August 9
48 B.C.E.: Julius Caesar defeated Pompey at the battle of Parsalus. This victory helped to cement Caesar’s position and put an end to Pompey. Considering Pompey’s behavior towards the Jews, including his desecration of the Temple
378: Roman Emperor Valens who began his reign in 364, was killed by the Visigoths as he led his large to defeat at the Battle of Adrianople. During his reign Valens followed the course of his predecessors and issued an edict strengthening the Patriarchate. He issued an edict that exempted “officers of communities subject to the ‘illustrious Patriarch (Nasi)’ from service on municipal councils. In 368 he issued an edict forbidding the billeting of troops in Synagogues. Such minor sounding positive notes, makes him better than his imperial peers when it came to treatment of the Jewish people.
681: Founding of the first Bulgarian Empire. Archaeologists have found traces of Jewish communities in the area that pre-dated the formation of Bulgaria Bulgaria Byzantine Empire .
1471: The Papacy of Sixtus IV began.“In Italy the reign of Sixtus IV marks a high point of tolerance. The pope used Jewish physicians, and perhaps employed Jews for the collection, copying, and translation of Hebrew works. He refused to canonize Simon of Trent, allegedly a victim of Jewish ritual murder. It is clear, however, that the pope's tolerance was offset, outside his own domains, by local hostility. A generous bull of 1479 concerning the Jews of Avignon was questioned and subsequently withdrawn. In November 1478 the pope issued a bull investing Ferdinand and Isabella with extraordinary powers to appoint inquisitors in all parts of Castile.” ( From the Jewish Virtual Library) This was the first step in what would lead to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
1506: Prince Yaroslavitch established the community of Pinsk. At the same time, he reconfirmed the rights given to the Jews by King Alexander Jagello, King of Lithuania.
1732(18thof Av, 5492): Rabbi Yaakov Culi the Talmudist and Biblical commentator who was the grandson of Moses ibn Habib, passed away in Constantinople.
1773: Adoption of the "General-Juden-Reglement" which provided the rules used to govern the newly acquired Jewish subjects that Frederick the Great acquired from the partition of Poland.
1807(5th of Av): Rabbi Ze’ev Lesh, author of Kedushat Yisrael, passed away
1819: With the mobs crying “Hep, hep!” an anti-Semitic riot broke out in Frankfort.
1821: Birthdate of Austrian poet Heinrich Landesmann.
1826(6th of Av, 5586): Meir Ben Moses Kurnik, “the German rabbi and calendar maker from Glogau” passed away today at Hamburg.
1827: Birthdate of William Morris Stewart, the Senator from Nevada who defended the Jews of Romania from an attack by Senator Sprague. Sprague said the Jews were to blame for their suffering because of the economic success. “Mr. Stewart said he hoped Mr. Sprague did not mean to imply that when a man gets rich he ought to be killed.” Senator Sprague gave a faint smile but made no reply.
1828: Birthdate of Joseph Eduard Konrad Bischoff who gained fame as Conrad von Bolanden the author of Judas Makkabaeus, a novella which appeared in Der Gefangene von Kuestrinin 1885
1850(1st of Elul, 5610): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1850(1st of Elul, 5610): Miss Rachel Myers Cohen of Philadelphia passed away at the age of 70.
1855:As further proof of the existence of a Jewish community from the earliest days of the Lone Star State, The San Antonio Texan reported today on the excitement that has gripped this city during its recent election. "In fact the excitement reached every class of our citizens, old and young, rich and poor, male and female, Protestant, Catholic and Jew..."
1855: Birthdate of author Dorothea Gerard, the native of New Monkland, Scotland near Glasgow whose works include Orthodox, One Year and The Austrian Officer.
1858: It was reported today that the in Great Britain, the House of Lords, has taken action on two of the pressing issues of the day related to religion. Based apparently on its view of Biblical law, the Lords has expressed its opposition to allowing a widower to marry the sister of his deceased spouse. The Lords has agreed to allow Jews to sit in the House of Commons if they are elected to that chamber. The Lords has opposed this measure for decades, but as in so many other matters including the repeal of the Corn Laws and the Divorce Bill, the “upper house” has given way to the popular will. This latest capitulation in the matter of the Jews is seen as further evidence of the erosion of the power of the Lords. [This issue of the Jews sitting in Parliament was, in some respects, part of a much larger battle that was fought throughout most of the 19th century, between the landed gentry and the rising trading, industrial and professional classes.]
