1878(1st of Av): Abraham Benisch, the journalist and theologian who was a “Zionist” before Herzl, passed away.
1878: Birthdate of philanthropist and child-welfare activist Madeleine Borg. Borg, who lived her whole life in New York City, was educated at Columbia University, where she studied the causes of juvenile delinquency. Subsequently, she held leadership positions in more than a dozen major child welfare organizations. Her roles included chair of the executive committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians of New York, director of the Child Welfare League, member of the executive committee of the Girls' Service League of America, and trustee of the Training School for Jewish Social Work. She also served on the executive boards of the American Jewish Committee and the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies of New York. Borg's largest contribution to child welfare was probably her role in founding the Big Sister movement, beginning in 1912. Modeled on earlier Big Brother programs targeted at troubled boys, Big Sister programs provide young girls with role models and companions. In 1914, Borg was among the founders of the Jewish Big Sisters, which sought to help poor and troubled girls by providing them with role models from a similar ethnic and cultural background. Today, Jewish Big Brothers/Big Sisters programs also match adults with disabilities with non-disabled friends. Always interested in child welfare, Borg was also active in promoting psychiatric clinics as part of the study of child behavior. In 1954, the Jewish Board of Guardians renamed its Child Guidance Institute in Borg's honor. Borg's public roles also extended beyond child welfare and beyond the Jewish community. In 1929, then-Governor Franklin Roosevelt appointed her to the New York State Old Age Pensions Committee; she also served on the executive committee of the New York City Crime Prevention Bureau. In 1939, she became a trustee of the New York World's Fair. Also in 1939, she became president of the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, the first woman to hold that post. Borg died on January 9, 1956.
1881: It was reported today that the English publishers of the late Lord Beaconsfield’s works are about to issue a new edition of his works called the “Hughenden Edition.” Surprise has also been expressed that so many of the Disraeli’s possessions have been sold instead of being preserved as family mementoes.
1881: It was reported today after receiving payments from “wealthy Jewish capitalists,” the Sultan has agreed to allow a Jewish colony to be established on 1,500 acre tract in the districts of Gilead and Moab.
1881: “Jews In Russia” published today said that Jews in Russia were not hated because they are richer than their Christian counterparts. The Jews are hated because they do not practice the vices of the gentile counterparts. “If the Jews would only get drunk and spend their money recklessly, there would be very little temptation to persecute them.”
1882: “Russian Persecutions” published today, relying on information that first appeared in the London Telegraph described the conditions of the Jews in Kiev where the “persecution by the population” has been replaced by “legal proceedings” that are “less noisy” but even crueler and more effective in persecuting the Jews.
1882: Rishon Lezion or First For Zion was founded by a group of 10 families in Eretz Israel. The settlement marked the beginning of the first Aliyah (going up) to Eretz- Israel, and the beginning of Rothschild’s deep involvement with settlement activities. Later that year, Baron Edmund De Rothschild in response to the Russian pogroms and a plea by Rabbi Samuel Mohilever agreed to help the new Moshava
1882: Ten members of the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) led by Zalman David Levontin founded Rishon LeZion (First to Zion) which has become the fourth largest city in Israel.
http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il/eng/Pages/HistoryofRishonLeZion.aspx
http://www.rishonlezion.muni.il/eng/Pages/default.aspx
1882: Eliezer Ben-Yedhuda, the “father of modern Hebrew” and his wife gave birth to Ben-Zion Ben-Yehuda
1882: Today’s review of National Religions and Universal Religions, a collection of lectures by Dr. Abraham Kuenen the Dutch theologian teaching at the University of Lyden, states that “the finest part of the lectures is the analysis of early Jewish religion under the prophets.”
1883: Jewish leaders met in Baltimore, MD , tonight in response to a request for funds to support an agricultural colony of approximately 60 Russian Jewish immigrants at Middlesex, Va. They were being asked to raise $200 per month to meet the pressing needs of the colonists. (The settlement at Middlesex was part of an effort to settle Jews away from the major eastern cities in the United States. These colonies would be found in South America and Canada as well as in the rural United States.)
1884: Samuel Barnett, a Polish Jew, was arraigned before Justice Welde on multiple charges of theft and burglary. Barnett immediately pleaded guilty to at least one of the charges. His wife, who had been arrested as an accomplice, was released. Many of the victims of Barnett’s criminal activities came to the police station looking for their possessions among the many items that had been seized at Barnett’s home at 136 Orchard Street. This would have put him in close proximity to 97 Orchard Street, the tenement made famous by Jane Ziegleman in her book by that name.
1885: Memorial services were held this evening B’nai Jeshurun in New York City to mark the passing of Sir Moses Motefiore who had died in England on July 28. Rabbis Henry S. Jacobs and Alexander Kohut delivered the eulogies. At the end of his remarks, Rabbi Jacobs said, “He conquered prejudice not by yielding to it, but by rising far superior to its pettiness, like the other hero whose loss America is mourning today.” (This closing comment was in reference to President U.S. Grant who had passed away on July 23. This positive comparison between this larger than life Jewish leader and Grant is further evidence that the Jews of his time did not consider him an anti-Semite.)
1887(10th of Av, 5647): Tish’a B’Av observed since the 9th fell on Shabbat.
1887: “Diamonds and Vulgarity” published today describes the increasing presence of Jewish families and their friends at the New Jersey resort city of Long Branch.
1889: The Sanitarium for Hebrew Children’s fifth free excursion which was paid for entirely by Isaac Stern is will from a pier at the foot of the 5thStreet and the East River.
1889: During today’s session of the House Commons, Sir James Fergusson responded to reports that the Russian government intends to enforce the anti-Jewish edicts of 1882. According to the British Charge de Affaires at St. Petersburg, the government is not considering any “fresh measures” aimed at denying the Jews “any of the privileges they now enjoy.” (This begged the question since enforcing edicts from 1882 might not be considered as “fresh measures)
1890: “Persecuting the Jews” published today provided a summary of the edicts now being enforced which state that prohibit Jews from owning mining stocks or working in mines; allow Jews to live in only 16 provinces; debar Jews from government posts and serving as officers in the military; prohibits Jews from practicing law, medicine or engineering and “entering any other professions.
1890: It was reported today that Russian government hopes that enforcing the anti-Jewish edicts promulgated in 1882 will force one million Jews to leave the country. (This is a contemporary reference to the Czar’s “one third; one third; one third” policy under which one third of the Jews would convert, one third would leave and one third would die)
1891: “Persecution of Jews” published today provided “harrowing stories…of the extremely unjust laws in force against the Jews” and “the general atrocities practiced upon” them “by the Russian soldiers.” “Any Russian Christian…, who wishes to possess himself of the property of a Jewish neighbor, can obtain it by paying one-tenth of its value to the Mayor or government representative.”
1891: In Washington, DC, Acting Secretary of State William F. Wharton asserted that the Department of State does not have any information regarding any new edicts issued by the Russian government aimed at depriving the Jews of their rights.
1891: A private letter received in Washington “from Moscow asserts that things are worse than ever in Russia” for the Jews.
1891: “A dispatch was received in Wall Street from London” today stating that Messrs. C. J. Hambro & Son of that City” has “been appointed bankers to the Russian Government” replacing the Rothschilds who have been their bankers for years.
1892: “Still Persecuting The Jews In Russia” published today described the fate the Jews who have been expelled from Moscow. Many of these families “had resided in Moscow a long time” and had been given a year to get out. In the end, they were not able to sell their homes and businesses and they were “unable to get a penny of compensation for their splendid synagogue…which while they were to sell at once.”
1892: In the period starting with June 28 and ending today, 93 mothers and children were admitted for treatment at the Sanitarium for Hebrew Children. The sanitarium cannot keep up with demand since “more applications for admission are being received than can be accommodated.”
1893: During the Panic of 1893, there was a run on several New York financial institutions including the Dry Dock Savings Bank on the Bowery, most of whose depositors are Russian Jews. Today $41,000 was withdrawn and only $14,000 was deposited.
1893: During a stop in New York, Dionysius Latas, a leading Greek archbishop told reporters “he intends to oppose the persecution of Jews” in his homeland.
1894: Abraham Levy is the lawyer for Jeremiah J. Levy, the Jewish policeman whose case is being heard by a jury, some of whose members are also Jewish.
1894: “Seventy-five little sewing school children held their closing celebration at the roof garden of the Hebrew Institute at East Broadway and Jefferson Street where they enjoyed a generous supply of ice cream.