1860: It wasreported today that Baron Alphonse De Rothschild has been appointed Consul-General of Prussia. He is the first Jew who has exercised such functions for that Kingdom.
1862: Birthdate of David Phillipson, the native of Wabash, Indiana who became one of the leading Reform Rabbis of the late 19th and 20th centuries.
1864: Birthdate of Roman Dmowski the Polish political leader who, during the inter-war years led a political party that was both anti-Semitic and anti- ethnic Germans. Among other things, he believed the “wealth of the Jews and the Germans” should confiscated and given to Polish Catholics.
1868: In Chicago, a hospital on La Salle Avenue sponsored by the United Hebrew Relief Association opened its doors to patients for the first time.
1871: “France and Algeria” published today described the pitiful conditions of the Jews living in Algeria prior to its colonization by the French. Among the Moslem “races…hatred of the Jew is a tradition and almost a religious duty.” During the Moslem “rule in Algeria, the Jews suffered every kind of torment. They could not walk in the streets after 6 o’clock at night without obtaining a special authorization from the police. If the night was dark, instead of carrying a lantern, like the Turks and Moors, they had a lighted candle, which the wind blew out continually. They were obliged to take off their shoes in passing before a Mosque and to kneel before the Kasba. Jews could only address a” Moslem “ with deference and submission.” The Jews “moved off the pavement to allow” the Moslems “ to pass and any infraction of these customs was punished with basonado and fines.” The Jews “could not ride on horseback and could not event the town on a donkey. Any insult toward a “Moslem” was punished by sudden death, inflicted arbitrarily, and often according to the offended Moor’s caprices…” [The idea that all the lands of Islam were hospitable to Jews until the creation of the state of Israel, is obviously not an accurate one.]
1874: It was reported today that the London School Board had appointed “Mr. Levy, a Jew…as head master of a school in Whitechapel, in a district where the majority of the inhabitants are Jews.”
1879: It was reported today that much of Sarajevo, the multi-ethnic capital of the Turkish province of Bosnia has been consumed by fire. Amongst those who have suffered great loss are those living in the Jewish district the home of many of those who dominate the commercial activities of the region.
1880:Samuel Untermyer married Minnie Carl, daughter of Mairelius Carl of New York City today. “They had three children, Alvin, who served in the 305th Field Artillery in France during the Great War; Irwin, a justice of the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court, and Irene, a philanthropist who married Louis Putnam Myers and, after his death, became the wife of Stanley Richter.”
1883: “Moritz Scharf, the boy who was the principal witness for the prosecution in the recent trial of a number of Jews at Nyireghyhaza, charged with murdering a girl in order to procure her blood for ritual purposes and who swore he saw the murder committed, has confessed…that his testimony was false.”
1885: In Detroit, Louis Grossman, the tenth person to serve as Rabbi at Temple Beth El organized the Emerson Circle, “a society for the promotion of general culture.”
1885: “Strolling Bands” published today described the various wandering musicians found on the Lower East Side and Coney Island. Membership in the strolling string bands is confined to Polish and Italian Jews.
1886: “The New Books” column described Court Royal: A Story of Cross Currents, the latest novel by S. Baring Gould. The novel which is “conspicuous” for its “exceeding bad taste, features Emanuel Lazarus, a Plymouth pawnbroker who is a Jew “of the most repulsive type” and misses no opportunity to ridicule the customs of the Jewish religion.
1886(8thof Av, 5646): Rabbi Mendes led the Tish’a B’Av services tonight at the 19thstreet Synagogue. The well attended services began with a reading of the 137thPsalm followed by the chanting of Lamentations.
1886: “Solomon At Long Branch” described various reactions to the large number of Jews who spend their summer at this popular New Jersey resort – ranging from the ugliest ant-Semitism to the most enlightened views of the 19thcentury.
1888: During today’s meeting of the House of Representative’s Committee on Immigration which was holding hearings in New York, Henry Zeltner described the manner in which many Polish Jews reach the United States. There are several operatives on Canal Street who “sell steamship tickets to Poles in this country on the installment plan.” “By paying $3 down, they can have a ticket to America sent to a relative in Poland. “The relative then comes” to the United States and “works out the price of the ticket.”