1895: Colonel George Waring, Jr. a leading sanitary engineer and civic reformer met with 2,000 children at the Hebrew Institute, most of whom were poor and spoke little English. Waring “told them what children had done and could do for the cleanliness of the city.
1895: In Brownsville, the striking tailors issued a manifesto countering the one issued by the contractors written in Hebrew asking the landlords “to have no mercy on the strikers” who cannot pay their rent.
1897: “Rabbinical Excommunication” published today relied on information that first appeared in The American Hebrew described a response by rabbis in Jerusalem to aggressive Christian attempts to gain converts among the city’s Jews. Any Jew supplying their institutions with Kosher meat will have to deal with the threat of “cherem.”
1897: Victor Joze has dedicated “his new book entitled La Tribu d’Isidore, “the first volume of a series of historical novels about a Jewish family to Emile Zola, the defender of Dreyfus.
1898(12thof Av, 5658): Fifty-three year old New York realtor and clothing merchant who came to the United States from Germany at the age of 22 passed away at his country home in Forest, PA.
1898(12thof Av, 5658): Fifty-five year old Samuel Firuski, who had spent 22 years as an auctioneer in Brooklyn and was a member of Temple Israel in Brooklyn, passed away today at Pavilion Hotel in Sharon Spring
1898: Samuel Gompers arrived in Springfield, Illinois where he planned to attend the upcoming state convention of the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Gompers spoke out against the condition of workers in the territories recently annexed after the Spanish American War; specifically he demanded that slave labor be stamped out there in and in Hawaii.
1899:”What Paris Talks About” published today described the French reaction “to the sudden death from apoplexy of Baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild…the sister of Baron Alphonse de Rothschild, head of the French branch of the family and the first cousin of…Lord Rothschild,” head of the English branch of the family. The loss was felt even more by the artistic community than the financial community. In her younger days she “showed real talent as a watercolorist.” Later in life she bought the paintings of many “modern painters” before they gained fame as an act of generosity.
1900: Herzl leaves Altaussee and travels to Luzern, Paris and London. The trip will take a toll on his health and he will be ill by the he gets to London on August 7.
1902: “Riot Mars Funeral of Rabbi Joseph” published today descried the outbreak of violence that occurred when the procession of mourners for the Grand Rabbi passed by the R. Hoe & Co. The workers who were at lunch began jeering, threw buckets of water and finally bombarded the Jews with “paper saturated with oil, bits of iron, small blocks of wood and other missiles” which caused a violent recation.
1902(26th of Tammuz, 5662): Seventy-two year old Benjamin Szold passed away. Born in Hungary in 1829, he came to the United States in 1859 to serve as the first rabbi at Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore. While he accomplished a great deal serving in this capacity, his greatest claim to fame may that he was the father of Henrietta Szold, the founder of Hadassah.
1906(9th of Av, 5666):Tish'a B'Av
1912: Birthdate of newspaper and Chicago literary institution Irv Kupcinet.
1912: Birthdate of economist and Federal Reserve Chairman Milton Friedman. Friedman won the Nobel Prize in 1976.
1914: Fifty-four year old Jean Jaurès who was “one of the most energetic defenders of Alfred Dreyfus” was assassinated today by a French nationalist today.
1914: In Vesoul, Haute-Saône, France Albert Samuel and Hélène Falk gave birth to Raymond Samuel who would gain fame as French Resistance leader Raymond Aubrac.
1914: German Jewish industrialist Walter Rathenau published an article in the Berliner Tageblatt protesting Germany’s blind loyalty to Austria; a loyalty which he felt was leading to a great European war.
1918:Joseph Schlossberg, General Secretary Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and Abraham Epstein, President Workmen's Circle were among the leaders of a meeting of a Conference of Trade Unions, Branches of the Workmen's Circle, and other Progressive Labor Organizations of Greater New York scheduled to be held be held in Webster Hall, 119 East 11th Street, for the purpose of organizing the workers into a permanent central body for aiding all persons prosecuted who are in need of help, and of arousing public opinion against the further suppression of constitutional rights and liberties. The Conference will be held under the auspices of the Liberty Defense Union, and has been endorsed by the United Hebrews Trades and the National Executive Committee of the Workmen's Circle.
1919: Birthdate of the Italian-Jewish writer and chemist Primo Levi. Levi spent time fighting with Partisans during the war and survived Auschwitz. These experiences provided much of the material for his writings. He passed away in 1987. (We do not have the space to do his work justice and you are urged to read any of his several works which are available in English.)
1923: Birthdate of Richard Schifter, a native of Vienna who served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from 1985 to 1992. Schifter was a member of unique WW II intelligence unit known as the Ritchie Boys.
1923: In Montreal, Alton Goldbloom and Annie Ballon gave birth to Victor Charles Goldbloom who served as Minster of the Environment and CEO of the Canadian Council of Christians and Jews.
1923: A Hebrew version of Verdi’s “Traviata” was performed in Jerusalem this evening. The performance was described as “brilliant.” The Hebrew version of the opera had previously been performed in Tel Aviv.
1926: Birthdate of Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson, the self-described Jewish atheist who converted to Roman Catholicism. Nathanson was “a campaigner for abortion rights who, after experiencing a change of heart in the 1970s became a prominent opponent of abortion and the on-screen narrator of the anti-abortion film “The Silent Scream.” (As reported by William Grimes)
1928: When MGM introduces its first “talkie,” “White Shadows on the South Seas” the famed Lion Logo makes its first appearance. With so many Jews involved in MGM, including Harry Rapf, Irving Thalberg, Louis B. Mayer and Nicholas Schenck one might wonder if the choice of the Lion was subtle reference to the Lion of Judah.
1928: Bobbie Rosenfeldwon gold and silver medals in the 1928 Olympics. “Bobbie Rosenfeld was well known as a star of Canadian track and field. Born Fanny Rosenfeld in Dnepropetrovsk, Russia in 1904, she moved to Canada as an infant; she was later nicknamed "Bobbie" because of her bobbed hair. Growing up in Barrie, Ontario, and then in Toronto, Rosenfeld was an enthusiastic athlete from a young age, playing basketball, softball, hockey and tennis, as well as running. Despite widespread belief that strenuous exercise was damaging to women's bodies, Rosenfeld's family supported her athletic pursuits. In 1923, Rosenfeld burst onto the national scene when she entered the 100-yard dash at a picnic on a dare from a softball teammate. At the time, Rosenfeld was working in a Toronto chocolate factory. Rosenfeld not only won the race but also beat the Canadian national champion, Rosa Grosse. Two years later, Rosenfeld and Grosse would share the world record for the 100-yard dash, at eleven seconds. Later in 1923, she entered her first major race at the Canadian National Exhibition. In the 100-yard dash, she again beat Grosse and also beat American and world-record holder Helen Filkey. The same evening, after the race, Rosenfeld joined her softball team and helped lead them to the city championship. Over the next decade, Rosenfeld came to symbolize Canadian women's sport. She went from success to success, leading ice hockey, basketball, and softball teams to championships and winning the Toronto Ladies Grass Courts tennis tournament in 1924. She claimed victory in so many sports that one author later wrote that "the most efficient way to summarize Bobbie Rosenfeld's career ... is to say that she was not good at swimming." A consummate athlete, she was also applauded for her sportsmanship. Both these qualities would soon be evident on the world stage. In 1928, Rosenfeld was chosen as one of the "matchless six" on the Canadian women's Olympic track and field team. The Olympics of 1928 were the first in which women were allowed to compete in track and field, although only on a trial basis. On July 31, 1928, Rosenfeld won the silver medal in the 100-meter race, though many spectators thought she had actually finished first. A few days later, Rosenfeld competed in the 800-meters, a race in which she had been entered only to encourage teammate Jean Thompson, and for which she had not trained. Coming from the rear, Rosenfeld ran alongside Thompson through most of the race, allowing her teammate to finish fourth while she placed fifth; this was considered a great act of compassion and sportsmanship, as Rosenfeld could easily have pulled ahead and earned a medal in the race. Finally, on the last day of track and field events, Rosenfeld got her gold medal when she led her team to victory in the 400-meter relay. On the team's return to Toronto, 200,000 people lined the streets to cheer a celebratory parade. Rosenfeld had helped to show that women's competition could be a worthy part of the Olympics; after the Games closed, the delegates of the International Amateur Athletic Federation voted 16-6 to continue women's track and field events at future Olympics. The Canadian delegate voted against women's participation. Back at home, though Rosenfeld had received a hero's welcome, she went back to work at the chocolate factory to pay her bills. In 1928, no endorsement contracts or professional sports opportunities were available to women. Rosenfeld continued to play sports, even starring on championship ice hockey and softball teams, but recurrent attacks of severe arthritis ended her athletic career in 1933. She moved to coaching track and softball, and then, in 1937, to writing about sports. For nearly twenty years, she wrote the "Sports Reel" column for the Toronto Globe and Mail. She retired from the Globe and Mail in 1966 and died on November 14, 1969. Rosenfeld's legacy is one of breaking down barriers. First as an athlete, and then as the only woman on the sports staff of the Globe and Mail, she carved new paths for women in sports, making it clear to skeptics that, as she put it in a column, "girls are in sports for good." These contributions were recognized both during Rosenfeld's lifetime and after her death. In 1950, a press poll of sportswriters named her Canada's Female Athlete of the Half Century; in 1955, she was among the earliest inductees to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Her portrait recently appeared on a Canadian postage stamp, and every year the Bobbie Rosenfeld trophy is awarded to Canada's Female Athlete of the Year.”