1890: “City and Suburban News” published today listed upcoming events in the New York Metropolitan area including a lecture by Dr. Cyrus Adler at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
1890: As of today, the leaders of London’s Jewish community have not been able to “discover the exact truth about the…anti-Jewish crusade in Russia.”
1890: In Pittsburg, Mrs. William Schmidt, Mrs. Sarah Vabelinsky and their two children, all of whom are Polish Jews experienced convulsions and fainting spells which might have been caused by food poisoning.
1890: Mendel Feldstein told his landlord this morning at breakfast that he had seen two men hide a bag of jewels last night and that they had threatened him when they realized he was aware that he had seen them.
1890: A list of those charities receiving bequests of a thousand dollars from the late Alexander Bach was published today included: Mount Sinai Hospital, Montefiore Home for Incurables, Hebrew Benevolent and orphan Asylum Society, United Hebrew Charities, Temple Gates of Hope, Hebrew Free School Association, Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews and Temple Israel of Harlem. The Deborah Nursery was on the list but only for $500.
1891: It was reported today that “Steve” Ryan of Atlanta, GA “has vowed vengeance upon the whole Jewish race” after he failed to pay the debts he owed to Schloss Brothers & Co according to the attorneys Horowitz and Hirschfield.
1892: “Extradition proceedings in the case of Harris Blank and Charles Roseneigh,” who have been accused of murdering a Jewish peddler, Jacob Marks came to a close today in Toronto, Canada.
1893: Following claims by Reverend Herman P. Faust of the Hebrew Christian Mission that the United Hebrew Charities “often refuses to give aid where it is plainly needed” as exemplified by the case of the late Joseph Korman whose family was left destitute by the Jewish agency, “a reporter for the New York Times found” the family “living in rooms that are neat.” The United Hebrew Charities said that it had offered the family $5 in aid, “which was refused.” It had not given more because the family had three children who were old enough to work and the agency offered, as was its practice, to find each of them jobs.
1896: “East Side Roof Garden” published today described the recently opened facility atop the Hebrew Institute as “one of the greates blessing that could been devised to give the overcrowded population on the east side a chance to breathe a little fresher air than they can get in the stifling streets and tenements.” Ice water is provided free of charge to the eight hundred people allowed on the roof which is also the scene of evening concerts three times a week.
1896(30th of Av, 5656): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1896(30th of Av, 5656): Aviation pioneer Otto Lilenthaldied when his glider crashed during a test flight. Lienthal is referred to some as the Jewish “Wright Brothers” since he is credited by some with making one of the first flights with a heavier than air craft.
1896: Birthdate of Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget who was treated by Sabina Spiielrein, the Jewish pioneer psychoanalyst who served as his analyst for 8 months in 1921.
1896: Birthdate of Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky.
1896: Because of the “severe heat” all of the depots dispensing free milk sponsored by Nathan Straus will remain open all day today.
1896: “Free Milk For Sick Children” published today described the easing of restrictions by Nathan Straus to make free milk available to the children to New York as well as instructions for the best ways for children to drink it.
1899: Israel Zangwill will go to Southampton, Long Island, “as the guest of James Herne, who is “going to state “Children of the Ghetto.”
1902: Edward VII is crowned King of the United Kingdom Great Britain Scotland Ireland Russia
1902(6th of Av, 5662):Sixty-six year old Moritz Szeps the editor-in-chief of the Vienna Morgenpost, passed away today.
1911: It was reported toda that Boston Rabbi Wolf Margolies has agreed to become the Rabbi for United Hebrew Communion also known as Adas Israel. The congregation has 10,000 members and will reportedly the new rabbi an annual salary of five thousand dollars.
1912: Birthdate of Giora Yoseftal, the native of Nuremburg who made Aliyah in 1938 and became a leader of Mapai.
1918(1stof Elul, 5678): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1923: The JTA reported that it would not be publishing the Daily News Bulletin tomorrow in observance of the national day of mourning for the death of President Harding
1924:Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor refused to attend the notification ceremony for John W. Davis at Clarksburg, West Virginia. Davis was the compromise candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination for President, having been chosen on the 103rd ballot.
1924: A statement from Samuel Gompers that he was "willing to forget and forgive acts of omission and commission resulting from differences of opinion during the war" is contained in a letter made public by Mr. Gompers today incidental to the meeting of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor at the Hotel Ambassador.