1932: National elections are held in Germany and the Nazi Party won 230 seats in the Reichstag.
1933: By now, approximately 30,000 people are interned in Nazi concentration camps.
1936(12th of Av, 5696):Rabbi Moses Simon Sivitz, renowned Jewish historian died in Montefiore Hospital ... He also wrote five books on Moses after years of research.
1936: The Palestine Post reported from London that the newly-appointed Royal Commission was expected to arrive in Palestine in October. Meanwhile a new wave of Arab rioting spread towards Tiberias where many Jews were compelled to leave the Old City. There were assaults, arson, and stone-throwing. The Arab police and the British authorities dealt with the rioters in a diffident and condoning manner.
1939: Isadore Breslau, the Zionist leadership's chief representative in Washington, writes a letter showing that former Associate Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis actively supported Aliyah in defiance of British policy as outlined in the May 1939 White Paper that severely limited the immigration of Jews to then British-run Palestine. The letter reveals that the widely respected jurist, who had just retired after nearly a quarter century on the court, held views on Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel that were in direct opposition to those of the British government, the Roosevelt administration and mainstream American Jewish groups and leaders."Speaking on the question of the immigration he [Brandeis] said that Jews would continue to immigrate regardless of the White Paper," the letter written by Isadore Breslau reads. "When someone suggested that it was illegal, he said that the Jewish people considered it legal in view of the fact that any attempt to curtail immigration was in violation of the terms of the Mandate; that it may be considered illegal by Great Britain, but that we Jews considered it to be legal."
1940: According to The Olkusz Memorial book “a German police unit arrived in Olkusz” today and gathered all the Jewish men in the main square. There the Jews were forced to lie on the ground while the policemen and members of the SD “registered them”. During this process, the Germans brutally beat the Jews, shooting one of them. In order to further humiliate them, Rabbi Moshe Yitzhak Hagerman was forced to don his tallith (prayer shawl) and tefillin (phylacteries) that had been defiled, and to stand barefoot and pray next to the prostrate men of the Jewish community. At the end of the day, the Jews were permitted to return home, and the Germans left. Due to the beatings suffered by the Jews, the event was subsequently referred to as ‘Bloody Wednesday’”. (For a photo see http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/this_month/july/04.asp )
1941: The Nazis officially undertook The Final Solution. Hermann Goring instructs SS Reich Security Service chief Reinhardt Heydrich by letter "to carry out all the necessary preparations with regard to organizational and financial matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish question in the German sphere of influence." - That influence now covered a dozen countries. - "I further charge you with submitting to me promptly an overall plan... for the execution of the intended FINAL SOLUTION of the Jewish question."
1942: Governor Wilhelm Kube reports to Hinrich Lohse, Reichskommissar of the Baltic regions and Belorussia, that "Jewry has been completely eliminated" in the Minsk area. According to Kube ‘16,000 Jews were liquidated in Lida, 8,000 in Slonim.’ In the previous ten weeks, 55,000 Jews have been liquidated.
1942 (17th of Av, 5702): Bluma Rozenfeld, 19, leaps to her death from a fifth-floor window in the Lódz (Poland) Ghetto.
1942: Israel Lichtenstein writes from the Warsaw Ghetto: "At present, together with me, both of us get ready to meet and receive death. I wish my little daughter to be remembered. Margalith, twenty months old today....I don't lament my own life nor that of my wife. I pity only the so little, nice and talented girl. She deserves to be remembered."
1942 (17th of Av, 5702): German SS troops gassed 1,000 Jews in Minsk, Belorussia
1942: In what was the first reference to Dan Schoor in FBI files, on this date FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover "asked the chief of the Special War Policies Unit for more information on Schoor's status as a 'representative of a foreign principal' because he was employed as a correspondent for the Netherland Indies News Agency. During the Red Scare of the 1950's "Hoover told the CIA director that the bureau had looked over Schoor's background and had kept information on this travels to 'Iron Curtain Countries.'" Is it possible that Hoover did not know that Schoor was the Moscow correspondent for CBS news which would have meant he traveled for Iron Curtain countries? Ironically, the Soviets expelled him because they did not approve of his news gathering work.
1944: The hull of the Liberty ship "Benjamin Peixotto" was laid down today. The ship is named for the 19thcentury Jewish leader.
1944(11th of Av, 5704): Eighteen year old Leendert Kleerekoper died at Auschwitz today. He was the son of Gerrit Kleerekoper, the coach of the of the Dutch ladies’ gymnastics team, which won the Olympic title in Amsterdam in 1928. The coach, his wife and his 14 year old daughter had already been gassed. On the exact same day at the exact same place, Kleerekoper, born February 15, 1897, also died together with his wife, Kaatje, and their 14-year-old daughter Elisabeth.
1944: Among 1300 Jews deported from Drancy, France (northwest of Paris), to Auschwitz are 258 Jewish orphans seized in and around Paris on July 24. Upon arrival at the camp, all 500 children and 300 adults are gassed. This is the last transport of Jews from the Drancy camp to Auschwitz. In total, 73,853 Jews have been shipped from Drancy to their deaths at Auschwitz and Sobibór.
1944: As Western troops moved forward to Paris, a last train departed with over 300 deported Jewish children.
1944: Three thousand Jews were transported from the labor camp at Blizyn to Birkenau where over 500 are gassed to death upon their arrival
1944: By the end of July, French Jew Maurice Löwenberg, founder of the National Liberation Movement resistance group, is tortured to death by the Gestapo.
1944: By the end of July 46,000 Jewish inmates are gassed and cremated at Auschwitz.
1944: Ships carrying the Jewish population of Rhodes arrived at the port of Piraeus and the Jews were immediately shipped to the concentration camp at Haidari in suburban Athens where the Red Cross would not be allowed to supply them food and water.
1944: By the end of July SS General Richard Baer had become the new Auschwitz commandant.
1945: French collaborationist politician Pierre Laval is arrested in Austria. Laval was the driving force behind the Vichy Government which was so supportive of the Final Solution that it often delivered Jews “ahead of schedule.”
1946: An Anglo-American committee jointly chaired by Henry Grady, an assistant secretary of state and Herbert Morrison, a British Labor Party leader published the Morrison-Grady plan which proposed a British dominated trusteeship that would “supervise separate Jewish and Arab provinces.” The British loved it because it kept them in power. The Arabs and the Jews rejected it for the same reason.
1947: In reprisal for the execution of Avshalom Haviv, Yaakov Weisss and Meir Nakar, the Irgun killed two British sergeants whom they were holding captive. “Following the death of the two sergeants and the publicity surrounding it, the British public demanded that the troops be brought home. In Palestine, several Jews were murdered by British soldiers as a counter-reprisal
1948: Leo Nomis reported to Modi Alon at Herzliya preparatory to flying with 101 Squadron.
1951: The Jerusalem Post reported on most orderly elections to the Second Knesset. According to this newspaper's fifth successive edition which appeared at 6 a.m. Mapai won 42.23 per cent of the vote, Mapam 19.18, General Zionists 13.47, Hapoel Hamizrahi 7.37, Progressives 5.33, Herut 4.22, Poalei Aguda 1.49, Communists 1.36, Mizrahi 1.11, Aguda 1.07. The rest was split among smaller parties, which couldn't get even 1 percent of the vote to be eligible for a Knesset seat. [Editor's note: The Israelis use a system of proportional representation which works a strong two-party electoral system. This system encourages all kinds of splintering, factionalism and gives disproportionate power to minor, but cohesive, groups. This concept was so entrenched the Israeli psyche that not even David Ben Gurion could overcome it.]