1925: A memorial tablet erected to one of its patients by his fellow patients was unveiled today in the Montefiore Hospital Gun Hill Road Bainbridge Avenue Bronx . Although tablets on hospital walls usually represent benefactions to the institution, this one is a tribute from the 600 patients, who were cheered in his lifetime by Max Messinger. Confined to his wheel chair for twelve years, Max Messinger was the good Samaritan of the hospital. His busy brain and fingers, the only parts of his body over which he had control, worked to create amusement for the other patients to whom he brought music, vaudeville, moving pictures, books, magazines and a social club, as well as a monthly paper, which he edited. By establishing contacts with performers and film companies, he was able to present a full performance each week to the hundreds who assembled on crutches and in wheel chairs for relaxation. He received literature which he distributed to the others, and traveled about the wards, especially among the children. With a portable victrola perched on his wheel chair he played the records that friends had sent. For ten years he was the editor of the monthly paper, The Montefiore Echo, in which he encouraged the others to write. On the walls, with memorials to such noted benefactors as Sir Moses Montefiore, Jacob H. Schiff, Professor Morris Loeb, has been placed a bronze plaque made possible by the small contributions of the patients, a simple expression of gratitude to Max Meninger.
1926: The Third International Conference of the Ort associations opened in Berlin at a building that formerly housed the Prussian House of Lords. (ORT is an organization that was founded in 1880 to provide assistance and educational opportunities for Russian Jews. The scope has expanded and it currently offers programs for Jews in over a one hundred countries.)
1926: The extent of Jewish participation in the struggle for the independence of Poland, in the early days of the movement, unrecognized by the Great Powers and Polish public opinion at large, was impressed upon the public mind today when Josef Pilsudski, first Marshal of Poland and leader of the Legionaires, kissed publicly a Jewish invalid who fought in the Legion. A highly dramatic scene was enacted when the twelfth anniversary of the crossing by Pilsudski's Legion of the frontier of Congress Poland was celebrated at the Legionaire Congress, opened today in Kielce, the first Polish city to be occupied by the Polish Legion under Pilsudski's command in 1914. Many Jewish Legionaires were present at the celebration. Pilsudski publicly kissed a Jewish Legionaire who lost both his legs on the battlefield. (JTA)
1927: Birthdate of Marvin Minsky. Marvin Minsky has made many contributions to AI (Artificial Intelligence), cognitive psychology, mathematics, computational linguistics, robotics, and optics. In recent years he has worked chiefly on imparting to machines the human capacity for commonsense reasoning. Minsky is on the faculty of MIT and winner of the ACM Turing Award
1927The Maccabee soccer team of Palestine left New York today aboard the SS Sinaia.
1927:M. Henri Torres, counsel for Sholom Schwartzbard, has addressed a cablegram to Louis D. Brandeis, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, asking him to intervene in favor of Sacco and Vanzetti.
1928: Birthdate of Maximillian Grunfeld the native of Czechoslovakia who gained fame as a American master tailor Martin Greenfield owner of Martin Greenfield Clothiers.
1929: “Friend Sues To Free Sculptor As Sane” published today described the efforts De Hirsch Margules to gain the freedom of Alfred Dreyfus. The painter and sculptor has petitioned Chief Justice Alfred Frankenthaler on behalf of Alfred Dreyfuss, the sculptor and writer to overturn the order issued by Justice Lydon that has committed his friend to a sanitarium for the insane. Margules contends that Drefyuss’ mother brought the suit after having been unduly influenced by her other son who is seeking to control the family’s financial affairs.
1930: Famed cartoon character “Betty Boop” made her debut in the animated film Dizzy Dishes. Boop and the film were the creation of an Austrian born Jew named Max Fleischer. Fleischer was producing animated cartoons years before Disney’s Steamboat Willie appeared on the screen.
1933: In Vilna, Chamber of Commerce unanimously votes to proclaim a boycott against German goods in protest against the Nazi treatment of the Jews.
1933:Edgar Ansell Mowrer, president of the Foreign Correspondents Association in Berlin, resigned from his post in order to secure the release of Paul Goldman, 68-year-old Jewish correspondent of the Vienna Neue Freie Presse, who was charged with "high treason."