1952: Birthdate of Faye Kellerman the St. Louis native who trained to be a dentist but fortunately for us became one of the finest mystery writers of the 20thcentury.
1954: Mary Clawson, an American living in Jerusalem, watches as Arabs began “shooting over to this (the Jewish) side and after waiting a brief time to investigate to be sure the shooting was not just a trigger-happy Legionnaire, the Jewish side returned the fire.”
1954: A raid led by Meir Har-Zion that takes the unit to the area around Jenin begins.
1960(7thof Av, 5720): Seventy-year old Philip B. Perlman who “became the first Jewish U.S Solicitor General” when Harry Truman appointed him to the position in 1947 passed away today.
1961: The one millionth Oleh since the establishment of the Jewish State arrived in Israel.
1963: United Kingdom premiere of “Cleopatra,” co-starring Elizabeth Taylor and Martin Landau, produced by Walter Wagner, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and with a screenplay co-authored by Ben Hecht and Joseph L. Mankeiwicz.
1970: Norwegian General Odd Bull completes his term as Chief of Staff United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). His thirteen year term included the Six Day War.
1972: Premiere of “Greaser’s Palace,” starring Allan Arbus
1981: The New York Times reported that Israelis were stunned and startled by U.S. anger following an Israeli air attack on Beirut. Government officials in Jerusalem are hoping that their adherence to the Lebanon cease-fire arrangement will be seen in Washington as a gesture of good will to American interests.
1981: Morton I. Abramowitz completed this three years of service as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand
1983: Jewish golfer Corey Pavin won the Lufthansa German Open.
1985: Three people were injured in a terrorist bombing at Haifa.
1986: Eighty-six year old Chiune Sugihara passed away. While servicing as Vice Council for Japan in Lithuania he defied his government and issued transit visas to thousands of Jews allowing them to escape the clutches of the Holocaust.
1987:''Portraits of an Era: Photographs by Irv Kline,'' an exhibition that is part of the Jewish East End Celebration is scheduled to come to a close today.
1987: The third congress of the European Association for Jewish Studies organized by Professor Peter Schafter under the Presidency of Professor Arnold Goldberg came to an end at Scholoss Glienicke, Germany.
1988:Dr. Joanna Lisa Fine, a child psychiatrist, and Stephen Michael Harnik, a lawyer, who graduated together from the Dalton School in 1971 were married today at the Loeb Boathouse in Central Park. Jerome Raik, the president of Ansche Chesed Congregation in Manhattan, officiated.
1990(9th of Av, 5750):Tish'a B'Av
1992(1st of Av, 5752): Rosh Chodesh Av
1994(23rd of Av, 5754): Ninety-four year old Karola Bloch, the anti-Stalinist communist and wife Ernst Bloch passed away today.
1998: One person was injured today when a terrorist threw a bomb at a truck in North Jerusalem.
2000: In a vote of 63 to 57, the Knesset chose Moshe Katsav to serve as President of Israel in a race against the favorite, Shimon Peres.
2002(22nd of Av, 5762): A bomb exploded inside a cafeteria at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, killing nine people, including five Americans.
2003:The Israeli Knesset enacted the Nationality and Entry Into Israel Law, prohibiting any residency or citizenship status to Palestinians who live in the territories and are married to Israeli citizens. The law was initiated in the midst of the second intifada by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as an anti-terrorist measure. The law would become the subject matter of 2008 documentary "Just Married."
2006: Funeral services are held at Temple B’nai Torah for PamelaWaechter, 58, who was killed in Friday's shooting at the Seattle offices of the Jewish Federation by an American Muslim.
2007: In Jerusalem, the Israeli Wine-Tasting Festival, a celebration of wine tasting from the best vineyards in Israel takes place at the Israel Museum.
2007: Today, Jack Lebewohl announced that the Second Avenue Deli, home of the world’s greatest kosher meat knishes and tongue sandwiches, would reopen at a new location in the fall of 2007.http://www.2ndavedeli.com/
2008: Solomon "Momy" Levy began serving as Mayor of Gibraltar.
2008: At the Boston Public Library, the photographic exhibit, “Kids with Cameras: Beyond the Walls” sponsored by the Zionist House/Israel Cultural Central and the Consulate General of Israel to New England, comes to a close. Kidswithcameras-jerusalem.com
2009: Opening of The National Parks and Nature Authority’s fifth annual Outdoor Acoustic Music Festival in Ein Hemed, a beautiful nature reserve just 10 minutes from Jerusalem. Each performer at this year’s festival will dedicate at least one song to the Earth, in order to promote environmental awareness.