1938:Today Senator Norris of Nebraska made a recommendation that President Roosevelt appoint Felix Frankfurter, Professor of Law at Harvard University and one of the original New Deal advisers, to the United States Supreme Court to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Benjamin Cardozo.
1938: In article entitled “Children Go to Palestine,” the New York Timesreports on the migration of 167 Jewish children from Austria and Germany to Palestine. The youngsters are part of the Third Aliyah and are being settled at Ain Harod and Kfar Jecheskiel.
1938: The situation in Palestine threatened to grow worse when Moslem ecclesiastical authorities issued a fatwa calling for Iraqi participation in the fighting in Palestine which was labeled a Jihad. Thousands of young Iraqis responded by rushing to sign up at recruiting stations set up in Baghdad.
1938: Premiere of “Four Daughters,” a musical directed by Michael Curtiz, produced by Hal Wallis, co-starring John Garfield, with a script by Julius Epstein and music by Max Steiner based on a novel by Fannie Hurst.
1940(5th of Av, 5700): Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, author of Ahi’ezer passed away
1940: Birthdate of Carl Robert Zelnick, the New York native whose assignments for ABC news included a a two year stint as their correspondent in Israel during the 1980’s.
1941: According to reports at the time the Nazis killed 510 Jews Brest-Litovsk and 296 Jews killed in Bialystok
1942: Slovakian and Polish Jews were violently removed from the Rejowiec ghetto as the Nazis shut it down.
1942: Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in Auschwitz . Born Edith Stein, Sister Teresa and her sister converted long before World War II. However, the Catholic Church allowed the Nazis to seize her and thousands of other Jews who had converted to Catholicism and ship them off to the death chambers. According to Canon Law, Sister Teresa was a Catholic. But apparently she was not a real Catholic since the Church let her go up in smoke facing the fate of a Jewess named Stein.
1942: In the first mass deportation to the gas chambers 10,000 Jews were sent from the Borislave ghetto to the Belsen death camp.
1942: Two hundred Jews escape into the forests of Mir. During that week, another 6,000 would die in Naliboki, Lubcz and Karelicze.
1942: Birthdate of director and comedian David Steinberg.
1943: Birthdate of French art historian Michel Melot author of The Impressionist Print.
1945: Birthdate of Avraham Poraz, the native of Bucharest who made Aliyah in 1950 and served in the Knesset and as Minister of the Interior.
1948: The first envoy from the USSR arrived in Israel today
1949: Birthdate of mystery writer Jonathan Kellerman. Kellerman is the author of the series featuring Dr. Delaware
1957: In New York, Jerry and Sally Solomon gave birth Deborah Solomon the New Rochelle raised “art critic, journalist and biographer.”
1960:The Religious Torah Front, an alliance of the Ultra-orthodox parties Agudat Yisrael and Poalei Agudat Yisrael that had been formed in 1955, split today with Poalei Agudat taking two of the Front’s six seats in the Knesset.
1960: Larry Sherry came in to relieve starter Johnny Podres and protect the team’s 3 to 2 victory over the Milwaukee Braves.
1961: Birthdate of John Phillip Key, the 38th Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand National Party.
1965: Singapore seceded from Malaysia and gained independence. The Jewish community in Singapore traces its origins back to the early 18th century. The famous Sassoon family established business operations in the middle of the century. David Marshall, a prominent leader of the Jewish community, was known as the “father of Singapore Independence” for his efforts to gain liberation from Great Britain Singapore
1967: Hafez Tahoub, a former Jordanian district judge, and Mussa el-Bitar, a insurance agent, were arrested today by Israeli authorities for instigating a general in east Jerusalem that was aimed at crippling the economy in the section of the city that had been occupied by the Jordanians from 1948 until June of 1967.
1969: Sharon Tate, wife of director Roman Polanski and four others were murdered in Los Angeles
1973: At a lecture to the Staff College
1974: In the wake of the Watergate Scandal, Richard Nixon resigned as President of the United States. Nixon turned out to be “a mixed bag” for the Jewish people. He began his career on the political right as a fellow-traveler the McCarthy Movement which made him an anathema to many Jews who tended to be moderates and liberals. As President, he appointed the first Jew, Henry Kissinger to the position of Secretary of State. During the Yom Kippur War, he pulled out all of the stops to aid Israel. Yet the Watergate Tapes have him uttering some of the most vile anti-Semitic sentiments that one can imagine coming from the lips of U.S. President.
1978: Morton Abramowitz began serving as U.S. Ambassador to Thailand.
1981(9th of Av, 5741):Tish'a B'Av
1981: At the All Star Baseball Game in Cleveland Chicago Windy City
1983(30th of Av, 5743): Rosh Chodesh Elul
1985: Release date for “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure” starring Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Herman
1993: In Belgium, coronation of King Albert II during which Queen Paola wore a yellow coat that was designed by Olivier Strelli, who was born Nissim Israel at Kinshasa in 1946 and developed “a chain of male and female clothing and accessory boutiques in Belgium, Switzerland, France and China.”
1994:Edward P. Djererjian left his post as U.S. Ambassador to Israel.
1998: The New York Times features a review of Benjamin Disraeli Letters Volume 6: 1852-1856 Edited by M. G. Wiebe, Mary S. Millar and Ann P. Robson. Disraeli is Britain
2001(20th of Av, 5761): A suicide bomber struck a busy intersection in Jerusalem, blowing up a Sbarro Pizza Parlor, killing 15 7 of whom were children and wounding 130. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. The dead included Zvika Golombek, 26, from Karmiel; Shoshana Yehudit (Judy) Greenbaum, 31 (5 months pregnant), from Passaic, New Jersey, U.S.;Tehila Maoz, 18, from Jerusalem; Frieda Mendelsohn, 62, from Jerusalem; Michal Raziel, 16, from Jerusalem; Malka Chana (Malki) Roth, 15, from Jerusalem; Mordechai Schijveschuurder, 43, from Neria; Tzira Schijveschuurder, 41, from Neria; Ra'aya Schijveschuurder, 14, from Neria; Avraham Yitzhak Schijveschuurder, 4, from Neria; Hemda Schijveschuurder, 2, from Neria;] Lily Shimashvili, 33, from Jerusalem; Tamara Shimashvili, 8, from Jerusalem; Yocheved Shoshan, 10, from Jerusalem; and Giora Balash, 60, from Brazil
2005: Eric Edelman began serving as Under Secretary of Defense for Polic
2005: The Jerusalem Post reported on The Dry Bones Project. The project is the brainchild of Yaakov Kirschen, creator of the popular Dry Bones Cartoons. The project is intended to use humor to fight anti-Semitism. Kirschen plans to talk about his work at international conference of cartoon aficionados to be held later this month. An example of the projects work is The Shmendrick Awards. Those awarded Shmendriks will be "honored" during a ceremony in this year's Animation, Comics and Caricature Festival in the Tel Aviv Cinematheque from August 27 to 30. “.This year, the winners (or rather, the "ineffectual losers") are the mayor of London, Ken Livingston, for his frequent remarks disparaging the Jewish state (in first place); the American Presbyterian Church for divesting from companies doing business in Israel (in second place); the Neturei Karta - a small group of ultra-Orthodox Jews who protest against Zionism and the State of Israel (in third place); and an honorable mention for Prince Harry, who appeared in a Nazi costume two weeks before the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. For more info on the project, go to http://www.drybonesproject.com.
2005: Haaretz reported on the fourteenth meeting of World Jewish Congress of Jewish Studies held this week at the Hebrew University Jerusalem
2005(4th of Av, 5765): Seventy-year old Judith Rossner, author of Looking for Mr. Goodbar passed away.
2006(15th of Av, 5766): Eighty-three year old Melissa Hayden, one of the biggest starts in American ballet passed away.(As reported by Anna Kisselgoff)
2006(15th of Av, 5766): Fifteen members of the IDF have been killed and another twenty-five wounded in the fight against Hezbollah.
2007: The Jerusalem Post reported that the Saudi Arabian government continues to bar Jews and Christians from bringing items such as Bibles, crucifixes and Stars of David into the country and is threatening to confiscate them on sight. "A number of items are not allowed to be brought into the kingdom due to religious reasons and local regulations," declares the Web site of Saudi Arabian Airlines, the country's national carrier.