2009: In Jerusalem, Ohad Chitman takes the stage at Hama'abada, playing an acoustic show featuring the best hits from his two albums and from the third album on the way.
2009: In Brooklyn, as part of Bargemusic at Fulton’s Landing Yoed Nir is the featured performer in “World of Cello” The Six Bach Suites for Solo Cello and Beyond, Part 1
2009: U.S. President Barack Obama has decided to extend sanctions against Syria, despite positive signs of progress in the relationship between the two nations, a White House statement said today.
2010: A screening of Jews and Baseball: An American Love Story is scheduled to take place at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010: This morning the IDF confirmed that the Air Force hit several Hamas-linked targets in Gaza overnight. One of the targets hit was believed to be in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood; another was reportedly the site of smuggling tunnels on the Egyptian border. The IAF's strike followed yesterday morning's Grad missile attack in Ashkelon, for which the Aza Din al-Kassem Gazan terror group claimed responsibility.
2010(20thof Av, 5770):Ninety-nine year old Mitch Miller, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants who played a major role in the world of popular music and was best known for his “Sing A Long With Mitch” television show, passed away today. (As reported by Richard Severo)
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/arts/music/03miller.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
2011: "Standing Silent "and "An Encounter with Simone Weil," Julia Haslett’s documentary that looks at the life of French philosopher Simone Weil, one of the great thinkers of the 20th century, who was raised by a secular Jewish family and lived during the rise of Fascism in Europe, are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2011: Members of the Cedar Rapids Jewish community are scheduled to celebrate “Faith and Family Day At The Ballpark” as they watch the Cedar Rapids Kernels play the Beloit Snappers
2011: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly by Lee Siegel and Exorcising Hitler: The Occupation and Denazification of Germany by Frederick Taylor.
2011:The government will absorb the higher cost of gasoline in August, after Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz bowed to pressure from National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau today and signed a directive cutting the excise tax by an amount equal to the price rise.
2011: Both Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US ambassador designate Dan Shapiro tried their hands at outreach today, with Netanyahu broadcasting a Ramadan message to Israeli Arabs and Muslims around the world, and Shapiro launching a Facebook page to interact with the Israeli public.
2012: “Mazel Tov! A Celebration of Jewish Weddings” is scheduled to come to a close at the Jewish Museum of Milwaukee.
2012: As it prepares to move to its new location, Agudas Achim is scheduled to officially vacate its downtown Iowa City location.
2012” “God’s Fiddler” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2012: Robin B. Jacobson, Director of Library Services, Adas Israel Congregation is scheduled to lead a discussion of Nemesis by Philip Roth sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.
2012:Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi sent a missive to President Shimon Peres, wishing stability and security for all of the region's nations, including Israel.
2012:Israel's Alice Schlesinger lost in the finals of the under 63kg Judo competition at the London Olympics today, falling to France's Gevrise Emane after losing to Slovenia's Urska Zolnir in the quarterfinals. Earlier on today, Schlesinger had defeated Austria's Hilde Drexler to advance to the quarterfinals.
2012: Aly Raisman, a Jewish American, won the floor exercise in helping the U.S. women's team to the gold medal in the gymnastics competition at the London Olympics.
2013: “American Jerusalem: Jews and the Making of San Francisco” is scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: “When Comedy Went To School” is scheduled to open at the JCC in Manhattan.
2013: Leslie Cohen Berlowitz is scheduled to resign as President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences today after she was accused of embellishing her resume with a spurious doctoral degree.(As reported by Todd Wallack in the Boston Globe)
2013:Two controversial bills aimed at enabling the government to function better cleared a hurdle when they passed their first reading tonight in a stormy session of the parliament.(As reported by Gil Hoffman)
2013: HUC announced the decision to have Rabbi Aaron Panken succed Rabbi David Ellison as president of The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform movement’s rabbinical school. Read more: http://www.jta.org/2013/07/31/news-opinion/hebrew-union-college-names-new-president#ixzz2ag0Q1whk
2014: The Washington Jewish Film Festival is scheduled to host “Coen Brothers Trivia Night.”