2007:A 23-year-old Jewish woman was attacked in Noisy-le-Grand, near Paris
2008(8thof Av, 5768): Shabbat Chazon; Begin reading the Book of Devarim (Deuteronomy)
2008: Five of Israel's representatives will be competing in the first day of the Olympic Games today. Judoka Gal Yekutiel will be the first Israeli to take part in the Games, facing Athens 2004 bronze medalist Tsagaanbaatar Hashbaatar of Mongolia University of Science National Aquatics Center
2008(8thof Av, 5768): Seventy-four year old Jack Landau “a founder of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press” passed away today.
2008(8thof Av, 5768): In the evening, Fast of Tisha B’Av begins; David Levin chants Chapter Five from the Book of Lamentations - a sweet voice for a sad occasion.
2008: The Washington Post reportsthat nearly three months after a federal immigration raid uprooted almost 400 employees at a meatpacking plant in northeastern Iowa
2009: The New York Times features reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest to Jewish readers including The Art of Harvey Kurtzman: The Mad Genius of Comics“Denis Kitchen and Paul Buhle’s insightful, entertaining and profusely illustrated biographical monograph, which chronicles almost everything Kurtzman accomplished…”
2009(19th of Av, 5769): Seventy year old Lester Glassner whose penchant for “kitsch” turned him into a major collector of pop culture artifacts, passed away. (As reported by Bruce Weber)
2009: Gaza militants fired mortars at a crossing into Israel just as Palestinian patients were being transferred for treatment, a Palestinian official said. "It's a miracle nobody was hurt," Health Ministry official Dr. Moaiya Hassanain said. Two radical Palestinian groups, the Popular Front and the Democratic Front, said they fired 12 mortars at the Erez crossing. The Israel Defense Forces said about six shells exploded near the Erez crossing as the transfer was in progress. According to the procedure, the Palestinian patients are brought to the crossing in local ambulances and transferred to Israeli ambulances for their trips to hospitals. Earlier today, a Qassam rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck an open area adjacent to one of the communities in the Sdot Negev area. No one was hurt and no damage was caused. This attack was the first such strike in almost a month. The last rocket to hit Israel also struck an open area in the Sdot Negev area. Last week, the organization Human Rights Watch released a report arguing that Hamas committed war crimes against Israel by besieging it with rockets during the three-week war in the Gaza Strip earlier this year. The 31-page report focusing on Operation Cast Lead, spotlights Hamas, after Human Rights Watch and similar groups have repeatedly accused Israel of committing war crimes. "Hamas forces violated the laws of war both by firing rockets deliberately and indiscriminately at Israeli cities and by launching them from populated areas and endangering Gaza civilians," HRW program director Iain Levine said.
2009:Fervently Orthodox Jews mobbed Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat and threw stones at his car. The mayor’s car was damaged in this evening’s attack, which occurred as Barkat was leaving a personal meeting with a prominent Jerusalem rabbi in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood. The attack comes as haredim continue to demonstrate every Saturday night against the opening of a Jerusalem parking lot on Shabbat.
2010: This is scheduled to be the final night of this year’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2010:Oscilloscope Laboratories said today that it would appeal the rating by the Classification and Rating Administration for "A Film Unfinished," which explores a Nazi propaganda film taken in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1942. With an R rating, viewers under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult. The rating board explained its decision, saying the movie contained “disturbing images of Holocaust atrocities, including graphic nudity.” “This is too important of a historical document to ban from classrooms,” Adam Yauch, an owner of Oscilloscope and a founding member of the Beastie Boys, said in a statement issued today. The film, which was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival this year, is set to open nationally later this month.
2010(29thof Av, 5770): Eighty-eight year old New York real estate tycoon Paul Milstein passed away (As reported by Douglas Martin)
2010:A New Zealand judge has allowed the kosher slaughter of animals to resume until the lawsuit filed by the Jewish community against the government comes to trial. Justice Denis Clifford of the High Court in Wellington confirmed today that an agreement has been reached between the Jewish community and representatives of the Crown Law Office, which is representing Agriculture Minister David Carter. The trial pits the Jewish community against the Conservative government of John Key, whose mother, Ruth Lazar, was a Jewish refugee who escaped Austria on the eve of the Holocaust. Shechitah has been carried out in New Zealand since 1843
2010:The synagogue of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, luminary sage and father of modern religious Zionism, was reopened today in southern Tel Aviv 30 years after it closed its doors. The synagogue, Shaarei Torah, is located in the Neveh Shalom neighborhood just north of Yafo (Jaffa). Following the informal re-dedication today amid singing and dancing, the synagogue is now open for daily prayers.
2011(9th of Av, 5771): Fast of Tisha B’Av
2011:The British Jewish community has expressed its shock over the recent rioting which has shaken the UK over the last few days. The Board of Deputies of British Jews called for unity and said today that the community’s thoughts were with the victims. “The Jewish community, like all right minded people, will have been shocked and appalled at the wanton destruction and criminality witnessed on our streets over the last few days,” Jon Benjamin, chief executive of the Board of Deputies. “Attacks on businesses and property are also assaults on the lives and livelihoods of decent hardworking people, trying to get by in difficult times, and the perpetrators are beneath contempt.” Yesterday, the Board’s interfaith manager Philip Rosenberg spoke alongside Muslim and Christian representatives at a vigil in Tottenham, calling for unity and a concerted effort by communities to address the problems they face.
2011:Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who is a member of the Trajtenberg Committee created to examine the demands of the social-movement protesters, visited the Rothschild Boulevard tent protest this evening where activists explained to him their discontent with the government, and particularly the minister's inefficiency.
2011(9th of Av, 5771): Eighty-seven year old David Lewis, the British entrepreneur who founded the Isrotel chain of hotels, which is the country’s large hotel chain, passed away today.
2011: The New York Times featured reviews of books by Jewish authors and/or of special interest including The Long Night: William L. Shirer and ‘The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' by Steve Wick
2012: Jerusalem’s Hazel Hill String Band is scheduled to perform tonight at Petah Tiqva
2012: Dr. Laibl Wolf is scheduled to deliver a lecture on"The 2012 Secret of Successful Relationships" - Intimacy, Commitment & Exploitation!” at the Chabad Center of Rechavia
2012:An American Jewish woman, Debra Ryder, is demanding NIS 50,000 in compensation from El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL) for allegedly switching her seat on a flight from the US, because haredi (ultra-orthodox) men refused to sit next to her. She claims that the flight steward moved her to a seat in the back of the plane, which did not meet her medical needs.
2012:A Brooklyn hardware store clerk pleaded guilty today to charges he abducted and dismembered an 8-year-old boy who lost his way home. The guilty plea, to charges of second-degree murder and kidnapping, guarantees Levi Aron a sentence of 40 years to life in a case that traumatized the victim’s tight-knit Orthodox Jewish community.
2012:Al-Quds reported that this morning, that Mossad had transferred a list of names to Egyptian Intelligence that contained nine names of terrorists connected to the attack in Rafah.
2012: David Kilimnick, Razorback by birth – Israeli by choice, is scheduled to perform The Aliyah Monologues: Tour of Funny through the Holy Land at the Off The Wall Comedy Club in Jerusalem.
2012: Janet Maslin reviewed two books that might be of special interest to Jewish readers--Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spiesby Ben Macintyre and Agent Garbo:The Brilliant, Eccentric Secret Agent Who Tricked Hitler and Saved D-Day by Stephen Talty
2012(21st of Av, 5772): Forty-seven year old “comic essayist” David Rakoff passed away today. (As reported by Margalit Fox)
2012(21st of Av, 5772): Seventy-seven year old Holocaust survivor turned New York political powerhouse Raymond B. Harding, passed away today. (As reported by Robert McFadden)
2013: “Blumenthal” and “Awake Zion” are scheduled to be shown at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival.
2013: “Fill the Void,” a film that tells the story an Orthodox Chassidic family from Tel Aviv is scheduled to pen at Century 16 in Anchorage, Alaska, making it the second theatre in the state to show the film.
2013 “Former Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin warned today that the West's one dimensional perception of Iran's nuclear program, focusing solely on the uranium enrichment path to a nuclear weapon, could enable the Islamic Republic to build a plutonium bomb without detection.” (As reported by the Jerusalem Post)
2013:An Israeli Air Force drone reportedly struck a jihadist rocket launcher in the Sinai Peninsula near the Israeli-Egyptian border, killing four suspected terrorists who were planning to launch missiles at Israel, Egyptian security sources told Reuters today
2014: "Automonuments", a solo exhibition by New York based Israeli artist Niv Rozenberg is scheduled to come to an end today.
2014: In Coralville, Iowa, Augdas Achim I scheduled to show “The Big Dig,” a “comedy lampooning…the madness of everyday life in Israel.”